Chapter 21: Breaking the Deadlock

Tian Yuqing couldn’t determine our exact location, but he kept casting divinations again and again to confirm the direction of the pit wall. We leaned against it to rest. Both teams had been wandering around the bottom of the pit for six hours straight, and the moment we sat down, exhaustion hit us like a wave.

Withered roots of plants dangled from the pit walls, their tendrils poking out of the soil. The temperature was steadily dropping, and our jackets weren’t cutting it anymore. He Yu took out his knife and began chopping the tendrils down to use as firewood.

Because of what we’d just discovered, my mind was racing too much to eat. I sipped some water and nibbled on a bit of compressed biscuit. After He Yu got the fire going, he leaned against me with a small stick in hand, half-dozing. Lu A’yao sat cross-legged on the sand, drawing talismans with a tree branch.

The archaeology team was distributing food. Tian Yuqing reminded Little Xu, “This is only the first night, and you’re already burning through your water. This place is deep. There might be an underground river below, but even if there is, the water may not be drinkable. If the supply team can’t get down here, and you run out early, you’ll be left drinking your own piss.”

The warmth of the fire slowly brought feeling back to my frozen feet, and I felt alive again. He Yu, full and warm, was already nodding off beside me.

I couldn’t sleep, so I kept staring at the towering Terracotta Figures in the distance, letting my thoughts wander.

There was no doubt—this was a Terracotta Figure Array. In the Three Kingdoms era, Zhuge Liang had devised the Eight Trigram Formation, a battlefield formation full of mystery and change, impossible to decipher. This place clearly wasn’t the same, but the Eight Trigram Formation was also derived from the Taoist Five Elements. Tian Yuqing had studied I Ching Divination since childhood, yet even he was stumped.

Directly in front of me stood a Terracotta Figure astride a massive horse, sword raised high in a battle-ready pose. I also noticed that the Terracotta Figures closest to the pit wall were all standing warriors—the most menacing in the entire pit. Only after them did the figures begin to transition into soldiers, civil officials, and Musician Figurines.

I sat cross-legged on the sand, pulling out a compressed biscuit to chew on.

The outermost warriors were clearly meant as a deterrent. But the mounted, battle-ready figures were something else entirely. They could only be explained as guardians of an emperor. And yet, there was no emperor figure in this entire burial pit. Nothing about this place made sense.

There was no way those mounted warriors were here just to protect the Musician Figurines at the center. I was sure of that—unless there was something else in the pit we hadn’t seen yet.

A thought flashed through my mind. I listened to the sound of He Yu’s stick tapping against the ground, the rhythm slowing. Then, inspiration struck. I immediately reached out and shook He Yu awake. He jolted upright, still groggy.

“What the hell, man! It’s the middle of the night—can’t sleep, so you gotta wake me up too?” He Yu grumbled.

I waved him over. Our eyes met, and we instinctively lowered our voices and leaned in. He asked, “What is it? Did you figure something out again?”

I nodded. “But I need proof. We need to go back in—back to where we were earlier. I want to run a test.”

He Yu nearly jumped up in excitement. I quickly pressed him down. “Keep it down!”

He shoved me. “Are you insane? It’s Lu’s turn on watch tonight. You think he won’t rat you out to Tian Yuqing? You’ll be grounded before you even take a step! This is way too risky. Just wait—tomorrow, we’ll go for sure. Be good, get some sleep, alright?”

“No way! By tomorrow, there’ll be more people, more noise. Who knows if we’ll even find the same path again? We’ll never locate the spot where that Terracotta Figure broke.” I gave him a shove. “Are you going or not? Quit stalling and give me a straight answer! If you’re not coming, I’ll go alone!”

I’d only dare talk like this to He Yu. If it were Tian Yuqing, he might just wave me off and let me go alone. And honestly, I wouldn’t dare venture into that pitch-black Terracotta Figure Array by myself.

Sure enough, He Yu grabbed my arm and, after a moment’s hesitation, began packing up. “Fine, fine. Guess I’ll risk my life for you, noble sir. I really don’t get you—this morning you were scared out of your mind when we fell in, and now you’re acting like a different person.”

I slung on my backpack. “I’m doing this for everyone. If I can solve this puzzle, we can head down sooner. And the sooner we go down, the sooner we can get out.”

He Yu muttered, “Then we better keep quiet. Watch out for Lu.”

Before he could finish, we heard footsteps behind us. Lu A’yao let out a whistle, his face unreadable. He casually lifted his jacket, revealing a glint of cold steel at his waist. “Chatting about me in the middle of the night? All packed up too. Where exactly are you two planning to go?”

He Yu froze, clearly not wanting to get into it with Lu A’yao.

I stood up with my backpack and gave Lu A’yao a sheepish grin. “Bro, how about you pretend you’re asleep and didn’t see anything? We’ll be back real quick—half an hour, tops.”

Lu A’yao’s face darkened. “No one moves without permission—especially not under these circumstances. I know you’ve got ideas, but save it for tomorrow. What you need right now is rest. Am I clear?”

I can’t sleep! Dammit, what college student crashes before ten p.m. anyway? And with the theory I just came up with, my brain was firing on all cylinders. I knew that if I didn’t act tonight, I wouldn’t get a wink of sleep.

I took a deep breath, lowered my voice, and tried to sound as calm and respectful as possible. “You saw what happened earlier. Going in with the others was a disaster. Even Tian Yuqing couldn’t do anything about it. But now I understand how the Terracotta Figure Array works. If I don’t go in and confirm it tonight, I guarantee tomorrow we’ll be stuck in the exact same situation. This array could trap us here forever—just like that mummified corpse, wasting away.”

He Yu stood by, watching us face off. My heart was pounding. I could even hear the ticking of the second hand on He Yu’s watch. I knew that if Lu A’yao didn’t agree, we wouldn’t be able to go, no matter what.

After a long silence, Lu A’yao said, “You can go—but not just the two of you. I’m coming with.”

He Yu and I both froze. So he wasn’t here to stop us—he wanted in.

Without flares to light the way, the Terracotta Figure Array was pitch black. Only our three flashlights cut through the darkness, and we moved slowly to keep our footsteps quiet. With fewer people, the atmosphere felt even more oppressive.

I held He Yu’s notebook in my left hand, comparing the map to our surroundings. Before long, we reached the spot where the Terracotta Figure had broken earlier. I checked the layout against the notebook and confirmed the position. Then I stood beside the shattered figure.

“This is it,” I said.

Lu A’yao and He Yu stopped on either side of me. He Yu leaned lazily on a Terracotta Figure and asked, “So this is the spot, Master Gan. What now? How can we be of service?”

Lu A’yao asked, “What exactly are you trying to confirm?”

I pulled out the stick He Yu had picked up earlier and began drawing circles in the sand. “If we treat this big circle as the burial pit and the smaller ones as individual Terracotta Figures, the outermost layer is made up of warriors, while the center holds Musician Figurines. That’s highly unusual. Are we really supposed to believe these mounted warriors are here to protect musicians?”

He Yu chimed in, “You’re saying there’s an Emperor Terracotta Figure we haven’t seen?”

I continued, “When we first entered, the figures were in complete disarray. We couldn’t make sense of their arrangement. But we overlooked something—these Terracotta Figures move when they hear sound.

“What I want to confirm is whether their movement follows a pattern. Specifically, are the Musician Figurines orbiting around a central point?”

Lu A’yao said, “Playing music for the emperor… If such a point exists, it would be the entrance to the tomb.”

I dropped the stick and stood up with a grin. “Then our job is simple—make enough noise. He Yu, this part’s your specialty.”

He Yu had a trendy flip phone, a birthday gift from his family. Hearing me, he pulled it from his pocket. “You sly bastard. You were just waiting for me to do this, weren’t you? Alright, let’s pick a good song—let our ancestors enjoy some modern music.”

He queued up Girl Under the Streetlight. The moment the song started, the eerie atmosphere was completely ruined.

Halfway through, I winced. “Okay, okay, cut it. We can’t play that for our ancestors—it’s way too ahead of its time. Pick something else.”

He Yu clicked his tongue and switched to Sailor. I told him to crank the volume to max. As soon as the sound peaked, the surrounding Terracotta Figures began to shake violently, as if coming to life. Their bases seemed connected to something, and they started moving rapidly.

I quickly stepped aside, sweeping my flashlight over each figure to avoid getting hit. Lu A’yao shouted, “Gan Ji! Watch their movement!”

I snapped to attention, scanning the figures under the beam of my flashlight. Then I noticed—they were all staring in the same direction. When stationary, their eyes never aligned like this.

I dodged around the moving figures and ran toward that direction. As I moved, I realized not only were their eyes fixed on that point, but their feet were circling around it as well.

“He Yu, that’s enough!” I shouted.

He Yu yelled back, “You deaf?! I stopped it ages ago! Why the hell are they still moving?!”

Only then did I realize the music had stopped when I first noticed the focal point. But the Terracotta Figures kept moving—and faster now, at least 1.5 times faster than before.

Suddenly, I remembered something my grandfather once said: “An old spring, once set in motion, will snap if stretched too long. Just like nerves—keep them taut too long, and a person will go mad. Ancient mechanical axles worked the same way.”

Lu A’yao was closest to me. I began scanning for him with my flashlight. Just as I moved the beam, the ground beneath me gave way. The sudden drop stole my breath. I saw He Yu not far off, falling just like me.

My flashlight flew from my hand. I flailed, trying to grab onto anything, but there was nothing but sand. I grabbed at emptiness and finally curled into a ball, bracing myself. My shoulder slammed into jagged stone as I slid downward, deeper into the unknown.