Monk Shi didn't seem to think too much and just kept pulling me forward. I pulled him several times but he didn't seem to want to stop. When I looked up, I found that Monk Shi's face was turning purple.
Monk Shi can't hold his breath anymore!
Ordinary people can only hold their breath underwater for two to three minutes at most. Even though Monk Shi and I have martial arts skills, we are not fish in water after all, so holding our breath for five to six minutes is the limit. In addition, we have been struggling desperately just now, and the oxygen in our bodies is almost exhausted. If we don't breathe, we will die without a burial place, even if the black snake doesn't kill us.
I no longer cared about the black snake that was twisting its body and approaching me step by step behind me, so I turned around and grabbed Monk Shi and swam forward desperately.
According to my idea: there is a waterway ahead, which should be connected to an underground river or something like that. As long as there is space in the underground river, we can find a place to breathe. But after I swam out five or six meters, I was blocked by an iron fence with a blade.
The light in the water was insufficient, and I could only vaguely see a dark fence blocking the waterway, and nothing else. However, I was sure that there was no road ahead.
I was slightly startled, and suddenly the water waves behind me surged. The strong current was like a pair of giant hands of ghosts and gods, pushing straight towards us from behind.
As the three words "the snake is coming" flashed in my mind, I reached out and pushed Monk Shi, then dodged to the side.
The moment we slid one meter apart, we turned sideways and crashed into the gap of the fence blade. After the half-meter-long blade passed by my nose, my left half of my body also hit the fence. The black snake rushing from behind us suddenly stopped its momentum when it was close to the edge of the blade. After the snake's mouth stopped close to the blade, I suddenly heard the cold smile of the black concubine in my ears. When I looked sideways, the black snake had twisted its body and shrunk back along the waterway.
Before I could figure out what was going on, I saw Shi Heshang desperately climbing up the fence. Just as I was about to stop him, I heard Shi Heshang shouting, "Come up quickly, you can breathe up there."
After I followed Monk Shi to climb up the fence, I saw a man-made space on the rock wall above. The cave was not very big, only enough for more than ten people to sit side by side, but fortunately there was enough oxygen inside, enough for the two of us to breathe.
Monk Shi panted and said, "Old Wu, look over there and see if there is a dead person..."
When I jumped into the water, I left my backpack on the shore. Now I don't even have a lighter with me. How can I light up in a place like this? Following the direction of Shi Heshang's finger, I could only see a vague figure.
I put down the Rakshasa, held the dagger in one hand, and slowly moved towards the figure with the other hand touching the wall of the cave. Before I could move far, the fingertips touching the wall suddenly felt cold, as if they were in some sticky and slippery liquid.
I was slightly startled and immediately tightened my grip on the dagger. I waited for a long time but didn't notice any movement, so I gently raised my finger and sniffed: "Lamp oil?"
I sniffed my hand twice more, then turned around and slashed the rock wall with my knife. The sparks from the tip of the knife immediately ignited the lamp oil in the stone trough. The cave was instantly lit up with a fire surrounding the four walls, and a skeleton was exposed under the light of the fire. The figure that Monk Shi saw just now should be that skeleton.
I looked around the cave and found a few scattered bones. I randomly turned over a human bone and saw that it had either bite marks or scratches from a dagger, and even a few broken skulls had the same marks.
There must have been more than one person in the cave at the beginning. The reason why only one skeleton was preserved intact was that he ate all his companions. Although that person survived to the end, he still could not escape the fate of death.
Monk Shi picked up a chisel from the bones and asked: "Are these tomb robbers?"
"No, they should be the craftsmen who built the mausoleum." I pointed to the scattered tools on the ground and said, "They should have been trapped and died here after building the Black Concubine's Tomb."
As I was speaking, I caught a glimpse of some murals on the wall.
The person who left the mural was obviously not a famous artist, and he didn't even know how to paint. The carving technique was extremely crude, and I could only barely understand the general content.
In the first painting, there is a big snake lying on the ground, and many people are walking around the snake and carving something on the rock wall.
The second painting showed someone hanging several rope-like things on a snake, and the other ends of the ropes were driven into the cliff.
In the third painting, it seems that many people are carrying a corpse on top of the snake...
Monk Shi saw me staring at the mural and couldn't help but come over and said, "Old Wu, what did you see?"
"I understand!" I said in a deep voice, "This is not the Black Concubine's Tomb at all, but the lair of the Prince River God, or the lair of the previous river god."
In the Northeast, river gods and mountain gods do not have fixed positions, and no sect has ever designated a certain mountain or river as someone's territory. This is why many spirit tablets of mountain gods and land gods in temples only have positions but no names. The mountain gods worshipped by local people may be great immortals in the mountains, or they may be monsters that have become the climate in the mountains.
However, usually, mountains and rivers within a certain range will have a god guarding them.
I said in a deep voice: "According to the legend, when Nurhaci killed Zhu Ying and renamed the Daizi River outside Liaoyang City as the Taizi River, Zhu Ying was blessed by the dynasty's luck and naturally became the river god of the Taizi River. Otherwise, there would be no saying that Zhu Ying caused the river to surge."
"However, a river as big as the Taizi River could not have been without a river god. I guess the original river god was the black snake we just saw. After it was defeated by Zhu Ying, it retreated into its lair and dared not come out."
Monk Shi still didn't react: "What does that have to do with the Black Concubine?"
I continued to explain, "You forgot Huang Taiji. Like Nurhaci, he was a horse emperor, or a great hero in the world. All emperors have a kind of character, tenacious and unyielding. Would Huang Taiji bow his head and admit defeat to the dead Zhu Ying? The memorial service for Zhu Ying outside Liaoyang City was just a cover. What he wanted to do was to completely suppress Zhu Ying and eliminate future troubles."
"I guess that Huang Taiji was looking for a concubine in Ningguta to conceal his tracks. What he was really looking for should be a girl with special blood or fate."
"He brought Black Concubine into the palace and canonized her as a concubine, just to give her a reasonable identity so that she could accept the fate of the dynasty. Then, when Black Concubine was still alive, he took her into the River God Cave and forcibly fixed her on the body of the black snake. After the two were combined into one, Black Concubine had enough power to suppress Zhu Ying."
Monk Shi pointed at the iron bars below and said, "According to what you said, the Black Concubine should have fought her way out! Why is she imprisoned here?"
I pondered and said, "I guess there are only two possibilities. One is that the Black Concubine really suppressed Zhu Ying, but Huang Taiji was afraid that the resentful Black Concubine would become the second disaster, so he used other methods to force the Black Concubine back to her lair and imprisoned her in the cave. Just like the third painting."
"The second possibility is that the Black Concubine has never left the cave since she was tied up with the Black Snake. Huang Taiji only regarded her as a threat to Zhu Ying. Zhu Ying did not move, and the Black Concubine did not come out. The two remained in a stalemate until the end of the Qing Dynasty."
I paused here and said, "But one thing is certain. After being imprisoned for hundreds of years, Black Concubine's cultivation has been exhausted. Now she is just a giant python."
"Even so, we can't beat her in the water!" Monk Shi said, "According to what you said, the fence should be connected to the Taizi River, right? Let's go down and see if we can swim out?"
"We can't get out!" I shook my head. "The fence outside should be connected to the main stream of Taizi River. With our swimming ability, can we survive the rapids of the river? Swimming out from there would be seeking death."
Monk Shi was anxious: "If we go back, we will die anyway. The pool is so small, we can't swim out!"
I thought about it and said, "There are Lao Du and Xie Wanhua outside. Now we can only gamble whether the two of them can attract the black snake."
"They?" Monk Shi's eyes almost popped out of his head. "Old Du is a man of honor, but he's not a sorcerer. It's true that Xie Wanhua is a sorcerer, but she doesn't care about our lives. What can she do?"
I explained, "We just fought the black snake in the water, Lao Du should be able to see it. It all depends on how Lao Du convinces Xie Wanhua."
I looked at Shi Heshang: "Have you noticed that Xie Wanhua keeps saying that she likes Lao Du, but the look in her eyes when she looks at Lao Du doesn't have any tenderness or affection at all. Instead, it seems like she is observing Lao Du's reaction. Do you think this is the look that lovers should have?"
Although I have never been in love, I have seen that kind of look. When my grandfather taught me magic, he looked at things that way. My grandfather regarded ghosts as prey, but Xie Wanhua regarded Lao Du as prey.
Monk Shi was stunned by what I said: "Is this possible?"
"Maybe." I said affirmatively, "Do you remember when Tom fell into the water, he called out 'Xie Wanqiao' twice in a row? He didn't call out the wrong person, but deliberately reminded us that Xie Wanqiao is Xie Wanhua's weakness. Xie Wanhua should also be a patient with a mental illness. I guess she either regards her biological sister as an object of imitation, or regards her as a rival who needs to be surpassed, or an enemy who must be defeated."
"Tom is Xie Wanhua's teacher, but why does Xie Wanhua hate him and even want to harm him? I guess Tom must have studied or treated Xie Wanhua. Xie Wanhua has a competitive personality and will not allow anyone to know her secrets, so she will definitely find a way to kill Tom."
I looked at Monk Shi: "Xie Wanhua is our last hope." (To be continued)