"Did it have such a big bend when you came here?" The two girls were startled.
The fact that Fan Ning can ask this question shows that at least he doesn't think so.
He immediately turned on the flashlight, and the light only illuminated the twenty or so stone steps closest to the corridor.
These steps are not as steep as stairs. They are wide in area, and the height difference between each step is not big. It can be seen that they are still going down, and gradually disappear into the deep darkness after turning.
Qiong thought for a moment and said, "Absolutely. Who can see accurately in such dim light?"
Fan Ning's eyes flashed, he held a crowbar in one hand and a flashlight in the other, and stepped forward again.
"Maybe... it was there before?" The two of them followed, and Sheeran also spoke tentatively, "Remember when we came here, right? First it was a straight flat ground, and then it went uphill and turned... This shows that it was gradually becoming
The turns are getting bigger and bigger..."
"A reasonable explanation." Joan nodded, twisted her shoulders to adjust the position of her backpack, and continued calmly, "Caron, you are walking in the opposite direction now. You were at the maximum amplitude from the beginning.
So when you compare it with when it came out, you might think that it has become more curved, right? This is nothing..."
She closed her mouth as she spoke.
At this moment, the area illuminated by Fan Ning's flashlight only has about ten steps!
After walking a few more steps, there were still four or five visible steps.
Anyone with a discerning eye can see this... Is this just a bigger curve than before? If it was a corridor when we came here before, now this one is called a spiral staircase.
"Is this... still going forward?" Joan's voice was soft and trembling, "Caron, as someone who often explores urban ruins, to be honest... those places are mostly mentally scary, as long as you don't browse randomly.
There is no real danger in concealing the carrier or performing unfamiliar secret rituals... But I am really scared now. What is the situation in your art museum? If the existence of this underground building is announced, it will definitely become a Ufu
Lancel’s first urban legend…”
"If we don't go forward, why don't we go back?" Fan Ning glanced at the darkness behind him, "The empty hall is only so big. We don't know how many times we have gone around. This is the only door, unless
You break the hall window and get out of the dirt outside the window."
"Keep moving forward, everyone, be careful. I will lead the way, Qiong will be in the middle, and Sheeran will stick to your back and look behind you."
Compared with the deviation of the route in front of him, what Fan Ning was most worried about was the glimpse he just witnessed of the master "Truth Tiger".
After being swept by His gaze, I always felt that some inexplicable trigger had been touched, but I couldn't put it into words.
Several people were on alert. Sheeran glanced at the "Alert Record" again, then loaded the pistol on his waist. Qiong also held a curse seal, and everyone began to walk slowly towards the bottom of the spiral staircase.
The turning angle is getting wider and wider, and the radius of the spiral staircase is getting narrower and narrower.
I thought it would be a long time, but in less than half a minute the spiral staircase bottomed out.
"Another door like this." As soon as Fan Ning saw the spherical protrusions on both sides of the double door, he felt inexplicably scary. After hesitating for a moment, he still passed the crowbar through the crack of the door, and then pulled hard
.
Dust rose and the door opened, revealing a hall.
The flashlight briefly illuminated the ground behind the threshold, and the three of them stepped in one after another.
Fan Ning's first impression was that this place... was almost like an unfinished building.
This hall has almost the same shape and area as the one above, but not only is there nothing worthy of attention here, there are not even heptagonal floor tiles, hanging candlesticks and windows. It is just a bare underground space, with only chaotic ground underfoot.
Dirt, sand and broken bricks.
At this time, Joan felt a little less depressed. She tried to adjust the atmosphere, curled her lips and said: "Carolen, this secret underground building in your house is too shabby, not to mention that there are any powerful rituals or other extraordinary items hidden there.
, I don’t even have a piece of paper, and I don’t know what to bring if I want to bring some adventure souvenirs. How about we pick up a brick and put it in our backpack..."
Fan Ning ignored her. The flashlight briefly scanned a circle of walls and then quickly turned off.
Learning from the past, he only wanted to take a general look at the situation, and naturally he would not look for anything in detail. The two girls also did not make any move to stick the lantern on the wall to observe.
But with this brief sweep, Qiong, who was watching along with him, was stunned on the spot.
Sheeran even walked closer to Fan Ning and asked in a low voice: "Caron, was it my eyesight just now? Why do I feel...my head is full of question marks now..."
"You're not dazzled." Fan Ning's tone was filled with confusion, "It's not in your mind, it's because the walls are indeed covered with question marks."
These inexplicable scenes just now made him feel confused and irritable, but luckily he turned off the flashlight in time.
"When did the punctuation mark question mark appear?" Qiong asked a question that was strange to her mind, but upon closer consideration, it seemed that it was not far-fetched.
Sheeran is familiar with the treasures: "It is an invention of the Janus people in the Western Continent...it comes from the word 'question' in the ancient Janus language, but this prefix already existed in their earlier Geminian language family, initially the first two
It was an abbreviation, and later it became one up and down, and the second letter became a subscript... Even counting from the time it evolved into what we see now, it has been at least more than 1,400 years..."
The two girls seemed to want to continue discussing or researching something in depth, but Fan Ning grabbed one by the hand and quickly stopped them.
"Leave here, I feel like this place is a little bit weirder than the hall above. Go back behind the door first."
In Fan Ning's impression of the brief lighting, the walls of this hall were a pale white, and then there were question marks everywhere like children's graffiti. The color of the question marks was not a strong contrasting color such as red or black, but only a little darker than the background board.
Ash.
In addition to the large question marks, there are also some faint traces of light color on the wall. Just from that impression, Fan Ning felt a little confused. The feeling of loss and calmness was turning his inspiration into excitement and withering.
The contradiction of the latter - the latter brings revelation, which may also have some symbols of the Lord of Witness.
…for example, “contemplation of death” and “flow”?
There are also some unfamiliar adjectives that come out inexplicably, such as the source of strange power and confusion, the words of boundless rage, or the insatiable desire...
It’s better not to confirm the strange intuition caused by the ups and downs of inspiration.
Don't stay here either, Fan Ning can't guarantee whether he will come up to take a look next moment.
Several people quickly left this even weirder hall, and then Fan Ning turned on the flashlight again.
"Where's the spiral staircase?" He was completely dumbfounded.
It's the same as when we first arrived: the gently curved corridor, the gentle steps extending downward, the overall neatness with occasional loose bricks, and the supporting porches distributed several meters apart...
"...Carolon." Joan called him after a few seconds of silence, "Finally you encountered the normal scene you wanted to see, right?"
"...I want to see something normal...but not like this...Do you think it's normal to look like this?"
There was a dull creaking sound, and Fan Ning stretched out his arms and pressed hard on the double doors at the back that connected to the strange hall.
He was already a little dazed by this series of inexplicable things. He blocked the back first, so that if something incomprehensible appeared, there might be some sound warning.
"Let's go, be careful." Fan Ning took the lead to clear the way. "Although this corridor looks exactly the same as when we came here, I don't expect to be able to return to the same place. Let's try where we can go first."
The stench became strong again, and about ten minutes later, he realized that he had guessed wrong.
Two meters away in front of you is a door that has fallen off in half and is severely corroded. The U-shaped escalator railing opposite the deep well outside the door is clearly visible.
"You're really back? Damn it..." Fan Ning looked at each other in turn with the two girls next to him.
Because he just had a vague rebellious mentality of "Why do I always predict wrong situations?", I deliberately made an expectation that I couldn't go back. Unexpectedly, I was wrong again.
What does this mean? Is it true that only one of the two halls is real and the other is an illusion?
"Caron, why does this deep well feel less dark than before?" Sheeran asked.
"Maybe after staying in the dark for too long, people's pupils gradually adjust and adapt." Joan said, "When I visited various remote places in Ufranser the night before, I also felt that the longer time passed, the better my condition became.
The clearer you see..."
No... Fan Ning slowly cast his gaze to the side of the escalator opposite.
There is a candlestick built into the cracks of the masonry and with similar "anthropomorphic" decorative patterns.
But... there are no candles.
An idea flashed through Fan Ning's mind. He took a few steps forward, held the threshold with his hands, stretched his head out of the door, and looked upward.
About six or seven meters above the deep well, a burning tallow candle was emitting a dim light!
And the rope that was used before was still tied to the escalator at one end and fixed at the opposite end. In my field of vision at this moment, it was like a black line above the deep well.
…really damned.
A few minutes later, the three of them returned to climbing the escalator.
Sheeran climbed up and checked, and found that the door six or seven meters high was indeed the door that the three people had entered through before. Half of it was hooked off by Fan Ning with a crowbar, causing the same situation as the door below.
Joan asked: "Caron, when we entered from above, did you see the door below?"
Fan Ning shook his head: "No, the candlelight can't shine that far."
"But you shined your flashlight down."
"...The time was too short. I was just checking to see if it was fast enough. I really didn't pay attention...In fact, we only discovered the door above after you reminded us."
"All right…"
Sheeran said: "It's obvious that the passage inside is changing. So it's unclear whether the door on the well wall has changed..."
She once again glanced at the candlestick with a completely different style built on the stone bricks of the well wall.
"But in this case, at least it means that there was indeed a two-story hall just now." Fan Ning made a decision, "Let's go on and take a look."
The three of them climbed down again.
The stench flowed in the air, but the atmosphere temporarily became quiet. After a long time this time, Fan Ning counted a total of 1,600 escalators, which was more than 800 meters deep, and finally found the third candlestick at hand.
, and a third door of similar style.
"This distribution is too irregular..." Qiong said, "Why is it that the first two doors are only six or seven meters apart, but this door... we went down a full five hundred meters more?"
"Whatever." Sheeran asked a question he had asked before, "Go in and take a look, or... keep facing down?"
"If you can't go down, don't go down..." Qiong said quickly, "It's already too deep. I feel depressed just thinking about it... We all came in just now. Maybe the source of the stench comes from here.
?”
"No, let's go down first and try again." Fan Ning tilted his ears.
"Why?" Joan asked subconsciously.
"I seemed to hear the sound of running water."
"Hey, it's true." Xilan also heard it.
"So, let's go down and take a look first. I suspect it's not far from the bottom. Come back up later."
When everyone descended to a depth of nearly a thousand meters, they really reached the bottom.
The escalator ends here. It seems to be an irregularly shaped cave. It is not large in size and is close to the living room of the Xilan family villa.
The temperature was extremely cold, the stench was extremely strong, and several people were shivering from the cold.
The light shone in a circle, and everyone found many dense holes all around, which should be naturally formed cracks. They are very narrow, and people either can't get in, or they can't go two meters inside. The sound of running water seems to come from these.
Coming from behind the crack.
"Underground river? A polluted underground river?" This was the first guess in several people's minds.
The worrying environmental level in Ufranser and the existence of such polluted water source areas are not surprising.
Fan Ning got close to a crack and shined the flashlight into it. The intricate rock pores were illuminated white and shiny, with large cracks surrounded by small cracks, making it difficult to see why.
Maybe the source of this stink really comes from the underground river.
It is still worthy of further study, but this can be considered a preliminary progress.
Several people were about to sit on the ground and relax their numb limbs when Sheeran said: "Look, there is another door here."
Where she illuminated the cave, the originally uneven stone surface was wiped out by artificial traces to create a flat area with a door-shaped pattern on it.
"This...is fake...it must have been painted on." Fan Ning stretched out his hand and pressed it. It was just a stone.
The pattern is not a line outline, but a solid filling. The material seems to be a mixture of some kind of mineral powder and pigment. Under the illumination of a flashlight, a whole surface of crystal-like blue-purple halo flows out.
"It's strange, what does it mean to draw a door here?" Xilan was also looking around, "Is there any mechanism?"
Joan looked at it in surprise for a while and then said: "I may know this style. It's called the 'Dome Door'."
"The door of the dome?" Fan Ning looked at her in surprise, "How do you know, the fragments in the memory? Is this the door of Huita? How did the door of Huita appear here?"
"Don't get excited...it's just a style, a symbol, not a real dome door."
Seeing that the other two people were all looking towards her, Qiong slowly explained: "I read it in the literature, and it has nothing to do with my own memories... Well, the knowledge about the existence of this door may not be as secretive as yours."
It is as high as imagined, not even as high as the 'Gate of Broken Keys' or 'Gate of Seven Lights'. It has been mentioned in many occult literature - as a rumored concept or an idealized concept, just like
Many folk myths and religions always mention concepts such as 'Death' and 'Heaven'...and these documents agree that there is no key to the 'Dome Door'..."
"It's not very secretive? It's often mentioned as a concept?"
Fan Ning stared at its blue-purple clear texture: "...So, this is a basic door of Huita, but is it the 'Gate of Broken Keys' or the 'Gate of Seven Lights' with a higher status?...But,
What do you mean it doesn’t have a key?”
"No, you understand the opposite..." Qiong shook her head back and forth.
"...The Door of the Dome is considered to be the highest point that mortal creatures can reach in the Tower of Light."