When the stone bed was about to open, a gust of cold wind came out of the secret passage, which dimmed the lamps and candles. Xia Houyun protected the torch and asked Xia Houxiang to quickly find the Ghostface Taoist and others. He first came to the entrance of the stone staircase to observe.
The stone staircase is very deep, and the brightness of the torch alone cannot illuminate it very far. It can only be seen that the stone staircase was built along a tunnel that slopes downward. The rock wall of the tunnel is very rough, and there are no traces of artificial chiseling. It must have been formed naturally, and the stone stairs were not very skillfully carved, with the pits and pits barely enough for people to walk on.
The grim-faced Taoist priests all came over at this time. Seeing this, they said curiously: "There is actually a secret passage hidden here?! How did Senior Xiahou discover it?"
Xia Houyun briefly told what happened, and the Taoist priest with a grimace asked again: "Have you, senior, investigated the situation in the secret passage?"
"Not yet. I see that the stone stairs are a bit deep, so I don't dare to act rashly."
After Xia Houyun finished speaking, the others began to look at the secret passage in silence. After a while, the Taoist priest said with a grimace: "The stone stairs and tunnel are so rough. They don't look like the style of this tomb. Could it be a dog hole left by a craftsman?" (A secret passage used by the mausoleum builders to escape)?”
"I think so too. If the secret passage were part of Shi Zhou and Zhu's mausoleum, it would definitely not be so crude."
"I think we'd better send someone down to explore the truth. If it's really a dog hole, it might come in handy tomorrow night." The Taoist priest with a grimace said and turned around to look at Xia Houyun and his grandson. "Disabled" accounted for most of them, so they were definitely not suitable to go down to explore the way, leaving He Siniang and his grandfather and grandson up there. If something unexpected happened, He Siniang's skills might not be able to suppress it. The two groups trapped the lama and returned. Lama, the way out cannot be completely left in the hands of others. After much thought, the most suitable person for this job must be Luo Laoqi, so he said: "Sister, let's go down together. Senior Xiahou, you and Lao Qi are here." Just wait a moment and we’ll come as soon as we go.”
The Taoist Priest with a grimace and He Siniang leaned into the secret passage one after another. The slope of the stone staircase had exceeded 60 degrees, and there were no handrails around it. They could only carefully hold on to the rock wall and go down. After walking for almost thirty steps, the tunnel turned. The bend continued downward, and at this time the stone staircase in front had gradually slowed down.
The grim-faced Taoist priest let go of his hand from the rock wall, looked at the endless stone staircase below and said, "Other people's dog holes always go upwards, but this one keeps going downwards. I'm afraid it's almost ten feet deep, right?" ?”
He Siniang replied: "We're not sure this is a dog cave. Who knows where it leads to. Just keep walking."
The two of them walked down more than 20 steps. At this time, there was finally a change in front. The stone steps had turned into a flat road here, and a tomb door appeared not far from the tunnel. The tomb door was very ordinary. It is a single-leaf wooden door with only a layer of red paint on it without any color painting. The door is closed tightly and you cannot see what is happening behind the door.
When the Taoist priest with a grimace saw the tomb door, he realized that this tunnel was not a dog cave. No craftsman would be so leisurely as to install an unused tomb door for the escape passage. He quickly came to the door, only to feel the wind whine between the door frame and the crack in the rock, as if there was a large space behind it.
Pushing open the tomb door, the tunnel suddenly opened up. The torch in the grimace Taoist priest's hand was blown out by the wind. He hurriedly asked He Siniang behind him to protect the torch and follow him, and then the two began to look at the situation behind the door.
The space behind the tomb door can no longer be described as "big". It is so vast that it is boundless. This tunnel actually leads to a hollow inside the mountain. The grimace Taoist priest and He Siniang are almost touching each other. Looking up from the dome of the cave, you can clearly see that the rock above is only two feet away from you.
Under their feet was a suspended platform. The platform was only four or five steps long. There was a stone coffin lying at the front. The lid of the coffin was leaning to the side. Through the dim light of the fluctuating light, one could vaguely see the open coffin. Holding something long and thin.
The grim-faced Taoist priest and He Siniang looked at each other with doubtful expressions on their faces. He Siniang said, "Why is there a coffin here? Is Shi Zhou Hezhu hiding here?"
The Taoist Priest with a grimace shook his head, obviously confused about the situation. He looked at the open sarcophagus, and then whispered: "Top the top of the sleeve arrow machine, let's go over and take a look."
The two men showed off their weapons and approached the sarcophagus attentively. The first thing they saw clearly was the thing stuck in the coffin, which seemed to be an ordinary stick. The two of them looked into the coffin again, only to see that there was nothing inside. There were only a few items scattered around the corpse.
There is a jade pillow at the head of the coffin. The wooden stick is inserted in the gap between the jade pillow and the coffin body. Beside the pillow is a copper bell. Not far from the copper bell, there is a tortoise shell and several copper coins. In addition, in the coffin There are no other objects.
The Taoist priest with a grimace made a sound and said strangely: "These objects in the coffin don't look like funerary objects, but why do they look like fortune tellers?"
"Yes, that copper bell is clearly a 'soul-calming bell' used by fortune tellers to shout on the street. Who would take this thing to be buried with him?"
"Isn't this strange? The sarcophagus is open and there is no body yet. There are only a few fortune-telling items. He is really a monk who is only two feet tall. It is confusing."
"Hey? What's that?" He Siniang scanned the sarcophagus and suddenly saw something rolled up in the corner of the coffin, which seemed to be a piece of cloth. She walked over and carefully unfolded it. The cloth had been severely weathered. They are all full of holes, but you can still vaguely see two large official script characters embroidered on them - "Bi Ming".
The Taoist priest with a grimace looked at the words on the cloth, and his heart suddenly tightened. He quickly turned his head to look at the wooden stick standing at the head of the coffin, and then said in a low voice: "The life-approving flag!"
"The flag of criticism?" He Siniang heard the sound and asked suspiciously: "Is this something to criticize the judge?"
"Isn't that piece of cloth hung on a wooden stick just a fortune-telling flag? It just fell into the sarcophagus after being weathered. Take a look at these fortune-telling objects..."
"Ah?" He Siniang thought about it and a strange feeling suddenly came over her. A critical judge had actually visited this tomb. Could it be that Li Tianwen got there first?
He Siniang thought about it carefully and felt that the person coming could not be Li Tianwen. Yan Jiuye of Liang'ermen had eyes all over Yanzhou. According to his information, Li Tianwen would not arrive in Xuanhu City until tomorrow at the earliest. There was no way he could set foot here in advance. Then Whose objects would be in the sarcophagus? Another critical judge?
The Taoist Priest with a grimace sighed and went through many possibilities in his mind. He mused: "The life-giving flag in the coffin has weathered into this state. It must have been quite a long time, at least a hundred years, but it is poor." What I’m struggling with is not this issue, but why did this person put the guy who was eating here?”
As he spoke, the grim-faced Taoist priest took two steps towards the edge of the platform. As soon as he walked, he could directly see the bottom of the valley. He glanced out of the corner of his eye and his attention was immediately attracted by the situation below. The two of them were just observing the sarcophagus, but The scene at the bottom of the valley is even more shocking.
The bottom of the valley is extremely far away from the suspended platform, and the depth is probably no less than a hundred feet. The further you go to the bottom of the valley, the larger the space in the cave becomes. At the bottom, it has a radius of more than ten miles. It is simply an underground world hidden at the bottom of the mountain. , and the reason why the grimace Taoist priest can see clearly is because on one side of the valley bottom, a long fiery red "river" spreads from north to south. The "river water" is actually filled with hot magma, such as a fire dragon swimming under the ground and a red train hanging on the ground. It generally runs across the bottom of the valley, and the objects below are clearly visible.
"This... Si Niang, come and see!" The Taoist priest with a grimace pointed at the bottom of the valley and was surprised.
He Siniang immediately walked towards the edge of the platform. At this time, the strange phenomenon occurred again at the bottom of the valley. Far to the north, a ball of red light burst out. There was a crater hidden underground. Although the lava erupted was not violent, it was red. The light is still like a shooting star in the dark night, and the surrounding space is extremely bright.
By the light of the spewing magma, Taoist Ghostface and He Siniang saw that there was an underground river on the other side of the valley bottom. The underground river flowed from the southwest to the northeast. The water didn't look strong, but it was probably An underground tributary of the Yellow River.
At the intersection of the magma river and the underground river, there is a high-rise rock mountain. The area of the rock mountain is not small. It can almost accommodate four hanging Hu cities. On the top of the stone mountain, you can see many palace-like buildings. , obviously built artificially, there are so many of them that together they are worth a city.
The two of them were stunned. It was surprising enough that there was a volcano in the mountain, but they didn't expect that there was a city below. Who could go to such a dark place to build a temple? Is it really like the underground world spread in ancient times? , apart from us ordinary people, is there still a kind of "eyeless person"?
The Taoist Priest with a grimace had long forgotten about the criticizing judge. He looked at the bottom of the valley and exclaimed: "There is no wonder in the world like this - two rivers, one red and one black, passing through the valley. Looking between the two mountains and the city, it should be How does it feel?"
"Isn't this also part of the mausoleum? Could the city below be the mausoleum area built by Shi Zhou and Zhu Jian?"
The Taoist priest with a grimace came back to his senses and said: "How can a small Hou Zhao, whose reign lasted only more than thirty years, create such a huge masterpiece? Shi Le's mausoleum is not as large as Jing Ning Ling, let alone his later The father who was posthumously crowned emperor."
"Then this is unbelievable. An ordinary mausoleum in Shizhou and Huozhu actually hides such a big secret. Who can build a city up to the lonely mountain at the bottom of the valley?"
"It's impossible to guess it by just guessing without seeing it for yourself. I think we should calm down for now. The discovery of the bottom of the valley is an unexpected gain. It's not our style not to understand the ins and outs, but we can't delay the original goal. Plan, if we really find a way to get to the bottom of the valley, I'm afraid Li Tianwen won't have time to set up an ambush."
"Does the Taoist want to do Li Tianwen first and then continue the investigation here?"
"Well, if we don't finish it for him, how can we fight with peace of mind? Who knows how long it will take to go down, and since I saw the objects in this sarcophagus, I have always had some doubts in my heart. You said that since there is a critical judge here I have been here before, and now Li Tianwen wants to come to filter the pit again. Is this normal? The judge they criticized is the same as our Taibao of the Immortal Family. They are all related by blood within the sect, so how could he not know that his ancestors came to defeat this fight? "
