"If the Nine Cauldrons are the ultimate weapons for suppressing demons, then how did they disappear, and where are they now?" Qin Ci said. "I think the two sentences mentioned in this letter, spoken by the wise man, are very noteworthy: 'The Nine Cauldrons still exist, but are not here' and 'They can be known but not seen, seen but not obtained.' These clearly allude to the location of the Nine Cauldrons after their disappearance, but these two sentences are so obscure and difficult to understand."
"The Nine Cauldrons still exist, but are not here... What does 'here' refer to?" Luo Yi asked.
"Not in this place?" Li Xiaochun guessed. "Isn't it said that the Nine Cauldrons were in the Zhou Dynasty at that time, and later they flew into the Si River, so of course they are no longer in the same place." "
...So what the wise man said was nonsense?" Wei Dong looked at Li Xiaochun speechlessly.
"Then what do you think it means?" Li Xiaochun asked back.
"I think it might mean it's no longer in the human world," Wei Dong said. "I remember some stories I read when I was a kid that had a mystical element. For example, the protagonist's sword was a divine sword. After the protagonist completed a certain task, the sword turned into a dragon and flew into the sky, and then disappeared without a trace. There are many similar stories. Maybe the Nine Cauldrons' lifespan was over, and they turned into something and went to heaven. After all, the Nine Cauldrons are divine artifacts, and divine artifacts can't stay in the human world forever. So the wise man said that they still exist, but they are no longer in the human world and have returned to heaven."
"I think Dongzi's line of thinking is correct," Ke Xun said. "But the idea of returning to heaven is a bit far-fetched. Where is heaven? Mars or outer space? I think even if this is a myth, it's impossible that there is a Lingxiao Palace in the nine heavens, with a Jade Emperor leading all the gods. I think it's true that the Nine Cauldrons are no longer in the human world, but where they went is really hard to say."
"Could they be underground?" Wu You said. "Could it be that the demons and ghosts underground stole the Nine Cauldrons? Once they were stolen, there would be no more infrasound waves to affect them, so they tried to steal the Nine Cauldrons."
"Come on, girl, the Nine Cauldrons were still resonating with infrasound back then. Demons and ghosts couldn't possibly come up from underground, so how could they steal them?" Li Xiaochun said.
"Perhaps we should start with the phrase 'knowable but invisible, visible but unattainable,'" Zhu Haowen said. "These two phrases have different meanings.
"Knowable but invisible, I think, refers to 'although we know they still exist, we can't see them with the naked eye.
' "And 'visible but unattainable,' I think, refers to people with superpowers like the Great Shaman or this master. They can see where the Nine Cauldrons are, but they can't get them or tell others their exact location."
"Haowen's idea makes sense," Ke Xun nodded. "Then what we need to figure out next is where these people with superpowers can see but can't explain?"
Everyone fell into thought, but no one could come up with an answer.
"Hey?" Ke Xun patted Wu You on the shoulder. "Didn't this master open his third eye? You should be the most qualified to speak on this!"
Everyone reacted and quickly looked at Wu You.
Wu You was at a loss: "I... I'm not some kind of expert! I can only read bone structures, I can't see anything else!"
"Don't worry, you can try using bone structure to look around this place," Yue Cen said. "Perhaps you can use this method to observe the rock platform tonight."
"That's right, we actually overlooked this point and forgot that Wu You possesses this ability," Shao Ling nodded. "Why not give it a try tonight? Maybe we'll make a breakthrough."
"Okay..." Wu You agreed somewhat nervously.
"Let's put the whereabouts of the Nine Cauldrons aside for now," Hua Jiqiu said. "These lost notes contain more new clues that concern us, such as the origin of the bone structure."
"Yes, the key lies in the first lost note, in the message left by this ancestor who referred to himself as 'Yu'," Shao Ling turned to that page in his notebook and pointed it out to everyone. "It was this master who, after the Nine Cauldrons were lost, was the first to discover the underground demons' attempt to break free of the earth and return to the human world. It was also he who devised a way to replace the Nine Cauldrons' function, transforming the 'Mountain and Sea Map' on the Nine Cauldrons into bone structures and infusing them into people's bodies."
"This master was truly amazing," Wei Dong exclaimed. "If it weren't for his observation of the stars at night and his tireless efforts to find a way to deal with it, our human world would probably have been ruled by demons long ago."
"This letter dates back to around the beginning of the Qin Dynasty," Mu Yiran said. "It was shortly after the Nine Tripods were lost. Fortunately, that era was one where sorcerers were everywhere, and it was also a time when Taoism flourished and a hundred schools of thought contended. The strange movements of demons and ghosts were just noticed by this master; otherwise, the consequences would have been unimaginable."
"What does this master mean by the five yang and four yin of the Nine Tripods?" Ke Xun asked.
Gu Qingqing flipped through her notebook, stopped at a certain page, and read aloud: "'Yu cast the Nine Tripods, five to correspond to the yang method, and four to represent the yin number. He instructed the craftsmen to use female metal for the yin tripods and male metal for the yang tripods. The tripods were always full to predict the auspiciousness or inauspiciousness of the weather. During the reign of Jie of Xia, the water in the tripods suddenly boiled. As the Zhou Dynasty was about to end, all nine tripods shook. All these were omens of destruction.' — This is what I saw in the *Shi Yi Ji* when I was researching the Nine Tripods, and I just copied it down."
"'All nine tripods shook!'" Wei Dong clapped his hands. "It confirms our previous speculation; there was indeed a resonance!"
"Five Yang and four Yin, to correspond to the numbers of Yin and Yang," Ke Xun stroked his chin, his gaze sweeping over his companions' faces. "It seems that from the very beginning, the number of men and women entering the painting was predetermined. Not counting the four Earthly Dimensions, those with the Nine Cauldrons Bone Structure were destined to have five men and four women entering the painting. No wonder Sister Cen had that experience from a very early age; it was destined that you would enter the painting, and there was no way you could escape it."
Yue Cen smiled: "Perhaps from a certain perspective, I should feel honored by this, which means that I am quite recognized by the painting's makers."
"Yes, it means that we are the strong ones who have survived the selection." Everyone smiled wryly.
"What I'm more concerned about is this sentence," Qin Ci continued, pointing to the page in Shao Ling's notes, "'To obtain the Nine Tripods Map, one gains its magical power.' Does this mean that the *Shan Hai Tu* (Map of Mountains and Seas) cast on the Nine Tripods itself possesses magical power? But our previous speculation was that the *Shan Hai Tu* cast on the tripods was to change the resonant frequency; once separated from the Nine Tripods, it was just a picture, so how could it possess magical power?"
"That is indeed a problem," Shao Ling said. "Our previous speculation leaned more towards scientific explanations, but the subsequent appearance of the *Shan Hai Tu* possessing magical power, and the implantation of the map into bone structure into the human body, makes it difficult to explain with scientific means. We can only conclude that the power of gods and ghosts does exist in this world. Magical spells, bone structure, and the painting implantation are all things that only the power of gods and ghosts can accomplish."
"I still believe that what you've said can be explained by scientific principles," Zhu Haowen said. "It's just that none of us are scientists, and the limitations of our knowledge and understanding prevent us from finding scientific evidence."
"Brothers, whether it's science or supernatural beings, I don't think that's the point," Luo Yu said. "The point is what this master said later, the self-sacrifice to seal the ghosts and all that, it's just too despairing..." Shao
Ling and Zhu Haowen both paused. Shao Ling lowered his head, staring at his notes, avoiding Luo Yu's words, and said, "This master speculated from a metaphysical perspective on why the Nine Cauldrons could suppress demons and ghosts. The so-called 'Three Powers' refer to Heaven, Earth, and Man. The Nine Cauldrons are the embodiment of nine pillars of Heaven, made of copper produced underground, and finally require human sacrifice. The combination of the Three Powers generates divine power, which, combined with the witchcraft power of the 'Shan Hai Tu' (Map of Mountains and Seas), suppresses and seals the demons and ghosts."
"After the Nine Cauldrons were lost, he devised a way to replace them: adding four Earthly Elements and implanting them into the human body. This still requires the harmony of the Three Powers (Heaven, Earth, and Man) to achieve even a small portion of the Nine Cauldrons' effect.
"However, this method can no longer generate infrasound. Therefore, I speculate that the function of the bone structure might only be sealing, preventing demons from breaking free of the earth for a time. The Nine Cauldrons, on the other hand, have a striking effect. The combination of striking and sealing was enough to reliably suppress demons underground for a long period from the Xia Dynasty to the end of the Warring States period, without requiring further human sacrifices."
"But a bone structure with only sealing capabilities cannot suppress demons and ghosts indefinitely. Therefore, every hundred years, the power of the bone structure weakens or even disappears. This is why the master said that after a hundred years, when the spiritual energy is exhausted, the demons and ghosts will surely return. I think the characteristic of the bone structure being passed down every hundred years was set up by this master, which is why the event of thirteen destined individuals entering the painting occurs every hundred years or so."
"The later note mentions," Zhu Haowen continued, "that the places marked on the 'Shan Hai Yin Jing Tu' (Classic of Mountains and Seas) drawn by this master for his disciples are the places where the illusion of entering the painting occurs. It seems that this 'Shan Hai Yin Jing Tu' is actually the area covered by the entire 'light' character."
"That's right." Everyone nodded.
"That's quite a coincidence," Ke Xun said. "It's like the so-called 'weakest point where Yin and Yang meet' in these memorials connects to form the character 'light,' rather than the fact that the character 'light' has the power of witchcraft to suppress demons and ghosts, so a master chose this character to suppress demons and ghosts—isn't that too much of a coincidence? It's like… to give an analogy, it's like the locations of our country's underground oil deposits connect to form the character 'oil.' How could it be such a coincidence that they connect to form a character?"
"I think I can try to explain your question," Mu Yiran looked at him. "And, the mystery of the order of the four rock paintings that we couldn't solve before also has a real answer."