The sudden appearance of these nine large cauldrons instantly brought the murals lingering in my mind to life.
I imagined the horrifying scene of people being boiled in hot water beyond recognition, and pictured human flesh being cooked and then fought over and devoured by a pack of ravenous wolves.
It felt as though countless hideous faces were hovering before me, trying to devour me.
Looking again at the patterns carved on the nine cauldrons, they bore a striking resemblance to the flesh-winged human face on the mural. Though slightly abstract, the sharp canine teeth and eerie eyes were vividly rendered.
In my daze, I felt as though that flesh-winged demon was staring straight at me, ready to pounce and tear out my throat at any second.
My legs turned to jelly with fright.
"Good lord! There are actually nine cauldrons here. If we could just smuggle even one of them out, we'd be set for life—these are national treasures!" Lu Gouzi exclaimed, his eyes gleaming and drool pooling in his mouth.
"Hmph, if you actually managed to smuggle one out, would you dare sell it? Selling something like this isn't just a matter of doing time on a sewing machine; you'd be eating a lead bullet!" Old Pizi shot him a sideways glance and said.
"I guarantee there's something incredible inside these cauldrons. This is top-tier treasure!" Lu Gouzi wasn't discouraged by Old Pizi's words at all; instead, he grew exceptionally excited.
He rushed impatiently toward the first cauldron.
"That's strange, this cauldron actually has a lid! Old Pizi, have you ever seen a large cauldron with a lid?" Lu Gouzi asked as he arrived in front of the first cauldron, forcefully prying at the bronze lid.
A cauldron with a lid?
Both Old Pizi and I froze.
I had never seen a real cauldron before, but I'd seen pictures in books. Originally invented by the ancients as cookware, cauldrons gradually evolved into ritual vessels and funerary objects.
Yet I had never heard of a cauldron with a lid.
Old Pizi and I hurried over as well, and upon closer inspection, this large cauldron really did have a lid.
It sat flat across the rim of the cauldron, and because of the angle, it was impossible to see clearly until you were right up close.
"The patina on this lid doesn't match the patina on the cauldron body, and it doesn't fit tightly either. It was clearly added later!" Old Pizi observed for a moment before telling us.
Instead of pondering why the cauldron had a lid, Lu Gouzi impatiently lifted the lid of the first cauldron, tossed it aside, reached his hand inside, and began pulling things out and throwing them away.
I looked closely at what Lu Gouzi was tossing out. They turned out to be pale, yellowish bones.
The crucial part was that several pieces clearly showed five distinct fingers—they were unmistakably human bones.
I clearly saw distinct teeth marks on every single bone.
Clearly, they had all been gnawed on.
The imagery of cannibalism in my mind grew increasingly vivid.
My breathing momentarily stalled.
"Don't be scared. This phenomenon was very common in ancient times. To not even look too far back, during the Mongol Yuan dynasty, when military rations ran low, the army would drive captives along with the troops to serve as food, commonly known as two-legged sheep. Even down to the Qing dynasty, whenever famine struck, there were records of people trading children to eat," Old Pizi said, patting my shoulder to comfort me.
Clearly, he too had recognized these as gnawed human bones.
As for Lu Gouzi, he was single-mindedly hunting for treasure; he couldn't care less whether the bones he pulled out were human, nor was he scared in the least.
After digging through all the human bones in the entire cauldron without finding anything, he looked quite dejected.
Then, he rushed toward the second cauldron, continuing to pull out human bones incessantly.
I hadn't come here to grave-rob or dig for treasure anyway, so I had zero interest, while Old Pizi lit a cigarette and smoked it leisurely.
"Do you know what kind of tomb this is?" Old Pizi took a deep drag of his cigarette and asked me.
Old Pizi was an extremely clever fellow. By asking me this, he actually wanted to share information.
As a professional tomb robber, this old guy naturally had unique insights into ancient tombs.
Now that there were only three of us left here, there was no need to keep secrets or hold anything back.
"I'm a coffin maker. From the murals, it's clear the tomb owner was buried in a Seven-Absolute Coffin. Generally, anyone buried in a Seven-Absolute Coffin is a general who killed countless people!" I told Old Pizi truthfully.
"True, all signs indicate the tomb owner was indeed a general during his lifetime, but his identity before death was definitely more than just a general—at the very least, he was a king, or perhaps a rebel king!" Old Pizi shook his head and said.
"How do you know?" I asked curiously.
"The Nine Cauldrons. According to the records of the Rites of Zhou, only after an emperor dies can he be buried with nine cauldrons and eight gui tureens. A king gets nine cauldrons and seven gui tureens! Ranks below a king are absolutely forbidden to use nine cauldrons. Of course, transgression is always possible, but someone who dared to transgress ritual institutions must have possessed an extraordinary status. Even without an official royal title, the power he wielded in life was certainly no weaker than any formally conferred king!" Old Pizi continued.
"What does that prove? Or how does it help us?" Curious as I was about the tomb owner's identity, our top priority right now wasn't uncovering history, but figuring out how to get out of here.
"Of course it helps. According to the records of rituals, emperors possessed all under heaven, so their tombs inevitably had four tomb passageways, symbolizing their control over the world. Kings, on the other hand, were enfeoffed by the emperor as regional hegemons controlling various territories; their role required communicating from top to bottom, so their tombs naturally had two passageways—one front and one back. Therefore, seeing these nine cauldrons means we've grasped the overall structure of the entire ancient tomb. Regardless of whether he was a king or an even higher emperor, it's certain this tomb has two passageways, front and back. And these are our two paths to escape!" Old Pizi said deliberately.
I was completely stunned by what Old Pizi had said.
As expected of a professional tomb robber!
His command of knowledge was immense; by simply looking at the funerary objects, he could deduce the structure of the entire ancient tomb.
Truly remarkable.
My initial choice had been the right one—saving those two was equivalent to leaving myself a lifeline.
"Holy shit!" Suddenly, Lu Gouzi, who was rummaging around inside a cauldron, let out a strange cry.
Old Pizi and I hurriedly looked over.
We saw that Lu Gouzi had actually pulled a human head out of the cauldron.
The head was completely intact with very clear facial features, belonging to an extremely handsome woman.
It looked just like a head that had been freshly severed.
Startled, Lu Gouzi's hand shook, causing the head to drop to the ground and roll toward Old Pizi and me.
We were the very first people to enter this ancient tomb, so this head must have been placed in the cauldron when the burial took place.
How could it show zero signs of decay?
Was it about to undergo a corpse transformation?
My limbs instantly turned weak with fright, leaving me at a complete loss.
Old Pizi, who was quite daring, stepped forward and touched the head.
"Don't be afraid, this has been sealed in wax!" Old Pizi told me.
"Damn it, that scared the hell out of me! I thought a Corpse King was about to pop out! Damn you for scaring the crap out of me!" Hearing Old Pizi say the head was sealed in wax, Lu Gouzi patted his chest in relief, then flew into a rage, picked up an iron shovel, and smashed it down hard onto the head.
"Don't!" Old Pizi cried out in sheer panic, shouting immediately.
But it was already too late!
The head shattered just like a watermelon, bursting open to reveal a pool of pungent black blood.