Zha Wenbin said: "The 'Star Classics' says: 'Tian Yi', 'Tai Yi'. The god of the main gas, the journey is still waiting. Four positive and four negative, with the eight trigrams of the gods residing in it, so it is also called a palace. When Tianyi moves, it is like the heavenly son going out to inspect the provinces and mountains. Every time he finishes, he returns. Taiyi moves through the palaces of the eight trigrams, every four returning to the central palace. The center is where the North Star resides, so it is called the Nine Palaces because of this. The great division of heavenly numbers, with yang going out and yin entering. Yang starts at midnight, yin starts at noon, so Taiyi moves through the nine palaces, starting from Kan Palace. Kan is male, starting to speak without bias. From here it follows Kun Palace. Kun is mother.
Then from this it goes to the Zhen palace. Zhen is the eldest son. Then from this it goes to the Xun palace. Xun is the eldest daughter. Half of what is to be done has been done. It returns to rest in the central palace. Again, then from this it goes to the Qian palace. Qian is the father. From this it goes to the Dui palace. Dui is the youngest daughter. Then from this it goes to the Gen palace. Gen is the youngest son. Then from this it goes to the Li palace. Li is the middle daughter. When it moves, it is complete in all directions.
That is to say, the sequence of one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine is a cycle. The ancient people thought that nine was the largest number in the world, and after one cycle, it would return to the center and walk another cycle. However, at a certain time, the main palace in these nine palaces will "hide" and disappear, requiring eight more cycles before reappearing on the ninth cycle. Also, due to this disappearing main palace, the other eight palaces correspond to the "eight gates" of Qimen Dunjia, also known as the Nine Palaces Eight Trigrams Chart in our Taoist tradition, which is the highest formation of Qimen Dunjia.
Because we can't determine the position of this one, I let Chaozi keep making marks. In fact, it's just to get this Zheng Gong. Now we've reached this position. Although it's marked as '9', but in Qimen Dunjia, it's actually "Five".
The remaining eight palaces correspond to the Resting Gate, Life Gate, Injury Gate, Solitary Gate, Scene Gate, Death Gate, Shock Gate and Opening Gate. Among these eight gates, there are three auspicious gates, three ominous gates, two flat gates, and one hidden middle gate, totaling nine gates.
These nine gates correspond to rest, death, injury, Du, Zhong, open, surprise, life, and scenery. The nine gates corresponding to the numbers marked on our current path are: 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 1, 2, 3, 4
Among the three positions marked by the super child, if we continue to walk and encounter them again, turning two more bends upwards will lead us back to the exit where we first came down. However, if we don't go up after passing through once, we need to wait until the number '9' appears again at the middle gate before we can follow this sequence to leave.
However, this person set up a dead end and used the 'soul-capturing grass' to lure Wan's soul as his own. I think only the ghostly path can use such viciousness, so he must have placed his coffin under the death gate, which is the turn corresponding to the number '6'. I think opening that floorboard will reveal the true master coffin.
It's been five hours since we came down, they should be anxious outside. Whether to go up or down, you two decide. Going down is definitely dangerous, once the gate of death opens, it's not a joke, even if you have eight characters (a Chinese idiom for being very tough), you'll still lose half your life.
After listening to Cha Wenbin's explanation, Chaozi and Zhuo Xiong also understood a bit. Following him for so long, they had seen and heard too much without saying anything. The two people still tacitly said in unison: "We'll listen to you."
"Alright, you two go up first and greet Old Wang. Whatever you want to say, tell him clearly, so you'll have a bottom line in your hearts. This matter isn't simple, understand? Actually, I'm doing this for another reason too - to prove whether my judgment is right or wrong."
Time waits for no man, the three of them immediately set off, and when they reached number six, they raised their heads to see that sloping uphill road. This time, Cha Wenbin was filled with a thousand hopes as he climbed over those two bends, raised his head to take a look, and saw a big black hole staring right at him.
"Finally out!" His head had just come out, and he saw a black thing not far away crawling towards Lao Wang's big buttocks. The spotlight shone on it, and it was a good guy, with eight sharp legs dancing like a long spear.
"Come out quickly, there's a wolf spider on top!" He yelled downwards and immediately jumped out, then shouted loudly, "Old Wang, get out of the way, there's a wolf spider behind you!"
Old Wang had already hammered the coffin and was exhausted, sitting down to rest for a while. Suddenly, he heard Cha Wenbin's loud shout, which scared him so much that he fell off from above.
However, this King Baozi was still quite clever and grabbed the climbing rope with one hand, hanging in mid-air. Just as he was about to shout for help, he heard a "whooshing" sound, followed by a dark object flying out from above his head.
Lao Wang was pulled back by Chaozi, and his legs were still trembling with fear. After telling him the situation below, what he cared about most was whether the thing to be found had appeared or not.
Cha Wenbin shook his head and said, "So far, the second divine tree you mentioned has no shadow at all. It's possible that there is no second one in this world, but it was indeed because of this inaccurate news that brought us here. So, Old Wang, you should tell me the real purpose of coming here."
Indeed, this place is worlds apart from the sealed mountain. The divine tree was cast in bronze, but this accursed land hasn't even seen half a bronze artifact so far.
This news was personally spread by the person in the organization who has absolute speaking power. Before, Qiufeng Mountain was also pointed out by him. Old Wang understood that several times they almost lost their lives, and the reason must not be so simple.
"Wen Bin, if we can get out of here alive, I will definitely go back and ask you for an explanation, even if it means violating the organization's heavenly code. Now it seems that this second divine tree is just a fake, I don't understand why he wanted us to come here to find a non-existent divine tree, but I know we all almost lost our lives, or have already died!"
Zha Wenbin said: "This is your business, your organization promised my request, I just help you find what you want to find, no matter whether the news is true or false, I will try my best. Now this is the only hope left, if we still haven't come up after three days, take these three brothers of mine out first, and then think of a way back home, from now on my son will be in your care."
Chaozi was furious as soon as he heard it: "Didn't we agree that the three of us would go down together? How did it become just you again?"
"Want to get out of the Nine Palaces Eight Trigrams diagram alive? You must be prepared to die nine times and live once. You're all still young, no need to follow me on this adventure. I made a gentleman's agreement with someone, and I should do what is within my power. Also, I want to see what kind of person this high-ranking Taoist is. I, Cha Wenbin, have studied Taoism my whole life, but I'm not even close to being half as good as him. The things our ancestors left behind are almost forgotten by our generation, and I also want to take this opportunity to catch a glimpse."
"No way, we agreed to live and die together, how can I leave you behind? Are we going down or are the three of us going down together!" Zhuo Xiong rarely lost his temper, but this time he was really furious.
"Get out, don't follow me down!" Zhang Wenbin had made up his mind and turned around to crawl back through the gap. As soon as he jumped down from the depression, the two people behind him followed in.
"Didn't I tell you not to come?! Why are you so unwilling to listen to me? Get out quickly!" Zhang Wenbin was already somewhat annoyed.
Chaozi pushed Cha Wenbin away with one hand, his strength was great, and he immediately knocked Cha Wenbin to the ground. Zhuo Xiong followed him into the tunnel and shouted at the first turn: "Wenbin brother, we didn't follow you into the crevice of Qifeng Mountain Valley last time, and I've been feeling guilty for a long time. This time we won't leave again. If we two brothers go in without you leading us, we will definitely not come out, either trapped to death or let us follow you, choose yourself!"
At this moment, Zha Wenbin's eyes were slightly moist. The bond between them was stronger than life and death. What else could he say? All he could do was take them in and then bring them out safely!
After the three went down, the numbers indeed began to enter a chaotic sorting state. When the number 7 appeared, Zha Wenbin took out an incense stick from his bag and lit it in front of the bullet hole, letting the other two close their eyes as well.
Three minutes later, Cha Wenbin reopened his eyes and said: "This is the Injury Gate, also known as the Shocking Palace. It belongs to the eight gates of the evil gate. The Shocking Hexagram is dynamic, and it's easy to get hurt if you move. I think that group of spiders may have really brought Stone Daddy's soul here to give us a warning: as long as we move around in this tomb, we will either die or get injured. The Injury Gate is the second most evil gate, and he calculated that we would enter the Death Gate. Now it seems that he is willing to give us this warning as a reminder, reminding us that there are hidden dangers here. You two, remember not to leave my side by half a step later, otherwise I may be powerless. The Death Gate is the most evil, and there's no good fortune in it. Whether we live or die, it's all up to fate!"
After turning two more corners, the "6" marked by Chaozi earlier appeared, which was the dead end...
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