The lantern grass needed great effort to cultivate. In the past, only wealthy families could afford to enjoy it.
Today, most of it could only be found in temples.
“Could this be the place where the people in the Pavilion of Herbs offer sacrifices?”
Long Tianyu spoke with a deep voice, while still holding on to Lin Mengya in his arms. What he said almost made Lin Mengya jump.
Offer sacrifices? If this was the case, there ought to be an exit somewhere.
“This is possible. Since we have some lantern grass here, let’s burn it to make a brighter flame.”
Zuo Qiuyu’s tone sounded rather bizarre.
Together with Yu An, the two of them groped around and seemed to have found the oil for the lamps.
In the twinkling of an eye, the light drove out all darkness and lit up the entire place.
Finding it difficult to adapt to her surrounding so quickly, Lin Mengya rubbed her eyes, and soon, the oil lamps on the two sides lit up the tunnel in an instant.
“This is…”
Zuo Qiuyu was taken aback when he saw the surrounding walls. There was a deep gully in each of the two walls.
The oil for the lamps was flowing in the gully, and it shimmered as it flowed along the channel.
Although the oil had been there for years, there were no impurities accumulated. In fact, its natural fragrance invigorated them.
However, what was even more amazing was that there were lifelike pictures painted all over the two walls.
Zuo Qiuyu reached out to touch a corner of the painting gently. Although the ink had dried for a long time, in the eyes of those who were seeing this much later, its colors were so brilliant that it appeared to be painted just a moment ago.
“Are you saying even you have no idea what this is? Let’s go in to have a look.”
Strangely, there was no record of this on the music score for the green stringed instrument.
Now, even Zuo Qiuyu appeared to be clueless. This place was indeed a mystery.
The four of them proceeded along the tunnel cautiously. Although the torches on both sides were getting brighter, they did not feel any difficulty in breathing.
If this really was a place for making sacrifices, naturally adequate ventilation was a must.
The four of them quickened their steps with this thought in mind.
Along the way, they had made several turns. However, they did not see any entrances appearing before them so far.
The tunnel appeared to have no end, but the four of them could feel that they were going deeper into the ground.
Meanwhile, Lin Mengya had a good look at the paintings on the walls. If she guessed correctly, the painting had portrayed how the first generation Chief Elder forsook wealth and splendor to delve into medical practice.
In the lifelike paintings, that person’s life seemed to come alive.
While Lin Mengya deeply admired this person, she could not help but sigh.
If this Chief Elder knew about how unfaithful his successors were, he would die a second time of rage.
“There seems to be something right in front.”
Yu An, who was at the start of the line, cried out in excitement.
Long Tianyu, on the other hand, instinctively put his arms around Lin Mengya in an attempt to protect her, lest she should get injured.
The four of them could not but quicken their steps. Finally, a solid stone door appeared before their eyes.
“Is there any way to open it?”
While Lin Mengya stared at the stone door, she asked with excitement in her voice.
They had lost track of time and could not tell how long they had been in the tunnel. If they kept going, they might be exhausted or at least fall into despair.
Although this stone door was smooth and hard, they still held on to the little hope of getting out of here.
“Wait here while we try the door.”
After settling Lin Mengya, Long Tianyu, together with the other two, began pushing the door with all their might.
However, the stone door was well over 500 kg. Despite using all their strength, the door would not budge.
By this time, the three men flushed, but the stone door remained the same.
Lin Mengya, who was standing by, began to stare at the stone door.
Incidentally, Lin Mengya spotted a familiar sign at the bottom right corner of the stone door.
She took a few quick steps towards it and squatted down by the bottom right corner of the stone door. Just as she expected, the pattern of the plum flower, which she was so familiar with, appeared in her eyes.
Ever since Lin Mengya made connections with the Nation of Lintian, this pattern of the plum flower had appeared time and again.
Could it be that this plum flower pattern was not an exclusive representation of her mother?
Why was this plum flower pattern found in so many places?
In that instant, Lin Mengya went into deep thoughts.
This place was no doubt the location where people made sacrifices, but from the look of it, it had not been used for many years. Otherwise, she and Zuo Qiuyu would be able to pick up traces of the sacrifices.
However, it seemed that it would be very difficult to open the stone door. Long Tianyu and the rest had carefully checked the surrounding area and there did not seem to be any mechanism to open the door.
Lin Mengya incidentally touched the pattern of the plum flower and realized that it could move.
“Come over to have a look. There seems to be some kind of mechanism here!”
Lin Mengya’s cry attracted the attention of the other three immediately and they turned to look at her.
With a little effort, she flipped the plum flower over.
It was at this moment that she realized that the plum flower looked like the stone cover for a hidden mechanism.
In a moment, a square opening the size of the little finger appeared before them.
“I suppose this is where the mechanism is. Step back so I can try to operate it.”
Long Tianyu volunteered to try the mechanism. However, no matter what method he used, the stone door would not budge.
When Long Tianyu was at his wit’s end, someone thrust a plum flower pattern seal at him.
“Why don’t you try this?”
Lin Mengya was wearing a brilliant smile on her face. She had just remembered this.
When the old Taoist priest handed her this seal, she could not figure out its use.
She would not have thought about it if not because the little opening appeared to be the same size as the seal.
Long Tianyu took over her seal, took a quick glance at it, then carefully inserted it into the small opening.
“Click” and the two objects fit into each other perfectly.
A grinding sound followed and the stone door lifted from the ground.
The four people simultaneously looked through the door, feeling anxious and excited at the same time.
However, what came into sight was shocking.
“This—”
Behind the stone door stood a huge stone room.
Standing there was a giant statue whose features were somewhat worn out. However, they could make out that it was a statue of the king of herbs, the founder of medical knowledge.
At the bottom of the stone statue was a table covered with dusk. The joss sticks and candles on the table were covered with cobwebs. Many years ought to have passed since the last time anyone visited this place.
However, there were two skeletons covered by dried-out skin from wind, sitting back to back on rush cushions below the table for sacrifices.
The clothes on the two skeletons were long torn and tattered.
Nevertheless, Zuo Qiuyu dashed over, looking all shaken.
With a “plop”, he fell on his knees before the two skeletons.
“Master! You… so you’re here. Master, your disciple here has let you down! I’ve let you down!”
It was a rare sight to see Zuo Qiuyu weeping so badly and looking so distraught.
However, the other three people had heard him clearly. One of the skeletons was Zuo Qiuyu’s master.
“So this was where Old Mister Yuan lived. No wonder the emperor and the prince had failed to find his remains.”
Yu An sighed as he commented.
However, there did not seem to be any hidden mechanism here. Lin Mengya pondered for a moment, and then she had Long Tianyu remove the seal.
There seemed to be some kind of installation on the wall that could control the stone door.
Long Tianyu took a look at it and concluded confidently that this place was not only for people to make sacrifices, it was also a place of refuge.
With a loud noise, the stone door closed once again, but the four of them were not feeling as frightened as before.
Zuo Qiuyu was still weeping and apologizing to his master, so Lin Mengya, Long Tianyu, and Yu An decided to leave him alone for a moment and proceeded to size up the huge stone room.
At the back of the stone room was a spiral staircase. The three of them had a feeling that there would be another exit up the steps.
If this was a place of refuge, it would mean that like the stone door, the mechanism to open it would be inside the stone room.
In this case, they did not feel as desperate and frightened as before.
Inside the stone room, there were still joss sticks and candles scattered all over. There were even daily necessities that had been weathered over time.
Lin Mengya looked at the two skeletons and concluded that although they had been weathered over time too, they did not seem to have been murdered, judging from their posture.
As she approached the bodies, she spotted a green jade token at the foot of the body wearing a green outfit on the left.
Lin Mengya conveniently picked it up and wiped away the dust covering it. On it was engraved clearly with the word “Shen”.
“Look. What’s this?”
Zuo Qiuyu, who was still weeping bitterly, turned around and saw the jade token. In that instant, he froze.
“This! This is the Chief Elder’s token of authority! He carried this token with him always. Could this other person be the Chief Elder?”
Zuo Qiuyu’s quivering voice surprised even Lin Mengya.
She flipped the token over and saw the lifelike pattern of a plum flower.
Could the plum flower be the true representation of the Pavilion of Herbs?
The Chief Priest had disappeared before this year. According to the state of the skeleton and the tattered state of the clothes he was wearing, it was likely that the Chief Elder had died here.
However, why was Zuo Qiuyu’s master here too?
All these were mysteries yet to be solved. Even Lin Mengya, who was exceptionally intelligent, was unable to come up with an explanation.
“Don’t be overly grieved, Cousin Yu. Do you think there’s something about the manner that your master and the Chief Elder had died here?”
With great caution, Lin Mengya persuaded Zuo Qiuyu to gradually stop weeping.
Meanwhile, Long Tianyu and Yu An had thoroughly gone through the stone room. There was indeed another door at the top of the steps where they could exit.
If one could enter and leave this place freely, why then did the Chief Elder and Zuo Qiuyu’s master die here?
At that moment, Lin Mengya was unable to come out with an answer to this contradicting mystery.
“What came to my mind was that my master had been plotted against by some evil people before he went missing! Perhaps it was the same for the Chief Elder!”