Chen Wen looked at the blue-green flames that could be seen everywhere among the tombs, and wondered: "Sir, aren't the will-o'-the-wisps just the ghosts lighting the lamps? How can we determine which tomb is the one where the Yue King's Sword is buried based on the will-o'-the-wisp?"
Liu Qi smiled mysteriously: "Will-o'-the-wisps are not lanterns lit by ghosts, nor are they the ghost lanterns lit by King Yama in folklore when he appears. However, there must be tombs under every will-o'-the-wisp. Brother Wen, have you noticed that there are no tombs that have been hollowed out?
A will-o’-the-wisp.”
Chen Wen looked at the empty tomb next to him and replied: "It is true that as the young master said, there are no will-o'-the-wisps above the empty tomb, but where there are will-o'-the-wisps there must be tombs?"
Liu Qi still knows some scientific knowledge. He knows that will-o'-the-wisps are actually a superstitious saying among the people. How can there be any ghosts in the world?
The so-called will-o'-the-wisps among the people are actually caused by phosphorus. This is because the bodies of humans and animals contain phosphorus. When a corpse is buried in the ground and rots, the phosphorus compounds contained in the bones are exposed to the scorching sun for a long time and gradually become decomposed after being washed by rain and dew.
It penetrates into the soil and decomposes to form phosphine gas. This phosphine gas has a very low ignition point. It leaks out of the ground and comes into contact with oxygen in the air. It will spontaneously ignite in the air. This is what people do at the tomb at night.
See the "will-o'-the-wisp."
In an era when science was not popularized, superstition easily prevailed. As for the cause of will-o'-the-wisps, Liu Qi could not explain clearly to Chen Wen. He pointed to the blue-green fire fifty meters in front and said: "Where there are will-o'-the-wisps, there must be tombs."
, we can go to the place in front where there is a will-o'-the-wisp and explore it."
"Okay, I'll do it." E Huan took a long, thin iron drill that looked like a spear from the hands of the bronze guard, and strode towards the raised earth mound with blue-green flames. Liu Qi and others
He also followed.
E Huan found a spot on the tomb and inserted the iron drill with force. When the top of the iron drill was almost gone, he could feel that the iron drill had been inserted into a hard place and could not be inserted. He pulled the iron drill up and down again with force.
After inserting it several times, I could vaguely hear the buzzing sound coming from the cave in the soil. There was no doubt that the iron drill had penetrated a tomb.
Chen Wen basically guessed the result from E Huan's action of inserting the iron drill, and asked: "General E, did you insert it into the cave?"
E Huan clapped his hands and said with excitement on his face: "Yes, it's your master's calculation. There really is a tomb under the will-o'-the-wisp."
"That's right." Chen Wen looked at Liu Qi with admiration, stepped forward and picked up the iron drill and thrust it hard several times. After thinking for a while, he said: "It should be an unexcavated Chu tomb."
E Huan looked down at Liu Qi and asked for instructions: "Sir, are you digging?"
Liu Qi waved his hand, looked across several mountains, looked at the cliff behind the mountains, and said: "General E, don't worry, there are many ancient tombs here and there are endless digs. We need to detect the one where the Yue King's Sword is buried.
"
Looking at the will-o'-the-wisps all over the mountains and plains, E Huan looked confused and sighed: "Young Master is right, but there are still will-o'-the-wisps everywhere, so there's no way to find the tomb of King Yue?"
Chen Wen smoothed his short beard, patted E Huan on the shoulder, and said with a confident smile: "The Mausoleum of the King of Yue is not in Jiangling, but the Tomb of the King of Chu. General E doesn't need to worry. If you can confirm that there are tombs under the will-o'-the-wisps, there will be a solution."
E Huan rubbed his hands and shouted: "Brother Wen, tell me quickly, what can I do?"
Chen Wendao: "We have to climb over this mountain and go to the cliff to find a pool and a hanging coffin. Then we can determine which tomb to excavate based on the will-o'-the-wisps that appear near the pool, right?"
E Huan chuckled and said, "That makes sense, Brother Wen is smart, haha."
Chen Wen looked down at Liu Qi and said: "Sir, we have climbed over the mountain. It is probably daybreak. There is strong light during the day and there are no will-o'-the-wisps. Even if we find it at night, I am afraid it will take some time to dig the grave. Should we go back now?"
How about making some preparations, preparing your tent, and climbing over this mountain tomorrow afternoon?"
Liu Qi knew that what Chen Wen said was reasonable, so he nodded and said, "Brother Yiwen, let's go back to the inn temporarily and go up the mountain in the afternoon."
"Let's go." E Huan heard this and learned that there was a chance of stealing the sword, which meant that he could go out to the mountain as soon as possible to look for Hua Tuo and save his male genitals. He walked up to the grave and pulled out the iron drill stuck on the grave. He was so excited that he couldn't control it.
Liu Qi and his party headed back to town. When they returned to Longmen Inn, Liu Qi did not see Sun Erniang and felt a little disappointed. The waiter told Sun Erniang that she had gone out to do shopping after Liu Qi left.
After resting for a whole morning, at noon, four carriages came to the open space halfway up Wangshan Mountain again. Since they had to cross the mountain, two bronze guards were left behind to take the carriages back to Longmen Inn. They then prepared seven days of dry food and went with them.
Chen Wen, E Huan and the eight bronze guards carried tents, iron drills, shovels and other necessary materials for tomb robbing over the mountains and ridges.
At dusk, Liu Qi and his party crossed several mountain peaks, came to the cliff, and found an open place to camp. E Huan and the Tongren guards sorted out the tomb robbing supplies. Liu Qi and Chen Wen climbed up to check out the points. There were hanging coffins everywhere on the stretching cliffs.
There are indeed several natural pools below the cliff.
Liu Qi was very surprised that the hanging coffin was so high and he didn't know how the ancients got it up.
Chen Wen pointed to the cliff ahead and said: "Sir, look, the terrain is similar to what Sun Erniang described, except that there are several pools. Which pool should we explore from?"
Liu Qi said without thinking: "It's not difficult. Tonight, I will just observe the will-o'-the-wisps beside the pool, and then determine based on the situation of the hanging coffin above the pool. The overhanging wall is too high, smooth and steep, and even a python cannot climb it.
of."
"Young master, what you said makes sense. We can also check the surrounding areas to see if there are shed skins of pythons to determine where the pythons may be."
"Haha, Brother Wen has a good idea. If you are lucky, you might be able to see the giant python coming out of the cave at night." Liu Qi and Chen Wen were chatting and laughing, feeling that hunting for pythons and tombs was more interesting than stealing the sword itself.
Before, the most evocative thing was the adventure process.
Back at the camp, Liu Qi, Chen Wen, and E Huan carefully studied the surrounding terrain and determined that the observation points at night should be placed near several pools. The focus was to observe will-o'-the-wisps and pool sides, and whether there would be giant pythons swimming on the hanging coffins at night.
After comprehensively considering various situations, we can then infer the correct location of the Chu King's Tomb by visiting the locations on the spot.
After discussing the best plan to explore the tomb, two guards were left to guard the camp when the night tomb fell. Liu Qi, Chen Wen and E Huan were divided into three groups, each with two bronze guards, and went to the surroundings of several natural pools.
Watch the will-o'-the-wisps quietly and watch the hanging coffin from a distance.
After a night of observation, the information from the three groups was gathered together. The observation results were that there were will-o'-the-wisps around the two pools, one with more fires and one with less. However, no trace of the giant python was found in more than a dozen hanging coffins under fixed-point observation.
The location of the tombs found in the Chu King's Mausoleum was roughly determined, just where two will-o'-the-wisps appeared. As to whether a place with many will-o'-the-wisps or a place with few will-o'-the-wisps was more likely to be the location of the Chu King's Tomb, Liu Qi and Chen Wen had a debate.
Chen Wen said: "Sir, I think we'll do some probing from the will-o'-the-wisp spot today. How about that?"
Liu Qi smiled and said: "Brother Wen, what do you think?"
Chen Wendao: "The tomb of the King of Chu is hundreds of years old. I'm afraid there are no bones left, so naturally there will be less will-o'-the-wisps."
Liu Qi said, "Not necessarily. I think we should explore the will-o'-the-wisp from multiple places."
Chen Wen asked: "What noble ideas do you have, Master?"
Liu Qi said: "Although the tomb is old, will-o'-the-wisps can still be seen. During the Spring and Autumn Period, the king was supreme and burials were popular. Therefore, there are many will-o'-the-wisps in the tomb of the King of Chu."
"Young Master's analysis makes sense. I think we'll start exploring the places where the will-o'-the-wisps are." E Huan was obviously impatient.
Chen Wen stroked his short beard, pondered for a while, nodded and said: "The young master's words are reasonable to guess, so I will follow the young master's words and explore the will-o'-the-wisps from many places."
"Okay, that's it." Liu Qi decided on the location to explore the Chu King's Tomb, and the three of them went to the will-o'-the-wisp places to inspect on the spot again to determine which hanging coffin the giant python might be living in. It must have been more than a month since it was visited.
The giant python injured by Huang Zhong's sword may have recovered from its injury long ago, and may even become more ferocious for revenge after seeing the tomb robber.
When he came to the pool, Liu Qi was surprised to find that there were countless snake heads raised high in the natural pool, staring with frightened eyes, and spitting out snake messages in patches. It was very scary, and it was another pit of thousands of snakes.
Liu Qi took a breath of air: "Brother Wen, we are in trouble now. These are not the water snakes on the ancient forest road. These water snakes are cobras, and they work with the giant pythons to protect the tomb. I am afraid that as soon as we disturb the ground, these snakes will come up and bite us."
People."
Chen Wen was also extremely frightened and said: "What's even more terrifying is that there may be tens of millions of cobras in the surrounding waterholes."
Liu Qi frowned and said, "General E, go and check a few pools to see if they are the same as here."
"Yes." E Huan responded and quickly ran to several other natural pools. When he came back, he reported that there were no snake pits.
Liu Qi pointed to the natural pool with thousands of cobra heads, and said: "This must be the Tomb of the King of Chu. The other pools are just suspicious pits. It seems that the cobras in this pool must be dealt with before starting the drill.
"
"Should I throw in a few pieces of crocodile meat? I wonder if it will help?" Chen Wen's scalp was numb when he saw so many cobras, and he didn't know how to deal with them.
"It's useless. I'm afraid crocodile meat won't work. It can only suppress it for a while. It will take us a long time to dig the grave."
"Then what should we do? Shoot them to death with arrows?" E Huan was also scratching his head and ears anxiously.
"No, one move can affect the whole body. We must find a way to kill all the cobras in the pool immediately." Liu Qi rejected E Huan's proposal and kept pacing away from the pool. Chen Wen was also anxious.
A few beards.
After pacing for a while, Liu Qi suddenly had an idea. The only way to kill the cobra was to try Mr. Hua Tuo's red bottle medicine.
Liu Qi nervously ordered: "Brother Wen, General E, you two aim at the snake pit and prepare to shoot quickly."
"Yes." Chen Wen and E Huan saw that Liu Qi had made a decision, and without asking why, they quickly brought a large bundle of bamboo arrows, adjusted their shooting posture, and were ready for rapid shooting.
Liu Qi also ordered the eight bronze guards to stand guard with spears and spears to prevent the cobra from counterattacking if the poison could not kill the cobra.
"Are you ready?" Liu Qi took out the red medicine bottle and asked loudly.
"Ready." Chen Wen and E Huan responded loudly.
Liu Qi took a few steps forward and opened the red pill bottle. Fearing that the medicine was not strong enough, he carefully took out two red pills, took a look at the place where the cobras gathered, threw it hard, and shouted: "Shoot."
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, there was a sound of arrows. Chen Wen and E Huanduan's good archery skills almost shot through the throats of the cobras. Several cobras with quick reactions jumped into the pool at the same time as Liu Qi threw the red pills.
, quickly passed through and attacked Liu Qi, but they were all killed by the bronze guards waiting by the pool.
Hua Tuo's killer super poisonous pill took effect, coupled with a burst of rapid-fire arrows from Chen Wen and E Huan. In just a moment, the cobra pit became quiet, and a snake corpse floated up, and everyone cheered.
When everyone was immersed in the joy of successfully killing thousands of cobras, suddenly a hurricane broke out, and Chen Wen shouted, "Be careful." Liu Qi quickly yelled, pulled out his sword, and looked up to see a giant python with a long tail.
He jumped down from the 100-meter-high hanging coffin cave, spitting out blood-red snake letters, and opened his mouth to spurt blood and angrily charged at Liu Qi.