Free Web NovelChapter 644: Chapter 612 Exploration_1
The old man sighed and pushed his thick-bottomed glasses up. freewebnσvel.cѳm
"As for this, I can only say, judging from the pictures, the method used to gild the stone carvings suggests that it was made later than the Thirty-three Skies Grottoes. After all, such a thing was not accomplished overnight.
The earliest construction of the Thirty-three Skies that we can verify dates back to the Northern Liang of the Sixteen Kingdoms. It rises forty-three meters above ground level with seven tiers and twenty-one grottoes, terraced like a mountain range. Of course, most of what remains today has been restored in later times, given that many of the Buddha statues and wall paintings are completely destroyed.
The reliable date of completion we have is in the early Ming dynasty... No, it must have been after 1423, which would be the middle of the Ming dynasty, because we have collected a local county chronicle in the Longyou Province Museum that contains precise dates, confirming that the seventh layer of the Thirty-three Skies Grottoes was completed and reached its peak of prosperity in 1423.
But as for this, to tell the truth, it looks too new. The carving techniques and the colored paintings... I don’t know which words to use to describe them. I haven’t seen the real thing, so I can’t make an accurate distinction, but these coffins, with the traces of the paint outlines and the parts that have dripped down, they seem a bit perfunctory, perfunctory indeed!"
Zhou Ning understood. It seemed that the expert had visited the Ganzhou City Museum and seen the coffins that were retrieved earlier. At that time, in the cave, he had not observed closely whether there were traces of dripping lacquer on the patterns, although the ones he had seen were all extremely exquisite and were in the narrative style of lacquer paintings.
He had hoped to get some clues from them, but this outright denial of the artifacts made Zhou Ning feel somewhat taken aback.
As Zhou Ning fell silent for a moment, whether it was the wind blowing or because the fabric covering those coffins was stirred, a gust of sand blew over, and a corner of the fabric lifted, exposing a coffin.
At that moment, the expert looked up and caught sight of this scene.
He paused then rushed straight toward the coffins, moving so eagerly that he didn’t watch his step. He even pushed away a young man who tried to assist him, so he could closely examine the patterns and study them with a magnifying glass.
Mr. Zhao came over with a grin, raised an eyebrow at Zhou Ning, and whispered in his ear:
"See? He’s totally absorbed now. The coffins transported back might not have been the ones at the front. The patterns and the continuity of the narratives on them are all very hurried. It’s easy to understand, after all, Boyegu was destroyed."
Mr. Cui, who was standing on one side, nodded in agreement. Whether or not he’d been well-educated by the city leaders, he had now shed his previous bad habits and was very modest and cautious.
"This expert is a real expert, but the coffin that we transported back was the last one since removing the supporting wooden beams beneath it required starting from the last one. I honestly hadn’t noticed any double-eyelid-like paint imprints on that coffin."
Mr. Zhao held back a laugh.
"It looks like Elder Feng will need a little more time. I’ll go and call our people to start preparing to climb the mountain. It takes time to get up there, even with wooden ladders."
Zhou Ning nodded, and the group began to unload the vehicles and queue up for the climb. Seeing that Elder Feng was not yet finished, Mr. Cui hurried over to urge him on. Only then did Elder Feng come over, his previous arrogance gone, replaced by a continuous flipping through the photos on his camera.
When Elder Feng saw Zhou Ning looking over, he promptly bowed with his hands folded, the gesture of an older generation, which took Zhou Ning by surprise.
"Elder, what’s this for?"
"I, this old fool, have spoken out of turn. I’ve taken pictures of all the coffins just now. There are six here, and one more must be in transit. The one kept in the Ganzhou Museum is probably the last of the eight coffins. The depiction on it is very sloppy, and the paint and gilding seem to be done in a rush."
"Such a thing is absolutely impossible to appear in either a tomb or the depiction of murals; we’ve checked many murals, and there are traces of correcting mistakes. The painting on murals involves layering, and, separated by many years, needs to be redone, somewhat similar to our current preservation methods, repairing the old as old. I don’t know if you can understand what I’m saying?"
"I understand," Zhou Ning said. "Elder Feng means that just from the craftsmanship and the hasty technique, it doesn’t seem like an ancient method. We don’t understand these things; professional matters should be handled by professionals. I think after you see the scene inside the cave personally, you should have your own judgment. Let’s set off as soon as possible."
Elder Feng nodded quickly, organizing his backpack and belongings. Zhou Ning had already walked to the front of the team, holding a loudspeaker and directly said:
"The group assignments were discussed before departure. After we go up, those who need to collect cocoons will do so. Those assigned to check the main chamber and the two inner chambers will split up. The first group to explore to the south, please keep up with our pace. To conserve energy, our group will go first, with each group following at ten-minute intervals. Let’s set off now."
Everyone started to move. Elder Feng did not look at the photos in his camera again nor did he stare at the coffin. At that moment, he wished he could fly up there.
The climb this time was fast, as they were well-prepared, there was no need to choose a path, and a wooden ladder had been made. In just over twenty minutes, they arrived at the cave entrance, where a platform had already been built, capable of directly hoisting items with a pulley from the depression in the mountain.
A few people entered the cave, most carrying lamps similar to miners’ lamps, while Zhou Ning and the others used specially made spectacle lights. After resting for five minutes, Elder Feng ran over to check out the Buddha murals, and the crowd then set off toward the cave to the south side of the coffin.
The entrance was not small, about one and a half meters wide and less than two meters high. After entering the passage and walking through a narrow section, it gradually became more spacious, and it was clear that they were heading uphill.
After progressing several hundred meters, they could hear clear water sounds. At this juncture, Mr. Zhao stopped in his tracks, and Zhou Ning hurried over. The strong flashlights here seemed unable to reach the boundaries.
"What did you find?"
Mr. Zhao pointed to a dark area ahead and, holding a powerful flashlight, said:
"A hundred meters ahead, the traces look naturally formed, not man-made, and it appears very wide. There is wood on the ground here. It’s not very long and is scattered around. These fragments on the ground, if you look closely, are also decayed wood. There seems to be a lot of it, and it’s quite old. Elder Feng, come take a look."
Elder Feng moved briskly to the front, looked left and right at the wood, then advanced a few steps, observing the space, and picked up pieces of the wood to examine them closely.
"It’s as I suspected, this is a hollow gap within the mountain. These pieces of wood would have been used for transporting the coffin. The soft parts underfoot are all decayed fragments. These woods were likely sourced locally. The ones that haven’t decayed are cedar, the same as the tree that fell at the entrance.
As for the decayed ones, they smell of turpentine, which leads me to believe these are pine; they are not as resistant to decay as cedar. And listen, the sound of water is not far. We can look around. These strong flashlights have limited visibility; diffuse light would be better, and it needs to be bright enough."
Before Elder Feng finished speaking, Mr. Zhao had already walked dozens of meters forward, then switched on his hand-held LED light and raised it, instantly illuminating the entire space.
Mr. Cui also came over, very interested in the gadget in Mr. Zhao’s hand, and asked several times where to buy it. Mr. Zhao told him about shopping online.
Zhou Ning and Elder Feng followed the light and walked about a dozen meters ahead. freёweɓnovel.com
The whole space was not particularly high, about the same as the main chamber’s entrance they saw before; however, it was extremely elongated, with no visible ends to the left or right. Echoes carried in their speech, and across, they could see three or four openings about the same size as this side.
But to get there, they would have to cross a very wide and very deep gully. The two walked to the edge of the gully, crouched down, and looked carefully, realizing that the sound of water came from here.
