The ╦╧-shaped tunnel is crossed by the trajectory of the flares. You can see that there is a hole at an asymmetric position at each end on the left and right. The deepest one is not clearly visible. Both sides of the main road are piled with white bones. Due to the distance,
From a distance, you can only make out a large number of huge white ivory tusks in the shape of conical arcs, and there seem to be some other animal bones. When the flare reaches the end, you can also see the flash of water waves over there. Judging from the position, it should be a snake.
The groundwater system of the river.
Although I did not expect that the entrance to the tunnel at my feet would be a burial pit with so many bones, but judging from the scale below, since there is a water system flowing downward parallel to the deep valley, this tunnel can definitely lead to the tomb of King Xian
In the main mausoleum area.
We discussed it and found that although this tunnel is very powerful, compared with the boundless mountain miasma and poisonous fog, it is still feasible to risk entering the Tomb of King Xian from the underground tunnel. Anyway, the three of us are pretty good at it.
It’s not like the last time I went to the desert of Xinjiang with a group of intellectuals, who were tied up and cumbersome to do things. The most suitable thing for back-fighting is a team of two or three people, relying on the powerful firepower of the Chicago typewriter’s injector
With support, coupled with the traditional tools of Mojin Captain, you can handle whatever you encounter.
So we took a short rest at the entrance of the cave and packed up our equipment. Since there was no bamboo raft this time, if there was underground water, we would need to carry out an armed swim, so all unnecessary things had to be temporarily removed and left in the temple dedicated to the mountain god.
within.
First, I put on a sharkskin diving suit, put on elbow and knee pads, adjusted the spotlight on the mountaineering helmet to the side, replaced the new battery, then equipped the helmet with diving goggles, and hung a simple small refillable oxygen bottle on the back.
Carry only one waterproof carrying bag per person on your back, which contains emergency medicines, spare batteries, cold smoke, fire, gas masks, fluorescent tubes, candles, evil spirits, wolf-eye flashlights, and other necessary items.
The fat man's diving suit didn't fit well, so I wasn't going to wear it. I said to him: It's okay if you don't wear it. Anyway, you are a stupid boy who sleeps on a hot bed, and you only rely on your firepower to make you stronger.
He said: You can’t do it without wearing some clothes. You don’t remember how cold the water is under Zhelong Mountain. If you swim in the water for a long time, you will easily suffer from hypothermia. Even if the clothes are a little narrow, you have to make do with them. Otherwise, you have to stay and wait for us.
, you are not allowed in.
The fat man remembered the scene where he fell off the bamboo raft at Zhelong Mountain. When he swam back, his lips were purple from the cold. It seems that although the area is humid and hot, the underground water system is extremely cold and cold, which is no joke; not to mention the tomb of the king.
A large number of weapons were already not far away. How could I stay here and wait? I had to inhale and tighten my belly, and forced myself to put on the diving suit. After putting it on, I kept complaining: "The shoes are too small and the crotch is too short. Whoever feels uncomfortable knows this."
Heavy items such as engineer shovels, mountaineering picks, various ropes, and kettles and food, as well as weapons, ammunition, detonators, and sixteen ingots of explosives, propane bottles that can spray flames, are all concentrated in a large waterproof bag, with inflatable straps tied around it.
The air bag allows these equipment to float on the water at any time with the help of the buoyancy of the water, and we can also pull it to save some effort when swimming in the water.
The rest of the things were packed and placed in the main hall of the mountain temple. When everything was ready, the Golden Usi bird returned to its nest. Taking advantage of the twilight at dusk, the three of us entered the tunnel.
Carrying a diamond umbrella and holding a wolf eye to clear the way in front, the fat man and I worked together to carry a lot of equipment packed in waterproof plastic bags and walked behind, slowly going down this slightly steep slope.
The tunnel at the entrance was obviously built manually. Both sides were lined with large green stones, and the seams between the stones were sealed with red paint. The large square bricks on the ground were very smooth, and it looked like a corridor in an ancient tomb.
On both sides of the tunnel, there are neatly stacked whole elephant bones, which are the skeletons of the entire elephant. It was obviously brought after being slaughtered outside. The purpose of placing whole elephant bones or ivory in the burial pit is to get the homophonic word "elephant".
This large and very docile animal also represents good luck and prosperity. In ancient China, as early as the Tang Dynasty of Shang Dynasty, elephant bones and tusks were used as burial objects. A large number of ivory tusks were unearthed in Yinxu. At that time, China
There are still a large number of elephants in the Yellow River Basin, but they are now extinct.
These bones were deliberately half-buried, instead of being buried in the earth like the burial ditch. This shows that the owner of the tomb is seeking enlightenment and immortality, and no longer cares about worldly things. The half-burial of the burial objects means that they will rise with them.
.
I counted and found that there were sixty-four sets of whole elephant bones in this burial pit alone, not to mention countless ivory tusks. There were also some scattered small animal bones that had decayed like mud over time and could no longer be distinguished.
What kind of animal is it? It is deduced that it may be hound and horse bones, as well as the human bones of slaves.
We once again appreciated the huge scale of the tomb of the king and the luxury of the funerary objects. I said to them: the tombs of kings in small countries in southern Xinjiang like ancient Dian were all so grand because of one person, and hundreds of thousands of people suffered from hanging upside down.
Using the blood and sweat of the common people to build such a large-scale tomb, in the end, it is just a dream to ascend to heaven and become an immortal after death, and to protect the country for ten thousand years. These things are left in the mountains to decay with the sun and the moon. Now it seems that there are many
It's ridiculous. For an ancient tomb like this, which was built with the people's fat and anointing, we should pour as much as it should.
Said: I didn't expect that the tomb of King Xian was so big. As she spoke, she had already arrived at the intersection of the ╣-shaped tunnels, and I heard her wonder: What are these used for?
The fat man and I then walked over and used the wolf-eye flashlight to shine at the corner. We saw that the inside was not a tunnel, but just a recessed part of the stone wall of the main tunnel. It was only a few meters deep and there were a few long poles scattered around.
It seems that they can be connected together. I also felt strange, so I wanted to reach out and pick it up to take a look. Unexpectedly, although these long poles looked intact, they turned into mud when touched. Because there are underground waterways, no measures were taken inside.
The sealing measures are from two thousand years ago and will break if touched.
This pit on the stone wall of the tunnel seemed to be specially used to place these long poles. Could it be used to measure the depth of the water? The three people were confused and couldn't figure out what it was used for. Inside the tomb area of King Xian
There are so many strange and bizarre things that these items are nothing in comparison, so I have to ignore them and move on.
When we reach the end of the tunnel, that is, the area where we shine the flare and see the reflection from the water, we walk along the sloping tunnel to where we are about tens of meters above the ground. From here on, it is no longer a manual excavation and construction process.
The tunnel is a natural underground cave; but it has been completely submerged in water. If you want to continue moving forward from here, you must swim in the water.
There are several ancient wooden boats lined up on the stone wall next to the water. People who go to Minglou to worship the king's tomb may take these boats. However, over time, these wooden boats have been rotten to the point where only their frames are left.
Difficult to use.
We unzipped the air bag bundled on the big backpack and let it fill with air and float on the water. The submachine guns and other weapons were placed on top so that they could be taken out for use at any time. We put away the wolf-eye flashlight and turned on the tactical spotlight on the helmet.
Light up, then follow into the water, hold on to the large bag on the backpack, and wade through the water.
After walking more than ten meters into the water, my feet could no longer reach the ground. The cold and biting underground water was getting deeper and deeper. I looked at the compass and found that the position of the water flow was exactly parallel to the direction of the Worm Valley.
In the cave here, there are many huge natural stone pillars in the water, which are like the corals on the seabed. Because it is dark in the cave, it is not clear how these strange stone pillars were formed.
The top of my head was very low from the water, which seemed particularly depressing. I looked up and saw that many huge rhizomes of plants in the valley had grown from above. Some of the longer ones even extended directly into the water, forming a rare plant.
Cave roof.
As you swim farther and farther, the terrain gradually becomes lower. In the cave filled with groundwater, the distance between the water surface and the cave roof gradually increases, breathing is much easier than before, and the plant roots hanging above the head and those strange stones
The corals were getting denser and denser. I also found that there were some fish in the water of the cave. They bumped into our bodies underwater from time to time, and then swam far away. I was secretly glad that they were not piranhas.
In order to further confirm the direction of travel, Fatty took out the flare gun and wanted to shoot another flare forward. Fatty counted the remaining number of flares: there were eight more. This time, I brought too few, so I had to use them leisurely.
After saying that, he loaded one into the flare gun, adjusted the range, and fired forward.
The flare drew a shining arc, and finally hung on the intertwined plants and vines not far away. At this moment, the white light illuminated the surrounding caves brightly, and a rare and terrifying natural landscape was presented to us.
before.
It turns out that those coral-like stone pillars are fossils of forest trees from ancient times, and the so-called ancient times here cannot be traced back by modern people.
Fossils are ancient relics buried in the ground, formed by millions of years of sand burial. The most common ones are animal fossils. Since animal bones and teeth have less organic matter and more inorganic matter, the degree of decay after being buried in sand is very low.
It will slow down and be washed away by the slowly flowing groundwater in the silt gaps, precipitating the excess minerals to form crystals. If the crystals of these minerals can completely replace the organic matter before the bones completely decay, they will form real fossils.
But plant fossils are very rare, because the degree of decay of plants is much higher than that of animal bones. He said excitedly: Zhelong Mountain may have been a huge active volcano hundreds of millions of years ago. During the last apocalyptic eruption,
, at the same time, there was a mudslide nearby, and the magma swallowed up the forest at the foot of the mountain. The trees that were instantly carbonized by the high temperature were immediately swallowed up by the ensuing mudslide before they could be destroyed, and the temperature also cooled down instantly.
After a long period of tens of millions of years, with the changes of nature and repeated erosion of the underground water system, the forest that had been sealed in the sand for countless years was revealed underground again.
I didn't think there was anything strange about these stone trees. I had dug them out in Kunlun Mountain back then. However, she had been looking worried recently, with a melancholy look on her face. It was rare to see her happy, so I said to her
: Although we were a little scared during our trip to Yunnan, we also saw some real mountains and rivers, and saw some things that ordinary people would never see in their lifetime. It was a worthwhile trip and we gained a lot.
The fat man interjected: Just looking at some broken stones would seem to be a fly in the ointment. Then go back and touch a few earth-shattering artifacts, shake the golden teeth in Panjiayuan with the other grandsons, and then break out of Panjiayuan and march into Liulichang, then it will be almost complete.
.
Just as I was about to speak, the flare hanging in front of me ran out of energy, then darkened, and the cave gradually turned pitch black, leaving only the faint beam of light from the tactical spotlights on our helmets. I felt as if we were drifting.
In a sea of black, there were only three of us left in the world. As the last ray of light from the flare was slowly being taken away by the darkness, a sudden feeling of loneliness and depression spread throughout my brain.
I felt very strange that I would feel this way. During the process from light to dark, I seemed to be hit by a weak electric current, and then I felt this inexplicable sense of loss, and my mood suddenly became depressed. I saw
Looking at Wang Guan and Fatty, the two of them seemed to feel that something was wrong, but how did this subtle change occur, what did it portend, and why did they suddenly feel a panic?
At this time, the flare that was shot directly in front had finally been completely extinguished. However, when the last ray of light from our flare completely disappeared, a faint white figure slowly appeared in the dark depths of the underground water. Although in the cave
It was very dark, but the white light on the figure's body became clearer and clearer. I was sure that it was a female corpse covered in plain clothing. She seemed to have floated over from the water. As the female corpse got closer and closer to us, the female corpse's figure became clearer and clearer.
The frost-like face could be seen clearly, my heartbeat began to speed up, and the nightmare-like feeling of panic became more intense.
There were many floating aquatic plants on the water in front, which blocked our progress on the water. We had to take out the engineering shovel and keep pushing these floating aquatic plants away. There were many mosquitoes, water spiders and ants growing on the duckweed and aquatic plants.
Locusts keep swooping on people's faces.
Just when we were getting annoyed, we suddenly heard the buzzing sound of insect wings in front of us. I subconsciously pulled out the submachine gun from the waterproof bag. In order to see clearly what it was, the fat man had to fire it again.
A flare. In the light, the front was completely blocked by hanging plant roots and vines. Countless huge black flying insects looked like small dragonflies, but without eyes. There were thousands of them, like
Black clouds were passing through the country, circling back and forth around the roots of the plants.
No one has ever seen this kind of insect, and it may only exist in the special humid environment underground. Insects are the largest group in the world, and about one-third of the species are not yet known to humans.
However, this kind of black dragonfly-like flying insect does not seem to attack people, but such a huge group can't help but make people feel dizzy. Shumeng