Chapter 9: The Underground Palace

The reappearance of the Buddha's true body relics is enough to occupy the most eye-catching front page headlines in any media newspaper, and the swarming of the entire Great Mercy and Grace Temple is impassable, and Gu Anqi, who has been pushed to the cusp of the storm, has long been dizzy under the illumination of countless flashes.

Gu Anqi was originally simple and honest, and she couldn't answer the question at all in front of the clever reporter, but fortunately, our soldiers next to her came to block the water and cover the earth, and the left block and the right suddenly dealt with the past.

"The donor donated the Buddha's real body relics, I don't know if there is a request?" Master Mingyuan asked.

"To ...... Ask for ......" Gu Anqi finally reacted. "Oh, I'm going to enter the dungeon!"

"Into the dungeon?" Gu Anqi said it too bluntly, and Mingyuan was also a little surprised.

"Master, Miss Gu means that she wants to invite the Buddha's true body relics to the underground palace to worship, and Miss Gu has always revered Buddhist culture, especially knowing that Master Xuanzang's relics are also in the underground palace of your temple, so I also want to visit this time." I hurriedly explained.

"The underground palace is the holy land of my temple, which is not easy to open, but the merit of the Gu donor is immeasurable, and today the old man will reopen the underground palace and fulfill the wish of the Gu donor."

"Master, Buddha is destined to be a person, since the underground palace is opened today, the tourists in the temple are also destined people, Buddhism says that all living beings are treated equally, since we can go in, I hope other tourists in the temple can also enter." Qiu Nuo suddenly said very cautiously.

I quickly understood Qiu Nuo's intentions, if only a few of them went in the dungeon, what they would do would be too ostentatious, and the more people who entered, the less chance of being noticed.

Mingyuan nodded, clasped his hands together and said calmly. "What the donor said is that my Buddha is merciful, crossing thousands of believers, and will not favor one over the other, and all the donors in the temple today can enter the underground palace."

After the solemn ceremony, the underground palace was opened, and the tourists who rushed in lined up in an orderly manner, Gu Anqi's goal was too big, and Master Mingyuan was personally accompanied, so I arranged for Yue Qianling and Gu Anqi to be together.

And Qiu Nuo and I mingled among the other tourists, and it wouldn't take long to get in, so I asked Gu Anqi to delay as much time as possible, otherwise I am afraid that after missing this opportunity, I will never be able to enter again.

The underground palace of the Great Ci'en Temple is well preserved, completely beyond my expectations, the underground palace is composed of brick steps, tunnels, front rooms, middle rooms, back rooms, etc., all made of stone masonry, a total of four stone gates.

"Qiunuo, I see that almost all the buildings in this underground palace are the same as when they were first built, and there are no traces of renovation." I looked at the green bricks and the wall under my feet and said.

"The underground palace is quite well preserved, except for a few traces of reinforcement, it has basically maintained its original appearance." Qiunuo nodded and said.

"Then this is strange, this underground palace was built in the Tang Dynasty, since there is no record of reconstruction in the Ming Dynasty, how could Zhu Yuanzhang leave the clues here?" I was surprised.

Qiu Nuo didn't have any other discoveries in the underground palace, and walked to the back room, which is also a place to worship Xuanzang's relics, the building of the back room is very special, and it obviously doesn't look like a Tang Dynasty building in terms of style, Qiu Nuo knows a lot about Tang culture, so he said in my ear as soon as he entered the back room.

"The layout here is out of place with the rest of the dungeon, and I always feel strange beyond words."

The back room is a circular room, and the position against the wall is dedicated to Xuanzang's relics, and like the rest of the underground palace, there is not much decoration, so it is not gorgeous to give people the feeling of elegance and simplicity.

"The underground palace was built in the Tang Dynasty, and later emperors came to worship after ascending the throne, and in the seventh year of Hongwu, Zhu Yuanzhang, the Taizu of the Ming Dynasty, ordered maintenance because of the seepage of water in the back room of the underground palace, which is also the first time that Xuanzang relics were enshrined in the underground palace and were invited out." Master Mingyuan explained to Gu Anqi. "Master Gu, the back room you see now is also rebuilt in the seventh year of Hongwu."

I heard Master Mingyuan's explanation on the side, and glanced at Qiu Nuo, Zhu Yuanzhang really came here, and the water seepage repair is probably just an excuse to invite Xuanzang's relics out, and there are only Zhu Yuanzhang's people in the underground palace, presumably there must be other mysteries in this.

I rebuilt it to see the layout and furnishings in the back room, and in the middle of the circular back room is a road map carved on a bluestone slab, which is where Master Xuanzang passed through on his westward journey to learn scriptures, and there is a line of inscription next to it.

Diagram of the holy monk's journey to the west.

I looked at the map carved in stone for a long time, and there was no peculiar place, there were such maps in many places, in order to commemorate Xuanzang's westward journey to learn scriptures.

However, it is the square and slightly recessed place at the bottom of the inscription that makes me curious.

"Master, may I ask what is going on in this blank space?"

"This is carved by Zhu Yuanzhang, the Taizu of the Ming Dynasty, after renovating the back room, and giving the word holy monk to the west, but as for why there is a blank place below, it has always been a mystery." Master Mingyuan said calmly.

Qiunuo gently touched the square depression with his hand, and found that the surrounding area was smooth, as if something should be placed here.

"Don't think about it, I know what this place should be!" I suddenly smiled and whispered.

"What is it?"

"What did people in ancient times have to cover after inscriptions?" I asked rhetorically.

"Seal!"

"Hehe, it's a jade seal, don't forget, this is a word given by Zhu Yuanzhang."

"That'...... So why is it blank here? ”

I smiled and said meaningfully.

"To be an emperor, you also need to have an ID card, don't you know that Zhu Yuanzhang has been a black emperor all his life."

"Qiu Nuo, don't listen to him fooling you, it's actually because Zhu Yuanzhang doesn't have a jade seal at all!" Yue Qianling came over just in time to hear my words.

"How is it possible, he is a generation of emperors, how can he not have a jade seal?" Qiunuo asked blankly.

"This is the most regrettable thing in Zhu Yuanzhang's life, although he was finally honored as the Ninety-Five, but there is one less heirloom jade seal that can prove his identity, although he can carve another one himself, but in essence, the meaning is too different from the heirloom jade seal." After all, Yue Qianling studied archaeology, and she knew more about this than Qiu Nuo.

"I'm confused, is there any difference between the jade seal of the country and the jade seal?" Qiunuo asked suspiciously.

"Do you know He's Bi?" I asked suddenly.

"When...... Of course I do. Qiunuo said.

"The jade seal of the country, also known as the seal of the country, is the seal of the emperors after the Qin Dynasty, it is engraved by the order of the first emperor of Qin, its radius is four inches, the five dragons of the New York are handed over, and the Bi is carved with the front of the book, the front is engraved with the eight seal characters of Li Si's book "Ordered by the sky, both longevity and Yongchang", as a token of "imperial power is divinely granted, orthodox and legitimate". I lowered my voice.

Yue Qianling nodded and continued beside her.

"The emperors of the past dynasties have taken this seal as a conformity, if it is a treasure, the country's heavy weapon, it symbolizes that it is ordered by the sky, and the loss shows that its qi has been exhausted, and those who ascend to the throne without this seal are ridiculed as the white version of the emperor, and it seems that the confidence is insufficient and is despised by the world, which prompts the people who want to seek great treasures to fight for me, so that the jade seal of the country has changed its owner repeatedly, tossed and turned in the later Tang Dynasty, flickering and flickering, and then finally disappeared, and there is no trace of it so far."

"Oh, I understand, when Zhu Yuanzhang ascended the throne, he didn't pass on the jade seal of the country, so he felt that his name was not right in front of the Buddha, so he only left a blank space." Qiu Nuo suddenly realized.

"On the contrary, Zhu Yuanzhang actually left this blank with a deeper meaning." I say it meaningfully.

"......," Qiuno said after a moment's thought, looking up. Could it be that this ...... This is the clue left by Zhu Yuanzhang?! ”

"Yes, he deliberately left a blank space, just to ask someone to put the jade seal back here."

"Isn't the heirloom jade seal lost, where to find it for him?" Yue Qianling complained.

"You don't have to pass on the jade seal of the country, Zhu Yuanzhang only needs to pass on his jade seal at that time, he can imitate an exact one according to the appearance of the jade seal of the country, don't forget, he left the 14th Tomb of the Ming Dynasty to his descendants, and this jade seal will always be in the hands of the descendants of his Zhu family."

"This idea is really good, but he probably didn't expect that the Ming Dynasty would eventually be destroyed by the Qing Dynasty, and this jade seal has long been gone." Yue Qianling shook her head in disappointment.

I unscrewed a bottle of water disapplausively, and saw that no one was paying attention to me around, pretending to accidentally pour the water on the ground, the backroom looked very regular, and it stands to reason that the water should be stationary on the ground, but the water that was poured out actually flowed slowly to the southeast corner, and it was obviously slowly seeping into the corner at the base of the wall.

"I'll just say that it feels strange as soon as I come in, it turns out that this backroom is uneven, and the height is sloping from west to east."

"Water can penetrate into it, which means that it is empty behind the southeast corner, and there are still hidden places in this underground palace, presumably Zhu Yuanzhang re-excavated it in it when he renovated the underground palace!" I said calmly.

"Even if you know, how can you get in, I heard Master Mingyuan say just now that in order to prevent water seepage, the walls around the back room were all made of three-meter-wide granite, which shows that Zhu Yuanzhang took great pains to prevent someone from discovering the secret, such a thick granite is placed now, and it may not be able to explode with explosives, not to mention who dares to use explosives in this underground palace?"

"Zhu Yuanzhang left the secret room in the underground palace, and he will definitely leave the mechanism that is opened."

"Where's the mechanism, you mean?"

I looked at the empty depression and said with a wry smile.

"If you find the jade seal of the heirloom country, you will open the secret room of the underground palace."

"In fact, this is not difficult, and it is not difficult to imitate a heirloom jade seal in the current process." Qiuno said with a glimmer of hope.

I shook my head and replied helplessly.

"I've just seen the depression, and it's loose underneath, and this mechanism is often used in preventing tomb robberies, and it's called a ten-pound pendant! It means that when this mechanism is designed, the things that are put on it must meet the required weight of the design, and the mechanism will be opened. So the original must be found! ”