Volume 5 Chapter 17 The Gate Hall (1)

Shunzi was taken aback by the slap and didn’t know what was going on. Not only him, but everyone else was also taken aback and didn’t know what was going on with Chen Pi A Si.

For a moment, I even thought that Chen Pi A Si wanted to get rid of us and kill Shunzi to keep him quiet, but then I thought it wasn’t right. First, he was over 90 years old, and even if he wanted to kill a retired regular army soldier in his prime, even if it was a surprise attack, he might not be able to succeed. Second, our circuit still relied on Shunzi, so he probably wouldn’t take this opportunity to kill him.

I didn’t quite understand this move by Chen Pi Ashi, so I patted Shunzi on the back to let him be careful.

Shunzi didn’t know if he realized it or not, but he looked at me and followed Chen Pi Ashi over.

We immediately turned around and continued running along the sacred path. Fortunately, we had already shed a lot of our equipment, otherwise no one would have been able to withstand such an intense workout.

There were six stone gates along this sacred path, representing the six paths of reincarnation in Han Buddhism. The Jurchen people believed in shamanism, and traces of Han Chinese design could be seen everywhere.

I was running so fast that I was already feeling a little dizzy, and the exposed skin on my body began to itch, showing that the air around me was really bad.

Before I knew it, the light from my flashlight was already illuminating some black, broken eaves and walls, and soon I reached the altar at the end of the sacred path. Behind the altar, on top of sixty dilapidated stone steps, is the main entrance to the imperial tomb.

In traditional burial concepts, tombs and mausoleums are often confused, but in fact, a mausoleum is a different thing from a tomb. A mausoleum is an above-ground building used for sacrificial rites and burial ceremonies, while a tomb refers to an underground palace.

Mausoleums do not have to be together. Many mausoleums are thousands of miles apart. For example, the mausoleum of Genghis Khan is in the middle of the Ordos grasslands in Inner Mongolia, but the coffin in the mausoleum only contains camel hair with Genghis Khan’s soul.

The three-story structure of the Yunding Heavenly Palace, the palace we saw above the sea in the underwater tomb, is a symbolic spirit palace, and the underground imperial tomb and underground king’s tomb constitute the Three Thousand Worlds, also symbolizing the identity change of the King of Ten Thousand Slaves, the god, the man, and the ghost.

The architectural style of the entire imperial tomb is very similar to that of the Ming Palace. When viewed from the cliff, it is huge and imposing. Due to the extensive use of that black stone, it also appears a bit eerie and mysterious in addition to being spectacular. But as soon as we entered the mausoleum, this feeling disappeared. It was desolate and dilapidated. If it weren’t for some large buildings that looked like temples, we would have been disappointed.

The air here is not circulating, and there is no strong wind or sun. The buildings here should have been very well preserved. How could they be so dilapidated?

We stepped on the huge steps that could hold ten carriages and entered the main entrance of the mausoleum. The huge gate had already collapsed, and the huge door panels, which were studded with nails, had fallen to the ground.

After entering the main gate, we came to the gate hall of the mausoleum. The ancient burial book, the mausoleum chapter, the four dragon buildings, the nine-tailed fairy car entering the underworld, this is the first hall in the four dragon buildings. At this time, I already felt that the inside of my mouth and nose was burning and uncomfortable, so I told them to hurry up.

The gate hall is about the size of two basketball courts, with bronze carriages on both sides to welcome the emperor. On the deep wall at the back, there are two black statues on either side, already covered in dust. The statues have fierce faces, cold and angry, and seem to be totems of shamans. The supporting beams and columns above have collapsed, and the tiles have fallen to the ground. Fortunately, it doesn’t rain here, or else it would have been flooded long ago.

Seeing nothing particularly eye-catching, we wanted to walk through the gate hall and head towards the center of the imperial tomb. After a few steps, the fat man suddenly slipped and fell on his back, not knowing what he had stepped on. He cried out in pain and the floor of the gate hall was covered in broken tiles.

I suddenly felt strange. If the ground was like this, it would be understandable if he tripped, but how could he slip? The fat man also felt strange. He covered his buttocks and walked back to see where he had stepped.

There was only a mark where he had fallen, and the thing he had stepped on was gone. He followed the mark and looked over, but there were no tiles.

“Are you sure you didn’t trip over a ghost?” Pan Zi asked the fat man.

The fat man shook his head, suddenly feeling something, beckoning us to stop, and squatting down to flip up one of his shoes.

We looked around and saw that inside the spike of his hiking shoe was a bullet shell.

Everyone’s face changed. Pan Zi took it over, smelled it, and then thought of the gas mask he was wearing. He pinched it with his hand and said, “It’s warm. It’s still fresh from the barrel.”

“Someone got here first?” I was stunned. Could it be that Ning and the others were so powerful that they were even faster than us?

But why shoot here?

“Light a fire and look around to see what else is here,” said Pan Zi.

Hua immediately lit a firework, lighting up the whole area. We looked around, and the hall was in chaos. We spread out, and soon we found a large series of bullet holes on a pillar, and we went straight up.

“It looks like something came down the pillar, and the bullets followed it down.”

Pan Zi walked up, looked at the bullet holes, dug a little, and shook his head: “No, just the opposite. Look at the angle of the bullet’s deviation. The muzzle was swinging up along the column.”

The fat man shone a flashlight at the bullet holes, looking at them little by little, and finally saw a black shadow hanging from the high crossbeam.

Judging from the way the shadow was positioned, it must have been a dead person, and it seemed to be one of Aning’s men, because I saw an old Type 56 rifle hanging from his shoulders, and the whole person was hanging there lifelessly.

Everyone was startled and couldn’t understand how this person could have died on the crossbeam. We shone our flashlights over there and saw the person’s face. The dead man was a man with a small nose-breathing gas mask (this thing is very advanced, very light, and better than the one we have on our faces. I only heard about this thing at the end, and I didn’t expect to see it today). Judging from the shape of his face, he should have Slavic blood. I don’t know how he died. His eyes were wide open, and because of the mask, I couldn’t see his expression.

The corpse was hanging from a beam by something. It was too far away to tell if it was a rope.

Several people wanted to climb up, but Pan Zi stopped them. This person died in such a strange way, so there must be something wrong. At this time, the fat man patted me and pointed to another part of the beam: “Everyone, there’s more than one.”

We looked over and saw that there were six or seven other bodies hanging from the upper beam, just like hanged ghosts.

These people were all dressed in mountain climbing gear, and they were all carrying Type 56 Chinese-made rifles. I couldn’t help but feel a strange feeling in my heart. The Type 56 rifle is very destructive. With this thing in hand, even a zongzi can’t withstand more than a dozen bullets. What killed them? And even if there was a gunfight here, how did these bodies get to the beams?

The more I thought about it, the more I felt that it was not the right place to stay. I called a few people to hurry through the gate hall. This place is evil.

But when I turned around, I found that the fat guy was gone. I flashed my flashlight again and found that the fat guy had climbed onto the beam, stepping on the statue on the side.