adminThis tomb seems to have been turned upside down by some mischievous spirits, with the top of the tomb at the bottom and the base at the top. The oil bottle recalled the process they used to open the green stone slab earlier and suddenly understood why such a strange structure was employed. Generally speaking, the Han tombs they had seen before were built with a green stone slab as the base, covered by green bricks on top. Now, everything was completely reversed; it turned out that what they had dug up was not the top of the tomb, but the bottom.
The oil bottle walked to a vessel that was hanging upside down at the bottom of the tomb, lifted a fire stick to look up, and discovered that it was actually a coffin adhered to the top of the tomb.
As they continued to enlarge the pit so that the other four could come down, those four were also astonished, feeling that they had encountered the most bizarre tomb in the world. One of them asked, “Could it be that an earthquake turned the entire tomb upside down, resulting in this situation?”
Zhang Haike shook his head and pointed at the coffin, saying, “Even so, this coffin couldn’t possibly stick up there; it would have cracked against the ceiling when flipped 180 degrees. Moreover, if it were a strong earthquake, it would be impossible for the entire tomb to be turned over like this. Tombs are loosely structured, relying on gravity and pressure for strength. Once there is a force to counteract it, the heavy weight of the tomb would cause the ceiling to collapse into a pile of debris.”
The person then asked, “So what is going on? Could it be that someone did this on purpose?”
Zhang Haike nodded. The Zhang family had trained them on how to deal with unknown phenomena, and looking at these burial items hanging upside down from the tomb’s ceiling, it was clear that there had to be a very compelling reason for the entire tomb to be arranged this way. He felt that this reason was related to feng shui. Someone nearby asked, “That’s so strange. I’ve only heard of vertical burials, horizontal burials, and even ‘lying burials,’ but ‘lying burials’ only refer to bodies lying inside coffins. I’ve never seen a tomb constructed like this.”
Zhang Haike pondered what kind of feng shui could necessitate such an arrangement. Could this be the kind of feng shui pattern he had read about in ancient texts that could only exist in one place? Seeing him muttering to himself, the others asked, “You usually have a lot of clever ideas and read many books. Don’t you have any clues?”
Zhang Haike replied, “We say that a good yin house primarily aims to absorb the essence of heaven and earth. However, there is no difference between drawing from the earth and drawing from the heavens; the spiritual energy of heaven and earth can flow through one’s body regardless of whether it flows upward or downward. But if this ancient tomb is arranged this way, it indicates that it treats the earth as heaven and heaven as earth!”
Another person exclaimed, “Wait, are you suggesting that this is the tomb of Chen Jinnan, the leader of the Heaven and Earth Society?”
Zhang Haike slapped him on the shoulder and said, “Our ancestor once said that we must not joke at this time. If you do not take this ancient tomb seriously, it certainly will not take you seriously.”
The person replied, “If it doesn’t take me seriously, that would be fine, but if it takes me too seriously, I definitely would have a harder time!”
Zhang Haike said, “I saw a similar record in an ancient book. The overall shape and terrain of the mountains in this area grow towards the ground, not towards the sky. The feng shui master might have had to build the ancient tomb this way to conform to the mountain range.”
After hearing this, the others felt it made some sense. At this point, the silent You Ping spoke up, “If that’s the case, I still have a few questions. Mountain ranges always have their peaks pointing upwards and their bases downwards. Even underground mountain ranges follow this pattern. Because the weight of the mountains causes them to sink, they are primarily composed of subsidence. If there are underground mountains nearby that are oriented with the ground as the sky and the sky as the ground, then this mountain range may have already sunk deep underground. Logically, the ancient tomb should have followed suit and sunk down as well.”
The situation involving this ancient tomb was already quite strange, and Zhang Haike pondered for a moment. It was indeed the case that, at the time of its construction, the rocks at the base of the mountain were pushed up from the ground. These rocks, being pushed up, could easily be mistaken for a gently sloping rocky mountain, while the peaks growing downwards into the ground resembled human teeth embedded in the soil. To construct such an ancient tomb, they couldn’t simply dig down through the rock; they would have to excavate from the side, much like digging a treasure hole, to repair it from below. The traditional method of digging a pit from the top and then sealing it with soil wouldn’t apply here, unless they had a way to lift the entire mountain.
The group fell silent for a while, and one of them said, “Since it’s so eerie, why don’t we just withdraw?”
Everyone looked up at the tomb’s peak, recalling the various hardships they had faced on their journey, and felt reluctant to give up.
“Let’s proceed,” one person said. “In the game of kings and losers, we must accept the gamble.”
They had practiced countless times at home on how to open coffins, including how to expose nails, how to remove nails, the types of coffins, and how to determine whether the contents were in a state of decay. They were all well-versed in these techniques. However, they never expected that their first real encounter would be with a coffin hanging from the ceiling. The best way to handle the situation would have been to hang themselves up there and work upside down, but that was clearly unrealistic.
After some deliberation, the group felt that using the usual methods to open the coffin from the top would be too risky. The body would surely be entirely pressed under the weight of the coffin lid. If the nails were removed, regardless of whether there were any bodily fluids or toxins inside, as long as the pressure was uneven, there would inevitably be a leak, causing the coffin liquid to spray out. If the coffin liquid were toxic, it could easily harm those opening it, and even if it weren’t toxic, it would still be quite revolting.
The best approach would be to make a hole in the coffin first, then check the situation inside through the hole before considering other options.
After the discussion, among the five people, Zhang Haike was the most skilled. He took the lead with a chisel, while the other two formed a human ladder to help him reach the edge of the coffin. After pondering for a while, Zhang Haike carefully inserted the chisel bit by bit into the coffin. By feeling with his fingers, he slowly realized that the chisel had punctured the coffin wall and entered inside, but the opening was still very small. He then tied a rope to the end of the chisel, climbed down to the ground, and hid in a corner of the tomb chamber. He picked up a piece of blue brick, aimed at the chisel, and threw it, driving the chisel fully into the coffin. Then they pulled hard to extract the chisel.
They expected to see a gush of black water spouting from the hole, but what actually erupted was not black water, but a very faint black smoke, as if the dust accumulated inside had been disturbed and was being expelled from the hole. The black smoke gushed out for a moment and then stopped, and the entire tomb chamber returned to its previous tranquility.
The group exchanged glances. Zhang Haike said, “It seems like it’s dry inside. If we remove all the nails, it shouldn’t be a big problem.” Another person replied, “Let’s not jump to conclusions just yet. We should first check the area near the hole to see what’s going on. What exactly is that black smoke?” So Zhang Haike climbed back up the human ladder to the edge of the coffin, carefully leaned closer to the hole, and after observing for a while, he said, “It’s dust, a very fine black dust.”
The person who had just advised against making hasty conclusions said, “This is bad. If the coffin is filled with such dust, what will happen when we lift the lid? The black dust will pour out and cover everyone. If this black dust is toxic or corrosive, everyone will be in trouble. Moreover,” he paused, “dust is much harder to deal with than water. With water, we can gradually drain it out, but no matter what we do, we can’t completely remove dust from the coffin. Water might only splash a few drops and flow away through the tomb channel, but if we enlarge the hole, the fluffiness of the dust is much greater than that of water, and the entire space will be filled. There will be nowhere to hide.”
Feeling frustrated after analyzing the implications of a bit of dust, the group realized that the coffin could not be opened. It turned out that the best way to prevent tomb robbing was not to make the tomb chamber solid, but to glue the coffin to the top of the tomb.
While the group was frowning in dismay, suddenly one person called out to the others to look to the side. As their gazes shifted, they discovered something particularly strange in the tomb chamber, besides the coffin.
The object itself was not strange, but everything else in the tomb chamber was inverted, while this one thing was placed upright. It was a bit far away, and in the dim light, it looked like a statue of some kind of animal.
