Volume 2: The Ancient Country of Lando Chapter 30: The Land of Qiu Tian

  Outside the tent, there was a rustling sound, and then I heard the soft voice of Xue Man, seemingly calling us to open the door. Su Qin was overjoyed when she heard it, and said to me, "See, I told you Uncle Snake wouldn't abandon us."

  I also found it strange, wondering if the python uncle had really gone to forage just now? So I crawled out of my sleeping bag again and opened the tent door. As soon as the door was open, I felt a warm air rush forward, and suddenly my whole body felt extremely comfortable. The snow python was indeed curled up outside the door, and as soon as I opened it, its head poked in through the gap, with a piece of snake skin in its mouth.

  At this moment, my eyes were moist. It turned out that the snow python was not a deserter after all. Just now it probably saw that the weather was about to change greatly and worried that we couldn't resist the severe cold tonight, so it went to find a place to shed its outer layer of snake skin, spit some saliva on it to make a fire coat for us to keep warm. It seems I was too suspicious and wrongly accused it.

  I was deeply moved, patted its head and took the fire clothes. In intuition, I was far inferior to Su Qin, but in being overly suspicious, I had surpassed her. This snow python was recognized as my father's sworn brother, which made it my uncle. Yet, I couldn't believe it. The python wasn't even related to Su Qin, yet she chose to trust it in such a desperate situation. She truly is a good woman.

  The snow python saw that I had taken over the fire clothes, and nodded to me, then picked up the remaining snake skin on the ground and crawled towards Liu Dabao's tent.

  I held the precious "fire coat" in my hand for a long time without moving, Su Qin shivered and shouted at me: "Hurry up, I'm freezing to death!"

  I finally came to my senses, holding the fire coat and crawling back into the sleeping bag, placing it under the blanket. Suddenly, I felt a warm feeling spreading through my stiff body. I was savoring this intoxicating warmth, and my heart couldn't calm down for a long time. Su Qin felt that wearing this fire coat was too comfortable, so she happily stretched her hand in to stroke it again and again, lightly sighing: "This fire coat is indeed a treasure, it seems that even if it's just a legend, there must be some truth to its existence."

  I heard Su Qin say the word "true", and I couldn't help but tremble in my heart, and asked: "Why did you believe Uncle Mang so much just now?"

  Su Qin shook her head and said, "I don't know either, but I think animals are just like humans, they have feelings too. Besides, didn't you say that Uncle Python had saved your father's life several times?"

  I nodded, no longer speaking. Su Qin pulled my arm again and said: "Actually, you're a great person, but you're just too suspicious. Take the thing we agreed on, for example. I promised you that I would only take back the Qiao Jin number after your family's curse was lifted. But at first, you didn't believe me and kept asking me all sorts of questions about the Eighteen Layers of Hell. Tell me, don't you hate it?"

  I shook my head and smiled wryly, usually cheerful and carefree, but at this moment a hint of melancholy surged up. Su Qin then said to me: "However, don't take it to heart, you tomb raiders are probably all like this, after all, being overly cautious is also your survival rule, the ancient tomb is extremely dangerous, if you don't keep an eye out everywhere, it would be terrible."

  I originally thought Su Qin was just a spoiled brat, but I didn't expect her to be so considerate of others. Suddenly, my heart felt warm and I had an unusual feeling, and I unconsciously tightened my grip on Su Qin's hand.

  Su Qin hummed and let out a gentle breath, her small face flushing red again as she pounded on my chest, angrily saying: "What are you doing? Loosen up!"

  I chuckled and said, "What can I do? Isn't it too cold for me?"

  Su Qin gave me a white look and said: "What's cold? The python uncle's fire coat is given to you to cover."

  Tonight's situation, I'm afraid nothing can be done, so everyone decided not to stay up all night and went to sleep together in their fire coats. They didn't get up until the next morning when they stretched their waists lazily. When eating breakfast, everyone gathered together and talked about last night's situation, feeling a lingering fear. At this moment, the wind was light and cloudy, the blizzard had passed for some time, and the temperature had returned to normal. If it weren't for the thick layer of ice under their feet, no one would have thought that last night was a weather that could freeze even ghosts to death.

  Liu Dapao said that last night's strong wind was probably a rare ice and snow cold current on the snowy mountain, and it is unknown whether it was good luck or bad luck. The probability of winning the lottery head prize actually caught up with us, fortunately, there was a snow python by our side, otherwise, in yesterday's cold night, I really didn't know how to deal with it.

  I nodded in agreement, thinking that the cold current last night was an extremely rare natural phenomenon. It's said that in high-altitude areas, a herdsman lost a group of yaks, but when he found them, they were all frozen into ice sculptures, some still holding eating grass postures, as if they were frozen stiff in an instant. Similarly, abroad, there was once a discovery of a mammoth elephant frozen to death in a glacier, with the same situation as those yaks. Yaks and mammoths are animals that live in cold regions, and ordinary low temperatures have no effect on their bodies. The only possibility is that there exists a special cold current in the world, which brings extremely low temperatures, and once living things come into contact with it, they will be frozen into ice sculptures within a few seconds, without even having time to escape. Last night was lucky for us, as we had put on our down jackets before the cold current arrived; otherwise, by the second half of the night, the consequences would have been the same as those yaks and mammoths - instant death in the tent.

  After last night's events, everyone has added a lot of goodwill to this snow python, and they have also changed their views on it. Under the low temperature where even mammoths can be frozen to death in an instant, this snow python can still be unharmed, and it can even safely shed its skin for us to keep warm. It can be seen that the four spirits of snakes recorded in "Ba Bao Xiang Ming Shu" are not just nonsense. This giant python is indeed as described in legend, with the ability to penetrate heaven and earth.

  I also don't know what kind of strange encounter my father had back then, that he was able to tame such a fierce giant python. What can be confirmed is that his experience leading the Dragon Gate transmission mountain bandits in a fierce battle must have been another thrilling adventure story.

  After crossing the glacier, a snow-capped peak stood before our eyes. Liu Dapao pointed at the peak and said to us: "It's this mountain peak. We were searching for the Orchid Palace here years ago. The master had studied 'The Picture of Orchid Fairy' for a long time and was convinced that the divine tomb must be inside this mountain peak."

  I raised my head and gazed up at the towering snow-capped peak in front of me, wondering just how large this Lan Palace was supposed to be. The top was a vast expanse of white snow, and deep within it must have been tens of feet of accumulated snow. Even if the palace wasn't embedded within the mountain itself, but merely buried under ice and snow, it wouldn't be so easily found.

  The original plan was for Liu Dapao to lead us to the location of the Lan Palace on Mount Chuanhao, and then we would think of a way to find it. But now that Xuepang is leading the way for everyone, it's saved us a lot of trouble. I squatted down and patted Xuepang's head, pointing at the snow-capped peak in front of us: "Uncle Piao, from now on we'll have to rely on you to guide us."

  The snow python nodded to me and walked towards the snowy peak, and everyone followed with their equipment. After about half an hour, they arrived at the foot of the snowy peak. The snow python didn't stop but turned a corner and climbed westward around the snowy peak. Liu Dapao asked strangely: "Not going up the mountain?"

  I said to Liu Dapao, "Just follow Brother Mangzi, I suppose you all miscalculated back then. The entrance to the Orchid Palace might not be on the mountain peak, but rather at the foot of the mountain."

  Liu Dapao said: "In the past, the master of the house once said that this snowy peak is surrounded by three ridges, which is the 'Jiutian' land in Feng Shui. Its momentum has the power of 99 reversals against heaven. It must be the secret site of Lan Gong's tomb. However, the dragon is hidden at the bottom and the earth energy is supported by the vein eye. Only a certain place within a radius of one mile on the mountain can possibly be the location of Lan Gong's tomb. In that case, how could the grave door of Lan Gong's tomb open at the foot of the mountain?"

  I heard Liu Dapao say that, and when I looked around, I found that this snow peak was surrounded by three heavenly ravines. In the "Wang Feng Mi Long Shu" (a book on geomancy), such a place is called "Qiu Tian Zhi Di", with terrain sloping southward, against the dragon vein, possessing the 99th reverse heaven variation. This snow peak belongs to a branch of the main dragon vein of the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain, and its earth energy is restricted by the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain, so the dragon energy flows at the foot of the mountain, and the earth energy supported by the dragon energy presents a majestic momentum on the mountain top. Therefore, there must be a place with an area of about one square mile in the mountain peak, which is the feng shui treasure hole of the entire snow peak, bearing the two characters "reverse heaven". If you want to build an underground palace here, its location will definitely be within this one-square-mile range.

  So, the scale of this Orchid Palace is probably quite large, with its main works built in the treasure cave on the snowy peak, and virtual positions scattered throughout the mountain body, so that the tomb gate was even set up at the foot of the mountain.

  "Youzi said to me at this time: 'The Jade Dragon Snow Mountain is tens of kilometers in circumference, don't look at the small snow peak, actually we need to circle around it, which is equivalent to circling a big city. If the main site of Lan Palace is only within a radius of one kilometer, then it's normal that Liu Daxiong and others couldn't find Lan Palace back then. I think we should also prepare for a protracted war, and try to save as much supplies as possible, there's no food in the ancient tomb.'"

  I said to Youzi, "What you said is exactly what I wanted to say. Although we have brought a lot of supplies this time, we should also make long-term plans. This place is rarely visited by people and has been isolated from the world for thousands of years. Who knows what's inside this snow-capped peak? If there are 'dead ends' like 'Touzi Cave' inside, it won't take too many to delay us for several days."

  Su Qin said: "The Ya Shen tribe is powerful, but in an era where even historical records cannot be recorded, their tools must be very rudimentary. Especially for a project like opening mountains and building tombs, without specific tools, no amount of manpower would be useful. So I guess there should be extremely vast natural underground spaces within this snowy peak. As long as we follow the trend of the rock layers, we should be able to reach the deepest part quickly."

  I said to Su Qin, "What you say is right, but this is the sacred place of the Ya Shen Gu tribe. There are countless mechanisms guarding the underground palace, and it's not easy to get to the deepest part. In short, we have to be prepared for the worst."

  As they spoke, the crowd walked to a low-lying area, where the snow was very deep, reaching up to their calves. Strangely, there was still a layer of thin ice on top of the snow. When I first stepped on it, I thought it was just an ordinary icy path, but unexpectedly, the thin ice cracked, and my calf sank straight in, almost spraining my ankle. So I warned everyone to be careful, as the bottom of this thin ice may not all be snow, and there might be hidden ice pits; if you fall in, it's dangerous.

  Youzi stepped on this layer of "ice sandwiched with snow" with one foot deep and the other shallow, and said strangely: "This phenomenon is really strange, how did it form?"

  Su Qin said: "I also find it strange, I've never heard of a surface that's ice on top and snow below. It feels like there was a fire that melted the surface snow and then formed a thin layer of ice. But this should be man-made, do you think it could be those 'black button' people who made the snowy ground look like this? Could there be a trap underneath?"

  I said, "It's unlikely. This thin ice has a uniform thickness and the surface is as smooth as a mirror. Even the world's most skilled ice sculptor would have trouble creating this kind of terrain, let alone those rough 'Black Button' people. Besides, instead of wasting energy on such an intricate trap, they might as well put more effort into Lan Palace, who knows, they might succeed."

  Liu Dapao agreed with what I said, but he couldn't figure out how this ground was formed either. He told us that this place is really damn strange and we should be careful, as we've probably already approached the entrance to the tomb by now. From now on, everyone needs to be cautious and not trigger any traps in the ancient tomb.

  As soon as he finished speaking, the snow python stopped and poked its head into a hole in the ground, calling out to us softly. I knew that this was the entrance to the Orchid Palace, so I called on everyone to take out their shovels and dig at the spot where the python had pointed. We broke through the thin layer of ice on the surface and then used folding shovels to clear away the accumulated snow.

  After shoveling away the snow, we saw a layer of hard ice underneath, which seemed to be a branch of some ice vein, but didn't know where the entrance to the ancient tomb was. At this time, the snow python continued to nod its head towards the hard ice, as if saying that the entrance was still under this layer of hard ice.

  Oil son exerted himself and struck the ice with a pickaxe, only to hear a loud clang. To his surprise, only a small white mark appeared on the surface of the ice. He hadn't expected the ice to be so hard that it numbed his wrist with just one strike. Startled, he threw down the ice pick and rubbed his palm, exclaiming: "Damn, how can it be so hard?"

  Liu Dapao opened his backpack and took out several glass bottles, saying to the crowd: "This ice layer on Snow Peak is not ordinary, it needs to be watered with ginger water first. After the ginger water seeps in, the ice layer will loosen up before we can dig."

  After saying that, he drew a square frame of about five square meters on the ice layer and poured ginger water on it. As soon as the surface of the hard ice came into contact with the ginger water, it began to melt. Liu Dapao let everyone retreat and waited for the ginger water to penetrate the ice layer before digging. Not long after, cracks appeared in the ice layer. I picked up the iron hoe and struck it down fiercely, and heard a "plop" sound. The ice at the bottom was like tofu, opening with a loud noise.

  "Now it's easy," said Liu Dapao. "Just be careful when you're chiseling the ice, don't make too much noise, and be careful not to trigger an avalanche."

  Youzi picked up a folding shovel and began digging, saying: "I'm not worried about the avalanche, but those 'Black Button' people had better not be around. If they've set an ambush for us, that would be a real death trap!"

  I said to Youzi, "Don't worry about 'Hei Niukou' either. Since they haven't been found around here, it means that these people still don't know the location of Lan Palace's entrance and are definitely still searching all over the mountain."

  Just as I was about to lift my head to look up the mountain, I suddenly heard Su Qin's voice ringing in my ear: "Shh, don't make a sound!"