Dragon's Birthday Incense? I heard that it is a secretion from the intestines of a sperm whale. It smells very fishy at first, but it smells very fragrant after drying, with a sweet smell. I heard that many perfume companies nowadays use it as a fixative. If it is used, the perfume will last longer.
And the cellar here can be filled with such fragrant things, and because there is not much ventilation on the ground, the smell lingers for a long time. I really can't imagine that a small cellar, a place for storing food, would actually use spices equivalent to gold. What's the purpose? Could it be that the ancients wanted to show off everywhere?
I caught up with Yunwen, and we continued exploring forward together. Not long after, we arrived at the area where candles were lit. No need to guess, this candle has not been extinguished for five hundred years. It must be the legendary eternal lamp, which is commonly known as whale cream. Of course, there are also claims that it is made of the oil from the mermaids in ancient legends. There is no certainty, but what is certain is that this kind of thing can only be used by the ancient royal family. Ordinary people and even dignitaries may not be able to use it.
If the leader of the post station built by Milongying was Li Mufeng, he was just a fourth-rank official. It was impossible for him to abuse such expensive things and use them in the cellars where rural people came to store winter vegetables. This was not only a waste, but also a shame.
"How luxurious! Only Qin Shihuang's tomb would have such a thing. Yet a small cellar here can actually be lit with such a light. Could Li Mufeng be some illegitimate prince?" I gossiped.
Yunwen smiled and said, "You've watched too many TV dramas. It's not that melodramatic. Let's look around and we'll understand. So far, there are no potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots, etc. here, and the chiseling is very neat, even like a tunnel. There is also wind coming from the front, which means it's not a confined space. I guess this is not a cellar."
At this moment, I heard a rustling sound and stopped immediately. There were about five pairs of longevity lamps in this tunnel, and there would be another lamp on both sides every twenty steps or so. We were now stopping between the third and fourth pairs of longevity lamps, so it was relatively dark, but the sound I heard was like some kind of paper being blown by the wind.
"What's wrong?" Yunwen asked.
I turned the torch and pointed it at the wall, only to see an empty wall. There was nothing there except bare earth, but I clearly heard something. My ears are rarely wrong, so I listened inside the wall again, and sure enough, the rustling sound came from there.
"Help me hold it for a while." I handed the torch to Yunwen, who took it, looking very confused.
I groped around the walls, tapping up and down, left and right, until I found a place where the sound was different from other places. As expected, since this post station had a skilled craftsman who could make a waterwheel with gears and shaft mechanisms, he must have used his expertise frequently. This tunnel seemed ordinary, so I thought there should be quite a few mechanisms, otherwise wouldn't the craftsman's talent be wasted?
If there is one, there must be another. Sure enough, I pressed the position on the wall that made a sound different from the other ones, and the entire earth wall began to twist. There was a huge shaft underneath that slowly rotated it, causing the earth wall to move along with some kind of shaft mechanism, until the mechanism stopped, and the other side of the wall was revealed.
Yunwen immediately gave me a thumbs up and said, "Your ears are so useful, aren't they? If I forget the password to the safe at home, I'll ask you to unlock it. You will definitely be able to do it."
"As long as I can go to your house, anything is fine." I don't know why I said that and I felt extremely embarrassed.
Yunwen was also stunned for a moment, then she chuckled, laughed and muttered softly: "So direct?"
In order to ease the embarrassment, I quickly suggested getting down to business, and she nodded with a snicker.
This wall was like one side turned upside down, with the front side turned to the back, and the back side turned to our side. We looked around with torches and saw that it was densely packed with official scrolls. The only eye-catching one was the one in the middle grid. I took it down and was a little surprised. It was very heavy and exuded a sense of dignity. When I unfolded it, it was a golden cloth with three colors inside. The brocade background was a crane pattern, and the first sentence on it was: The Emperor, by the Mandate of Heaven, decreed.
"Imperial edict!" Yunwen and I shouted in unison.
The above are all very literary words. My Chinese is not very good, and I am not very good at classical Chinese literature, so I asked Yunwen to read and analyze it.
She looked at it for a long time while I waited on the side. After reading it, Yunwen looked uncertain and then said, "This is the imperial edict specially given to the Dragon Seeker Li Mufeng, telling him that the emperor might come here in person soon, but it is a palace secret and no one else knows. If Li Mufeng dares to release the news, his entire family will be wiped out and he will not be able to return home. In addition, it also said that if Senior Li Mufeng has not found the elixir of immortality when he arrives here, he will be executed on the spot."
"Ah? This means there is no way to survive! It's already a life-and-death situation here, and the emperor still issues such a death order. It's really cruel." I said.
"In order to achieve immortality, some emperors would do anything to achieve it. Of course, this imperial edict does not have a dragon seal, and the first word is not written on the auspicious clouds. It may be a forged imperial edict, or it may be deliberately left with a flaw to prevent future generations from discovering it and arbitrarily assuming that it was said by the emperor, which would damage his reputation as an emperor." Yunwen said.
"But the Golden Que Sword is just a powerful converter. It is made of a special material that converts qi energy into force energy. It does not have any effect of immortality. Even if Li Mufeng is found, I think Emperor Jiajing or the sponsor behind the scenes will not let him go easily." I said.
Yunwen shook her head and said, "In the imperial edict, they know that the [Golden Palace] sword is what they are looking for. Perhaps it really has this function, but we just can't use it. Emperor Jiajing has been practicing Taoism and cultivating immortals all his life. He may really understand the true use of this thing. It can really help people achieve immortality and live as long as the sky."
I nodded and understood why this cave was so luxurious and everything used was so expensive. If the emperor really came here, he would have to make some arrangements in advance, so he could not be stingy with things like dragon incense.
But why did he expect that the emperor would come to the cellar? How could the emperor, with his noble body, come to such a vulgar place?
So, I felt something was wrong and searched around again. There were indeed quite a few documents, but most of them were damaged by rats. Yunwen suddenly grabbed my hand at this time. The temperature of a woman's hand was the same as that of a man. I was startled and thought she was going to do something. She moved closer to me and I slowly backed away, feeling it was a bit sudden.
However, she just took the document from my hand. I was a little disappointed. She smiled secretly, thinking that I didn't see it.
"I've seen this fragment in my father's room before. His was the upper volume, and this should be the lower volume. This should be the fragment of the heavenly scroll. Unfortunately, the words on it have been bitten off. It's originally written in classical Chinese, and the text doesn't make sense. I can't understand it either." Yunwen said.
"Then let's look at something else," I said.
At this time, she opened her eyes wide and asked, "Besides the Golden Palace, there are seven other items, right?"
I nodded.
She put down the ancient scroll and remained silent for a long time before she began to murmur: "The ape tribe... the nine evil spirits have returned as one, and the Yin fate has gathered together."
I didn't understand what she said, and I was fumbling around. At this moment, something fell from the earthen wall with cabinet openings and hit my arm. I was stunned immediately.
Isn't this the sound I heard that night when a metal object lightly touched the gorilla? I was not mistaken. Different metal materials naturally have different reverberations.
I immediately picked up the sign and took a look. I found that it was a special metal sign that had never rusted, with two twisted words engraved on the door: Mi Long!
A dragon-seeking jade halberd? I heard that only the chief envoy and the deputy envoy of the Dragon-seeking Camp each have a jade halberd. Yunwen mentioned this to me one day, so...how did it appear on the gorilla?