Chapter 29: Stone Tablet

The bubbles came up evenly, at a high frequency, and also tended to expand outwards, as if there was a big guy under the pool, gasping for air. The three of us were on guard, holding our guns, and our backs pressed tightly against the wall. I was so nervous that I was a little powerless, my palms were full of sweat, and I didn't know what was waiting for me. The bubbles came up for about five minutes, and suddenly there was a puzzling muffled sound from the bottom of the pool. At the same time, the water level of the pool began to drop, and a dozen whirlpools gradually appeared on the water surface. I saw water splashing, as if a dozen flush toilets were pumping water at the same time, and the basin coffin began to spin desperately with the water flow, like a spinning top. In an instant, the water level dropped two or three meters. I was puzzled and hurriedly took a flashlight to shine into the pool. I actually saw a stone staircase on the inner wall of the pool. The stone staircase spiraled down along the stone wall and seemed to lead directly to the bottom of the pool. It went under the water very quickly. Before I could observe it carefully, it had already disappeared into the dark bottom of the pool. Only the roar of the whirlpool continued to be heard. I used the flashlight to scan it briefly and found that the pool was bowl-shaped, wide at the top and narrow at the bottom, and it was more than ten meters deep. The flashlight was not penetrating enough, and the bottom was surrounded by mist. The bottom of the pool was hidden in the misty darkness and nothing could be seen clearly. I remembered that we still had a deep-water flashlight with extremely strong penetrating power. I wondered if it would work on the mist. I hurriedly asked them to turn on the lights and adjusted the light to the maximum, shining it from three different directions at the same time. Although it was not transparent this time, the appearance of the bottom was barely outlined . The bottom of the pool was a circular plane with a diameter of 10 meters, with relief carvings on it. The specific pattern was unclear, but it was certain that there were several large holes on it, which looked like the opening for entering the water. In the center of the pool was a ball of water vapor, with dark shadows rubbing inside. I didn't know what was inside. The fat man had sharp eyes and pondered for a long time, then said, "Did you see that there seemed to be a stone tablet in the middle of the pool?" I looked down in the direction he pointed, but could only see an outline. The fat man said, "I don't know where this stone staircase leads to. Maybe there are other passages below. Let's go down and take a look!" He jumped onto the stone staircase. This ancient tomb was strange and unusual. I didn't agree to go down rashly, and shouted, "Don't worry, it's too dangerous to go down like this. At least wait until the water mist below is gone." The fat man had already walked down several steps and said, "It's okay. I'll go down and take a look. If it's not easy to walk, I'll come back naturally." I knew his temper and did not stop him. I watched him walk down for about two circles. He seemed to encounter something, so he squatted down to take a look. After looking for a few seconds, he looked up and yelled to us: "Damn it, there are foreign words here!" I was stunned when I heard this. How could it be possible? There were foreign words in an ancient tomb of the Ming Dynasty. What a joke. I shouted, "What the hell are you talking about? How could there be foreign words in an ancient tomb? Did you misread the patterns?" The fat man cursed angrily: "Although your fat uncle is not good at foreign words, he knows ABCD . You think too little of me! If you don't believe me, come down and see for yourself!" I said, " Read to me what is engraved on it." The fat man was so angry that he cursed, "If I can understand it, do I need to ask you to come down!" I didn't plan to go down, but now I had no choice but to go down. I sighed and jumped like the fat man onto the stone steps. The stone steps were only half a meter long and seemed to be made of a whole piece of Qinggang rock. One end was inserted into the pool wall. I stamped hard a few times. It was very stable and there was no danger of collapse. At this time, Menyoupingzi also jumped down. We walked towards Fatty one after the other. Fatty stood on the steps, like a wall. He pointed at the pool wall and said, "Look here. If this is not foreign language, I will write the word Wang upside down!" I looked and saw that someone had really chiseled out a few letters on it. The traces were neither new nor old. I thought that it might be carved by Uncle San and his group 20 years ago. I couldn't help but be secretly surprised. Could it be that this group of people came to this place when Uncle San was sleeping? Then could their disappearance be related to this strange pool? The fat man saw me in a daze and patted me hard, "Is it true or not? Tell me now!" I nodded and said, "Yes, yes, I apologize. This is really fucking English." The fat man was proud and slapped his thigh, "I was wondering why it was so strange. We have been looking for this broken bucket for so long, but we can't find anything good. It turns out that the foreigners got there first. When the Eight-Nation Alliance came, they didn't leave us anything. This time, there is probably nothing left." I thought for a while and said, "It can't be said to be foreigners. Chinese people can also write foreign characters. When it comes to carving, it takes much less time to carve foreign characters than Chinese. These letters are abbreviations. I think it may be a symbol. You can see that he carved it in a hurry. I'm afraid that when he was walking down, something urgent happened, or someone was urging him. He carved a few letters here to leave a mark for the people coming later." The fat man said, "Hearing what you said, it makes sense. What do you think they went down here for? Is there any treasure?" I knew he was thinking about something else, so I ignored him. The fat man chased me and said, "We still have plenty of time, why not go down and take a look? Maybe we can find some bronze tools to use as tools, isn't it killing two birds with one stone?" I looked down. I don't care about treasures. I don't want money that I can earn but not spend. But if I can find out the whereabouts of Wen Jin and the others down there, it's worth a look. I was hesitating whether to continue walking, when I suddenly heard Men Youping next to me say, "I think I've been to this place before!"