Chen Cheng squatted at the entrance of the cave, not daring to stand up because his legs felt weak, and for the mont, he couldn’t even feel the breeze inside the cave, as if the air itself had solidified.
"Director Zhou... Director Zhou, what is that thing?"
Zhou Ning glanced back at Chen Cheng, knowing that he was genuinely frightened, and waved his hand quickly.
"Go to the entrance, tell Zhu Xingxing and Liu Yufei to co in for a bit. The stuff inside the four offering porcelain bowls should be human blood or so kind of decayed at, but it’s quite old, the sll of decay has mostly dissipated. Ask them who has the Luminol with them."
"What the hell is Luminol?"
Mr. Zhao waved his hand.
"No more nonsense, just go and tell them, you don’t need to ask. Tell Zhu Xingxing to bring the backpack over, I brought the Luminol reagent."
Zhou Ning looked up in surprise, while Mr. Zhao pursed his lips and sighed.
"A mistake, I don’t know how I ended up mixing that stuff in with my toiletries when packing. I couldn’t keep it there forever, it was disgusting, so I put it in a compartnt of my backpack."
Zhou Ning nodded, looking at the stone platform that held the high-footed porcelain bowls, bringing the LED light closer.
"There are a few blood handprints on the outside of the porcelain bowl, and there are also drip-shaped blood stains on the stone table. I’m not sure about the contents of the bowl, but in this semi-enclosed cave within a cave, if there was at decaying, and then completely drying out, for the sll to completely disappear, it would take more than just a few years.
"Moreover, look closely inside this high-footed porcelain bowl, the dried substance is flaky, sowhat curled, but the surface doesn’t have that gleaming look, it seems to have bumps, and it sowhat resembles a tongue, but the size is too small, unless it’s as Mr. Li said..."
Mr. Zhao turned pale and quickly raised his hand to stop him.
"Stop, I don’t want to hear about Mr. Li Chengbin’s insights right now, his insights are too horrific, especially in his ti in Mi Country, with free access to firearms, you could see anything. I’ve read the journals you brought back, they are too much for . By the way, have you checked the adjacent cave?"
"Haven’t been there yet, I think the wind is coming from that direction. Let’s wait until they get here. If I take the flashlight and leave, I’m afraid your high-pitched voice will cause an avalanche with the perennial snow above."
Mr. Zhao crossed his arms, looking helplessly up and down at Zhou Ning.
"I say, Zhou Xiaozhou, have you let yourself go after getting married? With all these phrases, who are you imitating, Mr. Xia? Did you get so private coaching?"
As they were talking, Zhu Xingxing’s voice ca from behind.
"We could hear you yapping all the way outside, thank goodness Mr. Xia didn’t co in with us, you’d better shut up now. Are you not scared anymore?"
Mr. Zhao grinned and did not dare to retort as Liu Yufei also ca from behind. Seeing what was inside the inner cave, she was sowhat surprised; after all, hearing about sothing and seeing it with your own eyes are different.
"It’s so magnificent in here, why does the outside look so ruined? And with all those silkworm cocoons hanging, what does it all an?"
Zhou Ning shook his head.
"Spray the Luminol reagent to see if this is blood. Let’s go next door and check. Is Doctor Chen with Momo at the cave entrance?"
"Yes, I asked Chen Cheng to accompany Mr. Xia, I’ll try it first."
Mr. Zhao wasted no ti, moved forward, and began to spray the reagent. All four high-footed porcelain bowls had a fluorescent reaction, and the stone table and ground around it also showed drops of fluorescent blood. On the outside of the bowls, there were a few fluorescent fingerprints, clear enough to make out parts of the fingerprint patterns. Mr. Zhao quickly took photos.
After all, the fluorescent reaction could only last for thirty seconds, and he took many detailed photos of the fingerprints. As he stepped back, about two ters from the stone table, there was a long, dark streak on the ground; Mr. Zhao continued to spray the reagent, then took photos. Looking at the pictures on the cara, Mr. Zhao blinked.
"I don’t know what the offerings are; they seem to be from a living creature. It can’t just be chunks of at, right? There are many thick blood drops around, with blood fingerprints on the outside bottom of the bowl, and this on the ground seems to be the shape of a knife. But why does this knife look so strange?"
Liu Yufei nodded in agreent.
"In terms of shape, it looks similar to a Mongolian saber, but it’s definitely different. If it were used for slaughtering or ordinary stabbing actions, blood wouldn’t cover the entire blade to the hilt, nor would it be able to leave such a complete mark on the stone.
"I think the blood was deliberately sared and imprinted on the stone. And look, the length of this saber is only about thirty centiters, about the sa size as a dagger. I think it’s not sothing used for fighting but seems like a ritual implent for sacrifice or specially for slaughtering offerings."
Zhou Ning highly valued this analysis; Liu Yufei’s knowledge was definitely solid.
However, with the saber-shaped dagger and the sacrificial items, it seed like the items, particularly in the bowl farthest away, looked like dried tongues, causing Zhou Ning’s stomach to churn.
Without dwelling on it any further, he waved to the others.
"There’s a thick layer of dust in here; it seems like many years since anyone has co in. Let’s go to the adjacent cave."
So saying, the group headed towards the mouth of the neighboring cave, Zhou Ning still leading with the LED light to illuminate the path. There were no creatures like bats scurrying around in chaos.
The interior of the cave was large, about four tis larger than the neighboring one, even wider than a basketball court. Directly opposite the entrance, there was another opening, the wind was indeed blowing from there, as they could clearly feel Zhu Xingxing’s hair fluttering as they approached. But upon seeing the items placed in the corners, Zhou Ning shuddered.
Coffins, there were actually all coffins here, the dark wood carved with patterns, lifted above ground by wooden supports about fifty centiters from the stone walls.
Zhou Ning moved closer, signaling Mr. Zhao to take pictures, after all, the patterns on the surface were complex, including the neighboring Green Tara, and various other strange scenes, with each coffin having different depicted content.
Mr. Zhao snapped pictures, continuously uttering "tsk tsk tsk" sounds.
"I’m saying, these are of high quality, there’s even gilding, though the designs on the coffins are sowhat odd, the wood appears to be cypress, not sothing an ordinary person could easily touch, after all, phoebe wood is generally reserved for royalty, while cypress is for the officials."
"You seem to know quite a bit."
Liu Yufei complinted Zhao Xinli, then went to push the coffin with her hand, but Mr. Zhao quickly stopped her.
"Mrs. Fei, stop, we don’t know what’s inside these, what if you push it and sothing undead cos out?"
Mr. Zhao’s eyes bulged. If it had been anyone else, he would’ve acted long ago, but facing Liu Yufei, the very thought vanished like smoke because with one kick she could send him flying down the mountain.
"Reading too many novels? Don’t you know? After the founding of the country, no spirits are allowed. Stop the nonsense, and let have a look."
Zhou Ning stepped in and held the coffin lid down.
"We should wait for the locals to co, we checked next door carefully, although offerings were placed there, here the number of coffins is just too many, and all are hanging in the air, plus, as Mr. Zhao said, the material of these coffins, as well as the patterns on them, clearly don’t co from recent decades.
Moreover, these big heavy objects, how were they transported up from the foot of the mountain? It was scary enough for us to climb up here, and the coffins along with those statues should have been transported up before the entrance was sealed.
So does that an, the objects hanging in the main cave outside, and these offerings, were placed after the carving of the Buddha statues and the installation of these coffins, later concealed by the cave entrance, followed by a tree seed that fell in between, took root and sprouted, growing to a diater of twenty centiters?"
Mr. Zhao uttered an "Mhm," glancing at the small opening at the end. Although there was wind coming through, the sinister bone-chilling cold made one’s body tremble.
"Cough cough, why don’t we go out and wait? We dare not open the coffins, nor venture further inside, there’s no point in staying here."
Zhou Ning didn’t expose his act, but surely, staying here for a long ti did make it difficult to breathe, so they exited the inner cave and moved to the outside main cave, spotting Xia Momo standing at the entrance, leaning over the edge looking down.
Looking in Xia Momo’s direction, Zhou Ning quickened his pace, and without paying attention, he stepped into a dish that was raised from the ground underneath a silk cocoon, slipping noticeably.
Zhou Ning knelt on one knee, the LED light thrown from his grasp, he quickly turned to look behind him, only then did he notice the blood-red beneath the dust inside the dish he had stepped on. Mr. Zhao picked up the LED light, ca over to Zhou Ning, and even made fun of him.
"I’m saying, shouldn’t you watch your step even if you’re rushing towards your wife? Get up quickly, did you hurt yourself badly from the fall?"
Zhou Ning grabbed the LED light from Mr. Zhao’s hand and hastily shone it towards the dish at his feet. With such illumination, Mr. Zhao nearly yelled out.
"Oh my, oh my! What is this thing, is this blood flowing down from the cocoon?"
Zhou Ning reached out, touched the crimson surface, feeling its icy coolness, it was reflective like a mirror, and when he stepped on it, it felt hard yet greasy.
"It’s not blood; it’s stone, but I don’t know what kind of stone this is, nor why it’s polished into the shape of a lotus leaf, as if it’s ant to catch sothing from the silk cocoon..."
As Zhou Ning spoke, he stopped.
The lotus-shaped dish below seed to be holding blood, so what was above?
The offerings placed inside appeared to have been fresh at the ti, so could it be that inside these hanging silk cocoons were the raw materials for those offerings?
Zhou Ning shivered, squatting down, he took pictures of the underside of the lotus dish with his cara. Upon zooming in, he realized there was a horizontal clasp underneath; the dish was seamlessly inserted sideways, which also explained the difference in materials, and such exquisite craftsmanship was truly admirable.
Squatting on the ground, Zhou Ning looked up at the silk cocoons, counting a total of eight, and the one Mr. Zhao had just poked had sothing peeking out. Zhou Ning stood up and went over to it.
Liu Yufei and the others, with tissues in hand, wiped half of each lotus dish, indeed each one had the sa blood-colored stones, semi-transparent and polished incredibly smooth, even the exterior was wrapped in darker stone, but it was unclear what kind of stone it was.
Mr. Zhao approached Zhou Ning.
"Zhou Xiaozhou, can we not touch these things? The local police and the museum people will be here soon, let’s wait for them to deal with it!"
Zhou Ning nodded and did not poke the hole in the cocoon, but as he was about to turn around, a crackling sound ca from above.
At the mont he looked up, accompanied by the screams of several won, the cocoon fell straight into Zhou Ning’s arms. The sensation of holding it was like a crisp paper lantern, wobbling unsteadily and easily giving a sense that inside, there was sothing moving within the cocoon, then a crack quickly extended from the hole at the bottom to the top of the cocoon.
Zhou Ning was holding his breath, glancing at the dumbstruck Mr. Zhao beside him.
"Here, you hold it!"
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