Chapter 27: The Nine-Palace Grid

Barely halfway through, Xiao Lianshan had been crawling for so long that his hunched posture became agonizing. Just as he lifted his head to catch his breath, hidden and ingeniously crafted arrow slits along the stone statues of the Ten Kings of Hell on both sides erupted, firing like a storm of needle-sharp projectiles from left and right.

Arrows shot from the statues one after another, incessantly, weaving a rain of steel over Xiao Lianshan’s head. He could feel several of them whistling just inches above his scalp. Although these mechanisms had sat dormant for hundreds of years, their lethality remained undiminished; many arrowheads buried themselves deep into the stone. Had they struck a person, the victim would have been turned into a pincushion.

"Lianshan, don't lift your head! Stay at your current height and hurry across. It’s a Zhuge repeating crossbow—it won't stop!" I shouted from behind, my heart pounding with anxiety.

Sweat poured down Xiao Lianshan’s face. Terrified, he followed my instructions and crawled to the other side of the passage. The moment he reached safety, he collapsed onto the floor, gasping for air. "That bastard Zhu Chongba is absolutely vicious! Thinking up a trap like this... if I had lifted my head just a little higher..."

He shuddered at the thought. Seeing that he had made it through unscathed despite the narrow escape, I let out a long breath and instructed the others that they must cross in the same posture. Any higher would trigger the mechanism, and I warned that if they went too low, the statues might be rigged with pressure-sensitive traps that would trigger a similar barrage.

I went second, and the others followed. Once everyone had safely reached the other side, I looked back and saw that the passage was already riddled with thousands of holes.

"Zhu Yuanzhang was truly ruthless," Qiu Nuo said, catching her breath with lingering fear. "He intentionally designed the passage to only allow one person through at a time. If someone entered without knowing the secret and filed in one by one, they would have all died in this tunnel."

"However, it's not all bad news," I said, steadying myself. "At least there is one good thing."

"Good news? What could possibly be good in this hellhole?" Yue Qianling asked, still visibly shaken.

"Exactly! There is one good thing," Yue Leiting said, wiping sweat from his forehead with a grin. "The effort put into this trap is immense. Anyone who didn't know the secret would have been filled with arrows. But the passage we just crossed was clean, which means no one has been here before. We are the first to enter; the Ming Fourteen Mausoleums have never been opened!"

I nodded with a smile. Yue Leiting might not be clever, but to survive in the cutthroat underworld, the most important skill is observation—observing every potential threat, and everything beyond them.

Beyond the passage lay a much larger stone chamber. The walls featured grooves filled with whale oil; this substance could last for a millennium and was highly combustible, typically used for the eternal lamps in tombs. I ignited the oil in the grooves and suddenly realized I had been wrong.

This square chamber was far larger than I had anticipated. Yue Leiting’s villa covered about three hundred square meters, and one could fit four such villas inside this room. We all scanned our surroundings, exchanging silent glances. After enduring such hardship to get here, the massive chamber was completely empty.

Yue Leiting was dumbfounded, bordering on frantic. He had just claimed no one had been here, but seeing the empty room made his heart sink. "Who the hell beat us to it? They cleaned the place out and didn't even leave a few pieces for my trouble!"

"This isn't the Ming Fourteen Mausoleums," I said calmly, without hesitation. "The Ming Fourteen Mausoleums were where successive emperors of the Ming Dynasty stored gold and jewels every year. The Ming Dynasty lasted nearly three hundred years; for three centuries of accumulation, this chamber is far too small."

Yue Leiting considered this and felt a bit better, but he looked around, puzzled. "Then why build such a big room? What is Zhu Yuanzhang up to?"

"Do you see the stone door opposite us?" I pointed to the far side. "We have to cross this room to get to the other side!"

"It's that simple?" Xiao Lianshan asked.

"Yes, that simple," I replied.

After asking, Xiao Lianshan remembered the harrowing ordeal in the passage; nothing in here could be simple. Zhu Yuanzhang wouldn't be kind enough to let people pass easily.

"Brother Yan Hui, have you noticed that the floor of this chamber seems to be divided into a pattern?" Qiu Nuo said, looking down for a long time.

"The room is divided into nine squares. I noticed it as soon as we entered. The three squares in front of us are carved with the numbers eight, one, and six from left to right," Gu Anqi noted solemnly. "This is a Nine-Palace Grid!"

"I know the Nine-Palace Grid: 'Nine at the crown, one at the base, three to the left, seven to the right, two and four at the shoulders, eight and six at the feet, and five in the center,'" Yue Qianling nodded.

"Wait, you're all well-read. Can someone tell me in plain language what a Nine-Palace Grid is?" Xiao Lianshan asked with an embarrassed grin.

"A Nine-Palace Grid is three rows and three columns, with three numbers in each row. The first row is four, nine, and two; the second is three, five, and seven; the last row is the eight, one, and six you see. The Nine-Palace diagram originates from the Luo River Scroll. These nine numbers add up to fifteen in every horizontal, vertical, and diagonal line," I explained calmly.

Qiu Nuo looked at the grid on the floor with a heavy expression. "Nine-Palace Grids were frequently used as traps in ancient times. To reach the other side, we must traverse the grid. Only by stepping on the correct squares will we be safe; otherwise, we'll trigger a trap."

Everyone had witnessed the power of the arrow rain earlier. This room was vast and had no blind spots; if the mechanism were triggered, and arrows flew from all directions, no one would survive.

"Since Zhu Yuanzhang set up this grid, he must have left a hint. Let's search separately, but remember: do not step into the squares," I said coolly.

The chamber was brightly lit by the burning whale oil. We soon discovered writing on the stone wall to the right. I walked over; there were six lines of text, reading from top to bottom:

*Cease the swords and spears, lament the vast expanse,*
*One man builds a city wall ten thousand miles long.*
*The coiled dragon brings eternal peace to the realm,*
*Yet there are still those in the world who claim hegemony.*
*The Ming waves roll, capsizing the lonely boat,*
*Alas, self-inflicted sins invite the heavens' wrath.*

On the left wall, Xiao Lianshan also found text, but unlike the right side, there was only one line:

*Yet there is also clear light shining across the nine provinces.*

The seven lines of text combined were surely the hints Zhu Yuanzhang had left for the grid. I took a deep breath. Setting aside how to solve the riddle, the seven lines implied that we had to take seven steps across the grid, and each step had to be correct. Any mistake could trigger the traps.

Yue Leiting looked up at the wall, completely bewildered. "I really have to hand it to Zhu Yuanzhang. Why go to such lengths? My eyes are glazing over just looking at these words. What does it all mean?"

"The more complex it is, the more importance Zhu Yuanzhang placed on it. This suggests the contents of the secret chamber are extraordinary; it might really be the Ming Fourteen Mausoleums!" I said earnestly.

Qiu Nuo checked the time and said calmly, "Regardless of whether this is the Ming Fourteen Mausoleums, we don't have much time left. The monks at Daci'en Temple start their morning prayers at five o'clock. It's already two!"

"Being anxious won't help. We've seen the traps; they only get more lethal as we go deeper. Who dares to cross without solving these riddles?" Liu Hao said, agitated.

I asked Yue Qianling to transcribe the text while I pondered the meaning of the first line: *Cease the swords and spears, lament the vast expanse.*

I paced back and forth, repeating the line to myself. "Judging by the context, 'swords and spears' refers to war. 'Cease' means to stop. 'Lament the vast expanse'? What does this line mean?"

"Could 'vast expanse' refer to the world? Does 'lament the vast expanse' mean Zhu Yuanzhang regretted not unifying the world?" Gu Anqi suggested.

"Unlikely," Yue Qianling, who was well-versed in Ming history, said. "Zhu Yuanzhang adopted Li Shanchang’s strategy of 'building high walls, hoarding grain, and delaying the title of king' to grow his strength. He occupied the North with minimal cost and unified the world, establishing the Ming Dynasty."

"Vast expanse...?" My eyes suddenly lit up. "There are two meanings here. The first is indeed the world, but in terms of territory, Zhu Yuanzhang never truly unified it. He established the Ming Dynasty, but he didn't completely overthrow the Yuan. The remnants of the Yuan fled north into the desert. 'Vast expanse' actually refers to the Yuan remnants who fled to the desert."

"So, the meaning is to stop the war against the Yuan remnants in the north?" Gu Anqi was still confused. "But... what is the hint here?"

"If it's a number, it doesn't fit. Zhu Yuanzhang stopped the wars against the Northern Yuan in the 29th year of the Hongwu era. That has both a two and a nine, but neither of those numbers is in the first row of the Nine-Palace Grid," Yue Qianling said with disappointment.

"That's not necessarily true. The fact that you thought of the time means you're close, you just aren't thinking flexibly," I said with a relaxed smile.

"You be flexible then! You try, give us a number," she challenged.

"The Nine-Palace square hinted at by the first line is eight," Qiu Nuo said.

I looked at her with approval. "You figured it out, too."

"Eight? Why eight?"

Yue Qianling bit her lip, regretting that she hadn't realized it. "Zhu Yuanzhang launched his final Northern Expedition in the 29th year of Hongwu, which was his eighth expedition. From then on, he focused on rest and recovery. The first line, 'Cease the swords and spears, lament the vast expanse,' means it was a pity that even after the eighth expedition, he still couldn't unify the world."