The temple in the cave is built against the mountain.
The mountain was hollowed out, and the main body of the building was hidden within the mountain.
Jin An and Mr. Yiyun took the lead and ran in front, followed closely by the other people from the Western Regions. As soon as the group ran into the temple, those Western Regions people were frightened.
"Um?"
"Oh my God!"
"What's this!"
Jin An thought about the scene after entering the temple more than once. He even expected that there would be dead people in the temple, such as the mummies of the Wuer clan, the hanging corpses that cannot take up space after death... He also expected all kinds of foreseeable evil corpses, weird corpses and strange corpses. I thought about everything, but I didn't expect to encounter a dead person who died in such a ridiculous way.
A big man, dressed like a prairie tribesman on his back, died leaning against a wall. His upper body was completely blown to pieces, and the splatters of flesh and blood flew several feet away and several feet high, almost covering the entire wall, and even with the walls several feet high. The ceiling of the temple was stuck together, and the flesh was all black flesh shaped like human ears. There were so many that they could not be counted.
Looking at this strange way of death, Jin An could even imagine that this man was possessed by an evil spirit, his belly was filled with tumors that looked like human ears, and he was finally burst alive, and then died miserably in this underground temple with no one paying attention.
This man's evil way of death was far more than that.
His entire spine was stuck to the wall with his head on top, and the upper part of his head exploded. A large number of human ears were also exploded on the wall, blooming like delicate poisonous flowers. It looked like they even grew in his brain. Ears full of human flesh...
...Only the part of the human face below the eyes is still intact, and his mouth maintains a weird smile, as if this person is still conscious after a miserable death, and is smiling weirdly at Jin An and the others.
Looking at that weird smile, Jin An thought of those weird laughing corpses in the Laughing Corpse Manor.
Thinking of this, Jin An turned to Master Yiyun beside him and asked, "Master Yiyun, do you feel that the smile on half of the face looks familiar?"
Young Master Yiyun is very smart. She said without thinking: "Taoist Master Jin An, do you want to say that the smile on half of the human face is like those laughing corpses in the Laughing Corpse Manor that are covered with human ears, flesh and spirit puppets?"
"So Mr. Yiyun, you also feel this way." Jin An pondered, frowning slightly.
He looked at the strange corpse in front of him and analyzed: "There is no doubt about the identity of this dead man. He should be a nomad from the back grassland."
Then Jin An talked about some of the imitated sounds he heard from the Phoenix when he spent the night in Guchi Country.
Unexpectedly, Master Yiyun was not surprised at all after hearing this. She already knew about this.
This saved Jin An a lot of words. He looked at the temple in front of him and continued to speak out some of his guesses: "Is it possible that those people from the northern grasslands found the people staying in Shamo a few days before us? The veterans here, and then those veterans used the same method to trick those people into eating human ear flesh spirit puppets. At that time, those people in the northern grasslands probably didn't know that these human ear flesh spirit puppets were highly poisonous..."
"There is a God's Ear sinkhole here. Those people will definitely come down to investigate. In the process, they discovered the secret of the Yin-Yang Stone Ladder, and then used the Yin-Yang Ladder to find the huge cave we are in now..."
"It's just that I don't know what happened later, which caused one of them to die here, and he died in this tragic way in the temple."
"As a nomadic empire, the northern grassland tribes are naturally aggressive and murderous. When they find that one of their own people has been killed, they will definitely not give up... Here we can make a bolder assumption that those people will not give up, so they find those who stayed behind. veterans, and a conflict broke out. In the end, those people from the northern grasslands won a one-sided victory due to their numerical superiority, but they did not immediately kill the veterans who stayed behind, but directly kidnapped people to help them find the Baizu Ruins."
When Master Yiyun heard this, he frowned and thought: "Perhaps he was not taken away by force, but in order to protect himself, he took the initiative to say that he knew the news about Baizu and agreed to take them to find Baizu as a delaying measure. Not to be killed yet.”
Jin An nodded and said, "It is indeed possible."
Although many of the conversations between the two people were incomprehensible to those from the Western Regions, they understood one thing. They would die, and they would die a miserable death like someone who is stuck on a wall and cannot be removed.
"What, what is a human-ear flesh-spirit puppet?"
"Are we really going to die like this guy on the wall?"
"Yes, many people have eaten those fragrant meats, and everyone is fine..."
These people from the Western Region said with fear.
Although they said they didn't believe it, the anxious eyes that looked over them showed that they had believed what Jin An and Mr. Yiyun said, and their eyes showed pleading, begging them to save them.
"The first goal now is to catch up with Ayimaimaiti, Aheqi and the others. We will talk about this as we walk."
Next, a group of people walked through the wall of human ears and flesh that was splashed into the sky and adhered to the ceiling of the temple, and walked deeper into the temple.
Along the way, they encountered several corpses that had died in the same tragic way. All of them had their stomachs and brains exploded. The stone tile floor, stone walls, and ceiling above their heads were covered with flesh and blood. The flesh and blood all looked like human flesh. The ears are stuck everywhere, turning the supposedly grand and tall temple into something more absurd and weird than a ghost cave.
Seeing so many people who died tragically, the people from the Western Regions were all frightened. At this time, they wished they could slap a few more big mouths, all because they were too greedy at the time, otherwise they would not have gotten involved in such evil things.
After scolding themselves, they scolded the veterans in Laughing Corpse Manor again. When they see those veterans again, they will definitely not be polite to those veterans, and they will twist their heads off and be unable to buckle them here.
Listening to the cruel words spoken by those people from the Western Regions, Jin An subconsciously added: "It seems that those veterans were right to run away, otherwise they would have died too miserably if they had stayed behind."
Those people from the Western Regions were confused when they heard this.
Taoist priest Jin An, whose side are you on?
Jin An glanced at these people: "Those human ear flesh spirit puppets are a bit like poison. The poisons continue to reproduce and are passed on to the next generation from generation to generation. You should be glad that you don't eat a lot of fragrant meat. You only eat I had a meal of fragrant meat, so the poison didn’t take effect that quickly.”
"Also, you should be more grateful to Old Man Jiufeng. If he hadn't burned down the entire Laughing Corpse Village and burned all the Laughing Corpses and Flesh Spirit Puppets clean, you might still be staying in the Laughing Corpse Village. I am reluctant to leave."
Listening to Jin An's lecture, these people from the Western Regions did not refute with a stiff neck. Instead, they really thanked Old Man Jiu Feng: "Yes, yes, Master Jin An is right. We should thank Old Man Jiu Feng, thank Jiu Feng." Old man Apa Ata, sister, sister, grandparents, thank you to old man Jiufeng and his whole family."
puff.
Young Master Yiyun chuckled and couldn't help but cast a sidelong glance at Jin An. The charming look in his eyes made Jin An laugh. It was such a pity that Young Master Yiyun didn't wear women's skirts or wear a bun.
Jin An glared at those Westerners who couldn't speak: "Are you so grateful to others? It sounds more like you are scolding the whole family of your savior."
They each complained: "Taoist Master Jin'an, of course we sincerely thank Old Man Jiufeng. Even his grandparents, Apa Ata, and his whole family are sincerely grateful."
After finishing speaking, they looked at Jin An curiously.
What they thanked was Old Man Jiufeng.
Why did Taoist Jin An react so strongly?
Jin An's face turned dark immediately.
Originally, he had some good impressions of these Westerners who valued love and justice and went deep into "hell" to save their companions regardless of danger, but now he was so angry that his face turned black.
The main buildings of this temple are all inside the mountain. The temple is tall and spacious, with two rows of thick stone pillars standing in the center.
In front of each stone pillar stands a stone statue.
The human-headed statues carved out of boulders are each ten feet tall, but without ears. Each earless stone statue has a different expression, including joy and sorrow, anger, sorrow and joy, etc.
The environment in the temple is a bit dark. The huge earless stone statues with different expressions look a little majestic and evil in this dim environment. I don't know if it is the oppression caused by the dark space. I always feel that these stone statues are cold and quiet. Stare at everyone who enters the temple.
After passing two rows of stone pillars and stone statues, there is an altar in the tall temple.
They finally found Ayimaimaiti, Aheqi, and the earless Abbas running around on the altar.
Abbas, the earless man, was lying crazily on the altar, as if he could hear the will of the gods.
"Great you're all safe here!"
"What's wrong with you? Didn't you agree to wait where you are? Why can't we see you when we came down?"
Those people from the Western Regions ran over excitedly to reunite with Aheqi and the others.
Ayimaimaiti and Aheqi were also happy to be reunited with their companions. Aheqi explained: "It's not that we want to run around, but Abbas is running around. I saw Master Aiyi chasing him." Abbas, I was afraid that something would happen to the two of them again, so Lord Ai and I went to chase Abbas and subdue Abbas together."
At this time, Jin An and Mr. Yiyun also came to the altar.
Huh?
Jin An saw a lot of blood stains that had dried and turned black on the altar. The blood stains were very thick. Even after a thousand years, the thick dust on the ground could not cover the black and red blood stains.
"This is a temple, and there is an altar here that is stained with a lot of blood. Could this be the place where Wu'er performed the ear circumcision ceremony?" Master Yiyun glanced at Madman, who was lying on the altar as if listening to the gods. Abbas, the earless man of will, whispered to Jin'an.
"The ear-cutting ceremony is a very grand ceremony for the Wu'er family. It is impossible to just find a place to cut off the ears. They must have a special place to hold the grand ceremony, and I think it should be here. "
"And you look at the appearance of Abbas the Earless, which proves that this altar is very important to the Earless clan and is an important part of major sacrificial activities."
The altar under their feet was very strange.
Carved with many human ears.
This altar is very large, and it is no exaggeration to say that there are tens of thousands of human ears on the altar.
"Compared to this, what I'm more curious about is that there are so many real human ears carved on this altar. Are they real human ears, or fake human ears carved from stone?" Jin An's words confused Yi. Mr. Yun was speechless for a while.
Jin'an was still carefully observing the altar at his feet, and did not notice the subtle expression changes on Master Yiyun's face. He continued to observe and analyzed: "If this place is really used by the Wu'er family to perform ear circumcision, what will happen to Wu'er?" For the Ears, it is the most sacred place for holding major sacrifices. Would they cut off their own ears and then sacrifice them to the gods in this way? That way, they can be heard in the ear holes of the gods all the time. I heard God’s will.”
If this desert ear tiankeng is really the ear of the gods, they are now deep into the tiankeng, so Jin An is not wrong in saying that this is an ear hole.
Mr. Yiyun: "..."
She was a little disgusted, because she also felt that there was a high possibility that this matter was true.
"You are all here, where are Yan Kuan and the others? They came down with you, Ah Qi, but why can't you see them? We have been here for so long and we haven't seen them." Jin An asked Ayimaimaiti and Ah Heqi.
Aheqi talked more, and it was Jin An who answered him: "Those two people are studying a stone door at the end of the temple."
"Shimen?"
Jin An looked in the direction of Aheqi's finger, squinting his eyes slightly in the dark environment, and looked carefully, and sure enough, he faintly saw an open stone door in the darkness.
But Master Yan and the mountain guard were not there.
Aheqi also found that there was no one at the stone gate, and was startled: "Huh? When were they not there?"
"They had been studying the stone gate just now, and they had been mumbling there, as if they had discovered something. When did they enter the stone gate?"
