Chapter 43: Eight Gates, Eight Deities

Xiao Lianshan secured the rope at Baxiantai, and the others carefully crossed the ice bridge to reach the platform. Following the spot where Xiao Lianshan had found the carved markings, I had everyone clear away the debris around it, and soon enough, the seams of a stone slab appeared on the ground.

When the slab was pulled open, a winding, dragon-like staircase leading downward revealed itself to everyone. Xiao Lianshan was just about to step down when I grabbed him back by the arm.

"Do you know what this is called?"

"Didn't you just say this is a coiling dragon path? Usually, only imperial tombs use coiling dragon paths," Xiao Lianshan said, looking puzzled.

"It is indeed called a coiling dragon path, but it has another name: the Soul-Suspended Ladder!" I said with a solemn expression. "It's a soul-snatching, labyrinthine path designed to create optical illusions and disorient anyone trying to find the correct direction. This kind of coiling dragon path typically has twenty-three tiers of stone steps, and the architectural principles behind it were lost long ago."

Yue Qianling leaned over to peer down and said earnestly, "There have been seminars on the Soul-Suspended Ladder in the archaeological community. Quite a few archaeologists are obsessed with it; while standing inside makes it look like there is only a single flight of stairs, it actually extends in all directions."

I squatted down at the entrance of the coiling dragon path, examining it closely as I walked a few steps, then suddenly stopped and pointed to a specific spot.

"See this crescent-shaped mark? That's a trap. Follow my steps precisely and make sure not to step on any tiles bearing this symbol. The markers actually gradually deviate across the steps. Combined with a special light-absorbing coating—compounded from a secret formula—applied to both the steps and the stone walls, it becomes even harder to maintain your bearings. Once you pay attention to these misleading cues, it triggers errors in your logical judgment, making you think you're walking in a straight line when you're actually wandering off onto branch paths, going in circles until you completely lose all sense of direction."

I led the way forward. The architecture here was ingeniously designed; many sections had been chiseled straight through the mountain rock, allowing natural light to filter in and illuminate everything clearly without the need for artificial lighting. The coiling dragon path spiraled downward. As those following behind walked further, the more dizzy they felt. The stone steps were designed to be extremely narrow, and a momentary lapse in concentration could easily result in a fatal slip.

After navigating the entire coiling dragon path, we arrived in a circular stone cavern. Light shining in from all four sides made the cavern quite bright. In the center of the circular room stood eight statues of varying shapes and forms, while eight evenly spaced grooves were carved into the perimeter of the cavern walls. Judging by the shape of the statue bases, they matched the grooves perfectly; these statues were clearly meant to be pushed into those recesses.

After Xiao Lianshan and the others walked around the cavern to inspect it, Gu Anqi said with a surprised look, "Brother Yanhui, this stone cavern is so bizarre. It was entirely carved out by human hands, but aside from the coiling dragon path we just took, there are no other paths leading anywhere else?"

I smiled faintly and pointed beneath our feet, completely unhurried. "We are at the peak of the mountain, so how could there be paths leading elsewhere? The entrance is right under our feet."

Xiao Lianshan brushed away the dust in the center of the cavern, and sure enough, he discovered a circular outline, though it was tightly sealed shut.

"Brother, how do we get down?"

"Put these statues into their correct positions, and the entrance mechanism will open," I said calmly, looking at the statues in the center.

"What on earth are these statues? Why have I never seen them before?" Yue Qianling walked around the statues, studying them for a long time with curiosity.

"These are the Eight Divine Generals: the Chief Deity, the Coiling Serpent, the Great Yin, the Harmony, the White Tiger, the Vermilion Bird, the Nine Earths, and the Nine Heavens," Kong Guan said from behind in a low voice. "Among them, the Chief Deity occupies the first three positions of the Harmony, the Deity of Great Yin precedes them by two palaces, the Nine Heavens resides in the palace behind, and the Nine Earths in the two palaces further back."

"What are the statues of the Eight Divine Generals doing set up here?" Xiao Lianshan asked, still puzzled.

I looked around and answered with complete concentration, "This is the Eight Gates and Eight Divine Generals Formation, evolved from the Qimen Dunjia. The Eight Divine Generals are what Senior Kong just mentioned, while the Eight Gates refer to the eight different directional angles determined by the Qimen Dunjia based on the Eight Trigrams: the Rest Gate, the Life Gate, the Injury Gate, the Delusion Gate, the Scenery Gate, the Death Gate, the Fear Gate, and the Open Gate. Only when the Eight Divine Generals correspond to their correct Eight Gates will the mechanism open."

"Well, that's simple then. We've got plenty of time, why don't we just test them out one by one?" Xiao Lianshan said dismissively.

"Go ahead and test them casually, but do you know what else the Eight Gates and Eight Divine Generals Formation is called?" Kong Guan shot Xiao Lianshan a cold look. "The Dragon-Falling Stone! This is a common anti-theft mechanism found in imperial mausoleums, and it's used even more fittingly here. The passageway is directly beneath our feet. The Ming Tombs are built into the mountain, and the passage leading down is a circular space as large as the one you see right now. The grooves beneath each of these eight statues connect to a trap mechanism. Once placed incorrectly, the mechanism triggers heavy boulders to block the passageway. Even if you get just a single one wrong, the entrance will be sealed shut forever."

"Then... then who knows what the correct placement is?" Yue Qianling asked.

"Although the Eight Gates and Eight Divine Generals Formation looks complicated, it is ultimately designed just to deal with grave robbers," Kong Guan said calmly. "The formation evolved from the Qimen Dunjia. As long as one is proficient in the calculations of the Qimen, this formation is not worth mentioning."

"Senior Kong is right. Actually, it's not that difficult," I said with a faint smile. "I might not know much else, but I happened to read about this in an ancient book beforehand. Lianshan, help me mark out the correct cardinal directions of east, west, south, and north in the cavern."

After taking some measurements, Xiao Lianshan quickly marked out the correct positions for east, west, south, and north.

Confident and assured, I walked up to the base of the statues and pointed to one of them.

"The Chief Deity is the deity of Heavenly Yi, the foremost of all deities. Wherever it arrives, all evils are dissipated. It is one of the most auspicious and benevolent divine influences. Although the Metal of Taibai Geng is the fiercest of malevolent forces, if it comes under the command of the Chief Deity, its form dissolves into the tomb; auspicious matters are assured, and inauspicious matters cease to be dangerous. Heaven begins with Jia, and Earth begins with Zi. The Chief Deity is the leader of the Six Jias and resides in the center of the earthly disk, making it the supreme sovereign of all creation, governing the East!"

Xiao Lianshan and the others hurriedly joined forces to push the Chief Deity statue into the eastern groove. With a deep rumble, the stone door in the center slowly slid open, revealing yet another stone door.

"The original spirit of the Coiling Serpent is the Southern Bing-Ding Fire. Its nature is ethereal and easily exhausted; it is a deity of deceit and illusion. The Coiling Serpent represents the Yin Earth of the center, and its temperament is stubborn and unyielding. It flees the three and avoids the five—avoiding the five means staying away from the five Heavenly Stems of Yi, Geng, Xin, Ren, and Gui, as well as the five inauspicious gates of Injury, Delusion, Scenery, Death, and Fear," I continued, pointing at the Coiling Serpent. "Because the Coiling Serpent avoids the five, it must not inhabit the four primary positions, and instead takes refuge in the southeast!"

Once the Coiling Serpent statue was placed into the southeastern groove, the second stone door opened.

"The Great Yin is the Yin Metal of the West, a deity of protective blessing skilled at bringing forth propitious and auspicious events. Because it resonates with Xin and is assigned to the Dui Palace of the West—where Dui represents the young maiden and Li represents the middle-aged woman, both being Yin whose Yang energy is exhausted and difficult to nurture—it is named Great Yin. Its disposition favors hidden and obscure realms, loving tranquility over movement, and it governs the West."

After the Great Yin statue was placed into the western groove, the third stone door opened.

"The original spirit of Harmony is Jia Wood, the younger sister of the Six Jias, the Six Yi paired with Geng Metal as a wife, bearing the fetus of Geng Metal and returning to the position of Jia to guard the South. The numerical sequence from Jia to Geng is six, hence it is named Harmony, and it governs the South."

The Harmony statue opened the fourth stone door in the south.

I walked a circle around the remaining statues and pointed to the White Tiger.

"The White Tiger takes the form of Northern Geng Metal; it absorbs Geng Metal, and Xun represents wind—the wind follows the tiger. The numerical sequence from Jia to Geng is seven, echoing the seven numbers of the Nine Palaces, which is why it is called the White Tiger. It guards the North with majesty, possessing a ferocious and warlike disposition, fearless and unbridled, specializing in military deployment, bloody battles, pestilence, injuries, and obstructed roads associated with funerals, thus governing the North."

The fifth stone door slowly opened.

"The original spirit of the Dark Warrior is the Western Ren-Gui Water. Water is black in color, and it takes its form by acquiring the central yellow earth, which is why it is named the Dark Warrior. It holds exclusive jurisdiction over the Northwest."

As I spoke, I pushed the Dark Warrior statue into the northwestern groove, and sure enough, the sixth stone door opened.

Wei Yu slowly walked to the front of the middle statues and murmured a few words under his breath. Kong Guan, standing nearby, explained, "He says the Nine Earths belong to the Kun Earth family and are the mother of all things, symbolizing dark and obscure gloom. Most of what it governs involves gentleness, respect, humility, and compliance, though it sometimes wields the power of life and death, making it half-auspicious and half-inauspicious. The direction of the Nine Earths can be used to garrison troops and hold defenses; therefore, the Nine Earths governs the Southwest."

I nodded. Wei Yu truly was a deeply hidden expert who was thoroughly familiar with the Eight Gates and Eight Divine Generals Formation. Once Xiao Lianshan and I pushed the Nine Earths statue into its groove, the seventh stone door was opened.

"The last statue is the Nine Heavens, leaving only the Northeast," Gu Anqi asked with some excitement. "Brother Yanhui, why does the Nine Heavens govern the Northeast?"

"The substance of the Nine Heavens belongs to metal, bearing the image of Qian and the principle of all things. Heaven begins with Jia, and the numerical sequence from Jia to Ren is nine, hence it is named the Nine Heavens," I said with a calm and relaxed smile. "Whatever is undertaken in the realm of the Nine Heavens is righteous and justified; the direction of the Nine Heavens can be used to display military might and deploy battle formations, and therefore the Nine Heavens governs the Northeast."

When everyone joined forces to push the final Nine Heavens statue into its groove, the last stone door swung open, revealing a flight of steps leading further down.

As we descended the stairs, we finally got a clear look at the eight stone doors that had just been opened. Rather than calling them doors, it would be more accurate to call them stone pillars. A single pillar stood two meters high, and it required three people hugging it together to encircle it. Massive stone pillars weighing several tons each had been stacked neatly and vertically from top to bottom, completely blocking the path downward.

Had we failed to unlock the mechanism of the Eight Gates and Eight Divine Generals Formation, no amount of human physical labor could ever have allowed us down here.

Walking at the very front, Xiao Lianshan had been kept on edge by the myriad traps and mechanisms, treading every single step with extreme caution. Suddenly, I heard an unusually excited shout echo up from below:

"Gold! Why... why is there so much gold down here?!"