Chapter 174: The Yin-Yang Thirteen Palaces

I realized something immediately. I had been wrong from the very start when I first saw that string of numbers. I had been calculating based on what each part of the code represented after the founding of New China—for example, “434” stood for the 434 Archaeological Team, and “1951” likely referred to the year 1951.

But I had forgotten one thing: the code for the Nine Rings Project was “4341951009.” It didn’t just refer to a single part. To truly understand it, I had to look at it as a whole.

Finding Lu Xiaosu’s personal identification had just solved this lingering doubt in my heart. The code for the Nine Rings Project was very likely the ID number of someone from the 434 Archaeological Team. However, since there were only eight bodies here, it could also just be the team’s designation number.

I narrowed my eyes, trying to distinguish the last three digits of Lu Xiaosu’s ID. I stared for a long time until my vision blurred, but I couldn’t make anything out. It had been completely scratched away, leaving no possibility of restoration. If Lu Xiaosu was indeed this “009,” then the subsequent launch of the Nine Rings Project must be inextricably linked to the Lu Clan.

“Are you saying the Nine Rings Project code is actually Lu Xiaosu’s personal ID number?” He Yu asked, pointing at the document.

I said I couldn’t guarantee it, but with the prefix being identical, calling it a coincidence would be treating us like fools. Having gained some clarity, I tucked the ID into my inner pocket and zipped it up. Once I was sure it was secure, I shouldered my backpack again.

“In any case, we have a lead now. These eight bodies gathered here and died suddenly; something major must have happened back then. This isn’t a place to linger. Let’s hurry through this section and find the main hall first.”

After saying that, I immediately signaled He Yu and Tian Xiaoqi, telling them not to obsess over the corpses anymore. We had already stayed here for nearly twenty minutes. My sixth sense told me that staying too long in a strange place like this would definitely lead to trouble.

“Wait a second, Xiao Yao,” He Yu said, coming up from behind and grabbing my backpack. He tapped his head with a finger. “Where’s that map you had tucked in your notebook? I just thought of something that’s similar to what’s in there. Let me see it, quick.”

He Yu was much more experienced than I was, so I quickly pulled the leather notebook from my waistband. I flipped through it until I found the paper with the thirteen circles drawn on it. Holding it in my hands, I spread it out before him and shone my light on it.

He looked it over for a while, rotating it slightly, and his brow began to furrow deeply.

This was a bad sign. Unsure of what he was thinking, I asked, “Have you seen this pattern before? What did you think of?”

I expected He Yu to give an uncertain shake of his head, but instead, he nodded twice, heavily. “My family has an ancient volume called the Bafang Yinyang Jianwen,” he said. “It describes the structures of various bizarre and treacherous tombs from ancient times, and every tomb has a method to crack it. However, the final section of the book records two lethal, dead-end formations that have no solution. The first is the General-Summoning Formation, also known as the Illusion Formation. The second is a highly auspicious formation called the Yin-Yang Thirteen Palaces.”

“Then the one we’re in now… it couldn’t be one of those two, could it?” I already had a sinking feeling.

He Yu looked at me with an expression that seemed caught between laughter and tears. He pointed at the thirteen circles on the map. “The Yin-Yang Thirteen Palaces. The ‘Thirteen Palaces’ refers to these thirteen circles. Once a person enters, they are inexplicably trapped inside until they run out of food and water and die. There’s a folk saying that ghosts can’t navigate paths full of corners and stairs. The Yin-Yang Thirteen Palaces are nothing but corners and stairs, so even if you become a ghost, you can’t get out. You just keep circling within these thirteen palaces forever.”

Hearing this, I spun around immediately. “Then let’s go back! We haven’t gone that far; there must be another path we can take.”

He Yu looked even more ready to cry. “We’ve been within the range of the Thirteen Palaces since the moment we ran through the tomb doors,” he said. “That passage just now was straight, but if you go back now, there’s no telling what it’s turned into!”

Tian Xiaoqi was faster than me. She sprinted back to check, with He Yu and me right behind her. After running for a few minutes, a cold sweat instantly broke out across my back.

The tomb door was gone!

In my memory, we hadn’t come very far along the passage—at most a few minutes’ walk. Yet the three of us were running now, and after several minutes, the dim corridor ahead showed no sign of ending.

My first reaction was to tell them to stop. If the tomb door were still there, we should have seen it ages ago. Its disappearance meant that the internal structure of the Yin-Yang Thirteen Palaces had undergone a massive change without us knowing. The door was no longer in its original position. Without any landmarks, going backward would turn us into headless flies.

“Quick! Back to the bodies!” I started sprinting back the way we came.

He Yu didn’t understand at the time, but he clearly didn’t have the energy to ask questions. He immediately turned around and followed me.

Fortunately, we hadn’t gone too far. The position of the eight corpses hadn’t shifted; they were still spread out along the long corridor exactly as we had left them. It was almost funny—just moments ago, I was saying we shouldn’t linger here, and now these eight predecessors on the ground were the only landmarks we had left.

“It looks like we won’t be getting out anytime soon. If you ask me, we should start rationing our supplies from now on,” He Yu said, sliding down to sit in a corner. “The Yin-Yang Thirteen Palaces isn’t something the three of us can crack.”

I realized he was right. I followed his lead and clicked off my flashlight. The three of us huddled in the corner for warmth, using only one flashlight to provide basic illumination.

“In that Bafang Yinyang Jianwen of yours, did the section on the Yin-Yang Thirteen Palaces mention where to start?” I shuffled closer to ask.

Since many of the He Clan’s ancient volumes were compiled at the cost of their ancestors’ lives, the compilers usually included their own insights when organizing the fragments. If that were the case, the Bafang Yinyang Jianwen likely contained some personal notes. Even if the Yin-Yang Thirteen Palaces couldn’t be solved, the author would have at least had some theories.

To my surprise, He Yu gave me a wry smile. “There is, but it’s a bit special. You’ve seen it before.”

“What do you mean, I’ve seen it before?”

“The annotation following the Yin-Yang Thirteen Palaces is: Looking Up to See All Living Beings. What, you haven’t seen those words before?”

My head suddenly throbbed, and I felt a momentary sense of vertigo. Subconsciously, I began to look upward. We were only using one flashlight, so the surroundings were pitch black. Looking up, I saw the ceiling of the passage—this time, there wasn’t even a pattern, just a bare expanse of brick and stone.

He Yu rolled over and pushed himself up from the ground. He slapped the dust off his hands, picked up a random pebble, and started sketching on the floor. “But we won’t necessarily end up trapped to death like these eight people. I noticed on the way in that the tomb construction here is quite varied, likely because the structure itself is unstable.”

Tian Xiaoqi looked at him. “Are you saying the tomb’s structure is too fragile to house those truly formidable traps?”

He Yu shook his head and looked at me, waiting for my explanation.

Listening to their discussion, I understood. From the moment I saw the Tomb-guarding Beast made of half-stone and half-wood, I should have realized that this “pieced-together” underground palace was very unstable. Many parts were recycled from old shipwrecks from the seabed. The materials were used very sparingly, and there were almost no precious decorations like jade. It was a prime example of “turning waste into treasure” from a bygone era.

However, since this method was so cheap to implement, it had to have a massive hidden drawback. That flaw was glaringly obvious: it was impossible to integrate large mechanical bearings into the existing structure of the shipwrecks.

These sunken ships had been soaking in water for years and weren’t particularly sturdy to begin with. If mechanical bearings were forced into them, the moment those mechanisms were triggered, the slightest movement would affect the entire structure. Not only was there a risk of collapse, but there was also the danger of damaging the internal Main Hall.

I thought about it for a moment, then took the stone from He Yu’s hand. “The issue with the traps can be solved to some extent. As long as the underground palace is large enough, you could set up enough traps on the exterior to ensure grave robbers never reach the Main Hall.”

Why was it necessary to have “enough” traps? Because these mechanisms had to be single-use. If they were triggered too many times, the shipwrecks carrying them likely wouldn’t be able to bear the strain. The probability of a total collapse would be nearly a hundred percent.

Wait a second.

A flash of inspiration struck me. He Yu’s attention to detail had reminded me of something: if the situation was truly as we had discussed, then our current assessment of our status was completely wrong.

I looked around the area and said grimly, “Something is playing tricks on us. We started off with the wrong assumption. This isn’t a truly ‘living’ Yin-Yang Thirteen Palaces.”

“What do you mean? If it’s not a living Yin-Yang Thirteen Palaces, could it be a dead one?”

“Exactly!”

He Yu was stunned by my response, unsure of how to reply. It took him a long moment to ask, “So, what’s your brilliant insight now?”

“If it’s like we thought and the traps here are all single-use, the operating principle of the Yin-Yang Thirteen Palaces should be that it constantly shifts and rotates from the moment we enter. But this place is different from the mainland. This tomb passage—and the entire Yin-Yang Thirteen Palaces—is built inside ships. An archaeological team even came in before us. Logically, after it operated once, it shouldn’t be able to perform such precise movements again.”

He Yu slapped his thigh. “You’re right! The archaeological team already triggered the traps here once. No, they wandered around here for so long that they must have triggered them multiple times. If that’s the case, after all this time, the mechanisms here should have been scrapped long ago.”

Tian Xiaoqi nudged me with her arm. “Have you noticed? We’ve been sitting here for quite a while, and there hasn’t been any movement nearby. The tomb passage hasn’t shown any obvious changes either.”

I had noticed. Ever since we sat down, the passage around us hadn’t changed. I had been keeping a close eye on the corpses in the corridor, fearing that if I looked away for a second, our only landmarks would vanish. But they were still lying right there, looking anything but peaceful.

“So, before the tomb door disappeared just now, did either of you hear the sound of machinery moving?” I asked.

Both Tian Xiaoqi and He Yu shook their heads without exception. Not only had they heard nothing, but I hadn’t heard anything resembling the sound of a mechanism operating either. This was incredibly strange. It meant that the Yin-Yang Thirteen Palaces had moved the only door leading outside without making a single sound.