It's getting late now, and we lack tools. If we continue like this, we're afraid we won't be able to get home tonight. So we discussed it and decided to go back for now and come back tomorrow with the tools.
So we rushed to the riverside very early the next day. Because of the original construction of the bridge, no one lived around it. But halfway up the mountain not far away, there was the rebuilt Yellow Crane Tower. In the area near the river, almost no one comes.
With the tools, digging is much faster. We have basically cleared away the gravel on the first day, and the further down we go, it is basically all soil. Soon we dug to about two meters below the ground, and river water began to seep out of the soil. I thought that if we continued digging, we might dig directly into the Yangtze River, and then a sudden force would pull us in. We are really going to feed the big fish.
After all, Qin Bukong is getting older, so such physical work is naturally a matter for Songzi and I. While I was muttering about this old guy acting like an overseer, a crisp sound came from my shovel. I thought I heard it wrong, so I dug a few more holes into the bottom of the pit with the shovel. I found a hard object different from the surrounding soil in the area just flooded by the water level. Could it be said that we have dug out the stones on the stone beam? So Songzi and I continued to dig towards that place, and dug down a little further, and we pulled out a large rectangular stone.
Judging from the shape and the extent of the angle, this thing is a man-made thing and is definitely not naturally formed. There are still some carved patterns on the surface of the stone, but they have long been blurred. I suddenly felt excited about digging a treasure, which also showed that Qin Bukong's previous calculations and Songzi's speculation about this place were indeed accurate.
This thing is very heavy, and we are under the pit, so it took a lot of effort to lift this rectangular stone thing out. Song Zi went to the river to fetch a bucket of water. We began to scrub the surface of the thing. Soon we discovered that it seemed to be a solid rectangular stone with different patterns carved on six sides. The patterns were similar to those of rural old people. The old door stone is very similar, but the surface of the stone is already a little soft, and the carved edges and corners can be broken with a little force.
Qin Bukong said that this was probably the result of being soaked in river water for many years. The person who buried this thing deep in the ground didn't know if he was the same person who set up the formation. If so, then this person is simply amazing. To be able to bury this thing so accurately just below the surface of the water without being found for thousands of years is indeed a master.
Qin Bukong sighed on the side, while Songzi and I studied this square stone. I used a small chisel to dig into the gaps in the stone to get out all the silt inside. I soon discovered that this seemingly solid stone square should actually be a hollow thing, because when I was digging out the silt. At that moment, a complete gap was dug out along the four sides of the stone, as if there was a lid on a square box.
Songzi asked me why I said this was a box. Maybe it just happened to be a line carved here. I said, look carefully at the gap I just took out. Although all the mud has been taken out, some water still seeps out from the gap from time to time. This shows that this thing is a hollow part because it has been soaked in water all year round. , so it has already been filled with water, which is why it was so heavy when we lifted it up just now.
Songzi stretched out his hand and shook it vigorously on the big stone a few times. Sure enough, he found that the water stains in the gap would stick out rhythmically with the shaking, but the flow was not large. This shows that if this gap is the lid of a stone box, it will The sealing is very good. Song Zi reached out to touch the stretched out water, then twisted it on her fingers a few times, and found that in addition to water, there was some oil. Songzi put his fingers to his nose and smelled it, then showed a frown on his face, as if the smell was unpleasant.
I followed his example and smeared a little on my fingers, put it to my nose and smelled it. It was a very strange smell. The general smell was a stink, a bit like the rotting corpse of an animal after it died. Smell, but this smell is not strong. It is actually difficult to detect if you don't smell it carefully. It is more like the smell of water after it has been stored in a closed environment for a long time and becomes stagnant. This smell accounts for For the most part, there is just a hint of greasiness in it, just like the smell that remains on your hands after they are stained with oil, even if you rinse them many times.
The only way to know the truth is to pry it open and look. Qin Bukong also squatted beside us, so he held the lower part of the stone with his hands and exerted downward force. Songzi and I began to use the chisel back and forth, slowly prying open the very tight stone cover.
When the lid was lifted, a strong stench hit our noses. The three of us couldn't help but cover our noses and took two steps away. This smell is actually the same smell I smelled just now, but it has become much stronger. Sure enough, as I guessed, this is actually a stone box. The inner wall of the box is about an inch, which ensures its sturdiness. Even if it is soaked in water, it will not be damaged as long as it is not hit by violent external force. Will be damaged. The box is filled with water. The color of the water is a little black, but also slightly red.
After we flipped the lid of the stone box aside, we saw a cube-shaped raised part in the center of the lid, and the entire inside of the lid was covered with a red and black oil-like substance. thing. I think the oil stain that oozed out just now probably came from this. Since the density of oil is lower than that of water, it is always on the water surface. Over time, it all sticks to the lid.
Turning around and looking inside the box, there was indeed a layer of oil floating on the water. Because the color of the water was so dark, we couldn't tell whether there was anything under the water. So I reached into the water with a chisel and fiddled with it for a while, and found that there were indeed some moving things at the bottom of the box that could change direction as I stirred it, indicating that it was not fixed to the bottom.
It is obvious that this stone box was already closed when it was buried here. In other words, anything we find in the box at this moment was put in by the person who set up the Qisha Pass. He probably never thought that a thousand years later, a group of younger people would dig up what he had buried back then.
When I picked up the chisel from the water, I found something floating in the water that looked like powder that fell after the wall cracked, but it was harder and felt like glass. Thousands of years ago, there was obviously no such advanced thing as glass. As for what it was, we still don’t know.
Then I turned around and looked at the lid of the box. The raised cube part must have its use. I tapped it lightly with the chisel and found that under the mud, when it collided with the chisel, there was a sound. There was a tinkling sound.
This sound is different from ordinary stones, and is very similar to the sound made when glasses collide. So the three of us took turns cleaning the inner wall of the lid with water. The further we washed to the back, the more we couldn't hide our surprise. It turned out that after we cleaned off the oil stains on the surface, we found that the inner wall of the cover was about a few millimeters thick, and it was crystal-like, slightly transparent, and very smooth. The same goes for the convex part, which becomes transparent as a whole. We can see that there is a round thing inside the cube, a bit like the iron beads that old people hold and spin around in their hands. It's about the size of a walnut. At this time, Qin Bukong said, this is it. This round thing should be the thing we put in the small semicircular groove in the stone brick of "Zhao"!
When he said this, I became even more sure, because even though it was separated by a transparent cover, the size of the bead was indeed consistent with what we saw on the inside of the stone brick. I couldn't help but be a little amazed. Those of us who had defeated the Eight-door Strange Formation before had already found it difficult and thrilling. But what I never expected was that after such difficulties, there was actually a Qisha Pass hidden in the sky. Big secret. So I lamented the wisdom of the ancients, their awe of nature and heaven and earth, and their experience and understanding of metaphysical culture. Although we, the younger generation, are also in this field, we are far less than one ten thousandth of them.
Qin Bukong sighed, "It's amazing. If everyone hides things like this, even ten more Qin Bukong would be unable to break the formation. No wonder so far, none of Cao Cao's tomb and Emperor Qin's tomb can be found." I went to the real tombs and looked around, but they were all doubtful tombs. The metaphysics of our Greater China is really the art of emperors.
At that moment, we decided to break the small raised square and take out the ball inside. After all, it would be too laborious to take this stone box back. After hitting it hard with a chisel a few times, I found that the transparent crystal layer on the surface was extremely hard. After hitting it hard for more than ten times in a row, I finally cracked it. By the time I made a hole big enough to take out the ball, my arms were already sore.
Qin Bukong reached out and took out the ball, and found that the surface was sealed with a thick layer of wax. This is probably used to isolate moisture. The reason why it was done in the first place must be because the things inside cannot be soaked by water and the wax is specially sealed. Qin Bukong pinched it with his fingernails. It was hard but could leave slight traces. Now we didn't dare to smash it open casually, so Qin Bukong put it into his bag and said, "Take it." Go back and study it again.
Then the three of us worked together to lift one side of the stone box, trying to pour out all the water inside. With a crisp sound of clanking, the water in the box and the things soaked in it were poured to the ground by us.
