Chapter 12: Food

The Old Man pointed at the crack in the ground before them and said, “If you follow this Corridor straight ahead, it leads to the hall at the tomb’s entrance. I usually live there. As for this crack, it appeared only after the earthquake. It might lead to the lower levels of the tomb chamber. I originally wanted to go down there to find Shen Zong’s coffin.”

Zuo Qingcang followed behind the Old Man, moving along the edge of the crack—where the Corridor’s wall met the floor—and continued toward the hall near the tomb chamber’s entrance. He looked at the crack beside his feet and felt it was like a canyon, bottomless and pitch black inside. He could not see anything clearly, and it seemed like an entrance to the Underworld.

A few minutes later, the two arrived at a hall paved with blue bricks. The hall was about twenty meters long and wide, and roughly five meters high. The ceiling was completely covered with glowing Luminous Pearls, illuminating the entire hall like a starry sky.

The Old Man looked up at the artificial starry sky and said, “Beautiful, isn’t it? The placement of these Luminous Pearls is very particular—it should be some kind of lost formation…”

Zuo Qingcang nodded. The arrangement of the Luminous Pearls overhead was indeed unusual. Although he did not understand the details, after a few glances, he could still sense a special, mysterious profundity.

The Old Man beside him patted his shoulder. “Don’t look for too long. I don’t recognize this formation either, but if you stare at it for a long time, you can fall into an illusion.” The Old Man pointed at a pile of dirt in the corner. “There were six of us originally. One person was trapped by the formation’s illusion and died in a frenzy.”

Hearing this, Zuo Qingcang stopped examining the ceiling. He glanced at the pile of stones and asked, “There were six of you when you arrived here? What about the other five? Are they all dead?”

“Yes. All dead.” The Old Man gave a bitter laugh. “Two were killed by monsters outside before entering the Ancient Tomb. One was caught in the illusion formation above and died in a frenzy. The other two disappeared after triggering traps in the Corridor. They are probably dead too.

Don’t think it was safe just because you walked through the Corridor without trouble. Many of the traps and formations here only stopped working after the earthquake. Otherwise, you might not have made it here at all.”

Zuo Qingcang did not argue with the Old Man. As he observed the surroundings of the hall, he could see a three-meter-high stone door standing at the far end, completely sealing the entrance of the Ancient Tomb. About two meters beside the door, there was an opening about the size of a dog hole, clearly dug out by someone.

The Old Man continued, “This is the tomb’s sealing stone. This kind of stone in a tomb chamber basically cannot be moved by human strength. The hole next to it was dug by us.”

At this point, he shook his head in confusion. “I don’t know why, but the sealing liquid was not poured around the stone anywhere except here. However, the outside is even more dangerous.”

Zuo Qingcang nodded. Looking around the hall, aside from some dried garbage, remains, excrement, and similar things, there was basically nothing else. He asked, “It looks like we have to go through that hole to find food and drink?”

The Old Man glanced at Zuo Qingcang. “You noticed that too? Well, there’s nothing here. Just staying here, we naturally can’t survive. But the situation outside the hole is a bit complicated. Let me explain it to you slowly.”

“Actually, the outer layer of the entire Ancient Tomb hall, apart from the sealing liquid, should have been sealed with packed earth, refined iron, and giant stones mixed together. But over such a long time, a large portion of the outside here has been dug open.”

“Dug open?” Zuo Qingcang thought of the ruins he had seen on the surface earlier and asked puzzledly, “You mean there are other people on this island?”

“People? Not exactly people.” The Old Man sneered. “You saw it on that mural, right? Besides the craftsmen and Giant Elephants, those Western Wei Taoist Priests also created a group of palm-sized little people to build this Ancient Tomb. Those things are called Dwarf Spirits in the records.

This is a lost method of creation, capable of producing life through Dao Arts. Legend says that before Western Wei, many large constructions relied on Taoist Priests creating Dwarf Spirits and having them build.

Unfortunately, after Western Wei, this method was lost in the chaos of war.”

Zuo Qingcang said in disbelief, “You mean those Dwarf Spirits are still alive—no, I mean their descendants have reproduced on this island and are still here now?”

“Correct.” The Old Man said, “The Taoist Priests left, but they left the Dwarf Spirits they created behind to guard the tomb. However, Dwarf Spirits only have the intelligence of an ordinary five- or six-year-old child. Although the Taoist Priests placed restrictions in them, after two thousand years, most of the newly generated Dwarf Spirits have forgotten their mission.”

Zuo Qingcang thought of the palm-sized monsters from the mural and recalled the buildings he had seen on the surface. He had been curious about the head-sized holes in the roofs of those buildings; now it seemed they were entirely the entry and exit points for Dwarf Spirits.

The Old Man went on, “They reproduce at the center of the island. However, many of the first generation of Dwarf Spirits died after building the tomb. After that, the total number has probably stayed between a few dozen to over a hundred. With their small numbers, the passage of time, and no Taoist Priests returning to manage them, they gradually mutated and probably have become a completely different creature. But one thing they always remember is not to enter the tomb.”

“Can these monsters reproduce too?” Zuo Qingcang asked.

“To be honest, I don’t know. I can’t tell their males from females or old from young anyway. But what I just said is the most reasonable explanation I can come up with.”

Seeing Zuo Qingcang nod, the Old Man continued, “Dwarf Spirits have a nature that likes digging holes, which is why they dug to the outside of the tomb. Behind this hole is the place they use to bury their dead.

And our food… is the corpses of those Dwarf Spirits over the past two thousand years.”

The Old Man had imagined Zuo Qingcang would show disgust or surprise, but he did not even frown. Zuo Qingcang simply asked, “Is that burial place dangerous? Haven’t you been discovered by those Dwarf Spirits? Also, is there no harm in eating their corpses?”

Looking at Zuo Qingcang’s calm face and serious expression, the Old Man really wanted to ask if he had often eaten corpses before. Even though these weren’t human corpses, they were still the bodies of intelligent beings. He hadn’t expected the other to have no reaction at all, as if he ate such things regularly.

Seeing the Old Man hesitate, Zuo Qingcang asked, “What’s wrong?”

The Old Man shook his head. “It’s nothing. Those Dwarf Spirits usually only come during burials. It’s not dangerous if we go secretly. As for their corpses—back in Western Wei times, Dao Arts were far more advanced than now. They might not have been considered anything special because there were more and better alternatives.

But nowadays, these Dwarf Spirit corpses can be called rare treasures. You should know that Dao Arts operate through Spiritual Power, and since Dwarf Spirits are created by Dao Arts, they naturally also operate through Spiritual Power.

Their flesh and blood contain large amounts of pure Spiritual Power. Even after death, it takes a very long time to dissipate completely. For us, absorbing Spiritual Power by eating their flesh means one can last seven days without food or water. Their flesh and blood are the best nourishment, and they even greatly help in practicing Dao Arts and Martial Arts.”

“I see.” Zuo Qingcang nodded, thinking to himself: “If Spiritual Power is radiation, then it’s not hard to explain why it hasn’t dissipated in these Dwarf Spirits after such a long time. But looking at it this way, are these Dwarf Spirits like robots? Or are they more like minerals? Metal?”

Next, at Zuo Qingcang’s request, the two did not rest and directly crawled into the hole beside the sealing stone. The hole was very narrow, only allowing an adult to crawl through like a snake. They couldn’t even turn around or look back.

In Zuo Qingcang’s view, the structure of the hole was also very crude, even posing a risk of collapse. Moreover, the Old Man and his companions who dug the hole hadn’t really dealt with the excavated soil; aside from using some for burying companions, they just tossed it randomly in the hall.

Zuo Qingcang secretly planned to find time later to reinforce the tunnel’s structure. Otherwise, crawling back and forth like this each time was literally risking his life.

Fortunately, the tunnel wasn’t very deep. After crawling about three or four meters, the Old Man leading the way pushed aside the disguised pile of dirt at the tunnel’s end, and the two emerged into a cave.

The light from the Luminous Pearls shone through the tunnel, allowing Zuo Qingcang to vaguely see the scene inside the cave.

The entire cave wasn’t large, and it was unclear whether the Dwarf Spirits had dug it out or if it was naturally formed.

But there were traces of artificial carving everywhere, along with smoothed steps. Using these steps, the cave formed six levels encircling the rock wall. On each level, the rock face had been carved into shelves filled with jars the size of human heads.

On the other side, a large iron door sealed the cave’s exit. Zuo Qingcang pushed it hard, but the door didn’t budge.

The Old Man said, “It’s useless. They only open this door during burials. It’s sealed shut normally. Besides, going out from here, we’d likely run into those monsters. It’s too dangerous.”

Zuo Qingcang nodded and walked toward the center of the cave. There was a huge platform there, seeming like some kind of altar. As Zuo Qingcang stepped onto it, he could see the platform was carved with various patterns forming a giant three-headed bird.

The bird’s body resembled a mix of an eagle and a vulture, but the most peculiar part was its three heads: one bird head, one human head, and one snake head, appearing extremely eerie.

However, no matter how eerie, it was just a carving. Zuo Qingcang glanced at it a few times and then moved on. He looked at the jars on the rock wall and asked, “Are these jars containing the corpses of Dwarf Spirits?”

By then, the Old Man had already picked up a jar, opened its seal, and pulled out a jelly-like substance.

“These Dwarf Spirits used some method to preserve the bodies, keeping them for a long time. But if the time is too long, it doesn’t work either. Corpses from two thousand years ago have all turned into this stuff.”

The jelly was full of green, stringy mucus, like some animal’s vomit. But the Old Man frowned and began scooping out the mucus with his hand, then stuffed it into his mouth. After just one bite, his eyebrows, mouth, and nose seemed to scrunch together, as if he wanted to vomit but refused to.

A long time later, the Old Man barely managed to swallow the corpse. Frowning, he said, “This thing is good in every way except that it tastes awful. But we have to eat it here. If we take the jar away directly, the Dwarf Spirits might notice.”