?

  "Ah...... Old Sun, what's going on?" The German beauty exclaimed.

  "Sorry, I made a mistake."

  Just then, the four-eyed man in front of Passerby A said, "The road is clear." My words were interrupted, and before I could say anything else, Passerby A suddenly quickened his pace, seemingly trying to shake me off.

  I knew that this rare opportunity had slipped away again, and I couldn't help but let out a sigh as I slowly followed along, pondering the words of passerby A. I had no idea that Second Uncle was in contact with him - why did everyone keep it from me?

  I couldn't help but think of San Shu's secret that he took to his grave, and I felt a growing sense of unease in my heart. Could it be that San Shu and Er Shu were hiding the same thing? Why did it seem like even unrelated passersby knew more than me?

  The Qi Yu in front of me, is it really the same Qi Yu from more than 20 years ago, the one from the Xi Sha archaeological team? What was that huge change that Passerby A mentioned? I couldn't help but think, could it be that the Bronze Gate collapsed? Apart from this, I really can't think of anything else that could have happened. At this moment, a square exit appeared above my head.

  Passerby A has already climbed out first, I immediately followed behind. After exiting the cave entrance, I found that this was a square stone room. The strong light of the flashlight could reach both ends, roughly estimated to be over 80 square meters in size, with a height of about three meters. And on the wall facing me at this moment, there was a wall with a carved Kirin relief.

  My heart skipped a beat, and I took a closer look to find that the stone carving on top was exactly the same as the bas-relief in the previous palace. The black qilin, whether in size or expression, was identical to the one in my memory. At this time, the gaze of passerby A next to me was also attracted by the bas-relief, standing quietly in front of the stone wall.

  In the center of the stone chamber, there is a raised rectangular platform. On top of the platform, an object in the shape of a flame cloud is placed. It is unclear whether it is gold-plated or made of pure gold. After thousands of years, it still shines with luxurious golden light in the darkness, resembling a burning fire and a cloud at the same time. Its purpose cannot be discerned.

  Just as I was wondering, several German beauties gathered around passerby A, seemingly very interested in that wall. Then, Four Eyes said: "The technique of this relief is exquisite, it doesn't seem like something from the Western Regions, but rather...it looks like Tibetan craftsmanship."

  I thought to myself, these people from Yabda were originally from Tibet, although their culture was lost during the migration process, they still retained their ethnic crafts, nothing strange about that. Seeing those four people seemingly having never seen that Qilin stone carving before, each of them furrowed their brows as if there would be some mystery within the stone wall, I turned my head to examine the things on the platform.

  That cloud-like thing, the more I look at it, the more it looks like a chair. The platform on top is just big enough for one person to sit on. But who would sit in such a stone room? This isn't some martial arts TV show, could someone have actually meditated here before?

  I shone my flashlight and circled around the fire cloud stool, but found nothing. At this moment, a voice suddenly came from behind me: "This is Jia Duoku, the seat of the Tibetan wizard." The speaker was Siyan, who pushed his glasses up in the dark and stretched out his hand to touch the fire cloud stool, muttering to himself: "Strange, why would there be Tibetan things here?"

  I'm not very familiar with Tibetan culture, so I asked Siye: "What does 'Jiaduokuo' mean?"

  "The four-eyed man smiled and said, 'Nowadays, even native Tibetans rarely know this term. You should know that the earliest gods worshipped by humans were heaven and earth, so there emerged a group of people who specialized in communicating with heaven and earth. This kind of person was called a shaman, marking the beginning of the human mythological era of shamans and ghosts. At that time, there was no Buddha, no immortals, and no God; people only worshipped the heaven and earth that gave birth to them. Shamans were the greatest existence back then because they could converse with heaven and earth.'"

  "In places where people live in Tibet, it is also impossible to avoid the trend. Later, with the establishment of systematic religions, various religious forms gradually took shape. Gradually, Indian Buddhism was introduced into Tibet, and the shamanic culture gradually retreated and even disappeared in the historical torrent of Tibet. The word "Jiaduoku" is an ancient term for religious use, but it's now very difficult to find a specific answer as to what it means. However, this kind of stool is where shamans sit. Some Tibetan scholars have verified that the shape of Jiaduoku originated from human beings' early worship of fire, and thus was passed down."

  What the Four Eyes said I can understand, for early humans, being able to use fire meant they could drive away beasts, heat up food, and prolong their lifespan, so almost every ethnic group has legends about fire, such as the Fire God Zhu Rong or Hephaestus in Greek mythology. From this, we can see that early religious culture revered fire.

  Beside him, Old Sun had also walked over at some point and pondered, "Could this be the third part of the Temple?" I was suddenly startled in my heart - how did Old Sun know that the Temple had three parts?

  At this time, passerby A took out a map from his backpack and looked at it for a long time before saying: "This map is not entirely trustworthy, and there is no mark of this stone room on it. However, it's impossible that this place is sealed off. Everyone look around, is there any mechanism?

  I couldn't help but want to take a look at the map in passerby A's hand, and as soon as I poked my head out, he immediately put it away and tucked it into his waist. In the process, he seemed to glare at me for a moment, and even through those glasses, I could feel it.

  Whatever, I won't look if I don't want to.

  I cursed under my breath and started tapping on the wall, I've found a mechanism that's quite ingenious, if it's an attacking mechanism, the more hidden the place is, the safer it is, but if it's this kind of passage mechanism, it would be hidden in a very inconspicuous place. The five of us almost searched every brick, even Lao Wang finally looked a bit impatient, he stopped his actions, crossed his arms and seemed to be thinking about what was going on.

  I felt my way to the end, feeling that my physical condition was not right, my legs were soft, and the muscles on the inside of my thighs were almost uncontrollably twitching. Since using explosives to blast open the entrance, I haven't eaten anything until now, and the desert temperature difference is also very large, after running naked for so long, the big and small wounds on my body have not been treated, but my body doesn't feel tired.

  It wasn't until my legs were trembling that I realized something was wrong. I reached out to touch my forehead, and only then did I discover that it was burning like a fire.

  Although I don't quite understand this situation, a medical friend once told me that when the human body is sick, it will show various reactions, such as fever, pain, and coughing. These symptoms can make us aware of our physical problems and seek treatment. However, there are also extremely rare cases in medicine. It's said that a British teenager suddenly lost his ability to react to illness. When he had inflammation in his lungs, he couldn't feel it at all and was still active every day until he suddenly collapsed in the classroom and never woke up again.

  Some researchers have studied this phenomenon and believe that it is not uncommon for people to be in extremely harsh environments, where the brain constantly issues life-saving instructions, causing other bodily functions to actively shield against illness reactions, making them unaware of their physical condition. This is a repetitive fatigue instruction.

  Did I run into you again?

  I touched my forehead, although it was scorching hot, my legs were trembling a bit, but I didn't know when, the pain all over my body had disappeared, and I myself felt very spirited. The little dragon girl beside me found that something was wrong with me and asked concernedly: "Wu, are you okay?"

  Joke, all the female comrades are energetic and lively, how can I have anything to do with it. Gnashing my teeth, I waved at her, indicating that nothing was wrong, but for the sake of my own life, I still grabbed her hand and asked: "Is there any medicine?"

  The German beauty understood me, didn't ask anything, opened the equipment and let me choose. I picked a few antipyretics and glucose tablets, and swallowed them directly. At first, my mouth was bitter, then sweet. Just as I was frowning and holding the tablet in my mouth, my gaze flashed, and suddenly I found that the eyes of the qilin stone carving on the wall seemed to move, and a cold light flashed in its copper bell-sized eyes. I almost choked to death on the glucose tablet.

  "Cough, cough." I couldn't help but cough twice. The German beauty didn't know if she had taken a liking to me or not, but she was very attentive towards me, with a face full of bloodstains, and helped pat my back, saying: "Wu, you've caught a cold, how pitiful."

  I've seen it all on this journey, every kind of backstabbing and scheming, always on guard against being stabbed in the back, but one look from a German beauty's sparkling eyes and I'm moved to tears, what a kind-hearted German friend.

  I patted her hand, caught my breath, and decided to take a look at the stone wall. I shone my flashlight on the Qilin's head, and suddenly discovered something unusual. Although this Qilin was carved in the same style as the reliefs in the palace earlier, when I walked closer to take a look, its eyes were empty, with no eyeballs inside. The recessed area was the only place where white was visible, and upon closer inspection, it turned out to be made of white jade crystal.

  This stone is a type of cloudy agate, white in color, and can shine under sunlight. It's mostly used for religious purposes, where it's ground into powder and mixed with cinnabar. The "dotting the eyes" ritual often employs White Eyed Gold Crystal, which is also quite rare.

  Just now, it was probably passerby A waving the flashlight, which brought out the reflection, and I happened to see that the Qilin's empty eye socket had a white patch, which made me feel very eerie. This Qilin lacked an eyeball, making it look very evil.

  It was probably because I stared at the Qilin for too long that passerby A walked over and said, "What's up? Found something?" I ignored him, I couldn't beat him, so I chose to pretend he didn't exist. Since the mechanism couldn't be figured out, I fully embodied the excellent tradition of being a stubborn oil jar, sat down at the corner of the wall, and stared blankly at the Qilin relief.

  I believe that since some people are more anxious than me when they can't find the key, just let them be busy then.

  The passerby A was obviously choked by me, and hummed coldly. He searched the entire stone room again, probably because of the medicine I took. My eyes were getting more and more sour as I stared at that Qilin, and I eventually fell asleep uncontrollably. In the last second before I fainted, I even consciously pinched my thigh to try to wake myself up, because I was afraid that if I fell asleep, passerby A would find the mechanism and throw me away, and it would be hard to find him again.

  As a result, I just pinched my thigh, and the pain nerves seemed to have become numb, with no effect. A wave of fatigue swept over me, and I finally couldn't help but close my eyes. Just before I fell asleep, my eyes were fixed on that Qilin, and suddenly an idea popped up - this Qilin's eyes are too evil, if only something could be used to block them.

  I suddenly thought of the pearl that Qilin spat out, a white light flashed through my mind, and everything was connected like a thread. I vaguely felt that the pearl might be the key to triggering the mechanism, but I couldn't say a word.

  I wanted to call out to passerby A, but found that the German beauty's body swayed a few times and fell to the ground with a thud, never getting up again. My heart skipped a beat: Oh no, she's been hit.

  After thinking about it, the feeling of exhaustion could no longer be resisted, and he fell asleep completely.