The things Shirley Yang mentioned in passing were things I had never considered, yet they contained the essence of myriad things—the ceaseless flux of all existence between heaven and earth was therein, though very few people ever grasped it fully. No single person can ever see everything; anyone who has encountered the study of the I Ching will form their own understanding of the Book of Changes. To a philosopher, it contains profound wisdom; to a mystic, it is a celestial text foretelling the shifting of events. The benevolent see it as benevolence; the wise see it as wisdom. To this day, humanity's interpretations of the I Ching remain merely a glimpse through a tube at the leopard.

Thus, Shirley Yang mentioned that any statement within the Yi containing numerical elements was not arbitrary. The line in the Zhen Gua (Thunder Hexagram)—"The thunder comes with a terrifying crash, followed by bursts of laughter and jesting. The shock startles the hundreds of li, yet the sacrificial wine and ladle are not lost"—had a specific meaning, though we couldn't fathom why it specified "startling the hundreds of li." If this was merely a description of a phenomenon, why not "startle a thousand li" or "startle ten thousand li"?

Shirley Yang said that since our salvage team set out from Coral Temple Island, we had encountered several artifacts related to this "Zhen Gua." Each time, these markings appeared on coffins, within tombs, or etched onto the tortoise shells used for divination by the Scale People. It seemed this recurring "Zhen Gua" hexagram was deeply connected to the netherworld affairs of Guixu. This suggested it might not be an image derived from prognostication, but rather a marker placed by the Hentian people for burial, or a concealed hint within the Hentian tombs. Furthermore, the specific symbol representing "hundred" (bai) within these hexagram markings stood out, appearing repeatedly, forcing one to question its significance.

I scratched my head, truly unable to formulate a response to Shirley Yang’s query. Though her mind was sharp and often cut straight to the essence of things, only the ancients would know if the phrase "startling the hundreds of li" held a specific meaning. I once heard Zhang Yingchuan mention that one of his ancestors was a master Mojin Xiaowei named Zhang Sanlianzi. Old Master Zhang excavated an I Ching text resembling a celestial book—the complete sixteen hexagrams of Yin and Yang—from a Western Zhou tomb. After reading it, he secluded himself. When asked what heavenly secrets it contained, Master Zhang repeatedly shook his head, offering only one cryptic phrase: "Whoever deciphers its mystery might find immortality in the Primordial Chaos." This implied that perhaps only immortals from the dawn of creation could know the true secrets hidden within the sixteen hexagrams of Yin and Yang.

Those sixteen hexagrams were likely understandable only to celestial beings; even the surviving eight trigrams, though halved, were subjects that even the most learned experts dared not claim to fully comprehend. I, having entered this field later in life, was even less aware of the esoteric meanings embedded in the numerical phrases of the Yi.

However, I was unwilling to admit this, so I told Shirley Yang, "The ‘hundred’ in 'startling the hundreds of li' represents an integer. Ancient Chinese people habitually used round numbers as adjectives—like 'a hundred victories' or 'hitting the target from a hundred paces.' No one says 'ninety-nine victories' or 'a hundred and one paces.' Using 'hundred' conveys a sense of grand scope and majesty—this is what we call weiyan dayi (profound meaning in few words), not something with a specific numerical connotation. If lightning strikes overhead, who knows precisely how many li it startles? It’s an abstract metaphor. Perhaps Americans prefer precise descriptions, which is why you find it strange."

Shirley Yang seemed to find my explanation quite convincing, so she ceased her relentless questioning about the "Zhen Gua" on the turtle shell from the tomb. She walked over and leaned against the stark white whalebone fossil with the others, catching her breath.

I also sat down to rest, surveying the surrounding environment and mentally mapping out the structure of this ancient tomb. It seemed everything aligned with the totem etched on Long Hu Gu Cai's back. Beneath the divine underwater wood lay the preserved corpse of the Hentian elder—dead yet unyielding. The Dan people must have hidden the secret of the Hentian tomb in Long Hu, but the true reason was likely lost to the living Dan people today.

I turned my gaze back to the wooden passage we used to descend. This colossal Jianmu tree must have been growing here eons ago. When the world changed and the forests became the vast ocean, the Jianmu remained submerged, piercing through nearly three layers of the earth’s crust. No wonder ancient legends claimed it connected to the Guanghan Palace on the moon. The Hentian elder hollowed out this divine underwater tree, turning the coral cave at its base into his burial chamber.

The tomb lacked the standard layout of tunnels and chambers; surrounding us was water seeping in from the seabed. In the water-filled shafts below, one swirling vortex followed another, and we couldn't guess how deep they went. In the distance, water roared, and we could feel plumes of scalding white vapor occasionally rising—likely subterranean hot springs from Guixu. This water was a hundred times hotter than any terrestrial hot spring; any creature caught in that boiling water would instantly be cooked down to nothing but bone.

From the other side, gusts of chilling cold air surged, drawing the seawater above down into the void at the earth’s core. The tomb was precisely situated within this boundary of extreme cold and heat—an Yin-Yang demarcation—sealed tightly by fragments of coral reef, preventing both hot and cold waters from encroaching. To a geomancer, this was a "Celestial Dwelling where Heaven and Earth meet, transforming the ancient and modern." The tomb’s vital energy was contained, its transformation vast and ceaseless, having monopolized the miraculous secrets of natural creation.

While I was examining the terrain, Fatty, having regained some strength, poked half his body into the whale skeleton to inspect the ancient corpses within. Uncle Ming also pulled Gu Cai over, urging him to kowtow to his ancestors. Uncle Ming said, "These are your Dan ancestors. If they have spirit, perhaps they can ensure our safe return."

Gu Cai didn't understand what his ancestors from millennia ago did, but seeing the preserved bodies evoked reverence. He immediately prostrated himself, kowtowing several times, then clasped his hands together and followed Uncle Ming’s lead, bowing haphazardly before the skeletons.

Fatty asked Uncle Ming, "Uncle Ming, you’ve dug up relics to sell your entire life. How come you're bowing and scraping here? I thought you’d be figuring out how to haul these underwater zombies back to corner the market. But your performance is truly disappointing. Step aside, you good-for-nothing old man..."

Uncle Ming replied with a distressed face, "Do not compare yesterday with today; these are desperate times. We’re trapped underwater now, and the chances of getting out alive are slim. Who has the mood to worry about the price of ancient corpses? Now, we pray to whatever deity we can, hoping one stick of incense lights the right path for us to escape with our lives. Otherwise, Fatty, what else can we do?"

Fatty jammed the fish candle into the ground and said, "In my view... truthfully, in this situation, I don't know what to do either. I can only be forced to act according to the guidance of my own reason..." With that, he employed Mojin Xiaowei techniques, hoisting one of the stiffened bodies, bracing its back skull against his knee, using one hand to press down on its crown, and the other to pinch its cheek, trying to make the corpse spit out the 'Youth-Retaining Pearls' stuffed in its mouth.

I quickly pulled Fatty back. We had already retrieved enough of the "green heads" [a term for valuable artifacts]. This tomb in Guixu contained the corpses of Gu Cai's ancestors, who had held the pearls for a thousand years, remaining unrotted. Out of respect, they were usually referred to as "stiffened individuals" rather than zombies or zongzi. It was best not to disturb them now. Although the vital energy in this tomb was strong, if we removed the concentrated Yin essence of the Youth-Retaining Pearls, these millennia-old stiffened bodies would instantly turn to dust. Our trip out to sea was for salvaging "green heads" and collecting eggs, not tomb raiding in Guixu. We shouldn't push things to the absolute limit; forget not the rules of our ancestors—insatiable greed sows the seeds of worldly disaster. We still need a way to return and enjoy a few years in America. We’ve survived so much danger on the sea; to perish here now would be a terrible waste.

After much persuasion, Fatty reluctantly crawled out of the whale skeleton. Though I didn't want to disturb these South Sea stiffened figures, I wanted to examine what might be inside the whalebone. We needed to find some clue to facilitate our departure.

The fossilized jawbone of the giant whale’s skull was slightly ajar. This skull wasn't enormous, but it was more than enough to envelop the corpses. Calling it a whalebone coffin felt like an overstatement; there seemed to be burial goods inside, making it resemble a chamber built into the whale carcass. One could easily crawl into its mouth, where five perfectly preserved bodies lay peacefully.

Shirley Yang also wanted a closer look. She switched on her flashlight and followed me, bending down to squeeze into the whalebone chamber. Uncle Ming and the others wanted to see as well, but the chamber was too narrow to accommodate so many living people moving about. I had to ask them to stay by the whale's mouth, holding up the mermaid candleholders to provide light and stand guard against unforeseen dangers. In this eerie darkness below, who knew what monsters might lurk? We couldn't afford to have our rear guard cut off by some surprise attack.

Shirley Yang and I stepped carefully over the five South Sea stiffened bodies, moving toward the rear of the chamber. We crouched down to examine the corpses. Shining our flashlights, we saw they comprised three females and two males—one old and one young among the males. Their clothing had likely long since turned to dust, covered instead by a thick layer of dried "Dragon Skin," sourced from a sea fish with brilliant scales and a horned head, a species now extinct and unseen in modern times.

The five bodies were completely covered by the "Dragon Skin" except for their heads. The old man on the side only exposed half an arm; his skin was dark, and his face was slightly sunken, but the moisture within his body was stabilized by the Youth-Retaining Pearls, preventing decay. Only the Moon Pearls, steeped in the sea air within the coral spirals, possessed such miraculous power. I drew my diving knife and lightly scored a few lines on the old man’s exposed arm.

Unexpectedly, the stiffened individual’s flesh was as hard as iron. I had never encountered such ancient corpses. Perhaps it was a unique form of preservation treatment used at sea in ancient times, similar to the zombies the First Emperor of Qin supposedly encountered by the sea during his southern expeditions. Shirley Yang whispered, "What are you doing, messing around and stabbing the ancient corpses?"

I replied, "I was testing them, seeing if they would reanimate. It seems my worry was unnecessary. Guixu is the acupuncture point of the Southern Dragon; the vital energy here is the strongest I’ve ever witnessed. These stiffened bodies are almost petrified; they won't rise again."

Shirley Yang nodded and swept her flashlight around the whalebone interior, discovering a considerable amount of burial goods in the chamber. The practice of burying ritual objects dates back to the Stone Age and isn't unique to China; most ancient civilizations worldwide have customs involving burial with material possessions. The whalebone fossil contained various aquatic remains mixed with countless sacrificial objects, layered upon each other and arranged in a rectangular pattern within the chamber. Besides jars, pottery, jade tablets, and tortoise shells, there was a uniquely shaped bronze ding vessel. According to the Rites of Zhou, a ding vessel had three legs; an emperor entombed could have a configuration of nine ding in his tomb. Bronze was a critical state metal, and only an emperor was entitled to possess nine such vessels. Below the emperor, ranks were categorized as 'Duke, Marquis, Earl, Viscount, Baron'; even a Grand Duke could not have nine ding in his tomb, as it implied treasonous ambition.

This bronze object in the Guixu tomb resembled a ding, but it was an anomaly: its belly was octagonal, it rested on nine legs, and it stood about half a meter tall. Though short, it was likely not a bronze gui (a food vessel), but a rare Nine-Legged Anomalous Ding. Distinguishing ancient bronze artifacts involves classifying their color: lacha (waxy tea), cinnabar spots, true verdigris, or green jingkou (well-mouth green); only these four hues signify authentic ancient bronze. Looking at this Nine-Legged Anomalous Ding, despite being submerged for a millennium, the ancient, profound color—a shade between true verdigris and green jingkou—remained, like green moss growing between paving stones, yet lacking the pure, jade-like brightness of true verdigris. Its deep, mysterious quality had not diminished one bit.

The rim of the ding resembled a pillow's corner, featuring curled ears and markings of sea beasts. Its sides were adorned with astronomical symbols. Genuine ancient bronzes rarely circulated in the Panjiayuan antique market, but counterfeits were everywhere. Merchants often used deceptive maxims like, "Shang revered bronze quality, Xia respected antiquity, Zhou valued inscription," to mislead buyers, so I knew a thing or two. This Nine-Legged Anomalous Ding combined characteristics of both Xia and Zhou periods. I mused that it might be more valuable than the Qin King's bone-reflecting mirror, perhaps having been forged by the Dragon Fire.

Both Shirley Yang and I knew that ding vessels historically served as records. Seeing this bronze ding in the burial chamber, a true worldly treasure, filled us with awe. After a moment of stunned silence, we moved closer to examine it. She looked at the exterior of the vessel’s belly, while I peered into its deep interior. The belly of the ding was filled with water, topped by a thick layer of dark green floating material, making it look like a cauldron full of black, stagnant water. The water was still, and we couldn't discern if anything else lay beneath.

Just as I hesitated about reaching into the water to feel for the cast markings on the vessel’s body, Shirley Yang, who was examining the exterior patterns, made a discovery. She called me over to look at the design etched on the ding. I squatted down as instructed. The body of the ding was divided into eight faces, each bearing recessed lines. It appeared gold wire had once been inlaid into the bronze, which had since fallen out over time, forming recessed patterns that vividly depicted the ascent to the moon following the Hentian elder’s death.

We had only examined about half when realization dawned on us. We glanced back at the row of ancient corpses. It appeared they hadn't undergone formal burial yet but were waiting here for the full moon to descend. It seemed that before the moment of "rushing to the moon for longevity" arrived, the island city had already sunk beneath the sea, and the surviving populace had scattered like smoke, eventually becoming the Dan people who lived by pearl diving and whaling.

I was about to turn to examine the back of the bronze ding when Uncle Ming called out to me from the opening of the whale fossil. I had no choice but to turn back a few steps and ask what this good-for-nothing elder needed now. Wiping sweat from his brow, Uncle Ming said, "Haven't you noticed? Why are those female stiffened figures in the chamber carrying around dead children missing limbs and legs?"