Mutation 0033

  Hei Shu suddenly burst out laughing, and upon hearing the sound, I turned my head to look at him. In my impression, Hei Shu had never had such an expression before; it was as if I had never seen him laugh before, but rather his appearance seemed like he was excitedly unable to control himself.

  "Ten years ago, I found a scroll in an antique shop that recorded the pattern of the Longevity Bowl. At that time, I didn't believe the legend about the Longevity Bowl at all, which was spreading very fiercely in Taoism. Until one day, I discovered such a pair of bowls in a tomb, with colors as white as jade and not a single flaw. Unfortunately, they were fake..." Hei Shu said, hiding something obvious while speaking.

  How did he discover that the two bowls were fake? Was it only when he saw this bowl that he realized the previous ones were fake? But to me, Hei Shu's expression when he saw Qi Xie holding the bowl seemed as if he had already known there would be a bowl on the altar. Yet, why did he lie? I was about to ask him, but at this moment, the Longevity Bowl in front of us suddenly disappeared, replaced by a transparent stone wall that blocked the bowl.

  "You little scoundrel...!" Hei Shu was the first to blow his top, with a gun in his hand directly pointing at Qi Xie's head. His gaze was so fierce that he seemed like he wanted to shoot Qi Xie dead on the spot.

  "Hei Shu, don't be so excited..." I hastily pulled on Hei Shu's arm, and at that moment, the bronze door suddenly let out a loud rumble. A crack split open from the bronze door, and our group of people were all shocked by what was happening in front of us. Hei Shu's hand happened to press down on the trigger, accidentally firing it, and the direction it was pointing was actually where Qi Xie was standing. Qi Xie's figure flashed like a ghost, dodging behind the bronze door just in time, while a shot went into the room.

  "Hurry up and follow him, don't let him get away." Hei Shu pushed my hand away, rushed forward, and darted through that door.

  Right after that, when I and Xiao Shou Hou were about to go in, the small door in front of us suddenly healed quickly with a "whooshing" sound, even the small gap was gone, in an instant, the change was so great.

  "It's all your fault, we've been at it for half a day and still can't get in." The thin monkey kicked the bronze door with one foot, scolding as he kicked, his face black like coal.

  "We can't get in, there must be another entrance." I muttered to myself, my emotions not as excited as Xiao Shou's, perhaps because I had already gotten used to the strange changes in the tomb, and didn't have that heart-chilling feeling like when I first came in, seeming somewhat calm.

  The bald man shook his head, explaining disappointedly: "You don't know that the Longevity Bowl is the key to opening this place. It was opened once before, about thirty years ago, and both bowls were gone. How easy do you think it is to get in?"

  Thirty years ago?

  The Longevity Bowls are a pair of bowls that have never been apart, but this time, we only see one bowl, so where is the other one?

  "Then can we find another bowl?" I was quite puzzled in my heart, it seemed that this bald head knew a lot of things.

  "Xiao Jiu Ye, you also saw it just now, what's the price of opening the bronze door? Come and take a look." The bald man beckoned to me, pointing at the transparent stone wall, and said with great regret: "Once the Longsheng Bowl opens this door, it will be locked by another protective barrier. I reckon the tomb owner wants to protect these two bowls well."

  I and Xiao Shou Hou both went over, following the direction of the bald head's pointing, only to see that behind the transparent stone wall was a pure white jade-like bowl. The bottom of the bowl no longer had lotus flowers or radiant white light, but it seemed to give people a very comfortable and relaxed feeling, especially when gazing at it. I felt like my eyes had a kind of magical sensation, a relaxation that made my originally tired eyes feel refreshed in an instant, just like a wake-up medicine.

  "Can this thing really make one immortal?" asked Xiao Shou Huan with shining eyes.

  "Whether or not one can live forever, that's really unknown. Many people spend their entire lives for the sake of this thing." The bald man rubbed his completely bald head and said helplessly.

  "Ah......" At this time, I let out a loud cry of surprise. The thin monkey glared at me and complained, "You're so jumpy, you'll scare people to death."

  I grasped the thin monkey's arm tightly with both hands and exclaimed excitedly, "Do you see? The other bowl is right inside!"

  "Where?" The thin monkey was even more anxious than I was. He opened his eyes wide and stared intently at the spot.

  "Right behind that bowl, look to your left and tilt to the smallest angle, there's a tiny gap." I said it directly.

  That point, no larger than a needle head, was just visible in a dead angle that belonged not to the bowl but to another bowl.

  So now both bowls have gone inside.

  The owner of the tomb thought it through, people who want to enter the bronze gate must rely on these two bowls, only then can they enter. Once inside, the two bowls are completely safe, thereby achieving the purpose of protecting the Longevity Bowl.

  But is it really that easy to get in through the Bronze Gate? Hei Shu said that after passing through the Bronze Gate, there's actually a tomb, a real tomb. This outer part is just for show, meant to confuse people and prevent grave robbers. Now that I think about it, the owner of this tomb is really something else. The whole way here has been full of traps, enough to kill you many times over if you're not careful.

  This is just the beginning, as Xiao Shou Hou said, this is just an appetizer, and the big meal is yet to come. Thinking of this, my heart suddenly cooled down by half. Whether it can enter the Bronze Gate or not is still a question.

  "How can I not see it?" Little Skinny Monkey maintained this posture, staring inside for a while, and then started complaining loudly.

  I slapped him on the forehead and scolded: "Are you nearsighted or something? It's so obvious, can't you see?"

  "You're the one who's nearsighted, my eyesight is top-notch, I can see ants 100 meters away clearly." Little Skinny Monkey said with discontent.

  "One hundred meters?" I chuckled, this guy was really reckless with his bragging.

  Finally, the thin monkey withdrew its head, turned around and said to me with a serious face: "What you said is not true, there is no second bowl on that side. The left side of the bowl was worn out a bit, so it had a dot. Because this stone wall is like a mirror, it created an illusion."

  "How is this possible?" I exclaimed in surprise, and then leaned against the stone wall to look over again. Having had previous experience, I quickly caught that point.

  No matter how you look at it, it's still the same, nothing has changed.

  Then, Xiao Shou Hou smiled with a hint of sarcasm: "You should know about refraction of light, shouldn't you?"

  "Nonsense, of course I know," I replied immediately. Since I was young, I haven't had much interest in studying. But after entering junior high school and coming into contact with physics, having done a few experiments, I suddenly developed some interest in learning. Often secretly conducting these boring experiments, but at that time, I didn't feel bored, just full of great curiosity.

  Refraction of light is the bending of light as it passes from one medium to another with a different optical density. The most common example is when a pencil is placed in a glass of water, appearing to be bent. This occurs because light travels at different speeds through air and water.

  "You, with grades that can't be described as anything but terrible, at your age, you don't even have a good grasp of middle school knowledge. Look at me, I've already mastered all the subjects in university." The small monkey was smug and arrogant, flaunting his own achievements.

  "I know you're great, but these two mediums are both air, how can refraction occur? Are you telling me that refraction can happen in the air too? This is all just air, what's there to refract?! I was so angry I almost pounced on him and hit him. But I restrained myself, because frankly, I already know what kind of person this little monkey is. Arguing with him would only lower my own IQ."

  But in my heart, I was thinking that if I weren't Si and were born with a golden key, with a rich material foundation, who would still be busy running around for that little bit of money every day? To be honest, these aren't things that can be changed by just being willing or not. I'm just doing my best to change, I'm working hard to study, but studying is something that doesn't have fate with me, no matter how much effort I put in, I still can't reach the goals I want.

  In short, the goal of becoming a high-achieving rich and handsome man is not a journey that can be accomplished in one step, it's a long expedition.

  The little monkey squinted his small eyes and smiled so hard that he was bent over: "You've always been paying attention to the goal, but you've neglected what's in front of you. Your eyes have always been fixed on that bowl, but you haven't noticed the protective screen of that bowl, which is this transparent thing. I suppose we should give it a name - mirror. You can treat it as a mirror. You didn't even notice that this thing is incredibly transparent, not a bit like stone."

  "Even if it has a stone component, this thing is a medium, different from air. The line of sight starts from the air, passes through the stone, and looks past it. Due to the refraction of light, there will be a certain angle difference. It just so happens that the wear on the bowl is at that point, so you think it's another bowl."

  What Xiao Shou Hou said makes sense, but whether that bowl was damaged or not can only be known by asking Qi Xie.

  If there isn't another bowl here, then where would the other one be? It's said that the Longevity Bowls are inseparable, just like a bow and arrow aren't separated from each other.

  Looking at the transparent "mirror" in front of me, I reached out to touch it, hard, cold, but with a somewhat comfortable feeling. No matter how I felt, this thing was very hard, but what my eyes saw looked like ripples of light, yes, inside it seemed to be filled with water.

  Why is there such a feeling? It's like touching a huge crystal ball with one's own hands, right, the crystal ball?

  "Quickly get out the crystal ball you made before." I pushed the thin monkey and shouted.

  "What's wrong?" The thin monkey looked extremely vigilant, as if I was going to snatch something from him.

  "Don't be coy, hurry up and take it out to see if it's in the same medium as this 'mirror'."

  The thin monkey looked hesitant after hearing me, and finally nodded. He reached into his backpack, rummaged around for a few seconds with a pale face, and then dumped everything out of the bag.

  "It's gone..."