The glowing skeletons in the cave also gave me a bad feeling. I said to Jiang Man, "The Miao Jiang Immortal Palace has many ingenious witchcraft techniques. These skeletons can emit light, so they are probably related to Gu poison. Don't let them touch your skin, go around them!"
After speaking, I avoided the skeletons in the cave and walked towards the cave ahead.
After passing through this small space, there was still a cave ahead, but the cave walls were filled with a lot of dried soil, and there were some glowing bones scattered in the cave, which must have been cleaned up by the people who came before.
I shone my flashlight into the cave and found that it was only a little over a meter long, and the outside was nothingness. It looked like an exit located on a cliff.
Seeing that I couldn't find the terrain outside the cave with my flashlight, I crawled inside and climbed forward for a while. I found that this small cave was located inside Brother Yu's larger cave, and there were obvious signs of digging around it.
At the cave exit ahead, there were two rows of teeth, one above the other, while the ground beneath my feet was an arched tongue.
I never imagined that the exit of our passage would be inside a mouth, and the passage would connect to a throat.
Although I haven't seen the outside yet, I feel that we are currently inside the mouth of a giant statue. I just don't know if it's a face carved out of the mountain or if the mountain wall itself has been carved into a giant statue.
If it is the latter, then this enormous project is far more extensive than the ancient "Mount Rushmore" we saw when we entered the cave.
When Jiang Man came out and saw the situation, she was also a little surprised: "I originally thought that when those craftsmen built the escape route, they would choose a hidden place, but the place we are in should be inside the mouth of a statue, right? They dared to set up the secret passage in a place like this. Aren't they afraid that they would be discovered during the construction?"
I countered, "When you were examining the skeletons in the back, did you find any fatal wounds on them?"
"Due to the passage of time, there are no traces left on those skeletons."
Jiang Man shook her head: "Are you worried that the skeletons behind them were all killed? I don't think so. If they were really exposed, why would the person who did it go through the trouble of entering the cave to intercept and kill them?"
"Let's go out and take a look."
I checked my surroundings and confirmed that there were no other secret passages in the cave before I stepped toward the exit.
Shining the flashlight downwards, we see that we are at least twenty meters above the ground. We can vaguely see that the hillside below is higher than where we are, like looking down at our stomach. There are simple patterns on it, but because we are looking from such a high place, it is difficult to see the situation below clearly.
Jiang Man walked to my side and looked to the left and right: "It seems that our statue is built against the mountain and is at least thirty meters high. But have you noticed that the shoulders of this statue are much more concave than the head? They are not on the same level."
"The difference in height between the head and body of this statue is indeed very large. I think this is why the craftsmen dug the secret passage. They must have accidentally discovered that there was a crack in the mountain when they were carving the statue. If they continued to dig, the entire project would be destroyed. So they stopped the project. They would rather the proportions be out of balance than continue to go deeper. Otherwise, they would not have been able to dig out the outline of the human head at all."
I suddenly realized: "The soil we saw in the cave earlier was probably not used by the craftsmen to cover it up, but rather as a seal for aesthetic purposes. Later, it was used by the craftsmen who knew about this road as an escape route."
Jiang Man nodded: "Such a large-scale statue, and it's even built underground, the amount of work is unimaginable. I think even if this isn't the exact location of the third gate, it's still a necessary route."
"We came in via a shortcut, so we don't know the situation along the way. We need to go down and check it out to know which way to go next."
At the exit of this cave, the rope left by the previous team had not yet been touched. Using the rope they left behind, we slowly descended from above, and our view became clearer.
Our statue, built against the mountain, is like most of the totems I've seen before, with triangular eyes and a wide-open mouth that extends all the way to the base of the ears.
Unlike the previous totems and statues, the triangular eyes of this giant statue are no longer blank, but rather lowered, gazing down at the valley below.
When I was halfway down, I saw that there were many pillars standing densely in the valley below us, like a forest.
It wasn't until I landed on the ground that I realized these pillars were carved from stone and embedded in grooves dug into the ground.
Beneath each of these stone pillars lies a pile of withered bones.
After Jiang Man came down from above, she saw the bones scattered all over the ground and immediately became alert: "Why are there so many more skeletons here? Could it be that they are raising Gu monsters here as well?"
I shook my head: "No, look at the way these skeletons are arranged. They are all very similar, which means they fell down in almost the same way. These people must have been tied to pillars before they died, and they fell down because of the ropes and the decay of their bodies."
Jiang Man relaxed a little: "Since ancient times, there have always been burial pits for people buried alive with their dead. This method of tying people to pillars to be buried alive with them is quite rare."
"To be precise, this is not a burial pit, but an altar."
I looked up at the ugly statue in front of me: "Perhaps our understanding of the Miao Jiang Celestial Palace is flawed."
Jiang Man was taken aback by my words: "What error?"
"There are rumors that the Miao Jiang Immortal Palace is the burial place of the Nine Heavens Mystic Maiden, but all we have seen along the way is the image of this statue. Even the human sacrifices here are for the purpose of worshipping this statue, which shows that it must have an extremely high status!"
I raised my flashlight high, looking at the ugly, eerie face above me: "For some reason, I have a feeling that this place should be this guy's grave!"
"No way? Although this statue is in the shape of a human, its appearance doesn't look like a human at all. I think it's more like a fictional god or demon."
Jiang Man paused for a moment: "Even if this is really his tomb, I think the image has been modified. But I think the statue should be a deity worshipped by an ancient tribe, just like the dragon and phoenix patterns in the imperial tombs."
I shone my flashlight on the messy footprints on the ground: "In any case, since an altar has appeared here, the third door should be nearby, at the end of this road."
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