Chapter 2 Chapter One

A sentence in the book "Take off your clothes and cut your face—" deeply stimulated his nerves.A few months ago, he almost died in the deep mountains of Helan. The secrets of the underground golden city and the emerald glass palace handed down from the ghost kingdom of the Western Regions all focused on the faceless Daze king Alizi.If the pure gold statue of Aliz was just weird, then those two people rushing into the darkness almost broke Yuan Sen completely.Of those two mysterious people, one looked very much like Bayi who had died in the Taklamakan Desert, and the other looked like his mentor, Professor Yang Jian. How could this not terrify him?

At the beginning of the sixth century AD, a mysterious religion was popular in the Turpan area of ​​Xinjiang, called Wunu religion.According to "Shazhou Geographical Chronicles", when the Wunu croaked, pedestrians were caught blind.Wunu taught the practice of opening altars, crossing the catastrophe, and setting up a well, a tower, and a platform in the practice field. There was a tower on the well, and a platform on the tower. On the platform were the corpses of the deceased believers. , attracting tens of millions of slaves to share and eat them.When passers-by hear it, they all close their eyes and walk quickly, as if caught blind.

The light in the room fell miserably on the yellowed pages. Yuan Sen touched the rough edge of the old book, and fine dust immediately flew over the light. Stimulated by the dust, he sneezed several times before he recovered Come. Yuan Sen frowned, staring at the sentence in the book, "Take off all your clothes and shave your face—" He couldn't help but put a big question mark in his heart. It is normal for tens of thousands of crows to devour the body of the dead, and it is normal to take off their clothes, but why cut off the face of the dead first? "Cutting off the face of the dead, what special meaning does it have in Wunu religion?" Yuan Sen sighed softly, raised his head and looked out the window.

It was already dark, and the shadow cast by the big white elm outside the window stretched in from the window, giving people a strong sense of oppression. Before he knew it, Yuan Sen's back felt cold. Yuan Sen closed the book. The cover and footer curled slightly. The book was still an old-fashioned thread-bound book. The title of the book was "Religious Research in the Western Regions", and the author was unknown. Yuan Sen stared, Anonymous?The author didn't want people to know his real name by writing this book? There is no doubt that the person who can write this kind of book must be a first-class scholar, and he is also a very knowledgeable scholar, otherwise his book will not be able to enter this kind of high-level reference room.In this reference room, if you pick up a book at random, the author must be a well-known figure in the academic world, but how could an anonymous person come out for no reason?

Yuan Sen didn't understand after thinking for a while, so he took the book to the administrator to check.The administrator checked for a long time and said that there is no record of this book in the electronic management system.Things became even more strange. How could there be an extra book in the reference room for no reason, whose author is unknown and which has no records? The administrator smiled and said: "The people who come here to borrow materials are some old professors, and occasionally there are indeed cases where books are returned by mistake, and it is estimated that some professor sent books that should not be returned to the reference room. The management personnel in the reference room are limited, and they may have forgotten to register for a while and put this book in the bookshelf.”

Yuan Sen heard the administrator's explanation was reasonable, so he didn't ask any more questions. Before leaving, he said a few good things to the administrator, and borrowed the book of no owner, intending to study it carefully. A sentence in the book "Take off your clothes and cut your face—" deeply stimulated his nerves.A few months ago, he almost died in the deep mountains of Helan. The secrets of the underground golden city and the emerald glass palace handed down from the ghost kingdom of the Western Regions all focused on the faceless Daze king Alizi.If the pure gold statue of Aliz was just weird, then those two people rushing into the darkness almost broke Yuan Sen completely.Of those two mysterious people, one looked very much like Bayi who had died in the Taklamakan Desert, and the other looked like his mentor, Professor Yang Jian. How could this not terrify him?

Bayi was killed in the Taklamakan Desert a few months ago. Yuan Sen saw it with his own eyes, so there is no doubt about it; and Professor Yang Jian died tragically on the cliff at the bottom of Helan Mountain. Bahar Guli, the man in leather and Lin Wan were all witnesses. There's nothing suspicious about that either.But it was these two dead people who would pass him by, and the castration was so urgent that they didn't look like dead people at all. Most importantly, Yuan Sen saw that there was no face on their heads, only a scar the size of a bowl.This living fact is exactly the same as the murals in the underground golden city. Alizi, the king of the ghost country in the Western Regions, and Abeli, the general of the Wusun country, handed over their faces to the strange man in seven-color feathers on the murals, and finally opened the emerald glass palace. Entered the legendary fairyland on earth.

Yuan Sen pondered over the sacrificial norms in Wu Nu Cult repeatedly in his mind, and suddenly came up with an idea, is there some connection between the Wu Nu Cult in the ancient Western Regions and the secret method of deciphering the Emerald Glass Palace? The more he thought about it, the more he felt it was possible. After coming out of Helan Mountain, Yuan Sen couldn't understand the picture of seven birds and flying feathers on the mural at the bottom of the mountain. All the ancient books in his hand had been lost without trace.Although the statement on the mural is ridiculous and rejected by modern scientific ideas, Yuan Sen, who has experienced so many complicated things, will never be limited to materialistic thinking. "Secret" suddenly aroused Yuan Sen's desire to explore the mysterious murals of Helan Mountain.

Driven by curiosity, Yuan Sen tightened his coat, sat down beside a street lamp, opened the book "Secrets of Religion in the Western Regions", and read the few pages that he hadn't finished reading about the Wunu religion. again.The descriptions in these few pages are quite vague, and only say that Wunu religion is a branch of shamanism handed down from ancient times. It acts mysteriously and mostly preaches in Turpan and other places.The descriptions in the book are all the legends of the local people, and there are no detailed and accurate records. It is precisely because of this that the Wu Nu religion appears to be more mysterious and unpredictable.

Yuan Sen was flipping through the book carefully when he suddenly heard the sound of a powerful car engine in the distance. According to his experience, he knew it was a very powerful off-road vehicle.He raised his head subconsciously, and saw a bright light coming from behind a small forest, which hurt his eyes.As the glare continued to brighten, the sound of the engine grew louder. The car turned a corner on the concrete road beside the woods, and quickly rushed to the foot of the tree opposite Yuan Sen and stopped. Two officers, a man and a woman, jumped out of the car. Their military ranks were captains, and their car was a warrior commonly used by the troops. off-road.

Yuan Sen stood up, looked at the two people who were walking towards him, and asked, "Who are you?" The female officer smiled slightly at Yuan Sen, and replied, "Mr. Yuan, we have only been separated for a few months, and you don't know me anymore?" Only then did Yuan Sen recover from the thinking of Wu Nujiao, he smiled back, and said, "Second Lieutenant Qiao Xiaoyi, Special Forces of the 755th Division stationed in Xinjiang, oh, no, it should be the captain." Qiao Xiaoyi said to Yuan Sen: "Mr. Yuan has a really good memory—" She pointed to the male officer beside her and said, "This is my colleague, Captain Ma, we are all working for Dr. Tian." Yuan Sen said with some surprise: "Dr. Tian came back from Beijing?" Qiao Xiaoyi nodded and said, "Dr. Tian just returned to Xinjiang today, and he ordered us to come to Xinda University to look for you as soon as he entered the office. There must be something very important." As he spoke, he stretched out his hand to do it without waiting for Yuan Sen's reply. He made a gesture of invitation, and walked towards the warrior off-road vehicle first.After Yuan Sen came back from Helan Mountain, he met Dr. Tian once. Professor Yang Jian's father and Dr. Tian had a mentorship and a friend in need. In terms of academic research, Professor Yang Jian and Dr. Tian also cherished each other.At that time, Dr. Tian couldn't help but sigh after listening to Yuan Sen and Bahar Gul's narration.Dr. Tian ordered someone to record in detail what happened to the two of them in Helan Mountain. The next day, he received a call from Beijing, saying that he had to go to Beijing for something important. The three had to say goodbye. Unexpectedly, Dr. Tian went there Just a few months. Dr. Tian hurriedly looked for him as soon as he came back from Beijing this time. Could it be that something happened again, or there was a new clue about the Emerald Glass Palace, Yuan Sen secretly speculated in his heart. Yuan Sen was sitting in the back seat of the Warriors off-road vehicle, driven by the captain surnamed Ma, and Qiao Xiaoyi was the co-pilot.The warrior off-road vehicle backed up in the opposite direction and drove quickly in the direction it came from.Qiao Xiaoyi pressed the front window glass, a gust of cool wind came in from the window, Yuan Sen's nose itched and he sneezed. The off-road vehicle drove out of the gate of Xinda University and drove east along the main road.Qiao Xiaoyi was the first to break the silence among the three of them, and said, "Mr. Yuan, it's been nearly four months since we parted last time, right?" Yuan Sen looked at the back of Qiao Xiaoyi's chair and said, "Indeed, I have to thank Captain Qiao for saving my life last time, otherwise I'm afraid I might not be able to ride in the same car with you now." Qiao Xiaoyi chuckled and said, "Mr. Yuan, why are you being polite? We all serve the country." Yuan Sen said: "Captain Qiao can just call me Yuan Sen." Qiao Xiaoyi said with a cheerful voice, "Then you can call me Xiaoyi, ha ha." Yuan Sen agreed, then changed the subject, and asked tentatively: "Dr. Tian came to see me as soon as he came back to Urumqi. It must be something very important, right?" Qiao Xiaoyi nodded, and said: "It is very important. As soon as the doctor entered the office, he immediately called a meeting of various departments, and his face was very ugly. Thirty minutes later, all departments received tasks. After the meeting, he asked me to follow Captain Ma Come and invite you over immediately, he will discuss things with you overnight." Yuan Sen said softly, "No wonder you're in such a hurry—" Qiao Xiaoyi said: "The doctor's complexion is very bad today. I have been with him for so many years. This is the first time I see him like this. It must be something big." Then, she emphasized again, saying: "It's a big thing. Otherwise, the doctor would not be able to do this." Yuan Sen thought to himself: "Something that can make a big man like Dr. Tian pay attention, and come to me by name, this matter is probably related to what happened a few months ago. Could it be that Dr. Tian found a new clue?" He tried to ask Qiao Xiaoyi, and said, "Captain Qiao—oh—no, Comrade Xiaoyi, do you know any clues about this matter?" Yuan Sen regretted it when he said it. Military organizations like them, especially the special forces, are so vigilant about secrets that they can be described as eagles. After listening to Yuan Sen's words, Qiao Xiaoyi paused for a few seconds, and Yuan Sen said with some embarrassment, "If it's a confidential matter, you don't need to talk about it. I just see Dr. Tian and ask him." Qiao Xiaoyi smiled and said, "I don't know the details, but it seems to be related to Professor Yang."