Sun Jiuye's grim smile was only for a moment. He seemed to realize that he had lost his composure. He quickly tightened his face, coughed twice to cover it up, and said to me: "Don't worry. A man in a hurry can't do anything good, and a cat in a hurry can't catch a mouse. Listen to me first. We are in a dangerous place now, and everything is still unclear. If this is useless now, I won't say it, but now I have to say it. Don't blame me for criticizing you. I know you are always suspicious, but you can't make up something out of nothing. What do you want to do with the black donkey's hoof? Do you think I am a thousand-year-old zombie? It's nonsense!"
Now no matter what Sun Jiuye said, it seemed to me that it was all a disguise. Although I didn't know what he wanted to hide, the sudden change in his expression was enough to show that this person must have "hidden ulterior motives". Why was he afraid of the "black donkey hoof"? Did anything happen during the time when he fell into the Nandou tomb alone? Only he could understand the ghost sound made by the "Ancient Tomb Belly Fairy". How could people easily believe the "Guanshan Zhimi Fu" that he sensed in a state of near hallucination?
Questions popped up in my mind one after another, and I increasingly suspected that Professor Sun was a monster that crawled out of an ancient tomb, otherwise why would there be "corpse worms" appearing on his body so often? Thinking of this, I secretly touched the wooden handle of the "engineer shovel". As long as I saw that his behavior was slightly abnormal, I would cut him with a shovel and kill him.
At this moment, except for Shirley Yang and me, the fat man and the youngest girl were still completely in the dark. I don't know why the atmosphere suddenly became so tense. No one spoke for a while. Everyone stood motionless on the stone steps of the tomb passage. The few seconds of stalemate seemed particularly long, as if even the air around them had frozen.
Professor Sun stared at me for a moment, then continued, "Okay, this is not the first or second time you have suspected me. I admit that I did use you before, but in the face of this major event, I risked my life to come with you to find the ancient tomb of Dixian Village, even though I was in disgrace. We each have our own needs, and we are all grasshoppers tied to the same rope. What else can I not confess to you now? Besides, why are there corpse worms around me? It's not surprising. The tomb chamber and the tomb passage are heavy with corpse gas, and there are dark springs nearby. It is normal for corpse flies and maggots to appear. I have them, and you may have them too. Do tomb robbers care about these? Anyway, corpse worms can't bite people to death. Now I, Sun Xuewu, simply swear a poisonous oath. As for the things in Coffin Gorge, as long as I hide anything from you, let me bear the blame for the rest of my life, and I will never be able to get out of this life."
I had no real evidence, and seeing that things had come to this, it was not a good idea to use any other means against him. However, his intention to release him remained unchanged. It was not my fault that I did not trust him. Before, when I learned the truth about the "Qin King's Bone Mirror", I had already excluded Professor Sun from my "trustworthy list".
However, as Professor Sun said, both sides now need to rely on each other and overcome numerous obstacles together in order to find the "Ancient Tomb of Dixian Village". As for his true hidden intentions, I cannot guess, but I am sure that he must have some "secrets" that he cannot reveal. For someone like Master Sun Jiu who has no formal beliefs, even "swearing" in public seems light as a feather.
Sun Jiuye's words were a great trick for the successor of ghost arts , so it would be no problem for him to deceive Shirley Yang. Although Shirley Yang was smart and clever, she was not good at cunning and was willing to think positively about people and things. However, I had already been tempered into steel in the class struggle. If he couldn't pretend to be perfect in front of me, even if he revealed some flaws, he would definitely not be able to escape my eyes. How could I fall for his sweet words? I secretly decided to keep silent for the time being and deal with him after finding the "Ancient Tomb of Dixian Village".
I made up my mind and said to Professor Sun, "It's best to be subjective in everything. Even if you are a saint, as long as you have prejudice in your heart, you will definitely make mistakes in dealing with people and things, and often mistake good for evil. I admit that I had some opinions about you, Master Jiu, in the past, but now I think I must have been too suspicious. As long as there is no sign of corpse transformation on your body, no one should mention this matter again. Let's go to the ancient tomb and the hidden spring to see the scale of the Wuhou Cangbing Map."
Professor Sun said, "That sounds like human language." After he finished speaking, he started walking. I had to follow him. We walked along the long and winding tomb passage and came to a tomb chamber on a high place. This chamber was only slightly smaller than the coffin hall. It was built in the shape of a "round sky and square earth". The murals on the curtain walls were well preserved and seemed to have not been damaged. The figures in the murals had thin waists and tall bodies, their clothes were strange, and their bodies were much taller than ordinary people. There were hundreds of pine bark coffins with messy coffin boards and half-exposed corpses inside. They were all burial coffins left over after the theft. All the corpses were women, and most of them were probably the wives of the "King of Moving Mountains and Witch Ling".
Behind the hall, there is a steep cliff sunken into the ground, with several ancient stone channels carved into the shape of blue dragons running through it. There are hidden springs gushing out of them, which lead groundwater to the periphery of the ancient tomb. The hidden springs are rushing and the water is quite powerful. Behind the ancient channel where the blue dragon spits water, there is a cave, which was dug along the water veins of the underground river. It is winding and undulating, and the sound of water splashing can be heard between the two walls.
We saw that there was no "mechanism" in the tomb passage, and thought that the "dragons spitting water" should be in the place where the water veins were entangled. So we had to enter the terracotta passage on the back wall to find the place where the water source ended.
This path is nearly tens of meters long, with an open stone gate at the end. After exiting the gate, you will see a rift between underground rock layers, which is up to 30 meters wide and has a smooth and flat ground. On both sides of the path are steep ancient walls with phosphorous lights flickering from time to time. On them are many ape-like mineral eyes and caves, which are everywhere and so dense that it is unimaginable. There are countless thousands or tens of thousands of them. Due to the lack of a "strong searchlight", the situation deep in the underground valley cannot be seen in front of the stone gate.
Judging from the shape of the ancient tomb, this underground rift might be the main entrance to the "Tomb of King Wuyang". We entered through the "mass burial cave" and actually took the back door. However, I didn't expect the tomb passage in front of the underground palace to be so majestic. Although most of it was created by nature, it still required a large amount of manpower to repair it. This project is hard to imagine today. Compared with this place, the "Qingxi Air-raid Shelter" which was converted from a mine cave is too simple.
I saw that it was pitch black and silent deep in the rift valley, with only the faint sound of water running through the mountain. I was worried that I might run into danger if I went any further, so I stopped and looked around with my "wolf eye" in hand. When I saw the high ground, I couldn't help but gasp.
It turned out that there was a thick and wide "Dragon-Breaking Gate" hanging between the two walls, about ten meters above the ground. It looked like it could fall down at any time. Even if there was an armored vehicle in the Terracotta Warriors Road, it would be crushed by it, not to mention five living people with flesh and blood.
I quickly asked everyone to step back two steps. Fortunately, we didn't continue to move forward, otherwise once the "pin device" was triggered, even if the huge gate didn't crush anyone to death, I'm afraid our retreat would be cut off by it. If we were trapped in the terracotta warrior path, who knows what danger we would face next.
My youngest sister saw the hexagram eye marks on the huge gate and told me that this gate is "empty". According to the legend passed down by the elders in "Honeycomb Mountain", this is one of the eight gates of Wu Hou. Once this gate is opened, it may trigger the "Wu Hou Cang Bing Tu" mechanism in the formation, and all kinds of murderous mechanisms will emerge one after another.
I asked my younger sister, "Are you 100% sure? Can you conclude from this alone that there is a layout of the "Wu Hou Hidden Soldiers Map" in the canyon?" We are all laymen in the art of mechanical locking and spring locking. At this time, we can only trust the one that the descendants of "Honeycomb Mountain" have learned, but we must not mislead everyone, because the slightest mistake could cost lives.
The youngest sister said, "Don't think I'm stupid just because I'm from the mountains and never drank tap water since I was a child. Nine out of ten hidden weapons made in the Honeycomb Mountains are lethal. How could I not know how powerful they are?"
I said, how dare I look down on you? Tell me how to arrange this piece of machinery first? The youngest sister took out a very complicated wooden frame from her backpack. There were many small copper plates hanging on it, marked with "Fengjiao, Xugu, Kongwang" and other marks. The details of the wooden frame can be rotated and disassembled, which is very clever. It is similar to a three-dimensional model for deducing the changes of life and death. If you assemble it according to the map, you can deduce the rough pattern of this Cangbing Gorge. At that moment, she used the model to point out the directions for everyone one by one.
"The Map of the Corpses Hidden by Wu Hou" is the ancestor of ancient pinning devices. The mechanism well needs irrigation power to be activated. There was mercury in the Qin Dynasty, wind wood in the Tang Dynasty, and underground rivers in the Song Dynasty. There are underground rivers on both sides of the valley, so it can be concluded that there must be hidden rollers or rotating screws, driven by water flow. To put it bluntly, there is a "water wheel" in the underground Yinhe secret spring.
If you enter from the bottom of the gate in the "empty" direction, you will soon encounter a "locking device" that you have to trigger. Once this mechanism moves, the Dragon-Breaking Gate will be closed. Unless you find the "eye under the sea" in the gorge, you will lose your life under wave after wave of hidden weapons. As for what kind of killing mechanism is hidden in the valley, it is ever-changing and difficult to predict.
Shirley Yang said: "Even so, we can try to cut off the hidden springs on the periphery. Without the power of irrigation, those mechanical pins and springs will be useless."
Professor Sun said that this plan was absolutely not feasible. What we could think of, "Guan Shan Tai Bao" must have already anticipated. According to "Guan Shan Zhi Mi Fu", there must be a map of "Di Xian Village" in this terracotta road. Once the mechanism stops, the map will most likely be destroyed. Now there is no other way to think about it. The only thing to do is to risk our lives to find the "life gate" and crack the mechanism. The little sister knows the Wu Hou Eight Gates Formation. With her leading us, it is not difficult to break the Cang Bing Gorge. Isn't what she said quite right? What does the sentence "The life gates are connected, one beginning and one end; twenty-four thousand, seven out of a hundred" mean?
The youngest sister said, "How would I know? The deduction of the eight gates and five elements is a native skill of Honeycomb Mountain, but the Wuhou Cangbing Map has long been lost. It's like a treasure box. Now people in Honeycomb Mountain only know the size of the box, but they don't know what's inside. But what Master Sun said just now makes sense. If you want to take the treasures hidden in the valley, you can't start from the outside. Once the Dragon Breaking Gate and the Dark Spring are broken, it will definitely lead to hidden fires, quicksand, black water and other traps. No matter what is in the canyon, it will be destroyed at once."
Upon hearing this, Professor Sun was so anxious that his hands were shaking. He kowtowed 9981 times, but just lacked this last tremor. In his life, he had read tens of thousands of books, traveled tens of thousands of miles, endured all kinds of hardships, and suffered thousands of sins. Logically speaking, his knowledge and experience were not shallow. He even cracked the ancient riddle engraved on dragon bones. However, he could not figure out the hidden meaning of "The gates of life are connected, one beginning and one end; twenty-four thousand, and seven out of a hundred" even if he racked his brains and banged his head.
Shirley Yang wondered if this was a code, but she felt it was unreasonable. She made several assumptions but still couldn't figure it out.
I don't know whether the last part of the "Guan Shan Zhi Mi Fu" is true or false. Although the content of the poem puzzled Sun Jiuye and Shirley Yang, I suddenly had an idea. Could it be that "24,000, 100 singles and 7" means? That group of "Da Ming Guan Shan Taibao" really likes to be mysterious. Maybe Sun Jiuye and Shirley Yang thought too complicated and couldn't figure it out. But except for me, no one else might pay attention to this matter. If it is really consistent with my expectation, it really proves the old saying – "Those who are difficult will not be able to do it, and those who know it will not be difficult."
So I said that this rift valley is deep in the mountain, and it is dark inside. Who knows how it is arranged? A timid person cannot be a general, and a wolf cannot be caught without sacrificing a child. We might as well take a risky move and go in directly. If the life gate of the "Wu Hou Cang Bing Tu" really fulfills the saying "twenty-four thousand, one hundred and seven", I will be sure to find the "seabed eye", but this dragon's den and tiger's lair seems to be not an ordinary place. If there is some mistake, there will be no return.
So I think it will be enough for Fatty and I to go in and handle it. The three of you wait outside. If we are not back after three hours, don't worry about collecting our bodies. Just go back to where you came from and hold a memorial service directly. In time for the Qingming Festival and the Winter Solstice, just burn some paper money and cotton clothes for us two brothers.
The fat man said, "Commander Hu, you are too wicked. You are going to die and you want me to take the blame for you. I can go, but there is a condition. Sun Laojiu has to go with us. Otherwise, when I think of this old man who owes me a full banquet before I die, I will never be able to close my eyes."
I said yes, we must take him with us. Fatty gave me a signal and we were ready to move. Shirley Yang saw that I was leaving and grabbed me and said, "You want to mess around again, and you keep saying such rude words. The mechanisms in the ancient tomb are extremely vicious. How can you just go in and die so easily?"
Professor Sun also said: "Hu Bayi, Wang Fatty, it doesn't matter if you want to drag me down with you, but what is my life worth? What are your lives worth? But this is related to the eternal mystery of Dixian Village, I can't tolerate you doing whatever you want. You can't listen to you two rascals on this matter, you have to listen to me." He also said: "Wang Fatty, you are really something, you have to follow Hu Bayi in everything he does. You look like a man of blood, why do you listen to him in everything? You have to listen to me this time, and you can't act blindly when your brain is hot."
The fat man smiled and said, "Don't try to sow discord. Who said I always listen to Lao Hu? It's just that our great minds often coincide, so we often think in the same direction and work together. Besides, do I look like a reckless and rude person? I don't believe in anything else, I only believe in the truth. It's not impossible for me to listen to you, Sun Laojiu, but what's so outstanding about you? I think your level is not as good as Lao Hu, let alone compared with the fat man, so it's better for you to listen to me. Don't try to usurp power. Isn't the lesson of Wuduer Khan's defeat enough?"
Professor Sun said angrily, "I don't have much ability, but you two may not have any better talents than me except for some tomb-robbing skills. It doesn't matter who listens to whom at ordinary times, and I don't want to compete with you, but this matter is of great importance, you must listen to me, and you must not easily trigger the mechanism of Wu Hou Cang Bing Tu before you are absolutely sure."
The fat man was very disdainful: "Master Sun Jiu, you are so arrogant. I don't think you can compare with me in other skills besides tomb robbing. I am proficient in all kinds of martial arts. If I randomly name one, you may not be able to do it in your next life."
Professor Sun was proud of the fact that he had gone through many hardships in his life and often felt that his talent was not appreciated. Now that he had been stabbed, how could he accept it? He asked the fat man, apart from the skill of tomb robbing, what else could he not do in his next life?
The fat man pointed at me and said to Professor Sun, "Did you see that? Mr. Hu has killed people, living people, and he has killed more than one or two people. No matter what others say, he just endures it. Have you ever killed a living person under your hands? How dare you speak arrogantly in front of our Commander Hu?"
Professor Sun's expression froze for a moment. He had never expected someone to say such a thing. He was shocked and asked, "What? You, you, you have killed someone?"
The youngest sister was also surprised: "Brother, have you really killed someone? Who did you kill?"
I was terrified by the looks they gave me, so I had to explain, "It was definitely not the murder you imagined. When I was at the front, I fought one battle after another under heavy gunfire and swords. I was able to knock down three or five enemies with my guns. If I had been soft-hearted and not killed anyone on the battlefield, my comrades and I would have been immortalized long ago."
I know what death is. I don't feel fear or excitement about it. The baptism of blood and fire makes people understand how to respect death and life more. So I never want to take the initiative to do something to die. But if I don't take out the "Dan Ding" hidden in the Dixian Village, Duoling, a Danmin from the Nanhai Sea, will have no way out. Now I have to choose to put my head on my belt and treat this life as a gift. I plan to risk my life to find the "door of life" of the "Wu Hou Cang Bing Tu".
Professor Sun said, "Okay, since you are sure, let's just go ahead and do it. I will go in with you, and let the two girls wait in front of the tomb door."
I nodded and was about to tell him and Fatty what preparations they needed to make before entering the "Void", but Shirley Yang suddenly stepped forward and asked, "Professor, why do you have corpse spots on your face?"
Note: The eye on the bottom of the sea represents secret and confidentiality, implying details that outsiders will never know.