Chapter 155:
Don’t tell me, people who are entranced really are hard to deal with. Wu Xie and Lao Yang had tied the man to a branch with rope, yet he still had the strength to bounce a few times, stretching his hands out like a spider trying to lunge towards the bronze pillar above.
Wu Xie looked at him worriedly. Although he really wanted to just leave him here, they had just provided them with two guns after all, so it felt immoral to do so: “Lao Yang, do you think he’ll stay like this forever?”
Lao Yang leaned against a nearby branch, panting: Rolled his eyes. “No, no problem! It won’t be long before he’s fine as long as he doesn’t directly touch this pillar!”
Direct contact? Wu Xie looked at the gloves they had finally put on Uncle Tai, slapping his forehead: There’s another person too!
He turned back to Master Liang: “Are you okay?”
Master Liang could barely lift his head: “No, no problem? I’m a bit dizzy.”
As he spoke, he touched his forehead with his hand, feeling a patch of ice-cold: “Am I… about to die?”
His face and body were covered in cold sweat, which hadn’t been dried by the scorching heat here before it poured out again like he’d taken a bath, even his pant legs dripping downwards. Wu Xie saw the situation wasn’t good and quickly went down to his side. At a glance, he knew what was wrong and hurriedly took out his water bottle: “You’re dehydrated, drink more quickly!”
“Ah? Dehydrated?” Master Liang was already groggy, almost forgetting his own name, and instinctively agreed to Wu Xie’s words. He took the water bottle held to his mouth and drank two sips, his hand so weak it nearly let the bottle slip and fall, but fortunately Wu Xie reacted quickly and steadied it.
Wu Xie saw the situation was off and quickly called to Lao Yang: “Lao Yang, didn’t you say this thing only causes hallucinations? How is he sweating like this? If it goes on, won’t he turn into a dried corpse?”
Lao Yang saw Master Liang’s hand still holding onto a branch and vaguely guessed something, quickly telling Wu Xie to first remove his hand: “It’s just a hallucination! He’s—he’s too hot and fell into a hallucination, thinking he’s getting worse and worse. This isn’t really him getting that hot; it’s because he thinks he’ll turn into this! If it goes on like this, if he thinks he’s dead—he’ll really die!”
“Then what do we do?” Wu Xie panicked. He held Master Liang’s hand with one hand to keep him away from the branch, steadying both of them with the other to prevent falling. This position was exhausting; he probably wouldn’t last another few minutes and quickly asked Lao Yang for help.
Lao Yang looked at Master Liang and Uncle Tai with some disdain, clearly wanting to abandon them, but Wu Xie… Seeing Wu Xie’s anxious eyes, he knew he really wanted to save them. He sighed inwardly and came up with an idea: “W-wait, I don’t have gloves left here, but I still have some other things!”
He rummaged in his bag and pulled out two rolls of gauze, handing them to Wu Xie: “Nothing else, h-help wrap his hands. Though it might not be as good as gloves, it’ll at least be somewhat useful!”
Who would’ve thought Lao Yang had such a clever little brain? Wu Xie almost gained new respect for him, but it made sense. Back when he was still holed up in the antique shop, Lao Yang had already been out adventuring. These were all skills honed from experience. If he were Wu Xie from a few months ago, he’d probably be dumbfounded by now! And now he even had the energy to think of various things here.
Sigh, he felt like his experiences in this period could match years for others—exhausted every day, getting old—no, maturing!
After wrapping Master Liang’s hand, he looked at Uncle Tai and found his condition had improved a lot, at least he wasn’t waving his hand around like a claw anymore, though his consciousness wasn’t clear yet. They didn’t dare rashly remove the flashlight from his mouth—what if it chipped his teeth? Old people’s teeth are precious; lose one and it’s gone!
Master Liang was still in a dazed state, but much better than before, at least not sweating as much. When Wu Xie wrapped his hand, he considerately wrapped each of the five fingers separately, not turning both hands into zombies, so he could still hang on the branch like a monkey to steady himself, allowing Wu Xie to breathe a sigh of relief.
He looked upwards; it was still shadowy and indistinct. Wu Xie knew these were shadows cast by the bronze tree branches above, and Lin Yan’s figure was completely gone.
A trace of anxiety rose in his heart as he asked Lao Yang: “Lao Yang, you’ve been up there. What exactly is above? Is Lin Yan in danger?”
Lao Yang’s expression stiffened, then he chuckled mysteriously: “Won’t you know when you go up?”
Wu Xie rolled his eyes at him. This was a matter of life and death, and he was still being coy? Fine to kill but not to bury?
“You can at least tell me what kind of place it is up there, right? Don’t let there be lots of forks up there, then we really won’t be able to find anyone.”
Lao Yang gave him a mysterious smile: “You’ll know when you go up. Don’t worry, he won’t get lost. Guaranteed he’s still up there waiting for you!”
What kind of guarantee was this? Wu Xie pondered: meaning there’s just one path up there, a dead end, so Lin Yan can’t go anywhere? If that’s true, no need to rush—either way he’s up there, just climb slowly. After all, it’s another hundred or eighty meters up!
Wu Xie looked at the mad one mad, the foolish one foolish, and one half-dead beside him, and couldn’t help feeling grief from the heart—could they really get out safely with these guys? The only reliable-looking one was going crazy in a hallucination! As for Lao Yang being reliable, that had nothing to do with him, okay?
Lao Yang didn’t know Wu Xie thought this of him, or he’d feel wronged: Clearly he was the most reliable! He’d clearly chosen the least dangerous path, but who knew these people could cause such trouble? Accidents one after another—who could handle that?
“Hm? ￥%……&* !&*(*) ?” Suddenly, they heard a series of strange sounds. Looking towards the source, Lao Yang was struggling while mumbling something incoherently, hindered by the flashlight in his mouth so nothing was clear.
Wu Xie wanted to help remove the flashlight from his mouth but retracted his hand halfway, turning to ask Lao Yang: “Has he woken up? Or is he still hallucinating, just a different one?”
Uncle Tai heard this, turned his head with an angry glare at him, roaring inwardly: I’m awake, hurry and untie me!
Unfortunately, his earlier actions made his gaze unconvincing, even seeming more entranced. Lao Yang was unsure: “D-don’t know? Not that fast, right?”
Uncle Tai: “￥*(#W￥()**&……%!” I’m clear-headed! Hurry and untie me!
Sadly, the Lin Yan-brand gaze interpreter had gone up ahead, and these people couldn’t receive his eye signals. Wu Xie thought it made sense too—Uncle Tai had touched the bronze pillar and climbed for so long before; how could he recover in just this moment? Better wait a bit until he calms down, or if too excited he might fall—what then? His conscience would hurt.
Compared to that, Master Liang was much better, just staring dazedly at the pillar. Hm? At the pillar?
Wu Xie turned and saw Master Liang had sat up straight, twisting awkwardly to look back at the pillar. He cautiously asked: “Master Liang, are you clear-headed now?”
Master Liang nodded absentmindedly, gazing in shock at the pillar and surrounding branches in the light: “So… that’s how it is.”
Hearing him say that, Wu Xie thought: Does he know the origin of this pillar? He quickly asked: “Do you know what this thing is?”
Master Liang nodded: “Pretty much. This thing is a sacrificial vessel, like I said earlier—oh, you guys already climbed up; I told Uncle Tai.” Seeing the confused looks from Lao Yang and Wu Xie like “when did you say that,” he quickly explained.
He withdrew his gaze, stroking the cloud patterns in front of him with inexplicable fervor on his face: “From what I see, this thing dates to the Shang and Zhou periods… judging by the craftsmanship, but it could be Qin Dynasty. In my view, only the highest rulers of that era had the capability and resources to make this. Smaller states couldn’t, even if everyone died making it.”
Qin Shi Huang? A nerve twitched inexplicably in Wu Xie’s mind. Last time Lin Yan and Zhang Qiling came to the Qinling Mountains too, but the clues they dug up were about the Ancient Shu Kingdom. Was there a connection? He glanced at the still-struggling Uncle Tai—now maybe add a Shuangyu Jade Pendant too. This was too complicated.
He listened as Master Liang continued on his own, voice getting lower like a whisper. Thanks to the quiet environment, it wasn’t hard to hear. Not sure if he was explaining to them or muttering to himself; he seemed fully immersed in his emotions: “Look at the patterns here: thunder patterns above, cloud patterns below, representing heaven and earth opposed. Then the rust color—could be lead bronze, lead-tin bronze, or tin bronze. Western Zhou possibility is fifty percent; the other fifty I can’t say. But not ruling out later dynasties imitating Western Zhou craft to build this. I can only barely tell it’s about two thousand years old; the rest…”
Wu Xie and Lao Yang fell silent. Lao Yang was a bit confused, but how could Wu Xie not know? He’d handled and studied plenty of items, knowing almost all on the market now were post-Song Dynasty. Pre-Tang were rare; even if any, they were overlooked ones, like the blood-infused jade he and Lin Yan collected.
This stuff was very eerie; even tomb raiders rarely took it, let alone sold it, unless wild ones who happened to get some. Antique shop shopkeepers wouldn’t specially collect them unless special need—unless… that was one reason he had to go to Beijing specifically. In Hangzhou area it wasn’t impossible to find, but it would bring bad influence to him and the Wu Family. If misunderstood as doing strange things, it wouldn’t be good.
Master Liang paused, stroking a particularly deep groove, tone ethereal: “At first I wondered, since it’s a sacrificial vessel, how could there be no sacrifice? Now I finally know.”
“W-what is it?”
Lao Yang was interested now—maybe treasures among the sacrifices. Last time they brought back almost nothing; couldn’t leave empty-handed this time. After solving things, he glanced at Wu Xie’s thoughtful profile, thinking he should bring back something useful for Wu Xie too—can’t let him come for nothing, right?
Master Liang ignored him, continuing in that tone that gave goosebumps: “Haven’t you wondered? Sacrifices in that era were almost all human sacrifices and live sacrifices. Why did we see nothing below?”
Wu Xie felt goosebumps all over, a bad premonition—whatever Master Liang said next definitely wasn’t good, but he had to steel himself and listen; after all, he wanted to know too.
Master Liang extended a hand, pointing to a shadow in the left corner: “You’ll know when you look at that.”
Wu Xie shone his flashlight over and finally saw clearly what the large shadow strung on the branch in the darkness was—it was a person! A corpse with twisted face, limbs curled up; without the clothes, it might be mistaken for a monkey!
Looking at the branch tip piercing through the dried corpse’s chest, Wu Xie and Lao Yang both shivered involuntarily, their gazes towards the surrounding branches changing. They then realized all branches were pointing upwards or diagonally upwards; looking down from above, it was like a forest of gleaming arrowheads! So this groove…
Wu Xie shuddered all over, following the patterns under the corpse downwards with the light, shockingly discovering the cloud and thunder patterns intertwined, getting thicker and deeper… This wasn’t just patterns; it was blood grooves all over the tree!
He felt a chill straight to the top of his head, his whole body numb! He finally knew what was wrong—how could there be no sacrifices? Everyone who came in… were sacrifices! Thousands of years—definitely more than just them! So…
Wu Xie tremblingly shone the flashlight upwards, finally seeing in the crisscrossing shadows of the branches some odd oval shapes, or simply bulging on the branches making them look swollen. Now it was clear—those weren’t strange branches; they were sacrifices who’d entered over thousands or hundreds of years, dreaming of treasure!
Live sacrifice—requires living people!
But even tomb raiders couldn’t be this weak, falling after climbing up, right? How did the tomb owner ensure they’d all sacrifice here? Thinking this, Wu Xie broke out in cold sweat, looking at Lao Yang with terror: “Run! Hurry and run!”
“Ah? What’s wrong? No movement here?”
Lao Yang hadn’t caught on, looking bewildered at Wu Xie’s actions. Did he hear something? Why more danger? Nothing happened last time he came?
