I said, "The dumplings are all dead, and they can't die anymore, so they kill themselves." "In the blink of an eye, only us were left at the top of the stone steps, and a strange picture was formed in my mind, in the dark underground world, a group of rice dumplings came from the darkness, climbed to the highest point of the stone steps, and finally jumped down and climbed up again.

This scene reminds me of the Death Loop.

The death cycle is a folk superstitious saying, which means that some wandering ghosts and wild ghosts cannot be reincarnated for some reason, so they have been staying in the place of death, repeating the scene of death, such a scene has been described in many ghost stories: a person in a certain building once jumped off the building to commit suicide, and then at night, some people who returned late occasionally saw the scene of someone jumping off the building, but in fact nothing happened, this is the death cycle that the folk say.

And now, another batch of zongzi is walking towards us, everyone dare not touch them, flash to the edge of the stone steps, watch their blurred faces walk to the top of the stone steps, and then jump down, so back and forth, extremely weird.

Eventually, he set his eyes on the sarcophagus-like object at the top of the stone stairs, and didn't speak, only gesturing for us to go up. Suddenly, everyone stood at the top of the stone steps, and to our shock, I thought that the end of the stone steps should be connected to the top, but the reality was the opposite of what I imagined. On the other side of this stone staircase, instead of connecting to the mountain wall, it is suspended in the air, and on the other side of it, the same stone staircase spreads downward, and the two stone steps are like an inverted V-shape, and the point in the middle is where we are now.

I can't help but be surprised, you know, this underground space is very vast, and this V-shaped is also very deep, the only support point is that every 100 meters or so there will be a big pillar into the darkness, such a building structure, how did the people of the ancient country of Yaofang do it?

What is the purpose of building such a place?

Based on the vastness of the cave, I am sure that it was not excavated by man, but probably a natural product of a sinkhole.

And we mistakenly thought it was a sarcophagus, but when we looked closely, we found that it was not a coffin, but something similar to a stone bed, surrounded by carved beast patterns and gods, giving people a mysterious and ancient feeling, through these ancient reliefs and words, I seem to be able to imagine what kind of country Yaofang is. They must have their own unique beliefs and civilizations, such Fang countries, in the Xia Shang thousands of years of a lot of people, their final end, most of them were annexed, and then sinicized, and finally formed today's various ethnic groups.

It is not known why Yao Fang destroyed miè, but judging from the palace above, it is very likely that it was destroyed in the war.

The stone bed in front of me is exquisitely shaped, the carving is meticulous, the stone is gray and white, because I don't know much about the stone, so I can't see what the material is, but the texture of the tentacles is relatively hard. At this time, Tofu suddenly stretched out his hand to measure it, and said: "This stone bed is too short, it is estimated to be about one meter and a half, how can you sleep with people?" Could it be that the people in Yao Fangguo are all short? ”

Zhang Wen said: "This is not a bed, it is a sacrificial platform, you look at the relief on it, the carving is the scene of sacrificing these strange beasts, I suspect that this underground sinkhole is a sacrificial place of Gu Yaofang." ”

As we were talking, Zhong Gong's eyes were sharp, and he suddenly pointed to the dark place on our right hand and said, "There seems to be something there." I followed his gaze, and the searchlight in my hand also moved over, and at the junction of light and darkness, there seemed to be something faintly, only a huge black shadow, and I couldn't even see the specific outline.

I motioned for everyone to gather all the searchlights in one place, and in this way the light increased considerably, and in an instant, I found that there was a lone circular platform about forty meters away from the stone steps.

The platform was held up by a large pillar, standing alone in the darkness, showing its unique status.

The circular platform was out of step with the gray and darkness around it, and was painted red, looking bloody, shocking and eye-catching. In the middle of the platform, there was a masked corpse, I don't know if it was a coincidence, the front of the corpse happened to be facing us, as if it had been staring at us in the dark.

But it soon dawned on me that it was not facing us, but towards the stone bed next to us.

The man was also in a dry state, wrapped in a layer of white leather, which had been well preserved and had not decayed. On the outside of the leather object, a black-brown feather cape was issued, like an eagle's feather. Everyone stared at the old corpse sitting cross-legged, and they only felt extremely strange.

Death is actually a more painful process, most people eventually die of illness, and some are accidental deaths or suicides, only a small number of people will 'go to bed', the so-called end of life, is a painless natural death, many elderly people die unconsciously in their sleep.

In traditional culture, going to bed is actually a very good wish, although the Chinese people avoid talking about death, but in essence, they also understand that death is inevitable, so the end of life is actually a blessing. Historically, there have been very few people who have gone to bed, but the vast majority of these people are practitioners. There is often such a scene in TV dramas, saying that a certain cultivator, such as a Taoist or a monk who has attained the Tao, has a premonition that he is going to die, calmly tells the aftermath, closes his eyes, and then says that he will die without any pain, so he just sits and dies.

In fact, this kind of thing is not an artistic exaggeration, this is an unsolved mystery, in the traditional mystical culture, this kind of calm, peaceful and peaceful phenomenon is called sitting. And the corpse in front of us is obviously not death in the traditional sense, it should be a sitting old corpse, but his appearance in this place is really puzzling.

Zhang Wen analyzed: "He has a feather cloak, I think he should be the high priest of Gu Yaofang, what do you look at that mask?" ”

I saw that the mask on the man's face was a pure black base, with double fish eyes, shaped like water droplets, the nose protruded very high, wearing a hook, shaped like an eagle's beak, and the most peculiar thing was his mouth, which did not have the outline of the lips, but a circle of white lines of spiral lines. It reminds me of the spiral pattern I saw in the hall above.

What does this spiral pattern mean?

At this time, Tofu Tiyì said, "Why don't we go over and have a look?" ”

I think it's strange that tofu has always encountered this kind of thing, and it is all about taking a detour, why do you want to get up today? Seeing my puzzled gaze, Tofu swallowed his saliva and said, "Anyway, I don't want to watch Zongzi commit suicide anymore, so let's make a quick decision." ”

Zhen Rui took out the corpse rope and the probe claw, the combination of the two, has always been a sharp weapon for tomb robbers to take the corpse. Zhen Rui took aim, shot the probe claw first, accurately hooked the corpse's neck, and then the corpse rope attached to the probe claw would slide down the probe claw, and finally put on the corpse.

We were about to pull the corpse over, but when I tried harder, I found that the corpse did not move, as if it had been nailed to the platform.

Just two ropes, a corpse, so the rest of the people didn't help, just me and Rui prepared to pull the corpse over, who knew that with the strength of the two of us, the corpse was as stable as Mount Tai, but with the tightening of the rope, a thing was squeezed out of the leather on the chest of the corpse.

It was brownish-yellow, and since it only came out a little, most of it was hidden behind leather, so we couldn't tell what was in his arms. Zhang Wen said: "Look at him close to him, there must be something important, this person is a priest of Yaofang, and the things on his body must be unusual, we have to find a way to get it over and take a look." ”

I said, "The corpse can't be pulled, and even if it is pulled, the thing will definitely fall." ”

Tofu didn't believe in evil, saying how could a dried corpse not be able to pull it, he squeezed me away, twisted the rope with both hands and worked hard, and the corpse still didn't move.

Everyone was helpless for a while, and this corpse sat there upright, how could it not be pulled?

Jack-of-all-trades speculates, "It can't be petrified, right?" ＂

Tofu didn't know why, and asked: "I've only heard of fossils, which take tens of thousands of years to form, but I haven't heard of petrification, what does petrification mean?" ”

I have heard the saying of petrochemical, and I have seen relevant reports on the news before, saying that there is an ancient village in the mountains in the northwest of Shaanxi, China, which retains a bad habit, called 'earth immortal burial', and the local people have a long-standing ancient custom, that is, if the old man lives to the age of eighty-eight and does not die, he must carry out the earth immortal burial. That is, the children choose a fairy land for the elderly, carry the old man who is still alive to that place, dig a huge earth pit tomb, put the old man in it, and then cover the soil pit with a stone slab made in advance.

The old man couldn't get out of it, and he starved to death in a few days. This custom seemed to us to be extremely cruel, and some adventurous travelers stumbled into this village, and when they found that this place had such terrible customs, they immediately notified the local municipal news reporters.

But the bizarre thing is that the elderly people in these villages, instead speaking for their children and grandchildren, do not feel that their children are unfilial, and even take it for granted. Later, after the analysis of folklorists, the reason why this appalling custom was born in the local area and spread for so long actually has a lot to do with the local historical conditions.