Chapter 73: Eclipse of the sky

Just as I hesitated to reach into the water to feel some, look at the tripod casting Shirley Yang has found, she let me squat down to look at the tripod casting pattern, I followed her words to see, only to see the tripod identity for eight sides, there are yin marks, it seems that the copper was embedded in the gold wire, over the years, the gold off, the formation of a piece of the concave graphic, showing in detail the hate of the sky’s death into the burial of the moon rise situation.

We only looked at a small half, has suddenly realized, looked back at the row of ancient corpses, the original after their death has not yet had time to formally buried, but stayed here ready to wait for the full moon to come, it seems that not yet to the moment of “running to the moon to seek longevity”, the ancient city on the island fell into the sea, the surviving remnants of the people such as the star smoke dispersed, fell into the sea of the barbarians! The surviving remnants were scattered like star smoke, and became “boat-dwellers” who lived on the sea, picking beads and catching whales for a living.

I was about to turn to look at the back of the bronze tripod, but I heard Uncle Ming greeted me in front of the mouth of the fossilized whale bone, I had to turn around and retreat a few steps, asking him what is the matter with this old fool? Uncle Ming wiped the sweat on his head and said to me, “Have you ever noticed that in the stomachs of these female stiffs in the crypts, how come there are some dead children with missing arms and legs hidden inside?”

It turns out that Uncle Ming and others in the whale bone outside the fearful guard, see the tomb rows of corpses covered in the scales across the skin, as a large bed covered with a large quilt, the dragon wrapped in the bulge is very unusual, he thought that five thousands of years of corpses do not melt the body are accompanied by funerary objects, even if not to take, open to see a few eyes, those in the ruins of the ancient things retained for thousands of years are not extraordinary, even if only to open their eyes is also good.

Who knows to pick open the “dragon cover”, found in the center side by side of the three female corpses, are born pregnant when the tragedy of a broken belly, the belly into the shape of the fetus, at least eight or nine months size, but were plucked out of the body of the female body on the open stomach, the corpse are stuffed with a kind of belly known as ” cold jade” round stone, and the body of the corpse is filled with a kind of “cold jade” round stone, and the corpse is filled with a kind of “cold jade” round stone, and the corpse is stuffed with a kind of “cold jade” round stone. Cold jade” round stone, cheeks slightly bulging, mouth with a pearl, the body belly cavity is stuffed with things, so it still looks bulging, as if about to go into labor.

Dead babies do not seem to have done anything to deal with, but through the body of the female body under the cold jade and “face beads”, the shape of the skeleton is still in the charcoal hair black disk as a group, it looks like people feel the hair roots are hair at first, and then use a flashlight to carefully light, the three dead babies are either missing an arm, or missing a leg, it looks like congenital deformity.

Uncle Ming ate a shock, which is afraid of odd? In the past, there were rumors of child ghosts and fetus ghosts among the grave robbers who carried corpses, and some tomb owners purposely hid the fetus in their tombs, so that any grave robbers who stole artifacts in the tombs or damaged the corpses of the tomb owners would be haunted by the little ghosts, and could not live in peace day and night, and sooner or later, their lives would be taken away, so Uncle Ming, seeing that it was not a good thing, hurriedly greeted me and asked me to see whether the hateful So Uncle Ming saw the situation is not good, quickly greeted me to see this hate Tian’s is not in the tomb raised small ghosts, said words, cold sweat beaded down, obviously fear has been extreme.

I heard immediately look at the “dragon skin” covered several stiffs, a look at the right words, three were pulled out of the dead baby, seems to retain the posture of the end of life when the pain of the struggle, but they are among the limbs, or arms or legs are missing one of them, not like being brutally cut off, but due to the congenital deformity, if you look carefully, you can distinguish between the smallest and the smallest as in the case of the “Dragon Skin”, and the most important thing is that the “Dragon Skin” is not a “dragon skin”. If you look carefully, you can distinguish the tiny hand like a rat’s paw, I don’t know for what reason, did not develop and grow with the rest of the body.

Tomb with a small ghost thing is not common, only in some remote areas in the south, most of the craftsmen inverted bucket life have never seen, Guangdong East and West, but there are a lot of such legends, the end of the Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China, there are a group of activities in the two regions, do back body over the manhole hooks of grave robbers, they are really someone from the tomb back out of the small ghosts to go home, was killed off, are recent things, not what is not true! Ghost story, see this is a regional nature of the stronger custom, and is said to have begun to appear in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, Guangdong and Guangxi are located in a remote area, until the time of the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the cultural and economic development, so no one can prove that in the tomb hidden ghosts in the tomb to prevent grave robbers of the tradition is where it comes from.

But this kind of thing, in the rest of the provinces are extremely rare, think may not come from the ancient law, in the “return to the ruins” of this thousands of years ago, how can there be that kind of evil magic? But these babies are about to be formed and born, and because of what was poisoned? The other three are deformed congenital disability, it is too much of a coincidence, we are in a strange danger, can not say that do not believe in evil spirits and ghosts, but some things really have to prevent.

Thinking of this I have a mind to destroy the body, I asked Uncle Ming and others how to do? Uncle Ming on his ancestors passed down some of the old things, always convinced, then heard me ask about the countermeasures, busy not fall said: “this time we do not have mercy, or even if we return to the sea, at least there are three people on the back of that can not get rid of the ghosts, why the tomb to raise the ghosts it? Because the fetus has been formed, reincarnated into the lonely ghosts have been attached to it, this time from the pregnant woman’s stomach dug out alive, those little ghosts covet their own form, so they refuse to leave, the fetal death of the most narrow-minded little ghosts, vicious, they see the living, do not wrap the person dead on the by no means finished, so according to my uncle, I see, one does not do it, two do not rest, the little thieves with the form of the fire to melt away, only as the The best strategy.”

Uncle Ming said on pat to pat the mermaid lamp candle held in the hand, under the candlelight his face ugly has been extremely, think from the bone taboo back home with a small ghost, fat man also leaped to light the fire, but before burning the body, it is best to first dead people mouth things are keyed out, otherwise again to corruption and waste.

I looked at the ancient guess, the boy rash, not yet clear about their own this “dragon household” and the sea eye of the tomb has any relationship, do not care to set fire to these dead babies and corpses, and more than Ling’s guts is the smallest of the group, do not dare to come over to see the zombies in the whalebone.

With my past experience, the back of the little ghost thing is rather believe it, not to believe it, the tomb of dead babies must be fishy, rather than let the trouble come to the door, it would be better to burn clean in advance, why bother to go back to the roots of the investigation in which the truth, so I was ruthless, nodded to Uncle Ming, Uncle Ming with Fatty Gu Gu Guai and others swarmed up, they want to first take the “face beads They were going to take the “Pearl of the Face” first, and then release the “Fire of the Past Life”.

The people just want to do, will be Shirley Yang stopped, she has always been looking at the nine-legged tripod, heard our side of the discussion to light a fire to burn the tomb of zombies, quickly let Uncle Ming and others to stop, she said that from the tomb back out of the small ghosts, moving mountain Taoist in similar rumors, these are the last two or three hundred years only appeared in the mountainous region of the folk evil, the return to the ruins of how there will be? Moreover, I have never heard of hiding small ghosts in tombs and purposely choosing deformed and disabled fetuses, is there such a thing in the world? If you take the risk of lighting a fire and burning it, you’ll be in real trouble.

We were dumbfounded by her words, the fetus limbs have a shortage of things extremely bizarre, indeed difficult to understand, after all, no one has really seen how the ancient tomb hidden child ghosts are arranged.

Shirley Yang said: “hate heaven’s will cast this matter on the nine-legged tripod, we want to escape from the bottom of the sea in this coral cave wreckage, I’m afraid we still have to count on these South China Sea stiffs.”

Once everyone heard that there is a plan, all of them were moved, Uncle Ming was so excited that his eyes were blurred with tears, “Ms. Yang, your uncle is old and his brain is a bit slow, are you saying that these ancient corpses can take us back? I don’t know what the plan is. I hope you can show me how to solve my foolishness ah …….”

Shirley Yang let everyone go to see the back of the “nine-legged tripod”, it turns out that this deep in the ruins below the coral cave isolated from the outside world, is not an ancient tomb, that the fetus lacks feet and arms, is actually related to the “lunar eclipse” occurred in ancient times, the whale bone with the dragon’s skin to cover up the five ancient corpses. Covered with dragon skin in the whalebone of the five ancient corpses, an old and a young are about to be converged into the coffin burial of the dead, while the three pregnant women were cut open, but because of the misfortune to see the “eclipse”, and was used to martyrdom offerings.

“Eclipse” and “lunar eclipse” are two major astronomical phenomena, although the ancients did not understand their reasoning, but the understanding of these astronomical anomalies from a long time, since ancient times there is a kind of legend, pregnant women do not see “eclipse”, once seen, the fetus in the womb to fall. Once seen, the fetus in the womb after birth, limbs will be crippled, this legend full of mystery, is not catching wind, even to the modern era of science and medicine developed, but also can not completely explain the mystery of which has seen the “eclipse” of the pregnant women of the babies, nine out of ten are deformed and disabled, and its high ratio is difficult to understand, and in the Ancient superstitious concepts, this is due to the “total lunar eclipse” for the “big break”, the rest is “small break”, the moment of the lunar eclipse is the moon yin essence suffered from heaven and earth erosion, with the fetus qi must feel. The moment the moon breaks, the essence of the moon’s yin is eroded by heaven and earth.

Ancient civilizations originated from “big rivers”, and the Hateful Sky Clan originated from the Yellow River Basin. After moving southward across the sea, they still retained the ancient mythological totem worship, in addition to “shooting at the sun”, which symbolizes war and slaughter, and “running to the moon”, which is a symbol of the pursuit of immortality. The name of the Kingdom of Hateful Heaven, “Running to the Moon”, was made up by later scholars based on the records on the bronze tripods during the period of King Mu of Zhou, which may not be accurate.

Hate the country of the sky to take the dragon fire, creating an unprecedented bronze civilization, but probably because of the moon palace in the legend of immortality drug overly superstitious, the country’s efforts, all poured into the excavation of the seabed of the sacred wood and forging bronze, ten thousand people logging, but no one ascension, resulting in the sinking of the ancient city into the sea, according to the records of the nine-legged tripods, the coral cave of the bottom of the water, there is a larger tripod, to make up for the three by the “moon broken”. It takes three deformed children who have been damaged by the “Moon Breaking” to be put into the giant tripod at the bottom of the sea before the dead can pass through the “rickrolling wood” to the Moon Palace where the immortality pill is hidden.

Shirley Yang said, “The disabled fetus caused by lunar eclipse was called eclipsing the sky during the Shang and Zhou Dynasties, and it was the introduction for refining the medicine of immortality. This concept was very common in ancient times, and a large number of cultural relics from the Yin and Shang Dynasties to the Qin and Han Dynasties have traces related to it.”

I nodded my head and said, “During the Qin and Han Dynasties, it was the most enthusiastic era of seeking immortality, which is understandable when you think about it, where is a person in life? And where after death? This is difficult for mortals to understand, after all, life is in a hurry, a turn of the green silk into white hair, than the limited time, people are of course more concerned about the eternal nothingness, whether they can get eternal life, this trend to the Tang and Song dynasty after the slow fade, even the emperor refused to deceive themselves, to the world to walk around can not escape from old age and sickness, and where there will be immortal immortals, the ancients can be forgiven for superstitious, we are superstitious too should not be, we can not be forgiven for superstitious. Superstition can be forgiven, but we are too superstitious, is it possible to throw these three babies with few arms and legs into the tripod underwater, so that we can follow this old man and two stiffs to fly to the Moon Palace to eat immortality pills together?”

Fatty also said, “That’s right, according to this, then what is the point of building rockets to the moon? The United States and the Soviet Union for so many years is not a waste of time, people ancient Gu Gui’s ancestors in a few thousand years ago by climbing trees have already climbed to the moon ……”

Uncle Ming said anxiously, “You two losers have always been distrustful of everything, can’t you let Ms. Yang finish her sentence before you blow water?” He also said to Shirley Yang: “Ms. Yang, you can not with these two bad boy general understanding, uncle I most believe is you, you quickly continue to say, we ate on the moon after immortality medicine, can still come down? This immortality is a very cool thing, but still need to be able to return to the bottom to enjoy the glory and wealth is good ……”

Shirley Yang said, “I didn’t say that you can really climb into the Moon Palace from the undersea sacred wood, I just interpreted from the pattern cast and painted on the nine-legged tripod, this kind of burial method evolved from the legend of immortality, it may be exactly a kind of burial at sea, the huge tripod under the water is an organ, which has the mark of the Zhen Gua hidden in it, and it seems that it can lead out the submerged current… …or something else, in short, it can drag the body out of the sea from the return of the ruins, I just don’t know if this organ is still useful after so many years?”

I hurriedly looked at the tripod casting pattern, indeed, as Shirley Yang said, there is a huge tripod in the water labeled “Zhen Gua” mechanism, now look at the symbols of the Zhen on Zhen down, it seems to be some kind of mechanism, once opened, the sea water in the coral cave, it will be a huge “楗木”. Once opened, the seawater in the coral cave will hold the huge “door wood” on the surface, but whether this is the case, we still need to dive down to find out the truth.

I suddenly thought of the tattoos behind the ancient Guchai, this coral hole with zombies, should be the tomb of the sharks, and then deep is a piece of the dragon skeleton, I do not know that the casting of the “Zhen Gua” mark of the giant tripod is actually where he back of the “through the sea array” passed down from one generation to the next, hiding the truth of the ancient tomb of the return to the void. Return to the truth of the ancient tomb, perhaps it is the ancestors hope that there will be offspring can return to the sea eye, the remains of the ancestors will be officially buried, but until the ancient Guchai this last “Dragon Household”, only have the opportunity to enter this place with us by mistake, look at this coral hole in the water flow situation, it seems to be closed with the outside world isolated, I do not know how deep the water under the tomb, if the depth where the big tripods If the depth of the cauldron exceeds the limit, we are not capable of reaching it.

I decided that Fatty and I, together with Guchai, would dive down immediately to scout the location of the huge tripod under the water to see if we could open this huge organ, but I knew that it was just a matter of chance, and how could we be accurate with the vague records of thousands of years ago? Besides, maybe the ancestors of these boat-dwelling people think of one thing or another, and make up some nonsense to bluff, so I instructed Shirley Yang and Uncle Ming to stay on this reef, don’t just worry about us, but also continue to think of other ways.

Shirley Yang and I briefly discussed the dive program, with the Hate Heaven’s “water-splitting sword” defense, even if there is a change underwater, should be able to cope with, Shirley Yang said: “You must not forget, just dive reconnaissance, as soon as you see a large tripod underwater immediately back! ……”

I know that she said further, should also follow, we carry a limited number of scuba, action must be reserved, so in the situation is still unclear, it is not possible to head into the water, so hurry to lead her words away, let her to take care of Uncle Ming and Duo Ling, the surface of the water is silent, it seems that the underwater situation is not dangerous, we are only going down to reconnoitering, the material is also no harm, and then and the ancient Gu Cai, the fat man! Three people ate some compressed cookies, each cleaned up, each person held an eclipsed sky fetus plasma skeleton, loaded into the accompanying dive carry bag, which came to the water’s edge.

In a short period of continuous action, so that the ancient guess and we have gradually produced some tacit understanding, I do not need to tell him what, and he is in the darkness of the water under the eyesight is too much, searching for the big tripod and confirm the route to rely on his help, he still does not bring scuba, bare bladder, mouth with the egg people scraping clams to make the short blade of the Dragon Arc.

I see the fat man and ancient guess ready, then with a hand pointed to their own frog mirror, told them to pay attention to observe, then three people into the water at the same time, coral hole in the water is unpredictable, pitch black, our underwater searchlight loss has been exhausted, can only rely on the diving flashlight to illuminate, a few meters in front of the body, has been dark and unrecognizable.

Coral cave underwater space is deep and wide, people do not know what to do, occasionally some with bioluminescent devices of aquatic close to over, who did not see what, has been like a meteorite from the side of the past, faded in the dark water, suddenly, only to see a piece of light in the darkness flickering, although the body in the underwater, but such as being in the sea of stars, I was blurred under the fixed-eyed, the original is into thousands of tens of thousands of “Ghost Octopus”, swimming back and forth under the water, these “ghost octopus” can emit a ghost fire blue light all over the body, through the blue biological light to attract small aquatic close to, and then look for an opportunity to devour it, the luminescent device can also be used to scare off the dead enemy in the sea. Deadly enemies in the sea, but they do not take the initiative to attack divers, on the contrary, for us to play a very good role in lighting, the deeper the water quality is clearer, but the “ghost octopus” suddenly gathered and scattered, underwater rolled up a wave of light fog, disorientation and change of circumstances, so that people’s eyes dazzled.

We hold an ancient coral tree fossil, took the opportunity to look around the situation, too far away to see, in front of all kinds of coral fossils, crevices and holes in large groups of crustaceans in the rapid crawling, I was about to lean down, continue to dive into the depths, and suddenly found that the coral tree next to me on the fossil, are like sieve holes, densely packed with hard to count the number of holes, the size of each hole can accommodate a person, it seems to hide something inside. There seems to be something hidden inside.

I beckoned to the fat man and ancient guess, the three came close, will dive flashlight beam will shine in, only to see the coral tree body of the cave lying a shark’s corpse, skin and flesh has been eaten by the fish, leaving only the fragmented bones, above hanging some with the tendons connected to the scales, jagged fangs are exposed, appearing to be very hideous and horrible, and then looked at a few holes in the coral number of fossilized fossils of the countless caves, are almost all hidden with the shark’s body. Shark corpses, this coral tree is precisely the seabed scale clan’s tomb.

I saw thousands of shark corpses, the heart can not help but have a few moments of fear, fortunately, are dead, otherwise underwater encountered such a group of evil spirits, where there is life? However, these sharks face and body are gnawed by the small fish, the skeleton is not melt away, it is rumored that this is because they have fish beads in the brain, mussel beads sub-sea beads and lake beads, with the same fish beads, are in the water of the precious things, the reason why the fish beads have not been passed down, because of its departure from the water a little too long, the essence of which is lost, so it has never been as precious as the mussel beads.

I do not know whether this legend is true or false, have pondered the dragon household tattoo on the body since there is the mark of the mackerel’s grave, must be an extremely important place, of course, should look at an understanding, so the fat man to make a gesture, probing into the hole, dragged out a mackerel’s head, the fat man followed by the “water-splitting sword” into the mackerel’s eye sockets in the pick, which the body of the sword dark and heavy! The “water-splitting sword”, underwater there is a layer of dull light, and made for the image of the shark spitting edge, may be just the ancient times against the evil underwater shark sharks sharp weapon, the sword blade turned up at the place, as early as the hideous fish head picked for two half, in which there is really a walnut-sized black bone ball, no luster, sharks have just died, the fish bead itself should also have the essence of light. There is the essence of light, save the bones for many years, the essence of the dissipation of dark, with a twist of the hand, the fish beads immediately turned into pieces.

Ancient guess in the water look curious, also boldly put his arm into another cave, want to touch a cool like a human head of the shark head out to see if there are fish beads, unexpectedly he just reached out, that coral tree on the tomb, it is noiselessly probed a full of black scales of the withered claws, firmly clutched in his wrist, will he dragged to the inside.

Ancient guess a hand was caught in death, but the other hand grasping the air conch, arm also holding a sealed bag containing the remains of the stillborn baby, the sealed bag is always sat on him, but this guy recklessly did not know to let go of the stillborn baby, remove the sharp edge of the mouth to solve their own, just use their feet propped up in the coral tree, deadly backward force to get rid of a moment of stalemate.

I and the fat man saw the situation are also startled, the sea sharks at first corpse? Where still care about much thought, raised his hand and swung a sword, that “water-splitting sword” made a good job, swung up in the water do not feel the slightest resistance, the ancient sword chopped down, immediately will be out of the hole in the claw swung into two, a stream of dirty blood followed out, the water blood now, in the “ghost Octopus In the “ghost octopus” scrolling waves of light, only to see the coral tree densely packed cave, there are countless black scaled sharks, like a stream of black turbidity will come out.

From the coral fossil suddenly appeared a large number of sharks, as if in the water rolled up a black hurricane, near some “ghost octopus” fled a little slow, that is, was swallowed by the black tide of sharks, ghostly fire like blue light waves into a myriad of fleeing meteors, in an instant, a large area of colorful coral fossil was covered by this turbidity for the black.