Still unwilling to give up, Zu'an went over and tried it, but no matter how hard he tried, it wouldn't budge.
"Ah!" Pei Mianman suddenly exclaimed.
Zuan was startled, thinking she had been attacked by a Taotie. She quickly turned around to look, but found nothing around her.
"What's wrong?" Zu'an came to her side and asked with concern.
“There…” Pei Mianman hurriedly pointed to the side.
Zuan looked in the direction she was pointing and saw a skeleton kneeling on one of the steps.
This skeleton was extremely tall and imposing; even kneeling on one knee, it still exuded an inexplicable aura.
"Could this also be a victim from back then?" Pei Mianman thought of the countless white bones in the giant pit.
“It shouldn’t be,” Zuan shook his head and pointed to the skeleton. “Look at it, holding a long spear, with a fierce aura. It must have been a valiant warrior in life. At the same time, it looks peaceful and has no wounds on its body. It must have volunteered to guard this place. I just don’t know if it was buried alive with the dead or turned into skeletons after dying naturally.”
“There…there are more over there!” Pei Mianman said in a panic, pointing at the pillars.
Zuan walked over to take a look and couldn't help but feel a chill down his spine. He had originally thought that the lines under the pillars were carved patterns, but now that he got closer, he could see that each large pillar was built on a skeleton.
If this place hadn't been in disrepair for so many years, causing damage and revealing traces in many places, they probably wouldn't have been able to discover that the foundation beneath the pillars was made of human bones.
Zuan's heart skipped a beat. He suddenly remembered that he seemed to have seen similar patterns under the huge stone gate. He hurriedly ran over to check and sure enough, the entire gate was built on many white bones.
He roughly counted and found at least fifteen skeletons that could be seen, and countless more were buried underground.
“The person who built this place must have been incredibly cruel.” Pei Mianman approached Zu An, her body trembling slightly.
Although she usually appeared cheerful and smiling, she was actually a ruthless and decisive person at heart. However, seeing the mass grave-like place and the fact that the houses were built on top of the corpses, she still felt a chill run down her spine.
Zuan said in a deep voice, "Perhaps this is their culture and custom. I know an ancient country that uses people for sacrifice, believing that this is how they express their highest respect to heaven."
Having watched the documentary "Yinxu" in his previous life, he knew that the Shang Dynasty loved to use human sacrifices, and this secret place was also called "Yinxu". Although he didn't know if the two were the same, they must have some connection.
“But these people are so innocent. Who would want to be used by the rulers as livestock to sacrifice to the heavens?” Pei Mianman looked at the twisted bones under the pillars and stone gate and couldn’t help but feel compassion.
Zuan said, "These should all be prisoners of war. In those days, becoming a prisoner of war meant certain of a tragic fate."
Pei Mianman bit her lip: "Let's find another way. This place doesn't feel right."
Zuan hummed in agreement; indeed, the place was eerie in every way.
The two searched the side, when Pei Mianman suddenly stopped and grabbed him, saying, "Be careful!"
Zuan was taken aback, only then noticing that there was a bottomless cliff not far ahead. Its dark appearance resembled a sleeping giant beast, and looking at it for even a moment made him feel uneasy.
Pei Mianman picked up a stone and threw it down, but there was no echo. The two of them were horrified. Either the cliff was too deep, so deep that the sound of a stone hitting the ground could not be heard back, or there was some kind of spatial rift below.
Regardless of the reason, falling down is clearly not a wise choice.
The two hurriedly turned around and searched in another direction. After a while, they were disappointed to find that there was also a cliff there, with an endless abyss below.
They finally realized that the path they had been walking on was actually a suspended bridge, but they hadn't been able to see their surroundings clearly because of the thick blue fog all around.
Thinking of this, the two were extremely relieved. They had been chased by the Taotie and were so frightened that they hadn't lost their footing. If they had fallen in this time, they probably wouldn't have been as lucky as they were in the giant pit last time.
Pei Mianman was puzzled: "If there's no bottom below, then what's below where we just came from, and where that big stone gate is? It can't be floating in mid-air, can it?"
"Floating?" Zuan said in a deep voice, "It's not impossible. You know, this is a secret realm where a meteorite fell from the sky. We might still be inside that strange stone tablet. The spatial laws inside may be different from the outside world."
"I never thought that after finally shaking off that mosquito-like Taoist, I'd be stuck here again. All I want to do now is figure out how to get out," he complained.
Pei Mianman, standing to the side, smiled and looked at him, saying, "I actually think it's quite nice here."
After leaving, I'll have to worry about how to tell Chu Yan, and there are also troubles in the family. If I could spend some time alone with Zu An here, it wouldn't be a bad thing.
Just then, a series of "whimpering" sounds came from afar, and her expression changed. She then thought of the Taotie and the white bones, and immediately gave up the idea of staying here.
"Let's go back to the main gate first!" Zu An hurriedly pulled Pei Mianman back. If they went any further, they would run into the Taotie that were chasing them. If they could find a way to get in through the stone gate, they might be able to escape this calamity. Even if they couldn't get in, the two of them could hold their ground and avoid being surrounded by Taotie and attacked from both sides.
Pei Mianman had clearly considered the pros and cons, and without any hesitation, the two quickly returned to the stone gate to study how to open it.
However, they did not notice that a faint red light was flashing in the bald eye sockets of the skeleton warrior kneeling by the stone steps.
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The two chapters have been combined.
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