Chapter 108: Dense Forest

Hearing Fatty say that he had discovered the entrance to the “Valley of Worms”, Shirley Yang and I also raised the binoculars hanging on our chests and looked over in the direction Fatty had mentioned, and after adjusting the focal length, we saw a large area of yellow-white wildflower trees under the hill in the distance, and there were swarms of golden phoenix-tailed butterflies shuttling among the flowers, which were not small and flew around in groups. These butterflies are not small, flying around in groups, never leaving the flower trees.

Shirley Yang exclaimed: “Those flowers should be Phalaenopsis orchids, I can’t imagine attracting so many golden phoenix-tailed butterflies …… and gold-banded phoenix butterflies …… and even the rare golden line of the big colorful butterflies, it is simply like the ancient Greece Myths and legends, in the garden of the gods in the Aegean Sea, those gold tree leaves blown up by the sea breeze.”

I know nothing about butterflies, with binoculars to see half a day, in addition to butterflies and wildflowers and trees, but did not see what the valley, streams and valleys and other terrain, the plant layer here is too thick, all the topography of the terrain are covered tightly, it is impossible to identify where is the valley, where is the stream, looking from above, only to see the ups and downs, are all unique to the Tropic of Cancer near the dense plants, high out of the also Not necessarily is the terrain high, that is because the plant growth is not balanced, the primitive forest here, and we are familiar with the Daxinganling primitive forest, there is a great degree of difference.

As the saying goes: wood show in the forest, the wind must be destroyed, Daxing’anling in the height of the tree crown are similar, trees and trees each other, you can work together to resist the wind, and here is located in the two rivers and three mountains surrounded by the intersection of the middle of the basin and valley of the terrain is low-lying, and in addition also due to the seasons of the Yunnan as one, there is no monsoon season, the lower the terrain of the place, the more the tide is serious, the year-round temperature is maintained at around 25 ~ 30 degrees Celsius, the temperature is maintained at the same time, and the temperature is not seen all year round. All year round, the temperature is maintained at about 25~30℃, and the wind does not blow once a year, so all kinds of plants grow freely, and the water resources under the ground are abundant, and the humidity in the air is very great, so the plants can grow how they want to grow without any care, which leads to the thick-stemmed lianas in the forests, and the woody and herbaceous epiphytes according to their own characteristics of the difference, grow in different heights, and the difference is staggered, and the tallest one is the famous Wangtian Tree of Yunnan, which is a kind of tree only existed in south of the Tropic of Cancer. Originally, this kind of big tree is only found in the south of the Tropic of Cancer, but the environment of this mountain hollow is unique, and surprisingly, there are also a lot of sky-high sky-high trees.

Only a few relatively large area of water pools above the plant cover, deep and secluded, more than a number of places are cloudy, in the distance is difficult to peek at the bottom, can not rely on a few groups of large golden butterflies from there into the forest, the complexity of the environment here, it is difficult to use common sense speculation.

Human skin map drawn in the Han Dynasty, passed on to today after two thousand years, the map marked in the terrain features, and now has produced a great change, in addition to a number of specific markers and locations, can not be used again with the human skin map and the “Shade Dragon Mountain” under the forest, for more accurate reference.

According to the blind man, a few decades ago, their group of “unloading force”, with earth explosives into the “worm valley”, in the “worm valley”, that is, the “snake river” formed by the “snake river”, the “snake river” formed by the “snake river”, the “snake river” formed by the “snake river”, the “snake river” formed by the “snake river”. In the “Worm Valley”, that is, in the section in front of the valley formed by the “Snake River”, they saw a large group of butterflies.

But who can guarantee that butterflies will not appear in other places outside the “Valley of Worms”, so for the time being, we cannot conclude that the entrance to the “Valley of Worms” is over there, and we must find the other place mentioned by the blind man, the “Valley of Worms”. In the “Valley of Worms”, there is a section of remnant wall, which is an ancient wall built on the Snake River by manpower, and it seems to be a dam used to cut off the water flow when building the “Tomb of King Xian” in the lake, and it was demolished after King Xian went into the convergence and restored the “Tomb of King Xian” in front of the “Tomb of King Xian”. “After King Xian entered the lake, the wall was demolished and the “water dragon halo” in front of the Tomb of King Xian was restored.

Only to find the remnants of the wall, can be used as a basis for confirming the location of the “Valley of the Worms”, the safest way is the same as the group of “unloading the mountain”, out of the Chalong Mountain, not into the forest, but along the direction of the mountains to the north to find the “Lancang River”. “Lan Cang Jiang” tributary “Snake River”, and then follow the “Snake River” touch into the valley, you can ensure that you will not go astray, in the direction of the infallible.

Fatty proposed another method, that is, to re-find the “Chalong Mountain” in the artificial canal, along the ancient river, looking for the “Snake River”, but Chalong Mountain in the waterway, due to the “Lancang River However, the waterways in Chalong Mountain, due to the “Lancang River” upstream heavy rain, the various sizes of the waterways connected to each other, has become intricate and complex, and may even be rerouted into the ground, the old river has long been completely covered by plants and soil, so the fat man’s said that the method is not feasible.

The three of us discussed a little, looked at the time, 3:30 p.m., we from about 9:00 a.m. to take the raft into the “Chalong Mountain”, has not been rested so far, so decided to use the place as a “relay point”, rest for 20 minutes, and then north, trying to find “before sunset”, “the river”, “the river”. We tried to find the entrance to the “Bug Valley” before sunset, and then set up camp there to enter the valley in the morning.

We found a slightly flat hillside to sit down, take out some bait cake beef a little hunger, the result of the fat man said those piranha, remember that the mountain pool, full of bright red blood, with the legend of the pool of blood in the hell about the same, so I also lost my appetite, I suddenly heart of a flinch, in case of those teeth faster than a knife and saw, also swim into the Snake River along the way, but how to do good? With those guys in the water, it is impossible for us to drill into the “Tomb of King Xian” from the water.

Shirley Yang said: “about this do not worry, I used to work as a photojournalist in geographic magazines, I have read a lot of information about the beast animal and plant related information, saber-toothed viper fish in Asia, India, Myitkyina, Laos, and the Americas near the Tropic of Cancer near the 20 degrees of the region of the waters have existed.”

One of the most ancient India, the scriptures recorded India Ashoka period, there was a year, “knife tooth viper fish” caused a catastrophe, when the hundred-year flood of the Ganges River, an underground river in the Eastern Ghats, backed up into the nearby city, the city of countless animals and people buried in the belly of the fish.

The ancestor of this “saber-toothed viperfish” can be traced back to the “tiger-toothed jackfish” in the water during the post-glacial period, which lived in the ocean and had a luminescent device on its body. These fish lived in the ocean and had luminaries on their bodies, and large groups of “tiger-toothed trevally” could kill the ocean’s dominant “king whale” in an instant. Later, due to the great floods of the sub-glacial period, these creatures were gradually and cruelly eliminated by nature, and their descendants, “saber-toothed vipers”, evolved into freshwater fishes. The “saber-toothed viperfish” has evolved into a freshwater fish.

“Although very powerful, but they have a huge weakness, these fish can only live in the lower temperature of the water, near the Tropic of Cancer, only the melting caverns in the cold water suitable for their survival, those waters produce a kind of no eyes of the hard-shelled shrimp, a large number, but still not enough for them to eat, and so they will often be killed each other. The huge number of “saber-toothed viperfish” is so large that after September every year, only one percent of them will survive to the final spawning period.

The full moon in the mid-autumn every year is the spawning period of the “saber-toothed viperfish”, which is unable to survive in too hot an area, but the reason why they live near the Tropic of Cancer is to go to areas with high water temperatures to spawn a large number of eggs, which will die immediately after spawning. After spawning, the “knife tooth viper fish” will die immediately, the eggs grow in the warmer water for a period of time, become fry, and then swim back to the cooler waters to continue to survive, it is now the end of June, is also the “knife tooth viper fish” the most active period, it is very difficult to see the number of “knife tooth viper fish “It is difficult to see such a large number of vipers in normal times.

In addition, due to the high demand for living environment and the high demand for food, it has become extinct in the last few decades.

The most important thing is that this season is not the spawning season, so there is absolutely no need to worry about them swimming back out of the cave, but you need to be careful when you go back, the waterways in the “Chalong Mountain” have recently turned into interconnected water networks due to the heavy rainfall, if you go back the way you came, you might bump into them again in one of the sections of the river in the cave. If we go back the way we came, we might run into them again in one of the rivers in the cave.

Listened to Shirley Yang’s detailed explanation of the “knife tooth viper fish”, I and the fat man is slightly relieved, back to the matter, then leave it to go back to consider, the fat man felt a little timid just now, hoping to find face back, and so to me and Shirley Yang said: “These stinking fish rotten shrimp can make much of a mess. fish rotten shrimp can make much noise, I only so feel that they are a little …… that what, because the chairman his old man once taught us that we should pay attention to the enemy in tactics.”

What will happen, it’s really hard to say, before entering the insect valley has already encountered so much trouble, we must step by step and be careful.”

I nodded and said, “This bucket is notorious for not being easy to pour, since we’re here, we have to make use of what we’ve learned in our lives and compete with it.” I patted the back of my neck and said, “Even for this, I have to press my life to play this big hand.”

Shirley Yang and the fat man are also gloomy, this time the inverted bucket is a matter of life and death of the move, running on the cliff there is no retreat to speak of, can only succeed not to fail.

We rested for a period of time, took out the “Chalong Mountain” contour map, this map is extremely simple, the error is very large, the compass will be zeroed out, re-established the elevation and orientation, the map was corrected, marked the exit of the direction, the three will continue to move, set out to look for the Snake River.

“Lancang River” basin is very wide, from north to south, through the whole territory of Yunnan, straight into Vietnam, but in the Vietnamese basin, known as the “Mekong River”, the content of these since it does not matter, but in Yunnan, “Lancang River” the smallest branch of the river. “The smallest branch of the Lancang River in Yunnan is the Snake River, which we are looking for. The section of the river that runs around the Chalong Mountain is very fast, with a very large drop, and some of the sections run through underground or jungle marshes, while others run down the mountain. Some sections of the river flow through underground or jungle swamps, and some sections of the river flow down the mountain, with one waterfall after another. The river is full of huge whirlpools, which make it impossible for all kinds of boats to pass through, and because of its extreme twists and turns, it is called “Snake River”, and is known as “Jie Lalu Luolu” to the local Bai Minority people, which means The local Bai people call it “Gelaro’s pickle fruits”, which means “the evil dragon suppressed by the great snow mountain”.