010 Mural

Chen Duoyu picked up a broken stone and hurled it towards the blue brick.

With a crisp "snap," the blue brick sank slightly, and hundreds of arrows instantly shot out from the mouths of the eight dragons. However, due to the passage of time, the launching mechanism had greatly weakened, and the arrows lacked sufficient kinetic energy. They fell to the ground like a thousand-pound weight, all powerless, with only a few managing to hit their intended targets.

"What's this? It's like an old man urinating. How about it, do dragons have prostate problems too? Haha."

Zhang Wenjie cautioned, "Third Brother, don't be careless. Most of these arrows are highly poisonous. Even if your skin is just grazed, you may find yourself reporting to the King of Hell."

With the danger eliminated, we entered the left ear chamber, and the sight before us left everyone astonished.

The ground was covered with fragments of curved mud cakes, shimmering under the light of our headlamps. Picking up a piece, we saw it was coated with a layer of gold powder.

Mixed within the mud cakes were countless shattered bones, scattered irregularly throughout the chamber. The thickest accumulation was in the corners, while the middle section was relatively thinner, about ten centimeters thick.

Chen Lao Da exclaimed in shock, "I've followed Grandpa Zuye for twenty years and have seen my fair share of trials and tribulations, but this situation today is the first of its kind."

Zhang Wenjie's brow furrowed into a single line, evidently perplexed despite his broad experience.

"Brothers, let's not worry about that. We came here to seek fortune, not to solve riddles. Let's see if there are any treasures first."

The three of us immediately began searching, kicking aside bones, poking with daggers, cursing as we went, resembling invaders entering a village.

After a moment, Chen Duoyu sighed and said, "Damn it, there's not a single hair here. If all else fails, we'll have to carry these mud cakes out and refine them into gold."

Zhang Wenjie became deeply interested in the wall's mural carvings.

Upon closer inspection, these mural carvings were all related to Buddhism, with celestial clouds swirling in the sky, Buddhas seated in rows, overseeing sentient beings. However, on the ground, there was continuous slaughter, rivers of blood, and mountains of corpses.

The style of the paintings was eerie, sending shivers down one's spine, yet the craftsmanship was extremely exquisite, marvelously impressive.

"The carving art of the Northern and Southern Dynasties is a brilliant gem in our ancient artistic treasury. Among them, the most representative and artistically accomplished are the statues of Yungang and Longmen Grottoes. Although these are only mud sculptures, in terms of artistic value, they are no less than the Yungang and Longmen Grottoes." Zhang Wenjie gently caressed the wall, unable to refrain from exclaiming.

Chen Duoyu leaned over and asked, "Really? Then why don't we just dig out these mud sculptures and make a fortune?"

Ignoring Chen Duoyu, Zhang Wenjie continued.

During the entire period of the Wei, Jin, and Northern and Southern Dynasties, ethnic relations were extremely tense, and feudal separatist wars continued, resulting in a long-term chaotic situation. The common people were miserable, suffering unbearably.

Buddhism had a great deal of deceitfulness, propagating the stale doctrine of "life and death are predetermined, wealth and nobility are heaven-given," and starting from the theory of "the immortality of the gods," it vigorously promoted the idea of "retribution of karma" and "the cycle of life and death," diverting people's attention from the real-world suffering to the illusory afterlife, thereby strengthening centralized rule.

Rulers protected Buddhism politically and supported it economically. Several historical figures, such as Fu Jian of Former Qin, Yao Xing of Later Qin, Emperor Wen of Northern Wei, and Emperor Houzhu of Southern Chen, all revered Buddhist teachings and honored monks.

These mural carvings reflected and propagated scenes of deception and anesthesia of the vast laboring people.

It was just unexpected that Emperor Wen of Western Wei was also one of them. This might be related to the fate of Emperor Wen's significant power being usurped by Yuwen Tai and Yuan Baoju, making him a puppet throughout his life. He wanted to deceive the people and numb himself with Buddhism.

Suddenly, a sound of "rustling" came, startling us. We thought the tomb chamber was about to collapse, but it turned out that Chen Duoyu really wanted to pry off the wall and was causing the soil to fall.

"Pah, this won't do, all shattered," Chen Duoyu shook the soil off his head and remarked.

"What the hell are you doing? It's simply wasting natural treasures, such a pity," Zhang Wenjie cursed, stomping his foot in frustration.

Inadvertently, I felt a slight scratch on my thigh. Upon closer inspection, I found a piece of human bone embedded in the wall, as if it had been driven in like a nail.

At the same time, others made the same discovery. In an instant, we realized that hundreds, if not thousands, of human bones were embedded in the walls.

Scratching his head, Chen Duoyu said, "It's quite miraculous. These bones are all shattered into pieces. What exactly happened here?"

Zhang Wenjie picked up a partially shattered skull and scraped it with his dagger. Nine dots appeared neatly arranged on the crown.

"If I'm not mistaken, these people should be a group of monks."

At these words, we were all left speechless.

Frowning, Chen Lao Da said, "That doesn't make sense. No one has been here before, so how could the scene be so tragic, as if it had been bombed?"

Suddenly, I was struck by a crazy idea.

"Could it be that these people were blown apart by their own explosives?"

As soon as the words "blown apart by their own explosives" were uttered, everyone found it inconceivable.

Chen Duoyu touched my forehead and teased, "No fever? You're just talking nonsense."

Hearing this, Chen Lao Er chuckled and shook his head.

Zhang Wenjie looked at me and asked, "Guangting, share your thoughts."

It can be inferred that everything in the left ear chamber should be related to Buddhism, including these corpses.

The breakthrough lies in those curved mud cakes covered in gold powder, which were likely used to secure the bodies. Furthermore, beneath the mixture of bones and mud cakes, the Chen brothers unearthed many rotten circular grass weavings, presumably used as meditation cushions by the monks.

These people should be the so-called "victims," but they were a group of monks who, after death, were wrapped in mud cakes to stand upright for eternity, chanting and praying for the rulers.

However, the scientific technology at that time was underdeveloped and overlooked a crucial point: after death, chemical reactions occur in the body due to microbial action, resulting in what is traditionally referred to as decomposition.

The organs are the first to produce large amounts of gas, which accumulates continuously. As the pressure increases, the body's abdomen swells gradually until it can no longer withstand the mounting pressure, ultimately resulting in an explosion.

The force of a body explosion is unimaginable; many have probably heard of whale explosions, which can directly demolish a building.

The chaotic scene in the left ear chamber was likely the result of these victims experiencing a body explosion.

After hearing my analysis, Zhang Wenjie nodded in agreement.

"Sigh, it's overwhelming. They've been dead for over a thousand years. Anyway, let's go, Lao Da, Lao Er, we'll check out the right ear chamber," Chen Duoyu shook his head and walked out of the left ear chamber.