The flashlight shone into the bronze door, and I had completely lost the impulse I had just moments ago. I wasn’t sure if it was the overwhelming sound that had stunned me or if I was just too excited for too long. Inside was pitch black, but I could see some things, all piled up at the entrance, wrapped in black sludge. The fat guy was the first to crouch inside and turned back to say, “For me personally, this is a small step, but for tomb raiders, this is a leap forward.”

“How so?” Zhang Haixing followed him in without any hesitation, and I followed closely behind.

“Because this is the territory of the gods,” the fat guy said. I thought he was getting sentimental, but to my surprise, he immediately added, “The god of diarrhea.” I pointed the flashlight inside the bronze door and discovered that it wasn’t very large, or rather, it was big, but in my imagination, it was something immeasurable. Now, we saw that what lay ahead was just a huge cave. The cave was as big as a stadium, presenting a very complete oval shape. Many bronze columns of varying thicknesses supported the dome like stalactites. There was no pattern; it seemed to be naturally formed. The back of the bronze door was completely covered in black sludge. We began to tear at the sludge, and after we peeled it away, we found that all the walls of this cave, which I had thought were made of stone, were actually cast in bronze. Without exception, they were engraved with strange patterns, very intricate, densely packed like the lines on human skin.

“Bronze cave,” the fat guy murmured. “These people really have patience; how did they carve these patterns?”

“The patterns are a small matter; the problem is that there are no molded lines. This bronze is too smooth, as if it was all cast as a single piece,” I said.

“Is it difficult?” Zhang Haixing asked.

“Not difficult; it’s impossible,” I replied. “There’s only one place that could produce such craftsmanship.”

“Where?”

“Outer space, under conditions of zero gravity,” I said. Of course, there were other possibilities, such as during the construction process, sending people into the heated cave to make supports. If they kept sending people in, and if they were equipped with protective gear, they might be able to do something in the few minutes before being burned alive. But this was practically impossible and unscientific, as organizing such a bronze cave would at least require the deaths of a hundred thousand people. Why bother? Even the most brutal rulers aren’t fools.

We searched around the cave, and the fat guy snapped his fingers to grab my attention. We turned toward where he was looking and found him squatting in the center of the cave, examining something.

“What is it?” I asked, my voice echoing in the space.

“A really amazing thing, an incredibly awesome thing,” the fat guy said.