Volume 4 Volume 13: The Gap (Part 1)

Changbai Mountain is a dormant volcano. According to historical records, the last small-scale eruption was 1,000 years ago. Although the volcano is now dormant, the surrounding area is extremely rich in geothermal energy. Many geological fissures and lava vents from the volcanic period still maintain extremely high temperatures. Behind the Dragon-Sealing Stone, there may be a hot fissure that is emitting the smell of sulfur.

This is is undoubtedly good news for us. In such an environment, having a stable heat source is definitely more economical than lighting a bonfire. However, the huge black stone is at least ten tons in weight, and we don’t have any equipment to move it. It’s really difficult to turn it over.

Fatso is a man of action. He lifted his arm and beckoned us to move the stone. Several people went up and tried to lift it twice. The group was sweating and red-faced, but the stone did not move at all.

Fat Man panted and cursed, “It won’t work, old man. If you had said we didn’t have the right equipment, look at the situation now. It would be nice to have some explosives.”

Hua and said, “You don’t know what you’re talking about. Our old man has crossed more bridges than you have traveled. It was right not to bring explosives. You say we’re at the bottom of the valley, and there’s snow above your head. If you put a gun hole anywhere, the snow above will fall down and bury us alive.”

The fat man had nothing to say in reply. At this time, I saw that there were many large and small stones stuck at the bottom of the Panlong Stone. I had a brainstorm and said to them, “Maybe we don’t need explosives. Let me do it.”

Saying this I took a stone hammer from my luggage, walked to the side of the stone seal, carefully inspected the larger stones below, and then aimed at one of them and hit it. The stone was under pressure from more than ten tons of weight, and when I hit it sideways, it immediately cracked. Then there was a series of stone friction sounds, and the stone seal above began to slide down the slope because of the sudden change in support.

We We quickly backed away. The stone began to slide down the slope. We He turned his head and said, “It’s warm inside, but the angle is too uncomfortable. I can’t see much, and there seems to be writing on the stone wall inside.”

“What does it say?” I asked.

The fat man squinted and looked carefully, saying, “I can’t read it. I don’t know what it says.”

He tried to bend over and squeeze in, but the fat man was really too fat. The hole was obviously not suitable for him. After a few tries, he couldn’t squeeze in. Finally he took off his coat and managed to squeeze in.

Chen Pi A Si told Ye Cheng, Lang Feng and Pan Zi to stay outside and take care of anything that happened. We followed the fat man and squeezed into the gap.

It turned out to be a crack in the rock caused by a mountain movement. It was extremely dark inside. It looked extremely deep and probably led to the inside of the mountain.

The gap The opening was not very wide, and two people could not stand side by side. It was very difficult to walk in the crevice, and there were large rocks at the bottom with sharp edges. The sulfur smell in the cave was very strong, and the temperature was at least 30 degrees.

We moved forward a few steps using our hands and feet. The fat man shone his flashlight on the side and said, “Look, what are these characters?”

I turned I turned my head and saw that the characters were not carved into the wall of the crevice, but into a piece of random rock lying on the bottom.

Hua Monk came over and looked at it, and said with certainty, “These are Jurchen characters.”

“What do they say?” asked the fat man.

Hua Monk said, “Wait, I’m not that good. I need to see it to know. I’ll copy it down first.”

We After waiting for a while, the monk copied the characters onto a piece of paper. The fat man took the lead, and we formed a line and continued to walk deeper into the cave.

Although we were walking, we actually used our hands more than our feet. The entire crevice was almost 30 degrees downward, and there were no stairs. We had to almost crawl down. Inside, it was sometimes wide and sometimes narrow, sometimes high and sometimes low.

The only The only thing that made us feel comfortable was that it was much warmer inside. As we crawled, we began to sweat, so we had to unbutton our clothes. At this time, the fat man asked, “Old man, do you think it’s not an accident that the stone is blocking this crack?”

Chen Pi Asa pondered, “When the mountain was opened and the tomb was built, the materials were taken from the site. There are so many random rocks outside here. It should be a stone quarry used to quarry stones when the tomb was built. Maybe this crack was discovered when they were quarrying stones. I don’t know why they ended up using a stone to block it.”

After After less than 100 meters, the smell of sulfur became stronger and the rocks became darker and darker, all of which began to show the luster of glass. That was the trace of mica melted at high temperatures. I exclaimed, and I was already thinking that this should be the lava vent of a volcano. Changbai Mountain is a potentially active volcano. If it suddenly erupts and magma spews out from the inside of the mountain, we will be dead.

I was I was thinking about it when suddenly the two people in the lead stopped. I shone my flashlight and saw that the crack in front of us had suddenly contracted, with rocks overlapping each other, leaving only a tiny gap through which we could go.

I squatted down and shone my flashlight inside. This was caused by the collapse of the gap, and the gap inside was very small.

Chen Pi A-si looked at the hole and knew that he was not strong enough to climb in. After discussing it, I asked Hua to accompany him and wait for us. Me, Fat Man and Mian Youping went in to see what else was inside.

We took off our jackets to minimize our size, and this time Mian Youping led the way. The three of us went down one after the other, squeezing into the crack little by little.

I thought the collapse was only temporary, and that if we crawled a few steps forward, there would definitely be an exit.

Inside The sharp edges of the rocks were cutting into my clothes. The rocks were pressing against my lungs, and the temperature was rising. I gradually felt that I was having difficulty breathing.

The fat man behind me felt the same way, and he grabbed my foot and said, “No, the air quality here may be a problem. We came in without exploring, which was too reckless.”

I wanted to I wanted to look back, but the space was too small. I thought about how far I had climbed, and I didn’t want to go back. In addition, in this situation, it would be more painful to climb backwards than to come in. So I said, “Let’s go a few more steps, and if we don’t see the bottom, we’ll go back out.”

The fat man responded, and at that moment, suddenly, the smelly oil bottle in front of me called out, “Huh?”

I turned I turned my head and looked forward, but there was nothing in front of me. The oil bottle that had been blocking my way was gone, and there was only a dark, narrow passage, leading to nowhere.