Chapter 36: The Tripods
In the dark cave, only Duan Qing's panting echoed, one after another, and gradually subsided.
Finally, a light appeared in the darkness. It was emitted by a piece of moonstone that Duan Qing took out from the bag again. Fortunately, he took all the moonstones with him when he left.
He stood up and carefully stepped forward. He was not sure whether there would be the stone shells like the one just now in this cave.
Duan Qing walked carefully to the side of the water cave. The water cave was about half a foot in size. The water was very close to the ground, only two palms away. During Duan Qing's observation, the water surface was still up and down. It seemed that it should be running water. There might be a channel under the water connecting to other water sources. The sound of water he heard before should be the sound of the water hitting the cave wall.
The water was very clear, but Duan Qing could not see any light in the water. If the water was not deep, he should be able to see the moonstone he just threw away. It seems that this water cave is unfathomable!
There must be something strange about this water cave! Duan Qing subconsciously thought that he decided to go back first, rest for a while, and then study the water cave.
Although there is water here for him to continue practicing, he decided not to touch the water when he remembered the fate of swallowing the spiritual liquid by mistake last time. Whether it is this cave or that water, there is something strange everywhere.
In addition, he wants to find a storage bag to store raw stones. It’s not that his current storage bag can’t hold it. The storage bag he inherited from Senior Brother Ma Liang has a large space. It is estimated that there is no problem to put tens of thousands or even more raw stones.
But his goal is not just this, so he has to find someone else to see if he can buy another storage bag. He still has a batch of spiritual stones given by his master Sanyan Zhenren, but he doesn’t know if it is enough to buy another storage bag!
Coming out of the cave, Duan Qing thought about it and still took some effort to block the entrance of the cave with gravel. Although it will be troublesome when he comes back, it is better to be safe than sorry. He doesn’t want others to discover this cave and cause unnecessary trouble.
Duan Qing followed the original path and walked out of the mine cave along the mine tunnel on the right. It was midnight at this time. The moonlight in the sky was like a veil covering the deep valley in front of him, which seemed a bit mysterious.
It was quiet all around, without any movement. I don’t know how many people are in the mine cave now and how many are outside.
Duan Qing looked at the buildings in the distance. The hall in the middle was pitch black. The moonlight could see the general outline. However, there were many lights in the houses next to it. I think it should be emitted by the moonlight stones that have not been taken away.
After confirming that there was no one around, Duan Qing used the Qi Condensation Technique to simulate the fluctuations of the first level of Qi training and walked towards his own house.
Since he got the Qi Condensation Technique Jade Slip from the second senior brother that day, he went back and learned it, and then he has been running the Qi Condensation Technique.
But when he broke through the second level of Qi training, the Qi Condensation Technique seemed to be ineffective. It didn’t matter if he had been in the mine cave before, but now he returned to the gathering place and might run into other disciples at any time, so he had better be careful.
After returning to his residence, Duan Qing honestly took out the spirit stones to meditate and practice. He hardly used the spirit stones given to him by his master Sanyan Zhenren, and there were still many.
At this time, he could only use the spirit stones to practice. On the one hand, he had used up the spirit spring water. On the other hand, even if there was spirit spring water, he would not take the risk of being discovered.
On the second day, Duan Qing went to the hall under the mountain wall and prepared to hand in the spirit stones for this month. When he came to the ancient hall, Duan Qing found that there was a stone tablet in front of the hall.
The stone tablet was covered with moss and traces of time. It was obviously a bit old, but the words on it could still be vaguely seen.
"Zhenling Hall."
Duan Qing read it in a low voice. It turned out that this hall was called Zhenling Hall.
The door of the hall was open, and Duan Qing stepped in. The entrance was the front hall of the hall, but it seemed that no one was there. The huge front hall was empty, with only a square tripod placed alone in the middle.
"Is anyone there?"
Duan Qing shouted, but got no response.
At the moment Duan Qing stepped into the hall, Elder Li, who was sitting cross-legged and practicing with his eyes closed in one of the inconspicuous rooms in the back hall, suddenly opened his eyes, looked in the direction of the front hall, and muttered softly.
"It's this little guy!"
At last, he closed his eyes and ignored it.
Duan Qing was a little surprised. Why didn't anyone collect the raw stones? Or did he come at the wrong time.
Since he was here, he might as well wait a while. He decided to wait here for a while to see if anyone would come.
Looking at the lonely tripod in the front hall, Duan Qing walked forward with some curiosity to take a look.
When Duan Qing approached, he found that the tripod was quite strange. It was a four-legged square tripod, the whole body was blue-gray, and the mouth of the tripod was only slightly lower than his shoulders except for the highest part of the two ears.
Except for the front, the body of the tripod is engraved with strange array patterns. Although there is no array pattern on the front, there is a ferocious beast head protruding slightly, with a white bead in its open mouth. In addition, there are five black rings around the beast head, which surround the beast head in circles. Each ring is engraved with some symbols that Duan Qing does not recognize. He counted them and found that there were exactly ten symbols on each ring, and they were almost the same.
Duan Qing got closer and found that there seemed to be a word engraved on the beast head, "Zhu". Is this the name of the tripod?
Looking at this strange tripod, Duan Qing was thoughtful.
Could it be... He stretched his head to look into the tripod, but found that it was gray and covered by a layer of gray fog.
It should be!
He took two steps back, took out a raw stone from the storage bag, tried to throw it into the tripod, and then observed it carefully.
As soon as the raw stone was thrown in, it was swallowed by the gray fog. At the same time, a crisp "click" sound was heard, and the outermost ring of the five rings around the beast head turned positively.
Duan Qing raised his mouth slightly, and he seemed to understand what was going on.
Then he continued to take out raw stones from the bag and threw them into the tripod one by one.
Every time he threw a raw stone, the outermost ring would turn positively. When he threw the tenth stone, it just turned a circle. As the outermost ring turned a circle, two consecutive crisp "click" sounds were heard in succession, and the second ring inside also turned a circle, but the direction was exactly opposite to the first ring outside, and it turned in the opposite direction.
Duan Qing did not stop and continued to throw raw stones in. When he threw a hundred stones, three consecutive "click" sounds were heard in succession, and the third ring inside also turned positively. At this time, the first ring outside had turned ten circles positively, and the second ring just turned a circle in the opposite direction.
It was true! He kept throwing beads in, one hundred and one, one hundred and two... Two hundred and ninety-nine, three hundred. When Duan Qing had thrown three hundred beads, the third circle had just turned three times.
At the same time, with three crisp sounds, the big mouth of the beast head in the middle suddenly opened wider, and the white beads in the mouth fell out.
Duan Qing had been paying close attention to the changes in the square tripod. When he saw the white beads falling, he rushed forward to catch them. When he picked it up, he saw that there was also a word "Zhu" engraved on it.
Although he didn't understand what this word "Zhu" meant, Duan Qing roughly guessed that this square tripod should be used by Jin Xuanzong to store and put raw stones, and this white bead should be the proof of completing the task of 300 raw stones in a month.
After putting away the white beads, Duan Qing looked at the square tripod and found that another white bead appeared in the mouth of the beast head at some point.
I wonder if I can hand in all the raw stones for a year at once!
This thought only flashed through his mind. Although he had enough raw stones now, it was just his guess. If he guessed wrong, wouldn't it be a waste of thousands of raw stones? He should find someone to ask for clarification before making any decisions.
After thinking about it, Duan Qing walked out. He had to find a way to get a bag. He couldn't do without extra bags to store the raw stones.
Duan Qing had just left the Zhenling Hall when Elder Li, who was meditating with his eyes closed in a room in the back hall, suddenly frowned.
"Smart little guy!"