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墨書 Inktalez
Chapter 152 Xuan Bird
Looking at these items, I couldn't help but feel excited. We had lost all our belongings in the river earlier, and these items were exactly what we needed. So, I directly collected the items, and of course, I took a Control Corpse Talisman and placed it on the chest of the Corpse. This was a place for raising corpses, and the reason this Corpse had not undergone Corpse Transformation must be due to the Control Corpse Talisman in this bundle.
After this little incident, we continued searching for the Vermilion Bird. We did not overlook any of the patterns on the stone walls, including many bird designs, some of which were ancient birds and beasts we had never seen before, but none resembled the Vermilion Bird.
The Vermilion Bird could be referred to as the Phoenix Man or Xuan Bird. In mythology, the Vermilion Bird is described as having a chicken's head, a swallow's chin, a snake's neck, a fish's tail, and five-colored patterns. Its image in folklore combines features of a pheasant's tail, a chicken's body, a chicken comb, an eagle's eyes, eagle claws, an eagle's neck, peacock feathers, and mandarin duck feathers.
Although we knew what the Vermilion Bird looked like, we searched every inch of the stone walls in the Stone Chamber and still did not see any patterns resembling the Vermilion Bird. This left us in a predicament, especially Cao Qilong, who looked dejected and said, "What should we do? The Vermilion Bird doesn't exist in this place at all. Could it be that our thinking is wrong? The mechanism might not even be related to the Vermilion Bird?"
To be honest, after searching for so long without any clues, I shared similar thoughts with Cao Qilong. However, my intuition told me that the Vermilion Bird must exist; three of the Four Spirits were already accounted for; it was impossible for only the Vermilion Bird to be missing. We just didn't know where it was hidden!
Thinking about this, I shook my head slightly and said, "If the mechanism isn't related to the Vermilion Bird, then the stonemason wouldn't have deliberately left out its carving. Let me think again; we must have gone wrong in our search for it."
After saying that, I ignored Cao Qilong and returned to stand in front of the Stone Gate, examining the Azure Dragon and White Tiger on it, as well as the Xuanwu above the lintel. After observing for a while, I suddenly had an idea and called Cao Qilong over. I said to him, "Senior Brother, look at how these three spirits are arranged: there’s an Azure Dragon on the left door and a White Tiger on the right. Why is Xuanwu not carved on the door but instead above it on the lintel? Don’t you find that strange?"
Cao Qilong replied, "What's so strange about that? Look at these two Stone Gates, they are filled with various carvings; there’s no space left for Xuanwu!"
I shook my head: "No, that's not right. If the stonemason really wanted to carve Xuanwu on the door or wanted to include the Vermilion Bird as well, he could have chosen not to carve other birds or beasts."
Cao Qilong glanced at me and then asked in surprise, "Shidi, do you mean you've figured something out?"
I nodded and pointed at the three spirits on the Stone Gate: "Left is Azure Dragon, right is White Tiger; above is Xuanwu. The arrangement must be intentional. As they say: north is above and south is below; west is left and east is right. The Vermilion Bird is associated with the south while Xuanwu is associated with the north; Azure Dragon represents east and White Tiger represents west. Now we are standing opposite to the gate; thus left and right are reversed. This means that if viewed from the gate's position, left would actually be White Tiger and right would be Azure Dragon, right?"
With my reminder, Cao Qilong suddenly understood. He said: "So you're saying that according to north being up and south being down—since north is above—Xuanwu is carved above because it represents the northern spirit?"
I nodded and pointed at the Stone Gate, saying, "What we see now is that the left gate is the Azure Dragon and the right gate is the White Tiger. However, we are standing opposite the gate, so left and right are actually reversed. Up is north and down is south, left is west and right is east. The Azure Dragon is the god of the east, so it is carved on the right gate, while the White Tiger is the god of the west, so it is carved on the left gate."
"Then the Vermilion Bird is the god of the south. Since up is north and down is south, doesn't that mean the Vermilion Bird must be hidden below?" Cao Qilong exclaimed.
I nodded. Although from my current perspective, the Azure Dragon was on the left and the White Tiger was on the right, we had to remember that we were looking from the opposite side, so left and right were indeed reversed. In other words, according to the proper orientation of the gates, the left door actually depicted the White Tiger and the right door depicted the Azure Dragon. Furthermore, with the Black Tortoise above, wasn't this just following the arrangement of up being north, down being south, left being west, and right being east? If our reasoning was correct, then with up being north and down being south, it naturally meant that the Vermilion Bird was indeed below.
As soon as I deduced this conclusion, we hurriedly looked down at the Stone Gate but found no carving of the Vermilion Bird beneath it, which left us disappointed once again.
I couldn't help but wonder aloud, "Could it be that our reasoning was wrong again?"
Cao Qilong replied, "It shouldn't be wrong. Your reasoning seems quite reliable; let's keep searching."
Then Cao Qilong began to crouch down on the ground to search. In fact, there wasn't much to find on the ground since it was all Bluestone Slabs without any carvings. However, just when I thought we needed to rethink our approach, Cao Qilong suddenly exclaimed in surprise, "I found it! I found it! This slab is empty!"
Hearing this made me extremely excited as I rushed over to ask him if it was really empty.
Cao Qilong was also very excited; he quickly tapped on the Bluestone Slab beneath him, producing a series of hollow sounds. Clearly, there was space beneath it. He tapped a few more times and then struck some other nearby Bluestone Slabs before looking up proudly and saying, "See? It's empty! I believe what we're looking for—the Vermilion Bird—must be underneath here."
I nodded in agreement and together we lifted up the Bluestone Slab. It was quite large—about as big as an Eight Immortals Table—so one person couldn't lift it alone.
Once we lifted it open, we saw a statue revealed beneath it. At first glance, this statue resembled a bird that looked like a chicken with patterns on it. But upon closer inspection, one would notice it had a swan's head, a qilin's hindquarters, a snake's neck, a fish's tail, dragon patterns, a turtle's body, a swallow's chin, and a chicken's beak—it looked extremely strange yet fierce. Seeing such a stone statue made us instantly recognize it; this was exactly what we had been searching for—the Vermilion Bird!
This discovery thrilled both me and Cao Qilong. Since there really was a Vermilion Bird here, it further confirmed that our reasoning had been correct all along. The fact that they deliberately hid the Vermilion Bird underground likely indicated that it could very well be related to opening the Stone Gate.
At that moment, we began to carefully examine this Vermilion Bird statue. It was large and seemed to have been carved out of an entire mountain body in the ground; extracting it would be impossible. In front of it was a small offering table with three small Oil Lamps on top; there was still oil in them after all these years—who knew what kind of oil could last for millennia without drying out?
Of course, it wasn't surprising that there was a small offering table with Oil Lamps in front of the Vermilion Bird. The Vermilion Bird is also known as Xuan Bird. The Book of Songs states: "Heaven commands Xuan Bird to descend and give birth to Shang; its land stretches far." This refers to how in ancient times during Shang Dynasty mythology they claimed their ancestor Qi was born from Xuan Bird’s egg when he established a powerful Shang Dynasty. Thus Xuan Bird became regarded as an ancestor of merchants. The Records of the Grand Historian also recounts this history: "Yin Qi's mother was Jian Di; she was a woman from Rong Di who became Emperor Ku's secondary consort... Three women bathed together and saw Xuan Bird following its egg; Jian Di took it and swallowed it and thus became pregnant with Qi." Besides Shang Dynasty references, similar tales involving Xuan Bird’s egg are also found in stories about Qin during Warring States period and about founding ancestors of Manchu Qing Dynasty and Silla in Korea. Whether referred to as Xuan Bird or Phoenix Man, these figures evolved alongside Taoism from being depicted as birds or peacocks or mountain chickens into half-human half-bird beings representing military strategies until they became fully human figures within Taoist development.
In Beijing, there were three temples dedicated to the Xuan Nu, known as the Nine Heavens Goddess Temple and Xuan Nu Temple. There are also Xuan Nu Temples in both northern and southern regions. Therefore, it is quite common to have an offering table in front of the Zhuque.
In fact, not only Zhuque, but the other three spirits are the same. The Xuanwu was later elevated by the Yin-Yang Sorcerer to become the great emperor of the north, the True Martial Emperor. The Azure Dragon and White Tiger became the Door Gods of the Mountain Temple, representing the mountain gods' protection in the so-called left Azure Dragon and right White Tiger of Feng Shui. The Vermilion Bird became the Nine Heavens Xuan Nu.
Returning to the main point, after carefully examining Zhuque, we encountered a troubling issue again because we did not find any mechanisms on Zhuque. We thoroughly searched Zhuque from top to bottom, touching and probing every part, but there was no sign of any mechanism.
At this point, we were dumbfounded, wondering if the mechanism to open the door was not on Zhuque itself. But if it wasn't on Zhuque, why was it deliberately hidden underground?
Our minds were in chaos, and Cao Qilong was similarly perplexed, still unwilling to give up as he continued to feel around Zhuque's body in search of the so-called mechanism.
However, he lay on the ground, turning over and over without any success. Finally, he helplessly said, "Senior Brother, you’re smarter than I am; think carefully about where this mechanism could possibly be located on this thing?"
I rolled my eyes and replied, "I'm not a genius. We've searched Zhuque from head to toe and haven't seen anything special. It seems we really have no way out."
Cao Qilong sighed and said, "What should we do? If we can't open the Stone Gate, we can't get over this mountain above us. If we can't cross the mountain, we won't reach the Sanzu River on the other side, and we won't find the Ming Ship."
I felt equally helpless as I looked at Zhuque before me but couldn't find any abnormalities, which made me feel quite discouraged. At that moment, Cao Qilong pointed at the offering table in front of Zhuque and said, "Don't you like looking for differences? Look at how the other three spirits don’t have offering tables; only this Zhuque has one. Do you think this mechanism might be related to that offering table?"
Hearing his words made my heart skip a beat. Of course, I wasn't thinking about the offering table itself but rather about the Five Elements: East corresponds to Azure Dragon (Wood), West corresponds to White Tiger (Metal), South corresponds to Zhuque (Fire), North corresponds to Xuanwu (Water). Since Zhuque belongs to Fire in the Five Elements and there is an Oil Lamp on its offering table, could it be that lighting the Oil Lamp would open the Stone Gate?
With that thought in mind, I suddenly became excited again. I shared my idea with Cao Qilong, who also found it reasonable. I then took out a Talisman; with a command given, it ignited. I proceeded to light up the three Oil Lamps in front of Zhuque!
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