Endless route

Chapter 122 29. The mysterious death of tourists and the ice crack cave [two-in-one]

After resting for a few hours, everyone split into two groups. Xiao Li and his fiancée, Song Wan and her best friend, and Liu Ming returned to the Christmas Islands together, letting Xiao Li drive.

The rest moved on.

Hu Ruihua took Sister Hu and Wang in a car, Huzi and Zheng Yun took a car, and Huzi, who was more experienced, drove.

The two vehicles increased their power, rushed into the narrow entrance, and drove along the passage. Zheng Yun observed with a telescope that the cracks on the left and right icebergs became thicker after they passed by.

It probably won't take long for it to collapse.

Traveling through the rift valley, this passage seems to have been washed out by water. It is twists and turns and the speed cannot be increased. On the left and right are steep ice walls hundreds of meters high, all of which are light blue in color.

"How far can we get out?"

Zheng Yun picked up the walkie-talkie and asked.

"About three kilometers." Xiao Hu replied immediately, holding an electronic map to guide the way.

"Brother Zheng, what do you see in the ice?" Huzi suddenly pointed to the left front.

Zheng Yun turned around and looked.

The rugged ice surface blocks the view, which is incomparable with the smooth ice walls in the scenic area. It is not clear what is frozen deep in the iceberg, but you can indeed see something faintly.

It must be an artifact.

There is nothing like that in nature.

Kind of like an old style off-road vehicle.

"There is really everything in this ice. I saw a few fish just now, as if I was on the bottom of the sea." Xiao Hu's voice sounded from the intercom.

"Brother Hu rented ice drilling equipment. If you find anything good, you can drill through the ice and have a look." Huzi looked at Zheng Yundao, who was more interested in finding treasures.

Zheng Yun observed carefully that the presence of off-road vehicles in the iceberg proved that the iceberg had only accumulated here in recent decades, overturning his previous speculation.

The glacier movement here is far more intense than he imagined. Icebergs with a height of several hundred meters are likely to change every once in a while, with a very high frequency.

In this way, the map of the Immortal Palace of Immortality may not be accurate again, and the road map of the adoptive father may be displaced by the movement of the glacier, thus losing accuracy.

The two cars continued on their way.

The routes are becoming more and more complex and dangerous, but most of them are in valleys or on solid ice, so there is no danger of cracks.

after an hour.

The two cars turned on their headlights and climbed up a flat-topped iceberg from a gentle path under the aurora lighting. Wherever the lampposts shone, they saw a mixture of snowy white and light blue.

The vehicle stopped.

Everyone got out of the car to check.

This place is very dark, because there is an extremely high iceberg in front of it, which partially blocks the aurora, making this platform in the gap almost the same as at night.

"That's the Bow Glacier."

Hu Ruihua pointed to the front right. About three kilometers away from them, there was a slightly higher glacier, located in the west of a huge glacial lake.

The glacial lake is very flat.

There are obvious car marks on it.

They now need to drive down the mountain, cross the glacial lake and then reach the Shiphead Glacier, and then head north.

Kate, who disappeared the day before yesterday, took four companions with her and drove to the north of the bow glacier before disappearing.

But looking at the car prints on the ice lake, it seems that other rescue teams have come here. There have been three car prints recently.

"There was no car coming out on the way here. They should still be inside." Hu Ruihua took a look through the binoculars.

There are no vehicle lights shining from the north of the bow glacier, nor any light source. It is as dark as a normal valley, giving people a feeling that something is not quite right.

After roughly observing the environment and going down to confirm that the ice lake was thick enough, everyone got in the car and drove forward on the ice lake.

The Chuanwou Glacier is a 'high-end attraction' for self-driving. It has average scenery but is very challenging. Few people have been to it. It has unique characteristics and is suitable for taking pictures.

But until the two cars went around the glacier on the bow and followed the car prints on the ground, Zheng Yun didn't see where the 'bow' was.

"Some signals picked up."

"It's an international distress signal."

Xiao Hu used the intercom to deliver the message from the car in front.

Zheng Yun raised his head and looked forward. Further on, it was uphill again, heading towards the extremely tall iceberg. This mountain gave people a sense of depression and was so dark and eerie.

"No voice?"

Zheng Yun picked up the walkie-talkie and asked.

"I just asked, but no one has responded yet. This distress signal may be fixed." Xiao Hu replied immediately.

Everyone remained vigilant, and the snowmobile slowly climbed up the icy road, with the tracks losing grip.

Just climbed the first gentle slope.

The car in front suddenly stopped and moved to the side to make room for Huzi's car behind. It also allowed Huzi's headlights to shine forward, and a pool of red blood appeared on the ground.

This red color is very eye-catching.

It was shockingly red under the car lights, but as soon as Huzi turned, the blood turned deep red again.

It seemed like something had been eaten here. It was unclear whether it was a human or an animal, because no clothing was seen, and there were only car prints nearby, as many as three car prints.

"Don't get out of the car yet."

Hu Ruihua said on the intercom.

Huzili took out two pistols from the back seat of the car, handed one to Zheng Yun, then quickly loaded the gun with a click, held it in his hands, and observed the left and right highlands very keenly.

Zheng Yun also took a look.

There are many glacier platforms high up, and there is probably something hidden in each place, but you can't see clearly.

"Huzi, send out the flares and take a look."

Hu Ruihua said on the intercom.

Huzi immediately took action, took out a small red gun from his backpack, opened the car door and shot into the air.

Whoosh!

A puff of smoke came out.

Not long after, a yellow dot exploded high in the sky, erupting into a flash of yellow light. The light was extremely dazzling, dozens of times brighter than New Year's fireworks, and dispelled all the surrounding darkness.

There is nothing high up there.

At least not yet.

After confirming that the surroundings were safe, Hu Ruihua got out of the car with a gun, walked to the blood, dipped a little with his finger, and after careful observation, he took out his walkie-talkie and said:

"Not sure if it's human blood."

"Such a bright flare can be clearly seen by people within 10 to 20 kilometers. The distress signal has not changed?" Zheng Yun asked aloud.

"Not yet, but the location has been roughly determined. It's in the northwest, not far away." Xiao Hu said.

Without wasting any time, everyone got in the car and set off again.

With the overhead flares providing the light source, they could clearly see the car marks on the ground, as well as the occasional drops of blood scattered on the roadside.

This time we walked for about three minutes.

There is a downhill road ahead, and after going down there is another small glacier lake, located in the central valley of two glaciers. In addition to this entrance, the exit is also in the north.

It's like a zigzag channel.

But they didn't have to go any further because there was a snowmobile parked on the icy lake with its interior lights still on.

The car came face to face with them.

They can clearly see what's going on inside the car.

There were three people lying on the passenger seat and in the back seat respectively, wrapped in a large number of warm quilts and clothes. They seemed to be asleep or unconscious. The warm yellow lights in the car shone on their motionless faces, which looked very scary.

Even though the headlights of both vehicles were shining through, the person in the snowmobile remained motionless and unresponsive.

Snowy mountains don’t honk their horns.

Hu Ruihua chose to hit it directly with his car, using the anti-collision beam of the snowmobile to hit the car's anti-collision beam.

Bang.

There was a muffled sound.

The people in the car still didn't respond.

Everyone felt that something was wrong. Zheng Yun glanced at the thermometer. The current temperature was minus 25 degrees. To be honest, modern people would not be able to freeze to death at this temperature.

Unless they suffered from hypothermia for a long time or fell into an icy lake, these people should not freeze to death.

"Get out of the car and take a look."

Hu Ruihua spoke.

Zheng Yun scanned the surroundings. There were no holes in the icy lake, and no danger could be seen on the surrounding high platforms.

Huzi put on a cold hat and gloves and got out of the car with a gun. Zheng Yun also opened the door and got out of the car with a gun.

Hu Ruihua was the closest and had already walked to the car. He reached out and pulled the door, but it didn't move at all and the door was locked.

"It doesn't seem like a rescue team. Is it written on the mission? How many vehicles did the victims drive?" Hu Ruihua asked.

"One car, five people in total."

Xiao Hu immediately answered.

Zheng Yun also approached the snowmobile at this time. After observing carefully for a few minutes, he found that the bodies of these people did not have any movement, as if they were not breathing, or were breathing weakly.

"Pry open the door and take a look?"

Huzi suggested.

Hu Ruihua shook his head, then hit the car glass with his pistol, trying to wake up the people inside.

no response.

No matter how loud the sound, there was no response.

The people inside were two men and one woman, all wearing hats and face towels to keep out the cold. From the exposed facial skin and noses, it could be roughly judged that they were all relatively young, probably under forty years old.

Look down and observe the situation inside the car.

The heating was turned on to the maximum, and there were not many professional instruments and equipment. It looked like a tourist.

"Why do I feel like they were rescued, put here to keep warm, and then died?"

Huzi scratched his scalp and guessed.

No one answered, because his guess was very reasonable, but if so, the location where they died should be nearby, and there were other rescue teams.

There were still three car marks on the ground.

But they couldn't see the other two cars.

"If these three people died, it was probably due to hypothermia and cardiopulmonary failure, which is a normal death."

Hu Ruihua turned to look at Zheng Yun.

"Shake the car. If there is no response, leave. If the car door can't be opened, don't open it." Zheng Yun gave advice.

He was on guard against poisoning.

The higher the altitude of the iceberg, the thicker the ice layer, and the more likely it is to release some deadly gases or viruses during movement.

Everyone took action immediately.

But the three people inside were probably dead. No matter how shaken they were, the three of them staggered around without any reaction.

"Follow the car print and look for it." Hu Ruihua took out a label from his chest, wrote something and stuck it on the car.

"The map is gone at this point. How about I use a drone to explore the way?" Xiao Hu asked through the walkie-talkie.

Others agreed.

Not long after, a drone took off and quickly moved forward along the car tracks on the ground. Everyone watched in front of the large monitor as the drone quickly flew into an ice valley.

Follow the car tracks and keep moving forward.

The drone arrives at an ice wall.

A deep crack appeared on the ice wall, with a height of forty to fifty meters and a width of more than seven meters. The car mark entered through this place, but it was pitch black and it was unknown how deep it was.

Wow.

The drone turns on the lights.

Red light refracts deep in the crack.

The drone flew into the cave and saw that the red light came from the clothes of a person. This person was wearing a red cold-weather jacket with reflective strips. He was probably a member of the professional rescue team.

Fly further.

The camera is pointed at the man's face.

Male, pale, dead.

Everyone was silent. Xiao Hu controlled the drone and continued forward. The light shone on a car parked deep in the rift valley. There seemed to be people in the car, and there were instruments plugged in next to the car.

"What instrument is this?"

Huzi suddenly asked.

Zheng Yun looked at the others. He thought it was some kind of rescue device, but Huzi didn't recognize it.

"I don't know. It looks like a terrain mapper. These people don't seem to be ordinary tourists."

Hu Ruihua also shook his head.

The drone bypassed the snowmobile and continued forward. The rift was unimaginably deep. They didn't see any trace of the third vehicle until the drone reported that the signal was weak.

"How to say?"

Xiao Hu looked at Hu Ruihua and Zheng Yun.

"Preliminary judgment is that they all died of hypothermia, which is a natural disaster, and poisoning is not ruled out." Hu Ruihua said.

"Go back and take a look at that body." Zheng Yun said to Xiao Hu.

The latter immediately drove the drone back, stopped in front of the man in red, and used the high-definition camera on the drone to carefully observe his exposed skin.

No matter how you look at it, you are not freezing to death.

This cave was at most minus 30 degrees Celsius. They drove the car directly in. With the car as a back-up, they shouldn't lose temperature. Even if they did, the man in red wouldn't die here.

The possibility of poisoning is also low.

Since he came specifically to detect it, he should have some knowledge of this place. How could he be poisoned inexplicably?

"Why do I feel that this person died of suffocation due to lack of oxygen?" Sister Wang suddenly pointed at the screen and said.

"Suffocation?" Huzi wondered.

"This man was white, but his skin was a little yellow, his eyes were closed too tightly, and his movements before death seemed like he was breathing heavily." Sister Wang pointed out several guesses.

"It seems a bit strange that he is suffocating in this position, and these people don't bring oxygen tanks?" Huzi was puzzled. They all brought their own oxygen tanks and oxygen inhalation devices.

"Perhaps the oxygen tank has been brought down?" Xiao Hu also guessed.

"But the man died in the middle of the cave. There should be no oxygen in this location." Huzi swallowed.

"Are these three people in the car also suffocated?" Hu Ruihua raised his head and looked to the side. There were three more people in the snowmobile.

"The three of them must have died from other reasons. They were covered with cold blankets, and it's hard to tell what the cause of death was."

Sister Wang shook her head.

Zheng Yun also looked up. This thing was a bit strange. Whether it was the cause of death, the location of death, or even the hole, it felt strange.

"What do you think, Brother Zheng? Do you want to go in and take a look at this crack?" Hu Ruihua turned to look at Zheng Yun.

Zheng Yun was slightly silent. Snow was their specialty, and he knew nothing about scientific principles.

But when it comes to the mysticism of gods and ghosts, this place and its characteristics do not match up with the place names on the map of the Immortal Palace of Immortality.

Moreover, there have been quite a few tourists who have disappeared recently. The probability that they randomly choose one of the many missions and directly choose a place related to the mysticism of gods and ghosts is not very high.

"Is there a high probability that there are survivors inside?" Zheng Yun asked them.

"That's disgusting." Hu Ruihua shook his head.

"If there is an oxygen tank, there may be a chance. There is still a car missing." Xiao Hu is more optimistic.

"Open the car and take a look. If you can't see the reason, retreat first." Zheng Yun gave his own advice.

Some money cannot be earned.

Even if everyone dies, they can’t make any money.

If this place is too dangerous, then there is no reason for them to go in and die.

Moreover, this place is on the edge of the circle drawn by the adoptive father. From the current point of view, the possibility of any kind of mysticism about gods and ghosts is not high, and it probably has nothing to do with the adoptive father.