Chapter 31: The Light Under the Water

I don't know where the lonely lamp in the depths of the ancient village at the bottom of the lake is lit up, is it in the depths or in the window of an ancient building? The face of the lonely lamp is really indescribable, the light is very impermeable, it seems to be covered by someone in a dark cover, hazy and not like the lights of the world.

I've been amazed by this eerie lake, and there are so many secrets hidden in this quiet place, what happened here that made everything feel like a curse?

In this gloomy environment, I dived alone to the bottom of the lake deep in the mountains, without any support or help, and for the first time I felt extremely panicked and lonely. This feeling of helplessness and despair scares me more than death. For a moment, I had the illusion that I thought of an ugly fish in the deep sea that hunted by light, and this ancient village gave me the impression that it was a huge creature that was using the light to attract its prey into the net.

I looked at the oxygen meter, and the pounding of my heart made the oxygen run out very quickly, and that creepy nightmare lingered. I suppressed my panic and said to myself, "If we want to find out the truth, I'm afraid I have to take risks, if the fat man and the stuffy bottle are still alive, then they must be in a very strange situation now, and I may be their only hope." Since I have come here, there is actually no way back at all, and this lonely lamp of Qing Sè, whether it is fierce or auspicious, is a guiding light that summons me. ”

It was almost self-hypnosis, but I really didn't know where to pluck up the courage to go deeper. I read it three times before I felt the panic lessen a little, and I pulled out my bayonet and held it in my backhand—I didn't know what it could do to the ghost, but it was a bold man.

I paddled my flippers, sticking to the rocky beach at the bottom of the lake and began to dive towards the ancient village, not long after diving, the ghost light in the ancient village was gradually blocked by the ancient building because of the decline of my angle, and soon I could not see it. The darkness around gradually returned, and the ancient village in the depths returned to the netherworld again.

I gradually calmed down, and miraculously the panic began to recede, and it seemed that the panic came entirely from the glow of the green sè. I couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief in my heart, and seeing the lights getting closer and closer would drive me crazy.

My location is not far from the edge of the ancient village, and as I get closer, I find that there are still many rotten trees on the slope of the rocky beach, some of which are still standing, and some of which have collapsed at the bottom of the lake. Obviously, before this ancient village was submerged, it was surrounded by large forests. The feng shui here is really good.

After a short dive, I came to the top of the ancient village, and the top of the nearest wooden building on stilts was only two or three meters away from me at most. Because I was diving from slope to slope, the water depth at this time was probably more than 70 meters, and the water pressure made me quite uncomfortable. "I don't know the true face of Lushan, only because I am in this mountain." When I got here, I couldn't see the whole picture of the village at all, only the dense building covers, and I could vaguely see the green light in the village not far away. At the same time, I saw that at my feet, in a place on the edge of the stockade, there were many stone monuments that looked like tombstones.

I dived a little down to illuminate it with a searchlight, and found that the stele was covered with rust, and it was clear that the slabs had originally had limestone components, which had dissolved in the water, and the stone was full of holes. The words on the face are completely unclear, but it is not a tombstone, it is a kind of stone tablet unique to Yao Miao.

Ancient Yao has the tradition of stone tablet law, Yao people in the encounter with some matters that need to be discussed collectively, will open a "stone tablet meeting", after the meeting set up a stone tablet in the village, called the stone tablet law. This is like the code of the Yao people, which everyone must abide by, including the king of Yao, and the Yao people call this kind of stone tablet "Achang".

The sacredness of this law is beyond the imagination of our Han people, and the Yao people believe that "the stone tablet is bigger than the sky", and many ancient Han and Yao conflicts were generated because the Han people wanted to shake the stone tablet law. And each stele has a manager, called the stele head, who has a lot of power.

There are a lot of steles here, if it is the stele law, there must be many very important things recorded on that side, but unfortunately the handwriting is no longer clear, and many stele laws involve the obscure ancient secrets of Yaozhai, so most of them use wordless steles, all rely on the consciousness of the parties to maintain the provisions of the face.

I think if you can see the words on these stone tablets, maybe you can know what happened in this ancient village.

Beyond the group of stone monuments, I once again came to the side of the stockade, because the distance was so close, the dilapidated wooden buildings and the path between the wooden buildings at the bottom of the lake became extremely clear. At this time, the dark light of the green sè was revealed again, and the light source could not be seen, but the dim halo was ahead. My scalp began to explode again, my heart beat harder, and the panic barely diminished as it flooded all my senses again. At the same time, I felt that this panic was very strange, it seemed to come from the fear of my most primitive and deepest memory, which could not be described, let alone expelled. What am I afraid of?

At this height, there are probably less than a hundred people in the world who have had the same experience as me. Looking at the dilapidated and decaying wooden buildings that hang right below you, you can feel like you are floating in the air of the ancient road. The images of the surroundings of a thousand years ago inevitably form in your mind, but then they are brought back to reality by the currents and certain emotions, and this interweaving feels very unreal.

This is the first time to see this ancient village at the bottom of the lake, I found that the whole village is very similar to Banai, the stilted wooden buildings are very densely built, and there are some bluestone paths and stone steps interspersed between the two- and three-story wooden buildings. The decaying wooden buildings all fell to one side, looking like they were going to collapse at any moment, and some of the roofs slipped into the wall of another building on one side, forming a "door". I floated around these doors, watching my breath bubble up, and my heart tugged at me. If you sneak into the village, as long as there is a little accident, the wooden buildings around it may collapse, and if you can't escape, you will be buried alive. Being buried alive underwater means that there is no chance of being rescued.

Looking at the angle between the lights and the stilted buildings, I judged that the light came from one of the ancient buildings, probably reflecting through the window. I was about to grit my teeth and dive down, when suddenly it dimmed, and the light disappeared.

My jīng spirit was so nervous that it scared me so much that I almost fainted, and my breathing tube was out of my mouth, but in that moment, I could already see where the light was.

It was like a very large composite stilt tower, composed of several stilt towers, probably the towers of the Yao family, which were usually formed by the wealthiest families in the village. It was too fast for me to see from which window in the tower the light was coming through.

I slowly sank, the searchlight shone down, and I was stunned, oh my God, what kind of building is this?

This tower is really a little different, its outer edge is actually a stone structure, and the cornices of the tiled roof are actually emblem.

This is not a tower of the Yao people, but a building of the Han people.

I was stunned, what's going on? Why is there a Han-style building in the ancient village of the Yao people?