Wenbin Zha did not dare to be careless either. The three men did not separate. They were careful all the way. During the day time, when searching the village, there were several very special ancestral halls in the middle of the village, which were distributed in the four directions of the village, but the gates were all locked. Although it was daytime, looking in through the crack of the door, it turned out to be pitch black. They had shouted at the door, but they left without getting a response.
This time, under the leadership of Wenbin Zha, three of them went to the ancestral hall first. All ancestral halls have a plaque and couplets. During the day time, Wenbin Zha found that there was no plaque in the ancestral hall. There was only a pair of monogrammed couplets: Kuang helps the people to remember the past, the one who suffers from Yin and Yang.
After arriving at the ancestral hall, he asked everyone to be quiet. Wenbin Zha put his ear to the wall and listened for a long time, but nothing is found. There was still a little bit of red paint left on the door. A big brass lock was locked and the door knocker was also made of copper, Yichao's head lamp shone on the door, he looked at it carefully. Then he said in a low voice, "look, does this knocker look like the faces of the two stone men we saw at the entrance of the village during the daytime? "
Following his finger, sure enough, the two knockers were a square face, with very large eyes and the mouth each bite a brass ring, the huge copper lock was hanging above the brass ring. It seemed that the village had a special admiration for the shape of the face.
Xiong Zhuo tutted: "I wonder, did my ancestors here all have head like this? Square head, big eyes, how to see they did not look like myself and my father..."
Yichao patted Xiong Zhuo's head: "You don't understand, this is called abstract art, I have seen a little bit of the culture of Ancient Ba Shu. There isn't human with a square head in the world, let's get this lock open first, brother Wenbin, do you think so?"
Wenbin Zha ignored these two naughty boys, pinched the copper lock with his finger. It was very heavy. The lock was of the old type, a copper core went through the copper ring and was buckled on both sides. This kind of device should not be difficult for three of them, just as Wenbin Zha was pulling the lock up, Xiong Zhuo found something and shouted, "Look, how strange the shape of the lock is, it looks like a monster!"
Wenbin Zha looked down, his heart was startled, his eyes were fixed on it. This monster was nothing else but the Taotie he saw in his dream. "If I'm not mistaken, this is one of the four deadly beasts recorded in the ancient book, which is Taotie. Some people use this as a lock head. I'm afraid this hall is not so simple. Please be careful not to move around or touch anything inside."
As soon as the Xiong Zhou heard that the ancestral hall in the village was a haunted house, he immediately felt unhappy. Why did the Taoist priest come in and say that his hometown was bad everywhere? He also said that the ancestral hall was not clean, but Yichao was patient, explain to him: "It is said that Yellow Emperor fought Chi You and Chi You was beheaded and his head turned into Taotie. Later, Taotie became a totem and carved on various sacrificial vessels. Taotie was often carved on the Ding Yi during the Yin and Zhou Dynasties. The head of this beast was ferocious, its eyes were bright, and its nose was prominent. The head of the beast had a pair of curved horns or feet, which curved in a direction like no custom, or with a hook like a sheep's horn, or with a curved hook like a cow's horn. The huge mouth was wide open and as sharp as a saw, with its mouth slightly bent inside, or with its mouth locked. It is in a frontal crouch posture, with arched body, head on the ground or water clouds, with a pair of claws on either side, like a dog's claw or a tiger's claw, and a pair of meat wings on both sides, very similar in shape as ear. According to the Classic of Mountains and Seas, this beast specialized in eating human beings. It is strange to your ancestors, whether it is an evil beast or not. It is a real character to guard a door with it."
Wenbin Zha made a sign of silence and whispered, "open the door first, but don't break
any piece of wood here."
This kind of copper lock, all used spring card, looking at this rusty spot, they didn't know whether the spring is still valid. Yichao He found a pin from the backpack, inserted it into the lock hole to tamper with it. With a "clack" sound, he smiled triumphantly: "done". In fact, it is really not difficult for the scout-turned-archaeologist to open a lock. The lock was gently placed on the ground, Wenbin Zha tried to push the front door, but it was not moved at all, maybe back of the door was bolted?
He motioned the three of them to push together, and with one effort, "Kala, Kala," an ancient and solemn sound of opening the door slowly came out, the hall which had been closed for many years opened. With great effort, three of them can only open the door that only one person could enter. A stream of cold air rushed over their faces, they not only shivered, Yichao turned on the floodlight and shone it inside, in the middle of the ancestral hall there was a large stone tablet-like object blocking the view, but do not know what is inside.
Wenbin Zha closed his eyes and felt for a while, did not find anything strange. Three of them walked in carefully toward that stone tablet. Three spotlights shone in at the same time, only then able to see clearly the true face: a large dark stone stood on top of a human-like face and goat-like body monster, a pair of wings were growing on both sides, holding the huge black stone, three of them recognized immediately as the shape of the bronze lock: Taotie.
If the existence of "Taotie" patterns in this village has puzzled Wenbin Zha, then what he saw next is even more difficult to explain. A huge Eight Trigram picture is engraved on this huge stone tablet; the Eight Trigram picture unexpectedly is carried by this ancient ferocious beast——what kind of Taoism is this?
Yichao He subconsciously pulled the knife out of the bag and wanted to look closer. However, he felt a force pulling at the knife in his hand. His knife was made of dark-steel, Wenbin Zha stopped him: "I see, this big stone should be a magnet. When I entered this valley, the compass cannot work, I think that there must be a huge magnetic field in the valley, did not expect it was this stone in mischief. According to the wobble of the compass, I am afraid that such a large magnet is not only just one. Be careful, do not move."
Yichao showed a supercilious look at Xiong Zhuo, thought: what kind of people were your ancestors? They made it so mysterious, there was the ferocious beast, also the magnet. "Wenbin elder brother, what do we do now?"
Wenbin Zha looked at this pile of things he had never seen or heard of, and for a moment did not know what to do, "I don't know what this means either, " he said. "Why did the Eight Trigrams appear in the ancestral hall of this village? And Why Taotie was under the Eight Trigram? It cannot be ruled out that some people in ancient times worshiped the evil beast, but the eight diagrams have always been the thing to suppress evil. Why do the two contradictory things exist at the same time? Let's go inside and have a look." Then Wenbin motioned for the two young men to walk around the monument. The moment they did so, the scene they saw as the light shone on the direction, another surprise to three of them: rows of coffins were neatly placed in the inner room, which had no gate, only a few pillars supporting the beam, anyone would be stupid enough to know what this place is by now. It's not a hall, it's a Coffin home.
The coffins are obviously arranged according to certain specifications. The most prominent one is the one in the middle. The one with a large bronze coffin is surprisingly large, more than twice as large as the ordinary wooden coffin beside it, the two corners of the coffin in front each had a small bell carved with a picture of thunder clouds, which was placed in the middle of the room. It was very conspicuous. There were seven oil lamps under the coffin, and there were some traces of incense outside. Yichao as an archaeologist, of course he knew what a bronze coffin meant, it must have been thousands of years old. The Spring and autumn and Warring States period, bronze objects had turned up in a small village in Ba Shu, a bronze object of this size, who built this and who can build such a big thing? This series of questions had no time to think, the side Wenbin Zha has made a gesture of retreat.
Of these in three of them, in the face of this unknown world, Wenbin Zha is naturally an expert. Without any hesitation, three of them retreated cautiously outside the door. Fortunately, there was no accident in this process. There was no time to do anything else, Wenbin Zha let two of them to close the door together, until that copper lock was locked again, just relieved breath. After all, Yichao He just noticed that Wenbin Zha was already full of sweat.
Yichao He was full of doubts in his mind, at the moment he really wants to ask all these questions. Looking at the opposite of Xiong Zhuo the same incredible expression, he can only expect Wenbin Zha to explain. Why Wenbin asked them to went out the hall? There were so many doubts with this village.