The old man pointed to the crack in front of him and said, "Go down this tunnel and you'll reach the hall at the entrance of the tomb. I usually live there. "As for this crack, it appeared after the earthquake. It may lead to the lower level of the tomb. "Originally, I wanted to go down through it to find Shenzong's coffin."
Zuo Qingcang followed behind the old man. They passed through the edge of the crack, which was the base of the wall of the tunnel, and continued to walk toward the hall at the entrance of the tomb. He looked at the crack next to his feet and felt that it was like a canyon. It was bottomless and dark inside. He couldn't see the situation at all. It was like the entrance to hell.
A few minutes later, the two came to a hall covered with green bricks. The hall was about 20 meters wide and five meters high. The ceiling was covered with luminous pearls that emitted fluorescent light, illuminating the whole hall like a starry sky.
The old man looked at the artificial starry sky above and said, "It's beautiful, isn't it? The placement of these luminous pearls is very particular. It should be some kind of lost formation … "
Zuo Qingcang nodded. The placement of the luminous pearls above his head was indeed a little special. Although he didn't know the knack of it, he could still feel a special mystery after looking at it for a few times.
The old man next to him patted him on the shoulder and said, "Don't look at it for too long. I can't recognize this formation either. But if you look at it for too long, you'll fall into an illusion." The old man pointed to a pile of dirt in the corner and said, "There were six of us. One of us fell into the environment of the formation and went crazy and died."
Hearing this, Zuo Qingcang stopped looking at the top of his head. He glanced at the pile of dirt and said, "There were six of you when you came here? What about the other five? Are they all dead? "
"Yes. They're all dead. " The old man smiled bitterly and said, "Two of them were killed by the monsters outside before entering the tomb. One of them fell into the illusion formation above his head and went crazy and died. The other two fell into the mechanism in the tunnel and disappeared. They're probably dead.
Don't be fooled by the fact that you walked through the passageway earlier. It was only after the earthquake that many of the mechanisms and formations here lost their effectiveness. Otherwise, you might not have made it here. "
Zuo Qingcang did not rebut the old man. He merely assessed the surroundings in the hall and saw that at the end of the hall, there was a three-meter-tall stone door, sealing off all the entrances to the ancient tomb. Two meters away from the door, there was a hole about the size of a dog hole. It was obvious that it had been dug out by someone.
The old man continued, "This is the Dragon Breaking Stone. The Dragon Breaking Stone in this kind of tomb can't be opened by human strength. We dug the hole next to it."
At this point, he also shook his head in confusion. "I don't know why, but in the entire tomb, only the side of the Broken Dragon Stone didn't have any sealing water. But it's even more dangerous outside."
Zuo Qingcang nodded and looked around the hall. Other than some dry garbage, wreckage, excrement and the like, there was basically nothing. He asked, "It seems that we have to find food and drink through that hole?"
The old man glanced at Zuo Qingcang. "You noticed it too? Well, there's nothing here. If we just stay here, we won't survive. But the situation outside the hole is a little complicated. I'll explain it to you slowly. "
"In fact, the entire outer layer of the tomb hall, except for the sealing water, should have been sealed with a mixture of sealing earth, fine iron, and boulders. But too much time has passed, and a large layer has been dug out outside. "
"Dug out?" Zuo Qingcang thought of the ruins he saw on the ground and asked doubtfully, "You mean there's someone else on this island?"
"Someone? I don't think so. " The old man sneered. "You saw it on the mural. Other than the craftsmen and the giant elephant, the Daoists of Western Wei also created a group of palm-sized people to build this tomb. Those things are called dwarf spirits in the ancient books.
It's a lost creation method that can create life with Daoist magic. Legend has it that before Western Wei, many large buildings relied on the Daoists to create dwarf spirits and then let them build them.
Unfortunately, after Western Wei, this method was lost in the chaos of war. "
Zuo Qingcang said incredulously, "You mean, those dwarf spirits are still alive? No, I should say that their descendants have reproduced on this island and are still up there?"
"That's right." The old man said, "Those Daoists left, but they left the dwarf spirits they created to guard the tomb. But dwarf spirits only have the wisdom of a five or six year old human. Although the Daoists have left a restriction in their bodies, most of the new generation of dwarf spirits have forgotten their mission after two thousand years. "
Zuo Qingcang thought of the palm-sized monsters on the mural and the buildings he saw on the ground. Originally, he was curious about the skull-sized holes on the roofs of the buildings. Now it seemed that they were the entrances and exits of the dwarf spirits.
The old man continued, "They reproduced in the center of the island. But after the first generation of dwarf spirits finished building the tomb, many of them died. The total number of dwarf spirits after that has been maintained between dozens and hundreds. With the small number and the passage of time, no Daoist came back to take care of them. They gradually mutated and I'm afraid they have completely turned into another kind of creature. But they always remember not to enter the tomb. "
"Can these monsters also reproduce?" Zuo Qingcang asked.
"To be honest, I don't know. Anyway, I can't distinguish their gender. But what I said just now is the most reasonable explanation I can think of."
Seeing that Zuo Qingcang nodded, the old man continued, "Dwarf Spirits are fond of digging holes, so they dug to the outside of the graveyard. Behind this hole is the place where they bury the corpses.
And our food … is the corpses of those dwarf spirits over the past two thousand years. "
The old man imagined Zuo Qingcang's disgusted and surprised expression didn't appear. He didn't even frown. He just asked, "Is the place where they were buried dangerous? Haven't you been discovered by those dwarf spirits? Also, is there any harm in eating the corpses of these dwarf spirits? "
The old man looked at Zuo Qingcang's calm face and serious look. He really wanted to ask if he used to eat corpses. Although these weren't human corpses, they were still the corpses of intelligent creatures. He didn't expect that he didn't have any reaction at all, as if he used to eat corpses.
Seeing the old man was stunned, Zuo Qingcang asked, "What's wrong?
The old man shook his head, "Nothing. Those dwarf spirits usually only come when they are buried. It's not dangerous for us to sneak over. As for their corpses, when we were in Western Wei, Daoist magic was far more developed than now. They might not be good because there are more and better substitutes.
But now, the corpses of these dwarf spirits can be regarded as natural treasures. You have to know that Daoist magic is operated by spiritual power. These dwarf spirits are created by Daoist magic, so naturally, they are operated by spiritual power.
Their flesh and blood contain a lot of pure spiritual power. Even after death, it will take a long time for the spiritual power to dissipate completely. For us, by eating their flesh to absorb spiritual power, we can eat one dwarf spirit spirit for seven days without eating or drinking. Their flesh and blood are the best nutrition, and it's even very helpful for practicing Daoist magic and martial arts. "
"I see." Zuo Qingcang nodded and thought, "If spiritual power is radiation, then it's not hard to explain why the spiritual power of these dwarf spirits hasn't dissipated even though they have been dead for a long time. But looking at it this way, are these dwarf spirits robots? Or ore? Metal? "
Then, at Zuo Qingcang's request, the two of them didn't rest and directly went into the hole next to the Broken Dragon Stone. The hole was very narrow, only enough for an adult to crawl through like a snake. They couldn't even turn around or look back.
The structure of the hole was very simple in Zuo Qingcang's eyes, and there was even a danger of it collapsing. Moreover, the old man who dug the hole and his companions didn't really deal with the soil they dug. Other than using it to bury their companions, they just casually threw it in the hall.
Zuo Qingcang secretly planned to find time to strengthen the structure of the tunnel. Otherwise, they would be risking their lives every time they crawled here and there.
But fortunately, the tunnel wasn't deep. The two of them crawled about three to four meters, and the old man who took the lead pushed away the disguised soil pile at the end of the tunnel. The two of them then came to a cave.
The light of the Luminous Pearl shone through the tunnel, and Zuo Qingcang could vaguely see the scene in the cave.
The whole cave wasn't big, and he didn't know if it was dug by the dwarf spirits or if it was naturally formed.
But there were traces of man-made excavation everywhere, and there were also flattened steps. Through these steps, the whole cave was surrounded by rock walls, forming a total of six floors. On the rock walls of each floor, there were shelves, and on the shelves, there were jars the size of a human head.
On the other side, a big iron door sealed the exit of the cave. Zuo Qingcang pushed it hard, but the iron door didn't move.
The old man said, "It's useless. The dwarf spirits will only open this door when they are buried. Usually, it's sealed. And if we go out from here, it's very likely that we will encounter those monsters. It's too dangerous. "
Zuo Qingcang nodded and walked to the center of the cave. There was a huge platform there, which seemed to be some kind of altar. Zuo Qingcang walked forward and saw that the platform was engraved with all kinds of patterns, which formed a huge three-headed bird.
The three-headed bird's body was a bit like a combination of an eagle and a vulture, but the most special thing was that it had three heads. One was a bird's head, one was a human's head, and one was a snake's head. It looked very strange.
But no matter how strange it was, it was just a kind of carving. Zuo Qingcang glanced at it for a while, then he looked at the jars on the rock wall and said, "Are these jars the corpses of the dwarf spirits?"
At this time, the old man had already picked up a jar, opened the seal on the jar, and took out a jelly-like thing.
"I don't know what method these dwarf spirits used to preserve the corpses. They can preserve the corpses for a long time, but not for too long. The corpses from two thousand years ago have already turned into this thing."
The jelly was full of green mucus, which looked like the vomit of some kind of animal. But the old man frowned and began to take out the mucus with his hands, and then stuffed it into his mouth. After just one bite, his eyebrows, mouth, and nose seemed to be squeezed together, and he looked like he wanted to vomit but didn't want to.
After a long time, the old man swallowed the corpse in front of him, frowned and said, "Everything about this thing is good, but it's too disgusting. But we have to eat it here. If we take the jar away directly, we may be discovered by those dwarf spirits. "
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