Of everyone, Aman was the happiest to choose this direction, because Su Pu had been captured here.
The group walked for a long while. The cave was filled with countless branching paths, and at every fork, Usun would fall into deep thought and eliminate several impossible routes. Sometimes even he could not decide, so they had no choice but to pick a path at random. Along the way, Öchen carved marks into the cave walls with his knife so they would not lose their way back out.
No one knew how long they had walked when the space before them suddenly opened up into a vast clearing. At the far end stood another pair of iron doors embedded in the mountain rock.
Öchen was overjoyed. "Could we have found where the treasure is hidden?"
The group hurried across the clearing and arrived before the doors. Öchen had Sansir turn the door ring again, only to discover that the doors were not locked at all. At the slightest touch, they creaked open.
They entered to find a grand hall, its four walls lined with clay and wooden Buddhist statues. Beyond the hall stretched an unbroken row of rooms, most of them containing Buddhist images as well. Now and then, they spotted Chinese characters on the walls: "King of the Gaochang Kingdom," "Wentai," "the thirteenth year of Zhenguan of the Great Tang," and so on. One hall contained only statues of Han Chinese figures. In the middle stood an old man, beneath a plaque reading, "The Most Sacred Ancient Teacher Confucius." Dozens of people stood to either side, bearing names such as "Yan Hui," "Zi Lu," "Zi Gong," "Zi Xia," and "Zi Zhang."
Sansir and Aman looked utterly bewildered. Öchen frowned as well. "Who are these people?"
"They were ancient Han Chinese