Zhou Tong Detective Series

Chapter 71 Zhou Tong Detective Series IV: The Skinner (5)
"That's right, your thinking coincides with mine. We will not investigate the clues left by the murderer." Chen Siguo looked at Yan Yongjie with admiration in his eyes.

"Since the last murder, the murderer has not committed another crime for two weeks. We must find a breakthrough as soon as possible, otherwise the next victim will appear soon." Chang Ning proposed his own response to their sudden change of direction of investigation. concerns.

"The Lhasa police have stepped up their patrols, which should buy us some time. Now we can only do our best." Chen Siguo obviously knew that they didn't have much time.

"Let's start with the first victim, Xiao Yulan." Yan Yongjie dug out the file of the first victim, Xiao Yulan, from a thick pile of materials.

The cold water droplets, like a timer, hit Zhou Tong's face "tick-tick-tick".He lay on the ground, unresponsive, as if unconscious.After an unknown amount of time, his fingers finally moved, his brows trembled, and he opened his eyes.

It was pitch black, nothing could be seen, as if blind.

He was dizzy, his bones were sore, and his clothes were wet against his skin, making him feel unspeakably uncomfortable.He remembered that he and Zhuoga walked into the mine, but they didn't go far, but felt that the hard stone under their feet suddenly turned into quicksand, and the two of them stumbled and fell down before they had time to react.

"Zhuoga! Zhuoga!..." Zhou Tong fumbled with both hands, tried to sit up, and shouted Zhuoga's name loudly.

"Zhou Tong, I'm here! Where are you?" Zhuoga's voice came from the darkness.

"Are you okay?" Zhou Tong was relieved when she heard Zhuoga's voice.

"I'm fine, how about you?" Zhuoga's voice also had a trace of joy.

"It's okay, there should be a flashlight in your bag, look for it." Zhou Tong reminded Zhuo Ga, while groping around him, hoping to find his backpack.

Both of them fell silent, the only sounds in the darkness were breathing and the sound of hands bumping against the gravel inadvertently.

After about 5 minutes, a light finally tore through the darkness and illuminated the surroundings.

Both of them spotted each other immediately.

With the help of flashlights, they quickly found all the missing backpacks and tools.

"Look where we are?" Zhou Tong also had a flashlight in his hand.

The place where they fell was a tunnel about ten meters high and three meters wide.There is a little water at the bottom of the tunnel, flowing slowly from top to bottom.

This tunnel does not know where it leads, it is winding and extending in all directions, and there is no end in sight.

"How many people came to mine back then? How long did it take?" Zhou Tong asked suddenly.

"Probably more than 30 people have been digging here for more than three months." Zhuoga replied from memory.

"Even if there are hundreds of people, it will take several years to dig such a large-scale tunnel." Zhou Tong shook his head.

"You mean that people in Sangzhu Village didn't dig this mine?" Zhuoga was deeply impressed by this place, and he would never remember the wrong location.

"They dug it up. As for the place where we are now, I'm afraid it's not the same."

Zhuoga looked at the huge tunnel beside him, and nodded in conviction.

"Let's find a way to find the exit first..." Zhou Tong wanted to go forward, but suddenly felt dizzy.

Zhuoga quickly supported him.

"Here is more hypoxic than above, you should take a rest first, altitude sickness is no joke."

"It's okay, let's walk slowly, and I don't want to move anymore after sitting down." Zhou Tong took a few deep breaths.

Seeing that he insisted, Zhuoga stopped persuading him, and the two of them held flashlights and walked carefully and slowly in the tunnel.

Fear, a kind of fear from the heart, spread in the hearts of both of them.There are no evil spirits, no birds and beasts here, only silence and depression.

Except for their breathing and footsteps, there seemed to be no other sounds, and what I saw in front of me was endless tunnels and rocks dripping with water.

They all have a feeling in their hearts that they are guinea pigs constantly pushing the wheel.They even expected something, even if it was some kind of deadly threat.

But even this expectation has not been fulfilled.

Time passed by, patience, strength and hope disappeared little by little, while boredom, fatigue and despair continued to grow.

"Don't go." Zhou Tong's breathing became heavier and heavier, and he held Zhuo Ga beside him, "We were designed by someone."

"How is it possible?" Zhuoga was stunned for a moment when he heard this.

"I'm sorry, it seems that I got you in trouble. The other party knows me well, and the game they set up is completely tailor-made for me." Zhou Tong smiled bitterly. He remembered the bits and pieces of the past few days, his own thoughts, Every decision made was within the expectations of the other party.

"I think you're thinking too much, don't worry, even if we can't find the exit now, other people will come to us..." Zhuo Ga couldn't understand and didn't believe what Zhou Tong said. Oxygen, say something crazy.

Zhou Tong also expected that it would be difficult for Zhuo Ga to believe what he said, and even he only realized it now, but he had to explain it to Zhuo Ga now.

"Liang Xiaowu's death was not a coincidence. The time, place, and method of death were carefully planned by the murderer. The old Tibetan mother who appeared that night was probably arranged by the murderer. He did so much to lure us here."

"...Bring us here? Why?" After all, Zhuoga had also worked as a criminal police officer for many years, so he understood a little bit, but he still had some doubts that he couldn't explain.

"There will be an answer to this soon, but obviously the other party didn't want our lives, otherwise we would have died long ago." Zhou Tong found a relatively dry stone wall at this time, and sat down against it.

Zhuoga looked at Zhou Tong in astonishment, half-believing in his heart, his hand holding the flashlight shook slightly involuntarily, the dazzling light shone on the strangely shaped rocks, like a group of demons dancing wildly.

"Zhou Tong really deserves to be Zhou Tong." At this moment, a piercing strange sound echoed in the tunnel.

Zhuoga immediately instinctively pulled out his gun, and looked for the source of the sound by the light of the flashlight.

"Don't bother, the other party is not here." Zhou Tong was not surprised at all, and said in a flat tone.

Zhuoga carefully checked both ends of the tunnel, but he did not see anyone nearby.

"Since you have spoken, don't waste time, just speak up!" Zhou Tong said loudly, taking out mineral water from his bag, took a few sips, and then threw the water bottle to Zhuoga.

Seeing that Zhou Tong was calm and composed, Zhuoga seemed ridiculously nervous, he couldn't be worse than a child.Thinking of this, he put away his gun and drank water as if nothing had happened.

"Okay...okay..." The strange voice continued, "Don't you want to know the purpose of my leading you here? You go to the right, and when you encounter the first fork, take the left one, and the second fork. In the middle, take the third fork to the right, and finally go straight and you will arrive.”

"let's go.".

"Do you really want to do what he says? Will..." Zhuoga still hesitated.

"Instead of sitting here, why don't you walk around and have a look." Zhou Tong patted Zhuoga on the shoulder.

"Hehe..." The strange voice let out another harsh dry laugh.

Zhou Tong and Zhuoga walked through the tunnel according to the method the man said. After passing the third fork, it turned out to be a straight tunnel.Not far along the straight road, at the end illuminated by the light of the torch, a rusty copper door appeared.

The five beasts of eagle, elephant, horse, dog and peacock are carved on the bronze door, which are horrifying and hideous in shape, exuding an evil spirit.

"This place is really evil." Zhuoga felt that it was unbelievable that there was such a copper door in this kind of tunnel.

Zhou Tong nodded and said: "Be careful, let's go in and have a look."

The two walked to the iron gate, Zhou Tong tried to push the copper gate, but found that the gate was locked.

"Judging from the stains, this bronze door probably has a history of nearly a thousand years." Zhuoga touched the bronze door, and his surprise deepened.

Zhou Tong was also full of curiosity at this time, holding a flashlight, he began to look for a way to open the door.

No keyholes could be found on the copper door, and the joints between the four sides and the rock were very tight. From a distance, it looked like a copper door, but from a close look, it looked like a copper wall.

"How to open this door?" Zhuoga shouted at the top of his voice, thinking that since the strange man attracted them, he would naturally open this door.

But apart from empty echoes, there was no answer.

"It seems that we need to rely on ourselves to open this door." Zhou Tong smiled.

"The man attracted us, shouldn't we let us open this door for him? If so, don't be fooled by him. Judging from the age of this door, it can already be regarded as an antique, and the things inside the door are probably even more terrible. , maybe the other party is a dealer in cultural relics..." Zhuo Ga was thinking about it for a while, and began to guess wildly.Although he has worked as a criminal police officer for more than ten years, he has never encountered such a bizarre case, and all his encounters have completely exceeded his imagination.

Zhou Tong laughed when he heard the words, stopped quickly, and said: "That's not the case, the lock of this door is a shadowless lock. Although it is a bit tricky, it is not difficult to open. The other party's purpose of attracting us is not. It will be that simple."

"Wuying lock? How do you know these things?" Zhuoga almost couldn't close his mouth.

"It's a long story, let's unlock it first." Zhou Tong smiled and said nothing, but his hands began to grope on the statue of the bronze door.

Holding the flashlight, Zhuoga stared, standing behind Zhou Tong and watching, for fear of missing something.But after only a short while, he didn't see any tricks, only heard a "crack", and the bronze door opened in response.

Behind the copper door, a large circular secret room appeared in front of the two people.

The secret room is full of boxes, and the boxes are full of scriptures.The two of them visually inspected and found that there were hundreds of boxes of scriptures stored in the secret room.On the walls on both sides of the room, there are thirteen weird portraits carved, each of which has its own posture.There are also words engraved under the portraits, all in Tibetan.In addition, on the zenith of the secret room, there are also inscriptions, also in Tibetan, densely packed, with more than a thousand words.

"Looking at the situation here, it seems to be some kind of religious repository. Brother Zhuoga, what are these words written in?" Zhou Tong asked first, pointing to the words under the portraits in front of him.

Zhuoga held up the flashlight, and said one by one from left to right: "Nankan Ningbu can ride the sun; The dead body has been beheaded; Baijiye Xiefei is a slave; Baiji Sengge is sent by the demon; Vairocana has wisdom eyes; Wuqiong Luo can capture flying birds; Zheng Bananka pulls a bison from Jiang; Wang Qiu enters the water like a fish."

"It sounds like these people can insert wooden pegs into cliffs, catch birds in the air, pull bison, and cast out ghosts and gods as slaves?"

"Well, that's what it means. As far as I know, these people are all the legendary "Great Achievers" in Tibetan Buddhist Esoteric Buddhism—thirteen monarchs and ministers." Zhuoga's face became a little weird.

"These people really don't look like Buddhism at all. They can't see any realization of Buddhist prajna wisdom, but they use these supernatural and witchcraft as their way and great achievement. I think the so-called esoteric religion is what we often call heresy!" Zhou Tong shook his head and said.

Zhuoga nodded in agreement, and said: "I grew up in Tibetan areas, and I only knew a little about secret religion by listening to stories and legends told by old people. I didn't expect it to exist. Reading these scriptures, it should be recorded esoteric scriptures."

"What do the words on the top say?" Zhou Tong raised his flashlight, raised his head, and asked, pointing at the densely packed words on the top of the secret room.

Zhuoga took a closer look, but due to the age, many inscriptions have been blurred, and there are some Tibetan characters that he has never seen before, and it took a lot of effort to barely understand.

"It records the story of Padmasambhava, the founder of Esoteric Buddhism, and the origin of this secret chamber."

"Tell me about it." Zhou Tong couldn't wait.

Zhuoga was silent for a while, because the records on the top of the wall were scattered and obscure, and it was quite difficult to translate into Chinese. He thought for a long time before he organized it in his heart, and said: "Lianhuasheng, the Sanskrit name Baimasangbawa , which means 'Lotus and Peanut', was the son of 'Indibra', the prince of Wuzhena. He studied Tantra in Sahuluo, the center of Tantra in India at that time. , became famous. Therefore, the Tibetan King Trisong Detsen sent an envoy to India to welcome Guru Rinpoche. On the way to Tubo, Rinpoche subdued eight ghosts and gods, including plague gods, mountain gods, earth gods, native gods, The wandering gods, the dragon gods, the one-legged ghosts, and the worshiping ghosts showed their supernatural power. Chisong Dezan waited for the arrival of Padmasambhava in Songkar after receiving the news. But after the meeting, there was a dispute over the prostration. Lianhuasheng It is believed that although the Tibetan king Chisong Dezan was also transformed by Manjusri Bodhisattva, he was born as a royal family, but he still has the mystery of separation from the shadows, and his sins and karma in this life have not been purified, and he has not been liberated from life and death. And he is also a prince and has achieved Complete liberation can transcend all life and death in the world. Therefore, the king of Tibet cannot surpass me no matter in the law of the world or in the law of the world. Therefore, the king of Tibet should bow to himself! But the king of Tibet, Trisong Detsen, has another idea in his heart : I am the king of Tubo, and even Master Jihu Lun saluted me, and Guru Lianhuasheng should also bow to me! The two refused to give in to each other, and they were at a stalemate. Lianhuasheng was furious at this time, and suddenly raised his hand as a gesture He made a handprint, and a flame spewed out of the handprint, which burned Zanpu's robe. Trisong Dezan's monarch and ministers felt very scared, and immediately bowed to Rinpoche. From then on, Lianhuasheng began to spread tantra in Tibet Dharma. When he practiced the method, in order to welcome the ghosts and gods who protect the Dharma, he needed to build a mandala and buy offerings. Rinpoche placed the human head on the shelf, spread the human internal organs and stretched human skin on the ground, and sprinkled human blood on the On the pyramid made of skeletons, wine mixed with five meats and five nectars was used to support the ghosts and gods who were enslaved by him. All this caused panic at the time. Chisong Dezan and the Tubo ministers were afraid that Padmasambhava's spell would endanger the dynasty , secretly invited eminent monks to seal Padmasambhava with the supreme Dharma. Before Padmasambhava was sealed, he had an unknown premonition, so he buried a large number of esoteric scriptures in the rocks to spread to future generations. This is the "terma" of esoteric religion , that is, the secret room we are staying in now."

After finishing speaking, Zhuoga swallowed, even he himself couldn't believe that they are now in the "terma" of the secret religion.

Zhou Tong was also speechless for a while. He suddenly heard these stories about Tibetan esoteric religion, and it took time to digest them.But what puzzled him the most was the person who was manipulating all this behind the scenes, why did he go to such lengths to bring himself here?

Just when they were all puzzled, the strange sound came from nowhere.

"I brought you here because I hope you can help me undo the seal of Padmasambhava."

Zhou Tong froze for a moment when he heard the words, did he meet a lunatic this time?This kind of legend can also be taken seriously, even if this person is not crazy, he is also a fanatical religious believer!But this was just his momentary thought, and after thinking about it carefully, he felt something was wrong.This person can't be a lunatic, and he doesn't look like a person who has lost his mind. He can arrange the situation so carefully that he even designed himself and Zhuoga to come instead of others.Because for any other person, it is impossible for a Tibetan like Zhuoga to know about secret religion.All arrangements, every step, there is no accidental element, all in his design, this person is really scary to make people's hair stand on end.

Although he was furious in his heart, Zhou Tong remained calm on the surface, and instead said with a smile: "I think you have found the wrong person this time. I am an atheist who has been educated in Marxism for many years, and I don't know much magic. To unseal the seal, you should find an eminent monk, but there is none here, I recommend you to go to Mount Wutai..."

"Zhou Tong, don't play tricks on me." The strange voice interrupted Zhou Tong, "You don't have to believe in secret religion, but you can't be disrespectful!"

"How do you want us to help?" Zhou Tong was still unbelieving and disrespectful in his heart, but he still put away his smile and asked curiously.

(End of this chapter)