Daomu Biji

We stayed at the entrance of the cave for a long time, discussing the possibility of this cave. During this period, Chen Pi Asi suddenly froze to death for a while and then miraculously recovered. We were baffled, but Chen Pi Asi didn't seem to want to mention what happened just now, and had no choice but to turn his attention to this strange ice cave.

We gathered around the cave and discussed the specific issues of the cave. Although we have experienced many cave explorations, we were all in plains and mountains, which are very different from here. We need to consider the long term.

This hole went down at an angle of about 40 degrees at the beginning. It was very deep and not easy to walk. If Fatty and the others fell down just now, it would be very dangerous if they couldn't control their posture. They would probably roll in the hole. Then If you fall down, your head may be flattened.

Pan Zi threw down a fluorescent stick, and the yellow cold light quickly rolled down, bounced a few times far away, and disappeared.

If Monk Hua is right, recalling the trend between our two snow-capped mountains, this cave must be a "V"-shaped route that goes all the way down and then up again. Because the two snow-capped mountains belong to the same mountain range, there is a gap between them. The altitude of the canyon is also very high. The distance of this "V" shaped route should not exceed 5 kilometers.

Of course, if Xiudou, the craftsman at that time, liked "Z"-shaped excavation, then there is nothing we can do, but we should not consider such unreasonable things.

Since it is an artificially excavated passage, there is no need to worry about oxygen. After discussing it, we decided that Pan Zi would explore the cave first. Weapons were prepared this time, just in case the corpse was still inside, we would deal with it on the spot.

Pan Zi dragged him in just now. He was so embarrassed that he spit on his hand and took out the climbing rope. While it was tied around the fat man's waist, he threw it down to the hole and climbed down first. After a cigarette, we heard his voice, asking us to get down.

We also climbed down the cave entrance one after another. The tunnel was very rough, with rocks going in and out, and it hurt my buttocks as it slid all the way down. As I climbed, I looked at the rocks on the side. These are basalts that gush out during volcanic eruptions. There are a lot of bubbles on them. The density of these stones is very unstable. Some are as hard as iron, and some are as soft as tofu. I don’t know what the situation was like when it was excavated.

We went down one by one, and the fat man came down last. Suddenly, a group of people crowded at the end of the slope of the stone path above, gasping for air. We saw a lot of black liquid here, which must be the bodily fluids of the corpse, but there was no shadow of the corpse, and it might have gone deeper into the cave.

This narrow hole under the ice slanted down, and when it reached the turning point below, it became vertical and narrow. Going inside, the height of the cave seemed to continue to increase. Suddenly it became clear, and the space seemed to become very large, but it was pitch black. The flashlight can't shine through.

At first, I thought this was because they deliberately set up a relatively wide tunnel when they were digging the tunnel. This was also very particular when we were digging the tunnel. It was called the pigeon room. This place was used to store air and place 'soil' Yes, of course the method in the pigeon room is complicated. You have a very, very clever trick to dig out such a large space in the ground for two people to turn around without digging out a little bit of Saturn from the hole.

But as soon as the flashlight illuminated us, we were stunned. It turned out that the row had already reached its end here. It shrank and narrowed rapidly when we reached the front. In the end, there was only a stone gap left in front that could only be used by one person to enter sideways, like a stone gap. Irregular sword marks penetrated deeply into the rock.

Pan Zi asked: "Didn't you say that this is the secret way for craftsmen to escape? Has it become a gap between people? Is this still possible?"

Monk Hua thought for a while,

Suddenly he made a look of realization and said: "I think this pipeline may have made use of natural volcanic caves. Volcanic caves are very common in rock formations in volcanic areas and extend in all directions. The longest volcanic cave can be thousands of kilometers long. , densely covered underground like spider webs. Maybe this volcanic gap can lead all the way to the Sansheng Mountain on the opposite side. Because of this, they were able to dig out such a long secret tunnel. It turned out that it was pre-set by nature. aisle."

The fat man said: "Does it mean that we also have to enter this gap? You are all okay, but my body shape is quite awkward." The fat man said that he wanted to lose weight in the undersea tomb, but he has not seen any results so far. Looking at him The figure is still really bad.

Monk Hua said: "You shouldn't worry about this. These volcanic caves are all dendritic structures, and these holes should lead to larger gaps. This is called an underground corridor in geology, and some underground corridors are very large. , it will even form its own unique ecosystem inside, and I believe that the gap will definitely widen soon after entering, because this kind of geological damage starts from the inside."

Monk Hua was confident in what he said, but I didn't really believe him. However, there was really no reason to refute him at this time, so everyone rested for a while, adjusted their equipment, and the fat man took the lead and continued to climb into the gap.

It was pitch black inside the gap, and a flashlight was useless because the darkness was omnidirectional. In Europe, people believe that all such gaps are passages to hell, and Tibetans also believe that caves are the domain of demons and never enter. Although I have had many such experiences, the moment I entered the gap, my heart still beat uneasily.

After entering the gap one by one with our bellies closed, we walked sideways like crabs. There were no artificial traces on the cave wall in this place. It was almost impossible to turn around inside. Looking ahead, we saw traces of glazed flowers all over our eyes. There were a lot of them. Karst droplets of various colors cover all the rocks, covered with crystalline transparent frost, evenly arranged like condensed water columns.

I studied a little bit of geology when I was studying architecture, and I have a vague memory in my mind that the thing in front of me should be volcanic eruption rock, the same as the volcanic crevice where we took shelter during the snowstorm. The formation of this landform is different from common volcanic caves. This kind of gap is formed at the moment of volcanic eruption, and then rushed out by the pyroclastic flow at an extremely high speed. It is characterized by the extremely long volcanic gap formed. , but the tunnel is single and will not form a maze of caves like volcanic caves.

The beginning of the gap was so narrow that we had to learn break dancing moves to move. In less than fifteen minutes, I was already so tired that my whole body ached. Thinking of the craftsmen who fled back then, it was not easy to climb out. But as I walked, the gap gradually widened as Monk Hua said, and finally turned around and moved forward.

It was pitch black inside the gap, but the surrounding glass and melted mica reflected our flashlight, giving the surrounding light a magical effect. Coupled with the large area of ​​lava spines covered with volcanic debris, rope-like crusted lava, The lava stalactites are dizzying and very beautiful.

As we walked, we gradually discovered some signs of human activity. For example, abandoned rusty tools and traces of campfires are all very old.

Didn't encounter anything strange along the way. The inside of the gap is very clean. After walking for nearly six hours, we have reached the tunnel that Monk Hua said is the size of an underground corridor. The gap inside is already very, very wide.

When the gap came here, I found a lot of signs of artificial construction. On one side of the gap wall, many simple steps were cut out, going all the way up. These steps are called steps, but they are actually just some protruding stones. If you have big feet, If you are a fat person, you may faint after walking a few steps.

We stopped to rest, and I did some calculations on the distance we walked and the slope we descended, and found that our altitude at this time was already lower than the snow line, and may have been below the canyon between the two peaks. If we walked these two peaks on the surface, even if we walked in a straight line, it would take at least eight hours. Now walking underground, we saved a lot of time, and if the border defense line above knew that there was such an underground corridor, It will definitely be a surprise.

When we get here, if we continue walking at the bottom of the gap, we may have to reach the center of the earth. These simple steps probably mean that this tunnel has entered the second stage. At the end of the steps, maybe the Yunding Tiangong The mysterious underground palace.

After resting for a while, several of them couldn't control their moods, so they immediately set off again, but this time, the journey was not so smooth.

We were all connected to each other with climbing ropes, and then we tried to stick to the cliff on one side, stepping on the joking "stone steps", and walked up bit by bit. It was okay at the beginning, but after we climbed to a certain height, we immediately climbed up. I feel like a rock climber, but I don’t have any experience in rock climbing. This feeling is extremely scary.

The fat man had big feet, and he stepped on these steps like stilts, so after walking a few steps, his feet began to tremble. I saw him chanting Amitabha.

Fortunately, I walked carefully along the way, almost like a woman doing needlework, climbing up bit by bit. Soon, there was already a dark abyss below. The height was impossible to estimate, and it would make you dizzy just looking at it. If we hadn't come up from below just now, I'm sure we would have thought that the bottom was leading to hell.

In the next few hours, we walked higher and higher. In the end, we were unable to judge where we were or the time. Several of us entered a state of confusion. But no one proposed to take a rest. I don’t know if it’s because of the innate greed of tomb robbers, or because the environment here really makes it impossible to rest. You can imagine that you have one foot on a palm-sized stone and one foot in the air. There is a cliff below, how can you get in there for a rest?

As I was walking, I suddenly heard the sound of water from all around. I turned on my flashlight and took a photo. It turned out that there were several springs and waterfalls on one side of the cliff, flowing along the cliff, of different sizes. Seeing the water vapor above, it looked like it was a hot spring. I didn't know where the hot spring water came from, but the sound of the water was loud. It seemed that there was underground water vein activity nearby.

The fat man asked us to crawl over and wash our faces and feel comfortable. The nearest hot spring was only an arm's length away from him. In fact, we were already very tired from the journey. Plus we had the memory of resting by the hot spring last time. Everyone wanted to We stopped here for a moment, but Shunzi shook his head and said, "No!" He pointed at the rocks beside the hot spring. When we took a look, we didn't find anything at first glance, but after a closer look, we almost shuddered. .

I saw a lot of very strange lines on the rocks next to the hot springs. I thought they were volcanic lines at first sight, but when I looked closer, my hair stood up. It turned out that these lines were not on the rocks, but actually one by one. A centipede as thick as an arm clung to it. The color of these centipedes is exactly the same as the glazed volcanic stone on the side. You can't tell them apart unless you look carefully.

We looked around and found that the rocks here were almost covered with these things. Those that were motionless seemed to be dead.

We all became quiet for a while, and the fat man said softly: "What's going on? How did we get into the insect nest?"

Shunzi said softly: "The creatures on the snow-capped mountains are usually concentrated around the hot springs, so don't think about going down to feel comfortable as soon as you see the hot springs. Some hot springs are even full of leeches. But the temperature is still cold now, so these things are here. They are in a semi-dead state, and they will not wake up without a particularly strong stimulus. Let's go quickly, it will be fine after this period."

Several people started moving immediately. The fat man weighed his feet and asked as he moved: "What does a particularly strong stimulation mean?"

Before he finished speaking, Shunzi suddenly waved his hand and told us all not to move.

We didn't know what happened again, so we immediately stopped and stayed there like wooden figures, all staring at Shunzi, but Shunzi was looking at a dark cliff and abyss.

After a moment of silence, we gradually heard a hair-raising "sparse" sound, as if countless feet were rubbing against the rocks of the cliff, approaching us.

"Turn off the flashlight." Shunzi said softly.

We immediately turned off the flashlights, turned around and saw, holy shit, almost the entire surrounding cliffs, as far as our eyes could see, were filled with green light spots, large and small, as numerous as the sea of ​​stars. In this darkness, these billions of light and electricity are like magic, and we feel like we are in the universe of stars. The magnificence cannot be expressed in words.

However, when I looked down, I suddenly realized that the scene around me was nothing. I saw a green Milky Way winding away in the black void at the bottom of the abyss, like a gorgeous emerald tassel on a deep black curtain, passing through the boundless darkness. From one end of the sky to the other end.

I opened my mouth wide and couldn't believe what I saw. The number of centipedes down there was probably in the hundreds of millions.