Tombrift — Chapter list
Tombrift is a globe-spanning tomb-raiding mystery saga told in serial form. Protagonist Shen Zhaoye is the last scion of a fallen geomancer lineage, hired to investigate lost royal tombs across the world — from the emperor mounds of the Qinling mountains and the pharaoh crypts of Egypt to the pyramids of the Maya and a buried city beneath Antarctic ice. Each tomb peels back another layer of a single secret: beneath every great empire, the same scaled bloodline was waiting.
The Pupil-less Imperial Tomb
China's Qinling / outer Guanzhong. The true dragon emperor is no metaphor—the imperial tomb holds inhuman molted skin and vertical-pupil burial figures.
- Ch. 001PublishedThe Third Kind of Site
A grave-siter takes a $5M job to pinpoint a tomb that exists in no record.
4270 words12 min - Ch. 002PublishedThe Third Mark of the Pig Hour
A village guide warns of a gully no one returns from past the dog-bark line.
2718 words8 min - Ch. 003PublishedWhere the Royal House Fled South
An embroidered shoe, a leveled mountaintop, and a buried channel point one way.
2719 words8 min - Ch. 004PublishedThe Dog-Bark Line
A mirror finds a spot the eye can't. He crosses; his shadow bends 70 degrees.
2852 words8 min - Ch. 005PublishedSeventy Degrees
On the far side, light and distance lie. Something crawled out of this gully on its belly.
2804 words8 min - Ch. 006PublishedVertical Pupils
A headless skeleton sealed in a clay shell that runs warm, and its carved eyes track him.
2720 words8 min - Ch. 007PublishedThe Thirty-First
A guard formation of figures, and one head that faces the wrong way.
2778 words8 min - Ch. 008PublishedSixteen Characters
A two-ton stone door, sixteen carved characters, a warning to turn back.
2400 words7 min - Ch. 009PublishedTurning Back
He retreats by the rule, but fresh footprints block the way out.
2231 words6 min - Ch. 010PublishedFive Minutes
He Sanjin crosses the line after Shen, into the gully where light and distance lie.
2732 words8 min - Ch. 011PublishedBreath
Two Shens stand before the figurines in the dark, and only one of them is breathing.
1816 words5 min