Chapter 281 Departure (continued)
Withdrawing his gaze from the cave, Chen Ziyan raised his head and glanced at the sky, then said to the gentle woman: "The clouds are getting thicker and thicker, I'm afraid the sky will change later. We'll set off now, and you should go back as soon as possible."
"Don't worry, Mr. Chen, we are prepared," the gentle woman responded softly.
Although she can't read the sky, there is no shortage of talents in this field in the team, so she already knew about this before coming here, so she was already prepared.
Hearing what she said, Chen Ziyan couldn't say anything more and had to do his own thing.
"Old Hu, Fatty, let's get to work!"
With Chen Ziyan's greeting, the two people who were already ready to go immediately took action, pulling the boat towards the cave one after the other.
Others followed on foot. After all, the water depth outside was limited, so they had to wait until the boat reached the real underground river in the cave before going up.
Boom——
Coincidentally, as soon as the few people here walked into the cave along the edge, there was a thunder from the sky, and then the patter of raindrops began to fall.
Chen Ziyan, who was standing on the edge of the cave, looked back and saw that the gentle woman and others had put on their rain gear. It was obvious that what she just said was not perfunctory.
The moment their eyes collided, after the two nodded to each other, Chen Ziyan turned around and followed the others.
The entrance to the cave is a small slope, about one or two meters in length, and below is the undulating underground river.
Although this slope was very shallow, it did not block the progress of the ships. By the time Chen Ziyan walked over, the ships that came in first had already stopped firmly on the underground river.
I don’t know why. It’s just such a short distance, but here and the outside world are like two isolated worlds. Except for the gurgling sound of the underground river, the wind, rain and thunder outside are here. Can't hear it at all.
Chen Ziyan was the last one to board the boat, and the others were already waiting for him.
"Let's go." Chen Ziyan gave the order after taking a look at the road ahead with the help of the powerful searchlight on the bow.
There is nothing to see here, and they are not here to study the geological environment.
When Wang Kaixuan heard this, he hurriedly patted Hu Bayi next to him: "Old Hu, what are you waiting for? He's moving like crazy. I can't wait to take out the gift to Mr. Wang. "It's the nest."
"What are you talking about? Things won't run away there." Although Hu Bayi said he was not convinced, his movements were not slow at all.
With the roar of the engine, the ship under them began to move forward slowly.
The reason why we choose this speed is because we are now in an unfamiliar environment and need to leave enough reaction time for emergencies.
"Do you think we should give this operation a code name? This will make our operation more planned and purposeful." Shirley Yang, who felt that the atmosphere was a bit cold, took the initiative to provoke Chatter.
Ding Sitian nodded when she heard this and agreed: "I think it's okay. This can be more cohesive."
Being from a special system, she has long been accustomed to having code names for actions. It's really a bit uncomfortable to not have it all of a sudden.
Wang Kaixuan thought about it for a while and said: "How about we just call it Operation Mo Ming Weapon, and point out the theme directly. We are all happy people, and we don't want to deal with those empty-headed things."
" Come on, if this code name is used in a place with people, it will be called self-inflicted!" Hu Bayi complained sharply.
Because of the operation code matter, several people were no longer silent as before, and they started chatting one by one.
Chen Ziyan, who was sitting alone on the bow of the boat, could not help but chuckle and shook his head as he listened to the increasingly deviant conversation behind him, but he had no intention of getting involved.
He who is tasked with observing the situation needs to be fully focused and cannot be distracted by this kind of thing.
Different from the hot and humid climate outside the cave, the deeper you go into the mountain, the lower the temperature becomes. From time to time, you can see phosphorus fire flickering in the distance, which all proves that this is not a dead world without life.
Taking the time to turn on the flashlight and shine it into his hand, Chen Ziyan found figures swaying from time to time in the clear water. It looked like they should be water snakes, small fish or other creatures.
Wang Kaixuan noticed Chen Ziyan's movements, and he also looked at it, and then put his hand in to try.
“Hi! This water is so cold!”
But the biting coldness of the underground river water directly exceeded his psychological expectations, causing this guy to not only retract his hand like lightning , and couldn't help but let out an exclamation.
Shaking away the remaining water drops on his hands, Wang Kaixuan said: "I never thought there could be such cold water in Yunnan. Could it be snow water flowing directly from the top of the mountain?"
Snow Li Yang gave him some popular science: "This has nothing to do with whether it is snow water or not. It is because the temperature difference between here and outside is relatively large, which causes the human body to have an illusion. Once you get used to it, you won't feel cold anymore."
"How do you adapt to this..." Wang Kaixuan wanted to say something more, but before he could finish his words, his body was carried sideways by the hull of the ship.
Fortunately, in order to prevent their heads from being hit by stalactites, except for Hu Bayi, who was in charge of the helm, everyone else sat directly after setting off, so they quickly regained stability.
After regaining his seat, Wang Kaixuan looked at Hu Bayi and asked, "Old Hu, what's going on?"
Hu Bayi glanced at both sides of the boat, frowned slightly and said: "I think I hit something, maybe a stone on the bottom of the river or something like that. You all sit tighter. I guess there may be more next time."
While speaking, Hu Bayi couldn't help but secretly rejoice.
In the current situation, if they were traveling on a random bamboo raft instead of this boat, their situation would not be as easy as it is now.
"Speaking of it, the scenery here is pretty good." Shirley Yang ran behind Chen Ziyan at some point and said softly.
Chen Ziyan glanced at those jagged and weird stalactites and nodded: "It is indeed quite bizarre, and only the uncanny workmanship of nature can carve out such a scene."
Before he finished speaking, he saw that the river in front of him suddenly widened. Under the illumination of the searchlight, he could clearly see that naturally occurring lava terraces appeared on the cave walls on both sides of the river. The layers upon layers of lava. The terraces are like undulating waves, and from a distance they look like a solidified silver ocean.
In the very center of the river, there is a vermilion stone bead hanging upside down. Behind the stone bead is a beast's mouth portal that looks like a tiger or a lion.
The shape of the beast's mouth is simple, but it has a unique charm. At this time, against the interlacing light and shadow, it looks like a roaring beast with bared fangs, exposing its mouth full of fangs, trying to use the vermilion stone The pearl was swallowed into the belly.
Although this scene refuted Chen Ziyan's words, he had no intention of paying attention to it at the moment. Instead, he stared closely at the beast's mouth in front of him, and there was a trace of uneasiness in his heart that had not been seen for a long time.
Having already known the plot, he knew that after passing through this door, their journey this time would officially begin.
This scene was not only seen by Chen Ziyan, but also the rest of the people on the boat.
Especially Hu Bayi, who was in charge of controlling the ship, immediately shut down the engine and threw the anchor at hand into the water.
After the boat stopped completely, he asked: "Master Chen, can we enter?"
They had already obtained the information about this waterway from the Wenwan woman. But such an obvious place was not mentioned, which had to make Hu Bayi wonder if he and others had taken the wrong path. This is also the reason why he stopped the ship. After all, when the way forward is unclear, you can't just go blindly.
Several people on the boat looked at each other in silence. After a moment of silence, Chen Ziyan took the initiative and said: "Let's see what the situation is first."
Otherwise, what can he do? He can't say that he knows what's behind.
While speaking, he adjusted the searchlight and put the beam of light into the beast's mouth. Then he saw the human figurines hanging behind the door. They seemed so densely packed that they couldn't be counted at a glance.
Seeing this chilling scene, Wang Kaixuan whispered: "I remember that little peacock girl said that sometimes human figurines fall down from their mountains, and they are full of stuff. Maggots, could that be the thing in front of you?"
After saying that, even with his courage, he couldn't help but shudder. Thinking about this kind of thing makes people's scalp numb.
The two female idioms in the team were even more uncomfortable. After hearing the word maggot, they felt their stomachs churn and turned their heads away from looking at the dense human figurines.
Hu Bayi was silent for a moment and said: "This... probably is that thing."
Both belong to the Zhelong Mountain area, how could there be two kinds of human figurines, let alone in this place? The information found mentioned that there would be some human figurines in this waterway.
Scanning the few people behind him from the corner of his eye, Chen Ziyan took a breath and said slowly: "This is the only road in front of me now. There is no possibility of going astray, and don't think too much, no matter what We have to go in and take a look before we say anything.”
You can’t retreat just because you haven’t encountered any decent danger, right?
If this is the case, then they are not far away from changing careers.
In fact, the reason why they reacted like this was mainly because the beast's mouth portal appeared relatively suddenly, and the light and shadow effects were rendered too well, so they only reacted after seeing the human figurines at the door. It looks like a chain effect.
Now that I have adapted a little, the shock has faded and I have returned to my normal state of mind.
"Okay, let's take a look and then talk." Hu Bayi responded.
Then he retrieved the anchor from the water and restarted the ship's engine.
This time, none of them were in the mood to chat anymore. They were all staring at the situation ahead. In such a strange place, no amount of caution would be too much.
Especially Hu Ba and Wang Kaixuan, both of them have witnessed corpse-raising with their own eyes, so at this time they stared at the human figurines without blinking, for fear that these things would suddenly attack. .
When the boat sailed into the beast's mouth gate, Chen Ziyan saw the specific situation inside, and saw that the river behind it became narrow and deep.
After carefully looking at the river and confirming that there was no problem, several people focused their attention on the hanging human figurines.
When we got closer at this time, we saw that these human figurines had their hands behind their backs and were placed in a tied posture.
Because of the damp and cold underground environment, the surface of these human figurines has turned gray-brown, and the outline of their facial features has long been blurred, as if a layer of frosted rock has been hung on the surface of the body, making them look like stone figures. The figurines are somewhat similar.
However, although it is impossible to distinguish the appearance of men and women, in terms of body shape, these human figurines are quite different. Some are tall and short, and some are fat and thin.
And after careful observation, we can also find that in addition to adults, there are also some teenagers who have not yet grown up. It can be seen that they are not based on standard standards and are completely different from the stone figurines of the Qin and Han Dynasties. Specification.
At the top of the cave, the copper chains hanging upside down the human figurines have long been mottled with green, and some have fallen off due to age.
“This thing is really penetrating!”
Seeing the human figurines hanging above his head like hanged ghosts, even Chen Ziyan couldn't help but feel uncomfortable.
Especially because this place is in a deep mountain, it adds to the atmosphere.
Others were naturally very uncomfortable, and even their heartbeats were subconsciously speeding up.
At this moment, a human figurine that had fallen off at some point drifted slowly to the side of the ship with the current.
After Shirley Yang forced herself to calm down, she directly fixed it with the paratrooper knife she carried, keeping it parallel to the ship, and then used a flashlight to observe closely: "These human figurines look a bit... The style of the Han Dynasty, but the more specific characteristics are missing. ”
Ding Sitian also approached, but as soon as she got close, she frowned and said, "Something's wrong!"
Wang Kaixuan quickly asked: "Xiao Ding, what's wrong?"
Ding Sitian didn't care about her inner feelings. She took out her dagger and scratched the body of the figurines. Then she turned the blade upside down and brought it in front of her. After a slight sniff, she said, "These definitely don't seem to be stone figurines!"
"Not stone figurines? What kind of figurines are they?" Wang Kaixuan asked in confusion.
But before Ding Sitian could answer, Shirley Yang said: "Sitian, use a knife to cut this human figurine open and take a look."
"Okay." Although Ding Sitian felt nauseous, she was still within the tolerance range.
After she cut open the skin of the human figurine, she saw that it was full of maggot corpses that had long since rotted.
While washing the dagger in the water, she looked at the human figurines and said, "If I hadn't guessed, these human figurines should be made of living people."
In fact, This was something they had vaguely guessed in their minds after seeing these human figurines, but before it was truly confirmed, no one thought that the truth would be so heartbreaking.
This can no longer be described as evil.
After getting the answer she wanted, Shirley Yang let go of the figurine. She washed the paratrooper knife and said: "It is rumored that King Xian was a wizard king in the ancient Yunnan period. This kind of thing is not related to his methods." It’s very consistent. I’ve seen corresponding records in some ancient books. It says that most of the evil spells used by Xianwang use the souls of the deceased as the medium. It is said that the greater the number of wronged souls, the more powerful the evil spell will be. I would like to use it with Xianwang. The evil technique on his tomb will definitely use up everything he has."
At this point, she paused and then continued: "I even guess that this is just a part. If we continue to go deeper, You may see more similar things. "
Shirley Yang has conducted an in-depth investigation of King Xian. Although there are not many records left by this kind of frontier king, she still has to piece it together. Found some.
However, the appearance of these human figurines also made her truly agree that the tomb of King Xian was here.
“If these human figurines were made by King Xian, then this may be the waterway he built to transport materials at that time.”
Shirley Yang, whose sanity came back online, made a judgment on the origin of this waterway in the blink of an eye.
After all, in the current environment, water transportation is the most time-saving and labor-saving shortcut.
Wang Kaixuan was not very interested in these. He glanced at the human figurines that had drifted away, and asked with some uncertainty: "So, do you think these human figurines are all made of living people?"
Shirley Yang nodded lightly and said: "I saw it when I was searching for information. There is a kind of figurine in the evil technique, which is to tie up the whole body of the person and force him to swallow the next evil. Then seal the seven orifices of the human body, hang it up with copper chains and suffocate it to death, so that you can get a figurine of a human being."
It is precisely because of this that Shirley Yang let it happen. Ding Sitian cut the human figurine into pieces for further verification.
(End of this chapter)