'Click, click, click'

The sound of slow, dull footsteps was like a drum beating in my heart, and every blow made my heart tremble.

"What's that?" Jia Ren asked in a low voice, I covered the flashlight and said, "I don't know, I'm afraid I'm also here to ask for my life, don't make too much movement, and slowly retreat over there." ”

I pinched the cold sweat in my palms and pointed in the other direction with my chin, and both of them nodded and quietly packed their bags and tiptoed briskly in the opposite direction of their steps.

It was impossible to be careful not to make a sound at all, and the sound of our brisk footsteps and the dull footsteps coming from behind us from somewhere else, the cadences began to slowly coincide, as if the thing was catching up with us!

I immediately motioned for the two of them to stop, and listened with my ears pricked up, and the footsteps behind me slowed down a little.

"It seems that the faster we go, the faster we will follow, what should we do?" Zhang Qian asked in a low voice.

"Don't care, it seems to be some distance away from us, I don't know how long this passage is, anyway, take the guy first, if you really get caught up, you still have to play with your life."

As soon as I finished speaking, the footsteps behind me stopped abruptly, and the three of us listened quietly for a while, and we were relieved to make sure that the footsteps disappeared and did not follow.

"Eighty percent fell into the pit we dug and were trapped in the hole below." Jia Ren smiled.

I said, "If that's the best, I'm afraid people just rest and listen to what is going on on our side." "It was thanks to this that I was able to calm down and observe the situation in this passage.

The height and width of this passage are about three meters in a semicircle, although the wall of the cave is not particularly smooth, but there are traces of artificial excavation, and the roof of the cave is carved with some patterns, but because the years are too long, it has been eroded by the wind.

There are holes in the walls of the caves on the left and right sides every three or four meters, which look like places to hold lamps.

I walked to one of the holes and took a closer look at the façade, there were some black oil stains on the small platform, which confirmed my suspicions, and I reached for the oil stains and put them on the tip of my nose to smell them, and a strange vision entered my nose.

I had never smelled this scent before, so I unconsciously smelled it a few more times, and after a few seconds, I suddenly felt weak for no reason, and I knew that this thing was probably poisonous, but fortunately, the dizziness and softness did not last long, and I woke up after a minute or two.

"Hey, come and see this."

Jia Ren in front of him shouted, Zhang Qian and I trotted two steps to him, he pointed to a small hole in front of him, "There seems to be some mystery in this hole, look at this." ”

He gestured his finger inside the hole, and as soon as I hit the façade with my flashlight, I saw several things that bulged out like buttons.

I reached out with my eyes closed and fumbled with my hand on it, and I had a vague image in my head, which felt like a swastika in Buddhism.

Zhang Qian also reached in according to my appearance and touched it for a while, and after opening his eyes, he nodded and said, "This is a symbol of Buddhism, auspicious sea and clouds." ”

I agree with his statement, but I don't understand how this thing appeared here, you must know that the earliest legend of Buddhism introduced to Middle-earth is only to the Zhou Dynasty, and if this place is related to the Sanmiao tribe or Jiuli, then the world will not be right.

"Auspicious sea and clouds? What's that? Jia Ren didn't understand, Zhang Qian explained: "The swastika comes from the Sanskrit of the ancient magical country, which means 'the auspicious sign of the chest'.

In ancient times, the ancestors of China translated it as 'auspicious sea and cloud phase', and because this pattern is one of the 32 auspicious phases unique to Shakyamuni Buddha when he was born, it is also considered by Buddhists to be 'Rui Xiang'.

However, the swastika is not unique to Buddhism, it was also used in ancient times as a charm, a charm or a religious symbol, and was considered a symbol of the sun or fire, and this symbol was used in many tribes in ancient times.

For example, in the history of the ancient magical kingdoms, Persia, Greece and Egypt, there are clear records of this symbol. ”

I was dumbfounded, how much does this guy know?

"Niubi, it seems that you have done your homework, do you know what auspicious sea and clouds will be here?" Jia Ren's brain was relatively straight, and Zhang Qian waved his hand after listening, "Thinking too much, if I knew what was here, I would have achieved my goal a long time ago."

I majored in history at university, and I was interested in religion and myths and legends in ancient countries, so I learned about this. ”

"And what do you think the point of this pattern being here?" I asked, Zhang Qian thought for a while and said: "If this is not the auspicious sea and cloud phase of Buddhism, then this is just a totem, generally speaking, the totem is basically the role of the talisman guard."

Maybe there is something evil in this place that needs to be suppressed, so there is this thing, you should also know that this place is the habitat of the descendants of the Jiuli tribe, right? ”

"There was a speculation before that it was the Sanmiao tribe of the Jiuli clan." I say.

"Well, if they are the descendants of the Jiuli clan, they will not leave this symbol, because they themselves do not believe in the sun or other righteous gods, they believe in Chiyou, which is what we call the evil god in later generations.

And Chiyou is the leader of the ox totem and the bird totem, so it is unlikely that Jiuli, who believes in him, will leave this symbol of the sun and fire. ”

Zhang Qian's explanation is well-founded, and I also have my own information about Chiyou, because the battle between Xuanyuan Yellow Emperor and Chiyou is a very important battle of Yanxia orthodoxy in history, and we call ourselves Xuanyuan exactly that.

Therefore, after the victory of the Yellow Emperor, the ancient books of later generations had many vulgarities and demonization of Chiyou, such as describing Chiyou as "copper head and iron forehead", "eight humerus and eight toes", "human body and cow hooves" and other demonized images.

As recorded in the "Beginner's Record": Chiyou came out of the amniotic fluid, eight humerus and eight toes were sparse, and the Yellow Emperor killed him in Qingqiu.

Later, the "Dragon Fish River Map" said: There are eighty-one brothers in Chiyou, and they are beasts and human beings, with copper heads and iron foreheads, and eat sand and stones.

And Chi You in "The Strange Story" is a monster with a 'iron-eating stone' body and hooves, four eyes and six hands, ears and sideburns like a sword halberd, and a horned head.

But that's a legend after all, and the real Chiyou must have been just a strong man, so I said to them, "I think this symbol must be related to the battle between Emperor Shun of Jiuzhi Mountain and the Sanmiao tribe."

Emperor Shun is a descendant of Xuanyuan, and there was a war between him and Sanmiao, a descendant of Jiuli, who surrendered, and the final result was won, so they left these symbols to suppress the evil gods that Sanmiao believed in, so that it can be explained. ”

"Well, I also have such a guess, Brother Bai is also well-informed." Zhang Qian agrees with me.