Chapter 46: The Twin Snake Society Pillar

  I was searching here with my head down, when Marx Zhe's voice came from behind, saying that a sacrificial altar had been found in the back.

  I hurried over and saw that there was indeed a small altar in one corner of the tomb. The whole body was spotless, no need to guess, it must be jade again.

  I was amazed at the number of tombstones in this grave, so many that I was tongue-tied. I remembered the dream I had when I fainted before, that tomb chamber filled with tombstones. Was it a dream or not? If it was a dream, why did everything feel so real? My grandfather's words, the mysterious person's every move, all felt very vivid.

  "This altar is made of bluestone," said He Ying, interrupting my thoughts. She walked over from the corner of the wall, carefully examining the altar.

  The altar is round and not high. There are steps leading up to the altar all around it, I counted them, there are twelve in total.

  But the altar was very clean, with nothing on it. Suddenly, a loud rumbling sound came, and I looked at the top of the grave with concern. Ma Si Zhe said 'The sound is coming from the altar' I quickly turned to look at the altar.

  Only in the center of the altar did a block collapse, and with it slowly rose a pillar.

  I took a closer look and found that there were two snakes carved on it, intertwined. Isn't this a shezhao? Shezhao was the symbol of a vassal state in pre-Qin period, indicating that the owner had the highest right to kill people for sacrifice and collect tribute within his territory.

  By the Han Dynasty, Emperor Liu Bang unified the country and abolished the right of local princes to own Shejus. From then on, Shejus were only built in the capital city. The most famous Sheju is the Huabiao at Tiananmen Square.

  So, after the Han Dynasty, this thing should not be seen again. Why is it still here? Was it already here before the Han Dynasty? My god, what about the Western Han?! My brain is not enough to use!

  I looked up at the totem pole, and on it was faintly written a line of words: "Tong yù shī guī, guī kòng rén yù". I took out the silver tortoise from my bag and examined it. Looking again at the totem pole, there was indeed a depression of the same size as the silver tortoise, as if waiting for its master.

  "Shouldn't we put this thing up there?" Ma Si Zhe said. It seems like that's the only way, I took the silver tortoise to the altar and walked away.

  I had just taken a few steps when Huo Ying called out to me, "Wait!" I stopped and looked at her in confusion. Huo Ying pointed to the wall behind us, and I looked over, still not understanding what she meant.

  "Look at that wall, there are fewer words now."

  I only just realized that the characters Shen, You, Xu and Hai have disappeared. How is this possible? I took another step forward. With a rustling sound on the wall, the character Wei also disappeared.

  So that's why there are twelve steps here. The more steps we climb, the faster time flies. But if I don't go up and try it out, time will still pass at its own pace until midnight.

  I was in a dilemma and didn't know what to do for a while.

  "Go on, give it a try, waiting is no solution," said Ma Si Zhe.

  This hesitation is not a solution either. 'You two follow me, be careful.' They nodded, I turned to face the altar, clenched my fists and took another step forward. The words on the wall disappeared one by one, each step I took was like a heavy hammer hitting the ground.

  The things I've experienced along the way, Grandpa's entrustment, the villagers' lives. No matter when time stops, I accidentally found the right method. Or at midnight, those people rushed to tell me that what I did was wrong.

  No matter what the outcome is, I can accept it.

  I came here knowing nothing, and walked to the present in a daze. It has already exceeded my ability range. I hold this silver turtle, still uncertain what will happen after putting it on the altar, but I can only do so much.

  I walked step by step to the edge of the altar, with only one section left. I turned my head to look at Ma Si Zhe, and Ma Si Zhe urged me 'Don't dawdle' then turned around and raised his gun.

  I closed my eyes and stepped onto the altar. The tomb suddenly fell silent, people who were pacing back and forth stopped in their tracks, then slowly turned to look at us with shocked expressions on their faces. The tomb began to echo with wailing cries, sending chills down one's spine.

  I hastily took the silver tortoise and ran to the pillar, the people below rushed towards the altar like madmen. Ma Si Zhe was about to fire his gun, but seemed to remember something and didn't pull the trigger. Instead, he swung the gun at the oncoming man's head.

  I ran to the front of the pillar, feeling the indentation on top. I placed the silver turtle on it, but the silver turtle and the pillar did not fit together. For a moment, my heart was in a panic, could it be that it shouldn't be placed here?

  "No, it seems not to be here!" I turned back to say to Ma Si Zhe and them. At this time, the two of them had already been surrounded by that group of people, Ma Si Zhe was trying hard to block them, or else they would have walked up to the altar. But how could two people possibly block a crowd, especially a crazy one?

  At this moment a person rushed towards me past Marx Zhe, and suddenly knocked me to the ground. I took a look, that person was Ye Hua's mother.

  "Yehua Ma, don't you recognize me? I'm Sun Yi."

  But she didn't listen to what I was saying at all, her eyes were bloodshot and she straddled me, opening her mouth towards my neck. It sent shivers down my spine as I recalled the look on their dog's face back then.

  I held the silver tortoise, muttered a sorry, and slammed it onto Ye Hua's mother's head. She was hit by me and fell to one side, falling off my body. I quickly got up and ran towards the pillar of the ancestral hall.

  I haven't given up yet. There must be some mechanism, I just haven't found it. The copper ball opened that door, and the person inside, the words on the pillar, all sorts of things are telling me that this pillar is the key.

  I rolled and crawled back, feeling the floral pattern on the pillar. Only then did I notice how exquisite these two snake carvings were. Even the texture of their scales was clearly visible. Before I had time to appreciate them, Ye Hua's mother pounced at me again from behind. I dodged to the side and she missed.

  After she came to, a low growl like that of a wild beast began to emanate from her throat. Seeing the situation was not good, I quickened my pace. Just as I touched the character for "turtle" on the tombstone of the turtle spirit, I discovered something was off.

  I applied a bit of force with my hand, and surprisingly, the turtle character was pressed down.

  At this time, the depression on the pillar slowly rose. I held the silver turtle and wanted to try again. Ye Huamu shouted and rushed over again.

  At this time, a gunshot sounded from behind, Ma Si Zhe fired. Ye Hua's mother slowly fell down.

  Huo Ying was about to be overwhelmed, I didn't have time to be shocked, picked up the silver turtle in my hand and was about to put it on the pillar, when a silver turtle that looked exactly like the one in my hand slowly rose from the pillar.

  I suddenly didn't know what to do. Tentatively reaching out, I actually took it down. I turned my head and saw that the people in the village had all frozen in place. After a while, they disappeared like a wisp of smoke.

  I can hardly believe it's over. Looking at the silver turtle in my hand, I feel like I'm in a different world. I flipped the silver turtle over and saw that on its belly were written the two characters "Tong Yu". This is the real Tong Yu, then what is this one in my hand? The craftsmanship of these two silver turtles is exactly the same, it's impossible to tell them apart with the naked eye. The only difference is that this silver turtle has only two characters on it. The one I found next to the coffin had four characters "Tong Tian Tong Yu". Not understanding what they mean, I can only put both silver turtles away.

  I leaned against the pillar, slowly sat down, and watched everything that was happening in front of me. I wanted to laugh, but found that I didn't even have the strength to laugh. I finally did it right. Hopefully, when I go out and see people in the village, they will all be normal.

  Ma Si Zhe and Huo Ying looked at me, remained silent for a while, the three of us let out a sigh, then simultaneously burst into laughter.

  I slowly got up from the ground, and Ma Si Zhe walked onto the altar.

  "Comrade Sun Yitong, congratulations on the success of the revolution."

  I smiled and stretched out my hand to shake his, "Still relying on Master Ma's mighty help"

  "You're welcome"

  Ma Si Zhe's interest was again attracted by the silver turtle, and he touched it back and forth.

  "You say this thing, does it really have the effect of controlling people's desires?"

  "It's unlikely. However, in ancient times, people were extremely devoted to their faith, and who knows, he might have believed that this thing had some kind of magical power."

  "So you're saying that the people of ancient Dian Kingdom went through so much trouble just for this one turtle, what's the point?"

  I shook my head 'it's not necessarily ancient Dian'

  "What does it mean?" Marx didn't understand what I said.

  "Do you know what this thing is?" I patted the pillar behind me.

  "Household pillar"

  "So you know when this thing started, it's not allowed to appear in other places except for the central area?"

  Ma Si Zhe shook his head.

  'Just look at you, didn't study in college, this thing was abolished in the early Han Dynasty, Liu Bang had ordered to ban it locally.'

  Huo Yingdao said: 'So this tomb is from before the Han Dynasty'

  I don't know, I just feel like the timing is a bit off.

  I looked around the tomb and apart from us three, there was only an empty altar. The people who had filled the room just now had all disappeared. This silver turtle may not be able to control human desire, but at least it controlled a village of people.

  Why is this thing by the grave of that white-bearded old corpse? Is the old corpse really a witch, and why did she go to Weiyang Palace back then? What happened after she went there? And what's the significance of the underground space in Mao'er Mountain? I still don't know anything about it until now.

  The silver turtle under Maoer Mountain, after being passed down through legend and distortion, became the Yinguo and Shangkou's "Yingguo". The prison corpse turtle treated the villagers as food, and was passed down as a parallel time and space in the reincarnation gate. Cheng Shu had one sentence that was correct: legends are never entirely baseless. Time's alteration will tell the story in another way. But the story is there, faintly revealing the facts.

  "What are you thinking about?" Ma Si asked me after I had been silent for a long time.

  "There are many things to think about, but also many things that can't be figured out."

  "Don't think about it if you can't figure it out, anyway things are like this, even if they don't make sense, we've already solved them. Now let's think about how to get out, that's the most important thing. Looking at the current situation, the only way out is to go back the same way." Ma Si Zhe said.