158: Chapter 158 Genghis Khan's Secret Tomb

The early Afghan Buddhist stone carving fragments were on the right. Broken into several pieces, they were each fixed onto custom-made bases. The grayish-white stone surfaces were carved with blurred yet still recognizable Buddhist relief sculptures, remaining solemn despite their fragmented state.

Hu Tian walked past these items, going all the way to the innermost side.

The Sogdiana silverware was there.

In Hu Tian's eyes, the Sogdiana silverware emitted a soft, pure yellow halo.

A single displayed object occupied the most prominent position of the special exhibition. It was in a three-sided display case, visible from all angles. Light shone down from the top, and the complex layer of oxidation on the surface of the silver presented a deep metallic texture under the light—not the bright white of pure silver, nor the greenish hue of bronze, but a deep color that mixed the scent of time and soil, a color difficult to describe.

The vessel was an oval-shaped container with a lid, similar to a wine pot or a storage vessel. The entire body was engraved with patterns. The patterns on the vessel were layered and distinct; the main motif was a banquet scene. The figures' clothing had a distinct Central Asian style, their facial contours were deep, and their movements were vivid. The background was filled with pearl patterns and scroll patterns, and in some parts, Persian-style winged lions and flame patterns could be seen. On the inside of the rim of the vessel, there was a set of fine, dense patterns. At first glance, it looked like decoration, but upon closer inspection, it was text.

Hu Tian stood in front of the display case and watched quietly for a while.

System activated.

The Treasure Hunting Radar started silently. There was no visible change, but Hu Tian knew it was operating, just like something had gently hummed in his ear before falling into silence, and then information began to emerge.

［Item Name: Sogdiana Gilded Silver Engraved Banquet Patterned Storage Vessel with Lid］ ［Date: 7th to 8th Century AD, approximately during the reigns of Emperor Gaozong to Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty］

［Origin: Ancient Sogdiana region, modern-day Samarkand area, Uzbekistan］

［Material: High-purity silver, partially gilded, well-preserved, no fractures in the silver body, approximately 93% integrity of the patterns］

［Historical Provenance: This object was originally owned by a Sogdiana noble and was a sacrificial ritual vessel of a certain clan among the Nine Sogdian Surnames, related to the Zoroastrian faith of the Sogdians. The bottom of the inner wall of the vessel contains a remnant of a Zoroastrian blessing inscription. In the early 13th century AD, Genghis Khan led his troops on a western expedition. Wherever his military might reached, it swept across Khwarezm and spread to the former lands of Sogdiana in Central Asia. This vessel was looted by the Mongol army during the chaos of war. Because of its exquisite craftsmanship and extraordinary shape, it was included as a tribute to Genghis Khan's headquarters and was carried along with the army.］

［Market Estimated Price: 3 million to 6 million RMB］ Hu Tian's eyelids twitched slightly.

The pride of a generation, Genghis Khan.

The western expedition.

He went over this information in his mind. There were no particularly large waves in his heart, he just remembered this detail.

Looted from Sogdiana, carried along with the army, included as headquarters tribute—this path of provenance was not rare in that era. War is the greatest mover of cultural relics; in history, which great conquest was not accompanied by a reshuffling of wealth?

He continued to look down. The system's information was still scrolling.

［Subsequent Provenance: This vessel returned to the northern desert with Genghis Khan's army, and after passing through several hands, it was placed in Genghis Khan's personal relic repository.］

According to some secret historical records, after Genghis Khan passed away, this vessel was buried with some of his private collections in a secret tomb.

Hu Tian stood in front of the display case, motionless.

Buried with the dead.

A secret tomb.

He cast his gaze back onto the silverware in the display case and stared at it for a few seconds. He believed the information provided by the system was accurate.

Then this item, logically, had once been in Genghis Khan's tomb. Later, who knows what it went through, it came out again, passed through hands for hundreds of years, and finally ended up in this Christies exhibition hall.

Has anyone in history ever entered Genghis Khan's tomb?

This question has been debated by historians for hundreds of years, and there is still no definitive conclusion to this day; there isn't even a certain statement about where the tomb is.

Some say it is within the territory of Mongolia, some say in Inner Mongolia, some say in Xinjiang, and there are all kinds of even more bizarre guesses, including certain lake bottoms and mountain bellies.

After Genghis Khan died, the Mongols carried out a secret burial according to custom, building no burial mounds and leaving no markers. Ten thousand horses trampled the ground flat, and it is said that all the craftsmen and attendants who participated in the burial were executed. The traces of history were deliberately wiped away, so clean that it was unbelievable.

Yet this item came out.

What kind of thing could allow a funerary object to see the light of day again?

It was either grave robbing, geological changes, or some part of the tomb itself was touched by someone for some reason. But regardless of the reason, since the artifact came out, it means that the location of the tomb was once known by someone, or had been found.

Hu Tian slowly sorted out this logic in his mind, not rushing to any conclusions.

There was one last piece of information left from the system. He looked down.

［Excavation and Discovery Information: This object was accidentally discovered by local mountain people in the mountainous area on the edge of the Fergana Valley in Uzbekistan in the late 1980s. At first, they thought it was an ordinary old vessel. Later, after passing through several hands, it entered the international cultural relic market in the mid-1990s. After changing owners several times, it was finally purchased by the current holder, who entrusted it to this autumn auction.］

The mountainous area on the edge of the Fergana Valley in Uzbekistan.

Hu Tian was silent for a while.

The Fergana Valley.

He had an impression of this place name. The hinterland of Central Asia, eastern Uzbekistan, surrounded by mountains on all sides, an important node of the ancient Silk Road, and historically one of the active regions of the Sogdiana civilization.

But what he was thinking of at this moment was not these. What he thought of was that there were indeed some unofficial historical records, scattered, vague, and difficult to distinguish between true and false. Among them, several versions mentioned that Genghis Khan's burial place was related to a certain mountainous area in Central Asia. The specific claims varied; some said it was the foothills of the Tianshan Mountains, some said it was the edge of the Pamir Plateau, and others pointed to the mountainous area around the Fergana Valley.

These claims had never entered the view of mainstream academia and were classified as unofficial history and miscellaneous talk, treated as folklore, and no one had ever taken them seriously.

But now, an object clearly marked by the system as having been buried in Genghis Khan's secret tomb was excavated in the exact mountainous area on the edge of the Fergana Valley.

There is no smoke without fire.

Hu Tian thought this to himself, his expression unchanged, just slowly withdrawing his gaze from the display case.

He was not a historian; he didn't need to prove anything, nor did he need to convince anyone. He only needed to know one thing.

Is it possible that something bigger is hidden in that place, the Fergana Valley? For example, Genghis Khan's secret tomb.

If that piece of silverware was accidentally picked up by a villager from the strata near the tomb, it means that some part of the tomb was, at some point in time, close enough to the surface—close enough that an ordinary villager could hit a funerary object with a casual dig.

This was no small matter.

If Genghis Khan's secret tomb was really in that area, it would be one of the most important archaeological discoveries in human history—no, the most important one.

No one could imagine what would be inside.

Hu Tian lowered his head, put his hands in his pockets, and stood on the exhibition hall floor for a moment.

He didn't rush to make any decisions, just pressed this matter down in his heart, like pressing down a piece of red-hot charcoal, temporarily covering it, but the heat was still there.

First, get this silverware. Other things, take it slow.

The original coordinates of the artifact's excavation site have already been marked by the information provided by the system.

Hu Tian stood in front of the display case, motionless for another few seconds.

He withdrew his consciousness from the system information and cast his eyes back onto the silverware. This time, his gaze was different from before.

It was no longer just an auction item, no longer just a craft treasure from the Sogdiana era. It was a key, or rather, a coordinate, a signal, a clue thrown from seven hundred years ago.

It drifted across the entire Eurasian continent, sank in the mountains of Uzbekistan for decades, and then on an ordinary afternoon was dug out by a villager whose name is unknown. From then on, it began its second drift in the modern world, finally stopping here.

Stopping on the eighth floor of this building by the Huangpu River, stopping behind this piece of glass in front of him, Hu Tian.

Hu Tian slowly exhaled.

Genghis Khan's tomb.

How many people in history have searched for it, how many archaeologists, explorers, and treasure hunters from how many countries have searched for it? Hundreds of years, and nothing was found.

But now the system told him, the coordinates were there.

The corners of his mouth twitched, the arc very shallow, so shallow that passersby wouldn't notice at all, but within it was something called restraint.

He didn't rush to make any decisions. The auction was tomorrow.

He also knew that he didn't necessarily need to bid for this item, because bidding was just to get the object, and he had already seen the object; the system had already given him something truly important.

That coordinate, that mountainous area—these were worth more than any auction item, worth so much that it couldn't be measured by the auction price.

But he remembered it. Remembered it deeply.

He slowly stepped back from the silverware and turned to walk to the other side of the exhibition hall.

The second place he wanted to see was the batch of early Buddhist stone carving fragments from Afghanistan.

Just as Hu Tian walked toward the Afghanistan area, the number of people in the exhibition hall increased again. The buzzing sound of soft conversation flowed in the warm light. Hu Tian walked through it, his pace not fast, his expression calm, just like an ordinary collector, looking at the things he liked.

No one knew what he had just been thinking about.

No one knew that from this exhibition hall, he had already obtained something more valuable than any auction item: a clue leading to Genghis Khan's secret tomb.

Arriving at the Afghanistan area, Hu Tian stayed there for about twenty minutes.

There were seven pieces of early Buddhist stone carving fragments in total, displayed separately in two cabinets. Their conditions varied; some were severely damaged, the weathering patterns at the breaks clearly visible—they were things that had truly been buried in the soil for a very long time.

The information provided by the system was concise; the origin pointed to Nangarhar Province in eastern Afghanistan, dating between the 2nd and 4th centuries AD, belonging to the late Gandhara art style.

Hu Tian looked at them one by one.

The Gandhara style—it was a style that blended Greek sculptural language with Buddhist themes.

In the entire history of ancient Gandhara art, it was unique. The Buddha's face had Greek contours, the treatment of the clothing folds was in the manner of Roman sculpture, but in the Buddha's eyes, there was something purely Eastern—an inward, calm expression that kept a distance from the world.

He stopped for quite a while in front of the stone carving fragments. Originally, it was a whole relief, and the main pattern was a standing Bodhisattva statue.

The poem says: "Shattered shadows and broken stones recount the old dust, the gilded silver pot hides the secret tomb. The world only knows the value of treasures, who recognizes that the heavenly secret is in one's palm."