Episode 2 (The Lost Tomb)

**Episode 2 (The Lost Tomb)** is the second episode of the television series The Lost Tomb. It is based on chapters three through seven of the Daomu Biji novel *Cavern of the Blood Zombies*.

## Synopsis

Wu Xie and everyone follow the map on the Silk Manuscript in search of a tomb. They soon encounter dangerous obstacles.

## Story

The team was waiting for their guide to arrive. Meanwhile, Pan Zi thought Zhang Qiling was an impressive man with overwhelming power. Wu Xie and High Shao went over to greet him. Wu Xie happily commented that it was nice to meet him again but the other did not respond. High Shao thought that maybe he didn't recognize them. Zhang Qiling was looking at the sky with a mysterious look on his face. Wu Xie asked him what he was staring at but he didn't respond again.

Wu Xie left and went over to ask Wu Sanxing where Zhang Qiling was from. Wu Sanxing did not know, he was recommended to him by a friend in Changsha. People usually called him Little Master (小哥/Xiǎo Gē) but Wu Xie thought it was better to call him Poker Face (闷油瓶/Mèn Yóu Píng). Their guide, Grandpa Li, finally arrived with an ox cart. They rode the ox cart to a boat dock where the boatman and his dog were at. Wu Sanxing tried to talk to the boatman but was ignored. Grandpa Li intervened saying the other was the only boatman and had a weird temper. Pan Zi wanted to know why he was the only boatman in a place with such a large river. Grandpa Li explained that there was a legend that the River God only likes the boatman and no one has ever made it out of the cave beside him. A snake demon lived in the cave but many people think the snake demon is actually the boatman. The boatman's dog, Donkey Balls, could also enter the cave with him. Wu Sanxing called the dog over and noticed that it smelled of something bad but familiar. Grandpa Li went over to talk to the boatman to take them across the river to the cave. Meanwhile, Wu Xie and the rest moved away from them to talk about the dog. Wu Sanxing thought that both the dog and boatman fed the flesh of the dead and that they were heading to a corpse cave.

Wu Sanxing recalled the time he and Pan Zi found a corpse cave in Shanxi. A corpse cave had bodies piled high and was usually a result of some kind of slaughter. In ancient times, if people wanted to get through a corpse cave, they mixed the dead with the living by feeding on the flesh of the dead. High Shao wanted to travel by land since it was safer, but the cave was mentioned in the Silk Manuscript. Pan Zi warned Wu Xie to be careful around the boatman.

They traveled by boat on the water. On the first boat were the boatman and the group while Grandpa Li and their supplies were on the second boat. The boatman warned the others to not speak too loudly so as to not bother the River God. The group asked the boatman about the cave and when Pan Zi asked if he could use a flashlight, the boatman responded that he could but not to shine it in the water. Wu Sanxing asked in disbelief if there were water ghosts. The boatman responded that water ghosts were nothing compared to the thing in the water. Pan Zi slyly commented that if someone were to rob them, there would be no way of escape. Grandpa Li bore an uncomfortable expression at this. Meanwhile, Wu Xie was looking at the structure of the cave and asked if it was a robber's hole. Wu Sanxing confirmed that it was since ancient holes were round while more recent holes were square. The robber's hole they were in was quite old and the boatman explained that the whole mountain was an ancient tomb.

They went into a very narrow part of the cave where a weird creaking noise echoed throughout the cavern. They were focused on the sound and when they turned around to ask Grandpa Li a question, he was gone, along with the boatman. They became worried now that the boatman was gone because there was no longer the scent of dead flesh to ward anything off. Pan Zi tried to start the motor on the boat but it had been broken by the others beforehand. Something in the water had rocked their boat when it scurried by.

High Shao started to panic but Wu Sanxing scolded him to stop and not create trouble for him. He assured Wu Xie that he would protect him. Pan Zi thought the cave was too weird and too dangerous for Wu Xie, so he suggested they leave. Wu Sanxing asked Zhang Qiling for advice and the other told him to stop talking. Wu Xie asked Pan Zi if he knew Zhang Qiling's background. Pan Zi said he didn't but that the other was an expert. He pointed towards his hand where two of his fingers were longer than the rest. Fingers like these took years to form. In ancient times, the Zhonglang of Fa Qiu, a tomb-robbing organization supported by the government, explored caves with two fingers. The masters all had two particular fingers that were as steady as Mount Tai and extremely powerful. Their fingers easily broke the traps set up in tombs. As Wu Xie and Pan Zi were having this conversation, Zhang Qiling was reaching his hand carefully into the water and quickly pulled out a diving beetle. He threw it on the boat and told them that it was just a bunch of those in the water. High Shao smashed the bug with his foot out of anger. Wu Xie didn't believe it could be a bunch of those things becoming active at the same time. The beetle was also abnormally big. Wu Sanxing went to smell the leg of the bug that was crushed. He found that it wasn't a diving beetle but a Corpse-Eater (尸蹩/Shī Bié). Corpse-eaters feed on the rotting flesh of the dead and gather together near corpses. With an abundant amount of food, they grow bigger. Which meant that there were a lot of corpses somewhere in the cave. Normal-sized corpse-eaters don't bite living people but the bigger ones might. Pan Zi didn't understand why they were traveling together or why they weren't near the corpses. Zhang Qiling believed they were fleeing from something. He kept feeling that something big was moving towards them. Wu Sanxing grew worried because they were currently drifting downstream and did not know where they would end up. They discussed ways of leaving the cave but Zhang Qiling thought it was already too late. Since the two men had brought them there, they probably made it difficult for them to leave. They suddenly heard a noise and Wu Xie stood up seemingly in a trance. Zhang Qiling knew something was wrong with the noise they were hearing and told everyone to cover their ears. He knocked Wu Xie in the water and the others quickly joined him.

When Wu Xie breached the surface of the water, a dead body was hanging upside down while the corpse-eaters were feasting upon it. The corpse-eater went after Pan Zi who had come up out of the water. He managed to get it off of him but flung it right onto Wu Xie. It used its pinchers to stab Wu Xie in the neck. Zhang Qiling came up behind him, pulled out the guts of the bug, and threw it on the boat. Wu Xie and everybody else were able to get back on the boat. As they looked into the water, the upper half of the dead body from before, which turned out to be the boatman, was floating on the surface. The corpse-eaters had torn the man into two. Pan Zi was impressed that Zhang Qiling was able to tear out the guts of the bug from before. Wu Sanxing corrected him, saying that he pulled out the central nerve and had paralyzed the corpse. High Shao wanted to step on it, but the rest of them stopped him. Zhang Qiling wanted to rely on the bug to get out of the cave. The sound they had heard earlier was from the bugs.

   They examined the carcass of the corpse-eater and on its tail was a bell. When the bell rang, it gave off the noise they heard from earlier. It can be used to confuse people's minds. The bell was quite old and was made from bronze. Wu Xie thought it could be made from a gold-silver alloy judging from its luster. Wu Sanxing put down the bell for a moment and it began to ring again. High Shao smashed the bell open and Wu Sanxing became enraged that he destroyed such an antique. A bad smell started to emit from the green liquid that oozed out of the bell. When they examined it closer they found a centipede inside the bell as well. The centipede lived in the hollow sphere of the bell that was connected to the Corpse-Eater's stomach creating a symbiotic system. Whenever it got hungry it would crawl through the tube and take food from the corpse-eater's stomach. The bell was crafted by a skilled craftsman and was likely created to guard something.

They used the corpse-eater at the front of the boat and rowed out of the cave. Wu Xie studied the walls of the cave and wondered how it could have been created since thousands of people would have been needed to dig such a deep cave. Wu Sanxing thought it was dug out by an army specialized in grave robberies and that the tomb will be difficult to find. Even though the cave was created by grave robbers, there may still be treasure. The robbers' cave existed on the map which meant it was created before the tomb was built. Thus, the cave they were currently in was older than the tomb they were looking for from the Warring States Period. Wu Sanxing also didn't think it was the only tomb in the area. Wu Xie realized that it meant that the bronze bells and corpse-eater were also from the tomb owner that was there before the Warring States Period. Wu Sanxing couldn't understand why the tomb owner they were looking for would let himself be buried next to a robbed tomb. It would have violated Feng Shui principles.

They had arrived at the piled corpse site. The corpses were giving off phosphoresce and were mostly skeletons. Corpse-eaters were eating some of the remains. As they traveled further along, Wu Xie spotted a crystal coffin on one side of the cave with a corpse inside of it. High Shao spotted another, on the opposite wall, except this one was empty. They got further into the cave and standing amongst a pile of skeletons was a woman with long black hair in a white outfit. Wu Sanxing thought it was a zombie (粽子/Zòng Zi) and corpse-eaters started to emerge from her. Zhang Qiling used the sword on his back to cut open his hand and spread his blood into the water and hit the zombie. She fell to her knees and the corpse-eaters scurried away. Zhang Qiling fell down onto the boat exhausted telling the rest to leave quickly and to not look back. They quickly leave but Wu Xie looked back and was quickly knocked out.

Wu Xie woke up alone on the boat in the cave. He called out to the group but no one responded. A drop of blood dripped down from the ceiling. He wiped it off and saw blood on his hands but when he did it again there was nothing there. He saw the zombie from before but she had quickly disappeared. When he turned around she was standing on the boat. Wu Xie asked it if it was human or a ghost and it did not respond. He asked where his friends had gone and she pointed towards the cave. She turned around only she had no face, she was two backs. Wu Xie closed his eyes but it got even closer. When he opened them it was right in front of him and her hair consumed him.

He woke up from the nightmare on the boat with everyone there. They had found the exit and were out in the open with the sun shining down on them. Wu Xie asked who had hit him and Wu Sanxing admitted it was him. He also scolded him for looking back and getting all of them nearly killed. Wu Xie asked what the woman in white was. Zhang Qiling had told them that she was a "lei," the spirit of the female zombie. She wanted to get out of the cave using Wu Xie's yang chi (masculine/positive life-energy). Wu Xie noticed that Zhang Qiling was unconscious in the boat and asked what had happened. He had lost too much blood and had fallen into a coma. Wu Xie asked his uncle again who Zhang Qiling was and how he was so powerful. He only reiterated that anyone his friend recommended was very helpful. Pan Zi had spotted a village in the distance. They headed towards the village on foot. Wu Xie and High Shao helped carry Zhang Qiling to the village. High Shao though he was flexible like a woman as if he had no bones.

They came across a little kid who led them to the village in exchange for some money. They found a hotel with two rooms. Wu Sanxing, High Shao and Pan Zi stayed in one room while Wu Xie and Zhang Qiling stayed in the other. Wu Xie let him down on the bed as he was still unconscious.

## Characters

* Wu Xie
* Zhang Qiling
* Wu Sanxing
* Pan Zi
* High Shao
* Grandpa Li
* Boatman

## Locations

* Shandong, China
* Corpse Cave

## Artifacts

* Silk Manuscript (mentioned)
* Bronze Bell

## Divergence from the Novel

* The sound coming the bell in the novel was described as countless little ghosts whispering. In the show, it is a loud piercing noise.
* Wu Xie did not directly look at the zombie but looked at her reflection in the water thinking that it would do no harm. He was still knocked out but by Pan Zi.
* Wu Xie was the one that made the comment about how Zhang Qiling's body was soft like a woman's.