"But they were distributed in concentric circles, and it was common sense that villages would be built near communication lines." Wang Xingguo reminded.

"Huh?" Sherpa was attracted by Wang Xingguo's words, and took a closer look, there are a total of more than a dozen villages around Coffin Mountain, this is a mountainous area, and the traffic line is crooked, but these dozen villages radiate outward with Coffin Mountain as the center, and they are almost perfectly located near the radiation line.

"The layout of Chengzi Village and Zixin Village is also concentric circles." Wang Xingguo said again, and Sherpa also felt that he must have missed something. He looked at his watch and said, "Turn around and go back to town, the print shop should not be closed yet!" ”

"We've got to hurry." Wang Xingguo looked at his watch, it was almost 8 o'clock now, and it would take about an hour and a half to return to the town, and the people in the mountains went to bed early, and there was basically no business after 10 o'clock at night.

"No problem, trust my driving skills!" After Sherpa finished speaking, he let go of the handbrake, kicked the accelerator, and the off-road vehicle rushed out, and found a place to turn around a few hundred meters ahead, and as soon as he turned around, Sherpa never left the accelerator, and the mountain road that usually takes an hour and a half to complete, Sherpa actually ran in less than 40 minutes.

Re-downloaded the high-definition satellite map, Wang Xingguo also specially printed a large-scale map of all the villages near the coffin mountain, spread the map on the table, and measured it with a ruler, Wang Xingguo was really right, these villages are all centered on the coffin mountain and diverge outward, and then use the compass to draw, these villages are distributed in several radial lines with the same radius and the intersection of the radius.

A few more maps of the villages, all centered on the square or the threshing floor in the middle of the village, the buildings diverge outward in concentric circles, and the roads between the villages are almost as straight as possible, even if some villages are built on the slopes of the hills, they are also built in a concentric radial shape.

The two glanced at each other, such buildings and village distribution forms must have special significance, usually in the plain area, the village construction is built in the shape of a tic-tac-toe, so that it is easiest to distinguish the direction, and the traffic is also accessible in all directions, and the villages in the mountains can only be built according to the mountain and water because of the terrain, and it is rarely regular, but the villages near the coffin mountain are trying their best to build a regular circle, which is very puzzling.

"Boss, are you familiar with the coffin mountain?" Wang Xingguo casually asked the little boss of the printing shop.

"Who's familiar there? I rarely deal with them, and I heard that their ancestors let go of ghosts, and now they are paying off their ancestors' debts. The little boss replied.

"Where did their ancestors live?" Wang Xingguo asked casually again.

"I heard that thousands of years ago from other places moved, at first there were not many people, and then slowly there were more people, from a village to a dozen, I heard the older generation say that they have to guard the ghost gate." The little boss's answer is no different from the local legend, perhaps because of the legend, everyone keeps a tacit distance, let alone any friendship, they also heard the legends and stories from their ancestors, but they didn't think to explore the truth.

Thanks to the boss for settling the payment, it was not too early, and the two had to rush back to Chengzi Village.

When Wang Xingguo and Sherpa went to the town, Chen Badai helped Wu Lao do some farm work, cleaned up the yard, and made Wu Lao happy, even saying that this child was diligent, while Mr. Min and Xia Ruobing wandered around the village and nearby all day, looking for the relationship between the village hidden in the mountains and Loulan.

The villagers are still very wary of outsiders, but Xia Ruobing claims to be the goddaughter of Wu Lao, Wu Lao is known to everyone in ten miles and eight towns here, most people don't look at the face of the monk to see the face of the Buddha, and it is not easy to stop Xia Ruobing and Mr. Min.

The appearance of this temple is not much different from the houses elsewhere, if you don't pay attention to it, you really can't recognize it, Xia Ruobing once used the folklore survey as an excuse, mentioned to the locals to see the temple, but without exception were rejected, almost all of the temples near this are built in the center of the village, but unlike other places, each temple is on duty every day, and it is difficult for outsiders to step in, but it just so happens that it is lunch time at this time, one on duty went back to eat, the other drank some wine, and took a lunch break in the hut next to him, and the gate of the temple forgot to lock.

Mr. Min gently pushed open the door of the void, and Xia Ruobing whispered, "This is not very good, right?" ”

"We are folklore research, and you are still Wu Lao's goddaughter." Mr. Min squeezed his eyes, this was a rare opportunity to explore.

After hesitating for a moment, Xia Ruobing looked at the sleeping guard in the hut, and still stepped in with Mr. Min.

In the middle of the courtyard is a pool, and a carving on the pool has attracted Xia Ruobing's attention - the statue wears a mask, an eagle with wings spread stands on the top of his head, and there are some patterns on the carved mask, but this statue is at least a thousand years old, those patterns are a little blurred, and the clothes on its body are not the same as the traditional Hanfu, from the texture point of view, it is a geometric figure, the statue stretches out its right hand to the sky, and the left hand is holding a small cage, and I vaguely see that there are still things inside, it may be a thousand years of wind and sun, It's no longer clear.

The temple in other places is square, and the main hall is usually the main hall when you enter the gate, and then the side hall or other side rooms are symmetrically arranged on both sides, but this temple is very strange, after entering the courtyard, Mr. Min found that the courtyard is round, the statue stands in the center, with it as the center of the circle, and there are some other stone statues in the courtyard, and in a corner of the courtyard, there are some destroyed stone statues scattered, and those houses are circular around the outermost periphery, and it is impossible to distinguish which one is the main hall. Xia Ruobing's eyes widened - those stone statues are not gods and Buddhas nor figures, but some animals, Xia Ruobing saw camels, wolves, eagles, sheep, horses, scorpions, etc., a total of 12 kinds of animals, a room on both sides of the door are two warrior sculptures, one holding a spear, one holding a sword and shield, with a solemn expression, Xia Ruobing approached a statue of a wolf, saw that it seemed to have some textures on its back, and wiped it with his hand: "Lu Wen? ”

"Xia Ruobing, there are more here!" Mr. Min stood at the door of the samurai's guarded room, glanced in, and shouted in a low voice.

Xia Ruobing rushed over, this is the main hall Undoubtedly, some yellow silk and red juan hanging on the beams of the main hall have some runes written on them, gently fluttering in the breeze.

"What do these words mean?" Mr. Min pressed his excitement and asked Xia Ruobing in a low voice.

Xia Ruobing glanced back at the hidden doorway, entered the main hall like a thief, unfolded a yellow silk, and looked up at the words depicted on it.

These words must be the latest to be written, those yellow silk and red juan are still very bright, and the handwriting is also new, but it is obvious that the person who described these Lu Wen does not know how to write Lu Wen, he wrote from left to right, most of these silk silks are some spells, Xia Ruobing quickly took out his mobile phone and took a picture of these words.

Mr. Min helped Xia Ruobing take a picture of these words, only half of the film, suddenly heard the sound of the courtyard door being pushed open, and quickly stopped the work in hand, Xia Ruobing put the mobile phone into his arms, and Mr. Min hid in the side hall.

In the middle of the side hall is a stone carved beetle, but it is different from the beetle seen on weekdays, it raised its head, two huge chelicerae in front of it were raised high, and there was a large circle of small beetles around the stone carving base, but it was not distributed in a circle, but oval, hearing the sound of several people talking in the courtyard, Mr. Min was a little nervous, did not look closely, and pulled Xia Ruobing to hide behind the stone statue.

"Wait......" Xia Ruobing caught a glimpse of the pattern on the back of the beetle, it was the pattern of one eye! As soon as I wanted to take out my mobile phone to record, I heard someone approaching the main hall and quickly squatted behind the stone statue with Mr. Min.

"It must be a few of them, where would we have such a thing?" When Mr. Min heard a person speak, he couldn't help but poke his head out slightly, and from the door of the side hall, he saw that the thing in the hand of the person who spoke was the equipment they had discarded at the ghost gate.

"We carried people in today and saw these things thrown behind a pile of rocks and covered with grass." Another said.

It sounded like they were sending people home, Xia Ruobing listened, and quietly glanced at it and saw the equipment. She looked at Mr. Min with wide eyes, blaming him for being so careless.

"Shh Mr. Min raised his index finger on his lips to tell Xia Ruobing not to speak.

"Patriarch, there are outsiders going to the ghost gate, this is not a trivial matter, it must be those strangers!" The voice sounded dissatisfied.

"I heard that they are engaged in folklore surveys, and they still live in Wu's hometown." It's another person's voice.

"Wu Lao is highly respected, and he won't talk nonsense." An old man spoke, listening to the low and majestic voice, it should be the patriarch they were talking about.

"That's not good, Wu Lao has been sending people back for so many years, in case those strangers say something......"

Mr. Min and Xia Ruobing glanced at each other, it seemed that Wu Lao did hide something from them, and his words were half-truths and half-truths.

"Drive them away, Coffin Mountain can't let outsiders in, if something happens, we'll be in trouble, don't you remember the expedition 20 years ago?"

Xia Ruobing's heart was pounding, listening to his tone, they knew about the disappearance of the expedition team 20 years ago.

While listening to them, the mobile phone in Mr. Min's pocket suddenly rang, Mr. Min scolded secretly, and hurriedly took out the mobile phone and hung up, but it was still heard.

"What are you doing here?!" The patriarch shouted majestically, and Mr. Min and Xia Ruobing had no choice but to stand up.

"We ...... I was doing folklore research, and I walked in when I saw that the door was not closed. Mr. Min suppressed the tension in his heart and said with a smile.

The two of them looked up and down several times with suspicious eyes, and Mr. Min knew that what he said was not believed by others.

"That's them, these things are definitely theirs." One of the gifted people shook the bag he was carrying.

"You guys went to the Ghost Gate?!" The patriarch was even angrier.

"No, we only came yesterday and live in Mr. Wu's house, and we are really engaged in folk research." How can Mr. Min admit it now, and quickly move out the great god Wu Lao as a shield!

……

When Mr. Min and Xia Ruobing were hanging out, Chen Badai was helping Wu Lao work in Wu Lao's yard, and suddenly saw the courtyard door being pushed open, two people crying and mourning, and there were several people behind them, one of whom was still carrying the things they left behind in the ghost gate.

"Oh, I'll go, what's going on?" Chen Badai's brain is a little insufficient, could it be that these two people were caught stealing something?

Wu Lao saw that the patriarch brought the two back, and he also felt that something was not good.

"Did you go to the Ghost Gate?!" The patriarch pointed at Chen Badai and asked, his tone unceremoniously.

Mr. Min hurriedly gave Chen Badai a look, Chen Badai understood, and pretended not to understand: "What the hell is it?" ”

Wu Lao hurriedly came over to play a round game, beckoned the patriarch and others to sit down, and gave Chen Badai a look again and again, asking him to quickly serve tea and pour water.

"Old Wu, you are also a respected person in the village, don't take in these people who don't know the details." The patriarch sat down and took a cup of hot water, his tone softened, but still unfriendly.

"It's just some dolls who like to listen to stories, and they are ......"

"Folklore Research." Xia Ruobing hurriedly came to Wu Lao's side obediently, "Wu Lao, yesterday you still recognized me as your goddaughter." ”

As soon as these words came out, Wu Lao was quite embarrassed, he drank a little too much wine last night, and he forgot what he said, but he saw that these children were well-behaved, and they didn't seem to be troublemakers, and his children were not around, an old man had lived alone for many years, and there were a few young children who came to be lively, but I don't know what trouble they caused, so let the patriarch come to the door in person.

"They went to Jongmyo today!" The patriarch placed the water heavily on the table.

"Huh?!" Wu Lao looked at Xia Ruobing and Mr. Min, Xia Ruobing smiled: "We passed by, the door was not closed, and as soon as we entered, we heard someone come in......"

But immediately, Xia Ruobing felt that he wanted to cover up the words, and swallowed the second half.

"I won't be able to protect you." Wu Lao was quite disappointed, turned his head to the patriarch and said, "What to do, patriarch, you decide." ”

……

Wang Xingguo and Sherpa knew that something had happened in the village, when they drove back, they suddenly saw a few figures squatting on the side of the road, and they didn't care, when Sherpa heard someone calling him, he subconsciously stepped on the brake, only to find that it was Xia Ruobing and the other three.

"Why are you here?!" Seeing them blindly in the dark light, this Sherpa was quite shocked, this is almost ten kilometers away from Chengzi Village!

"Don't mention it, these two people have been caught stealing things! We were kicked out! Chen Badai said angrily, pulled the car door and threw the little equipment left on the back seat.

"Stealing?!" Sherpa was even more shocked, how could Xia Ruobing steal something?

"Uh...... When we went to the temple in Chengzi Village, we found that the door was not locked, so we went in and looked, and there was Lu Wen inside. Mr. Min explained with some embarrassment, "I didn't expect people to come back...... So ......"

"I didn't embarrass you, did I?" Sherpa didn't worry about this, this kind of thing is not uncommon in this neighborhood, and when Xia Ruobing's parents came here with an expedition team 20 years ago, it took a lot of effort to convince the villagers who obstructed it.

"The equipment we threw at the Ghost Gate Pass was given away and found." Mr. Min obviously said this to Wang Xingguo.

This is no small matter, no wonder they were kicked out.

"But I didn't admit it." Chen Badai got into the car, and after they were driven out, they waited for the two of them to come back on this inevitable road, and now they finally waited for someone, Chen Badai said dissatisfiedly, "Why did it take so long for you to come back?" ”

"We found some clues, and the distribution and layout of these villages is very interesting." Wang Xingguo said, jumped out of the car, helped Xia Ruobing carry something, and gave her the position of the co-pilot.

"We also found some at Jongmyo." Xia Ruobing said.

"Hey, I said, can you find a place to eat now?" Chen Badai was a little dissatisfied, he was kicked out of Chengzi Village in the afternoon until now, but he didn't have teeth, and his stomach was already rumbling at this time.

Helpless, I can only turn around and go back to the town first, find a small hotel to live in, how can there be a restaurant so late, fortunately, the small hotel also has a side business that sells instant noodles, each person soaked a box of instant noodles, and a few people got together to merge their own clues.

"Empty?!" When Chen Badai heard that there was a cavity in the ground of the coffin mountain, he thought it was incredible, "Could it be that the miners dug it?" Anyway, this is also iron ore......"

"Who's going to mine in this place? Locals can't go, outsiders? But no one ever said that someone was pulling ore from here. Sherpa said.

"Maybe...... Well, what about dwarves? Don't dwarves like to burrow into the ground and burrow everywhere? At this time, Chen Badai's mind remembered the dwarves of Western myths and legends, they are the best miners!

"Miners don't dig such low-grade ore, they can't make iron at all." Wang Xingguo said.

"Maybe it's a tiny, tiny dwarf?" Chen Badai's brain opened up again.

"Poor eight generations, you're looking for ballast, right?!" Xia Ruobing was distressed by the confusion of the situation, and Chen Badai was so confused that his mind became even more confused, and he couldn't help but raise his voice.

"Hey...... Hey...... I just watched you work hard, tell a joke......" Before he finished speaking, Xia Ruobing glared at him, he quickly took a step back, picked up the instant noodles, and muttered in his heart, "What a girl is this, it's just a bad girl!" ”

"No matter how this cavity came from, but what is more interesting is that with Coffin Mountain as the center, these villages are radially distributed, almost all of them are at the intersection of the radiation line and the radius are equal, and the layout of these villages is concentric circles, which is completely different from the layout of other mountain villages." Wang Xingguo said again.

"Concentric circles?" Xia Ruobing seemed to remember something, and the layout of the temple was also concentric circles.

"Does it have anything to do with Loulan?" Wang Xingguo seemed to realize something and looked at Xia Ruobing.

"I'll look at the map!" Xia Ruobing spread out the map, and the high-definition satellite map specially printed by Wang Xingguo also drew lines on it.

Xia Ruobing had studied Coffin Mountain countless times, but she ignored this, these 13 villages seemed to be randomly distributed in the mountains, but after Wang Xingguo drew the markings, these villages were centered on the large funnel of Coffin Mountain, distributed in a radial equidistant radius, and the layout of the villages was also concentric circles, which reminded him of the layout of the Zongmiao.

"Sun Burial!" Xia Ruobing blurted out.

"Sun burial?!" Chen Badai was stuffing instant noodles into his mouth, and when he heard this unheard of word, he almost didn't squirt out the instant noodles.

"A special funeral method in Loulan, where the dead are in the center, with the tomb as the center, and poplar stumps inserted around the periphery, just like the sun, by the Shanshan period, this burial method was abolished."

"Why?!"

"Lop Nur has dried up, and there are fewer and fewer poplar trees." Xia Ruobing said.

"They must be the descendants of Loulan, and there are a lot of Lu Wen in the temple." Mr. Min was a little excited.

These clues are brought together, all prove that there is a connection between here and Loulan, the facial features of the people in these villages are very three-dimensional, some similar to the performance of Asian-European mixed race, not as soft as the facial lines of the Han people, and just outside the mountain less than 20 kilometers away from them, but there are completely different customs, people outside the mountain have little contact with them, except for those legends that have been circulating for a long time, no one can tell where these people came from and when they came, but if they are really the descendants of Loulan, Why is it written in the wrong way, and that many of the characters are missing, and the words are not smooth.

"Let's take a look at those Luwen." Xia Ruobing took out a yellow-skinned notebook from her bag and opened it, and Mr. Min's eyes were attracted: "What is this?" ”

"My parents left me a comparison chart of Luwen." Xia Ruobing said, took out his mobile phone, and read the photos and videos taken at the comparison table.

Tossed in the second half of the night, Xia Ruobing couldn't fully decipher the spells on the silk, but it also added some words to the comparison table of Lu Wen, most of those spells did not have any meaning, but the Lu Wen on a yellow silk attracted Xia Ruobing's attention, which was probably the most complete expression of the meaning in so many words.

The yellow silk reads: "Curse the royal family to live forever and never make up for mistakes......

It's more like a curse than a spell, which makes everyone puzzled.

"They were expelled from the country." Mr. Min whispered.

"How do you know?" Xia Ruobing turned her head and looked at Mr. Min in surprise.

"Uh...... There is a legend that the wizard clan was expelled from Loulan by the royal family and was left without a trace. Mr. Min said.

"Mr. Min, what else do you know?" Xia Ruobing looked at him eagerly.

"I ...... In fact, I don't know much, Loulan disappeared for 2,000 years, and there are not many things left except legends, I guess this should be the expelled wizard clan. ”

"And then they laid out the village as a solar burial? So a good curse for the royal family that expelled them? This...... It's too hard! Chen Badai stuffed the last bite of instant noodles into his mouth and said inarticulately.

"If they're wizards, then where are those wizards? Now why don't they understand Lu Wen? ”

Wizards are a special profession, they pay special attention to inheritance, judging from the words of the curse, their curse on the royal family is eternal and eternal, but now it seems that no one can read this curse, and even the hyphens are painted in red, which is very inconsistent with the rules of wizard inheritance.

"Coffin Mountain!" Xia Ruobing, Mr. Min and Sherpa said in unison, "The wizard is buried in the Coffin Mountain!" ”

"That's not long gone!" Chen Badai's eyes widened, there were thousands of corpses carried into the coffin mountain for thousands of years, even if there were wizards' bones inside, they would have already become scum at this time.

"I think we'll have to go to Coffin Hill." Mr. Min said firmly, and everyone turned their eyes to Wang Xingguo.

Looking at Xia Ruobing's eager eyes, Wang Xingguo couldn't find a reason to refuse, so he had to prevaricate: "It's too late today, everyone rest first, and we'll plan tomorrow." ”

Xia Ruobing stayed awake all night, is it the cemetery of Loulan Wizard in the coffin mountain? What is the connection between Coffin Mountain and Loulan? My parents came because of Loulan and stayed here because of Loulan, how did they disappear into the coffin mountain silently?