different paths

"... Can this be pulled out?" Jia Wuchao was stunned.

"You might as well give it a try." Yan Ku smiled lightly.

Jia Wuzhen then walked to the edge of the pool of blood, leaned over and leaned towards the hilt of the sword——

When his fingers touched the end of the handle, he lifted his two fingers vigorously, but the seemingly thin phalanges seemed to be tense at the moment, and he lifted the Zhuanpo sword effortlessly.

The moment the sword tip left the bottom of the pool, there was a loud bang, and a huge bottomless hole suddenly appeared in the center of the originally calm pool, and the bright red blood in the pool flowed down the opening, like a bloody waterfall.

Jia Wujue held the Zhuanpo sword in his hand, looked at it carefully for a while, and couldn't help but praised: "It's really a good sword!"

"A good sword needs a good sheath." Yan Ku looked at the hole that suddenly appeared in the pool, his eyes fixed.

"Could it be that there is already a good sheath for this Zhuanpo sword?" Jia Wujue looked at Yan Ku and asked.

Yan Ku raised his chin towards the hole in the middle of the blood pool: "Go down and have a look, you will know." After speaking, he flew up, his green clothes fluttered, and disappeared into the deep hole.

Seeing him go down, Jia Wuyu naturally couldn't lag behind, even though he didn't know anything about the situation in the cave and his future was uncertain, he still tightened the Zhuanpo sword around his waist, and followed in resolutely.

After a brief moment of darkness, his feet landed soundlessly on solid ground.When I looked up, I saw that the entrance of the cave I just jumped into was already ten feet away. At this moment, it was like a bright moon in the night sky, the only light in the endless darkness.The noise of the turbulent waterfall rang in his ears, and a faint fishy smell floated into his nose. With the help of the subtle light, Jia Wujue could see clearly the bloody water slanted down on the four walls, and finally merged into the cave. In a dark river at the bottom, the dark river meanders and circles, and it doesn't know where it flows.

"Go along the small river first." After Yan Ku finished speaking, he walked ahead first.

The two groped along the river in the dark for a while, and suddenly there was a bright light in front of them, and Jia Wuzhen couldn't help but feel happy: "Could it be that we have reached the exit?"

Yan Ku shook his head: "Look up, there are stalactites and stalagmites on the top of the cave, I'm afraid we are still deep in the mountain now."

While talking, the two of them got closer and closer to the bright light.In the center of the bright light, a huge stone door appeared——

Thousands of Buddha heads are densely carved on the stone gate. The heads of these Buddhas are layered on top of each other, as dense as a honeycomb.The face and headgear of each Buddha head is different, but the smile on the corner of the mouth remains the same.Thousands of Buddhas rejoicing together should have been an auspicious and peaceful scene, but now appearing in this dark cave, it seems mysterious and weird.

There is no light in this cave, and there is no moonlight, so why can this stone gate emit light?

Jia Wukai took a closer look, only to find that the stone gate was not made of ordinary stones, but a priceless luminous stone.Judging from its smooth texture and smooth stone surface, this stone gate is not made of multiple pieces of stone, but carved from a whole piece of homogeneous and pure luminous wall.A high-quality luminous stone is already very valuable, let alone such a huge luminous wall?

Such a large handwriting has only appeared in the tombs of emperors throughout the ages.

Jia Wujue caressed Shimen fondly, if not for his limited ability, he really wanted to carry the whole door away.As soon as my heart was agitated, my hand became a little heavier. I didn't know that the stone door seemed to weigh more than a thousand catties, but it opened inward with a light touch——

Facing the cave with the door wide open, go or stay?

Jia Wukai looked at Yan Ku, only to hear the other party say without hesitation: "Let's go."

"Wait—" Jia Wujue hurriedly stopped him, and cautiously went to the door and poked his neck in, "Boss Yan, aren't you afraid that there is a mechanism inside this door?"

Yan Ku didn't stop walking and said: "This stone gate is extremely important, if there is no mechanism involved, how can it be easily opened? I am afraid that someone has already activated the mechanism, and we entered the door first."

Sure enough, the inside of the stone gate is full of broken arrows, and it seems that someone did get there first.

Jia Wuba looked up and saw thick smoke coming out in front of him, which seemed to be a sign of someone's life.Could it be that in this cave, is there still someone cooking fire?He walked a few steps quickly, but saw that the place where the thick smoke appeared was not a house, but a huge stone platform.

The center of the stone platform is flat and open, but the side near the dark river is a steep slope.The stone platform is based on a layer of straw and covered with a layer of flowers. On top of the fragrant flowers, there are neatly placed long objects wrapped in yellow cloth. The thick smoke comes from the burning produced in elongated objects.White smoke was billowing, and the flames were soaring into the sky. The side closest to the dark river burned most intensely, and the side farthest from the dark river just started to emit light smoke.

Jia Wujue and Yan Ku stopped to observe for a while, and saw that after the side that was burned the most was reduced to ashes, the stone slab below would suddenly tilt and connect with the steep slope connecting with the underground river. The ashes slid down the steep slope and merged into the blood-colored dark river.Immediately after hearing a "boom", the stone slabs that were originally located in the second row from the river moved to the outermost side and connected with the steep slope.

"I've never seen this kind of mechanism..." Jia Wukai murmured, looking at everything in front of him.

There was a flash of understanding in Yan Ku's eyes: "I'm afraid this mechanism is the handiwork of old man Sikong. The standard is based on the weight of the board. If the weight is lowered, the stone board will tilt and affect the movement of the next row of stone boards."

Jia Wujue sighed: "I thought that the mechanism activated by weight was just a theory on paper, but I didn't expect to see it here today." He said, he was a little puzzled, "It's just that old man Sikong took a lot of effort to design this mechanism. , What is it for? Why did the ashes on this stone slab have to be poured into the dark river?"

Yan Ku pursed his lips and smiled: "If you want to know the reason, you need to understand what the ashes are."

Seeing his expression, Jia Wuhai immediately understood: "You must know the reason, but you still want to test me!"

Yan Ku smiled without saying a word, and watched him walk to the farthest side of the stone platform.

On the side farthest from the stone platform, the object wrapped in yellow cloth was emitting light smoke, but it had not yet started to burn.With quick eyes and quick hands, Jia Wujue uncovered a corner of the yellow cloth, his complexion couldn't help but change——

The yellow cloth was wrapped in nothing but a human corpse.He had just guessed that there were signs of people here, but in fact he was not wrong, there were indeed people, but they were all dead!

Only at this moment did he realize that the ashes that flowed into the dark river were human ashes!

The blood-colored underground river with a fishy smell, mixed with countless ashes, flows slowly in this unfathomable mountain. It may merge with the water outside the cave, become a stream, become a river, and finally flow to thousands of families. household.Thinking of this scene, goosebumps involuntarily appeared on Jia Wuzhen's body.

He looked at Yan Ku, and couldn't help thinking, when did the other party realize that the ashes came from human bones?Did he already know it, or just discovered it?If you already knew, then...

Thinking of this, he quickly shook his head, trying to shake off all the random thoughts in his mind.But the more he tried to avoid it, the deeper the seed of doubt was buried, and one day in the future, it would germinate and grow into a towering tree, making him unavoidable.

Jia Wukai's eyes fell on the corpse exposed to the air. He was not big, and he was dressed as a servant. It seemed that he had passed away for a long time. bad.Following his half-rotted face, Jia Wuzhen's eyes fell on his waist——

A waist card.

The material of this waist card is ordinary and the pattern is simple. If it is placed in normal times, even if it is in front of Jia Wuchai's eyes, he will not take a second look.But appearing here at this moment made him tremble, and even gave him a chill, because there were four unusual characters engraved on this extremely ordinary waist card - "Zhenyuan Escort Bureau".

All the hundred and ten members of the Zhenyuan Escort Bureau were slaughtered, which was a major case that made people talk about it in Yecheng at that time.After the case was solved, in order to sacrifice the souls of the Escort Bureau, people from all walks of life gathered together to hold a puja. After choosing an auspicious time and auspicious place, all the corpses parked in Yizhuang were burned and buried in the mountain.How could a corpse that had been reduced to ashes appear in the Kunlun Mountains thousands of miles away?Could it be that this corpse was just a coincidence?

Jia Wuhai ignored the choking smoke and scorching flames, and looked at all the corpses wrapped in yellow cloth that hadn't ignited the fire, but the result surprised him——

Among the nearly one hundred corpses, more than half of them had the badges of the Zhenyuan Escort on their waists.

A terrifying conjecture lingered in Jia Wuhai's mind——

The hundred and ten members of the Zhenyuan Escort were indeed killed, but the corpse parked in Yizhuang at that time was someone else.For unknown reasons, someone transported these hundred corpses to this place and replaced them with another hundred corpses.

what does this mean?

It means that although the case of Zhenyuan Escort Bureau has been solved, there are still hundreds of nameless dead who cannot rest in peace!Who killed them, why did they die, and even the most basic question of their true identities became unsolvable mysteries with the burning of their bodies.

Jia Wujue, who originally thought he had successfully closed the case, now faced with these waist cards, his head was dazed, and he staggered a few steps involuntarily, a sense of frustration that he had never felt before spontaneously arose.

"What's the matter?" Noticing his strangeness, Yan Ku walked up to him.

Jia Wuchai pointed to the waist of the corpse, and closed his eyes wearily: "Do you still remember the matter of the mutton fat jade bottle? I thought I had figured it out from beginning to end, but now I realized that it was just me. self-righteousness."

When Yan Ku saw the four words on the waist card, the brilliance flashed in his eyes, and he comforted him: "This is the end of the matter, and it is useless to blindly pursue past mistakes. It is better to sort out the present beforehand. Maybe there will be some surprises." reward."

Jia Wuchai nodded sullenly, as if he agreed.

Yan Ku continued: "Although I don't know where these corpses came from, I can probably guess where they went."

"It must be related to that dark river." Jia Wuhua guessed.

Yan Ku nodded: "Do you know Tianzhu Kingdom? Although there are many sects in Tianzhu Kingdom, they all worship the same river devoutly. They call it the 'holy river'. They take holy baths in the river when they are alive, and are buried in holy rivers after death. The middle of the river is the greatest wish of the believers."

"Could it be that the purpose of bringing the ashes into the dark river is to satisfy the desire to be buried in the holy river?" Jia Wujue thought for a while, then asked doubtfully, "But the hundred and ten members of the Zhenyuan Escort are all believers?"

Yan Ku stretched out a finger and shook it: "It may not be the wish of the deceased to put the ashes into the river, but it may just be to complete a religious ceremony." After finishing speaking, he sighed softly, "I heard that the Tianzhu Kingdom specially There are corpse-burning temples, all of which are built near the holy river. The dead are burned by their relatives, and then poured into the holy river. But whether this merit is counted on the dead or the relatives of the deceased What about it? Or that the deceased was not a believer, but was sent to the Temple of Burning Corpses after his soul disappeared? The religions of this world are nothing more than relying on rhetoric to deceive the majority into offerings and satisfy the desires of the few."

Jia Wujue heard him speak with incomparable indifference, and couldn't help saying: "You must not let those old bull noses hear what you said, otherwise Shaolin Wudang will come to you to settle accounts."

When Yan Ku heard this, he just laughed it off.