Chapter Thirty-Five: Cheng Shu's Confession

  Cheng Shu had been planning to separate from us for a long time. After seeing the scale of the Night Glow Skull, he began to feel that the treasure in this tomb would be difficult to estimate, and was also afraid that I and Ma Siqi would hinder each other's hands and feet, so he decided to act alone.

  Embarrassed by not finding a suitable excuse all along, he had to follow us. The volcanic eruption later made Cheng Shu feel that the opportunity had finally come.

  Cheng Shu did not expect that Huo Ying also followed behind him. After some thought, Cheng Shu decided to tell his plan to Huo Ying, and the two of them immediately agreed and started implementing the plan.

  Cheng Shu was speaking, while Huo Ying just listened quietly on the side with a calm expression. It seemed like this matter had nothing to do with her at all.

  They discovered the difference in the tomb passage after they walked into it.

  The path to the tomb was curved, like a winding mountain road, surrounding the middle. Cheng Shu stretched out his hand and touched the tomb wall, knocking twice, and an empty sound came back, this tomb wall was actually empty.

  The two of them immediately decided to make a hole in the tomb wall and see what was inside.

  Two people scraped off the outermost layer of soil on the tomb wall with a knife, and saw that under the tomb wall, there was a faint green color. Huo Ying picked up a piece with her knife and took a look, it was moss.

  "It's normal for the ground beneath the tomb to be damp and for green moss to grow on the walls," I said.

  Uncle Cheng looked at me and said, "The green moss is indeed normal, but why is the outer layer of soil dry, while the inside has grown green moss?"

  This is indeed a very difficult thing to explain, unless that moss grew from the inside out.

  Cheng Shu touched the wall covered with moss, the soil was loose and a bit damp. Cheng Shu wondered how such a tomb wall could bear weight and remain upright without collapsing.

  Then, something even more shocking happened. The tomb wall began to seep water, like sweating, slowly penetrating until the entire wall was moistened. With a slight force from Cheng Shu's hand, a piece of the tomb wall came off, revealing a hole on the wall.

  Two people dug a hole just large enough for one person to pass through and then crawled in.

  Inside the cave is a very spacious space, with a monument standing in the middle. The monuments in general tombs are used to record the life and achievements of the tomb owner. Underneath the monument, there is usually something similar to a turtle, which is the Bixi mentioned earlier. What's different about this monument is that it's not a turtle carrying it, but a person.

  A naked woman, with a ferocious expression, crouched on the ground, carrying a stone monument two or three meters high behind her back. The inscription on the monument does not record someone's life story, but rather the faith of an entire nation.

  This thing is called Tong Niu, and the inscription on the stele only describes it as a huge object. The ancient Hani people regarded this thing as their faith, as a god. They believed that the thing could bring them good luck and satisfy their desires.

  "What's that thing?" Ma Si Zhe asked

  "I don't know," said Cheng Shu, shaking his head. Ma Si Zhe looked at him suspiciously and Cheng Shu continued, "The stone tablet really didn't say what that thing was, only that it was a massive object from the bottom of the sea."

  "From the bottom of the sea?" It's hard to say what it is in the sea, it's easy to imagine something big and powerful, but there's no way to guess what it really is. I think it might be a sea snake, at least it must be an amphibious creature. In ancient myths, sacred objects usually have prototypes, this basis is that he must have seen them first, then he can have imaginative space.

  "So that means the huge creature painted on the wall of the White Bone Cave and what's written on the stele are the same thing?" I couldn't help but wonder.

  Cheng Shu nodded at me and said, "Judging from the current speculation, it should be..."

  Cheng Shu continued to say. This thing called Tong Yu was raised in this tomb when it was very small, and the general content on this monument is about how to raise this Tong Yu.

  "How?"

  Cheng Shu's eyes were deep and profound in his use of people

  "Are you saying that he grew up eating people in prison?" I was shocked at what I heard.

  It's not eating, it's nurturing food

  Isn't that still eating?

  "Nourishing food and eating are different, eating is to dismantle this person into the abdomen, nourishing food is to use the living energy of this person to make this channel reach the purpose of eating. Nourishing food not only does not kill, but also can make this person live long, until the living energy on his body disappears, will die, this process far exceeds human lifespan."

  "Isn't this just the elixir of immortality that people pursued in ancient times? No wonder the Hani people believe in Tonggu, it turns out they were seeking immortality."

  "Of course it won't be that simple. There's another requirement for the nourishment. The person used to nourish must be trapped beside Tongjin until their vital energy disappears."

  It turns out that it wasn't because of any residual resentment, but because of the prison. The prison took the Maotou Mountain Reservoir as its entrance, drawing in villagers and trapping them inside the tomb. But why did the Maotou Mountain Reservoir become that entrance?

  "That monk was right about one thing, this massive underground creature can't get close to water either." said Cheng Shu.

  Near Maoer Mountain, there was indeed a lake hundreds of years ago. Later, due to severe drought, the water in the lake dried up. Perhaps for this reason, Tongyu didn't have food for several years. Grandfather's construction of this reservoir just provided a source of water. This is the real reason.

  "What else is written on the stele?" Marx asked with some impatience.

  Cheng Shu still unhurriedly said, "The stele also records that the prison was invited from the sea and placed under Longhuo Mountain."

  "What is Longhuoshan?"

  "This is the name of this place in ancient times. The ancestors of the Hani people built this tomb at the foot of Longhuo Mountain to settle Tongyin. The geographical conditions here are unique and the feng shui is excellent, making it a treasure land. Tongyin grew up slowly according to plan and gradually possessed a kind of terrifying ability."

  The name of Tsugunomori comes from the meaning of going to hell, that is, when Tsugunomori grows to a certain extent, it will have an ability to send people to hell. This ability slowly awakens in the little by little absorption of living energy.

  Now we can determine the identity of the tomb owner, who is not a member of the scholarly class or a minor noble, but a huge creature called Tong Yu.

  As far as I know, the Hani people all live in the south, so why would they go to great lengths to raise a prison in the northeast? Is there some unavoidable reason for this? What's even stranger is that the god that the Hani people have believed in for generations actually has such terrifying abilities. This makes me suspect what their true purpose is.

  "So you're saying this thing still exists now?" Ma Si Zhe asked Cheng Shu.

  "That's right, the disappearance of people in the village can fully explain this problem, and prisoners still need to be fed"

  Cheng Shu and Huo Ying guessed the general idea of the whole thing as soon as they saw the inscription. The Tongyong was under this tomb, even if it had been a thousand years, it still existed. However, neither of them knew what the ability to drag people to hell was all about, nor did they know why the Hani people went to great lengths to raise the Tongyong at the foot of Maoer Mountain. But one thing is certain, the burial objects in the tomb must be treasures, and rare ones at that.

  I asked Uncle Cheng, how can you tell?

  Cheng Hui replied to me, "It's the words on the stele, I told him."

  The characters on the stele were the same as those we had seen before, belonging to the ancient Dian Kingdom. When it comes to the ancient Dian Kingdom, what we are familiar with is the brilliant bronze civilization and the uniquely shaped and exquisite utensils. Thinking of the prices of these things in today's market, Cheng Shu decided to abandon me and Ma Si Zhe, and pulled in Huo Ying. This way, there was one more helper, and two fewer people to share the spoils.

  "What was inside the box that Huo Ying took down from the top of the tomb?"

  As Ma Si Zhe said this, Cheng Shu took out a box from his bag and slowly opened it. Inside was a copper ball, exactly the same as the one in my hand. Cheng Shu must not have seen the copper ball in my bag yet. This time I kept a close eye on him, without making any noise or mentioning that I also had a copper ball, and continued to listen to Cheng Shu's next words.

  "I and Huo Ying have indeed been to the White Bone Cave, but the process wasn't that bumpy. I reckon we took the same route as you guys, and saw the white bones scattered on the ground, which should be what you left behind. And that mural, I didn't mention it before, but actually I found it, and under the mural, I saw the cigarette ash you guys left."

  I slapped my forehead and suddenly remembered that I had smoked there before, anyone who was a bit careful should have been able to see it.

  "I reckon you two numbskulls won't even discover the secret in that map, and just kept it hidden without saying a word"

  "So what's the secret on the map? Why did you say it was a treasure map?"

  Cheng Shu's head jerked up in shock, and he asked the difference between me and Ma Si Zhe, how did we know that it was a treasure map. 'We were eavesdropping on your conversation from the cave next door just now,' Ma Si Zhe confessed truthfully.

  Cheng Shu smiled slightly and said "I see", then looked up at Ma Si Zhe and asked "Have you ever heard of something called underground space?"

  The underground space is simply a replica of the ground, Tibet has unearthed an underground space. It was a completely simulated ground building designed as an underground tomb. In ancient times, people believed that death is equal to life. Death and birth are both major events in one's life. The place after death also needs to follow the specifications before birth, so there is the underground space.

  Cheng Shu said, "There is another kind of underground space that serves as a hiding place and storage for valuable items. People living on the ground are familiar with the environment after encountering danger or needing to hide, they can hide in the underground space. Due to their familiarity with the ground, they can also navigate the underground space with ease. Moreover, the last sentence of the inscription reads, 'Treasures of the world are stored at the end of the underground space.'"

  I haven't been in the village for long, but I saw the last few words of the inscription and found that this was an underground space. So I thought to follow the marks on the map to find the treasure.

  The story behind is almost the same as what Cheng Shu previously explained. The two people walked into a tomb passage, and after coming out from the tomb, they inexplicably arrived at the second floor of Tongtian Temple, where they met us.

  Cheng Shu had planned to temporarily walk with us until Huo Ying took down the box from the tomb. When Cheng saw the copper ball, he felt that he was not far from the final treasure and began planning his next disappearance.