I condescendingly took a closer look at the outline of the morgue, and sure enough, as we had expected, the layout of the entire village was a huge gossip array.

However, looking at the direction of those stone towers, I suddenly understood in my heart: it seems that the person who designed this formation must have a deep hatred with those soldiers, and secretly put a death hexagram on the Tun Soldier Village.

The black cow spat in the direction of the cottage and scolded: "Damn, that village is too evil, and it almost hangs inside." ”

I told him, "With the layout of this cottage, we are very lucky to be able to come out alive." ”

When Hei Niu heard this, he was energized and said, "Hey, Lao Su, do you still look at feng shui?" Let's talk about it, if I think it's reliable, I'll go back and give you a stall from Panjiayuan, let's work together, you tell people to read feng shui, and I'll help you count the money. ”

I was too lazy to pay attention to him, and Gu Zi explained: This morgue village is full of rage, and the seven levels are all reversed, and the living who enter it will definitely die, and the undead trapped in it will not die.

In the Maoshan technique, the seven passes refer to Yunken Pass, Shangxian Pass, Zichen Pass, Shangyang Pass, Tianyang Pass, Yusu Pass and Taiyou Pass, which correspond to the seven stars of the Big Dipper (Greedy Wolf, Jumen, Lucun, Wenqu, Lian Zhen, Wuqu, and Pojun) respectively. The seven passes represent the flow of vitality in any urban or rural area or population concentration area, and if the seven passes are not smooth, the place will be restless; If the seven levels are all reversed, it is a place of murder, and it is impossible to live and mortuary.

Now that we have escaped, we don't need to study those strange stone buildings in detail.

The three of them dragged their backpacks into the hall, the black bull looked around, pointed to the clay statue in the middle and said: "It's strange, this tower is not dedicated to the Buddha, the Bodhisattva, nor the Jade Emperor, Laojun, but to an official master, it seems that the person who built this pagoda is also an official fan." ”

The clay statue was twice as large as ordinary people, sitting upright, wearing a black gauze on its head, and wearing a stone blue official robe of the Ming Dynasty. There was a dragon pattern on the chest of the official robe, and some of the paintings had been mottled. The five claws are dragons, and the four claws are pythons, and from the only remaining claws, it can be seen that this is the four-clawed python robe.

Could this statue belong to a royal nobleman?

Gu Yixin did not agree with my conclusion, she explained: In the Ming Dynasty, the clothing of civil and military officials mainly included court clothes, sacrificial clothes, official clothes, regular clothes, and gift clothes. The python robe is a kind of emperor's clothing, and a jade belt is worn to wear a python robe. The python robe is similar to the dragon gon suit worn by the emperor, which is not among the official clothes, but the clothes of the eunuchs and eunuchs in the Ming Dynasty who were rewarded by the grace. It is considered a great honor to receive such a gift.

This statue has a long history, and the protection is not perfect, and the erosion is more serious, so it is impossible to judge the specific identity of the person. But it is certain that although he is wearing a python robe, he may not be a royal family.

I nodded in agreement with Gu Yixin's analysis, and suddenly noticed that the clay sculpture of this official did not have a beard, which was not quite in line with the shaping style of Ming Dynasty characters. On second thought, perhaps because of the age, the beard that I painted before had been eroded and fell off.

Hei Niu naturally didn't notice this kind of small detail, he gave a thumbs up to Gu Yixin's talent, and by the way, he gave her a nickname, called "Little Historical Record". The boasting of the antique seller really makes the other party unbearable.

Gu Yixin was a little embarrassed to be praised by the black bull, her face was crimson, I caught a glimpse of it inadvertently, and found that she was very good-looking at the moment.

There was nothing else in the temple, so we rested on the spot.

The black bull picked up some sticks and lit them, and the bonfire was lit, and we dried our wet clothes, drank hot water, and ate some compressed biscuits, and when sleepiness hit, we lay down by the campfire and fell asleep, and slept until four o'clock in the afternoon.

When I woke up, the mountain wind outside the hall was blowing, the sunset was shining, and Gu Yixin was sitting on a big mountain rock on his knees, looking into the distance.

When she saw me stretching out, she turned her head and asked me, "Master, you said that we drew lots in the General's Mansion, are you accurate?" ”

I thought about it for a while, and enlightened her: "Why are you still struggling with that matter, that morgue is originally a fierce place, there, no matter who it is, no matter what, it will not be drawn a good lot, of course you can't take it seriously." ”

Her expression softened slightly.

I suddenly remembered Professor Kang's hint for the route we had given us to follow the stream below Miaota Mountain to find him. There are three temple towers here, and it looks like we'll have to walk through them one by one.

As the saying goes, Wangshan runs a dead horse, although these three mountains with temple towers are not far away visually, but to really walk, I am afraid that I will not be able to walk all day.

I discussed with Gu Yixin, and it seems that we have to prepare for a long journey again.

"You intellectuals are stubborn and rigid in their thinking, Master Niu, I have a trick that can save us from running errands." The black bull didn't know when he woke up, yawning and counting us.

With that, he unscrewed the shade of the wolf's eye flashlight, took out a helmet from his backpack, unscrewed the tactical spotlight on it, rolled the cardboard box containing compressed biscuits into a cylinder, and placed a lampshade on one end, and a simple telescope did so.

I was overjoyed and exclaimed, "Hey, you're really good, why didn't I find out that you have such a good brain?" ”

Hei Niu found a place with a wide field of vision, held a telescope and tried it, looking like a bull coaxing, and said: "It's not that Niu Ye is modest, I can't do anything except learn to read, I am good at everything else, and I am proficient in everything." ”

After that, the black bull squinted one eye, took a telescope and looked at the valleys where the three pagodas were located, looked back and forth three times, and said in surprise: "Damn, why is there no river!" ”

Black Bull's words made us stunned, and I hurriedly asked, "Is it not good for you to make this thing?" ”

"Cut, this monocular Star Long telescope has almost reached the world-class level when it catches up with Russia's super beauty, and only those who have experienced it know how good it is."

After that, the black bull handed me the telescope, and I took it carefully, for fear that it would accidentally fall apart, and there was not even a scotch tape in this wilderness, so I had to rely on my hands to fix it.

I picked it up and put it in front of me and tried it, although the monocular was rudimentary, but the function was still good. The two valleys on the opposite side can be seen very clearly, among which the trees are verdant, the strange rocks are craggy, there is indeed no sign of the slightest stream, occasionally there is a pool of mountain spring water gathered in the mountain stream, forming a small pool, reflecting the afterglow of the sunset, like a mirror in the mountain stream is particularly eye-catching, but this can not be called a stream.

I changed my angle and looked again at the valleys on either side of the mountain at our feet, and still found not a single flowing stream, just like the valleys of the two opposite mountains.

This phenomenon is relatively strange, this deep mountain has just had a heavy rain the day before, and the rain from the mountain will definitely gather at the bottom of the mountain, how can it not form a stream? Besides, there is also a moat here, where does the water in the river go?

Thinking of this, I glanced around the cottage, only to see that the moat went around the morgue, and there was no other flow.

I handed the monoculars to Gu Yixin again, hoping that she would find something carefully, she looked at it for a while, pointed to the valley on the left side of our mountain and said, "There seem to be more puddles in the valley here." Other than that, I don't see anything. ”

The scenery on the mountain is pleasant, if this trip is just to enjoy the mountains and rivers, this tower temple must be a good place to set up camp, but we have to hurry up to find Professor Kang, and I don't know if the old man can cope with the harsh environment in the deep mountains and old forests.

And the dark shadow we met in the drain, who is he, and what is his purpose?

There are too many questions for us to linger here. After a good night's sleep and a little rest, we decided to walk towards the valley on the left, where there were more puddles.

The sunset in the mountains sinks very quickly, and a fire cloud burns in the sky, and the red glow rolls, as if a vat of heavy red ink is pouring into the sky, and the red is red, and the mountains are pale and red, which is extraordinarily enchanting.

We weaved our way down the trees and thorns, and the slopes of the peaks were unusually steep in some sections, so we took a little more care than it took to go up.

Migratory birds return to the forest late, and after a noisy and noisy chirp, the mountains fall into complete silence again.

The bright moon rises, like a round of jade plate hanging on the mountains, today is the fifteenth day of the lunar calendar, the moonlight is bright, shining through the gaps of the trees, the mottled light and shadow fall on the leaves and mountain stones, forming countless irregular bright spots. As we walked on it, we had the vague illusion of stepping on a ladder covered with precious stones.

We didn't know what time it was when we walked down the mountain, but we saw that the mountain stream between the two mountains was more than 100 meters wide, and the valley floor was flat and covered with large and small stones, most of those mountain stones were polished and smooth, and a few pools of water in the distance were scattered in the valley, like a few pearls inlaid on the black jade belt, shining by the moonlight.

The black bull flashed a wolf-eye flashlight, shone on the bottom of the valley, and said: "It seems that we have come to the right place, this should be a river not long ago, Old Man Kang asked us to go down the river, but, Lao Su, now that the river is gone, which way should we go?" ”

I squatted down and took a closer look, and the grass and trees on the side of the valley were washed and poured in the same direction, and the mud and sand also left undulating ripples, and it seemed that the water here was still very strong some time ago. Perhaps, the last time Professor Kang went into the mountain, there was indeed a river here, but then it disappeared, so where did the disappeared river go?

I was full of doubts and told Hei Niu and Gu Yixin the direction of the water flow, and we decided to follow the previous flow of the river forward, maybe we could find the clues left by Professor Kang.

At this time, the moon moved to the top of the valley, the mountains on both sides were verdant, the shadows of the trees were swaying, and the valley was like an open and rising tiger's mouth, wanting to swallow the nine days of the moon.

Professor Kang entered Heihu Mountain about three days before us, and three days ago, this valley must have been what we see now, the valley floor is full of smooth pebbles, much easier to walk than the thorn bushes on the bank, and he will definitely choose to walk the bottom of the river.

We widened our eyes and watched carefully from the bottom of the valley as we slowly moved forward, for fear of missing the clues left by Professor Kang.

I don't know what kind of mark he left for us, it's not obvious, this old man always says things so vaguely, but he really hurts us over and over again.

After walking along the valley for two or three hours, we still didn't notice anything, and the three of us unloaded their heavy backpacks and sat around the rocks at the bottom of the valley to rest.

Walking blindly like this is not the way to go, and I even began to wonder if the mountain peaks where the three pagodas are located will have a stream activity in every mountain stream.

If that's the case, we will be blind, where should we go to find Professor Kang, how to find the sarcophagus tomb that the middle-aged man said, and how to find the ancient tomb of the Western Han Dynasty related to the gold ornament of the double beast devouring horse? Thinking of this, my head aches faintly.

Hei Niu took out the kettle, raised his head and poured a few sips of water, and said: "Lao Su, don't you know how to tell a hexagram, or let's make a divination on the spot to see if we make a mistake, if we make a mistake, it is better to turn around early, and by the way, calculate where there is a Han tomb, let's have a simple one, go straight to Huanglong, and don't care about the old man Kang." ”

I took the kettle and drank a few sips of water to the spout, and replied to him angrily: "If I really had that ability, I wouldn't have nested in the archaeological institute and become the leader of the data team." I will also follow the hexagram and read a few words from Hu Zou, as for divination, it belongs to high-grade metaphysics, and I don't understand it at all. ”

Gu Yixin loosened his shoelaces and asked, "Master, I'm curious, where did the river of this mountain stream go?" As far as I know, the climate in the mountains is different from that of the desert, and it is rare for a large river to break or disappear. But, you see, there was a wide river here at least a month ago. ”

As soon as Gu Yixin's words fell, Hei Niu made a silent gesture at us, I knew that his ears were sharp, so I hurriedly listened attentively.

I noticed a sudden gurgling sound all around me, like a big fish spitting blisters, and it seemed to come from the pebbles under our butts.

Black Bull Novel asked, "Damn, what's the sound?" Water boiling? ”

The three of them stood up from the rock as if they were electrocuted, only to find that before they knew it, a lot of water was coming out of the valley bottom, and more water was still gushing out of the cracks in the rocks.

The river rose so fast that it didn't reach our ankles in an instant, and the three of us grabbed our luggage and hurried to the shore, and as soon as we got ashore, a rolling river was placed in front of us.

Gu Yixin asked me in shock: "Master, how can this be?" ”

The black bull echoed: "This is so weird, so many rivers have come out of the ground all at once, this, this seems to be the legendary river of the underworld!" Legend has it that the river, which leads to Hades, flickers and flickers, bursting out without warning and engulfing all living beings that come near it. Fortunately, we can run fast with long legs, otherwise, the three of us will be in the Hades Hall now. ”

I grabbed the bushes, poured out the water from my shoes, and scolded him: "Go to your uncle's Yin River, you have also received nine years of compulsory education, and you can also believe in this kind of ghost mythology?" ”

The black bull said unconvinced: "It's here, you can't believe it." ”

The mountain wind swept the leaves above my head, the river rushed down at the bottom of my feet, the bright moonlight shone sparkling on the water, I looked at the endless river, and the moon in the sky that was as round as a jade disk, and suddenly, a word came to my mind: tides.

I said to Hei Niu and Gu Yixin: "I seem to know how this so-called river from the underworld was formed, this is actually a tidal phenomenon!" The tide is the phenomenon of the rise and fall of the sea water caused by the gravitational pull of the moon on the earth, and the ancients called it "the rise and fall of the waves, with the rise and fall of the moon", so the new day of the month and the tide of the sun are the largest, and the tide of the first and second quarters is the smallest. Tonight is exactly the fifteenth day of the lunar calendar, the moon is the roundest, the closest to the earth, and the gravitational pull of the moon on the ground has reached its maximum, and only on this night does the siphoning phenomenon appear. The moon rises and the river appears, and the moon sets and the river disappears. If you hadn't seen it with your own eyes, who would have believed that this unique natural phenomenon by the sea could also appear in the mountains and streams of Black Tiger Mountain. ”

The black bull asked puzzledly: "This is not the sea, how can the tidal phenomenon occur?" Are you saying that the great river under our feet is usually hidden underground, and it is only when the moon is at its fullest that it is attracted to the surface? How fucking strong the moon is, I don't think your theory is reliable. ”

Gu Yixin added that the force of tidal phenomena does not come entirely from the gravitational pull of celestial bodies, but also from changes in air pressure. When gravity and pressure interact with each other to a sufficiently large value, tidal phenomena can occur entirely in mountain streams, and tidal phenomena in rivers have been recorded in history.

At the end of the Ming Dynasty, Li Zicheng's soldiers of Li Laiheng washed their clothes by the Chaoshui River in Maohu Village, Honghua Township. Li Laiheng was puzzled, and after many inquiries, he learned that this was not a sign from heaven, but caused by the gravitational tide of the Chaoshui River. Li Laiheng immediately ordered someone to erect a stone tablet by the river, and wrote the inscription himself: "Yin, noon, and unitary time, do not wash the clothes" and "seven big characters" to prevent this kind of joke from happening again. ”

When Hei Niu heard that such things did happen in history, he gladly accepted the theory I just proposed, but said with a straight face: "I said it a long time ago, all strange phenomena are paper tigers, and they can be broken with scientific theories. ”

The 100-meter-wide river is turbulent, the sand and gravel at the bottom of the river are rising, turbid, the waves beat the rocks on both sides, rolling up the waves of thousands of layers like snow, this momentum is really a bit like the legendary Yin River leading to the underworld. If you are accidentally involved, I am afraid that there will be no chance of survival.

For the sake of safety, the three of us cut the thorns and climbed five or six meters up the mountain, and suddenly found that there was an extremely hidden ancient plank road along the river. The boardwalk is only a meter or two wide, and the crevices on the rocks are overgrown with weeds and thorns, and the part near the river bank has collapsed, and it seems that it has been abandoned for hundreds of years.

I suddenly remembered the soldiers in the morgue, this may be the ancient plank road they dug back then, along this ancient road, you should be able to find the collapsed ancient tomb with countless treasures.

Could the sarcophagus tomb that the middle-aged man in Ebian County said be part of the collapsed Han tomb?

Does the "down the river" in Professor Kang's message mean that on this ancient plank road, walk in the direction of the river's underwater flow?

These breakpoints are faintly connected into a line in my mind, and this line only needs a supporting evidence to be clear, and this supporting evidence is what Professor Kang said left us with the mark.

After walking more than 30 meters, a broken bowl thick tree was in the middle of the plank road, which was particularly conspicuous in the primeval mountain forest.

I looked at the broken part of the tree, which had been cut with a sharp weapon such as an axe or machete, which must have been the mark that Professor Kang had left on us.

Sure enough, a hundred and ten meters forward, another small tree was cut down. The three of them rejoiced, and after a long journey, now they have finally found the right way.

When the excitement calmed down a little, I looked at the stubble that was cut down, and vaguely felt that something was wrong, Professor Kang, an old man in his seventies, how could he have so much strength to cut down a small tree with three axes and two axes?

Gu Yixin also noticed this abnormality, she squatted down and touched the broken cut of the tree with her hand and said, "Master, Boss Niu, I think Professor Kang may not have entered the mountain alone!" He had at least one companion with him, and this companion was very strong. ”

The black bull looked indifferent and said, "The old man hires a few helpers, and it's nothing to go into the mountain together, otherwise, his old bones would have been broken a long time ago." ”

Hei Niu said, thought for a while, and then said: "Damn, if he really has an accomplice, things will be in trouble, if we find the Han tomb where countless treasures are buried, what if the old man and his gang rob us?" Lao Su, Xiao Gu, you two have to stand firm and stand on my side. ”

The idea of black bull greedy for money and self-interest sometimes makes people cry and laugh, I scolded him: "Still robbed hard, do you think that the dignified archaeologist is so enlightened by you?" I'm wondering now if the black shadow we saw in the drain under the morgue could be the one who cut down the little tree, and could he have been hired by Professor Kang? ”

The black bull glanced at the broken cut of the tree and said, "No, with the skill of that black shadow, you don't need a knife and axe to deal with this little tree at all, you can just twist it with your hand." ”

I think Hei Niu's analysis is not unreasonable, but if Professor Kang needs help, why don't he just report to the archaeological institute and bring the archaeological team with him, but hire it from the people, is there anything hidden in this?

It's useless to think about it, since we have found the sign left by Professor Kang, as long as we follow this sign, we can find Mr. Kang, and then ask all the questions clearly.

The black bull was in a good mood, urging us to go quickly, while tearing open the broken gong and singing in response to the situation: "The big river flows eastward, the stars in the sky tremble and the Beidou wow, let's go, let's go, the wind and fire go to the inverted bucket wow, hehe, the wind and the fire go to the inverted bucket wow...... Damn, this plank road is forked, Lao Su, where are we going? ”

I followed the beam of the black bull wolf's eye flashlight and saw that there was a fork in the ancient plank road, one along the mountain, the other built a stone bridge, crossed the small mountain stream, extended to a big mountain on the opposite side, the mountain stream and a stream mixed into the big river, I looked around carefully, and did not leave any signs

"Old man Kang said let's go along the water, we have to take the road with a bridge."

Gu Yixin added: "This big river is affected by the tides, and it will return to the ground after dawn, so we have to hurry up and move forward, in case there is a fork in the road ahead, with this river, we will have a reference." ”

The three of them walked across the stone bridge between the two mountains in turn, and walked a few hundred meters forward, and sure enough, they saw a broken tree again. This showed that we had chosen the right path, so we quickened our pace, and while the river was still there, we had to find Professor Kang before dawn.

This section of the ancient plank road is a little wider than the one just walked, because it is on the back of the mountain, avoiding most of the light and wind erosion, and it is relatively well preserved, only the weeds and thorns in the stone crevices vaguely indicate that it is hundreds of years old.

The beam of the wolf's eye flashlight shone ahead, and we found that a weed in the middle of the road had been cleared with a machete, and when we stepped forward, we found that the cleared ground was made with two branches of a tree with an X.

The black bull looked at the X and asked, "Is this old man afraid of the trouble of cutting down trees and changing the Peugeot symbol?" ”

I picked up the two branches and looked at them, and there was nothing special about them, and then I put them back as they weed, and said: "It is much easier to cut down trees than to clear thorns and weeds, and put symbols, and now that the X Peugeot suddenly appears, could it be that it wants to send us some kind of message?" ”

The black bull said: "To say this, X, is it the wrong number, that is, to tell us to go the wrong way? ”

I shook my head and said, "Surely not, didn't they cut down a small tree after crossing the stone bridge to remind us to keep going?" Even if they were walking and realized that they were going the wrong way, and wanted to remind us, they had to put this X on the stone bridge, not here. ”

Gu Yixin thought for a while and said, "I agree with the master's idea, this may not mean that we are going wrong, but to remind us not to go any further." ”

"Don't go any further? Why? Could it be that there is something ahead? I'm the one who is most troubled to guess these unclear symbols. After that, the black bull used a flashlight to shine in front of the plank road, only to see that on the ground fifty or sixty meters in front of him, there was a bulging thing, like a raised stone, and also like a mountaineering backpack. It's too far away to see real, so we're ready to go up and see what happens.

Suddenly, the flashlight flashed and went out.

By the moonlight, we spotted a gray-brown jackal emerging from the bushes on the side of the boardwalk, which seemed to not notice us, and sniffed in circles around the bulging things on the ground with its head down.

The black bull squinted his eyes for a while and whispered, "This is a big-tailed wolf." ”

Gu Yixin reminded: "This is not a wolf, it is a jackal, it is smaller than a wolf, and this animal likes to follow both male and female." ”

Sure enough, after sniffing twice, the jackal raised its head and barked at the moon, and another one sprang out of the bushes, and the two jackals couldn't help but bite at the bulging things on the ground.

"Damn, there's a backpack on the ground, don't be bitten by these two brutes!" The black bull said as he pulled out his pickaxe and ran forward.

The black bull knocked the wolf-eye flashlight on his thigh as he ran, and the flashlight came back on.

The two jackals were illuminated by the strong light, stunned for a moment, threw down the backpacks in their mouths, took a few steps back, bared their fangs, and roared in a provocative posture.

Gu Yixin and I also followed the black bull to the backpack, at this moment, the two sides were deadlocked on both sides of the backpack, I reached out and broke a long branch from the side of the plank road, ready to hook the backpack over.

Seeing this, the larger male jackal suddenly jumped up and pounced on me, the black bull reacted very quickly, picked up the mountaineering pickaxe with both hands, like playing baseball, and hit the vicious male jackal into the turbulent river under the plank road, the male jackal howled, and lost its trace after showing its head in the water.

The other female jackal, utterly enraged by us, howled at the moon and bared her teeth at the black bull.

The black bull is not a vegetarian either, so he reversed the pickaxe and struck at the female jackal head-on, and suddenly, my face was full of hot brains.

The mother jackal snorted and fell to the ground, convulsed a few times, used the last of her strength to move to the river, and finally jumped to her feet and jumped into the long river.

I picked up the backpack on the ground and opened it to see that it was full of beef crackers and other food, and it was no wonder that the two jackals were holding on to it for their lives. Then he thought about it, Professor Kang and the others had even left their backpacks with food here, and they must have left in a hurry.

Gu Yixin was more than ten meters away in front of him, and found another sign, a triangle was crooked with three branches on the cracked mountain rock, and within the triangle, several pieces of gravel were placed into an exclamation mark.

Gu Yixin explained: "This means 'very dangerous, never get closer'. ”

The black cow stuffed the canned beef into his backpack and muttered, "Damn, what kind of medicine is sold in Old Man Kang's gourd?" Trying to lead us into this deep mountain and old forest, and now telling us that we can't go forward, is this playing with us? ”

I took a closer look at the sign on the ground and said, "This sign is hastily placed, it doesn't look like it's a joke, they might have had some kind of emergency, otherwise the backpack with food wouldn't have been left here." ”

Although there were signs that the road ahead could be fraught with danger, the three of us were not intimidated by one or two symbols and unanimously decided to move on.

In the middle of the month, the shadows of the trees are swaying, and the mountain wind is rustling the branches and leaves. As I walked, I felt a sticky wetness on the back of my hand that touched the bush, and I looked at it by the light of the flashlight, and suddenly broke out in a cold sweat: The back of my hand was covered with blood, and the branches and leaves of the bushes next to me were still dripping.

Suddenly, a dense burst of gunfire rang out in the empty valley, and the sound was amplified by the continuous valley, which was particularly thrilling.