The sound came abruptly, and it was clear that I wasn't the only one who heard it. Almost everyone in the ear chamber sat up straight at once!
"Did you guys hear something just now?"
Zhang Jinya hesitated for a moment, then pointed at me: "It seemed to be right behind him..."
Fatty, Rosa, and Zhou Jing all nodded in agreement!
I was already feeling a chill in my heart, and Zhang Jinya's words made me feel even more uncomfortable, with goosebumps all over: "You didn't see anything behind me, did you?"
Zhang Jinya turned on his flashlight and shone it behind me, then shook his head slightly. In the dim light of the flashlight, I could see that his complexion didn't look good.
At that moment, I got really upset. I was already a bit exhausted from the series of fights, but I couldn't care less at that moment and stood up with my Baipi Knife: "Heizi, search!"
Honestly, after experiencing so many bizarre events, I was no longer as scared of these ghostly things as I used to be. The most important thing when facing such things is to confront them!
The most terrifying thing about these foul beings is the unknown fear they cause. Just that unknown fear alone is enough to scare someone half to death, making them completely defenseless and waiting for the dirty things to claim their lives. In fact, if there is no fear in one's heart, those dirty things are not necessarily more ferocious than humans. Take, for example, the ghost soldiers I encountered outside the ancient temple. In their lifetime, I was no match for them. The Rouran people were a nation on horseback, and Rouran warriors almost all had the strength to tear apart tigers and leopards. Dealing with a college student like me was as easy as chopping vegetables. But after they died, I chopped them up as if I were chopping vegetables. They were much weaker after death, of course, except for those dirty things with Taoist practice.
The saying that gods and ghosts are afraid of evil people is exactly this principle.
If there is no fear in one's heart, and one has the courage to face evil, then wielding a knife can make gods and ghosts afraid!
So although that sudden sound made my heart pound, based on my experience, I still decided to take the initiative to attack and find that ghostly thing first. I couldn't just sit here and let it scare me.
Heizi is a genuine fierce dog. Upon hearing my command, he immediately started barking furiously.
"Come out!"
I also shouted: "Otherwise, you won't like what happens when I find you!"
"Don't attack, I mean no harm!"
That soft voice spoke up again: "Please don't hurt me..."
"Then show yourself right now!"
Zhang Jinya shouted from the side: "If you provoke Daoist Zhang, he'll deal with you first!"
As soon as Zhang Jinya finished speaking, a thick white smoke suddenly appeared in the southwest corner of the left ear chamber, and the temperature in the room began to drop.
I knew that the dirty thing was about to come out. This sudden drop in temperature was a sign that the yin energy around us was getting stronger. For a moment, even breathing stopped, and my eyes were fixed on that southwest corner. By then, the white smoke had gradually dissipated, revealing a frail-looking woman dressed in lavish clothes, standing fearfully in the corner, looking at Heizi and me as if she was very afraid of us.
My heartbeat sped up uncontrollably at that moment. I couldn't help it; the woman was just too beautiful. Although she was a foreigner, even to an Easterner like me, she was extremely beautiful. She wore a golden classical palace dress that was popular during the height of the Tang Dynasty, with a round-necked shirt that shimmered with light. Her skin was fair, her features were three-dimensional, and she had light golden hair that almost reached her waist. She was far more beautiful than some of the international stars of today!
But... how could this woman with a Western face appear in the tomb of Gao Xianzhi?
I was full of doubts and couldn't help but ask: "Who are you, exactly?"
The woman didn't speak, just looked fearfully at Heizi and the Baipi Knife in my hand.
I understood, and seeing that the woman didn't seem like a vicious dirty thing, I called Heizi back and put away the Baipi Knife before saying: "Now can you speak?"
The woman hesitated for a moment before slowly starting to tell her story. I was shocked when she spoke. It turned out that this woman's identity was not simple; she was none other than Princess Kinskaya of the Stone Country!
The Stone Country, also one of the ancient countries of the Western Regions, was one of the nine surnames of Zhaowu, located roughly in what is now Uzbekistan.
During the Tang Dynasty, the Arab Empire, which is recorded in our history books as having destroyed the Persian Empire, swept through Central Asia, causing great turmoil in the Western Regions. The small countries of the Western Regions had no choice but to seek protection under the wings of the Tang Empire. The Tang Empire, in turn, provided shelter for these small countries, leading to fierce conflicts with the Arab Empire in the Tigris-Euphrates River Valley. The Stone Country was caught right in the middle of this intense conflict. In the ninth year of the Tianbao era, the Tang Empire, in a bid to compete with the Arab Empire for absolute dominance over the Tigris-Euphrates River Valley, dispatched Gao Xianzhi to attack the Stone Country. Gao Xianzhi conquered the Stone Country, capturing the king, his wife, and a group of royal nobles and bringing them back to Chang'an.
Princess Kinskaya was captured by Gao Xianzhi and brought back to Chang'an at that time. Later, Emperor Xuanzong of Tang, to reward Gao Xianzhi for his merits, bestowed Princess Kinskaya of the Stone Country upon him. However, on the night Gao Xianzhi was to marry Kinskaya as his concubine, another uprising broke out in the Western Regions. After the Stone Country's capital was trampled, they sought help from the Arab Empire. The Arab Empire sent troops to attack the Stone Country's Hengros, which was then occupied by the Tang Empire, and Gao Xianzhi received the imperial edict to set off for war overnight. Thus, Gao Xianzhi left without even seeing Princess Kinskaya's face.
The famous Battle of Hengros then erupted.
As mentioned before, the Tang Empire was defeated in that battle, and the Arab Empire, despite having used tens of thousands of soldiers against a few thousand and being beaten until they lost their helmets and armor, was also somewhat frightened and decided to give up the attack on the Tang Empire. Peace returned to the Western Regions.
Afterward, the An Lushan Rebellion broke out within the Tang Empire, and Gao Xianzhi was busy with the imperial rescue and did not return home to see Princess Kinskaya. He even completely forgot that he had such a princess from the Stone Country in his home. When he finally returned, it was only his decapitated corpse.
At that time, Gao Xianzhi's family and generals were busy preparing for his funeral. Many soldiers were willing to be buried with him. In the end, Gao Xianzhi's wife proposed that since Gao Xianzhi was dead, he would be lonely underground and should have a concubine to serve him!!
This was clearly a suggestion to send one of Gao Xianzhi's concubines to be buried with him. Which of Gao Xianzhi's concubines would be willing? One by one, they all refused on the grounds that they had given birth to children for Gao Xianzhi. So Gao Xianzhi's wife looked around and saw Princess Kinskaya, who had no attachments. Wasn't she the best choice for a human sacrifice?
Princess Kinskaya was thus poisoned to death with a cup of poisoned wine and after her death was stuffed into the left ear chamber of Gao Xianzhi's tomb to be buried with him. Unfortunately for her, this tomb was not located on any dragon vein. The feng shui master at the time was blind and mistook a resentful dragon land for a dragon vein. Being buried in such a place, it was strange that Princess Kinskaya could rest in peace after her death. Not long after her death, she turned into a ghost and wandered in this tomb chamber for a thousand years!
After hearing the woman's story, I also felt some pity for her. My hostility and caution towards her lessened a bit. Although Zhang Jinya kept urging me not to believe this "ghost story" on the side, I still felt compassion and put away the Baipi Knife before asking: "Do you know what those things outside are?"
"They were all generals under General Gao."
Princess Kinskaya hesitated for a moment before speaking with some fear: "They... are all a bunch of madmen!"
I immediately became curious and asked her why she said that.
Princess Kinskaya explained that after Gao Xianzhi's death, his family invited a very powerful witch from the Miao territory of that time. The witch claimed to have a way to let the soldiers who were willing to die with Gao Xianzhi guard him forever. So, after those soldiers agreed, they were turned into the ghostly figures we see now!
Princess Kinskaya recounted the witch's methods to me in detail, and then I remembered that I had seen an introduction to this kind of witchcraft in the books at my home. If I remember correctly, it should be called the Mercury Sorcery!
To perform Mercury Sorcery, one must first make a living specimen!
The so-called living specimen is to have the soldiers who are to be buried alive ingest mercury, and at the same time, holes are drilled in the top of their heads, their backs, the soles of their feet, and the palms of their hands, and filled with mercury. After the soldiers die of mercury poisoning, their entire bodies are rubbed with mercury powder, making them like specimens. After thousands of years, their flesh does not rot. This technique is much more advanced than the Egyptian mummies, but the backgrounds of the two civilizations are different, and their values diverge greatly. Moreover, to preserve the appearance of the corpse with mercury, one must use living people. Dead people's blood does not circulate, so it's impossible to inject mercury into them, making this method of making living specimens exceptionally cruel.
Once the living specimen is made, it is buried in an extremely yin place for forty-nine days. When the living specimen is filled with resentment, it is given a breath of yang energy. Immediately, the living specimen will rise from the dead, becoming something like a tomb tiger, a living dead. However, because their bodies are filled with mercury, they do not rot and can guard Gao Xianzhi's tomb forever!
No wonder Princess Kinskaya said that those soldiers who were buried with Gao Xianzhi were madmen. It was indeed too crazy to guard Gao Xianzhi's tomb in this way.
At that moment, I remembered the hand of the tomb-guarding soldier that had grabbed me seemed to be still hanging around my ankle. To confirm my suspicion, I quickly pulled it down and shone my flashlight on it. Sure enough, there was a hole in the palm of the hand, sealed with what appeared to be a flame, and several areas on the hand had developed dark purple spots, likely a result of chemical changes from mercury being sealed inside the body for too long. According to "Fa Qiu Mi Shu," these spots would appear reddish-brown if recent, but turn dark purple over time, commonly referred to as "mercury spots" or "mercury soak," and in some places called "rotten yinzi" or "mercury green."
Understanding what those tomb-guarding soldiers really were, I felt a sudden sense of relief. Despite their numbers, we couldn't confront them head-on, but they lacked cognitive abilities and couldn't possibly break through the stone gate of the ear chamber, so we were temporarily safe.
"You all need to wash up."
At that moment, Princess Kinskaya glanced at us and said, "You're all quite dirty, and it's not good for your health if it stays on for too long. I happen to know a place with water where I can take you."
It was only after Princess Kinskaya mentioned it that I realized, during our desperate fight with those tomb-guarding soldiers, our bodies had been sprayed with quite a bit of mercury. Mercury is well-known to be poisonous, and inhalation of mercury vapor or accidental ingestion can lead to mercury poisoning, which is fatal. Although we hadn't inhaled any mercury vapor or had it splash into our mouths, it was still harmful to our bodies. Mercury is dense and can slowly penetrate the skin into the body, which would spell doom for us!
Right now, we indeed needed to wash up urgently. I estimated that the mercury hadn't been on our skin for too long and there were no wounds in contact with the mercury, so we were temporarily safe. At most, we just needed to drink more milk after getting out.
But... should we really trust Princess Kinskaya?
Although she seemed to mean no harm at the moment, after all, humans and ghosts are different beings, and we couldn't guess what she was thinking. The ancient tomb was full of traps and unknown dangers. If she led us into a deadly situation, we would be in big trouble!
Looking at Princess Kinskaya's unbelievably beautiful face, we exchanged glances and fell into deep hesitation.