Chapter 76: Entrance to Hell
February 22, 2019
The monk hesitated for a moment in front of the Buddha, thinking about how to answer Shen Kuo.
"Very good, very good. You say that, I feel a little ashamed. I'd better go with you to Mr. Bao and surrender."
"Master, you know that if you surrender, you will be executed."
"Of course I know. But it is also the law of the country. Although I am in seclusion, it is not easy for me to escape the law."
"Master, I don't want you to die, nor do I want Xiao Ping to die. But I'm going to investigate the Maitreya Sect soon, and by then it's inevitable that there will be confessions that will implicate you, so you better leave now. I must protect you, even if I'm partial or breaking the law."
The situation was a bit stalemate. With Huailiang's intelligence and understanding of Shen Kuo, he should have guessed that there would be such a partiality and yet warm ending, but it was still a bit awkward at the moment.
"Cunzhong, are you really going to let me go? Aren't you afraid of getting involved?"
"Of course it's true. I wiped out the Maitreya Sect tonight, so naturally I have merits and can be forgiven, but I won't be rewarded. I originally planned to take the imperial examination and didn't intend to take advantage of my merits. I came here today just to listen to your explanation, Master, and to hear your entanglement in the matter. Now I feel relieved. Just because you resolved a conspiracy to kill the king in the Baifan Building, it was enough anyway. There is no time to lose, let's go quickly."
The monk stood up and walked behind a pillar to take out his bag. It seemed that he was prepared to leave. He just waited for Shen Kuo to let him go, and then he left.
He walked to the door of Jingsi Hall and turned back.
"I will return to my hometown and stay at Tianning Temple in Zhengding, Hebei. I will not care about the secular world from now on. If you get into trouble , you can take people to that place to arrest me. I will definitely be there. Amitabha."
"Master, no one will come to take you. Just trust me."
Huailiang showed a miserable smile on his face and turned away.
"However, Master, if I cannot capture Yu Jing tonight, and he not only escapes, but also continues to deceive people with the evil prophecy of 'The King will be resurrected and shine brightly across the world', how should I respond?"
The monk stopped and thought for a moment with his back to Shen Kuo, then recited: "It is cold at high places, and the air outside is weak." After reciting it twice, he walked out of the Jingsi Hall.
"What does this mean?"
Shen Kuo couldn't figure it out for a moment, so he turned around, knelt down and bowed to the Guanyin statue several times, then stood up and walked out of the Daxiangguo Temple without seeing where Huai Bing went. After leaving the temple, he got on his horse and drove it directly to the pagoda.
February 22, 10:00 PM
The last ray of sunlight on the horizon casts a shadow on the eerie ancient tower.
Xu Chong and Lao Bao had been waiting here for a long time. There were already two hundred imperial guards surrounding the pagoda, and Xu Chong had led several people into the pagoda several times but did not find anything unusual.
Lao Bao did not go in. He was still waiting for Shen Kuo to come and give him an answer in person.
Someone had already moved a chair and placed it in the slanting shadow of the tower, and he sat there waiting.
Bao Zheng had learned from Xu Chong that Shen Kuo went to Xiangguo Temple to look for Huai Liang. Of course, he also knew that Shen Kuo's disappearance last night was because he followed Huai Liang. Xu Chong did not provide more information, but Bao Zheng still had a bad feeling. Master Huai Liang must be involved. He did not send an extra team to the Great Xiangguo Temple to see if the monk was still there. In this matter, Bao Zheng must respect Shen Kuo's choice. In particular, Shen Kuo did not hide from Xu Chong that he went to Xiangguo Temple. This was a trust in himself, and trust must be two-way.
At this point in the case, he was already very clear that the scope of the case was far beyond his original imagination. Throughout history, any rebellion based on nursery rhymes and prophecies was not something that could be done by just a few charlatans and bandits who were rampant in the foreground.
Shen Kuo finally arrived, which made Lao Bao feel relieved. His trust in this young man was finally rewarded. Shen Kuo got off his horse and walked to Lao Bao, bowing deeply.
"Mr. Bao, I am late. Please forgive me."
"The one you are looking for is Huai Liang?" asked Lao Han Hun.
"Yes." Shen Kuo replied.
"Master, he didn't come?"
"The master is gone. I asked him to leave. He won't come back again."
"Okay, I get it. I get it. I know you have your reasons."
"Thank you, sir, for your help."
"I have sent troops to surround this temple, and Xu Chong has also led people up the tower, but I haven't found any Maitreya nest hidden there?"
Not far away, Xu Chong came out of the gate under the tower, looking puzzled and cursing.
"Sir, Xu Jieji just didn't know how to find the enemy's nest. I have my own way to make the nest visible."
"Brother Shen, I searched inside and out..." Xu Chong muttered in the distance, "I was afraid that I didn't check it thoroughly. I went up this tower at least seven or eight times, but it's still the same. What did you do wrong?"
"This matter has to start with Master Huailiang and the tower he repaired back then." He helped Bao Zheng up and walked towards the dark tower.
"I've also heard of this incident. It is said that tens of thousands of people watched at the time, and there was a famous story of replacing the pillars with the beams. Unfortunately, I was not in the capital at that time and did not see the grand occasion." Old Bao nodded.
"The so-called replacement of pillars means opening the top of the tower and removing the crooked pillars, but it is not that simple."
"Yeah, I find it strange too. If the pillars were removed, wouldn't the already leaning tower collapse immediately?"
"That's right. That's why the master replaced the pillars to avoid destroying the tower. It was quite ingenious."
"How clever is that?" Lao Bao asked with interest.
"First, a deep hole was dug under the tower, which was as deep as the tower. Then, a tunnel was dug parallel to the ground of Kaibao Temple by taking advantage of the nearby Wuzhang River embankment. In this way, the heavy copper-wrapped pillar could be transported to the tunnel by water and then transported to the bottom of the tower. The pillar was then erected in the dug deep hole. Therefore, when the crooked pillar was removed, a new pillar could be replaced, and the precariously tilted tower would not fall down."
"So, you think that the tunnels and vertical holes are ready-made nests for hiding people?" Bao Zheng said.
"That's right."
"However, I have entered the tower several times and have not seen any vertical holes?" said Xu Chong.
"Let's go in and take a look together." Lao Bao stood up.
A group of people surrounded Lao Bao and went outside the tower. The sun had already set. The imperial guards on and below the tower lit torches. Lao Bao walked around the tower and then entered. Xu Chong had already started looking for the entrance to the tunnel. He had already obtained information from Shen Kuo's words just now. There was something special under this tower. It was probably similar to the tunnel in Yu Jing Manor outside the city. It would open when some mechanism was triggered.
Old Bao ignored him and just looked up at the spiral staircase. He saw the staircase spiraling up around the copper-wrapped central column, going up layer by layer to the top floor. Before today, he had never seen such a spiral staircase. Master Huailiang's design was indeed rigorous and ingenious, which was amazing. He couldn't help but sigh.
"Cun Zhong, can you tell me, where did the master go?" He still asked this question.
"The master never came back, and I don't know where he went."
"Okay. Okay. But I still have a question. Even if we use the pillars erected below to replace the crooked pillars, as the saying goes, if the upper beam is not straight, the lower beam will be crooked. Wouldn't the replaced pillars still be crooked?"
Xu Chong was still looking for the entrance, and Bao Zheng continued to ask him about things that interested him.
"I still remember this. Fourteen years ago, my husband was not in the capital, but I was. I also went to the foot of this tower. Although I could not go inside to see it, I climbed to the top of the tower with the master along the crooked scaffolding. I witnessed the amazing work of Master Huailiang."
He recalled the time when he climbed to the top of the tower with an iron ball in his arms when he was a child. He looked around and saw several thick ropes connected to the tower and connected to the huge winch on the west side.
"Brother Shen, we've been searching for the entrance for a long time but can't find it..." Xu Chong's words awakened Shen Kuo, who was immersed in his memories.
"There is no entrance on the ground, or rather the entire floor is an entrance."
Lao Bao and Xu Chong stared at Shen Kuo in a daze. The ladder that spiraled up around the central column contained the secrets of the tower and the entrance. I need a few soldiers to get behind the ladder and push it to rotate.
Xu Chong quickly found several strong imperial guards to stand behind the ladder and hold up the staircase with their hands.
"You don't need too many people, and don't step on the floor in the middle of the tower. Just step on the outermost wooden boards on the side."
Shen Kuo modified Xu Chong's method so that only two people could push the staircase side by side. Two more people were sent behind to push the shoulders of the two people in front. When Shen Kuo saw that it was almost done, he asked four strong men to push together.
A strange thing happened. The ladder actually started to rotate along the central column. As the stairs rotated, the middle circle of wooden boards gradually sank, and it also became a spiral ladder going downwards.
Everyone was amazed.
"Is this the method that Zhengta used back then? Is it also the Tibetans' method?" Lao Bao exclaimed in admiration.
"That's right. Back then, the winch outside pulled the rope to the tower to the right position, and the pillars below carried the spiral staircase upwards inch by inch, while supporting the four walls. The ropes outside corrected the crookedness, and the spiral staircase inside kept it straight, so replacing the pillars with the beams also corrected the crookedness and made it straight. With the combined efforts of both sides, the tower was straightened, and the tilted pillar was replaced. How wise and pragmatic is Master Huailiang?"
Xu rushed to the winding staircase and looked down. It was pitch black. He quickly asked someone to go down with a torch.
Lao Bao stroked his beard and nodded repeatedly.
"How did you come up with the idea that this spiral column could become straighter?"
"I have seen people mining in the mountains in my hometown. They use a tool called a trough turner. There are spiral patterns on the top. With this tool, there is no need to hit it with a heavy hammer. You just need to turn it patiently, and the tip of the trough will enter the rock in a straight path."
"So, you disappeared last night because you guessed the entrance and broke down there?"
"That's not the case. Last night, I followed Huailiang here. I didn't know he went downstairs, I just groped my way into the tower. I didn't see the way down, so I thought the same as Xu Jieji, that Huailiang could only go upstairs, so I groped my way up. When I got to the top of the building, I didn't realize that I only reached the sixth floor, not the top. When the spiral staircase turned down, there was no spiral staircase leading to the top. The student was wondering on the sixth floor, and was frightened by the hat monster that suddenly appeared. When he ran downstairs, he didn't realize he had passed by, and ran directly downstairs. At that time, I thought I had passed through the pagoda and went directly to the underworld. It was also a false alarm."
"Yes, yes." Bao Zheng nodded repeatedly, and things finally made sense from being completely confusing.
Xu Chong was still waiting at the stairs. He didn't hear any sound of fighting downstairs, and he didn't know what happened to his brothers who went downstairs.
Xu Chong finally couldn't hold back any longer and personally led a few people down. After a long time, there was still no movement.
Lao Bao remembered some more things to ask.
"This morning, Xu Chong told me that you and he hid separately near this tower at night. He didn't see any suspicious people approaching, but only heard you shouting. When he came, he saw another hat monster jumping over the wall. When he went down to the tower, he couldn't find you. He said that you were kidnapped by the hat monster. I didn't believe it, but I was very worried. Now that I think about it, you must have gone deep underground at that time?"
"I think the Maitreya sect also took advantage of the legend of the Dark Moon Ghost in this area. No one dared to approach it, so they practiced the Hat Demon here."
"The Hat Monster still needs to practice?"
"I haven't thought this through yet. Master Huailiang didn't mention it either, so he probably doesn't know. But I think it's nothing more than a trick. It's just weird because I can't figure it out. If I figure it out, it will be simple."
"In fact, I also heard that the master has something to do with Maitreya religion. Why is he like this?" Lao Bao asked cautiously.
"Just because of an old grudge."
"What old grudge?"
"When the Privy Councilor Di Qing was in Huzhou, you guaranteed the surrender of the rebel army. However, General Di went back on his word and massacred the city, which made you hate him ever since."
"I also know about this. I heard that after this incident, Coach Di developed a carbuncle on his back."
"My husband, I know I have violated the law, but I was trapped last night and it was the master who let me go. I can only act in my own interests."
"I should have investigated this matter, but..." Lao Bao smiled bitterly, "But I can't investigate it further at this moment, Master. You can relax, but it's not because of you."
"Why?" It was Shen Kuo's turn to be surprised. He had been prepared to face all kinds of possibilities, but he didn't expect Lao Bao to answer like this.
"...I used to think that national law is the foundation of the country, and if the law is enforced justly, the foundation of the country will be strong. However, I thought too shallowly. You pardoned Huailiang privately, and now I can only pretend not to know, leaving some room for the law to maneuver. If you are too just, I am afraid it will shake the foundation of the country. It's not just Huailiang, too many people are self-righteous and think they can do whatever they want as long as they uphold the impartiality. It's a pity and hateful." Lao Bao said something meaningless.
Shen Kuo was hesitating whether to ask Lao Bao about the deeper meaning of his words. There was movement at the tunnel entrance, and soon there was a flickering fire, and Xu Chong came up with a few soldiers.
"Sir, the lair below is actually the Maitreya sect's lair, but there is no one there. There are only a lot of ashes left. I think they have burned the evidence and scattered like birds and beasts."
"Sure enough, I came back too late and they escaped." Shen Kuo sighed.
"But some things were left behind. I think they fled in a hurry."
Xu Chong probably hinted that Lao Bao could go down and take a look, but he didn't dare to say it too directly. After all, going down would be risky, so it would be better to let Bao Longtu make the decision himself.
