"The reason why these murals seem to be independent is that there is no narrative as a whole, there is no single story, and the style of painting is slightly different. Although it looks like a painting by the same person from the brushstrokes, there is one that looks like it was copied from somewhere. ”

"What are you drawing?"

"Uh...... The frescoes are concentrated on the walls behind the statues of the gods.

The first one on the far left depicts a woman, which is the one I just said, which is different from the other five.

The painting has no background, just a light brown hue. In the painting, the woman is drawn only sideways, looking upwards. Her hair is combed back on her head, and she wears a hoop-shaped hair bundle on the top of her head, her facial features are simple but vivid, and her eyebrows and phoenix eyes are extraordinary. She was wearing a deep coat with a collar on her right side, like a noble woman of the Shang Dynasty.

The lines of this painting are very simple, and the figures are dressed very much like those of the Shang and Zhou dynasties, and the overall feeling is simple and vivid, which is completely different from the other five murals that focused on gongbi later. Therefore, Dr. Qin suspected that this was a painting copied by Ming Dynasty painters. But...... It's impossible to see what it means.

From this painting, the remaining painting style is entirely characteristic of Ming Dynasty murals. Judging from the lines of the brushwork, it belongs to the same person, and the painting skills are superb.

The murals of the Ming Dynasty have always been characterized by rigorous composition and meticulous workmanship, the thickness of the painting lines is fine and distinct, the pen is strong and tactful, and the pigments used are also very exquisite, so even after a hundred years, the murals have not completely faded, and they are still amazing.

But...... Although these murals are well preserved and have great research value, the content of the paintings is very strange, and it is difficult to see what they are trying to express.

Let me talk about the second mural. It was painted with nine entangled snakes.

The snakes are drawn in great detail, each scale is clear, twisted and intertwined without being disorganized, and it seems vivid.

What's weird is that these snakes all emit a layer of red light, and there are small horns on their heads, and in the gaps where they are entangled, there are faint traces of them, as if they are surrounded by something.

There was no way to observe such details at the time, and the place was very dark and the lighting equipment was limited, so I could only take a general look.

Dr. Qin gave a brief analysis of the mural. He believes that in some myths and legends, snakes with horns are generally dragons, but the snakes in the murals do not look like dragons, because one has no dragon claws, and the other still spits snake hyacinth, and the snake has more characteristics.

Professor Zhang said that she had seen a description in "Guangya Shiyu", saying that the scaly dragon is the dragon, the winged dragon is the dragon, the horned dragon is the dragon, and the hornless dragon is the dragon. In some ancient Taoist texts, there is also a mention of a snake with horns, which is called '虬褫 (qiúchǐ)', which is said to be transformed by a dragon punished by heaven. If these two materials are combined, perhaps the snake on the mural is what Taoism calls a fuss.

Professor Qin has reservations about this, after all, this kind of information is not from orthodox ancient books, but is mythological and cannot be taken seriously. What exactly is on the mural can only be studied slowly at a later date.

Then they went to see the third mural. ”

"Smack!"

The first tape on side A is over. Qin Ding didn't hesitate anything, he turned the tape over, he didn't want to miss any clues.

"Alright, you continue."

"Uh...... On the third mural, a man with fairy wind bones is depicted.

The figure in this painting is slender and has his hair draped in silk ribbons. His face is very handsome, his forehead is wide and round, his eyebrows are like a word, his nose is like a hanging gall, his lips are like Dan, and most specially, there is a blood mole between his eyebrows.

He was wearing a light brown and white beige robe with large sleeves, a brown belt, and a light yellow petticoat, and one hand was reaching into the sleeve and I didn't know whether to take it or put it.

In this painting, the man's gaze is down, and his gaze is clearly on the ground in the right foreground, where there are three angular stones, two large and one small, as if they were made of a crack in a stone.

Although there is nothing special about this mural, it is also elusive and I don't know what to express.

Dr. Qin: They went to see the fourth mural. The painting is abstract and simple. It is a mountain surrounded by lush greenery, and on the top of the hill stands a monolith, but the stone is in the shape of falling apart and splashing rubble. There was nothing else around, the stone seemed to burst by itself.

Then there is the sixth mural, which is also the most eerie. There was only a huge hand with the palm of the palm spread out on it. The giant hand resembled a human hand, but the fingertips had sharp nails, and at first glance it looked like the hand of some kind of beast, and in the palm of the hand lay a stone of irregular shape.

Dr. Qin said that when they saw this, the first thing they saw was the terrifying idol behind them. After all, the statue had a huge hand sticking out of its back, almost like the one on the mural. But even the same, just a few murals can't piece together the connections.

And Professor Zhang is associated with the Taoist name 'Xuanshi Palace'. Because there are stones in these murals, perhaps showing the origin of the stones.

After they looked back and forth a few times, they didn't have much progress and no clue, they decided to end the investigation of the interior of the hall, and then they would move these murals back to the museum, consult some information, and then study and judge them.

In this way, after a day, Professor Qin and the others had already roughly explored the Taoist temple, and there were no new discoveries.

Then they went to Li Guodong's side to meet, but they didn't expect some progress there.

Li Guodong reported to me on the phone, let me talk about it roughly.

After they counted the white marble jars again, they started their research in front of a nearby stone jar.

First of all, they need to determine the purpose of the stone jar.

Judging from the appearance alone, these stone tanks are the shape of water tanks, but in comparison, they are much larger.

This kind of stone tank is 150 centimeters high, plus the stone base is about 190 centimeters high, and the diameter of the cylinder is about 140 centimeters, which is about the same as the fireproof water tank of the Forbidden City, or even larger.

If it is used to hold water, is it used for storage in this environment?

Lao Li and the others found that there was a circle of stone shelves at the bottom of the stone jar, and there was a gap in the middle, which was very similar to a simple stove. So they collected some materials inside the gap and found that there were traces of suspected burning, which further proved Lao Li's guess that this stone jar was used to boil water in the past.

But do you want to boil water, and there are so many of them.

In order to further understand, Lao Li put these questions aside first, went to observe the outside of the stone jar, and found that those carved ornaments had really never been seen.

Generally, the patterns and ornaments of ancient stone jars are very rich, and the carving content is from astronomy to geography, mountains and rivers, flowers, birds, people, beasts and birds, and folk tales are possible, but these stone jars are not carved with conventional patterns at all, but are engraved with some peculiar symbols and textures.

Later, when Dr. Qin Kesong went to check it, he became excited, and he thought that this was not a decoration, but a kind of writing with a special meaning.

He didn't know exactly what kind of script it was, but his years of experience in studying paleographies told him that it was supposed to be a script that had not been discovered.

At that time, the conditions did not allow it, and it was unlikely that I would like to interpret these new discoveries, so I put it on hold for the time being, and planned to study it after I went out.

Lao Li and the others began to make preliminary explorations of the bronze lid on the stone jar without any new progress on the outer wall of the stone jar.

What made Lao Li a little puzzling was that if the stone jar was used to boil water and the volume was still so large, why didn't he use some wooden bamboo lids at that time, which were both light and corrosion-resistant.

In terms of production alone, such a large bronze lid must be time-consuming and laborious, not to mention that there are as many as 36 of them.

But when they removed the lid, they were surprised to find that it was not the lid. ”

"Not a lid?"

"Well, no, it's a bronze mirror."

"Hiss~" (Surprised.) )

"And then at this time, a strange thing happened.

He said that the lid was originally moved by three interns, but it was later found that the lid was not very heavy. Although I thought it was strange at the time, I didn't think much about it, so two interns moved it.

Let the small intern go up the stepping stone steps next to the stone jar, and the other intern is about 1.8 meters tall, so you don't need to stand on the stepping stone, just reach out and grab the edge of the lid on the other side.

The people on the stone steps lifted the lid and sent it out, and the students standing on the ground held on to the edge and carried it down.

Everything went well, and seeing that the tall intern was about to move down with his hands in his hands, the intern standing on the stepping stone suddenly screamed and fell down the stone steps.

This startled Lao Li and several people around him, and they quickly picked up the intern and asked him what was wrong.

The intern seemed to be stimulated by something, and was shocked, and he was appeased for a long time before he dared to speak.

He said that he was standing on it just now, and the lid was moved down, and when one side was cocked, the inside side of the lid was facing him, and suddenly the light was reversed. He realized that the lid was unusual, and that this side seemed to be a bronze mirror or something, so he wanted to make sure of it, so he looked closely, and a gray shadow flashed on it.

He actually didn't see it too clearly, and there were also corrosion and rust spots on the side of the mirror, so he wasn't sure if he was wrong.

At that time, Lao Li and the others thought that the novices were too young, and they must have seen it wrong. I didn't think much of it at the time, but in retrospect, it was probably just the beginning.

After Lao Li took off the bronze lid, they found that the other side of the lid was really a mirror, although it was rusty, some of it could still reflect the outline.

This lid is actually a bronze mirror, but what is the stone jar covered with such a large bronze mirror for?

Everyone couldn't figure it out for a while, and then focused on the back of the bronze mirror, trying to judge the age through those ornaments.

Such a large bronze mirror is rare in the archaeological world, but I didn't expect the ornamentation on its back to be even more strange.

With the advancement of the era, various ornaments have been developed, but the bronze mirror ornaments found this time are quite terrifying, although they are exquisite.

It was densely packed with many small protrusions, and under the light magnifying glass, there were actually a lot of hideous human faces.

The face is small, but the facial features are very clear, and the mouth is wide open, and at first glance, it looks like a demon scrambling to break free from the black hell, which makes people's scalp tingle. ”

"Director Wu, apart from the face ornamentation, has there been nothing else found on the back of the bronze mirror? For example, are there any small holes in it? ”

"Uh, this...... I didn't find it. It may be that the scene is too hasty and has not had time to study it in detail. After all, it was a little difficult to pull the wires in that place, and the lighting equipment was not very sufficient, so the plan formulated at that time was to go down to the general investigation first, and then make plans. ”

"yes, I see. You continue. ”