Chapter 11 The Giant Tree in the Underground River

Originally, Wang's men were all vying to show off in front of the Zhiguoren (the one in charge), climbing the tree at an incredible speed, like a bunch of monkeys.

But when they saw someone being bitten to death by a poisonous snake, these tomb raiders truly realized the danger. Their climbing speed slowed down a lot, and they began to be more cautious.

I knew the lethality of this red poisonous snake, so I didn't follow them up the tree. Instead, I stood leisurely under the tree, observing everything.

Hong Jie was already weak and exhausted from crossing the river just now, so it was impossible for her to climb the tree. She stood next to me, chattering and gossiping.

Seeing someone being bitten to death by a poisonous snake, she was immediately frightened, patted her towering chest, and kept saying, "Too scary, too scary... This little thing doesn't look like much, how can it be so fierce? It's deadly with just one bite!"

I smiled wryly and said, "Aren't the piranhas in the river only the size of a palm? They still eat people without spitting out bones. This ancient Shu tomb has been sealed underground for thousands of years, and these animals have also lived underground for thousands of years. If they don't have some special skills, they probably would have gone extinct long ago."

Hong Jie stuck out her tongue and muttered in a low voice, "Piranhas and poisonous snakes are already troublesome enough. Don't let any other monsters pop up. I still want to get out of here alive."

I said pessimistically, "Since there are a large number of piranhas and poisonous snakes living in the ancient tomb, it means that there is a complete ecosystem here. These two kinds of creatures alone cannot constitute a complete ecosystem. There must be other animals here."

After saying this, I suddenly felt that my way of speaking had a bit of Liang-xiaojie's (Miss Liang's) sophistication. I wondered if we had been together for too long and I had been unconsciously influenced by her.

At this moment, a scream came from the tree. Another unlucky tomb raider was bitten by a poisonous snake, lost consciousness in the blink of an eye, convulsed, rolled his eyes, foamed at the mouth, and fell from the tree into the underground river.

The piranhas in the river had clearly just eaten poisonous corpses and a large number of them had been poisoned to death, but as soon as this corpse entered the water, it was eaten clean in a moment, and another large number of piranhas were poisoned to death.

It is said that fish only have a seven-second memory. I didn't believe it before, but now I finally do.

Seeing that two tomb raiders had died in less than ten minutes, some of the grave robbers began to feel fearful and thought about backing out.

One of the older ones, probably a Tuizi (henchman), walked over to Wang, the Zhiguoren (the one in charge), and said, "Zhiguo de (in charge), the tree is too dangerous. Two brothers have died in such a short time. Do you think the tomb owner's coffin is really on the tree? Do we need to look for it in the tree?"

Hearing this, before Wang could express his opinion, Mr. Liao also speculated, "Wang, coffins are generally in the ground. I haven't heard of coffins being buried in trees. Are you really sure that we can find the coffin on this tree?"

Wang nodded and said firmly, "I'm sure."

As he spoke, he pointed to the bronze dragon skeleton coiled around the giant tree and said, "This dragon is called the Huzhong Julong (Grave Guardian Dragon). It was cast by the ancient Shu people to protect the tomb owner. The tomb owner must be located under its five claws, and within the five claws of this dragon is this ancient tree."

I agreed with this, because in the ancient Shu tomb in the Tuo River, the tomb owner's coffin was indeed stored under the dragon skeleton, directly under its two claws in front of its chest.

This shows that what Wang said is true.

And Wang's argument was not just one. After talking about the Huzhong Julong (Grave Guardian Dragon), he asked, "Mr. Liao, do you know which Shu king this ancient Shu tomb belongs to?"

Mr. Liao shook his head blankly and said, "Please forgive my shallow knowledge. I don't know much about the history of the ancient Shu Kingdom. Based on some of the funerary objects in this tomb alone, I can't tell which Shu king this tomb belongs to."

Wang smiled faintly and said, "The history of ancient Shu is confusing, so it is reasonable for Mr. Liao not to understand it. In fact, broadly speaking, the history of ancient Shu is divided into several stages—Can Cong founded the country, followed by Bo Guan, then Yu Fu, and then Du Yu... This ancient Shu tomb should belong to the second Shu king, Bo Guan."

"Then the owner of this ancient Shu tomb is the famous Bo Guan?" I couldn't help but ask.

Wang shook his head and smiled when he heard this, and said, "That statement is not very accurate. A more accurate statement is that this ancient tomb belongs to the Bo Guan era. The history of ancient Shu is quite long. Can Cong, who founded the country, is fully five thousand years away from now, but King Du Yu lived more than two thousand six hundred years ago. In other words, there is a full two thousand four hundred years between the four dynasties of Can Cong, Bo Guan, Yu Fu, and Du Yu. On average, wouldn't each of their Shu kings live for six hundred years?"

Hong Jie couldn't help but sigh after hearing this, "Goodness, our ancestors were really long-lived! They could actually live for more than six hundred years!"

Wang was simply dumbfounded and glanced at Hong Jie with contempt, and said, "What do you mean by being able to live for more than six hundred years? That's because the historians mistakenly regarded a group of people as one person. In fact, there were many Can Cong clans in history. When the old Can Cong clan died, a new Can Cong clan would take over, and their descendants would continue to rule the Shu Kingdom for six hundred years. This is the real Can Cong era. Later, Bo Guan replaced Can Cong, which was actually a change of dynasty. The new Shu king was named Bo Guan, and all generations were called Bo Guan, and they ruled the Shu Kingdom for hundreds of years. Then came Yu Fu, then Du Yu..."

After listening to Wang's account, I suddenly understood.

So that's how it is!

This explanation is indeed more reasonable.

What Can Cong, Bo Guan, Yu Fu... these are not the names of one person or one Shu king, but the names of a dynasty.

I immediately said, "Just like Qin Shi Huang, he called himself emperor and stipulated that his children and grandchildren should also be called emperors, whether it was the second generation, the third generation, or the fourth generation, passed down from generation to generation. The Shu kings were the same. There was Can Cong I, Can Cong II, and there was also Bo Guan I, Bo Guan II..."

Wang nodded and said, "That's exactly what I mean."

Mr. Liao also said that he had learned something new, and then asked, "Then Wang, how did you determine that this ancient Shu tomb belongs to the Bo Guan era?"

Wang explained calmly, "It's very simple, because it can be seen from the bronzes here that the Shu people of this era worshiped trees. The two characters Bo Guan have two meanings—Bo refers to trees, and Guan, which is pronounced the same as the word for 'stork', refers to a kind of bird similar to a white crane in ancient Shu. The Shu people in the Bo Guan period lived in the forest, so this kind of totem worship arose."

Hearing this, I immediately recalled the bronzes I had seen in the tomb chamber before. Many of them were bizarre images of half-human, half-tree figures, as well as the reliefs on the stone coffins, which were indeed a combination of early people and trees.

I didn't expect Wang to seem rough, but in reality, he was sophisticated and had such a thorough understanding of the history of the ancient Shu Kingdom.

It seems that to be a Zhiguoren (one in charge), one must not only have connections and wealth, but also have a certain degree of cultural cultivation, otherwise, even if one goes down into the tomb, one will not be able to find the tomb owner's coffin.

After talking about which period the ancient Shu tomb specifically belonged to, Wang continued to analyze the matter, saying, "As for why the Shu kings of the Bo Guan era would hide the coffin in a tree, this is related to their beliefs and worship..."