The Tenth Scroll: Mural Painting

  The copper seal that Zhou Xing took out of the hole was about the size of an adult's fist, with ancient hieroglyphics carved on each side. The surface of the seal was dark and worn, with obvious signs of aging, indicating that it was a very old object. Youzi speculated that the cave beneath the campsite, guarded by strange creatures, was likely a tomb of the Shaman King clan, possibly even the remains of an ancient tribe guarding the Shaman King's mausoleum. Zhou Xing had risked his life to enter the tomb early this morning, clearly having already deduced that the key to the Dragon Gate of the Shaman King's mausoleum was hidden within. This made Youzi feel that Zhou Xing's identity was truly mysterious, and he thought it unwise to trust him unconditionally.

  In short, everyone took advantage of the bronze key to successfully open the one-foot-thick dragon gate and continued to move forward along the cave. This should be the ancient tomb area of the Witch King's Mausoleum, we dare not be careless, no longer rushing forward in big strides like before, but slowly exploring inward.

  Youzi carefully observed Zhou Xing's expression and saw that it had also become cautious, thinking that this Zhou Xing should have never been here before, so he slightly calmed down and voluntarily walked ahead to explore the way, letting me and Ai Xia follow behind, leaving Zhou Xing in the middle.

  Before long, we walked into a square passage, which had obviously been artificially excavated. However, the inside and outside of the cave were completely different. The tomb of the Witch King seemed to have undergone anti-humidity treatment to prevent the ancient tomb from being eroded by moisture. In that case, the underground palace of the Witch King's tomb must be sealed, but I don't know how we will get in later.

  The purpose of this trip to the Witch King's Tomb has two purposes, one is to track down the "Black Button" group, and the other is to investigate the situation of the Witch King's Tomb. After the "Black Button" gang designed to steal the Jiao Jin Hao, they did not immediately escape abroad, nor even left Yunnan Province, but instead risked being chased by the police, ran to the Witch King's Tomb here.

  I don't know what secrets are hidden in the tomb of the witch king. If I don't investigate thoroughly this time, my heart will always feel uneasy, after all, the curse on our bodies has not been lifted yet.

  This rocky path is about 200 meters long. As people walked down, they saw that the front suddenly opened up and it was a huge mountain space. The entire space has four steep walls, which were also artificially decorated later. We held flashlights to illuminate all around, and we saw that the stone wall here was filled with strange style murals.

  As people walked and looked, the content depicted by these murals was very rich. In addition to hunting and sacrifices, there were also scenes of several wars. From the murals, it can be known that the Ya Shen tribe was extremely powerful among many tribes at that time, and almost every war ended in victory. However, among these major and minor battles, there was one defeat that was lost extremely badly.

  This is also the only defeat recorded on the mural, in this war, the enemy faced by the Yaoshen tribe was very powerful, and they were almost slaughtered unilaterally. The painting technique is simple, but it is very vivid. The queen of the Yaoshen tribe with a crown stands behind the troops, one hand pointing to the soldiers of the Yaoshen tribe, and the other hand pointing to the retreat route, as if commanding the troops to retreat. Although in the picture, the queen stands upright at the back of the army, with a stern expression, but in front of her are all severed limbs, and the soldiers are retreating in disarray, abandoning their helmets and armor, the miserable state of the Yaoshen tribe at that time can be imagined.

  Looking at the enemy again, the soldiers of the enemy army were extremely brave, chasing after the retreating troops of the Ya Shen tribe with their weapons in hand. Behind these soldiers stood a leader, an old man with a long beard, exceptionally tall and large in stature, holding a scepter in his left hand and supporting a spherical object with his right hand, directing his troops to pursue and kill the fleeing Ya Shen tribe.

  In front of the long-whiskered old man, a strange beast was lying down. The beast had a fox's head, a horse's four legs, and an eagle's wings on its back. What's even stranger is that this beast also had three eyes and three long tails.

  You Zi looked at it in surprise, saying repeatedly: "Isn't this the Three-Eyed Deity? How can he be in the enemy camp of the Ya Shen tribe? Who are these people? They actually made the queen lose so badly!"

  I also find it strange, based on the clues we've obtained, that the three-eyed god should be the high priest of the Ya Shen tribe, how could he be an enemy of the Ya Shen tribe? Is there another twin brother of the three-eyed god or something?

  This war is depicted on a large scale and in greater detail than the other battles, but this mural itself is very strange. As far as I know, murals in ancient tombs are usually eulogistic, and would not record a defeat. The reason why this defeat was recorded should be related to the Three-Eyed God. However, in this mural, the Three-Eyed God is clearly an enemy force. What's going on here?

  I roughly guessed in my heart that perhaps it was because the enemy had this three-eyed god that the Demon God tribe would lose so miserably. It seems that the three-eyed god originally did not belong to the Demon God tribe's camp, but later began to serve under the Demon God Queen for some reason.

  At this time, Zhou Xing, who had been silent for a long time, suddenly said: "This is a dragon."

  I don't know what he said, so I asked: "Dragon, where is the dragon?"

  Zhou Xing didn't say a word, but instead pointed to the mural with his finger. I concentrated and took a closer look, only to discover that the dragon he was talking about was actually a pattern on the enemy flag of the Ya Shen tribe. Upon closer inspection, I saw that the pattern resembled a snake, but it had four broken legs and a pair of deer antlers, just like the legendary divine dragon.

  "Youzi Qidao said: 'The dragon's totem, isn't this the tribe of the Yellow Emperor?'"

  I said to Youzi: "According to the era, this should be the troops of Shun later on, or possibly Da Yu. It seems that the Ya Shen tribe lost this battle to the Zhongyuan tribes."

  Youzi rubbed his chin thoughtfully: "What's with these three auras? The dragon totem... could it be... the Dragon Ball?"

  He pointed at the long-bearded old man in the painting and said: "Will this ball he's holding be the Dragon Ball?"

  Ai Xia said: "Look at the back, maybe the mural on the back can tell us the answer."

  We thought it was okay, so we continued to look at the mural, but unexpectedly, this didn't look good, and one glance scared us. It turned out that the mural behind depicted what happened to the Ya Shen tribe after their defeat. Everyone looked and pondered, based on the description on the mural, plus some of our speculation, finally knew the whole process.

  The mural behind tells that after the Ya people were defeated, they retreated far to the south and defended for many years, no longer daring to lightly engage in battle with the Central Plains tribes. At that time, the Yangtze River suddenly burst into several major floods, and Shun had to hastily withdraw, appointing Yu to control the floodwaters, and was unable to continue the campaign in the southwest.

  It is also unknown how many years have passed, the Ya people retreated to the edge of Dianchi Lake and continued to hold on, with the Central Plains tribes at a stalemate. Later, the Queen of the Ya died suddenly from illness due to overwork.

  The newly appointed queen is a very beautiful woman, and it's said that even the sun and moon would lose their luster when she appears. However, she didn't inherit the throne just because of her beauty. This new queen is extremely formidable, having learned from the experience of defeat, believing that the reason the Ya Shen tribe lost to Zhong Yuan was because Zhong Yuan possessed the power of the Dragon Balls, while the people of the Ya Shen tribe had no divine powers to rival the Dragon Balls except for being able to control some minor ghosts and demons.

  Thus, a grand conspiracy was brewing in the heart of the Asian goddess...

  Another period of time passed, and the floodwaters in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River had temporarily subsided. At this time, the Zhongyuan tribe once again remembered the Ya Shen tribe. Shun may have thought that the people of the Ya Shen tribe possessed ghostly powers and would eventually become a great threat to the heart of Zhongyuan, so he led his army on another southern expedition.

  But who would have thought that this time, Zhongyuan suffered a crushing defeat.

  Originally during this period, the Demon Queen invented a sinister evil art - Corpse Poison.

  Yu's troops arrived at Dianchi when she had already led her people to retreat from there, fleeing to the southwest direction of Huoshan Kou and hiding, and also cast a spell on Dianchi. At that time, the soldiers from the Central Plains were traveling long distances, braving thorns and fending off fierce beasts, and when they arrived at Dianchi, they were already thirsty and tired. The soldiers saw the endless water of Dianchi in front of them and couldn't hold back, rushing to the lake shore to drink. And with this one drink, naturally, something happened.

  The soldiers of the Central Plains were ambushed and the troops could no longer advance, Shun had no choice but to temporarily withdraw from Dianchi, regroup his forces and treat the wounded soldiers.

  While the Asura tribe successfully escaped from this battle, they did not dare to slack off. The Asura queen believed that Shun possessed a dragon ball, and the technique could only deal with temporary situations, but could not resist for a lifetime. Moreover, in the Asura queen's plan, this technique was just one link in the entire plan.

  It is said that San Yan Shen was Shun's trusted assistant, a person with the power of a strange beast in his body. He can transform into a powerful beast form, not only charging into battle like entering an uninhabited land, but also knowing how to cure various diseases. The Queen of Ya Shen speculated that when Shun was helpless against her poisonous techniques, he would definitely let San Yan Shen come out to treat the soldiers, and if San Yan Shen wanted to deal with this poisonous technique, he had to go to the nearby volcanic mouth to find medicine.

  Sure, here is the translation:

  As expected, Shun was unable to cure the soldiers and could only ask for San Yan's help. After examining the soldiers' symptoms, San Yan told Shun that he needed to go to the volcano to find medicine. And so, San Yan arrived at the volcano.

  When the Three-Eyed God found the medicine on top of the volcano, the Goddess appeared. She stood in front of the Three-Eyed God and lifted the veil from her head. The Three-Eyed God was deeply enchanted by the beauty of the Goddess and fell in love with her from then on.

  Can't help but say, this woman is really formidable. Before long, the three-eyed god was infatuated with her and agreed to help her steal Shun's Dragon Ball. What followed was simple: the three-eyed god relied on Shun's trust in him to get his hands on the Dragon Ball and brought it to the Queen of the Underworld.

  The Queen of the Gods was delighted, not only conferring the position of High Priest on San Yan Shen, but also granting him a fiefdom and building a temple for San Yan Shen there. Unfortunately, this good situation did not last long for the loving couple.

  The Zhongyuan tribe was not all ordinary people, Shun's subordinates also had many talents and heroes. These people were very angry about the betrayal of San Yan Shen, so they joined forces to give San Yan Shen a curse - when the Dragon Ball started to deal with the Zhongyuan tribe, San Yan Shen would have to pay a bloody price.

  However, the Queen of the Underworld was unaware of the curse. Soon, she used the Dragon Ball to defeat a large army that had come from China. As a result, San Yan Shén also lost his life due to this curse.

  It can be seen that although the Queen of Ya used San Yan Shen, she herself also fell in love with this man. The death of San Yan Shen had a great impact on the queen. When she heard the bad news, she didn't care about the war at the front line anymore. She withdrew her troops back to San Yan Shen's territory and built an underground palace under the temple of San Yan Shen, where she buried him with heavy mourning.

  But who would have known that the calamity of the Ya Shen tribe was not just this. Not long after, the Witch King stationed in the volcanic region discovered through divination that the Ya Shen tribe would be destroyed by an unprecedented great flood in the near future.

  This is undoubtedly adding insult to injury, perhaps it's true that the Ya Shen tribe has gone against the heavens and their retribution has arrived. In short, the Ya Shen queen did not give up, she devoted her entire life to studying and researching diligently for a long time, finally coming up with a plan.

  The Queen of the Ya people used her most skilled divination techniques, combined with the witchcraft of various barbarian tribes, to create the Golden Horn of the Rhinoceros. She then used this treasure to apply this mysterious power to all members of the Ya tribe. Afterwards, she had the Witch King divine again to see if the fate of the Ya people had been altered.

  The witch king told her that the flood had already become a fixed number, and it was too late to change it. However, the queen used the Jiao horn golden order to reverse the heaven and change her fate, and things also took a turn for the better. The witch king asked the goddess queen to seal the dragon ball and the Jiao horn golden order under the ground, and then build a huge palace on the mountain, and also, to build an underground palace under the palace. When the great flood came, all the people of the Ya Shen tribe could hide in the underground palace. If the flood receded, it meant that heaven did not intend to destroy the Ya Shen tribe. If the flood did not recede, everyone could only hide in the underground palace until they could come out after thousands of years.

  The Witch King's Prophecy: If the Ya Shen tribe is destroyed by the flood, it will be after many years, when the sun is eclipsed and the Dragon Pearl falls to the highest point of the palace. A devil will blow the Jin Horn, guiding the soul of the Ya Shen Queen back from under the earth. At that time, all members of the Ya Shen tribe will be reborn in the underground palace.

  The mural description ended here, and we couldn't have imagined that the content of the next mural would actually narrate such a secret, at that time it only felt unbelievable.

  I gazed at the last scene of the mural - the sky was filled with dark clouds, and the sun had turned black. On a towering palace that pierced the clouds, the dragon pearl emitted intense light. Below the dragon pearl, a black shadow knelt on the ground, looking up and blowing a horn. At the bottom of the palace, a huge crack opened like the gates of hell, and from this crack, a group of dark shadows slowly emerged.

  You Zi looked stunned for a while, then laughed and said: "These ancient people are really good at talking nonsense. If they say they can do some small magic tricks, I might believe it, but how is it possible to come back to life after thousands of years? It's simply absurd. I think that goddess queen is just mentally unstable because her man died."

  I said to Youzi, "Although these things can no longer be verified, I also think that there is no possibility of coming back to life after death. I have only heard of people entering a state of apparent death and coming back to life several days later. To say that someone could come back to life like the prophecy in the mural is simply absurd."

  After finishing speaking, I suddenly found that Zhou Xing was staring at a place on the mural in a daze. Following his gaze, I saw that the thing that made him infatuated was a pattern on the top of the palace, which looked like an orchid and seemed to be some kind of totem.

  I suddenly remembered that the ancient tribe of Ya worshipped "Man", how could this totem be painted on top of the palace? So I asked in confusion: "You see, what's with the totem on this palace? Isn't their totem 'Man'?"