This is a mechanism that leaves us helpless.
Whether it is unknown radiation or an arrangement structure without any clues, the ritual officer's thousands of years of cognition has nothing to do with it. We have to explore it by ourselves. Suddenly I thought of something unusual, and my spirit was instantly excited and passionate. Even the sequelae of using the Earth Spirit Pearl were diluted a lot.
Lao Bai, who was already busy and sweaty, sat up from the ground and looked at me eagerly.
"The answer may be in those living dead!"
I got up and ran to the bottom of the altar. I was careless and almost stepped on the air and rolled down the steps. It was Brother Yaozi who grabbed me and winked at Lao Bai. The two of them didn't say anything and directly lifted me up and carried me all the way down.
When we stood in front of countless living dead again, Lao Bai asked me impatiently where the mechanism was.
I glanced around, closed my eyes gently, and recalled the scene I saw when I fell into hallucination again.
The terracotta figurines here are arranged very neatly and evenly.
However, when I fell into hallucination, the living dead below were not evenly distributed. There were a few empty places in the middle of the black crowd of heads!
It was like... a person with very thick hair had a few more bald spots on his head, which was very eye-catching! !
At first, I didn't think much about it at all, but Zhang Xinya reminded me!
If it was really the weird radioactive material that was at work, making me unable to see anything except the dead and the radiation source in my vision, then the answer was obvious - there were no dead people in the terracotta figurines on the open ground!
I was trying to look back at those locations, and soon I opened my eyes and walked forward.
In the hallucination, under the altar, the fourth row of living dead, counting from left to right, there was a small straight blank area starting from the eighteenth living dead!
When I arrived, the situation here made me smile involuntarily.
In the empty space in the illusion, there are four pottery figurines standing in reality!
Moreover, these pottery figurines are very interesting!
The heads of other pottery figurines are all drooping, as if they are worshiping the great god of the snake on the altar, but this pottery figurine is holding its head up!
I leaned over and knocked on the pottery figurine with my fingers, making a "dong dong" sound, and it was empty inside!
Out of caution, I used a flashlight to carefully shine it again, and found that this pottery figurine was not a whole. There were obvious joint marks under the neck. Judging from the appearance of the marks, the head of this pottery figurine is obviously movable!
I thought about it, and then I held the head of the pottery figurine with both hands and pulled it down. There was a clear "click-click-click" mechanical rotation sound from the other's neck. When the other's head was completely pulled down, there was a clear tremor on the ground, followed by a "clattering" sound from under the altar, like the iron chain shaking.
It's true!
We looked at each other, but no one could laugh.
After holding it in for a long time, Lao Bai gritted his teeth and said, "Isn't this too crazy?"
Zhang Xinya nodded in agreement: "I agree!"
To be fair, this mechanism is not complicated!
As long as the characters who can be mentioned in the ancient times have the financial resources to build it!
In terms of sophistication, it is not on the same level as the Mohist mechanism, and it is not as sophisticated as the sliding mechanism lock, not to mention the strange and unpredictable means of Huang Lao Shen Ji Shu. There is no technology to speak of. It is just a simple application of mechanics. It relies on iron chains, gears, levers, etc. to directly open the iron gate on the altar. It is simple and crude, and can even be said to be crude. Even a half-baked ritual official like me can design it carefully, which is much more sophisticated than this.
But the hiding of this mechanism is too cheap!
Scattered among a large area of densely packed pottery figurines, who has the time to explore these things one by one when their lives are at stake?
If I hadn't accidentally triggered the mechanism in the statue's eyes, I'm afraid we wouldn't have thought of this even if we racked our brains!
Next, relying on my memory, we found more than a dozen similar mechanism pottery figurines one after another. After climbing up the altar, we saw that the iron door was still motionless. We had no choice but to turn back again.
When I fell into the hallucination, I just turned around and took a quick look. It was impossible for me to remember all the key points clearly. Such a thing was expected.
However, after tossing back and forth like this, our mentality has completely exploded.
These terracotta figurines are basically the same in appearance. Although the heads of the mechanical terracotta figurines are raised, their bodies are made three points shorter, which looks the same height as those of the living dead terracotta figurines. In other words, we have to check them one by one. There are so many of them here. We were so impatient that we stayed here for several hours before we found more than a dozen mechanical terracotta figurines...
When we pulled down the head of the last terracotta figurine, a deafening roar came from the inside of the altar. In the "clattering" sound of the iron chain shaking, the ground was even shaking slightly, and the feeling was very clear.
"Should it be opened this time?"
Lao Bai sat on the ground with his buttocks, grinning and said, "If I catch this old fox, I will definitely pull out its tendons and skin it!"
I kicked him and said that the outcome was still undecided. When the confrontation really came, we didn't know who would live and who would die.
We rested for a while and set off again when our physical strength recovered a little.
When we climbed up the altar again, our legs were shaking constantly, especially me. I was already weak and had already hurt my vitality. I climbed up and down the 100-meter-high altar several times. My eyes were straight and I was panting like a cow.
On the altar, the positions of the two stone statues had changed.
The statue of the snake god moved slightly to the left, and the statue of the green fox god had simply turned around.
The most bizarre thing was that the corners of the mouths of the two statues were slightly upturned, as if they were smiling.
I felt creepy just looking at them, and couldn't help but mutter to myself: "Staring at the gods is a sin. When all beings bow their heads, the gods will naturally smile. Is that what it means?"
It seems that these two evil creatures are quite good at showing off!
Under the statue, the heavy iron gate has been opened, revealing a square secret passage, which is supported by heavy stone slabs on all sides. The secret passage is tilted downward, like a slide, and is very narrow and cramped. Normal people probably have to squat to enter.
Because of the moisture and darkness, the secret passage is covered with moss.
When the flashlight is shone, obvious friction marks can be seen on the moss. It seems that someone has been in and out not long ago, especially at the entrance. There are still many shoe prints on the moss there. Judging from the pattern of the soles, it is definitely the shoes worn by modern people.
"Finally found some traces."
Zhang Xinya squatted at the entrance of the secret passage and watched for a moment, then smiled and said, "With so many footprints, all the people who were abducted in the pastoral area should be down there! Let's go in too?"
Brother Yaozi stared at it for a long time. To be on the safe side, he gathered all the climbing ropes on our bodies together, tied them together by knotting, tied one end of the rope to the leg of the statue of the snake god next to him, and then threw the rest of the rope in.
There is no way, secret passages like this are typically easy to get in but difficult to get out, so you have to leave yourself a way out.
I was injured and in a very bad state. This time, Brother Yaozi, who had some experience in tomb robbing, walked in the first place, followed closely by Lao Bai, Zhang Xinya was third, and I followed at the end.
However, when it was Zhang Xinya's turn, the girl's legs and feet were not good enough. She slipped after holding the rope and slid down for a short distance. She sat down in the dark passage and slid down, just like a domino. The three of them collided into a pile, accompanied by a burst of exclamations, and slid down all at once, disappearing without a trace in the blink of an eye.
Seeing this, I could only let go and sit down. The moss under my butt was sticky and slippery, just like the mucus left by snails. I guessed that it was more than enough as lubricant, so I immediately rushed down along the dark passage, speeding up and down, and bumping back and forth along the direction of the dark passage. Because the dark passage was too low, I would hit my head from time to time. I simply lay down and let it go. Soon I reached the end of the dark passage and fell into a ball of wet straw.
Lao Bai and the other three had already come down and were looking around at the moment.
This is a cave-like place, only a few square meters at most. The ground is covered with damp thatch. The air is filled with a musty smell, mixed with an unpleasant fishy smell. Wild animals should have lived here before.
Lao Bai found a lot of fluff in the thatch, most of which was fiery red, and it seemed to be fox hair.
It was obvious what kind of place this was.
We got into the old fox's den!
It should live here with its offspring.
However, it was empty here, and we couldn't help but look forward. There was a pass there. Behind the pass should be extremely empty and dark. The flashlight couldn't find the end. It seemed to be a rather wide corridor.
Brother Yaozi waved his hand, and we followed immediately.
However, just as we passed through the pass, there was a loud "clang" sound from the side, and a pale hand reached out without warning and grabbed me...