Volume 1 Chapter 031 Burial Ground
"Strange things? What are strange things?" The old village chief was puzzled.
Uncle San said, "Like human heads, or pits full of corpses, or hideous statues."
The village chief frowned and thought for a while, then said, "In the early years, there were landslides in the mountains near the village, and sometimes some strange things would collapse out, mostly dead bones, and some bottles and jars, which we collected and buried together. The most frightening one was probably sixty years ago. There was a heavy rain for more than half a month, and half of the Diaozi Mountain collapsed, revealing a big hole. When we went in, we saw countless dead bones. Oh, by the way, just a few days ago, more than a hundred human heads collapsed from the hill in front!"
I heard that this was referring to the landslide we encountered when we came here. Uncle San asked, "Is there an ancient tomb nearby?"
The village chief laughed and said, "I've never heard of it. Well, who would choose to bury their dead here in this remote place?" He said halfway, then suddenly remembered something, clapped his hands, and said, "Speaking of statues, I remember now. There are statues in our village, passed down from our ancestors."
When Uncle San heard this, he asked the village chief to take us to have a look. Dead Face kept looking at the strange forest, and I don't know what he saw. He caught up with us after we took a few steps.
The village chief led us to the entrance of the village. It was already late when we came yesterday, and we were in a hurry , so we didn't take a closer look. Today, we saw a big banyan tree planted at the entrance of the village, and we don't know how many years it has been there. Under the ancient banyan tree, there are two black stone statues that are more than two people tall.
The statue has its wings spread, a wide snout, bared teeth, a ferocious face, a pair of horns on its head, and a whip-like tail behind it, giving it a sinister look.
Uncle San and the dead face looked up at the statue. I looked at it for a while, then turned to the back of the statue and saw two lines of fine words engraved on the base: "Offer to me, and you will be blessed and peaceful." The words were written in small and hidden secrets. If you didn't look carefully, you really couldn't notice them. I couldn't help but feel a little weird. Normally, the offerings of the folks are either to the God of Wealth and the Land, or to the Buddha and Guanyin, or to the statues of ancestors and sages. I have never seen such a monster being offered with incense. This thing looks ferocious, but more of it is evil.
The village chief told us that the statues were the guardian beasts of Maobizi Village, guarding the entrance of the village to protect the village from evil spirits. I thought the customs of this village were peculiar, and people worshipped the beasts, so I asked the village chief what the beasts were, as I had never seen them in books.
The village chief laughed and said, "Speaking of these two guardian gods, it is all thanks to your Bai family." This old man really thinks I am the descendant of Bai Mei.
About a hundred years ago, there was an earthquake near Maobizi Village. The so-called earthquake was what we now call an earthquake. At that time, the entire mountain range was shaking. Fortunately, the ancestors blessed Maobizi Village and it survived the earthquake.
But after the natural disaster, the evil disaster came. For unknown reasons, all kinds of strange insects and huge black birds that had never been seen before appeared around the originally peaceful and tranquil Maobizi Village. They flew through the sky in groups, and when they flew into the village, they looted all the crops and poultry, and sometimes even ate people.
At that time, the Bai family organized the villagers to go to Giant Valley, transport the two statues of mythical beasts from a cave, push them back on a cart, and guard them at the entrance of the village. Since the two mythical beasts were there, those strange creatures never dared to approach the village again, and Cat Nose Village finally survived the evil disaster.
So until now, the villagers are very grateful to the two statues, and they offer incense every year. The beasts have also been protecting the village, and no major disasters have occurred in the village over the years.
It turns out that these two statues are also related to the Bai family. This family is really mysterious and full of mysteries.
As we were talking, the third daughter of the village chief came to the village entrance to call us to have dinner. At the end, she pinched my face and asked me if I slept well last night. How could I dare to say no? Of course, I nodded.
We walked towards the village together. On the way, I pulled Uncle San and followed him a little behind, asking him in a low voice if he had seen anything. Uncle San's face was solemn, and he changed his usual laziness. He said worriedly: "Damn it, this business is going to make my grandma lose money!"
I was startled and said, "Should we prepare to run away?"
Uncle San glared at me and asked, "Do you still have any professional ethics?" He frowned and said, "Cheer up, we must be ready to run away at any time!"
I was speechless. But I understood the principle of "If you keep the green mountains, you will never run out of firewood", so I firmly supported Uncle San's proposal. If you can't handle it, run away, and save your life first! People in our line of work usually deal with all kinds of dead people and ghosts, most of which are the kind of evil things that can kill people. If we are not smart and just fight to the death, we would have died a thousand times.
I asked, "What's going on with the Giant's Valley? Tell me the truth, don't lie to me about this."
Uncle San glanced at me with a strange expression on his face: "This place... looks like a tomb from the perspective of its layout..."
I was surprised and said, "Although I'm not good at tombs, don't lie to me! How can a large forest like that be a burial site? Wait, are you saying there's an ancient tomb down there? Who has nothing better to do than build a tomb here?"
Uncle San shook his head and didn't say anything for a long time. I urged him and he let out a sigh and said, "It's not an ordinary tomb, but it should be the burial of something extraordinary. Look at the ghost pit formed by the collapse of the mountain in front. It's probably the burial place for this thing."
I took a deep breath. The mountain we passed before was at least a hundred miles away from here. If that was just one of the layouts, how big was the scope of this tomb?
I asked Uncle San if he had figured out what was buried inside. Uncle San said he didn't know. I thought of the huge human figure vaguely emerging in the vast sea of forests, and I couldn't help but feel cold all over.
After eating and packing up, we set off for Gouya Valley. This time we were mainly going to explore the way, so there were not many people going, including the village chief, the third uncle, the dead face and Liu Wen Chong. As the only descendant of the Bai family, I naturally had to go with them.
The group set out in the morning and walked along the winding mountain path until that afternoon, when they passed through a steep canyon. The village chief pointed ahead and said, "We have arrived at the Dogtooth Valley."
I stretched my head back and saw a valley in front of me, surrounded by mountains on three sides, forming a concave shape, which looked like a gaping mouth, and it was gloomy. All the way in, the cliffs were steep, the old trees covered the sky, and there was almost no sunlight. The humidity was steaming, the cold was pressing, and the gullies on the ground were crisscrossed, covered by wild branches and weeds. It was extremely dangerous, and if you were not careful, you might fall down.
These gullies are filled with sharp white stones, like the sharp teeth of wild beasts, no wonder they are called Dogtooth Valley.
The village chief was holding a grass stick, cutting grass to explore the way, and said, "I know that the Bai family entered the Dog Tooth Valley, but I don't know where it is exactly."
Fortunately, this Dogtooth Valley is not very big. As dusk approached, we found a cave in the heart of the valley. To be more precise, it was a cave hidden on a cliff. The cliff was tangled with vines and wild trees, and the entrance was extremely hidden. The dead man's eyes were really poisonous. I don't know how he found it.
The entrance to the cave had probably not been visited for many years, and was covered by layers of tangled vines. Fortunately, the village chief had brought an axe with him, and he cut through the vines that blocked the way, allowing the group to enter.
The cave was dry, but colder than outside. The cave was nearly two meters high and could accommodate two people at the same time. The old village chief was a little afraid and hesitated at the entrance of the cave. Dead Face led the way in without saying a word. Third Uncle followed second, followed by me, and finally Liu Wen Chong and the village chief.
After walking about ten steps forward, I felt something strange. We didn't bring any lighting equipment like flashlights, but there was light in the cave, and the scenery in the cave was vaguely visible. After walking about twenty steps further, I found that the light in front of me was very bright. After walking a few more steps, I found that the cave, which was originally only two meters high, suddenly began to rise, and there was a large space at the light. The top of the cave was very high, probably no less than twenty meters, and there was a hole in the top of the cave. The skylight shone in from the hole, illuminating the bottom of the cave clearly.
On the southwest rock wall, we found a stone chamber, or rather a tomb chamber, because as soon as we entered, the village chief and Liu Wenchong, who were following behind us, screamed in shock when they saw a coffin inside.
The stone chamber was not big, about five or six meters in diameter, one and a half meters tall, and could hold about ten people. There were traces of chopping on the stone wall, which was obviously carved out by a knife or an axe. There were several huge talismans painted on it, and their colors were as bright as blood, probably painted with cinnabar, from the ceiling to the ground.
The strangest house I had ever seen was the haunted house with the dead face. The whole house was made of cinnabar soil. I couldn't help but sneak a glance at that guy, but seeing that he had a blank expression on his face, I couldn't tell what he was thinking.
“This… why is there a coffin here…” The old village chief was a little at a loss, and Liu Wen Chong was also a little afraid and did not dare to step forward.
I didn't have these concerns. I walked closer and recognized it at a glance. This was not an ordinary coffin, but a coffin, parked in the center of the stone chamber. I was about to get closer to take a closer look when I heard Uncle San shout, "Don't step on the nails on the ground!"
I stopped and saw a nail lying across my feet. Three inches away from it, there was a hole as thick as a finger in the ground. Comparing the thickness of the nail, I knew it should be a nail hole. The nail was originally nailed there, but I don't know why it jumped out.
Looking left and right from the nail hole, there is a nail driven into the ground every two palms, forming a large circle around the coffin. It is a bit like the copper coins we have at home, but nails are used here.
