After solving Wen Cheng's matter here, the follow-up work went smoothly.

Lu Ming first negotiated with the prison authorities, and together with the local security bureau, they jointly sent staff to watch Wen Cheng and take him out of the prison and to the university where he was before he was imprisoned.

Long before Wen Cheng was imprisoned, the university had already expelled him. All of his research materials have also been sealed. Now, with Lu Ming here, it is naturally not a problem to get the cooperation of the school. So, after a long absence, Wen Cheng once again came into contact with these things that he used to accompany day and night.

Numerous ancient books, documents, materials, models, antiquities, etc.

Dali culture is indeed a niche culture. Except for Wen Cheng, there really wasn't much interest in it. Since Wen Cheng was captured, for several years, no archaeologist has touched these things.

At this moment, stroking these things, Wen Cheng's eyes were full of emotion.

Soon after, a document compiled by Wen Cheng and currently known about Dali culture was presented to Lu Ming.

After completing this work, Wen Cheng returned to prison to continue serving his sentence. Of course, if Lu Ming has any questions about this information, or if there is anything that needs to be consulted or supplemented, he can also contact him at any time.

This is very informative. It includes the development process, origin, population estimate, cultural model, food source, production relations, etc., and so on.

But most of them, Lu Ming is not interested at all. With patience, he read through the information, and finally selected a few aspects that might be related to the sarcophagus in the Sanctuary of the Destiny Organization.

“……

Seventh, the study of the worship of gods and goddesses in Dali culture.

As with many early cultures, the worship of gods in the Dali culture remained at a fairly primitive stage. They did not have a systematic organization of god worship, but mainly believed in 'animism', and the social organization structure was divided into political leaders and theocratic leaders. The political chief is responsible for the civil and military aspects of tribal administration, but the theocratic chief has the final decision-making power.

The Dali culture worships 'death', and their burial culture is very developed, compared to other cultures, they have the concept of 'coffin' earlier, and the deceased will be buried in a coffin.

The Dali culture uses 'death' as a tribal totem. From some pottery, stone tools, a small number of bronze objects, jade objects, etc., which were excavated for sacrifice, the concept of 'death' can be found as a embodied image. The concept of death is embodied in the Dali culture, which is a coffin. ”

Using the image of a coffin as the totem of his own tribe attracted Lu Ming's attention.

Wen Cheng's research concluded that the ancestors of the Dali culture worshiped death and worshiped the god of death, so they regarded a coffin as a totem figure.

But......

After an in-depth investigation of the Destiny Organization, Lu Ming had a different understanding of this.

The reason for using the coffin as a totem is most likely not that the coffin means death, but that it means fate.

The ancestors of the Dali culture did not worship the god of death, but the god of fate.

It is very likely that the ancestors of the Dali culture who lived in the area of today's Shanbei City discovered the sarcophagus by coincidence, and the priests and wise men of the tribe discovered the mystery of this sarcophagus in the long exploration, and then developed the culture and worship customs of the sarcophagus with this sarcophagus as the core.

This explanation is more plausible and more credible than Wen Cheng's speculation. However, Wen Cheng did not know that this sarcophagus existed, and that this sarcophagus had some kind of "supernatural power", and it was normal to come to the conclusion that "coffins mean death".

Another thing that caught Lu Ming's attention was some sacrificial customs of the ancestors of Dali culture.

“……

Eighth, the sacrificial customs of Dali culture.

According to the study of some of the unearthed altars, the ancestors of the Dali culture had very cruel sacrificial customs.

The main body of the altar of the Dali culture is a coffin that means 'death', and the remains of pregnant women or pregnant animals have been found in the six places before the altars in different regions.

There is ample evidence that the ancestors of the Dali culture sacrificed pregnant women or pregnant animals to the 'god of death'. After the sacrifice, the pregnant women or pregnant animals were put to death.

A coffin means death, and a pregnant woman or a pregnant animal means a new birth. It makes logical sense to sacrifice death with a new life and to please the god of death with a new life.

From the analysis of some graphic information, it is known that whenever there is an important event, such as a war between tribes, such as a large-scale hunting activity, a large-scale fishing activity, or the death and succession of a tribal leader, the ancestors of the Dali culture will carry out sacrifices to the god of death. Depending on the size, the number of pregnant women or pregnant animals sacrificed varies. At least only one pregnant woman and ten pregnant beasts, pregnant animals are mainly horses, cows, pigs, sheep, and the highest specifications have ten pregnant women and 100 pregnant animals.

The ancestors of the Dali culture tried to please the god of death in exchange for the smooth running of important matters. ”

Lu Ming was not horrified by the cruelty of the ancestors of the Dali culture. Frankly speaking, this kind of thing was very common in the early days of human civilization. Civilizations all over the world have similar customs. Even, in the feudal era, large-scale burials were not uncommon.

Even the rich landlords in the countryside have records of forcing their concubines to death and taking them to the funeral.

Human life has never been a valuable and rare existence in history.

What made Lu Ming pay attention was that this ancestral culture that appeared in the Shanbei City area actually had the same tradition of sacrificing pregnant women as the fate organization.

Combined with the known information, Lu Ming has reason to believe that part of Wen Cheng's research is wrong.

The ancestors sacrificed not pregnant women or pregnant beasts as Wen Cheng thought, but the fetus in the womb of pregnant women or pregnant beasts. The purpose of the ancestors' sacrifices was not to please the god of death, but most likely to exchange it for the gift of the god of fate and complete the transfer of "luck".

However, although Wen Cheng's research process was wrong, the conclusion was correct.

"In exchange for the smooth running of major matters", it is essentially better luck.

Combined with Wen Cheng's research data, at this moment, Lu Ming could already determine that the sacrifice of pregnant women to this sarcophagus had existed thousands of years ago. It's just that the ancestors thousands of years ago sacrificed on a larger scale and the means were more cruel.

The Destiny Organization only sacrifices one at a time, and does not execute pregnant women after the sacrifice, but only kills the fetus after the birth of the fetus, and the pregnant women reuse it.

Moreover, the Destiny Organization at least knows that this kind of thing cannot be tolerated in the world, so it has been sneaky and tried its best to cover it up. The tribal ancestors of thousands of years ago had no such scruples at all.

Not only do they have a fair and honest attitude, they even see it as a grand ceremony.

The third point that attracted Lu Ming's attention was the study of the reasons for the eventual demise of the Dali culture.

“……

Sixteenth, the demise of Dali culture.

According to the study of geological faults, as well as the study of unearthed cultural relics and murals, it can be determined that the Dali culture perished due to natural disasters. In addition, according to the research on the cultural relics, the distribution of remains, and the posture of the Dali culture, it can be confirmed that this natural disaster occurred suddenly.

A large number of weapons had been unearthed from one of the altars, as well as a large number of bones. In another place, a large amount of grain has been excavated. There is reason to believe that at that time, the main tribes of the Dali culture were planning a relatively large-scale military campaign. But before the army could set out, a huge flood came and washed away all the buildings and drowned everyone. Since then, the Dali culture has completely disappeared. ”

Dali culture has withdrawn from the stage of history. Thousands of years later, Wen Cheng is the only one who tirelessly excavates their stories. And it can be determined that what Wen Cheng excavated is only a small part of this Dali culture.

More things about Dali culture were completely buried with this flood, with the passage of thousands of years, and it was impossible for people to know about it again.

This ending made Lu Ming a little embarrassed.

"I sacrificed so many pregnant women and pregnant animals to pray for good luck, but the good luck did not come, but came a devastating flood. I don't know what kind of mood those ancestors felt when they saw the flood coming all over the world before they had time to set off after the sacrifice. ”

The ancestors of the Dali culture had a tradition of sacrificing first when encountering major events. It is certain that this kind of sacrifice will inevitably take place before the start of this large-scale military operation. It is highly likely that when the flood came, the sacrifice was in progress or had just been completed.

Then the flood came.

Lu Ming shook his head and closed this piece of information.

From this information, from the Dali culture, there should be no more clues about this sarcophagus.

Lu Ming returned to the sanctuary.

At this moment, the manor clubhouse, which was originally beautiful and full of elegant atmosphere, has become a breeding farm at this moment. Moo, bleating, humming endlessly. Even the smell of animal feces wafted through the air.

A total of 3,000 pregnant animals, pregnant sows, cows, ewes, and accompanying staff from various farms almost filled the estate.

Before the entrance of the sanctuary, He Wei wore a mask to cover her mouth and nose, and carefully and carefully instructed the staff to drive the pregnant beasts into the sanctuary.

Inside the sanctuary, in front of the sarcophagus, the Holy Maiden of the Destiny Organization, the goddess covered in oil paint, was ready at this moment.

Originally, Lu Ming thought that it might be a little difficult to extract the details of the sacrifice from the mouth of this Raushzi holy woman, after all, she was a holy woman, and her loyalty should be higher than that of ordinary believers. But unexpectedly, after hearing that cooperating with the sacrifice was considered a meritorious service and would be of great benefit to the subsequent sentencing, she almost immediately couldn't wait to agree to her request.

At this moment she was standing in front of the sarcophagus, ready for the first ceremony.

I don't know if she'll feel down on the price now. After all, in the past, ceremonies were held to sacrifice people, but this time they are sacrificing animals.

In addition to the Holy Maiden, there was another high-ranking member of the Destiny Organization who was eager to win the errand of reciting the sacrificial text when the sacrificial ceremony was held in front of the sarcophagus.

In the past, this errand was personally performed by the leader of the Destiny Organization.

There is another high-ranking member of the Destiny Organization, who has won the role of beneficiary of the ritual.

The purpose of this ritual is, theoretically, to "transfer" the luck of the fetuses in the wombs of those pregnant mothers to the high-ranking of the Destiny Organization. It's like transferring the luck of the fetus in a pregnant woman's womb to the core members of the Destiny Organization in the past.

The difference is that it was a man before, but this time it is a beast.

The first batch of 100 pregnant pigs, cattle and sheep were sent to the sarcophagus after preliminary treatment.

According to the saint, a sacrifice is not just about placing a pregnant woman or a pregnant animal in front of a sarcophagus and then dancing a spiritual dance. There are more complicated preparations to be made.

For example, there are more than 30 links such as cleansing the body, burning incense and praying, and carving runes. The final sacrifice and the dance are just the end.

As a result, the first batch of 100 pregnant beasts sacrificed were disposed of in different categories.

Some of the pregnant animals were disposed of in accordance with the standard links, that is, the complete implementation of these more than 30 links, which was exactly the same as when pregnant women were sacrificed in the past.

The second part of the pregnant beast is deliberately missing the first link, and the rest of the links are not bad at all. The third part of the pregnant beast is intentionally missing the second link, and the rest of the links are consistent, and so on.

There will be more attempts at the pregnant beasts that perform the sacrifice in the future. For example, there are two links that are intentionally missing, or three links, and so on.

Lu Ming hopes to test which links are critical and indispensable in the sacrifice, and which links are dispensable and can be omitted.

The mystery of sacrifice may be hidden in these links.

Rock experts and acousticians, who had been temporarily evacuated from standby, also entered the scene and set up a working environment in front of the sarcophagus.

According to the Destiny Organization classics, the sign of the success of the sacrifice was the sound of a bang coming from the sarcophagus. Now that the experts are on the spot, once the sacrifice is successful, they, and the instruments they carry, will be able to capture the sounds and study them more deeply.

Now that everything is in place, the sacrifice really begins.

The pregnant beasts, injected with anesthetic, were arranged in several rows in front of the sarcophagus. The smell is in the air. The saint solemnly danced the spirit dance, and another high-ranking member of the Destiny Organization solemnly recited the sacrifice.

The rituals of the god worship organization, the advanced high-tech equipment, and the many pregnant beasts rich in agriculture are all intertwined in this sanctuary, and such a slightly incongruous scene is intertwined.

He Wei and Lu Ming looked at each other seriously.

Ten minutes passed, and the goddess was already sweating slightly, and the ceremony was finally over. At this moment, everyone in the hall fell silent.

Lu Ming was waiting for the boom to sound again.

There was silence in the hall.