It is said that in the past, when Qin Shi Huang toured his empire, he once saw a fairy mountain emerge from the sea near the coast. On the mountain, immortals held the elixir of eternal life, which is why he firmly believed in the legends of immortality, spending his entire life searching for the medicine of longevity on the Three Divine Mountains.

I believe this event is largely true in history. Having grown up along the coast of Fujian, I often heard the old fishermen speak of three wonders on the sea: the Haizi (Sea Fissure), the Haishi (Sea Mirage), and the Flowing Fog (Pingliuwu).

Among these, the Haishi, also known as the Shenqi (Auspicious Vapor), is the most fantastical and marvelous. It causes cities, towering mountains, and figures to materialize out of thin air over the vast expanse of the ocean. However, no one has ever been able to locate the actual place corresponding to these Haishi spectacles. The First Emperor likely witnessed the Haijue (Sea Specter) of the Three Divine Mountains; otherwise, given his sagacity, how could he have so easily believed the words of a few sorcerers?

Furthermore, in Tibet, there is a secret activity steeped in mystery. Whenever a living Buddha passes away, the leading figures among the lamas travel to the sacred mountains and lakes to "gaze at the lake scene." This "lake scene" is also a spectacle similar to the Haijue, from which they gain enlightenment to search for the reincarnated child spirit of the living Buddha.

What we are currently witnessing—the Divination Map displayed by King Xian—is almost an exact replication of the Tibetan Buddhist scene of "gazing at the lake," only the location has shifted to the deep pool of the Worm Valley. The pool is enveloped in neon-like lights, revealing endless strange phenomena.

However, what King Xian saw was not a fairy mountain, but a castle built atop a towering peak, with swirling white clouds circling below. In the central palace, a colossal, eyeball-shaped totem was enshrined, attended by figures in strange attire.

This must have been King Xian's vision of paradise; he hoped that after death, he could ascend to this true celestial palace. Shirley Yang murmured to herself, "This city... it's not Jingjue, but where is this place?"

I said to Shirley Yang, "This might be a forbidden area in Tibet. Although I have never seen this divine palace, I once encountered mummies dressed in these peculiar garments in Kangba Qingpu. Ever since viewing those bronze men and beasts in Lingyun Palace, I felt a sense of familiarity, like I had seen them somewhere before. At the time, they seemed both similar and dissimilar, so I didn't dwell on it, as mummies are quite different from bronze statues. Looking at this mural now, it is definitely from the Tibetan region, but the story is long. Let's find the Muchen Pearl first. I will tell you the detailed sequence of events when we return."

The three of us walked forward a few more steps. As our positions shifted, the scene on the wall changed, though it still depicted the "Tan View." This depiction, however, resembled the murals in the main hall of Lingyun Palace, showing King Xian ascending to heaven on a dragon. The composition here was much simpler, adding three guiding young attendants. Seeing this, a cold sweat immediately broke out on my back. These three attendants or messengers in the mural were all kneeling with their heads bowed to the ground, and on the exposed nape of each neck was an eyeball-shaped mark.

This could not be a coincidence. We almost simultaneously reached up to touch the back of our necks, realizing with a sinking heart that Fatty’s ominous prediction had likely come true: those three "Candles of Longevity" representing the guiding youths were meant for us three Mojin Xiaowei.

Fatty pointed at the painting and cursed, "Damn it, this is infuriating! They’ve caricatured us so hideously, crouching there like three dogs. May their ancestors—" He broke off, wiping sweat from his forehead. "If this is their idea of an honored reception, I'd rather not be invited at all!"

Shirley Yang said, "This confirms one thing: the prophet Zaglama could accurately predict events a thousand years into the future near the Ghost Cave. But once outside the sacred mountain and the Ghost Cave, that ability vanishes. Legend says the Muchen Pearl was taken from the Bottomless Ghost Cave, and perhaps under certain unique conditions, it might exhibit special omens. Maybe that’s why King Xian could see visions through the lake scene. I’m certain the Muchen Pearl is in this burial chamber."

I looked around and asked Shirley Yang and Fatty, "Don't you find anything unusual here? We've scoured this chamber like we were plowing the earth, but where is King Xian's sarcophagus?"

In tomb architecture, a natural quartz cave preserved in its original state like this one is called a "Cave Tomb." This is the final chamber of King Xian’s tomb. According to the Zang Jing (Burial Sutra) and the subterranean structure, there should be no further secret chambers. Yet, this room lacks the sarcophagus containing King Xian. The only items present are two ancient swords and a few scattered bamboo scrolls—in this vast royal tomb, the final chamber holds no respectable burial artifacts.

Fatty, ever the know-it-all, suggested to me, "I bet the coffin is hidden inside the wall, like that female corpse covered in moths!"

I told Fatty, "That opening was blocked up artificially later. This white quartz rock would take at least ten thousand years to form. There are no signs of carving or chiseling, so it couldn't be hidden inside the rock. Let's search again. If we truly can't find it, we’ll have to chisel the stone where the shadow-bone was located."

Shirley Yang tugged my arm, pointing toward a corner of the chamber. I shone the beam of my 'Wolf Eye' flashlight there. In the corner stood a large-bellied bronze alchemy furnace, nearly as tall as a person. Because it was tucked in the corner and low, we hadn't noticed it earlier. This might not be an alchemy furnace; perhaps it was a special kind of sarcophagus. So, the three of us moved forward shoulder-to-shoulder to inspect it.

Upon closer approach, however, we realized it probably wasn't a coffin. The furnace had three legs, a wide belly, and a broad mouth—it could easily hold two adults. But inside was only soil mixed with purplish-white residue, likely the decayed remnants of some alchemical pills. Fatty grew increasingly agitated, mustered his brute strength, and kicked the furnace over, scattering the rotten golden elixirs onto the ground.

It seemed we had to face the worst possibility: King Xian’s tomb contained no skeleton of the King, only a shadow-bone, and no Muchen Pearl. Looking back at the perilous journey we endured, it felt like all that effort was for naught. Besides a masterless phoenix coffin and this furnace, all we had were artifacts from the Nan and Yelang tribes—King Xian's spoils of war—nothing else of value.

There were also some colorful murals painted on the white quartz in this corner, which we were about to ignore, hoping they might offer a clue. However, the customs depicted here were distinctly different. Shirley Yang judged that these were likely painted by the High Priest. The content showed priests implanting corpse moths inside the entombed Queen’s body for preservation, then sealing the human-shaped gap in the "Cave Tomb." This was apparently done because the main burial chamber could not hold any sacrificial victims outside the royal family, and perhaps to maintain the natural topography of the "Cave," only an empty phoenix coffin was left inside. The Queen was inside the doorway, awaiting King Xian’s corporeal ascension to immortality.

The more I looked, the more mysterious it seemed. These depictions held deep implications. First, the female corpse had been sealed inside the doorway for a thousand years without the protection of a coffin; how had she not decayed? Even if she had a pearl of preservation in her mouth and a jade box made from peacock jade in her body, sealed within a tight coffin, after two thousand years, exposure to air should have turned her black and withered like bark. Yet, before her body swelled, she looked almost alive. Moreover, since she was already dead, why use corpse moths for preservation, and what sustained the moth eggs inside the body?

Shirley Yang interrupted my chain of thought: "King Xian's tomb is a joint burial site for the King and Queen. Old Hu's initial judgment is now confirmed. Since the chamber was perfectly sealed before we entered, it means King Xian’s body should still be here. But even if he achieved corporeal dissolution, there should be some trace left. As a sovereign ruler, he should at least have a set of burial garments."

I said to Shirley Yang, "We overlooked something. Do you remember the ten Candles of Longevity in the middle chamber?" Three of those candles were shaped like guiding youths—perhaps meant to frighten us. There were seven others: six were shaped like Black-Scaled Mer-men, representing the remains of King Xian's previous three incarnations, the shadow-bones from his three trials, and his wife. Although we haven't found King Xian's true body yet, the count lines up perfectly based on this interpretation.

Only the largest one remains, a bronze ox lamp with a robust, ancient design. Based on the two preceding types of Candles of Longevity, this ox-head candle must represent something very special. It is the tenth body in this tomb. I suspect we must find this tenth body first to locate the true bones of King Xian.

Fatty interjected, "Commander Hu, I must offer you some advice, because I am simply too straightforward. I think your theory lacks logic. If you say there are ten bodies in this tomb, doesn't that include the three of us..."

I quickly cut Fatty off; he could talk endlessly, but this was no time for banter. I told Fatty and Shirley Yang, "Save the critiques for a meeting later. Even if my wording was imprecise, let's provisionally call this mysterious tenth body a placeholder code. I believe the skeletal remains corresponding to the ox-head candle must be extraordinary—perhaps an entity that transcends our current understanding. It is precisely because of its existence that we seem to be blindfolded, unable to see the true bones of King Xian..."

Just as I was about to continue, something bumped the top of my climbing helmet—it sounded like a small stone, but the impact was dull. Shirley Yang seemed attacked as well; she ducked sharply. In the flickering lamplight, I saw more than ten corpse moths flying toward us, slamming against the lamps on our helmets. I hastily batted them away with my gloves, asking Shirley Yang amidst the chaos, "Did we leave a gap when we sealed the entrance?"

Shirley Yang replied strangely, "Impossible. Didn't we check everything?" She brushed away a few moths, snapped off a green fluorescent tube, and tossed it toward the human-shaped opening blocked by the phoenix coffin.

A flashlight casts a beam, suitable for navigating in the dark, while illumination tools like fluorescent tubes or cold fireworks light up a surface area. As the tube hit the wall, the cold green light reflected off the white rock, immediately illuminating a large section. The phoenix coffin that had been blocking the entrance to the cave chamber was gone; the human-shaped aperture was wide open.