The Third Eye Temple Part 2

  Yunnan is a region with a legendary color, in the very distant past, many indigenous peoples were born here. During the Warring States period, Yunnan belonged to the Dian tribe, and later gradually developed into the ancient Dian Kingdom. The ancient Dian Kingdom was closed during the Qin dynasty due to fear of turmoil, so when Emperor Wu of Han sent envoys to enter Dian, the king of the ancient Dian Kingdom who guarded Dianchi asked the envoy: "Which is bigger, the Han Dynasty or our Dian Kingdom?"

  Perhaps when the Han army arrived at the city gate, this King of Dian finally realized that the world was much larger than his own small plot of land.

  However, the ancient Dian Kingdom cannot be said to be a glorious country, its artistic field is very developed, and it was once prosperous. In ancient times, Yunnan's living environment was quite harsh, what kind of power made the ancient Dian Kingdom develop such a advanced spiritual civilization after solving material problems such as food and clothing?

  Some people say that this is the development of the totem faith of the barbarians, but it is more likely that the ancient Dian Kingdom had a strong survival ability in itself. As for now, in Yunnan folklore, some people affirm this view, because in various wild historical legends, there are rumors about the ancient Dian Kingdom's witchcraft.

  According to legend, during the Qin Dynasty or even earlier, some people from Dian Kingdom had already believed in witchcraft and sorcery. These people left their original territory of Dian Kingdom and moved to the deep mountains by the Lancang River to live, forming a gathering place for witches. The leader of these people was called "Xian Wang".

  The Xianwang of Gu Dian is the most powerful among all witches, and it is said that his power can summon wind and rain, and even become immortal after death. Of course, this part of the secret has been unverifiable, but his specialty "Guigong Shu" is indeed real.

  Gu is a very evil witchcraft, often with human sacrifice and various poisonous insects to cast spells, along with "Gu" and "降头" are known as the three major evil arts of Yunnan. However, compared to them, Gu is even more ancient, and it was not created by the ancient Dian people.

  In folklore, the earliest known name for Qigong was "Tu Na" (also spelled as "Tuna"), which was invented by an ancient nation. The name of this nation has been lost to history, but later generations gave it a new name - "Ya Shen Zu".

  The Ya Shen tribe is a very, very ancient nation, dating back to before the Xia Dynasty. This nation was a matriarchal society ruled by a queen, and some say that the Ya Shen tribe was the prototype of the "Manman" in the Shan Hai Jing. The Manman is also known as the "Bi Yi Niao", which is said to have one wing and one eye, and can only fly when paired together. There are also legends that the "Manman" is a bird that can communicate with spirits and ghosts, and its appearance foretells a disastrous flood. This description is very similar to the Ya Shen people, although it is not known whether they had the same physical characteristics as the "one-winged one-eyed" bird, but this nation was indeed able to communicate with spirits and ghosts, and ultimately met its demise in a great flood.

  It is said that there was a book of unofficial history, now extinct, which mentioned the Ya Shen tribe. The book was called "Ji Jing" and it recorded: "The Ya Shen, a southern tribe, whose people communicated with spirits, controlled wives, defied heaven and changed fate, drove away evil ghosts, and made dragons bow their heads in submission. They created witchcraft called 'Ya', later obtained by the Dian people as 'Ya Shu'. However, they were still unable to survive, destroyed by the great flood, Yu Gong flattened the mountains and rivers, searched for them in the south, but did not find them."

  It can be seen that the Ya Shen tribe indeed controls unknown evil techniques, and the "Gu technique" of ancient Dian Kingdom may have originated from this. At this moment, the small village where I am located is in the prehistoric period, which is within the territory of the Ya Shen tribe. According to the boss's description, it is said that these mountains were once the fiefdoms given by the Ya Shen queen to the "Three-eyed God" during the Ya Shen period.

  The Three-Eyed God was a priest of the Yaoshen tribe, said to have an inhuman appearance, with the head of a fox, hooves like a horse, wings like an eagle, and three eyes and three tails. The Queen of the Yaoshen not only gave this place to the Three-Eyed God but also ordered a large number of slaves to build a temple for him. Later, when the Three-Eyed God died, the queen built an ancient tomb under the temple and buried him there with great honors. Still later, the Yaoshen tribe encountered a flood, and the Temple of the Three-Eyed God was crushed by a stone mountain brought by the flood, after which it disappeared from human sight.

  I listened with great interest and said to the boss, "Listening to you, it seems that there is indeed such a thing. The Queen of the Subgods attaches so much importance to this three-eyed priest, I think their racial power mostly comes from this Three-Eyed God."

  At this moment, thinking about the problem, I unknowingly spoke in Mandarin again. The boss was taken aback for a moment and only understood what I said after a pause. He replied to me in not-so-standard Mandarin: "That's right, that three-eyed thing is not human at all, so it can use magic."

  My curiosity was completely piqued at this point, and I couldn't help but continue to ask: "Where did you hear this legend from?"

  The boss said: "All the old folks in our village know, I heard it from my dad. When the Japanese devils occupied this place, they were doing some military exercises on the mountain and blasted two holes, and many 'stone beasts' fell out of the pit. Dragon Autumn (my name), good to teach you, these stone beasts are carved with that three-eyed god. Later, the devils started coming to the village to catch people, except for women, children, and the elderly, all men were taken to the mountain as laborers. At that time, my grandfather was also caught and taken to the mountain, the devils thought there was an ancient tomb underneath, let all the men go up the mountain to dig, where they couldn't dig, they would use explosives to blast, anyway, it was a big mess at the time, many children were scared to cry in their beds.

  I heard that at the time, the tunnel was finished, and it was just in time for me to burn incense on Dragon Boat Festival. Even Buddha's buttocks were shaking. Could it be that the ancient tomb I had finally found had been taken over by those Japanese devils? I hastily asked the boss: "What happened next? What did the Japanese dig up?"

  The boss said, "No, at that time there were not many men in the village. Together with the devils, they dug for more than a month but didn't find those three ancient tombs. Later, after a big rainstorm, the mountain collapsed and many devils and men were buried alive. The remaining Japanese continued to dig, but only for two days before hastily retreating, probably because of manpower shortages at the front line. Later, when villagers went up the mountain to search for people, they only found my grandfather, who was barely breathing. He didn't survive more than two days after returning home. Before he died, he told my father about this incident."

  I nodded, and only then did I put my mind at ease, thinking that it was good that the grave hadn't been disturbed. Otherwise, if this first opening had encountered an empty tomb, that would have been too inauspicious.

  The rain outside was pattering down, showing no signs of stopping. The boss's daughter had finished washing the dishes and was now wrapping herself around me, asking me to tell her about life in the big city. The boss's daughter, Xiaohua, was a country girl through and through, having never been to a big city before.

  I saw that it was impossible to climb the mountain at that time, so I sat in the house and talked to her. Later, the boss also came over to listen, his knowledge is more than his daughter's, originally I was talking alone, later it became a conversation between us two.

  I deliberately brought the topic back to the legend of San Yan Shen and seized the opportunity to ask him: "The place where the Japanese dug that year, do you know where it is?"

  The boss said: "I know, but it's been buried for a long time. Now it's just a piece of grassland, and there's no trace left. If you want to take a look, I'll let Xiaohua take you there."

  I nodded: "Okay, I'm a curious person and want to take a look at everything."

  The boss said: "It's still early now, and I think the rain will stop soon."

  After finishing speaking, he turned his head and said to Xiaohua: "You take Longqiu up the mountain later to take a look at that place, and take good care of our guest."

  Xiao Hua patted her chest and said: "No problem, if Brother Long can't walk anymore, I'll carry him."

  I was speechless with laughter and tears, these village girls are too formidable, they have been working hard since childhood, their strength is indeed not comparable to those spoiled city girls.

  It was around three o'clock in the afternoon when the rain stopped. I followed Xiaohua up the mountain, and after crossing a ridge, Xiaohua pointed to a distant gentle slope and said to me: "Brother Long, that's where the Japanese dug back then."

  I gazed into the distance and suddenly saw that there was no trace of anything in that place, it looked like a very ordinary small hill. However, the location of the ancient tomb I discovered earlier is not far from here, one mile north of this grass slope is where I went down to "Kunlun Hook". It seems that the scale of this three-eyed temple is quite large and should be composed of several parts of the tomb.

  The place where the Japanese found the three-eyed stone beast should have been part of a temple, and the ancient tomb should still be under the temple, with a scale much larger than the temple. If so, then the queen of the gods back then was quite formidable, able to build such a large ancient tomb under a temple.

  I vaguely feel uneasy, this ancient tomb's layout is so grand, and I don't know how many paths inside are designed to prevent grave robbers. Although the tomb is old and its anti-theft measures are relatively simple, it's hard to say about the "Jie technique" of the Demon God tribe. This thing is the ancestor of evil techniques, and as a priest of the Demon God tribe, San Yan Sheng is highly valued by the queen, who is skilled in Jie technique. She will definitely use this method to set up the anti-theft mechanism of San Yan Sheng's ancient tomb. I know nothing about Jie technique, not even its descendant - Zhen technique. If we enter inside this time, I'm afraid there will be accidents.

  After some thought, I felt that I might be worrying too much. The technique of Shizhuan couldn't be separated from the insect, and the technique of Jie probably wasn't much different either. This ancient tomb had been around for so long, even if there was a Jie technique inside, it should have lost its effect by now. At least the insects wouldn't be able to live that many years.

  Xiaohua saw me spacing out and asked if I was very disappointed. I smiled and said, "Not really, I just saw how desolate this place is and thought that everything in the world will eventually be washed away by time. After time has passed, what's left are just a few broken walls and ruins. Can't help it, I'm the melancholy prince! If I were living in ancient times, maybe I'd be a poet like Li Bai, haha."

  She listened to me finish scratching her head, seemingly unaware of what I was saying. I suddenly thought that the mountain girl was too pure, and this kind of deliberate joke wouldn't show any humor in front of her, so I stopped continuing to talk nonsense and said: "Forget it, anyway there's nothing good to see, let's go back."

  Then we two returned to the hostel, I knew that this grave was not simple, and had to go alone to investigate carefully before digging a tunnel.

  I no longer rushed, and stayed in the village for a few more days, carrying my equipment to reconnoiter several times. It wasn't until the fifth day at dawn that I checked out of the hotel with my boss, shouldered my backpack, and started climbing the mountain.

  I came back to the place where I had "hooked up" before, and it was already scorching hot. I wiped my sweat and looked around a few times, suddenly realizing that this place was indeed good for building courage. Although such places are generally not visited by people, I suddenly didn't dare start work in broad daylight. Only then did I understand the saying "three points of being a thief is false".

  I stuffed some dried meat into my belly, then took out the fishing rod and went to the riverbank to fish. I fished for several hours, feeling so bored that I wanted to bang my head against a wall but didn't know where to go.

  Until the night fell and the stars began to appear in the sky, I took out my shovel and started digging at the spot where I had marked earlier. The mountains and fields were filled with the chirping of insects, and from time to time, there was the cry of a night cat. I felt scared and couldn't help but hum a few popular songs softly, thinking that it's no wonder why tomb raiders like to find partners, because being alone in this kind of place at night is really frightening.

  After digging for two hours, seeing that all the dug soil still needs to be moved by myself, I even more urgently want a partner.

  After a while, I finally succeeded, and Dad's craftsmanship was indeed not passed down in vain. This shovel of mine actually dug directly to the tomb door.

  Looking at the dark entrance in front of me, I felt even more apprehensive and couldn't help but think wildly - those three weird eyes were rumored to be so evil, what if it's a monster? I came to pour his wine, what if he won't let me out after I go in?

  It's not that his courage was too small, this idea was just a thought, he sat on the ground and smoked a few cigarettes, when the air in the ancient tomb was almost transparent, he put on his homemade simple gas mask, turned on the flashlight and crept in quietly.

  Here is a broad grave path, all built with stone blocks. After walking tens of meters in, it enters a depression.

  I shone my flashlight forward and saw that the ground beneath me was covered with human skeletons, packed so tightly together that it was impossible to count them. The hands and feet of these skeletons were all bound by ropes, but after many years, these coarse ropes made of grass and vines had long since withered away, crumbling into powder at a mere kick.

  This is probably a burial site, and these skeletons are all slaves. The three-eyed god doesn't know what kind of person he is, this level is no longer something that ordinary kings can enjoy, I'm afraid the Ya Shen tribe really treats him as a divine being.

  In short, I couldn't guess what was going on at this moment, and I didn't want to think about it anymore. This is a burial pit, the underground palace must still be deep inside, the inverted bowl emphasizes "directly attacking the yellow dragon", it's not suitable to linger, otherwise there will be changes if we're late. I saw another large cave entrance in front of me, so I continued walking in with my flashlight.

  Unexpectedly, the area within a hundred meters was all burial pits, and the sound of trampling on bones never stopped, I almost vomited blood from walking. After much difficulty, I finally reached in front of a tall stone gate, and only then did I let out a sigh of relief, thinking to myself that this must be the entrance to the underground palace, and at least it was easy to get in and out, just go in quickly and grab a few decent burial objects and leave, I didn't want to stay here for another moment.

  Who would have thought that just as I was about to enter, a few drops fell on my head.

  I was startled and remembered what my old man had said, that ancient tombs often have strong acid set up to harm grave robbers. Was I so unlucky as to fall into the trap on my first time in a tomb? After being frightened for several seconds, I suddenly discovered that there was no scorching heat of corrosion on my head, and then I reached out to touch it and put it in front of my eyes to observe.

  At this glance, I suddenly inhaled a breath of cool air, and my scalp instantly went numb.

  What dripped onto my head was a stream of blood with a fishy smell! I don't know what kind of blood it is, but it definitely isn't chicken's blood. It seems that my seniority is still shallow and the ancestors are not willing to bless me. This time I only felt my whole body trembling, knowing that this fight would probably end in defeat, so I quickly turned around and ran back.

  In an instant, the surroundings changed dramatically again. The rustling sounds around me were endless. The stinky blood that was dripping on my head earlier was now pouring down from above like rain, continuously and incessantly!