Ancient tomb excavation traces

Just like the hallucinations I had in modern times, I always thought it was a nightmare. But now that I think about it, I've already seen Princess Mi Ling of Chu. I still remember her clear, flowing voice and her ethereal, otherworldly figure. But why could I see her? What does it all mean?

A fictional scene spanning a thousand years appears before my eyes, as if everything, in its twists and turns, always has an inevitable reason. But even if I search for the answer, I won't find it immediately, and no one would believe me if I spoke of it; I can only choose to let nature take its course.

Returning to the content of the silk scroll mentioned by Lan Quexi, I had heard a little about the story of Mi Ling and Wu Xia from the ancestor and Chen Yi, but I could not fathom what exactly happened at that time, or the twists and turns in between. Fortunately, the silk scroll that Cao Qiuji brought allowed us, the guests, to accept the truth of the matter, including the series of vicious cycles that followed.

In ancient times, the social hierarchy was very rigid, and to love someone unconditionally under such a system required immense courage. This courage was built upon Mi Ling's lonely heart and Wu Xia's yearning for a better life.

Both were skilled in music, learned, and compatible in temperament. In their spare time, they would secretly play music and read books by the peach blossom tree, a sight that would make any couple envious. However, in ancient times, royal women's marriages were not a matter of choice, let alone for Mi Ling, who was revered as a goddess by the people of Chu.

Soon, their affair was exposed, and Wu Xia was imprisoned. After that, strangely enough, Princess Chu's spiritual abilities became increasingly inaccurate, and she often fainted during her rituals. Her father was furious and believed slanderous rumors that the princess had angered the gods by having an affair with a lowly woman, and therefore had been stripped of her ability to communicate with the heavens.

Upon hearing this, the King of Chu immediately ordered Wu Xia to be torn apart by chariots. Wu Xia died a gruesome death, and the remains of his entire family were abandoned in the wilderness. The princess was devastated. In the days that followed, her personality changed drastically. On the one hand, she continued to use shamanic songs and dances to pray for the country, but on the other hand, she plotted a revenge killing.

After Wu Xia's death, she silently waited for her opportunity, counting down the days. Until one day, divine will intervened, and she predicted that three years later, the Chu Kingdom would suffer a drought of unprecedented severity, and she knew exactly when the drought would end. She knew that would be the perfect opportunity for her to eliminate those who had killed Wu Xia.

She silently recited these people's names day and night; hatred had long since corrupted her heart, a fact she herself knew... but she could no longer control it...

I truly don't understand how someone could immerse themselves in such a sea of ​​suffering, but upon reflection, perhaps this is what makes Princess Mi Ling of Chu so special. People who are too extraordinary are often accompanied by eccentricities. For such a person, Wu Xia was a sturdy wall, protecting her from all the inner pain and helping her forget her tragic fate.

Three years later, a severe drought was imminent. Mi Ling told the King of Chu her speculations and that there were demons running rampant in the court, which were causing the national calamity, so they had to be eliminated.

The ministers Mi Ling spoke of were those who had instigated the death of Wu Xia by whispering in her father's ear. However, these ministers were favored by the King of Chu, so the King did not take immediate action. Instead, after learning of Mi Ling's prophecy, the ministers instructed her to send her eight shamans to perform a rain-making dance. However, after the ceremony, the King of Chu did not receive the desired rainfall. Seeing this, the ministers declared they would burn the eight shamans serving the princess to appease the heavens and obtain rain.

The Eight Witches were Mi Ling's confidants, and Mi Ling naturally disagreed, saying that to kill the Eight Witches, she must first be killed. The King of Chu was naturally reluctant to kill Mi Ling, but the severe drought continued, and the people suffered greatly; for a time, the entire Chu kingdom was filled with lamentations. All of this was as Mi Ling had planned. Seeing that the time was ripe, she had someone announce to the world that she had been appeared to by a god in a dream, and that he was to exorcise the evil spirits and rid the land of misfortune.

At the time, Mi Ling held a very high position in the hearts of the Chu people, akin to a celestial maiden. This claim quickly gained support from some officials and commoners. Under pressure from all sides, the incompetent King of Chu, having no other option, ordered Mi Ling to perform an exorcism ritual. On that day, she wore magnificent robes, while the eight shamans wore ferocious beast masks made of bronze, said to be used to devour evil spirits.

A bizarre thing happened after the exorcism ritual: the court officials whom Mi Ling had identified as demons were resurrected after death, turning into rotting, grotesque corpses. Mi Ling told her father that this was the form of evil, and the King of Chu was terrified. We, too, were astonished to hear this.

Isn't that the resurrected corpse we saw? What exactly happened? The answer isn't in the silk scroll, but I feel it's some kind of means used for revenge. She must have used something to turn the dead into this, and then fulfilled that claim about the spirits appearing in dreams.

I snapped out of my reverie and continued listening. After the exorcism ritual, Mi Ling's body grew weaker and weaker. She knew that her sins had begun to slowly erode her, so she sought out her senior brother, Sima Yan.

At that time, Sima Yan was already married. He did not like marriages with noble families, but he was always forced into such situations. Having been in love with Mi Ling since childhood, he saw that Mi Ling's face was as white as frost and knew that the truth was not as strange as the outside world said. So he asked her what she had done.

However, Mi Ling did not tell Sima Yan the truth. She only said that she had revealed too many heavenly secrets and killed too many people, and that her days were probably numbered. She asked Sima Yan to survey and select a site for her tomb.

Just as the young Taoist priest said, Sima Yan was Mi Ling's mirror; they understood each other, yet could only gaze at each other from afar. He naturally knew what Mi Ling meant, and he didn't want her to make another mistake, but unfortunately, Mi Ling understood him too well. She knew that with his affection for her, he wouldn't refuse anything she asked for.

Afterwards, Sima Yan took her three tomb sites as promised. He personally went to inspect and explore each site. After that, he made careful designs for these tombs. Whether it was the mechanisms or the layout, everything was done with Sima Yan's meticulous care. All he could do for her was to protect her.

Although Mi Ling's heart had turned dark, she would always retain a tenderness for Sima Yan. She told Sima Yan all her thoughts, saying that she had committed too many sins in this life, beyond redemption, and only hoped that her soul would no longer be so cruel or tainted by evil thoughts after death.

Sima Yan knew Mi Ling's true nature, so the two ultimately chose the location of the tomb where we are now. This is because the Five-Colored Exquisite Heart I saw is inside. Mi Ling wanted to use the Five-Colored Exquisite Heart to suppress her evil nature and prevent the yin energy of this tomb from harming her family and descendants.

With the burial site chosen, Mi Ling had another tomb built outside. This tomb was strategically located, albeit in a secluded spot, on the same line as Mi Ling's own tomb. This was because it was intended for the deceased Wu Xia and his family; such a tomb for a criminal could not be known to outsiders. Furthermore, Mi Ling knew that her father, the king, would control her burial after her death, and that it was impossible for her to be buried with Wu Xia. Therefore, the ancestors had devised the plan to give her a second burial.

This is a huge trap. Our appearance seems to have been part of her plan; no matter how long it takes, she will wait to reunite with Wu Xia. All of this shows that Mi Ling was a clever woman; she laid out a grand scheme for her future even after her death.

Back then, the nightmare didn't end there. Mi Ling took advantage of her father's fear of natural disasters and wars to find a seemingly noble but actually extremely bloody reason. She said that during a sacrifice to heaven, earth, sun, moon, mountains, and rivers, the gods gave her a revelation, hoping that she could enter heaven and bring blessings to the people. When the King of Chu heard that his daughter wanted to go to heaven to become a god, he was naturally happy and let her go to heaven to bring more blessings to the Chu Kingdom.

What is most cruel about a father is that he showed no concern for his dying daughter. On the contrary, after a major battle in which the Chu army suffered heavy casualties, the cowardly and incompetent King of Chu listened to others and had Mi Ling perform a soul-summoning ritual. He hoped that with Mi Ling's power, he could borrow the power of ghost soldiers and win the Chu army without a fight.

According to Chen Yi, this idea was truly perverse and ignorant. But that was how people thought back then, and Mi Ling readily agreed. However, she said that the soul-summoning ritual would consume a great deal of her energy and had to be completed after her death.

Upon hearing this, the King of Chu hurriedly promised her a grand funeral. Hearing this, I could almost feel Mi Ling's chilling heart. To ensure that all those who had killed Wu Xia received their just deserts, Mi Ling made a demand of the King of Chu, saying she would choose those to be buried alive with him. At that time, the King of Chu's army was already in complete disarray, and the King was in a state of panic. He was willing to do anything, no matter what Mi Ling said, as long as it helped him drive out the enemy.

I can imagine the scene: a desperate King of Chu, on the verge of collapse, was caught in a vortex of fear and anxiety, which allowed Mi Ling's plan to succeed. Thus, those involved, including the court official in charge of law enforcement and the palace official in charge of ventilation, had their hands and feet cut off on Mi Ling's orders before being buried alive with the king. These are the skeletons we saw when we first entered the tomb.

However, Mi Ling's madness and cruelty did not stop there. Among those who were later buried with her, some of the elderly, women and children were made into mummies. These mummies were relatives of the skeleton, meaning that she made the entire family of the person involved be buried with her.

Bao Cai gasped, and Chen Yu exclaimed in surprise, "When this woman gets fierce, she's absolutely terrifying!"

I stared uneasily at the mummified corpses that intertwined like old yellow vines, as if I could see the scene of the burial. In each of their eyes were panic, disbelief, innocence, and pain. The sharp and mournful cries lingered in my mind, sending chills down my spine.

In ancient times, a family was incredibly large. If each skull represented an entire family, the number of people buried alive with the dead would be unimaginable. What a heinous crime! Human life was treated like livestock, easily trampled upon. Thinking of this, my heart felt heavy for a long time.

After torturing those who had killed Wu Xia, Mi Ling's health deteriorated rapidly. Her once stunning and captivating beauty vanished overnight, leaving her looking like an elderly woman in her seventies. Her white hair hung to the ground, her face withered, and she completely lost her vitality.

Rumors spread like wildfire in the palace and among the common people. Some said she was about to ascend to heaven and become a deity. Others said she had revealed too many divine decrees and was therefore punished. But whatever the reason, it was all rather bizarre, after all, a person had suddenly changed and become an old woman. Even Sima Yan couldn't fathom the truth of the matter. He only knew that she had dedicated the best years of her life to the State of Chu, and in reality, all she craved was a simple life, but this simplicity was a luxury for her.

To Mi Ling's utter surprise, after her death, there were many more innocent people among those who were buried alive with her. Among them were the imperial cook in charge of food, young maids who were still too young to understand human relationships, and many soldiers who fought for their country. King Chu had always wanted to gain victory through crooked means. His attempt to please Mi Ling in the other world was merely to satisfy his own selfish desires.

He always believed that the burial site Sima Yan chose for Mi Ling was connected to heaven and earth, which meant that Mi Ling would definitely be able to sense what he desired and create an army of ghost soldiers for him.

Strangely, in the subsequent wars, he was indeed invincible, as if aided by the gods. As a result, the King of Chu became even more convinced of the shaman's spiritual power, and various sacrifices, astrology, and other practices began to circulate among the people.