Chapter 274: A Bronze Tripod! A Bronze Tripod! Unfathomably Mysterious Carvings! (3)
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Following this, Luo Feng led the wealthy heirs to begin opening these coffins. They opened more than a dozen in succession, revealing the skeletal remains of individuals within them buried with bent limbs, both male and female.
“Could this be a sacrificial burial pit?” someone wondered.
Even though a thousand years had passed, Luo Feng could still sense how pitiable and helpless those who had been buried alive must have felt. They quickly left the circular tomb chamber, pushed open the next door, and entered the following chamber.
As they walked, Luo Feng observed the distribution of treasure markers around them. The scattered treasure markers allowed Luo Feng to deduce the overall layout of the burial site.
“After observing the area, I believe the overall layout of this tomb is shaped like the Chinese character ,” Luo Feng announced.
“In ancient times, tombs shaped like the character were typically used by emperors, while those shaped like the character ‘*’ were used by nobles, and ‘$’ was used by scholars and other lower-ranked officials,” Luo Feng explained.
“Of course, we already confirmed that this tomb is of imperial standard based on the jade floor tiles and murals we discovered earlier,” someone chimed in.
“It was just something I noticed,” Luo Feng said with a chuckle.
They arrived at the next tomb chamber, and as the light shone in, Luo Feng could not help but exclaim in astonishment. Terracotta warriors! Row upon row of them, neatly arranged. Their craftsmanship was almost identical to that of the terracotta warriors in the tomb of Emperor Qin Shi Huang. No, it might have been the exact same technique.
“My goodness! It’s a terracotta warrior pit!” someone cried.
“This is amazing! Truly amazing!” another marveled.
“Is the host about to discover one of the top ten wonders of the world?” someone wondered aloud.
“Wow! This is going to make the host’s livestream skyrocket, right?” “These terracotta warriors… there must be at least a hundred of them, right?”
“One of them is worth 100 million yuan, so a hundred of them would be worth 10 billion!”
Luo Feng could feel his mouth going dry at the sight. This was incredible. Had fortune arrived too quickly, playing a grand trick on him?
Luo Feng walked slowly, careful not to move too fast, lest he accidentally break any of the terracotta warriors. The warriors still bore colors; their headscarves and collars were coated with red earth, while their waists were blue. It seemed they had not oxidized.
It appeared the experts had been right all along: when the terracotta warriors of Qin Shi Huang’s tomb were first uncovered, they had been brightly colored. The warriors had only turned the color of mud after exposure to air and subsequent oxidation.
At that moment, the sight of the hundreds of terracotta warriors caused an uproar across the internet.
“The Livestreamer Luo Feng has discovered Qin Shi Huang’s tomb!” read a headline that quickly gained traction, fueled by eager editors.
Wealthy collectors and major museums alike hurried to the site in person, sending no representatives in their stead. Terracotta warriors were rare and valuable; anyone who could get their hands on one would consider it a massive stroke of luck. In time, the owner could display the warrior in a multi-million yuan suite and invite friends over to admire it, gaining immense prestige in the process.
As for the museums, they too needed these artifacts. Previously, they had to borrow terracotta warriors from Qin Shi Huang’s tomb for exhibitions. But now, if they could secure one for their own collection, there would be no need to borrow them any longer.
Luo Feng’s phone rang incessantly.
However, he decided not to answer the calls from unknown numbers.
“Hello, Luo Feng, we’re here! Can our archaeological team come down?” The first call was from Gu Santong.
“There’s no problem, but the well opening is quite deep. Be careful, the whole way down is safe; I’ve checked it!”
“Alright, no problem!”
“But… Don’t forget to bring oxygen tanks and gas masks.”
After discussing with Gu Santong for a while, Luo Feng hung up the phone. There was no path forward, so he returned to the original tomb chamber. Out of the three doors, he had already explored one small door. There remained one large door and another small door.
“Is Mr. Gu coming? Should we wait for the archaeology team to join us?”
“Why wait? Let’s push open the door and enter the next tomb chamber!”
“I seriously want to know whose tomb is this? Which impressive person does it belong to?”
“Is it Emperor Qin Shi Huang’s? Can’t he have a little villa here? The Emperor’s Mausoleum is his main residence! This place is like a small home for his concubines! A cunning rabbit has three burrows, you know?!”
“Are you serious? Something like this exists?”
“I think it might be a tomb that Qin Shi Huang built for his father?”
“King Zhuangxiang’s tomb has already been excavated. How could it be possible?”
“Could it be Qin Zichu’s?”
“Does he need to bury gold to suppress his royal energy? He is a king himself!”
Luo Feng waited for about half an hour before Gu Santong and his team finally arrived. They were an official archaeological team and quite well-regarded. Luo Feng agreed to let them learn from this experience.
“Let’s go, Mr. Gu. Let’s explore the next tomb chamber together! But… Let’s go through the small door first, and save the surprise for last!” Once Gu Santong arrived, Lo Feng proceeded with him.
“Alright!”
Gu Santong nodded and couldn’t help but glance at the murals on the tomb walls as they entered the next chamber. It was similar in size to the previous one, covering a few hundred square meters. Many warhorses were inside, but they didn’t seem to be made of pottery.
Gu Santong approached and examined them without touching them. “These are bronze horses! Bronze horses like these have been excavated from the Terracotta Warriors site! The craftsmanship is exactly the same! There are just fewer of them compared to the ones at Emperor Qin Shi Huang’s mausoleum!” “Indeed!” Luo Feng nodded in agreement.
Now, he was even more eager to enter the main tomb chamber of the tomb owner. The tomb owner’s identity could be easily found there. But first, he had to finish exploring through this small door.
Entering the next tomb chamber, it was similar in size to the previous one, but many skeletons could be seen. However, they were not human bones; they looked more like animal bones. Upon closer inspection, they could identify the types of animals: tigers, rhinoceroses, elephants, and more. “Are those ivory tusks? Are these all animals?”
“Did the Qin Dynasty have a custom of burying elephants?”
“We’re learning so much!”
Seeing the confusion of the wealthy heirs, Gu Santong explained, “This tomb chamber is accompanied by some rare and exotic beasts. There are similar chambers in the Emperor’s Mausoleum, but on a much larger scale.”
With this information, everyone seemed satisfied. Indeed, there were rare and exotic animals buried here.
After examining the tomb chamber, they continued further in, only to find that there were no more doors. Thus, the group returned to the first chamber. By now, they had explored the two smaller doors, leaving only the middle door adorned with gold leaf. The excitement among them was palpable.
“Let’s push the door open!” Luo Feng instructed the group.
With a creaking sound, they all pushed together. Soon enough, the heavy door was slowly opened by their combined efforts. Upon entering the chamber, the first thing they saw was a jade-carved folding screen. The floor was entirely covered in jade tiles. Due to the screen, they could not see the situation inside the chamber. However, when they looked up at the ceiling of the tomb chamber, they were astounded to find two incredibly large luminous pearls embedded there, each about the size of a fist. Beside the massive pearls were numerous smaller ones, like stars surrounding the moon.
“Does it look like there are traces of mercury vaporization here? Those 10-centimeter-wide trenches? Were they once filled with mercury?” Luo Feng observed the floor of the tomb chamber and noticed something unusual. If they had not been wearing gas masks, they might have been poisoned.
“Look at these traces of mercury. Don’t they resemble the shapes of the Yangtze and Yellow Rivers?” one of the archaeologists asked.
“Yes! The pattern is like the Yellow River in the shape of the character ‘Ji’!”
“And the one below looks like the Yangtze River!”
The wealthy heirs present were astonished by the sight.
“The ceiling features a luminous pearl starry sky, while the ground is like mountains, rivers, and lakes? This layout is similar to that of the Emperor Qin’s Mausoleum,” Gu Santong said with a solemn expression.
“Let’s go in and take a closer look,” Luo Feng suggested, walking into the chamber and bypassing the folding screen.
What came into view was a bronze tripod. The tripod was placed on the floor behind the folding screen, which was constructed atop the trenches filled with mercury, resembling the “mountains and rivers.” It was as if the bronze tripod was the master of the tomb chamber, with the mountains and rivers at its feet.
Luo Feng walked closer to examine the tripod. Its surface was adorned with intricate patterns, also depicting mountains and rivers. Moreover, there were some animals. Of course, seeing the two characters on the bronze tripod, even Gu Santong was stumped. “What are these characters? I’ve never seen them before. They’re not Western Zhou bronze script or Qin Dynasty small seal script!”
To be honest, even he, a master of cultural relics, was at a loss.
“This should be an ancient Yi script, quite similar to the characters in Cang Jie’s book! ”
“These are characters from the Xia Dynasty!”
“The two characters mean ‘Qingzhou’!”
Upon hearing this, Gu Santong’s throat went dry, and he spoke with a trembling voice, “Could this be the Qingzhou Ding, one of the Nine Zhou Dings?”
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