Chapter 8: Ancient Artifacts
In the depths of the mountains in the cold winter, the herbs are extremely difficult to collect. Yun Yi climbed along the mountain path for a morning, and only collected a little bit of dry and rotten plant roots. Extending the desolate path and continuing to walk deep into the mountains, the already gloomy sky is not beautiful at this time, and the flying snowflakes cover the mountains and forests, Yun Yi wanted to turn around and go back, and a bright red red flower in the opposite mountain stream attracted the heart of Ben Yi to return.
The mountains lose their lush greenery and reveal their dull bodies, the dry weeds slanted and folded under the breeze, and the rocks protruding from the ground face are like sharp blades worn away in the wind. After an hour of climbing, we finally reached the top of the mountain, and the snowflakes drifted harder and harder, and the cold became more and more bone-chilling.
Standing on the top of the mountain and looking down at the bottom of the mountain is like an abyss, and a turbulent river at the bottom of the valley stirs up white waves in the flow. The originally yellowed mountains are particularly cold under the heavy snowfall. The two little hands shrunk into the sleeves and turned red, and the cold wind blew like sharp blades across the face. Yun Yi clasped his hands on his knees and gasped for breath, looking up at the bright red flowers blooming like blood in the opposite cliff, it was not an ordinary herb that could grow on this cold and biting cliff, and such a very good bright red flower was definitely not an ordinary herb.
Thinking of this, Yun Yi made up his mind to pick it, and approached the smooth mountain wall into the cliff. The sharp and sharp wall is like a wall full of steel knives, and each small step of rock climbing requires a lot of physical strength and perseverance. Looked down at the feet and hurriedly withdrew his eyes, and the thousands of feet under his feet went straight into the river. The red flowers outside the second chapter swayed in the wind on the steep cliff wall, like a beautiful girl dancing on the cliff, attracting this strong child.
The hard work paid off, and finally this flower blooming on the steep cliff revealed his original true face. In front of this child who was not afraid of hardships, it was a hundred-year-old ginseng with ten silver coins, and Yun Yi grabbed it and pulled it out of the rock crack. His heart was laughing and joyful, his feet slid and his whole body leaned down, and a frightened cry wandered back and forth in the mountains, startling the birds that had been homecoming. As the screams stopped, Yun Yi's figure disappeared into the mountains and rivers...
The vast mountains were covered in snowflakes and covered in silver, and under the dim starless sky, a dark figure was crawling motionless on the sand bed by the river. Not far from both sides of the river, in the ancient pine forest dressed in white wedding clothes, a pair of things glowing green are slowly approaching. Finally the shadow felt his hand, then his shoulder, and his body .......
Cough... Coughing followed by two heavy coughs, the figure sat up, it was Yun Yi, and his pale face trembled on the sand bed as if he had lost blood. Questioning himself: I'm not dead, where am I?" Yun Yi slowly stood up, hugged his arms tightly with his paralyzed arms, and looked around hoping to see the structure or ...... he knew!
Slowly walking towards the forest with a stiff body, it was not pleasant to walk on the heavy snow in the dark night. Ben fell and got up in the forest with his stiff body, and the ruthless nature made this strong child leave sad tears. Half an hour later, a road covered in heavy snow appeared in front of Yun Yi, who dragged his numb calf to a deep groove in the snow. Flying snow sprinkled his black hair, and the cold cold wind blew his pale face, and suddenly Yun Yi raised his head and looked around, and hurriedly pulled out the knife that had been with him for a long time from his waist.
It's a wild wolf, it's not good. Yun Yi held the knife in his hand and ran away. The wolves began to gather, chasing under the snowy night sky for this winter meal, and Yun Yi, who was already in prostration, was unable to run. After struggling for half an hour, there was a dark cave at the foot of the mountain not far ahead, and I ran over without thinking too much, and when I arrived at the entrance of the mine, I was physically and mentally exhausted. The wild wolf followed closely behind, surrounding the mine, with green eyes, jagged fangs, and a huge black body, Yun Yi stood up and held a knife to the wolves.
A quarter of an hour later, the wolves also relieved themselves, and a strong night wolf took the lead and pounced directly at Zuo Yi, and the helpless Yun Yi could only close his eyes tightly, gritted his teeth and raised the knife. When the night wolf's bloody mouth was about to be next to Yun Yi, a golden light flashed quickly, and the night wolf's heart-rending scream was heard throughout the valley floor. Bang... The night wolf was bounced out of the way, and when all the night wolves saw this, they turned their heads and ran away in front of Yun Yi's eyes.
Yun Yi slowly opened his eyes and looked around, and found that the wolves had already dispersed, and the night wolf who had just attacked him was lying motionless on the opposite side, and he was indeed not harmed. Without thinking much about it, Yun Yi quickly crawled in front of the night wolf and stabbed the night wolf in the head very fiercely, venting all his misfortune and anger in the past day.
After a little rest, he dragged the night wolf into the mine and used flint to explore every corner of the mine entrance, for fear of encountering any wolves, snakes, tigers and leopards. The cave is covered with cobwebs, old oil cups, and dusty broken wood.
At a big corner twenty zhang into the hole, Yun Yi stopped, lit the discarded wood, and raised a warm flame, finally waiting for a warm apology. Without resting, he picked up the knife and got busy, and half an hour later, the night wolf that had just been ferocious was now a delicacy on the fire. Yun Yi, who was hungry for a long time, put the seven-foot wolf skin aside and baked it, waited for two hours and the clothes were also dry, picked up the knife and cut off a large piece, and the cooked and hot meat was accompanied by the aroma of the meat roasted on the fire, which was a warm and satisfying meal.
The red flame bakes the fur of Yunyi, the moisture evaporates quickly before the fire, and the dry clothes always give people a good sleep. Spread on the wolf skin and began to fall asleep, hazy Yun Yi took a torch and explored the depths along the mine, the mess and cobwebs everywhere made the originally cold stone wall much smoother. Through the transfer of stairs to explore the underground layer by layer, the deeper you explore, the more strange it becomes, there is always something looking at Yun Yi, but when Yun Yi turns around, there is really nothing.
Finally, at the turn of the underground steps on the tenth floor, the hewn stone steps stopped, and in an empty mine, Yun Yi used torches to illuminate the space in front of him. The lamps hanging on the stone wall, the lamps and lamp oil, Yun Yi turned on the lamps one by one, and the fiery red lights illuminated the entire mine. Suddenly, Yun Yi felt that something was wrong under his feet, and a silver-white corpse appeared under his feet under the firelight, and Yun Yi was sweating in shock.
One after the other, abandoned minecarts, rusty shovels, and silvery bones, as if to suggest that there had been an epidemic here. Yun Yi held the torch tightly, walked all the way, walked all the way, walked for about two hours, and finally came to the last mine before stopping. And this mine is obviously different from the others, in which an intact corpse sits cross-legged. The black stone on the front wall is like the black stone placed in the ancestral hall of his hometown.
Yun Yi looked at it for a long time and thought: Could it be that this is the Soul Monument, and those dead people are digging the Soul Monument Stone here? The puzzled Yun Yi slowly stretched out his arm, and the moment he touched the black stone, he was sucked in by a black whirlpool. Yun Yi was thrown to the ground and fell to the ground, it was a mine, and there were indeed no silver-white bones here, the lamps on the stone wall had already been lit, and a curved passage was far away, looming with a ghostly light.
Suddenly, the ground began to burst open to support the shattered rubble, and foreign objects began to emerge from the cracks in the shattered stone. A giant scorpion as big as a cow with a black body, two clamps like tongs swaying from side to side, a pair of big red eyes like bowls, eight claws like a corbel, and the tip of the tail that flashed with white light and bent like the moon, was fiddling with its body and crawling towards Yun Yi with its teeth and claws.
Yun Yi saw this desperately knocking on the black stone body protruding from the stone wall, but there was no response, and he saw that the giant scorpion was about to arrive in front of him.
Don't come here... Don't come here... Yun Yi screamed in fear and quickly hit the black rock mass, but there was still no response. I saw the giant scorpion grow a huge front clip and pounce fiercely towards Yun Yi. Yun Yi hadn't reacted yet, bang... The giant scorpion had flipped backwards and was bounced off and fell to the ground. Yun Yi, who is still in fear, don't come, don't come......
Yun Yi, who sat up in a panic, realized that it was a dream! Yun Yi, who was shocked into a cold sweat, raised his hand to wipe the sweat beads from his head. A beam of white light scattered into the cave at the entrance of the cave, was it already dawn? Walking to the entrance of the cave and looking down at the mountains and forests, the heavy snow had stopped flying, and not far from the entrance of the cave, a pool of blood left by the night wolf could still be seen.
The vast white sky is not lit by the sun, and in the dense pine forest, you can hear the crisp sound of branches crushed by the snow from time to time. From time to time, squirrels shuttle back and forth on the ancient pine branches, picking golden pine cones and carrying them back into the hole. Yun Yi, who had a dry mouth, had no choice but to swallow a mouthful of white snowflakes to moisten his chapped throat.
After a while, Yun Yi filled the water bag with snow and returned to the fire, which he had learned from his father, that when there is no water source in the mountains in winter, the snow melts and turns into water. Sit cross-legged and quietly think about the strange dream of last night, what does falling to the ground imply?
After thinking for half an hour, there was no answer, there was no way, he found the fur on his body, but fortunately, the Ya ginseng he picked at the risk of death was still on his body, and the Danshu had long since lost his mind. After cleaning up, they began to eat meat to fill their belly, and after resting for a while, they cut off a large piece of meat, wrapped it in a clean cloth and carried it on their backs. After rolling up the wolf's skin and waiting to get it later, he took out a piece of sleek wood from the mess, wrapped it in a worn-out linen cloth, combined the oil in several lamps, and then took a step towards the unknown of doubt.
1st floor, 2nd floor,... Ten layers .......
Walking all the way, the lamps of the road were lit one after another, and the gray rock walls looked old in the firelight, thick dust, and cobweb-covered passages, and it felt like no one had been here for a long time. An hour later, on the tenth floor, the steps disappeared into the ground level, exactly like the scene in the dream. This aroused Yun Yi's timid heart, the bones all over the ground, Yun Yi stopped, thinking about everything in his dream. Forget it, it's all down, let's go in and have a look!
Pull out the knife on his back and use the torch to light all the lamps in the mine, the abandoned minecarts, and the silvery bones. If others were expected to retreat, the sound of each step would have reverberated in the mine. Two hours later, I don't know how far I had traveled, and finally I came to the black stone. Not far away, a dried corpse in a trench coat sat cross-legged with a lifelike expression, and the heavy dust had long been used to hide his gorgeous appearance.
Yun Yi carefully observed the pitch-black stone, as if it was embedded in this gray rock wall, but he couldn't tell that there was only this different place in the main mine. White silver bones everywhere, abandoned mining tools, as if this is a place that has been forgotten by people for a moment.
Yun Yi, who had been watching for a long time, finally stretched out his arm to caress the black stone, and suddenly a black vortex appeared, and no matter how he pulled it, he couldn't pull his arm out of the whirlpool. In a blink of an eye, he was sucked inside, and Yun Yi, who fell to the ground in another mine, stood up with pain. In front of him, a giant scorpion was lying motionless on the stone wall, and black liquid flowed out of its body.
Isn't this the giant scorpion in the dream? What the hell is going on? The puzzled Yun Yi could only continue to explore the interior of the mine, and the lamp here had already been lit by someone, and it seemed that it had never been extinguished. Through the eight mines, there was finally a change in the ninth, and a circle of stone discs was arranged to form a circular staircase, and an eight-foot-high, pitch-black iron pillar the size of a tile saucer was inserted into the central stone plate.