It has to be said that although there's nothing wrong with the carvings themselves, when they are combined, they give this pitch - black stone door an eerie feeling.
Shen Qingfeng looked at the stone door, reached out his hand and slowly slid it over each relief. His eyebrows were already knitted tightly.
Yu Shuang had said before that this stone door looked like a tomb - sealing door.
She was right. Structurally, it did meet the standard of a tomb - sealing door. However, according to the burial regulations of Lixia, patterns of Xingtian and dragons represented the king of Lixia. Only when the king of Lixia passed away could these two patterns be engraved on the tomb - sealing door.
As far as Shen Qingfeng knew, all the previous kings of Lixia were buried in the royal mausoleum without any omission.
He knew this because after Xia Chuli killed King Xia Jie in his previous life, it was Shen Qingfeng who personally buried King Xia Jie.
In the huge royal mausoleum, the tomb doors of all previous kings of Lixia were tightly sealed. According to the burial system of Lixia, after the burial, when the workers left the tomb, they would prepare a tomb - sealing stone weighing about a hundred jin. As the tomb door closed, the stone would break the supporting wooden piles and then seal the entire tomb door in an oblique way. This was mainly to prevent the tomb from being opened again in the future or to keep out tomb robbers.
So... how to explain the dragon and Xingtian engraved here?
Did someone secretly replace the bones of a king of Lixia buried in the royal mausoleum? Or did these patterns serve some other purpose?
Shen Qingfeng frowned tightly.
Xiang Cheng... was he really behind this stone door?
However, according to Yu Shuang's investigation, there was no other suspicious place in the entire Three Saints Mountain except this. So, the possibility of Xiang Cheng being inside was really high.
Moreover, this stone door was really strange. Whether it was to find Xiang Cheng or out of his own strange curiosity, in any case, Shen Qingfeng decided to give it a try.
He glanced at Yu Shuang, who nodded understandingly. He twisted his wrist, took a step forward, walked in front of the black stone door, placed his hands on it, and then let out a loud shout and pushed the stone door hard.
Unexpectedly, the stone door made a slight "rumbling" sound.
Shen Qingfeng's expression turned solemn.
This tomb wasn't sealed by the tomb - sealing stone?
Could it be that someone deliberately left a secret entrance so that they could enter it frequently in the future?
Shen Qingfeng looked at the white cloth bag that Yu Shuang had placed aside. Actually, when he guessed that it was a tomb - sealing door, he had wondered whether the tomb was sealed. That was why he had brought enough gunpowder in his bag, thinking that if they couldn't open the door, they could blow it up from the outside, just like the common method used by some tomb - raiding scholars.
But since there was no tomb - sealing stone blocking the door from the inside, it would be much easier for them to get in.
Yu Shuang was greatly surprised to find that the door had been pushed open. He turned to look at Shen Qingfeng, who nodded at him.
Only then did he let out a sigh of relief. He turned back again. He retracted his hands, closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and then let out a loud shout. He slammed his palms against the stone door with all his strength.
"Rumble - rumble - rumble -!"
Yu Shuang was no ordinary person. His martial arts skills were rarely matched in the whole of Lixia. The stone door was pushed open as expected, revealing a dark passage inside.
Shen Qingfeng stepped forward and looked inside. It was pitch - black and he couldn't see anything. So he bent down, picked up a small pebble at random, and threw it into the passage.
"Patta, tatata..."
The sound of the pebble hitting the ground was very clear and deep.
"Judging from the echo, this passage is quite deep," Shen Qingfeng said in a low voice. "There's some kerosene in my bag. Let's make two torches and go in to take a look."
Yu Shuang nodded understandingly. The two of them began to get busy. During this time, Shen Qingfeng kept pacing outside the half - opened stone door.
He plucked a hair from his head and placed it in front of the stone door. He saw that the hair fluttered with the air, which meant that there should be another exit in this tomb. The air in the tomb was flowing normally and there was no strange smell. So the torches should be able to be lit.
Shen Qingfeng was relieved now. He poured the kerosene on the two torches that Yu Shuang had already made. Then the two of them glanced at each other. After lighting the torches, they crouched down and walked in one after another.
Because Yu Shuang had once been in the "Wuchen" organization. There was a dirty little secret about "Wuchen". Although most of their funds came from killing people for commissions, the market had its ups and downs. If there were fewer jobs in the market for a certain period of time and the assassin organization had no source of income, they would have to find another way out.
And the other way out for "Wuchen" was to become tomb - raiding scholars, in other words, tomb robbers.
Although a leader of Yu Shuang's level wouldn't do such things, he had received quite a lot of relevant training.
So Yu Shuang held the torch and walked in front to explore the way, which made Shen Qingfeng feel quite at ease.
Different from what was expected, if it were a normal tomb, in the tomb passage, even if there were no murals, there should at least be some stone slabs laid or the two side walls should be chiseled relatively smoothly. After all, the tomb passage was a place that the workers often walked through when building the tomb chamber. The sturdier the tomb passage was built, the more luxurious the inside of the tomb would be.
But in this tomb with Xingtian and dragons engraved on the tomb - sealing door, the tomb passage inside was like a tunnel dug by tomb robbers. The walls were pitted, as if they had been dug out casually without even being polished. There were no stone slabs on the ground either. One step was deep and the next was shallow. In some places, there was even some snow - water that had seeped in from the mountain.
"This doesn't seem to be a normal tomb structure," Yu Shuang said as he walked and observed. "If it were the tomb of a royal noble, there would usually be traps in the tomb passage to prevent tomb robbers from entering. But here, even the most basic waterproof facilities haven't been properly done. Even though the Three Saints Mountain is covered with snow all year round and it's hard to melt, if there are no waterproof facilities, the snow - water will keep seeping in and the soil will become very soft. A passage like this will collapse after a long time."
Shen Qingfeng nodded and said, "I also thought the paintings on the tomb - sealing door were very strange just now. Normally, there are no human figures in the murals of a tomb - sealing door. Even in the tomb of the king of Lixia, besides the carvings of Xingtian and dragons, there are usually some tomb - guarding beasts carved. But I've never seen an example of carving human figures on the tomb door. This is the first one."
Yu Shuang said, "But in terms of specifications, it is indeed a tomb - sealing door."
"What about the terrain?" Shen Qingfeng said. "Normally, a tomb would face south with its back to the north, but this tomb faces west with its back to the east. It also doesn't follow the practice of being adjacent to water and having a mountain at its back. Instead, it's next to a mountain stream and has a cliff at its back. If it's built like this, what do you think of?"
Yu Shuang was silent for a while and then said, "It seems... to be suppressing something?"
"I have the same feeling," Shen Qingfeng said. "Judging from the soldiers kneeling or raising their hands on the tomb - sealing door, it seems to be in memory of something..."
Yu Shuang pursed his lips, tacitly agreeing with Shen Qingfeng's speculation.