Chapter 23 Chapter 23: The Secret of the Stone Ball

After turning a corner in the cave, the underground river widened, and the lamp caps of the six people immediately turned into twinkling stars in the cave, and it was impossible to force back the long darkness in the cave.There are more and more jagged and strange rocks on both sides, and the roots of the plants on the top of the cave are getting thicker and thicker, some of which are even as big as pythons.Not far ahead, the roads on both sides of the bank became narrower. Six people crowded on the bank and walked too slowly. Huang Qianshan wanted to jump into the water. He felt that he could swim faster than walking on the bank, so he moved forward like an army of ants. , I am afraid that it will not reach the end until next year.

As they walked deeper and deeper, the river in front of them suddenly became larger, and the rivers on both sides were submerged by groundwater, and there was no place to stand.Laoyue raised the searchlight, and there was a vast water area in front of the cave. The red river water reflected the searchlight to every corner of the cave, giving people the feeling that they had walked into the belly of a huge animal.Before setting foot here, they saw several ancient wooden boats on the river bank, which were probably used to transport ancient tomb building materials back then.But in the vicissitudes of life, these wooden boats have only skeletons left, and it is difficult to even float on the water, let alone carry people across the river.

"This is great. The clothes were only dried last night, and now they have to go into the water again." Hao Dali said in front. "How come there is no way in the middle of the walk? The villagers will not fail to mention such an obvious feature. Could it be that our door has gone astray?" Gu Changtian asked. Liang Xiaoyu glanced back hesitantly, and then said: "You shouldn't go wrong. There is only one passage all the way down the cave, and I don't see where there is a fork." After hearing this, Cai Minmin said unhappily: "Xiaoyu, what do you mean? I dug the news from the villagers myself. Are you saying that what I gave you is false information?"

Lao Yue hurriedly smoothed things over, and she said in an imposing manner: "Xiaoyu didn't mean that, we shouldn't go to the wrong place, and I don't think the villagers will lie to us. Because even if they lie to us, they have to know this place first, how could it be so Coincidentally, there is a cave under the ancient temple." Huang Qianshan was the last one to walk. He tilted his head to see the situation ahead. When he heard the people in front discussing it, he just wanted to interrupt, but he smelled a vague fragrance.This scent is erratic, similar to the fragrance of flowers and plants, but there is not even a root of grass in the cave, only the roots of plants hanging from the roof of the cave, but the roots are full of earthy smell.Huang Qianshan wondered, where did this fragrance come from? The first three women stopped using perfume and rouge a few days before entering the mountain.Huang Qianshan was trying to find the source of the fragrance carefully, but in the end he could only smell the smell of mud, which made him suspect that he had an illusion.

"Are you someone who put on powder or brought perfume in? In this case, don't love beauty, it will kill us." Huang Qianshan asked the person in front worriedly. The three women denied it one after another. Hao Dali turned his head and said to Huang Qianshan: "Are you starving? People say that people in the desert will see the waterfall when they are thirsty. You probably didn't eat enough, so you smell the fragrance." Said To be honest, I was hungry too after tossing around all night last night." When Lao Yue heard that Hao Dali was pulling away, she coughed, and then said: "The most urgent thing is to cross the river and get out of the cave immediately, and stay up until night to go out, which is very bad for us."

"The six people here know how to swim, so they can swim there." Huang Qianshan said disapprovingly. "I disagree!" Gu Changtian suddenly said loudly. "What's the matter, brother Gu? You can't be a duck, are you?" Huang Qianshan asked. "That's not true. I'm thinking of everyone. If there is a problem in the water, it won't mean that the whole army will be wiped out. The color of the water is unpredictable. I don't think it's that simple." Gu Changtian explained in a panic. "If you don't swim over, do you have to go back? This is the only way." Cai Minmin once again supported Huang Qianshan.

Liang Xiaoyu looked at the red water surface hesitantly, and said, "But Brother Gu is right, there is danger in rushing into the water." While talking, Huang Qianshan noticed a few bubbles popping up on the quiet river, and the scent got into his nose when the wind blew through. He wondered if the scent came from the discolored river water?Huang Qianshan was puzzled, a few more bubbles appeared in the underground river, the quiet river surface was rippling due to the noise of the bubbles, and the red light in the cave also began to hit people's sight chaotically.Since the cave was very quiet, the sound of the wind blowing could be heard, and the sound of water bubbles quickly attracted everyone's attention.After the turmoil of the red water, the red color in the water gradually faded, and the underground river water lost its color again, returning to its original colorless and transparent color.

When Hao Dali saw this, he wanted to fetch water with a pot, but Huang Qianshan stopped him immediately: "Don't rush to fetch water, this kind of water changes, if you drink it, your intestines may turn green, bear with it." Lao Yue looked at the dark distance and said: "Check the situation when the water is clear. If there is no problem in the water, let's swim over quickly. I see that the river in the distance is narrow, and we should be able to go ashore soon. " Finally, the red color in the river completely disappeared, and the six people turned on all the lighting fixtures, and then all illuminated the underground river.The river water is so clear without any impurities, just like a mirror, it is hard to imagine that the river water has changed color twice.There is no plankton in the current river water, let alone fish and shrimp, and even aquatic plants are invisible, which is completely different from the previous one.The strange thing is that there is a rough bluestone sculpture at every other position on the bottom of the river. The bluestone sculpture has been placed in the water for a long time, and the detailed carving and gender cannot be seen.The bluestone carving is holding a bow and an arrow, and there is a round stone ball on the bow and arrow. The bluestone carving seems to be shooting the stone ball down.This row of bluestone sculptures is exactly the same, extending to the bottom of the river with a certain frequency. Now looking at the bluestone sculptures at the bottom of the river, I always feel that the stone sculptures are about to come to life.

"Grandpa, these statues are really frighteningly scary. Their faces are gone, which makes me think of Faceless Ghost." Hao Dali said in fear. When Lao Yue heard Hao Dali's continuous swearing, she gave him a majestic look, and then said to herself, "These stone carvings are probably the same as the underwater wooden figurines in the mountain stream, they are all left by the ancient Guo State." "Sister Yue said there would be danger?" Liang Xiaoyu asked in fear. "What are you afraid of? Didn't I say it many times? The villagers passed by a long time ago. They have nothing to do with them. What can we do?" Cai Minmin said fearlessly.

"Mr. Huang, do you see the bluestone carvings at the bottom of the water... Do you feel familiar?" Gu Changtian asked Huang Qianshan. Huang Qianshan nodded, and said, "It's quite similar to the stone statue outside the ancient temple. I don't know what the meaning of the stone statue is." Gu Changtian stared at the bottom of the water, frowned and said, "Didn't I mean like the stone statues outside the ancient temple, don't you think they are very similar to Houyi shooting the sun in the ancient myth?" After hearing this, Lao Yue agreed and said, "Looking at what Chang Tian said, I also think this is the stone statue of Hou Yi shooting the sun."

Huang Qianshan didn't make a sound, he stared at the bluestone sculpture at the bottom of the water and thought deeply, the only connection between the Queen Mother of the West and the myth of Hou Yi shooting the sun is the elixir.Legend has it that the medicine of immortality given to Hou Yi by the Queen Mother of the West was stolen by Chang'e, so one person was in the sky and the other was on the ground.Since the kings of the ancient Guo State believed that the Queen Mother of the West was reincarnated, or had a higher status than the Queen Mother of the West, why did they put the stone sculpture of Hou Yi shooting the sun in the water.There are too many gods and monsters related to the Queen Mother of the West, what does the stone statue express? Lao Yue and his team were all very happy when they found the bluestone sculptures under the water. Only Huang Qianshan was full of worries, but he didn't want to spoil everyone's interest, so he had to hide his worries in his heart.Huang Qianshan believes that the most important part of bluestone carving is not who the stone carving is, but the stone ball itself.As early as in the ruins of the ancient temple, they found a lot of stone balls. The mechanism to enter the cave was also a stone ball, and countless stone balls were chiseled in the cave.If it is said that the stone ball represents the sun, it barely makes sense. Does Hou Yi shoot the sun? But in the legend of shooting the sun, there are only ten suns at most, and there are more than ten stone balls in the cave.But if Hou Yi hated Chang'e for taking the elixir and wanted to shoot down the moon, then there was only one moon, so how could there be so many moons. Huang Qianshan's mind was running quickly, and he thought that Wangwushan was close to Shanxi. He had a friend named Chen who was an archaeologist.Huang Qianshan's friend surnamed Chen once went to an isolated village in Shanxi, where the friend surnamed Chen said that he found a site where a group of Nuwa people migrated, and Nuwa and Chang'e actually belonged to the same clan.Although Huang Qianshan didn't know what happened there, he knew that Wangwu Mountain was also called Nuwa Mountain, and Shaoyuan Town under Wangwu Mountain was the "Hometown of Nuwa". In the background area of ​​Xiaogou in Shaoyuan Town, five-color stones are scattered all over the ditch. There are huge Aobei Mountain, steep Wawaya Cliff, five-color sky-replenishing stones, Nuwa Temple, etc. nearby. The fourth level is evidence of natural prototypes such as kneading soil and mud to make people, and raising mud to form a baby cliff, which is consistent with ancient records and myths and legends.If his friend surnamed Chen is right, it is very likely that the Nuwa clan also visited Wangwu Mountain when they migrated. Of course, the myth of mending the sky is just a myth. Huang Qianshan thought to himself that the reason Nuwa mended the sky was because Buzhou Mountain was broken, which caused the flood to come to the world. Like the later Dayu?After all, it is impossible for someone to knock down Buzhou Mountain. Maybe this is also an allusion to an earthquake. The location of Buzhou Mountain in history is no longer known.Huang Qianshan's friend surnamed Chen said that "Shan Hai Jing Xi Shan Jing" refers to Buzhou Mountain on Kunlun Mountain, Buzhou Mountain and West Kunlun Mountain share the same classic, and Buzhou Mountain is in the West Kunlun Mountain area, which is the section between Wangwu Mountain and Taihang Mountain.Huang Qianshan pondered, Houyi and the Queen Mother of the West cannot be equal, and Nuwa is always more qualified than the Queen Mother of the West. Since Nuwa and Chang'e belong to the same clan, the moon should be the one who connects Nuwa and the Queen Mother of the West. Could it be that the stone ball represents Is it the moon? While Huang Qianshan was thinking hard, Lao Yue persuaded everyone to swim across the river. Although Gu Changtian also agreed to this method, he squeezed to the end of the team and said he would be the last one to go down the river.Huang Qianshan became confused. Although Gu Changtian was a bit gentle, he didn't behave like a cowardly person in the forest with him last night. Why is he so scared that he will be the last one to go down the river today? Because I was going down to the river, I wrapped many layers of oil paper in the bag on my back to prevent water seepage.Huang Qianshan was trying to make sure his backpack was tight, but he saw Gu Changtian stealthily take something out of his arms, and then wrapped it with oiled paper.When Gu Changtian found out that Huang Qianshan was secretly looking at him, he immediately turned around, as if he didn't want to be seen.Huang Qianshan remembered that Gu Changtian had picked up something from a pile of monkey bones, maybe Gu Changtian had wrapped that thing in oiled paper, Huang Qianshan was too lazy to dismantle it on the spot, so he had to pretend he didn't see it. When all the preparations were done, Hao Dali standing in front said that there was a light in the cave, and the exit was close at hand.Lao Yue didn't believe it. She said that the exit was far away. Back then, the villagers walked for several hours, and they hadn't reached the exit in an hour. How could they reach the exit so quickly.Huang Qianshan also felt puzzled, so he tilted his head and looked forward. At some point in the distance of the cave, a ball of light overflowing with yellow light rose, like a bright moon hanging high in the night sky.