Chapter 39: White Jade Bell (V)
At this moment, the eight-armed arhat who had been silent all of a sudden spoke up: "Perhaps... the road is not under our feet."
Swish, swish, swish! Everyone looked over. The Eight-Armed Arhat carefully took out a thumb-sized piece of iron from his jacket pocket and said, "This is something from the Liu family, a family of Xiuning Bai'an compass."
"Meteorite from outer space?" Jiang Xian blinked his eyes. In Bai'an Ancient Town, the Luopan Liu family was well-known in the field of geomancy and tomb-robbing. The most amazing thing was that the other party's compass had a strong magnetic force and would never be demagnetized.
Because the magnets used by the Liu family to make the compass were made from meteorites from outer space.
The Liu family has been using meteorites from outer space for hundreds of years. Their compasses have won gold medals at the World Expo, and the tomb raiders are proud to get the Liu family's compass. The Eight-Armed Arhat can take out such a large piece, and it is not an exaggeration to say that it is worth millions.
"As soon as I came in, this piece of meteorite started jumping non-stop. I looked in its direction and found some interesting things." The Eight-Armed Arhat flicked his finger, and the black stone actually flew diagonally upwards!
A shadow flashed in the air, and the roots of the banyan tree in front of the guardrail were blown up . The next second, an extremely slight "ding" sound was heard dozens of meters away. If the people on the scene had not all undergone special training, they would not have heard this fleeting sound.
That was the sound of iron clashing.
Swish, swish, swish! Everyone's eyes immediately turned towards the source of the sound. Ling Xiaozi stared upwards, took a deep breath after ten seconds, and said in disbelief: "Is this... a pulley?"
At the top of the cave, there were rocks hanging down , weeds growing everywhere, and countless tree roots hanging down like the beards of an old dragon. But one could vaguely see... a round object hidden inside!
It was made of stone, and the surface was covered with scars. However, there was a brown rope more than one meter long hanging in the pulley groove. It was almost integrated with the tree roots, and it was impossible to detect it if you didn't look carefully.
"It's really a pulley... According to the proportion, it should be one meter in size..." Hong Si Niang was surprised and said, "But, did the pulley start to be used in the Qin Dynasty?"
Jiang Xian pondered and said, "There was once a legend that Dayu cast nine tripods to represent the nine states. After Qin conquered Zhou, the Zhou tripods were moved to Xianyang. However, it was discovered that there were only eight tripods."
"The last legend flew to Sishui, Dongshan Province, which is the birthplace of Sihe culture. Later, Qin Shihuang ordered 'a thousand people to submerge the tripod, but none of them could get it out'. This series of projects used pulleys. There is a clear record of this in the 'Han Dynasty Pottery Well Map'. However, later generations believed that this was just the Han Dynasty people's belief that the Qin people used this method to fish out the tripod. It cannot be used as evidence. Therefore, the use of pulleys in China has been calculated from the Han Dynasty."
He breathed a sigh of relief, stared at the pulley with burning eyes, and murmured, "I finally know how the Chongxu Sect got here."
Hong Si Niang rubbed her chin and squinted her eyes. "Thousands of years have passed, and things like ropes should no longer exist. Is that the rope that the Chongxu Sect put up? You mean, the other party used this pulley to hang himself over?"
The word "dang" blew away the fog in everyone's mind. Almost at the same time, Ling Xiaozi and the Eight-armed Arhat raised their heads and said in unison: "It's not "dang", it's "dang"!"
"They swung over here on ropes like gorillas!"
That's it!
This is the hidden path!
Jiang Xian licked his lips, suppressed his heart which was beating fast, and said in a deep voice: "How many meters of the nail gun rope are left?"
"Close to a hundred meters!"
Enough... He breathed a sigh of relief, but did not give any orders. Instead, he squatted down, his eyes level with the guardrail, and observed carefully.
"What is he looking at?" Three minutes later, the Eight-Armed Arhat asked in a low voice.
Hong Si Niang gave him a reproachful look, poked his forehead with her orchid finger, "Stupid, this pulley has a history of 2,000 years. And it has been toyed with by the Chongxu Sect for so long, who knows what dangers it may have."
"And below that pulley is the cannibal river. In addition to preventing the danger of the pulley, we also have to calculate at which angle to jump over the river. What if the angle is wrong and we can't jump over, and we stop right in the middle of the river? Hang bacon? Especially you, can the rope hold it... It hurts... Be gentle... Honey, be gentle~~"
Before he finished speaking, the Eight-Armed Arhat had already grabbed the other's ear and twisted it hard. Hong Si Niang raised her toes in pain and screamed, "Stop... Stop! Stop twisting it, your makeup is ruined!"
"I'll beat you to death, you disgrace!"
Ling Xiaozi's lips were trembling. This bowl of middle-aged dog food was greasy and artificial. He almost felt sick after eating it. However, he dared not say anything... He was angry and dared not say anything. He kicked Jiang Xian's butt lightly and snorted, "Are you done? You are so slow! If you are any slower, I will be stuffed to death!"
"What's the hurry?" Jiang Xian finally stood up, patted his butt, and said in a deep voice: "Everyone, where we are standing is 65 meters above the ground. If we jump from here and reach the center, we will be only 12 meters away from the river surface. The center of the river is in a straight line with the pulley."
His eyes swept over everyone and finally landed on the Eight-Armed Arhat: "Sister Luo is first, Ling Xiaozi is second, Hong Si Niang is third, and I am last. Is there any problem?"
The eight-armed arhat moved his lips. A pulley from 2,000 years ago, especially one that had been used once, would be a death sentence for the person on it if it swung loose.
Because of this reason, the more times it is used, the less safe it is. In other words, the later you use it, the greater the danger.
"I actually..."
"Sister Luo, it's up to you." Before he finished speaking, Jiang Xian had already put the nail gun in her hand. The Eight-Armed Arhat took the nail gun, looked deeply into his eyes, and said softly, "Be careful."
The air seemed to quiet down, and everyone stepped back in tacit agreement. The Eight-Armed Arhat took out a silver hidden weapon similar to a steel nail, with its head slightly bulging, and tied the rope to the hole at the tail. Then, he aimed at the pulley.
One minute... two minutes... three minutes later, her pupils suddenly widened, she raised her arm, and with a whoosh, the nail gun and the rope rushed straight to the pulley. Then three more shots were fired in succession.
Ding! Ding, ding, ding! The steel nail accurately sank into the pulley hole. As it passed through, the head suddenly opened, forming a hook shape, tightly grasping the four sides of the round hole. The other three shots actually all passed through the gap between the hook and the pulley! Forming a dense net of hooks!
"Beautiful." Jiang Xian and Ling Xiaozi exclaimed almost at the same time. The other party did better than they thought.
The Eight-Armed Arhat pretended not to hear anything. She took a deep breath, and her face began to turn red. The veins on her palms were exposed, and with a loud shout, she pulled with all her strength!
Shua La La - the pulley on the top of the cave started to turn. The rope in her hand was stretched straight. After observing for dozens of seconds, she stood up, tied the rope around her waist, tied a slipknot, held the rope with one hand and the knot with the other, and nodded solemnly: "Everyone, go ahead."
Before she finished her words, she suddenly kicked her back feet on the platform and jumped down in the air, flying straight to the other side in an arc.
Swish... In the empty cave, the rope swung in an arc in the air, crossing a hundred meters in a few seconds. However, just as she flew out, everyone suddenly heard a strange voice.
Kakakakaka - low and solemn sound, roaring in the whole cave. Jiang Xian was stunned for a moment, then suddenly raised his head and stared at the top of his head.
This is... the sound of the mechanism being activated!
"Don't panic!!!" The Eight-Armed Arhat had obviously heard it, and his eyes could not help but look around. Far away on the command platform, Hong Si Niang could no longer care and suddenly shouted loudly: "Keep your center of gravity!! Don't worry about anything else! Fly to the other side and you will be absolutely safe! Don't stop in the center of the river!"
The Eight-Armed Arhat obviously understood this, and after a moment of panic, he immediately regained his balance. At the same time, he threw out a hidden weapon in his hand, which flew upward with a whistling sound and sank into the top of the mountain with a thud, startling countless bats. And a rope as thick as a little finger was connected between her camouflage uniform and the hidden weapon.
Then, she flipped her hand again, and two black shadows flew out, shooting into the riverbed with a puff. In an instant, those seemingly harmless flowers... moved.
Under the river, thousands of "petals" left their original positions, and dark shadows swarmed towards the place where the hidden weapon entered the water! They were so dense that it made people's hair stand on end. With the hidden weapon as the center, a colorful circle was formed, which was magnificent.
Above, the sound of the machine roared, as if the death knell was getting closer. Below, the underground river was like the Styx, completely revived. The world seemed to have become a millstone of killing in an instant, and people were the food. In this oppressive death, the figure of the eight-armed arhat finally crossed the man-eating river.
However, no one was relaxed even a little bit! Because everyone knew that this did not mean safety. The next few seconds would determine life and death.
The figure of the Eight-Armed Arhat was still ten meters from the ground, almost three stories high. If he jumped down now, he would be thrown more than ten meters away by the kinetic energy of the rope and then fall heavily to the ground. The consequences were unimaginable. Therefore, no matter how anxious she and the others were, and no matter how loud the sound of the mechanism was, he still held the rope tightly and did not dare to let go.
wait.
Wait until the amplitude is lowest and the force is smallest.
Swish... The swinging rope was lifted high, the kinetic energy reached its limit, her body swung violently like a swing, and then swung back like a pendulum.
Time was so unbearable at this moment, and the clicking sound of the mechanism made the cave even more silent. The invisible god of death had entered the cave and set his sights on the swaying figure. In the suffocating oppression, the eight-armed arhat felt cold sweat on his hands holding the rope, and his heart was beating so fast that he didn't know how many beats it had. Even his breathing stopped.
No one dared to say a word, for fear of delaying the other party's judgment. Every time the rope swung back and forth close to the river, thousands of lampreys could be clearly seen below gathering into a dark cloud of death. Jiang Xian also did not dare to move his eyes half an inch, and silently counted in his heart: one, two, three...
He was counting the number of times the swing swung.
"Four." This was the sound made by everyone almost at the same time, completely unconsciously, and the sound was very light. The Eight-Armed Arhat could not hear it at such a distance. But just when the rope swung across the river bank for the fourth time, the Eight-Armed Arhat suddenly untied the knot around his waist. He quickly adjusted his state rushed to the ground.
At the same time as she touched the ground, her entire back almost touched the ground, and she rolled over several times in a row - at this moment, the swing amplitude had been weakened too much, and the height she jumped was only four meters.
Boom... After several tumbles, she stood up steadily and raised her hand towards the opposite side.
