Chapter 29: Ma Bufang's Stone Wall Notes

  Gong Xueyuan pointed to the abdomen of Mu Xueyuan, tilted his head and made a painful gesture, then whispered to the crowd in a low voice: Hurry up, what are you waiting for? If we don't rescue her in time, my wife will die from pain.

  "Isn't it something like chilblains?" Professor Zhou Tao said in his heart.

  Thinking so, he reached out and picked up the mountaineering bag containing medical instruments and walked towards the huge stone bed. The crowd also gathered around to watch Professor diagnose and treat Mother Xueyuan, while Cangyang Xiao Ke had run into the stone cave and didn't know where it went, this guy's undisciplined behavior made people anxious.

  Professor Zhou Tao stood in front of the giant mother snow ape, examining its wounds like a child. The wound had become infected and was oozing black-red pus with an extremely foul odor. Unconsciously, Professor Zhou covered his nose with one hand. The mother snow ape seemed to know that the smell was unpleasant too, and it awkwardly smiled with a bitter expression.

  Professor Zhou Tao heard its strange laughter, looked up at it, and touched the wound on its body. The mother snow ape suddenly winced in pain, baring its teeth.

  Professor Zhou said: "It was actually a penetrating wound caused by an armor-piercing bullet, and there were still shrapnel inside."

  Once the root of the problem is found, the problem can be handled easily. Professor Zhou Tao first used disinfectant to clean and reduce inflammation on Xueyuan's wound, then cleaned up the pus with a cotton swab, followed by using disinfectant sutures to suture the wound, and finally applied some external medicine to help reduce inflammation.

  After doing all this, Mother Xueyuan's pain was greatly alleviated, and she gratefully hugged Professor Zhou Tao into her arms. Professor Zhou's old face stuck to an inappropriate place, and he suddenly started coughing "cough, cough, cough......". Fortunately, his back was facing the crowd, otherwise a bright red old face would have been too embarrassing to show anywhere.

  Everyone looked at the professor like a spoiled little kid being held in his mother's arms, with extremely unwilling hands waving and struggling to break free, and they all burst out laughing.

  At this time, the little Tibetan antelope suddenly appeared from nowhere, floating under its feet, "dang, dang, dang......" It tilted its head and entered the stone room, attracting everyone's attention.

  All I saw was that this guy entered the stone room and didn't know which way to go, bumping into things here and there, just like a drunkard.

  "My goodness, this guy isn't drunk again, is he?!" Malacca Zhang shouted with his big mouth.

  It wasn't until then that Liu Yi understood why Xiaoke was so excited when he heard Xueyuan's roar, and why he kept circling around Xueyuan, as if looking for something. It turned out he was looking for wine to drink!

  Liu Yi thought of this and suddenly put his right hand on his head, with a look that couldn't bear to see the little guy.

  Kokosy also turned his head to one side, desperately trying to distance himself from the guy, as if to say: He drinks not because I taught him!

  Only Lu Zonghan was very interested in Xiaoke drinking, and ran up to take a look at his drunk appearance, but was kicked by Xiaoke who was crazy about wine. After kicking Lu Zonghan, Xiaoke fell asleep in the corner, leaning against the stone wall, sleeping beautifully, with a stream of fragrant wine gas spraying from his nose.

  Everyone suddenly cried and laughed, turning their heads to look at Gong Xueyin, with a shrug of her shoulders, meaning: Look at this wine-and-meat friend, who has nothing to do with us!

  That old bear seemed to understand what everyone meant, and smiled at the little raccoon in the corner of the wall, as if afraid it would catch a cold. It actually went to find a huge yak hide and covered the little raccoon with it. Everyone was stunned again. Apparently, this yak hide was its quilt for sleeping.

  The male snow monkey was doing all this while the injured female snow monkey lay on a stone bed, tilting her head to look at it with a gentle and affectionate expression. After taking care of Xiao Ke, the male snow monkey turned his head and beckoned to everyone, meaning "follow me".

  Everyone curiously followed it out of the stone room and into the hall, where they saw an open stone gate, behind which was a huge storage room.

  Upon entering, oh, it's indeed a treasure trove inside, with an abundance of food, utensils, and drinks, everything is available.

  Kong Xueyuan let out a loud roar to the crowd, meaning: "Enjoy yourselves to your heart's content, my noble guests!"

  "Then I won't be polite!" said Malacca with a smile.

  For many days, he hadn't had any wild gamey flavor, and his mouth was so bland that it seemed to have lost all its bird-like qualities. All of a sudden, he quickly ran towards the smoked meat hanging on the wall. Liu Yi and the others were walking backwards with their hands behind them, observing him.

  On the stone rack, there were unknown dried flowers and grasses, many stone tools and bone tools, smoked fish and meat, and many black jars, no one knew where they came from. In addition to these, they also found an old-fashioned rifle in the corner of the wall.

  Liu Yi curiously walked over, holding the rifle in his hand to examine it carefully. It was a British-made Enfield rifle with a scope. He pulled the bolt back slightly, but it didn't move, having rusted in place. Suddenly, he discarded the idea that this rifle was used by Xueyuan for hunting. If Xueyuan even understood this, then that would be truly unbelievable.

  He saw that on the lower half of the gun were engraved three letters: "MBF", and thought, "What does this mean?" Then, without thinking, he raised his head to look around, and the answer appeared on the wall.

  Only on the wall were what appeared to be knife-carved traditional characters: "Ma Bufang's Notes!"

  Liu Yi beckoned Professor Zhou Tao to come over and take a look. Professor Zhou Tao was savoring a self-brewed "herbal wine" made by Xueyuan, and slowly walked over. When he saw the content on the wall, he was shocked, and saw that it was written:

  "On August 8, 1948, when the National Army was in a precarious situation, I received a secret order from General Chiang to lead my team to the Valley of Death to search for holy water, which is said to be the elixir of the Queen Mother of the West, and eating it can make one immortal. So I led my team with the map into the Valley of Death, and after going through many hardships, we arrived at an ancient sacrificial site. Suddenly, many sheep-headed human monsters appeared, flying back and forth in the stone forest, bullets couldn't hurt them at all, many of our men were killed or injured, and in the end, they were all bitten to death, bleeding out all their blood."

  I, covered in blood and wounded all over, barely escaped to a stone cave. I thought that after a lifetime of battles, I would end up dying in an unknown place, with no one to collect my remains. Overcome with grief, I looked back on the heinous crimes I had committed in the past, and couldn't help but shed tears.

  I have sent troops to Goluo seven times, slaughtering countless Kazakh civilians and burying the Western Route Army alive under Fenghuang Mountain. As I am about to die, I suddenly awaken to the realization that although it was a struggle between two factions, I had no choice but to do so. Alas, my hands are stained with blood, which is why I have ended up in this state of being left unburied. Our country's military equipment is excellent, yet we repeatedly lost to the Communist army's rifles and millet. It is clear that success depends on heaven's timing, while failure lies in human hearts. Alas, it is too late to turn back the tide!

  Professor Zhou Tao said after reading the above content: "Qinghai folk has been circulating that Ma Bufang once entered the Valley of Death to search for treasure, and it is really true!"

  At this time, Liu Yi had already crouched down and said: "There's more below!"

  At the bottom of the stone wall, there was indeed another line of words:

  On August 10, 1948, Heaven helped me encounter the Red Eyed Snowman, who saved my humble self. Legend has it that the Red Eyed Snowman is a divine object in front of the Sun Mother, capable of helping people escape the sea of suffering and reach heaven. It seems the rumor is true. In this life, I will often offer sacrifices to the Queen Mother in the temple hall, worshiping day and night. After my humble self was saved, according to the Queen Mother's revelation, I went to find the "Queen Mother Scripture", reciting it day and night, washing away the sins of my heart, and regaining new life.

  May the Holy Mother bless you. Kneel down and knock your head!

  If there are those who come later, don't go deep into Death Valley to disturb the Mother's rest, or you will suffer dire consequences. Remember, remember.

  ……

  Lu Zonghan stood up after reading these words and exclaimed excitedly: "It's all true! The Longevity Holy Water must exist!"

  Liu Yi didn't understand why he was so excited and didn't pay attention. He asked Professor Zhou Tao, "What is the Queen Mother's Scripture?"

  Professor Zhou stroked his white beard and pondered, "Since the Sun Mother is the mentor of the ancient Qiang tribe's leader, they must have their own cultural heritage. This 'Queen Mother Scripture' should be a scripture or something similar to that of their tribe!"

  Liu Yi nodded and said, "En, this inference is correct. It seems that the sacrificial site of Death Valley is not as simple as we imagined, and there must be many secrets hidden inside that are unknown to people. The Qinghai folk rumor that Ma Bufang went to Sichuan after escaping from Death Valley, could it be that he was looking for the so-called Queen Mother's Holy Scripture?"

  "It must be that most of the present-day Qiang people in Sichuan moved from Qinghai during or before the Eastern Han dynasty, and may have taken some secrets of the ancient Qiang people with them."

  Professor Zhou paused for a moment, then continued: "I thought that this time arriving at the sacrificial land was not the final destination, but after seeing Ma Bufang's stone wall inscriptions, I suddenly felt that the secret of the 'Ancient Qiang tribe' we are looking for is just beginning."

  Listening to Zhou Tao, Liu Yi felt a vast and boundless feeling in his heart. If the secret of Gu Qiang was so simple that it could be dug up, then his father would not have used ten years of time and still couldn't find out the reason.

  "It seems that, indeed, the road is long and winding, I must search high and low! Thinking of this, Liu Yi suddenly stood up: "It's getting more and more challenging, heh heh, I like it!"

  Liu Yi is such a person, once he knows what he wants to do, he will follow his inner light all the way. This is also the reason why he has only one word "Yi" in his name. In fact, Liu Yi's father discovered this characteristic of his when he was young and changed his name to this one.

  Only saw Malacca hugging a black glazed jar, swaying over, his tongue knotted: "I... also... like..."

  Liu Yi turned his head to look, and saw that this guy had rosy cheeks, a mouth full of wine fumes, and was floating on the ground, comparable to Xiao Ke's drunken state. He gave him a white eye and said: "Bring it over, let me have a taste!"

  "Drink, drink..." Ma Liu Jia stretched out his hand and took a tumble, "Clang" he fell to the ground, the jar in his hand shattered on the ground, and suddenly a strong fragrance of wine like flowers but not flowers, like grass but not grass wafted through the air.

  Generally, brewing requires grains with more starch, such as barley, wheat and corn. But this wine is made from some unknown rare flowers and herbs, which is astonishing.

  "Good wine, even if you don't drink it, it can still make people drunk!" Liu Yi said, running to the stone rack and also moving a small jar of wine, getting some meat food, preparing to help up the fallen Ma Li Ka, suddenly hearing Kexi calling from the corner: "Everyone come over quickly!"

  But little did they know that this guy had discovered something else, and everyone curiously gathered around him.

  All he saw was Korksi holding a long, curved ram's horn and exclaiming excitedly: "We are indeed blessed by heaven! If we can successfully reach the place of sacrifice, the guardian there will take us to the last layer of the place of sacrifice!"