The Complete Collection of Yellow River Ghost Coffins

Yellow River Ghost Coffin 1, River-Suppressing Seal

Introduction

This is a bizarre and unbelievable story.

The story originates from a strange tale about the Yellow River.

Many people my age who live along the Yellow River have heard numerous anecdotes and stories about it from the elders. Most of us experience the power, unpredictability, and mystery of this mother river through these tales, which instills in us a sense of awe for it even in our youth.

But this strange story is different from other narrative legends.

I first heard this strange story thirteen years ago in the summer. The person telling the story was my late grandmother. After listening to it, I asked her if the story was true or false. She smiled and said something to me, but unfortunately, I don't remember it.

The incident occurred during a drought year before liberation.

In the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River, there is an inconspicuous little village with little farmland and local specialties. The entire village makes a living by trading Yellow River sand.

Most of the villagers have been doing this kind of work for generations. The workers use sand buckets to dredge the yellow sand and mud from the bottom of the Yellow River, then filter out the finer sand particles and sell them to other places. This way, they can make money on the one hand, and on the other hand, they can dredge the Yellow River and reduce the risk of the Yellow River breaching its banks during the flood season.

Like the salt and carbon gangs, those who resell yellow sand, once they reached a certain scale, also formed their own interest groups. These villages that resell yellow sand were called yellow sand factories at that time.

Every year, there is a period of low water in the Yellow River, during which sections of the river dry up, exposing the riverbed in many places. This is the best time to dredge sand, and also the busiest time for sand quarries.

All rivers that stop flowing exhibit this phenomenon: a large river with an uneven riverbed, after the flow stops, the water level drops, forming many small lakes and ponds. At this point, the river has not actually completely stopped flowing; water is still seeping downstream beneath the sand layer, but the small lakes above remain stagnant.

The section of the Yellow River managed by this sand factory is like this: the Yellow River channel is very wide there, and after the water is cut off, a large dry lake will appear in the middle of the river. This lake has never dried up for thousands of years, and the water can be maintained until the next Yellow River flood season. Legend has it that a feng shui master said that this lake is the eye of the Yellow River, so the locals call this lake "Yellow River Eye".

For thousands of years, the "Eye of the Yellow River" has never dried up. No matter how severe the drought or how severe the upstream flow interruption, the "Eye of the Yellow River" remains crystal clear. Therefore, this sand-producing area has never lacked water. The elders say that there is a dragon at the bottom of the lake, which is why the water never dries up. The villagers have never had the habit of storing water.

However, one summer, a strange little boy wearing a green cotton-padded jacket suddenly appeared in the village, shouting everywhere that the Yellow River was about to dry up and that everyone should save water. At the time, no one believed him, but they found it strange because they had never seen this little boy before and did not know whose child he was.

Later, the child disappeared. Everyone thought that the adults had probably taken him back, and the matter was dropped. Nobody took it to heart.

A few months later, many people heard a loud "bang" coming from the direction of the Yellow River's eye on a clear day. When they ran to look, they saw that the Yellow River's eye, which had always been very clear, was now murky. When an old man heard this, he said that something bad had happened and the dragon in the Yellow River's eye had flown away.

Sure enough, when the Yellow River dried up the following year, the Yellow River eye, which had never dried up in thousands of years, gradually became bottomless.

The villagers were terrified, not knowing what they had done wrong. They consulted several feng shui masters, but none of them could explain what was wrong. They watched helplessly as the eye of the Yellow River gradually turned into a dry land.

The "Eye of the Yellow River" has never dried up, and no one has ever seen what the riverbed looks like. So, in the days when the Eye of the Yellow River was about to dry up, the elderly were terrified and burned incense and offered sacrifices on the banks of the Eye of the Yellow River, hoping that the dragon would return. But many more young people came to watch the spectacle and see if there were really any traces of the dragon living on the riverbed.

There are naturally no dragons at the bottom of the Yellow River, but strangely, after the water dried up, a stone platform about half a person's height and half buried in the sand appeared in the silt at the bottom of the river.

The stone platform is about the size of a basketball court. If you are brave enough to run down to the bottom of the river, you will find that it is constructed of some unknown material and seems to be a single piece without any gaps. It is covered with strange patterns that resemble birds.

The most peculiar thing is that the stone appears translucent like mutton fat in the sunlight. Through this transparency, they can see a black shadow inside. The part of the stone is warm to the touch, but the part through which the shadow is visible is icy cold, as if the black shadow can absorb heat.

People living in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River know that things are often dug up in the Yellow River. There are many strange legends in various places. During the Republic of China era, it was said that crystal coffins containing dead people were dug up in Henan and Gansu, which was very strange. However, no one had ever heard of such a large semi-transparent stone platform being dug up.

Local elders are superstitious and say that this thing is a dragon coffin. The black shadow inside the stone platform is the corpse of a dead dragon. However, the shadow is too blurry to tell what it is. Many people say it looks like a person, while others say that the shadow is not a person, but a big fish.

Those were years of social unrest, and strange things were happening everywhere. The village leaders discussed it and decided that this matter couldn't be spread, so they found a few brave people to bury the stone platform with silt. But strangely, the stone platform couldn't be buried properly. The river sand that was turned up one day would disappear the next day, and the stone platform was still only half-buried.

The strangest thing is that a few sharp-eyed people noticed that the shadow in the stone platform was changing every day. At first, it seemed to be an oval shape, but later it even started to grow hands and feet.

In the past, when such things happened, the village would look for a feng shui master. But the village was very poor back then, and good feng shui masters charged high prices. Most of the others were just swindlers. They couldn't find anyone for a while, so they found the oldest man in the village. This old man was over ninety years old. It was said that he used to be a tomb raider and had some feng shui skills. The old man was carried to the stone platform.

The old man was emaciated, like a skeleton. His contemporaries and those of his generation were all dead. He hardly moved, spending his days sitting in front of his house, living a life of waiting to die. So no one knew his origins.

The old man's eyesight was poor; it was said that he had been exposed to the stench of corpses while tomb raiding in the past, so most of the time he couldn't open his eyes.

But as soon as they brought him to the stone platform, everyone saw that the old man's eyes suddenly widened, and before anyone else could speak, he sat up straight, as if he had a premonition of something.

The village chief then said, "Old man, you've seen and learned so much, can you tell me what's going on here? Is this a sign of good fortune or misfortune?"

The old man nodded and was helped down to his feet. However, the first thing he looked at was not the stone platform, but the surrounding mountains.

After looking around, his expression became very strange. He muttered to himself, "How could this be?" Then he looked at the stone platform, but after just one glance, he immediately looked away and shouted that it was too bright.

Many people were there looking at the stone platform. No one felt that any light was coming out of the platform. Only the old man said it was too bright and he shielded his eyes with his hand. The others felt a chill because of him.

The village chief then got a pair of round sunglasses for the old man, and only then was the old man able to open his eyes. He walked around the stone platform, constantly shielding his eyes with his hand, as if the light was still very strong.

After reading it, his expression became even stranger, and he said again, "How could it be here?"

The village chief asked, "What exactly is this?"

The old man waved his hand, telling him not to ask. He then shakily took out a strange abacus from his pocket. While other people's abacuses were square, his was round. After turning it a few times, his face darkened. He turned his head and suddenly said something to the village chief.

He said, "Put me on this stone platform."

The group found it strange, but seeing the old man's pale face, no one dared to ask. So they had the young men carry the old man onto the stone platform.

After the old man climbed onto the stone platform, he sat cross-legged there and stopped talking, seemingly closing his eyes to rest.

They sat there for almost a whole day, with a group of people waiting and watching. As they waited, some people got impatient and started to leave. The sky gradually darkened, and by evening, most of the onlookers had left.

Seeing that he didn't know how long he would be sitting there, the village chief left a few workers to watch over the place and went home himself. At that time, warlords were fighting each other, and one village was under your jurisdiction today, while another village was under his jurisdiction tomorrow. So being a village chief was very busy. When he got home, he was busy until very late and didn't go to the sand factory again.

Unexpectedly, before dawn the next day, the workers who had stayed behind ran to the village chief's house and woke him up. When the village chief asked what was wrong, the workers said, "The old man is gone!"

Upon further inquiry, it was learned that after everyone left, the old man remained seated on the stone platform without moving. The young men gambled and drank nearby. Later, when it got completely dark and there were no lights in the Yellow River, they couldn't see anything and fell asleep against the yellow sand. When they woke up, it was already dawn. They got up and looked around, only to find the stone platform empty, with no trace of the old man.

Upon hearing this, the village chief immediately led several men back to the Yellow River's eye. Sure enough, the old man was gone. At first, they thought he had gone home, so they sent people to look for him. After searching the whole area, they couldn't find him. Just then, a few sharp-eyed men shouted, "He's inside!"

Upon closer inspection, everyone discovered that a gaunt, black shadow had somehow appeared inside the translucent stone platform! The two shadows were embracing each other, creating an eerie scene!

The villagers were terrified and dared not approach the stone platform again.

Later, a warlord nearby learned of this and sent a troop of soldiers to dig out the stone platform. Unexpectedly, after digging only a few times, water suddenly began to gush out from under the platform. The water was icy cold, and the onlookers scrambled to escape and fled to the bank of the Yellow River's eye. Soon, the gushing water filled the entire eye of the Yellow River, and the stone platform and the black shadow inside disappeared into the depths of this dry lake.

That night, many villagers dreamt of the old man gesturing to them, as if saying "sixty-one, sixty-one." But at the time, no one knew what "sixty-one" meant. All they knew was that from then on, the old man never appeared in the village again, as if he had truly gone into the stone platform.

The stone platform was definitely a single piece, without even a crack. How did the old man get in? What was the other shadow inside the stone platform? What was the stone platform used for? Why did it appear at the bottom of the Yellow River? No one could answer any

……