Katzenanhänger 2

Kapitel 14

Shi Ping'er got up and went to tell them to continue their journey. A short while later, I heard Shi Ping'er calling me loudly through the communicator. I rushed over, and when I got there, I was stunned. There was no one in the place where Lai Bao and the others had been, as if they had never been there at all.

Shi Ping'er started shouting around, but I grabbed her and told her to stop. I said, "There's only one road here. The only options are to go back to where we were before. Shouting won't help. Try using the communicator. They can't possibly go back to where we were before. If they did, we would definitely see them. The road is so narrow."

Even so, Shi Ping'er and I still carefully searched the surroundings. After confirming that there were no other small holes or forks in the road, we headed towards the cave entrance. When we got there, we found that there was no one there. This time, I started to break out in a cold sweat. This was too strange. Could it be that five people could just disappear like that?

Shi Ping'er continued calling their names into the communicator, going through each one in turn, but no one responded. Apart from static, there was no other sound coming from the communicator. Then, Shi Ping'er said to me somewhat nervously, "It's over, we can't contact headquarters either."

I quickly picked up the communicator and asked her, "Don't scare me, you know I'm easily frightened."

Shi Ping'er ignored me and took out the things from her bag, including the handbag-like thing from before. She only told me now that it was a communication host used to strengthen the signal and also a positioning device. If it were converted into money, it would be enough to buy several houses.

Shi Ping'er fiddled with it for a while without any response. I plopped down on the ground and started to stare blankly, thinking that this was completely the end for me. I was trapped here and about to die, and the fate of the others was still unknown. When I sat down, I felt something on my butt. I reached out and touched it and found it was a lighter. I remembered that it was the one that Shi Ping'er had taken from Lao Fu and thrown away. I held it in my hand and tried to light it a few times, but it wouldn't light. I wondered if there wasn't enough air? But I felt that there was no problem with breathing, so I took it to the flashlight to see how much gas was left. What I saw startled me.

This lighter is half hard plastic and half metal. It was a free gift when Lao Fu bought some liquor. I was there at the time. I used to have one too, but I don't know where I put it. Lao Fu, however, always liked to carry it around because it could be refilled with gas and it looked kind of cute.

Under the flashlight beam, I could see that the metal part of the lighter was still there, but the plastic part looked like it had been burned off, and the metal part was rusty, as if the lighter had been sitting in the hole for many years.

I quickly showed the lighter to Shi Ping'er. Shi Ping'er took it in her hand, looked at it, frowned, and said, "I... I have a deduction in my mind now, but I don't know if it's accurate, although I don't really believe in this deduction either."

I quickly said, "Tell me."

Shi Ping'er pointed to the lighter and said to me, "Look at the rust on it. Generally speaking, it would only rust like this if it were exposed to a humid environment, and it would take at least 24 hours of exposure to moisture to rust. We've been carrying this for no more than 24 hours, and the plastic part is gone, like it's burned off. The environment in this cave is so dry, it's possible for plastic to turn like this, but it would still take at least a year, so I think..."

I almost kicked him: "What do you think? You like to only say half of what you mean, don't you?"

"I think there's something wrong with this hole."

"Nonsense! I know there's a problem! Aren't you just stating the obvious?" I snapped.

Shi Ping'er said, "What I mean is that there's something wrong with the time in this cave." I nodded, signaling Shi Ping'er to continue.

"Remember when I told you about Group B? When my sister called headquarters on the communicator, it had been three years since they entered the cave, but she didn't feel like three years had passed at all; she just thought five hours had gone by. After we entered the cave, I started paying attention to my watch. The hands on the watch hadn't changed; they were still moving. But I always felt like something was off. I don't know if you've ever had this feeling, but after we entered the cave, we would feel very awake for a while, and then we would feel very sleepy, and our eyes would almost close?"

I nodded. I did have that feeling just now. Could there really be something wrong with time in this cave?

Shi Ping'er put the communication booster back into her bag and said, "Right now, I just think there's something wrong with the timing, but I can't figure out exactly what the problem is. I think the only thing we can do right now is to keep moving forward and see what's inside. Even if we die, we should die knowing why, right?"

I shook my head and said, "I thought you already knew how to get in and out, but...aren't you just trying to harm us? And who knows what might be ahead? Why don't I go in and you stay here, or I stay here and you go in? Choose one."

Shi Ping'er expressed her firm opposition: "If any one of us stays here, there is a fifty percent chance that we will disappear. Staying together means more strength and more brains to think about these issues, which will greatly increase our chances of survival... In fact, we did not think about the problem of getting out of the cave at first. We just thought that if there is an entrance, there must be an exit. If all else fails, we can call for an explosion outside to open the cave. But we did not expect that we would lose contact. After all, our equipment is much more advanced than it was three years ago."

I thought about it and realized that Shi Ping'er was right. If I were here now, I probably wouldn't know what happened and I would be gone. I might as well go in and explore. Maybe I can find a way out and find out what's going on with this cave.

Shi Ping'er and I continued walking forward, but we were more cautious. We took a climbing rope and tied ourselves together, one in front of the other, leaving a 2-meter gap in the middle. We tied a slipknot and hung it around our waists, with our daggers tucked next to our shoes. We agreed that if anything went wrong, one of us would have to cut the rope. Every extra person who survived meant more hope.

Notes VII: The Journey to the Ends of the Earth, Chapter Ten: The Egg Cave

On the way in, Shi Ping'er kept telling me about her childhood and her sister, everything from childhood to adulthood. I didn't listen carefully, but kept an eye out for any unusual changes in my surroundings. I even took out tissues from my pocket and tore them off piece by piece on the ground as I walked. After walking for about a kilometer, Shi Ping'er suddenly stopped and leaned against me. I stopped too and gently pushed her away, asking her why she had stopped. Shi Ping'er simply shone her flashlight downwards. I looked down and saw that there was a deep pit or a cliff below her feet. In any case, the flashlight beam couldn't reach the bottom. I quickly pressed myself against the cave wall next to me. Shi Ping'er then leaned against the cave wall opposite me and said, "There's no way to go any further."

I shone my flashlight forward and around. Directly in front of us was something like a ditch, with stalactites covering the top, but pitch black below. To be precise, we were facing an incredibly wide, circular hole, like an egg with a small hole at each end. Shi Ping'er and I were currently at the left opening of this egg, and we were inside the giant egg. I turned the flashlight beam higher and shone it in a straight line across from us. I could vaguely see another opening on the other side, about the same size as the one we were in, but about ten meters away. At that distance, even if I retreated and sprinted hundreds of meters, I couldn't possibly jump across.

Chapter 40 of "Strange Tales of Tangdun"

Chapter 40 of "Strange Tales of Tangdun"

Author: Tang Xiaohao

After looking across, I said to Shi Ping'er, "I think the safest way to get to the other side is to go down to the very bottom and then climb up to the other side." After hearing what I said, Shi Ping'er put the flashlight on her shoulder, lay down by the cave entrance, shone it down, and looked up at me, saying, "Lie down and take a look."

After she got up, I hung the flashlight back on my shoulder and lay down. Once I was down, I found that although it was pitch black below, I could see a layer of mist-like stuff floating gently below. Looking further down, I could see stalactites with pointed tips standing below. Even if we slowly climbed down, there probably wouldn't be any place to put our feet. If we jumped down rashly, we would just be impaled and roasted.

I got up and looked across at Shi Ping'er again, asking, "Did you bring one of those things, like the crossbows you often see in movies, with arrows attached to ropes, that you shoot to the other side and then we use the ropes to climb over here?"

Shi Ping'er shook her head: "No, there are ropes and hooks, but there doesn't seem to be anything on the other side that we can hang on. Look at these stalactites over here, they turn into sand as soon as you touch them. Even if we hang the rope on the other side, it will fall apart as soon as we pull it. It can't support any weight at all."

Shi Ping'er's words reminded me. If the stalactites here would turn into sand at the slightest touch, wouldn't those pointed ones below be the same? Thinking this, I quickly took out a rope from my bag, asked Shi Ping'er for a hook, and then slammed it down hard. Surprisingly, the first impact made a splashing sound. I immediately understood. Shi Ping'er was also stunned. I pulled the hook back and touched it; sure enough, it was water. I laughed and said, "We've all been fooled! I remember when I went to caves before, I saw some very deep places with pointed stalactites at the bottom, but upon closer inspection, it was just water, and those so-called stalactites were just reflections." I pointed above our heads. Shi Ping'er looked, wiped her sweat, and said, "You've forgotten such a simple thing! No wonder there's a layer of mist floating down there."

No wonder I could clearly see the reflection of the light when I turned on the flashlight... Wait a minute! I quickly stopped Shi Ping'er, who was about to go into the water, and said, "Shine the flashlight down there again." Shi Ping'er shone the light, then turned to look at me. I said to her, "Didn't you notice anything wrong?" She shook her head. I pointed down and said, "If it were really all water, when we shine the flashlight down, it would definitely reflect the direct beam of light from the flashlight, and we would be able to see our own shadows, right? But we can't see them at all."

Shi Ping'er glanced at it, quickly got up and put her hiking clothes back on, took out her water bottle, took a sip of water and asked me, "So what do we do now? We can't just turn back, can we? Going back is a dead end anyway."

I shook my head to indicate that I didn't know either, then sat down against the cave wall. It wasn't so bad before because there was a path to follow. Although I didn't know what was ahead, at least I was moving, which kept my mind from wandering. But now that I've stopped, my mind is filled with strange thoughts, and the more I think about it, the more terrifying it becomes. Just as I was patting my head, Shi Ping'er said to me, "Why don't we go down and try it? First of all, I think this water is definitely not corrosive, otherwise the hook would definitely have malfunctioned. Even if it is toxic, we just need to avoid contact with it. The clothes we're wearing underneath are absolutely waterproof; they can even be used as diving suits. It should be fine."

I shook my head. I wasn't willing to take such a big risk. What if I went down and didn't know the depth? If it was really poisonous, I would swallow a few mouthfuls of water and wouldn't even know what was happening in the dead water.

Seeing my hesitation, Shi Ping'er gritted her teeth, took off her hiking clothes again, and prepared to descend. I grabbed her arm, and a look of surprise immediately appeared on her face. I guessed that I wanted to descend with her. I said, "Although we haven't known each other for very long, we are destined to meet. Quickly tell me your home address and give me your house key. After you die, I'll come over and clean your room for you. Next year at this time, I'll burn more paper money for you. Just bless me with good health and longevity from below."

Shi Ping'er shoved me away and said, "Can't you be serious for once? You're still joking around at a time like this."

I said, "I'm just trying to advise you. You're usually such a calm person, but now you're rushing to your death."

Shi Ping'er plopped down on the ground and said, "Then what do you suggest we do? We can't retreat, we can't advance, are we just going to sit here and wait to turn into dried corpses?"

I leaned my head against the cave wall and closed my eyes. As soon as I closed them, a blinding light shone on me. I quickly shielded my eyes with my hand and said, "Don't shine your flashlight on me. Do you want to blind me?"

Shi Ping'er said, "I'd better blind you. You're such a big man, but you have neither brains nor guts... Wait, move aside." Shi Ping'er pulled me hard, and I moved to sit to the side. At this moment, I saw Shi Ping'er shining a flashlight on the spot where my head had been resting and looking at something. I quickly went over and found that there were some patterns and words where my head had been resting, but I couldn't make out what they were. There were dots and lines.

Shi Ping'er looked at it carefully, muttering something under her breath. I asked her what it was, but she ignored me. I simply sat down and waited for her to finish. After looking at it for a while, she took out paper and pen from her bag and asked me to come closer so she could help her write something down on the paper while she looked at the cave wall. After a while, she looked up at me and said, "This is the ancient 28 constellations carved on it. They are connected in all directions, which looks a bit like a Taoist talisman. I have seen something similar before, in the second volume of that book. However, there is a talisman in the second volume that was printed from the ancient book 'Daozang'. It is very similar to this, but the difference is that the 28 constellations drawn on this are 14 on top and 14 on the bottom, which is the opposite of the one I saw."

After she finished speaking, she pointed to the pattern and said, "Look, there are some words engraved next to it. You can tell at a glance that they are definitely not Chinese characters." I leaned closer to take a look and said, "Does it look like English?" Shi Ping'er shook her head and said, "No, it's not English. I think it looks a bit like Roman characters."

Notes VII: The Journey to the Ends of the Earth, Chapter Eleven: Upside Down

I burst out laughing: "You're hilarious, even more hilarious than Dou E! You can't possibly put Taoist stuff together with Roman characters? That's utter nonsense!"

Seeing my expressionless face, Shi Ping'er said, "You seem to know nothing about this. In the West, there was something similar to the talismans in China today, which they called seals. The most famous one was designed by a professor who specialized in magic before the British Industrial Revolution. He claimed that an angel taught him the seal, which was specifically used to seal the exit from hell. The seal was made up of Roman numerals and Enochian script, and there were some patterns that ordinary people couldn't understand at all. The Enochian script was even more incomprehensible because it was the script used by angels in the West, and mortals couldn't understand it. I was fortunate enough to see the seal once before, the original version, in a book written by that professor in the British Library. Although it was an abridged version, I still recognized it. Those patterns that others couldn't understand were actually similar to our ancient 28 constellations. Incredible, isn't it?"

I nodded and said, "It's not just unbelievable, it's absolutely unbelievable. I think all these talismans and seals are too far-fetched. I've never seen them seal anything. There's an old joke, isn't there? There was a family with a lot of mosquitoes, so they went to a Taoist priest for help. The priest gave them a talisman and said to stick it on and the problem would be solved. The family asked, 'Where should we stick it?' The priest said, 'Stick it on the mosquitoes' mouths!'"

Shi Ping'er didn't look at me, shook her head, and continued looking at the things on the cave wall. After a while, she muttered to herself, "They're all upside down, all upside down. Why are they all upside down?" Then she tilted her head to look at the things on the cave wall. I quickly said, "Be careful you don't get cervical spondylosis, it'll hurt like hell!" Shi Ping'er rolled her eyes at me, took a camera out of her bag, adjusted the flashlight beam, and then shone it from a distance. I looked at her and said, "Are you Doraemon? Your bag is about the same size as mine, yet you can take out so many things. Are you connected to another dimension?"

After taking the picture, Shi Ping'er held the camera upside down and looked at it for a long time. Then she got up, looked around, and shone her flashlight around. After shining the light for a long time, she kept repeating the two words: "It's upside down."

After a while, Shi Ping'er actually stomped on the ground with her foot, then stomped hard on the cave wall, shone her flashlight on it, and then did something unbelievable. She jumped up and stomped hard on the cave wall with both feet. I saw that this was terrible; if she fell, she would at least have a mild concussion. I quickly reached out to catch her, but Shi Ping'er actually stood steadily on the cave wall, but one of her hands was pressed against the cave ceiling—pressed against the ceiling, not pulled on it!

I was stunned. I stood there staring at the female warrior hanging there. Shi Ping'er didn't speak to me, but slowly moved her feet and slowly moved to the top of the cave. Then she stood upside down in the cave and looked at me, saying, "I understand. Everything here is actually reversed. The place I'm standing now is down, while the place you're standing now is up. The place you're standing on is the top of the cave!"

I looked around and suddenly felt dizzy, my worldview instantly collapsed... We're outside Earth's gravity?

Shi Ping'er reached out her hand to me and said, "I'll pull you over here. Hurry up, I'll explain what happened to you when we get over there."

I reached out my hand to her, and she grabbed me, then pulled on the rope connecting us. With a sudden pull, I was thrown into the air and fell backward. Then, I twisted my body and stood parallel to Shi Ping'er. I don't know whether to look up or upside down at where I was standing, but I can still clearly see my footprints. I swallowed hard and said to Shi Ping'er, "Heroine, this really overturns all the knowledge I've learned before..."

Shi Ping'er and I held hands and slowly walked back from where we had seen the cave ceiling earlier, the area covered in stalactites. As we reached the cave entrance, Shi Ping'er saw something on the cave wall. Just as I was about to look closer, she said, "Turn around!" and then turned herself around first. Before I could even speak, she flipped me over again. After I stopped, I closed my eyes and asked her, "Didn't you say it was upside down? Why are you back again? Can you stop flipping me around like that? It's making me dizzy!"

Chapter 41 of "Tangdun Strange Tales Notes"

Chapter 41 of "Tangdun Strange Tales Notes"

Author: Tang Xiaohao

Shi Ping'er said from the side, "You're not dizzy, you're just timid. Come and look at this." I leaned over to look and saw that there was something carved on this side of the cave wall that was the same as the one on the other side, but some parts felt different. Shi Ping'er pointed to it and said, "This is the correct one. The other side was reversed. After I came over, I saw this thing and thought that the other side was reversed, but this side must be right. So I tried to turn it over, and it was right."

"Although this is a similar talisman to the one on the other, I copied it down just now and found that it wasn't there when this cave first appeared." When I heard Shi Ping'er say this, I thought to myself, isn't that obvious? This cave doesn't look like it was dug by man. It couldn't possibly have written characters inside a naturally formed cave.

"It must have been when the founder of Tianya first came here that he passed by and discovered this secret. However, he couldn't clearly write down the method to get here, so he carved the pattern on the opposite side. When he returned and created that book of celestial knowledge, he also drew this pattern into it. It's a very vague hint, to see if the people here have that kind of enlightenment." After Shi Ping'er finished speaking, she smiled at me and said, "It seems I do."

I looked at her with a skeptical gaze. She looked at me for a while and then waved her hand, saying, "Okay, okay, don't look at me like that. To be honest, when I saw that the pattern was reversed, I only had a general idea in my mind, but I wasn't sure. So I looked at the top of the cave where I was just now, and I found footprints on the top of the cave. Moreover, the footprints only went forward and did not go back. So I guessed that was it. Do you understand now?"

I snorted, and Shi Ping'er patted herself and muttered, "It's rare for me to lie to you, so you should pretend to admire me, okay?"

We sat down to rest for a while, took out some food, and Shi Ping'er took the opportunity to take pictures of the pattern on the camera. After everything was settled, we continued forward. As we left the cave entrance, Shi Ping'er glanced at the pattern and said, "How come there's something like this here?"

After Shi Ping'er turned her head, I also looked back at the pattern and the spot where we had just come from. I bit my wrist hard to make sure I wasn't dreaming. I shook my head vigorously, still unable to believe what I had just experienced. Just then, I saw something flash by at the opposite cave entrance. I quickly pulled Shi Ping'er and then shone the flashlight directly across. I found nothing there; I must have just imagined it. Just as I put the flashlight down, something seemed to flash again on the other side. I felt a chill run down my spine. At that moment, Shi Ping'er tugged at the rope in front of me and said, "What are you daydreaming about?"

I wanted to say there was something, but then I thought Shi Ping'er would definitely say I was a coward again. Maybe I was just tired and my eyes were playing tricks on me, so I shook my head and continued walking forward.

Notes VII: The Journey to the Ends of the Earth, Chapter Twelve: The Stone Slab Passage

As I followed Shi Ping'er, I recalled the first time I met her, and then I remembered when Zhang Aimin was pretending to be her injured, and how anxious I was when I took her to the hospital. I suddenly wanted to laugh, but then my thoughts changed, and I remembered that Lai Bao, Lao Fu, and the others were still missing. I became even more anxious, so I quickened my pace and even tried to walk ahead of Shi Ping'er. Shi Ping'er quickly grabbed me and asked what was wrong. I told her that I was worried about Lai Bao and the others.

Shi Ping'er wiped the sweat from her forehead and said, "Don't be in such a hurry. It won't do any good. We can only take it one step at a time now. By the way, do you feel that the temperature gets higher the further we go in?"

Only after Shi Ping'er said that did I realize I was covered in sweat. I pulled open my hiking clothes and tugged at the supposedly 500,000 yuan jacket I was wearing underneath, saying, "Isn't this supposed to keep the body at a constant temperature? Why is it so hot?"

Shi Ping'er also pulled open her clothes and said, "I don't know either. These clothes were brought from above. This is the first time I've worn them."

"500,000?" I sneered. "It might just be a regular swimsuit. My thermal underwear is stretchy."

We continued walking for a while, and the path became wider and the cave larger. The stalactites gradually decreased. After walking a little further, the circular cave transformed into a square passage. Shi Ping'er and I stood at the entrance of the passage. I took a step forward, lightly stepped on the stone slab, then stepped back and stomped on the mud outside the slab, saying, "It looks like it was built by man." Shi Ping'er nodded, picked up her flashlight, and shone it around. After looking around, she said, "Look, everything here is man-made. There are stone pillars around, and the cave ceiling is inlaid with stone slabs. There seem to be some words carved on the stone slabs on the ground."

“Another talisman, with an incantation on it. I wonder what it’s for.” Shi Ping’er squatted down, looked at it carefully, and then stood up and said to me. I looked around and touched the stone slab, saying, “I’ve seen a lot of movies and played a lot of games before. I’ve seen scenes like this before. They usually say that some kind of monster is sealed in this kind of place. It’s either from hell or some ancient mythical beast.”

Shi Ping'er shook her head and said, "It doesn't seem like it. Such an exquisitely constructed place doesn't look like it's for sealing anything. I went to a place before where there were records saying that a Qiang king from Shu was buried. However, the burial site wasn't a tomb, just a burial place. We were very puzzled at the time. Why was the burial site not a tomb, but the design looked exactly like an underground palace? But it was very simple, as if it had been built by a few craftsmen randomly picked from the street. After we went in, we tried everything to open that peerless stone door, but we couldn't. We didn't dare to use explosives, since we weren't going to rob a tomb. In the end, we burned the ashes on the stone door..." After sweeping through, we saw a line of text, a warning that said the Qiang king had lured a monster inside with his own flesh and blood, then placed a peerless stone gate inside, sealing himself and the monster forever. It also said the stone gate was coated with phoenix blood to completely seal the monster inside. We took pictures of it after seeing this and left, never thinking of opening the place again. After all, it's better to believe it than not; what if there really was a monster? After Shi Ping'er finished speaking, she smiled at me again. I shuddered and turned back to continue looking at the stone slabs.

I stared at it for a while, thinking about what she had just said: "Could this be an underground palace? That is, you know... yes, an ancient tomb?"

Shi Ping'er shook her head and said, "Absolutely not."

I asked, "Why?"

Shi Ping'er said, "Ancient tombs couldn't possibly be built in a place like this. If it really were built here, and there were such strange things happening in that cave in front, it's obvious they don't want people to come in. You have to distinguish between a mausoleum and a tomb. There's a mausoleum and a tomb. A mausoleum is a place for worship, while a tomb is... to put it simply, a mausoleum is a place for burning paper money, and a tomb is a place for burying the dead, understand? There's only a tomb here, no mausoleum, and the security level here is so high. If it were an ancient tomb, the person buried would at least be an emperor. Wouldn't there be a place for descendants to worship? Moreover, if it were an imperial tomb, from the Shang and Zhou dynasties to the Han dynasty, imperial tombs generally had four passageways, and the rest had one or two. The imperial tombs of subsequent dynasties have basically followed this pattern. If this place really is a mausoleum, based on our survey, there's only one passageway, which doesn't make sense."

I was completely confused and didn't understand for a long time. I didn't dare to ask any more questions, otherwise she would scold me for being a cowardly and useless man.

We rested briefly at the entrance of the passage before continuing in. After walking for a while, we saw a huge doorway ahead, with two smaller doors on either side. The main door was open, or rather, there was only one entrance without any doors. The smaller doors on either side seemed to be just decorative carvings. Besides taking pictures, Shi Ping'er spent a lot of time looking around the stone doorway, shaking her head and biting her lip in thought. I thought these doors looked similar to those I'd seen at other tourist attractions before, and I couldn't figure them out either. After looking for a while, Shi Ping'er said to me, "It looks like this cave is similar to..." Our previous guesses were pretty accurate; it wasn't built by the White Lotus Sect in the late Qing Dynasty, but at least back to the Tang Dynasty or earlier. I can't pinpoint the exact date yet, but one thing is certain: this place was regularly renovated by people from each dynasty, and the renovations were based on the style of that era. You can see from the patterns on the stone gate that some parts were recarved; the styles of the patterns on different sections are completely different. Moreover, none of the patterns on it feature animals like dragons, phoenixes, or qilin; they depict scenes from everyday life, like an alternative version of the Qingming Scroll.

I looked into the gate and saw a light inside, but without Shi Ping'er, I really didn't dare to step through. So I followed her. Shi Ping'er walked through the stone gate, looked around, and then took out a lighter to light a lamp that seemed to be embedded in the stone wall. I was surprised to see her light it. She had just said that it was at least from the Tang Dynasty before the Tang Dynasty, so how could it be lit?

After lighting the stone bottle, he lit the lampstand opposite him and said to me, "This should contain petroleum. The headquarters warehouse has this stuff. Although it's not very valuable on the market, many researchers consider it a treasure. The petroleum I'm talking about isn't the kind we usually talk about. The earliest record of this stuff is in a small portion of documents left by the Grand Council at the end of the Qing Dynasty. It says that at the end of the Ming Dynasty, the Ming army was defeated by the Qing army at Ningyuan. In a fit of rage, the Wanli Emperor of the Ming Dynasty ordered the Ming army to go to Fangshan on the outskirts of Beijing, where they bombed and burned all the imperial tombs of the Jin Dynasty, saying that this would break the dragon vein of the Manchu Qing Dynasty. They even used 'petroleum,' which was said to be inexhaustible and could only be used by the imperial family at the time, to continuously burn inside the imperial tombs. The Manchu Qing Dynasty knew about this..." Afterwards, feeling both ashamed and angry, and simultaneously convinced that this "oil" must be something valuable, they sent people to investigate its origins. Upon investigation, they learned that it required storing a type of iron rock from snow-capped mountains and the carcass of a fish called "octopus" together for over a hundred years. The combined oil was then boiled in a bronze cauldron, making it extremely precious. A single cauldron of this oil could burn continuously for a year and, if stored, would remain intact indefinitely. However, whether it truly remained intact indefinitely was unknown; all that was known was its extremely long shelf life. They had heard that the oil in their headquarters warehouse had been stored for at least a hundred years, and even a small amount could still burn. Unfortunately, they didn't know exactly what those snow-capped mountain iron rocks and octopus fish were.

Notes VII: The Journey to the Ends of the Earth, Chapter Thirteen: The Mysterious Stone Pillar

Chapter 42 of "Tangdun Strange Tales Notes"

Chapter 42 of "Tangdun Strange Tales Notes"

Author: Tang Xiaohao

After hearing what Shi Ping'er said, I was about to empty the kettle and fill it with this stuff to take back. What does that mean? It could burn gas for a year! I could save on my gas bill for a year! Even if I only filled it with a small amount, saving on my gas bill for a month would still be a saving. And who knows, I could even use it to generate electricity and save on electricity bills too.

Just as I was about to pack it, Shi Ping'er stopped me. She said calmly, "Our purpose is to search, not to take. Do you understand?"

I said, "Can't I just take a little? I'm not going to sell it or use it for illegal purposes."

Shi Ping'er shook her head again and said, "Absolutely not. The things here do not belong to any one person. Although you may not understand these big principles, don't forget the tenets of Tianya."

I nodded helplessly, thinking that I would secretly put it in when you weren't looking, and you wouldn't know. So I pretended to put the kettle down and pretended to look around. When Shi Ping'er wasn't paying attention, I would put it in.

As Shi Ping'er walked inside, she lit all the lamps around her. I was getting anxious; if she lit them all, it would be a huge fire, and I wouldn't know where to get the oil later. I didn't have any suitable tools; even a soup ladle would have been helpful...

After walking for a while, about 20 meters, a round pillar appeared in front of us. This pillar reached all the way to the top of the cave. At the very top, there was a square, three-dimensional object supported by the pillar. The place where the pillar landed looked like a pool, but there was no water in it. There were several small holes around the pillar near the pool, which seemed to be used for something to flow out.

We walked around the pillar and found no other entrance. Just as we were wondering about it, a muffled sound suddenly came out. I was startled and asked Shi Ping'er, "Did you fart?" Shi Ping'er gave me a disgusted look, then made a gesture to be quieter, pointed to the stone pillar, and then put her ear close, but didn't dare to get too close.

She had just gotten a little closer when that muffled thud came again. This time I clearly heard that the thud was coming from the stone pillar. I immediately jumped aside and pulled Shi Ping'er over, saying, "Are you crazy? What if it explodes?"

Shi Ping'er gently shook off my hand, then touched the edge of the pool with her hand. After touching it once, she took off her gloves and gently touched it again before turning her head to say to me, "It's a little hot." Then she reached her hand towards the pillar, but just as she was about to reach it, Shi Ping'er quickly pulled her hand back as if she had been electrocuted. She then blew hard on her hand and said, "It's hot, the temperature is too high."