Chapter 19 The Empty Coffin

When we looked at the coffin in the main burial chamber, we were all stunned.

Because it was an empty coffin!

Inside the coffin, there was nothing at all!

There was no corpse of the tomb's occupant!

No, please allow me to correct myself. Strictly speaking, it wasn't exactly an empty coffin.

Because the bottom of the coffin had popped open, just like the Seven Stars Suspicious Coffin in the Tian Shu position above. Beneath the bottom of the coffin was a secret passage of stone steps.

This main burial chamber wasn't the end of the tomb, but only the second level of this underground palace!

Beneath the coffin, there were more burial chambers!

Old Wei couldn't help but complain, "My god, how grand is this tomb? Three levels in total? Even high-end shopping malls in big cities only have three levels of parking."

Uncle Mei questioned, "That's not right. If there are three levels, why would the tomb's occupant put so many valuable funerary objects on the second level? Shouldn't these treasures be placed next to the real coffin?"

Little Liang guessed, "Could it be that there are even more treasures on the next level?"

"More than this level?" Uncle Mei widened his eyes, disbelieving. "There's already a thousand taels of gold on this level. You're saying there's even more on the next level? Could there be ten thousand taels of gold?"

Jiang Yongguang shook his head. "I don't think so. The main value of this tomb is concentrated on the second level. This must have been meticulously designed by the tomb's occupant."

"Oh? What kind of design?" I couldn't help but ask.

Jiang Yongguang said, "From what we can see now, the funerary objects in the first burial chamber weren't emptied by Yang Guo and his gang. There probably weren't any funerary objects in the first place. It was completely bare, paired with the Seven Stars Suspicious Coffin trap, to discourage tomb robbers. After all, nobody wants to raid a tomb that's not profitable and also very dangerous."

"That's true," I nodded.

Jiang Yongguang continued, "But if the tomb robbers see through the mechanisms in the first burial chamber and pass the test of the Seven Stars Suspicious Coffin to reach the second level, they'll be mesmerized by the gold and silver jewelry on this level and be completely dazzled."

"That's right," I agreed. "Don't even mention tomb robbers, even the few of us were stunned for a long time when we came down. We didn't even see the two corpses in the burial chamber."

Jiang Yongguang added, "In this situation, the tomb robbers might mistakenly think they've found the real main burial chamber. That way, they'll be too busy emptying the treasures here and won't look for the secret passage on this level. In other words, the tomb's occupant is sacrificing wealth to avoid disaster, using an entire level of gold and silver jewelry to protect his real coffin and remains."

After listening, I suddenly understood and said, "So that's how it is. The tomb occupant's design is quite clever. One level poor, one level rich, but the real remains are buried in the deepest third level."

"Yes," Jiang Yongguang nodded.

At this moment, Old Wei interjected, "This is very similar to the thinking of some people in my hometown. In the past, my home was always easily targeted by thieves during the Lunar New Year. Not only would the house be ransacked, but sometimes there would be conflicts with the elderly and women in the family. If things got desperate, someone could get killed. Later, someone came up with a brilliant idea to put some banknotes on the table in the living room, with a note telling any thieves who broke in to take the money and leave, so everyone could have a good year without causing trouble. As a result, the village became much more peaceful."

It was clear that Old Wei had life experience. Little Liang and I, being younger, hadn't heard of such a thing.

Uncle Mei nodded repeatedly and said, "I've also heard of this approach, especially when young people go out to work and only the elderly and children are left at home. They don't want to cause trouble, so they leave a red envelope for the thieves, considering it a way to avoid disaster by sacrificing wealth."

After chatting for a bit, Old Wei asked, "What do we do now? Should we find someone to protect these gold and silver treasures first, or continue down?"

Without thinking, Jiang Yongguang said, "Of course, we continue down. There was a murder in the tomb, and the culprit is likely that White-Clothed Immortal. The top priority now is to capture her and Yang Guo's tomb-robbing gang."

Uncle Mei and I were also eager to catch the White-Clothed Immortal and rescue Little Mei. My father and I immediately nodded and said, "Officer Jiang is right."

"Alright, then let's continue down," Old Wei agreed without hesitation.

Jiang Yongguang still walked in front, leading us step by step down the stone steps.

This secret passage was even deeper than the one above, and it spiraled downwards, so we went around for a long time.

Everyone was very careful along the way, because based on previous experience, Ming Dynasty tombs were full of mechanisms and traps, and a slight carelessness could cost you your life.

After walking down for about ten minutes, we finally reached the third level of this ancient tomb.

As soon as I turned out of the tomb passage, I saw two tall and burly figures standing not far ahead!

I was startled and squinted to take a closer look, only to see that they were two bronze statues.

I had seen bronze statues before in the Tuojiang Ancient Shu Tomb and the Yazi River Ancient Shu Tomb.

"It's an Ancient Shu Tomb!"

I said immediately.

Little Liang also questioned, "What's going on? The third level of this Ming tomb is actually an Ancient Shu Tomb?"

"So that's it..."

Jiang Yongguang pinched his chin and thought for a moment, immediately figuring out the truth. He said,

"I was wondering why the occupant of this Ming tomb went to so much trouble to build a three-level mausoleum along the Mamu River. It turns out his real purpose was to protect this Ancient Shu Tomb!"

"What do you mean?" Old Wei asked in confusion.

Jiang Yongguang replied, "It's very simple. Feng Shui masters look for the location of tombs based on the flow of mountains and rivers. With the Feng Shui of the Mamu River, there must be a large tomb underground. In that case, the existence of the Ancient Shu Tomb would inevitably be seen by the Feng Shui masters. But what if another tomb was built on top of the Ancient Shu Tomb?"

Old Wei immediately understood, clapping his hands and laughing, "Wonderful! That way, those who search for tombs would mistakenly think that the tomb at the Mamu River is this Ming tomb. It would be difficult for them to imagine that there is another tomb under the Ming tomb! It's two tombs stacked together!"

"That's the idea," Jiang Yongguang nodded. "We can even think about it in a darker way. The Ancient Shu Tomb has been deeply buried underground for thousands of years, absorbing the essence of heaven and earth, and the essence of the sun and moon. If the tomb occupant of the Ming Dynasty took over the Shu King's mausoleum, wouldn't he be getting a ready-made advantage?"

Hearing Jiang Yongguang say this, I couldn't help but feel that this statement was reasonable.

Judging from the current mechanisms, the person who built this mausoleum must be an old schemer. With such a sinister character, it wouldn't be surprising at all if he did something like taking over another's nest.