General of the Heavens

Chapter 72 Nighttime Investigation of the Eastern Tombs [Seeking Recommendations]

Night fell, and the moon and stars were few.

A dark figure was wandering around outside the Eastern Qing Tombs. The once mighty Qing Dynasty was gone, and the imperial tombs had become coveted targets for tomb raiders.

The figure in black was Ning Chen. He was dressed in night clothes and had already sneaked into the vicinity of Dongling. Tonight, he finally decided to investigate Dongling at night.

To be honest, since Ning Chen obtained the "Sixteen-Character Yin-Yang Feng Shui Secret Technique" from Hu Guohua, he has gained a considerable understanding of the tomb raiding methods of Faqiu and Mojin after studying it for so long.

He could even talk about geomancy and feng shui, so when he arrived near the Eastern Tombs, Ning Chen indeed discovered the extraordinary feng shui layout of the Qing Dynasty imperial tombs.

During the Qianlong era, there was a feng shui master named Lu Qixiang. When he went to the Eastern Tombs to survey the area, his hand trembled and the compass fell to the ground and shattered.

When asked why his hands were shaking, Lu Qixiang said, "The feng shui of this place is extremely good. It is surrounded by mountains on all sides with an open layout, and two rivers flow in the middle without being stagnant."

The surrounding mountains and waters are in perfect harmony, the surrounding hills and valleys converge and bask in harmony—truly a naturally formed imperial mausoleum. Such excellent feng shui is immediately apparent; there's no need for a compass to measure it.

Ning Chen shook his head: "It's a pity that no matter how good the feng shui is, it can't protect the fortune of the Qing Dynasty. After Puyi abdicated, most of the Eight Banners soldiers, Green Standard Army soldiers, Ministry of Rites and Works soldiers, and Ministry of the Interior guarding the mausoleum ran away because no one was paying their salaries."

Now only the Dongling Office remains, located in the town of Malanyu, barely surviving on meager government funding and donations from the imperial clan.

Otherwise, if Ning Chen were to spy on an imperial tomb like this during the Qing Dynasty, it would be a capital offense punishable by death and the extermination of his entire family.

"Thank goodness the Qing Dynasty is over."

Ning Chen moved swiftly. The tomb keepers of the Qingdong Mausoleum were so lazy that they didn't even patrol at night, so how could they possibly have discovered his whereabouts?

Ning Chen looked north and saw the straight and wide Sacred Way stretching all the way to the southern foot of Changrui Mountain, eventually connecting with Xiaoling Mausoleum.

Sadly, many of the large blue stones along the spirit path are missing or broken, likely stolen by the tomb guards who dug them up to sell for money.

Therefore, as Ning Chen walked through this vast Eastern Mausoleum, he felt no sense of grandeur of the imperial tombs, but only endless desolation.

Heading north along the Sacred Way, the number of buildings increases significantly, with things like the Great Red Gate, the Great Stele Tower, stone statues, the Dragon and Phoenix Gate, and the Seven-Arch Bridge... It's dazzling.

"Good heavens, if I hadn't been lucky enough to visit the Eastern Tombs in the main world, I might have gotten lost here."

The Eastern Qing Tombs are a vast area, and even at Ning Chen's speed, he couldn't explore it all in a day. Therefore, Ning Chen could only set one target.

To avoid attracting attention, Ning Chen chose Huiling, located at the easternmost part of the entire Eastern Tombs, which is the tomb of Emperor Tongzhi, Aisin-Gioro Zaichun.

Ning Chen didn't come here for the amount of burial goods; otherwise, he would have definitely chosen the Yuling Mausoleum of Emperor Qianlong or the tomb of Empress Dowager Cixi.

Both of these mausoleums are incredibly wealthy.

At this moment, Sun Dianying, a Kuomintang general, has not yet taken action against the Eastern Tombs. Ning Chen's arrival has essentially eliminated the possibility of Sun Dianying robbing the tomb.

Ning Chen activated his Golden Eyes, and the world became as bright as day. The tomb of the Tongzhi Emperor was indeed shabby, lacking even a spirit path and stone statues.

"Oh, poor child."

Stone figures are stone human figures and stone beasts placed in front of imperial tombs. They are collectively called stone figures or "Weng Zhong". They are a microcosm of imperial power and ceremonial guards.

The practice of using stone statues as burial objects began in the Qin and Han dynasties and continued to be used by emperors and important officials of subsequent dynasties, although the number and the images depicted varied.

In layman's terms, the more stone statues a dynasty had, the more powerful it was. It's pitiful that Huiling didn't even have a single stone statue.

Speaking of stone statues, Ning Chen recalled an interesting story: Emperor Qianlong was ambitious and fond of grand achievements, and he was known for his romantic and extravagant lifestyle.

They also frequently traveled to the south of the Yangtze River to sow seeds.

I wonder if he still remembers Xia Yuhe by Daming Lake...

This guy wanted to have more stone statues erected for him after his death, but his grandfather, Emperor Kangxi, was an oddball who advocated frugality and was the only emperor in the Qing Dynasty who did not allow anyone to erect stone statues for him.

Therefore, when Emperor Qianlong proposed to erect a stone statue of himself, a group of ministers used Emperor Kangxi as an example, saying that Qianlong should continue the virtues of the holy emperor and should not be extravagant.

Even so, Emperor Qianlong was still not giving up. In the end, he came up with a crooked idea: to first erect a stone statue of his grandfather, Emperor Kangxi, so that when he erected one himself, no one could object.

"That logic gets full marks!"

Ning Chen laughed at this, calling the Qianlong Emperor a clever little devil. He said that the Kangxi Emperor, a wise and incorruptible ruler, was ruined by the Qianlong Emperor.

But that's not all. Starting with Emperor Qianlong, several emperors followed suit, first erecting stone statues for their ancestors and then for themselves.

The logic is flawless.

So now there is a strange sight in the Eastern Tombs: the most honest and frugal Emperor Kangxi has the most stone statues in front of his tomb.

The key issue is that he himself hasn't established a single [status/achievement]...

It is estimated that if it weren't for the fact that the Qing Dynasty had weakened so much by the time of the Tongzhi Emperor, he would have gone through the process of erecting the stone statue again.

At this moment, the night was past midnight. Ning Chen looked up at the starry sky and used his still-unskilled celestial feng shui technique to deduce the location of Huiling's tomb chamber.

As a great man once said, practice is the sole criterion for testing truth. Ning Chen's nighttime exploration of the Eastern Tombs is precisely for a site-wide learning experience.

Let's verify the "Sixteen-Character Yin-Yang Feng Shui Secret Technique" again, so we don't end up without experience when we go all out. After all, when it comes to tomb raiding, practice makes perfect.

Ning Chen didn't even have a decent compass. It wasn't that he couldn't buy one, but that ordinary compasses simply couldn't be used in conjunction with the Celestial Feng Shui technique.

The relative error in orientation is too large.

It would be better to deduce the truth slowly based on astrological signs and feng shui, since there is still plenty of time and the plot has not yet fully unfolded.

The Purple Star in the night sky flickered uncertainly, leaving Ning Chen completely bewildered. He struggled to observe the earth's veins and feng shui even with his Golden Eyes activated.

Fortunately, it took about half an hour to roughly determine the area of ​​the main burial chamber of Huiling. Further details could not be determined in a short time.

Ning Chen has only just begun studying the "Sixteen-Character Yin-Yang Feng Shui Secret Technique," and his current level of skill is already a testament to his photographic memory.

Ning Chen took out the Luoyang shovel from the system space, casually shoveled it down, and then used the method of "distinguishing the dragon by smelling the mountain" taught by Chen Yulou to analyze it carefully.

After five consecutive shovelfuls, a glimmer of hope finally appeared. "This is the taste! Wonderful! I've mastered almost all four major tomb raiding techniques, so I'm probably the strongest tomb raider in history."

The first on-site practice went perfectly, and Ning Chen initially determined his tomb raiding skills to be more than enough to deal with these imperial tombs.

Having achieved his goal, Ning Chen headed home. However, to his surprise, Qing Dongling was bustling with activity that evening, as other people were visiting.

From a distance of over a hundred meters, Ning Chen saw a group of people, all dressed in black and covered with black veils, carrying knives and guns, running rampant without restraint.

Faced with a large and powerful group, Ning Chen chose to retreat and secretly monitored the uninvited guests. Finally, the leader of the group spoke up.

But as soon as he opened his mouth, Ning Chen's expression changed. This person wasn't speaking Chinese, but extremely grating Japanese...

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(End of this chapter)