We stayed at the cave entrance for a long time, discussing the possibility of this cave. During this time, Chenpi A Si suddenly became paralyzed for a while and then miraculously recovered. We were puzzled, but Chenpi A Si didn't seem to want to talk about what happened just now. There was nothing we could do, so we had to shift our attention to this strange ice cave.
We gathered around the cave and discussed specific issues about it. Although we have all experienced many cave explorations, they were all in plains and mountains, which are very different from here, so we need to think carefully.
The cave is slanted at about 40 degrees at the beginning. It is very deep and not easy to walk at the bottom. If the fat man and the others fell down just now and couldn't control their posture, it would be very dangerous. They might roll around in the cave, and if they fall too low, their heads might be flattened.
Pan Zi threw down a fluorescent stick, and the cold yellow light rolled down quickly, bounced a few times in the distance, and disappeared.
If what Monk Hua said is correct, recalling the direction between our two snow-capped mountains, this cave must be a " V"-shaped route that goes all the way down and then up. Because the two snow-capped mountains belong to the same mountain range, the canyon between the peaks is also very high. The distance of this "V"-shaped route should not exceed 5 kilometers.
Of course, if the craftsmen at that time liked to dig in a "Z" shape, there would be nothing we could do, but such unreasonable things should not be considered.
Since it is a man-made tunnel, there is no need to worry about the oxygen problem. After discussion, we decided to let Pan Zi explore the cave first. We prepared weapons this time, just in case the corpse is still inside, we can get rid of it on the spot.
Pan Zi was dragged in just now, and he was very embarrassed. He spat on his hand and took out the climbing rope. He tied it around the fat man's waist, threw it down the cave, and climbed down first. After a cigarette, I heard his voice, asking us to go down.
We also climbed down the cave entrance one after another. The tunnel was built very roughly, and the buttocks were cut painfully when sliding down in and out of the rocks. I climbed while observing the rocks on the side. These are basalts that gushed out during the volcanic eruption. There are a lot of bubbles on them. The density of these stones is very unstable. Some are hard like iron, and some are soft like tofu. I don't know what the situation was like when it was excavated.
We went down one by one, and the fat man was the last one to go down. Suddenly, a bunch of people crowded at the end of the stone slope above, gasping for breath. We saw a lot of black liquid here, which must be the body fluid of the corpse, but there was no sign of the corpse, so it might have gone deeper into the cave.
This narrow cave under the ice tilted downwards, and at the bend below, it became vertically narrow and long. Going deeper, the height of the cave seemed to continue to increase, and suddenly it became clear and the space seemed to become larger, but it was pitch black and the flashlight could not shine in.
At first I thought they had deliberately added a wider tunnel when digging the tunnel. There was also a rule for this when we were digging the tunnel. It was called the pigeon room. This place was used to store air and place "soil". Of course, the method of making the pigeon room was complicated. You dug out a space in the ground that was large enough for two people to turn around without digging out any soil from the tunnel entrance. It required a very clever trick.
But when we shone the flashlight, we were stunned. It turned out that this path had reached its end here. It rapidly narrowed in front, and in the end there was only a rock crevice in front that was only wide enough for one person to enter sideways. It was like an irregular sword mark, piercing deeply into the rock.
Pan Zi asked, "Isn't this the secret path for the craftsmen to escape? It's become a crack for people to pass through? Can we still walk through it?"
Monk Hua thought about it, and suddenly made an expression of sudden enlightenment, saying: "I think this road may have made use of a natural volcanic cave. Volcanic caves are very common in the rock formations of volcanic areas, and they are interconnected. The longest volcanic cave can be thousands of kilometers long, like a spider web covering the ground. Maybe this volcanic crack can lead all the way to the Sansheng Mountain opposite. That's why they were able to dig such a long secret road. It turns out that they made use of the passage pre-set by nature."
The fat man said: "Do we have to enter this crack as well? You guys are all okay, but my body shape is really bad." The fat man said he wanted to lose weight in the underwater tomb, but there has been no effect so far. Looking at his body shape, it is still really bad.
Monk Hua said, "You don't have to worry about that. These volcanic caves are all tree-like in structure. These holes should all lead to larger gaps. In geology, this is called an underground corridor. Some underground corridors are very large and even have their own unique ecosystems. I believe that the gaps will widen soon after entering, because this kind of geological damage starts from the inside."
Monk Hua spoke with certainty, but I didn't quite believe him. However, there was really no reason to refute him at this time, so we took a short break, sorted out our equipment, and led by the fat man, continued to crawl into the gap.
It was pitch black inside the crack, and a flashlight was useless because the darkness was all around. In Europe, people believe that all such cracks are passages to hell, and Tibetans also believe that caves are the domain of demons and never enter. Although I have had many such experiences, my heart still beat uncomfortably the moment I entered the crack.
After entering the crevice one by one with our abdomens retracted, we walked sideways like crabs. The cave walls in this place no longer had any traces of human activity, and we could hardly turn our heads around. Looking ahead, we could see traces of colored glaze flowers everywhere. A large number of karst nodules of various colors covered all the rocks, and they were covered with crystalline transparent frost, evenly arranged like condensed water columns.
I learned a little bit of geology when I was studying architecture, and I have a vague memory that what I see should be volcanic eruption rocks, just like the volcanic crevice we took shelter in when we encountered a snowstorm. This landform is different from the common volcanic caves. This crevice was formed at the moment of the volcanic eruption, and then the pyroclastic flow rushed out at a very high speed. Its characteristic is that the volcanic crevice formed is extremely long, but the tunnel is single, and it will not form a maze of caves like volcanic caves.
The first part of the gap was very narrow, and we had to learn to break dance to move. In less than 15 minutes, we were already sore all over. Thinking about the craftsmen who escaped back then, it was not easy to climb out. However, as we walked, the gap really widened as Monk Hua said, and finally we turned around and moved forward.
It was pitch black inside the crevice, but the colored glaze and melted mica around it reflected our flashlights, making the light around it produce a magical effect. In addition, the large areas of lava thorns covered with volcanic debris, rope-like crusted lava, and lava stalactites were dazzling and very beautiful.
As we walked, we gradually discovered some signs of human activities, such as abandoned rusty tools and traces of campfires, all of which were very old.
We didn't encounter anything strange along the way. The inside of the gap was very clean. After walking for only about six hours, we had already reached the tunnel that Monk Hua mentioned as the underground corridor. The gap inside was very, very wide.
When the gap reached here, I found a lot of signs of artificial construction. On the wall of the gap on one side, many simple steps were chiseled out, going up. These steps are called steps, but in fact they are just some protruding stones. If you have feet as big as a fat man, you will probably feel dizzy after walking a few steps.
We stopped to rest. I calculated the distance we walked and the slope we descended. I found that our altitude was already below the snow line and we were probably below the valley between the two peaks. If we walked on the surface, even in a straight line, it would take at least eight hours to reach these two peaks. Now we are walking underground, which saves us a lot of time. If the border guards above knew there was such an underground corridor, they would definitely be surprised.
Now that we are here, if we continue walking at the bottom of the gap, we may reach the center of the earth. These simple steps probably indicate that this tunnel has entered the second stage. The end of the steps may be the mysterious underground palace of Yunding Palace.
After resting for a while, several people could no longer control their excitement, so they set off again immediately. However, this time, the journey was not so smooth.
A few of us tied ourselves together with climbing ropes, and then tried to stick as close to the cliff as possible, stepping on the "stone steps" that looked like a joke, and walked up little by little. It was okay at the beginning, but after climbing to a certain height, we immediately felt like a rock climber. However, we had no rock climbing experience at all, so it was extremely scary.
The fat man had big feet, and he walked on the stairs like they were on stilts, so after only a few steps his feet began to tremble. I saw him chanting "Amitabha" all the time.
Fortunately, we walked carefully along the way, almost like a woman doing needlework, climbing up little by little. Soon, there was a dark abyss below, and it was impossible to estimate the height. Just looking at it made me dizzy. If we hadn't just come up from below, I would have really thought that there was hell below.
In the following hours, we climbed higher and higher, and finally we couldn't tell where we were, nor could we tell the time. Several people entered a state of confusion. But no one asked to rest. I don't know if it was because of the natural greed of tomb robbers, or because the environment here was really impossible to rest. You can imagine that one foot is on a palm-sized stone, and the other foot is hanging in the air, with a cliff below. How can you rest?
As we were walking, we suddenly heard the sound of water. I turned on the flashlight and found that there were several spring waterfalls on the cliffs on one side, flowing along the cliffs. The water vapor above seemed to be hot springs. I didn't know where the hot spring water came from, but the sound of water was very loud, as if there was underground water activity nearby.
The fat man asked us to crawl over and wash our faces. The nearest hot spring was only a hand's distance away from him. In fact, we were very tired after coming all the way here, and we remembered that we had rested by the hot spring last time, so several people wanted to stop here, but Shunzi shook his head and said, "No!" He pointed to the rocks beside the hot spring. We took a look and didn't find anything at first glance, but when we looked carefully, we almost shivered.
There are many strange lines on the rocks near the hot spring. I thought they were volcanic lines at first, but when I looked closely, I was shocked to find that these lines were not on the rocks, but on centipedes as thick as my arms, clinging to the rocks. The color of these centipedes is exactly the same as the glazed volcanic rocks next to them, and you can't tell them apart without looking carefully.
We looked around and found that the rocks here were almost covered with these things. They were motionless and seemed to be dead.
We all fell silent at once, and the fat man whispered, "What's going on? How did we get into a nest of insects?"
Shunzi said softly, "The creatures on the snowy mountains are usually concentrated near the hot springs, so don't think about going down to enjoy yourself as soon as you see a hot spring. Some hot springs are even full of leeches. But the temperature is still relatively cold now, and these things are half dead if they stay here. Without particularly strong stimulation, they won't wake up. Let's go quickly, and we'll be fine after passing this section."
Several people started to move immediately. The fat man tiptoed and asked as he moved, "What do you mean by particularly strong stimulation?"
Before he could finish his words, Shunzi suddenly waved his hand and told us all to stay still.
We didn't know what was going on and we immediately stopped moving, standing there like wooden men, staring at Shunzi, but Shunzi was looking at a dark cliff and abyss.
After a moment's silence, we gradually heard a creepy "sparse" sound, as if countless feet were rubbing against the rocks of the cliff and moving towards us.
"Turn off the flashlight." Shunzi said softly.
We immediately turned off the flashlights and turned around to see that the entire cliff was covered with faint green light points of all sizes, as numerous as the sea of stars. In the darkness, these billions of lights were like magic, and we were like being in the starry universe. The magnificence could not be expressed in words.
However, when he looked down, he suddenly realized that the scene around him was nothing. He saw a green Milky Way winding through the void black at the bottom of the abyss, like a gorgeous emerald tassel on a dark curtain, passing through the boundless darkness, from one end of the sky to the other.
I opened my mouth wide, unable to believe what I saw. The number of centipedes underneath must have been counted in the billions.
Just when we were shocked by this magnificent view that could be described as a fairyland, suddenly from the light spots below, a few huge red fluorescent lights flashed, twisting and moving in the sea of stars, and then disappeared into the darkness. Apparently, some of the centipedes below were not too small...