Chapter 45 Nine Palace Flying Stars (II)
It was an old-fashioned flashlight, rarely seen nowadays. It was tin-plated on the outside, but had turned black over time. The buttons were one yellow and one red, but you could still vaguely see them.
"The cause of his death was this flashlight." Jiang Xian's voice sounded behind him: "Come down first, I suspect... there is a Sima mechanism down here."
"Dead Horse Agency? " Ling Xiaozi said with a sigh, "It's a rather unlucky name..."
Even so, his body still walked down quite honestly. When everyone was standing ten meters away from the altar, Jiang Xian waved his arm, a cold star broke through the air, and the exquisite dice flew into a hole.
The next second, the nine Changxin Palace lanterns suddenly turned their heads 180 degrees and pointed at the altar!
Swish! There was no time to react at all. White mist suddenly rushed out of the palace lantern! Like a modern dry ice machine, nine white dragons instantly swallowed up the entire altar! After spraying for five minutes, the palace lantern turned its head back again.
As soon as the smoke came out, everyone rushed to their backpacks, took out their gas masks and put them on their faces. Five minutes... ten minutes... the smoke dissipated after fifteen minutes, and after waiting for another twenty minutes, everyone gathered again.
Jiang Xian took off his mask first. He raised a finger and said, "First, these fumes will kill anyone who touches them. It has nothing to do with breathing. Otherwise, if the people on the stage had noticed something was wrong and held their breath immediately, they could have escaped. The person who was sent by the Chongxu Sect to solve the Nine Palace Flying Stars is definitely not a mediocre person. He should have this reaction."
"Second." He raised his second finger. "Sima Jijian, also known as Sima Ping or Scale, is the most accurate weighing device in ancient China. In ancient times, it was only used to weigh gold, silver, precious medicines and spices."
"In archaeological exploration, the Sima mechanism, to put it simply, requires equal amounts of objects to be placed on it. If it's too light, it won't be enough to trigger the real mechanism. And if the shape is wrong, it won't be able to compact the switch..."
He didn't finish his words, but everyone's eyes couldn't help but look at the corpse in the distance.
"What the hell...which pervert designed this thing?" Hong Si Niang took a breath and said, "Does this mean that we not only have to choose the right direction for the Nine Palace Flying Stars, but also have to find the right thing to press on? Otherwise, we will definitely die?"
Dead silence.
A few minutes later, Jiang Xian was the first to break the silence: "Hong Si Niang and the Eight-Armed Arhat will be responsible for searching the ground, I will be responsible for searching the big bell, Ling Xiaozi will be responsible for the Changxin Palace Lantern... Let's see if there are any other clues. We must be quick! It's four o'clock in the afternoon, at most two hours, if nothing is found..."
He gritted his teeth and said, "Let's...get out of the cave outside for now."
Ling Xiaozi suddenly looked at Jiang Xian and opened his mouth, but said nothing. Hong Si Niang and the Eight-armed Arhat nodded and began to search along the wall.
As time passed, dozens of minutes passed quickly, and no one noticed. At this moment, Ling Xiaozi quietly raised his eyelids, glanced at the Eight-Armed Arhat and Hong Si Niang who were moving away, and suddenly whispered: "Mr. Jiang, are you serious? What are you going to do after you get out?"
Jiang Xian seemed to have no emotion at all, and his fingers slowly stroked the ground. He calmly replied: "Leave, form another team, and look for it again."
Ling Xiaozi pursed his lips and said, "But... next time, I won't be able to find Hong Si Niang and her husband to help... If I look for them again, I'll either go directly to the Academy of Social Sciences or to Shenzhou."
"Shenzhou helped this time, but who knows what will happen next time. If we ask the Academy of Social Sciences... even if we find clues about the Black Death Butterfly, it won't reach you, and the preliminary approval will take several months. Not to mention this underground palace with so many traps..."
Dang! Before he finished speaking, a golden light shot straight at his forehead. Ling Xiaozi's head shrank, and the exquisite dice shot directly into the palace lantern, accompanied by Jiang Xian's gnashing voice: "Do you think I don't know?"
A man should always be responsible. He can't let everyone die here, and others won't be willing to do so.
Ling Xiaozi sighed softly, and while picking the exquisite dice, he said: "How about... I take you to Longhu Mountain to try your luck? Taoism has a history of thousands of years, and it has a lot of hidden secrets. Master Xu is also a kind-hearted person... Maybe he has forgotten that you harbored me back then ?"
Jiang Xian finally stood up. He was not in a very good mood. He had no problem with places like the Mercury Great Wall that required physical strength and experience, but now the Nine Palace Flying Stars was unsolvable. When he thought of his life span, which was like a candle in the wind, he knew that Ling Xiaozi was teasing him. He wanted to laugh, but he couldn't.
Unreconciled.
In the last two hours, he would never be willing to leave like this!
Once Chu Ziyi returns to Shenzhou after this departure, the Shenzhou army and the Academy of Social Sciences will arrive immediately! Even if there is something that can save him, it may not reach his hands.
This is the best opportunity! If he misses it, he will have no future.
"Thank you very much." Shaking his head to clear away the distracting thoughts in his mind, he forced a smile.
"It's not sincere to say thank you verbally. If I really want to thank you... If you pass away one day, can you specify the tens of millions of inheritance to me in advance? I'm afraid I'll be the only one to carry your coffin. Five million for coffin carrying, seven million for tear-jerking service, and ten million for a one-stop funeral... Don't, don't do it! Don't draw your sword! Speak nicely!"
Ling Xiaozi quickly shut his mouth and fumbled with the dice.
Jiang Xian was good at using his hands, and the dice sank directly into the back of the Changxin Palace Lantern. Ling Xiaozi finally managed to get it out, and stroked the Changxin Palace Lantern with a painful look on his face: "What a sin... a treasure worth hundreds of millions was destroyed... destroyed... by a dog like you..."
His voice became smaller and smaller, and his eyes were , but then became brighter and brighter. After a few seconds, he suddenly turned his head and shouted, "Everyone!! Come here! Everyone, come here!!"
Everyone rushed over immediately. Ling Xiaozi pointed at the Changxin Palace Lantern and said, "Everyone, look at this!"
Jiang Xian rushed over quickly, took a closer look, and suddenly found... there was a wine jar in the center of the lamp niche!
"This is a sacrificial vessel." Hong Si Niang's eyes lit up, and she immediately rushed to another Changxin Palace lantern, looked at it carefully for a few seconds, and exclaimed, "There is one here too!"
"There are also these!" "There are also these!" "There are nine Changxin Palace lanterns, and seven of them have wine jars!" Several people looked at it several times in a row, and the discussion continued. At this moment, Jiang Xian's mind was like a flash of lightning, and everything was clear. He couldn't hold back his excitement, and said with a pounding heart: "Can you take it out?"
"I'll do it!" Without saying anything, Hong Si Niang took a long breath, her face flushed, and as her arms trembled, the upper half of her arms became as white as snow, while the lower half of her arms became as red as iron. He carefully took out a black glove and put it on, aiming at the lamp niche, stretching and retracting, grabbing and buckling. With a thump, something with a flame several meters long rolled to the ground.
Ling Xiaozi had already prepared a kettle, and poured water on the flaming wine jar. Hiss... after a burst of white smoke, a wine jar with an ancient shape appeared in front of everyone.
"It is indeed it!" Jiang Xian heaved a long sigh of relief. This feeling of seeing a ray of hope after a dark period made his hope, which had been somewhat extinguished, burn again.
They have seen this wine bottle before.
It was very similar to the Four-sided Sheep Zun, except there was no sheep. The mouth was locked tightly by a square lid, integrated with the cup. The surface was engraved with countless Qin Xiaozhuan characters... Exactly the same as what they had encountered at the Mercury Great Wall!
"I understand..." Jiang Xian rubbed his temple fiercely and said quickly: "The Chongxu Sect did not touch the mechanism, and they lost people. Then they looked for any abnormalities like us."
"They also discovered that there were only seven sacrificial vessels among the nine Changxin Palace Lanterns. Perhaps for some reason, they learned that it was at the Mercury Great Wall, so... that senior from the Chongxu Sect rushed there despite the danger of the Mercury Great Wall!"
Ling Xiaozi quickly replied: "But why is the wine jar in the Mercury Great Wall?"
"It's very simple!" Jiang Xian said firmly, "Because the craftsmen who built the underground palace knew these mechanisms! They also have to think about the future. How will they live after escaping? Gold... Gold is their reliance for survival!"
"As for Party A of the underground palace, they don't care whether the sacrificial wine jar is intact. Because this is the key to unlocking the Nine Palaces Flying Stars! Once it is left in the Mercury Great Wall, the White Jade Bell will be an unsolvable dead end! No one can restore the Nine Palaces Flying Stars. They deliberately left these two wine jars there!"
"Amalgam... gold is the key to success here!" He licked his lips excitedly and looked at his watch: "It's half past five... we still have more than an hour to solve this mystery!"
Everything was cleared up, and the previous doubts came to a full circle. Everyone looked at each other, and there was only one question left: Who would solve the Nine Palace Flying Stars?
In terms of strength, only Hong Si Niang and her husband have this level. However, whoever solves it will stand on the altar.
If something goes wrong, other people may not die, but the people on the altar will definitely die!
"Let me do it." In the silence, the Eight-Armed Arhat stepped forward. However, before he could go up, Hong Si Niang grabbed him and said, "Why are you going? Your husband hasn't spoken yet!"
He rolled up his sleeves and said with great ambition: "I'll do it!"
The Eight-Armed Arhat showed a knowing smile on his chubby face, shook his head gently, and pulled away Hong Si Niang: "Fourth Brother, you can't do it."
"You need a steady hand here. I believe that no one here can have a steadier hand than someone who has practiced concealed weapons for a long time." She said this with a smile, then turned to Jiang Xian and said, "Let's get started... But where is the first star? We need to discuss it more."
"You talk too much nonsense, old woman!" Before she finished speaking, Hong Si Niang pushed her away, put her arm around Jiang Xian's shoulders and walked aside, her face darkening: "You promised me that you would take her out no matter what!"
Jiang Xian glanced at him and said, "She is the most suitable person."
"I don't care whether it's appropriate or not!" Hong Si Niang growled in a low voice and grabbed Jiang Xian's collar: "Do what you say, otherwise... don't blame me for hunting you down for the rest of your life!"
"No need." Jiang Xian blocked the other person's hand. In the surprised eyes of everyone, he stepped onto the altar, nodded to Hong Si Niang, and said loudly: "I'm here. If my judgment is wrong, I will die with her!"
