Cao Cao called me to rob a tomb

Chapter 870 Nine Li Country (4000)

At first glance, these statues look like snakes, but when you come to the front, you will find that their heads are not ordinary snake heads at all, and they are different from any other beasts handed down from the heavens. The strange head, there is such a taste of the Cthulhu Mythos monster imagined by later generations.

Wu Liang and the others in the Huan army had observed the bone-eating monster in the Yellow River at close range before, and recognized it at a glance. This is the statue of that monster!
"How could this be?"

Wu Liang frowned tightly, his mind full of puzzlement.

In my impression, there are no similar insects recorded in the ancient books of the Celestial Dynasty, and there are no similar legends even in unofficial history that cannot withstand scrutiny. Why is there such a statue in this secret place?

Wu Liang does not believe that there are intelligent insect races similar to those in sci-fi movies and games. Not only the civilization of the Celestial Dynasty, but also civilizations all over the world have never seen a word about it.

Therefore, Wu Liang has reason to believe that this statue must have been made by humans who possess wisdom and are good at using tools.

But what kind of person would carve such a statue?

Could it be the product of some kind of sacrifice or sacrificial ceremony?

This kind of possibility does exist. In ancient times, people's knowledge of this world was limited. If monsters often hurt people but were helpless, and the monsters were beyond the scope of the ancients' knowledge, they would often appear under the guidance of wizards. Put down its myth, and please the monster through some sacrifices or sacrificial ceremonies, praying that the monster will no longer hurt people or bring down blessings.

Offering sacrifices to the river god or driving stakes is the product of this kind of ritual handed down, even if it still has a profound impact on later generations.

Statues are also a part of sacrificial or sacrificial ritual vessels. Later archaeological circles discovered many animal-shaped ritual vessels for sacrificial or sacrificial ceremonies. These ritual vessels were not only carved from rocks, but also made of jade. Carved or cast from metal.

However, most of these animal-shaped ritual vessels can be found in the ancient books of the Celestial Dynasty, or mythical beasts and auspicious beasts. If they are fierce beasts or exotic beasts, they also use fish, chickens, and other animal images that are more common in life, but like this This kind of ritual vessel based on the strange insect is unique.

In the process of thinking like this.

The backbones of the Tuan Army also noticed his abnormality, and they all followed the template set up and went down to the pit to look at the stone sculpture, and then all showed the same weird expressions.

"What is this thing... how could someone carve a statue of that harmful monster?"

Cao Ni is the kind of outspoken person. When he saw the image of the stone sculpture clearly, he was startled first, and then directly asked the common doubts in everyone's mind.

"..."

No one answered Cao Ni's question, they just expressed their incomprehension with their eyes.

"Big dog, can you please recall carefully, did this strange insect appear before this place became the estuary of the Yellow River, or after it became the estuary?"

Wu Liang looked back at the big dog and asked.

"If you go back to Wu Taishi, the villain is really not sure."

The big dog wrinkled his face and said in embarrassment, "We have a legend of water monkeys dragging people into the water a long time ago. This legend must have come from before this place became the mouth of the Yellow River, but what about that strange insect... the little ones these years People fished with nets in the Yellow River, and many corpses were caught. Some of these corpses had intact clothes, and some were bare-armed. The villain had never found such strange insects in the stomachs of these corpses. If Wu Taishi hadn't If you notice carefully, I am afraid that the villain has not known that there are such strange insects in the river until now."

Saying it means not saying it.

However, if these fishermen have salvaged countless corpses before, they have never seen this kind of strange insect, then there is a high probability that this kind of strange insect should have appeared in the Yellow River only recently.

As for Wu Liang's previous speculation that this strange worm came upstream from the ocean and might be a close relative of the "bone-eating worm", it was shaken with the discovery of this rock statue.

This kind of strange insect had obviously been here early on, as evidenced by the stone sculpture in front of him.

It's just that they may have been in a dormant state before, or attached to the remains of Yinglong. It was not until the Yellow River diverted to flow here a few years ago that this strange insect appeared in the Yellow River. , the number of floating corpses in the Yellow River is increasing day by day, and a barbaric growth has begun...

The current problem is.

Is there any living body of this strange insect here?

Previously, Wu Liang and others saw Yinglong's skeleton carrying a large number of strange insects to fight against the purple sky thunder. Those strange insects had all been killed by the sky thunder and turned into coke and black powder all over the ground.

But this does not mean that this strange insect has become extinct.

After all, judging from the situation of the tiankeng, the number of times Yinglong's bones have fought against the purple sky thunder is already incalculable, and the black layer on the surface of the tiankeng is not only related to the sky thunder itself, but also to the strange insects that were electrocuted. The coke made has nothing to do with black powder.

That is to say, as long as the Yinglong skeleton existed, so did these strange insects.

How many times that pair of Yinglong bones have greeted the sky thunders, how many times these strange insects have also greeted the sky thunders.

They were wiped out by the sky thunder again and again, and they re-developed again and again at the end of the thunder disaster of Yinglong's bones, until they wrapped Yinglong's bones into a "red dragon".

Therefore, Wu Liang has reason to suspect that at least the eggs of this strange insect are still dormant here, but this time, the holy mountain and the bones of Yinglong may no longer be able to support it...

Besides.

There is another noteworthy characteristic of this strange insect.

It exists in the outside world and the secret realm at the same time, and looking at the secret realm, it seems that only this holy mountain, this river center island, the Yellow River, and the three gatehouses that connect the outside world and the secret realm seem to have such characteristics.

Even so.

This body and Hexin Island are also very different from the outside world. The trees in the period and the huge tiankeng make them different from the outside world.

In comparison, it seems that there are only three things with this characteristic left: the Yellow River, the gate tower, and this kind of strange insect.

Even the skeleton of Yinglong should only exist in the secret realm, otherwise the huge sinkhole caused by it and the sky thunder should also appear in the outside world together.

So Wu Liang thinks that this kind of strange insect is not simple.

It can feed on the bones of Yinglong in the secret realm, and at the same time feed on those floating corpses in the outside world. It can even launch an active attack when Wu Liang and others are crossing the river...

Wu Liang has reason to believe that it has mastered some method of freely traveling between the two worlds.

And this method is definitely not done through the three gate towers, otherwise it would not only appear in the water, but also appear on land, and the fishermen living by the Yellow River must bear the brunt of it.

this moment.

Wu Liang actually hoped to find the living bodies of this kind of strange insects as soon as possible. They might be the key to whether the Huan army could get out of this secret realm smoothly, not the three destroyed gatehouses.

However, in the process of excavating this place just now, the soldiers of the Huren Army must have never found the living body of this strange insect, otherwise they would have come to report it as soon as possible...

Thinking of this, Wu Liang turned his head and said to the soldiers of the Tuan army: "Brothers, the excavation work is still going on, I need you to expand and dig this hole deeper, but you need to be more careful during the excavation process. All discoveries must be reported to me as soon as possible, especially things related to this strange insect, which may be related to whether we can get out of this small world smoothly."

"promise!"

The voices of the people in the Huanren Army were obviously a little more energetic than before.

Because Wu Liang's last sentence played the role of drawing cakes, similar to Boss Cao's "Looking for plums to quench thirst", although they have not been trapped here for a long time, this situation has already affected their lives unconsciously. morale.

Now Wu Liang suddenly told them that there is another possibility to walk out of this small world alive. , Immediately made them see hope, enough to boost morale.

at the same time.

"?"

The backbone of the Huan army looked at Wu Liang suspiciously.

Different from these soldiers, although they also looked forward to Wu Liang's lead, their insight and ability made them better at thinking. At this moment, they were thinking about what Wu Liang had discovered, and why he suddenly said such words?

However, they didn't raise their doubts in front of the soldiers of the Huan army before they figured out Wu Liang's intentions.

……

In this way, they came to the outside of the pit together, and the backbone of the Huan army finally surrounded them.

As the representative of the crowd, Yu Ji asked in a low voice: "Young master, what did you discover just now? Why do you say that this strange insect is related to whether we can get out of here smoothly?"

"I didn't find anything, I just thought that this kind of strange insect exists in this small world and in the Yellow River outside, so I deduce that it may have mastered the way to travel between the two worlds."

Wu Liang said concisely.

"Your son is right!"

After hearing this, everyone suddenly realized, and nodded in surprise, "Snakes have snakes and rats have rats. We encountered this kind of strange insect outside, and we saw this strange insect here again. Doesn't it have a way?" Are you going out?"

"So if we can find the strange bugs that remain here, maybe we can use it to find another way."

Wu Liang continued.

Zhen Mi then said: "But gentleman, seeing the stone carving of this strange insect made me suddenly think of some things, and these things may provide you with some ideas."

"Oh? Mi Er, tell me quickly."

Wu Liang quickly looked at Zhen Mi.

The backbone of the Huan army also looked at Zhen Mi together, waiting for her to explain.

"As far as I know, all tribes were divided and ruled in ancient times, so they all have their own tribal totem statues. These tribal totem statues are different. In short, there are all kinds of tribal totem statues, such as tigers and bears. Si, cows, wolves, birds, etc., as long as you can't think of it, there is nothing that can't be used as a tribal totem."

Zhen Mi said solemnly, "However, there is only one tribe that regards insects as tribal totem gods. This is still a very large tribal alliance. It is the generation that lives in the lower reaches of the Yellow River and the lower reaches of the Yangtze River. You must know the name of this tribal alliance. It is called Nine Li."

Hearing this, Yu Ji immediately couldn't help asking: "Jiuli? Miss Mi'er, you mean the Jiuli Kingdom that enshrines Li Tao as the king of Jiuli?"

"Exactly."

Zhen Mi nodded slightly.

Wu Liang frowned.

Speaking of the name "Li Tan", many people may be a little unfamiliar, but when it comes to his name, it is an existence that is known to everyone throughout the ancient and modern dynasties - Chi You!
Speaking of the word "Chiyou", Wu Liang suddenly remembered that archaeologists in later generations had analyzed it, thinking that the original meaning of these two words should refer to roundworms that live in people's stomachs, and speculated that the Jiuli Kingdom might It is this kind of insect that is regarded as the totem statue of the clan, so there is a saying that "the king of Jiuli is called Chiyou".

This analysis is very close to what Zhen Mi said.

However, Zhen Mi did not say that the totem statue of the Jiuli tribe was a roundworm, she only said that it was a kind of insect, and the later generations' statement that Chi You was a roundworm was only analyzed based on some fragmentary records, and it may not be certain is an accurate explanation.

If so...

Wu Liang said intently: "Mi Er, you mean that this kind of strange insect is the totem statue of Jiuli Kingdom, and this place may be the resting place of the ancestors of Jiuli Kingdom?"

"It's just a concubine's guess, for a gentleman's reference only."

Zhen Mi said noncommittal.

"Um……"

Wu Liang pondered.

Yinglong... Locking Dragon Pillar... Sacred Mountain of Healers... Shennong Clan... Yellow Emperor... Yan Emperor... Jiuli Department...

It seems that these things can indeed be connected. First of all, Emperor Yan gradually declined, and the princes of all walks of life stopped respecting him. Chi You took the opportunity to acquire the land along the lower reaches of the Yellow River and the Yangtze River, called Jiuli Kingdom.

Later, Emperor Yan was defeated by Emperor Huang, who merged with Emperor Yan's tribe. Huangdi wanted to further complete the unification of the world, but Jiuli Kingdom under Chi You refused to follow, so many wars broke out.

At the beginning of the war, the war between the Huangdi and Yandi coalition forces and the Jiuli Kingdom almost all ended in defeat due to the gap in equipment, because when the Huangdi and Yandi coalition forces were still using stone tools as weapons, the Jiuli Kingdom had already mastered copper smelting technology and used copper The ore was refined to make copper weapons that are far superior to stone tools.

Later, for some reason, after a mythical version of the battle for the deer was mixed with a large number of gods in the records, the Yellow Emperor actually defeated the strong with the weak in the battle for the deer. In the end, Chi You was defeated and killed, and the Jiuli Kingdom ceased to exist. The Yellow Emperor finally completed the great unification, and the descendants of the Celestial Dynasty are known as the descendants of Yan and Huang.

According to this relatively vague record of ancient history, it is indeed possible to connect the above terms together to piece together a reasonable and complete story of dynasty change.

However, more convincing evidence is needed to confirm this speculation.

Wu Liang believes that the most direct evidence is the bronze ware!

Jiuli Kingdom is the earliest ancient tribe that mastered copper smelting technology in all the records in the history of the Celestial Dynasty. If this place is really the resting place of the ancestors of Jiuli Kingdom, they must be able to find copper ritual vessels for sacrifices, and they must be obviously from the ancient times Bronze ware manufactured by advanced copper smelting technology.

(End of this chapter)