152: The Mirror of Immortality, the Starry Sky as the Key

"eternal blue sky, bear witness."

As Lin Feng's fingers brushed over the cold, rough ancient characters, Wang Dalong lay collapsed on the stone platform, his eyes vacant as he stared at the sky that was beginning to turn gray, muttering the same phrase over and over.

"It's over... all over..."

His voice was filled with utter despair.

Food, water, tents, backpacks... all the supplies they needed to survive had been corroded into piles of charred remains by that damned worm monster.

They couldn't go back.

In the forest, there was that vengeful giant bear. Beneath this grassland, there were even more terrifying Death Worms.

They were trapped on this stone platform island.

The only outcome was to starve and thirst to death in this forbidden land that buried a generation's hero, eventually becoming desiccated corpses that no one would ever know.

"Brother Feng... are we... going to die here?" Wang Dalong's voice trembled with tears. He didn't want to die. He hadn't seen enough of this world yet, and he hadn't edited his and Lin Feng's adventure stories into the most epic documentary.

Lin Feng didn't answer.

He simply stood up slowly, calmly gazing at the withered yellow grassland at the edge of the stone platform.

There, the marks of churned soil were clearly visible. A bottomless pit, like the entrance to hell, silently recounted the terrifying moment that had just occurred.

His calmness seemed particularly eerie at this moment.

Wang Dalong felt a chill down his spine. "Brother Feng, you... don't scare me. Say something!"

Lin Feng finally turned around. His eyes, appearing especially profound in the twilight, quietly looked at Wang Dalong.

"Dalong, what do you think a mausoleum is?"

"Huh?" Wang Dalong was taken aback by the question, his brain nearly short-circuiting. "A mausoleum is just a tomb, right? A place to bury the dead."

"No." Lin Feng shook his head. He lifted his foot and stomped heavily on the hard stone platform beneath him, producing a dull thud.

"For Genghis Khan, this entire valley is his mausoleum!"

Lin Feng's voice suddenly rose, filled with the fervor of someone who had uncovered the ultimate secret!

"Historical records state, 'After burial, ten thousand horses trampled it flat'! Do you understand now how this barren land came to be? Ten thousand warhorses, right on this land beneath our feet, trampled the entire valley into an indestructible iron plate! The soil structure was completely destroyed, and tall trees couldn't take root!"

"As for why that bear and that worm don't dare enter..." Lin Feng's expression turned cold. "'Kill a camel calf upon it, and station soldiers to guard it.' The mother camel would forever remember where her child was killed. And those tomb-guarding soldiers were the initial 'bait'!"

"This land has been soaked in blood and cursed! For wild beasts, this is a death zone, a fear etched into their DNA! They're not afraid of this empty land; they're afraid of the... master buried beneath it!"

Wang Dalong was so shocked by these words that his scalp tingled. He stammered, "Then... then what about this stone platform?"

"An altar!"

Lin Feng uttered the two words with absolute certainty.

"Mongolian burial customs have no tomb passages, no tomb doors! Once sealed, it's never opened! So here, this stone platform, the only elevated ground, is the sole place for descendants to worship him! It's where humans communicate with gods, or rather, with the 'spirits of ancestors'!"

Wang Dalong's mind raced. He suddenly thought of something and cried out, "The imperial seal of china! You mean... the imperial seal might not be in the tomb?"

"Of course not!" Lin Feng's eyes were sharp as knives. "Kublai Khan obtained the imperial seal of china decades after Genghis Khan's death! Even if he wanted to console his ancestors, he would never dig up the ancestral tomb! That's the greatest taboo for Mongols!"

"The only possibility is that during his annual secret visits to offer sacrifices, he respectfully placed the imperial seal, representing the 'Mandate of Heaven,' on this altar, letting the eternal blue sky and the Great Ancestor Emperor 'see' it!"

"And after using it?" Wang Dalong pressed excitedly.

"He couldn't possibly take the imperial seal back to Dadu, over two thousand kilometers away!" Lin Feng's voice was filled with conviction. "The journey was too long and risky! The best method was to hide the imperial seal in the altar and retrieve it the following year during the sacrifice!"

"Holy shit!"

Wang Dalong leaped to his feet. All his exhaustion and despair were swept away by this astonishing deduction!

As if injected with adrenaline, he lay on the stone platform, frantically tapping and knocking.

"A mechanism! There must be a mechanism!"

The two of them split up, meticulously examining every inch of the basketball-court-sized stone platform.

They used all their strength to push, press, and search for any possible gaps or movable stone slabs.

However, half an hour passed, and the sky had completely darkened.

The result was heartbreaking.

"No... nothing... Brother Feng..." Wang Dalong's voice became dejected again. He leaned weakly against a rock, panting heavily. "This... is just a solid piece of stone! No gaps at all! Forget hiding an imperial seal; you couldn't even fit a coin in here!"

The flame of hope, just ignited, was mercilessly extinguished by a bucket of cold water.

This feeling was more torturous than despair from the start.

Lin Feng also stopped.

He stood in the center of the stone platform, his chest heaving violently.

He couldn't find it either.

Could it be... that his deduction was truly wrong?

Night had fully descended.

In the Altai Mountains, the temperature plummeted below zero at night. The cold wind cut into the two of them like knives.

They had no food, no fire source, only two thin windbreakers.

Wang Dalong's lips were already purple from the cold, and his teeth were chattering. He knew that even if they didn't starve to death, they might freeze to death tonight.

He curled up, his consciousness beginning to blur.

At that moment, Lin Feng, as if completely unfazed by the cold, walked back to the very center of the stone platform.

He crouched down again, using the faint starlight from the sky to look at the ancient inscription beneath his feet.

"eternal blue sky, bear witness."

Over and over, he traced the outline of each character with his fingers.

The icy sensation traveled from his fingertips throughout his entire body.

Suddenly.

His finger stopped on the last character—"witness."

Witness.

In the 'Shuowen Jiezi,' it says: Witness, a large basin, can draw bright water from the moon. Extended meaning: mirror, examine, observe.

Mirror... observe... A wild idea suddenly surfaced.

He abruptly looked up, gazing at the cloudless night sky, pure as black crystal.

The Three Enclosures, Four Symbols, twenty-eight mansions, scattered like stars across the sky.

At that moment, the star chart that had long been ingrained in his mind perfectly overlapped with the real starry sky above!

That Astronomical Official from seven hundred years ago had used the star chart to lead them here.

And how would Kublai Khan have hidden this earth-shattering secret?