When entering the narrow cave, you need to bend down and squat. It took about five or six minutes of paddling the bamboo raft before the field of vision gradually widened. Chen Yang could stand up straight, but he could still touch the top of the cave with his hand and could not stand up.
The cave was narrow and cramped, and you couldn't see your hand in front of you. Kou Xuanling took out three headband flashlights and handed them to Chen Yang and Lu Xiuzhi. The three of them put them on and turned on the flashlights.
The cave walls were wet, and the cave walls above were still leaking water. The water below the bamboo raft was dark and bottomless. There was a fork in the road ahead, and Kou Xuanling asked Chen Yang, "Which way should we go?"
Chen Yang took out the map and checked: "On the right."
Kou Xuanling and Lu Xiuzhi rowed the raft to the right and entered from the inside. The cave was quiet and the water was calm. Suddenly, there was a slight sound of water. Chen Yang looked down and saw that the water had returned to calm. Kou Xuanling said, "Is there something under the water?"
Chen Yang stared at the water surface vigilantly: "It's obvious. Give me a fire talisman." Kou Xuanling handed him a fire talisman. Chen Yang took it and ignited it and threw it three meters away from the bamboo raft. The fire talisman ignited a large fireball on the water surface. It illuminated the entire cave and the water surface. They could clearly see countless black mad surges on the water surface away from the fireball.
"The water is full of black snakes, they are afraid of light." Chen Yang retracted his gaze and saw a corpse with black snakes wrapped around it near a crack in a rock cave that could only accommodate one person as the raft moved forward. When the light shone over it, the black snakes wriggled away from the bones. "Let's go quickly, these black snakes eat human flesh."
Kou Xuanling: "Okay." The three of them rowed faster, but found that the bamboo raft was getting heavier and heavier, until they could hardly row it. "What's going on?" Kou Xuanling lowered his head and looked down through the gap in the bamboo raft. A black shadow flashed under the water. "The back of the bamboo raft is full of black snakes."
The black snakes entangled the bamboo raft under the water, so dense that almost all of them rushed over. The bamboo raft became too heavy and began to sink. It would capsize in a short time. Although the black snakes were afraid of lights, they hid on the back of the bamboo raft, so the lights could not reach them.
Chen Yang: "It seems that these black snakes are entangled on the back of the bamboo raft, so that when the bamboo raft flips over, it will entangle the people and eat them all. I brought mugwort, which can be burned together with fire talismans. Using the two together should be able to drive away the black snakes. Let's leave quickly during this time."
Lu Xiuzhi also took out mugwort from his cloth bag: "I also brought some mugwort, Xuan, what about you?"
Kou Xuanling: "I brought realgar wine."
"That's enough." Chen Yang said calmly. "Old Kou, wait until the black snakes leave the raft, then we paddle quickly, and you use the fire talisman to ignite the realgar wine. Throw it toward the place where the black snakes gather on the water."
Kou Xuanling nodded: "Okay."
Burning wormwood can make snakes soft and dizzy, and the effect is better than realgar powder and realgar wine. Realgar has a pungent smell, and snakes hate this smell but will not be harmed. This group of black snakes grew up eating meat, and they are probably much more ferocious than ordinary snakes. Realgar alone may not be able to drive them away.
Chen Yang lit the mugwort, and everyone held the mugwort in their hands and fumigated the water surface. Soon the cave was filled with the smell of mugwort. The black snake under the bamboo raft began to wriggle restlessly, its tail slapping the bottom of the water. Water splashed around the bamboo raft, and the raft almost fell over. Chen Yang and Lu Xiuzhi stabilized the bamboo raft, and the black snake under the bamboo raft gradually left.
Kou Xuanling slowly paddled the bamboo raft away, and looked back to see densely packed black snakes on the water. All of these black snakes were stunned by the wormwood. Chen Yang: "Old Kou!" Kou Xuanling reacted quickly, picked up two jars of realgar wine, threw the fire talisman into the jars, and then quickly threw the jars to where the black snakes floated.
The wine jar exploded on the water surface, spreading a layer of fire on the water surface. Most of the black snakes floating on the water surface were ignited, and the air was filled with a stench of burning. Kou Xuanling covered his nose and said, "It is indeed an evil creature that eats flesh and blood. The smell of burning is so stench."
Chen Yang retracted his gaze and asked, "Do you have explosives?"
"No." Kou Xuanling said while paddling the bamboo raft: "It was a very hasty decision. If we want to buy explosives, we have to go through special channels." He paddled the bamboo raft and came to Chen Yang to look at the map he spread out on his knees: "Are you thinking about how to open the tomb door?"
"right."
"I wanted to use explosives, but I'm worried that they might cause the cave to collapse. Forget it, let's talk about it when we get there." After Chen Yang folded up the map and put it away, he said, "Keep moving forward. From here, the view will become wider after turning a corner. This map seems to have been drawn decades ago, so the difference shouldn't be too big."
As the front turned, the view became wider, like a big lake. The top of the cave was about four meters above the water, and standing up, one could see the ground. The three of them looked at the ground, ignoring the back. At this time, a thick shadow like a bucket appeared under the water behind them, moving silently towards the bamboo raft.
Chen Yang's eyebrows twitched slightly, and he noticed that the ancient bronze coin in the middle of the red line on his wrist was shaking violently. At the same time, the compass needle in Kou Xuanling's hand also began to shake chaotically, and then pointed straight to the back.
The three of them looked calm, and the next moment the water surface shook violently and splashed. The bamboo raft was lifted up by a huge black snake, which was as thick as a bucket and of unknown length. It was trying to overturn the bamboo raft and shake the three people on it into the water. Chen Yang and the other two attacked at the same time. Kou Xuanling threw the peach wood sword to Lu Xiuzhi, who took the peach wood sword and stabbed it quickly and accurately into the gap of the bamboo raft. It stabbed into the black snake's body, and the black snake swung more violently in pain. The water surface was boiling like boiling soup. Chen Yang pulled off the red rope and threw it to the corroded stone pillar above his head. The other end was tied to the bamboo raft to stabilize it.
The water splashed and soaked everyone. The black snake's huge force rolled everyone and the bamboo raft underwater. The bamboo raft was fixed by the red rope and soon it could not hold up and made a crackling sound. Chen Yang: "The bamboo raft is going to break."
Lu Xiuzhi lowered his head and drew out his peach wood sword. The black blood instantly dyed the entire surface of the water, but the water was also black, and there was no change at all. One could only smell the strong smell of blood. The giant snake sank to the bottom of the water and peeked at the small bamboo raft on the lake. The strong smell of blood concealed its whereabouts. The ancient copper coin shook violently in the air until it almost formed a phantom. The compass needle was in a mess, and it was impossible to determine the specific location of the giant snake.
Lu Xiuzhi lowered his eyes and calmly looked at the seemingly calm water surface. When he drew out the peach wood sword, a few drops of blood splashed on his face. At this moment, he actually looked a bit like a jade-faced Shura. He said, "I'll go down and kill it."
"No." Kou Xuanling immediately objected and grabbed Lu Xiuzhi's hand: "It's too dangerous."
Chen Yang said: "If the black snake attacks again, the bamboo raft will not be able to hold on."
Lu Xiuzhi looked at the hand holding him, broke free and held Kou Xuanling's hand, squeezed it and smiled, "Don't worry." Then he jumped into the water and sank to the bottom. Kou Xuanling looked at the water anxiously. Chen Yang took back the red rope and said, "Don't worry, Brother Du said Lu Xiuzhi is very capable. I think Lu Xiuzhi is confident that he can kill the black snake."
Kou Xuanling frowned: "I'm worried that he will get hurt."
Chen Yang stared at the water: "Let's go ashore first." It was just a black snake without any intelligence, Lu Xiuzhi could handle it. Besides, he felt that with Lu Xiuzhi's cultivation, he didn't need to use such complicated means to deal with the black snake. The other party's goal was probably Kou Xuanling, and Old Kou was easily fooled.
After the two of them came ashore, Chen Yang leisurely inspected the environment, while Kou Xuanling stood on the shore and watched the calm water surface. Soon, the calmness of the water surface was broken, and Lu Xiuzhi emerged from the water, his black hair was messy, his clothes were soaked, and the body of the black snake floated to the surface behind him.
Lu Xiuzhi, who was walking slowly towards her, was extremely sexy. With a vivid and lively scent, Kou Xuanling cleared her throat and looked away. Her cheeks were a little hot, and she didn't dare to look at Lu Xiuzhi. He thought his brother was a little delicious... No, that's not what I meant, I just thought he looked good. Kou Xuanling excused herself in her heart and tried to look at her good brother's beauty with an open, broad and pure mind.
"Ah Xuan?" Lu Xiuzhi waved his hand in front of Kou Xuanling, with a hint of doubt in his eyes: "What's wrong with you?"
"No, nothing." Kou Xuanling was startled and answered him quickly. Seeing his wet clothes and hair, she took off her short-sleeved jacket and put it on Lu Xiuzhi: "Put it on, don't catch a cold."
Lu Xiuzhi took the short-sleeved jacket and looked at Kou Xuanling steadily: "Thank you, Xuan." His voice was deliberately lowered, as if it had a hook, tempting people.
Kou Xuanling was so teased that his face turned red and his heart beat fast. He blamed himself so much that he almost buried himself in the ground. He felt guilty. How could he have imagined his good brother like this
Heh, good brother. Chen Yang sneered and retracted his gaze. Just now, he quickly took a picture of Lu Xiuzhi coming out of the water to deliberately seduce Kou Xuanling, and then sent the photo to Du Shuo: [Wet body seduction, old Kou loses his integrity in his later years.]
After a while, Du Shuo sent a message: [Not serious, delete it.] Below is a picture of the emperor showing off his abdominal muscles and showing off his beauty. After the picture, there are several sentences that are almost non-stop: [Just look at me, don't look at him.], [No moral integrity, ugly.], [Stay away from them.]
Chen Yang twitched his lips, saved the photo of Lao Du showing off her beauty, and sent a message back: [You single old young men have no moral integrity, you are treacherous and shameless.]
The emperor frowned, staring at the screen of his mobile phone with a serious expression, and even paused in his work on the documents. Chen Xiaoyang was getting bolder and bolder. It was ok to scold others, but he even scolded his own man. It was getting more and more outrageous.
The emperor was thoughtful, scrolling through the screen of his phone, and saw the wet picture of Lu Xiuzhi sent by Chen Yang. He thought it was too hot for his eyes, so he deleted it immediately. He sent a few words of warning: [If you encounter such things in the future, remember to turn around and don't look. It's very harmful to your eyes. If you want to see it, come and see me.]
After posting, I saw Chen Xiaoyang's cold reply: [Oh.]
The emperor was very upset. Chen Xiaoyang was becoming more and more outrageous.
The seventy-two departments below stole a glance at the emperor, but seeing that his expression became more and more serious, they thought that he had encountered some major case while reviewing official documents. He had looked like this before, and he was furious at that time. Therefore, the seventy-two departments below were all terrified, fearing that the emperor would suddenly get angry. Fortunately, the next moment they saw that the emperor had a pleasant expression and his aura became relaxed and happy.
The seventy-two officials exchanged glances secretly, knowing that it must be the eldest sister-in-law who called. It's strange to say that the emperor's partner should be respectfully called the Queen of the Underworld, but I don't know when it spread throughout Fengdu and the netherworld as the affectionate name of "eldest sister-in-law".
Chen Yang found the tomb door according to the map. The tomb door was a stone embedded in the cave wall. The diary described the appearance of the tomb door in detail. There was a hole in the middle part that could be opened with a key. Kou Xuanling touched the mossy tomb door and asked, "Are you sure this is the tomb door?"
"Look for any holes."
Kou Xuanling wiped off the moss and indeed saw a T-shaped hole in the middle of the tomb door: "There is a hole here."
Chen Yang looked at the hole and confirmed that it was the keyhole and said, "This is the door to the tomb."
Kou Xuanling: "How do I get in? Is it written in the diary?"
"Explosives. It says to use explosives, but I'm worried that it will cause the cave to collapse. You see the soil is wet, and the surface is all soft soil." Suddenly, a drop of water dripped from the top of the cave in front of Chen Yang. He looked up at the top of the tomb door for a long time, and gave the map and diary to Kou Xuanling for safekeeping: "I'll go up and take a look."
After saying that, he climbed the cave wall to the top of the tomb door and saw a pit above the tomb door. Below the pit was a hole with a diameter of about ten centimeters. The hole was cone-shaped. Lying on top, you can see the scene behind the tomb door. Maybe this pit was dug by tomb robbers in the past. Chen Yang shouted to the two people below: "There is a hole above. Dig it open and you can go in."
Kou Xuanling went up to take a look and agreed with Chen Yang's suggestion: "Let's use the detonating talisman." He took out a folded talisman from his pocket: "It's not very powerful, just a little more powerful than a firecracker, but it won't kill anyone." He pasted nine talismans near the entrance of the cave, then jumped underground with Chen Yang to detonate the talismans.
The sound was not loud, but it echoed in the cave. When they went up again, they found that the small hole had expanded to a size large enough for one person to enter. So the three of them entered the tomb one after another. Behind the door of the tomb was a five-meter-long corridor, and outside the corridor was a horizontal corridor. The stone bricks on the corridor were intact and not damaged, and the oil lamps on both sides were not lit.
Chen Yang wiped some oil from the lamp with his index finger, his face a little serious: "There is still oil on it, and the wick also has signs of burning."
If this is an ancient tomb from the Warring States Period, the oil in the oil lamp would have dried up long ago. The wick should not have been used, unless there are still things living in the ancient tomb. Kou Xuanling stared at the porcelain oil lamp and suddenly said, "It should be a copper bowl oil lamp from the Warring States Period." Porcelain oil lamps became popular during the Song Dynasty because they save oil.
After Kou Xuanling reminded him, Chen Yang realized that the oil lamps on the corridor were all porcelain oil lamps. They continued to walk forward and heard the sound of water. After walking out of the corridor, the view suddenly became clear. There was a bottomless pool in front of them. There was a river in front of the left side of the pool, flowing towards the tombs.
Chen Yang and his companions were about to walk along the river towards the tomb complex when they suddenly heard a noise coming from the pond behind them. "Plop", "plop", like the sound of bubbles popping out of the water and then suddenly bursting. Looking back, they saw wet corpses in white floating in the pond, and wet corpses kept coming out of the pond.
The group of wet corpses were all dressed in white, and there were men and women, old and young. It was unknown whether they were servants buried with the dead or craftsmen who were killed to silence them while building the mausoleum. They had been buried in the pool for a long time and had become wet corpses that did not decay or rot.
The group of wet corpses were soaked in water and became swollen and transparent, with black hair floating in the water. Chen Yang moved his feet, and the group of wet corpses in front of him suddenly turned their heads to face him. The blurred faces could not see the facial features, but it seemed that the three of them could be seen. This scene was undoubtedly terrifying and strange. The pool was filled with densely packed wet corpses, and the group of wet corpses were staring at you.
Next, Chen Yang and his team found that the wet corpse floating on the top was stripped down, and they were stripped down by other wet corpses at the bottom of the pool. The other group of wet corpses were not wearing white clothes, but dark clothes similar to those of the Warring States Period, so dirty that the original color could not be seen. They stripped the wet corpses on top and lay on the water, staring at Chen Yang and the other two.
Suddenly, the group of wet corpses let out a shrill wail and crawled towards the shore. They were moving very fast, but they were slowed down by trampling on each other. Taking this opportunity, Chen Yang and the other two hurriedly ran along the river. When they looked back, they could still see the group of wet corpses crawling up the shore with twisted hands and feet, crawling like wild animals.
Only when they were far away from the pond and could no longer hear the wailing of the wet corpses did the three of them stop panting. Kou Xuanling panted and said, "Why do I feel like there are people from two different eras? The bronze coffins, writings, and long robes from the Warring States period, the porcelain oil lamps, white robes, and Buddhist scriptures from the Song Dynasty. The Iron Wall Mountain and the Eight Hells, combined with the hints from our ancestors, could it be that these are ancient tombs from two dynasties?"
Chen Yang: "It is very possible. The original Warring States tomb was a 36-pass evil formation. There are at least 36 ancient tombs in Tiewei Mountain. The entire Tiewei Mountain is a group of ancient tombs. Pingcheng is a prosperous capital, and many nobles of the dynasties would choose Pingcheng as their burial site. So it is very likely that when the cemetery was built, a Warring States tomb with a 36-pass evil formation was excavated, and the result may be unfortunate. Perhaps all the people who witnessed the ancient tomb at that time were not spared and all died in the ancient tomb, and those things that were originally used as burial objects for the new tomb were also collected in the Warring States tomb."
Kou Xuanling: "So at that time, there was something in the ancient tomb."
Chen Yang looked solemn. They might have guessed in their hearts. Who would bury the bronze coffin in the Kou family's ancestral tomb, re-set the thirty-six barriers, and create the Iron Wall Mountain and the Eight Hells? Apart from the things in the ancient tomb, there must be no one else.
When they reached the end, they found a stone niche, which was sealed. They didn't know what was enshrined inside. Behind the stone niche was a staircase, and down the staircase was an auxiliary tomb. An auxiliary tomb usually contained burial objects, but perhaps the ancient tomb they entered was unusual, so the auxiliary tomb did not contain burial objects, but human sacrifices.
Many grooves were carved into the walls of each tomb chamber, and in the grooves were bodies that had been squeezed and deformed. The grooves were sealed with bronze blocks, and only a finger-wide gap could be seen to reveal the human sacrifices inside. These grooves were obviously much smaller than an adult, but the human sacrifices were all adult slaves.
Therefore, it was extremely painful for these adult slaves to be stuffed into the grooves, and their bones might be broken in the process. When the grooves were sealed, they could not move, starved to death, and died in great pain.
The souls of the deceased were imprisoned in this place, and they were filled with resentment and were very difficult to deal with. Due to customs and concepts, these human sacrifices were slaves in life and slaves after death, and they obeyed the words of the tomb owner.
"They were used to worship the stone niche above. Many people died in this ancient tomb." The more noble the tomb owner was, the more burial objects he had. There were also tens of thousands of people buried alive with him. Especially in the earliest period, slaves were like livestock. Chen Yang said, "Since there were human sacrifices, there would be human sacrifices. I'm afraid there are more people buried alive in the cemetery. I think we may have arrived at the tomb of the master of the ancient tomb group."
Among the thirty-six ancient tombs, only one is the main tomb, the tomb of a nine-year-old girl.
At this moment, intermittent, extremely subtle "clicking" sounds were heard from the tomb. Kou Xuanling: "Did you hear the sound?"
Chen Yang looked at the groove. The corpse inside was motionless. Suddenly, the arm moved. Then there were continuous "clicking" sounds. "It's alive. Run."
The human sacrifices in the groove pushed away the bronze block and crawled on the ground. Some crawled on the walls and the top of the tomb at an unusually fast speed. As soon as Chen Yang retreated to the door of the tomb, a human sacrifice jumped in front of him, opened its jagged mouth, and made a strange whistling sound. Chen Yang whipped it open with a red rope, casually attached a five-thunder talisman to detonate it, and successfully left the tomb.
After running out of the tomb, they found that the human sacrifices in other subsidiary tombs came out to chase them. They must have sensed the Yang energy and suddenly launched an attack. After Chen Yang strangled a human sacrifice with a red rope, he wrapped the red rope around his palm and shouted, "Go back to the stone niche and go to the main tomb."
The real owner of this ancient tomb is in the main tomb chamber, and this group of human sacrifices dare not offend the main tomb chamber. Lu Xiuzhi escorted Kou Xuanling back to the stone niche. After Kou Xuanling waited for Chen Yang to come up, he slapped the detonated talisman on the human sacrifice in front, detonating them to buy himself some time.
They ran forward, passing the east and west side chambers where the burial objects were placed, and arrived at the tomb door. The main tomb and the subsidiary chambers were separated by a tomb door, indicating the difference in status. The tomb door was closed and could not be opened for the time being. The human sacrifice behind them crawled to the east and west side chambers with their hands and feet, stopped to watch them, and occasionally bared their teeth and roared intimidation.
They dared not move forward. Slaves were not allowed to enter the main tomb chamber, not even close to the tomb door. Kou Xuanling turned his back to the tomb door and asked Chen Yang, "Can the tomb door be opened?"
Chen Yang: "There is no hole, so it can't be used with a key. It should be a mechanism. Let's look for it."
They were looking for the mechanism, but the main tomb chamber did not respond for a long time. The group of human sacrifices outside seemed to have watched enough, and suddenly bared their teeth and let out a huge roar. Two or three of them could not help but run through the two ear chambers, paused for a while, and seeing that there was no effect, they pounced on Chen Yang and the other two.
Chen Yang and Kou Xuanling killed the human sacrifice that rushed over to bite them. Lu Xiuzhi said from behind: "We found the mechanism to open the door. Be careful."
With a loud rumble, Lu Xiuzhi opened the tomb door. A section of the road ahead suddenly collapsed, and Chen Yang grabbed Kou Xuanling in time and pulled him back, and the road continued to collapse. The three of them entered the main tomb before the road collapsed, and the tomb door fell down. Before it fell, they saw a huge rock falling from the top of the tomb. If they failed to enter the tomb in time, they would be crushed into meat residue.
The author has something to say: The ancestor of Lao Kou in the story is a fictional character. I don’t dare to imagine the real ancestor in history, and I don’t feel very respectful.
I found that the important words: [wet|body|temptation] were actually blocked.
ps: I saw some comments saying that this chapter is similar to "Ghost Blows Out the Light: Yunnan Worm Valley" and "Grave Robbers' Chronicles", so let me explain it.
Let's talk about "Grave Robbers" first. I bought this book, but I didn't read it. The reason may make some fans of "Grave Robbers" unhappy, because I couldn't finish reading this book. My classmate told me that this book was very scary, so I bought it, but I couldn't finish reading it. It's been four or five years since I bought it, so it's unfair for me to read books like "Grave Robbers".
I also bought the book Ghost Blows Out the Light, seven or eight years ago, but I only had the first three stories. PS: I have a strange habit, once I read the paper version first, I can't accept the electronic version. At that time, the only channel to buy books was bookstores, and I didn't read it again because I couldn't buy it in bookstores.
Then I saw that it was similar to "Yunnan Worm Valley", so I went to read it again in the afternoon, because I had actually forgotten most of the plot, and I was too young when I read this book, so I didn't understand many parts.
Then let's take a look.
1. The bamboo raft part is also in "Yunnan Worm Valley". But here is a black snake, and there is a human figurine, and there are insect eggs and poison inside the human figurine (this is quite scary. After watching it, I wondered why I couldn't think of such an interesting plot.)
I arranged this paragraph because of the Black Snake scenes in the previous chapters and, ahem, to let Lu Xiuzhi show off a bit or something.
In addition, we arranged for the bamboo raft to enter from under the undercurrent because I read an ancient high school essay that described a mountain cave that became narrower and narrower. That kind of cramped and narrow place felt suffocating and made me feel fearful.
ps: After I compared them, I found that except for the bamboo raft entering the river, the rest of the plot is different.
2. I originally thought that the bamboo raft part was different, but then I found that the human figurine in "Yunnan Worm Valley" cracked and the eggs inside turned into water pig bees entangled under the bamboo raft. This was really just a coincidence, and I really have no impression of this plot.
The black snake was wrapped around the bottom of the bamboo raft because the image in my mind was quite scary and interesting.
3. Human sacrifice. I haven't seen any human sacrifices yet. Human sacrifices were a horror thing in ancient tombs. It was originally intended to be an evil ghost, but after a careful check, I found that the name of this evil ghost did not come from folk or Taoism, but was not used in a book.
I checked and saved the page. I wanted to share it with you guys, but I was in a hurry to update it at noon and forgot.
In general, I have mentioned these points so far. Regarding whether this is a coincidence, I reread the first few paragraphs of the chapter "Yunnan Worm Valley". After reading it, I can't remember whether I have read "Yunnan Worm Valley". Because I found that there are water pig bees, human figurines and a green python, which I have no impression of at all.
But after some checking, I found that "Yunnan Worm Valley" is also the third chapter of "Ghost Blows Out the Light", and the book I bought has the first three chapters.
Let me take another look. I originally suspected that I was unconsciously influenced by "Ghost Blows Out the Light", but I know the origin of every meme, and after watching it, I really have no impression of the similarities.
ps: I am quite sensitive and concerned about the same things as memes, so don't think I am nagging.