Tomb Raider: From the Dragon Ridge Cave

Inside the mountain god temple.

The temple was not big, and the main hall was already full of plants. What surprised them the most was that there was a statue on the altar of the temple, and the statue had fallen.

It was an unusual black-faced god! The black-faced god had no expression on his face, his eyes were slightly closed, and his body was also a black clay robe. Although he was arched off the throne and fell into the corner by the vines, he still gave people a feeling of coldness and majesty.

Everyone was also frightened by this cold statue at the first time. There was an indescribable mystery, as if staring at them.

Next to the clay statue of the mountain god were two clay mountain ghosts, both with green faces and fangs, like yakshas. The one on the left held a fiery red gourd, and the one on the right held a toad in both hands.

When Hu Ba saw this, he suddenly realized something and said,"Yes, it turns out that the toad and gourd are the things of the mountain god. I just don't know what the mountain god wants these two things for."

Everyone couldn't explain it.

The fat man joked,"Maybe they use gourds to hold wine, and eat toads as snacks while drinking. I like this, too, but I eat frog legs."

Hu Bayi ignored him, and felt that the mountain temple was desolate and overgrown with weeds. For some reason, he couldn't help but feel emotional, and thought of the days when he just changed his job and was so poor that he bought watches on the streets of Yanjing with the fat man.

Hu Bayi felt uncomfortable and couldn't help but sigh:

"The mountain god is supposed to be a god who protects the area. If a temple is built, it should be worshipped with incense and offerings. But now it is like this, it is a scene of desolation. It is really a matter of rise and fall. Even the mountain god has a hard time, not to mention the common people. It is indeed the same as yin and yang, success and failure are the same."

Shirley Yang teased:

"Old Hu, you have said so many things, are you up to something again? Do you want to worship?"

Hu Ba shook his head and said,"There is no need to worship. Let's push this fallen clay statue back to its original place and offer a cigarette to the mountain god. Let him bless us to have a smooth trip and avoid any mishaps."

Although they are tomb robbers, they are not superstitious at all. In addition to the rules set by their ancestors, they don't care about the blessing of ghosts and gods. Otherwise, how can they do tomb robbing?

So the fat man on the side laughed and said,"If this grandson of the mountain god is really effective, how come he can't even protect himself? In my opinion, it's best to let this grandson lie down. As the saying goes, nothing tastes better than dumplings, and standing is not as good as lying down. Let's go and take a look at the back."

When Hu Ba saw that no one was willing to help, he had to give up and followed everyone into the back hall.

After entering the back hall, everyone found that this back hall had been built inside the mountain on the left side of the Insect Valley. It was narrower than the front hall. In the middle was a green stone screen with a painting of the mountain god on it. The figure was similar to the clay sculpture in the main hall, but it was blurry and his appearance could not be seen clearly. There were no mountain ghosts on both sides.

Qin Yan suddenly wondered:"This stone screen does not seem to be artificially carved, but a naturally generated texture."

"Natural?!"

Everyone heard this and quickly gathered around to watch. As Qin Yan said, the image on the stone screen was naturally generated, not artificially painted.

Everyone couldn't help but exclaim in amazement and continued to check the back hall.

However, apart from this peculiar stone screen with a natural mountain god pattern, there was nothing special in the back hall, so everyone turned around the green stone screen and came to the end of the temple. The end of the temple was gloomy and dark. When everyone looked carefully, they suddenly found nine huge stone statues of toads lined up horizontally.

The big toads were very big and had a very strange appearance. They looked quite scary at the end of the gloomy temple. Fortunately, it was daytime now. If they came in at night, everyone would definitely be scared by these vivid big toads.

Compared with the surprise of others, Hu Bayi's eyes suddenly lit up and he exclaimed:

"As expected, it fulfilled the number of"Nine Bends and Loops". This mechanism is obvious to those who understand the"Yi Long Jing". If you don't understand the essence of Feng Shui secrets and only know the Yi Jing Bagua, you will most likely treat it as the number of Nine Palaces, and you will never find the secret passage in your life."

Everyone was delighted to hear this, and hurriedly looked at the big toads carefully. They saw the big mouths of the nine stone toads, some opened and some closed, and the toad heads were facing different directions. They didn't see anything, so they all looked at Hu Bayi.

Qin Yan and Zhang Qiling naturally knew the mystery of it, but as long as other people could see it, they would never say a word.

Hu Bayi carefully observed the big toad for a while, and then said:

"The mouths of these stone toads can move, and there are stone troughs that can turn their bodies in all directions. In addition to the opening and closing of the toad mouth, it would take some effort to calculate how many different arrangements there are."

"Moreover, these stone mechanisms should be pushed one by one from left to right in order. If they are moved randomly and the correct position is not adjusted three times in a row, the mechanism will be completely stuck."

After hearing this, the others did not dare to move the big toads, and Hu Bayi operated them.

Hu Bayi asked Fatty to help, and according to the number of nine turns, from left to right, he opened and closed the toad mouths separately:

"Then we used the"Shield" scroll in the"Sixteen-Character Yin-Yang Feng Shui Secret Art" and the conversion formula in the"Yi Long Jing" to arrange the stone toads one by one in the corresponding positions."

Under Hu Bayi's command, everyone quickly completed these tasks.

But to everyone's surprise, there was no reaction in the inner hall.

Hu Bayi was a little confused and couldn't help scratching his head:

"It is said that this"Nine Bends and Turns to the Mountain Shore" should be correct, so why is there no secret door opened?"

Others could not explain it.

Just when everyone was full of doubts, Qin Yan, who had amazing hearing, heard the sound of a stone door opening outside the mountain temple, so he said:"There is movement outside the temple." Upon hearing this, everyone hurriedly turned around and went outside to look for it.

After leaving the mountain temple, they saw that the fire gourd in front of the temple had been split into two halves at some point.

Everyone walked closer in surprise and saw a stone door suddenly exposed below.

This stone door was built into the shape of a toad's mouth, flat and short, and also made of fiery red ochre. It was engraved with some simple patterns, and there were two large copper rings on the left and right, which could be pulled up.

Hu Bayi suddenly realized:"It turns out that this mechanism is designed ingeniously. Even if someone knows that the nine toads are the mechanism to open the stone door, as long as they don't know how to crack it, they can't find the entrance outside even if they knock and blow randomly."

"King Xian is indeed a genius. He is well versed in mechanical engineering and has designed it so cleverly."

Qin Yan continued,"King Xian is more than a genius. You see, he designed a gourd that has been burning for a thousand years. In addition to the function of worshiping the mountain god, there is another purpose, which is to prevent someone from accidentally breaking the gourd and breaking in. With this layer of fire, who would have thought that the entrance is in the fire?!"

After listening to the analysis of the two, everyone was impressed by King Xian's wisdom.

However, now that the entrance has been found, everyone has begun to get excited. They packed up their things and prepared to go in.

At this time, Shirley Yang asked,"This stone door is built very strangely. Why does it look like a toad's mouth? I don't know what's inside. Is there really a tunnel leading to the main tomb?"

Qin Yan replied,"The mark on the tomb-suppressing genealogy is correct. This should be an underground passage, and it must lead to the acupoint star position closest to the water dragon halo. It seems that the only way to reach the Minglou for worship is to pass through here. As for why the toad is used as a mark, I can't guess it."

Hu Ba nodded and said:

"Toads have many symbolic meanings in ancient China.

There is a kind of New Year painting that depicts a fat kid holding a fishing rod, hanging a coin and playing with a three-legged toad.

It is called Liu Haier playing with the golden toad.

The saying that a three-legged toad is hard to find is derived from this allusion.

However, in some places, the traditional customs deliberately highlight the toxicity of toads.

However, the two toad stone statues opposite us now have neither three legs nor warts on their bodies.

They may just be the toys of the mountain god.

"

The fat man was not afraid of anything when he heard that he could offer sacrifices to the king's tomb. He smiled and said:

"At worst, we might run into a big toad down there. We are not afraid of it with a few of us here. Even if the toad ancestor comes, we will kill him."

Qin Yan was also fearless. He was worried about the others. He didn't want anyone to get hurt here, so he reminded them:

"The tomb of King Xian is very well-prepared. Although this stone door is extremely well-hidden, there is no guarantee that there are any powerful mechanisms inside. After we go down, we can fight back against any enemy and block any water with earth. There is no need to be afraid."

At this time, everyone was ready. Fatty and Hu Bayi passed a rope through the copper ring on one side of the stone door and lifted it up.