At first, I thought he was intentionally trying to scare me, but looking at his expression and his character, he didn’t seem like that kind of person. The “dumb oil bottle” kept making a “gurgling” sound without moving his mouth. The four of us looked at him, feeling a chill; I thought, surely not, could the dumb oil bottle actually be some kind of undercover agent?

Seeing his terrifying expression, my third uncle quickly pulled Panzi out. Suddenly, the dumb oil bottle fell silent. The tomb chamber was so quiet that there was not a sound to be heard. I don’t know how long it lasted, but I was getting a bit impatient. Just as I was about to ask what was going on, the coffin lid suddenly flipped up a bit and began to shake violently. Then, a chilling sound, so eerie it made one shiver, came from the stone coffin, very similar to what my grandfather had described in his notes, truly resembling the sound of a frog croaking.

Upon seeing this, Daqi got so scared that he sat down on the ground. I also felt my legs go weak and nearly sat down. My third uncle, having seen the world, started to tremble but somehow didn’t fall.

When the dumb oil bottle heard the sound, his face turned very pale, and he suddenly knelt down on the ground, heavily bowing his head towards the coffin. We immediately followed suit and all knelt down to bow. The dumb oil bottle raised his head and emitted a series of strange sounds, as if chanting some kind of spell. My third uncle was sweating profusely and quietly said, “He can’t be trying to talk to it, right?”

The stone coffin finally stabilized and stopped shaking. The dumb oil bottle bowed again and then stood up, telling us, “We must leave here before dawn.”

My third uncle wiped his sweat and asked, “Little brother, were you just bargaining with this ‘zongzi’ grandpa?”

The dumb oil bottle gestured for us not to ask any further questions: “Don’t touch anything here. The being in this coffin is extremely powerful; if we release it, not even the Great Luo Immortal could escape.”

Panzi, still unaware of the danger, laughed and asked, “Hey, little brother, what was that foreign language you were speaking just now?”

The dumb oil bottle ignored him, pointed to the passage behind the coffin, and said, “Go past quietly, and don’t touch the coffin!” My third uncle steadied himself. To be honest, having someone like him around made us much bolder, so we tidied up our gear, with my third uncle leading the way and the dumb oil bottle bringing up the rear. We turned on our mining lamps and headed down the tunnel behind the coffin. Daqi pressed himself tightly against the wall as he passed by the coffin, trying to maintain distance, looking quite funny, but at that moment, I had no interest in laughing at him.

The tomb passage sloped downward, with inscriptions carved on both sides and some stone carvings. I glanced at them but didn’t understand their meaning. In fact, I had some knowledge of rubbings and antiques, so I could recognize a few words.

However, I can say that even if I understand all these words, it is still very difficult to grasp the meaning because there are no punctuation marks. Ancient people spoke very concisely and skillfully. For example, there was a moment when a king from the State of Qi asked his military advisor a question. The advisor nodded and smiled, saying, “Yes.” The king went back and pondered for a long time whether this “yes” meant agreement or disagreement. In the end, he became ill from overthinking and, on his deathbed, shared his considered answer with the advisor, asking if that was what he meant at the time. The advisor chuckled and replied, “Yes.” The king immediately passed away.

My uncle walked very cautiously, taking a long time with each step. The penetration power of the mining lamp was not strong, and it was pitch black ahead and behind us, creating a feeling similar to being in a water cave, which made me very uncomfortable. After about half an hour, the tunnel began to ascend, and we knew we should have completed half the journey by now. At that moment, we saw a theft hole, and my uncle couldn’t help but be startled; he was most afraid of others getting there first, so he hurried over to check.

This theft hole had definitely been dug not long ago, with the soil still looking fresh. I asked my uncle, “The old man said that two weeks ago, a group of people entered this valley; could it be them who dug this hole?”

“I can’t tell, but this hole was dug in a hurry. It seems that it was not made for entry but rather for exit! I’m afraid we have truly been beaten to it.”

“Don’t be discouraged, Third Master. If they did it well, they must have exited through the same route. It looks like something must have gone wrong. I believe the treasure should still be here,” Panzi consoled.

My uncle nodded, and we continued on. Since someone had already cleared the way for us, we didn’t need to be so hesitant anymore.

We quickened our pace and walked for another fifteen minutes until we arrived at a widened corridor. This section was more than twice as wide as the one we had come from, and the decorations were much more elaborate, indicating that we had reached the main tomb area. At the end of this corridor stood a massive jade door, which was very transparent and now wide open, presumably opened by someone from the inside. Beside the jade door were two statues of hungry ghosts, one holding a ghostly claw and the other raising a seal, both entirely black.

My uncle examined the jade door and found that the mechanism on it had been damaged. We entered through the gap, and the inside was quite spacious but completely dark; the mining lamp’s power was insufficient to illuminate it thoroughly.

However, we could roughly make out the scene; this should be the main tomb. Panzi swept his mining lamp around and exclaimed, “Why are there so many coffins!”

Without a strong light source, it was indeed very difficult to see what was in the tomb. I glanced around, and sure enough, there were many stone coffins placed in the center of the tomb chamber, seemingly arranged in some order, though not very neatly. Above the tomb chamber was a large dome covered in murals, and all around were stone slabs densely inscribed with characters. I set my mining lamp down on the ground, and Panzi placed his lamp in the opposite direction to illuminate the area. We saw that there were also two side chambers next to the tomb chamber.

My uncle and I walked to the first stone coffin, struck a match, and found that this coffin was completely different from the one we had seen when we entered the tomb. This one was covered in intricate inscriptions. I glanced at it and was surprised to find that I could understand some of it!

The text described the life of the coffin’s owner, revealing that he was a feudal lord from the State of Lu. This man was born with a ghostly seal, allowing him to borrow ghost soldiers from the underworld, which made him invincible in battle. He was granted the title of King of Lu Shang by the Duke of Lu. One day, he suddenly requested an audience with the Duke, saying that he had borrowed soldiers from the underworld for many years, but now the underworld lord had minor ghosts rebelling, and he had to return the favor (of course, the original text didn’t say it this way). He hoped the Duke would allow him to return to the underworld to fulfill his duty. The Duke granted his request, and the King of Lu Shang bowed his head and passed away.

The Duke thought he would return, so he set up this underground palace for him, preserving his corpse in the hope that he would come back and continue to serve him. The text went on in great detail about the battles he fought, almost all of which involved his ghostly seal shining and a large number of ghost soldiers emerging from the ground to capture souls. After hearing my explanation, Panzi exclaimed, “That’s amazing! Luckily, he died early; otherwise, the State of Lu would have unified the six states!”

I laughed heartily and said, “Not necessarily. Ancient people were great at boasting. Your King of Lu Shang could borrow ghost soldiers, but someone from the State of Qi could borrow heavenly soldiers. I remember there were even generals who could fly; you must have read the ‘Classic of Mountains and Seas’!”

“Regardless, at least we now know whose battle we are fighting. But with so many coffins here, which one is his?” Panzi asked.

I looked at the inscriptions on several other coffins, and they were mostly similar, containing the same content. We counted, and there were a total of seven coffins, exactly like the seven stars of the Big Dipper. None of the coffins had any identifying marks. While I was studying some inscriptions I couldn’t decipher, Da Kui suddenly yelled, “Look, this stone coffin has already been opened!”

I walked over to take a look, and indeed, the coffin lid was not completely sealed, and there were many fresh marks from a crowbar on it. My uncle took out our crowbar from the bag and carefully pried the coffin lid open. Then he shone a light inside, and Panzi let out a strange sound, looking at us in confusion, “Why is there a foreigner inside?”

We looked in, and sure enough, there was a foreigner inside—not only a foreigner, but he was also very fresh, having died no more than a week ago. Panzi wanted to reach in to grab something, but the oil bottle suddenly grabbed his shoulder with great force, making Panzi grimace in pain. “Don’t move, the real body is underneath him!”

Upon closer inspection, we saw that there was indeed another body beneath the foreigner, but we couldn’t make out what it looked like. My uncle took out a black donkey’s hoof and said, “It should be a black-haired one; we should strike first.”

At that moment, Da Kui tugged at my clothes from behind and pulled me aside.

He was usually quite straightforward, so I found it strange and asked him what was wrong. He pointed to the wall opposite us, where our shadows were cast by the mining lamp, and whispered, “Look, this is your shadow, right?”

I replied irritably, “What, are we afraid of our own shadows now?”

His complexion wasn’t very good. When I said that, his mouth trembled a little, and I thought to myself, could it be that he’s really that scared? He waved his hand, signaling me to stop talking, and then pointed at those shadows: “This one is mine, this one belongs to Panzi, this one is San Ye’s, and this one is Xiaoge’s. You see them all, right? Including yours, that’s a total of five, isn’t it?”

I nodded, and suddenly it seemed like I also discovered something. Da Kui swallowed hard, pointed at another lonely shadow that wasn’t with us, and almost cried as he asked, “Then whose shadow is this?”