"Boarding."
Jiao Cheng waved his hands and everyone boarded three wooden boats.
Di Wu stood at the bow of the boat, removed the iron chain tied to the canoe, and asked the other two people to pick up the oars and paddle, controlling the canoe to sail along the cave wall.
He himself took out an open jar from the bottom of the boat and dipped a brush in the jar.
As the canoe sailed forward, Di Wu used a brush to paint an intermittent dotted line high on the wall.
‘This is...phosphor powder?’
Li Ang narrowed his eyes, and the cave wall that had been painted with a brush was faintly flashing with a dim green light.
‘The cave in front also has darker fluorescent traces, which proves that Jiao Cheng and others are not here for the first time – they have explored it many times in advance and used fluorescent powder to mark the channel.
Since fluorescent powder will fade over time, it needs to be applied multiple times.
As for this underground river, whether at the top of the cave or high on the wall, there are traces of erosion caused by long-term water erosion.
This proves that most of the time, the water level is very high. Now the water level has dropped, allowing canoes to pass.’
The fact was just as Li Ang expected, the three wooden boats continued to sail forward. Whenever they encountered a fork in the road, they chose the path according to the fluorescent markers left before.
The shape of underground rivers is controlled by geological structures and cracks. Factors such as season, rainfall, and geological collapse on the surface may affect the shape of underground rivers. The topography is extremely complex.
In the same underground aquifer, there are many interconnected underground rivers, some are rapid or slow, some are upward or downward, and there are countless branch roads. Once lost, the consequences will be disastrous.
In the depressing space, it seems that only the sound of water is left.
Everyone held torches, breathed in the humid air, and kept wiping the water droplets dripping from the top of the cave to their heads and faces.
I don’t know how far they sailed, but when Di Wu used up the second can of fluorescent powder, he finally saw the light of fire at the bend of the river ahead.
"Arrived."
Di Wu let out a long sigh of relief and steered the wooden boat towards the fire.
There is a relatively gentle river beach. There are seven or eight torches on the river beach, and there are more than a dozen tattooed men standing on the river beach - they all wear hard leather armor, taking into account both defense and mobility.
He has a simple sword hanging on his waist, a metal shield in his hand, and a powerful crossbow like Jiao Cheng's hanging on his back.
They don't look like green-skinned gangsters guarding Pingkangfang, but more like a group of... desperadoes.
"Jiao Da."
"Jiao Da."
The tattooed men gathered around and helped Jiao Cheng off the canoe.
Li Ang got off the boat together and noticed a lot of supplies piled on the river beach.
Hooks for climbing high places; kerosene for lighting; steel nails and sledgehammers for digging boulders; hemp ropes, bamboo ladders, compasses...
In the distance on the river beach, you can faintly see a cliff and two huge shadows prostrate on the ground below the cliff.
That's...
‘Tomb-killing beast?’
Li Ang squinted his eyes and was shocked to see two shadows at the bottom of the cliff. They were two stone tomb beasts with human faces and animal bodies. They were nearly four meters tall. They were dark and unpainted. The lifelike human heads had their mouths wide open, revealing their fangs.
Sharp teeth.
The lower part of the beast's body is covered with sharp spikes and strange rhombus patterns.
"Let's go."
With the support of his men, Jiao Cheng walked towards the location of the Tomb Suppressing Beast. During their conversation, Li Ang also learned the names of the two sword cultivators.
Fan Guangyu, Zhu Yuyin.
Everyone carried the packages and walked towards the cliff, and as the distance got closer,
Li Ang saw a tall open stone door between the two tomb beasts, and behind the stone door, there was a diagonal upward corridor.
Deep in the corridor, the sound of howling wind kept coming.
The rumbling sound echoed back and forth on the walls of the corridor, like the roar and roar of some kind of wild beast.
Jiao Cheng and others held torches and crawled up the corridor. Halfway through the climb, they stopped collectively and took out a pair of strange-looking...respiratory masks from the package.
The object consists of a mask, a hose, and a backpack.
The outside of the mask is made of bamboo, and the inside is made of a gelatinous material similar to fish bubbles. The contour of the mask can fit the mouth, and there are ropes at the back that can be fixed at the ears to prevent the mask from falling.
The right side of the mask is connected to the cylindrical tree stump contained in the metal backpack through a hollow lignified vine.
"This is the fourth-level demon, the banyan tree stump of Zhangdao Ghost Banyan Tree, and the aerial roots growing from the stump."
Jiao Cheng put on the backpack with the help of his men and said slowly to Li Ang: "After putting it on, you can breathe underwater for two quarters of an hour.
It is an important tool for Zhangdao islanders to survive on the endless sea.
I spent 30,000 yuan to buy these things at the ghost market."
Breathe underwater?
Li Ang's suspicions became clearer and clearer, especially after he noticed that the two sword cultivators were also wearing backpacks.
He took the team's extra metal backpack from Di Wu, put it on his back, and put on a breathing mask on himself.
The team climbed up the corridor again. The further they went, the more they could feel the violent raging of the strong wind.
The air has become thinner.
Li Ang subconsciously increased his breathing, followed Di Wu and others, and crawled out of the long and narrow corridor.
This is an extremely spacious underground hall, with a circular shape as a whole.
The ground in the center of the hall is flat and neat, with no gravel visible. By the firelight, you can vaguely see a bronze stone door embedded in the floor in the middle of the hall.
The walls of the hall are full of honeycomb-shaped holes with a diameter of more than one meter.
Above each hole, there is a thick hollow metal plate with strange and different patterns.
Fierce and violent winds gush out from those holes, sucking away the air in the hall like a vortex, reducing the air pressure in other places.
Some pale white air blades can still be vaguely seen.
The strong wind of heaven and earth should only exist at high places.
The strong wind can not only destroy solid metals, but also weaken the strength of monks, making them unable to display their original abilities, including body-refining warriors.
No wonder Jiao Cheng’s men suffered from high altitude cerebral edema inexplicably, and no wonder Jiao Cheng’s own leg injury was so weird.
Li Ang pursed his lips slightly, and his eyes were attracted to the dome of the hall - two lines of extremely profound writing were engraved there.
"The Immortal caressed my head and tied my hair to achieve immortality.
White bones turn into hills and mountains, how can the common people be guilty?"
Li Taibai’s poems?
Li Ang's heart skipped a beat when he heard Jiao Cheng say: "How long will it take?"
"Less than half a quarter of an hour."
Fan Guangyu, one of the sword cultivators, whispered: "These heaven and earth winds are formed by formations and driven by the hundred-meter waterfall of the underground river.
Once the water flow slows down, the force of the wind will naturally decrease."
"There's enough time."
Jiao Cheng breathed a sigh of relief and murmured to himself: "It's too late..."
Is there still time to open Li Taibai’s tomb?
Li Ang's mind suddenly changed. Li Taibai was a poet in the early Yu Dynasty. He achieved success at a young age and his poems were famous all over the world. He later practiced swordsmanship and practiced rapidly. It was said that he had entered the Linyuan realm at the age of thirty.
Li Taibai, who had reached the pinnacle of poetry and swordsmanship, began to travel around the world, visiting famous mountains and rivers, and making close friends. Along the way, young men and young monks followed him, listened to his poems, and learned his sword. Although Li Taibai did not accept it,
No one is rejected, but no one is rejected.
If things continue like this, Li Taibai will become a poet and swordsman with a perfect life after his death, and people will praise his deeds even thousands of years later.
However, at the age of fifty, after he returned from traveling in the depths of the Shiwan Barren Mountains, he went to Taihao Mountain, where the Haotian Temple is located, alone with his sword.
No one knows who he met there or what he did. They only know that after he came back, he literally went crazy.
He no longer pays attention to anyone, and does not talk to anyone, even his former close friends and even family members and friends.
He went to Nanzhao, used his flying sword to cut down huge trees and build huge boats. Anyone who tried to interrupt his boat building would be killed with a sword.
Even a monk in the Zhuxiao Realm cannot block a sword.
After the construction of the giant boat was completed, he sailed to the endless sea alone. There was no news for twenty years.
It was not until twenty years later that news spread from various places that a taciturn, skinny old man with a sword was seen haunting him. The sword he wore was none other than Li Taibai's sword.
After hearing the news, various forces moved to try to find him, but they were always one step behind - it was rumored that he had built for himself an astonishingly large tomb deep underground in many places.
And he hid the secrets he obtained in the endless sea, as well as every sword he ever used and every sword manual he wrote, in the tombs.
And in the last real tomb, he stepped into the realm above the Linyuan realm and became a real immortal.
The Sword Immortal's tomb may not exist, or it may really exist - ordinary people may not know the answer throughout their lives.
"Half an hour is here."
Another sword cultivator, Zhu Yuyin, suddenly opened his eyes. Sure enough, the airflow from the holes in the wall weakened a lot.
The aura of heaven and earth lingering in the hall has also become extremely dim, as if it will disappear at any time.
"Sun Jiu, Zhang San, you go first."
Jiao Cheng's eyes flashed and he waved his hands. His voice became muddy and low due to the obstruction of the breathing mask, "Be careful."
Two tattooed men wearing leather armor walked out of the team. They tied iron ropes around their waists, leaned back to each other, bent over, holding metal shields in front of themselves, and quickly rushed towards the center of the hall.
Dang Dang Dang——
The strong wind of heaven and earth slashed at the thick metal shield, directly cutting off a corner of the shield.
The two tattooed men lowered their bodies as much as possible and ran fifty steps away. The taller one accidentally got his left arm cut by the strong wind, and subconsciously tried to cover the wound.
As a result, the shield deflected, and half of his neck was cut off by a strong wind. In an instant, blood flowed profusely, and he fell to the ground.
His death also left the companions who were leaning against him without cover. Countless wounds were instantly torn out on their backs by the strong wind, and the pieces of leather armor exploded and merged into the howling wind.
The innate strong wind rotates around the middle of the hall, and no flaws can be seen.
Jiao Cheng's men immediately pulled the iron rope close to the ground and pulled the surviving Zhang San back before the iron rope was cut.
Blood surged from Zhang San's body. Jiao Cheng glanced at Li Ang. Li Ang frowned slightly, opened the medicine box, and sewed up Zhang San's wound with silver thread. He didn't have Jiao Cheng's ability to endure the pain, and kept screaming miserably.
Others had to hold down his hands and feet and cover his mouth.
"No, no..."
Sword cultivator Fan Guangyu murmured, "Everyone says that the Sword Immortal went completely crazy after returning from the Endless Sea, but the tomb he built always left a way to the tomb.
Regardless of whether this life path is one he wants to set for his descendants or the heirs of the swordsmanship, it is bound to exist.
The innate strong wind can crush steel and suppress monks.
Except for solving it from the source of power, which is the unknown underground river waterfall, there are almost no weaknesses.
There must be a shortcut..."
"Is it a formation?"
Another sword cultivator, Zhu Yuyin, said in a low voice: "The formation that can produce the innate Gangfeng can only be arranged by at least monks from the Zhuxiao Realm and Linyuan Realm.
The metal plates above the holes on the wall have different patterns, with a total of sixty-four types. They should correspond to the sixty-four hexagrams."
His eyes flickered, as if he had discovered a treasure and murmured to himself: "Kun is the earth, mines are restored, earth is coming, earth and heaven are peaceful..."
Zhu Yuyin's words were forcibly interrupted.
Sun Jiu's body, which originally fell in the center of the hall, was lifted up by the rotating wind and fell on a square brick.
The square brick suddenly sank, and a series of rumbling machine sounds were heard from the wall of the hall.
Phew!
The strong wind spurting out from the holes in the wall instantly became fierce and violent.
The air blade shot out directly cut a tattooed man standing slightly forward into several pieces.
Before the blood spurted out even hit the ground, it was swept by the strong wind and turned into blood mist.
"Retreat!"
Jiao Cheng shouted loudly and was about to retreat towards the corridor he came from.
But with a loud bang, an extremely heavy dragon-breaking stone fell down from the entrance of the corridor diagonally downward, blocking the retreat.
The way back is blocked, and the strong wind vortex in the hall continues to expand and accelerate.
Gravels on the edge of the hall were constantly being picked up by the strong wind, spinning rapidly with the vortex, hitting everyone like bullets.
Another man who had no time to raise his shield was hit in the head by a high-speed stone, and his head burst open and died.
Dang Dang Dang Dang——
The fine gravel and strong wind are constantly eroding the shields that everyone smashed on the ground.
Zhu Yuyin nervously glanced at the wall. The patterns on the hollow metal plates were still muttering to himself, "The five sundas are the wind, the six ridges are the water, and the water helps the wind...
I understand, I need to put down the hollow metal plate above the hole!"
He pulled the two of them up from the ground, asked them to hold up their shields, stick to the edge of the cave hall, and walk toward the hole in the mountain wall.
Click!
One of them pinched the edge of the hollow metal plate. There was a chute between the metal plate and the hole below. He pulled hard and successfully pulled the hollow metal plate off.
The metal plate seemed hollow, but after it was put down, there was a rolling sound of a spherical object behind it.
The airflow from that hole and the adjacent hole next door has also weakened a lot.
Success.
A smile appeared on Zhu Yuyin's face, and the next second——
Boom!
An even more violent wind spurted out from behind the hollow metal plate, instantly grinding the tattooed man next to him into mincemeat.
The wind did not decrease but increased, and Zhu Yuyin and another survivor had to lie on the ground to avoid the fierce wind.
What happened? Why did the wind become more violent after putting down the metal plate?
Like everyone else, Li Ang, who was holding a shield to avoid the strong wind, glanced around and suddenly noticed something - all the holes on the mountain wall seemed to be in pairs.
Just now, after Zhu Yuyin asked someone to put down the metal plate, the sound of rolling spherical objects was heard from behind the hole. The wind first weakened and then increased.
"..."
Li Ang took a deep breath. The tunnel's escape route was blocked, and the vortex of the wind was still expanding. He had to find a way out.
He hit Di Wu in front of him on the back and shouted loudly: "Go and lift up the closed metal plate!"
This chapter has been completed!