As he went deeper into the ancient city, Jin'an discovered a strange thing.
There are many stone pillars standing in this Guchi country.
The surface of those stone pillars is riddled with holes.
Standing tall.
There are many strips of cloth tied to each stone pillar, but after thousands of years of weathering, these strips of cloth have become as dilapidated as cotton wool and turned into strands, making it difficult to see the original shape.
"Paper and linen are expensive in the Western Regions, especially good brocade and silk are luxuries that ordinary people cannot afford. These stone pillars riddled with holes that appear in large numbers in Guchi seem to be of high status...
"
Along the way, Jin'an has seen three stone pillars like this.
These stone pillars weather slower than those loess houses, so you can still see many of them still standing. Of course, there are more weathered and broken ones.
The ruins of the Guchi Kingdom were very large. While walking around, little Sahab suddenly fell to the ground with a thud.
Old Sadiq and Ilham both came around to check the situation, and then heard Old Sadiq exclaim: "Priest Jin'an, there are steps here!"
After hearing this, Jin An walked to the place where little Sahab fell, wiped away the layer of floating sand on the surface with his palm, and found the steps.
This is a rocky step, which is still well preserved under the yellow sand, and the weathering is not serious.
"Sahav, are you okay?" Jin An asked with concern.
"I'm fine, Taoist Jin'an. I accidentally stepped on the wrong foot and fell down just now." Little Sahafu said a little embarrassed.
Jin An saw that little Sahab could stand up normally and that there was no problem with his legs and feet. After caring about little Sahab for a few more words, Jin An began to carefully look at the steps in front of him.
Jin An used his palms to stroke away the hot yellow sand on several steps, and found that the steps rose all the way to a high bulging sand dune behind them.
And right on the dune stood a stone pillar that was mostly buried by the yellow sand, with only a small part exposed.
"Wait for me here for a while." After Jin An finished speaking, he swept away the sand under his feet and walked along the steps towards the stone pillar.
Just when he reached a piece of ordinary-looking sand, the sand under his feet suddenly sank rapidly, sucking the soles of his feet like an hourglass.
It is the most unpredictable quicksand in the desert!
As soon as Jin An sensed something was wrong, he immediately took off his belt, skillfully swung it out and wrapped it around the stone pillar. With a strong effort of his arm, he was freed from the quicksand.
Fortunately, he responded quickly.
This way you can get out of trouble easily.
The moment Jin An flew out, the balance under the quicksand seemed to be broken instantly. The quicksand sank faster and faster. In just a few blinks, there was a muffled sound and the yellow sand in that area collapsed, revealing a cold and faint figure underneath.
Entrance.
Hearing the commotion, a sheep and three camels ran over in concern.
"Taoist Master Jin'an, are you okay...Ah, why is there an extra pit entrance here!" Old Sadiq and Ilham exclaimed at the same time.
Jin An, who had already put away his belt and landed smoothly, briefly recounted what had just happened, then pulled out two torches from little Sahab's belongings and lit them simultaneously.
He first waited for about a stick of incense before throwing a torch in his hand into the pit. Seeing that the torch kept burning and the air quality in the pit was good, he then held up another torch and went down into the pit.
"There are also rock steps in this pit. It should be the same steps we just discovered. There seems to be a temple inside? The pit in front of us seems to be the original door of the temple?"
In front of you is indeed a well-preserved temple under the sand. There is a thick stone pillar standing in the open space in front of the temple.
There is a temple, there are stone pillars, and there are cloth strips on the stone pillars similar to prayer flags. It seems that the riddled stone pillars they saw along the way have something to do with the temple sacrifices?
Jin An was very brave and walked into the temple along the gate. The three camels behind him also followed nervously.
Only the goat with the heaviest load, as if to express its dissatisfaction by cursing, deliberately walked the slowest and ended up last.
Because it has been buried under dry yellow sand for many years, the interior of this temple is well preserved. The entire temple is a rock building.
This is deep in the desert, and there are no other mountains except the Holy Mountain of Guchi Kingdom. These rock materials seem to come from the rocks dug out when the Holy Mountain was widened.
Even if there are ready-made rock materials, it still requires a lot of manpower and financial resources. Therefore, only temples have such high specifications, so these temples can be preserved in such good condition, while other buildings are severely weathered.
This temple is very grand and thick. The entire building is made of heavy stone strips. There is a thick layer of dust inside, and there are several mummies lying on the ground.
"There are several mummies in the temple, which shows that the Guchi country was destroyed so suddenly that these people didn't even have a chance to escape in panic, so they were buried in the yellow sand and finally suffocated to death in the temple.
"
Jin An squatted in front of several mummies, rubbed his chin, and said thoughtfully.
Three Camels came over and said, "Taoist Master Jin'an, you are so amazing. You even know how they died a thousand years ago."
This picture is a little weird.
One person and three camels were looking at several mummies, and then a Taoist priest was talking to himself in front of the three camels, looking like a lunatic.
"It's not that I know how they died in a thousand years, but I can see how they died."
Jin An carefully observed the mummies and analyzed: "You see these people obviously have signs of struggle. There are six mummies here. Three of them have wounds on the back of their heads from being attacked, and the other two also have obvious signs of struggle.
Only the tallest mummy had the fewest wounds, and all of them avoided fatal injuries... So I guess after they were buried alive in the temple, they were waiting for rescue at first, but the longer they were buried, the air in the temple became more and more...
Young Master, this tall mummy was the strongest among the six people and the one who breathed the most air. In order to save one person, he attacked from behind and killed three people in a row. Then he took advantage of the taller person and killed two people in a row.
People, the last person monopolized all the air in the temple and lived for a long time, until finally the air ran out and he suffocated and died in the temple."
"You can tell, Master Jin An, that he has lived alone for a long time?" The three camels looked at Jin An in surprise.
Jin An: "Didn't you notice that among these mummies, one of them is missing an arm? The answer is already obvious."
"!"
People eat people!
Without Jin Anming's explanation, the three of them all guessed the answer. There was no food in the temple, and a person would be hungry for five to seven days at most. In order to survive, he would have to eat corpses.
Thinking of this, the three of them felt a chill rising in their hearts.
The three people cursed: "The people of Guchi State are indeed cruel by nature. No wonder they built a place like Corpse Hidden Ridge! They also use living people as sacrifices!"
Jin An continued to search the temple to see if he could find more clues about Guchi Kingdom or clues related to the Kingdom of the Immortal God.
There is also an altar in the temple.
There is a sun totem on the altar, and there is a sacred bird with its head flapping its wings on the sun totem.
Seeing this totem, Jin An was stunned: "The Guchi country in the desert also believes in the phoenix? Or the Suzaku, one of the four spirits?"
Little Sahafu, who had the most questions, heard Jin An's muttering to himself and asked out of curiosity: "Taoist Master Jin An, what are Phoenix and Suzaku?"
Jin An spent some time to roughly understand the status of Phoenix and Suzaku among the Han people, and the three of them nodded without understanding.
I held a torch and searched both sides along the altar, and soon made new discoveries. There were well-preserved painted murals on the walls of the temple. Those painted murals were well preserved in the dry desert, and the colors were as new as new.
"There are also murals on Taoist Priest Jin'an's side!"
"I have it here too!"
Old Sadiq and several others shouted one after another.
Those murals are actually not complicated. They mainly describe the Guchi Kingdom's desire for immortality, so all the people believe in the phoenix, which can be reborn in the fire. They believe in the phoenix, and the phoenix will protect the Guchi Kingdom.
They hold a sacrificial ceremony every year and sacrifice a large number of slaves to the Phoenix. Then the Phoenix will come every night and protect the safety of Guchi country night after night, helping Guchi country to withstand the night sneak attacks launched by the enemy.
.
The murals are so realistic that the Guchi Kingdom has really been blessed by the ancient mythical beast, the Phoenix.
The mural also depicts that there is a very strict curfew in Guchi country. Every evening, there will be a strict curfew, and no living person is allowed to walk on the street.
The country of Guchi belongs to the living during the day and to the phoenix at night. This is the agreement reached between the country of Guchi and the phoenix, which leads to a peaceful coexistence.
Wherever the sun shines, there is the protection of the phoenix. Unless the sun goes out and can no longer shine on the country of Guchi, the phoenix will abandon the country of Guchi and leave.
The sun here is not the sun in the sky.
Instead, there stands a black stone black tower on the central axis of Guchi Kingdom, with a red sun shining on the black tower.
Seeing this, Old Sadiq was surprised and said: "Is there really a god in Guchi country who can help them?"
Jin An, who was still looking down with a torch in his hand, chuckled: "I don't know if there are gods helping Guchi country, but I do know that many small countries often use the name of gods to fool their people in order to consolidate their dominance.
Especially this kind of sacrifice has an exaggerated meaning in it, otherwise there would be no believers."
After checking the temple again and seeing that no useful clues could be found, Jin An left the temple and continued walking toward the center of the ancient city with a sheep and three camels.
The ancient city is very large, so he hurriedly and slowly arrived at the center of the ancient city just before dark, and Jin An finally saw clearly what was shining and attracting him.
It was a stone tower buried by yellow sand, with only a three- to four-foot-high spire exposed.
This stone tower is the highest place in the Guchi Kingdom. Standing on the sand dunes that bury the stone tower, you can have a sweeping view of the entire Guchi Kingdom.
You can imagine how tall the stone tower under the yellow sand is.
And on that stone tower there was glittering gold, and a golden sun was made of gold. There was a round hole in the middle of the golden sun. Originally there was something inlaid here, but now it is empty and gone.
"Is this the black tower and the sun that appear on the temple murals? The sun went out and could no longer shine on the Guchi Kingdom. The Phoenix abandoned the Guchi Kingdom and left, and the Guchi Kingdom was destroyed. What we saw on the temple murals
All came true one by one!" Ilham and old Sadiq looked at each other with astonished expressions.
Jin An looked up at the empty spire, pondered for a while and then said: "I have said that these small countries or kings, in order to consolidate their dominance, will use myths to exaggerate themselves... I think the sun here should be a very big one.
A rare huge ruby, the so-called phoenix may be some kind of desert bird attracted by the reflection of the ruby in the sun..."
"...Some things cannot just be looked at now, but must be looked at with reference to past history. In the depths of the desert, there used to be rivers flowing through it. This place was an oasis thousands of years ago, so it is normal that there are many rare birds and animals.
"
"Taoist Master Jin'an, do you mean that the ruby here was taken away first? Is it the leader of the Black Rain Kingdom who led the army into the depths of the desert?"
"It's not necessarily that it was taken away. It could also be that the desert storm that buried the entire Guchi Kingdom overnight a thousand years ago was so big that it might have been lost in the sand."
"I have seen some records in ancient books, saying that the Kingdom of the Immortal God once almost unified the Western Region south of the Tianshan Mountains. Among those subordinate countries, the seven countries in the desert basin close to the Kingdom of the Immortal God are the strongest, surpassing Guchi.
The next subject country after the country is the Wuer clan. According to legend, the Wuer clan believes in a very weird earless bronze man. They believe that people can hear the voice of God more clearly without ears, and they have always been proud of the ear-circumcision ceremony... Jin
Chief An, do you know what our next step should be?" Ilham spoke this time.
Ear circumcision?
Old Sadiq and young Sahaf could not help but shudder at the same time.
How come those who have anything to do with the Kingdom of the Immortal God are all lunatics with abnormal minds.
Is it possible that there is still contagion between madmen and normal people?
Jin An had no respect for Guchi Kingdom, so he jumped to the top of the stone tower without any scruples, stepped on the golden sun that was shining brightly in the setting sun, climbed up and looked at the entire ancient city, and explained while looking around:
"The Guchi State is also a relatively powerful country in the desert. It has a large population. With such a large population gathered, it must be built along a river and cannot do without a large amount of drinking water. Therefore, the ancient rivers that flowed through the desert basin thousands of years ago must also flow through it.
Entered the country of Guchi."
"Although the Guchi Kingdom has been buried by yellow sand for thousands of years, the ancient river may have been buried by the yellow sand long ago, but since the ancient river can support a desert oasis, and can also prosper merchant shipping and trade, it will definitely not be a small river, but a turbulent one.
A big river, even if such a big river is buried by yellow sand, it will definitely leave some clues."
"So, after you find the ancient river, and then follow the ancient river, you can find the source of the ancient river, which is the Changsheng River in the Kingdom of the Immortal God."
Jin An raised his eyes and looked around.
However, the sun was gradually setting in the west at this time, and the field of vision was not clear. Many places in the distance were shrouded in the shadow of the setting sun and could not be seen clearly.
Jin An jumped off the stone tower: "Let's find a place to spend the night tonight. When it gets bright tomorrow and the view is clear, we will carefully search for traces of ancient rivers in and near the ancient city."