Shirley Young and I looked at each other's faces, but she, like me, couldn't imagine the truth behind this ancient legend. Wildlife suicides occur in groups all over the world, especially in the sea, but it is almost never heard of as a mix of animals of different populations committing suicide together. And in this Tibetan land where mountains and lakes are worshipped, how can this mountainous area be named after such an ominous word as "sea of calamity"? It's kind of incredible.

The guide Chu Yi explained that the legend of the Tibetan bone ditch was told by the old people many generations ago. Whenever the crescent moon is like an eyebrow, the wild beasts of the mountains will look at the moon and jump into the ditch from a high place and fall to their deaths to appease the wrath of the gods. There is also a legend that any animal that jumps into a deep ditch and dies can be reincarnated as a human being out of the animal path.

But no one who is still alive in the world has ever seen a wild beast jumping on a cliff, and he doesn't know whether those ancient legends are true or false. But in the Tibetan bone ditch, you can also see the bones of many wild beasts, and there will be ghost fires flashing at night, and the terrain there is complex, and it is connected with the ancient glacier of Shenluogou. If you want to find a place surrounded by four snow-capped mountains, it is in the Shenluogou Glacier. It will take more than five days to get there.

The complex topography of Shenluogou is rare in the world. This northern Tibetan plateau is sparsely populated and has a harsh living environment, and almost all of the areas near Karamir are uninhabited, and most of the areas are difficult to reach. Chu Yi himself, at most, has only been to Shenluogou to collect medicine, and he has never been there. Karamir has snow-capped mountains and ancient glaciers, but the glacier surrounded by four snow-capped peaks is only Shenluogou Glacier. All the first day of junior high school can do is lead us to that place.

The expedition team rested in the mountain pass for more than half an hour, and it was almost time to set off, and those who were physically exhausted and had difficulty breathing were riding on horseback. The guide Chu Yi put the shotgun and Tibetan knife back on his body, took out a leather bag full of barley wine, poured a few big mouthfuls, and then struck the leather whip three times in the air to tell the mountain god, and then said to everyone: "If you want to enter the Tibetan bone ditch, first turn over the Ga Qingpo." Let's go. With that, he shook the prayer wheel in one hand and carried the leather whip in the other, and led the way into the mountain first.

The rest of the men and horses followed him, turning around in the mountains for seven and eight times, and finally arrived at Gaqingpo (also known as Gaqinggao). Although there is a slope in the place name, it is not much inferior to the high mountains and mountains. The altitude here is too high, the clouds cover the fog, and the first class of Kangba men still don't think anything about it, and Uncle Ming can't hold it anymore. In the past, people from the mainland could not adapt to altitude sickness when they came to the plateau, and they would die if they stayed on the plateau for more than 60 days. Because the air pressure will gradually increase the heart, and over time it will exceed the load of the body, and later this condition can be alleviated by medical means, but it is still very dangerous.

I always felt a little strange before, according to a person like Uncle Ming, his money has already been enough to spend, how can he be willing to throw this old bone into this Kunlun Mountain, and fight for his life to find the glacier crystal corpse. Later, I learned from Han Shuna that Uncle Ming's current family background only had the house in Beijing and those few antiques. The family property was lost by the gambling of his two sons in Hong Kong, and he owed a large amount of debt. Uncle Ming wanted to take advantage of the fact that his legs and feet could still move, and make a big one, otherwise he would return to the west in the future, and his two sons and goddaughters would have to drink the northwest wind. After knowing this, I also felt a little sympathy for Uncle Ming.

I was worried that if I went further up, Uncle Ming and Ah Xiang might have an accident, so I caught up with the first year of junior high and asked him how far he was going to enter the Tibetan bone ditch.

Hatsuichi suddenly stopped, beckoned to me, and pointed diagonally down to signal me to look there. I looked in the direction he was pointing, and the clouds around me were being blown away by the mountain wind, cracking a deep trench in the ground. Overlooking the deep stream from a high place, you can only see a misty and unpredictable atmosphere. Not to mention jumping from here, just looking at it makes me feel afraid. If the clouds and fog on the top of the mountain were thicker, people who did not know the terrain here would definitely continue to walk forward and fall into a deep ditch and fall to pieces.

This is the "Tibetan bone groove". Our location is the place where the legend has it that countless wild beasts jumped to their deaths, and the locals call this place "Yanbeast Terrace".

Chu handed me a leather bag containing barley wine, asked me to take a few sips, drove away the cold of the mountain wind, and said to me: "How about I call you Duji in the future, Duji means golden steel in Tibetan, only a true warrior dares to look down on the Tibetan bone ditch from the Yanbeast platform, Brother Duji, you are good." ”

I drank two sips of wine, grinned at Chu Yi and smiled, thinking you don't know, just looked at those few glances, my legs and stomach are really a little tendoned, now go around the road, but also before dark out of the bone ditch, we are about to urge the yak to pass, at this time the mountain wind rises again, the thicker clouds above the head slowly move away, a dignified snow peak from the sea of clouds revealed, this is like the silver snow peak in the sky, people feel that it is within reach, no wonder the locals say: "To Gaqing Gao, reach out and grasp the sky." "The snow-capped mountains are very visually and spiritually shocking against the backdrop of sunlight and white clouds, and the first day of the first year and the five porters are used to seeing them, while those of us who are not often seen in the snow-capped mountains in the mainland, our eyes are straight, and we wander for a long time, until other clouds float over to cover the snow peaks, and then we turn back and leave step by step.

At the entrance of the cave of bones, I looked at the time, and because of the wrong estimation of the speed of travel, it was too late to cross this deep ditch before dark, and it seemed that I could only camp outside the ditch for the night, and then set off again at dawn the next day.

But the altitude at the entrance is also more than 4,005, just over the Gaqing slope, some people with poor physical strength, have a strong plateau reaction, although they have taken medicine, they have not seen improvement, they must find a place at a lower altitude to let them rest for a night, then only enter the Tibetan bone ditch.

The guide said that haunting and beast suicide are legends for a long time, to be honest, I don't believe it, but it is still dangerous for us to go in at night, although there will not be threatened by avalanches, but if there is a loose place on the cliffs on both sides, even if a small piece falls, if it just falls on the head, even if the head is buckled with an iron pot, it will be smashed through, this is one of them, the second is that there have been thousands of beasts that have died inside, phosphorus fire often appears, yaks and horses are easily frightened, yak kind of guy, Although they usually look very honest and honest, once they start to go crazy, where the bone groove is so narrow, we will all be trampled to death by it.

I looked at Uncle Ming's family of three lying on horseback, and felt more difficult, and finally Shirley Yang thought of a way, so that the yaks were in front, and the rest of the people and horses were behind, from here, there were a lot of dead trees in the bone ditch, and camping behind the trees would minimize the danger factor, and some details were discussed, and finally decided to camp in the ditch.

Wait around into the Tibetan bone ditch at an altitude of less than 3,000 altitudes, those who have difficulty breathing, finally get a chance to breathe, the reason why it is called a ditch and not only a valley here, is because the terrain is too narrow, both sides are like a knife and axe cut cliffs, look up, there is only a line of sky, the ditch is full of rocks and weeds, there are countless residual bones in the middle, the most are some horns and goat horns, these things are immortal for thousands of years.

It is said that the Shenluogou connected to this place is completely different from the environment here, there are a large number of primeval forests, a variety of rare plants, and the mountains are especially rich in medicinal materials, so it has the alias of the medicine mountain.

About a quarter of the way through, night had fallen, we still had not found a suitable area to camp, the yaks had walked all day, after dark began to be a little irritable, for the sake of safety, had to find a few dead trees nearby to stop, set up tents, bury pots to boil water.

Because this bone ditch is east-west, we can see the moon in the night sky, the cold moon is like a hook, because it is so deep here, so the moonlight seems very hazy, only the fire lit by dry cow dung can give us light.

Everyone sat around the fire to eat and drink, and the bold guide told everyone about Tibetan folklore on the first day of the new year, and I hurriedly ate a few bites, then left the campfire and sat alone on a broken tree stump not far away to smoke.

As soon as I smoked two puffs, the cigarette was snatched by Shirley Yang who came over and stepped on: Smoking on the plateau is very harmful to the body, so you are not allowed to smoke, I have something to discuss with you.

I originally wanted to say to Shirley Yang how you are as open as the fascists, but then I got this thought, since I entered the Tibetan bone ditch, there is a strange feeling, Shirley Yang must have also felt some unusual signs, so he came to me to discuss, this is related to everyone's life safety, or don't joke yet, say that it is important to be official.

Shirley Yang really came for this matter, a large number of beast epiphysis in this ditch attracted her attention, these bull horns, sheep horns, bear heads and other residual bones, it seems that the most recent age, there are two or three hundred birds as long, if it is really like the legend, why in recent years, no more beasts jumped into the ditch to commit suicide.

I thought about it for a moment and said to Shirley Young, a legend that has been handed down from ancient times. It may only retain the shadow of some truth, and it is not because of the temptation of some natural phenomena, which are incredible, but they do exist in the world. But I guess at least not here.

The half-volume book left to me by my grandfather was written by a master of touching gold in the late Qing Dynasty, and it even mentioned the structural layout of the nine-story demon building in Tibet. Like this kind of tomb in the form of a demon tower, there must be two dragon-shaped burial ditches of the same scale, maybe the Tibetan bone ditch where we are located is one of them, the remnants of the demon kingdom Hui Zong, may have also held unknown sacrifices here.

I kicked the half-dead stump next to me, there was a very vague three-eyed human head ghost face on it, at least it was left hundreds of years ago, it was almost weathered, I had seen similar totem marks on the tree since I entered the bone ditch, which should be good news for us, indicating that we are not far from the Phoenix Shrine.

I was studying the layout of this sacrificial ditch with Shirley, and the possible location of the demon tower, when I suddenly heard a burst of exclamations from the people around the fire, the sound was full of panic and confusion, I hurriedly turned my head, the scene in front of me was really unbelievable, in the hazy moon shadow, a huge Tibetan horse bear, was falling from a thousand meters in the air with its teeth and claws.