Chapter 29 Chapter 28 Imitate Kassapa

Di Renjie walked quickly around a big rock, and there was a little light in front of his eyes. Under the faint moonlight, various scenes slowly emerged in front of his eyes. It can be seen that he is at the bottom of a valley at this time. It is said that it is a valley, but it is more like a pit with a small bottom and a big pit. The cave, except for the opening just now, is surrounded by rock walls, and there is no way to go anywhere else. Everyone felt their bodies getting warmer, separated from the side of the mountain where they had traveled before, it was as if from midwinter to early spring, the warm wind blowing on their faces made them very comfortable.There are vegetation on all sides, either bright or dark, with layers of branches and leaves, very luxuriant.There is a pool in the center, and a mist rises from the pool. There are still a few rocks protruding from the water and covered with vegetation. Hu Lvchong stretched out his hand to test the pool water. It turned out to be a natural hot spring.The shore is extremely uneven, with scattered rocks, as if they fell from the sky and smashed into the pits randomly.

Li Yuanfang looked up and saw that the rock wall above was gradually shrinking. Because the rocks were abrupt and mixed with vegetation, he couldn't see what was going on on the top. After asking Di Chun to set off another firework, he realized that there was a piece of water the size of a round basin on it. The sky is exposed, but at this angle, there is no moon, and it is very high above the ground. Although the moonlight penetrates, the sky seems to be integrated with the color of the rocks, making it difficult to detect. Seeing the twilight of the moon, not as dark as in the mountainside just now, everyone felt relieved and extinguished a few torches, leaving only those in the hands of Di Chun and Hou Sizhi's soldiers, one after the other, to follow the road.Everyone never expected that after walking for half a day, they only saw a pool of water. Di Chunqi said, "Gao Changgong built a passage from the Buddha Cave all the way here. Could it be that he came here to see the scenery?"

Hu Lvchong shook his head and said: "This should be the real entrance to the treasure. The hole above looks very small, but it is extremely deep here. Even if someone passes by the hillside above and finds this hole, it is difficult to see the situation below." Along the way, Uncle Wu seldom spoke, and now he sighed: "It's really secret here, it's very difficult to enter from above, besides, how can ordinary people think that there are hidden caves below? Li Yuanfang thought for a while and asked, "My lord, the book mentioned 'Night of the Full Moon', but the moon is still not visible. Could it be related to the time of day?"

Di Renjie looked at the other side of the pool, and there seemed to be something unclear among the vegetation, so he motioned for everyone to go around the bank, and replied: "The sun soul mirror and the moon fine knife are both related to the light of the sun and the moon. The essence of the moon will produce some wonderful things. It’s hard to say now. The full moon mentioned in the book may also be related to Gao Changgong’s military theory. , so it is advisable to use soldiers at the time of the full moon." Hou Sizhi followed behind with his own soldiers, but he didn't understand most of Di Renjie's words, he only heard "Yin" and "Punishment" and so on, and saw the torches swaying in the wind, making the surrounding rocks and trees seem to move In the past few days, I have done too many bad things. I panicked when I was walking at night. I was frightened. Suddenly I turned my head and saw a figure looming on the boulder in the middle of the pool. I was so frightened that I screamed and pointed my finger again and again. go.

Li Yuanfang, Hu Lvchong and others were all taken aback: Did someone come already?After listening quietly, there is no sound, could it be that the eyes are dazzled?The two people thought about it, they both jumped up, and when they landed on the stone platform in the pool to look at it, they saw that one of them was sitting on the grass ball, wearing battle armor, with a dry face, but he was a dead man, just now everyone came in from there , because the stones blocked the line of sight, it was not found.Hu Lvchong had no scruples, and smiled lightly: "Pretending to be a ghost." With a light sweep of the palm, the cloth on the corpse had already decayed, and the armor was scattered, Li Yuanfang hurriedly stopped and said: "No."

Di Renjie, Di Chun and others had already come over the rocks extending from the shore to the water. At this time, the moon was gradually reaching the sky, and the stone platform in the middle of the pool was also much brighter. It was a little strange that the man forced it, but it was a pity that the armor and clothing were damaged, so it was impossible to determine his identity before he was alive.One side said: "Brother Yuanfang, Hulu, you should clean up the vegetation around him and see if there are any relics, be careful not to damage them." The two followed orders, and within a short while, they made a discovery.First, a few lines of writing appeared on the stone beside the corpse's hand, and then walking behind him, on a slightly larger stone in the center of the pool, there were four other bronze beast-like objects submerged in the crevices of the grass. When people looked at each other, they had never seen such a weird shape. With the previous experience, Hu Lvchong didn't dare to touch it easily, and he and Li Yuanfang walked back to Di Renjie's side, reporting one by one.

Di Chun took the torch close to him, wiped off the soil, grass and leaves on the stone with his hands, and said: "In the past, dragons and horses bear pictures, turtles offer books, and sages give them. How lucky I am to see the gods given by heaven!  … Elder Ye, keep Qi’s grandson, and wait for future generations to get it... There is also a small word at the bottom, it seems to be 'Wu Ping six years'?" Di Renjie pondered and said: "'Wuping' is the year name of Gao Wei, the empress of the Northern Qi Dynasty. It is recorded in the history that in the fourth year of Wuping, Gao Changgong was bestowed by the empress. He ran to Qingzhou, was captured by Master Zhou, and all of them were destroyed...This person should have left a letter here a hundred years ago, as if he wanted to imitate Mahakassapa and pass something on to future generations."

Hu Lu clashed and wondered: "Could he be Gao Changgong? Could it be that the poisonous cup didn't kill him, but he hid here to imitate the old monk?" Di Renjie said with a smile: "It's possible. The Buddha of the Northern Dynasties, the Venerable Kasyapa recorded in the original book not only refers to the one in the grotto above, but also includes this one. Let's go and have a look at the back." Li Kaigu, Di Chun and the others bypassed the mummy, they couldn't help sighing.Even Uncle Wu couldn't help frowning and looked a few more times, the hollow eye frames of the skeleton looked forward, wondering if the person who broke into this place tonight was the one he wanted?

Dividing the grass, the four bronze beasts are separated in four directions in the shape of "mouth", facing the center of the stone platform, with the lower part slightly sunken into the ground, about waist high. It was cast into a half-squatting monster with a basin on its head, and each basin contained a round black stone.The body of the beast is arched, the neck is heavy, the mouth is wide open, and it is majestic. There are fish fins on the back, and there is a fish tail standing on the ground when looking down. Cast a man with arms around the monster. The man's legs are spread apart, squatting on the beast's feet, facing the left side, putting his head into the monster's mouth, but his face is calm, as if hugging the monster tightly. .The whole piece of bronze is covered with ancient and exquisite patterns. The monster's eyes are wide open, and a pair of eyes are actually inlaid with green pine jade. Under the moonlight, it can be seen that the pattern on the human body is different from the bronze color of the monster, and also has a red copper pattern. In the meantime, it looks thick and solemn, magnificent and magnificent.

Standing between the four bronze beasts, everyone felt a thrilling experience they had never experienced before, and suddenly had the illusion that the monster was about to swallow the human head in one gulp, and rushed towards them from all directions, all of them dumbfounded and speechless.Li Yuanfang saw the shocked look in Di Renjie's eyes, and asked softly: "My lord, I have never seen such a strange bronze vessel before, what's so strange?" Di Renjie seemed to be intoxicated, and didn't seem to hear Li Yuanfang's words. He shook his head for a while, and then murmured: "Such a bronze vessel is richly decorated, but there are no inscriptions. I'm afraid it was made earlier than the Spring and Autumn Period. According to legend, Dayu opened the Dragon Gate to control the floods, did he really leave ancient relics here?"

Li Yuanfang, Hu Luchong, Di Chun and others looked at each other, Di Chun said: "Master, are you okay? These four bronze wares will never grow out of the ground for no reason, what are they for?" Li Kaigu couldn't help staring Looking straight at Di Renjie, Hou Sizhi and a few of his followers were already on the sidelines. "Well, you're right," Di Renjie came back to his senses, and said, "The ancients made bronze wares, mostly for daily use, but such exquisite wares cannot be used by ordinary people; A device, or a device used to communicate with heaven, earth, ghosts and gods, judging from its appearance and form, it may be used for the latter purpose." Li Kaigu said in surprise: "Obviously this monster is going to eat people, why does that person not seem to be panicked at all, but put his head into its mouth instead?" "Perhaps this half-beast, half-fish image is a sacred animal revered by the ancients, expressing people's awe of divine power. We have no way of knowing what it is." Di Renjie sighed. Suddenly, he looked up at the sky and saw the shadow of the moon gradually disappearing. He moved closer to the top hole, estimated the direction secretly, looked towards a rock wall beside the pool, and said after a long while, "Yuan Fang, you go to that schist to have a look, if I guess it's right, there is definitely more than this ancient site here." Li Yuanfang climbed up the rock wall, removed layers of branches and leaves with his hands, touched the chiseled lines on the stone with his palms, and couldn't help shouting excitedly: "My lord, there is indeed a famous place here."