Just as I was hesitating whether to reach into the water to explore, Shirley Yang, who was inspecting the casting patterns on the tripod body, had already discovered something, and she asked me to squat down to look at the patterns cast on the tripod. I looked at what she said, and saw that the tripod body was divided into eight sides, all of which had dark marks. It seemed that the copper had been inlaid with gold threads, and the gold had been removed over time, forming pieces of sunken patterns, showing the details of Hentian. After his death, he was buried and ascended to the moon.
We only saw half of it before we realized it. Looking back at the row of ancient corpses, it turned out that they had not had time to be officially buried after death, but stayed here to wait for the full moon to come. It seems that the "flying to the moon" has not yet arrived At the moment of "seeking longevity", the ancient city on the island sank into the sea, and the surviving survivors scattered like stars, and became "dirty people" who lived in the sea and made a living by fishing for pearls and whaling.
I was about to turn to the back of the tripod, but I heard Uncle Ming calling me in front of the whale bone fossil, so I had no choice but to turn around and take a few steps back, asking him what's the matter with this old worthless guy? Uncle Ming wiped the sweat off his brow and said to me, "Have you noticed that there are some dead children with missing arms and legs hidden in the stomachs of these zombie women in the tomb?"
It turned out that Uncle Ming and others were guarding outside the whalebone in fear. They saw a row of corpses lined up in the tomb covered under the scaly skin, like a big quilt, and the dragon wrap was very bulging. He thought that there were funerary objects on the five thousand-year-old corpses. Even if he didn't take them, he would take a look at them. Those ancient objects that have been preserved in the ruins for thousands of years are extraordinary, even if it's just to open his eyes.
Unexpectedly, when the "dragon cover" was opened, it was found that the three female corpses juxtaposed in the center were all suffered from abdominal dissection during pregnancy. The formed fetus in the stomach, at least eight or nine months old, was gouged out and placed on the open stomach of the female corpse. "The round stone. The female corpse's cheeks were slightly bulging, with a pearl in her mouth, and the abdominal cavity of the corpse was filled with things, so it still looked bulging, as if she was about to give birth.
The dead baby seems to have not been treated, but with the help of the cold jade and beauty pearls in the body of the female body, the body is still there, and the carbonized black hair is formed into a golden silk bear to distinguish between death and hibernation . It looks like the hair is rooted After a quick look, I took a closer look with the flashlight. These three dead babies were either missing arms or missing a leg. It seemed that they were all congenital deformities.
Uncle Ming was taken aback. I'm afraid there is something weird about it. In the past, among the tomb robbers who carried corpses, there were rumors of child ghosts and fetal ghosts. Some tomb owners deliberately hid unjustly died fetuses in the tomb. If the artifact in the tomb is damaged, or if the body of the owner of the tomb is damaged, he will be entangled by little ghosts, unable to live in peace day and night, and will be killed sooner or later. So when Uncle Ming saw the situation was not good, he hurriedly called me to see if the Hentian family had raised a little ghost in the tomb, and while talking , the golden-haired bear distinguished death from hibernation , dripping with cold sweat, obviously extremely shocked.
When I heard the words, I immediately looked at the stiff people covered by the "dragon skin". At first glance, it was true. The three dead babies who were taken out seemed to still retain the painful struggling posture at the end of their lives. But among their limbs, either an arm or a leg is missing, and it doesn't seem to be amputated cruelly, but due to a congenital deformity. If you look carefully, you can distinguish the small human hand like a rat's palm. For some reason, it failed to develop and grow with the rest of the body.
It is rare to see little ghosts in tombs, only in some remote areas in the south, and most of the handicraftsmen have never seen it in their entire lives, but there are many such legends in eastern Guangdong and western Guangdong. At the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Republic of China, there was a group of tomb robbers who were active in the Guangdong and Guangxi regions, carrying corpses and digging cellars. Only some of them actually carried little ghosts from the tomb and returned home, and were killed. This is a modern thing, and it is not a fiction. nonsense. It can be seen that this is a regional custom, and it is said that it only began to appear in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. Guangdong and Guangxi are located in remote areas. It was not until the Ming and Qing Dynasties that the culture and economy developed. Where did the tomb tradition come from.
But this kind of thing is extremely rare in other provinces. Presumably, it may not come from ancient methods. How could there be such a sorcery in the ruins of "Guixu" thousands of years ago? But these babies who were about to be born, why were they murdered? In addition, all three are deformed and congenitally disabled, which is a bit too coincidental. We are in a dangerous place, and we can't say that we don't believe in evil spirits, but there are some things that we have to guard against.
Thinking of this, I already wanted to destroy the corpse and wipe out the traces. I asked Uncle Ming and others what to do. Uncle Ming always believed in some old things passed down by his ancestors. Let's not be soft-hearted, or even if we go back to the sea, there will be at least three people carrying the little ghost on their backs. Why do we keep little ghosts in the ancient tomb? Because the fetus has already formed, and the lonely ghosts that have been reincarnated are already attached to it. On top of that, at this time, they were dug out alive from the pregnant woman's belly. Those little ghosts were greedy for their own bodies, so they refused to leave. The dead little ghosts are the most narrow-minded and vicious. It is by no means finished, so according to what my uncle and I have seen, it is the best policy not to do anything, but to cremate the remains of the little thieves."
Uncle Ming clapped the mermaid candle in his hand as he said that. Under the candlelight, his face was extremely ugly. It seemed that he was really taboo to go home with a kid on his back. The fat man also tried to ignite the fire, but before burning the corpse, it's best to pick out everything from the dead man's mouth, otherwise it will be wasted.
I looked at Gu Cai again, that kid was stunned, he hadn't figured out the relationship between his "Longhu" and the ancient tomb under Haiyan, and he didn't care about setting fire to the corpses of these dead babies. But Duoling was the most courageous of the group, and didn't dare to come and see the zombie in the whalebone.
Based on my past experience, it is better to believe in the thing of carrying a kid than to believe in nothing. There must be something wrong with the dead baby in the tomb. Rather than letting trouble come to the door, it is better to burn it clean in advance. Why bother to trace the source to find out what happened, so I calmed down and nodded to Uncle Ming. Uncle Ming rushed forward with Fatty Guchai and others, and he wanted to take the "Zhuyan Pearl" first, and then put the "Wushenghuo".
Everyone was about to make a move when they were stopped by Shirley Yang. She was always looking at the nine-legged tripod, and when she heard our discussion about setting fire to the zombies in the tomb, she hurriedly asked Uncle Ming and the others to stop. She said that the little ghost was recited from the tomb, and there were similar rumors among Taoists who moved the mountain. These are folk magic that only appeared in the mountainous area in the past two or three hundred years, so how could it exist in the ruins? Moreover, I have never heard that there are little ghosts hidden in the tomb, and they deliberately choose deformed and disabled fetuses. Is there any reason in the world? Only by igniting it rashly will it really cause trouble.
We were all speechless by what she said. The fact that the fetus has a shortage of limbs is extremely strange and really hard to understand. After all, no one has really seen how the ancient tomb where the baby ghost is hidden is arranged.
Shirley Yang said: "The Hentian cast this matter on the nine-legged tripod. If we want to escape from the wreckage of this coral cave on the bottom of the sea, I'm afraid we have to rely on these South China Sea zombies."
When everyone heard that they had a plan, they were all moved. Uncle Ming was so excited that his eyes blurred with tears: "Miss Yang, your uncle is getting old, and his mind is also a little dull. You mean these ancient corpses can take us back? I don't know how to plan? I also hope to express it clearly, so as to relieve my stupidity…"
Shirley Yang asked everyone to look at the back of the "Nine-legged Cauldron". It turns out that this coral cave, which is deeply isolated from the outside world, is not an ancient tomb. The lack of feet and arms of the fetus happened in ancient times. related to the "lunar eclipse". The five ancient corpses covered with dragon skin in the whalebone, one old and one young, were all the dead who were about to be buried in the coffin, while the three pregnant women whose stomachs had been cut open were unfortunately killed by a "lunar eclipse". Sacrificial offerings for burial.
"Solar eclipse" and "lunar eclipse" are two major astronomical phenomena. Although the ancients did not understand the reason, they have a long-standing understanding of these astronomical anomalies. There has been a legend since ancient times that pregnant women cannot see the "lunar eclipse". Once they see it, the fetus in the womb will have deformed limbs after birth. This kind of mysterious legend is not just speculation, even in the modern age of science and medicine, it cannot completely explain the mystery. Babies born to pregnant women who have seen a "lunar eclipse" are likely to be deformed and disabled, and the proportion is incomprehensibly high. In the ancient superstitious understanding, this is because the "total lunar eclipse" is a "big break", and the rest are "small breaks". You must feel something when you see it.
Ancient civilizations originated from the "big river". The Hentian family originated from the Yellow River Basin. After crossing the sea and moving south, they still retained the ancient mythological totem worship. In addition to "shooting the sun" which symbolizes war and massacre, there is also the pursuit of longevity. The name of the immortal "flying to the moon" and the country of hating the sky was invented by later generations of scholars based on the records on the bronze tripod during the reign of King Mu of Zhou, which may not be accurate.
The country that hates the sky adopts dragon fire, creating an unprecedented bronze civilization, but probably because of the excessive superstition of the legend that there is an elixir in the moon palace, all the power of the whole country is devoted to excavating the sacred wood on the seabed and casting bronze. Thousands of people cut wood, but no one Ascension to heaven, resulting in the ancient city sinking into the sea. According to the records of the nine-legged giant tripod, there is a larger bronze tripod at the bottom of this coral cave. It is necessary to collect enough three deformed children damaged by the moon and throw them into the huge cauldron on the seabed, so that the undead can pass through the wood to the moon palace where the elixir is hidden.
Shirley Yang said: "The disabled fetus caused by the lunar eclipse was called eclipse in the Shang and Zhou dynasties, and it was used to refine the elixir of immortality. This concept was very common in ancient times. From the Yin and Shang Dynasties to the Qin and Han Dynasties, there are a large number of cultural relics related to it. relevant traces."
I nodded and said: "During the Qin and Han Dynasties, it was the era that was most keen on seeking immortality and immortality. It is understandable when you think about it. Where is a person before life and where is he after death? This is hard for ordinary people to understand. , In a blink of an eye, the blue hair turns white. Compared with the limited time, people are of course more concerned about whether they can get eternal life in the eternal nothingness. This trend gradually faded after the Tang and Song Dynasties. Ken deceived himself. Once in the world, he could not escape life, old age, sickness and death. How can there be immortal gods. The superstition of the ancients can be forgiven, but our superstition is too wrong. Could it be that these three babies with few arms and legs were thrown into the In the cauldron at the bottom of the water, can we fly to the Moon Palace to take the elixir with the old and the young and the two stiff people?"
The fat man also said: "That's right, if you want to say that, then what's the point of making rockets to land on the moon? Isn't the United States and the Soviet Union all working in vain for so many years? Guchai's ancestors climbed to the moon thousands of years ago by climbing trees." It's…"
Uncle Ming said anxiously: "You two bad boys never believe in anything, so why can't you let Miss Yang finish talking and then blow the water?" He then said to Shirley Yang: "Miss Yang, don't talk to these two. You are generally knowledgeable, Uncle, you are the one I believe in the most. Quickly go ahead and say, can we still come down after taking the elixir on the moon? Immortality is a very cool thing, but we still have to be able to return to the moon. It's better to go down to enjoy the glory and wealth…"
Shirley Yang said: "I didn't say that I could really climb into the Moon Palace from the sacred wood on the seabed. I just explained it with the patterns cast and painted on the nine-legged tripod. This burial method evolved from the legend of immortality may be a kind of sea burial. Kind of. The giant cauldron at the bottom of the water is a mechanism, and there is a mark of the Zhen Gua hidden in it, which seems to be able to draw out the undercurrent…or something else, in short, it can lift the corpse out of the sea from the Guixu. It's just that after so many years, this mechanism Is it still working?"
I hurriedly looked at the patterns cast on the tripod. As Shirley Yang said, there was a giant tripod in the water marked with a "Zhen Gua" mechanism. Looking at it now, the symbol of shaking up and down seems to be some kind of mechanism. , once opened, the sea water in this coral cave will lift the huge "楗木" out of the sea, but whether this is the case, we still need to dive down to find out the truth.
I suddenly thought of the tattoo on the back of Gu Cai. Under the coral cave with zombies, it should be the tomb of the mermaid, and in the depths is a dragon skeleton. I don’t know where the giant cauldron with the mark of "Zhen Gua" is. . On his back is the "Through Sea Formation" that has been passed down from generation to generation, hiding the truth about the ancient tombs of Guixu. Perhaps it was the ancestors who hoped that some descendants would return to the sea eye and officially bury the remains of their ancestors. Only a "dragon household" had the opportunity to enter this place with us by mistake. Looking at the water flow in the coral cave, it seems that it is closed and isolated from the outside world. We don't know how deep the water is under the tomb. If the depth of the tripod exceeds the limit, we will not be able to reach it.
I decided that Fatty and I, together with Gu Cai, would dive down immediately to scout the location of the giant underwater cauldron to see if we could open this huge mechanism, but I knew it was just luck, and the vagueness of thousands of years ago Record, how to do it accurately? Besides, maybe the ancestors of these Dan people thought about it and made up some random jokes to bluff people, so I asked Shirley Yang and Uncle Ming to stay on this reef and stop worrying about us, and continue to think about it. another way.
Shirley Yang and I briefly discussed the diving plan, and brought Hentian's "Water Dividing Sword" for self-defense. Even if there are changes underwater, it should be enough to deal with it. Shirley Yang said: "Don't forget, it's just a diving reconnaissance, as soon as you see the big tripod under the water, you will come back immediately…"
I knew that if she continued to talk, she would follow suit. The scuba we carried was limited, and we had to be reserved when we acted. Therefore, when the situation was still unclear, it was impossible to go into the water all at once. So he quickly diverted her words away and asked her to take good care of Uncle Ming and Duoling. The surface of the water is calm and calm. It seems that the underwater situation is not dangerous. We just went down to do some reconnaissance. Then he, Guchai and Fatty ate some compressed biscuits, tidied up each of them, each carried a Xingtian's metamorphosed Xingke, put it in his carry-on diving carrying bag, and then came to the water's edge.
Continuous actions in a short period of time have made Guchai gradually develop a tacit understanding with us. I don’t need to tell him anything, and he has excellent eyesight in the dark water, so we must rely on his help to search for the tripod and confirm the route. He still didn't wear scuba, his arms were bare, and the man with the egg in his mouth scraped the clam with the short blade of the dragon arc.
I saw that Fatty and Guchai were ready, so I pointed to my frog mirror and told them to pay attention, and then the three of them entered the water at the same time. The water depth in the coral cave is unfathomable and pitch black. Our underwater searchlights have been lost, so we can only rely on diving flashlights for lighting. A few meters away, it is already dark and unrecognizable.
The underwater space of the Coral Cave is deep and wide, which makes people feel at a loss for a while. Occasionally, some aquariums with bioluminescent devices approach, and no one can see what it is. They have passed by like meteors and disappeared into the darkness. of water. Suddenly, I saw a flash of light in the darkness. Although I was underwater, it was like being in a sea of stars. I took a closer look under the dazzle, and it turned out that there were thousands of "ghost octopuses" swimming back and forth at the bottom of the water. These "ghost octopuses" can emit a blue light like will-o'-the-wisp's fire all over their bodies, and can attract small aquariums to approach through the faint blue bioluminescence, and then look for opportunities to devour them. The light emitters can also be used to scare off deadly enemies in the sea, but they do not actively attack divers, but instead serve as good lighting for us. The deeper the water, the clearer the water quality, but the "ghost octopuses" gather and disperse suddenly, rolling up waves of light and mist at the bottom of the water, and the blurred and changing scenes make people dazzled.
We hugged a fossil of an ancient coral tree and took the opportunity to look around, but we couldn't see it from too far away. There are fossils of various corals in front of my eyes, and there are large groups of crustaceans crawling quickly in the crevices and holes. I was about to lean down and continue to dive, when I suddenly found that the coral tree fossils beside me were covered with innumerable holes like sieve holes. wearing something.
I waved to Fatty and Guchai, and the three of them got closer and shone the beam of the diving flashlight into it, only to see the corpse of a merman lying in the cave beside the coral tree. The messy bones remained, with scales connected with tendons hanging on them, and the jagged fangs were exposed, looking very terrifying. I looked at several caves one after another. The countless caves in the coral tree fossils were almost full of merman corpses. This coral tree was the tomb of the sea scale tribe.
When I saw thousands of merman corpses, I couldn't help but feel a little apprehensive. Fortunately, they were all dead. Otherwise, if I encountered such a group of evil spirits at the bottom of the water, where would my life be? However, the faces and bodies of these mermen were devoured by the small fish, but the bones did not melt away. It is said that this is due to the fish beads in their brains. Clam pearls are divided into sea pearls and lake pearls. Like fish pearls, they are rare things in the water. The reason why fish pearls have not been handed down to the world is that their essence will be lost when they leave the water for a long time, so they have never been as good as Clam pearls are precious.
I don't know if this legend is true or not, but I also thought that since there is a mark of the shark's tomb on the Longhu tattoo, it must be an extremely important place, so I should see it clearly. So he gestured to the fat man, reached into the hole, and pulled out a merman's head. The fat man then used the "water-dividing sword" to reach into the merman's eye socket and picked it. There is a layer of dim light at the bottom of the water, and the image of the shark spitting out its blade may be the sharp weapon used to deal with the evil ghost shark at the bottom in ancient times. Where the blade turned up, the ferocious fish head had been cut in half, and there was indeed a black bone ball the size of a nucleus in the middle, which was dull. When the merman just died, the fish beads themselves should have been radiant, the bones have been preserved for many years, the essence has dissipated and dimmed, and when you twist it with your hands, the fish beads will immediately turn into fine powder.
Guchai looked curiously in the water, and boldly stretched his arm into another cave, trying to touch the head of a shark that resembles a human head to see if there are any fish beads. Unexpectedly, as soon as he stretched out his hand, a dry claw full of black scales protruded out of the grave on the coral tree without a sound, grabbed his wrist firmly, and dragged him in.
Guchai was firmly grasped with one hand, but the other hand was holding the gas conch, and in the crook of his arm was still holding the sealed bag containing the remains of the dead fetus. Dropping the dead baby, he took out the sharp knife in his mouth to deal with himself, but he just put his feet on the coral tree, tried his best to get rid of it backwards, and couldn't stand for a while.
Fatty and I were also taken aback when we saw this, did the merman in the sea cheat? He raised his hand and swung the sword. The water-pointing sword was so well-made that he felt no resistance at all when he swung it in the water. In the second paragraph, a stream of dirty blood came out immediately, and the blood was bloody in the water. In the light waves rolled by the ghost octopus, I saw countless sharks covered with black scales in the caves densely packed with coral trees, like a fish with black scales. Straits of black turbidity will come out.
A large number of sharks suddenly appeared from the coral fossils, like a black hurricane rolled up in the water. Some ghost octopuses in the vicinity escaped a little slower, and were engulfed by the sharks like the black tide, and the blue light waves like will-o'-the-wisps turned into waves For the countless fleeing meteors, in an instant, a large area of colorful coral fossils was covered in black by this turbid current.