In the tomb hall, not only were the ground littered with white bones, but countless corpses also hung from the ceiling.
These corpses were all incomplete, with only a few upper body bones remaining, pierced through the scapula by chains.
The rest of the bones had fallen to the ground.
The ground was indeed where they had fallen.
The gruesome scene immediately turned many people pale, their throats working as they swallowed hard.
Lan Ying's expression changed, and it was no surprise.
Even a big shot like Su Yinchuan felt a tightening in his chest.
Dead bodies were not terrifying; what was terrifying was a hellish scene that resembled Asura.
No one knew what had happened here, or why so many people were chained and hung from the ceiling.
"Wang Mang has been gone for nearly two thousand years. These skeletons appeared later," Li Chonglou said with a grave expression, surveying the entire cave hall.
There were no coffins here, so it was clearly not the main or副 tomb, yet there were so many human bones.
Two thousand years, even with a sealed environment, these bones should have been shattered.
Moreover, there was water flow and air in this cave, so it could hardly be considered sealed.
Although at a distance, Li Chonglou's vision was sharp, and he could see that while these remains were beginning to decompose, the extent was not great.
Otherwise, some would not still be hanging from the ceiling.
With his experience and eyesight, he could judge that these remains were no more than 500 years old.
For a Qiang leader's tomb that was nearly two thousand years old, why would there be skeletons less than five hundred years old? And why were these people pierced through the scapula and hung from the ceiling?
A great mystery began to form in Li Chonglou's mind.
"These broken things are bad luck. Get them all down!" Zhu Mingzhe snorted coldly upon hearing this and ordered his men to take pickaxes and smash them.
Before long, the fragmented bones hanging overhead were all knocked to the ground.
Many of them were dried out and were broken into pieces with a kick.
Human bones were very hard, but now they were eroded by time and weather as if they were powder.
Li Chonglou had intended to study them, but Zhu Mingzhe's actions made him abandon the idea.
However, his brow also furrowed.
"What's wrong, Chonglou?" Xu Lie asked curiously, seeing his reaction.
Li Chonglou usually maintained a calm and composed expression, though sometimes he would show a childish side to his own people.
But he rarely frowned.
"These people are not Qiang. Their facial bones are wide and flat, the cheekbones and eyes are close together, and the nasal bones do not protrude high or low. This is..." Li Chonglou was about to reply.
But he was interrupted by Liu Zhibo: "It's obvious, these are characteristics of Mongols."
"I didn't expect this young man brought by Mr. Su to be quite knowledgeable. These bones are indeed less than five hundred years old."
"They should be from the Hoşut Mongols, one of the Oirats, in the early sixteenth century."
"They became rulers in the Western Sea for a time.
"But why they appeared in the anteroom of this tomb, I am not clear either."
Upon hearing this, Li Chonglou's eyelids twitched, and he looked at Liu Zhibo seriously.
This scoundrel had bad character, but in terms of academics, he truly lived up to his title of professor.
To be so familiar with the ancient history of the Western Sea and to recall this obscure period of change that lasted only a few decades.
"In the early years of Emperor Yongzheng, Lobzang Danjin failed in his rebellion against the Qing and was suppressed. An official in charge of the Western Sea affairs was established here," Li Chonglou continued. "Judging by their deaths, they are very similar to the cruel punishments of the Qing Dynasty."
"Perhaps it was the work of that time, but why were they executed here? And where is the entrance, no one knows."
This question was Li Chonglou asking on behalf of everyone.
What he truly wondered was why, with the Qing government having reached this far, this Qiang King's tomb had not yet been looted.
This had led to the incident of the sacrificed archaeological team in later years.
Could it be that there was something truly peculiar below that made people hesitant?
The curiosity from the depths of his heart was now thoroughly ignited.
Liu Zhibo's eyes darkened, showing a hint of urgency.
It was clear he was also contemplating this question, but he did not know about the events of later years as Li Chonglou did. He thought this tomb might have already been looted.
If that were the case, wouldn't all his efforts be in vain?
Thinking of this, he immediately ordered: "Mingzhe, take a few people to scout ahead!"
"Yes, boss." Liu Mingzhe waved his hand: "Follow me."
He led five people towards the passage behind the hall.
After the initial tension, Lan Ying relaxed, as she had seen quite a bit of the world.
Seeing Li Chonglou as the most composed, her face couldn't help but blush.
To break the awkwardness, she said, "You look like a good-for-nothing, but you know quite a lot."
"Are you doubting your godfather's judgment?" Li Chonglou replied indifferently.
Lan Ying's face turned red to her ears, burning intensely.
Angrily, she gritted her teeth.
She cursed inwardly, "What's there to be so smug about? You useless guy, you're asking for it!"
If it weren't for her godfather, she would have slapped him directly.
Since childhood, no one had dared to speak to her like that. Everyone treated her like a princess, showering her with adoration.
She was the legitimate princess of the Western Sea underground forces. If her father hadn't passed away at an inopportune time, the Western Sea underground forces would probably be hers to command now.
From the beginning, she had looked down on Li Chonglou. She never expected this bum to dare to give her a cold shoulder.
Absolutely hateful!
Lan Ying made up her mind that after this matter was over, she would make Li Chonglou pay.
A woman's heart is like a needle at the bottom of the sea; Li Chonglou had no idea what she was thinking.
Following behind Liu Zhibo, he led Su Yinchuan towards the passage.
Xu Lie brought up the rear.
The passage was built with typical Han bricks, carved with many patterns and inscriptions, which undoubtedly confirmed the history and age of the Qiang King's tomb.
Li Chonglou only glanced at a few, and immediately recognized the depiction of a scaled Fuxi on a giant brick.
This style of depiction did not exist in the Western Han Dynasty; it originated after Emperor Guangwu of the Eastern Han, Liu Xiu.
This meant that this Qiang King's tomb was built after Wang Mang.
The entire passage was clean, with nothing else except these Han bricks.
It was very long, nearly a mile, and judging from the direction, it probably extended deep into the mountain.
At the end of the passage was a stone chamber with a circular dome.
In the center of the chamber was a circular, elevated stone platform, on which rested a coffin.
The lid of the coffin had been opened halfway.
Beside the stone platform, quite a few scattered skeletons lay on the ground in strange shapes.
Liu Mingzhe, leading his men, was about to rush towards the stone platform.
"Don't move!" Liu Zhibo suddenly roared.
They froze in shock, halting their movements.
"These people died from poisoned needles quenched with mercury. Do you want to die too?" Liu Zhibo approached a skeleton, his eyes sinister.
That skeleton was still intact, with some blackening on the bones in the chest cavity.
Inside, there was a black needle-like object about the length of a middle finger.
Beneath the needle's tip, there was a tiny, inconspicuous drop of silver liquid, which was liquid mercury.
It seemed that these people had moved the coffin lid, triggering the mechanism, and were shot dead on the spot.
"This kind of mechanism can usually only be triggered once, so what are you afraid of?" Li Chonglou strode forward and stepped onto the stone platform.
He glanced inside the coffin.
As he had guessed, it was empty, not even a skeleton.
It had already been emptied by someone.
Seeing his confidence, Liu Zhibo narrowed his eyes, contemplating something.
Su Yinchuan, however, breathed a sigh of relief, secretly admiring Li Chonglou.
This young man's actions were always different from what people expected; at times calm, at times swift, yet always in control, giving a sense of thorough preparation.
At such a young age, he was already so outstanding; what would he be like in the future?
He had met many outstanding people, but in terms of composure and insight, Li Chonglou was undoubtedly the strongest.
Yesterday, he had asked his goddaughter Lan Ying to help him out of a tight spot, hoping to introduce them and foster a closer relationship.
Such a young man, it was better to be friends than enemies.
"Boss, it's already been looted. Our trip..." Zhu Mingzhe, seeing that Li Chonglou was unharmed, immediately rushed over, his face extremely displeased.
They had come down to steal artifacts from inside.
But all the way here, there were only skeletons, an empty coffin, and Han bricks on the walls that were not valuable.
If this continued, they wouldn't even recover their costs.
A huge loss.
"What's the hurry!" Before he could finish speaking, Liu Zhibo glared at him and interrupted, "Keep going."
With that, he ordered Zhu Mingzhe to lead his men forward.
Su Yinchuan wanted to follow but found Li Chonglou squatting down, examining the patterns on the coffin.
"Little Li, have you found anything?" Su Yinchuan asked curiously.
"This is a Qiang sacrificial diagram. Perhaps it holds a clue," Li Chonglou replied without looking away.
In reality, his gaze was fixed on the faceless statue high above.
In the statue's hand was a die, the size of a ping pong ball.
It was the Stone Boqiong that his master had dreamed of.
This discovery made Li Chonglou's heart tremble.
But he clearly could not tell Su Yinchuan the truth.
He never imagined that there would be clues to the Stone Boqiong in the Qiang King's tomb.
"Legend has it that the Qiang people are also a branch of the Han people. Is it true?" A great mystery arose in Li Chonglou's mind.
He was not a humanities scholar, but an antique researcher. He had some understanding of various histories, but his knowledge of true human lineage was superficial.
He had only heard from others before that the Qiang were divided into three branches:
Namely, the ancient Qiang, the early Qiang, and the Han Qiang.
It was said that in the ancient Yanhuang era, there were only the ancient Qiang, Huaxia, and Dongyi.
Later, ancient Huaxia absorbed populations from the Qiang, Yi, and other tribes.
In the pre-Huaxia period, to distinguish the various tribes from the four directions, the terms Xirong, Beidi, Dongyi, and Nanman were created as general terms for these tribes.
Yanhuang and Xia both developed from the various Qiang tribes.
Ancient Huaxia and the Dongyi tribes fought wars, annexing land and absorbing populations to form pre-Huaxia.
The Dongyi tribes, having lost the war, transformed into various tribes such as Baiyue and Sanmiao.
During the pre-Huaxia period, to distinguish themselves from the four directions, they referred to themselves as Zhongxia, Zhonghua, China, Zhuxia, Huaxia, and so on.
Huayang Ancient Kingdom (Huaxu Shi), the Yanhuang Alliance, Xia and the ancient Qiang tribes, the ancient Ba-Shu tribes, and the Dongyi tribes had deep origins. The Shang Dynasty had deep origins with the early Qiang tribes, the early Ba-Shu tribes, and the Sanmiao Nanman tribes. The Zhou Dynasty had deep origins with the general Qiang tribes, the Ba-Shu tribes, and the Baiyue Nanman tribes.
The establishment of the Qin state was mainly to govern and manage the northern Di, western Rong, Ba-Shu, and other tribes.
Later, it launched the war to conquer the six states, the unification war of Huaxia.
After the Qin Dynasty fell, the Han Dynasty was established.
Many people, like him, believed the Qiang were an alien race, but in fact, the Qiang people had always been integrated with Huaxia through blood and water.
Until after the Qin Dynasty, some Qiang people became independent again, called Han Qiang.
Could it be that these Qiang people were from the Western Sea?
And they possessed the Qin Emperor's treasure, the Stone Boqiong.
No wonder his master had searched the world for decades without finding this treasure. It turned out to be like this.
It all made sense!
In an instant, Li Chonglou's mind became clear, and his heart rejoiced.