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Taiyang de Guangyun Prologue |
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China, 2012. A group of archeologists were en route to investigate the mythological site known as Yaochi, or Kunlun Mountain. The Kunlun was an actual mountainous area of modern-day Tibet, but the leader of the excavation team, Professor Kwan Mengyao of Nanjing University, was skeptical about the existence of such a place. He honored the religion of his ancestors, but his opinion was that, if it actually existed, the gods would be determined to hide any trace of Yaochi from the humans, plus, it was all about science at this point, he really did not have the time, money, or energy to argue about religion. “I at least want to leave this with something,” he said to himself, “I didn’t get all this funding to look at a mountain for three days.”
The lively banter of the other archeologists could be noticed. They were talking about legends the had heard when they were children and how exciting it was to find the origin of their spirituality. However, none of them, especially the Professor, were expecting what they were about to uncover.
They arrived at the site twenty-five minutes later. The team gasped in awe at the majesty of the peak, but the cynical Kwan thought it just looked like an ordinary mountain. “Start digging,” he instructed, “we didn’t come here to go nature watching.”
Within five minutes, one of his female students approached him.
“Professor, I found an opening at the base of the mountain…I think it leads to something.”
“An opening?”
“Yes sir.”
She showed him to the designated location of the mysterious “hole”, which had about four others gathered around to see if they could pull any type of information or artifacts from and in scripted stone that was near it.
“What’s that?” Te Professor asked, talking about the rock.
“It seems to be a tombstone of some sort…”
“What does it say? Any information?”
“It only has the characters for “Red Bird” on it. I guess it’s because this is the south side of the mountain.”
“Has anyone investigated the passageway?”
“No sir. We wanted your permission before doing so.”
“Well, what’re we waiting for?”
With flashlights in hand, the team trekked beneath the mountain. As soon as they entered, the walls slowly transformed from the mountain exterior to beautifully painted murals of gods and deities. They all had had experience in digging up graves of emperors and princesses, but just the walls put the luxurious tomb of Emperor Qin Shi Huang to shame. The jewels encrusted in the bodies of each beast still glimmered, the gold leaf still sparkled as if new, and the paint still seemed fresh. There was no writing on the walls, however, so the identity of whoever or whatever lay inside was still unknown. As the team went deeper into the tomb, the artifacts and murals become greater and more grand.
After about twenty minutes and many magnificent findings, the team came to a doorway with two gold doors. The previously incredulous Professor Kwan was now beginning to doubt his judgments. He ordered the doors to be opened and it took him and two other men to do it. Once the doors had been opened, the group entered a large room which contained a coffin. Kwan approached the coffin to find a jeweled phoenix on the lid. Colorful rubies and diamonds gave the imllusion of the bird emerging from the sun and glittering as it danced among the clouds. The coffin itself was made of jade, complimented with ivory and gold decorations. Like the rest of the cavern’s walls, the walls of the coffin room were painted with murals, but unlike the others, these were of the Four Guardians of the celestial compass, the Ssu Ling. The archeologists couldn’t believe the sheer grandeur of the casket or the paintings and now dared to open the sarcophagus of the unknown individual.
“I wonder who this belongs to,” started the woman who originally found the cavern, “I don’t know if even an emperor could afford to have a tomb this elaborate.”
Once the lid was pried off, it took the whole team to move it from the coffin to the floor. As they all leaned in to see who or what rested in the coffin’s confines, Professor Kwan was the first to speak.
“My god…”
The eyes of the archeologists grew wide.
“What in the…?”
 Chibi-Speck · Thu Jul 31, 2008 @ 08:07pm · 1 Comments |
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