Episode 1 (The Lost Tomb)

**Episode 1 (The Lost Tomb)** is the first episode of the television series The Lost Tomb. It is based on chapters two and three of the Daomu Biji novel *Cavern of the Blood Zombies*.

## Synopsis

Wu Xie finds a silk manuscript that leads to the location of a hidden tomb. He is soon brought into the dangerous world of grave robbers.

## Story

Wu Xie spoke of his grandfather Wu Laogou's journal and the adventures in it. Wu Xie called the journal, the grave robbers' chronicles (盗墓笔记/Dàomù Bǐjì). His grandfather suffered through a war-stricken era and had to rob tombs to pay for food during the famine. Originally believing them to be just stories, he realized there was some truth behind them. He reiterated how the stories influenced his own life and, as if controlled by an unseen hand, his fate led him into the dangerous world of grave robbers.

At another location in Inner Mongolia, Wu Xie and High Shao were followed by mysterious men on motorbikes who followed them from Germany. Even when being followed, Wu Xie and High Shao were arguing with each other. When Wu Xie was in the line of sight of a sniper, Ning's voice could be heard warning the sniper that their boss ordered them not to hurt Wu Xie. The sniper shot the wheel instead, which lead Wu Xie and High Shao into a tailspin and they crashed into a sand hole. Still in the car, Wu Xie pulled out an antique ox head from his bag. He only wanted to return the item to his country but the men that followed him from Germany had gone to such great lengths to steal it from him. The men in black finally arrived and they chased after Wu Xie who began to run on foot with the antique. The sniper from earlier got out of his car, pulled out his handgun, shot Wu Xie in the arm, and took the ox head antique.

Before the man and his team could hurt Wu Xie or High Shao any further, another man suddenly appeared on an off-road go-kart and left the men scrambling. He pulled up next to Wu Xie and High Shao and urged them to get going. Wu Xie grabbed the antique and both boarded the vehicle which drove away. Wu Xie asked who the mysterious man was and he introduced himself as Wang Yue Ban, but most called him Wang Pangzi. He told them to call him Mr. Fatty (胖爷/Pàng Yé). In return, High Shao introduced himself and Wu Xie but called Pangzi, Grandpa Fatty (胖爷爷/Pàng Yéyé) much to Pangzi's annoyance.

The men on motorbikes continued to follow them through narrow roads. At one point, a man was able to climb onto their vehicle and grab onto the book bag that Wu Xie used to carry the antique. Pangzi managed to get rid of him by slamming on the brakes. The sniper from before also managed to catch up but Pangzi was able to create a blockade and got away. Pangzi drove them to a nearby restaurant stating before he continued running, he should first fill his stomach.

Pangzi spoke to a worker in the restaurant in a different language and they were directed to sit in a room in the back. While they waited for their food, they treated Wu Xie's gunshot wound. Soon enough, Ning and her men entered the restaurant. Pangzi spotted her and warned Wu Xie and High Shao. They spied on her through the opening of the makeshift door in their room. More of her men came in and informed her that their boss would be arriving soon. Wu Xie, seemingly not within hearing distance, surmised that she was the boss of the mercenaries. Pangzi asked what their plan of escape should be when their waiter walked in to serve them drinks. Pangzi gave the man some money and asked for help.

Ning was on the phone and heard that the other team had lost the two students, Wu Xie and High Shao. She was also told of their helper and how they were now operating as a three-man team. The three of them then come out of the room dressed in Mongolian clothing and wearing hats. Ning saw through their disguise and ordered her men to stop them. One of Ning's men spoke to the three of them in a Mongolian language. Pangzi responded in gibberish and the man stopped him from trying to move past. Pangzi then started speaking Japanese while Wu Xie and High Shao moved away to think of a plan. Ning snuck up on the two of them and snatched away Wu Xie's hat. A fight ensued and Pangzi tried to delay them, while Wu Xie and High Shao started the off-road vehicle outside. They couldn't get the car to start so Wu Xie called out to Pangzi who came careening through the restaurant window. The car suddenly started, Pangzi hopped on and they drove away. Ning and her men followed and they engaged in a car chase. Ning informed the sniper guy where the three of them were headed. Wu Xie had not seen anyone nearby and believed they had lost them. Pangzi told him that was impossible and that he was too naive. The car ran out of gas in front of a temple, so the three of them went inside to look for help but it was empty. They heard Ning's team approaching and went outside to look. A man in their vehicles looked on with binoculars. Ning stepped out of one of the vehicles, along with her whole team, and demanded that they returned the ox head. Pangzi urged Wu Xie to return the item since they were outnumbered and without weapons.

Wu Xie went closer to Ning's team and requested a negotiation for the antique which was covered in a cloth. Ning did not want to negotiate and told him that if he gave them the item, the three of them may be spared. Wu Xie, in return, threatened to throw the antique over the cliff if they tried to take it by force. An English-speaking man from the car informed Ning and her men that Wu Xie's life was not important. They approached closer and Wu Xie continued to threaten to throw the antique over the cliff before finally doing so. Wu Xie taunted the sniper guy telling him to jump off the cliff to pick up the antique. The sniper guy punched him in the gut in return. The other men demanded that Pangzi and High Shao come out of the temple and the three of them knelt on the ground with guns to their heads. The wind picked up and a mysterious man arrived on the edge of the cliff with the shrouded antique in his hands. The English-speaking man from the car ordered them not to shoot and wondered how he could have appeared. The man was Zhang Qiling and he held up the antique and asked whose it was. Wu Xie ran over and grabbed the antique out of his hand saying it was his. Ning went to the car to talk to her boss who told her to retreat. She was confused and looked at Zhang Qiling but ordered the men to obey. Once they left, Wu Xie asked Zhang Qiling who he was but the other did not respond and just walked away. Wu Xie, High Shao, and Pangzi discussed how he could have appeared out of nowhere.

Wu Xie and High Shao were leaving the Cultural Relic Protection and Management Institute (CRPMI) when Director Jiang arrived. High Shao recognized the director's car and laughed. The director got out and asked what had happened. An employee reported that someone had dropped off an ox head from the Qing dynasty in an office. Wu Xie and High Shao returned to their car and Wu Xie examined the cloth that had wrapped the antique. The cloth was a Buddhist thangka, which was a type of cloth that depicted a Tibetan Buddhist painting. The cloth was torn in the corner and Wu Xie was able to pull out a silk manuscript that had ancient writing on it.

Back at Wu Xie's place, High Shao and he discussed how odd it was that there was no news of the antique ox head being donated to the CRPMI. The only explanation that Wu Xie could think of for it not showing up in the news was that the antique was not particularly special. Both of them then didn't understand why the mercenaries chased them from Germany to Inner Mongolia for it. Wu Xie thought that it could be because of the silk manuscript that he found from the cloth that wrapped the antique. High Shao suggested they give it to the CRPMI, but Wu Xie wanted to first find out what was written on it. Wu Xie's family was part of the antique business, so he thought he would look at it to see if he could figure out what it said. The silk manuscript was old and was torn or cut on one side which cut off some of the words. The three other sides had completed texts, so there should be another that completes their silk manuscript. Meanwhile, High Shao used his phone to get some advice.

Wu Xie worked on the manuscript for three days while High Shao informed him that he posted the manuscript online so that other people could work on it. Wu Xie suddenly got a call that he had to pay someone's bill. High Shao and him rushed to the restaurant where an employee informed them that a girl, who he presumed was Wu Xie's girlfriend, told him that he would pay the bill. The employee pointed toward the table with the girl who was currently eating. Wu Xie went over and asked her whether there was some kind of misunderstanding. She didn't recognize him and asked him if he was Wu Xie. Wu Xie was now even more confused but she urged him to have a seat and reached out her hand to introduce herself as Chen Chengcheng. Wu Xie did not shake her hand in return. The employee of the restaurant told him that her bill was CN¥ 2,200 (~US$ 310-320). Wu Xie wanted to know why she thought he would pay the bill. She informed him that she had something he wanted and would tell him what it was if he paid for her dinner. Wu Xie said no thanks and got up to see High Shao paying her bill anyway. High Shao walked over and introduced himself seeming completely enthralled by her. Wu Xie just wanted to know what she had now that her bill was paid. She handed him a rubbing of the other half of the silk manuscript.

The three of them met back at Wu Xie's place and Wu Xie wanted to know where she had gotten the rubbing from. She said she found it amongst her paternal aunt's stuff. Her aunt was an archeologist and went missing on an exploration. She then decided to major in archeology as well and was going through the things her aunt left behind and found it. High Shao had finally lined up the rubbing and their manuscript on a computer and the three of them examined the content. Wu Xie informed them that it was written in the Wumu script of Western Xia. It was the earliest script of the Jurchens but Wu Xie couldn't figure out what it said. He received a text from his third uncle, Wu Sanxing, who let him know that he had something valuable by using the code word Dragon's Back (龙脊背/Lóng Jǐ Bèi). Wu Xie hurriedly left to meet his uncle.

    Wu Xie arrived at his uncle's shop at night and got out of his car when he was attacked by a man wielding a knife. Zhang Qiling suddenly appeared and the robber lunged at him with his knife. Zhang Qiling easily disarmed him and sent the man running. Wu Sanxing came out to check on his nephew and thanked Zhang Qiling and called him Little Brother (小哥/Xiǎo Gē). Wu Xie asked his uncle if he knew him but said that they had just met that day. The ancient sword on Zhang Qiling's back was the valuable item Wu Sanxing had texted Wu Xie about and he reprimanded him for being late.

Wu Xie wanted his uncle to look at the silk manuscripts and brought his laptop out for the other to see. Wu Sanxing refused to look and avoided the computer screen while Wu Xie repeatedly asked him to. However, when he glanced at the screen, he immediately became intrigued. He wanted to know where Wu Xie had gotten it from but Wu Xie reminded him that they had a rule to not ask about the source. The manuscript was a written map of a specific geographic location of an ancient tomb. Wu Sanxing was one of the few people that could read such a rare script. But he couldn't figure out what it said exactly yet but knew that it was about a high-ranking noble from the State of Lu during the Warring States Period. He thought it was certainly worth a visit. Wu Xie closed the laptop on him. He wanted to give the map to the CRPMI, so he decided to leave. Wu Xie went back to his place to find that someone broke in. High Shao and Chen Chengcheng were gagged and tied up. Men in black had shown up after Wu Xie had left and stole the silk manuscripts.

In his journal, he wrote to his parents that he gave a cultural relic to the CRMPI thinking he didn't do anything wrong but felt like he only brought more trouble. During his time studying in Germany, he saw many Chinese cultural relics on display in the museum. He thought that his grandfather's generation suffered through various difficulties that forced them to sell the relics to smugglers but now people did it for personal gain. At that moment, he decided to protect the relics and give no chance to the smugglers and grave robbers.

The next day, Wu Sanxing went over to Wu Xie's to discuss the stolen silk manuscripts. Wu Xie told him that he did not want the mercenaries to find the tomb first and wanted his uncle's help finding the tomb. Wu Sanxing, Wu Xie, and High Shao left the house at one point and when they came back, Wu Xie's house was ransacked and Chen Chengcheng was missing. Wu Xie wanted to call the police but his uncle warned him that the mercenaries might have kidnapped Chen Chengcheng and would harm her if the police were involved. Wu Sanxing told them to pack their things as they were heading out to the tomb tomorrow.

The next morning Wu Sanxing, High Shao, and Wu Xie packed their things in the car and planned to meet the other members of the exploration team in Shandong. Once they arrived, they greeted Pan Zi, Wu Sanxing's right-hand man. Wu Xie pulled Pan Zi aside to ask whether he knew that they weren't there to rob graves and he told them he understood. Zhang Qiling had also joined the team but was off to the side not talking to anybody.

## Characters

* Wu Xie
* High Shao
* Wang Pangzi
* Ning
* Hendry Cox
* Zhang Qiling
* Chen Chengcheng
* Wu Sanxing

## Locations

* Somewhere in Inner Mongolia
* Cultural Relic Protection and Management Institute
* Shandong, China

## Artifacts

* Antique ox head from the Qing dynasty
* Silk Manuscript
* Zhang Qiling's Ancient Sword
* Wu Laogou's Journal

## Divergence from the Novel

* All of the scenes from Inner Mongolia do not appear in the novel.
* High Shao is not a character in the novel.
* Chen Chengcheng is not a character in the novel.
* Wu Xie does not meet Wang Pangzi in Inner Mongolia. They first meet in the Seven Star Palace.
* Ning does not appear in the first novel (English publication). Wu Xie first meets her on the way to explore the Paracel Underwater Tomb.
* Wu Xie does not meet Zhang Qiling in Inner Mongolia. They first meet when Zhang Qiling picks up the ancient sword from Wu Sanxing. There was no attempted robbery.
* Wu Xie does not care about giving artifacts to the government/CRPMI in the novels. He went to the tomb because his antique shop was not doing well and he needed the money.
* Wu Xie does not get the silk manuscript from the thangka cloth but from a then-unknown visitor to his antique shop.
* Wu Xie did not study in Germany.
* Big Kui, who is mentioned in The Lost Tomb 2 and Tomb of the Sea, was written out of The Lost Tomb. He originally joined Wu Xie, Wu Sanxing, Zhang Qiling, and Pan Zi on their journey to the Seven Star Palace.

## Notes

1. ↑ Other translations of 胖爷 (Pàng Yé) include "fat master."
2. ↑ As of May 2023, CN¥2,200 is US$ 311. See Forbes Advisor*, Convert Chinese Yuan To United States Dollar* for the current number.
3. ↑ The **Western Xia** **(西夏)** was an empire that reigned from 1038-1227 AD. Meaning that this silk manuscript they are reading is not from the Warring States Period (475–221 BC) but is about a high-ranking noble from that period. This also means that that the silk volume Wu Xie had was not a legitimate Warring States Period silk volume. In the novel, the counterfeit was from the Han dynasty. The type of script stated here was an example of what Wu San Xing could read. See more about Warring States Silk Book; see Daomu Biji Book 1, Chapter 3 (Chinese).
4. ↑ Xiaoge is a term used to refer to a young man. See Baidu*, 小哥*.