My first reaction was to put the dark red stone pieces on the ground together with the silk paintings back into the golden coffin, and then stuff the golden coffin into my backpack.
But he still felt uneasy, so he simply put his backpack on his back in front of him, as if the piece of silk painting and stone was only safe if he held it in his arms.
There was another violent shaking, and the stone bricks on the underground palace wall began to fall off in pieces. I squatted beside the altar, not daring to move.
I don't know how violent the earthquake was outside the mountain, but the underground palace only shook a few times and then stopped.
After confirming that everything was calm, I stood up slowly. The three thorn-scaled snake oil lamps on the wall had been shaken to the ground and shattered into tiles.
Fortunately, although the thorn-scale snake mackerel oil lamp I placed on the altar was crooked in the ruins, the fire in the wick was not extinguished.
I picked up the oil lamp and turned it around in a circle. I couldn't help but feel terrified.
On the ground, there were piles of white bones almost reaching my feet.
Could it be that there is a secret room or mezzanine in the underground palace? The earthquake just now shook the bricks off the wall, causing the bones hidden inside to roll out.
Under the weak light of the oil lamp, something seemed to be shining with golden light among the piles of bones. I couldn't help but squat down, suppressing the huge fear in my chest, and rummaged among the bones.
Suddenly, a gold and jade ring appeared in front of my eyes. The ring was set on a piece of white bone.
I continued to search, and more and more treasures appeared, including gold bracelets, agate bracelets, jade beads, hairpins, etc. The more I looked, the more I found.
Could it be that this underground palace is not just a single room, it may be an ancient tomb, and the huge number of bones in front of me are all people who were buried.
I seemed to see a dark hole behind the altar, behind the piles of bones, and I couldn't help but move forward cautiously, towards the entrance of the hole.
Bones were scattered everywhere on the ground. I had almost no place to put my feet, and I was afraid that if I accidentally stepped on these bones, something would be attracted to me, so every step I took was like walking on thin ice.
I finally reached the entrance of the cave. I didn't know if there was any danger lurking inside. I hesitated for a moment, then bent down and got in.
Inside is a stone cave, about the size of a basketball court, with twelve sides, almost round, very open, and a bit high. The walls of the cave are polished manually and are very smooth, but there are no patterns or decorations on them.
It's just an empty wall, and it feels the same as the cave I fell into on the gravel beach.
The cave is also filled with skeletons, the number of which makes people shudder.
The owner of this tomb was too cruel. He actually wanted so many people to be buried together. Judging from the gold and silver jewelry left on the skeletons, the status of these skeletons should not have been too low during their lifetime. Why were they buried collectively?
I had no choice but to step on the bones and search in the cave, but found nothing else except the bones.
But I discovered that there was a slight crack on the skull of several skeletons at my feet, extending from the Tianling Cap to the back spine, directly dividing the skull into two equal halves. Although the skull was not cracked,
The fine mark is clearly visible.
What kind of external force did they suffer before death that could cause all heads to suffer the same damage?
Suddenly, a small head came into my sight. I knelt down and picked up the broken limbs covering it. I couldn't help but feel uncomfortable in my heart.
This should be a child under three years old. He wears a long-life lock around his neck. It is made of gold. On the front is a picture of Qilin sending a child, and on the back are four words embossed, but it uses the unique combination of pictures and text of their tribe.
I didn't understand the text.
The child was lying on his back on the body of another woman's skeleton, which should be his mother. There was no exception. A slight crack passed through her light blue skull and extended back.
This child also has blue bones, but maybe because he is too young, the blue color is not obvious yet, but he can still be recognized among a pile of white bones.
Moreover, judging from the pelvic structure on the bones, this should be a girl.
At this point, I can probably confirm that these bones appear here not because they were sacrificed for burial, but because they were massacred. Because this girl with a blue skull should be the heir of the priest, and there is no way she could be the object of sacrifice.
No wonder there are so many skeletons here. It seems that the invaders slaughtered all the people in this ancient temple and threw them here.
However, there is a doubt here, which is why the invaders did not take away their totem object - the dark red stone hidden in the Asoka Pagoda after they massacred the tribe.
If the invaders could not find the dark red stone pieces at that time, then it would be unreasonable to say that the gold and silver beads worn by these skeletons were not moved at all.
What is the purpose of the intruder?
I stood there, my mind was as chaotic as the wind, and I couldn't grasp any clues.
However, in this chaos, I saw a way out.
The stone wall and the underground palace of the ancient pagoda were originally independent of each other. This means that the tribesmen of the ancient temple at that time should have entered the cave from another entrance and were massacred. Or, after being massacred, the intruders
Throw their bodies here.
No matter which way it is, it means that this cave has another exit.
There was a bright future in another village, and I suddenly became excited.
However, at this moment, the thorn-scale snake mackerel oil lamp in my hand suddenly flashed, probably because it was about to run out of oil.
There is not much time left, we must find the exit as soon as possible.
I raised the thorn-scale snake mackerel oil lamp and turned it around.
In an instant, it was as if a basin of cold water had been poured on it, from the soles of my feet to the ends of my hair——
The hole I crawled into just now is gone!
This is too exaggerated. Could it be that someone filled in the half-meter-high cave behind me in the ten minutes it took me to turn over the bones? And there was no trace left.
My legs couldn't help but feel weak. One of them lost their balance, and one leg was inserted into the rugged white bones.
My calf must have been hit, and it hurt terribly, but I bit my lower lip reflexively, not even daring to scream, for fear of disturbing the ghosts under my feet, and I could only feel the cold sweat flowing down my back.
I couldn't believe that such a big hole had disappeared so quietly. I squatted next to the entrance of the hole, calmed down and observed it carefully.
However, the cave wall was polished so smooth that I could hardly tell the difference between this stone wall and any other stone wall in the cave.
But I still didn't give up. I leaned down and put my ear against the cave wall. I wanted to make sure that behind this stone wall was the underground palace of the ancient pagoda. I wanted to know if I was hallucinating again.
A faint "clack-clack-clack" sound from the gears rubbing against each other penetrated my ears regularly and vibrated my eardrums.