Chapter 3: Phoenix Drum
Could it be a psychological effect? I talked to them about so many strange things tonight, Tan Xiao thought.
The only sounds at the scene were the vibration of the generator and the heat dissipation of the high-wattage lights. Everyone else was silent and had no mood to do anything else.
The feeling of being watched seemed to flash by for only a moment, giving me a few goose bumps.
Tan Xiao said silently: "Do you feel it..."
As soon as he spoke, everyone looked over.
Even a little weird .
In this environment, what Tan Xiao was about to say would probably make the atmosphere even weirder. This made him hesitate a little, and he finally looked at the ground: "I think I heard a rustling sound, very similar to..."
"The snake is crawling."
Tan Xiao thought about what it looked like, a snake.
It is said that humans are born afraid of snakes. This may be because humans were frightened and hurt by poisonous snakes when they first originated. This fear is engraved in their DNA, making them particularly wary of snakes.
"Then be careful."
"There are a lot of snakes in Nanchu. My friend works in the emergency department. Especially in the summer, many people go to the park to climb mountains and get bit by snakes and are sent for serum injections. They are all venomous snakes, such as the bamboo leaf green snake and the five-step snake."
The Chu area is lush with vegetation, making it a good place for snakes to survive.
After Tan Xiao said this, everyone became alert and used sticks to hit the surroundings, but found nothing. It is also possible that they alerted the uninvited guest and drove him away.
Sizzle.
The intercom rang again.
"Phew, we are in the front room now. The air isn't very good, let's take a break. Here, there is actually an altar!"
Mr. Ji's voice was breathless and a little excited. "We usually think that it was not until the Han Dynasty that sacrificial facilities were set up inside and outside the tomb, but the characteristics here are clearly from the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, which is very rare."
Because of the stagnation of progress, they have not been able to explore the entire tomb, and the tomb passage has not been completely cleared. The details of this exploration made Mr. Ji eager to start research immediately.
"Okay, Mr. Ji, please be careful." Mu Fei didn't quite understand his excitement and just reminded him repeatedly.
"What was that sound? Did you hear it?"
“Are there any bugs?”
There was a faint conversation coming from the intercom.
Mu Fei immediately asked: "What's wrong?"
"There seems to be something in the tomb... probably a snake or insect. We didn't see it clearly. We brought insect repellent. Let's spray it now." There was only a moment of panic over there, but they soon calmed down.
When he heard the snakes and insects, Tan Xiao's heart suddenly jumped. He originally wanted to go back to the mobile home to wait, but now he could hardly walk.
Did they hear the same noise as I did?
Down below, Ji Lao and his companions just took a short rest before continuing their journey. It didn't take long for them to get from the front room to where the coffin was. They kept in touch and searched carefully near the witch figurines.
About twenty minutes later, an archaeologist's voice rang out: "...Is this it?"
Everyone gathered around, and Elder Ji said to the other end of the intercom, "Is Xiao Tan here? We found a wooden object. We're not sure if it's a magic weapon, but it's definitely a ghost weapon. It's only the size of a palm, a square wooden strip wrapped with a ribbon, and it's already rotten. Feathers are carved on the front, shaped like a fan."
Tan Xiao was stunned for a moment.
"Xiao Tan, did you hear that?"
The voice on the other end of the intercom was intermittent.
"I heard it!" Tan Xiao suddenly looked towards the ground. He swore that he heard some kind of slapping sound underground. "Didn't you hear it? There is a sound down there."
But the others looked confused.
Tan Xiao took two steps back, some instinct driving him to leave here.
"What's wrong with you?" Mu Fei took two steps forward curiously and reached out to pull Tan Xiao.
His scalp almost exploded in an instant and Tan Xiao ran away !
But at this moment, a crack rapidly expanded in the remaining roof stone, spreading to the feet of Tan Xiao and Mu Fei. They had no time to escape, and the position that was originally thought to be stable collapsed, swallowing up Tan Xiao and Mu Fei in the blink of an eye.
…
"Tan Xiao? Tan Xiao?"
Tan Xiao turned over and wiped the dust off his face. He felt a burning pain in his cheeks and his nose was filled with the smell of damp earth and a stale, moldy smell that was very unpleasant.
He moved around a bit and felt like he had no other injuries, so he whispered, "I'm fine."
Mu Fei took out his cell phone and walkie-talkie, but unfortunately they were broken and the screens were cracked and could not be used. However, the small flashlight used for lighting was given to him by a brother in the army. It was of military quality and was still intact.
They fell into the tomb as the top stone collapsed, and looking up, they saw that it was completely blocked.
There were crackling sounds, and the stones seemed to be about to collapse.
Mu Fei's face looked grim, but there was a minor beside her, so she could only cheer herself up and said, "There are still people up there, and rescue will be organized immediately. But this place is in danger of a second collapse, so we have to move away. You... don't be afraid, I will protect you."
Even if Tan Xiao didn't believe in superstition, he was still a high school student. He suddenly encountered a landslide accident in an ancient tomb. He felt uncomfortable with the environment here and wanted to escape very much.
Mu Fei's comforting effect was actually... just average. After all, Tan Xiao still remembered what Mu Fei said about his civil service when he was up there, so he chose not to go down the tomb.
Tan Xiao said dryly: "Are there many traps in this king's tomb? Will we get into trouble if we walk around randomly?"
"Of course there are. Some crossbows were taken out from here before." Mu Fei emphasized that they had been taken out. The excavation work was not started on the first day. They had been digging for a while. What should be excluded had been excluded. What has not been excluded is not being solved. "Besides, we are not going far."
Mu Fei didn't want to scare him, but she knew that the collapse of the roof stone was strange, so she quietly pinched the talisman in her pocket and said calmly: "Let's find a place to hide, maybe we can meet Mr. Xu."
Tan Xiao followed Mu Fei closely. His cell phone was in his schoolbag, so he relied on Mu Fei's flashlight for lighting.
The tomb passage was deep and long. Apart from a little light in front of them, everything was unclear. Only a faint air current was flowing. However, they were going to walk towards a darker place, as if walking towards an unknown world step by step.
There was a slope in front, and perhaps because of the slope, both of them felt a slight sense of effort as they walked.
The dragging footsteps echoed in the narrow corridor, and the light from the flashlight was swallowed up in the unknown depths.
The anti-theft stone had been dug out and the mechanism removed, so entry was unimpeded. Just as Mu Fei said, there was no need to worry about the mechanism.
"I can't walk anymore, so why not stay here?" Mu Fei observed the structure here and planned to wait here instead of going deeper into the tomb to avoid other troubles.
But at this moment she heard faint voices, and her eyes lit up.
"Mr. Xu!" Mu Fei shouted, but she couldn't control the volume for a moment. The sound echoed in the long corridor, making her feel uncomfortable.
The voices over there seemed louder and closer.
Mu Fei couldn't help but quicken her pace: "It must be them, let's go."
Tan Xiao could almost hear his own heartbeat. He always felt that Mu Fei said that this place was very dangerous, but why did her movements unconsciously become deeper and deeper... ?
Tan Xiao subconsciously wanted to reach out and pull Mu Fei, but Mu Fei's footsteps were simply rushing forward. Tan Xiao gritted his teeth and chased after her, "Sister Mu, please walk slower."
As Mu Fei quickened his pace, a stone chamber appeared in front of them. It was dark inside. Mu Fei stuck his head out to look, then walked in and shone the flashlight to confirm that there was indeed no one here.
Mu Fei was not an expert like Mr. Ji, so he just followed the source of the sound. But when he got here, he didn't see anyone and didn't know where this place was.
"Tsk... I'd better not go any further, otherwise I won't know where to go." Mu Fei suddenly regretted following the voice just now, and couldn't even remember why his first reaction was to chase after it.
At that time, she just felt that it was not far away, and she walked forward with a rush of blood. Looking back now, it was very strange, which made her extremely alert.
Mu Fei stepped on the ground carefully, fearing that she might step on any cultural relics.
This tomb chamber is at least several hundred square meters, with the walls painted with strokes. When a flashlight illuminates the area in front of you, you can see square lacquerware that looks like an altar.
There are also countless exquisite jade and bronze artifacts displayed around.
The flashlight then shone to the side. First, I saw two lying tigers below, and then upwards, they were holding up a large round object. Only then could I see the whole picture clearly. It turned out to be a drum.
The drum stand is carved into the shape of a phoenix, still in the classic red and black color scheme, with patterns painted on it.
Because of the unique shape of the phoenix hanging drum, she took a closer look.
Mu Fei knew that the value of everything here was inestimable, so she didn't dare to move around, and just looked around. The circular light passed by one place and then moved back.
"This thing..." Mu Fei looked at a fan-shaped magic weapon in front of him and said, "It looks very similar to what Elder Ji described, except that it's bigger and the size for humans to use."
What Mr. Ji described before was a wood carving, and the size was that of a human figurine. The witch figurine was only about 1.2 meters tall, and the things it used were only the size of a palm.
This one is much bigger, with bamboo strips decorated with silk in the shape of a fan, and feathers painted on the silk. There are horizontal and oblique stripes on the top, and circles on the bottom that look like eyes, which is a bit abstract, but still recognizable.
"But this feather is a little different. To me, it looks like a peacock feather." Mu Fei said curiously. Didn't they say it was a phoenix? Why was there a peacock?
"It must be Peacock," Tan Xiao thought for a moment, "Legend has it that Yuan Feng gave birth to two sons, Peacock and Dapeng, they are from the same lineage."
"So you're saying, could it be that the witch figurine used this kind of fan? What kind of magical weapon is this?" Mu Fei asked. After Mr. Ji asked this question, the roof stone collapsed before they could wait for Tan Xiao's answer.
When talking about this, Tan Xiao's expression was a little dazed, and he even seemed to be a little hesitant to answer: "Do you know that my mother is committed to adapting sacrificial dances into art forms such as dance dramas and square dances?"
"...You actually knew that." Mu Fei had just watched the news.
“Well, a long time ago, the Chu wizards had a sacrificial dance that required them to hold this fan-shaped instrument and dance it. It was the famous Chu wizard snake dance.
"There is another reason why the Chu people worshipped the phoenix. It was because they were afraid of the poisonous snakes everywhere, and flying birds could defeat snakes. To them, the phoenix represented life and the snake represented death. They offered sacrifices to the phoenix in order to ascend to heaven, and they also believed that after offering sacrifices to the phoenix, they could control the snakes. Hence, the snake-controlling dance was created, which could communicate with the gods above and send away ghosts below.
"To perform the snake dance, one must hold a feather fan and step on the Yu Step, so what Mr. Ji found should be correct. The three pairs of witch figurines probably have different duties. One pair guards the tomb owner, one pair drives away ghosts, and the other pair represents the curse on those who disturb the tomb owner's rest, and they will be punished by holding snakes and shackles."
Tan Xiao's voice echoed faintly in the empty underground stone chamber.
Mu Fei swallowed hard and felt a chill on the back of her spine. She suddenly remembered that Ji Lao and the others seemed to have heard the sound of a snake in the tomb before.
Is it just Chudiduo Snake? Or...
Mu Fei held her breath, her fingers tightly gripping the handle of the flashlight, and suddenly she felt something and looked up.
It was only then that she discovered that a huge shadow had appeared in the corner of the top of the tomb, but it was difficult to distinguish in the darkness. As it gradually moved away, it seemed that there were two round objects reflecting the light of the flashlight, bright and cold.
It was unknown how long it had stayed there, when it had come, or perhaps it had never left. It quietly listened to them discussing the Chu people's custom of handling snakes.
Mu Fei only felt a chill rising from her chest!
She didn't dare to look away, and continued to stare at the giant snake, saying in a low voice: "When I count to one, two, three, you squat down."
Tan Xiao froze and nodded slightly.
"one two three--"
Mu Fei shouted the last word. At the same time, she took two steps, put her feet on the stone wall, and rose up from the ground. Her body was so light that she seemed to fly into the air, shooting straight at the giant snake. The talisman in her pocket also flew out, "All the gods pay homage, command the thunder!"
Tan Xiao squatted on the ground, looked back, and his pupils trembled instantly.
He saw a tangled, patterned body swimming away quickly, raising its head accurately to hold the yellow talisman, then hissing and spitting out a signal.
I saw that the places that came into contact with the yellow talisman began to rot, but the rotting had stopped at this moment and did not cause any damage to the vital parts.
The giant snake retreated to the door, as if it was hesitant, but it did not leave. Its pair of yellow eyes once again stared at them coldly, as if it was ready to attack them again at any time.
Mu Fei stepped on the giant snake, did a backflip and landed on the ground. Seeing this, he also took a breath.
Just now, as soon as she made a move, the giant snake also moved at the same time, as if it had expected it. It did not dodge even though it had the strength to spare. Instead, it grabbed the talisman as if to test her ability.
At the moment of applying the talisman, she was almost touching the giant snake, and she could feel the giant snake slowly giving her a glance...
What's worse is that, because it was Mr. Xu who was going to go to the tomb, she gave all the limited resources to Mr. Xu and only kept three talismans for herself. She just used one, and the effect was obviously not good.
Tan Xiao moved to Mu Fei's side, and was stunned. "How can there be such a big snake?"
And the talisman paper that Mu Fei threw out...
Mu Fei kept thinking about what to do, and even wondered what had happened to Mr. Xu and the others. He answered, "This seems to be the snake that Cao Shewu was holding. Maybe I shouldn't say how it got there. It might be the native inhabitant of this place."
"Then how can it reproduce and survive in the tomb? Isn't this tomb closed? Can it go out to find food?" Tan Xiao said subconsciously.
Mu Fei asked back: "So how many years do you think it looks like it has lived?"
Tan Xiao was about to say a few decades when he noticed that the giant snake's gaze had moved to him, examining him like a human being, even with a hint of contempt. He got goosebumps and suddenly didn't dare to answer the question.
He took another look at the giant snake's rotten chin after being touched by the talisman paper, and intuitively felt that the result would be very strange.
"Get up," Mu Fei pulled herself together and said unconfidently, "I'll take you out first."
Tan Xiao stood up slowly, fearing that his big movements would attract the other party's attention. Now, he was almost losing his life while doing social practice.
"Sister, I believe you, but didn't you say that you are a civilian?" If Tan Xiao hadn't seen the giant snake, the first thing that would have shocked him would have been the skills displayed by Mu Fei.
She also said that she was a civilian and she felt like she was flying. She was not much worse than Mr. Ji who could pull 250 kilograms, and it might even be more exaggerated.
Mu Fei held the remaining two runes, staring at the giant snake's movements intently and said, "I'm a civilian. I mainly use runes to attack."
Tan Xiao: "..."
What the hell, such a civilian job?
Mu Fei nodded her chin towards the giant snake and said in a very low voice: "Be careful, this evil creature can understand human speech."
She wanted to whisper her plan to Tan Xiao, but she heard Tan Xiao tentatively ask, "He understands us? How about speaking English now?"
Mu Fei: “…OK.”
Mu Fei: "When I do it, you run towards the door."
Tan Xiao: “OK!!”
Mu Fei stepped back.
Sure enough, the giant snake thought she was scared and took a step forward, but it lost its position guarding the door, leaving a gap for escape.
Mu Fei was worried about the safety of the cultural relics, so he didn't dare to retreat too far. After making a judgment, he made a gesture and threw the talisman, and shouted: "All gods pay homage, and command the thunder!"
Then, without even considering the consequences, she quickly ran towards the door with Tan Xiao, aiming to make a feint to the east and attack in the west.
But unexpectedly, before they reached the door, a tail flew up from the ground in front of them and hit them right on the chest, and both of them flew out together.
Mu Fei rubbed his chest. This old guy has a wide defense area.
She caught a glimpse of the giant snake swimming over, her face changed, and she tried to block it in front of Tan Xiao.
The Law on Protection of Minors can no longer protect Tan Xiao, and she is the only one who can still struggle.
Tan Xiao faced it head-on. This giant snake, which had lived in the tomb of the King of Chu for who knows how many years, moved very fast. In just a blink of an eye, its orange-yellow vertical pupils seemed to be very close to him, and he could even smell the rotten smell of its snout.
Tan Xiao leaned back helplessly, leaning on the phoenix-shaped hanging drum. He closed his eyes and subconsciously shouted, "Get out of here!"
At the same time, the elbow touches the drum surface, making a "dong" sound.
The sound was deep and not loud, but it reverberated in the cold tomb, flowing into the chest and causing the heart to beat violently. It was said that the drum sound was simulated by the ancestors through thunder. The wizards beat the drum countless times in order to shake the heaven and earth.
At this moment, there seemed to be jumping flames, surrounding the remnants of the witch's voice from a thousand years ago.
"Bang!"
The huge body fell on the thick stone wall. It quickly coiled up in a defensive posture, as if it had seen a natural enemy, and looked up in fear!
Mu Fei's movements also stopped. She originally wanted to rush forward, but she changed her direction and slowly hid behind Tan Xiao...
Tan Xiao: "..."
Mu Fei shone the flashlight and found that the giant snake was swimming anxiously, but it was completely different from before. It was not leisurely waiting for prey. If you insist, it was more like wanting to go to the door, but afraid of Tan Xiao who was standing in front of it.
The situations of both parties have been completely reversed!
"What's wrong with you?" Mu Fei asked in a low voice.
"Yeah, what's wrong with me?" Tan Xiao was even more confused than her.
"Oh my god, why are you trying to imitate my shock?" Mu Fei felt that she had been standing in front of him unnecessarily. "You don't even need to chant a spell to get this effect. You're still calling it a folk performance. You're a great wizard."
Tan Xiao was confused but still said stubbornly: "Maybe I speak Parseltongue?"
