After opening the castration bag, two towels got wet and he handed one over: "Cover your mouth and nose, maybe it will help." Zhang Ning nodded and took it, thinking that ladies really need to be more careful?
Zhang Ning took the torch and walked forward, while Wenjun gently drew out a short knife and followed closely behind him, his footsteps very light. Both of them were cautious and alert. As soon as they entered the door, they were greeted by a palace with a statue in the middle.
There is a clay statue, but I don’t know what god it is dedicated to. There are four large pillars in the hall. The incense burner in front of the statue has fallen on the ground. There are some scattered debris around. Everything is earth-colored and covered with a layer of dust.
Only the stone bricks on the ground were not covered by mud.
He looked around and found nothing that had been touched. When he saw an open wooden door diagonally opposite, he whispered, "Let's go in and take a look."
Wenjun never expressed any objection, so the two of them entered the door timidly. There was light in the front hall, but it was completely dark as soon as they entered the door, and they could only rely on torches for illumination. Zhang Ning's mouth was covered with a wet handkerchief.
, and couldn't smell any peculiar smell. He took a torch and looked around to check.
The back hall and the front hall have the same roof, and the whole building is integrated. I don’t know when and how many years it was built, but people in ancient times worked hard to build things on the cliffs. Most of them were Taoists who escaping from the world, or maybe they were local people.
Who knows what religion it is? Zhang Ning came here mainly to collect evidence, but the smell was so weak that even if he didn't cover his mouth and nose with a handkerchief, he would definitely not be able to smell it from where it came.
The stone lantern in the corner quickly caught Zhang Ning's attention. He hurriedly walked over and handed the torch to Xu Wenjun. Then he squatted down and tinkered with it. After a while, he unscrewed the cover on it.
There was no light inside but it was filled with powder. The powder didn’t look like it was filled with water.
The soil that went in. Zhang Ning was overjoyed. He stretched out his hand to pick up some, then took the wet wipes from his mouth, put his fingers in front of his nose and smelled gently for a while, then turned around and said happily: "I found it! Did you bring a container? Let's
I need to pack more and go back, lest Mr. Yan comes up with some excuses again."
"I poured water into the kettle and I'm afraid the incense ashes will get wet. Let's wrap it up with that piece of cloth." Xu Wenjun said.
"Okay." Zhang Ning waited for Xu Wenjun to spread the cloth on the ground, then reached out to grab the incense ash and took it out. After grabbing two handfuls, there was not much left. He was not satisfied yet, and saw that there were lampshades in other corners, so he wrapped the cloth first
When he walked elsewhere, he remembered that there was a money bag in his pocket, so he reached out and took out the banknotes and some heavy metals. Unexpectedly, he lost his hand and a silver ingot fell to the ground with a thud.
At this time Xu Wenjun said: "Get the empty space under the floor."
"Hmm." Zhang Ning knelt down to pick up the silver ingot and knocked it twice. Sure enough, there was an empty sound, which was completely different from the solid ground. Curiosity took over, and since he had already ventured in anyway, he wanted to know what was hidden underneath.
What? Unfortunately, I had no tools and couldn't pry open the stone slab. I touched the ground and couldn't figure out how to open it.
"Is there a mechanism?" He raised his head and looked around. The light was not good, and it was pitch black when he was a little further away. But he quickly turned his attention to the stone lampshade in front of him, and reached out to twist it. At this time, he heard
Xu Wenjun reminded him to "be careful", but it was too late. Zhang Ning suddenly found the lampshade
It was actually able to rotate. After a try, the stone lamp immediately rotated ninety degrees with a "knock" sound. As soon as the stone slab under his feet was loosened, Zhang Ning instinctively jumped to the side, and there was a heavy "crash" sound and the stone slab sank.
When he fell down, a black hole was revealed, and he was immediately glad that his reaction was enough to prevent him from falling.
Unexpectedly, hurried footsteps suddenly sounded outside. Zhang Ning and Xu Wenjun looked at each other, and he blurted out: "Who is coming... Yan Ruofei and the others definitely don't have the guts to come up."
There seemed to be only one exit from the apse, and they found themselves trapped in a urn. Xu Wenjun held the dagger tightly, while Zhang Ning looked around for something handy, and could only twist up the stone lamp cover.
"There are at least three or four people." Xu Wenjun said quickly, "I can't stand it any longer and my boss will go down through this hole."
As soon as he finished speaking, he heard a woman's voice saying: "It's all dead, there's someone blocking it on the other end." As soon as he finished speaking, two men in black clothes and hats appeared at the door, holding crossbows in their hands.
Hold them.
Xu Wenjun hurriedly stood in front of Zhang Ning.
"If you know the truth, I'll capture you and let you die happily." A woman's voice said from the other side of the door.
"If you have something to say, you have something to say..." Zhang Ning carefully made a gesture to put down the stone in his hand. In the current situation, he was blocked at the door. Others also had long-range weapons, so they did not shoot him immediately.
Even if it was polite, Zhang Ning reflexively wanted to calm down first. After a while, he thought of calling Xu Wen
Jun threw the torch far away, as long-range weapons were not so effective in the dark; but Xu Wenjun was in front and did not dare to call her, not knowing how to hint... She may have thought of this problem, but she did not dare to act rashly, otherwise
Zhang Ning was easily shot if he was not prepared. In short, it would be difficult for the two of them to reach a tacit understanding without any communication.
He then deliberately said: "There is no woman standing in front, Wenjun, come back here!" After saying that, he pulled her back, and when he turned sideways, he took the opportunity to make a mouth shape: fire.
"Don't move!" the woman's voice said, "If you move again, shoot the arrow immediately! That woman in front, put down the weapon in your hand, or I will kill you first!"
Zhang Ning had nothing to do, and was worried that Xu Wenjun would take action on his own. If she was shot to death, he, as a scholar, would be helpless. He hurriedly ordered: "Wenjun, put down the knife."
"Take your time and don't throw the torch. Otherwise, it depends on whether you throw it faster or the arrow flies faster." The woman said.
Xu Wenjun had no choice but to obey Zhang Ning's words, gently stretched out his hand, let go of the handle of the knife and dropped it to the ground with a "ding".
"Keep your hands where we can see them." The woman said as she led someone in. There were four people in total, all of whom seemed to be women. They held two torches and the light in the back hall became brighter and brighter.
The ladies ordered again: "Tie them up first! You'd better behave yourself, otherwise you will know the consequences."
Zhang Ning said helplessly: "We just came to take a look out of curiosity. Now we know that there is a hole here, and we don't know what is underneath. Could it be that some treasure is hidden? How about you hide it somewhere else, and I will compensate you for your losses.
You don't have to commit murder to silence me, right? Since you know that we came up, you should know that there are still people down there, and you will be in trouble if you don't go back."
"Stop talking nonsense, shut up!" The woman cursed, and soon she tied Zhang Ning and Ning tightly, and confiscated their belongings.
At this time, the other party relaxed their vigilance slightly, because Zhang Ning and others were disarmed and tied up, so there was really no threat. The girl breathed a sigh of relief and sneered: "You are quite courageous. Normally no one would dare to approach, but you are so arrogant.
The ground is coming. Yes, the theory of ghosts and gods is the first line of defense here, which can block most of the enemies; but in normal times, you would have been poisoned to death. There is a kind of poisonous incense that is poisonous to us.
The second line of defense. You are lucky. We just got the order to remove the poison some time ago... If you just came up and walked around and left, you should be safe and sound. I blame you for being too brave and actually discovered the secret passage.
How can we just sit back and watch? There are sentinel posts within a ten-mile radius of this place, and every move you make after coming in is under our control. Hum, you really think that the defense of our divine religion is too loose."
Zhang Ning said: "It turns out that the altar of your sect is located here. I really didn't expect you would choose such an unlucky place. There are so many sarcophagi on the stone wall outside, and they all contain dead people."
Another person next to the leading woman said: "Xiang Master, what should we do with these two people? Kill them on the spot and cut off their heads to go in and receive merit."
"Don't!" Zhang Ning said in astonishment, "Those who arrest people alive receive different credits. Believers are also human beings. How can we be too vicious in doing things? Let me tell you, the credit for arresting people alive may be greater. I am actually an official from the imperial court who came here to investigate.
You have many confessions!"
"Oh?" The incense owner looked at him doubtfully.
Zhang Ning said hurriedly: "Fortunately, I am used to carrying seals and other items with me. Come and search, I have tokens in my underwear pocket... We have all fallen into your hands. What do you have to worry about? You can't run away anyway. If it's a knife
If you kill the living ones, you may not get any credit but you will be held accountable, do you believe it?"
The incense owner thought for a while, then stepped forward and reached out to touch the bag inside Zhang Ning's clothes. Suddenly, she felt her hands trembling slightly, which revealed her inner nervousness. Maybe they had been avoiding this kind of place for a long time and it was difficult to see men.
of?
Taking out Zhang Ning's seal, directions, official documents and other items, the incense owner immediately believed him. As expected, Zhang Ning's deception temporarily saved his life. Although he was not good at martial arts, he could still speak quite well, and it was not just words.
The kind that has many uses but few uses.
The incense owner muttered: "You have to report first before you can bring outsiders in. I'll report you to watch people. The remaining people outside shouldn't dare to come up... That's all. To be on the safe side, we'd better take the prisoners into the secret passage and keep them under guard."
Shut their mouths!"
Before being gagged, Zhang Ning couldn't help but said to Xu Wenjun one last time: "Did I tell you? Ghosts and gods are not dangerous. The most dangerous thing is humans. You see, everything is done by humans."
"Those who study and become officials have a lot of twists and turns in their stomachs." After hearing this, the incense owner muttered.
Then Zhang Ning and Wen Jun were escorted down the secret passage. It was wet and running water was flowing inside, and the air was not stuffy at all. Obviously this place is not a dead end, and it must be ventilated. I wonder what is at the other end of the secret passage.
place.
The woman who was called the Incense Master just now walked straight to the other side, and the other three people were looking at Zhang Ning and Zhang Ning with weapons in hand. At this moment, he really had no hope of escaping by force, and was only thinking about whether he could reconcile with Pi.
It's a bit difficult to think about what to negotiate with the cult... First of all, I have nothing to use as a bargaining chip, and then how can the anti-evil cult believe that it can fulfill its promise of bargaining chips after freeing people?
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