When the sunlight disappeared from the great dome, I took the bronze pillar and walked down the spiral passage for the last time, the bronze dome was closed again, the light of the torches outlined the darkness for us, and I silently calculated in my mind the approximate distance to the ground, and according to the height of the steps, we saw the end of the steps when we marched about twenty meters underground.

In the firelight, the passage leading all the way down in front of us was rugged, and the further we went, the colder it became, and gradually we saw condensed ice on the stone wall, which was an underground cavern, larger than we could have imagined.

Wen Ru took out a shovel to break a rock from the rock wall, and after checking it in the firelight for a while, he told us that this is a typical karst landform, Yunnan is known as the hometown of karst caves, and the famous Jiuxiang Cave is in Yunnan, but it is simply not worth mentioning compared to here.

The light of the torches illuminates the breathtaking sight of the cave, where stalactites formed in different geological ages are crystal clear, white and flawless, like the Milky Way in the night sky, slanting down and shining brightly.

Ye Zhiqiu said that the formation of the karst cave did not happen overnight, and the karst caves we see today have been carved for tens of millions of years or even hundreds of millions of years, but such a large karst cave is rare.

The underground Yin River in the cave is all over the place, tens of thousands of stalagmites, stone stalactites, stone pillars, stone curtains, stone flowers are distributed among them, and each of them can make people feel the vicissitudes of hundreds of millions of years.

Go forward and the karst cave landscape is various, mysterious and unpredictable, a waterfall with a drop of tens of meters high hangs down in the steep stone wall all around, the roar is like thunder, the momentum is magnificent, the water splashes in the pool below, the fire is like a pearl embedded in the darkness, the fog is hazy like a dream on the bottomless pool water.

The whole cave presents a thousand gorgeous and strange scenes, which are dizzying, shocking and breathtaking, like a colorful and brilliant natural underground palace.

The further we went, the bigger the cave became, the torches in our hands could no longer penetrate the darkness here, and the sound of our footsteps could echo in the darkness for a long time, and the general said that the height of the upper and lower places here was at least more than 100 meters.

After a day of groping in a cave with poor visibility and winding in front of us, a cold wind came from the front, and the torches in our hands were blown on and off, and the firelight illuminated a huge cave entrance, and the cold wind blew out of it.

As we passed through the mouth of the cave, the majestic stalactites of the cave vanished, the light of the fire illuminating only the darkness not far in front of us, and the flat echo of the terrain farther away, with steps leading down but not being able to see what lay ahead.

Liao Kai asked Scar to fire a flare, and the blazing light roared into the sky, and when it fell, the bright light could not fully illuminate everything in front of us, but when the fleeting bright light of the flare disappeared, it drew a shocking outline of a building in the distance in our eyes.

In the depths of the darkness, a huge trapezoidal flat-roofed building of astonishing scale looms in front of our eyes, with a large bottom and a small layer of majestic layers, which complements this huge underground cave, if I have to describe it, I can only think of two words, huge.

Any detail of this building has vividly interpreted these two words, thick doors, huge columns, heartfelt awe, and even the stone pillars standing from the bottom right to the top are more than 20 meters high, and each one needs ten people to hug.

The highest part of the building is inlaid with a huge three-eyed unicorn bronze pattern, which shines with a strange and mysterious light in the light of the flares.

Temple of the Ancestral God!

We actually found the legendary temple of the Jiuli tribe, but there was an inexplicable humility standing here, and the only feeling was that it was small, and the magnificent temple hundreds of meters high was like an unclimbable mountain in front of us.

Before the flares went out, they illuminated the recesses on both sides of the passage, which were filled with animal fat, and when they were lit, the flames began to spread from under our feet like two fire dragons, gradually separating and illuminating the place, and spreading along the temple to all sides, until the outline of the entire temple was clearly and completely outlined before our eyes.

When the entire cavern was illuminated, and we were finally able to see the majestic temple clearly, everyone was so shocked that they stood still and worshipped with an almost reverent gaze.

It took us an hour to walk along the fire trough to the bottom of the temple, which was square in shape and had stairs leading to the temple on all sides, and it would take us a day to walk around the temple.

The size of the temple is so rare that it is hard for me to imagine how many Jiuli ancestors it would take to build this temple, which has been standing in a cave underground for thousands of years, still maintaining its original grandeur and solemnity, waiting for pilgrims in this deep underground.

On both sides of the steps below the temple stood tall stone pillars, their shadows changing with the swaying of the firelight, and the spots of light flickered on the pillars alternately, giving them a mysterious depth.

It is inscribed with exquisite ornamentation, and the craftsmanship is delicate and exquisite, revealing the ancient simplicity and mystery, as if we are telling the distant and glorious past here, as well as the prosperity and strength of the Jiuli people.

Any one of these stone pillars alone will become an optimus prime to be admired by thousands of people, and the only thing that can be experienced by standing below is our insignificance.

Further on both sides of the steps at the bottom of the temple, there is a huge humanoid stone sculpture kneeling on the left and right, the shape is very peculiar and rare, the three heads and six arms are like the head of a bull, and the whole body is covered with bronze, like a samurai wearing armor with a copper head and iron forehead, each side of the hands holds a sword and axe, and the head is buried and kneeling with a pious and respectful expression.

This is the image of the legendary Chiyou, these two Chiyou statues have stood here for thousands of years, and they are still intact after the washing of time, as if they are loyally guarding this huge temple.

This also confirms the priest's words, and Chiyou, who was worshiped as an ancestor by the Jiuli tribe, has always guarded their ancestral god.

It took us half a day to climb the stairs like ants crawling on a giant's body, and it took us half a day to reach the entrance of the temple, where the light of the fire illuminated a deep corridor leading to the depths of the temple, and on both sides of the corridor were carved frescoes depicting a war.

"This is a record of the protracted battle between Chiyou and the Yellow Emperor in ancient times." Ye Zhiqiu looked up at the mural excitedly and in surprise, the joy on her face was overflowing, for her archaeology, I am afraid that these discoveries are enough to make her heart surging and unable to extricate herself.

The content of these murals is bloody and tragic, clearly telling us the rise of the Jiuli tribe to its strength and then to its final decline, and the whole process is heroic and poignant.

"The architectural style of the temple doesn't seem right." Wen Ru looked around the murals around the corridor with a puzzled expression. "The Jiuli people later evolved a lot of new ethnic groups, including the well-known Li people, Miao people, Mang people and Yi people, etc., these ethnic groups have more or less inherited the history of Jiuli, which can be reflected from the customs and culture of these peoples, especially the most obvious performance in the architectural style, but the current religious architectural style of these ethnic groups can not see the traces here."

"I also find this strange, this is the temple of the ancestral gods of the Jiuli clan, it stands to reason that it is one of the cores of Jiuli culture, and the construction method and specificity of the temple should be passed down from generation to generation." Ye Zhiqiu also nodded puzzled. "These evolved peoples, neither now nor in the archaeological discoveries of the old religious buildings have no style here."

"What's so strange about this, the ancestors of the Jiuli tribe have gone through many major migrations, and then have their own cultural characteristics in the process of dissolving and evolving." Tian Ji looked at the murals on both sides and disagreed. "After all, the Temple of the Ancestral God was built thousands of years ago, and it is normal that the style has not been preserved."

"The formation of an architectural style takes hundreds of years or even thousands of years, and the time to die out is even longer, the construction style of this temple is quite mature, the Jiuli people have always believed in ghosts and gods, the importance of the temple is self-evident, and other architectural styles may be changed, but even if the temple will change over time, the characteristics and style will definitely not be too big." Ye Zhiqiu shook his head and said with certainty. "The reason is very simple, the temple is a symbol of ghosts and gods, and no one dares to change it without permission."

"But this is also in line with another situation I understand, when I was studying Miaojiang culture, I found that there was a short blank period in the middle, Miaojiang culture changed a lot before and after this period, I don't know what caused the interruption of this inheritance, such a situation is also in other ethnic groups in the evolution of Jiuli, in the final analysis, it should have happened that led to the interruption of Jiuli culture, especially in terms of religion, it is completely a fault." Wen Ru said.

"Elder Wen, there are words here." Ye Zhiqiu shouted happily in front.

We walked over, on a stone wall of the corridor, I saw a string of unfamiliar words, in fact, I can't confirm whether it is a text, more like a pattern, Ye Zhiqiu said that this is a hieroglyph, is the most primitive method of word-making, the nature of the picture is weakened, the symbolic nature is enhanced,

Because some physical and abstract things cannot be drawn, this kind of text is extremely difficult to identify, but these words Ye Zhiqiu said are very similar to the early Miao texts, and she translated them one by one, and finally read them completely.

Those who enter the temple receive the gift of the ancestral gods.

", the ancestral gods of the Jiuli clan can really fool, gifts, how many people can live here." Tian Ji covered his arms and sneered.

"No, you've mistranslated." Wen Ru walked up to Ye Zhiqiu and pointed to two of the pictograms. "These two hieroglyphs mean not the one who enters the temple, but the chosen! What it really means is that only the chosen ones will be allowed to enter the temple. ”