Looking around the bizarre burial chamber they found themselves in, even Fatty, usually unconcerned about anything, began to feel a prickle of fear. "Lao Hu, where the hell are we?" he asked me.

I glanced at him. "You're asking me? Who am I supposed to ask? I remember it perfectly clearly. We jumped down from the vertical shaft right in the center of the main hall of the ancient tomb. It should have been a short drop into an inclined tunnel below. How did we end up here?"

Big Gold Tooth sucked on his teeth. "Is there any mistake about that? There was only one shaft opening on the floor of the main hall, right in the precise central spot, and the tomb owner’s sarcophagus should have been nearby. We circled the main hall three full times, and besides that shaft, there were no other passages on the floor. This… this really feels like we’ve walked into a ghost loop."

I waved my hands at the other two. Being suspicious now was useless. Moreover, this wasn't a simple case of an illusory wall. A Western Zhou stone sarcophagus appearing in a Tang Dynasty tomb's main hall—could the chamber we’re in now also be from the Western Zhou period? Looking at the rock murals on the walls, they were all grotesque, strange human faces. This narrow room, or perhaps passageway, must have some connection to the human-faced stone coffin in the main hall.

After entering the main hall of the Tang tomb, to conserve power, we only kept Big Gold Tooth’s flashlight on among the three beams. At that point, Big Gold Tooth handed the light to me. I lit a candle at our spot and used the flashlight to survey the immediate surroundings.

We were likely in a tomb passage, the walls covered in ancient red rock murals. The brushstrokes and colors of those paintings were as vivid as fresh blood. If this passage dated back to the Western Zhou era, no matter how well-preserved, it couldn't retain this vibrancy. These murals looked no older than a century or two at most.

It wasn't just the murals; the very stones making up the passage showed no signs of millennia of erosion. While they didn't look newly finished, they certainly didn't look as if they had been built thousands of years ago, with patches of gray stone aggregate still visible in places.

The passage was about several meters wide, extending straight ahead and behind us without end. The blocks were massive pieces of rock—ancient, solemn, lacking the luxurious refinement of a Tang tomb, yet possessing a different kind of weighty, stable aura of royalty.

Knowing I was familiar with the layout and structure of ancient tombs across various dynasties, Big Gold Tooth prompted me for details about this passage.

I shook my head. "I can't be certain yet. If that stone sarcophagus we found in the main hall truly is a Western Zhou artifact, as you suggested, then this passage is highly likely to be its companion piece—all Western Zhou relics. Especially the patterns painted on these walls; they share many similarities with that sarcophagus."

Fatty chipped in, "I’d bet my life on it being the same thing. Damn it, that massive face—you see it once and you never forget it. That half-smile, the cold, eerie expression—it's like they were carved from the exact same mold."

I told Fatty, "Little Fatty, you have a point, but you didn't look closely enough. The sarcophagus we saw in the main hall had five carved human faces, all with the same expression. Look closer at these murals on the passage walls; the expressions aren't so singular."

The murals depicted slightly distorted human faces; they weren't uniform like the five on the sarcophagus. The faces on the coffin were utterly expressionless, a strange morbidity lurking beneath their coldness. However, every face on the passage wall was slightly different—some showed joy, others sorrow, grief, anger, or shock, or injury—but regardless of the emotion, none of them looked normal.

Fatty held a face up to the candlelight and said to Big Gold Tooth and me, "Lao Hu, looking closely, these faces seem fundamentally wrong. No matter the expression... how should I put it? I know what's wrong in my gut, but I can't articulate it. There’s something about the expression in every one of these faces... something..."

I had noticed the strangeness in those faces too. Seeing Fatty struggle for words, I finished for him: "They’re all so fake, utterly insincere. Whether they’re happy or angry, damn it, they all look forced, like they're being acted out, not felt from the heart."

Once I said that, Big Gold Tooth and Fatty both agreed. Fatty nodded vigorously. "Exactly, fake! Lao Hu, your eyes are sharper. I saw it too, but I had too many words stuck in my throat and couldn't get them out."

Big Gold Tooth added, "That’s precisely it. The smile hides cunning malice; the anger mocks. We merchants spend our lives haggling, pretending sincerity, putting on a show of opening our hearts. I thought our expressions were fake enough back then, but compared to these faces on the wall, it's like comparing a small puddle to the vast ocean. This kind of superficial posturing... it's fundamentally... fundamentally impossible for a human to produce."

Big Gold Tooth's final remark sent a chill down my spine. Staring at the faces in the murals, I said to Fatty and Big Gold Tooth, "I feel it too. I can't figure out what kind of person has such bizarre expressions. Not even opera actors make faces like this. I believe our current predicament is tied to these faces, but... what do these faces symbolize?"

Although I often proudly proclaim myself a genuine Mojin Xiaowei (Grave Robber), I'm only truly skilled in geomancy, tracing dragon veins, and locating treasure halls. Beyond that, what I know comes from the Sixteen-Character Yin-Yang Feng Shui Secret Manual, giving me familiarity with burial structures from various dynasties. However, when it comes to cultural context, historical background, or artifact appraisal, my knowledge is superficial, and even that superficiality is mostly guesswork without any real foundation.

Regarding the giant-faced sarcophagus we encountered and these numerous murals of oddly expressive faces, I have nothing concrete besides an intuitive feeling. In this area, I am far inferior to Big Gold Tooth, who, though not a professional archaeologist, has years of immersion in the antique trade.

I said to Big Gold Tooth and Fatty, "Little Fatty, Master Jin, this tomb is full of inexplicable things. Wandering around aimlessly won't solve anything. If we keep blundering about, we might run into something truly abnormal. We need to devise a strategy now."

Fatty asked, "Lao Hu, do you have a plan? If you do, spit it out. Stop holding back, alright? I won't hide it from you—I'm actually scared shitless right now."

I knew Fatty wasn't one to succumb to panic easily. If he admitted to fear, it meant the situation we faced was utterly beyond our grasp. Though our lives weren't immediately threatened, our nerves were being frayed to the breaking point. So, I told him, "I haven't figured out a way yet. The prerequisite for finding a countermeasure is figuring out exactly what's going on. It's like being in a battle where we’ve been ambushed—the enemy is hidden, and we’re passive targets, with no room to strike back because we don't know what we're facing."

Fatty sighed helplessly. "Right now, the three of us are like three little mice caught in someone’s hands, spun around until we’re dizzy, without even knowing what’s happening. Next time, if I don’t bring weapons and explosives, I'm never setting foot in another tomb."

I offered a wry smile. "Let's hope there is a next time." Then I asked Big Gold Tooth, "Master Jin, while we are in this bizarre environment, I don't think our lives are in immediate danger. As long as we can clear our heads, escaping shouldn't be impossible. You didn't spend all those years dealing in antiques for nothing. You recognized that human-faced sarcophagus as Western Zhou. Can you elaborate on that? We can analyze it; maybe we can come up with something."

Big Gold Tooth, contrary to Fatty, wasn't as tense. Fatty feared the intangible—things that defied easy explanation; he feared thinking too hard. Big Gold Tooth feared direct threats. While this Tang tomb had suddenly sprouted all this Western Zhou material, making things incredibly strange, it wasn't immediately fatal, or perhaps, not immediately fatal. Thus, although Big Gold Tooth was certainly tense and frightened, he could currently manage this mental pressure.

Hearing my question, Big Gold Tooth paused in thought. "Master Hu, you know that most of the items we deal with in Beijing are from the Ming and Qing dynasties. Anything older is far more valuable and traded privately, never dared to be shown in the antique market. Artifacts from the Tang or Song dynasties are already top-tier in our business. Anything preceding the Tang or Song—those antiques from the ancestors—are practically national treasures; dealing in them illegally can cost you your head. In all my years in this trade, the oldest piece I've handled was just a few small items from the Tang period."

Seeing Big Gold Tooth rambling on about irrelevant matters, I pressed him again: "So you're not entirely certain that the human-faced sarcophagus is from the Western Zhou?"

Big Gold Tooth replied, "Of course I haven't handled anything that ancient. This kind of Western Zhou stone sarcophagus—is it valuable? It’s priceless. The problem is, nobody dares to buy it. If we sell it to foreigners, we're committing treason. So, to us, it’s actually worthless. Even though I haven't dealt in Western Zhou items, I frequently read books on the subject and visit museums just to broaden my knowledge and sharpen my eye. I consider myself half an expert on these antiquities. I wouldn't mistake that sarcophagus—the use of human faces as decorative elements was extremely popular during the Yin-Shang period; many crucial ritual vessels feature carved faces."

I questioned him, "Didn't you just say the sarcophagus was Western Zhou? If I remember correctly, the Yin-Shang period came before the Western Zhou. So, is the sarcophagus Western Zhou or Yin-Shang?"

Big Gold Tooth exclaimed, "My lord, please let me finish! While this type of decoration flourished in the Yin-Shang era and was still used on important objects up until the Three Kingdoms period, the characteristics differ by epoch. The sarcophagus we saw has a particular feature. Do you know what that feature is?"