Endless route

Chapter 18 18. The Legend of Immortals and Demons [Please read]

The three of them searched all day long. They visited all the places they could go except the town of La Maine at the foot of the mountain. They even went back to the abandoned mine twice to search.

They walked through the railway track mine tunnel on the third level and walked west for a long time, but in the end it was a dead end. A pile of abandoned mine cars was piled in the corner of the rock wall. The rock wall had just been half mined, and the wall was densely covered with drill holes.

It is impossible for people to pass.

And the direction is not due northwest.

The three of them went to the Rift Valley Cave to investigate.

Zheng Yun searched carefully with a telescope, but found that there was no way through. Moreover, the other side of the rift valley was completely primitive, and there was no passage that anyone could penetrate.

There are no signs of construction on the wall across the entire rift valley, there is no bridge over the thick white mist below, there are only seven levels of iron stairs, and there is no passage down.

The average span of the rift valley exceeds fifty meters, making it almost impossible to swing across with rock climbing tools.

If you think about it, you can only go to the bottom of the valley.

Hu Ruihua tied a climbing script to the climbing rope and threw it into the white mist. He wanted to see how deep the rift was through the length of the rope's descent.

Just one meter into the white mist, the mountaineering pickaxe fell into the underground river with the sound of water entering. Immediately afterwards, the excess rope was washed eastward by the water.

The water flow is not very fast, but it is almost impossible for people to swim against the direction of the west, firstly because of the low temperature, and secondly because the river surface is completely covered by thick white mist.

Zheng Yun's expression changed.

He dreamed last night that there was an underground river beneath the white mist, but he didn't expect it to be true.

Leaving aside whether the nightmare is true or false, the others definitely did not come from this, because Zheng Yun himself doubted whether he could do it, let alone Demona.

Demona had hypothermia yesterday, can she swim against the current today? Or hoisted across a river on a rope?

So this road doesn't work either.

At this point, all three routes have been ruled out. Demona is not going from the top of the mountain, from the railway track mine road, or from the rift cave.

Hu Ruihua suspected that there were other entrances to the abandoned mine, or that there were other abandoned mines around the abandoned mine.

His guess was very reasonable. This mining area was very large and there couldn't be only one mine. Maybe Demona went to another abandoned mine.

So they climbed up the mountain again and explored northwest through the rain forest. They walked two kilometers in one go and found no trace of mining.

The clue is broken again.

More than ten hours.

no progress.

Liu Minghuzi and the others seemed to have disappeared from the world. The off-road vehicle could not be found, and there was no trace of the people.

When it gets dark.

Everyone went down the mountain and returned to the car.

Hu Ruihua lit up a bonfire in front of the abandoned mine building. The three of them stared at the jumping flames without saying a word, looking exhausted and not in the mood to eat.

Didn't find it on the first day.

It’s really hard to say.

Maybe they just drove out to find some treatment supplies for Demona, and now they have returned to the hotel? Song Wan broke the silence.

Her guess makes sense.

Although a few people left without saying goodbye, if it was just a minor matter like buying medicine, it would indeed be possible not to wake Zheng Yun and Hu Ruihua up.

Let's go back and have a look. If they don't come back, I will drive overnight to contact support. Hu Ruihua wiped his face with mineral water.

good.

Zheng Yun nodded.

The three people got in the car, and the off-road vehicle turned around and returned, passing through the town of La Maine and heading southeast.

The town remains the same.

After taking a deep look at the town, the SUV left at night and headed towards the southern town.

Ten minutes later.

The three returned to the town hotel.

As soon as he arrived at the hotel door, Hu Ruihua sighed deeply because neither car was there.

Went in and took a look around.

As expected, it was deserted. Even the things from the morning were still in their original places, and no one had come back.

This town has long been abandoned, and half of the streets of houses have been converted into hotels by outsiders. It is a common family hotel model in the West. One or more families live in a house together and take care of their own food, drink and cleaning.

This kind of hotel has no front desk at all, and there are basically no gatekeepers. The operator lives at the entrance of the town and will come to clean up when the time comes.

The main road to and from the outside world has been cut off in the past few days. They were blocked for a long time yesterday and could only take shortcuts on mountain roads, but similarly, the trucks inside could not get out.

So there are many guests in the hotel.

But it is impossible to have a satellite phone in a place like this. A satellite phone is not a mobile phone and is larger than a suitcase. Even renting a set of equipment is extremely expensive.

The three of them briefly discussed it, and Hu Ruihua drove south overnight to call for someone, while Zheng Yun and Song Wan investigated nearby to see if there were any witnesses.

After watching Hu Ruihua leave, Zheng Yun turned his head and looked at Song Wan: If you are tired, go back and take a nap first.

You're not very tired. I know French and I can ask for you. Song Wan shook her head and continued to insist.

Zheng Yun did not refuse, and took her around to ask around. The drivers driving here were all locals, most of them dark-colored, and they all spoke French.

They all work for the company. They are not worried at all even if the fruit cannot be delivered, and they communicate well.

The two asked around.

The house next door is occupied by six or seven truck drivers. One of them saw Liu Minghuzi and the others setting off, and said that Huzi and the others were excited.

It must have been in the morning. I got up to go to the bathroom. It was still dark. They seemed to be talking about the gold mine. They must have come here to pan for gold.

Song Wan translated each sentence word for word.

What other information is there? How many women are there in the team? Zheng Yun immediately asked.

The other party, Ula Ula, talked for a long time.

After Song Wan listened, she translated to Zheng Yun:

He said there were two people, one of whom was white and the other was Chinese. They got into the car together and left. Moreover, they carried many weapons. The conversation was in Chinese, which he could not understand.

Chinese? Then why did he know that Liu Ming's conversation was related to the gold mine? Zheng Yun frowned.

He didn't pay attention to this problem just now, because although the truck driver didn't speak English, he probably knew the English word for gold mine. If Liu Ming and the others communicated in English, it was possible for him to hear one or two words and deduce them.

But Liu Ming and the others communicated in Chinese, so how did this local, who didn’t even speak English, hear the word gold mine? Does he understand Chinese?

Song Wan translated and asked.

The driver said a bunch of things.

He said he didn't understand Chinese, but he knew the pronunciation of the word gold mine. In the local language of this place, the pronunciation of gold mine is 'jinkuan' in Chinese, not 'mingdou' in French. .”

Song Wan's expression suddenly changed as she spoke. After translating, she said to Zheng Yun: Brother Zheng, this phenomenon usually means that ancient oriental people came here in the early days of colonization, and they had a profound impact.

Ask him where he lives and what Chinese words he knows. Zheng Yun nodded and continued to ask.

He roughly understood what Song Wan meant. Language is a historical confirmation and has profound research value.

Especially where there is no historical record.

During the colonial period of navigation, many Western countries used people to occupy land. Wherever the ships sailed, they threw some colored slaves as colonists. They were thrown along the way to divide the ownership of these areas.

If a place is deprived of resources and doesn't have any good stuff, and Western countries don't choose to develop it, then they will never come back.

The colored slaves who were thrown into these places would live in a closed environment. Sometimes they could not see outsiders for even two to three hundred years, and their language was also closed.

In this case, if the ancient Orientals came and had a great impact, this would happen and change the local language environment.

This is not important.

It was of little help in finding Liu Ming.

But Zheng Yun still asked, because any place where ancient Westerners were unwilling to come due to lack of resources, but ancient Easterners had visited and had an impact.

Most of them are related to ‘fairy gods’.

My adoptive father once told many similar stories. Some people even use this method to find ruins or treasures left by the ancients, which can be regarded as a new way.

Because it was impossible for ancient Easterners to wander around in places with no resources for no reason. Their horizons were higher than those of Westerners, and they simply looked down upon these poor mountains and rivers.

Even if they came, it would be a vast fleet, and they would leave after just one round of exploration. It would be impossible to communicate with the local ‘barbarians’, let alone teach them Chinese.

Unless the ‘feng shui’ is good.

Or there may be ‘fairies, gods and ghosts’.

These magical things are the only reason why ancient people would stay in poor mountains and harsh waters.

Song Wan translated and asked.

The other party also gave an answer.

He said he was a native of the southern coast, and many everyday words were pronounced in Chinese, such as wood, bridge, tea, bowl, boat, and fishing net.

He said that there is still the word life, as well as immortals and monsters, and he left it like a missionary.

Song Wan's tone of voice was ups and downs, and she turned her head to look at Zheng Yun. Her clear eyes were wide open, and her small mouth was wide open. Only then did she understand the purpose of Zheng Yun's questions.

She had taken linguistics as an elective, and although Zheng Yun didn't explain it to her, she knew what it meant.

Zheng Yun's pupils shrank.

He could basically deduce that the ancients should have discovered 'immortals' and 'monsters' in this place.

They sent local people to help them cut down trees and build bridges, and paid them wages. They also gave them gold and silver for free, so they taught the locals how to make bowls, boats, and fishing nets, and also taught them to go fishing at sea.

Using these skills as wages and letting the locals work for them is a very 'kind' deal, which is in line with the work style of the ancient Orientals.