Chapter 42: White Jade Bell (VIII)
The wind was like a tide, whistling in the cave and crashing into wood at an incredibly fast speed, flying a thousand meters in just a dozen seconds. As the distance got deeper and deeper, he finally saw... the scene that he didn't see last time.
Just across the river, huge rocks with a rough and simple style stand in the cave. They are very high, probably 20 to 30 meters, with different heights and scattered around. And they have obvious traces of artificial carving - each rock is a square prism, with tree roots and weeds on the surface, but you can still see the original neat rock surface below. And on each rock surface, you can see clear patterns.
Those are black bird totems.
In just a few seconds, the Panlong giant pillar led Jiang Xian through the forest of stone tablets , just like walking in an ancient forest of stone tablets, with a magnificent momentum. In this forest of stone tablets, two huge stone doors that were 50 meters high had already been opened. The lights were bright inside, and in the center, a huge white figure was pulled out in the swaying lights.
Getting closer and closer... becoming clearer and clearer, Jiang Xian's hair was blown back by the strong wind brought by the extreme speed. He took out the portable medicine box from his trouser pocket, clamped his legs together, and took the cotton from the cotton swab with trembling hands, and was about to put it into his ear. Suddenly, his fingers stopped.
"This is..." He stared blankly forward, tilting his neck back and forth. After half a second, he said hoarsely, "It's actually... here..."
……………………………………………………
Boom! A huge bell sounded in the cave, as if the whole cave was rippling, and it was as if the sky was shaking and the earth was trembling, and the broken stones above fell down like raindrops. It was as if the human internal organs were trembling.
The sound was so loud that it even made people lose their sense of balance. Ling Xiaozi and the other two felt dizzy and tried their best to suppress their emotions and not squat down, trying to maintain their balance.
Boom, boom, boom! The bells kept ringing. The Panlong pillar hit something hard and bounced up high. The process continued under the action of potential energy. After three minutes and more than a dozen collisions, they gritted their teeth and stood up.
Ling Xiaozi pinched his philtrum fiercely, raised his head suddenly , and shouted with a gasp: "Jiang..."
"Are you dead? Answer me!"
Zila! Before he finished speaking, a bright red flare was fired from the head of the Panlong giant pillar. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief, rested for a minute, and immediately rushed towards the platform.
Dozens of minutes later, everyone climbed onto the command platform. What appeared before them was a huge stone door.
The door is about one meter thick and twenty meters high. When it is fully opened, you can't see anything on the door. Inside the gate, the terraces are towering and green, reaching up to the sky, the pavilions are flying and red, and there is no ground below. Bronze lamp stands are covered with patina, and dim lights are swaying on them. Dragon head wall lamps are winding out from all directions, like candle dragons holding lamps.
Ling Xiaozi and the other two looked at each other and walked in cautiously. In an instant, they felt that the sky was high and the earth was far away, and everyone was shocked by the scenery before them.
It was a room even larger than the previous one, with giant dragon pillars standing in it, probably fifty meters high, and an area of no less than a kilometer. Not far from the door, a huge white clock was hanging there.
Ding Dong... Ding Dong... Waves of melodious and discordant music sounded from the top of the chimes. If you look up, you can see that silver chains hang down from the top of the bells, drawing elegant arcs in the air and then hanging on the surrounding giant pillars. Hanging on them are chimes, drums, chimes, square bells, harps... and other musical instruments.
The surface of the bell was covered with purple lines, and one side alone could not reveal the whole picture. Below was a square altar, probably about a hundred meters in size. There were three layers in total, and each layer had three complete Changxin Palace lanterns. At this moment, the lamp niche was swaying with dim flames. The bronze doll seemed to have come alive under the flames, and was looking at them dimly.
Just below the clock, a body lay there, only a pile of bones, and the camouflage uniform was torn.
Dust covers the years, the years swallow up the history, and the history hides the secrets. Walking in this empty hall, the first feeling is grandeur and solemnity. It seems that accompanied by the sound of the chimes, I have stepped through the long river of history and returned to the time more than 2,000 years ago, becoming a traveler in time, watching countless workers making all this in the dark underground, and burying all this.
"It's unbelievable." In silence, Ling Xiaozi walked to the big clock and stroked it gently: "What on earth is being created here?"
"Sacrifice? Such a large sacrificial site, but there is no record of it in history? With such a high standard, who did Qin Shi Huang want to sacrifice to?"
Ding... He flicked the bell lightly with his fingers, and a crisp sound came out: "What is the origin of this thing...?"
"This is the White Jade Bell." Before he finished speaking, Jiang Xian's figure slowly walked out from behind the bell, gently stroked the surface of the white jade bell, and slowly said: "The swaying white jade bell... should be referring to this. According to the tattooed poem of the tomb keeper, we have already gone halfway. Next... we will encounter 'Exorcising evil spirits stepping on the cloud-forgetful river, looking at Penglai coming out of the Nine Netherworld at night'."
As the last word fell, the veins on one of his hands tautly pressed down on the clock face, then he pulled it with all his might!
Swish! The big clock slowly began to spin. As the clock spun, the painting on its surface gradually took on its full appearance: lines after lines outlined a pair of wings ready to fly, with gorgeous patterns. Symmetrical... Ling Xiaozi's mouth opened wider and wider. After more than ten seconds, he suddenly turned around and looked at Jiang Xian. His lips trembled slightly, his eyes almost popped out, and he pointed at the other person with trembling fingers, unable to say a word.
That is... the black death butterfly!
Not too much, not too little. Jiang Xian gently touched his chest. The black death butterfly pattern on his chest was like a flame, burning his hands. The Lanshanhai School had been passed down for thousands of years, but was trapped by this curse. Countless ancestors embarked on the journey to uncover the secret, but no one found even the slightest clue. Now, he finally found a clue!
"A thousand ships pass by the sunken boat, and a thousand trees bloom in front of the dead tree." Ling Xiaozi flicked his whisk and nodded sincerely: "Congratulations."
Dong——Jiang Xian punched the clock face lightly, his voice filled with burning excitement, and he grinned, "Thank you, but this is not enough!"
"Only by going forward can we truly understand what this difficult problem that has troubled my sect for two thousand years is." He raised his head, clenched his fists until they made a crackling sound, and looked at the ceiling where light and shadow intertwined. He said hoarsely, "Grandmaster, Master... the ancestors of all generations are watching me..."
I don’t want to die.
Go on, keep searching, and a black death butterfly pattern that looks almost like a sacrificial offering will appear. So... we may not be far from the truth.
Shalala... The clock was spinning slower and slower, Jiang Xian finally put down his hand and patted the dust. He suppressed his turbulent emotions and said in a deep voice: "This is still a little different from the Black Death Butterfly Curse on me."
"You see, there is an extra stroke here."
Outside the Black Death Butterfly, there is another symmetrical curve that completely wraps it up. Jiang Xian raised a finger and said in a deep voice: "Before you came up, I looked at this room. The most important problem is only one: there is no exit here."
No Exit?
Everyone's eyes narrowed. Did this mean they had reached the true "core" of this dungeon?
"No... that's not right!" After a few seconds of silence, everyone spoke almost in unison. Hong Si Niang said quickly: "We have speculated two possibilities for this kind of room. The first is a warehouse. If that's the case, then... where did they transport their things to?"
"The warehouse was deliberately built underground only for convenience. In other words, the huge structure was not far from the warehouse! It is impossible to deliberately demolish such a thing!"
He scanned the surroundings inch by inch: "It must be there... They have blocked the road to the 'truth', but it must be nearby!"
Ling Xiaozi flicked his whisk and continued Hong Si Niang's topic: "Secondly, if it is a tomb... then Qin Shihuang had many concubines and children buried with him. They couldn't be in the main tomb chamber, they could only be outside. And we haven't seen any burials so far. Not to mention the tomb chamber."
"This place... doesn't look like a tomb at all." He looked at the big clock: "Where is it?"
Is there anything wrong with it?
Jiang Xian understood what the other party said and shook his head: "I didn't find any problem. But... this place is indeed a little different from the previous room. Before you came up, I had already searched the area nearby. The biggest difference is..."
He took a few steps forward and pointed behind the other person: "These murals!"
mural?
Everyone walked to the wall, which was tens of meters high and endless. As their flashlights shone on it, the ancient wall suddenly became extremely clear. After just a dozen seconds of watching, Ling Xiaozi's brows furrowed deeply.
"Did you see that?" Jiang Xian said.
Ling Xiaozi nodded, took a few steps forward, blew away the dust on the wall, and began to observe carefully bit by bit with his fingers. His brows furrowed tighter and tighter. After three minutes, he finally straightened up and said in a deep voice: "Strange... Really strange."
"You have seen the style of Qin Dynasty murals, but...the murals here are older than those of the Qin Dynasty! At least the style is older!"
"The architectural art of the time already emphasized gorgeous decorations, and the figures' expressions were vivid. Even the wrinkles in clothes were not spared. But what do you see here?"
Hong Si Niang took a closer look and frowned.
There were countless people kneeling and worshipping something on the screen. He had thought they were worshipping Qin Shi Huang. But when he looked closely, these people... were all stick figures!
The clothes were ragged, the face seemed abstract, and the arms were even replaced by a few lines... He pondered for a moment and said, "The style is indeed not right. It seems to be an earlier work... Shang Dynasty?"
"It's earlier than the Shang Dynasty... This is the clan period!" Jiang Xian said with certainty: "Most of the worship in the Qin Dynasty was only for Qin Shi Huang. This style... They should not be worshipping Qin Shi Huang!"
So... what exactly are we worshipping?
Everyone's flashlights shone upwards. The next second, everyone's pupils shrank.
What they worshipped... was a tree.
A huge ancient tree!
According to the proportion, a person is probably only as big as a leaf. Under the tree, there is a giant python coiled up that is big enough to wrap around the tree!
