"Many die, few die, anyway we all die, right? Then I'll do this business too, choose the one with fewer deaths. [Burn^Book^Kitchen]...[774][buy]..." Zha Wenbin thought for a moment and said: "Ye Huan, do you know him?"

  Bing Congzi's cheek twitched involuntarily, and he looked at Cha Wenbin slowly. When he heard the name "Ye Huan", he seemed to be very decadent, and even his shoulders sank down.

  "He said he was my father and that's how I knew my name was Ye Qiu. When I woke up, I didn't remember anything, including who I was. But he wasn't my father, we weren't related by blood."

  "How did you know he wasn't?"

  "My intuition, my gut tells me he's trouble."

  Cha Wenbin took a step forward, getting very close to Ye Qiu, and asked, "Where is he?"

  Ye Qiu shook his head and said: "I don't know, I've only seen him that one time."

  "When?" "Three months ago."

  He hung his head, his hair covering half of his face, he was very thin, and his clothes couldn't hide the desolation on him. In a daze, I felt that this person seemed to be a knight-errant, a decadent knight-errant, withered and sorrowful.

  "When I woke up, I was already there. Then he told me that I was injured and it was him who saved me." He slowly opened his clothes, revealing a long scar about half the length of his forearm from his left shoulder to his right abdomen, which made people feel shocked by its severity!

  Fatso said: "The wound is continuous and smooth, it's a knife wound."

  "It's not..." Ye Qiu shook his head and said, "This is a scratch, I only remember the last scene, my surroundings were pitch black, then a hand stretched out in front of me and flashed before my eyes, I saw that claw, sharper than a knife. This is also the only thing I remember."

  "So why did you come here?"

  "That person outside called me over, but I feel like I've been here before, it's really familiar, but I don't know when I came."

  "What else do you remember?" Cha Wenbin pointed at the pillar and said: "What's on top of that?"

  "It's a Ding." As soon as he said this, everyone was shocked. A Ding... even I knew what that thing meant...

  Ye Qiu continued: "The pillar is hollow inside, and below it is the underground palace. I vaguely remember that I have been down there before."

  "Come on, what are we waiting for? Let's pry open the coffin and get out of here."

  "Somebody will die." Ye Qiu reminded: "My intuition tells me that one of us will be left behind."

  "There are five of us in total, which is a 20% chance. I'm pretty lucky, don't you think? What about you guys?"

  I laughed and said, "As for gambling, I've never participated because nine out of ten times it's a scam. I'm too honest. But as for risking my life, I'm not afraid. We're all just one arm against another head, so let's see who's tougher. However, Teacher Gu, your bet is quite unfair."

  The old man gently brushed off the dust on his shoes and adjusted his collar, saying: "I'm an old bone anyway, I won't live for much longer. If I really can die here, it's also a good place to die."

  Cha Wenbin saw that they had all made up their minds and said: "Since it's like this, then let's each accept our fate, take the things and leave!"

  "Wait, I still don't know what you're going to take?"

  Cha Wenbin and Ye Qiu said in unison: "A jade pendant."

  That pillar said it's really hard to climb, I think my tree-climbing skills are still okay. The pillar has branches on both sides, about 1.5 meters apart between the two roots, and they're distributed in a crisscross pattern. You have to climb up the left side first, then move to the right side, then climb up one root, and then switch sides again. The problem is that those branches are extremely sharp, with edges and corners, and your palms can get embedded in them when you grab onto them. This pillar is also nearly 30 meters away from the ground, and it's emitting a golden glow, but I don't know what material it's made of.

  Ye Qiu still went up first as before, I and Pangzi could barely make it, but Gu Lao was miserable. I asked Pangzi to tie a rope between him and Gu Lao, at least giving him some insurance, this is what it means to risk one's life for scientific research.

  I climbed up and looked, and indeed it was hollow. The hole in the middle was large enough for an adult to enter and exit. I shone my light inside, but couldn't see the bottom. Fatso picked up a stone from the tree roots above his head and threw it down. Half a minute passed, and I still didn't hear any echo coming from inside...

  "Girl, is this Bottomless Pit? I wonder if a spider spirit lives inside."

  Right above my head was the nest, and in the middle of the intersecting tree roots, Ye Qiu had already dug out a hole the size of a washbasin. I took a glance, it was an ancient bronze object, with very intricate patterns on it, vaguely recognizable as a beast-shaped pattern, only a small part of which was exposed, I saw a wing and two legs.

  Guo Lao was extremely interested in the pattern and said, "If this thing can be cleaned up, it must be a shocking great divine object. Such a large amount of red bronze is very rare!"

  "Is this red copper?" I had never heard of such a copper before.

  "It's extremely rare, and the process of making such an object is very cruel. I was once fortunate enough to see one at the British Museum, which was looted from the Forbidden City during the Eight-Nation Alliance invasion of China. It was also in the shape of a tripod, but much smaller than this one. About the size of a spittoon used in our household before. Guess where it was found?"

  I shook my head, and Old Gu said: "In the Gongyi Villa of the Forbidden City, don't be surprised. In the past, there was also a Gongyi Villa in the Forbidden City, all of whom were some royal family members who died under unclear circumstances. The royal family had many abnormal deaths, most of which were due to power struggles. Before the specific cause of death was clarified, these corpses were placed in a room on the west side of the Forbidden City, which is now also not open to the outside world, and is considered a forbidden area of the Forbidden City.

  That tripod was found by the British devils in a hall full of coffins in the Yi Zong Da Tang, and at first they thought it was red copper. They took it back because its shape was quite strange, but later research showed that it was not like red copper. The smelting of this kind of copperware is only briefly mentioned on some silk fragments from the Warring States period, which says that it was quenched with the blood of war prisoners. The most wonderful thing about this copper vessel is that the patterns on its inner wall are irregular lines, just like the ice cracks on Chinese Ge kiln porcelain, very exquisite. However, this exquisiteness is based on death, and the ancients believed that objects smelted with blood had the effect of warding off evil spirits and suppressing evil ghosts, so they put it in the Yi Zong Da Tang in the Forbidden City.

  "Is there such an evil thing?" Cha Wenbin raised his head, looked at the exposed pattern, and used his hand to pull it down: "Young brother, can you cut off all these tree roots, wrapped around these things, this tree must also be extremely yin."

  Ye Qiu picked up the knife in his hand and started chopping, saying: "You're right, many people have hanged themselves on this tree above our heads."

  "How did you know? Is it intuition again?"

  "No, I remembered something. A few years ago, I did come here and found that a tree had frequent hangings, almost every three years someone would go. The tree was also cut down, it's said that lightning struck the person who cut the tree, killing them too, after that no one dared to touch it again. It turns out that this place is haunted, what's the use of not getting rid of the root?"

  His knife was indeed fast, and his hands were even faster. With a few swift chops, the tree roots fell to the ground in large chunks, all within the time it took to smoke a cigarette. A giant cauldron, big enough for four grown men to sit inside, had three legs and two handles, each with two chains extending outwards from them. In the middle of the cauldron was a ring that hung from the top, perfectly encircling the thick tree root.

  I immediately understood: "What a great idea, use trees to fix this tripod, as long as the tree doesn't fall, it will always be hanging here."

  On the Ding, there were four animal patterns carved, and Gu Lao accurately reported the names of these animals: "Taotie, Hundun, Taichu, and Qiongqi!"

  Cha Wenbin nodded and said, "The four great evil beasts are indeed capable of warding off evil. With these four things on top watching over us, perhaps what that young man said will come true - no one will die down here."

  He stroked the tripod with his hand, shining a flashlight on those textures and said: "Looking at the cloud and thunder pattern craftsmanship, it should be before the Spring and Autumn period, somewhat similar to the Shang Dynasty bronze ware style. Generally, bronze wares are cast for certain events and will leave inscriptions to explain the purpose of this object. Help me go in and take a look."

  "Sir, are you really going in?" Ye Qiu asked coldly.

  "Go ahead," said Gu Lao firmly, "just take a look at the inscription and you will get the information."

  "I advise you, sir, not to go in, you might regret it."

  Guo Lao smiled and said, "Indeed, at his level, he should be calm. Especially for someone who studies ancient culture." He continued, "Young man, I've seen too many things in my lifetime, nothing can scare me anymore."

  Ye Qiu heard this and also shifted his body to make way, Old Gu walked over, I and Pangzi supported his waist, Old Gu exerted a bit of strength and climbed up. After climbing up, it was less than three seconds when I heard him shout: "Ah!" I clearly felt his body trembling, then he waved his hands vigorously: "Put me down, it's really too cruel!"

  The old man trembled slightly as he landed, supporting himself with his eyes and said: "There are two corpses inside, one is human and the other is a snake. It can be seen that it was still an infant, its skeleton was in the belly of that snake, already compressed into a ball, so pitiful, how can it be so cruel?"

  The scene was silent, and as a person with some conscience, one couldn't bear to look at the scene. In any case, it was a life, and dying in that way was somewhat too cruel.

  Just as I hadn't had time to digest the scene that Mr. Gu brought before me, an even more unbearable picture appeared:

  "You probably haven't taken a closer look, there's a hook on the neck of that baby's corpse. Someone used that child as bait to fish for that snake..."