I chose a spot near the stone pillar, and Song Laosan took off the backpack containing the Luoyang shovel. Just as I was about to assemble it, Monkey came over and said, "Young Master Duan, let me do it."
None of us had any experience digging holes, and when I saw that the monkey wanted to help me, I smiled and waved my hand, saying, "Forget it, you might not even weigh as much as a Luoyang shovel. Take a break."
"What, you look down on me? I wouldn't dare say this in the industry, but among us, your skills really can't compare to mine."
Without a word, the monkey took the Luoyang shovel from my hand, assembled it skillfully, and then began digging a trench in the ground with surprisingly standard movements.
Seeing the monkey's actions, I looked him up and down: "You haven't been possessed by something, have you? How come you suddenly know how to dig tunnels?"
"Hey, you make that sound so easy. So you're just ignoring all my efforts, huh? Remember when you came back to Shenyang from Luoyang, I said I'd give you a surprise, didn't I?"
The monkey kept talking, but his eyes were fixed on the direction of the shovel: "While you two were in Luoyang, Third Master, I wasn't idle in Shenyang either. Through a boss at the flower and bird market, I found a master craftsman. I heard that this master craftsman had been sentenced to ten years for tomb raiding. When I found him, he was selling balut at the Tawan Night Market. In the end, he couldn't resist my persistent pleading and decided to teach me how to dig a tomb. The tuition fee is ten thousand yuan a day!"
The monkey's words surprised me greatly: "How come I never realized you were so studious before? If you had studied this hard back then, you would probably have been admitted to Peking University by now!"
“A person has to make themselves valuable, right? In our circle, you have a core skill, and Third Master has a huge network of connections. Only I, this burden, can't do anything! If I don't want to be eliminated, I have to make my role stand out. I can't build Third Master's network of connections in a short time, and your knowledge gives me a headache. So I guess I'll just have to do some manual labor.”
The monkey chatted with us as the exploratory trench had been dug five or six meters deep. He looked at the pile of earth at his feet, frowned, and looked at me: "Young Master Duan, is the place you chose reliable? The soil we dug out is all natural soil, the soil layers are clear and natural, and there are no traces of human intervention... How about we choose another spot and I'll drill a new hole to try?"
"Forget it, if there's nothing here, then this whole underground area must be empty."
I waved my hand: "Let's move on to the next location."
Seeing that we were about to leave, Sasha reminded me, "It's almost evening now, and it will get dark in two hours. Even if this isn't our destination, we should set up camp and rest as soon as possible."
I knew Sasha was right, but I didn't take his advice: "Right now, we're not the only ones looking for targets; there are others doing the same. If we stay here and set up camp, there's a high chance we'll run into them! Let's take advantage of the daylight and head to the next location. Even if we don't make it there in time, we can set up camp along the way, which will shorten our journey tomorrow."
Upon hearing this, Sasa looked at me with a puzzled expression: "You Chinese are really strange. Without using any modern instruments or compasses, why are you so sure that everyone will gather in one place in this forest?"
I didn't explain the complicated knowledge of feng shui to Sasha, but just vaguely said, "Every ethnic group has its own traditions and culture, and this is a unique culture belonging to us Chinese."
The mountain we are on has a ring of rolling hills on its upper half, which looks like a string of Buddhist prayer beads on a wrist.
Because of the trees blocking the view, I couldn't count how many small hills there were halfway up the mountain, but that didn't matter anymore, because the "twenty-four mountains rising from eight palaces" terrain was very obvious here.
The so-called twenty-four mountains rise from eight palaces, with Tan, Ju, Wu, and Fu being the most powerful.
If three of each palace are in the same palace, and the Heavenly Stems Tan, the Giant, the Martial, and the Auxiliary are considered Yang and dominant, then the corresponding Yin burial site is unsuitable.
The area around the Yin Cave is surrounded by escape routes, which will lead to certain death. If the Heavenly Secret is located in the due west direction, the family's livelihood will gradually decline.
In this way, only the remaining five palaces on this mountain are suitable for burial. Under the "thousand chariots and ingots" terrain formed by the overall terrain, all five palaces are suitable for burial, and Hu Shahu's tomb must be one of them.
About an hour after we left the second location, Sasha suddenly raised his arm to signal us to stop, and then everyone raised their guns.
I followed Sasha's gaze and saw a small open area in front of us. In the middle of the open area was a dark brown stone that looked like a table, and next to that stone were scattered white, broken bones.
Once Sasha confirmed there was no danger, she gestured to the side: "Let's go around!"
"No, we have to go and see!"
I cocked the slide, chambered a bullet, and walked forward, stepping on the broken bones.
As I got closer, I realized that the stone was originally just an ordinary bluestone. The reason it changed color was because it had been soaked in blood for a long time and had been stained.
"Boom! Boom!"
The monkey, stepping on the broken bones scattered on the ground, seemed somewhat resistant to this place: "Young Master Duan, what kind of place is this? Could it be a place of ancient sacrifices?"
"Impossible. If it were truly a sacrificial site, the stone would have been washed away long ago after years of erosion, and these bones could not have been preserved on the ground for so many years."
I walked to the edge of the stone and found that there were no patterns on it. Then I looked at the skulls in the pile of bones on the ground: "These bones are not human, but animal bones."
"It must have been done by humans. Look at these bones, most of them were broken. Wild animals couldn't do that."
Sasha urged, "Mr. Duan, there have always been legends of wild men in this mountain, and the obvious signs of human activity here give me a bad feeling. I suggest we leave as soon as possible."
Zhou Peng was translating Sasha's words for me when he suddenly let out a strange cry, pointing at the woods behind me and shouting, "People! There are people there!"
I was startled by Zhou Peng's shout. I turned around and saw that the place was empty, with no one in sight.
"Don't shout! Don't shout!"
The monkey, fearing that Zhou Peng might attract something, quickly covered his mouth.
"I'll go take a look."
Seeing this, Song Laosan also picked up his gun and walked over there. In the past two days, Zhou Peng's mental state has been getting worse and worse. He always says that he sees some weird things.
Every time he had an episode, Song Laosan would have to go over and check on him, then come up with a reasonable explanation to appease him.
This time was different. Song Laosan went into the woods and actually came back with a skull: "There were indeed two skeletons behind. They looked like they had been dead for a long time. There was nothing left but bones. Zhou Peng must have been seeing things."
Zhou Peng struggled for a moment, then shoved the monkey away: "I didn't lie to you, and I'm not having a relapse. This time I really saw someone there!"
I was about to signal to the monkey to give Zhou Peng the sedative when I heard a rustling sound from the bushes behind me.
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