"Elder Dong, be careful!"
Fortunately, Professor Li was quick-witted and grabbed Elder Dong.
But Professor Li was very curious. Others might be understandable, but Elder Dong, a big shot in the industry with vast experience, must have seen countless burials. How could he be frightened?
So, out of curiosity, Professor Li also peered into the well.
To his surprise, in the next second, he shivered, his face turned pale, and his head felt dizzy. He almost fell in!
At the bottom of the well lay a pile of corpses, scattered haphazardly.
They were not really corpses, but only withered skin!
Hollow, eerie eyes stared up at the sky.
From the well's opening, looking down, their gazes met those of the corpses!
The scene was as gruesome as it could be, as chilling as it could be!
It took Professor Li a long time to recover.
"Human sacrifice... and a very cruel form of it," Elder Dong said slowly.
"It's just impossible to know when these people were sacrificed. Was it when the Xuan Well was first built, or was it a later sacrifice to appease the Xuan Well?"
"If it's the former, it's fine, just a ritual. But if it's the latter, then it's bad."
"Because people wouldn't sacrifice others for no reason. It must be that something terrifying happened in the Xuan Well, forcing them to resort to such drastic measures."
"It's a pity there are no historical records. We can only grope in the dark, relying on ourselves."
Elder Dong's words left Professor Li and Wang Zizai in silence.
The scene became deathly quiet, with only the occasional sound of wind from the Xuan Well, like the whimpers of ghosts and spirits.
The workers responsible for the excavation instinctively moved some distance away from the Xuan Well, clearly startled by this strange and peculiar dry well.
"What do we do next?"
"Do we go down to the bottom of the well to investigate, or observe first?"
Elder Dong looked at Professor Li and Wang Zizai.
"Let's observe first. I have a feeling this well is not right. Rushing down might lead to trouble," Wang Zizai finally decided.
He was the absolute authority on Han tombs.
Even Elder Dong had to listen to his opinion.
So, Elder Dong handed the powerful flashlight to Wang Zizai and moved away from the well's opening.
Wang Zizai then lay down at the opening, using the flashlight to examine the situation inside the well.
After a moment, Wang Zizai suddenly exclaimed, "These well bricks... seem a bit strange..."
"There seem to be patterns carved on the brick walls. But they are not very clear..."
"Bring the detector over."
As Wang Zizai commanded, someone immediately brought a detector.
Wang Zizai carefully lowered the detector into the well, and the images inside the well were displayed on the screen bit by bit.
When the detector's lens finally focused on the well bricks, everyone present let out a gasp.
Because these well bricks were indeed as Wang Zizai had said, extremely strange!
Although the well bricks were covered in moss due to time.
It was still faintly visible that under the strong light, these well bricks exhibited a translucent luster from within.
And this kind of luster was usually only seen in jade!
This meant that these well bricks were likely not ordinary square bricks, but made of some kind of jade!
If only one brick was made of jade, it would be fine. But the most crucial point was that the entire Xuan Well was made of the same kind of brick!
This meant that the Xuan Well itself was a huge treasure!
Instantly, many of the construction workers' eyes lit up.
However, following Elder Dong's warning, they immediately extinguished their thoughts.
"Don't get any ideas. All of this belongs to the state. Even Mr. Ying, who funded the excavation, would not claim these things as his own, so you shouldn't even think about it."
"Besides, the compensation for this excavation is the highest in the industry. If you take the money you deserve, you can have peace of mind. Do you think if you pocket a jade brick, they won't find you? It won't be as simple as returning the brick; you'll be sentenced to prison!"
"We understand, we understand," the workers all replied.
Only one worker's eyes flickered with an unusual light, clearly not having taken Elder Dong's words to heart, or perhaps not considering them important at all.
"Elder Dong, Professor Li, look! Although the patterns on these jade bricks are different, they almost all express the same thing!"
"That is feeding!"
"This means these could be another type of Dragon-Feeding Brick!"
Wang Zizai said.
Previously, China had unearthed some bricks and stones with patterns.
The patterns all depicted scenes of humans feeding dragons.
Thus, those bricks were called Dragon-Feeding Bricks.
And now, these jade bricks in the Xuan Well also expressed a similar meaning, but it was unknown what was being fed in these Xuan Well jade bricks.
"The patterns are too small and a bit blurry. I can't see what food is being fed in the patterns..."
"Try to zoom in on the patterns."
Elder Dong leaned forward and said.
Wang Zizai then operated the detector, zooming in on the image.
He expected the image to become extremely blurry after zooming in.
But to everyone's surprise, as the image zoomed in, it did not become blurry but remained clear!
This meant that the patterns on these jade bricks were themselves exquisitely carved!
They were not hastily sketched!
Just like a high-resolution photo, even if magnified a thousand or ten thousand times, the details would still be clear!
Finally, the image was magnified to a certain extent, and Elder Dong and the other two saw the food being fed.
But after seeing it, all three of them had their pupils contract sharply, and they stood frozen in place.
They remained silent for a long time.
Because the food in the image was actually two eyes!
The person feeding was using a fork to hold two eyes and offering them to something in the distance.
Their pious and fearful expressions seemed as if they were worshipping some terrifying entity!
"Look at the next one!"
Finally, Elder Dong spoke.
The image then shifted to other jade bricks, repeating the same process.
And this time, the food in the image shocked all three of them again.
This time, the food was a pair of ears!
"Look again!"
Elder Dong said decisively.
And the third image was a tongue!
"Eyes, ears, tongue... Next will it be a nose and mouth?"
Elder Dong murmured.
As expected, when the image moved to the fourth and fifth ones, they were indeed a nose and a mouth!
Eyes, ears, nose, tongue, mouth – they were all accounted for!
It was as if the person feeding wanted to offer all the facial features of a human to some entity, to give it a human face!
This bizarre and terrifying act sent chills down the spines of Elder Dong and the other two.
No wonder Ying Chen said this Xuan Well was dangerous and that workers had to wear amulets.
It turned out it might truly be suppressing some strange entity!
"How about we stop here for now? We can organize these images and go back to research what is being fed."
"After we figure it out, we can make further plans."
"Besides... the sun has set now, and these workers are also scared. It's not suitable to continue working."
Wang Zizai suggested.
Elder Dong and Professor Li exchanged glances and nodded.
So, everyone temporarily stopped work and returned to their quarters.
Only one worker, under the guise of going to urinate on the way back, secretly returned to the vicinity of the Xuan Well.