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Capítulo 10

We were clearly taken aback by the remarkable effect of the phosphorescent talisman and were utterly astonished.

After thinking for a moment, I explained that after the Earthly Yin Eye fully released its energy, it instantly extracted Bing Meier's Yin and malevolent energy before transferring it, and it wasn't just the power of the talisman.

The fat man took off his shirt and secretly wrapped it around his waist to cover himself. I pretended to take out a memorial tablet with worm-like characters from my backpack and showed it to Shirley Yang.

After a long examination, Shirley Yang said, "This is ancient Jewish script, but it is the name tablet of Menelik I Ebna Hakim, the king of the ancient Sheba Kingdom in Ethiopia."

"What love is not for the King?" the fat man muttered, asking curiously.

Shirley Yang looked at me, and I shook my head, indicating that I didn't understand. "Isn't this the memorial tablet of King Solomon?"

No, but he was King Solomon's biological son.

Shirley Yang explained: According to the Book of Kings in the Bible, the Kingdom of Sheba, a kingdom in northern Ethiopia, was inhabited by people of Black race. Its queen, Makna, ruled effectively, and the kingdom's territory expanded continuously, maintaining close ties with surrounding countries. Meanwhile, King Solomon of the same period was the most famous king of the unified Kingdom of Israel, the ancient Jewish state, who built a vast empire stretching from Egypt to the Euphrates River.

The Queen of Sheba, admiring King Solomon's wisdom, brought her servants, spices, precious stones, and gold to Jerusalem to pay homage. During their meeting, she asked King Solomon many questions, to which he answered to her great satisfaction. King Solomon's erudition, the magnificence of his palace, the abundance of his banquets, and even the exquisite attire of his servants all astonished her, leaving her "absolutely speechless with wonder."

Upon meeting, the two were captivated by each other's beauty and intelligence, and love blossomed between them. Later, on her return journey, the Queen gave birth to a mixed-race son, named Ebna Hakim, meaning "Son of Wisdom." This son later inherited the throne, becoming Menelik I. Knowing his true parentage, he made a special trip to Jerusalem to meet his biological father, King Solomon, after his coronation. When he left Jerusalem to return home, King Solomon sent some young Israelites to escort him. These Israelites later settled in the Kingdom of Sheba and intermarried with the locals. Menelik I and the descendants of these Israelites became the ancestors of "Beta Israel," a self-designation of the Black Jews, meaning "Homeland of Israel."

Furthermore, according to unofficial White Jewish historical records, King Solomon later defied divine will in a matter concerning his children, showing favoritism and losing his reputation for impartiality. As a result, the energy of the Earth's Yin Eye vanished overnight. The secret of Solomon's immortality was also revealed, and he quickly aged and died in despair. To uphold Solomon's illustrious name, his people proclaimed that after his ascension, he had joined God's ranks and been bestowed the title of God of Justice.

As for Menelik I, the "Son of Wisdom," historical records are scarce. Unexpectedly, in order to fulfill the dying wish of his biological father, King Solomon, he moved mountains and filled seas, forcibly sealing the earth's dark eye, and created the millennia-old ice tomb here with his own body.

I nodded, understanding dawned on me. It seemed the golden-armored ice corpse in the tomb was indeed the body of Menelik I. Perhaps to avoid offending the spirits, he gouged out his own eyes, burying himself only in an eye-shaped coffin, sealing the ice core as atonement, thus completing the imprisonment of the Earth's Yin Eye. Furthermore, to exclusively possess the power of the Earth's Yin Eye, no other sacrificial bodies were placed in the ice tomb. It's a pity, it seems the tomb was poorly constructed, as no wise or famous rulers like King Solomon emerged among his descendants.

"Wait a minute, isn't there also an ice coffin for the King of Dolphins?" the fat man exclaimed, taking the ice coffin out of his backpack.

I said, "We were all wrong. Look closely, the coffin doesn't contain real dolphin remains."

In the sunlight, the only shadow inside the small jade coffin was that of a faintly visible dolphin skeleton. Were it not for the still clearly visible, vividly bright deep purplish-red scar at the end of its long snout, we would hardly be able to see the complete skeleton at all.

I explained that in the "Ghost" section of the "Sixteen-Character Yin-Yang Feng Shui Secret Techniques," this small ice jade coffin should be called the Cold Essence Gathering Soul Coffin, made from ten-thousand-year-old ice marrow, making it extremely rare. There are many types of Soul Gathering Coffins, used to imprison souls of different kinds and powers. This Cold Essence Gathering Soul Coffin was specifically made to imprison the essence of the Dolphin King. In other words, the coffin doesn't contain the remains of the Dolphin King's ancestor, whom we had previously imagined had saved us; it contains the essence of the Dolphin King itself. Because this thousand-year-old ice tomb is built on an isolated island in the vast ocean, the extreme cold yin veins of the Earth's Yin Eye clash with the ocean's water veins. Therefore, Menelik I, through unknown means, collected the Dolphin King's essence and sacrificed it in the ice tomb to mitigate the extreme cold attribute of the Earth's Yin Eye.

Shirley Yang nodded in agreement, saying, "Very likely. Dolphins are known as the 'wise elders' of the sea, and are among the most powerful primates in the ocean. The spirit of the king of dolphins is practically equivalent to the magical spirit of the marine creatures."

After listening to my long explanation and Shirley Yang's, Fatty clicked his tongue in amazement and said, "It seems that old bastard Ice Corpse with the Strange Eyes spent a lot of effort preparing for his funeral. But what about that dark green ore that can restrain Ice Enchantress?"

After thinking for a while, I said, "It is a meteorite that fell from the sky. It may be the Yangzhi Jade mentioned in the Sixteen-Character Yin-Yang Feng Shui Secret Technique, also known as Demon Jadeite. It is said to be the incarnation of the nine suns that Hou Yi, the divine archer in ancient times, shot down. It contains a lot of unknown positive ion material, so it can suppress the true yin coldness of the earth's yin eye."

In general, Western burial site selection methods are relatively crude, far less sophisticated and refined than Eastern feng shui theories, and lack the concept of dragons and elephants, but they still form their own set of theories. Ultimately, all schools of thought converge on the principles of the earth's major energy flow, including the distribution and direction of mountains and rivers, combined with the ideological understanding of different regions and periods over thousands of years, passed down through generations through analysis and practice.

Volume 1, Cape Tomb, Chapter 26: Escape from Danger (3)

I turned to Shirley Yang and asked, "Where did you go yesterday morning?"

It turned out that when Shirley Yang woke up early in the morning, seeing that Fatty and I were still fast asleep, she decided to go to the edge of the woods to pick some wild fruits and mushrooms to bring back for food.

Unexpectedly, just as Shirley Yang reached the edge of the woods, she spotted a large wild rabbit foraging for food outside the grove near the sea cliff. It seemed this isolated island had long been deserted; the rabbit, seeing Shirley Yang still focused on its food, showed no fear or intention to flee as one might expect.

Shirley Yang was overjoyed, thinking, "Now we three can have a feast of wild game to fill our bellies." Immediately, she conceived the idea of catching a wild rabbit.

By the time she stealthily followed them to the edge of the woods, the wild rabbit had already turned and disappeared into the dense forest in search of food. Shirley Yang, tall and daring, didn't wake us up and chased them straight into the forest.

Unexpectedly, after a few turns, the wild rabbit disappeared, and Shirley Yang found herself trapped in the dense forest, unable to get out.

What's even more terrifying is that she could clearly hear me and Fatty calling out to her after we woke up, but no matter how we called out, she couldn't get a response from us. Obviously, Fatty and I couldn't hear her calls at all.

As Shirley Yang listened to me and Fatty talking, we entered the woods from another direction and walked away until silence fell over the area. A sudden, intense panic gripped her, and she felt all her strength drain away. She slowly leaned against a tree and slumped down beneath it.

Once she calmed down, Shirley Yang carefully surveyed her surroundings. She saw that the dense forest she was in consisted of unusual tree species with gnarled branches covered in numerous galls and vines that intertwined like giant green spiderwebs hanging between the trees, creating a dense, impenetrable canopy. The ground was overgrown with weeds, and the trees were so close together that it was difficult to discern directions. The forest blocked out the sun, creating a dark, damp, and oppressive atmosphere that instilled a sense of dread.

At this moment, Shirley Yang couldn't help but regret that she had recklessly barged into the dense forest without knowing the situation.

The eerie forest was eerily silent, without a single sound.

Shirley Yang tried to remain calm. She thought that, based on the direction she had come from, she should head south and retreat out of the dense forest. She looked up and carefully discerned the position of the sun, confirming that she was south.

A chilling scream suddenly echoed from the depths of the woods. Before the scream had even faded, a dark, blurry object darted over and vanished in the blink of an eye into the burl of an old tree overhead.

Shirley Yang was terrified. She turned and hid behind a tree, cautiously peeking out to look at the gall. As she looked, a squeaking, fighting sounded from the gall hole in the tree, followed by a bloody lump of flesh falling out of the hole, stained with blood.

The lump of flesh was still trembling in the grass on the ground, and a pair of blood-red eyes peeked out from the hole, turning around and looking around.

Shirley Yang didn't dare to breathe loudly, holding her breath and leaning against the tree.

Just then, she felt something fleshy on her heel, something alive rubbing against her foot. She convulsed and secretly looked down, only to find it was the wild rabbit that had been foraging for food.

It seems this wild rabbit has never seen a beautiful human woman in all its life. Humans don't seem to know the meaning of fear when facing higher animals. No wonder, as our ancestors said, ignorance is no excuse.

Shirley Yang breathed a soft sigh of relief. She bent down, picked up the wild rabbit that was stubbornly refusing to leave her heels, and held it in her arms. The rabbit was docile and didn't move at all.

Before she could straighten up, she heard a whooshing sound above her, and those red eyes swooped down from the tree and plunged into the grass.

She turned her head and saw a small owl, about the size of a dog with blood-red eyes, carrying a bloody piece of meat in its beak, spread its wings and flew onto a broken branch. It seemed that the piece of meat was a small animal like a mouse that the owl had caught in the woods.

Shirley Yang patted her chest, breathed a sigh of relief, and stepped out from behind the tree with peace of mind.

That night, the owl, seemingly unafraid, tilted its head back and swallowed the bloody chunk of meat.

Shirley Yang had no interest in looking at it and turned to leave.

Suddenly, a whooshing sound of wings came from behind her, and a gust of cold wind rushed in. Shirley Yang shrank back in fright. The owl flew overhead, circled in the air, and then pounced on her again. After two rounds, Shirley Yang realized that the owl was trying to hunt the wild rabbit from her.

Shirley Yang's stubbornness kicked in. She thought to herself, "You feathered beast, you're bullying me, a weak woman. Isn't this a classic case of pulling teeth from a tiger's mouth?" She dodged and retreated behind a tree, picking up a branch and slapping it at the owl that pounced on her.

Caught off guard, the night owl was struck hard on the wing by a branch, stumbled, and flew erratically to a nearby tree trunk.

The owl growled strangely, its fur stood on end, and its blood-red eyes stared at Shirley Yang, as if it would not give up until it achieved its goal.

After resting for a minute, the owl suddenly pushed off the tree trunk and spread its wings to pounce on Shirley Yang. Shirley Yang raised a branch, ready to meet the attack, when she suddenly saw a branch near the trunk, about the thickness of a hoe handle, bend down silently and wrap around the owl.

The owl struggled for a long time but couldn't break free. Its fur gradually fell apart, as if it was losing strength. Suddenly, the withered branch raised its head, its green eyes gleaming, and opened its mouth wide, swallowing the owl's head and wings whole. Only then did Shirley Yang realize that it was actually a withered brown viper more than a meter long.

Seeing that the viper was about to swallow the puppy-sized owl whole, Shirley Yang felt a dryness in her mouth and almost gagged. She hurriedly hid behind a tree and quietly slipped away.

After a quick walk, Shirley Yang looked back and thankfully, the viper, having swallowed the night owl and eaten its fill, needed some time to digest and hadn't followed.

Shirley Yang wiped away a cold sweat, realizing that the biggest problem at hand was that no matter what she did, she couldn't get out of the dense forest.

She patted the rabbit in her arms affectionately. The little guy was quite well-behaved; he even squinted his eyes and pretended to fall asleep.

Shirley Yang glanced at the sky and grew worried. She thought, "What am I going to do? Going around and around like this, I just can't seem to get out of this dense forest." Fortunately, the warm body of the wild rabbit in her arms offered her great comfort in this eerie and terrifying woods.

She gritted her teeth, focused on the south, tore off a piece of cloth, tied it to a tree branch beside her, and hurried away, avoiding the vines. After walking for about half an hour, Shirley Yang looked up and found herself back at the tree branch where she had tied the cloth.

Shirley Yang almost burst into tears. The thought that Fatty and I might be trapped in some other bewitching forest on the island while we were searching for her made her feel weak and helpless.

She carefully surveyed her surroundings, and combining her observations with her previous experience, she finally understood that this dense forest grew amidst a jumble of uneven cliffs. Within these cliffs, one depression after another stretched out, the terrain extremely uneven, and most of the depressions were enormous, resembling giant cauldrons pressed into the forest. Some of these depressions were over ten feet deep, their edges and interiors overgrown with dense roots, vines, and towering trees, forming a vast, unobstructed network. Even if you initially found your way, after navigating just a few of these large cauldrons, you would lose all sense of direction. Furthermore, after navigating so many depressions, you would be completely disoriented, and might end up circling back to where you started.

Shirley Yang thought that perhaps this dense forest itself grew on a huge, pot-shaped cliff. Inside the pot, there were countless pot-shaped pits, one inside another, pot after pot, until there was no end to it all.

Gritting her teeth, Shirley Yang decided to keep going. She reaffirmed her commitment to the South, rubbed her aching ankles, put on her boots, and continued on her way.

As she walked along, Shirley Yang turned her head with a worried expression and caught sight of a white, swaying figure behind the dense forest not far away.

She tightened her grip and slowly approached. Parting the bushes, she was horrified to discover, deep within a large, crater-like pit behind the tree, amidst the fallen leaves, a gigantic, dying spider with a human face. On its black back, twisted white stripes formed a bizarre, face-like pattern. Its limbs were thick and covered in reddish-brown hair, twitching and flailing as if in a nervous final burst of energy.

What killed it wasn't any other powerful adversary, but rather the milky-white termites covering its body. These termites, no bigger than a child's little finger, were still continuously climbing and crossing the branches of the tree on the other side of the pit, forming a winding white river. The swaying white figure that Shirley Yang had just seen was the V-shaped formation created by the ant river crossing a section of decaying tree roots that was half a person's height.

Inside and outside the pit, the ground was covered with fresh, arm-thick twigs and fallen leaves. The giant spider with human faces was being covered by more and more termites and was clearly dying. The termite army clung to the giant spider's body, specifically choosing the weakest spots to bite. Once it started sucking blood, blood would seep into its white abdomen, and its abdomen would gradually swell up.

Shirley Yang felt increasingly disheartened. She quickly pushed herself out and walked forward, thinking, "If I can't get out, will I soon become fast food for these little things too?"

Just as she was getting increasingly agitated, the wild rabbit in her arms began to struggle. Shirley Yang said, "Little thing, don't move. You weakling, do you want to become termite food?"

The wild rabbit struggled more and more fiercely, eager to jump off the hand that Shirley Yang was stroking it.

Helpless, Shirley Yang gently released the wild rabbit onto the ground and sighed, "Fine, you have your own way of surviving. Go."

The wild rabbit hopped to the tree root, lifted its leg to urinate, and then nimbly jumped into Shirley Yang's arms. Shirley Yang laughed, gently stroking it, and said, "You little rascal, you know how to be hygienic, much cleaner than that idiot Hu Bayi."

As she spoke, Shirley Yang drifted off into thought, wondering where Hu Bayi and Fatty Wang, those two restless, impatient fellows, had gone.

Unexpectedly, at this moment, the clueless wild rabbit tried to jump down to the ground again. Shirley Yang put it down, and after hopping a couple of steps, it turned around and jumped back into Shirley Yang's arms.

After this happened three times, Shirley Yang suddenly realized, "Is this cute little guy trying to lead me out of the forest?"

Thinking of this, she actually squatted down and asked, "Little rabbit, little rabbit, are you going to take your sister out of the forest?"

Unexpectedly, the rabbit didn't appreciate the gesture at all. Instead, it became agitated, suddenly raised its hind legs, threw out a pile of dirt and dust, scattering it all over Shirley Yang, and then turned and hopped away.

Shirley Yang hurriedly stood up and followed the wild rabbit through the forest and up the slope. She was panting heavily. An hour later, she really appeared at the edge of the forest and was led out of the dense forest by the wild rabbit.

Shirley Yang, disregarding her clothes, plopped down on the sandy ground at the edge of the woods, kicked off her boots, and started rubbing her ankles.

In the blink of an eye, the clever wild rabbit hopped and leaped to the edge of the cliff, bowed, and then darted into the dense forest.

Shirley Yang suddenly felt lost and confused. Recalling everything that had just happened in the woods, it felt like she had just had a dream.

She stood up and returned to the beach camp as if in a daze. She sat there blankly for a long time, then suddenly saw the words that Fatty and I had left in the sand before we left, and she snapped out of her daze.

After so much time, I have no idea where Fatty and I have gone.

She washed her face and followed the forest path that Fatty and I had cleared, passing through the pirate coconut grove and under the Bodhi tree without incident, until she arrived here under the cover of darkness.

After listening to Shirley Yang's legendary narration, Fatty and I were speechless for a long time. Fatty exclaimed, "This is much more interesting than our adventure! It's a real animated version of Bugs Bunny's story!"

We walked and talked, picking up some coconuts and wild fruits along the way. This time we encountered no obstacles and quickly returned to our campsite on the beach.

Volume One: The Ancient Tomb at the Cape, Chapter Twenty-Seven: Unexpected Changes

Back at the camp, Fatty and I, ignoring our wounds, ran into the shallow sea and swam happily, washing away the fear and pain of the day. It was truly enjoyable.

Watching Shirley Yang busily preparing mushroom dishes at the camp, I couldn't help but think: It's so good to be alive!

Over there, Shirley Yang was already calling us back for dinner from afar.

We ran back to the campsite, changed our clothes, and ate wild vegetables cooked by Shirley Yang, along with coconut juice and wild fruits, filling our bellies to our hearts' content.

After lunch, Shirley Yang was going to change the herbal medicine on our wounds. Looking at the wounds, she exclaimed in surprise, "That's strange! The wounds have all healed so quickly!"

Fatty and I looked at each other, and sure enough, the wounds on our backs were clean, the scabs had fallen off, leaving only a faint red mark.

The fat man laughed and said, "You're really lucky! The herbs Shirley Yang makes are really effective."

Shirley Yang shook her head and said that it was just ordinary herbs.

I couldn't figure it out either, so I comforted her by saying that it's good that she's better, and maybe the pure, natural, and pollution-free herbs on this island are the key to healing.

To prevent spiders, vipers, and other insects from lurking in the dense forest of Luan Ya Zi from causing trouble, we took turns on duty, while the rest rested and slept. Shirley Yang insisted on being the first on duty.

Even so, it was still so wonderful. I woke up feeling completely refreshed, with a sore back and a limp waist. No wonder Su Dongpo said, "Stealing half a day of leisure from a busy life."

I groaned contentedly, shaking my head and swinging my arms and legs as I stood up and swayed. Glancing sideways, I saw Fatty, bored, emptying the few items he'd plundered from the Thousand-Year Ice Tomb from his backpack. He was squinting his greedy eyes at the setting sun, admiring them with smug satisfaction.

The sacred fruit pit, the golden mask of the strange-eyed ice corpse, the cold essence soul-gathering coffin, the dark green black iron token, and even the memorial tablet of Menelik I were dug out.

Shirley Yang couldn't understand the purpose of the runes on the Xuan Tie token either, only saying that it should be a token used by ancient monarchs to symbolize their status.