Chapter 45: Knife Mountain and Sea of Fire, Flying Drum Bird

  Liu Yi looked at the dead land in front of him and didn't know how to get through. He asked Keke Xi: "How did the little Rakshas get through here?"

  Kekexi Road: "In the Shibi Temple, there is a record of a witchcraft called 'insect language', which can drive away birds and insects. One of them is the magic to summon the flying drum bird. It says that only those with a firm 'Vajra witch heart' can ride on the flying drum bird to cross the golden fire trial ground of knife mountain and sea of fire..."

  "It's a pity, the records on the stone wall are incomplete, it's a fragment. Otherwise, I estimate that those Soul-Eating Insects and White Holy Shell Insects we've seen before could have been used by us!"

  Liu Yi asked in confusion: "What do you mean by 'Vajra Witch's Heart'?"

  Kok Siew said: "Jin Gang, is the intention of determination. And the Er Ma Jiao disciples Xiao Shi, many practice witchcraft, so they call their heart of practice as witch heart, just like what Taoists say about Tao Xin being the same. In fact, you can also consider Er Ma Jiao as an ancient Taoist sect, because it seems that all that Huang Di, the founder of Taoism, comprehended was learned from Xi Wang Mu!"

  "Ah, I see...” Professor Zhou nodded and said: “Nowadays, the Qiang ethnic group has a kind of magical technique called 'Flying Drum Technique'. It is said that the internal masters can summon their flying drums to their side from dozens of miles away. Is the 'flying drum' in this Flying Drum Technique the same as the 'Flying Drum Bird' you mentioned?"

  "It's possible," Koxing said noncommittally.

  Professor Zhou said, "Last year when I was investigating in Sichuan, a Qiang villager told me about this flying drum technique. He said that the technique had been lost, and only his grandfather's generation knew it. However, when he tried to summon the flying drum, his wife happened to appear at the door and was struck dead by the incoming drum. Since then, no one has dared to practice or pass on this technique, so it hasn't been passed down..."

  Everyone was amazed, especially Lu Zonghan, whose face showed a look of shock, and asked Ke Kexi: "The insect language you mentioned, can it really speak 'bird language' and communicate with birds and insects?"

  Kexi chuckled and didn't respond, thinking that this magic was a secret within the clan, not to be shared with outsiders.

  Liu Yi looked at him with a mysterious expression, smiled and said: "The insect language that Kexi mentioned should be a kind of spell for ancient people to communicate with insects and beasts. In my guess, this type of spell should have two forms. One is the communication method assisted by musical instruments, like Keke Village's Kexi old lady using the horn to communicate with the white wolf elder. The other type is estimated to be similar to ventriloquism or mimicry language..."

  Korksi looked at Liu Yi in surprise and said: "How did you know?"

  Liu Yi smiled and pointed to his mouth: "I'm good at ventriloquism, my dog is very obedient!"

  Kirk was momentarily speechless.

  Professor Zhou glanced at Liu Yi and smiled: "In essence, it can be said that way, but communicating with beasts is really a wonderful thing. Your training of dogs only makes them form conditioned reflexes, but if the insect language technique mentioned by Kekesi exists, then I estimate that it can only communicate with specific birds and insects. These birds and insects should have existed since ancient times, they formed some kind of contractual consciousness with the ancient Qiang people, and this gene was passed on to their descendants..."

  Korksi was surprised again, and gave a thumbs up: "The analysis seems to make sense, but I don't know if what you're saying is true or not!"

  Malacca looked at the sea of flames below, wiping his sweaty head and shouted: "I don't know what you're talking about, but it sounds awesome! Whatever bird it is, as long as it can take us flying over this fiery land, it's a good bird!"

  Liu Yi heard his words, chuckled and had a thought, feeling puzzled, he said to the crowd: "If this is a dead land, and it's the only way forward, then how did the poachers get through? Can't even foreign witches fly with drums?"

  As soon as he spoke, everyone felt that this was a problem. This sea of fire is boundless and at least ten or eight miles away. Even if foreign witches can fly with drumming techniques and summon flying drum birds, how can they transport so many people in batches? Even if she has the ability, I estimate she doesn't have the patience.

  At this time, Lu Zonghan pointed to the distant giant torch-shaped altar and shouted: "You say, will that altar have any problems?"

  "Could it be that the passage leading to the next level is within this altar?" Professor Zhou Tao said thoughtfully.

  Malacca muttered: "Even if it's a passage to the next level, we can't get through. Looking at it this way, there are also two or three miles of road!"

  Everyone who heard this turned their heads to look at Korksi, hoping he would use his flying drum technique to run over and take a look.

  Kekexi sat on the ground with his eyes closed, and then muttered some inexplicable sounds from his mouth, "Mimi, Maya, Heyimo Xi, want to..."

  Everyone held their breath and listened intently, although they couldn't understand, but in their hearts they were extremely tense, constantly observing the movements inside the sea of flames, to see if there was any sign of the legendary flying drum bird.

  The children's chanting grew higher and more intense, the strange notes somehow stirring up a mysterious vitality in this desolate place. The crowd vaguely felt that the flames in the sea of fire were jumping up and down with the notes, as if people were dancing along with the music, but they didn't know if they were hallucinating or not.

  Suddenly, a piercing bird cry broke through the sky, sharp and shrill, squeezing into Korksi's notes, desolate and distant, as if coming from the heart of the earth. Everyone was shocked beyond measure, looking around in all directions, but nothing could be seen...

  But as soon as Koxi heard that bird cry, his face twisted and he began to chant even faster, his voice growing higher and more shrill. The bird cries from underground also grew sharper, causing everyone's ears to ring, and they all covered their ears, thinking: "This little devil can really belt out a high decibel!"

  "Strange - yet - harmonious - and -" Korksi suddenly shouted and stood up, then all the sounds stopped abruptly. Everyone followed his line of sight to look at the central altar in the sea of fire, but saw that a red flame suddenly burst out from the torch on the central altar, and then a "drum" as big as a millstone rose up.

  It was a drum - white drumhead, red drum body, but on the front end of the drum body grew two big black eyes.

  After rising, a pair of huge wings suddenly stretched out from the drum body in everyone's line of sight. The wings were fiery red. It was seen flapping its wings and flying towards the crowd.

  When that flying drum bird flapped its wings and flew over, everyone only felt a wave of heat rushing towards them, and this guy's body actually carried a hint of heat.

  The bird flew to Kork's side, landed on the edge of the platform, chirped twice, and turned its body around, indicating that everyone should get on. Kork saw this and jumped onto the flying drum bird's back first, followed by the others.

  Then the flying drum bird flapped its wings and flew to the torch altar, and after everyone came down, it plunged into the torch eye in the center of the altar and disappeared.

  Liu Yi said: "So easy to get through?"

  Kekesi lowered his head and pointed to the sea of flames below, saying: "Legend has it that these flames are heavenly fire, neither increasing nor decreasing, never extinguished, just like the flames on 'My Clan's Sacred Fire Mountain'. The sea of flames is filled with golden knives. Cultivators must ride the flying drum bird to reach this altar. Although it's only a short distance, it's very difficult to pass through. I heard from my father that in ancient times, the flying drum birds could sense the fluctuations in people's emotions. As long as your heart is unstable, it will throw you into the knife mountain fire sea, where you'll be killed nine times out of ten. I reckon that over these few thousand years, no one has come to accept this trial again, and the flying drum bird's sensing ability has also degenerated!"

  After saying this, Korksi's eyes had a hint of expectation, perhaps the place ahead would excite him even more. Liu Yi sensed his emotions and asked: "Where did the ancient Xiaoshi monks go after passing through the fire trial?"

  Kexi smiled and said: "Do you still remember what I said at first?"

  "What?"

  "They learn as they advance, and advance as they learn... The temple of Shibi recorded their route, it is said that through the mountains of knives and seas of fire, they drilled into the heart of the earth in the endless darkness to crawl, finally arriving at the ancient Qiang sacred teaching Erma Teaching Scripture Pavilion, where they continued to study, studying all the witchcraft inside, only after learning all the witchcraft inside, do they have the qualifications to become a great Shibi!"

  "Oh..."

  Malacca was walking down the spiral staircase around the Torch Festival stage, seeing that they were still motionless, shouting: "Hurry up, if you don't move forward, the thieves from the Ma family will soon empty out what's inside the Zang Jing Pavilion..."

  ……

  Lofty and unmatched, the torch platform is wide at the top and narrow at the bottom, like a cone inserted into the sea of fire. The square hole in the middle of the platform is dark and gloomy, which should be the nest of the ancient divine bird "Fei Gu Niao".

  Everyone is curious about the thousand-year burning of the Great Fire, but they don't know what combustible materials are underground that can withstand such consumption. If it's oil, the amount would be astonishing!

  There were white stone spiral stairs spiraling down around the altar, and the crowd followed Malacca's footsteps to head downwards. After walking for a long time, the stone steps below became narrower and narrower. Fortunately, there were open square air vents on both sides, so that the crowd would not be suffocated to death.

  It's just that, because of this, the heat wave also came in, but except for being close to the square hole, you can feel the heat wave, and it's not too hot inside. Perhaps this giant torch festival platform is made of Kunlun jade, which has a certain degree of thermal insulation effect.

  In the midst of everyone's sighs and murmurs, in the steady footsteps forward, they walked for a long time before finally arriving at the base of the Torch Festival platform.

  The root is very narrow and can only hold one person standing. At the root, a small opening was opened, which should be the direction to continue moving forward.

  Malacca held a submachine gun, knelt down, bit the wolf's teeth and flashlight in his mouth, carefully observed inside, found that the small entrance was a not-too-large stone cave, and there were no dangerous creatures living inside. Seeing this, he waved to the people above and then crawled in with his waist bent.

  Then, people poured in one after another.

  The cave was empty, with nothing inside, and there were no murals or anything on the stone walls. Professor Zhou Tao looked a bit disappointed, but as soon as he thought that entering the scripture hall might get him some useful information, he felt a little excited.

  In fact, in the temple of Shibi, due to Malacca's greedy behavior, it led to floods and no signs could be found. Otherwise, if one were to search carefully there, perhaps some clues might have been discovered.

  Everyone ate something, drank some water, replenished their physical strength, and stared blankly at the square passage in front of them that could only allow people to enter by crawling.

  There may be an answer ahead, but the road is even more difficult!