Cha Wenbin didnt dare to be careless, the three of them didnt separate, and they were extremely cautious along the way. During the daytime search, there were several special temples in the middle of the village, distributed in all four directions, but the doors were all locked. Although it was daytime, when they looked inside through the door gap, it was also pitch black. They had also shouted outside the door, but didnt get a response and left.

  This time, the three of them followed Cha Wenbin to that ancestral hall first. Every ancestral hall has a plaque and a couplet. During the day, Cha Wenbin had discovered that this ancestral hall surprisingly didnt have a plaque, only a pair of couplets with blurred characters: Support the peoples livelihoods and make it known for thousands of years, Harmonize yin and yang to ward off evil in all directions.

  After arriving at the ancestral hall, he signaled to everyone not to make a sound. Cha Wenbin put his ear against the wall and listened for half a day without getting any results. The door still had some remaining red paint, and an old copper lock with a green patina was locked on it. The door handle was also made of copper. Supers headlamp shone on the door, and after taking a closer look, he exclaimed in surprise and said softly: "Look at this door handle, doesnt it resemble the faces of those two stone statues we saw at the village entrance this morning?"

  Along his fingers, indeed, the two door rings were a square human face, with particularly large eyes, and in the middle of the mouth, each biting a copper ring, that huge copper lock was hanging on the copper ring! It seems that this village has a special reverence for this facial shape!

  "Hey, Im saying, cant all of our ancestors be like this, square heads and big eyes? How come they dont look like me or my dad at all..."

  Chaozi patted Zhais head: "You dont understand, this is abstract art. Ive studied a bit of Cuban culture, who has a square brain in this world? Come on, lets open the lock first, Wenbin brother, right?"

  Cha Wenbin ignored the two rascals, using his fingers to pinch the copper lock, which was very heavy. The lock was an older type, with a copper core passing through a copper ring and clasped on both sides. This mechanism should not be able to hold back the three of them. Just as Cha Wenbin lifted the lock, the blind man discovered something again and shouted: "Look, look at the shape of this lock! How strange it is! Who would make such a monster?"

  Cha Wenbin looked down and was shocked, his eyes fixed on it. This monster was none other than the Taotie he had seen in his dreams. "If Im not mistaken, this is a Taotie! One of the four ferocious beasts recorded in ancient books. Someone used this thing as a lock head. This temple is probably not that simple. You all be careful later! Dont move around randomly and dont touch anything inside."

  The blind man heard that the villages ancestral hall was a haunted house and immediately refused to do it. How could this Taoist come in and say that his old home was not good, that was not good, and even said that the ancestral hall was not clean? Xiaozi was patient and explained: "Legend has it that the Yellow Emperor fought against Chiyou, Chiyou was beheaded, and his head fell to the ground and turned into a Taotie. Later, the Taotie became a totem and was carved on various ritual vessels. During the Shang and Zhou dynasties, the Ding cauldron often had a Taotie carved on it. This thing has a fierce head, piercing eyes, and a prominent nose; its forehead has a pair of curved horns or feet, which are curved in no fixed direction, either inward like sheeps horns or outward like cattles horns. Its huge mouth is wide open, with sharp teeth like saws, and its mouth is slightly curved inward or tightly closed. It is depicted as a frontal coiled shape, with its body arched up, its head on the ground or in the clouds, with a pair of sharp claws on either side, resembling dog paws or tiger paws, and a pair of fleshy wings on either side, shaped like ears. The Classic of Mountains and Seas says that this thing is specialized in eating people. Do you think its a fierce beast? Your ancestors are also quite strange, using this thing as a door god, really has personality!"

  Zha Wenbin made a silencing gesture and whispered: "Open the door first, but dont damage anything here."

  These copper locks are all made of spring cards. Looking at the rusty ones, I dont know if the springs are invalid or not. Chaozi found a hairpin from his backpack and fiddled with it for a while, inserting it into the keyhole and poking around. "Click" - he smiled triumphantly on his face: "Done!" In fact, unlocking was not a difficult task for this detective-turned-archaeologist. The opened lock head was gently placed on the ground, and Zhaowenbin tried to push the big door, but it didnt budge! Is it nailed from behind?

  He signaled to the three people to push together, and with a loud "creak, creak" an ancient and solemn door-opening sound slowly came out, opening this ancestral hall that had been closed for who knows how many years. The three of them used a lot of strength but only managed to open a small gap that could barely fit one person, and a cold gust of air rushed out, causing everyone to shiver. Chaozi turned on his flashlight and shone it inside, but the view was blocked by a large stone stele-like object in the middle of the hall, making it impossible to see what was inside.

  Zha Wenbin closed his eyes and felt for a while, but didnt find anything unusual. The three of them carefully entered, walking towards the stone monument. Three spotlights shone on it, and only then did they see its true appearance: A huge black stone stood upright on top of a sheep-headed monsters body, with a pair of wings growing on either side, supporting the massive black stone. The three of them recognized this thing at a glance - it was the shape of Tong Suo: Taotie!

  If the existence of the totem pattern in this village has already made Cha Wenbin very confused, then what he sees next is even more difficult to explain. A huge Bagua diagram was carved on this giant stone monument! The Bagua diagram is actually carried by this ancient fierce beast? What kind of Tao is this?

  Chao Zi subconsciously pulled out the dagger from his bag, wanting to take a closer look. Unexpectedly, he felt a force pulling on the knife in his hand. This dagger was made of Xuan Tie, whats going on? Cha Wenbin stopped him: "So thats it! This big stone should be a magnet! When I entered this valley, my compass couldnt work normally. At that time, I thought there must be a huge magnetic field existing in this valley. Unexpectedly, it was this thing causing trouble. Judging from the shaking of the compass, Im afraid theres not just one such large magnet! Everyone be careful, dont move randomly."

  Chao Zi Bai gave a glance at the blind man, thinking to himself: "What kind of people are your ancestors? Making such a mystery out of this, with ferocious beasts and magnets...": "Wen Bin ge, what should we do now?"

  Cha Wenbin looked at this pile of things he had never seen or heard of, and didnt know what to do for a moment. After half a day, he said: "I dont know what this means, why the Bagua diagram would appear in the ancestral hall of this village, and under it is a gluttonous beast. Its not ruled out that some ancient people worshipped ferocious beasts, but the Bagua has always been a thing to ward off evil spirits since ancient times. Two contradictory things, why do they exist? Lets go inside and take a look!" After speaking, he gestured for the two of them to bypass this stele. As soon as they had bypassed it, the scene illuminated by the lamp made the three peoples hearts jump again: rows and rows of coffins were neatly placed in the room inside. This house didnt have a big door, only a few pillars supporting the roof. Even the stupidest person would know what this place was at this moment - it wasnt some ancestral hall, but a charitable cemetery!

  Those coffins were arranged in a clear pattern, with the most striking one being the bronze coffin in the middle. The coffin was unusually large, at least twice as big as the ordinary wooden coffins beside it. On the two corners of the front coffin, there were small bells, each engraved with cloud and thunder patterns, placed in the center of the room, very eye-catching. Under the coffin, seven oil lamps were placed, with some remaining incense sticks outside. As a student of archaeology, he knew what the bronze coffin meant - it was an artifact from thousands of years ago, dating back to the Spring and Autumn period or the Warring States period! How did such a large bronze object end up in this small village in Bashu? Who could have made something so big? Before he had time to think about these questions, Cha Wenbin on the side had already made a retreating gesture.

  Among the three, Cha Wenbin was naturally an expert in this unknown world. Without any delay, the three carefully retreated to the door and fortunately did not encounter any unexpected events. Before they could do anything else, Cha Wenbin instructed the other two to use their combined strength to close the door until it was locked with a copper lock. Only then did he let out a sigh of relief. It wasnt until then that Chaozi noticed that Cha Wenbin was now drenched in sweat!

  Chao Zis doubts in his heart, the truth suddenly poured out, looking at Zhuo Xiongs equally incredulous expression across from him, he could only wait for Cha Wenbin to speak up. Why did he let himself retreat earlier? There were too many questions in this village!

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