White Bone Monkey King

As he went deeper into the ancient city, Jin An discovered a strange thing.

There are many stone pillars in Guchi country.

The surface of those stone pillars is riddled with holes.

Standing tall.

There are many strips of cloth tied to each stone pillar, but after thousands of years of weathering, these strips of cloth are as dilapidated as cotton wool and turned into strands, making it difficult to see the original shape.

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

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

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

The ruins of the Guchi Kingdom are very large. While walking around, I found a huge stone step that was still intact and not seriously weathered under the yellow sand. Jin An used his palms to stroke away the hot yellow sand on several steps and found that This huge stone staircase leads all the way to a high raised sand dune.

And right on the dune stood a stone pillar that was mostly buried in the yellow sand, with only a small part exposed.

"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 towards the stone pillar.

Just when he reached a piece of ordinary-looking 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 noticed something was wrong, he immediately took off his belt, skillfully swung the belt out and wrapped it around the stone pillar. With a strong effort of his arm, he was freed from the quicksand.

Fortunately, he responded quickly.

This way you can get out of trouble easily.

The moment Jin An flew out, the balance under the quicksand seemed to be broken instantly. The quicksand sank faster and faster. In just a few blinks, there was a muffled sound and the yellow sand in that area collapsed, revealing a cold and faint figure underneath. Entrance.

Hearing the noise, a sheep and three camels came running over.

"Taoist Master Jin'an, are you okay...ah, why is there an extra entrance to the pit here!" Old Sadiq and Ilham exclaimed at the same time.

Jin An, who had already put away his belt and landed smoothly, briefly recounted what had just happened, and then took out two torches from the supplies on Little Sahab's body and lit them at the same time.

He first waited for about a stick of incense before throwing a torch in his hand into the pit. Seeing that the torch kept burning and the air quality in the pit was good, he then dropped another torch into the pit.

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

In front of me is indeed a well-preserved temple under the sand. There is a thick stone pillar standing in the open space in front of the temple.

There is a temple, there are stone pillars, and there are strips of cloth on the stone pillars similar to prayer flags. It seems that the riddled stone pillars they saw along the way have something to do with the temple sacrifices?

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

Only the goat carrying the most weight, as if to express its dissatisfaction by swearing, deliberately walked the slowest and ended up last.

Because it has been buried under dry yellow sand for many years, the interior of this temple is well preserved. The entire temple is a rock building.

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

Even if there are ready-made rock materials, it still requires a lot of manpower and financial resources. Therefore, only the temple has such a high standard and can be preserved in such good condition, while other buildings are severely weathered.

This temple is very grand and thick. The entire building is made of heavy stone strips. There is a thick layer of dust inside, and there are several mummies lying on the ground.

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

Jin An squatted in front of several mummies, rubbed his chin, and said thoughtfully.

Three Camels came closer and said, "Taoist Master Jin'an, you are so amazing. You even know how they died a thousand years ago."

This picture is a little weird.

One person and three camels looked around at several mummies, and then a Taoist priest talked to himself in front of the three camels, looking like a psycho.

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

Jin An carefully observed the mummies and analyzed: "You see these people obviously have signs of struggle. There are six mummies here. Three of them have wounds on the back of their heads from being attacked, and the other two also have obvious signs of struggle. Only the tallest mummy had the fewest wounds, and all of them avoided fatal injuries... So I guess after they were buried alive in the temple, they were waiting for rescue at first, but the longer they were buried alive, the air in the temple became more and more... Young Master, this tall mummy was the strongest among the six people and the one who breathed the most air. In order to save one person, he attacked from behind and killed three people in a row. Then he took advantage of the taller person and killed two people in a row. The last person monopolized all the air in the temple and lived for a long time, until finally the air ran out and he suffocated and died in the temple."

"You can tell, Master Jin An, that he has lived alone for a long time?" The three camels looked at Jin An in surprise.

Jin An: "Didn't you notice that among these mummies, one of them is missing an arm? The answer is already obvious."

"!"

People eat people!

Without Jin Anming's explanation, the three of them all guessed the answer. There was no food in the temple, and a person would be hungry for five to seven days at most. In order to survive, he would have to eat corpses.

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

The three people cursed: "Everyone in Guchi Country is really cruel by nature. No wonder they built a place like Corpse Hidden Ridge! They also use living people as sacrifices!"

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

There is also an altar in the temple.

There is a black sun totem on the altar, and there is a black fire bird with its head flapping its wings on the black sun totem.

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

Little Sahab, who had the most questions, heard Jin An's muttering and asked out of curiosity: "Taoist Master Jin An, what are Black Phoenix and Suzaku?"

Jin An spent some time to roughly popularize the status of Phoenix and Suzaku among the Han people, and the three of them nodded without understanding.

I held a torch and searched both sides along the altar, and soon made a new discovery. There were well-preserved painted murals on the walls of the temple. Those painted murals were well preserved in the dry desert, and the colors were as new as new.

"Taoist Master Jin'an also has murals here!"

"I have one here too!"

Old Sadiq and several others shouted one after another.

Those murals are actually not complicated. They mainly describe the Guchi Kingdom's desire for immortality. The ancestors would look up at the black sun in the sky every day, longing that they could be as eternal as the sun above their heads.

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

One day later, the high priest said that he saw a majestic black phoenix like a god in the black sun. The high priest believed that it was the desert god, the legendary black phoenix or phoenix that could be reborn in the sun.

This high priest, who is said to be the most talented high priest in the history of the Guchi Kingdom, drew a picture of the Phoenix based on what he saw. He regarded the black sun and the Phoenix as the totems of his country, and firmly believed that if they wanted to obtain immortality, they would hide in hiding. On the body of the phoenix, and then the whole country believed 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 whether he deliberately exaggerated the myth in order to consolidate his dominance. But Jin An feels that if there are really people in this world who can look directly at the sun, then there is only one kind of person, and that is the blind man.

Since then, the Guchi Kingdom has held a sacrificial ceremony every year, sacrificing a large number of slaves to the phoenixes drawn by the high priest. The miracle of phoenixes descending from the sky actually happened, and those phoenixes protected Guchi every night after they came. To maintain national security, help Guchi country withstand night sneak attacks launched by enemy countries again and again.

The murals are so realistically depicted, as if the Guchi Kingdom has really been blessed by the ancient mythical beast, the Phoenix.

The mural also depicts a very strict curfew in Guchi country.

Every evening, no living people are allowed to walk on the streets.

The country of Guchi belongs to the living during the day and to the phoenix at night. This is the agreement reached between the country of Guchi and the phoenix, which leads to a peaceful coexistence.

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

The sun here is not the sun in the sky.

Instead, they are two black stone towers standing on the central axis of Guchi Kingdom.

Seeing this, Old Sadiq was surprised and said: "Is there really a god in Guchi country who can help them?"

Jin An, who was still looking down with a torch in his hand, chuckled: "I don't know if there are gods helping Guchi country, but I do know that many small countries often use the name of gods to fool their people in order to consolidate their dominance. Especially this kind of sacrifice itself has an exaggerated meaning, otherwise there would be no believers."

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

The ancient city is very large. He hurriedly and slowly arrived at the center of the ancient city just before dark. Jin An finally saw clearly what was shining and attracting him.

They were twin stone pagodas buried by yellow sand. The twin stone pagodas were carved into four-sided ridges. Now they are buried by yellow sand, with only the three or four-foot-high spires exposed.

This stone tower is the highest place in the Guchi Kingdom. Standing on the sand dunes that bury the stone tower, you can have an unobstructed view of the entire Guchi Kingdom.

One can imagine how tall the stone tower under the yellow sand is.

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

"Are these the twin stone towers and the sun that appear on the temple murals? The sun went out and could no longer shine on the Guchi Kingdom. The phoenix abandoned the Guchi Kingdom and left, and the Guchi Kingdom was destroyed. What we saw on the temple murals All came true one by one!" Ilham and old Sadiq looked at each other with astonished expressions.

Jin An looked up at the angular twin stone towers and pondered for a while before saying: "I have said that these small countries or kings, in order to consolidate their dominance, will use myths to exaggerate themselves... I think the sun here should be It refers to a huge piece of gold, gems, and jade that is rare in the world. The Western Region is rich in gold, gems, and jade. Since ancient times, there has been a custom of using gold, gems, and jade as sacrifices and blessings. The twin stone towers with four corners can just hold the gold or jade. Gemstones. The so-called phoenix may be some kind of desert bird attracted by the strong reflection of gold or gems in the sun..."

"...Some things cannot be just looked at now, but must be looked at with reference to past history. Deep in the desert, there used to be rivers flowing through it. This place was an oasis thousands of years ago, so it is normal that there are many rare birds and animals. "

"If it is really gold, how big must it be... Taoist Master Jin'an, do you mean that the gold or gems here were taken away by others first? Is it the leader of the Black Rain Kingdom who led the army into the depths of the desert?"

"It may not have been taken away by someone. It may also be that the desert storm that buried the entire Guchi Kingdom overnight thousands of years ago was too big. It might have been buried with the wind and sand."

"I have seen some records in ancient books, saying that the Kingdom of the Immortal God once almost unified the Western Region south of the Tianshan Mountains. Among those subsidiary countries, the nine countries in the desert basin close to the Kingdom of the Immortal God are the strongest, surpassing Guchi. The next subject country after the country is the Wuer clan. According to legend, the Wuer clan believes in a very weird earless bronze man. They believe that people can hear the voice of God more clearly without ears. They have always been proud of the ear-circumcision ceremony... Jin Chief An, do you know what our next step should be?" Ilham spoke this time.

Ear circumcision?

Old Sadiq and young Sahaf could not help but shudder at the same time.

How come those who have anything to do with the Kingdom of the Immortal God are all lunatics with abnormal minds.

Is it possible that there is still contagion between madmen and normal people?

Jin'an didn't have much respect for Guchi Kingdom, so he flew to the top of the twin stone towers without any scruples, stepped on the golden sun that shone brightly in the setting sun, climbed up and looked at the entire ancient city, and explained while looking around : "The Guchi State is also a relatively powerful country in the desert. It has a large population. With such a large population gathered, it must be built along a river and cannot do without a large amount of drinking water. Therefore, the ancient rivers that flowed through the desert basin thousands of years ago must also have flowed. I have entered 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 the yellow sand long ago, but since the ancient river can support a desert oasis, and can also prosper merchant shipping and trade, it will definitely not be a small river, but a turbulent one. A big river, even if such a big river is buried by yellow sand, it will definitely leave some clues."

"So, after you find the ancient river, and then follow the ancient river, you can find the source of the ancient river, which is the Changsheng River in the Kingdom of the Immortal God."

Jin An raised his eyes and looked around.

However, the sun was gradually setting in the west at this time, and the view was not clear. Many places in the distance were shrouded in the shadow of the setting sun and could not be seen clearly.

Jin An jumped off the twin stone towers: "Let's find a place to spend the night tonight. When it gets bright tomorrow and the view is clear, we will carefully search for traces of ancient rivers in and around the ancient city."