Chapter 67

Guī Qū looked at the two somewhat lonely oil lamps on the ground, then said to his master, "Didn't you say we should keep seven lamps? Now there are only two left. How does that work? And, what conditions did you just set?"

Guī Bùguī paused for a moment, blinked his eyes, and said, "After this matter is settled, you go and find a hundred cattle and a hundred sheep, and offer them here as a sacrifice. Then there's a hundred taels of gold leaf, which you should burn here as well. You don't need to worry about the rest."

When he mentioned a hundred cattle and sheep, the Guī brothers widened their eyes. By the time he mentioned a hundred taels of gold leaf, their mouths were already hanging open. The elder Guī brother muttered, "If we had that much, would we still be out here robbing and plundering? Forget the gold leaf, I can barely gather ten or eight cattle and sheep at most." Seeing Guī Bùguī's expression turn sour, Guī Lái added with a pained face, "Even if I led people to rob, we'd still need to find them. We can't go to the big cities, and in the small villages, having two sheep is already a good thing."

Guī Bùguī waved his hand impatiently and said, "What's there to fear? You've lived so long, you can save up and pay it off gradually. It's not like I'm asking you to pay it all at once." After saying this, he ignored his two great-grandsons. The old man had recovered and got up, walking to the gate and feeling the door with his hands. The Guī brothers whispered behind him. The younger Guī brother said, "It can't be that simple, can it? A few cattle and sheep and a few taels of gold leaf to send off Prince Ai of Yan? A ruler of a country and the first Great Master, how could he be so unsophisticated?" The elder Guī brother, worried that Guī Bùguī would hear, elbowed his brother and whispered, "Shut up. Be careful when we go in. If something's off, run..."

The two gates, as light as paper, were pushed open effortlessly, revealing a massive underground palace inside. On the walls outside the palace, there were countless bronze oil lamps. No one knew what kind of oil was inside, but they burned spontaneously in the wind, illuminating the scene as bright as daylight.

Everywhere the eye could see was resplendent with gold and jade. A small bridge made of some unknown wood connected their position to the palace. The bridge was exquisitely crafted, with the bridge surface paved with jade, though not a single piece, the quality was far superior to the ground outside. The bridge was also adorned with birds and beasts made of gold, jade, and gems. Any one of these items, if taken out, would be enough to last several lifetimes.

Beneath the wooden bridge was a crystal-clear underground river. With the light from the oil lamps on the bridge, one could see schools of palm-sized fish swimming by. On the other side of the bridge was the main gate of the palace, but it was tightly closed, and no one could see what was inside.

None of them, except for Guī Bùguī, had ever seen such a scene. They were all stunned. After a while, the Guī brothers, who had seen a bit more of the world, recovered first. The elder Guī brother finally managed to shift his gaze to Guī Bùguī and said, "Did we make a mistake? This doesn't look like Prince Ai of Yan's tomb. I've been to the Yan palace several times, and it's not as luxurious as this."

As the elder Guī brother spoke, Guī Bùguī was still squinting, looking at the scene outside the palace. After the elder Guī brother finished, the old man turned to his senior disciple and said, "Mistake? It's precisely because of this that we can confirm Prince Ai of Yan is in this underground palace..."

At this point, the attention of the bandits was drawn to Guī Bùguī. There was no need to hide anything from them now, and the old man's habit of teaching kicked in. He continued, "The ruler of Yan was originally a descendant of the royal family of the Zhou Dynasty. Before he was enfeoffed, he was a celestial official responsible for divination and sacrifices. Even after becoming a feudal lord, he had to return to the capital of the Zhou Dynasty to preside over sacrifices. Otherwise, someone like Prince Ai of Yan wouldn't have appeared."

Pausing for a moment, Guī Bùguī's gaze returned to the palace, and he continued, "Yan did not have the ability to build such a palace, but if the Zhou Dynasty provided the funds and labor, it would be different. If I'm not mistaken, this underground palace was built to hold some kind of blessing ceremony for the Zhou Dynasty. I don't know why it was built underground. A place for the Zhou Dynasty to hold sacrifices would naturally be a rare and blessed land. If I were in his place, I would have made it my resting place."

Just as he finished speaking, a sound came from the direction of the palace. The sudden noise startled everyone. Looking in the direction of the sound, they saw that the previously closed palace gates had opened. Inside, there was no light, and except for Guī Bùguī, who could vaguely see something, everyone else could only see darkness.

As everyone was puzzled by the gates opening on their own, a flash of fire suddenly appeared inside, and the oil lamps in the palace lit up one by one, just as they had when they first entered. In a short time, the palace was brightly lit.

Everyone's eyes were fixed on the inside of the palace, and no one spoke for a long time. Finally, the small leader couldn't help but ask Guī Bùguī, "Does this mean we should go in?"

The sudden opening of the palace gates left Guī Bùguī unable to sense anything beyond the entrance. He was starting to feel unsure, but with everyone treating him like an old immortal, he had to do something to maintain his image.

"Want to go in? Wait a moment," Guī Bùguī called for the bandit carrying his basket to find another set of ink and brush, but this time the ink was bright red cinnabar. The old man took the ink and brush to the edge of the wooden bridge, found a clear spot, and used the brush to draw a strange pattern on the ground with the cinnabar.

Guī Bùguī first drew an incomplete circle, with the open end facing the palace gates. Then he wrote a series of characters inside the circle that no one recognized. After that, he drew four animals around the circle. His drawing skills were poor, but one could roughly make out three beasts and one bird. No one could identify what they were.

After finishing the drawing, the old man found a light purple long incense stick in his basket. He lit the incense and used some stones to secure it in the center of the circle. A wisp of blue smoke rose slowly into the air, lingering and rising endlessly. After estimating that it was about right, Guī Bùguī muttered something and, as he finished speaking, gently traced the smoke with his hand. The smoke changed direction and floated horizontally toward the palace gates.

As the smoke continuously drifted into the palace, Guī Bùguī's face initially wore a mysterious smile. But as time passed and the incense burned shorter, the palace remained silent. The old man's smile froze on his face.

This array was Guī Bùguī's own creation, and the incense was made from items he had procured. Normally, after the smoke entered the palace, it would reappear, and the changes in the smoke would reveal what was inside. This array had always worked, but now, with the incense almost burned out, no smoke had reappeared. This was the first time the old man had encountered such a situation, and he could only grit his teeth and wait. If even a little smoke appeared, he would know what to do next.

But the situation did not go as Guī Bùguī expected. By the time the incense was completely burned out, no smoke had reappeared from the palace.

The onlookers were puzzled, and seeing the old immortal simply trace the smoke, which then floated into the palace in a straight line, they all looked at Guī Bùguī with reverent eyes. Before the old immortal could speak, the somewhat foolish small leader smiled and said, "Old immortal, the incense is all burned out. What do we do now?"