Chapter 37: White Jade Bell (Part 3)
"Roar, roar, roar!!!" At this moment, the gorilla climbed on the stone pillar, looked elsewhere, suddenly raised one hand, patted his chest, and roared wildly.
Roar, roar, roar... Its voice echoed throughout the hall. After dozens of seconds, it jumped down with a bang. It walked slowly towards the outside.
Less than two meters to the side of it, Ling Xiaozi's back was pressed tightly against the wall. He turned his head and looked in the direction the monster left with his peripheral vision, his forehead covered in cold sweat.
Three minutes... five minutes... the heavy footsteps became farther and farther away. After five minutes, Ling Xiaozi's body softened and he collapsed beside the stone pillar like a noodle.
The people on the other pillars jumped down instantly. Jiang Xian rushed over and asked with concern, "Are you okay?"
It's okay... Ling Xiaozi wanted to speak, but when he opened his mouth, he found that he had no strength to speak. He waved his hand and wiped the cold sweat. Hong Si Niang looked at Jiang Xian solemnly: "What on earth is that thing?"
Jiang Xian's expression was even uglier than his: "This is... Yuanhe."
"Monkey and crane?" asked the Eight-Armed Arhat with lingering fear.
That monster... is definitely not something that humans can defeat! If we force our way into it, there will be casualties!
"Have you heard of Queen Mother Xia?" Jiang Xian gritted his teeth and said, "In the past few years, the remains of an unknown ape were unearthed in the tomb of Queen Mother Xia, the grandmother of Qin Shihuang. It was five meters tall and weighed several tons. It had sharp fangs. Scientists inferred that it was a carnivore by nature and had a violent personality. The outside world has never been sure what kind of ape it was."
"Unfortunately, there was a record in my sect. This creature is called a monkey crane. It was domesticated in the palace as a tribute during the Qin Dynasty. It was loved by Queen Mother Xia and was buried with her after her death."
Ling Xiaozi swallowed his saliva: "Such a big pet... Queen Mother Xia has a very unique taste..."
Jiang Xian ignored the other party's complaints, raised his wrist to take a look, and said in a deep voice: "There is moonlight outside the cave entrance, which means there is a natural environment outside. The monkey crane came in from the outside world, and it should live in this environment for a long time."
After a pause, he continued, "Growing in the environment between the underground palace and the outside world, it should have adapted to the darkness long ago. Hiding during the day and coming out at night is the instinct of creatures growing in this kind of environment. It is now 11:30 pm. We will rest for the night and take turns to stand guard. We will continue to move forward during the day tomorrow."
No one had any objection. In fact, everyone had been running around for a whole day, the Sea of Rat, the Golden Ball, the Great Wall of Mercury, the Underground Palace... These had almost exhausted all of everyone's energy. Now they had to face the monkeys and cranes, and even if they went together, they would not have any confidence.
According to the arrangement, Hong Si Niang and Babi Luohan stood guard first, followed by Jiang Xian and Ling Xiaozi. Everyone cherished the hard-earned rest time and fell asleep quickly.
Ling Xiaozi didn't sleep well that night - this was due to the long-term experience of being chased and owed money. If a person gets up from the bed and runs away every few days, he probably won't sleep well anywhere...
After an unknown amount of time, he rubbed his eyes and woke up. However, as soon as he woke up, someone covered his mouth.
Jiang Xian's face was not far in front of him. He covered his mouth with one hand and raised a finger with the other hand, making a "hush" gesture.
This time, this posture...
Ling Xiaozi struggled like a catfish, his eyes revealing complex expressions such as "I'm not that kind of person!" "Get out of here! Or I'll scream!" Jiang Xian's forehead veins bulged, and he pinched the other's cheeks, squeezing them into a pig face.
"You're being dramatic!" He gritted his teeth and finally let go of her hand. Ling Xiaozi glared at him resentfully, and just as he was about to speak, his pupils suddenly shrank, and then... he zipped up his sleeping bag tightly and wrapped himself up like a silkworm.
Because... he clearly heard the roars coming from outside!
That's a monkey crane.
And... there is more than one!
But a group!
Swish! The sleeping bag was suddenly opened. Ling Xiaozi subconsciously protected his chest with both hands. His eyes were filled with tears. He curled up and bit his lips and murmured, "I don't..."
"It's your turn to keep watch." The Eight-Armed Arhat's voice came from the side with a sad tone. Ling Xiaozi immediately put away all his inner thoughts and straightened his camouflage uniform seriously. He coughed lightly and said, "I'll be right there."
"Of course..." Hong Si Niang glanced at the two of them and said, "The relationship is very complicated. It's insulting... It's insulting..."
The solemn atmosphere was diluted a little, and soon, Ling Xiaozi sat down with Jiang Xian with a stern face.
The place where they rested was next to the gate, and not far away was the cave that was blasted open by the predecessors of the Chongxu Sect. If anything happened, they could rush out as quickly as possible.
Without turning on the flashlight, the flickering lights in the hall were enough to complete the alert work. Jiang Xian poured Ling Xiaozi a cup of tea and said while chewing a carrot: "Drink more to eliminate the mercury poison."
Ling Xiaozi took it. The two sat down side by side. Jiang Xian took a sip of tea and said lightly: " When Fourth Brother and Sister Luo were on guard, four monkeys and cranes came in."
Ling Xiaozi's hand holding the teacup trembled. Jiang Xian continued, "But it's very strange. I recalled that this hall is probably 1,500 meters long and 800 meters wide. It is a super-large underground building. However, the monkey crane only walked 200 meters at most and immediately turned back. It never crossed the boundary."
"Tamed." Ling Xiaozi sighed faintly: "Their ancestors were tributed to Queen Mother Xia. To be the Queen Mother's pet, they must have been tamed. Since they have been tamed, they should know where they can go and where they cannot go."
"This gene is engraved in their bones and passed down from generation to generation . With their limited brain capacity, it has formed a conditioned reflex."
Jiang Xian nodded thoughtfully. Then he looked around, moved closer, and lowered his voice and said, "I sorted it out carefully before, and I found that... this may not be the Qin Emperor's Mausoleum."
Ling Xiaozi turned his head almost 90 degrees, and his lips were trembling, not knowing whether he was angry or anxious. "We are as close as brothers... I was counting on this chance to turn things around, and you have the heart to lie to me like this? Put my life on your belt?"
Jiang Xian looked at him coldly: "Speak human language."
Ling Xiaozi said with a clear mind: "It costs more money!"
"...You're hurting my feelings. Come, let's continue the previous topic." Jiang Xian raised his chin towards the hall. "The place with the most records of the emperor's behavior is the Tongtian Mansion of Taoism and Buddhism. You should have read a lot of records of the emperor's mausoleum or daily life, but have you ever seen... anyone's mausoleum built like this?"
Ling Xiaozi blinked his eyes, and then his expression became solemn. After pondering for a long time, he shook his head and sighed softly: "The emperor's mausoleum is the highest masterpiece of a country's architecture. It is about a magnificent atmosphere. Throughout the ages, the internal structure of all imperial mausoleums is a Feng Shui situation."
"Every furnishing inside, even every door, has been deduced by a special Feng Shui master, who is much better than me..." At this point, he frowned in confusion and turned to look at the door behind him: "But... the underground great wall and the long river of mercury, what do these mean? I have never heard of such a situation."
Jiang Xian tentatively asked, "What if this place represents the territory of the Qin Dynasty, and the long river of mercury represents the outer sea?"
"That's even more wrong." Ling Xiaozi shook his head and said, "First, there is a monster under the Great Wall. That monster is absolutely invincible by human power. Invincible by human power means it is out of control. And the emperor emphasizes 'All under heaven is the king's land, and all the people are the king's subjects'. The same is true after death. Any imperial mausoleum organization emphasizes 'order, surprise, and adapting to local conditions'. They will not allow or admit that there are things that are not under their control. This violates the core principle of the emperor's system."
"Second, what do the Great Wall and the Mercury River refer to? If I'm not mistaken, it may refer to the North Sea!"
He took a sip of herbal tea, organized his words, and said, "The achievement of Qin Shi Huang was 'the six kings were eliminated and the four seas were united'. It is recorded in Mencius: Telling the World that China is surrounded by four seas, divided into the east, south, west and north. The phrase 'four seas united as one' was used to describe the unification of the country during the Qin Dynasty. The Great Wall was built in the north of China, and the Mercury River can only refer to the North Sea."
"Okay, to sum up, connecting the two key points, the Great Wall + Mercury + monster, doesn't it mean that there are still places within the four seas that Qin Shihuang cannot control? It implies that the Great Wall did not play a role in defense? It is an indirect criticism of Lord Zhao Zheng's great achievements? If this was the advice of a Qin Dynasty alchemist, wouldn't Li Si have killed his entire family? Who is he trying to fool with such an obvious metaphor?"
He took a deep breath, narrowed his eyes, and said solemnly : "I was trained as the next Heavenly Master at that time... I stick to my point of view. All the items and even the architectural layout of the emperor's mausoleum are a combination of mechanisms, praising merits and virtues, and a great Feng Shui scheme in architecture. It is impossible for such a mechanism to secretly mock the tomb owner... You may be right. It may... indeed not be the Mausoleum of the Qin Emperor."
Jiang Xian nodded slightly, looked deeply into the hall, and said solemnly: "The reason why I overturned my hypothesis again is that when I fell asleep, my mind pieced together the path we had taken. But I found that I couldn't put anything together."
"Every tomb has its own pattern, the main tomb chamber, the sub-tomb chamber, the collection room, the corridor, the front hall, the back hall, the central palace, etc. Originally, after entering the main gate of the tomb, there should be a corridor and a front hall. This is the 'system', the 'rule' that belongs to the imperial mausoleum. But look here..."
He stretched out his finger and swept it across the large hall where the lights flickered. "What does it look like?"
Ling Xiaozi nodded slightly. Jiang Xian was right. No matter what it looked like, it definitely didn't look like the front hall of the underground palace.
Too simple.
For an emperor's tomb, there are no burial objects, and even the decoration is just wall bricks. This is completely unreasonable, especially when so many mechanisms were built.
There is no conflict between simplicity and grandeur. When something is big enough and has been around for a long time, it will naturally become grand. In fact, compared with modern technology, any technology or architecture in history can be called simple. But it does not prevent people from worshipping it when they look at it.
He squinted his eyes and scanned the area. After a dozen seconds, he murmured, "Yucheng."
"Yu is the Qin Dynasty's name for a container for liquids." He pointed upwards: "The long river of mercury was poured down from above. And Yucheng was the Qin Dynasty's department responsible for storing mercury."
"Around 220 BC, Qin Shi Huang searched the whole country for mercury. He secretly stored it in a place called Yucheng. There is a record of it in the ancient books of Tongtianfu, but it is only mentioned in one sentence. I originally thought it was a legend, or that this place was on the ground..."
He breathed a sigh of relief, his eyes becoming brighter and brighter: "If this is Yucheng, it can't be used as an entrance or exit! This is just a super large warehouse!"
The style is too bad and too petty. It will never be used by the emperor.
Warehouse... these two words touched Jiang Xian's nerves. At the same time, Ling Xiaozi's mind was also completely opened. He looked at the dim passage outside with doubt and said in a deep voice: "If this is a warehouse, the cemetery was built to transport materials directly from here. Whether it is a mausoleum or not, there must be a super huge underground project that has never been recorded in history books!"
"It's the Three Gorges Dam of the Qin Dynasty, the Manhattan Project... Otherwise, it would be impossible to use such a huge warehouse!"
