Chapter 70: Nine Coiling Dragons, The Life Gate Beyond The Eight Trigrams
While speaking, Su Mo saw that the tunnel entrance had been open for a long time, and the foul air inside had mostly dissipated, so he jumped directly down from the entrance.
Hu Ba Yi and the others quickly followed.
However, they saw that inside this tunnel, it was still sloping downward at a forty-degree angle, extending toward one side of the cave, which matched what Su Mo had expected.
If this was a Tai Chi Two Instruments Feng Shui Formation, then this was the eye of the yang fish of the two instruments, the coffin surge in the Nether Hall over there was the eye of the yin fish, and the key to the Feng Shui Formation lay between the yin fish and yang fish.
There were no mechanisms, illusion arrays, or suspended soul ladders inside the tunnel, after all, what the designer here needed to do was Feng Shui breaking the formation; the previous suspended soul ladder was already ingenious enough, and the channel entrance in the yang fish array was extremely hidden, requiring mastery of Yin Yang Liu Ren and mechanism illusion array techniques to open, so once here, there was no need for further mystification.
After walking forward for dozens of meters, they arrived at a circular cave; this cave was not very large in area, completely designed according to the pattern of heaven round and earth square, with a dome-shaped cave ceiling above and a square stone chamber below.
However, one side of this stone chamber was smooth and flat, while the other side also had layers of tomb walls, seemingly an overlap between a Western Zhou Tomb and a Tang Tomb.
And right in the center of the stone chamber, there was a spherical stone ball, with nine coiling dragons coiled beneath it; the nine dragons coiled and intertwined below the stone ball, their dragon heads all facing upward with mouths open, carved with exquisite beauty.
Below the stone ball, there was unexpectedly a stone tablet engraved with many characters; since no one had ever entered here, the text on the stone tablet remained very clear.
Hu Ba Yi walked over, wiped the dust from the stone tablet, and began to read:
“In the second year of Wu De during High Ancestor, I served as adjutant to Emperor Taizong, with no merits to the state, only using my lifelong learning to assist the Great Tang; at over sixty years old, I should not go against heaven…”
This inscription was indeed erected by Li Chunfeng.
This Li Chunfeng was a prodigy of the Great Tang; he was a Daoist, proficient in astronomy, numerology, I Ching, and Yin Yang, having lived through the late Sui and early Tang eras, serving in the courts of Tang Gaozu Li Yuan, Tang Taizong Li Shimin, and Tang Gaozong Li Zhi; he was skilled in divination, and it was said that he co-authored the timeless strange book Tuibei Tu with Yuan Tiangang.
From the inscription, it appeared that this Feng Shui Formation was built in the first year of Xianhen during the Tang Gaozong era, the year Li Chunfeng died.
Through divination, Li Chunfeng discovered the danger of Empress Wu usurping the Tang, and was deeply worried; coincidentally, Empress Wu’s mother, Madam Rongguo, passed away that year, and Empress Wu then ordered Li Chunfeng to find a suitable burial place for her mother.
After investigations, Li Chunfeng found a tomb with an inner cavity in this Dragon Ridge; if Empress Wu buried her mother here, it would greatly benefit her in ruling the world, usurping the Tang, and establishing the Zhou.
Upon learning this, Empress Wu was overjoyed and ordered Li Chunfeng to oversee the construction of the tomb, but halfway through digging, they discovered a Western Zhou Tomb here; one cavity with two tombs had always been a great taboo in ancient times, especially for Empress Wu’s mother, so the tomb construction was hastily ended halfway; the craftsmen sealed the entrance with stone slabs and molten iron, then buried the tomb and withdrew.
But in reality, this was all part of Li Chunfeng’s scheme; he deliberately had Empress Wu build the tomb here for her mother in order to create a Feng Shui Formation here.
Although Empress Wu’s mother was not buried inside, the tomb had already been half-built, plus that half Western Zhou Tomb; then Li Chunfeng built a suspended soul ladder between the two tombs, created the yang fish array eye on the other side from the coffin surge, forming a Tai Chi Yin Yang Feng Shui Array, and finally built this stone chamber between the yin and yang array eyes.
In the stone chamber, nine coiling dragons encircled the stone ball to absorb spiritual energy from the yin and yang arrays, achieving yin-yang balance, thereby reinforcing the fortune of the Li Tang, preventing Wu Zetian from overthrowing the Li Tang and establishing the Zhou in its place.
After completing all this, Li Chunfeng knew it was going against heaven and would inevitably bring heavenly punishment and backlash, so he left this inscription here, recounting his life’s merits and faults as well as the purpose of building this Feng Shui Formation.
After completing this Feng Shui Formation, Li Chunfeng indeed suddenly fell gravely ill that year and died.
Tang Dynasty archives《 Jia Ku Jia Li》 record that Li Chunfeng “passed away suddenly,” and Tang Gaozong Li Zhi issued a “decree of posthumous restoration,” restoring Li Chunfeng to the position of “Chief Astronomer.”
After Hu Ba Yi and Da Jin Ya stumblingly finished reading this inscription, they both suddenly understood.
No wonder this Western Zhou Tomb overlapped with the Tang Tomb, no wonder this Tang Tomb was hastily ended halfway through construction, with craftsmen even sealing the entrance with stone slabs and abandoning it, and no wonder there were no grave goods left in the Western Zhou Tomb.
It turned out that this was all a Feng Shui illusion array crafted by Li Chunfeng over a thousand years ago!
After hearing the explanations from Da Jin Ya and Hu Ba Yi, Wang Pang Zi grinned:
“Since this old Li Chunfeng built a Feng Shui Formation here, he must have left some valuable things behind; I’ve heard that Tuibei Tu was written by him and Yuan Tiangang, if we could find the original Tuibei Tu here, that would be worth a fortune!”
Su Mo shook his head and smiled:
“In my view, the chance of finding the original Tuibei Tu here is lower than your odds of winning a big prize; after all, Li Chunfeng’s intent was to build this Feng Shui Formation here to trap Wu Zetian’s fortune, so aside from what’s needed for the Feng Shui Formation, there won’t be any other treasures.”
Upon hearing this, Wang Pang Zi was greatly disappointed:
“Damn! This trip is a total Lantern Festival flop, came for nothing（pill）!”
Su Mo smiled faintly and said nothing.
For Fatty, this trip might have been for nothing, but for him, it absolutely would not be a wasted visit.
Since Li Chunfeng built a Feng Shui illusion array here to trap Wu Zetian’s fortune, he definitely placed something here to enhance the Li Tang fortune.
This stone ball encircled by nine dragons might well contain a dragon bone!
After all, ancient emperors all believed themselves to be true dragon emperors, and using a dragon bone to absorb Dragon Ridge fortune was most fitting!
Su Mo then walked to the side of the stone ball and carefully observed the stone ball and the nine coiling dragons above it.
This stone ball appeared perfectly smooth on the surface, as if carved from a single piece, with no visible seams; there were no gaps visible between the relief coiling dragons below and the stone ball.
But Su Mo knew that since Li Chunfeng placed this stone ball here, it was definitely not simple; ultimately, it would have to be cracked using Yin Yang Liu Ren techniques.
He thought carefully for a moment, then reached out and grasped one of the nine coiling dragons.
Tai Chi begets two instruments, two instruments beget four images, four images beget eight trigrams.
And the positions of the nine coiling dragons on this stone ball were completely arranged according to the Qian, Kan, Gen, Zhen, Xun, Li, Kun, Dui eight trigrams directions.
Only this one coiling dragon grasped by Su Mo was outside the eight trigrams, appearing to be the life gate in the eight arrays diagram!
