novelraw Chapter 654 - 584: The Late Emperor’s Mausoleum
Chapter 654 - 584: The Late Emperor’s Mausoleum
The Book Collection Pavilion of the Yiyuan Imperial Palace has existed for thousands of years, standing there since the founding of the country, housing countless rare ancient texts. The whole building has thirteen floors.
The book legacy left by successive emperors is preserved as precious collections on the top floor of the pavilion.
The Beastmen in charge of organizing the books saw that His Majesty personally came to find the books left by the late Emperor. They dared not be negligent and quickly retrieved the dozens of books written by the late Emperor, presenting all of them to Shen Li without missing a single one.
Shen Tang and Shen Li went through all these books, but unfortunately, they did not find the clues they were looking for.
Shen Li stroked his chin, deciding to make a decision that went against his ancestors—raiding the Imperial Mausoleum!
Now, the only place left that might hold a chance was the Imperial Mausoleum.
When these words were spoken, forget about those conservative civil and military officials, even Shen Tang was dumbfounded and said in shock, "You want to dig up a grave... disturb the Imperial Mausoleum? This is extremely disrespectful."
Such an act would be a capital crime in the Night Glow Empire, punishable by death, with even the emperor having to receive lashes in front of the ancestral hall! Not to mention in the strictly ceremonial Yiyuan Empire.
And he was planning to raid his own father’s tomb.
Truly a dutiful son!
Shen Li touched his nose and said awkwardly, "I’m left with no choice. There’s no other way now."
Anyway, in the entire Empire right now, no one dared to order him to kneel in the ancestral hall, lest they were tired of living.
Having made up their minds, they acted immediately. Taking advantage of a dark and windy night, the two sneakily went to the Imperial Mausoleum.
Although Shen Li claimed not to care, the two of them wore night clothes when they came, with their faces covered, looking exactly like illegal tomb raiders.
The tomb raiding was known only to them both, Shen Li didn’t even dare to tell Qiu Yang. Otherwise, this most loyal Imperial Guard by the late Emperor’s side might go mad.
If someone discovered the emperor personally digging up his father’s tomb, it wouldn’t reflect well. While Shen Li was alive, no one dared speak ill, but if this were recorded in history books a century later, it would be a laughing stock for all time.
Shen Li still cared a bit about his reputation.
Once someone discovered the tomb had been raided, Shen Li would randomly catch a lucky tomb robber as a scapegoat, and the matter would pass.
After hearing his plan, Shen Tang could only purse her lips, thinking he was nothing but a cunning, scheming fox!
The night was deep, and the royal cemetery was silent under the cold moonlight, broken only by the sound of wind through the forest. Shen Li led Shen Tang, avoiding the guards, and silently came to a massive stone wall covered with vines and moss.
"This is it," Shen Li said quietly, his voice especially clear in the silence.
He stepped forward, clearing layers of vines with his fingers, revealing ancient reliefs almost integrated with the rock’s texture—a nine-tailed heavenly fox sleeping with grace and divinity.
Shen Li softly said,
"Father, pardon me."
He found the most concealed spot and moved part of the door stone of the Vajra Wall, opening a passage large enough for two people to pass through.
Once inside, after a long tunnel, they reached the main entrance to the tomb.
Shen Li pushed open the heavy stone door that had been closed for a long time, and a damp chill immediately swept out, chilling to the bone.
Once through the underground palace entrance, they truly entered the secret chamber of the late Emperor, where the burial items were arranged according to normal state funeral specifications—not too simple nor too luxurious, with a central platform holding a coffin.
Upon opening the coffin lid, they found nothing inside, but dark toxic gas emerged, along with many black insects crawling up from below!
The toxicity of these insects and gas was so strong it could easily fell even High-level Beastmen.
Thankfully, Shen Tang possessed top-notch Healing Ability, and immediately set up an Energy Barrier over the two, making the toxic fumes harmless to them.
She burned all the insects to ash with a burst of flame.
She exclaimed, "This coffin is a fake, merely a decoy. The real coffin isn’t here, this is a mechanism your father set up during his lifetime. Clearly, he didn’t want anyone finding this place."
The two continued exploring the tomb, traversing the front, middle, and back halls, as well as surrounding annexes, finding several fake coffins as well as lethal hidden traps.
Had their current abilities been inadequate, they might have lost their lives here.
The late Emperor did not hold back when setting up these mechanisms! Clearly intending to claim lives!
Undoubtedly, he hadn’t expected the grave robbers would be his own progeny.
This also indicated that the tomb undoubtedly hid secrets the late Emperor wished no outsider to know, intending to carry them to eternal slumber underground.
Using spiritual power, Shen Tang detected that the tomb was a decoy, with the real tomb located further below.
After careful investigation, they successfully determined the location of the underground tomb, finding a concealed annex.
This annex was small and rather rudimentary, with simple imagery on all sides, devoid of murals or burial accompaniments, like a randomly carved-out space, so plain it was unbecoming of a nation’s emperor’s tomb.
Yet, in truth, this was the late Emperor’s true burial chamber.
In the center lay a large coffin, its lid etched with complex patterns resembling mystical incantations, covered by a faint Energy Barrier, seemingly providing protection.
Shen Li stood silently before the coffin for a long time, then lifted his hand to open the lid.
The coffin was silent, the late Emperor’s remains resting quietly atop the silk lining, reduced to a skeleton. The silk robes though faded, remained intact, with embroidery at the edges still faintly visible, appearing soft.
Beside the ivory skull lay long silver hair, several feet in length, like early winter’s frost, gleaming and flowing as though still alive.
Shen Tang gazed upon the beauty of the bones before her, recalling the image of the white fox youth she saw in Shen Li’s Spiritual Illusion Realm, gradually merging with the skeleton’s vision.
This was, indeed, the late Emperor Ji Jin.
For Shen Li, this was his first act of such great irreverence. He quietly observed the skeletal remains in the coffin, softly uttering,
"Father."
His voice trembled slightly, repressed with many emotions. Shen Tang gently grasped his hand, calming his emotions gradually, allowing him to take a deep breath, an apologetic look in his eyes upon the remains, "Apologies, father, for disturbing your rest, but your son has urgent matters to attend to."
Inside the coffin was spacious, clearly intended for the Emperor and Empress’ joint burial; yet it held only the late Emperor, the left side empty but for some books, paintings, and daily items for burial, understated and simple.
The books and paintings, even after nearly twenty years, were remarkably preserved, showing no signs of damage.
Most striking was a book still clutched in the late Emperor’s hand.
Shen Li carefully picked it up, glanced through, and found exactly what they sought.
It contained many ancient Blood Clan characters, with translations into the current common language of the Beast World on the reverse.
The writings seemed like the daily jottings of Emperor Ji Jin, or casual poetic notes, beautifully worded with subtle surreal elegance and a hint of longing, suggesting the Emperor was very talented.
If someone from future generations obtained this book, they could completely translate the ancient Blood Clan text using the annotations on the back!
Uncertain whether left intentionally or inadvertently.