In front of the main cave were more than a dozen small caves, each about two meters high. Zhou Fu glanced at Fu Wulong. Li Jinlong, however, led Li Feihu to the right side of the stone wall.
Zhou Xuan stared blankly at the dozen or so small holes in front of him. He stretched out his fingers and counted them carefully. There were eighteen holes in total. He wondered to himself, could it really be some kind of "Nine Turns and Eighteen Caves"?
The senior executives also stood and carefully examined Zhou Xuan, shining a bright light into the small holes. The holes were winding, and you couldn't see very far, only a few meters.
Zhou Xuan released icy air close to the cave entrance, but seven or eight meters away it was still a deep, dark cave, and he couldn't figure out what was going on. He then tried each cave entrance one by one, but the result was the same.
The Blue High-Rankings didn't know what he was doing either. They looked at Li Jinlong and saw him squatting by the rock wall, waving at them.
The Blue High-Ranking Officer quickly called Zhou Xuan over. There was a skeleton of a dead person next to the rock wall where Li Jinlong and Li Feihu, uncle and nephew, were squatting. It looked like they had died sitting down.
Zhou Xuan and the Blue High-Ranking officials' first reaction upon seeing the human skeleton was: someone has been in this cave!
Li Jinlong said in a low voice, "I estimate that this skeleton is related to our Li family ancestor. Take a look at this!" As he spoke, he opened a heavy old wooden box in his hand. Inside the wooden box was a stack of linen that looked like the "Nine Turns and Eighteen Caves" ancestral mechanism diagram that Li Jinlong had shown them above the cave. However, instead of diagrams, these linen sheets had words on them.
The senior executive took the burlap sack and flipped it over piece by piece. After looking at it, he couldn't help but shake his head. He didn't recognize a single word.
Li Jinlong didn't recognize it either. Zhou Xuan looked at it and saw that it was the same; he didn't recognize a single character.
"You don't even know them, how do you know this is related to your ancestors?" Lan asked him, puzzled.
“Look!” Li Jinlong pulled out the last piece of burlap, pointed to the two characters in the bottom right corner, and said, “Look, I recognize these two characters. They are ‘Li Feng’. These two characters are on my ancestral divination chart. Li Ben was my ancestor!”
As he spoke, Li Jinlong took out his diagram again, then pointed to two small characters on the seal below the diagram and said, "Take a look and see if they are the same?"
Lan Gaofeng and Zhou Xuan spread the two pieces of cloth on the ground, shone a strong light on them, and carefully compared them.
Although the characters on the diagram were smaller, their shape and form were exactly the same as the characters on the burlap in the cave!
This should be correct!
The senior executive then asked, "Besides this wooden box, is there anything else?"
Li Jinlong shook his head. "No, but I'm very curious. Our ancestor's skeleton must have been tampered with. Look, the left calf is broken off and turned into a pile of powder."
"
Zhou Xuan and the Lan executives both looked over. The skeleton was leaning against the stone wall, showing a sitting posture. Its two legs were half-extended in front of it, but the right leg was intact. However, a small section of the left leg in the middle had been reduced to dust, and there was a clear shoe print on the dust.
Moreover, the shoe print has a very obvious pattern, which looks like the pattern of a sneaker. Thinking about it this way, someone has indeed been here.
Could it be that Li Xinyuan and his group were here? But how would they have found this place?
They were completely baffled, but there was nothing they could do, because all seven of Li Xinyuan and the others were dead, and there was no evidence to prove it.
After a while, the senior official pointed to the eighteen entrances ahead and said, "If there's nothing else, there's no need to waste our time and energy here. Old Li, take a look. Which of those eighteen entrances should we go in from?"
Li Jinlong was stunned for a moment, then turned around and looked at the eighteen cave entrances in front of him. After a long while, he exclaimed, "Heavens! It really is a winding path with eighteen caves! It really is a winding path with eighteen caves!"
Li Jinlong was stunned. His nephew, Li Feihu, was unaware of these secrets and was equally puzzled. In the Li family, only one outstanding descendant in each generation knew the ancestral secrets, and they would only be passed on to the next generation when the descendant was about to die. Therefore, apart from him, none of the other nephews and their husbands knew about them.
However, Li Xinyuan's group should be like them; surely one of them should also know this secret.
Of course, only Lan Gaofeng and Zhou Xuan knew more about Li Xinyuan and his group. Based on Lan Gaofeng's secrets about the National Security Bureau, Li Jinlong's ancestral home in Yanshi, and the various legends about the ancient city of Shixianggou in Yanshi, Zhou Xuan estimated that Li Xinyuan's gang had indeed found the location of the treasure and also took away that deadly miniature coffin.
Zhou Xuan didn't know how many more of those things were at the bottom of the cave, nor did he know whether the legend of the extraterrestrial stone was true or false.
He hoped it was fake, but deep down Zhou Xuan had a vague idea that it was more likely to be true, otherwise the miniature coffin forest would be inexplicable.
While Li Jinlong stared blankly at the eighteen cave entrances, Zhou Xuan used his icy energy to probe the hemp cloth pieces in the wooden box in Li Jinlong's hand. As soon as the icy energy touched those things, Zhou Xuan immediately realized that they were made of steel and wood, and the hemp cloth was not pure hemp cloth, but rather woven with some special substances and yellow hemp fibers. Otherwise, ordinary hemp cloth would have weathered into dust long ago after thousands of years, just like the withered bones of Li Feng by the stone wall, which would turn to powder with the slightest movement.
However, from the moment he entered the cave until now, Zhou Xuan had not sensed any deathly aura like that of the miniature coffin. Of course, it was unclear how the white skeleton of the Li family ancestor had died, whether it was also caused by radiation from the miniature coffin or not. This was because Li Feng was now just a pile of bones, which had all weathered away. Now, a light touch with a finger would cause them to crumble into dust.
The substance that Zhou Xuan could distinguish using ice energy only exists in human blood. After a person dies for thousands of years, the blood and essence disappear and decay, so it is impossible to distinguish or detect it from the blood.
Li Jinlong took out his ancestor's diagram and examined it carefully for a long time. However, the diagram was only a small part of the overall diagram of the Nine Turns and Eighteen Caves. It was like reading a book and only picking out ten thousand words from the middle of a million words. That was like the blind men touching an elephant. How could they understand the facts?
Looking at it from all angles, the picture in his hand didn't depict eighteen holes.
The higher-ups thought for a moment and said, "How about this? Let's pick any cave entrance and take a look. If it's blocked, we can come back and try the second one. You see, these caves are all naturally formed stone caves, while your ancestral trap diagrams are man-made. Traps are dangerous. But natural caves shouldn't have those dangers."
Li Jinlong agreed with Lan Gao's analysis and nodded, saying, "Alright, let's start by exploring the first hole on the left. This way, Young Master Xi will have a sequence. If one doesn't work, we can move on to the next one, one by one, so we won't miss anything. This is better!"
After making his decision, Li Fei chose the first hole on the left. He then took out a portable flashlight from his backpack and adjusted the headlamp to diffused light. This way, he could see everything around him, while the flashlight in his hand shone in front of him.
Li Feihu carried the lantern and walked ahead. Zhou Xuan quickly followed, using his ice energy to probe ahead, so that he could keep track of at least seven or eight meters ahead of them.
Lan Gaofeng ranked third, while Li Jinlong came in last.
The rock cave was only about two meters high and one and a half meters wide, and it was basically a bend every three or four meters. After going around in circles a few times, you couldn't tell which way was north, south, east, or west. Even if you really got to the legendary site of the ancient city, you couldn't be sure that it was under the current Yanshi City.
After walking for about fifteen minutes, Li Feihu was still walking forward with the lantern. The cave seemed endless, with no end in sight.
Just then, Zhou Xuan suddenly grabbed Li Feihu and said, "Wait, wait a minute."
Li Feihu paused for a moment, then turned around and asked, "What is it?" Zhou Xuan said, "Slow down, watch your step, the Yin River is ahead!"
Li Feihu and the Blue High-Ranking Officials and Li Jinlong who followed behind were all stunned. Li Feihu looked ahead and saw another bend in the road three meters away. Where was the underground river or any dark river?
Zhou Xuan was taken aback for a moment, then immediately realized he had misspoke and tilted his ear to say, "My ears are very sharp. I can hear the sound of flowing water. It should be after the bend."
Li Feihu was skeptical, but then he continued forward with the lantern. After turning the corner and walking a few meters further, he suddenly exclaimed, "Is it really a river?"
Zhou Xuan, Lan Gaofeng, and Li Jinlong all rushed forward. This place was a bit wider, about two and a half meters wide.
Li Feihu stared blankly ahead, his feet barely touching the ground. About ten meters ahead, the space resembled a pond, with no way forward.
There were faint eddies on the surface of the water, indicating that the water was alive and flowing. Moreover, the strong sunlight shining on the surface of the water made it appear a deep blue, making it impossible to see the depth of the water.