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Chapter 398 - 367 Rock Paintings

Chapter 398: Chapter 367 Rock Paintings

The three of them formed a triangular formation, progressing along the tunnel.

The further they went, the fewer signs of human construction appeared in the tunnel, beginning to resemble a natural cave with twists and turns.

"How long have we been walking?"

Sikong Lan was slightly out of breath; since last night, they hadn’t had a drop of water or a grain of rice, and even with a martial artist’s constitution, it was becoming unbearable.

"About two hours."

Zhang Fulu leaned against the wall to steady his slightly erratic breathing, simultaneously circulating his inner strength to generate saliva and alleviate the increasingly intense thirst.

"Chew, chew."

In the dimness ahead came the sound of chewing, Zhang Fulu and Sikong Lan were startled at first, then saw Li Cheng holding a large pancake in his left hand and a water bag in his right, eating and drinking as he went.

Sikong Lan, with a pained expression, said, "Pifu, where did you get the food from?"

"I’ve always carried it with me."

Li Cheng said matter-of-factly, "Didn’t you bring food when you went out in night clothes to steal? What if you faint from low blood sugar halfway through and wake up to find yourself tied to a chair by a rich, fair-skinned beauty?"

That makes so much sense... Not.

Sikong Lan covered his face silently, fearing just now that this tunnel was endless, even beginning to doubt that in the stone chamber earlier, whether they should have, as Li Cheng said, used the room’s enlarging and shrinking mechanism to enlarge foot sweat for food.

Zhang Fulu swallowed, "Pifu brother, do you have more food?"

"I do."

Li Cheng reached into his arms, quietly activating the three-dimensional warehouse, pulling out two large pancakes to throw to the others, and casually said, "Sigh, back then, I was locked up in the military, nearly starved to death, and it was my wife who secretly brought me pancakes. Later, it became what’s now known as wife cakes."

???

Oh, you’re really calling yourself Zhu Chongba, aren’t you?

Your nine clans seem a bit too numerous.jpg

Sikong Lan buried his head in eating the pancake, pretending he hadn’t heard Li Cheng’s "loyal or not, unloyal" words, while Zhang Fulu sensed something, held the pancake in his mouth, and quickly walked ahead.

Ahead, the tunnel suddenly opened up, the rock walls extending to the sides, forming an oval space like a plaza, with a naturally formed stone pillar reaching the dome of the cave in the center.

"This is..."

Zhang Fulu raised the luminous pearl high, the rock walls on both sides painted with colorful images themed around people, animals, and tools, and unconsciously muttered, "Hua Mountain Rock Paintings?"

The Ming "Anomaly Records" notes, "In Guangxi Taiping Prefecture, there are high cliffs stretching for several miles, displaying soldiers wielding swords and staves, some headless."

The Hua Mountain rock paintings are located on the east bank of the Ming River in Hua Mountain Village, Tuolong Township, Ningming County, Chongzuo City, Guangxi Taiping Prefecture, painted by the ancestors of the Luoyue Kingdom over two thousand years ago, and were listed in the World Heritage List in 2016 in the real world.

"Hua Mountain rock paintings used red ocher as paint, mostly red. The style is primitive and rough, with people depicted with only heads, necks, torsos, and limbs, portraying ancient sacrificial activities.

Yet here, the red from ocher powders accounts for about 50%, the technique is more delicate, and the people have distinct outlines."

Li Cheng squinted his eyes to carefully observe the murals, picking at the mural’s surface with his hand, "The similarity lies in both using animal fat as a blending material and adhesive.

Essentially, they are not Luoyue Kingdom rock paintings, but have intricate connections with the latter."

Li Cheng could report this information without needing the information integration glasses.

As for how he knows...

Uh, mainly because of Gray Rain—a self-proclaimed "chosen Hua Zi" alien who unilaterally took nationality, always talking about "the grandeur of the Han and Tang" and "I was already Han long ago."

To prepare for future citizenship, she really brushed up on a lot of short videos, including but not limited to the history, clothing, literature, food, customs...

Also serving as background noise for Li Cheng while screwing bolts.

Sikong Lan exhibited a look of surprise, muttering, "Luoyue Kingdom... Could the rumors be true?"

Li Cheng and Zhang Fulu turned to look at him, Sikong Lan explained, "You two should know, the Tu Family claims to be of Tanka origin, right? Tanka people mostly dwell along the southern coast, scattered on the sea, tracing their ancestry back to the Baiyue."

The Baiyue, also known as the Yue clan or ancient Yue people, is a term for ancient ethnic groups in the southeast region during the Pre-Qin period, with a vast range, including branches like Wuyue, Yang Yue, Southern Yue, Xiou, Luoyue, forming ancient nations like Bulu and Luoyue Kingdoms.

The Hua Mountain rock paintings are relics of the Luoyue Kingdom.

"One of the main rules of Jinyi Guards is not to inquire into things that should not be inquired, but I have heard some snippets from my superior."

Sikong Lan said solemnly, "The rumor goes that the Tu Family’s ancestors initially established themselves not by selling pearls from the South Sea or salvaging from ancient shipwrecks, but by extracting from the relics of the sunken Cangze Kingdom among the Baiyue nations submerged in the sea.

The Tu Family’s various unusual customs, such as building their mansion on an island rather than onshore, marrying outwards but never marrying inwards, are because they consider themselves as Cangze Kingdom refugees among the Tanka rather than as citizens of the Great Ming."

Zhang Fulu, who had never heard of "Ancient Cangze Country," immediately frowned and asked, "And then?"

"And then that’s it."

Sikong Lan scratched his head, "The captain just told me this much, saying the Tu Family does not comply with the royal law, amasses wealth, secretly conducts illegal rituals, with suspicions of treason. Our mission is to find evidence."

You’re basically saying nothing.

Zhang Fulu twitched the corner of his eye, silently retreated a few steps, and carefully examined the murals.

The entire elliptical hall was covered in murals, narrating a complete "Prince’s Revenge" story in a clockwise sequence.

The story begins with the kingdom’s king (wearing feathered decorations and a wooden mask, possibly serving as both king and high priest in ancient times) being murdered and overthrown by subordinates.

The usurper kills the king’s entire family and sends the prince to an altar on a cliff, dismembers his body, and throws it into the sea—human sacrifices were not uncommon in that era. In the ancient worldview, the higher the status and more precious the sacrifice, the more it could please the heavens, ancestors, and spirits.

The Shang dynasty people even invented a set of characters for this purpose, like fa, xi, mao, gou, sui, jiao, zu, er, all describing how to kill human sacrifices.

In short, the dismembered prince is submerged into the sea, his head unable to die in peace, drifting along the ocean currents to the deepest part of the sea, encountering a strange stone shaped like a three-legged frog, merging features of snakes, fish, salamanders, and newts.

The various branches of Baiyue have extensive frog worship, stemming from primitive reproductive beliefs, sharing origins with snake worship. It’s not surprising, but what happens next is bewildering.

The prince’s severed head speaks, complaining to the strange stone about his unjust fate. The stone weeps blood from its eyes, and sea creatures around actively bring the prince’s severed limbs, assembling a human outline.

However, after sea corrosion and crab and shrimp nibbling, the trunk is severely damaged. The prince’s severed head pleads once more, and so the stone weeps blood a second time, equipping the prince with a fish’s gills, whale’s sinews, seahorse’s stomach, pearl’s eyes, and frog’s tongue, allowing him to be resurrected and return ashore.