Sand Sea Devil's Nest 8

Since the noon encounter with a violent black sandstorm, we chased the white camel, broke into the ruins of this nameless town in the sea of sand, I feel that this ruined city from the inside out, shrouded in a veil of mystery, I can't see whether there is danger hidden under the veil, so I have been on high vigilance, everyone rested, and I dare not slack off.

Suddenly, I saw that the eyes of the stone statue moved, although it was a little far away, and the light in the room was dim, I still believed that my eyes would not be wrong, so I stood up and walked to the stone statue of the giant pupil by the wall to check.

The gas lamp hanging on the beams of the house was blown by the wind that poured into the broken house, and the light flickered, reflecting the light in the broken house, and the dark stone figure looked like a dead man buried alive, only the head was exposed, and the bottom was all buried in the yellow sand.

When I got closer, it turned out that on the eyes of the stone man, there was a big ant lying on his stomach, the size of a knuckle, the body was black, and the tail was blood red.

When I saw that it was just an ant, I flicked it to the ground, stepped on it, and only heard a soft sound in my ears, and stepped on it, and I felt a little strange that the body of this big ant was much harder than that of ordinary ants.

I looked around, there was air everywhere in the broken house, I don't know where this ant crawled in, Shirley Yang came up to me and asked me what was the matter, I said nothing, just an ant, let me trample to death.

I woke up the fat man who was sleeping soundly and told him to go to the sentry, then I added some solid fuel to the fire to make it burn brighter, turned off the gas lamp, and went to sleep in my sleeping bag.

The body was tired, and soon fell asleep, and when I woke up, it was already more than nine o'clock in the morning of the next day, and the sandstorm outside had been blowing all night, and it had not stopped, but it was much lighter than the previous wind, and this devilish sandstorm was finally coming to an end.

There is a large section of the ruins of the ancient city that has fallen into the yellow sand, and there is not much left to expose the ground, and there are two more such big winds and sands, I am afraid that this nameless ancient city will disappear into the desert, but even if it is all buried in the yellow sand, it does not mean that it will be buried forever, more than half of the Taklamakan is a mobile desert, and the desert is moved with the strong wind, and I don't know how many years later it will see the light of day.

Hao Aiguo was directing the students to dig up the stone figure in the corner of the wall, and he had already dug up the thigh of the stone man, and everyone was watching around, only An Liman took advantage of the weakening wind and went out to take care of the camels hiding under the city wall.

I took out some dry food from my bag and watched them dig while eating, and this time I followed the archaeological team into the desert, not only to see if there were any large ancient tombs, but also to learn some archaeological experience from these experts.

They were afraid of damaging the carvings on the stone figures, so they only dug up the sand on the periphery with a sapper shovel, and then cleaned it little by little with a flat shovel and a brush, dug up a part, cleaned a part, and at the same time made various records.

Professor Chen saw that I woke up, so he nodded to me and said hello, it seems that his body is fine, he told me that now this time is to let the students practice their hands, increase some internship experience, although the learning of theoretical knowledge is important, but for the archaeology industry, on-site practice is also very important, in the field to see more contact and more hands-on, in order to have an intuitive feeling, combined with the theory will be much faster.

After a while, the students cleaned up the base of the stone statue, which was the first time I had seen a stone figure with giant pupils, this stone statue was dressed in a beard robe, with drooping arms, and many patterns carved on its body, which seemed to be some kind of tantric scripture, according to Professor Chen, these words have not been deciphered, but with the expansion of the field of archaeological research in recent years, experts believe that this should be some kind of symbol or code, recording some ancient religious information. As for why these symbols were carved on the stone figures, it may be related to the sacrificial behavior. However, there is no relevant literature, murals, historical records and other related materials, and these are only speculations so far.

Sa Dipeng listened to the professor's explanation and asked: "Professor, the shape of this stone man is very different from ordinary people, I think there is this possibility, there is a religion of worshipping aliens in ancient times, after they have seen aliens, they think they are gods, so they made some such stone people to come out to worship, the symbols on these stone people are an alien language. ”

Hao Aiguo immediately criticized him: "Xiao Sa, you usually don't work hard to study, how many times have you told you, you are a very smart child, don't use your brains in crooked places, why did you even get aliens?" Treat history and archaeology seriously. ”

Professor Chen did not get angry, but showed a kind smile: "It's not a bad thing to have imagination, young people, active thinking, it's good." There is no contradiction at all in unity and tension, seriousness and liveliness, but when we archaeology and study history, we must follow a principle, bold assumptions, and cautious verification. Imagination should be based on the basis of reality, and imagination without basis is unreliable. Let's take this giant pupil stone statue as an example, ancient people like to judge good luck and bad luck through astronomical phenomena, every night, they look at the starry sky, will they hope that their eyes can see farther? When making stone statues, would you add this desire to you? This possibility is very high, Sanxingdui in Sichuan has also unearthed some statues, the eyes are long and extended, conservatively speaking, this is very likely to entrust an expression of the ancients' desire to explore. ”

When I heard this, I couldn't help but be impressed, the professor still has a level and does not oppress people with big truths, compared to Professor Chen's realm, Hao Aiguo is much worse.

Professor Chen continued: "The aliens you are talking about are not impossible, it is not that the mention of aliens means fictional science fiction in foreign countries, in fact, the earliest record of aliens still appears in our ancient Chinese notes and murals, as early as 7,500 years ago, in the murals of the primitive tribes of Helan Mountain, there were astronauts in spacesuits, they walked out of a large circle, and the surrounding animals and residents fled in all directions, these may not be the original human beings can imagine by imagination, It should be a mural of a documenting nature that records major disasters and events. A similar situation is recorded in the tripod vessels of the Zhou and Xia periods, as well as in some ancient books......"

At this time, Anliman jumped back from the hole in the roof in the wind and sand, and told everyone that the sandstorm was almost over, and in less than half an hour, the sky would be clear, all with the blessing of Allah, the sand was about to swallow the outer wall, and if we scraped for another two hours, we would be buried alive here today.

Originally, everyone was still a little worried, although the wind was small, but I didn't know when it would stop, with An Liman's words, I completely put down the hanging heart, the students listened attentively to Professor Chen's lecture, I made a pot of tea on the fire, ready to let everyone drink and go on the road.

As soon as the tea was boiling, several people around the giant pupil stone statue suddenly screamed in unison, and they all jumped back, and some people shouted: "Ah...... Why are there so many big ants? Some people shouted, "Oops! It's also available here! ”

I hurried to look, and saw a large bag of sand bulging from the feet of the stone man, like a fountain of countless large ants, and some people used shovels to shoot them, killing hundreds of them at once, but at the same time thousands of them emerged from the sand. It's dense, and it makes people's scalps tight.

At first, I thought that they were digging up the sand and digging up the ant nest, but immediately found that this was not the case, and more and more large holes appeared in the ground, and more and more ants crawled out of them, each with a pitch-black body, a red tail, red and black, and the tide of the embankment was as innumerable.

An Liman only glanced at it, turned his head and ran out, the fat man and the others still wanted to shoot with a sapper shovel, at this moment, there were so many ants that they couldn't start.

Shirley Young, a photographer for National Geographic, has traveled a lot of places and seen a lot, but she anxiously shouted to the crowd: "Climb out of the roof, everyone, this is a desert marching ant, if you walk slowly, you will be gnawed into a skeleton." ”

Tens of thousands of desert marching ants have filled half of the house, and more are crawling out of the ground, not only underground, but also on the beams and walls. Professor Chen, Ye Yixin, and several people were so shocked by this terrifying situation that their feet weakened, and they could still walk half a step.

Sand Sea Devil's Nest 9

Not to mention those intellectuals, even me and the fat man, they felt trembling all over, these desert marching ants were so terrible, maybe the original human bones in the house were their masterpieces, no wonder there was no flesh and skin left.

I tried to calm myself down, looked at the people around me, and found that An Liman, the old guy, escaped first by himself, damn it, this old fritter, ran away when he saw danger, and swore yesterday that he would share weal and woe with us.

I didn't have time to curse An Liman, the stinky old man, and seeing that the sapper shovel could not stop the tide of desert marching ants, I kicked over the fire that was boiling tea, and poured out all the solid fuel in the half-iron can, forming a wall of fire in the house, and the ant colony that touched the wall of fire was immediately scorched, slightly blocking the forward momentum of the desert marching ants.

There were too many of those desert marching ants, and they didn't hesitate to rush to the wall of fire, trying to use their numbers to extinguish the flames, thanks to the strong burning of solid fuel, but it was only a matter of time before they were crushed by the ant colony.

Taking advantage of this time, we took the luggage and equipment that we could take, and even pulled and dragged them out of the broken house, and the wind and sand outside were already very small, only to see hundreds of yellow sheep, wild camels, sand wolves, gerbils, and hyenas jumping around in the ruins of the ancient city, not only the big house we were in just now, but also a patch of desert marching ants appeared in many places, and some animals ran a little slower, and were immediately covered by desert marching ants.

The mouth of the desert marching ant contains a large amount of formic acid, thousands of them bite together, even the elephant can not bear it, some sand wolves and yellow sheep have fallen to the ground, after the desert marching ant, they are only left with a pile of white bones.

There are tens of millions of desert marching ants in this city, as if the entire ancient city is a huge ant nest, and we are trapped on the roof, and we can only wave the sapper shovel to sweep the marching ants that climb up.

In the distance, under the city walls, Anliman was busy untying the ropes that bound the camel, and I threw my rifle to the fat man: "Hit him in the hat." ”

The fat man raised his rifle and pulled the trigger on An Liman without hesitation, and with a "snap", An Liman's fur hat was blown away by the bullet, which frightened him and turned his head to look at the people on the roof.

I shouted at him: "Old man, if you dare to run, the second shot will hit your ass, Hu Da will definitely have no opinion." ”

An Liman waved his hand again and again, signaling not to run. But the house was already full of desert marching ants, and we couldn't get down for the time being, and we couldn't do anything on the roof, so we didn't pay attention to it, but we saw a broken wall collapse with a bang, and a big ant like a calf crawled out of it.

This is a queen ant with six pairs of large transparent wings, probably due to a sandstorm attack, which alarmed the queen ant hiding deep in the nest, and they are preparing to migrate.

Seeing the queen's momentum, the faces of the archaeological team members changed, and Shirley Yang shouted: "Capture the thief and capture the king first, shoot it quickly." ”

The fat man patted the sports air rifle in his hand, and stomped his feet in a hurry: "The caliber of this gun is too small, *** can't move." Having said that, he fired his gun, shooting all the remaining bullets in the magazine at the queen.

I took off my scarf to keep out the wind and sand, wrapped the rest of the solid fuel in it, took out a lighter, lit a corner of the scarf, and used it as an incendiary bomb to smash it from the roof to the queen ant below.

This trick actually had a miraculous effect, the fire borrowed the wind, surrounded the huge body of the queen ant, the queen ant was in pain, struggling to roll on the sand, the more the fire burned, the bigger the fire, this compressed fuel, only a little bit can burn for more than ten minutes, not to mention this more than half a barrel, enough to have about a kilogram, the fire is getting bigger and bigger, the surrounding desert marching ants have blown up the camp, desperately rushing to the queen ant, hoping to extinguish the flame with the number.

I saw that the opportunity was coming, beckoned to everyone, jumped down the broken house with a sapper shovel first, and dispersed the scattered desert marching ants, the big man Chu Jian carried Professor Chen, Hao Aiguo, Ye Yixin and others supported each other, and after the fat man broke, the group rushed out from the breakthrough.

At this time, An Liman had already controlled the frightened camel herd, everyone climbed on the camels, urging the camel team to run out of the city, and there were all kinds of wild beasts jumping around from time to time.

The caravan ran hundreds of meters, and when I looked back, the dilapidated ruins of the ancient city were no longer visible, and countless desert marching ants, tumbling and rolling like the red and black sea water boiling in a pot, were boiling and swarming out of the ground. But as long as you are not surrounded by this large group of ants, there is no danger.

An Liman explained that he wanted to go out first and untie the ropes that tied the camels, or let the ant colony gnaw the camels into bones, and we couldn't run away if we wanted to, not to run for our lives first.

The fat man didn't believe it, and pointed to the rifle on his back with a big finger: "You tell me, you have to explain in the future, explain it to me with this gun." ”

An Liman's reason seems to be very sufficient, and it cannot be assumed that he left everyone and fled alone, and there are still many places in the desert that cannot be separated from him in the future, and I don't want to fall out with him about this, so I stopped the fat man and didn't let him continue.

I said to An Liman: "We saw the auspicious white camel together in the desert, and escaped the siege of the desert marching ants, this is all Hu Da's will, he thinks that we are brothers, we are all devout believers, so we all believe in you, and those who betray friends and brothers, Hu will punish him." ”

Alimanlian claimed: "Praise be to Allah, Huda is the only true God, we are all good friends and brothers, and Allah will surely bless us." ”

Even if this episode is over, who knows what troubles await us in the depths of the sand sea of the ancient city of the West Night, I still have to find a way to persuade Professor Chen to go back.

We are less than half a day's way from the ruins of the ancient city of the West Night, the wind has stopped, the sun like a fireball hangs in the air, walking in the desert, the most important thing is to keep yourself enough water, it is taboo to rush during the day, but our water is still sufficient, and we can replenish the water when we arrive in the West Night City, so we will advance in the desert against the blazing sun.

In ancient times, the orogeny of the West Malayas formed the Tarim Basin, and the terrain of the entire Xinjiang was like a big bowl, with a bowl of golden yellow sand in the bowl, and the camel team composed of nine of us and nineteen camels was too small, and its proportion was less than one ten-thousandth of a grain of sand in this bowl of golden sand.

The desert is vast, there is no boundary, if it is not for the long footprints behind me, I don't even feel that I am constantly advancing, I really admire those explorers who enter the desert Gobi Desert alone, maybe only so lonely walking between heaven and earth, they will experience the true meaning of life, admiration is admiration, I am not going to do that in this life, or collective life is suitable for me.

Sa Dipeng and the others were very curious, and asked Shirley Yang to talk about the desert marching ants as they walked, Shirley Yang had not seen it with his own eyes before, but he had only seen the villages that the desert marching ants had ransacked, and the people and animals were gnawed to the bones, which was miserable.

The reason why this kind of ant colony is called marching ants is because they have a high degree of organization and discipline, mainly soldier ants, if compared with human armies, in addition to mobility and firepower, the coordination and organization ability of well-trained human armies cannot be compared with desert marching ants.

As they walked, the sand dunes under their feet were high and low, undulating to an unprecedented degree, An Liman said that under these dense sand dunes were ancient cities swallowed by yellow sand, he led everyone up to the highest big sand mountain, pointed to the south and told everyone, there is our middle station, the ruins of the ancient city of the West Night.

I raised my binoculars and looked south to see an oasis in the heart of the Sand Sea.

Sand Sea Devil's Nest 10

An oasis in the desert resembles an emerald adorned on a gold plate, and from a distance, the ruins of a black city stand in it.

The ruins of the West Night City are quite well preserved, and the city is relatively late, until the end of the Tang Dynasty was destroyed in the war, since then, it has been abandoned to the present, at the beginning of the 19th century, German explorers discovered this place, most of the murals and statues and other artistic relics in the ruins, have been looted.

Only this empty city is left in the desert, the oldest ancient channel of the Peacock River, so far, because the city from ancient times to the present, there are underground water veins through all year round, here has become an important supply point for travelers in the desert.

The camel caravan went down the Dasha Mountain, slowly moving towards the oasis, An Liman and I discussed, to the West Night City to rest for two more days and then enter the black desert, it is not easy to turn back after entering, these days the camels are frightened, and carry a large number of supplies, have to take good care of the foot strength before they can set off again.

This is exactly what I want, I wish I would like to stop for a few more days, so as to find an excuse to persuade the archaeological team to knock down and return home, and don't look for any exquisite ancient city, just dig two pits nearby, and go around, I have been feeling more and more powerless recently, and if I go deeper into the desert, sooner or later there will be a big incident, and at that time, I am afraid that I will not be as lucky as the previous few times.

I slowed down the pace of the camel and rode with Professor Chen, and I said to him, "Professor, how about we enter the West Night City, rest for three or five days, and then set off in five or six days?" An Liman said that the camels were exhausted, and if they didn't rest enough, we would have to change the number 11. ”

Professor Chen was puzzled and asked, "What...... Number 11? How to open? ”

I said, "Professor, why don't you even know the number 11, you just walk on two legs." I used my two fingers to imitate the way I walked on two legs: "Isn't this the number 11?" ”

Professor Chen laughed: "Brother Hu, you, where did you get so many fresh words?" It's interesting, well, let's take a few days of repairs, and I'm just looking to take a good look at the ruins of this famous city. ”

On the sand hill to see not far from the oasis, but walked for three hours to arrive, the city wall is made of black stone, some places have been weathered, the damage is very serious, only the main city is built quite solid, still vaguely visible the glorious weather of the year, some oil well workers, expeditions, geological exploration teams, passing by here, are staying in the main city, blocking the door with stones, you don't have to worry about the attack of wolves.

Since the mid-70s, Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang, and Tibet have carried out vigorous wolf fighting activities, and the large-scale wolf population has completely disappeared, leaving only a few groups of three or five, or lone wolves acting alone, are not a problem.

What's more, there are many of us, and we carry guns, so naturally we don't have to worry about wolves, it is the wind season, and no one else here comes except us, so we found a spacious room in the main city, lit a campfire, and ate and made tea.

I and An Liman two found the ancient well in the city, it is said that for thousands of years, this well has not dried up, An Liman said that this is the miracle of Hu Da, I don't say anything about it, use a bucket to hit a bucket of well water, the well is very deep, put dozens of meters of long rope to hear the sound of falling water, after taking it out, I first drank a sip, cold and cold, straight into the heart and spleen, in the desert by the poisonous sun of the fire suddenly disappeared, the heart can not say the comfortable use.

He placed all the nineteen camels beside the well, drank them one by one, took out salt croton cakes for them to eat, and then carried two large buckets of well water back to the house where the archaeological team members rested.

These people were so tired that they fell asleep on the ground, and some of them still had half a piece of bread in their mouths, and they fell asleep after eating half of it, and I didn't alarm them, and these days were enough for them.

boiled a large pot of water, which woke up Professor Chen and the others one by one, forced them to scald their feet with hot water, and then broke the bubbles on their feet.

After all this was done, I went to sleep, groggily slept for a whole day and night, and my tired body finally recovered, and at night everyone sat around listening to the fat man's bragging.

The fat man's mouth is like a river, telling everyone how rich the products in the old forests of the Northeast are, how delicious the mountain delicacies and wild food, which is like the desert, except for the sand is sand, the wind is strong, hit a yellow sheep to eat a bite, all eat a mouthful of sand particles, especially the size of the Xing'an Mountains, there is a delicious thing, there is such a saying since ancient times, the rod beats the roe deer scoop fish, and the pheasant flies into the rice pot. Can you imagine the hunters living freely?

Several students have little experience, which makes the fat man stupid, Sa Dipeng pushed the glasses on the bridge of his nose, and asked curiously: "Brother Wang, what is a roe deer?" Hit with a stick? ”

The fat man said: "Glasses, I see that you are very studious, so I will tell you, that is, if you walk in the mountains, take a stick, and pick it with your hand, you will smash a roe deer to death, and you can catch a big fat fish with a scoop in the river, which means that you are rich in products." ”

Shirley Yang snorted and disdained what the fat man said: "The desert also has the benefits of the desert, the variety of animals and plants in the desert is not less than that in the forest, and although the Taklamakan Desert is at the lowest point of the basin, in a sense, this is a peak of ancient civilization, what else is there in the forest besides wild deer, dogs and bears?" ”

I was afraid that the two of them would fight, so I quickly said that there was a lady in the house, and we brothers and sons went out to smoke and smoke. As he spoke, he pulled the fat man outside.

The bright moon in the sky is picturesque, the stars are like brocades, and the earth is illuminated with a silver light, I lit a cigarette for the fat man, and persuaded him to let him shire more shirley Yang, the fat man said that of course I can't see her in general, they Americans are not sensible, we can't understand ah, not to mention that she is a woman, if it is a man, he would have screwed off his head and kicked it as a ball.

I smiled and said, "That's right, that's right, what kind of person are you, soaking and peeing can make a big hole in the gray ground, you have to have a lot of adults, don't pull off Shirley Yang's head, or who will we go to with that salary, 20,000 Meizi, that's not a small amount." ”

After a few laughs, I raised my head and spit out a smoke ring, only to see the giant gate star, the left auxiliary star, and the right Bi star in the sky, the three stars are shining, arranged in a regular triangle, and the central sun star and the Taiyin star appear together, a good group of Qianjia Yiyi Jinji stars.

I had never carefully studied the Tianxing Feng Shui before, but I just looked at it several times in order to get some money from the archaeological team, and at this time, the content of the Tianzi scroll in the Feng Shui Secret Art immediately came to mind.

I hurriedly ran back to the house, took the compass, and kicked up to the top of the city tower, against the stars in the sky, this auspicious star-shrouded place, in the ancient well in the city, this is the first time I practice Tianxing Feng Shui, I have no bottom in my heart, but most of the time I will not be mistaken, my family's "Sixteen Characters Yin and Yang Feng Shui Secret Technique" is not a vulgar thing, so it means that near the underground water vein, there must be ancient tombs? There is such a thing as holding water in the tomb, but it is too close.

Anyway, this is a major discovery, and I'll have to tell the archaeological team about it, and it's better that they find something here, and if they get something, they probably won't have to go into the Black Desert.

Sand Sea Devil's Nest 11

Professor Chen was overjoyed, and led the students to the well in a hurry, Zhang Luo wanted to go down to see that the well rails and nooses had been reinstalled later, and the previous ones had been destroyed long ago.

An Liman stopped everyone and said, "This is a holy well, Hu Da does not allow mortals to go down." ”

Hao Aiguo pulled An Liman aside and talked to him about the archaeological policy, excavating the ancient tombs for better protection, so as to leave this cultural wealth to the people, and now tomb robberies in Xinjiang are not uncommon, even foreigners come to dig secretly, if the government does not come forward to protect, these precious things will be lost.

I discussed it with Shirley Young, the well was so deep that we could make a double-lock safety lock and hang people down to see what was there.

That can only be me down, although there is a water vein below, still dare not be careless, put on a gas mask, flashlight, whistle, sapper shovel, dagger, secretly hidden the black donkey hooves and touch the gold charm, reached out to test the sturdiness of the rope, discussed the way to contact, if you use the flashlight to shake up three times, the people above will stop when they see it and no longer put the rope, the second time to shake the flashlight upward, is to let the pull up, in order to prevent accidents, but also with a whistle, if you can't see the light of the flashlight, use the whistle to contact.

At this time, An Liman had already been done by Hao Aiguo to do the ideological work, Chu Jian was fat, and the three of them put the rope down for me, and I descended from the wellhead little by little.

At this time, it was night, except for the light of the flashlight, it was pitch black all around, and it was impossible to see the location of the wellhead when I looked up, and it was getting deeper and deeper, and the temperature in the desert was very low at night, coupled with the high humidity in the well, which made people feel cold from the inside out.

The wall of the well is slippery, it is difficult to settle, it is said that the age of this ancient well is much older than last year's West Night City, it is the first to have this well, and then there is the West Night City, suddenly a cool breeze blows, I hurriedly use a flashlight to shine, and see that there is a stone door on the wall of the well.

I aimed at the top of my head, whistled and flashlight, this place is not far from the mouth of the well, only fifteen or sixteen meters deep, as long as I speak loudly, the people above can hear, they received the signal, immediately stop putting the rope again, I just hung a little below the stone door.

The cold wind blew out of the gap in the stone door, I pushed it with my hand, and I felt that the stone door was very thick, there was no stone lock and stone tether, although the gap was large, but it could not be pushed, and it needed to be opened with a crowbar.

I saw that I couldn't get in, so I sent a second signal, and asked them to pull me up, I told the situation in detail about the situation in the well, Professor Chen was surprised: "Strange, this may not be a mausoleum, it is a secret passage or something, how can there be a mausoleum in the world built by the well, and there is such a mysterious passage?" ”

The fat man volunteered: "It doesn't matter what he is, it's not interesting to guess, let's go in and see, you get me down, I'll pry open the stone door." ”

I said, "Forget it, I'll go down with a crowbar, fat man, you're too heavy, and if the rope breaks, we'll have to go down the well to catch you." ”

This time we made a rope ladder, so that after the stone door was opened, whoever wanted to go down could climb down from the rope ladder, and in the end the people who decided to go down were Professor Chen, Shirley Yang, Sa Dipeng and me, and the fat man and others stayed on it.

It seems that this door used to open and close often, otherwise there would not be such a large gap, but it may not have been opened in the last few hundred years, and it was impossible to use force on the rope ladder, so it took a lot of effort to open this door.

Behind the stone gate was the masonry road, spacious and neat, and the inside was unfathomably dark, and I beckoned Shirley Yang above to come down and pull the three of them into the road one by one.

Shirley Yang gave everyone a pill, saying that it would prevent hypoxia, and then put on a gas mask and walked inside.

The four of them walked about 50 meters inside, passing through two stone doors in a row, the last door was sealed very tightly, the stone door was embossed with an unknown beast, and the dead animal skin was pasted on the crack of the door, and the animal skin was cut off piece by piece with a flat shovel before the door was opened.

At the end, I entered a spacious and dry stone room, which was about sixty or seventy meters long and wide, and three meters high, and the four people standing in it did not look cramped and crowded at all.

Although this space is spacious, the atmosphere is by no means relaxed, there are many white bones on the ground, and there is no place to put your feet, and those bones are all animals, extremely loose, and they will break when you step on them, and there are dozens of wooden pillars around them, on which are tied a dried human skeleton, and the body size is all a man in the prime of life.

Professor Chen and I have been trained for a long time, but we just feel that this place is mysterious, and we don't feel afraid, only Sa Dipeng saw so many dried corpses, and he was so scared that he couldn't even speak, and wherever the professor went, he followed him, and he didn't dare to stay away from a single step.

Shirley Yang looked at the dried corpses and sighed, "It's so miserable, it's all buried slaves or prisoners or something, it's too barbaric." ”

Professor Chen said to the crowd: "It seems that this is the place where the sacrifice of important dead is held, this is the custom of Pumo in ancient times, these individuals are criminals, tied to death of thirst in the desert, and after being completely dried, they are placed here, and then the blood of the slaughtered animals is poured on these dried corpses, let's look for it, there should be a burial chamber here." ”

We took a turn and looked around, there were stone walls on all sides, and after a few taps, the back was obviously solid, and there would be no other space.

Still Shirley Yang was careful and found that there was a problem with the floor of the stone room, so I removed all the broken bones on the ground, revealing a large stone slab with reliefs on the ground, and two pull rings at both ends.

I beckoned Sa Dipeng to help me pull up the slate, and when I saw that his whole body was shaking, I couldn't help but laugh, so I asked him to go back the way he came, so as not to be scared of peeing his pants here, and by the way, he changed Hao Aiguo, he must be interested in this strange tomb.

Sa Dipeng seemed to have been amnestied, and hurriedly ran back, Professor Chen was angry and funny: "Alas, this kid is too timid, not the material for archaeology." ”

Shirley Yang and I pulled apart the stone slab on the ground, and then threw in a cold firework to illuminate the underneath, only to see that under the ground was a tomb about the same size as the top, and a square coffin was placed in the middle.

This kind of tomb and coffin form is not to say that I have never seen it, with Professor Chen's knowledge, I can't see the truth, this is probably a long-lost form of ancient minority tombs, largely influenced by Han culture, but it is plausible, adding a lot of their own things, it is really rare.

At this time, Hao Aiguo came with Chu Jian, when he saw the scene here, his eyes lit up with excitement, put on a gas mask, and jumped down first, look here, look there, the back of his head is happily blooming, I always thought he was a serious and old-fashioned person, I didn't expect that he was like a child at this time, he was almost dancing and scratching his ears and cheeks now.

We also went down to the tomb on the ground floor one after another, and when we looked around, we couldn't help but let out an "ah", the four walls of the tomb were full of exquisite colorful murals.

When Professor Chen saw one of them, he was also excited enough: "This ...... The events recorded in this painting are related to the Exquisite Kingdom. ”

What I want to see the most is the valuable funeral goods, this coffin is not small, maybe there are some good things in it, although they can't take it away in front of the professor, but they can also open their eyes, I now feel that the tomb of a nobleman is more luxurious than the tomb of the general in the black wind.

But Professor Chen was looking at the murals in the tomb and didn't pay attention to the coffin in the middle, so I had to wait patiently and only listen to Professor Chen comment on these murals to Hao Aiguo.

The first few paintings show that the owner of the tomb was the prince of Gumo during his lifetime, and Gumo was a vassal of the Elite, who was oppressed and sacrificed a large number of treasures and cattle and sheep slaves every year, and he once went to the Queen of the Exquisite to ask for the freedom of his subjects, and went three times in a row, but did not see the queen's face.

The painting presumably says that he is not reconciled, and the brave prince is the embodiment of the sun god of war, and he sneaks into the essence alone to assassinate the evil queen, only to discover a big secret.

I listened and was attracted by the professor's words, and I wondered what the secret was. I walked over and listened to the professor's explanation with Shirley Yang and others.

Professor Chen walked to the next mural and looked at it carefully for a long time: "This meaning is very strange, you see the prince hiding in the corner and peeping in the corner in this painting, the face of the exquisite queen, in all the murals, is veiled, in this painting the queen only has her back, she lifts up the sand with one hand, and the person opposite, as if he is a slave or something, becomes a shadow...... Gone? ”

I was confused, and was about to ask, but I heard Shirley Young say, "This queen is a ...... Monster. ”

Sand Sea Devil's Nest 12

"Youkai?" Professor Chen was stunned for a moment when he heard this, and then said to Shirley: "Interesting, tell me what you think." ”

Shirley Yang pointed to the mural and said: "The painter who painted this mural has a high degree of painting skills, the composition is gorgeous and expressive, and it narrates the major deeds of the life of the prince of Pumo, although there is no text annotation, but the characteristics are very distinct, we can get an intuitive feeling through the mural, and clearly understand the events and characters in the painting." ”

I listened to her analysis of the mural and watched it carefully, and indeed as she said, the characters, costumes, buildings, and demeanor in the mural are all vivid, and if you have an understanding of the culture of the Western Regions, you can roughly grasp the background of the events recorded in the painting through this information in the painting.

Only to hear Shirley Yang continued: "Professor, the mural you just talked about is the most difficult to understand of all the murals, in the painting the queen unveils the veil that has always covered her face, and a figure opposite her becomes a dotted line, all the characters in the mural are realistic, except for the person who saw the face of the exquisite queen has become a dotted line, only a faint outline is drawn, from this only outline, we can not see the identity ...... of this character, we can only speculate on the character of this dotted line, A slave or an assassin or something, an enemy that the queen wants to get rid of. ”

When I heard this, I couldn't help but interject and ask, "Miss Yang, what do you mean...... The person in the painting saw the queen's face and disappeared? ”

Shirley Young said: "Mr. Hu said something about the same, if I were to explain it in my words, I would say that the eyes of the queen looked at this man, and this man disappeared." ”

I shook my head and smiled bitterly: "Big living person? One look and it's gone? Gone? This...... It's also too ...... It's incredible, but to be honest, it's a little difficult for me to understand. ”

Professor Chen seemed to understand what Shirley Yang meant, and motioned for her to continue.

Shirley Yang said: "Although I just speculate, but not out of thin air, my father liked to read a book called "Tang Dynasty Western Regions", which was written by the Tang Dynasty monk Xuanzang, I have also read it several times, the book records a lot of legends of the ancient Western Regions, some are myths and legends, and many are real events, including a legend of the queen of the desert, in the depths of the desert, there is a city, the city is inhabited by a minority from the underground, they ruled and conquered other surrounding small countries, after hundreds of years, The throne passed to the last queen, and legend has it that the queen's eyes were the passage to the underworld, and as long as she looked at her enemies, the other party would disappear into thin air, and never come back, and where the disappeared people went, I am afraid that only those who disappeared would know for themselves. The queen adopted a high-pressure rule, she wanted all the people of the neighboring countries to worship her as a true god, and all those who resisted were skinned and executed, perhaps her actions angered Allah, and the queen did not toss for a few years before she fell ill and died. ”

Those slaves are most afraid of the queen, as soon as she dies, the slaves and the surrounding countries oppressed by the queen, they formed a coalition army, bloodied the queen's royal city, the coalition army is ready to destroy the queen's mausoleum, at this time the sky and the earth change color, the terrible wind and sand will swallow the royal city and the coalition army together, the queen's tomb and the countless treasures she collected are buried under the yellow sand, after hundreds of years, the flow of the desert, so that the royal city again saw the light of day, some travelers passed there, as long as they took any bit of property in the city, It will cause a desert storm, smoke and clouds, and the road will be lost, and the person who has taken the queen's treasure will never be able to leave.

But this legendary mysterious royal city, the evil queen, and the background of the year, etc., there is no clear record in the book, today I see the murals in the tomb here, compared with the ancient legend, the two have a lot of similarities, making people feel that it is not only a legend, maybe in the dusty history, there have really been such things.

Shirley Young showed everyone the next few murals: "The reason why we are sure that the queen in the painting is the queen of the exquisite is because of the special costumes of the exquisite people, as well as the unique buildings and decorations, which are the most powerful evidence." Professor, Mr. Hu, if you look at the frescoes in the back, it proves the reliability of my reasoning, and the meaning of these frescoes is very clear, the prince's assassination was unsuccessful, and he continued to plot how to get rid of the queen after returning to China, when the prince met a soothsayer from a distant country, and the soothsayer asked the prince to hide a special chronic poison in the flesh of the golden lamb, and then pay tribute to the queen. Sure enough, not long after, the news of the queen's sudden attack came. At the same time, the prince died prematurely due to overwork, and he was buried with his beloved wife. The soothsayers designed a mausoleum and buried them under the altar of the holy well. ”

It turned out that there was an altar above, and then the tomb was built, and the events recorded in this mural are closely related to the legend in the book, Professor Chen saw that although Shirley Yang is a photographer, but after all, he was born in an archaeological family, and his family has a family of scholars, and his old classmates have daughters, he was very pleased, and then he remembered the old friend who disappeared in the depths of the desert, and he couldn't help but cry.

Shirley Yang said to the professor: "Take care of your body, don't be too sad, this time we have gained a lot, and the understanding of the exquisite ruins has made breakthrough and substantial progress, I believe that soon, we will be able to find the exquisite ancient city, and the ancestor has a spirit in the sky, and he can also look at it." ”

I secretly complained in my heart, I wanted to find an ancient tomb and let them turn around and go back, but I didn't expect it to backfire, seeing this situation, it was useless to persuade them again, I knew that I pretended not to see it at the beginning.

I suddenly remembered that Shirley Yang said that the queen of the Exquisite Kingdom was a monster, so I asked: "Miss Yang, I remember when I heard you talk about it before, the queen is the first beauty in the Western Regions, and other women are eclipsed in front of her like stars seeing the sun, how can you say that she is a monster?" If she is really a monster, let's go to her grave, won't we send her to death? ”

Shirley Yang said: "These things are legends, plus our inferences, it is not necessarily true for sure, archaeology is like this, legends, records, unearthed antiquities, plus scholars' speculation, the more these contents, the closer to the truth of history, but what we can do is only infinitely close to the truth, and no history can be restored." In ancient times, human beings have a very low level of understanding of the world, and some phenomena that seem to be very common now will be exaggerated into demons or miracles in ancient times, even if science is highly developed today, there are still some phenomena that cannot be explained by science, I believe that this is not because there are really gods and demons, but the field of scientific exploration is not wide enough, and in the years to come, we will be able to find out the answers to all the puzzles through scientific means. ”

I asked again: "Then the queen of the Elite Kingdom can turn people into disappears with her eyes, how should we understand this matter in today's world where science and civilization are very developed?" ”

Shirley Yang said: "Mr. Hu I don't know if you have heard of a sensational incident in the United States, at the Center for Special Phenomena and Pathology in Kansas, USA, there was a peculiar patient, this is a twelve-year-old boy, he has had a special function since he was a child, staring at an object less than five centimeters in diameter for a long time, and the object will disappear, as if it is evaporating in the air. The neighbors saw the boy as an anomaly and said he was a youkai. His parents are also deeply troubled, so they hope that the relevant government departments can help them heal their child. ”

It's strange, I've never heard of it, I don't know much about China, let alone the United States, what's going on with this disease? Sounds the same as the monster queen, but was the child cured in the end?

Shirley Yang said: "After the research of scientists, it was found that the little boy's brain waves were different from ordinary people, his cranial nerves and optic nerves produced a kind of transport energy, which is connected to an imaginary space (undetectable space), and this special function accounts for one in three billion in humans, and finally a researcher found a way, they made a magnetic helmet to put on the little boy's head, and after a year, his special function disappeared." At that time, the U.S. military had planned to secretly send the child to the military research institute, but this matter was revealed, causing an uproar among the people, and the military had to abandon the plan. ”

After hearing this, I still muttered a little in my heart, the legendary evil queen, I'm afraid it's not as simple as that American child, I'm not afraid of death, if we really find the queen's tomb, what if she turns into a place that I don't know where it is? Anyway, let's take one step at a time, it's really dangerous, I'll use strong means to bring them back, who dares to disobey orders? Damn, I don't believe it, these intellectuals' arms are still twisted past my old Hu's thighs, and they are reversed.

After a long conversation, a lot of time was wasted, and the surrounding murals were studied, so I asked Professor Chen, can we still see the contents of the coffin?