Chapter 9

Chapter 9

The Yellow Heart Timber Collection was a special burial system popular during the Qin and Han dynasties. “Yellow heart” referred to the yellow heartwood of cypress trees, while “timber collection” meant that cut sections of cypress were stacked with their ends facing inward.

The Book of Han records: “Cypress with yellow heartwood was layered outside the coffin; thus it was called yellow heart. The ends of the wood all faced inward; thus it was called timber collection.”

The cypress cores were cut into square pillars one to two meters long, then stacked layer upon layer outside the coffin, their ends pointed toward it, forming a massive wooden box that protected the inner and outer coffins within. This was a burial system reserved for emperors. During the Western Han dynasty, the Son of Heaven would sometimes bestow this honor upon princes, nobles, and favored ministers.

This kind of ancient tomb had one defining trait: it honored the one who used it and made tomb robbers curse its existence.

Cypress was hard, dense, highly resistant to decay, and rich in oils. Once the timber was stacked, two additional layers of charcoal, each ten centimeters thick, would be added outside, then coated with forty to fifty centimeters of white clay. Under the force of gravity, these materials would deform and compress, becoming all but impenetrable.

Qin Palace Tomb No. 1, discovered in 1986, had 247 robbery tunnels dug into it, yet its artifacts remained intact. Supposedly, the last group of tomb robbers blasted away inside with explosives for three nights and only barely managed to damage a single cypress beam before they were discovered by forest patrols.

The place we had fallen into was the front chamber of the Yellow Heart Timber Collection. It was only about five or six square meters, not large, and right now it was brightly lit.

Huge searchlights shone from two corners. The outermost layer of white clay had already been destroyed, leaving the walls pitted and uneven, with square cross-sections of wood exposed one after another.

Several tomb robbers were holding tools, clanging and scraping as they chiseled shallow grooves into the wood and placed detonators inside.

Hearing the noise, a few of them turned to look over with grins. “Brother Bald, how many times has this been now? Those eyes of yours are just for decoration, huh?”

“Who the hell are you?”

“Fuck, where did all these rats come from?”

The three of us stayed silent.

I gave them a quick once-over. There were seven of them: four working, three resting in the corner. A few axes lay by their feet, and none of them had guns.

Three against seven. Our odds were good. Time to move.

I shot the other two a look. Grandfather Murong understood at once. He stood up and planted his hands on his hips.

“I’m the police! Surrender! You’re already surrounded!”

At the same time, Murong Yue nodded, sprang up from the ground, turned, and ran. When she reached the steps, she must have triggered some mechanism, because with a thunderous rumble, a slab suddenly appeared at the top of the stairs and sealed the entrance shut tight.