Eastern Tomb Expedition Chronicles

Chapter 7: The Great Malevolence

Tension crackled through the dank air of the tomb like a live wire. Second Brother Sun's anger was palpable, the veins on his forehead standing out starkly, his hands clenched as if ready to strike. Beside him, Third Brother Sun shook his head and sighed, a sense of resignation clouding his features. After a brief moment, he pressed the talk button on the walkie-talkie. "Boss, we've got a new development. The tomb's been tampered with," he reported solemnly.

The radio crackled with static before Boss Wang's voice returned, cold and calculated, "When was it disturbed? Have you entered the main chamber?"

"No, we're still in the passageway. A towel just washed over—clearly, this site was looted not long ago. You know the folks from the south; they hardly leave anything of value," Third Brother explained with a frustrated tone.

Boss Wang pondered for a moment before instructing, "Alright, Second Brother, proceed to the main chamber. If it's empty, don’t bother with the side rooms. Just pack up and come back up."

"Roger that, boss," Second Brother Sun responded and put down the radio. At that moment, I, who have always been sensitive to scents, caught a whiff of something unexpected—a faint but distinct aroma of incense. "Second Brother... why do I smell burning incense?" I asked, puzzled.

This prompted Second Brother Sun to sniff dramatically toward the front. Then, turning to Third Brother Sun with a flash of realization in his eyes, he confirmed, "You're right, it's agarwood." His expression suddenly turned grave.

"What's the problem with agarwood?" I asked, seeing their serious faces but not understanding the significance.

Before anyone could reply, the typically jovial expression on the brothers' faces vanished. "Yunfeng, give me your hand," Second Brother Sun demanded abruptly.

"What? Why do you need my hand?" I asked, stretching out my hand tentatively.

"What are you doing!" I couldn't help but cry out when he swiftly slashed my finger with a sharp dagger. My blood started to drip, a vivid crimson against the dusty floor. To my shock, both brothers smeared my blood on their wrists.

"Why are you using my blood?" I whined, nursing my throbbing finger.

"Yunfeng, in our line of work, dealing with gold and relics, we fear encountering the Four Great Evils and the Six Lesser Evils," Second Brother Sun explained as he treated my wound with an almost ritualistic solemnity. "The cross-eyed guardian beasts, the unnaturally fragrant agarwood, the undecaying red-lacquered coffins, and the ever-burning oil lamps—these are the Great Evils. Ancestor's rules dictate that fresh blood can ward off these malevolent forces."

His words sounded like something out of a ghost story, meant to scare children. In a small, hurt voice, I protested, "Then why didn't you cut your own fingers? Why mine?"

"Our blood won't work; it has to be virgin blood," Second Brother Sun said, a mischievous glint in his eye. "Yunfeng, you haven't even held a girl's hand, have you?" I stuttered, at a loss for words.

Trying to shift the conversation away from my embarrassment, I stubbornly asked, "What are the Six Lesser Evils?"

Third Brother Sun shook his head, his voice taking on a mentor's tone. "Yunfeng, you're new to this and haven't seen much yet. These are old teachings from the veterans of our trade. The quicksand graves, celestial fire sealing the tops, the undecomposed bodies of tomb owners, jewels plugging their seven orifices, coffins larger than the outer coffins, and rats making nests in the coffins—these are the old society’s Six Lesser Evils."

He continued, "Every trade has its secrets. Back in the day, we were known as 'Biased Eight.' Now, modern society labels us criminals. The respectable trades are 'Upper Eight,' while we're 'Lower Eight.' Besides, there's dealing with the dead—what we call 'Dark Seven Paths.'"

"As you walk this path, Yunfeng, remember these teachings. It's vital you understand them so you won't lose face for our Northern faction. The Dark Seven Paths include sewing corpses, executioners, corpse herders, grave inflaters, paper effigy makers, bone collectors, and the coffin makers for dead children. These are the skills you'll need to navigate the hidden currents of our world," Third Brother Sun concluded, casting a stern look that brooked no argument, imprinting the dark lore of their forbidding craft onto the newcomer.Here is the English translation of your text:

"I really couldn't remember all those messy things at that time; it all felt very jumbled, with him mentioning all sorts of things, and I had no idea what he was talking about. 'Alright, third brother, he's just a kid; no use telling him all this. Let's go check out the main tomb chamber up ahead,' Sun Lao'er said, shaking his wrist, 'We have the blood of Yunfeng’s child on us to ward off evil!' Then wading through the water, we walked along the tomb passage for another two or three minutes. The main tomb chamber wasn’t in sight yet. As we approached and shone our headlamps forward, we found not the main chamber but a stone wall blocking the way. At that moment, a gust of wind blew in from somewhere, chilling my feet soaked in the murky water. Reaching the stone wall, Sun Lao'er looked up. Above our heads, on the ceiling of the tomb passage, we could clearly see a large black hole through which the cold breeze was entering. The hole was irregularly shaped. Sun Lao'san, looking at the hole, frowned and said, 'This was done by the group before us. We passed another section of the ceiling that wasn’t blown open; looks like they changed their spot and blew it open here, judging by the shape of the hole, they probably used detonators.' Sun Lao'san pressed his walkie-talkie: 'Boss, straight ahead is a stone wall, not like what we thought, not the main tomb chamber, and we haven’t found any burial artifacts yet.' The walkie-talkie’s red light flashed on as Wang, the boss, remotely commanded, 'A tomb with green plaster clay must have a main chamber. Keep looking, go check the western ear chamber.' 'Received, boss. How much time do we have left?' 'You have two hours and forty-five minutes until daylight; try to speed it up.' 'Okay,' Sun Lao'er let go of the walkie-talkie button, and led me and Sun Lao'san around the stone wall towards the western ear chamber. It was my first time seeing a tomb’s ear chamber, which was just an emptied small room. From the watermarks on the walls, it was clear it had been entirely submerged before. What did I see at first glance? Heaps of bronze artifacts, large quantities of them haphazardly piled on the floor of the western ear chamber. There were damaged and intact pieces, small round and square dings, bronze grain measures, bronze beans, bronze goblets—at a glance, there were dozens! 'We’ve struck it rich!' Sun Lao'er's eyes turned red as he blathered into the walkie-talkie: 'Boss... boss! We've struck it rich! There are dozens of bronze items in the western ear chamber! Covered in black lacquer and ancient mercury rust! Genuine Western Zhou dynasty artifacts from a water pit!' Wang, the boss, who had seen his share of ups and downs, calmly replied through the walkie-talkie, 'Transport them in batches, get them all out.' 'Right away,' Sun Lao'er pulled out a snakeskin bag he carried, scoffing, 'Did those rats down south turn vegetarian? Leaving us so much meat, I really want to thank their ancestors on behalf of my mom!' Sun Lao'san, always more composed, furrowed his brow and said in a low voice, 'Second brother, something feels off. Those rats in the south have noses no worse than ours; they couldn’t have missed so much meat, it doesn’t make sense...' Sun Lao'er, undeterred by the toxic mercury rust, picked up a small bronze square ding and kissed it: 'Haha, baby, you’re coming home with me!' He didn’t forget to add a line. 'Third brother, I’ve noticed you’re getting more timid. Why overthink it? Third brother, let me ask you, if there were a bunch of female college students lying naked on the ground, what would you do?' 'A group of female college students... that's some heavy labor indeed.'"