The Lost Tomb : Sea Of Sands

Chapter 189: Grandpa

I was using my hands to support myself on the mine shaft walls, but there was nothing to hold onto after four or five steps. At that time, I saw the rock formation begin to appear. The coal mine here wasn't so pure, but I could see that the coal seam below was very narrow. I straightened the iron bar on my belt so that it sat horizontally, gritted my teeth, and then jumped down.

After falling more than ten meters, both ends of the iron bar stuck to the coal seams on both sides. They started smoking as they slipped three or four meters before finally getting stuck.

My belt almost snapped, but I made a turn and quickly forgot about it as I saw the mining area below.

There were at least seven floors, all of which consisted of simple platforms made of iron and wood. The place where I was located was only a gap in the coal mine, with the widest area only being three meters wide. I could see a lot of holes in the mining area, but the number was reduced the further down you went. I could even see some snake stones embedded in them that hadn't been mined.

This was the end of the mine shaft. Oxygen would be a problem here since there wasn't much space, but I felt fine for now.

I saw a lot of small jars on the simple platforms, and it appeared the small snakes were extracted from the ore on site, and then put into the jars.

"Are you alright?" Someone asked from above.

I yelled back that everything was fine, and then slowly climbed to the edge of the coal seam, and followed along the iron bar. I hung upside down and picked up one of the jars, only to find that it also held that black oil.

I reached in and felt the scales of the snake inside, and then pulled it out. The snake had become some kind of strange thing. It was obviously dead, but its body seemed to have been pickled. It was full of water and its scales were falling off, but its skin was still elastic.

Different people had different ways of preserving this kind of thing. I shouted to those up top: "I reached the bottom, but it's quite deep here. Let me go in and have a look. Wait for me, and don't leave."

They agreed, so I readied myself, opened the snake's mouth, and saw the tiny fangs inside. I cut out the poison sac inside with the tip of the Kukri and took out one of the fangs that was attached to it. I looked up, dripped the venom into my nose, and then turned off the flashlight and pretended to go deeper into the mine.

This kind of snake poison could cause people to have strong hallucinations. I wasn't sure whether these hallucinations were real information, or just the thoughts in my brain, but I at least seemed to find evidence of the various kinds of patterns produced by these hallucinations in reality.

Whether it was superstition or psychological suggestion, I was a little addicted now.

The toxin quickly entered my brain through the mucous membrane of my nasal cavity, and I immediately started to lose consciousness. A cold feeling quickly spread from my nose to my whole body, and I started to feel like I was a snake.

Black Glasses had said this was how snakes felt, and since they were cold-blooded animals, this cool body temperature was one of their most common senses.

I couldn't see very clear images, and could only make out some fragments, but I could see a lot of bronze pillars being cast separately. Most snakes had eyesight equivalent to the human myopia of two thousand degrees [1], so they mainly relied on their sense of smell to perceive the world. The eyesight of this snake was different from those, but it still wasn't as clear as human eyes.

Not all of the bronze pillars were straight, and they seemed to have a certain radian. They appeared to be parts of a huge ancient bronze tree.

The area of the bronze casting workshop was very large, and I could see altars and a large number of people.

This was somewhat similar to what I had seen in Motuo, but what they were making wasn't the same. On the Motuo murals, there were recordings of several bronze gathering events in the Zhou Dynasty, which must have become part of the ancient bronze tree. The bronze of that era didn't have a grayish green color, but showed a golden luster instead.

I couldn't see the figures clearly, but based on their postures, they were the same strange thing I had seen in Motuo. The shadows seemed to have snake heads, but I didn't know whether they were bronze masks, or the strange and inseparable origin between man and snake as told in the legends.

The vague shadows kept moving, and within an hour, my mind had been stretched countless times. The dull hallucination seemed endless. Sometimes I was awake, and sometimes I was in a daze. My long stay in Motuo had already prepared me for such an experience, so I tried my best to be patient and wait for the images to show something special.

I only saw two different images, one of which was very vague. It seemed as if a group of people had rushed into the foundry and started a large-scale battle with the guards. But I couldn't see anything after only a short period of time, so I figured the snake had been taken away from the scene.

The other image was only the few seconds when the snake was taken out of the rock and put into the jar.

I saw firelight in the darkness, and a blurred face.

I had a compulsive interest in most of the contents of this hallucination, but I had to concentrate all my energy for the last moment.

Since there were often only a few people who excavated these snake mines, I now had a general understanding of what happened in ancient times. But some of the things that happened in modern times were still complicated. Everyone would lie to me, but this kind of snake was the only one that wouldn't.

I can admit that this is the only truth I value.

The blurred face under the firelight was the last thing the snake saw when it was excavated.

It was hard to describe, but I could see that the face had obvious features, which stirred up countless feelings.

The first kind of feeling was familiarity. When I saw this face, I felt as if I had seen it somewhere before, and that sense of familiarity with the various details seemed to overwhelm me.

The second feeling was a complete contrast to the first. It was a kind of negation. In my mind, I was almost immediately certain that I had never seen the owner of this face.

The third kind of feeling was fear. My subconscious began to fear the outcome as I studied and analyzed this face.

Because I soon realized who this was, and why they looked so familiar. I had seen too many of their facial features on the people around me. Including myself. But at the same time, I really hadn't seen this face, because its owner and I weren't in the same era.

It was my grandfather.

The man who had excavated this snake here was my grandfather.

He was wearing a military uniform, but I couldn't see clearly which faction he belonged to. I had seen photos of him when he was young, but I had never seen any where he was in a military uniform. He may just be casually wearing it to blend into this organization.

I could see that he was very young, but back in those days, grandpa was old enough to dominate the business. When exactly was this? When was this snake excavated?

No matter when it was, this meant that grandpa must have at least known about the snakes long ago.

I suddenly felt like there was a possibility of something; a possibility that made me uncomfortable. I never thought that my own family would keep secrets from me. Then what did that say about my existence? 

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Note:

[1] They're nearsighted.