Chapter 35: The Emperor and the Empress

A bunch of demon pets and I sat on the top of the mountain and meditated for a long time. Xiaofeng, who had a bad temper, was the first to jump up. "No, this is not the way to think. We should have already reached the target location, and the system is deliberately playing tricks on us."

Ling held Xiaofeng down and said, "The system won't play tricks on us for no reason. It's probably because we didn't expect it."

Xiaochun also nodded in agreement. "It's not an option to waste time complaining. We still have to think about what went wrong."

"Why don't we try a new way of thinking?" Xiao Longnu said, "Let's assume that the system has not made any mistakes. That means we have indeed not reached the goal."

"But this is what is shown on the map!" the princess whispered.

"I understand." Yeyue suddenly shouted: "Master, your map may be a three-dimensional map. We only reached the target in the horizontal direction, not in the height position."

This is actually a small thinking trap. As soon as Yeyue said it, we all reacted. I opened the map again and laid it out on the ground, then put my hand on it a little. "Convert the display mode to three-dimensional projection." All areas on the map immediately turned into a three-dimensional display like a miniature sand table. I circled our location again. "Zoom this area into full map mode."

The place where we were on the map was suddenly enlarged to the entire map area, and what was shown on it was an ordinary mountain peak. The problem was that the red dot we had always thought of as the target was not on the top of the mountain. If you look down from top to bottom, the latitude and longitude coordinates of this red dot and the peak are indeed the same, but from the side you can clearly see that the route suddenly bifurcates after reaching the top of the peak. One is straight upward, while the other is vertical. down.

"Why are there two coordinates?" Yeyue asked first.

"That's not a problem." Ling looked up at the sky. "Based on the current situation, we have two target points, and one is above our heads and one is under our feet. Although it is troublesome to have two points. But at least we know where the problem lies."

Xiaofeng also said: "These two places are not far from here. Can we find out if we go and see them?"

I said to Xiaofeng: "The system restricts my flight. Please help me go up to see what is at the target location and then I will decide how to get up. Pioneer and Rose Vine, you two start digging down now. Wait for Xiaofeng to come down here." I should be able to dig into the position on the side.”

The demon pets immediately began to split up. There were several other flying demon pets who went up with Xiaofeng, but they soon came down together. Xiaofeng rubbed his head and said angrily: "I'm really angry. There is a floating island more than a hundred meters above our heads, and it is completely invisible. I bumped into it. .Really, it hurts me to death!"

"Floating island?"

Xiao Longnu nodded: "We all saw it too. The floating island appeared after Xiaofeng hit it. Oh, that's not right! It's only over a hundred meters away from the top. Didn't you see it appear below?"

"We didn't see anything!" Yeyue asked in confusion, "Did you get the height wrong?"

Xiaochun said: "How long have we been up here? Even if we get the height wrong, we can't fly beyond the distance you can't see, right?"

As we were talking, Emenes's shout suddenly came from the cave next to us. "Come down quickly, we have dug the stone slab."

"Slate? Is that an artificial structure?" I immediately shouted to the people below: "First dig up the nearby soil and see if you can get around it."

"No. The soil and rocks on the top of the mountain are not strong enough. If you dig like this, the top of the mountain will collapse."

"Then just take it off." I said to Amynis below: "You guys come up first."

"oh."

After Amynis climbed up with the two burrowing demon pets, I asked the irrelevant demon pets to return to the Phoenix Dragon space first, leaving only the demon pet that could transform into human form to stay aside for the time being. According to the depth of Amynis's digging, we found the corresponding location on the side of the mountain, and then I asked Lucky, Plague and Xiaosan to go up and dig together. The giant earth dragon claw is no worse than an excavator. We dug more than ten meters deep in a few clicks, and then we saw some densely arranged stone slabs forming a wall.

I did not let Lucky them destroy the stone slab, but let them dig along the sides and top of the stone slab. In a short time, almost the entire mountaintop was pushed down, and the original mountain peak became shorter by more than 200 meters. A giant palace-like stone building stands on the upper end of the excavated mountain.

The style of this building looks very similar to the Lingxiao Palace in Heaven, but it does not have such complicated materials and is made entirely of stone slabs. What's a little strange is that this building has no entrance. Not to mention the door, this thing doesn't even have a window. There are indeed some carved structures around the building that look like doors and windows, but they are actually still whole stone slabs. They have no actual function of doors and windows at all, and they just look like doors and windows.

"Is this thing our target?" Amynis asked.

"No, the map shows it much further down than here." Ling said, looking at the map.

"Then dig out the bottom of it. Maybe this thing is just a seal at the entrance of the passage."

Yeyue asked jokingly: "You mean this thing is equivalent to the sewer manhole cover on the side of the road?"

"Absolutely." I said to Lucky and the others, "Are you going to move the ground?"

Luckily they leaned in and tried it, then shook their heads. "No, this thing is too heavy."

"Let me try." Xiao Longnu fired a gravity reversal spell at the building, but was surprised to see the gravity reversal spell bounced back.

"Thankfully it's not an attack magic." I walked over and touched the rocks on the surface of the building, and then said to Lucky: "Try to pry off the stone slab. Maybe there is something else inside this thing."

"Okay." Lucky greeted Plague and Xiaosan and went up to dig hard, but they actually pulled him off. But as soon as the first stone slab fell, we were all shocked and grinning from ear to ear.

Jade. What we see is a piece of jade. The outside of this building is just a layer of ordinary stone slabs, but the inside is actually completely carved from jade. Fortunately, after they peeled off the entire shell, we discovered that it was not that the hall had no doors and windows, but that there were no doors or windows on the stone slabs outside. The Jade Palace itself has complete jade doors and windows. And they are all real doors and windows that can be opened.

Although I know this is not the mission target point. But I decided to go in and take a look first, and of course I didn’t forget to let the pioneers and rose vines continue to dig deeper.

Push open the jade door that is more than thirty meters high. We walked into the main hall together. After entering, we discovered that this hall was not entirely made of jade. There were other materials inside. The interior style of the main hall is a typical Chinese-style building. Several huge white jade dragon beam columns support the top beam and form a rather large hall. There are two giant jade platforms with a height of more than five meters on each side of the hall, and there is a statue on each stone platform. What surprised us the most was that the content of the statue was actually familiar to us - the Four Sacred Beasts.

In addition to the Four Sacred Beasts on both sides of the hall, there are also statues facing the entrance. However, unlike the statues on both sides, these three statues share a long base like a table. The base itself is carved from black jade, and its front has a huge panel framed by a dragon carved in gold. The inside of the panel is densely packed with text affixed with colorful sacred stones, but the fonts are all in tripod script, so it is a bit difficult to read. As for the three people on the pedestal, they are White Jade Qilin, Golden Tianlong and Bi Ling.

Although the three-dimensional statues on the front are larger than the four sacred beasts on the side, they are not the real Lords. There are two rows of higher pedestals behind them, forming a stepped pattern with the previous pedestal. structure. The only problem is that there is nothing on the back two rows of bases.

With great curiosity we carefully observed the statues of the Four Sacred Beasts. The carvings are all in their original forms, and of course they won't be as big as the real ones, otherwise the house wouldn't be able to fit any of them even if it was ten times bigger. Just look at the left and right positions. The towering statues of Qinglong and Suzaku are located on the right hand side as soon as you enter the gate, while White Tiger and Xuanwu are on the other side. Judging from the depth direction, Qinglong and Baihu are close to the three national guardian beasts, while Suzaku and Xuanwu are close to the gate. From this position, we can see the difference in status between the four holy beasts. In ancient China, the left side was generally respected, and the position facing the main entrance belonged to the main position. Now it seems that the position of the three divine beasts is the main position. Judging from their direction, Qinglong belongs to the left side of the main hall and is closer to the main seat. It should be the highest among the four holy beasts. Although the white tiger is on the right, it is close to the main position. It should be ranked second, Suzaku is obviously third, and Xuanwu is last.

If you look closely, you can see that the four sacred beast statues are made of different materials. Although the four statues are all made of jade, they have different colors. Qinglong uses purple green thunder jade, Baihu uses snow-moist white jade, Suzaku uses red blood jade, and Xuanwu uses field yellow jade. Each of the four types has its own attributes. But they are all equally expensive, let alone such a large piece of jade.

Unlike the four sacred beasts, the statues of the three national guardian beasts are obviously not expensive and high-end sacred jade. What makes us very surprised is that the materials used for the statues of the three major national guardian beasts that are supposed to be more noble are actually very cheap. The sculpture of the white jade unicorn Yin Xue is actually made of ice frozen from the most common water. The only special thing is that it has been treated with constant temperature technology, so it can not melt all year round. The statue of Biling on the other side is actually made of wood, and it is not a whole piece of wood. Although the production level is quite high, we can still see the joints between the wood. The golden dragon in the middle is the worst, and the ice of silver snow represents purity. Bi Ling's wood can also be seen as a representative of life. But the sculpture of Golden Tianlong was actually made of yellow clay. Although the color of this yellow mud is very pure, mud is mud anyway. No matter how you look at it, it has nothing to do with nobility.

In terms of the materials themselves, the total value of these three statues of the three national guardian beasts is less than the value of a corner of the base they stand on, but I believe that using such materials must have special significance, and The sculptures themselves are not simply placed there, they should have a more important meaning.

After walking around the hall a few times, in addition to the gorgeous decoration, I also found a large number of sculptures of mythical beasts and demons on the pillars and beams. I can understand the idea of ​​carving mythical beasts, but I have no idea what it means to carve so many monsters and monsters.

I was carefully observing a lampstand in the form of a snake demon placed at the corner of the main hall, when Chili Pepper suddenly waved and shouted: "Come over and take a look here."

When I turned around, I only saw Chili Pepper and Princess climbing onto the two-level pedestal behind the three national guardian beasts. "Why did you climb up there?"

"Aren't we looking for clues?" The princess waved to me: "Come up quickly, there is something to see here."

The other humanoid demon pets and I ran over, but I didn't go up directly. Instead, I bowed my hands to the three sacred beasts before jumping up. After climbing up, I discovered that there were two grooves on the second-level base behind the three national guardian beasts. Looking from the direction we came up. The groove on the left is square, while the groove on the right is round. The depth of the groove is about one foot. Under the square groove on the left is a huge word "地" made of mud. Under the circular groove on the other side is the word "天" written in an incised way. The two characters are exactly the same size, and they are both written in very grand official script, giving them a very majestic and powerful look.

After Ling saw the two slots, he immediately said: "Looking at it, there should have been two sculptures on it."

"The problem is that they are not here now." Xiaochun continued.

Yeyue said as if talking to herself: "The three great beasts that protect the country are so powerful and they are still standing in front of them. So who should be able to stand behind them?"

"Could it be me and Yuanshi Tianzun?" Ling asked.

Xiao Longnu shook her head and said: "Impossible. You don't know much about the divine system in the East. Although Yuanshi Tianzun and Laozi are powerful enough, they are still gods after all. In Chinese Taoism, there is something that even gods have to worship. .”

"What is it?" the princess asked quickly.

Yeyue pointed at the two grooves. "It's these two."

"world?"

I finally concluded: "Yes. In Chinese mythology, heaven and earth are the largest. Even gods walk between heaven and earth, so no one dares to be disrespectful to heaven and earth. These two slots have heaven and earth written on them. Who else dares to stand on them?" Isn’t this seeking death?”

"The world is already the largest, so what else is bigger than the world?" the princess said while pointing to the base behind.

Now even I started to think about it. Although the words "Heaven and Earth" are written in these two slots, if what stands on them is a stone tablet engraved with the words "Heaven and Earth" or simply a three-dimensional sculpture with the words "Heaven and Earth", then it would still make sense. But what should be put here behind? According to Chinese people’s custom of offering sacrifices. Being placed at the back and in a relatively high position should be a relatively high-status existence, but this second level has reached the heaven and earth, what else is higher behind it?

The fast-moving kitten jumped onto the last stone platform and said: "What is it? You will know if you go up and take a look. Oops..."

"What's wrong with you?" Because these pedestals are very high, you can't see the pedestal plane above when standing one level below. We saw the kitten jump up and disappear. There seemed to be a splash in the middle, as if it was falling into the water.

Sure enough, after a while, the angry kitten emerged from the edge of the platform again. "It's so unlucky that it's all filled with water!"

"It's all water?" I thought about it and climbed up. But I wasn't as reckless as Kitten, and I only stood on the edge of the pedestal. It turns out that the base above is just like a large bathtub. It is not solid inside and has no top. There are five spheres suspended inside this base, but they do not touch the base itself. These five balls are all the same size, and they are all spinning slowly. As for their materials, they happen to be the five shapes of gold, wood, water, fire and earth. The kitten took off right at the middle ball, and fell into it. Fortunately, the water balloon was not grounded, so the kitten fell in and leaked out from underneath.

"It turns out to be the elements of the Five Elements. No wonder it was placed after heaven and earth. This is already a basic legal existence." Xiao Longnu immediately understood the reason after seeing the things here.

"Is this the Bagua Mirror?" Xiaochun discovered that there was an octagonal mirror on the inner wall of the left and right ends of the base, and these five spheres happened to be on the straight line between the two mirrors.

Xiao Longnu ran over and studied one of the mirrors, and then said: "This is not a Bagua mirror, but a Liangyi mirror."

Yeyue suddenly said: "Wait a minute. You said this is a mirror?"

"What's the matter?"

"The five elements together form chaos, and the creation of heaven and earth means the separation of heaven and earth. The so-called division of heaven and earth gives rise to two rites, and the two rites give rise to the four phases. Look at the four corners of the base."

My four magic pets ran to four corners respectively, and each found a round bead.

Xiao Longnu now understood what Ye Yue meant. "Two rites give rise to the four phases, and the four phases give rise to the Bagua. These four beads are the Four Phases beads. There must be a Bagua array somewhere around here."

"Here." The kitten suddenly pointed at our feet. When we lowered our heads, we discovered that the ground beneath our feet was actually a huge Bagua array.

"I finally understand." Xiao Longnu said: "What is enshrined on this last pedestal is the law of nature. It is the standard for measuring everything. Even the heaven and the earth must operate according to the law. Therefore, the law is higher than the heaven and the earth."

"It's cleared." Amynis's voice suddenly came from outside the hall. "Huh? What are you doing up there?"

"What's wrong?" Xiaochun climbed out from below and asked.

"The burrow has been opened. I see the mission target."

"That's great. I'm going to finish the task first, and then come back to study this thing." I said, turned over, jumped out, and ran out of the hall. Naturally, my demon pets followed me.

Following the channels dug by the pioneers and rose vines all the way down, the depth of the descent was significantly lower than the ground at the foot of the mountain. We drilled until we reached a depth below the ground level that was about the same as the height of the mountain before we finally reached the bottom. The mission target that Amynis and the others found is a natural cave, and we are in the cave now.

This cave is not too spacious, but it is quite high. The cave is very empty, except for a stone platform similar to the Temple of Heaven in Beijing in the center of the cave, and in the center of the platform stands a monument of astonishing height. Since the place we entered was just on the side of the monument, we couldn't see what was written on the monument, but when we walked around to the front, we were all stunned. I saw the word "houtu" vertically arranged in vigorous official script on the huge monument.

In addition to the vigorous font of this monument, the body of the monument itself is also quite strange. It seems to be made from a mixture of gold, silver, copper, iron, soil, rocks, and jade. The surface color is variable, but the overall feeling is quite harmonious.

Xiao Longnu walked over and 'touched' the body of the stele, and then said: "Gold, silver, copper and iron are all metals, and the five shapes belong to gold; soil, rocks and jade all belong to earth. The earth stele is a mixture of gold and earth. It’s appropriate to arrive.”

Ling suddenly asked: "Do you think this is what is enshrined on the second level pedestal in the building above?"

I looked at the base of the monument. Then he said: "This base is indeed square, and the size should match well."

"Then how about we just move it back and try?"

"OK!"

With everyone's unanimous opinion, we started to move the monument, but in the end I sent all the people I could send up, but the thing didn't move at all. Xiao Longnu suddenly said: "That's right. The back soil is the earth. This thing represents the earth. How can it be moved?"

"What should we do?"

"Use wood." Yeyue said: "Wood and earth have relatively high affinity attributes, and wood can be used to pull earth."

I thought about it and finally summoned my guild's guardian tree demon, and then asked her to turn into a human form to carry the monument. Not to mention, it was like one thing dropped another. It seemed that she didn't use any effort, just like carrying a balloon, she lifted the monument that could not be moved by several dragons.

Watching my Shusi carry the earthen monument. Ling suddenly came over and asked, "Have you received the mission reminder?"

I shook my head. "Maybe the underground side is wrong, and the mission target is above. The system probably gave two coordinates intentionally to delay my time."

Ling nodded: "Then let's put the monument in place and then look at the coordinates above our heads."

Due to the large size of this monument, we had to enlarge the hole when we went up, and this process took a lot of time. When we finally left, there were only more than two hours left before the end of the mission. But even though I didn't have much time, I wasn't in a hurry. Anyway, the floating island is right above my head. There is no need to dig a hole to get there. Just let Lucky fly up with a rope and pull me up.

After the earthen monument was moved into the jade hall, a layer of faint yellow light suddenly appeared on the surface, which made us more certain of our previous inference. This thing must be the object of worship on that pedestal.

According to the saying that the sky is round and the place is round. We put the back tombstone into the square groove that said the ground. Don't tell me yet. The groove and the base of the monument just match up exactly. Almost as soon as the monument base was put in, the entire thick earthen monument suddenly lit up. The previous faint light turned into a golden light curtain, and there were many small golden light spots floating slowly and flashing around the monument, which looked very beautiful.

After placing this monument, I was about to go to the floating island above to have a look, but who knew that the system notification suddenly rang. "Hou Tu has returned to his position. Congratulations to the player for completing 50% of the Purple Sun mission."

"It turns out that this thing is the mission target. Quick, come up with me. There must be a sky monument on the floating island above my head. My mission will be completed when both pieces are in place."

"It's a joke, boss, give me your rope head and I'll help you carry it up." Lucky stretched out a paw.

I handed the rope head to Lucky, and then let the other familiars fly up with Lucky. After receiving the notification from my lucky soul, I started to activate the automatic retracting function of the dragon tendon rope. The scrolling machine automatically lifted me up to the floating island above. Speaking of which, this floating island is actually not big, and it doesn't fly very high. It's just that this thing has a very strange characteristic, that is, when you are more than five meters away from it, no matter what anti-invisibility capabilities you have, you can't see it. This is why we didn't see it below until Xiaofeng bumped into it, which is why we discovered there was a floating island here.

By the time I climbed onto the floating island, my demon pets had already gathered under the monument in the center of the floating island. The appearance of this thing is exactly the same as that of the later earth monument, but the material is much different. This thing is actually made of water, and it has flames burning on the surface. There are also two characters written in official script on the front of the stele, but the content is changed to "Emperor Tian".

No need to hesitate this time, we started moving the Huangtian Monument directly, and this monument is extremely light, much easier to move than the Houtu Monument. It didn't take us much time to get the tablet into the hall, and then inserted it into the circular slot.

Almost at the moment the Emperor's Monument was in place, a sharp metallic sound suddenly sounded in the hall, and the entire hall began to shake.

"What's going on?"