A comprehensive overview of tombs: starting with the Yellow Weasel's Tomb

Immediately afterward, the fat man asked in a trembling voice, "Did one of you tap me on the shoulder?"

Bai Jing and the others all shook their heads, and the fat man's face turned even paler.

Moreover, judging from his expression, he was almost crying.

Bai Jing didn't mean to scare the fat man. He immediately pointed behind the fat man and said, "Don't worry, it's not a ghost. It's just a corpse that fell down and hit you."

Upon hearing this, the fat man first breathed a sigh of relief, then felt as if he had been insulted. He immediately jumped to the side of the crowd and looked at the spot where he had just been standing.

Sure enough, it was the body of a girl, and it had clearly fallen because the nails on it had fallen off due to disrepair.

Chapter 99 The Rear Hall

As the fat man breathed a sigh of relief, the army shone a flashlight on his face and burst into laughter.

Then Lu Jun teased, "Hey Fatty, are you scared?"

Upon hearing this, the fat man felt insulted and retorted, "I'm not afraid at all. You're the one who's afraid, aren't you?"

Bai Qi then jokingly asked, "Then why was your face so pale just now?"

The fat man stubbornly replied, "I used wax to keep out the cold!"

Hearing this, Bai Jing chuckled. If it were the dead of winter, he could say that, but it was the middle of summer, so why bother with the cold?

When Lu Jun heard what the fat man said, he was taken aback at first, and then immediately asked, "Then how come you're popular again now?"

Upon hearing this, the fat man immediately struck a pose and replied in a strong and resounding voice, "Radiant!"

Even the two girls, Jian Guo and Zhen Zi, couldn't help but laugh when they heard this.

Speaking of which, this fat guy is really interesting; his ability to lie through his teeth is truly impressive.

After laughing for a while, everyone searched carefully again to see if there were any mechanisms or traps in the tomb. It was possible that some things had been hidden by such mechanisms.

At this moment, Bai Jing, after circling around the West Hall, suddenly noticed something amiss and shone his torch on the ground.

Bai Jing immediately noticed that the lotus flower pattern on the tomb brick was reversed.

According to the burial system of the Liao Dynasty, only the emperor and empress dowager were buried in a nine-chambered underground palace.

Judging from the furnishings and decorations in the tomb, it is clear that this Liao Dynasty tomb does not contain an emperor.

As for princes or noble ministers below the emperor, they used a maximum of five or six chambers in their underground palaces.

The imperial tombs of the Liao Dynasty each had two side halls in the front and middle, totaling nine underground palaces.

Although the Empress Dowager also used a nine-chamber underground palace, four of the side halls were located on both sides, thus distinguishing her from the Emperor.

Upon entering the main hall of the tomb, Bai Jing and his group did not find any side halls, which indicated that this could not be an imperial tomb.

In a short time, Bai Jing became increasingly interested in the layout of the place.

Afterwards, everyone went to check the East Hall and found that it was no different from the West Hall. There was nothing hidden there, and there were also more than a dozen corpses of boys and girls hanging above.

After reading this, Bai Jing and the others began to walk away.

After a great deal of effort, they successfully opened the tomb door.

As the door opened, everyone saw that behind it were nine steps, all carved from a single piece of bluish-white stone, with reliefs of the Five Buddhas: Shakyamuni Buddha in the center, Bhaisajyaguru Buddha in the east, Amitabha Buddha in the west, Ratnasambhava Buddha in the south, and Amoghasiddhi Buddha in the north.

These five Buddhas are also known as the Five Wisdom Buddhas. Legend has it that they can transform and purify the five afflictions of ignorance, anger, pride, greed, and jealousy. Upon seeing the relief of these five Buddhas, Bai Jing and Bai Qi exchanged a glance.

It seems the main hall is down below.

As the group descended the stairs, they saw three coffins—one large and two small—placed in the hall, each with its own base.

As expected

The central coffin was the largest, its entire surface adorned with luxurious vermilion lacquer and colorful paintings, clearly extraordinary. Upon approaching the coffin, Bai Jing discovered that it was constructed of bronze and wood, resembling a colossal object, truly a rare sight in the world.

This enormous coffin is supported by a gilded bronze frame with four horizontal and two vertical sections at the top and bottom. Large and thick coffin boards are embedded in the frame, each board decorated with phoenix patterns. The coffin boards are reinforced with bronze tenons and buttons.

The coffin is about two meters high, two meters wide, and three meters long. It is supported by twelve gilded bronze animal feet at the bottom and is placed on a Mount Sumeru coffin base.

Seeing the various metals on the coffin, Bai Jing understood that there were still significant differences between the funeral cultures of northern ethnic groups and those of the Central Plains.

At least before the Ming Dynasty, Han Chinese tombs would never have had so many metal artifacts added to the coffin.

Then, Bai Jing looked at the coffin base beneath the giant coffin. Around the base were painted four goddesses, each holding a different magical weapon. They were all dressed in flowing robes and had the graceful posture of phoenixes.

While others couldn't see the difference, Bai Jing and Bai Qi recognized that the four goddesses on the coffin were actually the "Four Mothers."

What are the Four Mothers? And who are these four mothers?

The Four Mothers actually refer to the Four Heavenly Queens in mythology. They are the wives of the Jade Emperor and are also known as the Four Empresses of Heaven.

Each of these divas has their own special artifacts, which are also related to their duties and abilities.

The first is called the Mother of Qi. She holds a cloth bag in her hand, which contains the Primordial Qi, also known as the Primordial True Qi. It was formed before the creation of heaven and earth and is the root mother of all things in heaven and earth. Whether it is the vast world or the primordial universe, everything revolves within it.

The second is the Wind Mother, who holds a wind bag in her hand, which contains winds from all eight directions: the raging wind from the east, the gentle breeze from the south, the whirlwind from the west, the cold wind from the north, the long wind from the southeast, the melting wind from the northeast, the great wind from the southwest, and the fierce wind from the northwest.

The third is Mica, which has five-colored auspicious clouds on its shoulders. The clusters of auspicious clouds resemble a canopy. The clouds are formed from the energy of mountains and rivers when chaos was first separated. The five colors of the clouds also correspond to the five elements: yellow clouds represent abundance, blue clouds represent war, white clouds represent mourning, black clouds represent water, and red clouds represent drought.

The fourth is the Mist Mother, who holds a mist curtain in her hand. When the mist curtain is first opened, the mist rises and spreads. When it is fully opened, it can cover hundreds of miles and cover the universe. When the mist curtain is rolled up, the mist gradually dissipates.

These four mother figures, along with the phoenix patterns on the coffin and the lotus flower patterns on the ground, clearly indicate the identity of the tomb owner.

Bai Jing had seen many coffins in the Hundred Eyes Cave, but to be honest, none of them could compare to this one.

Bai Jing and the others did not immediately open the coffin. Instead, they lit the eternal lamps around the tomb chamber, which made the tomb chamber much brighter. At this moment, it could be seen that the layout of the main hall of this Liao tomb was long from east to west and narrow from north to south. Both the floor and the walls were made of tomb bricks with lotus flower patterns, and the dome was painted with stars.

Behind the coffin on the tomb wall was a huge mural. Bai Jing glanced at it and knew immediately that it was the "Sacred Traces Map".

The so-called "Sacred Traces Map" is actually a record of the life of the tomb owner.

Besides the "Sacred Traces Map", there are four interconnected arched doorways in the four corners of the main hall, which matches the nine-chamber layout of the Liao Dynasty empress dowager's tomb as recorded in the records. The status of the tomb owner is now beyond doubt.

Then, Bai Jing looked at the two relatively smaller coffins next to the huge coffin.

Chapter 100 Eyes

After looking at these, Bai Jing went to examine the sacred trace map of the Liao Dynasty tomb.

This map contains records about the tomb owner, and it should be possible to learn about the tomb owner's identity through the map.

This Liao Dynasty tomb's "Sacred Traces" mural is the same as the nine-tailed fox mural Bai Jing and his group had seen at the tomb entrance, but it appears to have more complete content and more exquisite painting techniques. This "Sacred Traces" mural also depicts a nine-tailed fox.

According to Bai Jing's understanding, the Liao Dynasty, a vast empire on the grasslands, was mainly composed of Khitan people. In addition to the Khitan people, there were also many other tribes in this empire. The Liao Dynasty used the eagle and wolf as totems and revered the fox as a spirit. Since this nine-tailed fox was carved in the tomb, it means that the nine-tailed fox was a symbol of the tomb owner.

The nine-tailed fox in the mural is surrounded by auspicious clouds, and there is another mural at the bottom, but the content of this one is quite bizarre.

The mural is depicted very realistically, showing a woman who looks like a ghost on top of the mural. However, the mural shows that this has been dug out, and her eyeballs are suspended in mid-air.

Everyone else was confused, but Bai Jing seemed to have figured something out.

At this point, Hazel couldn't understand the content of the murals and immediately asked, "What are these depicting?"

Upon hearing this, the fat man explained with some disdain, "What's so hard to understand? The entire history of the feudal era can be summed up in two words: cannibalism."

This Empress Dowager was a landlord among landlords; she not only squandered the people's wealth but also used cruel methods like gouging out eyes to persecute palace maids.

Hearing this, even Hazel realized that the fat man was talking nonsense, and immediately retorted, "What do you mean, palace maids grow on top of your head?"

But the fat man couldn't understand the hazelnut's teasing tone at all, and just kept making excuses for himself.

"If the palace maids' hair isn't on top of their heads, how can the Empress Dowager appear so high and mighty?"

After listening to their conversation, Bai Qi told them not to speculate, then looked at Bai Jing and asked, "Brother, have you thought of anything?"

Hearing this, Bai Jing snapped out of his reverie and looked at Bai Qi and the others. After a moment of silence, he said, "To be honest, I have thought of some things."

Upon hearing Bai Jing say this, Jian Guo immediately asked, "Then Bai Jing, quickly tell me what you've thought of."

Everyone else also looked at Bai Jing.

Bai Jing had no intention of keeping people in suspense, and said directly: "According to legend, Buddhism divides the world into five levels, namely the physical eye, the divine eye, the wisdom eye, the Dharma eye, and the Buddha eye."

Upon hearing this, Bai Qi seemed to realize something and looked at the eyes in the mural, saying, "So you mean that what's in this mural might be one of the five levels of Buddhism?"

Bai Jing nodded and continued, "We normal people can only see a very narrow part of the universe. We all know that we can see things because those things reflect light."

In reality, what we see is not the real thing, but rather the thing that reflects light into us.

What we see is what humans perceive as the reality of things, but in reality, the existence of all things does not require the proof of light.

This is the physical eye, illusory and unreal, the head of the six senses, the head of the six thieves, and the root of ignorance.

Upon hearing this, the others seemed to be deep in thought.

That makes sense. Does it mean that the world doesn't exist just because a blind person can't see it?

After everyone expressed their understanding, Bai Jing continued, "Then comes the second level, the Heavenly Eye."

“We usually say that only gods or goddesses in the sky have the third eye, but this is not entirely true, because we humans can also have the third eye. As far as I know, in addition to being born with the third eye, there are at least two other ways that we can achieve this.”

Upon hearing this, Bai Qi seemed to understand and immediately looked at Bai Jing.

Bai Jing naturally noticed Bai Qi's gaze and then smiled and said, "One of these two methods is through 'Dhyana,' which is a Sanskrit word that roughly means 'meditation.' In my opinion, it is through cultivation. Just like me, through acquired cultivation, I can see things clearly in the dark. This is one kind of 'divine eye.'"

The second method involves using instruments to allow ordinary people with only the naked eye to see things they cannot. These instruments can be various devices, or they can be obtained by transplanting the eyes of someone with a pre-existing third eye.

As he spoke, Bai Jing looked at the content on the mural and said, "I think the content on this mural should also be similar to the method I described."