How can a body remain intact long after death without embalming?

After death, bacteria and the body's own enzymes break down tissue within a few weeks under normal conditions. But intense cold, extreme dryness, lack of oxygen, or the presence of salts such as natron or arsenic block these processes. A body exposed to such conditions can mummify spontaneously and remain recognizable for years, even centuries, without any deliberate human intervention.

Phenomenon biologymedicine

Decomposition and Mummification of the Human Body

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Suirei reports to Maomao that the former emperor’s body remained intact in the mausoleum for an entire year, showing no sign of decomposition, while his mother’s body, kept in the same place, was in an advanced state of putrefaction. Maomao thinks aloud: without ice to keep a body cold, a corpse normally ends up rotting. The difference between the two bodies in the same place becomes the episode’s central mystery, steering suspicion away from a curse and toward a cause specific to one of the two bodies, whether dietary, medical, or the result of a discreet embalming.

The subject in depth

The decomposition of a human body follows a progression through several phases, the speed of which depends entirely on environmental conditions ^[Wikipedia].

Comparative diagram of decomposition stages and the conditions that halt the process to mummify a body — After death, everything depends on the conditions around the body

Autolysis begins within the first hours after death. Without oxygen, cells release their own enzymes, which begin digesting tissue from the inside. This process is purely biochemical, independent of any bacteria.

Bacterial putrefaction takes over in the following days. Intestinal bacteria, proliferating unchecked by the host’s immune system, rapidly colonize every organ and produce gases such as methane and hydrogen sulfide, responsible for bloating and the characteristic odor. In a temperate, humid environment, a body is reduced to a skeletal state within a few weeks to a few months.

Four conditions can halt this process and preserve the body:

Cold: below around 4°C (39°F), bacterial activity slows dramatically. The ice Maomao mentions works on exactly this principle. Bodies found in glaciers or permafrost (such as Ötzi, the Iceman) illustrate how effective this mechanism can be over millennia.
Dryness: without water, bacteria cannot multiply and enzymes become inactive. Hot, dry desert environments mummify bodies naturally, as shown by the mummies of the Taklamakan Desert or certain regions of Africa.
Lack of oxygen: an anaerobic environment prevents aerobic bacteria from developing. In peat bogs, the combination of acidity, anaerobiosis, and sphagnan (a natural antiseptic from sphagnum moss) produces bog bodies, some of which are thousands of years old.
Preserving salts: natron, a mixture of sodium carbonate and bicarbonate, was used in Egyptian embalming to rapidly dehydrate bodies and inhibit bacteria. Arsenic, in the form of arsenite or arsenic trioxide, was used as a funerary preservative in many cultures, notably in imperial China, where arsenical salts were applied to bodies to slow their decomposition ^[Wikipedia]. This connects directly to the entry on orpiment and arsenic, where the same arsenic compounds Maomao handles as pigment or poison turn out to have also served as agents of bodily preservation.

Saponification is a special case: under cold, wet conditions, the body’s fats can turn into adipocere, a waxy, stable substance that coats tissues and locks them into a state of prolonged preservation. This phenomenon is well documented in forensic medicine for bodies recovered from aquatic environments or damp clay soils.

In real life

Examples of natural preservation are numerous and geographically diverse. The Chinese mummy known as Lady Dai (Western Han dynasty, around 168 BCE), found in a remarkably well-preserved state thanks to an anaerobic environment and a layer of charcoal absorbing moisture, shows that special conditions inside a tomb can preserve a body for centuries without extreme dryness. Egyptian mummies, by contrast, owe their preservation to natron and the deliberate removal of organs. The bog bodies of Northern Europe (Lindow Man in England, Tollund Man in Denmark) survived two thousand years in an acidic, anaerobic environment. In imperial China, as in other Asian courts, preparations based on cinnabar (mercury sulfide) and arsenic compounds were applied inside tombs or on bodies to slow decomposition, a practice that explains the elevated arsenic levels found in some Chinese mummies through archaeometric analysis.

The fact-checker's eye

The mystery the episode poses is scientifically sound. A body kept in a sealed mausoleum remaining intact for a year is not impossible if conditions allow it: a cold, dry environment, lack of oxygen, or the presence of preserving substances. The most interesting point is the difference in preservation between the two bodies in the same location, which the story exploits skillfully: if the environment is identical, the cause must be specific to one of the bodies. A discreet embalming, or a diet or medication rich in arsenic or mercury in the final months of life, would be enough to explain such a divergence. Modern forensic medicine has documented cases where people chronically exposed to arsenic (slow poisoning, medicinal use) had their bodies preserved for a long time after death, precisely because the arsenic accumulated in their tissues acted as a preservative. The story never settles on a cause, which is exactly what makes it a good narrative hook.

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Published on May 30, 2026

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