Snake-Browed Bronze Fish

Seeing that Cao Ya had no intention of making a move, the others had no choice but to let it go.

Wu Xie was puzzled. He asked Monk Hua, "That doesn't add up. Wasn't Eastern Xia wiped out by Mongolia ages ago? Some sources I read said it lasted only seventy-odd years and was constantly at war. If they built the Cloud Palace, how could such a tiny country have managed a tomb on this scale under the conditions back then?"

At Wu Xie's words, quite a few of them looked as though they agreed.

Eastern Xia was a small regime that had suddenly appeared around Jilin and Heilongjiang during the period when the Jurchen state was being destroyed.

Its founding emperor, King Wannu, hadn't even had time to pass the throne to the next generation before Mongolia swept around through Korea and destroyed it.

Mongolia had been ferociously powerful at the time, slaying gods and Buddhas alike if they stood in its way. If the scene in the mural really depicted that final battle, then, given Mongolia's temperament, it should have wiped the country out completely.

They might even have massacred the entire city!

Even the dynasties of the Central Plains had only modest productive capacity back then, let alone a tiny country tucked away in a remote corner. Its entire population was probably only a hundred thousand or so, a few hundred thousand at the very most, and certainly no more than a million. Without a vast labor force, it couldn't possibly have built such an enormous tomb, even if it hadn't been destroyed.

The Eastern Xia Kingdom simply lacked the capacity.

When Chen Pi A Si first said that an emperor of Eastern Xia was buried in the Cloud Palace, nothing had seemed particularly strange. Now, however, it felt more and more wrong. No matter how they looked at it, it was impossible. The Eastern Xia Kingdom had possessed neither the time nor the resources.

Everyone turned their gaze on Chen Pi A Si. He was the one who had said an emperor of Eastern Xia was buried in the Cloud Palace, but now that seemed utterly impossible.

Chen Pi A Si knew what they were thinking. He swept an expressionless glance over the mural, sneered, then looked at Monk Hua and said, "Since they don't believe it, Monk, explain it to them. Broaden their horizons."

Monk Hua agreed, then turned and smiled. "I know what you're questioning, but I can tell you that you've all got it wrong. Most of the information you've seen about Eastern Xia was inferred from incomplete ancient texts. In reality, the Eastern Xia Kingdom left behind very little material."

"If there's so little, then don't bother. Who gives a damn whether Eastern Xia survived or fell? Are you coming or not? If not, I'm heading out first," Cao Ya interrupted. He had no interest in the Eastern Xia Kingdom. All he cared about was what lay inside the Bronze Gate.

He couldn't have cared less about the past of Eastern Xia's King Wannu.

Whatever nasty surprises cropped up, he would just beat them to death.

That was what made brute force so satisfying.

"What a hotheaded guy." Wu Xie paused, envying Cao Ya's way of doing things. If he had Cao Ya's strength, he would definitely pin his Third Uncle down and make him spill every secret.

But his Third Uncle was in the hands of A Ning's people, and there was no telling how he was doing.

Wu Xie suddenly felt worried again. If it hadn't been for his Third Uncle, he would never have come to this godforsaken place.

Fatty and Pan Zi simply gave Cao Ya a thumbs-up.

Chen Pi A Si looked at Cao Ya and said nothing more.

He was deeply wary of Cao Ya, especially when he had no weapon.

Without a gun in his hands, he really didn't dare snap back at Cao Ya.

So, even though he disapproved of Cao Ya's attitude, he had no choice but to go along with him.

Monk Hua was a little disgruntled. He had finally gotten started, only to be interrupted, but he didn't dare argue with Cao Ya either.

There was no helping it. He was scared.

Monk Hua coughed and spoke more quickly. "Since Brother Cao wants us to pick up the pace, I'll keep this brief."

"Then let's hear him out. Cao Ya, give him another moment," Fatty said, suppressing a laugh. He couldn't stand the arrogant looks on Chen Pi A Si and his companions' faces, as though everyone else were country bumpkins they could sneer at just for asking a question.

Wu Xie, Pan Zi, and Shunzi exchanged glances and blinked at one another.

Only Poker-Face remained his usual self, merely gazing at Cao Ya for a moment,

with no telling what he was thinking. Cao Ya spread his hands, signaling for them to hurry up.

He got along well with Fatty, so he had to give him that much face.

Monk Hua inwardly breathed a sigh of relief and spoke rapidly. "We have very direct evidence concerning the Eastern Xia Kingdom."

As he spoke, he deftly pulled a piece of white silk from a pocket in his inner clothing and unfolded it before everyone. At the sight of it, Wu Xie, Fatty, and Pan Zi felt their hearts lurch.

The Snake-Browed Bronze Fish!

From the Seven-Star Lu Palace to the Xisha Undersea Tomb, they had found traces of Snake-Browed Bronze Fish. They hadn't expected Chen Pi A Si to have one too.

Monk Hua didn't notice the expressions on Wu Xie's and Fatty's faces-or perhaps he did and pretended not to.

He continued, "This bronze fish is a variant form of a dragon. Our old master obtained it through a stroke of chance. I believe it was made by someone who knew the inside story of the Eastern Xia Kingdom. What's remarkable is that he used an ingenious method to hide top-secret information in this bronze fish. Look."

He held the bronze fish beside the lantern. Its gilded scales reflected golden light, casting numerous thin flecks onto the mural. As Monk Hua rotated the fish, the flecks began to shift, gradually resolving into shapes that looked like written characters.

"This is where the secret lies. A total of forty-seven characters in Jurchen Script are hidden in this fish's scales," Monk Hua said, sounding slightly triumphant.

Wu Xie felt a little strange. He had two bronze fish in his own pocket.

Pan Zi, Fatty, and Poker-Face all knew about them.

In fact, Cao Ya knew too.

He even knew where this bronze fish had come from. It was a token left by Wang Canghai, recording some of what had happened after King Wannu abducted him to build the tomb.

The most crucial part was the truth he had discovered about King Wannu-a monster from beneath the earth!

Monk Hua explained all of this too, along with other conjectures. For instance, Eastern Xia had secretly survived for several hundred years and had fourteen emperors in total. During that time, it had faced destruction several times, but had always survived for some strange reason: the enemy armies had withdrawn.

"What reason? Can you fucking spit it out instead of talking like some charlatan and leaving everything half-said?" Pan Zi demanded impatiently. People who only told half the story irritated him most.

Monk Hua shrugged. "I don't know. The information on the bronze fish is incomplete. There must be other objects recording the rest. But based on the few characters I have here, I can say that something truly bizarre must have happened for the Eastern Xia Kingdom to survive! The later information is missing. We've been trying to find it, but unfortunately, our old master searched for years without finding the other parts."

He paused, originally intending to keep them in suspense, but caught sight of Cao Ya beside him out of the corner of his eye and immediately abandoned the idea. He said plainly:

"It says that none of the successive King Wannus were human."

"If they weren't human, what were they?" Fatty asked.

Monk Hua put the bronze fish away. "It says they were all a kind of monster that crawled out from beneath the earth."

"You're kidding, right?"

Everyone exchanged looks, probably feeling a little creeped out.

"A monster? King Wannu deserves that title? He's nothing but a beast," Cao Ya sneered.