Mo Ziyang gasped and said: "I...I naturally want the property to be returned to its original owner, but...but as the saying goes, words are unfounded. If you want me to believe you, you...you have to provide evidence."
.”
"Evidence!? What evidence?" I was slightly startled.
"Brother Yuan Jing told me that this book has two volumes. He asked me to keep only the second volume. If someone brings the first volume, I can give the second volume to him."
When I heard this, I immediately breathed a sigh of relief. Ma Yuanjing was really thoughtful, because I am the only one who has the first volume of "Yin Yang Xuan Shu" in my hand, and the stone tablet I put on my chest contains the contents of this book.
In the void realm.
I immediately took out the half volume of "Yin Yang Xuan Shu" from the stone tablet and handed it to Mo Ziyang. Mo Ziyang stared at the worn out "Yin Yang Xuan Shu" in my hand for a while.
, nodded, and said slowly: "That's right! This is indeed the same book as the half volume that Brother Yuanjing asked me to keep."
I quickly asked: "Then where did you hide the half of the book that my uncle gave you?"
Mo Ziyang coughed twice and did not answer me immediately. Instead, he gestured to me to put his ear to me. He seemed to be worried that there were ears in the wall, so he was so cautious.
I quickly leaned over and put my ear close to his mouth. He said in an extremely small voice next to my ear: "There is a grave on the west side of the fourth pond from the top of Jiuyan Pond. In front of the grave stands a
There is a tombstone without words, and the book is hidden under that tombstone without words."
It turned out that Mo Ziyang did not hide the book in this ruined temple, but hid it in a cemetery in the wild. No wonder Mo Zifeng failed to find it and became so angry that he actually planned to kill his own brother.
Now that I knew where the book was hidden, I decided to go and take it out immediately.
Because Mo Ziyang's injury was too serious, he not only lost a lot of blood, but also had many fractures on his body. He couldn't move at all, so I could only leave him in the temple temporarily, so I called Wu Chenzi out and asked him
While Mo Ziyang was guarded, I went to get the book with Wen Qingshan and Long Yi.
As soon as the three of us walked out of the door, we heard Long Yi shout: "Where is that guy!?"
Hearing his shout, I quickly turned around and saw that Mo Zifeng, who was lying on the ground unable to move, had disappeared.
"We can't let this guy run away! Look for it quickly!" Long Yi said, immediately took out a pistol from his waist and started searching around. Wen Qingshan and I also followed him in the search, but because of the lush foliage around
, and it was overgrown with weeds, and the field of vision was greatly affected. We searched almost all around the ruined temple, but could not find any trace of Mo Zifeng. It seemed that this guy had escaped.
I asked Long Yi with some confusion: "Brother Long, didn't you say that he couldn't recover within two or three hours? Why did he run away?"
Long Yi frowned and said: "It is unlikely that he will recover so quickly. It is most likely that his accomplices rescued him."
Wen Qingshan agreed with Long Yi's analysis: "People in cults rarely act alone, not to mention that Mo Zifeng is also a leader of the cult. In my opinion, he may have failed because he did not find the book in the temple.
So we asked his accomplices to search for him in the nearby mountains. When we arrived, he happened to be alone in the temple."
After hearing what Wen Qingshan said, I couldn't help but feel shocked, and immediately said: "We have to get the book quickly, otherwise it will be terrible if it falls into the hands of those guys."
I led them straight to Jiuyan Pond. After a while, the three of us arrived at the fourth pond. I looked around and found that there were seven or eight graves not far from this pond.
I hurried over and after some inspection, I quickly found the wordless tombstone that Mo Ziyang mentioned.
Long Yi asked me: "The book is hidden under here?"
I nodded: "It should be right here."
"Then move the tombstone and take a look!" Long Yi said, holding the tombstone with both hands, trying to move the tombstone away, but the tombstone did not move at all.
This tombstone is a large bluestone over half a meter high. It weighs at least two to three hundred kilograms, and its roots are still buried deep in the soil. It is not easy to move it.
Wen Qingshan walked around the tombstone, frowned and said: "The soil near this tombstone is very tight, and it is also covered with lush weeds. It doesn't look like the soil has been disturbed recently. Shi Yu, are you sure Mr. Mo said
Is that book hidden under this tombstone?”
Long Yi took Wen Qingshan's words and said, "Did you hear wrongly? That old man is already in his seventies and eighty years old. There is no way he can move such a heavy tombstone by himself."
After listening to what they said, I couldn't help but be slightly startled. Thinking about it carefully, I might have heard wrongly, because Mo Ziyang's voice was very small at that time, and because of his physical weakness, he spoke intermittently, so I actually heard what he said.
Not too clear.
Thinking of this, I raised my head and said, "Maybe I heard wrong, but what is certain is that it must be near this unmarked tombstone."
"Then let's look for any traces of soil disturbance."
The three of us lowered our heads and looked around. Soon, Wen Qingshan discovered that next to the wordless tombstone, there was a lush bush of grass. The color of this bush was slightly lighter than the color of the surrounding weeds. Wen Qingshan
Qingshan thought it might be because this tuft of grass was moved from other places.
After listening to his analysis, we decided to dig on the spot and take a look. Since we were not prepared in advance, we did not have tools such as shovels on hand. Fortunately, the soil was relatively soft, so we dug with the daggers we carried.
After digging for a while, a pit about thirty centimeters deep was dug out, but nothing was found. Just when we were about to give up, we suddenly heard a "pop" sound, and it felt as if the tip of the knife touched the board.
kind of stuff.
There really is something! The three of us suddenly became energetic and hurriedly accelerated the progress of digging the soil. Soon, we dug out a dark red wooden box about twenty centimeters square.
The wooden box was very heavy. Wen Qingshan looked at it carefully and said: "This wooden box is made of small-leaf red sandalwood. Small-leaf red sandalwood is a very valuable wood. And judging from the craftsmanship of this wooden box, it should be from the Qing Dynasty."
It can be regarded as an antique. Such a valuable wooden box must contain something very important."
"The book must be in here." I couldn't wait, and immediately wanted to open the wooden box. Unexpectedly, I pulled it hard, but found that the lid and the box body seemed to be stuck together and were not moving at all.
.
The wooden box was obviously not locked, but for some reason it was so difficult to open. I couldn't help but muttered in confusion: "Why is it so tight?"
Long Yi took the wooden box from my hand, tried to insert the tip of the knife into the gap between the box lid and the box body, and pried open the lid. However, he found that the gap was very dense, and it was difficult to insert the sharp knife tip. He
It took a lot of effort to finally insert the tip of the knife a little bit, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't pry the lid off.
Wen Qingshan was worried that Long Yi would break the wooden box, so he stopped him and said, "This wooden box is a rare antique. It's best not to break it."
"But the lid of this box seems to be stuck with something. It can't be opened without prying it open!" Long Yi said.
Wen Qingshan said: "No! This box is not stuck by anything, but has a hidden lock."
"Hidden lock?" I was a little surprised, because I couldn't see any trace of a lock being installed on this wooden box.
"This secret lock is too hidden, it can't be seen at all!"
Wen Qingshan nodded and said: "There was a locksmith in the Qing Dynasty who specialized in developing secret locks. The secret locks he set were almost completely invisible from the outside. I think the secret lock on this wooden box should have been made by him."
"But this hidden lock has no interlocking holes, so how to open it? It shouldn't be an unsolvable deadlock."
Wen Qingshan smiled and said: "Haha, if there is no solution, how can it be called a lock? The reason why there is no keyhole is because you don't need a key to open this kind of hidden lock."
"You don't need a key? How to open the lock?" Long Yi and I were both a little surprised.
Wen Qingshan stretched out his hand in front of Long Yi and said, "Brother Long, show me the box."
Long Yi hurriedly handed the wooden box to Wen Qingshan.
Wen Qingshan held the wooden box and examined it carefully. After observing for a while, he began to gently shake the wooden box with his hands. When he shook the wooden box, a sound of rolling balls came from the wooden box.
I wondered: "What did Mr. Mo put in this wooden box?"
As soon as I finished speaking, Wen Qingshan frowned and said, "No! The ball is not something placed inside the wooden box! It is the key to unlocking the secret lock."
"What!? The ball is the key?"
Wen Qingshan nodded and said: "There should be an interlayer in this wooden box, and in this interlayer, there should be a rather special shape. When I shake the wooden box, the balls will move around in that shape.
The collision seems to be irregular, but in fact the locksmith has set a special trajectory in it, and the secret lock will only open once the ball runs along this trajectory."
After listening to what Wen Qingshan said, I couldn't help but sigh: "Holy crap! So complicated!?"
"It is indeed very complicated, because different shapes can set completely different trajectories. However, this secret lock has a fatal flaw."
"What defect?" I asked hurriedly.
Wen Qingshan smiled slightly and said: "The locksmith only designed a total of eighteen shapes, and I have studied all eighteen shapes. At worst, I will try them all." When he said this, he raised the wooden box with both hands.
It continued to shake gently, and put its ear against the wooden box, listening quietly to the sound of the rolling balls inside.