195: Chapter 196 Thanks to the Ancestors, the Crisis is Over

Lu Chen shook his head, casting aside those unrealistic thoughts.

"The most urgent task is to first understand this place."

"Store!"

The nine massive bronze tripods instantly vanished from where they stood, entering his Divine Sense space.

The entire Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor became clearly visible within Lu Chen's Divine Sense.

All the various complex mechanisms were laid bare before him.

As expected, poisonous water, hidden arrows, powerful crossbows, incendiary oil, and traps were endless. Lu Chen couldn't help but marvel that although the ancients lacked modern technology, their tomb-defense techniques alone were truly breathtaking.

If not for Lu Chen's breath-holding technique, his protective divine art, and the fact that he had been floating in the air, he didn't know how many traps he would have triggered by now.

Now, Lu Chen could act with purpose and perfectly avoid these mechanisms.

"Next, it's time to get down to business."

Lu Chen began to wander around the Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor.

He did not come here just for the nine tripods.

"The First Qin Emperor burned books and buried scholars; he must have hidden many good things in this mausoleum."

Lu Chen rubbed his chin and muttered to himself.

"The classics of the pre-Qin hundred schools of thought... ancient lost documents... they are actually all in this tomb!"

A gleam of excitement flashed in Lu Chen's eyes.

He saw rows upon rows of massive bronze bookshelves placed in the center of the main hall.

The shelves were densely packed with bamboo slips, silk books, Jade Slips, and golden registers...

"This... just how many books are there?"

Lu Chen was dazzled. The sheer volume of documents here was unbelievable, even more than the eighty-one thousand scrolls he had obtained in Dunhuang City.

It was simply a massive national library.

Lu Chen's Divine Sense swept over these documents, and he was shocked beyond measure. When Qin unified the six states, it had incidentally inherited the library of the eight-hundred-year-old Zhou Dynasty.

A complete I Ching, and one that hadn't been strictly edited by Confucius.

So, the true history of Huaxia really was right here.

The First Emperor had moved the national libraries of the Xia, Shang, and Zhou dynasties into his own mausoleum!

Lu Chen saw the Lianshan I Ching and the Guicang I Ching!

It was rumored that the Eastern Zhou archivist Li Er, who looked like a young man despite being over a hundred years old, had read every single classic in the Eastern Zhou royal library.

In fact, he was one of the eighty-one Incarnations of Taishang Laojun.

As the curator of the Eastern Zhou national library, he was also the Pillar Historian of Eastern Zhou!

He held the duty of monitoring the Son of Heaven, while also serving as a historian who observed and recorded celestial phenomena.

Excellent!

If they hadn't been placed in this mausoleum, how could they have been preserved until now?

They might have long since been altered beyond recognition.

And how would Lu Chen ever have been able to see these classics and documents?

After reading the Daoist classics, he casually picked up a bamboo slip and unrolled it to take a look.

"These... are actually Mohist documents?"

Lu Chen picked up a few more bamboo slips and discovered they were also Mohist works.

He continued to browse through other classics and found that these pre-Qin documents were significantly different from the versions passed down to later generations.

The more Lu Chen read, the more alarmed he became.

He vaguely felt that he seemed to have touched upon a shocking secret.

"Mohism... pre-Qin... burning books and burying scholars..."

Lu Chen connected these keywords, and a bold guess gradually emerged in his mind.

"Could it be... that the First Qin Emperor burning books and burying scholars wasn't to unify thought at all, but to cover up some truth?"

Lu Chen continued to browse the documents, trying to find an answer.

Finally, on a golden register, he discovered some clues.

"The Golden Slip Book!"

Lu Chen exclaimed aloud, quickly opening the Golden Slip Book to examine it carefully.

The Golden Slip Book recorded ancient characters. Through a combination of guessing and inference, Lu Chen finally managed to read it.

"Lunbo Boat... Wanqu State... visitors from beyond the heavens?"

The more Lu Chen read, the more alarmed he became.

"This Golden Slip Book says that the First Qin Emperor once had contact with visitors from beyond the heavens, and even used them to build the Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor?"

Lu Chen felt as if his worldview was collapsing.

"The people of Wanqu actually gave the First Qin Emperor some Magical Artifact Materials!"

"Draw down heavenly lightning to form a ring, the nine tripods float eternally in the sky... to suppress the Nine Provinces..."

"This... this is too ridiculous, right? Superconducting Materials? The visitors from beyond the heavens gave him some superconducting Materials."

Lu Chen shook his head in disbelief.

"Lunbo Boat... Wanqu State..."

Lu Chen frowned. "Shiyi Ji! Shiyi Ji mentioned these two names!"

Lu Chen slapped his forehead, suddenly remembering.

"Shiyi Ji says that people from Wanqu State arrived in the Central Plains on a Lunbo Boat and even met with the First Qin Emperor..."

The more Lu Chen thought about it, the more something felt wrong.

"Could it be... that what is recorded in Shiyi Ji isn't mythology, but real history?"

Lu Chen gasped.

"If this is true, then the First Qin Emperor burning books and burying scholars was to cover up the existence of visitors from beyond the heavens?"

The more Lu Chen thought about it, the more he felt it was possible.

"A secret? Secrets are meant to be discovered!"

Lu Chen continued to browse the Golden Slip in his hand.

The characters on the Golden Slip were obscure and difficult to understand, but they were no match for Lu Chen; the super-brain of the Heaven-Swallowing Holy Body was no joke.

"It says here that when the First Qin Emperor was building the mausoleum, he summoned all the alchemists in the world..."

Lu Chen frowned, muttering to himself.

"Alchemists? Aren't these just the technicians of the pre-Qin period?"

He opened another bamboo slip, which recorded various Mohist mechanical arts.

"Isn't this ancient black technology?"

The more Lu Chen read, the more alarmed he became. The intricacy of these mechanical arts was simply beyond his imagination.

He continued browsing and discovered that the Mohists were not only proficient in mechanical arts but also skilled in various rituals, divination, sorcery, and alchemy.

"Wait..." Lu Chen suddenly stopped, his eyes fixed intently on a bamboo slip. "It says here that the Mohists were the 'Guardians of the Pure Temple'?"

"Guardians of the Pure Temple... what does this mean?"

Lu Chen scratched his head, feeling somewhat puzzled.

He continued reading and found that the bamboo slip recorded that during the pre-Qin period, the Mohists were responsible for rituals and divination, overseeing the shamans, diviners, invocators, oracles, and alchemists.

"Shamans, diviners, invocators, oracles, alchemists... aren't these just the clergy of ancient times?"

Lu Chen suddenly realized.

"So, the Mohists served the upper echelons during the pre-Qin period. No wonder they knew so many secrets."

He continued browsing the classics and found that the Mohists possessed various pre-Qin royal secrets, as well as various 'ancient technologies.'

Lu Chen curled his lip and continued reading.

He discovered that the so-called 'ancient technologies' of the Mohists were actually various lost ancient techniques.

"These techniques... aren't they too Heaven-Defying?"

Lu Chen was dumbfounded. If these technologies were placed in the modern era, they would definitely cause a sensation.

"Wait, this Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor..."

Lu Chen suddenly thought of something. He looked around and carefully observed the structure of the mausoleum.

"Could the construction of this mausoleum also have utilized the Mohists' 'ancient technologies'?"

The more he thought about it, the more he felt it was possible. The scale and intricacy of this mausoleum were simply not something ordinary people could accomplish.

"It wasn't burning books and burying scholars, it was burying the technicians! It wasn't to unify thought at all, but to cover up the existence of these alchemists!"

He finally understood. The reason the First Qin Emperor wanted to bury these 'alchemists' who possessed the techniques was to prevent them from leaking the secrets of the mausoleum, or because he was worried they might use these techniques to threaten the future rule of his descendants.

"Sima Qian said something about 'burning poetry and books, and burying alchemists.' So these 'alchemists' referred to the inheritors of Mohism!" Lu Chen suddenly realized.

Lu Chen, undistracted, began to quickly browse through the other various classics and documents, synthesizing everything he learned.