I can no longer remember the appearance of the symbols in the underwater tomb, but I still remember the two symbols carved on the bottom of the moat and on the entrance of the corridor. This symbol is completely different from those two.
Fatty Pan Zi and the others have no idea about English letters. They can't tell the difference between English words, so they didn't pay much attention to it just now. But as someone who has been to college and taken CET-4 and CET-6, even though my grades are not very good, I at least know that these two are different words.
I have always believed that this is just a simple guide symbol, similar to any simple graphic, which only means "go this way" . However, if it is just a guide, the symbol should not change. According to people's general psychology, after entering the tomb passage, their attention should be completely on the surrounding environment. When carving the symbols, it is impossible to intentionally change the pattern. Moreover, the symbols were carved in a hurry, which means that the person who left the mark did not do it in a very calm state, which also excludes the possibility that he changed the symbol on a whim.
There is only one reason for this phenomenon, that is, these symbols have different meanings. While leading the way, they also seem to be telling us some information.
The question is, what exactly is the message? This foreign language is not a foreign language, but a word composed of English letters. It is hard to tell what language it is. However, common similar languages such as German and French are definitely not foreign languages, because the arrangement of letters is too irregular.
Moreover, the symbol we saw at the bottom of the river and at the entrance of the corridor did not cause any danger after entering. So if we assume that the meaning is: it is safe to enter, then the different symbol engraved here must have a different meaning. It is possible that it is a warning, indicating that there is some terrible danger in this direction of the tomb passage?
After hearing my idea, Fatty and the others also felt that it was a bit problematic, so we stopped where we were and didn't dare to act rashly for the time being.
However, reaching here is already a breakthrough of some magnitude, and we can say that we are halfway to success. At this point, the question of which side of the tomb passage to take is not important. Even if there are no signs to point the way, we are not panicked.
However, after entering the underground palace, especially the main tomb passage, you must be extra careful in everything, because as long as there are mechanisms and traps in the ancient tomb, they must be in this section, and it is necessary to spend some time here.
Pan Zi said to me, "Young Master San, you are the only one here who has some knowledge of foreign languages. If you don't understand them, then there is no way for us to understand them. Why don't you translate these English words into Chinese? Even if we don't know the meaning of the whole sentence, can we guess it?"
Pan Zi didn't know any English. He probably thought that English was just like Chinese characters, with one letter for one meaning. I was too lazy to teach him, so I said to them, "If you want to guess, why not guess who left this symbol and his purpose? This way, you'll have a better chance of guessing the meaning."
The fat man was surprised and said, "We don't know who left this place, but do we need to guess the purpose of leaving this place? This must be to lead the way for us, right?"
I shook my head and said, "I used to think so, but not anymore. If it was really left for us, at least there should be symbols that we can understand. The person who carved these symbols used such an obscure form. Now it seems that the purpose was not to help us. We may have just picked up a bargain. These symbols are for others to see."
Pan Zi thought about it and felt that it made some sense, so he asked, "Who are the others?"
"A Ning and his team are large in number, so they may have moved in batches. This symbol may be an alliance between their teams ." said the fat man.
I nodded, indicating that it was possible, but without evidence, I couldn't guess the actual situation. "It could be other reasons, but it's useless to guess now."
What concerns me most is the information contained in this symbol. This symbol should be similar to the charts on the international adventure map. Some primitive jungle trails are marked on the map with different levels of danger. In addition to telling you that you can go here, a symbol can also tell you what you will encounter on this road. For example, if there are hippos in the river, there will be secret codes with the meaning of hippos.
At this point, the symbol has changed, so the meaning of this special symbol has to be taken into consideration. Could it mean that there are zongzi in this tomb passage? This is really depressing.
I thought of the "Beware of Bears" on the off-road vehicle. Maybe the person who left this symbol also had an adventure-theoretic way of doing things. This symbol might mean "Beware of Zongzi". Then I thought that if I could get out alive, should I put one on my Jinbei mini van to show my personality.
Pan Zi didn't know that I was already daydreaming, and suddenly said to me: "That's not right. I don't think the information represented by this symbol can indicate any danger. You have to walk through the tomb passage to know if there is any danger. There is no reason for them to come back and carve this symbol after they have walked through it. In other words, this symbol was carved when the person was about to enter the tomb passage, indicating that he had walked in this direction and telling the people who came after him the order of his walking. As for what was inside, he didn't know when he carved it. This actually has its own meaning, and it's called 'tracking language'."
I had never heard of this thing, so the fat man asked him, "What is tracking language?"
Pan Zi said, "Before I fought the Vietnamese monkeys, I took cultural courses when I was in the army. Because I served in the jungle, I learned a lot about rescue, including the language of 'tracking'. Once you get lost in the jungle, you must mark your route while finding your way out. This method of marking has a special pattern. When the rescue team sees your mark, they will know what you have done in the area. For example, sufficient food is one sign, running out of food is another sign, and someone in the team is killed is another sign. The rescue team follows your mark and can know your current situation along the way. If things get extremely bad, they can use this mark as a basis to upgrade the rescue strategy. I heard that this was invented by the Americans when they fought the Vietnamese."
The fat man asked him: "You have learned it, can you understand it?"
Pan Zi shook his head and said, "I mean, maybe this code is completely different from what I learned at the time, and I can't recognize it, but I believe it should be a kind of tracking language. We don't have to decipher it. The change in this symbol may just mean that he sprained his ankle here."
The fat man sighed and said, "This is not a good situation. If it is really a 'tracking' language, then it means that the person who left this symbol is not determined to capture it. He is preparing for his second echelon. In other words, he has no confidence that he can come out alive this time."
Pan Zi said, "Yes! So after saying so much, it is useless. I think, since this symbol is not left for us to see, we should just pretend that we didn't see this mark. Our main task now is to find the Third Master. The symbol was not carved by the Third Master, which means that the Third Master may not have taken this path. It will be useless to follow him even if it is smooth. We will take our own path. We have fallen into many fights before, and it is not like we have never encountered such a situation. I don't believe that we can't even settle a tomb passage."
This argument suited Fatty's appetite. Fatty nodded in agreement and said to us, "Lao Pan, this sounds like human talk. Why don't we split up into two groups? You and Xiao Wu go that way, and Xiao Shunzi and I go this way. Let's see who gets the better of us. It's a straight road anyway. If we get to the end and find that the road is wrong, we can just turn back. The other pair that is on the right track can wait for the others outside the coffin hall. Hesitating here is not a solution."
I felt that this was inappropriate, and said, "That's true, but I'm afraid this main tomb passage is not so easy to walk through. Look at the four-foot stone slab underground. This kind of tomb passage is likely to be equipped with stray arrows and flip-up mechanisms. Don't let both teams die in the tomb passage at the end. Once we separate, we will be separated forever."
The fat man laughed at me and said, "If you say so, you shouldn't have come. You have nothing to do when you are full. Why come here? Now that you have entered the underground palace, you shouldn't be afraid of such trivial matters."
I thought to myself that this is what I wanted. My ambition has always been to be a wealthy citizen. I don't know what my luck is this year. I have been plagued by zongzi. Now I am not afraid of zongzi anymore, but I am not even allowed to be careful. What is this?
Pan Zi had the same idea as me, and said to Fatty, "No, Young Master San is right. For one reason, the people in Aning's cavalry must be nearby. We have to be on guard not only against the zongzi, but also against the people. The firepower of two guns is always better than one. What if one team disappears after going out and never comes back, what about the other team? It's better for us to be together so that we can have someone to watch over us."
Shunzi, who had been silent the whole time, also expressed his opinion: "No matter what, I must send Boss Wu there. I must follow him."
The fat man raised his hands in surrender to the three of us: "You two are engaging in a cult of personality, isolating me, damn, it's my bad luck, so whatever you say, we can die together."
Pan Zi said, "Let's go in the marked direction first. If it's wrong, we can turn back. Just be careful at everything."
We nodded in agreement. I knew very well in my heart that no matter how well we discussed it here, it would be useless now. Which way to go and how to go all depended on luck.
So we stood up, Pan Zi pulled out a folding walking stick similar to a blind man's stick, and while tapping the ground, we walked in the direction of the engraved symbol.
I walked extremely carefully along the way. In fact, I was already very annoyed with this kind of place where I couldn't even walk in peace, but there was no other way. Since I was here, I couldn't skip this step, otherwise all the hardships I had gone through before would be in vain.
I thought I would spend at least half an hour in this tomb passage, but I didn't expect that this section of the tomb passage was very short, less than two hundred meters, and then it suddenly widened, and a huge jade gate appeared at the end.
I recognized it at a glance as the gate to the Hades Palace, because the gate at the entrance to the tomb passage would not be made of such fine stone. The lower half of the gate had been blown away, revealing a large hole. It was obvious that someone had entered, and I didn't know if it was Aning and his group, or someone else.
I was secretly happy, thinking that we had taken the right path. Behind the door was the core of the entire underground palace. Many classic mausoleum structures immediately came to my mind. Although this was the royal mausoleum of the Eastern Xia, it was built by the Han people, so it must not be much different from the tombs in the Central Plains. What would I see after entering? I couldn't help but feel a little nervous. I didn't know what the coffin of King Wannu looked like, and whether there were coffins buried with him around.
The jade door of the tomb will most likely have a mechanism. The stone walls on both sides may be hollow and filled with poisonous stone powder. Moreover, there is often no way to crack this mechanism because there is no plan to reopen the tomb once it is closed. Even if you are the craftsman who designed the door, you cannot get in after it is closed.
However, the door had been blown up like this, and it was estimated that the mechanism had been destroyed, so there was no need to worry about that. We bent down and filed into the tomb behind the door. Fatty, for the sake of caution, lit cold fireworks to increase the intensity of our lighting so that we could see the layout of the tomb clearly.
The moment the cold fireworks lit up, we saw a suffocating scene appear in front of us. No one had expected to see such a scene, and almost everyone was frozen in place, unable to move.