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  Ding is an ancient ritual vessel, ordinary households also have Ding-shaped objects, but they can only be called stoves, such as incense burners in temples and home-used incense burners. Many of them are similar to the shape of Ding, but cannot be called Ding.

  The real Ding is a ritual vessel for the royal family's sacrifice, and it often bears an important event of a country. Even in ancient times, it was a prestigious status, and in modern times, bronze Ding is also listed as a national treasure-level antique.

  Some small-time tomb raiders, with limited channels for selling stolen goods, even if they were lucky enough to stumble upon some precious artifacts, would only stare blankly at them, not daring to take them out. Because compared to the ordinary crime of stealing and selling cultural relics, stealing bronze tripods is a capital offense, clearly stated in the law as punishable by death. Even if someone had the guts to take it out, there wouldn't be many people brave enough to buy it, so bronze tripods are treasures that are both tempting and troublesome for every tomb raider.

  The ding in front of me is over two meters high, even bigger than the Simu Wu Ding in the Anyang Museum. Due to the viewing angle, the inscriptions and reliefs on top are indistinguishable. As an antique dealer for a few years, I've seen many precious artifacts that can't be put on the market, but this ding is worth at least hundreds of millions. Who wouldn't be tempted by such a sum? Unless I'm a god.

  For the country, this tripod is a priceless treasure, and it is located in the Western Regions. The Western Regions do not value ritual vessels, but the excavation of this tripod in ancient Western Regions proves that at least as early as the Western Zhou or even earlier, the Central Plains had exchanges with the Western Regions. This discovery is more than 800 years earlier than Zhang Qian's journey to the Western Regions recorded in history, and it is a discovery that overturns history. Such a treasure, if seen by archaeologists, would likely make them cry tears of joy, and even that would be an understatement.

  I was staring at the bronze tripod in front of me, and Zhang's surname was very calm, patted my shoulder and said: "It seems to have been engraved with something on it." I didn't need her to say that I knew, the tripod has always recorded a country's major events, this one is likely to record very important information.

  Before I could say a word, Mr. Zhang said: "This bronze tripod looks like a product from the Shang and Zhou dynasties in terms of its shape. My specialty is in Western Regions studies, so I don't quite understand it. Why don't you take a look?"

  I was about to nod, when I suddenly reacted and couldn't help but silently scold this woman for being so cunning. It was clear that she wanted to know what was engraved on it, but was deterred by the pattern on the ground, so she thought of letting me take the lead.

  What doesn't understand Shang Zhou culture, she a Ph.D. in archaeology doesn't understand, I a small antique shop owner understands?

  First put a high hat on me, then teach me to lift up the cloth to see the bronze tripod, do you take me for a three-year-old?

  I had a plan in mind, so I smiled and said: "Under this temple, putting down an offering to heaven is no big deal. Besides, I see that the pattern on the ground seems to have more to it. What if I get caught up in an illusion and accidentally go crazy and hurt you? You think that's possible?"

  The surname Zhang was choked by me for a moment, and didn't make a sound. After a while, he said: "Since that's the case, we don't need to care about it, let's go." After finishing speaking, he tidied up his equipment bag and turned around to walk towards the corner.

  I didn't expect her to be so easy-going, for a moment it seemed like I was bullying the woman, suddenly feeling a bit depressed, hurriedly followed up.

  After the turn, there is a passageway about four or five meters wide. The top is relatively low, and it's only as high as two people. On the surrounding walls, it seems like something has been painted, but due to the red veil in front of me, I can't make out what it is specifically. I don't know if it's those geometric patterns that affect people's brains or if they've painted something else.

  This passage is relatively short, we walked less than a hundred meters, and the road ahead came to an end. The end was a closed green brick wall, against which were placed a row of bronze instruments with very strange shapes, with sticks below and an opening above, somewhat like the bells in temples. Mr. Zhang took a look and said: "This is a spear-shaped container, there are many iron thorns inside the recessed groove, and the wounds caused by it are difficult to heal."

  What's the use of placing these weapons at the end of the passage?

  I opened my blurry eyes and walked forward, tapping the stone wall with both hands, seemingly not like there was a secret passage.

  Mr. Zhang looked around and finally shook his head, "This place is designed strangely, this passage should be unusual, but for the time being, it's hard to tell what it's used for. It seems we have to go back, I think there will be clues on that bronze tripod." Now that things have come to this point, we can't push each other away anymore, so we went back to the corner again.

  The platform under the bronze tripod was at least one meter high, and with the height of the tripod added to it, we couldn't see what was inside even if there was something. At this time, I didn't want a woman to take action either, so I carefully removed the red veil from my face, staring straight at the bronze tripod, not daring to look at other places, including the top of my head and the ground.

  Dr. Zhang's red cloth was still not removed from his face, and he lit the flashlight for me behind my back. With the light of the flashlight, I clearly saw the shape of the bronze tripod. It was a round tripod with a height of about two meters. The shape of the tripod was very strange, it was a three-legged shape, but the three legs were almost attached to the belly of the tripod, and the whole tripod was like sitting on the stone platform, without any gap at the bottom.

  The surface of the tripod had rusted out a large area of green copper flowers, looking already quite ancient. The belly of the tripod was at least two meters high, and I stood parallel on the stone platform, but could only reach the edge of the tripod. If you want to see clearly what's inside, you have to tiptoe.

  Behind the bronze tripod is a huge bas-relief, made of dark stone, unknown material, with a majestic black qilin carved on it, similar in shape to the qilin on the shoulder of the oil bottle.

  Around the Qilin, there are countless auspicious beasts, three-legged golden crow, nine-headed snake, divine bird phoenix, vivid and lifelike. The Qilin has its eyes closed, mouth open and tongue out, as if spitting something, but nothing comes out of its mouth.

  I find it a bit strange that the Qilin is one of the four great auspicious beasts of ancient times, with the other three being the dragon, phoenix, and Luotui. Legend has it that the Qilin can spit fire from its mouth and create wind with its feet. When it moves forward with the wind, the heavens are filled with fire clouds. Ordinary people call this phenomenon "fire halo", or in more modern terms, "fire-burning cloud". This type of cloud is relatively rare, often appearing at dusk, when the clouds on the horizon burn like fierce flames, filling the entire sky and creating a breathtaking spectacle.

  Qilin spewing fire, has always been praised as a auspicious red fire sign, Qilin can shock and awe the evil spirits, therefore the folk sticky Qilin wall paintings, or carved Qilin patterns, all have flames spewing out, but this dark Qilin in front of me, with a strong and majestic demeanor, mouth wide open, seems to be spraying something, yet nothing comes out, looks very strange. Just as I was studying this stone wall, Dr. Zhang behind me urged: "Found anything? Is there any record on it?"

  I was reminded by her and hastily withdrew my gaze, looking at the bronze tripod in front of me. The tripod indeed had an inscription, but looking at the characters, they had long been eroded by the verdigris on the bronze, all dense copper flowers, and could not be distinguished at all.

  I shook my head and said, "The characters are completely worn out and can't be seen. Wait a minute, let me see if there's any clue in this tripod." Dr. Zhang hummed and raised the beam of his flashlight a bit higher. I grasped the edge of the tripod with both hands and pushed off the ground with my feet, climbing onto it.

  The diameter of this tripod is about one meter, my legs are open at the edge, and I lower my head to look down. All I see is a dark and murky patch inside the tripod, like a dirty and smelly ditch, but when I sniff carefully, there is no unpleasant smell.

  I couldn't tell what was inside the cauldron, so I took out the probe claw hanging from my belt and threw it into the cauldron with a rope. After manipulating the rope to swing around inside for a while, through the sticky black water, a crisp sound came from the cauldron, as if there was something inside.

  Isn't there some trick under the Ding?

  My heart skipped a beat as I retracted the probe and estimated from the marks on the rope that there was about one meter of water below.

  At this moment, I stood with a big stride, it was very inconvenient to scoop down, so I said to Dr. Zhang: "It seems that there is something in the tripod, do you have any convenient equipment to explore?" Dr. Zhang shook his head and said: "No."

  She seemed to think I wasn't doing anything, so she climbed up onto the stone pedestal, then untied the red silk in front of her and stared intently at the bronze tripod, probably just like me, unable to make out the inscription on it. She grasped the edge of the bronze tripod with both hands and said, "I'll help you." Before I could say anything, she exerted some force with her arm, kicked off from the belly of the tripod with one foot, and landed very nimbly on top of the bronze tripod, facing me in a big X shape.

  She got on the tripod, didn't talk to me, looked down for a while, then sniffed her nose and frowned: "What's in here?" I saw that she couldn't do anything either, could only shake my head, it seems that everything still depends on oneself. I took out the red dan and porcelain bottle, let Zhang help me keep them, and then put on the autopsy gloves.

  These high-end autopsy gloves are pure black in appearance, with silver specks inside. I couldn't tell what material they were made of, but wearing them on my hands felt cool and refreshing. The length reached up to my wrists. After putting on the gloves, Zhang asked me to hold her feet, and my gloved hand probed into the sticky black water.

  I slowly lowered my waist, stretching my hands lower and lower. After a moment, I stood on the tripod with my buttocks facing upwards, my face almost touching the black water. Then, my hand swayed in the water for a few times before feeling a smooth object. The bottom of this tripod seemed to have a circular protrusion, which felt about the size of a human palm by touch.

  I remember that in ancient ritual vessels, there was no such structure. So this thing must have been made for a purpose. I tried to turn the round handle a few times, but it didn't budge. Then I tried pressing down on it, and who knew it would suddenly go down, causing me to lose my balance and almost fall over. Luckily, Zhang grabbed my belt and pulled me back up, or else I would have fallen.

  Then, all of a sudden, there was a "click" sound, as if something had been triggered. Based on experience, it should have been some kind of mechanism opening up, but my companion Zhang and I looked at each other cautiously for half a moment, yet nothing happened. That sound seemed like an illusion to us.

  I didn't give up and continued to feel around in the water, when suddenly my hand brushed against something. The thing was soft and sank into the dark water. I immediately turned my hand over and grabbed it, but as soon as I did, I let out a frightful jump - what I had grasped seemed to be a human hand!