The lanterns at the Xi'an Eight Immortals Temple ghost market swayed in the night wind, and Tang Ren squatted at the base of the green brick wall, chewing on a meat bun. Qin Feng's fingertips stroked the bronze jug on the stall, and suddenly pinched the stall owner's wrist: "This bronze is rusted by vinegar, and there are welding marks underneath!"
"You, you're talking nonsense!" The stall owner flipped over the tablecloth, and the "antiques" on the floor rustled. Su Chen suddenly held the stall owner's neck: "The coil in the tiger's mouth is either for digging or holding a gun. Are you a tomb raider or a member of the Q organization?"
In the chaos, the man knocked over the kerosene lamp and licked the canvas tent. Tang Ren picked up the bronze cup and splashed water to extinguish the fire. Suddenly, the bottom of the cup fell off - half a yellowed page of "Xijing Miscellaneous Records" floated out, with ink marks on a canyon in Kunlun Mountain, and a red note next to it said "The Nine Cauldrons Return to Their Places".
A figure wearing a wolfskin hat flashed in the light, and when Qin Feng chased him to the alley entrance, he only found a jade ring. The inner wall of the ring was engraved with the oracle bone script "Qiang", and the smell of cinnabar was exactly the same as the silver bracelet of the Kunlun Inn's proprietress.
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The plaque of "Rong Bao Zhai" was covered with thick dust, and the copper bell had already rusted to death when Qin Feng pushed open the carved wooden door. Tang Ren kicked a pottery jar, and half of the thorny Luoyang axe rolled out. Su Chen wiped the antique shelf with his sleeve, and the outline of a secret door was revealed in the dust.
"The shape of this keyhole..." Qin Feng took out the jade ring and inserted it into the crack of the door. The moment the secret door slid open, a foul smell came over him - a corpse in a long gown was lying on the sandalwood table, holding a half-broken arrow and pressing a bloody deed.
"The title deed is fake!" Tang Ren rubbed the paper with saliva, "The title deed from the Republic of China was made of mulberry paper, this is modern rice paper that has been aged." The needle hole on the back of the corpse made Su Chen's pupils shrink: "This is the soul-sealing needle used by the corpse-driving craftsman in Xiangxi. The deceased has been moved at least three times."
The "Kunlun Snowy Landscape" behind the bookshelf suddenly fell down, and nine bronze arrows rolled out of the scroll. Qin Feng pieced together the inscription on the arrows: "The Palace of the Queen Mother of the West, a life of nine deaths".
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The old boatman, holding a pipe in his mouth, pointed at the muddy waves and said, "Last month, a sand-dredging ship hit a guy named Iron Man, and they pulled up half of a bronze tripod ear." Tang Ren lay on the side of the boat and looked down, when he was suddenly entangled by a cable wet by the waves. The knot of the rope was tied with a piece of animal bone, engraved with the same "Qiang" character as on the jade ring.
Qin Feng dived into the muddy riverbed and found a skeleton tied to the mast of the sunken ship. The skeleton was wrapped in an oilcloth bag in a leather bag around its waist. When it was unfolded, it turned out to be a geological exploration map from 1953. A certain valley was marked with a red circle, with the annotation "Nine Cauldrons Appeared, Chaos Under the Wo".
"The shape of the fractured finger bones on this skeleton..." Su Chen gestured towards the sunlight, "It's exactly the same as the injuries on the frozen corpse in the Kunlun Inn!" Tang Ren suddenly pointed to the other side of the river: "Is that Lao Zhou's torn cotton padded jacket?"
When the three chased him to Reed Drift, they only found a blood-soaked sheepskin jacket. Half a ticket was sewn into the inner pocket of his jacket: Xi'an to Golmud, the departure date was calculated based on the lunar calendar when Qin Shihuang unified the weights and measures.
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The off-road vehicle bumped along the winding mountain road, and the guide Dorje suddenly braked. On the cliff, a dried ox head was hung on the prayer flags, and the ox horns were engraved with secret mantras. Tang Ren broke the ox horn, and a rolled sheepskin fell out of the hollow: "Nine Cauldrons to suppress evil spirits, no one is allowed to approach."
The old woman at the entrance of the village turned the prayer wheel, and the silver bracelet on her wrist was the same as the one worn by the inn's proprietress. When Qin Feng handed her the jade ring, she suddenly screamed in Chinese: "Disaster star!" A moldy "Ancient Qiang King's Tomb Picture" was stuck to the bottom of the broken butter tea bowl.
Late at night, Tang Ren was awakened by the howling of wolves. Su Chen, who was standing by the pond, was tracing the incisions on the stone wall with charcoal ash: "This is not a decorative pattern, but a list of burial objects written in Qin Xiaozhuan!" Suddenly, a falcon flute sounded, and Duoji rushed into the house with his hands raised: "Hurry up! The village is going to have a blood sacrifice!"
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Following the fleeing goat into the cave, Qin Feng's flashlight illuminated a terrifying scene - nine bronze coffins arranged in the shape of a Big Dipper, with different beasts carved on the coffin lids. Tang Ren kicked a pottery urn, and what gushed out was not ashes, but modern mountaineering buckles stained with blood.
"The first coffin has been opened!" Su Chen touched the pry marks on the coffin lid. When Qin Feng pushed open the coffin lid, the compass in the rotting corpse suddenly turned, and the magnetic needle pointed to the stalactites on the top of the cave. Duoji suddenly knelt down and chanted a spell, illuminating the blood print on the stone pillar - five missing fingers, which was exactly the same as the skeleton of the sunken ship in Jinghe River.
"This is not an ancient tomb... It's the killing warehouse of the Q organization!" Tang Ren grabbed the backpack and dumped out the numbered human bones. The first letters of the numbers spelled out the abbreviation of "Sinuo", and each bone was engraved with a miniature Nine Cauldrons pattern.
There were footsteps coming from outside the cave, and Duoji suddenly drew out his hidden knife: "Hand over the jade ring!" As the knife flashed, Su Chen threw the knife towards the hay hanging on the top of the cave. In the blazing stars, the nine copper coffin lids exploded at the same time.
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A man in a black robe rushed out of the thick smoke, with a Q-shaped pattern embroidered on his sleeves. Qin Feng grabbed the bronze arrow to block it, but the arrow suddenly split open, revealing the silk book hidden inside: "Kunlun is empty, and the tripod suppresses the monster."
Tang Ren was forced to the side of the coffin, and his back knocked open the secret compartment. Bundles of file bags were scattered, and the latest one had a photo of Qin Feng attached to it, labeled "Nine Cauldron Plan Obstructor". Su Chen tore open the file, and a yellowed group photo fell out - the young Lao Zhou stood in the Qinling archaeological team, and behind him was Sinuo's origami crane carved on the rock wall.
When Duoji's Tibetan knife slashed at Qin Feng, the cave suddenly collapsed. Sinuo's paper crane flew through the fallen rocks, and the bloody words on its wings were not dry yet: "The game is only halfway through."
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When he escaped to the snow line, Tang Ren's cotton pants were full of ice. An old Soviet truck was stuck in the cracks of the glacier, and the carriage was piled with surveying instruments from the 1960s. Qin Feng pried open the iron suitcase, and on the yellowed notebook was written: "The Nine Cauldrons are not Cauldrons, but the key to lock the dragon."
Su Chen's breath melted the ice wall, revealing the frozen mural: Dayu holding a tripod to calm a dragon, with a blood-red jade stone inlaid in the dragon's eye. Tang Ren suddenly felt terrible - the bronze arrow in his arms was hot, and the meat buns in the inner bag smelled burnt.
"Magnetic field is abnormal!" Qin Feng's watch hands spun wildly. A muffled sound came from deep in the glacier, and nine blue lights rushed up, spelling out a Hun instrument pattern in the night sky. Duoji knelt in the snow and trembled: "Kunlun Mountain is waking up..."
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When we followed the blue light to the icy lake, we saw the complete Nine Cauldrons standing on the altar in the middle of the lake. Sinuo's white robe fluttered in the wind, and she held the blood-red jade in her hand: "The Nine Cauldrons are back in place, and it's time for the real dragon to be born."
Tang Ren picked up the iron shovel and smashed it against the altar. Suddenly, bronze arrows shot out from the cauldron. When Qin Feng knocked him down, the jade stone fell into the ice cave. A huge whirlpool exploded on the lake surface, and the nine cauldrons slowly sank into the abyss.
"You have ruined our great plan!" Sinuo's crazy laughter was swallowed by the wind and snow. Su Chen took out half a jade disk from the icy water, and a micro-carved map emerged on the surface of the disk - the Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor at Mount Qi was circled in cinnabar, with the words "Dragon Veins Not Yet Completed" written beside it.
A month later, in Xi'an Muslim Street, Tang Ren was selling half a jade disk, "A fragment of a jade disk handed down from an ancient dynasty, at a sky-high price!" Qin Feng suddenly pressed his shoulder - on the Huashan Tourist Guide behind the stall, Sinuo's origami dragon was perched at the "Yangchi" mark.