Tomb Raiders Codex

Chapter 456 Petrification
I said: "Zongzi is dead and can't die anymore, commit suicide." In a blink of an eye, only our group of people were left on the top of the stone steps, and a strange picture formed in my mind, the dark underground world In the movie, a group of zongzi came from the darkness, climbed to the highest point of the stone steps, and finally jumped down and climbed up again.

This scene reminded me of Death Loop.

The cycle of death is a folk superstition. It means that some wandering ghosts cannot be reincarnated for some reason, so they stay in the place where they died, repeating the scene when they died. For example, such a scene is described in many ghost stories: a certain building There was a person who committed suicide by jumping off the building, and later at night, some people who came back late occasionally saw someone jumping off the building, but in fact nothing happened.

But now, another batch of zongzi is walking towards us, and everyone dare not touch them. They dodge to the edge of the stone steps, watching their blurred faces go to the top of the stone steps, and then jump down again, so back and forth, weird extreme.

In the end, Zhuan Rui set his eyes on the sarcophagus-like thing on the top of the stone steps, and without speaking, he only gestured for us to go up.After a while, everyone stood at the highest point of the stone steps. What surprised us was that I thought the end of the stone steps should be connected to the top, but the reality is the opposite of what I imagined.The other side of this stone step is not connected to the mountain wall, but suspended in the air. On the other side of it, there is also a stone step spreading downwards. The two stone steps are like an inverted V. The middle point is the where we are now.

I couldn't help but be amazed, you know, this underground space is very vast, and this V is also very deep, the only support point is that every hundred meters or so there will be a big pillar submerged in the darkness, such a building structure, the ancient Yao Fang How do people do it?
What's the use of them building such a place?
According to the vastness of this cave, I am sure that it must not be excavated by manpower, it is probably a natural product such as Tiankeng.

What we mistakenly thought was a sarcophagus, when we took a closer look, we found that it was not a coffin, but a stone bed, with animal patterns carved around it, giving people a mysterious and ancient feeling. With these ancient reliefs and characters, I seem to be able to imagine what kind of country Yaofang is.They must have their own unique beliefs and civilizations. There were many such countries in the Xia and Shang Dynasties for thousands of years. Most of them ended up being annexed and sinicized, and finally formed the various ethnic groups today. .

It is not known exactly why Yaofang was destroyed, but judging from the palace above, it is very likely that it was destroyed by war.

The stone bed in front of me is exquisite in shape, meticulously carved, and the stone is off-white. Since I don't know much about the stone, I can't tell what it is made of, but the texture of the tentacles is relatively hard.At this time, Tofu suddenly stretched out his hand to measure it, and said: "This stone bed is too short, about 1.5 meters, how can it sleep people? Could it be that the people of Yaofang Kingdom are all dwarfs?"

Zhang Wen said: "This is not a bed, but a sacrificial altar. Look at the reliefs on it. They are carved with scenes of sacrificing these strange beasts. I suspect that this underground tiankeng is a sacrificial place in ancient Yaofang."

As we were talking, Zhong Gong suddenly pointed to the dark place on our right hand and said, "There seems to be something there." At the junction with the darkness, there seems to be something vaguely, only a huge black shadow, and the specific outline cannot be seen clearly.

I signaled everyone to gather all the searchlights in one place, so that the light was much stronger. Suddenly, I found that there was a lonely circular platform about 40 meters away from the stone steps.

The platform was independently supported by a large pillar, standing alone in the darkness, showing its unique status.

The circular platform was incompatible with the surrounding gray, white and darkness, and was painted red, looking bloody, shocking and eye-catching.In the center of the platform, there was a dead body wearing a mask sitting upright. I don't know if it was a coincidence, but the front of the dead body happened to be facing us, as if it had been staring at us in the dark before.

But soon I realized that it was not facing us, but the stone bed next to us.

The man was also in the state of a mummified corpse, covered with a layer of white leather, which has been well preserved and has not rotted.On the outside of the leather thing, there is a black-brown feather cape, which looks like eagle feathers.Everyone stared at the old corpse sitting cross-legged, feeling extremely weird.

Death is actually a rather painful process. Most people die of illness in the end, and some die accidentally or commit suicide. Only a small number of people will "go to bed". The so-called end of life is a painless natural death Many elderly people die unknowingly in their sleep.

In traditional culture, going to bed is actually a very good wish. Although Chinese people avoid talking about death, they also understand that death is inevitable, so dying is actually a blessing.There have always been very few people who go to bed, but most of these people are practitioners.There is often such a plot in TV dramas, saying that a certain master of cultivation, such as a Taoist priest or an eminent monk, had a premonition that he was going to die, and calmly ordered the funeral, closed his eyes, and then said that he would die, no A little bit of pain, just sitting like this and dying.

In fact, this kind of thing is not an artistic exaggeration, it is an unsolved mystery. In the traditional mysterious culture, this kind of calm and peaceful passing phenomenon is called sitting.And the corpse in front of us is obviously not a death in the traditional sense, it should be an old corpse sitting in bed, but his appearance in this place is really puzzling.

Zhang Wen analyzed: "He has a feather cape. I think he should be the high priest of Gu Yaofang. Look at that mask, what does it look like?"

I saw that the mask on the man's face had a pure black base, double fish eyes, shaped like water droplets, a very high nose with a hook, shaped like an eagle's beak, and the most peculiar thing was his mouth, which had no outline of lips , but a circle of spiral patterns of white lines.It reminded me of the swirls I saw earlier in the hall above.

What does this spiral mean?

At this time, Tofu suggested, "Why don't we go and have a look?"

I find it strange that Tofu always proposes to take a detour when encountering this kind of thing. Why does it want to join in today?Seeing my puzzled look, Tofu swallowed and said, "Anyway, I don't want to see Zongzi commit suicide anymore, let's make a quick decision."

Zhuan Rui took out the corpse-binding rope and the Yin-detecting claws. The combination of the two has always been a sharp weapon for tomb robbers to extract corpses.Zhuan Rui took aim, shot the Yin-exploring claw first, hooked the neck of the corpse accurately, and then the corpse-binding rope connected to the Yin-exploring claw would slide down along the Yin-exploring claw, and finally caught it body.

Zhuanrui closed the lock immediately, and the corpse rope was tightly wrapped around the waist of the ancient corpse. We were about to pull the corpse over, but when I exerted force, we found that the corpse was motionless, as if it had been nailed On that platform in general.

There were only two ropes and one corpse, so the others didn't help, so Zhuan Rui and I prepared to pull the corpse over. Who knew that with the strength of the two of us, the corpse was as stable as Mount Tai. Tight, something was squeezed out of the leather on the chest of the corpse.

It was a brownish yellow thing, and since only a little protruded, most of it was hidden behind the leather, so we couldn't see what it was in his arms.Zhang Wen said: "Looking at how he put it close to his body, it must be something important. This man is a priest of Yao Fang, and the things on his body must be unusual. We have to find a way to get it over and have a look."

I said: "The corpse can't be pulled, and even if it is pulled over, the thing will definitely fall."

Tofu didn't believe in evil, and said how a mummy could not move. He pushed me away, twisted the rope with both hands and exerted great strength, but the corpse remained motionless.

Everyone was at a loss for what to do for a while, the corpse was sitting there upright, how could it not move?
Know-it-all guessed, "Isn't it petrochemical?"
Tofu didn't understand, so he asked, "I've only heard of fossils, which take tens of thousands of years to form, but I haven't heard of petrification. What does petrification mean?"

I have heard of petrochemicals, and I have seen related reports in the news before, saying that there is an ancient village in the mountains in the northwestern part of Shaanxi, where there is a bad habit called "dixian burial". An ancient custom that has been passed down for a long time is that if the elderly live to the age of 88 and have not died, they will be buried with immortals.That is to say, the children choose a place for the old man to become a fairy, carry the living old man to that place, dig a huge earth pit tomb, put the old man in it, and then cover the pit with the stone slabs laid in advance.

The old man couldn't get out inside, and starved to death inside within a few days.This vulgar custom is extremely cruel in our opinion. At that time, some adventure friends entered this village by accident. After discovering that there is such a terrible custom in this place, they immediately notified the local city-level news reporter.

But what is strange is that the elderly in these villages speak for their children and grandchildren instead, and they don't think that their children are disobedient, and even take it for granted.Later, after analysis by folklorists, the reason why this appalling custom was born in the local area and has been passed down for so long is actually closely related to the local historical conditions.

(End of this chapter)