The story of Rose starts with being a brother

Chapter 540 Heavenly Palace on the Clouds (VI) Love Apartment? Tomb Raider Chronicles?

"Explain why you're here."

Beside Agai West Lake, Wen Sheng asked the two girls, one big and one small, with a stern face.

“Brother Wensheng, there’s a reason for this.” Xinling chuckled dryly, glanced at Dali beside her, and continued, “We were indeed traveling and planned to wander around, but the popular tourist spots were too crowded, so Dali and I thought we’d go to some less crowded places to take a look.”

“Yes, uncle, we came to Changbai Mountain for tourism, isn’t this also part of Changbai Mountain’s scenery?” Zhuge Dali said confidently.

Wen Sheng glared at her and said angrily, "So you two just happened to arrive here one after the other?"

"What a coincidence!"

Zhuge Dali added, "We traveled all the way from Erdaobaihe yesterday, but the car could only go as far as Yingshan Village. We arrived there at noon today. The scenery there is quite beautiful. We originally planned to rest there for two days before heading back."

"Then how did you get here?"

"Because we discovered something."

At this moment, Xinling took over the conversation and said, "Shortly after we arrived there, another group of people came to the village. I heard them say that they were going into the mountains. I didn't think much of it at first, but then I heard them mention that a group of archaeologists had gone into the mountains a few days ago."

"Hmm?" Wen Sheng raised an eyebrow. There were others?
"Although I don't know the relationship between them, they don't seem like good people. They told the villagers they were here for tourism, but they looked rather fierce."

Listening to Xinling's words, Wensheng fell into deep thought.

Is this a character from the "iPartment" movie or from "The Lost Tomb"?

Then Xinling continued, "There are more of them, about ten or so. They are also resting there and gathering horses. They probably won't be able to set off until tomorrow. So Dali and I were worried that they might pose a danger to you, and we were thinking of seeing if we could catch up with you and warn you."

She paused for a moment, then added, "I can't get through to you on the phone."

Wen Sheng had nothing to say about that. He brought a satellite phone before going into the mountains, but the forest was too deep when he went up the mountain, so it was normal that he didn't receive Xin Ling's call.

"Yes, yes, Xinling and I were also worried about your safety." Dali saw that Wen Sheng's face wasn't so angry anymore, so she spoke with more confidence.

After glancing at them a few times, Wen Sheng said, "What if you don't catch up with us?"

"Well..." Xinling and Dali exchanged a glance and then shook their heads, saying, "We haven't thought about it yet."

"..."

Wen Sheng was speechless. Bringing these two, one sick and one young, from Shanghai was definitely a mistake.

It's getting dark soon, and there's no way to send them back now. Besides, who knows what trouble they might cause if we send them back, and it would just waste time.

"Come with me. From now on, neither of you are allowed to leave my sight."

As soon as Wen Sheng finished speaking, the two men smiled. Then he said, "I'll settle accounts with you after this is over."

……

Compared to the previous trip from Agaixi Lake to the deserted village, which took quite a long time, this time Wen Sheng led the two of them much faster.

Anyway, if the road was a little steep, he would lift one up with each hand, and he was faster than the two horses following him.

After it got completely dark, the three of them rejoined the main force.

They were already preparing dinner when they saw Xinling and Dali. They were happy at first, and then, just like Wensheng had done earlier, they asked the two of them how they got here.

Fortunately, the two women brought some supplies with them when they came, otherwise there wouldn't have been any suitable warm clothes for Dali to wear.

Although it was August, the temperature was still a bit low after we got up the mountain. It was fine when the sun was out during the day, but we had to bundle up at night.

The guide said that this abandoned village used to be a supply post at the border outpost, but it was later abandoned as well.

But these dilapidated houses can still provide shelter from the wind and rain, saving the trouble of setting up a tent.

Similarly, there were traces of people who had been here not long ago, clearly left by Jian Ning's archaeological team. Zhang Wei must have seen them as well, which is why he resolutely continued to follow.

The guide said that Zhang Wei disappeared the day after crossing the snow line.

We had been traveling all day, and although everyone was excited because of the novelty, by evening, everyone was exhausted after resting, so there was no fireside chat, and soon everyone huddled into their sleeping bags.

Silent all night.

The next morning, everyone woke up, washed up, and had breakfast when it was already bright daylight.

Xinling noticed that Wensheng was frowning from time to time, so she went over and asked, "Brother Wensheng, what's wrong?"

Wen Sheng glanced at her and said calmly, "I was wondering whether I should send you and Dali back. One of you has a heart condition and the other is a minor. I asked you to look after her, but you ended up coming with her."

"..."

Xinling pouted and said weakly, "Brother Wensheng, don't worry, my body isn't as fragile as you think."

"Yes, uncle, I'm just young."

At this moment, Dali also came over. Compared to Xinling's embarrassment, she was full of excitement, treating this as a great adventure.

Wen Sheng sighed, knowing that there was no point in saying anything now.

Hopefully the road ahead will be smooth... But never mind, thinking like that is pointless.

After getting ready, everyone mounted their horses and continued their journey. Around noon, as the temperature continued to drop, the guide said they were almost at the snow line.

It's worth mentioning that the guide knew they were looking for someone, so he tried his best to accompany them. Of course, Wen Sheng provided the majority of the money.

After resting and taking precautions to keep warm, everyone crossed the snow line in the afternoon.

At first, it was sparse, but it became thicker as you went up, and the trees became fewer, replaced by a greater number of stones.

The good news is that the next rest stop is coming soon.

"Luckily you came in August. If you had come in winter, you would probably be frozen solid by now."

The guide exhaled a puff of white mist and spoke from his horse.

“That abandoned border post is just ahead. We spent the night there. Your friend also spent the night there and then disappeared.”

Now everyone is on the ridge of a low hill, where they can see the section of primeval forest they passed through on their way here.

Looking into the distance, the rolling mountains appear in the clouds and mist, like a group of dragons lying in wait.

Today's journey was a bit more difficult than yesterday's, and the atmosphere in the group was somewhat somber. However, looking at the magnificent scenery before us, all the pent-up frustration in our hearts vanished instantly.

"So beautiful!" Tang Youyou exclaimed, leaning against Guan Gu's chest.

Chen Meijia, looking equally fascinated, said, "Is this the allure of mountain climbing?"

Supported by Hu Yifei and panting heavily, Zeng Xiaoxian couldn't help but say, "This time, I truly found myself amidst the majestic snow-capped peaks of Changbai Mountain."

"Grandpa Zeng, you should just shut up. You're the weakest one, not even as strong as a child!" Hu Yifei rolled her eyes at him.

Dali, who was wearing a hoodie, had a red nose and looked a little smug after hearing this.

"Alright, let's go to the sentry post to rest and have dinner. Tomorrow will be the real test."

……

Although the journey was quite difficult today, there was an unexpected pleasant surprise while we were resting in the evening, which was probably the only good thing that happened along the way.

According to the guide, there is a hot spring near the outpost.

So the girl prepared dinner while the boy followed her to find a hot spring.

As the saying goes, perseverance pays off. On a small hill next to the outpost, several steaming hot springs appeared before our eyes.

The hot springs aren't very big, but there are several of them.

"We're so lucky! I was looking for a hot spring when I came here before, but I couldn't find one. I didn't expect to find one with you guys this time."

Listening to the guide's words, Wen Sheng touched his nose and said nothing more.

Changbai Mountain is a potential active volcano. Although it hasn't erupted for almost a thousand years, the geothermal activity around the dormant volcano is extremely rich, and the smell of sulfur was very obvious to Wen Sheng.

If he didn't have some dog-like abilities, how could he be called a dog man?
The appearance of the hot springs was truly exhilarating, especially for the girls in the group. Before coming, everyone had anticipated a difficult journey, but once they were on the road, the hygiene issues alone made them uncomfortable, even Hu Yifei, a tough girl, often frowned.

Although it's impossible to enjoy a relaxing soak in a hot spring under the current circumstances, it's more than enough to wash your face, soak your feet, and wipe yourself down.

So the boys who came to find the hot springs washed up to warm themselves up and then went back to get the girls who had eaten dinner, while they continued to eat dinner there.

In such an environment, having a stable heat source is extremely important.

Although the hot spring is warm, it is not a place to set up camp. Whether it is the unstable crust beneath the hot spring or the presence of toxic gases such as hydrogen sulfide near the hot spring, it is destined that this place can only be used to warm up occasionally.

Wow! What a huge centipede!

Just as the boy went to the hot spring again to fill up with hot water to warm himself up before sleeping, Lu Ziqiao's loud shout from the mountain wall near the hot spring attracted everyone's attention.

When everyone gathered around, they discovered that it was actually a giant centipede carved on the wall.

"I just kicked it out of boredom, and this is where the rock fell off and was exposed."

After hearing Lu Ziqiao's words, Wen Sheng nodded and said that he hadn't noticed it before.

"Isn't this a centipede?" Hu Yifei, whose face was flushed after soaking her feet, stared at the "centipede" for a while and said, "Centipedes seem to look... fierce."

"You can tell whether the things on this mural are fierce or not?" Zeng Xiaoxian asked with a strange expression.

Hu Yifei rolled her eyes at him, but didn't know how to explain.

“This is definitely not a centipede.” At this moment, Xinling, who had been watching silently for a while, spoke up. “This should be a centipede, also called a centipede, or in some rural areas it is called a grass shoe board.”

After hearing Xinling's words, when everyone looked over again, they did indeed think that this thing looked more like a centipede.

"Why is it called the right eye and not the left eye?"

Do centipedes really have a hundred legs?

"..."

However, the words spoken by Guan Gu Shenqi and Chen Meijia immediately silenced everyone.

At this moment, Wen Sheng stepped forward and kicked the mountain wall next to him, causing more rocks to fall down and revealing more of the mural content.

"There should be a whole mural in these rock walls. Let's see what it depicts."

Wen Sheng's suggestion was quickly accepted by everyone, and they all started tapping and hammering on the surrounding rock walls.

Soon, a magnificent mural several meters long appeared before everyone's eyes, while the centipede they had seen at the beginning was only part of the mural.

The mural was carved and unpainted, but even so, it could not conceal its exquisite beauty. The content on it was lifelike, otherwise Lu Ziqiao would not have been so startled just now.

"The content of this painting..." Guan Gu Shenqi looked at it again and again, and said, "It seems to be divided into two parts."

"This must be a narrative painting, right? Something that happened in history?" Tang Youyou asked.

"Hey, Zeng Xiaoxian, aren't you a double master's degree holder in history and philosophy? Now's your time to shine."

Hu Yifei's words drew everyone's attention.

“This…” Zeng Xiaoxian wiped his sweat, not sure if it was from the heat, and after a long while he said, “The mural on the right should depict a sacrificial scene, while the one on the left depicts a war scene.”

"Nonsense, we could have guessed that."

Lu Ziqiao snorted twice and said, "You're brandishing swords and sticks on one side and kneeling and kowtowing on the other. Can't you, a history master's degree holder, glean anything more useful from this?"

Hearing Lu Ziqiao, a guy who didn't even graduate from high school, look down on him, Zeng Xiaoxian immediately became unhappy.

"Damn, so what if you have a master's degree in history? I've been working at a radio station since graduation, and I haven't had any chance to use my professional knowledge at all. I've forgotten most of it. I bet you can't even solve a quadratic equation now."

"Who do you think you are? I'll pull out five yuan and give you ten times for five yuan!"

"..."

The two companions' words left everyone speechless. Wen Sheng thought for a moment and said, "Look at the content of this mural. There is a tribe in the Changbai Mountain area that worships centipedes. Look at this sacrificial painting. A group of people are bowing to a giant centipede... no, this should be called a centipede dragon. It is surrounded by densely packed centipedes."

"This dragon is really ugly, it doesn't look like a proper dragon at all," Hu Yifei complained.

Xinling said, "I remember that in history, only the dragon of the Eastern Xia Kingdom looked like this."

The evolution of the dragon in history is very long. In the early days, it was more about worshipping snakes than dragons. The early dragon had a beast's head and a snake's body. Different tribes had different dragons. It was not until the spread of Han culture that the image of the Han dragon gradually merged with the dragons of various ethnic minorities.

The centipede in front of us is a hybrid of a dragon and a centipede.

“Dongxia?” Zeng Xiaoxian was taken aback, frowned and thought for a moment, then said, “Let me think, Dongxia existed in the 13th century. Its founder was a general of the Jin Dynasty, I think his name was something like… Puxian Wannu, but it was destroyed by the Mongol army only a few decades later.”

He paused, then looked at the mural on the left and said, "If these soldiers wearing armadilloskins and armor are soldiers of the Eastern Xia Kingdom, then these on horseback should be Mongol soldiers. Judging from the situation, the Mongol soldiers have gained a great advantage."

"Not bad, Zeng Xiaoxian, you're not entirely brainless after all!" Hu Yifei couldn't help but praise.

"That's right, I just usually keep a low profile."

Everyone ignored Zeng Xiaoxian's boasting, and then Guan Gu asked, "Since the country has been destroyed, how can they still create these murals?"

"It doesn't mean everyone is dead just because they were wiped out. Can't the surviving old guard reminisce about their lost country?" Tang Youyou said. "I even got a Qing Dynasty drama offer me a role recently!"

At this moment, Dali looked at Wen Sheng, who had been listening to everyone's conversation without saying a word, and asked, "Uncle, what are you thinking about?"

"I'm wondering if the murals here are true, then what Jian Ning and her team are going to excavate might be the tombs of the Eastern Xia Kingdom."

What Wen Sheng didn't say was that if things continued this way, the plot of "The Lost Tomb" would very likely follow next.

The content of this drama or novel shows that the Heavenly Palace on the Clouds is not only involved in the secrets of the Eastern Xia Kingdom, but also related to Wang Zanghai, a feng shui master of the Ming Dynasty.

The original text says that the Wan Nu King of Dongxia was an immortal being who coexisted with centipedes. Moreover, Dongxia was not completely destroyed by the Mongols. Their remaining forces retreated to Changbai Mountain and continued until the Ming Dynasty. Then, Wang Zanghai was sent to build the Cloud Top Heavenly Palace.

Thinking about the original story, Wen Sheng frowned. This tomb was even more dangerous than he had imagined.

But thinking about these things now is not very meaningful. The content of the mural in front of us only expands everyone's knowledge and lets them know what kind of goal Zhang Wei might be heading towards when he goes to find a girlfriend.

It was getting late, so everyone filled their hot water bottles with hot spring water and returned to their post to rest.

The next day, as dawn broke, everyone washed up, ate breakfast, and then packed their gear to continue their journey.

The snow is now deep, above ankle level, and as far as the eye can see, it's a vast expanse of white.

After walking for an hour or so, the horses were no longer rideable, so everyone put down the sleds they had prepared in advance and let the horses pull them forward.

Around noon, after crossing a hillside, a majestic mountain appeared in the distance.

The clouds and mist shrouded the snow-capped peaks of the mountains, making the two blend into one, creating a misty, ethereal scene like a fairyland.

The snow-covered mountain ahead is the most prominent one in the continuous mountain range, like the stroke in the middle of the Chinese character for "mountain" being protected. Looking at it from afar, its majestic momentum comes towards you.

"What mountain is this?" Wen Sheng asked.

The guide walked over and said, "The mountain ahead is called the Three Saints Snow Mountain, but only a small part of it is on our side. Most of it is in the neighboring country and cannot be climbed. The two smaller and one larger sacred mountains next to it are in our country."

Wen Sheng nodded without saying anything; it seemed they were approaching their destination.

Although in the original story one doesn't need to cross borders to enter the Heavenly Palace on the Clouds, the problem is that the people in the original story found the entrance within the territory by looking at the feng shui.

The problem now is that none of us know how to read feng shui.

"I've read about this in books. This should be what Feng Shui calls the 'Three-Headed Dragon Pattern,' right? It's an auspicious burial site."

At this moment, Xinling, whose nose was red from the cold, walked over and looked at the distant mountains, saying softly.

Ok?
……

Meanwhile, the group had previously passed by and taken photos at Lake Agai.

A group of people wearing windbreakers and carrying large and small bags were setting up camp. The first group had already followed the footsteps of the people from the apartment into the primeval forest.

On the side of these people's backpacks, the words "Digging Heavy Industry" were printed in unison.

(End of this chapter)