Celestial Masters Alliance

Phoenix Mausoleum is getting closer and closer, looking dark and gloomy, with more than three floors submerged in mist.

"You're evil!" Xiaoba roared, and I slapped Xiaoba on the back of his head.

"What you're saying doesn't make sense. If you don't want to go in, get out!" I scolded him.

Xiaoba rubbed the back of his head and felt aggrieved: "It was just a joke! Why are you so serious? Do the four of us look like the four masters and disciples who learned from the scriptures?"

"No, you are the only one who looks like Zhu Bajie!" I rolled my eyes at him. Actually, I didn't want to ridicule Xiaoda like this, but I suddenly felt a depressing feeling in my heart, which was extremely uncomfortable and could not be resolved.

Xiaoba saw that my expression was wrong and didn't mind. He came closer to me and asked softly: "What's wrong?"

I shook my head and stood by the broken wall of Phoenix Mausoleum, looking at the Gray Tower and feeling dizzy.

The fence is thin and low, and it is simply a face-saving project. Mu Mu handed the thing in his hand to Xiaoba, held on to the wall and turned over. I also handed the thing in my hand to Xiaoba, turned over the wall and stretched out my hand to grab Shan Yu, but I didn't know that Shan Yu was more agile than me. Xiaoba smiled and handed me everything in his hand, helping me resolve the embarrassment.

Inside the wall are weeds half as tall as a man, making the Phoenix Tomb even more dilapidated. I am secretly glad that with the current weather, snakes, insects, rats, and ants have hibernated, which at least increases our safety factor. Pushing aside the weeds and striding forward, we soon reached the bottom of the tower.

We walked around the tower, looking for the entrance. The tower was made of staggered blue bricks, and the outer wall was not plastered at all, nor was it attached to the wall. It was so simple and simple that it was incomprehensible. The brick walls are somewhat oxidized and blackened, so from a distance the entire tower looks gray, like a coffin. The first floor of the tower is at least fifteen meters high, maybe higher. There are some square holes neatly arranged at the bottom of the second floor, the size of mooncake boxes, without any decoration. I don't know if they are windows or vents. If they are windows, they are too small and cannot let in light at all. The trumpet suddenly asked in a low voice: "Why does this tower have nine angles?"

"It happens to be the ninth floor." Mu Mu suddenly said.

I was in a daze, and I didn't notice how many floors and corners this tower had.

"As far as I know, the pagoda is a place where the relics and ashes of Buddhist disciples are buried. Usually the pagoda has a hexagonal or octagonal body, and the height is five to thirteen stories, all of which are odd numbers." Shan Yu explained.

"Does the nine layers and nine corners mean the return to unity?" I asked doubtfully.

"Isn't it a Taoist saying that ninety-nine will return to one?" Xiaoba interjected.

"Let's go in and have a look!" The wooden door supported the entrance of the tower. There were two tall and narrow doors facing each other. The width of the two doors together was no more than one meter, but the height was at least five meters. It seemed Extremely weird. The paint on the door was peeling off so badly that the original color could not be seen, and it looked like a piece of pig liver infected by bacteria.

The two door knockers on the door stayed in their normal positions, and the two intricately carved brass phoenixes formed a sharp contrast with the weird door and simple tower.

"This door knocker looks like an antique!" Xiaoba went up and touched it.

"What year is it from?" I quickly asked, because this tower is less than a hundred years old. If the two door knockers are antiques, why are they?

Xiaoba shook his head: "I have to go back and check. I remember seeing something similar in some museum."

"It might be a fake." Mu Mu pulled a black iron chain hanging on the door knocker and said.

I looked at the big lock on the chain and frowned: "We can't destroy things here. It seems we can only go back home."

Xiaoba looked at the high window and sighed: "Even if we have the bone-shrinking technique, we still need to know the lightness technique to get in!"

Wood took out a paper clip from his pocket, straightened it two or three times, and poked it into the keyhole.

I laughed and teased: "You have watched too many Mary Sue movies. You really thought you could just pick up something and open it..." Before I finished speaking, the lock clicked and opened. I pouted and shrugged. Shan Yu smiled muffledly when he saw it.

"Brother Mu Mu, you are so awesome, you are worthy of being my idol!" Xiaoba yelled, jumping over and putting his hands on Mu Mu's shoulders. The wood ignored him, gently pulled out the chain, and hung it on the door knocker on the side. The door was pushed open without making a creaking sound unique to horror movies, it just opened to us quietly. The darkness inside the door seemed to attract us with static electricity as we strode in.

A smell of stale, moldy moisture hit my face in the tower, causing me to unconsciously cover my nose. The weak light from the narrow window could only see the flying dust, and could not drive away any darkness at all. Wood came over and said softly to me: "Turn on the lighting quickly, I want to close the door!"

I understood, took out the wolf-eye flashlight from my bag and gave it to Xiaoba to help me illuminate it. Xiaoba was a little excited, taking photos everywhere with a flashlight, but refused to help me with the lighting. I lit the torch almost in the dark.

The light of the torch appeared extremely weak in the huge darkness, and could only illuminate a circle of light less than three meters in diameter. Xiaoba and Shan Yu got the torches and tacitly agreed to find the lighting facilities in the tower. "You two must stay together and cannot be more than one meter apart. If something happens, scream immediately, okay?" I asked with some worry. .

Mu Mu had already searched around with a flashlight and came back: "There is no electricity in the tower. There are candlesticks and lampstands on the pillars and walls. The candles on the candlesticks have long been burned out, and the oil in the lampstand has dried up! I suggest not to light the lamp. , so as not to be discovered by the villagers.”

"Yes!" I responded and handed a lit torch to the wood. "Turn off the flashlight! Although it is cold, there may be poisonous insects that do not hibernate in the house. It is safer to use fire."

Xiaoba and the others stayed in the center of the tower, and Mu Mu and I also moved closer to get a full view of the tower's settings. There are no idols enshrined in the tower, and there is even nothing there. The surroundings were so quiet that I felt uneasy, and I always felt that there were dangers lurking in the darkness. Shan Yu stood in front of the central load-bearing pillar and looked up. The torch in his hand crackled and exploded with sparks from time to time.

"What's wrong?" I approached her and asked.

"Is this a phoenix?" She whispered, brushing her fingers against the pillar, and I quickly grabbed her.

"Don't touch it! It might be poisonous."

"You are too careful!" She pulled away her hand and chuckled.

I got close to the huge load-bearing column and took a closer look. The column was painted with gold paint and was almost well preserved. I didn’t know what the texture and structure was inside. There are nine long feathers embossed on the body of the pillar. They are so huge but exquisite and perfect. They don't look like objects that should be in such a simple tower. This is already the second awkward place in the tower.

The pillars led all the way up, probably to the top floor. I looked at the tower with black holes hovering around the pillars, and felt dizzy again.

"The phoenix should be carved on the pillar!" Xiaoba whispered.

"Could the hunted phoenix be buried in a pillar?" Shan Yu frowned and looked up at the pillar leading to the top.

The wood touched me and winked, and I said knowingly: "You'll know when you go up. Find where the stairs are."