"What do you mean? What's wrong with this classmate?"
"Young Master Wei, to tell you the truth, it is my first time to come to Bantuo Ancient City, but I know that there have been some minor troubles here in the past." The monk said seriously: "But don't worry, we will try our best to avoid those troubles.
"
"You mean, this place is dangerous?" I thought about the monk's words, then looked at Bantuo who was very close at hand, and suddenly felt that the change in Bai Yin's expression might be related to this.
"I don't know what to say." The monk glanced at Baiyin, who had already walked away, and said, "Baiyin is not one of ours, but he had a deep friendship with us in the past and is absolutely reliable. He has brought two groups of people here before.
Bantuo, he doesn’t know the specific origins of these two groups of people, but several people died in Bantuo.”
"I don't deny that Bai Yin is reliable, but the way he looks makes me feel on edge." I took off the hat on my head and shook the sand vigorously: "You said you would ensure the safety of Ma Dad and me, but that doesn't mean that we should be kept safe.
Push it into the fire pit?"
"Young Master Wei, no one will harm you here. I told you that after entering, we will avoid dangerous places." The monk pointed to a building not far away and said, "Did you see that? We have to avoid that place.
As long as you avoid it, everything shouldn't be a big problem."
I looked in the direction pointed by the monk. That building was probably the tallest and most majestic building in Bantuo City. It was half buried by the sand, but it could still be seen from outside the city. This kind of place could not be an ordinary place.
The houses are not like the temples scattered throughout Xixia.
I thought about it and said, "If you know where the danger is, what else does Baiyin have to be afraid of?"
"Before this, we never thought about coming to Bantuo, so no one knew what Baiyin had experienced. It wasn't until we asked him to lead us this time that he told us something. Maybe it was what happened to him.
It's a bit abnormal, so there is a psychological shadow." The monk smiled bitterly: "It's like you hit a ghost in an old house, and you will still be frightened when you pass by the old house again."
In my opinion, the ancient city of Bantuo has been abandoned for hundreds of years, and its location is not a desperate situation. Some people who study the history of Xixia should have known long ago, like Fang Lao last time, in order to find the Xixia documents lost here
, has come here three times. If the monk is really as mysterious as he said, he cannot escape unscathed every time. Although something happened to Mr. Fang’s two students, according to normal logical analysis, the place where the incident happened should not be
Bantu.
In fact, many things are not mysterious in themselves, but have been made famous by people through false rumors. I was still thinking wildly, and the monk took a drink of water and said: "Young Master Wei, I won't hide it from you, there may be something underground under that building.
It’s a very valuable thing, but for the safety of you and Ma Dad, we won’t take advantage of it this time. As long as we successfully get the bronze medal, we’ll leave immediately.”
I was startled at the time. In my opinion, what the old man and Lei Yingxiong valued most was the Xixia bronze medal. Besides, what else could be found in this dilapidated ancient city buried by wind and sand? I still have many more
I didn't understand the situation clearly. It's rare for a monk to tell the truth. If I didn't take the opportunity to ask a few more questions, I felt like it would be a shame. I caught up with him and asked, "What valuables are there down there?"
"These are all rumors. If you don't go in and see for yourself, no one will know. Young Master Wei, there is no need to think about this anymore. We have given up there and only take what we should take."
I wanted to ask again, but the monk had already pulled me forward. It seemed that he didn’t want to talk about this issue anymore. I also took back what I was about to ask. It was already very difficult for the monk to say this to me.
, if you ask me anything else, he may not be able to tell.
Mustache and the others have slowly approached the area of the ancient city. There is no doubt that this ancient city located deep in the desert was once noisy and prosperous, but now, it is like a body drained of blood, without any vitality.
, lifeless, and the silence is so heart-stopping.
What the monk said just now was a reminder to me, so I felt a little taboo about the tallest building in the city. But as I walked, I discovered that Mustache and the others seemed to be heading there directly. Ma Dad didn’t
Knowing the secret inside, he was still following me dangling behind his buttocks. I was anxious and wanted to shout, but the monk quickly stopped me and said: "Young Master Wei, they are just watching, they don't have any plans here.
Neither Ma Dad nor Lao Gong know what Bai Yin has been through, so don’t make them uneasy."
"What you are saying is nonsense!" I wanted to curse. Since people in this industry know where the hard goods are, they will fight for it even if they risk their lives. No one can bear it. The so-called eating with one's head held high is
What this means is that both the mustache and the monk know there are good things down there, how can they hold back?
"Young Master Wei, I promise, we will only take a look from above. We will not open that door and go in."
I threw away the monk and rushed over. When I approached those people, Lao Gong started to show off again: "I'm afraid you can't guess what this place is for."
"Can you die if you stop talking nonsense?" Ma Dad shook off the sand on his head, frowned and said, "Can you just say what you have to say?"
Anyway, that’s what Madi was like. Lao Gong was a good-tempered man and didn’t mind. He smiled and continued, “This kind of building is called a mandala.”
"Mandala? What is it for?"
"The Xixia people don't know the reasons for many things, such as wind, rain, birth, old age, illness and death. They believe that there is a mysterious power that transcends everything in the world and controls everything. Moreover, they find that things in the world are changing with time.
Change, only the sun, moon and stars will not change. Therefore, the Xixia people believe that these celestial bodies are eternal, that is, they control everything. Once these celestial bodies change, it means that the balance is broken, and unpredictable things will happen.
will come with it. All they can do is sacrifice to the sun, moon and stars in the sky."
"Sacrifice to the stars in the sky?"
"It may not be appropriate to say this. To be precise, this is the Xixia people's unique star worship. Buddhism is popular in Xixia. When they translated Buddhist classics from Chinese and Tibetan, they gradually came into contact with and learned about stargazing in Buddhism, and then integrated into their own nation.
The customs and habits of Xingyao then formed the worship of Xingyao. In Xixia at that time, the place where Xingyao was worshiped was more sacred than the temple. I have seen this kind of mandala at the foot of Helan Mountain. Look." Old Gong took off a piece of sand and pointed at it.
Some remaining marks on the outer wall of this building said: "This is a very common picture of star worship. This place must have been a place where people in Bantuo City worshiped the sun god and moon god in the past."
The Xixia people's star worship can be said to be a product of the fusion of multi-ethnic cultures. Due to its geographical location, Xixia was deeply influenced by Chinese, Tibetan and foreign Indian Buddhist culture. The so-called star worship is actually the most important thing in Buddhism.
A viewpoint that combines the view of celestial bodies and stars with the view of celestial bodies and gods of primitive religion.
There are a total of eleven stars worshiped in the worship of stars, including the sun god, the moon god, the five stars (that is, the five stars of metal, wood, water, fire, and earth), and the four more stars (Rahu, Jidu, Ziqi, and Yuebo). This kind of worship
It seems today that rituals and sacrifices have no scientific basis and will not be of any use, but at that time the Xixia people believed this.
These things are similar to the dancing gods. I don’t believe it at all. However, after all, Xingyao worship is a very important part of Xixia culture. Many scholars have conducted in-depth research. Lao Gong pointed at us for more than ten minutes, but in fact he had no influence on our actions.
Help, after he finally shut up, Ma Dad rubbed his fingers and asked: "Is there anything hard in here?"
"I don't know." Lao Gong shook his head: "Some people always say that when Mongolia destroyed Xixia, many things from Xingqing Mansion were transported in batches to Heishui City and Bantuo, but some people looked for them and couldn't find them at all.
Shadows of those things.”
"If you dig a thousand mistakes, you can't miss one." Ma Dad seemed to be very interested in this place: "Open it and take a look."
Before I could speak out to stop him, Baiyin, who had been silent all this time, suddenly rushed in front of Ma Dad and blocked him. Ma Dad was shocked. At this moment, this sturdy Mongolian man's face was ashen, his forehead
Cold sweat rolled down his face, and his lips were trembling constantly. Baiyin was very nervous, muttering confusing Mongolian and Chinese quickly, and no one could understand clearly.
"What are you doing!" Ma Dad was frightened and took several steps back. He rolled up his sleeves aggressively and wanted to start training with Bai Yin.
I immediately stepped forward to stop Ma Dad, and Mustache also walked up to Baiyin, signaling everyone to calm down. He looked at Baiyin, and then said to us: "You can't move here, it may be dangerous."
Ma Dad and Lao Gong didn't know what happened to this mandala used to worship Xing Yao. When they heard that there was danger, they became nervous and looked around involuntarily. Ma Dad was quite dissatisfied and looked back and forth while talking.
: "I just said that you are an unreasonable person. Why didn't you tell me earlier if you were in danger? You have to hold your shit in your ass before you say anything? How can we cooperate like this? Sooner or later we will break up..."
"What dangers will there be in the mandala?" Lao Gong looked a little unconvinced.
Obviously, this old Gong knew some things about Xixia very well, so he was hesitant about Xiaozi's words. He said that Bantuo used to be just a very ordinary Xixia city-state, but the mandala in front of him was very important to Xixia people.
It is a very sacred place, and it has been deserted for so long, with no signs of life at all. Logically speaking, there should not be any danger.
At this time, Baiyin, who was stopped by Mustache, shuddered slightly and interrupted: "It's true!"
"What really?"
"Here!" Baiyin ran to the entrance of the mandala, which was mostly buried in the sand, pointed at the door covered with hollow iron sheets and said, "This place is not clean!"