He roughly remembered the method to break through the Soul Suspending Ladder in "Ghost Blows Out the Light", but the book did not explain how it was achieved. The book could vaguely explain this part, but he had to understand it after seeing it with his own eyes.
It was theoretically impossible to construct the Penrose Stairs in three-dimensional space, but the stairs in front of him could not be faked, so there must be some ingenious way to achieve this trick.
Although there were all kinds of magical martial arts in this world, they generally followed the laws of science. However, when he thought of the Venerated Ming, the thousand-year-old monster, Song Qingshu became a little uncertain.
He took the torch to the wall to check and carefully looked at each stone step. He had found it strange before, as each stone step was too big. Now, he finally understood.
Wu Chen and Wu Sun were in a state of panic, but Huo Qingtong keenly noticed the change in his expression. "You know what's going on?"
Song Qingshu pointed at the stone slabs above. "Didn't you notice that each step is too long?"
Everyone nodded subconsciously. In fact, they had also noticed that the stone slabs on each step were very wide. They were a few meters long horizontally and a few meters wide vertically. They did not know how much larger they were than normal stairs, but they did not think too much about it.
"Is there a problem with these stairs?" Huo Qingtong asked curiously.
Song Qingshu replied, "Actually, it's easy to explain that no matter if you go up or down, you will never reach the end of the stairs. That is, you think you are going up and down the stairs, but you are actually walking on the same level."
"How is that possible?" Elder Wu Sun raised his doubts on the spot. After all, he had just walked it himself. He ran to the space between the two steps and pointed at the difference in height. "There is clearly a difference between up and down here, so how can they be on the same level?"
"That's just an optical illusion," Song Qingshu explained. "Each stone slabs are not horizontal, but tilted in one direction, causing one side of the stone slabs to be higher and the other lower. This way, when connected to the higher side of the next stone step, it forms the illusion of going up and down. It's just that the stone slabs are too big and it's too dark here, so it's difficult for everyone to notice that each stone slab is actually uneven."
Hearing his analysis, everyone's heart skipped a beat. They hurriedly took out their tools to measure it. It was indeed so. They just did not think of this before, but it was not difficult to measure whether the stairs were horizontal or not.
Everyone clicked their tongues. "This mechanism is too intricate. To think that the Gao Chang Country had such a skilled craftsman. It's a work of the gods."
Wo Chen too was overjoyed. He patted Song QingShu's shoulder and said, "The great sects are truly insightful. If we can find the treasure this time, we'll definitely report it to the Great Khan and you'll be the first to be credited."
However, Huo Qingtong could not help but glance at Song Qingshu. He thought to himself that the Mongolians were really full of talents. Even a random guest expert had such knowledge. The future of the Wooden Table Lun Tribe was getting darker.
At this time, Song QingShu was thinking. If he was the one designing it, he could design it like a Möbius strip. A normal strip of paper had two sides, and an ant crawled on it. If it wanted to crawl all the way on both sides, it had to cross the edge of the paper. However, if a strip of paper was twisted 180 degrees and the two ends were glued together to form a paper loop, then the paper loop would only have one side, and the ant could crawl all over the curved surface without crossing the edge.
In this labyrinth, some of the connections could be made into long and narrow robber's holes to confuse people's sense of direction. This way, people would unknowingly walk on the same flat surface and would never be able to get out.
"Now that we know the mechanism here, how do we break it?" Huo Chen's question broke his train of thought.
Song Qingshu pointed to both sides of the wall. "If I'm not wrong, there must be a fork in the wall or a mechanism door. It's so dark here, and the surroundings are made of light-absorbing materials. Other than making it difficult for us to discover the problem of the stairs, it's also to prevent us from seeing the mechanism on the wall."
Hearing his words, the few of them hurriedly ran to check along the way. Only Song Qingshu stayed behind to watch over Huo Qingtong. Seeing that she was still kneeling on the ground, he stretched out his hand to help her up.
"How can I find a chance to release her?" Song Qingshu felt a headache. Unless it was absolutely necessary, he didn't want to kill her to silence her.
"Thank you." Huo Qingtong curiously surveyed this Japanese. Back then, she had heard of his deeds in Xingqing Manor. It seemed that he was beaten up by Fu Cailin of Goryeo and fled without a fight. At that time, she felt some contempt for him. But now, it seemed that he was completely different from the rumors.
At this moment, cheers erupted from afar. "Found it!"
Song Qingshu brought Huo Qingtong over and discovered that there was a very concealed fork in the wall. Only one person could pass through at a time. In such a dark environment, if one didn't know the principle behind it and deliberately searched for it, it would be impossible for them to find this place.
The group slowly advanced along the fork. After walking for about several tens of zhang, the view before them suddenly widened. A gigantic stone door appeared before them. From its appearance, it looked like a warehouse. 118
Huo Chen was overjoyed. "We've finally found the treasure!" This place was so well hidden, and there was even a Ghost Labyrinth Soul Staircase guarding the front. If this wasn't a treasure chamber, what else could it be?
Huo Sun also had an agitated look on his face. However, he was much more cautious. He first used his mental energy to scan the surroundings, and after ascertaining that there were no ambushes, he followed them in.
Song Qingshu's gaze sharpened. He noticed a shiny object on the side of the path. That was Ahman's head ornament.
However, now that things had come to this, he didn't know where Ahman was. He could only search for her after he was done here.
"Where's the treasure? Where's the treasure?" Huo Chen's angry roar came from inside.
Song Qingshu hurriedly followed in to investigate. He discovered that the stone room was filled with tables, chairs, beds, mosquito nets, many books, Go sets, seven-stringed zithers, stoves, bowls, plates, mirrors, and other common objects of the Central Plains. However, there was no gold or jewelry.
"There are stone tablets here." Huo Sun discovered two gigantic stone tablets and pointed to the wall. "There are also murals."
Song Qingshu went over to take a look. There were many Chinese characters carved on the stone tablets, but most of them were other strange characters that he couldn't recognize. Fortunately, Huo Qingtong had lived in the Western Regions for a long time and could recognize the Kazakh language. He slowly read out the characters on the stone tablets.
It turned out that this labyrinth was built during the reign of Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty. This area was where the Gaochang Kingdom was located during the Tang Dynasty.
At that time, Gaochang was a large country in the Western Regions. It was rich in resources and powerful. During the reign of Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty, the King of Gaochang was called Ju Wentai. The Tang Dynasty sent an emissary to Gaochang, telling them to abide by many Han customs. Ju Wentai said to the emissary, "Eagles fly in the sky, pheasants perch on the ground, cats roam in the hall, mice hide in their burrows. Each has its own place. How can we not breed evil?" What he meant was, although you are fierce eagles flying in the sky, we are pheasants hiding in the bushes. Although you are cats walking around the hall, we are mice hiding in the hole and chirping. You can't do anything to us. Everyone lives their own lives. Why must you force us to abide by your Han customs?
Emperor Taizong was furious when he heard this. He thought that they were barbaric and did not obey the Emperor. Therefore, he sent General Hou Junji to suppress them.
Ju Wentai knew that the Tang army was powerful. He decided to defend and not fight. Therefore, he gathered a large number of people and built a maze in a very secret place. If the capital could not be defended, there would be a place to retreat. At that time, Gaochang was rich and powerful. Many skilled craftsmen from the Western Regions were gathered here. The maze was built in a very strange and winding way. It was prepared to hide all the country's rare and precious treasures in the palace. Ju Wentai thought that even if the Tang army attacked the maze, they might not be able to find me.
Hou Junji had learned the art of war from Li Jing and was good at using troops. Along the way, he crossed the desert with irresistible force. When Ju Wentai heard that the Tang army was coming, he was scared to death. His son, Ju Zhisheng, became the King. Hou Junji led the army to attack the city. After a few battles, the Gaochang army was defeated. The Tang army had a kind of siege vehicle. It was ten feet tall. Because it was as tall as a bird's nest, it was called the Nest Carriage. The Nest Carriage was pushed to the edge of the city. The soldiers looked down from above and threw stones and arrows. It was difficult for the Gaochang army to resist. Ju Zhisheng did not have time to escape into the maze. He did not have time to move his treasures. The capital had been breached and he could only surrender.
Gaochang was founded by Ju Jia. It lasted for a total of one hundred and thirty-four years. It died in the fourteenth year of Zhenguan. At that time, the territory was eight hundred miles from east to west and five hundred miles from north to south. It was a big country in the Western Region.
Hou Junji captured King Ju Zhisheng, the civil and military officials, and the heroes of the big families. When he returned to Chang 'an, Emperor Taizong said that the Gaochang country did not accept the Han culture and did not know the benefits of the Chinese cultural relics. Therefore, he gave a large number of Han books, clothes, utensils, and musical instruments to Gaochang. The people of Gaochang said in private,
"Pheasants can't fly like eagles, mice can't meow like cats. No matter how good the Chinese people's things are, we Gaochang savages don't like them." The books and cultural relics bestowed by Tang Taizong, all kinds of tools, as well as the statues of Buddha, Confucius, Taoism's Laojun, and so on, were all placed in the maze, nobody took a second look at them.
The stone tablet recorded the events of that year in words, while the murals on the wall depicted the battle situation of that year in real life.
Song Qingshu then understood that the maze was built by the Gaochang country as a refuge. At the same time, it was used to deal with the Tang Dynasty. No wonder the mechanisms in the maze were so powerful. Unfortunately, it was useless like the Maginot Line.
"There are no treasures, there are no treasures!" Wo Chen almost went crazy when he learned the whole story. He had lost many soldiers this time. He thought that he could make up for his mistakes if he found the treasures, but it was all for naught.
He was angry and scared when he thought of this. He pulled out his sword and slashed at the pictures on the murals to vent the negative emotions in his heart.
Who knew that as he slashed, a figure in the mural suddenly reached out and grabbed his neck.
Wo Chen's mouth gurgled. He wanted to call for help but could not.
"Ghost!" The remaining Mongolian soldiers beside him were scared out of their wits. The scene in front of them was too horrifying. The person on the mural had come to life and even reached out his hand!
Even with their bravery, they were scared out of their wits. They turned around and ran.
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