Volume 4Chapter 4: There was one more

Chen Pi A Si thought the more he thought about it, the more he felt a chill run down his spine. But this person was already in his fifties, and his experience and courage were naturally beyond my reach. After being scared, he must have been distracted, thinking to himself, “What are you looking at, you donkey?” He quickly pulled out a few iron marbles, used his feet to hold his body still, and snapped two of them, shooting them straight at the white-faced Luohan statue.

As mentioned earlier, Chen Pi’s philosophy of life is to strike first. My grandfather has told me this more than once. It can be said that for those who travel around, this principle is the simplest but also very practical. Without holding back, the two iron bullets hit the eyes of the white-faced Luohan statue, splitting both eye sockets and sending the bullets flying out and falling to the bottom of the Mirror Palace.

If it had been a human, it would have been blinded. The Arhat statue was made of clay, but it couldn’t withstand such a blow. The two eyes of the Arhat statue became two deep pits, looking very hollow and strange, but it was already much better than before.

Chen Pi A-si let out a sigh of relief, sneered in his heart, and thought to himself, these stinking monks, what are they doing with the Four Emptinesses, aren’t they just using these tricks to scare people here? He thought about taking out a gecko claw from his bosom, hooked one end to the curved wooden roof, and the other end of the single strand of rope made of connected walrus skin was tied to his ankle. Using the walrus hide rope was a skill Chen Pi A-si had learned from years of experience in tomb raiding. The strength of this thing was second only to steel rope, but it could be stretched. In addition, Chen Pi A-si was short and thin, and the rope wrapped around his waist, just a dozen or so turns, and it was impossible to tell when he was wearing clothes.

However, this “Mirror Palace” was more than ten meters deep. Chen Pi A-si let the rope go until it reached its limit, but there was still a long way to go before reaching the bottom of the palace.

But looking down, you can already see the outline of what lies below. The base of the palace below seems to be made of white marble, and because of the earthquakes and natural erosion over the years, there are many unknown fragments. In the center of the palace floor is a miniature white pagoda made of jade or ivory, covered with a translucent gauze “treasure tent,” so it looks white and misty.

Chen Pi A-si had only a little knowledge of Buddhist pagodas in his lifetime, which was also related to the illiteracy of the generation before the liberation. There is an old saying among Changsha tomb robbers: “A ten-thousand-household marquis is no match for a Buddhist pagoda,” meaning that the contents of a Buddhist pagoda are often more extravagant than those in the tombs of ten-thousand-household marquis. Although Chen Pi A-si had heard this saying, he did not understand it deeply. If it were me, I would have known what was underneath by then.

Under the pagoda of treasures, there should be the eight-layered treasure box that holds the Buddha’s bones and relics, which is actually eight boxes one inside the other. This is a Buddhist relic, and together with the relics inside, it represents the three thousand worlds and the six paths of reincarnation. Regardless of whether the bones underneath are real or made of jade, the eight-layered treasure box alone is something that is beyond calculation.

I felt a little confused when I heard this. If Chen Pi A-si really stole the eight treasure chests from the underground palace, then how did these things appear in the newspaper? Could it be that he was so close to the treasure, but for some reason gave up? With this kind of personality, it’s really not possible.

Lao Hai didn’t notice that I was distracted and was still talking there. But this person’s narrative was really too wordy, and I couldn’t interrupt, so I had to listen to him continue to fool me.

After seeing the pagoda, although Chen Pi A Si still didn’t know what was underneath, he knew it couldn’t be too bad. Now, if he could just get down there, he could certainly return with a full load. But how could he get down there?

It was a pity that he hadn’t brought enough rope. If he had known this, he would have turned back earlier and come back when he was ready.

He shone his flashlight to the side to see if he could swing to the side of the underground palace and then climb down along the Luohan statues. He looked at the flashlight section by section, estimating the height, and looked straight to the bottom. Around the pagoda, he suddenly saw something strange. It seemed like a pile of yellow soil had been scattered on the bottom of the white marble palace. He didn’t know if it had fallen accidentally when the palace was sealed, or if he had knocked it down when he was using the thread to cut open the top.

He took a closer look and his heart sank. He couldn’t help but call out, “Oh no!”

It turned out that the bottom of the palace was not loess, but a large mound of earth.

Following the direction of the mound, one could see a half-man-high stone door on the edge of the palace, which was very well hidden.

It seems that there are also underground buildings around the “Palace of Mirrors,” and it is very likely that they have not been sealed off, so these insects have made them into a summer resort where it is warm in winter and cool in summer. Looking down from here, the size of the beehive is not large, but the part inside the low door is probably very scary. It is no wonder that the beehive is built so large. In underground artificial buildings, it is truly a “good location” that is protected from the wind and rain. The old insects in this beehive also look at feng shui.

The curved piece of wood that I had just cut off was stuck between the statues of Luohan on the lower level, and it didn’t hit the nest. Otherwise, I would be hanging here like a sausage, unable to escape quickly, and nailed to death by the bees. I’m afraid I would be a laughing stock for future generations.

But this would be a problem. As soon as you set foot on the ground, even if you walk like smoke, it is impossible to move such a small tower in such a small space without alarming these ground bees.

Chen Pi A Si just thought about it and knew that it was impossible to go down. There was only one way to get things up.

Here, I have to mention the origin of Chen Pi A Si. This person grew up in a fishing village on the coast of Zhejiang. He fled to Changsha only after the Japanese invaded, so his accent was not very “authentic.” But this person is very smart. Since ancient times, earthworkers have basically not passed on their skills to people from other provinces. He is a rare one.

When Chen Pi A-si was in Haiyan, he already had a unique skill, which was catching crabs on the tidal flats. Of course, he didn’t catch them with his hands. The thing Chen Pi A-si used to catch crabs was called a “nine-clawed hook.”

This thing is similar to the flying tiger claws in martial arts movies, or the three-clawed claws used by special forces to climb rocks, but this kind of claw has nine hooks, forming a ring, and they are very closely spaced. When catching crabs, he would tie a rope to the tail of the hook, then when he saw a crab pop up on the tidal flat, he would throw it out with one swing, and one hook would catch one crab. Then he would pull it, and the crab would fly back and fall into the basket by itself.

According to my grandfather’s notes, this kind of kung fu can be precise to what extent. A raw egg 20 meters away can be hooked with one swing, and it will not break when it hits the ground. If it was further away, he would use a pole to throw it, and it was also very accurate.

Chen Pi A-si had no choice at this point, so he gritted his teeth and used his best skill. He swung to the side and climbed down the Luohan statues, layer by layer. When the distance was about right, he took out the nine-clawed hook, took a deep breath, and hooked the treasure tent with a very small arc. Fortunately, the thing was not made of the usual green stone, and was very light. Chen Pi A-si swung the treasure tent up and set it on the head of the Luohan on the side.

Next, he had to remove the jade or the pagoda, but no matter what the material was, he couldn’t lift it with the nine-clawed hook. Chen Pi A-si threw the nine-clawed hook, hooked the miniature pagoda, and pulled a few times, but it didn’t move at all.

It weighs at least 500 catties, Chen Pi A Si thought to himself.

He swept the tower with his flashlight and saw four miniature pillars at the base of the tower. This tower must have been copied in proportion to the one that collapsed overhead, and the structure should be similar. These four pillars support all the weight of the tower, and the treasure box is in the middle of the pillars, but the angle is not right. Otherwise, if you hook it carefully, you should be able to hook it up.

At this point, Chen Pi A-si was already a little impatient. He estimated that it had been four hours since he had come down, and he had just heard a few whistles. If he was not careful, the Hmong people would be nearby, and there would be no time to hesitate and think of a way out.

He was anxious, his mind was hot, and evil thoughts arose in his heart. He threw his hands and snapped two more marbles. The marbles hit the small pillar on the base of the tower, and the pillar shattered. Then he jumped and stepped on the side of the tower, and then used his momentum to tilt the tower to one side. The pillars on the other two sides were already unbalanced, and they broke at once. The tower sank down, and the tower and the base cracked apart.

Chen Pi Asu lay on the tower, controlling the force. The tower was slowly tilting, and the force was slow. When Chen Pi A-si saw the treasure box under the tower, he swung his nine-clawed hook and hooked the thing up from under the tower. Then he retracted the hook and swung it out again, hooked the Arhat statue on the side, and stabilized himself like pulling a rope.

This series of actions was completed in just three seconds, but he didn’t expect that the Arhat statue could not hold the tower and his weight at all.

The bottom row was almost entirely made up of honeycombs, so if he fell into them, he would be killed for sure.

In a flash, Chen Pi A-si used all his strength to pull the statue of the Arhat towards him, and threw the treasure box into the air with one hand. With a lightning-fast change of hands, the Luohan statue was safely caught in his hands, but inevitably, the top of the pagoda also crashed heavily into the wall of the underground palace, and more Luohan statues were knocked off by the tilting pagoda.

This time, Chen Pi Asa had no more tricks up his sleeve. He watched as a row of Luohan statues smashed into the ground wasp nest, causing dust to rise up, and the wasp nest was almost completely crushed and cracked.

In the chaos, he had to drop the Luohan in his hand and catch the treasure box again. He reflexively used his flashlight to shine on the beehive, thinking to himself, “It’s over. I’m dead. I didn’t die on the battlefield, but in the underground palace. I’ve lived up to my ancestors’ old saying.

When he shone the flashlight, he didn’t see the large number of wasps he had imagined coming out of the cracks. Instead, he saw that the cracks in the beehive were dry and had no moisture at all, as if it were an abandoned beehive.

However, what made him feel cold all over was that there was a dark mass in one of the cracks. It looked like it had been wrapped in when the nest was being repaired, and he didn’t know if it was the corpse of a dead person or some animal.

He jumped down and broke it open to see that it was a Luohan statue of the same style as the one here, which had been wrapped in. It had been smashed into several pieces, presumably falling from above when the nest was not yet formed, and it had ended up being wrapped in.

Chen Pi A-si looked up. Although he hadn’t noticed it when he had just come down, he felt that he hadn’t found a missing statue of a Luohan.