??

  The fat-faced man opposite me changed color, I shouted: "Don't move!", but he still moved, extremely fast, his body flashed inside and disappeared without a trace.

  "What is it?" I put down the gun and asked Cha Wenbin: "Actually, I also think that if he really is Fatso, it would be great."

  "He's not necessarily a fatty!" Cha Wenbin patted my shoulder and said, "Let's go, catch up with him. Anyway, there's no way out behind us, we have no choice."

  "What about the dragon?" I meant, are we just going to abandon him like that? Is he dead or alive, who knows, and have those plate-sized spiders sucked it into an empty skin already.

  "Can't take care of so many things, some people will always die, he died for us too, at least let him die with some value, the unfulfilled wishes he had can be fulfilled by us instead."

  A step away, perhaps it's just a different sky. I've experienced death more than once, but none of those times made me feel the weight on my shoulders as heavy as now. If I was a frivolous and arrogant young man before, then now I'm more like a warrior, a man fighting for his responsibilities.

  He may not be a fatty! This is the signal given by Cha Wenbin.

  I took a deep breath and muttered to myself: "Fatty, wait for me, I'm coming!"

  Sticking to the edge, one person holding onto another, I led the way, Ye Qiudian followed behind. With every step, I carefully and deliberately trod on each inch of land beneath my feet. Fortunately, there was no collapse as imagined, by the time we reached the stone gate, I was already drenched in sweat, with a wet palm. Taking another deep breath to explore the stone gate ahead, before I could even poke my head inside, someone pulled me back, Ye Qiudian unceremoniously yanked me behind him and stretched out his five fingers to lightly touch the door.

  This guy is always unreasonable, with an expressionless face he closed his eyes as if feeling something, after a while he said: "About twenty meters, there's movement, living things."

  "After all, we're old friends. Those who are destined to meet will meet anyway." Zhang Wenbin whispered to me, "Later when you see him, don't shoot. There aren't many people in this world who can call out our names."

  That's true, the "fat guy" from just now, whether it was his demeanor or voice, could almost be judged to be him, especially his laugh, which was still so bright and cheerful, audible from several streets away. Fat guy, what on earth happened to you?

  Gently, Ye Qiu moved his feet and seemed to pass through the door like a ghost, silently and unnoticed. Just as half of his body had passed through, I heard Cha Wenbin shout: "Wait!" But Ye Qiu didn't stop; his other shoulder was about to disappear from our line of sight. At this moment, Cha Wenbin yelled at me: "Xiao Yi, quickly grab hold of him!"

  This happened too quickly, so that when I reacted everything was too late. My hand and his hand brushed past each other, just a thread away from touching. When I thought of taking another step forward to stretch into the door, I had already been pulled back by Zha Wenbin. His face was full of uneasy emotions: "Just now, he didn't hear."

  I comforted myself: "It's normal, Er Dai has always been deaf to outside matters."

  "I just saw him go in and suddenly remembered that it was also them who went into the coffin one after another at that time. The scene hadn't appeared in my mind for a long time, but just now, it flashed by again, I'm a little scared."

  "'Sixth sense?' He said that, and I became even more worried. So I said: 'His sixth sense has always been more accurate than ours. If there's danger, he should be able to feel it himself. As you said, we've come this far, if we don't go now, we'll have to go eventually. Otherwise, Wenbin, take a rope and tie me up, I'll go in first, if something happens, you pull me out, if nothing happens, I'll pull you in.'"

  "I'll go in then."

  "No, you've always taken care of me, now it's my turn." I said as I took out a climbing rope from my backpack and tied a knot around my wrist. The other end was thrown to the ground. "There may be our brother inside," I told him, "This time, I don't want to be so far away from him."

  Turning around, I took a step forward, and a wave of cold air hit me in the face. All I could hear was the "whooshing" sound of the wind beside my ears, no wonder Ye Qiu didn't hear anything. The rope on my wrist was tied tightly, as I entered the door, it was pitch black. I patted the miner's lamp on my head, but this little light seemed to be swallowed up by the darkness, and my surroundings were a blur. Leaning against the stone gate, I dared not relax, holding the five-sixths tightly in my hand.

  "Old Two!" I shouted, and the empty world made my voice particularly ethereal, this emptiness making my heart feel a little dizzy.

  "Ye Qiu!" I shouted again, and the only response was still my own echo. I pulled on the rope in my hand, it's good that it's sturdy, I think Wen Bin should be able to feel it, after all, we're just a door apart.

  Suddenly, my shoulder was tapped by someone, and I reflexively shouted: "Who!"

  "Me!" Cha Wenbin said in a low voice: "Where is Ye Qiu?"

  "You're really quick." I thought to myself, wondering if this guy had been following me and slipped in behind my back. "I don't know, I shouted several times but no one responded. It's like the fog is really thick here, you can't see a thing."

  "Uh, you can even squeeze water out of your hair." Zha Wenbin replied and patted me, saying: "Turn off the light, save some electricity. In a place like this, it's better to walk with your heart than with your eyes."

  "I explained: 'Cha Ye, I don't have any special abilities.'"

  He took a step forward with the rope in his hand and said, "Follow me, I feel that his breath is just nearby."

  He walks, I follow, and it becomes like this again. It seems that the roles between him and me are forever set with him leading me. I smile wryly, why am I always the one who needs to be taken care of in your eyes?

  All around was a vast darkness, and from time to time the sound of shoes and puddles came from underfoot with a "slap" sound. My eyebrows were condensed into big drops of water, which made me very uncomfortable, so I just closed my eyes.

  Like this, I followed behind him and walked, also don't know how long it took until he finally stopped.

  "Are we there?" I opened my eyes, still darkness. I was afraid he would suddenly disappear too, so I tightly grasped his arm and asked: "Have you found Lao Er?"

  "It's really strange." Zhang Wenbin turned around and said to me, "I clearly feel that he is by our side, but why can't we bump into him? If he saw us, he shouldn't be silent either."

  "How long have we been walking?" I randomly turned on the headlamp, and at this moment, I found that we were still by the stone gate. This was strange, as we had walked in a circle and returned to our original position. However, the thick fog seemed to have dispersed, and there were some scattered rocks around us.

  Cha Wenbin's expression was somewhat excited, he stared at the stone gate behind him and said: "Xiao Yi, I think we may have walked out."

  "Where did you go?"

  "I don't know how to explain it to you," Zhang Wenbin pointed to a nearby place and said, "Look at that, what is that thing?"

  That was a huge object with four legs supporting it, and on top of it there was something that looked like a large box. The first reaction that jumped into my mind was, this thing shouldn't be a tripod, should it?!

  I've never been to a museum, and I've never seen the actual Ding vessel before. But I have read about it in books, and I remember the illustrations of this type of vessel from my textbooks. However, they didn't seem as large as this one - it's almost as tall as a two-story building! As my headlamp shone on the Ding, a sheet of golden light flashed, and it was so dazzling that it almost blinded me.

  The surface of that tripod was covered with all sorts of patterns I had never seen before, and its beauty was so stunning that it made me feel numb. I exclaimed: "Good heavens, could it be true what the old man said?"

  "Let's go and take a look."

  "Treasure!" I shouted: "I'm coming!"

  Perhaps it was the first time I encountered such a rare object that made me temporarily forget where Ye Qiu had gone, but this was only temporary. Because soon, I met him again, only this time, Ye Qiu appeared in front of me in another way, a completely different way.

  This tripod is indeed very majestic, one of its legs is as high as a floor, I stretched out my arms to try to hug it and still missed about an arm's distance. The golden light all over seems to be unable to see the dust of history, the reliefs full of artistic sense seem to tell different stories from the first glance, and some of those stories are ones that I have heard before.

  Zha Wenbin gently stroked the thick tripod leg, he raised his head and gazed up at this divine wonder, he pulled me back, all the way until I could see the entire tripod, then he said: "Shine a light on it, I want to take a look at that carving at the very top!"

  What a painting it is! Perhaps I should use a story to describe it more appropriately, because this relief is too shocking and complicated.

  The bas-relief starts from a circle, in the midst of which is Chaos at the beginning. All living things are non-existent and heaven and earth are connected as one piece. Only amidst it is a Chaotic Green Lotus being nurtured. The lotus has five leaves, twenty-four petals on its flower, and forms a lotus seed. After billions of years, in the lotus seed, there vaguely appears a human figure.

  After a long, long time, the person in the lotus seed grew up. He held an axe and was Pangu. Pangu used his axe to separate heaven and earth. The light and clear things slowly rose and dispersed, becoming the blue sky; while the thick and turbid things slowly descended, becoming the land underfoot. With his own divine power, Pangu finally opened up heaven and earth.

  But Pangu was also exhausted to death. Before his death, the air he breathed out turned into floating clouds of the four seasons; His left eye became the sun and his right eye became the moon; Hair and beard turned into stars in the night sky; His body turned into the four poles of east, west, south and north, and the majestic Three Mountains and Five Peaks, while his spine became the Zhounan Mountain Range between heaven and earth...

  His blood turned into rivers; his veins became roads; his muscles turned into farmland; his teeth, bones and bone marrow turned into underground minerals; his skin and hair turned into grass and trees on the ground, and his sweat turned into rain. His navel transformed into a sea of blood, which was tens of thousands of miles in circumference, with rolling waves of blood inside, where no fish or shrimp lived, nor did any birds or insects come near. The heaven and earth's vital energy all gathered here, and the people of the vast wilderness called this place the "Blood Sea of the Underworld".

  "Little memory, you see, at the moment when Pangu fell, three clear airs and twelve turbid airs escaped from his body. This is consistent with our Taoist teachings. The three clear airs rose to become Taichu Taishang Laojun, Yuqing Yuan Shitianzun, and Shangqing Tongtian Daoren. The twelve turbid airs descended and transformed into the twelve ancestral witches: Chouxu: the ancestral witch of metal. Jumang: the ancestral witch of wood. Gonggong: the ancestral witch of water. Zhurong: the ancestral witch of fire. Tianhao: the ancestral witch of wind. Xuanying: the ancestral witch of rain. Qiangliang: the ancestral witch of thunder. Xizhi: the ancestral witch of lightning. Dijiang: the ancestral witch of space and speed. Zhujiuyin: the ancestral witch of time. Shebi Shi: the ancestral witch of heavenly energy. Houtu: the ancestral witch of earth."

  He looked at his axe and it had transformed into a Tai Chi diagram, while his Primordial Spirit Lotus was damaged due to the opening of heaven and earth. The twenty-four petals of the lotus flower turned into twenty-four jade slips that recorded the Three Thousand Great Ways. Later, they were obtained by Hong Jun, who used them to enlighten himself. The five leaves of the Primordial Spirit Lotus transformed into the Ten Great Innate Spiritual Treasures: the Five Elements Flag, the Qian Kun Ding, the Twelve Ranks Lotus Platform, the Mountain and River Sheji Tu, the Hetu Luoshu, the Seven Treasure Mysterious Tree, the Heavenly Book, the Earthly Book, the Netherworld Book, and the Red Tassel Ball. Only the lotus stem was nowhere to be found, which left me feeling utterly shocked."

  As he listened to the endless narrative about the gold tripod's relief, his eyes had already begun to grow increasingly fanatical. A devout religious person, who had heard these legends countless times from books and seniors, still couldn't help but wonder: were these really true?

  One day you suddenly discover that these so-called "legends" may actually exist, and your faith is not just spiritual food, then all of this could be rewritten!

  ...