The entire side chamber was not large, about twenty square meters when swept by the spotlight.
In the center sat a rectangular stone pedestal.
At first, I thought it was a sarcophagus, but upon closer inspection, I realized it was too small to contain a person, designed instead to hold objects.
Wang Yang glanced at me and asked, "Can you tell what these patterns mean?"
I examined them carefully. The carvings were exquisite, clearly the work of a master, lifelike and vivid. They depicted a celestial palace, from which a person cast something downwards. Someone else picked it up and brought it home, and thereafter, the object produced vast amounts of gold and silver. If I wasn't mistaken, these carvings were meant to illustrate the origin of the Treasure Gathering Basin.
I continued looking but found nothing new.
After I explained the general meaning, Wang Yang remarked, "According to this, does that mean the Treasure Gathering Basin truly exists in the world?"
He then nudged the stone pedestal with his hand. "Could the Treasure Gathering Basin be hidden inside?"
Song Bing sidled up, knocked on the pedestal, and pressed his ear against it. "It's hollow inside; it should be openable."
"I'd like to see what treasures Shen Wansan hid in here," Wang Yang said, preparing to lift the pedestal.
At that very moment, that familiar laughter echoed again: "Hee hee hee..."
The three of us turned towards the source of the sound almost simultaneously.
A shadow flickered past in the beam of the spotlight.
I had initially thought the creature only inhabited water, but it seemed that wasn't the case. Could it have followed us in?
The three of us exchanged glances. Wang Yang hesitated and said, "Let's open this thing first and see what's inside?"
With that, the three of us forcefully pushed the lid of the stone pedestal, but it wouldn't budge.
Song Bing said, "This pedestal must have a mechanism." He began searching around. Just then, a stone flew from somewhere and struck the pedestal with a "bang." The stone was about the size of a fist, and I had no doubt it would have made a hole in my head if it had hit me!
"What was that?!" Song Bing shouted, and without a second thought, he charged towards the corridor with his Nepalese knife. He moved with incredible speed, reaching the corridor in the blink of an eye.
As I was about to follow him, Wang Yang grabbed my arm. "Let's open this first and see what's inside." Even now, this guy was still fixated on the contents.
I retorted impatiently, "Let's figure out what's going on here first."
Saying that, the two of us, carrying the spotlight, walked towards the corridor.
The corridor was over two meters high and three meters wide, with many lamp niches along the walls. I shone the spotlight into them and found that there was still oil in them. I touched it and smelled it; the odor was quite pungent. I didn't know what kind of oil it was.
I asked Wang Yang if he had a fire source. He fumbled in his pocket and pulled out a flint and steel lighter. Fortunately, the lighter was in an inner pocket of his diving suit and hadn't gotten wet. After a couple of tries, he quickly lit the lamp niches. Seeing the light, I turned off the spotlight. After all, it consumed electricity, and if the battery died, our exit would be extremely difficult. Frankly, I had no idea if we would even be able to get out after coming here. I just hoped we could find Yang Hanxue quickly so we could brainstorm a solution together.
As we walked, we lit the lamp niches in the corridor. Perhaps because of the light, I wasn't as frightened as before. After a short while, we reached the main burial chamber. The main burial chamber was clearly much larger than the side chamber, but strangely, it also lacked a coffin.
"Brother Song?" I called out. The vast tomb echoed with my voice, and I couldn't see Song Bing anywhere. Wang Yang was fiddling with something on the wall beside me. Before I could approach, he flicked his lighter, and instantly, a line of fire rapidly spread along the wall. Within moments, the chamber was bathed in light as all the lamp niches on the walls were ignited.
"This is mermaid fat," Wang Yang stated. I knew of mermaid fat; it was recorded in the Taiping Yulan as lamp oil supposedly made from mermaids. The ever-burning lamps in Qin Shi Huang's mausoleum used it.
In the center of the chamber, there was another stone pedestal, much larger than the one in the side chamber. Its shape was also different, being square. The entire chamber was circular, with a tiered platform in the center. To reach the pedestal, one had to descend the steps. The chamber contained nothing else besides the pedestal.
"Such an intricate tomb, and yet no burial objects?" Wang Yang remarked.
I chimed in, "I don't think this is a tomb."
"Not a tomb?"
"Have you ever seen a tomb without a coffin?" I asked. Wang Yang paused, looked around, and said, "That's true... Where do you think this is then?"
I replied, "It's more like a secret chamber for storing things."
"A secret chamber? Shen Wansan built a secret chamber underwater? What was he storing?" Wang Yang's eyes lit up. "Could it be the Treasure Gathering Basin?"
I said, "According to unofficial histories, the Treasure Gathering Basin was gifted to Zhu Yuanzhang long ago. How could he possibly have it now?"
"Then it must be something even more valuable than the Treasure Gathering Basin!" Wang Yang grinned.
"What could that be?" I asked.
Wang Yang shrugged. "Who knows?"
He started walking down the steps, but I quickly grabbed him.
"What's wrong?" he asked, looking at me confused.
"Don't go down yet... I have a feeling something isn't right." From the moment we entered this place, I'd felt a sense of inexplicable danger, though I couldn't pinpoint why. It might have been the scare from that "water tiger," or perhaps this place was just too unusual. Regardless, I felt it was best not to act rashly. After all, we were here to find someone, not to seek Shen Wansan's treasures. As the saying goes, curiosity killed the cat, and it was best to be cautious here.
I shared my concerns with Wang Yang. He chuckled, "Aren't you overthinking things?"
"Just don't go down. Let's find Brother Song first."
Wang Yang sighed in resignation. "Alright, let's find him first."
This main stone chamber had four corridors. We had already gone through one, leaving three more, their destinations unknown. As we approached the entrance of another corridor, I peered inside and was about to ask Wang Yang to light a lamp niche when a black shadow suddenly sprang out from the corridor and flew directly towards me!