Chapter 162: Altar
Master Liang fell from such a high place, completely dazed from the impact. The first thing he did after being helped up was push away the hand and crawl over to dry heave. If Wu Xie and Lao Yang hadn’t quickly grabbed the back of his clothes collar, he probably would have fallen down by now.
He dry heaved for a good long while before finally catching his breath. Only then did he feel a force grabbing his collar, choking his throat and making it hard to breathe: “Who?”
Master Liang was in pain and dizzy at this moment, so uncomfortable that tears came out. He didn’t even have the strength to turn his head. His voice sounded like it had been sawed, both hoarse and raspy. Wu Xie saw he seemed to have recovered a bit, so he quickly gave Lao Yang a look. The two of them helped him up and leaned him against the stone wall.
“Hoo” Taking big breaths of fresh air, Master Liang felt like he had survived a disaster. In his blurry vision, he saw two familiar figures: “It’s, it’s you guys?”
After throwing Master Liang down, Lao Yang didn’t pay attention to him anymore. Instead, he held the flashlight and shone it upwards, trying to find the place where Master Liang had fallen from. Logically speaking, the path they took was already in a different direction from the tree Master Liang had climbed, so how did he fall right in front of them? Could there be a path connected to the tree up there? Then why were they foolishly following this rat in such a big circle?
But no matter how he looked, upwards was a patch of darkness. Within the seven or eight meters the flashlight could reach, there wasn’t even a road, let alone a stone. This person seemed to have appeared out of thin air.
Master Liang shook as he wiped his face. A feeling of surviving a disaster filled his heart. Only then did he vaguely feel like someone had asked him something. He looked at Wu Xie: “What did you just ask me?”
Wu Xie glanced at Lao Yang who was still looking everywhere for a secret passage in disbelief, and asked Master Liang: “After we separated from us, where did you go? How did you fall from above?”
Master Liang instinctively looked upwards, shuddered, and a look of confusion and fear appeared on his face: “I, I don’t know either. After separating from you guys, I rested for a bit, and those mountain monkeys and Chi Gu didn’t come back. I ate a bit to pad my stomach. Afraid that I might roll off if I slept on the tree, I continued climbing up. Who would have thought that not long after climbing, there really was a cave on one side of the stone wall. I originally thought there might be danger inside, but surprisingly there was really nothing. It might have been a resting place left by workers before. After sleeping and coming out, I discovered there was a narrow trail nearby, just a bit narrow. I was just thinking about how to encounter you guys when suddenly my foot slipped while walking and I fell down. Luckily below was exactly you guys, otherwise…”
He poked his head to look at the darkness under his feet, looking like he had lingering fears.
Lao Yang listened to his words and shone the flashlight on the stone wall above, but no matter how he poked his head, he couldn’t see the so-called “narrow trail.” Instead, leaning back too far made his center of gravity unstable, nearly causing him to fall too, so he finally settled down.
Wu Xie and Lao Yang exchanged a glance. Thinking back to the scene that morning when they exited the cave entrance and saw Chi Gu swarming all over the mountains, their hearts felt sour. They always felt like it was the two of them who had drawn away the Chi Gu, allowing Master Liang to meet them again so safely. In a sense, Master Liang’s luck was pretty good. When he wanted a place to rest, there was a cave. When he wanted to encounter them, he fell down and they saved him.
Why didn’t they have this kind of luck? Lin Yan had gone up first for so long, and besides this lead big rat, they hadn’t even seen a hair of Lin Yan. It had to be said that heaven was really… unfair!
Speaking of that big rat, Wu Xie turned his head to look. The rat was still there tilting its head watching them. At this moment, seeing Master Liang, it showed a very interested look, ran over and sniffed him, scaring Master Liang so much that he stiffened and shrank back, his voice trembling: “Wu Xie, quick… quick make it leave! It won’t want to eat me, right?”
It could only be said that the psychological shadow was too strong. Master Liang now had a feeling of seeing a bow shadow as a snake. Even though the big rat sniffed him and then ran to the front again, he still had legs so weak he couldn’t stand up.
After this little interlude, they simply rested for a bit before continuing upwards. The further up they went, the more rampant the tree roots wrapping the boardwalk became. Later, they were almost all stepping on hard vines to go up. To keep balance, they had to bend down and grab the tree vines. From afar, their figures with backpacks looked just like several big turtles, and their speed was also slow.
After climbing for over an hour, Wu Xie felt something was off. He turned back past Master Liang and asked Lao Yang: “Lao Yang, do you think we’re going in circles?”
Lao Yang looked at the path behind and frowned: “I, I also think so. It seems like we’ve gone ar-around half a circle. Won’t we go back if we keep circling?”
As soon as these words came out, painful masks appeared on all three faces. If they climbed and ended up back where they started, wouldn’t it have been better to just climb up the bronze tree from the beginning? Now they had jumped caves and climbed boardwalks, just short of swinging like monkeys on vines. And now to tell them it was fine to just climb straight up the original path? Their mentality collapsed!
Depressingly looking at the big rat flexibly jumping back and forth on the vines, Wu Xie could only comfort himself that Lin Yan finding this big rat to lead the way definitely had some special purpose. Maybe it wasn’t safe to climb straight up, so they had to go around a circle?
In the end, this boardwalk circled and circled, getting closer to the bronze tree. Seeing that the big rat had no intention of turning, Master Liang felt like the whole person was done for. If he hadn’t gone into a cave midway and then followed that mountain path out, he probably would have reached the top of the bronze tree by now, right? Did he really need to circle around here with Wu Xie and Lao Yang?
Lao Yang, however, didn’t think much of it. No matter where Lin Yan wanted the big rat to take them, it was just some place nearby anyway. If Lin Yan really discovered something, he would definitely end up coming to the bronze tree in the end. It was just a matter of sooner or later, and it didn’t conflict with his goal.
Wu Xie saw the bronze tree getting closer and closer, and saw the vine roots hanging down from the mountaintop. He couldn’t help but show joy. The density of these tree roots indicated they were almost at the surface. If nothing unexpected happened, they could climb out grabbing the vines. This was much better than climbing back up that waterfall later!
Just as they were about to return to the bronze tree area, the big rat twisted its body and who knows where it drilled, disappearing in the blink of an eye. Wu Xie subconsciously climbed forward a bit. Only when he realized the big rat was gone did he notice something wrong. He poked his head forward and saw that a small section of boardwalk ahead was missing.
As soon as he stopped, the two behind naturally had to stop too. Lao Yang saw Master Liang not moving and puzzledly raised his head: “What’s up? Why sud-suddenly stop?”
Master Liang also curiously poked his head out, but with the tree roots tangled in front, he couldn’t see what was happening ahead either.
Wu Xie looked at the gap where the boardwalk was broken, then at the bronze tree that seemed close at hand but was surely farther than it looked, turned back and gave the two a ugly smile, signaling Lao Yang to get a rope from the bag: “A section of boardwalk is broken. We might have to climb over this part.”
“Climb over?”
Master Liang was the first to show weakness: “I can’t climb over alone.” He smiled bitterly and moved his hands and feet a bit. The exercise volume of these two days was worth the past several decades. Now even lifting his arms was sore. If he were to climb a cliff, maybe the moment he stepped off the platform, he would be gone.
“How about I wait for you guys here?” He thought for a bit and asked Wu Xie and the others somewhat unconfidently, but then immediately changed his mind: “Do you have any way to get me over too?”
Wu Xie observed the stone wall on that side, not turning his head: “It’s fine. This above is all tree root system. Didn’t you touch them all the way over before? These several hundred year old roots are tougher than steel. Just treat it as climbing a narrower boardwalk.”
“Really?”
Master Liang disbelievingly poked his head to look. Wu Xie had already pulled out the dagger from his waist. With one lift of his hand, the dagger inserted into the stone wall two finger joints deep. He shook it up and down and found it quite sturdy, so one hand dagger and one hand touching vines, he started moving toward the remaining boardwalk.
Master Liang watching from behind was dumbfounded. This move felt like flying on eaves and walking on walls. He subconsciously pinched his thigh, feeling like he probably couldn’t do it.
Lao Yang waited a little while behind. Seeing Master Liang still not moving and Wu Xie almost in the middle, he touched the rope in his hand and sighed: “Stop, stop looking. Let’s go?”
“Ah?”
Master Liang only felt a chill at his waist. Looking down, a section of rope was already tied to his waist. Looking at Lao Yang again, unlike Wu Xie who pulled out a dagger, he actually took out a pickaxe from the bag!
This operation left Master Liang stunned! Didn’t they bring shovels when going underground? Why did they even have a pickaxe? No, he should ask what things they didn’t bring?
Lao Yang squeezed past Master Liang sideways, took out the pickaxe like Wu Xie, and with one force embedded it in the wall. One hand grabbing vine and one hand grabbing pickaxe, he moved forward.
Then… what about me?
Master Liang looked at his empty hands, feeling like crying but without tears.
“What are you still st-standing there for?”
Lao Yang’s dissatisfied voice came. Wu Xie was almost done climbing, what did it mean for this guy to stay here not moving? Master Liang mumbled a couple times before muttering: “I, I’m empty-handed, where do I grab?”
Lao Yang rolled his eyes at him: “Grab the vines with both hands, you won’t fall down that way.”
Master Liang sighed, resignedly took the first step. It was his own fault too. Relying on Uncle Tai and them for protection, he didn’t even carry anything for self-defense. Of course Uncle Tai and them didn’t remind him either; there was no need back then. By the time Uncle Tai and them were all dead, he hadn’t thought of it himself. If only he had stripped things off Uncle Tai, it would be better than now. At least he could have a gun! No, even with a gun in that situation, it might not help?
Wu Xie was the last to jump onto the boardwalk. Here was already very close to the top of the bronze tree. He could see that the top of this bronze tree was bigger than they imagined, even bigger than the main trunk part. The top could be said to be a large platform.
In terms of this thing’s function, it was probably an altar?
Wu Xie shone the flashlight over. Between the tangled tree roots, he saw some things that didn’t belong to the tree roots. This seemed like… statues?
Looking at the two hands stretching out from the tree roots, a thought came to Wu Xie. He remembered the destroyed statue he had seen outside the mine before. He had a premonition that the two statues might have some connection, but that would need to be judged after seeing the full appearance of this statue.
If these two statues were made by the same person, or the same group of craftsmen, that would mean that during the three years Lao Yang served time in prison, someone else had come here and… blown up a statue?
He roughly looked at the top of the bronze tree and didn’t find any traces of human destruction. The tree roots were wrapped tightly without gaps, and in some places already integrated as one. Even a fly standing on it would slip. Moreover, Lao Yang before didn’t seem like he had seen that statue either.
While he was observing the top of the bronze tree, Lao Yang and Master Liang also landed behind him. Lao Yang was fine, but when Master Liang came down, his legs were trembling. If not for holding onto the stone wall, he worried he would fall to the ground the next second.
Lao Yang looked around and asked Wu Xie: “Where’s that big rat? It led the way halfway and ran off?”
Wu Xie then realized the big rat was indeed gone. Neither in front nor behind the boardwalk. He specially looked downwards, not even seeing a moving shadow.
Lao Yang at this time also noticed the incredibly huge top surface and exclaimed: “So this is what it originally looked like here!”
Wu Xie didn’t want to ask Lao Yang in front of Master Liang, just gave him an extremely subtle glare, inwardly complaining: Didn’t you come here before? Just this?
Master Liang suddenly spoke up at this time, like suddenly switching to professional mode: “Look, there are several statues up there.”
Lao Yang looked carefully and only then discovered a few different places inside the mutually tangled tree root clumps: “It really is! Just don’t know what these statues here are for. For sacrifice?”
Master Liang, however, nodded seriously: “Remember what I said before? This bronze tree is an incredibly huge sacrificial vessel. Then what about the altar? Logically, the sacrificial vessel should be placed on the altar, but we didn’t see such a platform before. I once thought the altar had been pressed underground by this bronze tree. Didn’t expect this builder… really reached the peak. I can only use this term to describe him. He actually had the wild idea to put the altar on top of the sacrificial vessel!”
He smacked his lips and repeated in an amazed tone, marveling at the builder craftsman’s wild imagination: “But it makes sense too. What could be better than the altar and sacrificial vessel being one? At least I can’t think of anything. When the time comes, put the sacrifice on the altar to slaughter, and the blood flows down along the patterns on the bronze tree to the bottom…”
They thought about the height of this bronze tree, and all three were dumbfounded.
Wu Xie just thinking about it felt a chill. If this was real, how much blood from how many people would it take to fill all the grooves on this tree? Just the height they climbed was one or two hundred meters! If it was really several hundred people, it might not even be enough!
