Xixia dead book

Chapter 124 The Decisive Battle at the Peak of Helan (9)
[Section [-] Lost]

1
Tang Feng and Han Jiang never imagined that there was such a stone wall at the end of the forest.They thought of cliffs, mesas, and canyons, but they didn't expect it to be a stone wall.

"How could this be? This is too unreasonable!" Tang Feng shouted angrily.

Han Jiang slapped the stone wall fiercely, not believing that everything would end like this.He looked up, but still couldn't see the North Peak, the stone wall in front of him was very high, but his strong intuition convinced him that this was not the end of the forest.

Tang Feng also noticed this strange stone wall, and he had the same idea as Han Jiang.He walked a few steps north along the stone wall and found that the terrain was rising, but looking back, if he walked south along the stone wall, the terrain was getting lower.Tang Feng understood a bit: "Let's walk north along the stone wall, maybe we can find something."

"That's what I mean too." Tang Feng's suggestion was exactly what Han Jiang wanted.

So the two quickened their pace.The further north they went, the higher the terrain, but the stone wall beside them did not rise.Until the end, they could already see the clues of the stone wall.

"This stone wall seems to be a platform." Tang Feng speculated.

"And it's a big platform." Han Jiang also saw it.

"But we still can't go up, we need a ladder to..."

Just as Tang Feng was talking, the stone wall beside him turned around a bend, and a stone ladder suddenly appeared in front of the two of them.

What a way!Tang Feng felt ecstatic in his heart.

Han Jiang's heart was also beating wildly.The two approached the stone ladder and inspected it carefully.The short stone ladder has about fifteen or six steps, which are obviously excavated by hand, but it does not seem to be done in modern times.

"There must be something important on it, otherwise the ancients would not have excavated a stone ladder in this deep mountain." Tang Feng deduced.

Han Jiang nodded, both of them were guessing the world above the stone wall.what will there beJade screen?Vulture's lair?King Hao's palace?Or are there other possibilities?
The two tried their best to restrain the tension and ecstasy in their hearts.Tang Feng was about to jump up the steps in one stride, but Han Jiang was cautious and grabbed him.Han Jiang took out his [-]-type pistol from his waist, opened the safety, and walked in front.He signaled Tang Feng to follow behind him, but at the last moment, Tang Feng still couldn't hide his curiosity, and climbed the stone ladder almost at the same time as him.

Things in the world may be like this, the greater your hope, the greater your disappointment.Just like when they trekked through the forest for more than an hour, they thought they had reached the end, but bumped into a stone wall.Now the same happens again.Tang Feng and Han Jiang envisioned many possibilities, but when they rushed up the stone ladder, what they saw was only a large platform, a super-large platform completely built on the cliff on the east side of the North Peak, and nothing else.

"What's going on? There's nothing on it?" Han Jiang couldn't hide his disappointment.

"It's another big platform. The difference is that it's all stone walls, no trees, and no possible architectural ruins." Tang Feng roughly inspected the platform under their feet.

"Where are the vultures? Those two giant vultures are gone too?"

"Unbelievable! Could it be that the ancients dug stone ladders in the dense forest just to get on this platform to enjoy the wind and see the scenery?" Tang Feng shook his head, he could already feel the biting cold wind here.

"Look at the fart, this... such a strong wind." A gust of wind blew, and Han Jiang couldn't open his eyes.

After the strong wind receded, Tang Feng gradually calmed down. He looked at the bare platform around him, and then at Han Jiang: "Since you're here, let's investigate carefully, there may be some clues that are not easy to detect."

"Well, that's all I have to do." Han Jiang nodded.

So the two braved the cold wind and began to carefully survey this strange platform.

2
Tang Feng and Han Jiang took a visual inspection of the platform under their feet. It was about five or six hundred square meters, and it was an irregular semicircle.The terrain above was open, and the two walked along the edge of the platform to the edge of the cliff.The cliff under the platform was unfathomable. Tang Feng only took a peek, and felt the world spinning.

"The scenery ahead is really good." Han Jiang pointed to the endless green mountains in front of the platform with emotion.

"Are you still free to look at the scenery?" Tang Feng sneered.

"I'm actually observing the terrain. Seeing the scenery in front of me, don't you find anything?"

"What did you find?" Tang Feng observed carefully for a while, "We seem to have passed the mountain on the east side."

"Yes! No wonder we have been walking in the woods for so long, and going higher and higher. I didn't expect that we turned over the ridge on the east side."

"In other words, we are now at the edge of the cliff on the east side of the North Peak."

"Well, it should be so."

"But I still don't understand. There seems to be nothing here. Could it be that the stone ladder dug by the ancients was just to open a road? You must know that there are almost no people living here, so it is not worth digging a road at all."

"Then you have to keep going."

The two turned around and looked up at the North Peak behind the platform. It was still majestic and straight, towering into the clouds. "We've been walking along the mountain road by the cliff of the North Peak like this. We won't go back to the way we walked yesterday, right?" Tang Feng said worriedly.

"Who knows?" Han Jiang muttered.

"Then we won't be able to go back tonight." Tang Feng felt a headache when he thought of the cliff on the west side that he climbed over last night.

The two continued to walk northeast along the cliff. After walking more than [-] steps, Tang Feng looked back at the North Peak again.He suddenly discovered that there was a rock wall protruding from the North Peak, and there were several strange-shaped trees growing crookedly between the rock walls.He pointed to the rock wall and said to Han Jiang: "Look at those trees, they are exactly the same as the trees next to the camp."

Han Jiang also noticed, "It's quite strange, there are almost no trees on this bare cliff, but these few trees can grow!"

"It's not surprising. This kind of tree must be a kind of tenacious tree. As long as there is a trace of nutrients, they can grow, just like the pine trees on Mount Huang."

"Really? I don't see any soil to grow on it."

"You underestimate the power of nature. Don't look at the hardness of the rocks. Drops of water can pierce the rocks, not to mention such a strong tree. They are also tenacious life. Look there, here, the rocks are all lifted up by that tree , it looks like it's about to collapse."

While talking, a few small rocks rolled down from the mountain, and the two of them hurriedly dodged backwards, the rocks rolled to the ground... Tang Feng picked up one, weighed it and put it down again, then took out his gun and used the butt After hitting the small rock hard, the rock was smashed into several pieces by the gun butt.

Tang Feng said with a smile: "Don't look at the rock wall as extremely strong, but the geological structure here is relatively fragile. In addition, the wind here is relatively strong, so the rock collapsed by itself, and it shattered as soon as it was knocked."

"Let's be more careful!" Han Jiang urged Tang Feng to move on.

The two walked along the cliff for a while, and then came to the end of the platform.Han Jiang said with some disappointment: "It seems that your guess is not valid. This is still a dead end in the end."

"Yeah! This brings me back to the question I just asked. Since it is a dead end, the stone ladder is even more suspicious. Could it be that this is just a viewing platform?"

"What viewing platform, I can see the entire one-haired platform!" Han Jiang was extremely disappointed.

3
The two began to turn back along the bottom of the rock wall.After being silent for a while, Han Jiang who was walking behind suddenly said: "Look more, see if there are any paintings on the rock wall here!"

"You don't need to remind me, I've been watching!"

"Nothing found?"

"No."

There was another silence, and the two hurried on their way.Seeing that he was about to return to the stone ladder, Tang Feng shook his head and sighed: "It seems that I ran for nothing this afternoon and got nothing."

"Yeah! It's getting dark, we have to speed up."

"It's you who want to come..." Tang Feng was talking, but his voice suddenly disappeared.

"What's wrong?" Han Jiang noticed that Tang Feng had stopped in his tracks.

Tang Feng turned his head: "There is really something on the rock wall."

"Oh?" Han Jiang regained his spirits immediately.

"Look here." Tang Feng pointed to the rock wall next to the stone ladder.

"what is this?"

"It looks like Xixia characters." Tang Feng took out mineral water and poured it on the rock wall, and some ocher red marks appeared on the rock wall.

But when Tang Feng wiped the water around the rock wall, there was no large petroglyphs or other relics as he expected. There were only two Xixia characters on the large rock wall soaked by water.There seems to be a horizontal line next to the Xixia script, I don't know what it means.

"Quickly translate, what do these two Xixia characters mean?" Han Jiang said impatiently.

The writing on the rock wall has been blurred after long-term wind and rain, and it is obviously not as well protected as the rock painting in Heijiu Temple.After carefully identifying it for a long time, Tang Feng read out those two words hesitantly: "...to... Temple..."

"Boss?" Han Jiang didn't hear clearly.

"It's the upper temple. The 'temple' of the 'temple'!" Tang Feng explained.

"What does going to the temple mean?" Han Jiang was confused.

"I don't quite understand what the meaning of 'Shangsi' appears here. According to the custom of ancient China, many large temples built in the mountains often have more than one temple, and they will build another one, or two or three temples near the main temple. , forming a large temple group. And those temples that are located on the mountain or on a higher ground in the temple group are called 'Shangsi'." Tang Feng continued to explain.

"In other words, there used to be a temple here?"

"I'm not sure."

"It's easy to understand. It turns out that there is a 'Shangsi' built on this platform, so a stone ladder leading to it was built." Han Jiang speculated boldly.

Tang Feng thought for a moment, then shook his head: "Could it be like this? If you explain it this way, the problem of the stone ladder is solved. But the problem that follows is that this place is all bare rocks, there is no stone at all. There is no way to build a house, unless it is a stone house. Besides, the wind is so strong here, and no one would want to live here."

Tang Feng's question made Han Jiang speechless, but he still didn't want to give up, and asked again: "Then what does this horizontal line represent?"

Tang Feng shook his head helplessly. "I don't know about that either. But," Tang Feng paused, "But I think there is another possibility about the 'Shangsi'. The 'Shangsi' actually refers not to this place, but to the ruins we found. If so, then the horizontal line likely represents an arrow."

"This possibility is not ruled out. But if there is the Shang Temple, why was this stone ladder built?"

Tang Feng and Han Jiang studied for a long time but couldn't figure it out. Seeing that it was getting dark, they had to hurry on their way.After getting off the stone ladder, Tang Feng walked along the stone wall for a while according to the route he remembered, and then walked into the somewhat mysterious forest.

4
Tang Feng stopped and walked in the woods, constantly identifying the direction, for fear of going the wrong way.Han Jiang smiled and said, "You can leave at ease, I made a mark when I came."

"Is it these triangular symbols on the trunk?"

"Well. If we get lost, or don't go back, Yelena will follow this symbol to find us."

"It's still your thoughtfulness."

The two quickly left the pine forest, and the trees around them became the kind of trees that neither of them could name.

"This forest always scares me." Tang Feng sighed softly.

"What are you afraid of?"

"Afraid of getting lost."

"That's you, when did you follow me and get lost?" Han Jiang looked confident.

Tang Feng shook his head and fell behind, while Han Jiang led the way.As the sky gradually darkened, Han Jiang walked ahead, observing the triangular mark he had carved on the tree trunk.But while walking, Tang Feng suddenly yelled: "No! We didn't seem to be going this way when we came!"

"What?!" Han Jiang trembled violently.

"Besides, we have walked in this forest for half an hour after we came out of the pine forest, and we still haven't seen the camp, so the time is wrong." Tang Feng shouted anxiously.

"Impossible, I followed the signs, and the direction is right..." Han Jiang took out the compass to look at the direction, and couldn't help but turn pale with shock, "What's wrong, I just looked in the southwest direction, why? Now it's northwest? This... this is unbelievable."

"You also said that you have never lost your way, so you are showing timidity now!"

"Look..." Han Jiang was quite unconvinced, and took a few steps, and came to a tree that he passed by just now, "Look at the trunk of this tree, isn't it the mark I made when I came here?"

"Take a closer look, did you do it?" Tang Feng reminded Han Jiang.

Han Jiang was awakened by Tang Feng's reminder, and he hurriedly pointed the flashlight at the triangle symbol on the trunk of the tree and observed it carefully.Looking at it, he couldn't help frowning, and fell silent.After a long time, he slapped the tree trunk and cursed, "Damn it, we must have been tricked."

"What's going on?" Tang Feng asked in surprise.

"I took a closer look at the triangle on the trunk. Although it was newly carved and the size was similar to the one I carved, but upon closer inspection, it was not my technique."

Tang Feng took a closer look, and Han Jiang pointed to the triangular mark on the tree trunk and said, "The triangles I carved were all made in one stroke, and this triangle was carved in three cuts."

Sure enough, Tang Feng also saw the clues. The triangular mark in front of him was more regular than Han Jiang's, but it was carved out in three parts. "Because this guy carved it in three parts, so you can see that each of his carvings is very deep, but I did it in one go, so the strength of the subsequent carvings is naturally not as deep as when I first started cutting." Han Jiang went further explained.

"Who did you say made this mark?"

"I don't know, but it seems that this person is also well-trained. To be honest, his engraved marks are more accurate."

"Could it be Yelena, or the old horse?" Tang Feng asked.

"Why did they engrave triangular marks to disturb us?" A cloud of suspicion rose in Han Jiang's heart.

"Maybe they couldn't wait for us and came to look for us?"

Han Jiang thought for a while: "No, probably not, I have an agreement with Yelena."

"Could it be that besides us, there is another person hidden in this forest?!" Tang Feng couldn't help exclaiming when he thought of Fanny who died tragically in the inn at the foot of the mountain.

"Stephen?!" Han Jiang's suspicions grew heavier.

"Then what should we do now? It's completely dark." Tang Feng's heart was pulled.

Han Jiang identified the direction, calmed down, and said: "We should go to the southwest. But we can't just rush into the woods we haven't gone through. We can only go back along the road we just came over. Let’s talk about the way we came.”

So the two began to retreat according to the misleading mark on the trunk.Every time he passed a mark, Han Jiang had to observe carefully to make sure whether it was carved by himself or someone else.But to his disappointment, he couldn't find the triangle mark he had engraved.Han Jiang began to understand that they were completely lost in this forest.

5
Tang Feng and Han Jiang were surrounded by darkness and deep fear.They no longer looked for the marks on the tree trunks, nor could they see any reference objects, and even the directions marked on the compass and GPS lost their meaning. They understood that there was nothing to rely on now.

In the dark night, the two of them were walking with one foot deep and one foot shallow. Suddenly, a piercing cry came from above their heads. "Vulture?!" Tang Feng was startled and looked up.The forest here is not as dense as before, but the night is dark, without a trace of starlight, and nothing can be seen.

Han Jiang was also looking up at the night sky. After a long time, he murmured: "The forest here is much sparser than before, and it looks like it is next to the camp."

"Then we will soon find the camp!" Tang Feng said, shouting a few words, but only a lonely echo responded to him.The mood of the two of them suddenly returned to the extreme of disappointment.

"Maybe it's not the camp, but it's better than just now." Han Jiang comforted Tang Feng, and then continued to stride forward in the direction he predicted.

Endless nights enveloped Tang Feng and Han Jiang, nightmares, strange noises, huge vultures, and lost forests... Now, Tang Feng began to believe that there was a devil here, maybe that devil was approaching him right now, Maybe right up ahead.Thinking about it, Tang Feng instinctively raised the flashlight and pointed it forward.

"Devil!" Tang Feng yelled out from the sudden black shadow in front of him.

Han Jiang also used the flashlight to shine forward, but the huge black shadow made Han Jiang excited: "There is a way!"

(End of this chapter)