Chapter 29 – Temple of the Pillar

Sand Sea Devil’s Nest 19

Other than me, the rest of the people who heard Fatty’s words felt strange, what’s wrong with this person? How did this jade eyeball become yours? What are you thinking?

I muttered in my heart, “If these archaeologists know that we are in the business of touching gold and hair mounds, that would be a big deal.” Busy reach out to the fat man to a neck slip: “Which motherfucker so much nonsense, say a few words and no one take you as a mute.”

The fat man knew that he was out of line, also closed his mouth and no longer speak, good in the face are wearing a double filter box gas mask, the temple and dark, who can not see who’s expression, but also to avoid some unnecessary embarrassment.

Professor Chen and his three students, are nerds, I am most worried about is being Shirley Yang recognized, her brain than I do not know how many times better, the reaction is also fast, slightly revealing some feet will not be able to hide from her, perhaps she has long seen out of me and Fatty is the craftsmen of the inverted bucket, just did not say it out, the matter has come to the end of the matter, I do not have to add to their own burdens, so no longer think too much, to help Fatty put the jade pendant I did not think too much and helped Fatty put the jade pendant on the jade eyeball.

Jade eyeball pupil upward, facing the ceiling, directly above the groove seems to coincide with the fat man’s piece of jade, will change the direction of the jade a few times, and finally right, “click” sound card into the jade eyeball shook, rolled away from the previous fixed position, the ground is bare, I do not know just what the power of the mechanism to fix the jade eye there. The ground was bare, and I don’t know what kind of mechanism had fixed the jade eye there.

I picked up the jade eyeball and handed it over to Prof. Chen, asking him to watch it.

Shirley Yang folded a fluorescent tube for Prof. Chen lighting, let him see more clearly, Prof. Chen took out a magnifying glass, turned over and inverted speculation for two or three minutes, constantly shaking his head: “This …… I can’t see what it’s for, but this jade eye is as big as someone’s head, all natural, and can’t see any traces of artificiality. Can’t see any traces of artificiality, and it can even be said that two thousand years ago, artificial technology could not have been created.”

Essence of the country’s ghost cave civilization is too mysterious, Professor Chen and others exhausted the past decades of effort, but also did not get hold of much information, only on some ghost cave written symbols and history, have a preliminary understanding, speculated that this is a spiritual worship of the eye as a totem of the nation, or to the black tower after the judgement was made, which for a moment, naturally, can not explain this mysterious jade eye is what is the object.

Currently can be identified, this has sixteen giant stone pillars of the great hall, is a temple, since the Jingjie country regards the eye as the highest source of energy, in the temple enshrined an eyeball, is also natural.

But why there was a groove on this jade eye, fitting Fatty’s jade pendant on it, which matched perfectly, and once it was fitted, the jade eye which was originally fixed to the floor naturally fell off, these things were beyond comprehension.

Prof. Chen let the fat man put his piece of jade pendant of the origin, the original said out, shall not have the slightest concealment, also can not be exaggerated, be sure to seek truth from facts.

Fatty when a few years as a self-employed, usually bragging Kan Dashan, basically do not go to the brain, catch up with what to blow what, before coming to Xinjiang, he also used to say to the professor and so on, this piece of jade is he used to go to Xinjiang to fight the bandits when he got. At that time, the people laughed, who did not take it seriously, just look at this jade on the mysterious ghost hole text, which agreed to let him join the archaeological team, together to go to Xinjiang.

Now being pressed, the fat man saw the crowd solemn, also did not dare to boast, his knowledge of the origin of this piece of jade is also very limited, and then said it:

It turned out that the fat man’s father as early as fifteen years old, Huangma riot period to participate in the revolution, there is a comrade in arms, late in the liberation war, the two initially originally in a class of comrades in arms, has been different sides of the world, one in the field, one in the field, have done to the level of column commander senior commander, fat man’s father’s comrade in arms, in the liberation army, a regiment of the field into Xinjiang, had led the troops through the Taklamakan desert, the southwestern edge of Niya, on the way, he said, “I’m not sure if I’ve ever seen a piece of jade. On the way to the southwest edge of the Niya, he encountered a group of more than a hundred bandits.

At that time, the situation in Xinjiang was very complicated, all kinds of armed forces, and a large number of bandits, horse thieves, and so on, as many as hair, so the People’s Liberation Army and the bandits had an encounter, is really common, a short but fierce battle, the head of the Security Corps will be the gang of bandits to the death of the dead fleeing, and finally in the black-bearded leader of the bandits on the dead body, searched for this piece of jade pendant.

For the origin and use of this piece of jade pendant, there is no way to know, in addition to the color and texture are unusual, carved some strange symbols on it, there is nothing special, it did not take it seriously.

Later, the chief heard that his old comrade got a big fat boy, he entrusted this piece of unintentionally obtained jade as a gift, sent over.

Later, after the February countercurrent, the fat man’s parents were shocked, successively died, the chief in Xinjiang also died due to illness, the fat man was only fifteen or sixteen years old, it is four or six do not understand the age of the family’s relics are only left with this piece of ancient jade, as a treasure like to keep, for the origins of this piece of jade, all he knows, is that all of these.

Professor Chen sighed after hearing this: “It’s a pity that all these people are gone, and this piece of Jingjie jade has changed hands several times, and its origin is already unverifiable ……”, he said and then hushed vaguely, and was not able to understand the mystery of this jade eyeball.

Shirley Yang the jade eye from the hands of the professor took over to watch, she was fully concentrated to see very detailed, I saw her since the Jingjie ancient city, have not spoken much, thought she may be because after seeing this ancient city, never found her father’s trail, so only worried, her father that several explorers disappeared for more than a year, whether they arrived here is extremely difficult to say, and this is located in the mountain pass, windy sandstorms are also more, the whole of the city, the city has a lot of winds and sandstorms, the city has a lot of winds and sandstorms. Windy sandstorms are also more, the whole city all year round, I do not know how many times by the wind and sand buried in the desert, buried and was exposed by the next wind, we can find this time, can be said to be extremely lucky, this vast desert, to find a small expedition, like a needle in the sea, how easy it is to talk about, she always hold a ray of hope, always have to see the body to feel at ease, in the Jingjie Ancient City, the more in-depth explorations, the more intense the sense of loss she may be in her heart. The deeper she explores in the Jingjie ancient city, the stronger the sense of loss in her heart may be.

In the valley, I had been saved by her life, I hope to have the opportunity to do something for her, at this time to see her interested in this jade eyeballs, thinking that it is only a pity that that piece of ancient jade is the fat man’s things, if my will give her may as well.

At this time has not waited for Shirley Yang to finish reading, the fat man will be a little reluctant to give up, reach out to want, Shirley Yang holding the jade eye of the hand back, said to the fat man: “What are you in a hurry, I finish reading natural return you.”

The fat man said: “Don’t talk nonsense, this jade is our family, let you a foreigner look endless what is the matter? I’m afraid you can’t pull it out from your eyes.” He said, “I’m afraid you won’t be able to pull it out of your eyes.” He said, “I’m going to grab my hand and take it back.

I see the situation hurriedly discourage: “you two don’t grab, don’t grab, give me this when the captain of the face of the point can’t, I make the decision, first let Miss Yang …… see five minutes.”

I am afraid of fat people and Shirley Yang argued up and broke this jade eyeball, said while reaching out to press the two of them in the hands of the jade eyeball, did not think, they both see me intervene, do not want to scramble, one and one let go of the hand.

I only stretch out a hand, or from the top side of the press, that jade eye and round and big, slippery, a hold can not hold, jade eyeballs fell heavily on the ground, snapped, fell into eight petals.

The crowd stared wide-eyed, Professor Chen whole body shivering pointing at me: “You …… you you ……” you half a day, froze in anger did not say a word.

I can not defend a hundred mouths, shaking hands: “I am not …… I am …… I am not also some good intentions, I did not expect …… how his mother is so not sturdy?” Said the side reached out to pick up the jade fragments on the ground, the heart secretly prayed, it is best to be able to stick up to restore, otherwise they let me compensate, which is priceless, is to break me down and sell, but also can not afford to pay.

At that time is really a bit anxious confused, the brain is also confused, forget the specific to Hu Da, God, Chairman Mao, or to the Buddha prayer, may be due to the lack of fixed beliefs, resulting in the effect of the prayer is not very significant, the jade eye weight is not light, coupled with the hard ground stone tiles, some of the places fell into the shattered froth, I was on the ground half a day of paddling, but also did not look for the pieces of the whole.

Fatty said: “OK old Hu, fell on the fucking fall, do not pick up.” Said he went to tug on my arm, trying to pull me to stand up.

I squatted a little longer, coupled with the anxiety in my heart, the equipment in the geological bag behind me and heavy, was pulled by the fat man, unsteady foothold, sat on his butt on the ground, I struggled to get up, unintentionally looked up, see the faint light, the roof of the temple there is a basin-sized eye, flickering with a strange light, is staring at us.

When we came in we had taken a cursory look around, the top was dark and we didn’t look closely, no one noticed when such a large moving eyeball came out.

I hastened to use the flashlight to shine upward, although the temple is high, the range of the top should also be in my flashlight within the scope of irradiation, who knows that the flashlight to the top, the column of light as if it was swallowed by the darkness in general, in addition to that huge eye full of red silk, the rest of the roof of the place a dark, nothing can see.

Sand Sea Devil’s Nest 20

The rest of the six people also saw the huge eye above their heads, and they all felt bad, fearing that the eye would fall and hurt them, so they all stepped back.

Only saw that the giant eye in mid-air turned around, then fell to the ground, this time we all see clearly, this thing is like an eyeball, in fact, it is a semi-transparent meatball, outside all the green-white material, wrapped in the middle of a large group of black things, cold look, do not see it as an eyeball is strange.

Fatty saw this strange abnormal meatball, the heart of a panic, will put the back of the assault rifle end in the hand, ready to shoot, I hastened to hold down his arm: “Don’t act rashly …….”

We have not yet waited for us to understand what this is a thing, the giant eye-like meatball suddenly “poof” cracked, which flowed out of hundreds of entangled black snakes, these strange snakes are the same as we saw in the Zagrama Mountain, all black scales, body length of only tens of centimeters, the top of the head grows a black sarcoma.

A bunch of strange snakes wriggling together, the body is full of sticky transparent liquid, as if just hatched from the egg, as disgusting, the crowd look at the scalp numb, can not help but back a few steps.

We have seen a snake in the black tower of the human head of the guardian deity statue, the head is also such a black ball, Professor Chen speculated that this black ball is an eye, no wonder Shirley Yang in the valley in the emergency, with a flash to save my life, it seems that this snake head on the sarcoma, even if it is not the eyes, but also extremely sensitive to the light source.

The scene in the valley left a deep impression on us, this kind of unknown strange snake, by virtue of the strong body, can be bounced in mid-air flight for several meters, and the toxicity of the strange fierce, once bitten, it is too late to rescue, immediately will be killed.

At this time where dare to delay, fat man and I blocked in front of the crowd, while these black snakes are still entangled together did not disperse time to shoot, their vitality is extremely strong, only one head left can still hurt, I shot while greeting Chu Jian, pour solid fuel, ignite a fire to completely burn them to death.

The firelight illuminated the shrine which was full of large stone pillars, hundreds of black snakes were burnt to a crisp before they could display their fangs, I let out a long breath, luckily I struck first, the appearance of these black strange snakes, could it be related to me breaking the jade eyeball? Or maybe that jade eye is a sacrificial vessel, by attaching that piece of ancient jade to the jade eye, some kind of ritual was accomplished, guiding these monstrous snakes out of that so-called imaginary space? No matter what it is, in the future, if you see this kind of jade eyeball, you must not take it lightly.

I let the people check around, lest there are fish in the net, and carefully measured the roof, everywhere is flat stone tiles, really can not figure out where that big eyeball like snake eggs come from.

This careful examination does not matter, really is found some unusual places, the temple in the sixteen giant stone pillars, each pillar of the pillar body has six eye pattern, the base of the stone pillars are hexagonal, from the center of the five sides, each side is carved with a small symbols, varying, respectively, is the hungry ghosts, the head of the goat, hu, giant pupil, guardian beasts, and there are one side is empty.

These stone pillars attracted our attention, Professor Chen put these symbols of the orientation of the type, one by one with a pen to record, let us turn the stone pillars under the hexagonal stone seat, a try, it turns out that the following is a stone groove, and the column body is separated, as long as the force, you can rotate.

Professor said it seems that the building are large stone pillars, is a temple for rituals right, and is a multi-functional place of worship, the hexagonal symbols at the bottom of the columns, indicating its role.

These stone pillars every four a group, the current arrangement is the symbols of the guardian god cross opposite, just now that jade eyeball is a sacrificial artifact, and the fat man’s piece of ancient jade is the initiation of the ceremony of the artifact, do not rule out the possibility of other artifacts. As for this magic weapon how to stray to the outside, I am afraid that there will never be an answer, perhaps there was once a tomb robber expedition into this Jingjie ancient kingdom of the temple, perhaps two thousand years ago, those in order to rebel against the Jingjie Queen’s rule of the slaves, stole out, there is no way to know.

It can be inferred that once the spells are connected, the strange serpent that is regarded as a guardian deity can be summoned out to enjoy the sacrifice. And it was said that this was a multi-functional shrine because the stone pillars not only contained high-status guardian deities, but also slaves, livestock, and evil spirits at the lowest end of the scale, and the shrine might also be used for rituals such as suppressing evil spirits and punishing slaves. Through the changes in the arrangement of symbols under the stone pillars, different ritual objects were identified.

Shirley Yang asked, “Professor, this shrine should be an equally important place as the royal palace, could there be a dark passage here that connects to the underground royal palace? Let’s look around, shall we? Now that Xiao Ye is not well, we must find the water vein in the underground palace as soon as possible.”

Professor Chen said, “I can guarantee that there is definitely such a dark passage, but since it is a dark passage and the scale of this shrine is so large, where can we find it in a moment.”

The fat man interjected: “Two shopkeepers, as the saying goes, take people’s money, with people to solve problems, you probably do not know how capable I and old Hu, we are not so much of the Soviet Union *, you a few out of the rest, I blew a channel out, so that you can also see the means of our.”

Professor Chen hurriedly waved his hand, “Don’t mess around, these are the relics of an ancient civilization, destroying a brick is a crime.”

I thought just now I broke the jade eyeballs, now is my chance to redeem myself, the world’s mountains and rivers, geography, the five elements of feng shui, all in the chest, find a dark road how difficult it is, so they said: “I look at the temple’s sixteen stone pillars of the arrangement, and the sixteen dragons of the same arrangement of the permeable ground, the layout of the number of the hidden giant door, the tomb of the Han dynasty had been used to this arrangement of the mechanism, the black tower on the previous view of the ancient temple, the ancient temple, and the dark tower on the previous view of the ancient temple, and the dark tower on the previous view of the ancient temple, and the dark tower of the ancient temple. Earlier in the black tower to watch the situation around this ancient city, really is to occupy all the geographical advantage, visible that the Queen of the Jingjie is also a knowledgable metaphysics of the high people, it may be possible for me to try to find the passage in the temple with the art of gold pointing, may be able to find the secret passage, but this method I am also a beginner, then in case of failure to find, we will think of other ways.”

All heard, all agreed, waiting to watch, I step to the center of the temple, watching the surrounding stone columns, in fact, this through the ground sixteen dragons column arrangement, is not too difficult, is no more than the An five elements of the twenty-four square changes, just the location of the occasion is different, a slight change, in the stone columns to go back and forth again and again a few round-trips, the heart of the dark calculations.

This through the ground sixteen dragons, in fact, is the snake, “sixteen words yin and yang feng shui secret art” has clouds: curved snake fluttering, suddenly north and south. These sixteen, only one through the veins of the earth is the real dragon. Simple to say, the actual use of a real pain in the ass, and finally locked the target in the depths of the temple on top of the four floor tiles.

Knocked with a small geological hammer, three of them are solid, only one of them issued an empty echo, this two-meter-square stone tiles, the edges do not have any wear and tear caused by frequent driving, it seems that this passage is rarely used, unless the zha drug, want to pry is certainly not pry, the nearest stone pillar is the mechanism, I do not know if this mechanism is still working.

I greeted the fat man over to help, my hand on the hexagonal stone groove under the stone pillar, in case of turning the wrong reverse, triggering what organs, can be a great momentum of rest, then let the other Professor Chen and others retreated to the outside of the temple, wiped the beads of sweat on his head and told the fat man, the first side of the empty, aligned with the possibility of a secret passage of that stone tile, and then ready to vigorously clockwise rotation of five frames, turn one in the opposite direction, and then clockwise rotation of eleven frames, and then turn two frames, and then turn two frames, and then clockwise rotation, and then clockwise rotation, and then clockwise rotation, and then clockwise rotation, and then clockwise rotation, and then clockwise rotation. Then turn two frames in the opposite direction, not more than one at a time, not less than one at a time, otherwise it is hard to say what will happen.

Fatty said: “Old Hu you think I do not know how to count ah, when I went to school my grades are much better than you. Don’t talk nonsense, turn.”

I read in my mind the mnemonic in the secret art: “Thousands of miles to find the dragon, seek the left and right, five steps with the yang, the yin from the one, open and turn.”

The two of them exerted their strength, turning the hexagonal stone groove, turning a frame, then counted together, after turning the last frame, only to hear a Kaboom, the stone tiles on the ground sank, revealing a deep tunnel.