After the book was picked up, Chu Xunyu and his party continued to walk in the direction of the center on the second floor of the Golden City, and no longer dared to open the sealed houses around them at will. After more than half an hour, I finally faintly saw the shadow, which was in the dark, with a large black outline, lush, like a lush tree, Chu Xunyu frowned and said: "Be careful, there must be fraud in such a dense tree that can grow in this environment." ”

When I came closer, I saw that the so-called towering maple tree was just a description, this was not a plant at all, but a statue of a maple tree poured out of bronze, which was very large, surrounded by things, and a stone monument was erected. Miao Buyan walked in front of him and checked it, and told everyone that this maple tree was used for sacrifice, because the maple tree has a unique status in southern Xinjiang, so Zhuang Ji ordered people to cast a so-called "thousand years of not rotting, ten thousand years of not rotting" maple tree totem erected here, most of the things placed around are sacrifices of various ethnic groups, all have different meanings.

Approaching the tree, he saw that the things under the tree were not placed randomly, on the contrary, many magic platforms were poured in bronze, many formations were engraved on them, and there were still many traces of being burned, Chu Xunyu poked with the hilt of his sword, and said strangely: "Someone is casting spells here?"

Mu Yuan circled around the big tree a few times and shook his head: "It's all occupied by things, there doesn't seem to be any trace of going up, it's possible that the Mingdian Sect Master hasn't been here." ”

Forget Chen smiled bitterly: "It is reasonable that he does not come here, we are here to bring Yan'er here to solve the cup, the Mingdian Sect Master is fine, and he has not been taken off the cup, what are you doing here?"

"Then what should I do?" Mu Yuan was confused, "Should I recite a trick or should I set some exercises?" You can't just stand stupidly under the tree and shout 'Solve the cup' for us." ”

This bronze maple tree is actually really good in terms of craftsmanship, carved with branches and leaves, plus perennial patina, a thin layer attached to it, like snowflakes falling on the treetops, thousands of strands into pieces of hollow patterns, a good fog to see the flowers, let people see the distress but not real.

Miao Buyan thought about it, tried to touch the trunk with her hand, and Dao Yuxin asked on the side, "Do you feel it?"

After a while, Miao Buyan took her hand down, and she didn't get anything except the patina on one hand. Dao Yuxin said with some annoyance: "Is it that you made a mistake in interpreting the ancient Miao text?"

"Probably not. Miao Buyan shook his head, "I checked it a few times, and it clearly said that I would come to the tree to pray, and the divine tree would dissolve it for me with the spirit of the ancestors." ”

"That's not. Chu Xun was anxious, and pointed to Mu Yuan and said, "It's like going to a temple fair, and the monk inside persuaded us to donate incense money and kowtowed for a long time and said that sincerity is spirituality, and the Bodhisattva will help us." ”

Mu Yuan hurriedly came over to correct: "You said two things wrong, first, faith is a kind of spiritual sustenance, which is only effective for those who believe......"

"We're not talking about faith right now, thank you. Chu Xunyu refuted.

"Then the second point, you just said yourself, you have to kowtow after donating incense money, so what about now?

"You mean......" Everyone was stunned.

Mu Yuan smiled smugly and keenly pointed out the key: "There are a lot of ritual weapons used by the cup master here, should we also do something to sacrifice?"

"Makes sense. Dao Yuxin rarely gave Mu Yuan an approving smile, "The little monk is also smart, this is reasonable." ”

"Then the master of the village, you can please," Wangchen gestured.

Dao Yuxin walked around the big tree a few times with his hands behind his back, and bent down from time to time to check it, because the formation was engraved with ancient Miao Wen, so Dao Yuxin wanted to interpret it for her on the side, Dao Yuxin frowned and shook his head when he heard it, Chu Xunyu was not idle, and used the blade to scrape the patina of the tree mountain, because the words were faintly engraved on it, but unfortunately he couldn't understand it.

Mu Yuan is really a thief, he pokes and pokes in the sacrifice with a stick, and rummags through the west to see if there are any treasures, and he has seen the hell, Mu Yuan didn't recognize a few things here, some seem to be some cups, some seem to be bones, and some are even stranger, I can't tell what they look like, Mu Yuan pouted his mouth and looked very unhappy, and sat on a table and shouted: "These cup masters have really peculiar hobbies, and they don't even have anything decent." ”

Chu Xunyu teased on the side: "Hobbies, everyone is different, you like to eat sweet, and some people like to eat spicy, there is nothing wrong with it." ”

"Then they have strange hobbies. Mu Yuan angrily took out a skull from under his buttocks, "Can you build a stool with good bronze for us to sit on?"

"Mask?" Chu Xunyu took it and wiped the dust on it, took a closer look, and found that the shape of this thing was really strange, and Wangchen came over to take a look at it, and asked: "What is this, one eye, fox mouth, collapsed nose, what kind of religious god does this mean?"

"It's not made of bronze. Chu Xunyu was the most familiar with this kind of thing, he put his hand in and touched it for a long time, and exclaimed in surprise, "This is really the skull of a living creature after death, not a mask at all." ”

"Stop talking, come here. Miao Buyan shouted on the other side.

Mu Yuan was about to speak while playing with his skull, but he was interrupted and had to go over to take a look together.

It turned out that Dao Yuxin found a Dai family in many Dharma platforms, she herself is the Dai family, so she is most familiar with these things, the patterns engraved on it are similar to the patterns on her skirt, this is the religious belief of their nation, after Miao Buyan's explanation, it can be seen that the Dharma platform piled up here almost covers the beliefs of various ethnic groups at that time, and southern Xinjiang has been multi-ethnic since ancient times, so it is not surprising that Dao Yuxin can start this formation in the way of the Dai family, and Wangchen asked: "What does this formation do?"

"I don't know. Dao Yuxin replied simply, "It's so old that it's impossible to identify." ”

"Then let's stand farther away. Mu Yuan hurriedly pulled Chu Xunyu to stand back.

Dao Yuxin motioned for everyone to retreat, and then placed the things scattered on the table one by one according to his years of great supernatural knowledge, brushed off the dust on it with his hands, and could see the neatly carved magic circle, and took out some things to try to make up for it, and finally formed a magic circle of about three feet in square inches, Dao Yuxin lit up the six torches inserted above with a fire fold, everyone looked carefully, it was like a small house of the Han people, built a person more than one person high, three torches below, two in the middle, one on the top, the stars arched over the moon, suddenly Dao Yuxin stopped, looked left and right, seemed to be looking for something, Miao Buyan pointed at Mu Yuan with his hand, Dao Yuxin walked overUndoubtedly, Mu Yuan reluctantly handed over the skull, and did not forget to whisper to Miao Buyan: "Sect Master, this thing turned out to be a treasure, don't forget that I found it." ”

On the top floor of the altar, Dao Yuxin piled up a lot of things similar to bones, and then gently put the one-eyed skull that Mu Yuan found at the top, and then slashed his palm with a sharp knife, letting the blood flow down and pour on the skull, there was no movement for a long time, I couldn't help but be a little strange, looked back at Miao Buyan, beckoned her to come over, took her hand with a knife and slashed it, and poured blood, then there was a reaction, the pile of bones from top to bottom all creaked, Dao Yuxin asked Miao Buyan to stand away, and slowly swept over the skull with his hand, and there were words in his mouth, as Dao Yuxin's hand slashed, the flames on the torch also burned all the way, and finally, the entire altar was surrounded by flames, Dao Yuxin's two-handed magic trick is getting faster and faster, the flames are burning more and more, and there are more and more black patterns on Dao Yuxin's face, until his eyes are dark, and he shouted: "Open!"

"Poof!", the entire square under the maple tree was all ablaze, at first scared everyone, and then found that it was wrong, all the flames were burning in a staggered manner, the square under the maple tree turned out to be a large formation, the fire was raging, the fire burned very imposingly, directly climbed the maple tree, the towering tree was full of flames, good guys, it seems that every branch and leaf is burning, this kind of foreign religious sacrifice is really different, everyone looks up, as if they are much smaller.

A lot of formation patterns appeared on the ground under everyone's feet, and Mu Yuan asked Miao Buyan in surprise: "What should I do next?" Sect Master, you want to jump in?"

"!" Forget the dust and don't care about the demeanor, even Chu Xunyu's idiomatic words that often answer Mu Yuan came out, "People jump in and don't get burned to death?"

"Look at you're in a hurry. Mu Yuan glanced at him angrily, "I haven't married yet, so I'm in a hurry to turn my face and deny my brother?"

"No, no. The old man blushed, "I mean reason, reason, people can't jump in, they can't jump." ”

Here Mu Yuan is ridiculing, there is a change over there, after Dao Yuxin started the formation at first, she stopped, and the black lines on her face also faded, she raised her head to look at the top of the tree, and was looking at all this, suddenly the black lines on her face crawled out uncontrollably, Dao Yuxin was taken aback, this was clearly a change, I saw that there were many cracks on the skull, and there was a faint flow of fire in the cracks, Dao Yuxin deeply felt a kind of unease, this uneasiness came from this skull, she stepped back, the eye socket of the one-eyed skull, His nostrils were filled with flames, as if he was laughing at himself.

Soon her uneasiness turned into reality, a large ball of flames began to fall down in the branches and leaves of the copper tree, and the flames that fell on the ground began to slowly squirm, Dao Yuxin suddenly thought of something, his face changed greatly, and shouted: "Get out of here!"

But it was too late, Chu Xunyu and they turned around and ran outside, not wanting to just reach the edge, the flames in front of them rose sharply, as if a wall of fire blocked the way, and the scorching pillar of fire in front of the sky, Mu Yuan was lifted and often rolled back, even the tips of his hair were burned, this formation was to use the flames to draw another space, Chu Xunyu didn't say a word after he understood, he directly turned back, appeared in front of the altar, overturned the altar, and scattered pots and pans on the ground, but this formation had not dissipated, Dao Yuxin shouted angrily: " It's useless, this is the 'ridge', we activated the 'ridge' formation. ”

"Ridge", which is a product of foreign religious beliefs from ancient times, as we all know, the Han people believed in "witch" in ancient times, and then experienced the first war of the gods, entered the era of a hundred schools of thought in the pre-Qin period, and finally with the passage of time, all things finally returned, so that "Tao" became a standout. Before the War of the Gods, people, ghosts, and gods lived together in the era of "Wu", and the Three Realms were not divided, so the world was chaotic, and there was a later theory of demarcation of the gods. At that time, far away in the southern frontier of southern Xinjiang, what did the people believe in in ancient times? It was a primitive religion, that is, it belonged to the era when the people of southern Xinjiang lived together, and people, ghosts, and gods lived together, but they did not have Jiang Ziya, and they did not demarcate the boundaries of gods, who would complete this historical change? It seems that the answer has now been revealed, that is, Zhuang Ji.

After Zhuang Ji came to southern Xinjiang, he found that southern Xinjiang still has the belief in primitive religion in ancient times, which is very similar to the era of "witch" in the Central Plains, primitive, rough, barbaric and powerful, he is both pleased and afraid, these forces make him seem to have come to a new world, the people here have a unique and powerful power, but also live a very backward and primitive life, multi-ethnic, and incompatible with each other, each has its own territory, fighting with each other all the year round, what is the greatest contribution made by Zhuang Ji? That was to unify the multi-ethnic land of southern Xinjiang and establish the first dynasty on this crowded territory. The Han people had a Qin Shi Huang, what did he do after he unified the world? Unified writing, unified weights and measures, and so on, what about Zhuang Ji? The same is true, he unified everything, collected all the power for his own use, and pushed the cup to the peak, which created the later cup art to dominate in southern Xinjiang.

And the "ridge" thing is what the Dai people believe in at that time, and it is the unique religious culture of the Dai family, which is similar to the "witch" of the Han people, and is a primitive power. The Dai family believes that the soul of their powerful warriors will not dissipate after death, although they cannot survive in this world, but they will continue to survive in a space called "ridge", whenever there is a critical moment of war with other peoples, they can cast spells to drag the enemy into the space of "ridge", and the heroic spirit of the ancestors will defeat the enemy. This kind of primitive religious method Chu Xunyu has only seen in the history of the wilderness, but he didn't expect to see it now, of course, he doesn't know as much as Dao Yuxin.

Looking at the front of him, there were more and more flames on the ground, and a pool of flames slowly stood up, turning into a human-shaped flame monster, it was obvious that this formation was dragging everyone into the space of the "ridge". It stands to reason that this is a ritual to sacrifice ancestors, not to deal with the war, so the problem comes, the sacrifice needs sacrifices, but Chu Xunyu They don't know it, and they don't prepare, so what should they do? This was originally the place where the Dai family cup master of the Golden City sacrificed to the ancestors, and the prepared sacrifices should be sent into the "ridge", instead of letting the sacrificers go in and bury themselves stupidly.

With an angry roar, these flame monsters began to become more and more flexible, and their facial features could be vaguely discerned in the flames, this was the most courageous warrior in the Dai family back then, and there was only one thing they were best at, that is, fighting.

A flame heroic soul turned into a flame steel knife in his hand, and swooped down on Chu Xunyu, Chu Xunyu's belligerent character of the sword monk in his bones was aroused, and he roared from instinct: "Come on!"

Holding a long sword instead of retreating, there is no way to retreat, then there is only a broken cauldron, and I want to understand what kind of power the so-called brave warriors have. The flame steel knife and the cruel sword collided together in an instant, this knife was powerful and heavy, Chu Xunyu's arms were numb, how could this monster have so much power, but it was not enough, the flame heroic spirit pushed Chu Xunyu's long sword to the side, and the other hand slapped Chu Xunyu's cheek, Chu Xunyu was scorched black on half of his face, spit out a mouthful of blood, smiled, and asked rhetorically: "Do you like to use fists?"

The next moment, the small secret trail just appeared suddenly, Chu Xunyu's whole body was full of green tendons, the big fist of the casserole was swung out directly, and a punch was directly greeted on the face of the flame hero, and the force of the wild bull hitting the mountain directly smashed it to the ground, Chu Xunyu blew the residual flames on the fist, and sneered: "Sorry, brute force is just brute force, this is the only thing I am good at." ”

But I don't want to, the flames scattered everywhere soon gathered again and turned into a human form again, Chu Xunyu was stunned, this is not good, if he continues to live and consume, he will definitely run out of oil, and the flame heroic spirit took this opportunity to be stunned, and directly collided with it, knocking Chu Xunyu sideways and flying out.

Looking at others, Dao Yuxin rushed to the front, with one block hundred, eight bone blades on his body flew out, a tyrannical rotation in the same place, dozens of heroic spirits were swept away, and the flames were attached to the bone blades and flew in place, like a flame butterfly; Mu Yuan incarnated as King Kong Buddha, waving his big hand and slapping the flames; Forgetting dust to protect Miao Buyan, his body turned into white mist for a while, and turned into a flowing cloud for a while, avoiding the enemy.

After a while, everyone noticed that something was wrong, these things seemed endless, but soon, there were changes, all the flames kept spitting in place, and the flame heroes stopped attacking, slapping the ground in place, and sounding sonorous and powerful trumpets, which was the most primitive rhythm, beating like war drums. Chu Xunyu and they were close together, Mu Yuan patted the corners of his burning clothes, and asked impatiently, "What's the matter?"

The position of the altar flame soared, with the primordial trumpet, a big foot stepped out of the flames, a hideous monster walked out, more than ten zhang high, the lower body is a beast similar to a flame tiger, but the upper body is a one-eyed strong man, holding a spear in one hand, a knife in the other, covered in flames, gasping for smoke, the fire is burning, the war drums are beating, everyone looked up and was stunned, only then suddenly understood, it turned out that the skull that Mu Yuan found before was a token of the advent of this thing.

"Wei Na Nugao!" Dao Yuxin muttered to himself.

"What?" Mu Yuan didn't know, "I can see that this guy is very majestic and very tall." ”

Miao Buyan anxiously explained: "Wei Nanu Gao, this is the Dai language, the god who is in charge of battle in the Dai belief, this is his name, and the Chinese word means 'the fire that devours everything'." ”

Mu Yuan said with a sad face: "We crossed most of the Shenzhou and came to Southern Xinjiang just to fight this pagan god?"

"This shouldn't be a deity. "Forget the dust is quite calm," It should be similar to the current descent, and it is the doppelganger of this pagan god that is invited. ”

"I don't care if it's a doppelganger or not. Chu Xun laughed in a tone, "No matter how you look at this thing, we can't deal with it." ”

"I suddenly thought about the meaning of Shiniu Wanhua Mountain. Dao Yuxin glanced back at everyone in a daze, and whispered, "Challenge God's authority." ”