Chapter 1: The Doom of the Twelve
"Bazaar" is an ancient existence, some people say it represents endless power and wealth, and some people say that it represents eternal life, but no one knows where it is, let alone what is inside, and it has become a secret ........ that some mysterious families have been pursuing forever for thousands of years.
The beginning of the story began at the end of the Ming Dynasty, entrenched in a group of bandits on the Lao Ye Mountain in the northwest region, led by a bandit leader named Zhang Xiuquan.
Originally, he was a rural teacher and quite educated, but in the era of war and chaos, his wife and children were tragically poisoned by the troubled times, so he had to fall into the grass.
Zhang Xiuquan, who fell into the grass, is quite famous in the area of Lao Ye Mountain, never robbed the food of the poor people, and maintained the development of the cottage by robbing the rich and helping the poor.
Until one day, Zhang Xiuquan's subordinate He Laosan brought a strange object from Shili Town, which was about half a stone the size of a palm, and the whole body was dark green, and when the light was dim, it would emit a slight light, which was very weird.
Zhang Xiuquan thinks that this matter is very evil, and He Laosan also lacks discipline on weekdays, so he doesn't ask too much, but in the future, this evil stone will kill everyone!
It is worth mentioning that He Laosan was originally a womanizer, and he had been hanging for a long time for Lin Wan, the unmarried daughter of the rich man of Shili Town, but Zhang Xiuquan's cottage rules were strict, and he didn't dare to break the rules easily, so he had to make a small fuss.
Although He Laosan brought back a large box of treasures from the rich man Lin's house this time, he was scolded by Zhang Xiuquan in front of the brothers, and returned the stolen things intact.
He Laosan's original name was He Zhaofeng, who was originally a gangster in the market, but when he fled, he saw that Zhang Xiuquan was quite strategic, like a guy who had done something, so he took refuge in him and came to this old man's mountain.
He Laosan relied on his hard work and high achievements, and he was arrogant, no wonder he, Zhang Xiuquan was originally a literati, and from the appearance, he really didn't look like a character on the dominant side, so He Laosan had already moved his heart of compassion.
coincided with troubled times, a group of unknown people wanted to force Zhang Xiuquan to comply, and after occupying the cottage failed, He Laosan and this group of people together assassinated Zhang Xiuquan and ascended to the top spot of the cottage.
He Laosan picked up a big bargain for nothing and became the big boss of the cottage, and the daughter of the rich man Lin became the first person to suffer, and the defiled Lin Wan chose to use death to preserve her innocence.
The strange thing is that since Lin Wan's death, He Laosan has inexplicably suffered from madness, and everyone who sees him says that he has encountered a ghost, but there is a detail in this that makes many people reluctant to approach He Laosan.
Coincidentally, after He Laosan went crazy, the people in the cottage were quite afraid of not his intensified nonsense, but the stone he carried, the people in the cottage saw He Laosan every other day, the color on the stone would be darker, and He Laosan's whole person would look thinner, making people not like people, ghosts not like ghosts.
It didn't take long for He Laosan to die, and he died very strangely, he was holding the stone with both hands, his face was pale, his eyes were abrupt, he stared at the stone in his hand, and his whole body was shriveled, as if he had been drained of blood.
There are stories of cows, ghosts, snakes and gods in the area of Lao Ye Mountain, coupled with the strange stone on He Laosan's body, everyone feels that there is something unclean on He Laosan's body, which is creepy.
A few bold bandits threw He Laosan's body into the mass grave, Rao was a few people who handled He Laosan's body in broad daylight, and they could feel the evil aura around the corpse, and the green stone that He Laosan held in his hand gave a faint green glow against the noon sun, which made people's hearts chill, and after throwing down the corpse, these people ran back to the cottage without looking back, for fear of getting dirty things.
These groups of leaderless bandits, it didn't take long for them to be absorbed and integrated by other bandits, originally everyone thought that the matter of He Laosan would end here, but since He Laosan's death, many people's livestock in Fang Yuan were bitten to death alive at night, and the corpses were torn into several pieces, which was very terrifying.
People who go to the cave to hunt at night pass by the mass graves, and can intuitively feel that the ghost fire here is getting brighter and brighter than before, and He Laosan's wail is often heard in the middle of the night in the cottage, and people are panicked for a while, many people say that He Laosan is on the road of the stone, and he was entangled by Lin Wan's evil ghost, and he came back to find a substitute for the dead ghost.
Soon after, there was a plague in the area of Lao Ye Mountain, and hundreds of people, including bandits, all died in less than half a month, and the death was exactly the same as He Laosan.
In the era of war and chaos, it was quite afraid of these ghost and god legends, and people within a radius of dozens of miles did not dare to live in the surrounding area, so they all moved to Shili Town, so far Lao Ye Mountain has become a forbidden place in the town, and the taboo in all the population, this area has also returned to peace.
With the passage of time, everything here has become a story, and from a story to a legend, when the Eight-Nation Alliance invaded China, a twelve-person expedition team composed of William Jack of Britain and Hilson of Germany came to the Great Northwest Lao Ye Mountain, due to the relationship between the background of the great powers, the local squires and county commanders no one dared to ask, and hid to the side early, just hoping that these foreigners could leave early.
This expedition was equipped with the most advanced equipment at that time, no one knew what they were doing in Shili Town, William Jack and Hilson found several groups of people before and after to coerce and lure them into Lao Ye Mountain, but Lao Ye Mountain is a forbidden place passed down from generation to generation, no one dared to step into half a step, and finally they were rejected by the people of Shili Town, despite the identity of a great power, but after all, the expedition team was only twelve people, plus the resentment of the people of the Eight-Nation Alliance in the Qing Dynasty, they were also worried about causing a riot among the people, and they did not dare to be too strong.
There is a scoundrel in Shili Town, the people in the town call him "Liu Guizi", this person is idle on weekdays, always doing some things to steal chickens and dogs, last year because he molested a woman from a good family was broken his right leg, so he had this nickname.
Liu Guizi is a bold person by nature, as long as there is money to be made, there is nothing he dare not do, and he became the guide of this expedition by mistake, and Fei Hilsen gave him a silver ticket of five hundred taels in the early stage alone.
The strange thing is that after this expedition team entered Lao Ye Mountain, it did not come out for nine days, and at noon on the eleventh day, only Liu Guizi ran back alone, saying something that everyone could not understand.
At this point, the local people did not dare to spread the news, and the foreigners lost their lives here, and they might make a big mess, so they were concealed by the local county magistrate Li Zhiyuan.
The villagers of Shili Town also set up a stage to sing for three days to worship Lao Ye Mountain, but what people never expected was that the crazy Liu Guizi hanged himself on a big locust tree adjacent to Lao Ye Mountain in the town on the first night after the three-day play, and his death was quite miserable!
The big local families, especially those who believe in these bull monsters and snake gods, all think that Liu Guizi brought back He Laosan's ghost, for fear that the disaster will befall them, and the wealthy families have moved out of Shili Town.
The archaeological team of twelve people disappeared out of thin air, and the power of behind-the-scenes sponsorship of various countries was even more unbearable, but they couldn't ask the powers for help, because once the secret of Lao Ye Mountain was revealed, it would be a war between human beings, and their strength would have no way to resist it.
A lot of top-secret information is on William Jack and Hilson, and foreign forces have sent several groups of people back and forth to investigate secretly, but in the end, all the clues lead to Lao Ye Mountain, and no one who went survived, and finally this matter was interrupted by a full-scale outbreak of war, and there has been no news ........since then.
"Professor, I don't agree with you," said a young man under the podium, in a rather confident tone.
The professor on the podium lifted his glasses, put down the chalk in his hand, looked down, and said with a smile: "Classmate, you don't seem to be a student of our college, right?" ”
Suddenly, there was a commotion, and everyone turned their eyes to the young man sitting in the front row, who stood up politely, bowed, and said respectfully: "Professor Lin, hello, I am Zhang Tianye, a doctoral student in the Department of Archaeology of the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom."
Surprised and questioning voices came from all around again: "Zhang Tianye? Is that Zhang Tianye who caused a sensation in the entire archaeological community? A girl said excitedly.
Many people began to talk about it, and someone interjected: "This Zhang Tianye has published a lot of papers on archaeology in many authoritative and media newspapers, and has also solved two great mysteries of emperors through the ages, and has been awarded the highest medal of honor by the British royal family!"
Professor Lin waved his hand, and a hesitant expression flashed on his brow in an instant, if it wasn't for careful observation, it would be difficult to find, and he said in public: "Class!"
The students who were originally sitting under the podium still wanted to watch a wonderful debate, but they didn't expect Professor Lin to give everyone this opportunity at all, and the students left the classroom listlessly, leaving only the echo of footsteps in the corridor outside, and the atmosphere in the classroom began to become silent.
Professor Lin, with his hands behind his back, walked up to Zhang Tianye, patted him on the shoulder, and said with a smile: "I haven't seen you for twelve years, you were still a child when you left, and you have grown so big in a blink of an eye, go to my house tonight to sit down, your wife has missed you very much over the years."
Zhang Tianye, turned his hand, clasped Professor Lin's shoulder, and said with some excitement, "It's better to be respectful than to obey fate, just when I came back this time, I also have some things, I want to tell you, I already have some eyebrows about what happened twelve years ago."
Professor Lin, the hand on Zhang Tianye's shoulder, secretly pressed hard, signaling him, don't say, and then Professor Lin withdrew his hand and left the classroom, just telling him again, he must come over at night.