Daomu Biji

I wiped the snowdrops from my eyes. I didn't know where I was for a while. I only felt the sharp stone on my back, and Ye Chengcheng was below me, shouting.

I calmed down and subconsciously looked to see what Ye Cheng was afraid of. Looking down carefully, I found that we were now leaning on a steep rocky slope, five or six meters away from the bottom of the slope, and the rope hanging from our waist was When we reached a rock corner, we didn't roll down directly. The bottom of the slope was covered with snow and stones that had just slipped down with us. Several black and slender claws were exposed in the snow pile.

I felt suffocated, and unconsciously pressed my back against the stone behind me. Looking along my paws, I could see something looming in the snowdrift, coiled around a black thing about the thickness of a bucket, and its link-shaped body was covered with scales. , some were hidden in the snow, and some were exposed outside the snow. At first glance, I thought they were hibernating snakes, but upon closer inspection, they looked like centipedes.

This thing is motionless against the stone. I don't know whether it is dead or alive. I can't see its head and tail, and I don't know how long it is.

I was wondering, this was above the snow line, and there were very few living creatures. What kind of creature was this? Looking at those centipede-like claws and its size, I felt instinctively uncomfortable.

Pan Zi insisted on going down, but Ye Cheng kept yelling. The fat man also saw what was down there. He made a ball of snow next to him and hit Ye Cheng on the back of the head. He cursed softly: "Take it easy for me." You want to wake him up?!"

I looked around. This should be a small closed valley filled with avalanches, but because the stones here were piled too messy, a lot of bubbles were produced. The fat man walked up to it and broke the fragile snow layer in one fell swoop. All of a sudden, it caused a chain reaction and the snow layer suddenly collapsed. As a result, we all were brought down by him.

The snow above is still collapsing. Many times after such a landslide, the surrounding snow will gather together like quicksand and rebury the collapsed area. This process is extremely fast. Many mountain expedition teams are here. In such a situation, the entire team will disappear in a matter of seconds.

Fortunately, this time the snow on the edge was still relatively strong. This may be because we were tied together with ropes and pulled down one by one. The surrounding snow was rolled flat by us and did not cause the whole piece to collapse.

This is the leeward side, the wind is obviously much lighter, and it is not as cold as before. I was able to take a few breaths, carefully sit up, and move down a few steps. Although it was very steep here, the surface of the slope was covered with gravel. Some were as big as the front of a Jiefang truck, and some were only as big as a table tennis ball. , climbing is very convenient, and it is not difficult to go up or down.

Pan Zi and Men You Ping had already untied the rope. Since they were not far from the bottom, they jumped down with the snow and rolled to the bottom of the slope.

The two people climbed up quietly and touched the black thing one after another.

Our hearts suddenly rose to our throats.

After walking a few steps, Menyouping and Pan Zi both straightened up and relaxed obviously. Panzi looked at Menyouping, shrugged his shoulders, and made a gesture for us to come down.

We were surprised that the fat man untied the rope and rolled down. The oil bottle had already swept away the snow on the stone sculpture. It turned out that it was a stone dragon lying on the stone cliff. It was carved from black stone. It's so vivid that if it were hidden in the snow, you wouldn't be able to see it.

We went down one after another. When Chen Pi Asi saw the stone carving, his face changed obviously. He was unsteady and asked Monk Hua to help him. He walked straight to the Moya stone carving and started touching it.

This dragon is different from other dragons. There are countless centipede-like legs carved on its body. It is obviously not a carving from the Central Plains, but should be an alienated dragon from the nearby nomadic people.

The fat man asked me: "Why is this dragon so ugly? It looks like a worm and looks extremely evil. It is much uglier than the one on the dragon wall of the Forbidden City. It must have been damaged."

Monk Hua said: "Don't talk nonsense if you don't understand. This is a hundred-legged dragon, not a dragon. The early dragon carvings of the Eastern Xia Kingdom all looked like this. In the early days of China, ancient Chinese dragons had very different shapes. The dragon also has a pig’s nose, that’s not surprising.”

The evolution of the Chinese dragon is very long. At the beginning, the dragon crawled on all sides. Just find a beast head and put it on a snake to become a dragon. At that time, each tribe had its own dragon totem, and each tribe evolved separately. In the end, the dragon form Also different. Later, with the spread of Han culture and the great integration of Yi and Xia cultures, the image of the Han dragon began to mix with the dragons of various ethnic minority tribes. In the end, the dragons gradually unified into the Panlong that they are now.

This centipede dragon is a mixture of a dragon and a centipede, but I don’t know why. Looking at an ordinary dragon with so many arthropod legs under its body, not only does it not give people a majestic feeling, but it makes people feel very... It's uncomfortable and feels a little weird.

The fat man listened to Monk Hua's introduction and said with a smile: "Brother Scar, I don't see that you are quite literary, so this stone should be from the Eastern Xia Kingdom?"

Monk Hua looked at the stone carvings, then looked up at the top of the hillside, wondering: "That's right, but where did this stone with the dragon carving come from?"

It was getting dark at this time. We each turned on our flashlights and swept all the snow off the stone with our hands. We found that the stone was almost a huge flat plate five meters high and three meters wide, leaning against a rocky slope on one side. The stone is extremely smooth and black, which is obviously different from other stones here.

I looked at the traces at the fracture of the stone and said, "It may have collapsed from above. Grandpa Si is right. The place we are going to is still above. You see, the shape of this dragon is asymmetrical. This is a double dragon play." Pearl, such a stone carving should have one side, usually carved on a stone door, one on each side."

Chen Pi Asi coughed and said feebly: "Fart, half-informed, loud words, what a stone gate, this is the sealing stone in the tomb passage."

As he said that, he pointed to the dragon's mouth. Monk Hua immediately went over, put his hand into the dragon's mouth, and pulled out a black iron chain as thick as his wrist. The fat man looked at it and said, "Oh, it's done. The dragon's intestines are here." You pulled it out."

Chen Pi Asi said, "This is the horse chain used to pull the sealing stone when sealing the tomb. This side is the inward side."

I blushed at what he said and looked around: "Ah, indeed, I was wrong, but why did Feng Shi appear here?"

Monk Hua pulled hard on the iron chain, but the stone did not move at all. A trace of doubt flashed across Chen Pi's face. He shook his head and looked up. I let out a sigh in my heart. I knew what he was worried about. If this sealing stone It also collapsed from above, which means that the tomb passage above is seriously damaged. Even if we find it, can we still go in?

The wind and snow were raging above my head, and it was almost dark. I looked at my watch and wondered when the snowstorm was going to blow.

The discovery of this stone sculpture increased our confidence in finding the Heavenly Palace, but I didn’t know whether to be happy or depressed. Monk Hua took a photo of the stone sculpture. Chen Pi Asi recovered and asked us to take care of our own things first. Take a rest, it's just sheltered from the wind. Let's talk about anything after the wind stops.

We sorted out the equipment, and Monk Hua went to take care of the wounded soldier. I was rummaging through things, and he ran over and told me that there was some trouble. Shunzi was basically unresponsive.

We put Shunzi down and shook his head. He could only give a dull grunt and was confused. At a glance, we knew he was suffering from hypothermia.

"We have to light a fire, otherwise he won't last long." Pan Zi came over and said. "If you fall asleep, you won't be able to wake up."

I looked around and saw that there was no firewood at all. If I wanted to start a fire, I might burn the sledge. However, going up the snow-capped mountains requires a lot of equipment. Without a sledge, I might not be able to walk down the road below.

Monk Hua looked at Chen Pi's Si, obviously he didn't dare to make the decision himself. The latter's face was very gloomy. I don't know if it was because of the cold or something. He frowned and said, "Don't let him die for the time being. I have other things to do." ask him."

I breathed a sigh of relief. Monk Hua unloaded the things on the sledge and prepared to pull out the wooden slats to use as firewood. However, the sledge was now soaked with snow. I didn’t know if I could light it yet. Just when I was worried, I suddenly smelled a smell of sulfur.

I don't know where this smell came from, so I asked Monk Hua to stay still while I stood up and smelled it carefully. Others also smelled it at the same time and stopped what they were doing. The fat man took a deep breath and said, "Comrades, it seems to smell like a hot spring!"

Chen Pi Asi winked at Ye Cheng and Lang Feng and asked them to go out to look for them. Fatty picked up his backpack and said he was going, but all three of them were stopped by Pan Zi. Fatty asked what they were doing, and Pan Zi pointed at the stuffy oil bottle with his chin. , said: "Why panic, don't forget that we have experts here."

At this time, Menyou Ping had already leaned down and touched the stones underneath one by one with his two unusually long fingers. He suddenly frowned, said "Huh?" and turned to the side of the hundred-legged coiled dragon sealing stone.

We came to the Panlong Stone. There was no smell here just now, but now the smell of sulfur is very obvious. Menyouping touched the faucet, looked behind the stone, put his hand on the faucet, pressed it, and said, "Strange, the back of the faucet is empty."