Chapter 99: Corpse Land
Xia Ruxuan's expression was particularly firm, which made me wonder how to respond to him. I just felt that the amount of information was a bit too much, and I needed time to think about it carefully. Moreover, I needed to compare it with what I knew before.
First of all, I first knew about my mother's hidden identity from my uncle, and a series of developments later proved that what he said was correct. But compared with what Xia Ruxuan said, there is a big problem, which is about my father and my family.
My uncle never told me about the Tan and Xie families, and in his narration , he described my family as being just ordinary people except my mother. Even my father ran away from home because he could not accept my mother's identity.
Now it seems that there is a big flaw in his words, because of the existence of the human-faced tree.
I remember that at that time, I didn't fully believe what my uncle said, but because of a series of events that happened later, my doubts gradually decreased. But the origin of the human-faced tree, judging from the fact that Ding Ding used my blood to trigger its strange side, is indeed like Xia Ruxuan said, and it has something to do with my ancestors.
So the question is, why did my uncle lie to me? Since he knew everything, even the identities of my mother's family, why did he hide the matter about the Tan family?
Furthermore, since my uncle knew Xie Ning's identity and knew that she had become a second-born woman and was in the same group as the Painted Skin who killed Xie Ning, why did my uncle still cooperate with them to snatch the blood amber?
Another thing is that I also have doubts about Xia Ruxuan's words. This comes from his description of the ancestral temple keeper.
I think what I need to figure out now is whether my father came to this village to become the ancestral temple keeper before or after he met my mother, or should I say, before or after I was born.
I inferred from the time Xia Ruxuan came here that my father had died and Xie Ning had become the new keeper of the temple. As for my father's departure, although I was young and didn't know why, I still remember it.
That is to say, before Xie Ning came to the village, my father had actually been staying at home and living with us. He had hardly ever left. And according to Xia Ruxuan, the keeper of the shrine needs to stay here for a long time. Xia Ruxuan came to the village almost shortly after my father left. Compared with the situation when my father stayed at home at that time, the situation was not optimistic. The only statement that can be confirmed is that my father suddenly died shortly after becoming the keeper of the shrine, and then Xie Ning took over and Xia Ruxuan was sent here.
So I think it is very important to find out when my father became the keeper of the temple.
I thought for a while and asked Xia Ruxuan, "Xie Ning served as the keeper of the temple for ten years after you came here. Do you know how long my father served as the keeper in total?"
He tilted his head slightly, thought for a while, and said, It seems like seven or eight years, about the time you were born.
When I heard this, I immediately felt it was unreliable. At least during that period of time, my father had been staying at home. How could he say seven or eight years? I hurriedly asked him, are you sure it was that long?
Xia Ruxuan nodded and said, Xie Ning's father died when she was about ten years old. After that, your father became the keeper of the temple. It was not until he died that it was Xie Ning's turn to come out.
I slapped my thigh and said, "What you said is not right. I clearly remember that my father stayed at home during that time and it was impossible for him to come to this place. If there must be someone guarding this place, then the person guarding the temple at that time would definitely not be my father!"
Xia Ruxuan was stunned for a moment and said that this was impossible!
The idea in my mind became more and more firm. How could this be impossible? Unless my father could split himself at that time, he would not be able to appear in this place. Besides, you can stay here instead of me. Maybe someone else replaced my father! Then, the person who replaced him died, and my father disappeared after that person died. No one knew where he went!
Xia Ruxuan didn't say anything. He looked at me, was silent for a long time, and suddenly said, I said, this is impossible!
When I saw his expression, his brows were slightly frowned and he had a slightly impatient expression, but his tone was very firm. Suddenly I became confused again and asked him hurriedly, "Do you have any other explanation?"
He suddenly stood up from the ground, looked down at me, and said, "Come with me."
As soon as he finished speaking, he turned around and walked deeper into the house. I quickly followed his footsteps and walked a little further inside before I discovered that there was actually a door on the stone wall, like a mechanism. If you didn't get closer and take a closer look, you wouldn't be able to detect the existence of this door at all, as it was almost integrated with the wall.
Xia Ruxuan stood in front of the door, handed me the candle in his hand, and then pushed the door hard.
I only heard a loud bang, and the wall-like door was suddenly pushed open a crack, with dust falling down from it. The crack was about as wide as a person, so one could only squeeze in slowly from the outside.
I followed Xia Ruxuan and looked in the direction. We were underground, and there was no light at all. We had to rely on the candles and flashlights in our hands to barely illuminate a small area.
But despite this, I looked inside and still couldn't see anything clearly. I just felt that the room was very large, so large that it was absurd. Even our footsteps could cause an echo.
I followed Xia Ruxuan, almost always walking close to the wall, but the deeper we went, the more I found that the smell in the room became worse and worse, and in the end, I almost didn't even want to breathe. As long as I took a breath, I had to endure the strong discomfort in my stomach.
I shone the flashlight into the room, but the light was too dim. I could only vaguely see a few cabinet-like things inside, but I couldn't see clearly what they were.
Xia Ruxuan suddenly stopped in front and said to me, "Cover your mouth and nose. This room is not ventilated, the smell cannot dissipate, and there is very little oxygen. Let's move quickly."
As he spoke, he touched the wall and picked up a piece of wood. I looked carefully and found that it was a torch, but it looked like it had not been used for a long time and there were a lot of spider silk stuck on it.
Xia Ruxuan tried it, and as soon as the candle in his hand got close, the torch immediately burned. We all know that the air here is relatively thin, and the burning of the torch may reduce the oxygen. But if we don't do this, we can't see the situation in the room clearly.
Xia Ruxuan waved the torch in his hand towards the room, instantly illuminating a large area. I looked in the direction of the firelight and couldn't help but feel a chill down my spine.
What I saw before were not cabinets at all, but coffins placed in the middle of the room, one after another, forming a circle. In the middle, there was a strangely shaped coffin, which looked like a thick branch with the interior emptied out. It was pitch black and very special.
I looked inside blankly, wondering what the arrangement was! There were no markings on the coffins, so I couldn't figure out who was lying inside.
Xia Ruxuan walked forward a few steps and explained that there were 28 coffins placed around the formation, arranged according to the 28 constellations. The single wooden coffin in the middle was the center of the formation.
I looked ahead carefully and discovered that the locations of these coffins were very particular. No matter from which angle you looked at them , the shapes were exactly the same. Except for the single-wood coffin in the middle which was a little special, the others looked very ordinary.
I said, what's the point of bringing me to see these.
Xia Ruxuan tilted his head and looked at me and said, "Just to overturn what you just said."
As he spoke, he walked to a coffin on the left, handed the torch to me, and then reached out to push the coffin lid.
Only then did I realize that the coffins were not sealed. He pushed hard, and the lids made a loud bang, tilted to the side, and fell down, stirring up a cloud of dust.
All of a sudden, the stench became stronger. I quickly covered my mouth and nose, not knowing what he was going to do.
He wiped the dust off his hands, turned to look at me, and said, "Come and see."
I cursed in my heart, I couldn't understand what was so good about this. What could be in the coffin? At most, it would be a dead body. And there were so many corpses placed around. Who knew where these bodies came from? It was hard to say, the bodies of the dead people in this village were placed in here.
But I thought so in my heart and didn't say it out loud. I just frowned and, as Xia Ruxuan asked, looked inside the coffin.
There was indeed a dead body lying inside. No one knew how long the body had been dead. Much of the flesh on the body had rotted away beyond recognition. Most of the body had even been exposed with bones.
I endured the stench and looked carefully for a while. I found that the clothes he was wearing were still the style from more than ten years ago. They were a bit old, but the style was definitely different from that of the people in this village.
I had some doubts in my mind, but I wasn't sure, so I could only look at Xia Ruxuan and ask him who was in the coffin?
He looked at me and said, "This is the evidence that overturns your inference. The person lying in this coffin is your father!"
I had actually guessed it, I just wanted to confirm it from him. But after hearing the truth, I actually felt a sense of loss.
I said, the body has already decayed, and its appearance cannot be seen, nor can his identity be confirmed.
Seeing that I was still unwilling to admit it, he continued, "In fact, the position of this body was originally placed towards the coffin on the right. But because there was no body of Xie Ning, it has not changed. You understand, the bodies placed here are all the bodies of the guards of the temple, and your father's body was put in by Xie Ning herself. If the identity cannot be confirmed, then she can doubt whether your father is still alive like you, and she doesn't have to guard this place for the rest of her life."
When I heard this, I felt that this made sense, but the more I thought about it, the more scared I became. If the person who guarded here and finally died here was my father, then who would be the person I called dad in my family?
