Tomb Codex

The one who hired Shen Zhaoye to enter the imperial tomb was a faceless client. An encrypted mailbox, a Swiss bank—no name, no face. They wanted 'one specific thing' from the tomb.

An old lineage within the Fenjin trade, sustained for 4 generations by a single Hanlong Fragment. By Shen Zhaoye's generation the family had fallen, and only the copied first half of the fragment remained.

A seal-script character written in reverse is, nine times out of ten, a lock-curse. It is not meant for people to read, but for those 'who should not read it'—it locks not the gate, but the one who reads it.

The rules for entering a tomb are not superstition but experience paid for in lives. At their core lies a single line: you come to look and to take, not to leave anything behind.

A line is carved on the stone gate: 'Know the dragon and withdraw; bear the mirror and enter; the soul returns to thirty-one.' Later, a bronze mirror that fit the gate's groove was indeed unearthed before it.

The pottery figures' pupils are carved as a single vertical line—like a cat, like a snake, anything but human. An artisan does not carve such a thing without reason.