Chapter 7 Chapter Six: The Tower of Thousand Coffins

I saw Adong stripped off neatly, leaving only a pair of boxers, and was smearing a yellow grease-like thing on his body. His movements were very neat and careful, and he smeared it all over his body.Although he was very alert and looked in the direction of the cabin from time to time, he obviously hadn't noticed me as a voyeur. Soon, he was done. He bit the dagger in his mouth, touched the waterproof flashlight in the cab, turned his head and looked around, then opened the hatch and carefully dived into the river and swam to the shore. go. I was very confused: what on earth is this kid going to do, don't he have accomplices here, right?Is it possible that seeing our group spend a lot of money, we have evil thoughts, wanting to make money and kill ourselves?Although this kid looks stupid, but the border area can be described as poor and rough, and the people have always been aggressive. Killing a few people in a desolate dense forest with no human habitation is like killing chickens.

Thinking of this, I felt a burst of fear, and wanted to call other people, but thinking of A Dong's previous actions, I was more confused.Maybe I was worrying too much, so I simply turned my heart away: Mother, let's go and see what the hell this guy is up to. At this time, the rain has become much lighter, but the strong wind is still unabated, shaking the branches on both sides of the bank "creaking", and there are a few flashes of lightning from time to time, and the pitifully small sky seems to be torn apart.After Adong dived into the water, he quickly disappeared in front of him. The river was extremely cold. I gritted my teeth and followed the night carefully under the cover of the surrounding noises.The cold is not terrible, what I am afraid of at the moment is the toothpick fish that A Dong mentioned before can gnaw people into bones in an instant.

Fortunately, the place where we moored the boat was not far from the river bank. A Dong moved quickly and quickly disappeared from my sight, but he turned on the flashlight later, which greatly facilitated my tracking.I followed him all the way to the river bank, followed the only flashlight, and groped into the depths of the dense forest. The dense forest is extremely slippery. I understand that even without the previous heavy rain, the environment here is not much different. At this moment, the subtropical rainforest is filled with mist, and it is very quiet. There is no sound except the sound of wind and rain. Half-covered animal bones can be seen everywhere, and bursts of rancid stench blow in the night wind.To be honest, although it is not the first time for me to take part in field work, I have never experienced such an environment.

I followed for more than ten minutes, one foot shallow and one foot deep, always keeping a certain distance from A Dong in front. At this time, I had followed quite far away, and the searchlights on the boat had been obscured a little. Also out of sight. Suddenly, Ah Dong in front of me stopped, stood on the spot and fired the flashlight around. I suspected that he had spotted me, so I quickly used the big tree beside me as a cover.And when I poked my head out to look at him again, the light from the flashlight had disappeared. I gritted my teeth bitterly, and my first reaction was that this guy found me, so I turned off the flashlight. I regretted it, it was too dark around me, and it would take a lot of trouble to go back at this moment. Rush forward and reason clearly with him.When I remembered that he was still carrying a dagger, I was not at ease, and immediately dismissed the idea, and casually picked up a thick branch from the ground as a weapon.

Relying on my memory, I reluctantly groped towards the front position. After a few steps, my feet slipped suddenly, and I fell straight forward, and fell into the water with a "plop".I was not prepared at all, I choked on two mouthfuls of dirty water in shock, I spit it out, took a breath, and suddenly saw a faint light flashing not far from the bottom of my feet, getting farther and farther away. I was taken aback, and immediately realized that there was no light source around. No wonder the boy disappeared all of a sudden, and he dived directly from here. For a moment I was faced with a difficult choice: keep following or give up?I understand very well that a person of unknown origin still conceals us doing such a weird behavior under such circumstances. Naturally, he has his special intentions, and he will definitely not welcome voyeurs.But Ah Dong's actions really made me feel uneasy, but I am a persistent person, worry about gains and losses in everything, and like to pursue results.

While hesitating, the spot of light at the bottom of the water became more and more blurred, and it was about to disappear.I was taken aback, so I stopped hesitating immediately, took a deep breath, and chased after him directly.I grew up in a fishing village in the south of the Yangtze River, and I have been with water since I was a child, so I am quite confident in my underwater skills. It should not be a big problem to hold back for two minutes.The pool is not very deep, and there is almost no visibility underwater. I can only follow the bright light and fumble all the way.What makes me feel strange is that this pool doesn't seem to be natural. The places I touch with my hands are hard stones, and from the feeling of my hands, I can tell that these stones have been carved, and I can even feel them. to certain carvings like animal tentacles, human limbs.And the farther you go, the smaller the space, and finally it almost becomes a water hole like a culvert. Fortunately, the journey is not very far. Turning a bend at the bottom of the water, you go all the way up, and soon stick your head out out of the water.

The surrounding area was much brighter, and it was completely different from before. I wiped off the water on my face and took a closer look, and was immediately stunned by the scene in front of me. This is a sinkhole with a gap like a snake-necked bottle above it. The gap is very far away from our position, making it look like the moon.Probably because the gap was not covered by vegetation, the faint night light poured down from the gap and shone on a huge pyramid-like bulge in the center of the hole. Although there is a little light at this time, it is not sufficient at all. The tower is vague, and only an outline can be seen. At a glance, it is as high as a three-story building. It also looks relatively neat, not like a natural formation, and the surroundings of the sinkhole are also extremely unusual, full of traces of artificial construction.

I couldn't see it very clearly, so I just cautiously swam forward to the position of the base of the tower, and climbed up the extension above it.After a close observation, I realized that the tall towers are actually arranged in steps. I am now on the bottom step, but it is not the bottom, and there should be a large part submerged in it. into the water.It is very likely that when it was first built, there was no water accumulation here, but the changes in the landform over the years have made it what it is today. Each step has a large drop, nearly as high as a person, and none of them is empty. Every other step, there will be two half-human, half-beast statues inlaid on the tower, squatting half-squatting, showing a posture of soaring , and seemed to be lifting something.Over time, many statues have been corroded badly, beyond recognition, and they look strange.

Even so, the statues are arranged quite neatly, and there seems to be something embedded between every two statues, connecting them together, and when I see clearly what it is, I suddenly stand up with frightened hairs, and my feet As soon as I slipped, luckily I reached out and grabbed the arm of a statue, otherwise I would have to fall from above into the water. I can see clearly that between the two statues is a sarcophagus!And I glanced carefully at the other statues, and they were all the same. Although I couldn't see them from a distance, I was sure.At the same time, I also understood that it is no wonder that the two statues are showing a posture of lifting objects and flying up. This posture is clearly carrying the coffin and running wildly!

What is this for?How come there are so many sarcophagi here? Is it a special burial system?Looking at the arrangement of these coffins, I thought of a burial system in Tibet—the tower burial. It is said that the tower burial is the highest burial system of the Tibetan people. It is very sacred. Many people can enjoy the treatment of sky burial after death, but Pagoda burial is not easy to enjoy. I know very little about tower burials, I just heard about them, so I am not sure that the tower in front of me is a tower burial.But judging from the coffins piled up layer by layer, this should also be a kind of burial system, and the hierarchy is strict. The placement of the coffin may be determined by the status of the burial. The higher the coffin is placed, the higher the burial. The status of the person during his lifetime is higher.And this kind of burial system generally has religious components, it may be a tribal group burial, or it may be a group burial of a large family.

What the hell is this place?What is this kid doing running to this hellish place in the rain in the middle of the night?Could it be that this is their ancestral grave, and he happened to pass by here to visit a grave when he was leading the way for us?Even if it is, there must be a time, and it is still mysterious. Such an accidental discovery made me a little excited, and even had an urge to climb to the top of the tower to have a look, but I quickly remembered my situation.Damn, I'm here to follow that kid, what am I doing now?Why is his mind wandering so badly? Where has his attention been diverted? And at this time, when I wanted to find A Dong by the light of the flashlight, it was already very difficult. At this time, there was no flashlight around me. When I raised my eyes, I saw the cold light from the gap illuminating the strange statues and statues. Seeing the cold coffins, I couldn't help but take a deep breath, and didn't know what to do for a moment. Suddenly, I heard a "click" behind me, as if something was pushed away.Immediately, I felt my scalp numb, and the cold sweat "swish" came down.In a deep hole full of weird coffins, any sound is enough to scare people half to death, not to mention that the sound is intermittent and getting closer, as if some kind of living thing is crawling and hitting! I almost collapsed to the ground, but my head was still clear anyway, and I immediately backed away after groping.After not taking a few steps back, I suddenly felt a chill on my back, and then, something cold and slippery wrapped around my neck.