Chapter 123: The Cave of Strange Bottoms

I asked Shirley Yang, “The three of us are getting smaller and smaller? Where did that come from?”

Shirley Yang said to me, “The nearby objects that can be referenced, including plants and insects, as well as a large number of fossilized ancient trees, are all unusually large, that’s why I wondered if there could be some kind of wondrous place in this gourd shaped cave, which gradually made the bodies of those who came in smaller and smaller.”

This thing sounds really incredible, now we are drifting in the boundless underground water, it is difficult to determine, I said to Shirley Yang: “even if the body may be smaller, can even clothes and shoes can also be smaller together? I think this place is due to the special environment, so the ecosystems formed are all larger than the outside world.”

However, I said this is not sure, this cave is really like the red gourd in the Temple of the God of the Mountain, the cave mouth is small, the belly is big, and was flared arc, deeper into the cave walls will gradually expand, and there is no man-made traces of processing and repair, completely natural, perhaps this is an even older relics than the tomb of the King of Hsiien, the locals may be the gourd-shaped cave as a holy place, only in the Temple of the God of the Mountain dedicated to a gourd statue, and as for this gourd statue, it is a very important part of the cave. A gourd statue, as to whether this cave really has any special features, it is difficult to say, after all, we are now in the dark, the range of vision, but only to maintain a distance of about 20 meters or less, or a little farther away from the environment is difficult to detect changes in their own.

Nearby insects are much larger than normal, especially the fossilized trees of the ancient times, but also scary, a plant with teeth and claws poking out of the water, and the vines hanging down from the top of the tangled together, like an old dragon’s claws.

I think we should look for some plants as a target, as a reference point to see, in order to confirm that our body did not enter this gourd-shaped cave and gradually become smaller, otherwise we can not continue to move forward, we have to go back in the same way, and then pay attention to it.

However, the thickness of those old vines is almost the same as the human body, in the jungle outside, there are also so thick vines, so can not use the vines and plant rhizomes as a reference, at present the most direct way, is to dive into the water, look at the size of the nearby water plants, those algae have their own unique properties, will not be due to changes in the environment and the size of the growth of the different, regardless of the occasion environment, almost all the same.

But I think of the underwater that suddenly appeared, and suddenly disappeared, as if the ghost-like female corpse, the heart more or less a few points of fear, and then had to put the “safety lock” hanging in the “inflatable bag” on the fat man and Shirley Yang greetings, let them! Two people temporarily do not move forward, wait for me to go into the water to explore the situation before saying.

I put down the diving goggles on the mountaineering helmet, and drilled into the dark water, the tactical spotlight on the mountaineering helmet, even in the water should have a fifteen-meter illumination range, but the groundwater here has a lot of impurities, a large number of plankton and microorganisms, as well as algae plants, the visual range is reduced to the limit, only less than five meters.

The water is very deep, can not touch the bottom, I think it is not yet time to use oxygen, only with their own water, closed breath and keep swimming downstream, through the diving goggles, the underwater world is even more fuzzy, the darkness, vaguely see there is a large group of black whirring objects slowly floating underwater, due to the lack of light, I can only see that the thing has the size of a car wheel, can not see clearly is the bottom of the water of the animal, or what is the water plants plants! I could not see clearly whether it was an underwater animal or a water plant.

At this time, the black objects under the water, and I am close to some, I think the fish do not have such a shape, should be some kind of aquatic plants, is not the water plants are entangled together, grew into such a large group, if the water plants are also this big, then we can really run into big trouble.

I thought of this, my hand to the dark objects, ready to grab a hand to see, whether it is a large group of water plants, who knows just reached out, the thing suddenly jumped forward, slanting towards the head of the water surface popped out, in the distance from the surface of the water in the position of one or two meters to stop, lurking quietly there.

In the mass of wheel-shaped objects in the water under the leap, I have seen clearly, not a large mass of water plants, the thing shrinks together when it looks round, when paddling, it stretches out two bowed hind legs and forelimbs, the body is entangled in a lot of water plants, it turned out to be a large red-backed toad, and it seems to be more than just this one, and there are many other, are gathered to the water surface of the water from the surface of a meter or so, the water is dark, the water is dark. In the darkness of the water, it is difficult to distinguish how many such large toads, and I do not know whether there is something bigger.

How can there be such a large “toad”, I was shocked, almost drank a mouth of groundwater, feel that some breath can not hold, and do not have the heart to dive to the bottom of the water to look for algae, and hastily floated upward, dialing out of the water, my head out of the water, hurriedly took a deep breath, to Fatty and Shirley Yang said: “There is something under the water, our hurry to get out of here, first climb to that big fossilized tree that fell down horizontally.”

In the water of the underground cavern here, there are fossils of the whole ancient forest, some of the fossilized big trees, due to natural reasons, collapsed and broke, those fallen fossilized trees, crossly erected on the surrounding fossils, instead of sinking into the water, in the dense fossilized forest, formed a natural stone bridge.

Not far ahead of us, there happened to be just such an old fossilized tree trunk that had fallen across the water and was stuck by the rest of the fossils, with many branches and forks on its trunk.

Three people hurriedly just took out the weapons back into the waterproof bag, quickly swim to the fossil tree fell across the water, until we swam close, Shirley Yang first reached out and grabbed the branches of the fossil tree, Fatty and I supported her feet, first assisted Shirley Yang climbed up the body of the fossil tree fell across the water, and then I followed the climb up, hanging down the mountaineering rope to Fatty, stay in the water of the Fatty to inflate the air bag in the air quickly released, using the mountaineering rope to climb up, and then I followed, hanging down the mountaineering rope to Fatty, stayed in the water Fatty to inflate the air bag in the air quickly released. The fat man stayed in the water to quickly release the air, using the mountaineering rope to hang the backpack on his own body, I even pulled and dragged the fat man also got on the trunk of the tree, and finally in the equipment backpack hanging up.

Feet stepped on the stone, the heart of the square feel a little stable, but the three of us still do not dare to slack off, as fast as possible to weapons from the waterproof bag out, the fat man asked me: “a Li Xiangyang to scare you into this, underwater in the end what is it?”

Shirley Yang also asked me, “Did you see the female corpse that sank under the water?”

I pointed to the water and said, “There is no Li Xiangyang, there is no female corpse, there are big lai toads, also known as big toads, the big ones are as big as a wagon wheel, the small ones are also as big as a bucket, damn it, there are a lot of poisonous glands behind the lumps and bumps of these fellows, they mustn’t have any contact with them or else they will have one hundred and twenty percent danger once they are infected with lai poisons. ”

Shirley Yang raised the “wolf eye” flashlight, the column of light swept to the water where we just stayed, there is already quiet, only when we just swim quickly, caused by the water ripples, under the dark water, can not see any special signs, Shirley Yang looked at a couple of eyes, then turned his head to me and said: “When I used to do experiments, I often use toads, I remember that this kind of animal should be hidden in the shaded and wet mud, under stones or among the grass during the day, and only come out to move at dusk and at night, how could it appear in such a deep place of water, did you see it wrong?”

I shook my head and said: “To be honest, such a big toad, today I am also the first time to see, but I absolutely will not be wrong, I think your Benji Benjiism, I’m afraid it is not very suitable to use here, I am underwater and that big Lai toad is only three meters apart, see very clearly, they are floating not far from the surface of the water, I do not know what to do, I am worried that it is unfavorable to us, so I let You guys quickly climbed here, no matter what, let’s see it clearly first, I always feel that this fossilized forest flooded by underground water, something is not quite right.”

Fatty suddenly made a silent gesture, let us look at the front not far away, that piece of mosquito gathering of mosquitoes, countless large dragonflies like mosquitoes are issued “buzzing ……” ear-piercing noise, where we landed from the place is very close to the “wolf eye”, with a “wolf eye”. “Wolf eye” flashlight light, can also be seen very clearly, because those adulterated into a wall of insects like mosquitoes, have no eyes, they are not sensitive to the “wolf eye” flashlight light, is still like a headless fly around the plant rhizome of the most dense place to beat around. Shirley Yang whispered to us.

Shirley Yang whispered to us: “The plants on the ground is too dense, resulting in a lack of nutrients and water, so the extension of the plant in order to skim the water, are desperately downward growth, in order to directly contact the groundwater here, those flying insects …… they are like gathering there! Laying eggs.”

Just now I dived into the water, found a lot of big fish, these fish are different from the blind fish that always grow in the underground environment, all have eyes, which means that this underground water, although flowing from the underground cave, is a bright water, and the outside world is connected.

However, the environment here is too unique, plants and insects are independent ecosystems, but as long as the water can be open to the outside world, we should be able to follow the flow of water, into the “King Xian’s Tomb” near the main mausoleum.

Now the most important thing is to find out, this cool gourd-shaped cave, the deeper you go, the human body will gradually become smaller, or due to the unique gourd-shaped cave trumpet-shaped terrain, the deeper the more space, as well as the growth of large plants and insects in this special environment, so that we have the illusion that their own bodies are getting smaller.

Suddenly there was a commotion on the surface of the water, a several feet long tongue from the underwater out, with lightning speed, attacked those on the surface of the large quail mosquitoes, long tongue a roll, wrapped dozens of quail bugs, the surface of the water followed by countless floating out of the mouth, those who were blood red tongue rolled quail mosquitoes swallowed into the mouth, it turned out to be the floating underwater toads wait until the time is ripe, they have been from the water out of the jump, to feed on those who were gathering together a large group of quail mosquitoes, and then the toad was not able to get out of the water. It turned out that those big toads were waiting for the right time to leap out from underwater and eat those large groups of mosquitoes that were gathering together.

At this moment, the water in front of the fossil tree became a pot of porridge, in the toad’s big mouth one by one, there are countless mosquitoes lost their lives, each of those strange toads are amazingly large, eyes like two red lights, densely packed, it is not clear how many.

The three of us crouched in the horizontal collapse of the fossil tree, see those big toads on the back of the pimple Lai gland, suddenly feel disgusted, really do not want to see, had to climb on the tree body as low as possible, temporarily lowered his head not to look at the situation of the water, and only hoped that the toads as soon as possible to eat enough to disperse on this, so we can then go into the water to move forward, and quickly leave this strange cave, before dawn to arrive at the final destination.

When I lowered my head, I found that the fossil tree’s body has a lot of small sand hollow, this fossil tree body has experienced millions of years of water immersion, washed out by the water flow countless sand holes, I am afraid that the three of us can not tighten the weight of the three of us, it will be broken from.

So I turned off the hands of the “wolf eye” flashlight, open the mountaineering helmet on the more energy-saving spotlight, and then greeted Shirley Yang and Fatty, make a gesture, with his two people advanced to the left side of a relatively flat stone platform.

The left side of this stone platform, very solid and smooth, the area is not small, accommodate three people more than enough, in this branching fossil forest, this piece of quadrilateral stone platform seems to be a little different, four-square quite neat, obviously is someone man-made chiseling traces, but the surface and the surrounding area are crawling with vines, but also has a lot of wet moss.

I said to Shirley Yang and Fatty: “I wonder if this place is the remains of the “King Xian’s Tomb”, and if so, what is this place used for? Will it be related to the female corpse we saw under the water?”

The fat man said: “Even the most clumsy eyes can see that this is an artificially constructed stone platform, didn’t we see a martyrdom ditch that is full of ivory earlier, 80% of this place is also a place for placing precious artifacts.” With these words, he pulled out the engineer’s shovel and shoveled off the wet moss and plant layer on the stone platform, wanting to see if there is any hidden cabinet for “bright weapons” underneath.

Shirley Yang and I see the fat man has been regardless of the move on the hand, had to help him lighting, not far away from those big toads are still devouring mosquitoes, stirring up the sound of the water, it seems that a moment and a half can not be finished.

Fatty out like the wind, in the blink of an eye has been cleaned out a small half of the stone platform, only to see the following not what organs stone box, but a set of reliefs, and the composition is complex, contains a lot of information, but just look at it will know, this is some of the relief record is some kind of ancient secret sacrificial rituals, this is a we have never seen, very strange, and full of mysterious ancient rituals, rituals are in this gourd, and this stone platform is a special altar.