I told Fatty and Yanzi that only the heated brick bed in the cellar could hide things, and I also seemed to recall seeing similar records in the **Sixteen-Character Yin-Yang Feng Shui** Secret Technique. That incomplete book mentioned the concept of "Yin-Yang Residence"—the Yin Residence being the **Graveyard**, prepared for the **Deceased**, while the Yang Residence is the dwelling for the **Living person**. The method of "gathering spiritual energy to select a residence" in Feng Shui, also known as the technique of the **Eight Mansions Mirror**, suggests that in this cellar, which is perfectly symmetrical on both sides, someone might have placed a **Formation Talisman** of the Yin-Yang Mirror, which is similar to the **Yan Sheng** technique used by ancient **carpenter**s. A **Yellow Weasel** with **Spirituality** could borrow this **Yan Sheng** here to capture human souls. However, I only casually flipped through that incomplete volume and never read it carefully; I just felt that in this situation, we should destroy this cellar immediately to prevent others from falling victim to it later.
I don't believe the **Yellow Great Immortal** has a treasure chest, but I suspect that due to people's desire to avoid misfortune and their fear of provoking the **Yellow Great Immortal**, someone used the name of the immortal path to hide some valuables in the cellar of the temple. This is not strange at all, and that box is likely related to the ancient **Gold** vein of "**Tuan Shanzi**." If we can find this item, we will have made a great contribution, and perhaps we could even enlist in the army.
"A red star worn on the head, a revolutionary red flag hanging on both sides." Wearing a military uniform is the greatest dream not only for Fatty and me but for our entire generation. Thinking of this, I couldn't help but get excited, wishing I could immediately dismantle the heated brick bed. When Fatty heard there might be an **Interlayer** in the heated brick bed, he immediately got energized, shook off his lethargy, and swung the long-handled axe to smash the brick wall of the heated brick bed.
The earth partition wall beneath the cellar was built using the "rammed earth" method. Both heated brick beds were connected to this wall. Although sturdy, it couldn't withstand Fatty's furious smashing. After a few swings of the axe, the earth wall collapsed. The space beneath both heated brick beds was already empty, and they both sank, revealing a **pitch black** **Smoke duct**. A puff of **Black Smoke** emerged from it, mixing with a pungent stench and dust, choking us into retreating a few steps. Only after the dust settled did we go over and work together to move away the broken **Bricks**.
Fatty, being impatient, walked ahead. He held the **Oil Lamp** closer and exclaimed, "Whoa! There really is something in here." He then reached a hand in, pulled, and dragged out a pile of dark objects. When I finally saw clearly what he had pulled out, Yanzi let out a scream. Before I could even see what was under the heated brick bed, I was startled by Yanzi's scream. Peering in the dim yellow light, I saw that a headless **Male Corpse** had been dragged out of the **Smoke duct** beneath the heated brick bed by Fatty. That headless corpse was already rotten beyond recognition, and even the ancient silk robe it wore had decayed. It had originally been mortared into the **Smoke duct**, and now, with half its body pulled out by Fatty, the lower half remained inside the heated brick bed.
Seeing that what he pulled out was a headless **Dried Corpse**, Fatty spat a mouthful of **Saliva** in anger, cursing it as **Gloomy Aura**, but he didn't give up. He used the axe like a sledgehammer and smashed and knocked again. The heated brick bed on the left side of the cellar was completely smashed open by him, and beneath it lay another headless **Dried Corpse**, though judging by the attire, this **Dried Corpse** was female.
I was wondering how the heated brick bed had become a joint **Coffin** for a couple when Fatty flipped over the bricks of the bed. He gasped in surprise and showed me what was placed on the cavity of the **Dried Corpse**. Right on the empty cavities of the male and female headless **Dried Corpse**s were two perfectly preserved human heads, one male and one female, with disheveled hair. But buried in the heated brick bed for who knows how many years, the skin of the heads, despite **Preservation** treatment, had already collapsed and shriveled, and their color was as dull as withered wax.
I mustered the courage to look at the two heads and discovered that the insides had been hollowed out; there was no **Skull** or flesh and blood, only supported by copper wires, just like a human **Leather Pouch** used in a puppet show. Inside each empty head was a dead **Yellow Weasel**. The three of us were both shocked and disgusted. We had heard that when people in the mountains used to invite the **Yellow Great Immortal**, the **Yellow Great Immortal** could transform into a human form with the bearing of an **Immortal** to appear. Could that human form be an **Illusionary Technique** used by the **Yellow Weasel** burrowing into the empty cavity of a **Dead person**?
Yanzi said this was a **Disaster**, disturbing the bones of the **Yellow Great Immortal**, which would surely shorten our lives. I comforted her, saying, "Don't believe this stuff. This is all what the temple keepers do to trick people into offering incense money, playing tricks to fool the ignorant. Back in my hometown, there was a similar thing: a White Snake Temple in the mountains where the incense keeper claimed the White Snake Goddess appeared to dispense medicine. In reality, they just found a snake charmer woman to use snake charming techniques to cheat the common people out of money. There was another story I heard about the Mouse **Immortal** Shrine in Mount Yandang before Liberation. The story goes that a mountain resident caught a huge **Mouse**; because it was unusually large, they didn't kill it but caught it to show everyone for fun. However, a local **Charlatan** played tricks, using this large **Mouse** to claim it was the Mouse **Immortal**, sent to resolve disasters for the mountain residents, and thus collected a lot of incense money from devout believers. Later, when the great **Mouse** worshipped as an **Immortal** died, the **Charlatan** said the Mouse **Immortal** had brought so much fortune to everyone, so they should cover it with a human skin to give it a respectable send-off into the heavens. So, they found an unclaimed **Corpse** in the mass **Graveyard**, stripped off the human skin to wrap the Mouse **Immortal**, and buried it. The more remote and uncivilized the deep mountains and old forests are, the more bizarre and strange customs there are. I estimate the **Yellow Weasel**s inside these **Dead person** heads are similar—all props used by **Charlatan**s to cheat money. We don't need to worry about these **Four Olds**."
Yanzi was half-convinced by what I said. She was a mountain person; although born after Liberation, she didn't deeply believe in these **Evil** ways, but she still held some reservations. Moreover, she was extremely terrified of the two hollowed-out heads used to hold the dead **Yellow Weasel**s and absolutely refused to stay any longer. I had no choice but to ask her to wait outside the **Stone Door** of the Great Immortal Temple for now, and Fatty and I would immediately join her after dismantling the other half of the heated brick bed.
After sending her away, I told Fatty that a "**Yellow Great Immortal**" was indeed buried beneath this "**Yellow Weasel Grave**," so the **Legend** about the **Yellow Great Immortal** having a treasure chest was most likely true. Finding it would be supporting the **World Revolution**. So, without resting, the two of us started dismantling the other half of the heated brick bed.
But things didn't go as smoothly as we imagined. When we dismantled the heated brick bed, we only found some broken porcelain bowls inside, not a chest containing the **Gold** vein or **Gold**. Only some rice-grain-sized pieces of **Gold** were scattered on the ground. Near the base of the wall, a large hole had been dug under the heated brick bed, and the outside of the **Underground Cave** was completely collapsed and blocked.
When Fatty and I saw this, we immediately understood everything and sat down on the ground. It was over. Those four black-clothed men who were hanged indeed had accomplices. They must have realized that anyone who descended from the **stone steps** into the cellar never returned, meaning there was a **Formation Talisman** below. They must have used the tactic of "**copying the rear route**" by digging a **Tunnel** from the mountains into the cellar, stealing the mountain god's box. Our comrades' efforts were all in vain.