Chapter 141: There is a Corpse

He handed the soil to me. Not quite understanding, I looked at him, and Three-Flat-Melon said excitedly, "This soil is looser than before, and there is a hint of plant scent in it, which comes from plant roots. As mountain runners who collect herbs and mountain goods year-round, we are extremely sensitive to this smell. It looks like we will dig through before long."

I nodded doubtfully. After a brief rest, everyone resumed our work, continuously swinging our engineering shovels and hauling the excavated dirt outside. The deeper we went, the harder it became, and transporting the dug-out soil proved extremely laborious. Guo Fan worked quite briskly, telling me that tomb-raiding syndicates operated this way out of habit. He had once followed some tomb-raiding organizations, though their excavation was much more professional with a very clear division of labor. Fortunately, however, our goal was simply to dig through rather than to sink a bandit hole, making it somewhat easier.

Three-Flat-Melon seemed to be right; the soil indeed grew looser the further we dug, and tree roots could now be clearly seen mixed into the earth. The sound of the strikes had also grown much sharper. The very next moment, Lei Jun’s shovel broke through the soil layer, revealing a narrow opening ahead that looked like a naturally formed small cave. This discovery excited me even more; it seemed Three-Flat-Melon was entirely correct—everything down here was interconnected.

We hastily packed up our engineering shovels and entered. The cave was extremely narrow, only slightly larger than the tunnel we had dug ourselves. Following our previous order, we entered one by one, moving slowly forward through the passage in a semi-crouched position. Three-Flat-Melon, who was leading the way, suddenly stopped. Zhang Feng asked him what was wrong, and Three-Flat-Melon replied with a trembling voice:

"There is... a corpse ahead."

A corpse? I hurried over and shone my flashlight, revealing a set of white bones that appeared to have been dead for quite some years. Drawing closer, I saw the bones were somewhat blackened, and beside them lay a small, darkened pouch. At that moment, Tian Hu walked over, took a look, and said:

"Judging by the state, they must have been dead for fifty or sixty years."

Tian Hu knew a bit of medical science as a doctor from the Miao ethnic group; his family had practiced medicine for generations, making him rather knowledgeable about such matters. I stepped forward to take a look, sliced open the small pouch with a small knife, and found a pile of scattered, fragmented items inside. Guo Fan walked over and said:

"It’s a Gold-Touching Captain."

He then told me that the claw-shaped object was a Gold-Touching Talisman. He had once followed a tomb-raiding syndicate where one of the leaders claimed to be a descendant of the Gold-Touching Captains and carried such a trinket on him. Hearing Guo Fan identify it as a Gold-Touching Talisman, I felt a surge of astonishment, having heard of both Gold-Touching Captains and their talismans before.

According to the historical materials I had read, the Gold-Touching Captains were a faction of ancient Chinese tomb raiders. Historical records state that the faction originated in the late Eastern Han dynasty during the Three Kingdoms period. To make up for military pay shortages, Cao Cao, the leader of the Wei army, established military ranks such as the General of the Household for Exposing Hills and the Gold-Touching Captain, specializing in robbing tombs for wealth to subsidize military expenses.

I took the Gold-Touching Talisman from Guo Fan’s hand to examine it. Its entire body was pitch-black and translucent, gleaming with a soft luster under the flashlight beam. The front end was sharp and pointed, while the conical lower end was inlaid with several threads of gold, woven into a "penetrating earth pattern" style, with the two ancient seal-script characters for "Gold-Touching" engraved upon the talisman's body.

The pouch contained several other items as well. Guo Fan, who was quite knowledgeable, introduced them one by one. There was glutinous rice, which could be used to draw out corpse poison or thrown directly as a hidden weapon; a puff of green smoke would rise the moment it hit an old corpse-puppet!

Candles: Upon entering a tomb chamber, tomb raiders would light a candle in the southeast corner before touching the gold. If the flame flickered unsteadily after lighting, turned cyan, or went out entirely, it meant the master of the place was rather stingy and unwilling to offer a welcoming gift. In that case, one should not argue, but quickly close the coffin lid, kowtow, and take the goods away. This was the rule of the Gold-Touching Captains; if you felt your life was hard enough to defy it, you could try breaking it, much like the principle of "don't touch gold when the rooster crows and the lamp goes out."

Black donkey hooves: Specially used to deal with unruly corpse-puppets, the method usually involved shoving the item directly into the old corpse-puppet's mouth. Black donkey hooves could also be used against corpse poison through cremation or smoking. Legend has it that ox-headed and horse-faced spirits hook souls and lead ghosts, while the Nether General descends upon corpses to vanquish evil; this Nether General was said to be a black donkey that attained immortality through refinement, so its hooves were naturally specialized in dealing with corpse malevolence.

Gas masks were easy to understand: first, to prevent the miasma and various poisonous gases inside the tomb chamber, and second, because human breath contains yang energy—breathe on a corpse-puppet, and it would wake up to say hello to you.

Vinegar was used to deal with rammed earth. The working people of China were truly great, and the rammed earth they invented was exceptionally solid, usually mixed with glutinous water. The longer it aged, the harder it became, and only vinegar could soften it.

Ginger juice was used to deal with hard ice. After years of low-temperature freezing, ice could withstand even a bullet, leaving only a small dent. However, everything has its nemesis; splashing ginger juice allowed one to start digging the bandit hole, making it an essential material for raiding glacial tombs.

Softening corpse incense: Corpses are stiff, but certain funerary treasures on them cannot be taken by force. Softening corpse incense could soften the corpse; for treasures like the precious jade burial suit sewn with gold thread, this was the only solution.

Red Courtyard Marvelous Heart Pills were the exclusive secret medicine of the Gold-Touching Captains, capable of slowing down blood flow, preventing the invasion of corpse miasma, and calming the mind. Such items were possessed only by authentic Gold-Touching Captains, and their recipes were generally passed down only to designated successors. Nowadays, many people who called themselves Gold-Touching Captains merely used the title to bluff and could not be considered genuine.

Guo Fan took out the items one by one, speaking with effortless authority and displaying quite a bit of knowledge. In his own words, having followed no fewer than ten tomb-raiding syndicates over the past decade, he naturally counted as a jack-of-all-trades; seeing much and doing much naturally made him well-versed in the trade's intricacies.

These were ancient artifacts, many of which were no longer usable due to their age, and they held little monetary value, so we stuffed them back into the pouch. I only tucked the Gold-Touching Talisman into my pocket, effectively inheriting the legacy, and afterwards, we dug a pit to lay the unknown man's remains to rest.

Within a dozen minutes or so, we finished dealing with the skeleton and pressed onward into the depths. The further we walked, the wider the passage became, and we no longer needed to hunch over our bodies. As we walked, I seemed to hear a faint sound in my ears—a very subtle noise resembling human speech, and I could guarantee that the sound definitely did not come from anyone in our team.