Holy Bone

Chapter 430 The legend of the black sun totem and the phoenix of Guchi
As he went deeper into the ancient city, Jin'an discovered a strange thing.

There are many stone pillars in the country of Guchi.

The surface of those stone pillars is riddled with holes.

Stand tall.

There are a lot of cloth strips tied on each stone pillar, but after thousands of years of weathering, these cloth strips are as dilapidated as cotton wool, and have become silky strips, it is difficult to see the original.

"Paper and linen are expensive in the Western Regions, especially good brocade and silk are luxuries that ordinary people cannot afford. These riddled stone pillars that appear in large numbers in Guchi seem to be of high status... "

Along the way, Jin An has already seen three stone pillars like this.

These stone pillars are weathered slower than those loess houses, so many of them are still standing. Of course, there are more weathered and broken ones.

The ruins of the Guchi Kingdom are very large. While walking and stopping, they found a giant stone step that was buried under the yellow sand and was not seriously weathered. Jin An stroked the hot yellow sand on several steps with his palm, and found The huge stone steps lead all the way to a high raised sand dune.

And on the sand dune stood a stone pillar that was mostly buried by the yellow sand and only a small part was exposed.

"You guys wait for me here for a while." After Jin An finished speaking, he swept away the sand under his feet and walked along the steps to the stone pillar.

Just when he walked to an ordinary-looking piece of sand, the sand under his feet suddenly sank rapidly, sucking the soles of his feet like an hourglass.

It is the most unpredictable quicksand in the desert!
As soon as Jin An sensed something was wrong, he immediately untied his belt, and skillfully flung it out to wrap around the stone pillar. With a force of his arm, he was already freed from the quicksand.

Fortunately, he reacted quickly.

This is how to get out of trouble easily.

The moment Jin An flew out, the balance under the quicksand seemed to be broken instantly, and the quicksand sank faster and faster, but within a few blinks of an eye, there was a muffled bang, and the yellow sand in that area collapsed, revealing a cold and quiet place underneath. Entrance.

Hearing the movement, one sheep and three camels ran over with concern.

"Daoist Jin'an, are you okay... Ah, why is there an extra pit entrance here!" Old Sadiq and Ilhamu exclaimed at the same time.

Jin An, who had put away his belt and landed smoothly, briefly described what happened just now, and then took out two torches from the materials on Xiao Sahafu's body and lit them at the same time.

He waited for a stick of incense before he threw a torch into the pit. Seeing that the torch was burning and the air quality in the pit was good, he took another torch and went down into the pit.

"There are also rock steps in this pit. It should be the same step as we just discovered. It seems to be a temple inside? The hole in front of us seems to be the original gate of the temple?"

In front of him is indeed a well-preserved temple under the sand, and there is a thick stone pillar standing in the open space in front of the temple.

There are temples, stone pillars, and cloth strips like prayer flags on the stone pillars. It seems that the stone pillars full of holes they saw along the way have something to do with the sacrifices in the temple?

Jin An was very courageous, and walked into the temple along the gate, and the three camels behind him also nervously followed.

Only the goat that carried the most weight seemed to be expressing its dissatisfaction with cursing, and the goat that walked the slowest deliberately fell at the end.

Because it is buried under the dry yellow sand all the year round, the interior of the temple is well preserved, and the entire temple is made of rock.

This is deep in the desert, and there are no other mountains except the Guchi Sacred Mountain. These rock materials seem to come from the rocks dug out when the Sacred Mountain was widened.

Even if there are ready-made rock materials, it still needs a lot of manpower and financial resources, so only the temple has such a high specification, so it can be preserved so well, while other buildings are seriously weathered.

The temple was built very grandly and thickly. The whole building was made of heavy stone strips. The inside was covered with a thick layer of dust, and there were several mummified corpses lying on the ground.

"There are several mummified corpses in the temple, which means that the country of Guchi was destroyed so suddenly that these people didn't even have a chance to escape, so they were buried in the yellow sand, and finally suffocated to death in the temple. "

Jin An squatted in front of several mummified corpses, rubbing his chin, and said thoughtfully.

The three camels came over: "Master Jin'an, you are amazing, you even know how they died 1000 years ago."

This picture is a bit weird.

One person and three camels looked around several mummies, and then a Taoist priest talked to the three camels, looking like a psychopath.

"It's not that I know how they died in 1000 years, but I can see how they died."

Jin An observed the mummies carefully, and analyzed them: "Look at these people, there are obvious signs of fighting. There are six mummies here, three of them have wounds on the back of their heads, and the other two also have obvious signs of fighting. Wounds, only the tallest mummy has the fewest wounds, and all of them avoided fatal wounds... So I guess after they were buried alive in the temple, they were waiting for rescue at first, but the longer the time of burial, the air in the temple became worse. No, this tall mummy is the strongest person among the six people, and also the one who breathes the most air. In order to survive alone, he sneaked up from behind, killed three people in a row, and then occupied the tall and big man and killed two people in a row. People, the last one monopolized all the air in the temple and lived for a long time, until at last the air ran out and suffocated to death in the temple."

"Even he has lived alone for a long time, you can tell, Daoist Jin'an?" The three camels all looked at Jin'an in surprise.

Jin An: "Didn't you find that one of these mummies is missing an arm? The answer is ready."

"!"

People eat people!
Needless to say, Jin Anming, all three of them guessed the answer. There is no food in the temple, and a person will be hungry for five to seven days at most. Then he can only eat corpses in order to survive.

Thinking of this, the three of them felt a chill in their hearts.

The three scolded: "The people of this Guchi country are all cruel by nature. No wonder they built a place like Zangshi Ridge! They even use living people as sacrifices!"

Jin An continued to search in the temple to see if he could find more clues about the Guchi Kingdom or clues related to the Undead God Kingdom.

There is also an altar in the temple.

There is a black sun totem on the altar, and there is a black Vulcan bird with its head fluttering on the black sun totem.

Seeing this totem, Jin An was taken aback: "The country of Guchi in the desert also believes in the phoenix, the phoenix? Or the Suzaku, one of the four spirits?"

Little Sahafu, who had the most questions, heard Jin An's muttering to himself, and asked curiously, "Daoist Jin'an, what are Black Phoenix and Suzaku?"

It took Jin'an a while to popularize the status of Fenghuang and Suzaku among the Han people, and the three of them nodded with a half-knowledge.

Holding a torch in hand, I searched along the altar, and soon found something new. There are well-preserved painted murals on the temple wall. Those painted murals are well preserved in the dry desert, and the colors are as new.

"Daoist Jin'an also has murals here!"

"I have it here too!"

Old Sadiq and several people shouted one after another.

Those murals are actually not complicated. They mainly describe Guchi Kingdom’s longing for longevity. The ancestors would look up at the black sun in the sky every day, hoping to be as eternal as the sun on their heads.

And whoever looks up at the black sun the longest will become the most powerful high priest in Guchi Kingdom.

Then one day, the high priest said that he saw a black phoenix with a stalwart like a god in the black sun. The high priest thought that it was a desert god, a black phoenix that was said to be able to rebirth in the sun, a phoenix.

This is said to be the most talented high priest in the history of Guchi Kingdom. He drew it based on the appearance of the phoenix he saw. He regards the black sun and the phoenix as the totem of his country, and firmly believes that if they want to obtain immortality, they must hide On the body of the phoenix, the whole country believes in the phoenix.

As for whether this is true or not, no one knows whether the high priest saw any black fire phoenix or phoenix, or deliberately exaggerated himself in order to consolidate his dominance.But Jin An felt that if there were people in this world who could look directly at the sun, there was only one kind of person, and that was the blind.

Since then, the Guchi Kingdom has held sacrificial ceremonies every year, and sacrificed a large number of slaves to the phoenix drawn by the high priest. The miracle of the phoenix actually appeared, and those phoenixes blessed Guchi every night. To ensure the security of the country, help the Guchi country resist the night sneak attacks launched by the enemy country time and time again.

This mural is so realistic, it seems that Guchi Kingdom has really been blessed by the ancient mythical beast phoenix.

The mural also depicts that there is a very strict curfew in Guchi Kingdom.

At dusk, no living people are allowed to walk on the street.

Guchi Kingdom belongs to living people during the day, and Phoenix belongs to it at night. This is an agreement reached between Guchi Kingdom and Phoenix, which results in a peaceful coexistence.

As long as the sun shines, there will be the protection of the phoenix. Unless the sun is extinguished and it can no longer shine on the Guchi country, the phoenix will abandon the Guchi country and leave.

The sun here is not the sun in the sky.

Instead, there are two black stone towers standing on the central axis of Guchi State.

Seeing this, old Sadik said in surprise: "Is there really a god in Guchi Kingdom to help them?"

Jin An, who was still looking down with a torch in his hand, chuckled: "I don't know if there are any gods to help the Guchi Kingdom, but I do know that there are many small countries that often fool the people in the name of gods in order to consolidate their dominance. Especially this kind of sacrifice itself has an exaggerated meaning in it, otherwise, where would there be believers."

After checking the temple again, seeing that there were indeed no more useful clues, Jin An left the temple and continued walking towards the center of the ancient city with a sheep and three camels.

The scope of the ancient city is very large, so he hurried to the center of the ancient city in the dark, and Jin An finally saw clearly what was shining and attracting him.

Those are the twin stone pagodas buried in the yellow sand. The twin stone pagodas were carved into four-sided edges. Now they are buried in the yellow sand, and only the three or four zhang high spires are exposed.

This stone pagoda is the highest place in Guchi country. Standing on the sand dune where the stone pagoda is buried, you can have a panoramic view of the whole Guchi country.

It is conceivable how tall the stone tower under the yellow sand is.

Through the gap between the twin stone towers, you can look into the distance of the sky.

"Is this the twin stone pagodas and the sun that appeared on the murals of the temple? When the sun goes out, it can no longer shine on the Guchi Kingdom, the phoenix abandons the Guchi Kingdom, and the Guchi Kingdom destroys the country. What we saw on the temple murals Everything has been fulfilled!" Ilham and old Sadiq looked at each other with astonished expressions.

Jin An looked up at the two stone pagodas with corners and corners on all four sides, pondered for a while, and then said: "I said before, these small countries or rulers, in order to consolidate their dominance, will use myths to exaggerate themselves... I think the sun here should be It refers to a rare huge piece of gold or gems and jade. The Western Regions are rich in gold, gems and jade. Since ancient times, there has been a custom of using gold, gems and jade as sacrifices and blessings. Gemstones. The so-called phoenix may be some kind of desert bird attracted by the strong reflection of gold or gemstones in the sun,..."

"...some things can't just look at the present, but look at the past history together. In the depths of the desert, there used to be rivers flowing through it. This place was an oasis thousands of years ago, so it is normal to have many rare birds and animals. "

"If it's really gold, how big is the gold... Daoist Jin'an, do you mean that the gold or gems here were taken away first? Is it the lord of the Black Rain Kingdom who led the army into the depths of the desert?"

"It doesn't have to be taken away by someone. It may also be that the desert storm that buried the entire Guchi country a thousand years ago was too big, and it might have been buried with the wind and sand."

"I have read some records in ancient books, saying that the Kingdom of the Undead God almost unified the Western Regions south of the Tianshan Mountains, and among those affiliated countries, the nine kingdoms in the desert basin close to the Kingdom of the Undead God are the strongest. The next vassal state after the kingdom is the Wuer clan. According to legend, the Wuer clan believed in a strange kind of earless bronze man. They believed that people without ears could hear the voice of God more clearly. They have always been proud of the ear-cutting ceremony... Jin Daochang An, do you know what we should do next?" Ilhami who spoke this time.

Ear circumcision?

Old Sadik and young Sahaf couldn't help shivering at the same time.

Those who have anything to do with the kingdom of the undead are all lunatics with abnormal brains.

Is there still contagion between lunatics and normal people?

Jin An didn't have much respect for the Guchi Kingdom, so he leaped to the top of the twin stone towers without any scruples, stepped on the golden sun shining brightly in the setting sun, climbed up and looked at the entire ancient city, and explained while looking around : "Guchi Kingdom is considered a relatively powerful country in the desert. It has a large population. With such a large population, it must be built along a river and cannot do without a lot of drinking water. Therefore, the ancient river that flowed through the desert basin thousands of years ago must also flow Passed through the country of Guchi."

"Although the Guchi Kingdom has been buried by yellow sand for thousands of years, the ancient river may have been buried by yellow sand, but since the ancient river can feed a desert oasis, and can also flourish with merchant ships, it must not be a small river, but a rough river. Big river, even if such a big river is buried by yellow sand, there will definitely be some clues."

"So, after finding the ancient river channel, and walking along the ancient river channel, you will find the birthplace of the ancient river channel, which is the Changsheng River in the Kingdom of the Immortal God."

Jin An raised his eyes and looked around.

But at this time the sun was gradually setting, and the vision was not clear, and many places in the distance were shrouded in the shadow of the setting sun.

Jin An jumped down from the twin stone pagodas: "Let's find a place to spend the night tonight, and after tomorrow's dawn and a clear view, we will carefully search for traces of ancient rivers in and around the ancient city."

(End of this chapter)