Reborn as a snake, creating a magic method in the real world

Chapter 99 The disappearing tripod and the corpse of the tomb robber (first update)

It is said that after Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, some alchemists and Confucian scholars joined forces to make prophecies and explain Confucian scriptures using yin and yang and the five elements.

Both Wang Mang and Emperor Guangwu of the Han Dynasty took advantage of it and proclaimed themselves emperors. Emperor Guangwu officially "announced the prophecy to the world", which became a legal classic.

Others absorbed the theories of Huang, Lao and Futu, and preached fortune-telling, fortune-telling, fortune-telling, fortune-telling, disaster relief, reincarnation, etc., becoming the forerunners of Taoism.

"These alchemy techniques are integrated with other schools and enrich the diversity of culture, so some things cannot be generalized."

Everyone couldn't help but become fascinated as they listened, "Looking at it this way, these magic techniques are not without their disadvantages. The key is to use them on the right path."

Alchemy has been used by some people to pretend to be gods and ghosts, which has brought disasters, but this does not mean that it does not have any advantages and benefits. The key is to see how to use it.

Professor Zhang agreed and said, "That's a good idea."

"But Professor, you have said so much, but you haven't told us who the owner of the tomb is."

As the group of people talked, the car was almost reaching its destination, and Professor Zhang looked at the scenery outside the car window.

The mountains not far away are green and lush, and the blue sky hangs low, making it look peaceful, but this scenery is already refreshing.

"Don't worry, you will know soon."

Professor Zhang did not continue speaking, which almost turned everyone's appetite off, making the archaeological team even more excited.

The group of people came down from the winding mountain road and had to walk some mountain roads. After a brief rest, everyone took their equipment and set off.

Leading the way were the police and archaeological members who had come to explore the road before.

Stepping into the deep mountain forest, the light suddenly becomes dim. The dense plants and leaves that block the sky make it feel like you are in an ancient forest.

Fragments of sunlight fall through the gaps between the leaves, and countless dust particles dance, making this place even more quiet and peaceful.

The soft land has a unique fishy smell, as well as the fragrance of green plants, and occasionally a few insects and birds chirp. In terms of environmental vegetation, this mountain top is indeed good in feng shui.

"The tomb is probably in the southeast area, about half an hour away."

After all, Professor Zhang was a bit older and was not as good as the young people. At this moment, there were beads of sweat on his forehead and his breathing was a little short.

Someone in the team was worried about his physical condition and asked with some concern: "Professor, are you okay? Do you want to take a rest?"

Professor Zhang waved his hand, "Don't worry, I can still hold on."

At this time, he seemed to see something out of the corner of his eye and suddenly stopped.

The archaeological team thought he was feeling unwell, "What's wrong, Professor?"

"Look at these traces, it seems that someone has been here before."

Everyone followed Professor Zhang's gaze and found that there were marks of human trampling on the dead branches on the ground, and there was a shallow footprint next to it.

"I remember there are several villages nearby. Maybe the villagers went up the mountain before, I don't know."

Several other archaeological team members also nodded beside them, "Yes, when I went up the mountain before, it was the villagers who brought me here."

It would be okay for the villagers. Although there is a tomb nearby, unless you are a professional, you cannot determine the specific location of the tomb.

But if it is a tomb robber, I am afraid it will be a little difficult to deal with.

The group quickly determined the location of the tomb and began to prepare for excavation work. Archeology is different from tomb robbing, so the methods will be different.

Tomb robbers would open small holes to avoid being noticed, but the archaeological team is a formal organization and everything is done according to the procedures.

Therefore, the location of their tomb will be very different from that of the Robber's Cave, which is in the northwest.

However, after they identified the tomb, they entered from directly below, which happened to be in the opposite direction to the robber's cave, so they had not yet discovered the existence of the robber's cave.

This time there were quite a few people in the team, including the police, a total of 30 people, and they also brought a lot of advanced tools and equipment. The entrance to the tomb was soon opened up.

The exact size of the entire tomb is not yet known, so the archaeological team plans to explore while exploring, in order to save time.

"Professor, we can go to the grave now."

Upon hearing the news, Professor Zhang stood up immediately, "Okay, let's act now."

In the Han Dynasty, tomb shapes could be divided into palace, typical, square, rectangular and other styles. What you see in front of you is a palace-style tomb.

It is generally built based on the shape and size of the temple. It is divided into two parts: the front and the side. There are two horse-driving towers on the front, four guardian towers on the side, and a tall mourning hall on the top, which gives people a solemn and solemn look. Feel.

After the archaeological team came down, they found that there were very few burial objects in the tomb.

The patterns engraved on the surrounding tomb paintings are rich in mythological color.

As for the mural that the archaeological team saw in front of them, three mountains were shrouded in clouds and mist, cranes were flying, and pavilions and pavilions were vaguely visible. On the other side of the shore, many people were worshiping.

"These should be the three fairy mountains - Penglai, Fangzhang, and Yingzhou."

It has been recorded in ancient books, "These three sacred mountains are said to be in the Bohai Sea, and they are not far away. If trouble comes, the wind will lead it away. If it comes, all the immortals and elixirs will be there."

In addition, there is a man dressed as an alchemist in the mural who is refining elixirs. There are many people kneeling around him, who should be asking for medicine.

Not only that, there are people setting up altars in the murals, and even trying to control wind and rain, etc. It can be seen that these are alchemists.

Most of the tomb paintings depict either gods or various alchemists, showing their magical abilities.

It has become a bit blurry after many years, but based on the patterns on it and the behavior of the characters, it is not difficult to guess what they are doing.

There are many bronze utensils and porcelain around the tomb, bottles and jars, and even some strange props, which should be used for containers and the like.

"It seems that the owner of the tomb is also fond of alchemy, otherwise he would not have collected so many bottles, jars and utensils, and even brought them to the tomb as funerary objects."

Professor Zhang nodded, "Yes, the owner of the tomb is none other than Zuo Ci, a famous alchemist in the late Eastern Han Dynasty."

Zuo Ci, whose courtesy name was Yuanfang, was from Lujiang. He called himself Mr. Wujiao and was a famous alchemist in the late Eastern Han Dynasty.

He lived in Tianzhu Mountain when he was young, studied the art of alchemy, understood the Five Classics, understood the stars and latitudes, and understood Liujia. It is said that he could control ghosts and gods, sit down and cook, and the "Book of the Later Han Dynasty" said that he had few divine ways.

There are many rumors about Zuo Ci.

For example, "Taiping Yulan" quotes "Zhengao" and records: "In the Jian'an period of the Han Dynasty, Zuo Ci heard that Juqu Mountain was in Jinling, leading to Emei Luofu, so he lived there. So he fasted for three months and climbed the mountain, and gained access to its gate. Mr. Mao gave him three kinds of sacred mushrooms, Su Qi Gong Yi, and said: "The fairy holding incense will guard the person who is fasting."

Moreover, Zuo Ci was also the teacher of Ge Xuan, a famous Taoist master. He left behind many ancient books on elixirs and many insights, which had a profound impact on later generations.

This person's comments have been praised and criticized in later generations, but in his later years, he once told Duke Ge Xiang that he wanted to go to Huoshan to refine the Nine Turns Pill, and then disappeared.

Some people say that Zuo Ci died in the mountains, others say that he was hunted down, and some even directly say that he found the way and flew away on a crane. Of course, these are unofficial historical records, and the authenticity cannot be verified.

But no matter what, Zuo Ci still had a great influence on later generations, but there are not many detailed records about later generations, and they are somewhat exaggerated.

"It seems that Zuo Ci himself is full of fantasy. Is it possible that he really has some ability?"

Professor Zhang smiled and shook his head, "Actually, that's not the case. Alchemy was popular at that time, and it was easy to fool anyone who did some tricks, such as sleight of hand and magic."

"Coupled with the underdeveloped traffic information at that time, this caused a gap in information, and it was easy for people to exaggerate it when it was passed around."

"Maybe he himself did have some achievements in alchemy, but in fact most of those miraculous rumors were fabricated or exaggerated by later generations."

The others nodded, thinking about the same truth. Throughout the ages, there have been so many people who wanted to seek enlightenment, but no one has ever succeeded.

"But having said that, Zuo Ci must have had a good status at the time. He could have prospered according to his ability. Why are there so few burial objects in the tomb?"

"Is it possible that he is also a man of few desires and doesn't care about these rules and regulations?"

Professor Zhang also had doubts in his eyes. His hand accidentally touched the mural next to him, as if he noticed something was wrong.

Professor Zhang stretched out his hand and saw that the dust on this small piece of mural was not as much as the one next to it, which was in sharp contrast with the two sides.

The environment inside the tomb is the same, so why is there less dust here?

Unless there is only one possibility...

That means someone has been here before and accidentally touched it!

Professor Zhang's expression suddenly changed, "Hurry up and have a look in the main room."

The archaeological team did not advance very fast, because the surrounding murals were relatively well preserved, so most of their attention was attracted here, and their pace slowed down.

Seeing Professor Zhang's hurried expression, the others quickly asked: "What's wrong, Professor?"

Professor Zhang looked ugly, "I suspect that someone here has come to China before, and they are probably tomb robbers."

Everyone was shocked and quickly followed his footsteps.

After arriving in the main room, it stands to reason that there should be the most burial objects here, but they still saw very few.

And most of what has survived are huge bronzes and porcelains, which are difficult to transport.

According to Zuo Ci's character, there should be many scriptures and other items, but now there are very few books remaining in the tomb.

Professor Zhang’s previous conjecture came true.

"Someone has entered the tomb before us. Quickly notify the police outside and ask them to do their best to search the mountain!"

Ancient tombs are important cultural relics for studying ancient society. The cultural relics inside represent the history imprinted by a long civilization.

Archaeologists use this to supplement or enrich history, but tomb robbing causes interference and damage to archaeological work. They deeply hate it and crack down severely.

Even if the cultural relics inside are taken out and sold, it will be a huge loss to the country.

Professor Zhang was breathing heavily, and his face turned a little pale.

Others quickly stepped forward to support him, "Professor, don't get excited. The police are here. Even if there are tomb robbers, they will definitely be able to help us find the lost cultural relics."

Professor Zhang was worried, "I hope so."

Originally, I still had weak expectations in my heart, but when I saw the robbery cave, my last glimmer of hope was shattered.

"According to the condition of the soil around the robbery cave, this robbery cave has not been around for a long time. Even if the tomb robbers take away the cultural relics, they will not be able to take action for the time being. We have informed our colleagues at the Traffic Management Bureau to strictly guard the checkpoints and will also Launch nearby search activities." The police fed back the survey results to Professor Zhang.

"Comrade police, please recover those cultural relics. These things are very important to the institute."

"Don't worry, Professor Zhang, we will definitely do our best."

The cultural relics in Zuo Ci's tomb are still of great research value, and they just fill in the blanks in certain aspects of the Eastern Han Dynasty. Some of the classics and classics have a profound impact on later generations, and they are even unique copies.

While the archaeological team was exploring the tomb, they were anxiously waiting for news from the police.

On the other side, the police were also divided into several teams, and this time the captain was still Sun Zhenbang.

<divclass="contentadv">Because he has been here several times to handle cases and is very familiar with the area, he is responsible for the entire operation.

"We will carry out a blanket search focusing on the ancient tombs."

"There are several roads going down the mountain. We divided our troops to search along several roads to see if we can find any traces of tomb robbers. The villages at the foot of the mountain are also the focus of investigation to see if there are any suspicious persons."

The police soon took action, led by the trace section, and patrolled the mountain carefully, fearing that some tomb robbers would bury some cultural relics here and come back to retrieve them after the news was over.

Since visibility was better during the day, the police soon made new discoveries.

"It's strange, why are there so many footprints here? Captain Sun, come over and take a look."

Sun Zhenbang looked at the messy footprints on the ground and the countless trampled dead branches and leaves, as if many animals had passed by.

"The soil around these marks is still relatively moist. It seems that they were formed not long ago."

The key is that these footprints vary in size, proving that the types of animals are also different.

So the question is, why do so many large and small animals suddenly pass by here at the same time?

Sun Zhenbang's intuition told him that something unusual must have happened here, and he thought of the strange situations that had occurred in this mountain before.

Could it be that this time too——

He shook his head, thinking it was impossible.

Sun Zhenbang pondered for a moment, "Let's go down the mountain to have a look, look for clues, and find out if there are any suspicious people recently."

With that said, Sun Zhenbang led the people away, "Others continue to search on the mountain."

The group moved quickly and returned to the foot of the mountain soon.

After entering Longyuan Village, some villagers saw Sun Zhenbang's arrival and greeted him naturally, "Officer Sun is here. What's the case this time? It won't have something to do with our village again, right?"

After all, Sun Zhenbang is also an old acquaintance. He has been here several times and has become familiar among the villagers.

"This time it has nothing to do with your village. We are just here to investigate. Are there any suspicious persons or unusual situations recently?"

The villager shook his head, "Officer Sun, you also know that our village is small and there are almost no strangers coming. If there are, we will definitely have an impression."

It seemed that the tomb robbers had never stopped in this village. Seeing that Sun Zhenbang could not get any useful information, he was about to go back when he was suddenly stopped by the villagers.

"Wait a minute, Officer Sun. When it comes to unusual things, I don't know if this one counts."

"Just a few days ago, many animals suddenly broke into the village, walked around in a circle and ran away, but they did not cause any human or animal casualties."

Sun Zhenbang thought of the animal footprints he saw on the mountain, large and small.

I always feel that these two things are inexplicably connected.

He couldn't help but ask: "Did those animals be frightened or stimulated by something, so they ran down the mountain?"

The villager scratched his head and said he didn't know. "Then we don't know, but everyone said that these animals were ordered by the mountain god."

It’s related to the mountain god again…

Sun Zhenbang frowned, but in the end he picked up his cell phone and called the staff on the mountain: "Follow the traces of the beasts and search to see if we can find any useful clues."

……

On the other side, after receiving instructions from Sun Zhenbang, the police on the mountain began to conduct a blanket search using the traces of wild beasts as tracking points.

Sure enough, following these traces, we actually found a few human-like footprints.

"It's very possible that these were left behind by tomb robbers."

Seeing that they had clues, the police searched even more carefully.

Xie Yixuan happened to be among them, searching along the southeast direction.

The trees here are dense, and the wide leaves can easily block the view. He pushed aside the bushes in front of him and could vaguely see an unknown object lying not far away.

At first he thought it was just a stone or a dead branch, Xie Yixuan didn't pay attention, but as he got closer, he suddenly discovered that the outline of the object was clearly a human figure!

Xie Yixuan approached suspiciously. His black hair was very obvious among the green branches and leaves, and a pale face suddenly broke into his field of vision!

Xie Yixuan's expression changed, and he shouted loudly: "Quick! A male corpse was found here!"

Others came quickly after hearing the news, and then they all approached the body and inspected it carefully.

Not long after, a group of police officers made a preliminary determination.

There were a lot of scattered things around the corpse, which were all antiques and the like. They must be the tomb robbers they were tracking down.

However, according to the initial speculation of the police, the tomb robbers had probably gone down the mountain, but they did not expect to find their bodies here.

Subsequently, the police used the corpse as the center point to search outwards, and soon found several of their accomplices in the woods not far away. Without exception, they were all lifeless and could no longer die!

Looking around, the traces on the ground are messy, and there are also many trampled dead branches and leaves. Just like the previous traces, it seems that a large number of wild animals have passed by.

Police were unable to determine whether they died before or after the beast.

But no matter which case it is, there are no traces of beast bites on the body, which is really strange.

Moreover, the surface of the corpse was very complete, with no obvious wounds, only marks on the chest.

It couldn't have been poisoned?

At the same time, Sun Zhenbang rushed over after receiving the news. He took a look at the corpses and immediately ordered, "Hurry up and take these corpses back to the laboratory for inspection. Also collect these cultural relics and send them to the archaeological team for confirmation." Isn’t that what it is?”

……

On the other hand, Professor Zhang learned that the tomb had been visited by tomb robbers. It can be said that he was not in the mood for the follow-up work, and he seemed to be absent-minded.

"Professor, don't worry. Didn't the police comrades also say that the tomb robbers probably did not transport the cultural relics out."

"And there are still parts of the tomb that have not been surveyed. Even if they transport away things, there shouldn't be too many."

Professor Zhang sighed, "That's what I said, but what if, if I had known, I would have left a few days earlier. I don't know where the news leaked."

He beat his chest angrily, but it was useless to talk about it now.

While the archaeological team was waiting anxiously, new news quickly came back.

"Professor Zhang, the police said that the tomb robber has been caught!"

Professor Zhang was stunned, and then became excited, "So fast."

It has only been an hour now, and the police have already arrested someone. This speed is really amazing.

For a moment, everyone's hearts hanging in their throats were finally relieved.

"Great, have those cultural relics been recovered as well?"

"Thank you to the police comrades, otherwise we would have suffered heavy losses."

After getting the accurate answer, the archaeological team and others were happy, but they did not notice that the police who came to report the news had a strange expression.

"Do you have any questions, Comrade Police?"

The policeman shook his head and didn't say much for the time being. He just said: "These are cultural relics found from tomb robbers. Professor, please check them."

Professor Zhang and others were extremely grateful, "Thank you, comrade police, for your hard work."

Looking at these cultural relics, the archaeological team seemed to be looking at some lost treasure. Professor Zhang was full of energy at the moment and immediately began to check.

"I asked you why there were so few burial objects in the tomb before. It turned out to be this reason."

It was certain that those were some of the lost funerary objects. The tomb robbers selected the important and easier-to-carry parts and took them out.

However, just when everyone was rejoicing, Professor Zhang's face looked a little unhappy, his brows were furrowed, and he didn't know what he was thinking.

Other members of the archaeological team were a little curious, "Professor Zhang, now that the cultural relics have been recovered, why are you still looking sad?"

Looking at the pile of cultural relics, Professor Zhang shook his head, "No, according to records, Zuo Ci has a very rich collection of books. Nowadays, these scriptures and classics still don't match the number."

Even with the remaining ones from the tomb, it feels like something is missing.

"Is it possible that he did not bring those books into the tomb for burial? After all, we still don't know how many books were originally in the tomb."

"Yes, we haven't finished surveying the entire tomb yet. Maybe there are still some books and accompanying collections in other tombs."

"What you said makes sense, but there is another point. Zuo Ci is addicted to the art of alchemy, so he also loves those utensils very much. He once asked a skilled craftsman in the world to make a tripod, hoping to use it to practice elixirs and become an immortal. "

It is said that Zuo Ci once obtained an extraterrestrial meteorite, thinking it was a gift from heaven, and later used it to build a tripod.

In his later years, he told Ge Xiangong that he wanted to go to Huoshan Mountain to refine the Nine Turns Pill. There were rumors at that time that Zuo Ci refined the elixir through this cauldron, and finally succeeded in attaining the Tao and riding on a crane.

Many miraculous additions give this cauldron a legendary color.

Although there is no research in later generations, it is somewhat certain that according to Zuo Ci's love for the tripod, this tripod must have been brought to the tomb by Zuo Ci.

Professor Zhang paused, "But now we don't see this cauldron in the tomb."

Professor Zhang could not determine the specific number of books, but this tripod did exist.

"So what you're saying is that some books and a cauldron are still missing?"

Professor Zhang nodded, "And judging from the dust in the tomb here, there are traces of things being placed in some places, but I haven't seen them now, so it obviously doesn't match the number."

Of course it is impossible for the police to ignore these things.

Since they were not in the tomb, they must have been brought out by tomb robbers, and maybe they were hidden somewhere, so the police did not find them.

"No, I have to go to the police again and get these things back."

"Maybe they were buried in the mountains by those cunning tomb robbers!"