When they looked around at the worshiping statues, they did not stop walking. They walked down the stone plank road for about half an hour. When they saw the statues and the funeral butter lamps disappearing, they stopped and looked around.
"If nothing else happens, this is the end of the stairs. Walking in from here is the real Altar of the Witch God."
Song Siyuan walked to the end of the stairs, turned on her flashlight and looked around. The lamp gave off a green light, illuminating the entrance to the altar in front of them.
The door opening of the altar is similar to a bull's head. It can be seen that the door opening is as big as a city tower. The huge bull's head is bent upwards, forming sharp horns full of thorns. Under the horns, the cow's ears are close to the head, and the eyes are as slender as willow leaves. The middle is inlaid with blood-red ore. The eyes are like the ox-headed eyes that are squinting and looking coldly at all living beings.
Further down, there is the altar door, which is the same size as the gate of the city tower. The door opening is recessed by half a meter. It can be seen that the door panel shows complex patterns. There are door buttons that look like copper basins, fastening the huge door tightly.
Yue Guanchao walked into the giant door. There was only a rusty chain connecting the two door buttons. This chain tied the giant door. It was not even locked. It was just wrapped in the door buttons. The surface was covered with rust. It's spider silk, and because it's rusted over time, it's probably impossible to untie it.
He simply picked up the machete and cut off the chain with a few clicks. When the iron chain fell to the ground, the bronze door was no longer restrained by the chain, and a gap opened.
"Be careful, don't use hidden arrows to hurt people, don't have any hidden weapons."
Yue Guanchao has been to the tomb so many times. When he saw such a heavy altar door or tomb door, the first thing he thought about was whether there would be a mechanism behind the door, so he had to evacuate his companions to both sides of the bronze door and slowly push it open with these military guards. Opening the copper door, he looked inside with a flashlight. Inside the door was a staircase tunnel that sloped straight downwards. Regular stone bars were built everywhere, and lamps were placed in niches for visitors to light.
It was common for him to go to the tomb many times with this kind of similar structure. He skillfully took out the hemp rope, tied it with a wooden stick he picked up on the roadside, and threw it into the tunnel along the parabola. When he was sure that the wooden stick fell to the ground, he slowly Pull slowly towards the entrance.
In this way, once it is confirmed that there is a mechanism inside, the ensuing danger can be avoided. Seeing the wooden stick being pulled through the door, Yue Guanchao realized that there was no danger inside, and he gestured to his companions around him, telling them to continue standing in front of the door.
"Let's go!"
They walked slowly and climbed down the stairs. The stairs were built very steeply. They had to hold on to the wall when walking to barely stabilize their bodies. Xu Xiake casually lit the oil lamp in the niche and waited for the dim light to illuminate the stairs and the narrow tunnel. Illuminate little by little.
They were also able to see the murals on the left and right walls of the corridor.
Song Siyuan picked up a flashlight to compare the murals divided into different frames, carefully observed various details, and carefully explained: "The frames introduce the steps of worshiping the witch god. First, they bury the butter, then walk down the stairs, and wait until they reach the stairs. At the end, you will come to the sacrificial river in front of the altar. The three bridges on the river are called the bridges of life and death. Crossing the bridge of life and death is considered as officially entering the altar complex. Then, the high priest who performs the sacrificial ceremony will respectfully offer it to the witch god with the sacrificial responsibilities. The sacrifice..."
While walking, Song Siyuan introduced them clearly to the steps of the sacrifice. When they reached the end of the stairs, they saw a deep and wide man-made river in front of them.
As mentioned earlier, this Fengqiu Mountain did not exist before, and it was just an ordinary area in the canyon. It was chosen as an altar before it was built as a sacrificial community, and then filled with soil to form a mound. Therefore, this river is more beautiful than the naturally formed underground The river has more regular beauty, just like the Jinshui River in front of the Forbidden City, with strong artificial features.
If you look carefully, you will see that the river is hundreds of meters long and tens of meters wide. There are three arch bridges built on it. You can see that the water is gurgling under the arch bridge and the river is surging.
After crossing the Bridge of Life and Death, we came to the Altar of the Witch God!
Since the union of the Witch God and the Witch King, the Witch God has become the largest god in the Kingdom of the Witch God. His temple and altar must have a sacred atmosphere, completely different from ordinary temples. The altar in front of them is similar to the Sushen Altar, which is a sacrificial building complex. , with many palaces and houses, is more solemn and solemn than the Temple of the God of Witches.
Yue Guanchao and the others walked onto the arch bridge and stood at the end of the arch bridge to carefully observe the Altar of the Witch God. The entire building complex is the same as the Shuhuang Shrine. It is a circular city wall building. The city wall is about 30 meters high, with a several-meter pedestal below, and a green base built on top. The bricks are painted with yellow mud and pepper color on the outside, and there are gray tile fans all over the wall, forming a very conspicuous circular wall.
There are three-story towers on all sides of the wall. It can be seen that there are bronze warrior statues standing on the towers, guarding the towers of the Witch God Altar like living people.
In addition to the towers on all sides, there are towers about ten meters high on the left and right, which are lined up like warriors on guard. The stone pillars in front of the tower are towering, and the halberds surround the wall. They are as solemn as a military camp and are inaccessible to people.
With the tall courtyard walls as a shield, many palaces were covered by the walls. In addition, it was dark and humid here, and the eaves of countless palaces were hidden on the top of the walled city.
Yue Guanchao took Song Siyuan to climb one of the towers, and using the terrain, he finally broke through the wall and saw the true layout of the altar.
After entering the circular wall, the entire altar was rebuilt into a slightly lower square wall within the circular wall, and a majestic ox-headed palace was built in the middle. On the left and right, Taiyi, Fengshen, Yunu, Siming and Shaozhong were arranged in order. The auxiliary halls for gods such as Shanwu, Yangshen, Yunshen, Lingshen, and River Lord are formed around the main temple for the priests of the ten gods of the Wu family.
Most of these temples are square courtyards, with a high hall in the middle and surrounding verandas, with raised gray tiles and horns and owl kisses. There is a straight road extending from the Ox-headed Temple, which perfectly connects the major temples and forms a "meter" in the wall. Glyph mandala.
The tallest building among them is the bull-headed temple in the middle.
This temple occupies a quarter of the area of the altar. It has an eight-sided pedestal to build the foundation. There are cinnabar red walls surrounding the pedestal to build palace walls. It is not until the red wall is ten meters high that a tower-type "pin"-shaped que appears. The eight-sided terraces are connected to each other and surround a huge platform built in the air.
Viewed from the front, each tower is a deformed bull's head, with sharp horns standing upward, like sixteen relief pillars. Ropes are connected from the horns to the platform, forming cables that stabilize the platform and support the huge shrine in the center of the platform. !
Later, because it was too far to see clearly, the two of them went down the tower and recalled the sub-shrines they saw. They couldn't help but have questions. Song Siyuan asked Wu Mifeng: "Old man, Taiyi, Fengshen, Yunv." There are only ten gods: , Si Ming, Shaozhong, Shan Wu, Yang Shen, Yun Shen, Ling Shen, and He Jun. Except for the Ox-headed Temple in the middle, there seem to be only ten sub-shrines in the temple here. Why don't the other two gods have temples? "
Wu Mifeng thought for a moment and explained: "The two missing ones are the gods of heaven and earth. Not only the Han people believe in worshiping heaven and earth, but the Kingdom of Witch Gods also worships heaven and earth. It's just that our heaven and earth belong to the natural category and are not like the myths of Han people. That is embodied in Haotian and Houtu.”
"You were standing on the tower just now. You should have been able to see that the outer wall is round and the inner wall is square, right?"
Yue and Song nodded: "Indeed, isn't this to better divide the temple courtyard?"
Seeing that they didn't quite understand, Wu Mifeng shook his head and retorted: "What you are talking about is just one of the factors. The two city walls with an inner square and an outer circle are actually similar to your concept of a round sky and a round place. The circle represents the sky on the outside, and the square on the outside. Representative territory within.”
"The ten gods within these two city walls are the natural gods produced between heaven and earth. The concept of the altar is similar to the Mingtang in Han Dynasty. In fact, it is the Mingtang of the Kingdom of Witch Gods."
While they were talking, they had already walked into the gatehouse and walked along one of the wide paths to the vicinity of the Niushou Temple. Song Siyuan took advantage of everyone walking in front, pulled Yue Guanchao behind, and said in a low voice: "Don't you think that walking along the way? Is it too smooth?”
"You mean it's less difficult?"
Yue Guanchao's face was full of confusion. For him, this was the first time he walked happily. Without the traps and monsters, it was like walking on flat ground.
"It's not that there are fewer difficulties, it's that it's too smooth."
Song Siyuan's expression became mysterious and she continued to remind him of the problem: "Think about it, ever since we entered the canyon, we seem to have been led by the nose. I have never had this feeling, not even in the Ancestral Vein Soul Palace. In this designed situation, there is not such a strong push-back feeling.”
"you mean?"
Yue Guanchao glanced at Lao Mo in the crowd.
"You mean there's something wrong with Lao Mo?"
Yue Guanchao felt as if he had just woken up from a dream, and when he thought about it carefully, it was indeed what happened. After entering the canyon, the first thing they noticed was Lao Mo cooking on the fire. Then they gave up exploring the canyon and went to Lao Mo's wooden house to investigate the truth. He was informed of the dangers of the forest by Lao Mo.
Later, they really lost their way in the Lost Forest and had to rely on Lao Mo's wooden building to determine their direction. In the end, they even had to have Lao Mo lead them to the river valley in order to successfully cross the canyon.
One thing is a coincidence. If everything is a coincidence, it means there is a problem. A strange color flashed in his eyes: "You mean, we have been led by Mo Mo the whole time."
"right!"
Song Siyuan paused and continued to question: "There is something even more strange. Don't you think Lao Mo is too familiar with Yu Dongjin's affairs?"
"He knew that Utōkon had built a river valley wall, that there was internal strife in the walled city, and that Utōkon was also killed. He even knew how Utōkon crossed the Lost Forest. He knew these things so well. In detail, it is difficult to attribute the cause to those mountain people who attacked Ren Dongjin."
When Song Siyuan said this, her eyes were as bright as she asked the question that had puzzled her for a long time: "He knows Yu Dongjin so well. He even knew that Yu Dongjin had poisoned the treasure. However, his memory was blurred as to the whereabouts of the treasure. If the news about the treasure It was really what the mountain people told him, so he must also know the whereabouts of the treasure."
"No matter what, we have to be a little more defensive. I always feel that Lao Mo is not as simple as he seems on the surface."
Song Siyuan's words successfully aroused Yue Guanchao's long-relaxed spirit. He nodded: "What you said is indeed possible, but Lao Mo is a crazy old man who doesn't even have any accomplices. What can he do?"
Some people died, but not completely...
