Daomu Biji: Restart

The style of these murals was completely different from those in Yang Daguang's ancestral tomb. Just like Uncle Two had said before, the things in that ancestral tomb came from two ancient tombs from two different dynasties. But they were all related to the ancient South Sea country that was known as the West Sea’s Falling Cloud Country. Most of the murals here were done in the southern style of the Han Dynasty and there were a lot of animal horn symbols that were made using simple lines. Because they were older, they had suffered a lot of oxidation. Red was the most common color that could be seen, but almost all the others had turned gray.

I didn’t know when the mud in this burial pit had settled here, but it was enough time for the surface to have solidified. This seemed to indicate that it hadn’t been caused by us destroying the structure earlier. It was possible that a large part of the burial chamber here had long been submerged in mud.

If the mud hadn’t solidified, then the oxidation of the murals would’ve been more serious. But luckily, the water vapor had been trapped under the solid layer. Even so, the pupils of the eyes on the murals had all faded and the eyes themselves were all gray, making them look like they belonged to dead people.

My previous experiences had me on high alert, and I remembered that burial pits were actually a way to declare one’s own property. The murals in this burial pit had to be related to this theme; otherwise, it didn’t make sense to paint eyes while eulogizing the tomb owner’s wealth. Fatty had said earlier that the things on the wall would look at me, but as my cold firework flashed across the wall, I didn't see anything other than these eyes.

I couldn’t help feeling confused, but the eyes all over the wall still made me feel pretty uncomfortable.

I touched my back again, unable to shake the lingering fear from before.

Even though the Minyue participated in a lot of cultural exchanges during the Han Dynasty, many Xu people along the coast still believed in ghosts. These Xu people were also called barge people, water people, water immortals, water officials, water matrons, water moor people, Geng Dengzi, Lu Tingzi, etc. Most of them retained some aspects of the water god culture from their tribal days.

They lived on the water, so their myths and beliefs in the laws of nature were different. Since there were no written records of them, there was no evidence to test, but many of the strange legends were varied and unimaginable.

I didn’t know what that "Thunder God" was just now and couldn’t even begin to think of what it might be, but I knew I didn't kill it. It must still be somewhere in the mud.

I called for Fatty twice more, but he still didn't respond. I decided to go to the edge of the burial pit first, but it would be really annoying if I had to jump back into the mud again.

I looked back and forth, wondering if I could step on the figurines one by one to get out. Under the cold firework’s light, these "Thunder Gods" looked like statues, but God knew what they were. Although I already had my legs wrapped around one, I hardly dared move. After thinking for a long time, I found myself trapped.

I took a deep breath and pulled my cell phone out. We had agreed before that if we were in trouble, we would check each other's positions using Bluetooth.

I turned my Bluetooth on, clicked search, and found Poker-Face's phone. Even though I didn't see Fatty's, I was still relieved to know that Poker-Face wasn’t that far away from me. I immediately raised my phone, took a selfie with the whole burial pit behind me, and sent it to him.

A few minutes later, a photo of him and Liu Sang in a tomb passage came back. Liu Sang was standing behind him and holding his fingers up in a V-sign (1). The light in the photo came from the camera’s flash and the uneven exposure indicated that they weren’t using other lighting.

In their photo, I noticed that the murals in the tomb passage they were in were also full of eyes, but the eyes were all closed.

I looked at the murals around me and found that something was off. I didn’t know when the eyes had suddenly become colorful.

****

TN Notes:

(1) It’s called a “ye” sign in China. I call it a “victory” sign lol. Looks like this: