This black dragon was built along the steps leading up the mountain, but Xi Heng was not going to follow it up the mountain this time. Instead, he would go into the mountain to a fork in the road and then walk down towards the dragon's tail.
There are dense trees of all kinds on the mountain, and it is rare to see similar tree species planted side by side.
Perhaps all the trees that could be planted in Zhao State were scattered on this hillside, like a special botanical museum.
Looking up at the mountainside, you can see flowers competing for beauty. Higher up, there are dense bamboo forests with tall pavilions built in the middle. Beautifully surrounded by mist, it looks like the residence of fairies.
Such a picturesque area also made Xi Heng feel more relaxed.
Although Zhao Qianyuan was a tyrant, one had to admit that he did have some accomplishments in art and architecture.
If there were skill points in this world, he probably put the points that should have been put into governing the country into these areas, right?
However, today is not the time to enjoy the beautiful scenery.
Time passed slowly as her footsteps passed. The girl bypassed the black dragon formed by the entire coal mine and reached the dragon's tail, where she could hear the sound of banging.
Going around the bushes that blocked the view, we got closer and saw that it was a soldier with strong weapons who was smashing the rocks with a sledgehammer.
Pieces of solid rock were smashed into pieces on the ground, and the narrow opening at the front turned into a hole wide enough for a person to pass through.
When the surrounding soldiers saw her coming, they immediately knelt down and saluted the emperor.
When I was leading troops in the army before, I often heard respectful titles and praises, but I had never been respected so excessively.
Xi Heng was already used to it, so she ordered the captain who was commanding this man to stand up and report the current situation to her.
The captain replied: He loosened the iron chains after hearing the dragon's roar, and he no longer dared to act rashly.
After half a day, the hole was just made a little bigger.
Xi Heng held his forehead and said, "Lead the way."
"Yes!"
Everyone stepped into the gorge and walked along a stone staircase leading underground.
There was no end in sight in the dim and narrow passage.
Xi Heng snatched the torch from a soldier nearby and walked in front.
At this moment, she had taken off the loose dragon robe that restricted her movements and changed into her usual light and tight clothes. She had swords on her waist and back, and several spell runes were painted on the back of her hands and arms.
After all, there might really be a living dragon in front of us... The mortals who have simply swallowed the dragon's heart are extremely powerful, and the real dragon should be even stronger, so we need to deal with it with caution.
Before coming, Xi Heng even thought about whether he should save some energy first in case of any emergency.
But then he thought that maybe there wasn't a real dragon in it, and he might just be fighting wits and courage in the air.
Anyway, let’s take a look first.
The soldiers followed her, slowly descending the stone steps.
The stone steps seemed to have no end. Xi Heng walked in this dim, silent and narrow space for an unknown period of time, and his mood became a little depressed.
It seemed like a few minutes had passed, but it also seemed like more than ten minutes had passed.
The stone walls on both sides of the steps gradually became wider and wider, until finally, the space suddenly opened up - she entered a cave.
"We should be dozens or hundreds of meters underground here." Xi Heng speculated, raising the torch and looking around.
It is no longer quiet here, there is a slight sound of flowing water.
There are towering stalagmites and stone curtains above the cave, and stalactites of various shapes scattered throughout the bottom, making it look like a natural palace made of strange rocks.
People slowed down their pace, and the sound of dripping water around them seemed quiet and mysterious.
"The Dragon Locking Well is at the end of this cave?"
"Yes, Your Majesty." The centurion responded nervously.
The atmosphere in this place is really depressing. The endless darkness and chilliness make people feel cold.
It seemed as if something was watching them from the dark.
"Hidden dozens of meters underground, some of them may actually be dragons..."
Xi Heng murmured.
This place was too dark. If all the torches were extinguished, even with her extraordinary eyesight, she would have difficulty seeing clearly around her.
"Torches will eventually burn out, so hurry up."
The girl quickened her pace.
Dozens of guards and followers had no choice but to follow closely.
The sound of footsteps continued to echo in the cave, as if something was walking with them in the darkness on all sides.
During this time, someone was lost for a moment and tripped by some unclear rocks. He fell to the ground and screamed in pain, which aroused everyone's vigilance.
At this moment, Xi Heng saw several spots of light in the distance.
After approaching cautiously, I saw some flat mushrooms that looked like jellyfish growing in the corner of the stone wall, and for some reason they could emit a faint light.
The closer we got to the deepest part of the cave, the more fluorescent objects we saw, until it was finally no longer pitch dark.
For some reason, the cliff wall became smoother as the number of light spots increased.
Suddenly, Xi Heng saw a blurry and faded mural painted on the stone wall in the distance.
She ran over quickly, torch held high.
The first mural was a picture of a rampaging dragon - the long dragon, which had faded and turned gray, bared its fangs and claws at the mortal town, and water gushed out of its protruding throat, flooding the city.
It was useless for mortals to resist by shooting arrows, so they could only pray to the gods.
The plot of the mural is coherent, so you can watch it in its entirety by walking forward.
The next painting shows a fairy riding on clouds and mist arriving in response to prayers, waving his whisk to create countless iron chains, which pin the raging dragon to the ground.
The gray dragon wanted to escape underground, but he could not break free of the iron chains and was wrapped tightly into a ball. He was also imprisoned deep underground by an immortal and flooded by the immortal.
Afterwards, the immortal ordered mortals to build the Dragon Locking Well, hang dragon-binding iron chains on the eight pillars beside the well, and form a formation to make it indestructible.
The evil dragon struggled for a long time, and finally fell into a deathly silence - at least that's what the mural showed.
Xi Heng is not sure what the actual situation is.
I just feel that the probability of a real dragon existing here is getting higher and higher.
"The story on this mural is similar to the story of the Dragon Locking Well that was circulated in the previous Wu Dynasty..." She thought:
"If the two are consistent, this place has existed hundreds of years ago."
"Zhao Qianyuan built a mountain here, perhaps it has something to do with the fact that this place is the location of the Dragon Locking Well..."
"But why didn't he mention Long in his diary?" Xi Heng pondered for a while and came up with only two guesses:
First, there is no dragon down there at all.
Second, the location of the mountain may not have been decided by Zhao Qianyuan, but was discussed by the Taoist priests and alchemists in the palace. Among them, some knew about the Locking Dragon Well and thought that the dragon veins could be used to increase the spiritual energy of the sacred mountain, so they decided to build the mountain here.
However, Zhao Qianyuan is dead now, and since Xuantian Sect was adopted as the state religion, most of the Taoists and monks have left the capital, making the speculation difficult to verify.
The mural ends, the road ahead becomes smoother, and the fluorescence becomes more and more numerous.
A few minutes later, the Dragon Locking Well that Xi Heng had been longing for appeared in front of him.
The well was square, nearly ten meters long and wide, and was built with square stones. There were several wide pillars several people tall standing around it, and on top of them were tied the thick chains that the messenger had mentioned.
Compared with the eight iron chains on the mural, there were only four unevenly distributed ones left beside the stone well in front of him, and the so-called immortal formation had completely disappeared.
On the side, you can see the remnants of two stone pillars that seemed to have been torn apart... I wonder who has such great strength.
Xi Heng walked slowly to the well.
The well had long been dry, and even when looking down with a torch, no ripples of water could be seen.
She then picked up a piece of gravel and let it fall freely. Many seconds later, she heard the sound of it falling into the water.
"So deep..."
"Just now, you can see the water in the well directly on the mural, but now the water has reached the bottom of the well by hundreds of meters... How many years of drying up did it take to become like this?"
Hundreds of years have passed, perhaps?
Today there is still the sound of dragon roaring - could it be that the dragon is still alive after such a long time?
There is obviously no spiritual energy in the world anymore, so why can it survive so long?
Xi Heng hesitated for a moment, then turned around and gave orders to the dozens of soldiers following him:
"Pull the iron chain and pull the dragon up"
If there really is a dragon down there - she added silently in her heart.
The centurion who followed followed the order and led more than 40 soldiers behind him to hold the iron chains tightly on all sides.
Take a deep breath, shout together, and pull it up together.
Wow,
The heavy iron lock suddenly jumped at the side of the well, making a series of noises.
People inserted their arms into the lock ring and pulled back hard again.
This cycle repeated for the tenth time, and suddenly a muffled howl came from far below the Dragon Locking Well.
"howl--"
The cave and the iron chain resonated, and the ground trembled slightly.
And when I heard this roar, I always felt that something huge and vast was staring at me.
Xi Heng steadied himself and frowned slightly.
This roar was different from the two dragons she had killed in the northern border, like the difference between a young dragon and an old dragon...
There was a certain power in the roar, and she was sure that there was indeed a dragon below.
"Your Majesty..." The soldier next to him had obviously given up.
"Keep pulling." Xi Heng said in a calm voice.
The centurion gritted his teeth and nodded, then pulled the iron chain up a little more.
The dragon's roar echoed again as the chain was pulled up. It was impossible to tell whether there was any emotion in it, but the sound was getting louder and louder, making people more panic-stricken.
Just when people were about to give up due to fear, the huge iron chain in their arms suddenly stopped.
With a thud, the four iron chains stopped almost at the same time.
People were stunned for a moment, and when they tried to pull it up again, they found that they couldn't pull it up no matter how hard they tried.
I felt more relaxed just now, probably because I didn't pull up any real objects.
And now, I have truly touched the 'dragon'.
"Is it very heavy..." Xi Heng said to himself.
She also leaned towards the chain in front of the centurion, and regardless of the dampness and dirt on it, she directly wrapped her arm around the rusty iron chain.
His mind moved slightly, and his strength surged, pulling upwards violently.
click -
The iron lock was straightened, but still stuck in place.
Immediately, the most violent roar came from below the Dragon Locking Well.
Even though it was hundreds of meters away, it was still deafening.
The soldiers at the rear retreated several steps in panic, but Xi Heng ignored them, leaned towards the well and grabbed the iron chain to prevent it from getting stuck at the well mouth, and continued pulling.
As his qi and blood surged, tremendous energy was attached to the iron chain, almost using all his strength.
After all, the ground beneath his feet was cracked like spider webs, but the chain remained motionless.
"Are you so strong?" the girl said to herself, and tried to exert more strength.
In the end, I was still unable to move at all.
In theory, her full strength was enough to pull down a palace.
It has no effect on this chain...
She thought of the mural just now. The iron chain had rolled the dragon into a ball. If she wanted to pull the iron chain, she would probably have to pull the whole dragon as well...
