Anecdote of the Yellow River

Chapter 56: The First Appearance of the "Holy City" (2)
We looked at Lao Luo: "What's wrong?"

Lao Luo pointed to the stele and said, "Do you know what the ancient characters on the stele mean?"

We shook our heads in unison, Lao Luo, Lao Luo, don't you ask the question knowingly?If we can understand the words on the stele, we may not be as interested in it as we are now.

Lao Luo's face was faintly flickering with excitement: "This is an ancient script in the Western Regions. If I read it correctly, it has only six characters when translated into Chinese!"

"Six characters?" Our curiosity was aroused, and we couldn't wait to ask, "Which six characters?"

Lao Luo uttered six words one by one: "The black dragon emerges, and the ghost town appears!"

The black dragon comes out, and the ghost town appears? !

This sentence was like a thunderbolt exploding in our ears, and I faintly felt that the matter was not as simple as a stone tablet.According to my intuition, I guess these six characters should be a riddle!
Gu Meidi was the first to react: "The black dragon mentioned here, could it be the black dragon sandstorm yesterday?"

I snapped my fingers: "Then what this sentence means is that after the black dragon sandstorm passes, the rumored mysterious Devil City will appear in the desert!"

Gu Meidi nodded: "It should be that way!"

"The analysis of the two of you makes sense!" Professor Ye touched his chin and thought, "This mica stele should not have been embedded in the rock wall in the first place, but it was probably embedded in the rock wall after the change of Sangtian. According to common sense, this mica stone tablet will not be too far away from Devil City, that is to say, the rumored Devil City is very likely to be nearby! Let’s search separately, maybe you will find something!”

"Oops!" Not long after I walked, I heard Wang Dongyu who was walking in front of me suddenly let out an exclamation, and then he sank all of a sudden, leaving only half of his body on the sand.

I was startled, thinking that Wang Dongyu had run into quicksand.

Quicksand is a natural trap in the desert. The lower layer is groundwater, and the upper layer is gravel. Once trapped in quicksand, it is more terrifying than falling into a swamp. It can swallow people up in a few seconds.

I stopped in my tracks, not daring to step forward rashly, if I also stepped into the quicksand area, it would be troublesome.

"Ouch, you fell to my death, Tuobagu, what are you doing standing there? Come and give me a hand!" Wang Dongyu scolded his mother in front.

I watched intently for a few seconds, and found that Wang Dongyu's body hadn't sunk since he fell into the sand, and his upper half was still exposed on the sand. I felt at ease, knowing that he hadn't encountered quicksand, so I took three steps and two steps in parallel. Run up to save him.

At this time, Lao Luo also heard the sound and hurried over: "This kid has stepped into the hollow shell, everyone, come and help!"

Hey!Hey!

We worked hard, just like pulling a carrot, and finally pulled Wang Dongyu out of the hollow shell.

In Gan Hongxin's words, it's like pulling a pig.

Lao Luo told us that there are often such hollow shells in the desert. Due to the effect of nature, the soil below the surface has been hollowed out, leaving only a thin layer of crust on the surface.If you accidentally step on it, the earth's crust will collapse, and the people or animals on it will sink. It won't be long before the blown sand will fill up the collapsed place.Therefore, these empty shells are like traps set by nature for us. If we are not careful, we will swallow our lives, which is comparable to quicksand traps.

The cold wind poured out from the hollow shell. Listening to the sound of the empty wind, there seemed to be a vast space under the hollow shell.

We suddenly became nervous. Could it be that there is nothing under the surface of this layer?

I picked up a piece of gravel from the ground and threw it into the hollow shell.It took a long time before I heard an extremely slight echo from under the hollow shell. It seems that the space under the surface is not only large, but also very deep.

Lao Luo lay on the ground and listened intently for a while, then turned his head and said to us: "There is a lot of space below! I'll go and have a look!" As he spoke, he took out a wolf-eyed flashlight from his bag, and crawled softly into the pit On the side of the shell, a wolf-eyed flashlight was held up and shone into the hollow shell.The wolf-eye flashlight emitted a snow-white beam, like a sharp knife, piercing through the thick darkness below the surface. At this moment, Lao Luo suddenly cried out in surprise.

Lao Luo's exclamation aroused our curiosity, and we quickly surrounded him, wanting to see what happened. Lao Luo raised his palms and signaled us to stop: "You crawl over slowly, and come over so boldly. , if the empty shell is collapsed, everyone will have to finish the game!"

What Lao Luo said was not unreasonable, so we followed his appearance just now and slowly crawled over.

"Look below!" Lao Luo shook the wolf-eyed flashlight.

I craned my neck, poked my head into the hollow shell, and looked down with wide eyes.

With the light of the wolf-eye flashlight, I was surprised to find that under the hollow shell, there was a stone ladder hovering in the air, like a black python flying in the air, and the vertical distance was estimated to be four to fifty meters.It was too dark underground, and the wolf-eyed flashlight couldn't see clearly, but I could faintly see some stone buildings.

I took a deep breath, and my heart was pounding. What is under the surface?
Obviously, there are footprints of human activities below. Could it be that the place below is the legendary Devil City?

Before I could express my conjecture, Professor Ye had already said: "The black dragon comes out, and the ghost town appears! Devil City, the legendary Devil City must be under this surface!"

"Where is the Devil City underground?" We all felt quite incredible.

Gu Meidi thought: "After so many years of changes, it is entirely possible that Devil City will be buried by wind and sand!"

"If it weren't for this sudden black dragon sandstorm, we might never have found where Devil City is!" I sighed and said "God bless" three times in my heart.

"Hey! I also have a lot of credit, okay?" Gan Hongxin pouted and twisted his buttocks, "If I hadn't ran over to pee just now, I wouldn't have found that piece of biotite, right?"

"Damn! Are you willing to claim credit?" Wang Dongyu rubbed his still sore ankle, "If I hadn't pierced through this hollow shell, we wouldn't be able to find the buried one even if we stood around and walked around. Devil City, this is my golden right foot!"

Professor Ye said: "Okay, stop arguing, everyone has merit, and I will reward you well when you get back. Lao Luo, you know the empty shell, and the climbing rope going down will be handed over to you to fix it!"

Lao Luo nodded, took the climbing rope and went looking for a fixed point.

Professor Ye handed me a cigarette, then bit into one himself, and puffed up: "Tuobagu, you have a lot of red spots on the back of your neck, it seems that the poison of the dark flower has deepened! "

I nodded, feeling a little melancholy in my heart.

Professor Ye blew out a smoke ring: "We will go down later, if all goes well, we can drink the holy water today and relieve the poison of the ghost flower on our body!"

"I wish!" I said.

Lao Luo whistled loudly and waved to us: "Professor Ye, you can go down!"

We walked over and surrounded the hollow shell, Professor Ye asked Lao Luo: "Are you sure there is no problem?"

Lao Luo nodded: "Don't worry, I will drive the rivet on the hard rock wall, there is absolutely no problem!"

"Okay!" Professor Ye grabbed the climbing rope, threw the rope into the hollow shell, and the rope fell into the invisible darkness below.

"Down!" Professor Ye jumped into the hollow shell without any hesitation or pause. He controlled the descender on the rope with his hands, and the pulley rolled down with a clatter. His figure quickly disappeared into the darkness. middle.

Ten seconds later, Professor Ye stood on the stone ladder hovering in the air, flashed the wolf-eyed flashlight at us above, and told us that it was safe below and we could rest assured.

The stone ladder hovering in the air is only about ten meters high from the ground, and we quickly slid down and stood on the stone ladder.

What we didn't expect was that the shape of this stone ladder is really a giant python. The giant python is hovering around and making an attack, and we are standing on the head of the giant python at the moment.The entire python is made of black mica, and even the scales on the python's body are carved lifelike.Walking on this giant python stone ladder, I couldn't help the chills down my spine.

"Come and see here!" Professor Ye leaned out half of his body, and shone the wolf-eye flashlight on the eyes of the giant python.

The eye sockets of the giant python are hollowed out, and there are two torch-shaped lamps inside. It seems that a long time ago, there must have been flames burning in the eyes of the giant python. It is conceivable that when the flames burned, the entire giant python The aura of the python is even more ferocious.

Lao Luo pulled out the stone ladder, hung one arm on the snake's head, freed up one hand, and took out the windproof lighter to light the lamp inside the snake's eye.

The lamp does not know what kind of grease is contained in it, and it is still able to burn after hundreds of thousands of years.

Then, Lao Luo ignited the lamp in the other snake's eye, and the lamps on both sides were all ignited, and the giant python's eyes soon turned blood red, which looked particularly scary.Needless to say, once the lamp was lit, the sleeping giant python seemed to come alive all of a sudden, full of vitality.

However, something even more unbelievable happened. The two beams of flames were like two streams of blood, flowing from the python's head, along the scale pattern on the giant python's body, and quickly flowing all over the giant python's body.At this time, the giant python seemed to be wearing a fiery red armor, majestic and full of kingly arrogance.

There must be flammable kerosene hidden in the scale pattern of the giant python. As long as the lamps in the snake's eyes are ignited, the kerosene on the python's body will be ignited, thus achieving such a shocking visual effect.While admiring this illusory and real giant python stone ladder, we are also amazed at the wisdom and superb construction technology of the ancients.

"Hiss... roar... hiss... roar..."

Professor Ye, who was walking in front, stopped suddenly: "Did you hear anything?"

"Hiss... roar... hiss... roar..."

We nodded to show we heard.The sound was weird, like the roar of some kind of beast, or the roar of a steam locomotive, but it was mixed with some sharp and harsh noises, anyway, it sounded very uncomfortable, and my goosebumps came out all of a sudden .

"Everyone, be careful!" Professor Ye said.

We walked down the python stone ladder slowly, and the scenery below gradually came into view.

We were surprised to find that in the depths of the surface, there is actually a hidden city, with criss-crossing main roads and row upon row of houses. The buildings here are full of strong Western style.

Lao Luo looked different, and murmured excitedly: "Devil City! This is the Devil City!"

I laughed secretly in my heart, those of us looking for holy water were not so excited, what was he excited about.

"Old Luo, you look very excited?" Gu Meidi also found that something was wrong with Lao Luo.

Lao Luo chuckled dryly: "I grew up outside the Great Wall and heard a lot of rumors about the Devil City. It's really unbelievable to be able to come to the legendary Devil City today, and I might be a little excited!"

There was no obvious problem with Lao Luo's explanation, so we naturally ignored it and wandered into the Devil City.

The arterial roads in the city are very particular. There is a relatively spacious horse path in the center, a pedestrian path on the left and right sides, and a complete drainage system on both sides of the road. It is not difficult to see that the level of civilization in Devil City has far surpassed that of other Western Regions. nation.

Devil City is very quiet, only the sound of our empty footsteps echoing.Walking on the wide street, the pictures of the prosperity of the past passed by us one by one, shouting hawkers, walking caravans, monks turning scriptures, the sound of camel bells, floating in the boundless desert, the high-spirited Brahma The song is lingering in the blue sky and white clouds, and the reflection of the castle is rippling in the emerald green lake.

But now, this beautiful fertile soil has turned into sand dunes, and the bustling picture scroll is buried in the wind and sand of the years. Only the cold wind is shuttling back and forth, making a terrifying whistling sound, as if there are countless lonely ghosts wandering wantonly , The castle was lifeless and lifeless.

After walking not far, a temple stands in front of us. This temple is beautifully built and magnificent.The temple covers an area of ​​thousands of square meters. In addition to the main hall in the middle, there are two small halls on both sides, which are connected by white jade corridors. The entire temple is in a typical western architectural style, with white as the main color. The bottom is wide and the top is round, and the pointed building dome is like a beautiful hat.

The main hall is circular, supported by nine gray and white round pillars, with tassel auspicious clouds carved on the pillars, and the roof of the hall is in the shape of an arc, more than ten meters above the ground, covered with religious painted patterns, bright colors, Eye-catching.

We retracted the wolf-eye flashlight and shone it towards the center of the hall, only to see a black statue enshrined in the center of the hall. It was a very beautiful woman with exquisite facial features, a tall hairpin coiled on her head, and an indifferent expression.She was lying naked on the side of a black python, with her head supported by her right hand wearing a bracelet, her posture was lazy and charming.The giant python wrapped itself around the woman's lower body, raised its head and spit out its core majesticly.

Logically speaking, one is a beautiful woman and the other is a terrifying giant python. Putting these two things together should create an extremely incongruous picture.But unexpectedly, this statue perfectly combined the woman and the giant python, which looked very natural without the slightest sense of abruptness.

However, what really shocked and puzzled us was that this beautiful woman had three eyes. In addition to the two curved phoenix eyes, there was also an oval-shaped eye in the center of her forehead, which resembled The Erlang God in "Fengshen Bang" gives people an indescribably weird feeling.What's even more weird is that each of the three eyes is inlaid with bright red bloodstone, and the red eyes bloom with mysterious colors in the dark.

I don't know why, although this statue is only monotonous black, without other color matching, it still looks thrillingly beautiful, especially the eye on the woman's forehead, which seems to have a kind of magic power that haunts the soul, faintly emerging With evil spirits.

We held our breath and concentrated on walking towards the statue without knowing it. At this moment, there was a crisp sound in the hall, and Han Jing's screams also reached our ears.

We were startled suddenly, and all turned our attention to Han Jing: "What happened?"

Han Jing shone the wolf-eyed flashlight on the ground, and the white light reflected her face, which was a little pale: "Skeletons! There are so many skeletons on the ground!"

When we looked down, we couldn't help but gasped. We were all focused on the statue of the three-eyed woman just now, and we didn't notice that there were white skeletons everywhere on the ground of the hall.It turned out that Han Jing accidentally stepped on a white skull just now.

(End of this chapter)