Chapter 5 Chapter 4: Snake Hoop and Treacherous Mountain

The old man claimed to be surnamed Liu, originally from Shanxi, and has now retired and settled in Beijing.The so-called retirement, of course, refers to Daodou. This person is a famous tomb robber in Shanxi, nicknamed Liu Shisan. At first glance, this name sounds more like a bandit name, but in fact it is mainly because of his high prestige in this area in their area. .There were several upsurges of fighting in Shanxi, and it was at that time that Liu Shisan made his fortune. He studied under Zhang Puppet, the number one local tomb robber. At first glance, I thought it was an opera singer, which made people puzzled.But it's strange, this puppet's skill is really extraordinary, Liu Shisan has never missed a fight under the tutelage of Zhang puppet for more than 20 years.

Still the same sentence, nothing is absolute, and finally there was an experience that broke their myth of invincibility, and it made Liu Shisan worry about it all his life. About twenty years ago, Liu Shisan's master and apprentice had gradually taken advantage of Shanxi's unique advantages and started the antique business, which seemed to have gradually quieted down in the fighting world.Of course, tomb robbers like them, with a strong foundation, naturally dismiss ordinary tombs, but while they are doing business in antiques, they are also secretly paying attention to whether they are aggressive.

One day, when the master and the apprentice were arranging antique artifacts, they accidentally found a bronze snake sculpture wearing a crown in the pile of artifacts.People like Zhang Puppet are not only superb in fighting skills, but also have deep attainments in the field of researching artifacts and antiques. As long as any artifacts are in hand, they can immediately see the truth, and they have a kind of knowledge about artifacts. Special sensitivity. Zhang Puppet saw at a glance that this thing was a bit weird, and then picked up the snake sculpture with one hand, and looked at it for a long time, his eyes were about to light up, Liu Shisan didn't know why, and tentatively stepped forward to ask.After a long time, Zhang Puppet praised: "Good thing! Good thing!"

Liu Shisan felt strange, isn't it just an ordinary bronze sculpture?To make him admire in this way, we must know that they have turned over a lot of fights in the past twenty years, and they have seen countless artifacts, many of which are of the highest quality, but they have never seen their master admire them so much. Zhang Puppet left without saying a word, took the bronze snake sculpture, and within a few days suddenly notified Liu Shisan and him to go to Yunnan.Although Liu Shisan felt strange, he knew from his feeling that the master must have found a fight. Thinking that he hadn't made a move for several years, he was still a little excited, and the two of them set off on the road after some preparations.

But once they got there, they felt overwhelmed. Although it was only the beginning of May in the lunar calendar, the place was already very hot and sunny, and the two wore big bamboo hats as they shuttled through the dense forest, always guarding against the attacks of poisonous insects and snakes. Liu Shisan kept complaining, why did Master Xindao choose such a place to fight, he had never suffered such a crime in the underground tomb before.But Zhang Puppet seemed to be very interested. He tirelessly traveled all over the mountain villages and asked the locals about the situation under the cover of being a traditional Chinese medicine merchant.Finally, they learned that the utensils in their hands came from a place called Shehuan Mountain near the China-Myanmar border. Some local herbal farmers had picked up such things, but most of them dared not take them because According to legend, there is a Snake Palace in the depths of the Snake Hoop Mountain. If you take something from the Snake Emperor, you will be retaliated by the snake. A few brave people took this thing to sell it, and all of them died inexplicably, which made the locals hate the snake. Huo Shan was extremely afraid.

Zhang Puppet didn't care about these things, instead he secretly rejoiced. After discovering the bronze snake sculpture by chance, he went back and consulted a lot of historical materials and books. Now that the local people said this, he was even more convinced of the existence of the Snake Palace.So the two spent money to hire a local guide and walked towards Shehuan Mountain. After a whole day of trekking, several people arrived at the foot of a big mountain. The guide pointed to a sharp hillside ahead and said, "That's Shehuan Mountain. The medicinal materials you want to collect are on that mountain. I’m not going to go any further.” Liu Shisan’s master and apprentice saw that the Snake-Hoop Mountain seemed to be right in front of them, but they couldn’t fly over, shuttling through such a dense jungle, looking up to the sky. Can't see, outsiders come to specify to get lost.Zhang Puppet proposed to let the guide continue to lead the way, but the guide refused life and death, shaking his head and waving his hands, Zhang Puppet immediately took out a handful of tickets and stuffed them into the guide's hand, the guide saw the colorful tickets, He wavered again at the moment, this is enough for him to collect medicinal materials for half a year, hesitantly heard Liu Shisan's master and apprentice urging and pleading, for the sake of money, the guide had no choice but to agree.

After walking for a long time, I finally passed through the dense forest and arrived at the foot of the Snake Hoop Mountain. The guide refused to go any further after being beaten to death. Liu Shisan proposed to add more money. I won’t go if Jinshan is given to me, I don’t want to spend my life taking money.” It turns out that day is already the fourth day of the fifth month of the lunar calendar, and the next day is the Dragon Boat Festival. According to local legend, every year on the Dragon Boat Festival, the snakes in the mountains will not move. In fact, it is because the Snake Emperor has a very strange ceremony every year on the fifth day of May. , all the snakes gathered together to protect it.And that day is the day before the fifth day of May. According to this saying, all the snakes will gather here today to strengthen their guard and prepare for the ceremony of the Snake Emperor the next day.

When Zhang Puppet heard this, he immediately felt amused. He is a person who has experienced many battles, so he would not care too much about it. He was so in awe of the Snake Hoop Mountain, he was overjoyed, and he was even more convinced that there were treasures hidden in the Snake Palace, so he decided to spend the night on the mountain and start the action on the Dragon Boat Festival the next day.The guide saw that the two were so determined, and immediately began to doubt their true identities. Thinking of the desolation in the deep mountains and old forests, it might not be good for him to go on like this, so he slipped away quietly in the night while the few people were resting.

Although Liu Shisan's master and apprentice were angry, but fortunately they had already arrived at the Snake Hoop Mountain. They believed that with their many years of fighting experience, it should not be difficult to find the Snake Palace, so the two went straight to the top of the mountain and carefully observed the surroundings. Mountainous landforms. Compared with the famous mountain city of Chongqing, Tengchong City is an out-and-out mountain city. The mountains in its territory belong to the Gaoligong Mountains of the Hengduan Mountains, which is the westernmost mountain range in the Hengduan Mountains. , its grandeur can be imagined.The two saw the surrounding peaks rising one after another. In comparison, Shehuan Mountain seemed to be a very inconspicuous small mountain.But Zhang Puppet is still experienced after all, he saw the tricks at a glance, pointed to several towering peaks not far away and said to Liu Shisan: "Thirteen! I tell you, look at the (that) few towers The mountain peaks, before I came here, I compared them with the Snake-Hoop Mountain, and they are obviously taller than the Snake-Hoop Mountain, but when we saw it, the most eye-catching thing was the Snake-Hoop Mountain! Do you know why?"

Liu Shisan shook his head and said he didn't know. Zhang Puppet explained: "Although those mountains are tall, they are all about the same height. If they are stacked together, there is no danger!" A towering mountain road, "Snake hoop mountain is backed by such a high peak and surrounded by low peaks. It is really an excellent place to take advantage of the momentum of the big mountain and the pressure of the small mountain. The Fengshui treasure land of the army! If I guessed correctly, the owner of this tomb must be a member of the army!" Naturally, Zhang Puppet would not believe that there was a Snake Emperor living here, and he concluded that this was a human tomb.

Liu Shisan didn't fully understand, but still obeyed the master's intentions. Based on years of experience, the two found the population of the tomb, but suddenly found that this population was not the real population of the Snake Palace. After careful observation, they finally confirmed that this population It is a robbery hole. Seeing that they had already been boarded first, the two of them were slightly disappointed, but after thinking about it, since they came so far away, it would be no harm to go in and have a look, maybe this group of people did not find the coffin for nothing, so they continued to dig deeper. , Sure enough, he found several corpses lying in front of him.Looking forward, it seems that these people have not been dead for a long time. The corpses have not rotted and smelled in the current weather. Judging from their faces and clothes, they look like people from Myanmar and Vietnam. The tools used to steal the cave did not have the slightest damage on their bodies, and there were no signs of struggle or struggle around them. It seemed that they were killed by some kind of force in an instant, and they had no chance to resist at all. Zhang Puppet determined from the traces of the robbery that these people made the robbery. He was pleasantly surprised at the moment, secretly glad that he did not give up easily.Compared with Zhang Puppet, Liu Shisan was much less courageous at the time. Seeing the miserable conditions of these people, his heart was beating violently.But Zhang Puppet was more determined and insisted on finding the inner and outer coffins. The so-called high-skilled people were bold, and to him seeing a dead colleague in the tomb was no different from seeing the tomb owner's body. Liu Shisan had no choice but to obey his teacher's order, and followed him to continue digging along the robbery hole. He quickly opened a hole and got into an empty black hole. When he lit a torch, the surroundings were illuminated, and a huge platform In front of the two of them, there was a stone altar on the stage, but the altar was empty, without any offerings.Liu Shisan suspected that this was an abandoned mountain temple, but he didn't find any enshrined statues, but Zhang Puppet told him that it must be a tomb. Immediately, the two stopped arguing and didn't bother to examine the surrounding things carefully. They turned around and only looked for the coffin by the light.In a panic, Liu Shisan held up the torch and suddenly saw a huge thing on the stone wall above the altar. He was so frightened that he quickly covered his mouth and hid aside, his legs began to tremble: At some point, a huge snake head protruded from the stone wall, with its mouth wide open, and its sharp fangs were like daggers. He didn't dare to yell loudly, but just crouched in the corner and carefully observed the movement of the snake's head. Seeing that the snake's head hadn't moved for a long time, he calmed down a little. The stone statue of the snake head, because the surrounding light is too dark, the torch is shaking constantly, and the sculpture of the snake head is too realistic, I accidentally took it as a real big snake.Liu Shisan breathed a sigh of relief, turned around and was about to leave, when he suddenly found something wrong: this?Why is the damn snake still breathing out of its mouth?