Endless route

Chapter 265 35. Weird iron ropes and underground swamps

"Mr. Sun and the others are looking for the correct route. What's wrong with this direction?" Li Wu asked quickly.

"It's nothing, let's take a walk."

Ji Dao hesitated for a moment and said nothing.

A group of people crawled in the mud with the help of ropes. Although they were moving forward on flat ground, the resistance brought by the mud pressed on them, making them seem to be climbing vertically up a cliff.

Every once in a while the team would stop for repairs, and they could let go of the rope a little and lie down in the mud to recover.

The gravity that makes people fall slightly all the time is the only way to confirm the direction in the dark environment.

The diving goggles are covered with mud.

Just as I scraped away a layer of mud with my hands, new mud spread over me, and every simple movement was met with heavy resistance.

He reached out and swept around.

The slippery mud penetrated the thin wetsuit and clearly imprinted the sticky feeling on the entire arm. Only when the arm was completely straightened could the cold and hard wall be touched.

Li Wu has been calling Sun Lao's team through the walkie-talkie, but they have been unable to contact each other.

"Just keep walking."

The team continued to crawl forward.

The rope was very tight. After passing the first 90-degree corner, Li Wu found the wall nails left by the archaeological team. The rope was tightly tied to many such wall nails.

After that it's a succession of corners.

In just three hundred meters, they turned six or seven turns, and there were even dark caves and stone brick stairs pointing downward.

"No, it's definitely wrong. Li Wu, what was the number on the rope when they last reported their location?"

Ji Dao spoke again. After such a long period of confirmation, he was sure that there must be something wrong with this route.

The second underground floor of the sewer is very complicated. If you make a mistake at the entrance, you will still have a chance to go back later, but when you reach this moment, there is no turning back.

"excuse me, may I ask."

Li Wu asked quickly with a solemn tone.

Ji Dao raised this question because Li Wu would report how many meters they had walked along the rope every time he took a break, so Sun Lao's team must have reported it as well.

“What’s wrong with this road?”

Zheng Yun lowered his head and looked down. He was surrounded by endless mud, but the rope in front of them had a certain degree of light transmittance, and he could see that the rope at his feet was glowing slightly.

It is the searchlight of Ji Dao.

Or maybe he was holding a tablet.

"This is the way to the third-level sewer, and there is only one entrance in front. If there is no rope returning around us, then they will definitely go down."

Ji Dao reached out and pulled left and right.

There is no rope to turn back at all.

"It's 980 meters. It was reported half an hour before the contact was lost." The person above investigated the records and informed the whole team, and the voice was transmitted to all their headsets.

"It is now 690 meters, and there is still nearly 300 meters to go." Li Wu lowered his head to confirm their current position.

"Then they just go down."

Ji Dao's expression changed slightly, and he immediately searched on the tablet, just like a maze game, starting from their current position, looking for the possible end point that each fork could lead to.

"The signal has gotten a little worse, Ji Dao. Is the third floor of the underground waterway very dangerous?" Zheng Yun tapped his earphone and asked.

"I don't know, what should I say about this... The structure on the third underground floor is very strange, and its purpose is unknown. I don't know what it is for."

Norido did his best to get the message across.

Zheng Yun understood the words as soon as he said them. He took a look at the situation of Hongwu Ancient City. There were some structures with unknown purposes in the city construction drawings, which may be related to the methods of gods and ghosts.

"Do you still know the way to the third underground floor?"

Zhao Qiufu's voice suddenly sounded in the earphones, where he had been listening to the communication on the intercom.

"Then hurry up and take a look."

Zheng Yun did not answer Zhao Qiufu's question, but spoke to Li Wu, asking the people in front of them to speed up and crawl forward.

"good."

Li Wu immediately moved forward.

The team speeds up, and the whole journey is downhill, which can save a lot of energy and does not require frequent breaks. They go down along the rope and get into the third underground level.

The temperature is a little cooler.

It makes people feel a little cold.

This time they crawled for a long time in one breath. Li Wu, Xiao Wu and others were eager to save people, and even communication became much more frequent.

"It's nine hundred meters, let's take a rest."

Li Wu suddenly reminded him while walking forward.

Unknowingly, they were only eighty meters away from the place where Mr. Sun last reported his location.

But they had to regain their strength again, even if Mr. Sun was right in front of them, they had to stop for a moment.

"Have you ever felt that the mud here has become a little thinner?" Xiao Wu suddenly interjected.

"Still can't reach you?"

Zheng Yun stretched out his hand and swept around him, but he didn't feel that the mud became thinner. Even with the slowly increasing pressure, he felt that the mud became more viscous and brought greater resistance.

In addition, there are more debris in the mud.

I picked up a handful and put it on my diving goggles for a closer look. I found that these things were also black and corroded by the silt until they were almost the same as the silt. There was no water to clean them here, so I couldn't tell what they were.

"could not be reached."

Li Wu tried several more times.

At this moment, Zheng Yun suddenly noticed that Ji Dao held his ankle and pulled it down slightly.

This time it was very scary.

Zheng Yun thought something was wrong. The moment his ankle was held by a hand, he shivered slightly.

Ji Dao let himself go down.

Zheng Yun understood Ji Dao's meaning and moved downwards slowly, only to find that Ji Dao actually let go of the rope and squatted in the corner of the gray brick wall, curling up into a ball.

This is found with the feet.

After discovering this situation, Zheng Yun quickly turned around and groped with his hands in front. When he just grabbed Ji Dao's oxygen bottle and backpack, his hand was also tightly grasped by Ji Dao.

Then Ji Dao pulled forward.

Zheng Yun's body was dragged forward.

Before Zheng Yun could react, the mud in front of him was suddenly separated. A round diving mask squeezed out of the dark mud and stuck tightly to Zheng Yun's diving mask.

A circle of searchlights was extremely bright.

Ji Dao's big face was illuminated as white as snow.

This is because Ji Dao squeezed his head over.

Ji Dao's expression was very urgent. He could tell that he had something to say, and his whole face was twisted together.

"..."

Zheng Yun was silent for a moment.

This picture is really weird.

The two of them were now face to face, and their diving goggles squeezed out the mud and stuck together tightly.

Although in the silt environment, we can only meet in this way, but Ji Dao's sudden appearance and a big face suddenly appeared in front of us, it was still shocking.

Da da.

Ji Dao tapped the earphones and made a gesture of turning off the microphone with his mouth, obviously he had something to say to Zheng Yun.

Zheng Yun nodded and turned off the wheat.

But Ji Dao knocked again.

Zheng Yun reached out and touched Ji Dao's neck, turned off his headset, and then asked in a low voice: "What's going on?"

"Master Immortal, the three underground floors can lead to the Immortal Gate, but this road is not at all. This is a road leading to the underground. You can drill from the underground cave to the underground of the entire ancient city."

"That means going out."

"I completely left the ancient city."

Jidao spoke in a very low voice, and then grabbed Zheng Yun's hand: "And Master Xian, please feel what this is."

The two of them squatted in the corner of the tunnel, but they couldn't see anything in front of them and could only fumble with their hands.

Zheng Yun spread his hands and waited.

Ji Dao stuffed something over.

This thing felt cold to the touch, but its weight was extremely shocking. It might weigh a hundred or two hundred kilograms. Zheng Yun thought it was a small object, so he took it in his hand without any precautions.

Wow.

Zheng Yun leaned forward and almost fell. Fortunately, he reacted quickly and pushed one leg forward to stabilize his body.

"What's this?"

Zheng Yun frowned and asked. As soon as he finished speaking, he took it out. Jidao actually stuffed a piece of iron rope into his hand.

The iron rope is as thick as an arm.

The surface feels very smooth.

I groped left and right along the iron rope, but I couldn't find the end at all. This iron rope was not a small section at all, but a whole length of incalculable length, leading to an unknown place.

It was originally placed in the corner.

It was Jidao who lifted him up abruptly.

This kid Ji Dao is also careless. He shoves such a heavy thing into someone's hand without saying hello in advance.

"It's an iron rope."

Jidao made the same judgment, and then continued in a low voice: "Master Xian, why are there iron ropes here?"

"..."

Zheng Yun has a lot of thoughts.

As soon as you touch this iron rope, you can tell that it is the Ming Dynasty Haiwei Despot that they are most familiar with. Since he entered the industry, he has appeared in almost every dangerous place. He is considered an old actor.

There is a sense of intimacy as soon as you buy it.

It is incomparable to modern iron ropes.

"Master Immortal, this iron rope is probably the same as our rope. It is a tool used to guide the way or crawl in the mud. It may also have some evil object tied at the end."

Ji Dao whispered a guess.

They were completely unable to determine the purpose of the iron rope. The drawings in their hands were construction drawings and had no information about the items in the city.

Just like the difference between a rough house and a fully decorated house, using the drawings of the former to find the safe of the latter is just a futile effort.

"What did you mean when you said underground?"

Zheng Yun fumbled with the iron rope and continued to ask Ji Dao.

This iron rope is really weird. I suddenly found a piece of iron rope in this environment. I don’t know if it’s a good thing or a bad thing.

"Look, Master Xian, there are many such holes on the third floor underground. If you drill down from the holes, you will reach the ground." Jidao took out the tablet and squeezed it in front of their diving goggles to flip it over.

Zheng Yun wiped his diving goggles.

But I can still only see a little bit of the picture.

"At the end of this road is a cave, which is connected to the ground. But I don't know why Nanze Ancient City built such a cave. Coupled with this iron chain, it seems very strange."

"What did the ancients do underground?"

Ji Dao enlarged the drawing and explained it quietly.

"Have a rest, okay?"

"We're well rested."

"What about Zheng Yun and you guys? Keep going?"

The voices of Li Wu and Xiao Wu rang in the headphones. Although Zheng Yun was leading the team this time, the specific action procedures and rules were still handled by Li Wu, who was familiar with the rules.

"Wait a mininute."

Zheng Yun turned on the headset and responded.

"Okay, rest for another two minutes. The temperature down here is very low. If anyone feels cold, you can come to me to get a heating device." Li Wu nodded and said to all his teammates.

"Why did Mr. Sun and the others drill down?"

"I don't know how Mr. Sun is doing now."

Everyone communicates through headphones.

Zheng Yun replied a few words and looked down.

Ji Dao has already possessed him, lying at the bottom of the mud, putting the iron rope on his face, and carefully observing the details of the iron rope.

"Master Immortal, I think something is not quite right. In fact, there are some strange parts in the underground waterway drawings. There are actually many small secret passages above our heads."

Jidao raised his head and pointed to the top of his head, then continued: "Master Immortal should remember that the entrance to the Underworld Pavilion is an underwater secret passage. There are seven holes in the Sanming Cave for people to breathe."

"Is there a similar secret passage here?"

Zheng Yun became even more confused and spoke softly. Of course he remembered the ventilation channel in the Hades Pavilion, but there was actually one in this place.

He also took a rough look at the drawings. The third underground floor is the bottom floor. It is the same height as the first and second floors, both ten meters, but the actual area is much larger because it is upside down.

On the first floor of the sewer, there are forks in the corridor every hundred meters or more. Next to the two-meter-wide corridor, there are gray brick and stone walls that are a hundred times larger, but the insides of these stone walls are not all solid.

There are cavities and dark rooms inside.

But you can't get in from the sewer level.

You have to go around to the second and third floors to get under those dark rooms and then climb up through some secret passages.

The way to enter the Dusi Mansion is like this. You have to go to the second underground floor, go around to the bottom of the mansion, and then go up to the surface in one breath.

The way into the Immortal Sect is similar.

But the location of Xianmen is more hidden.

The specific road was far behind them.

"Let's move forward, but let's change our positions. A few of us go to the front, and you can stay behind."

Zheng Yun spoke to Li Wu through the headset.

Although he thought there was nothing tied to the iron rope, just in case, it would be better to switch with Li Wu and the others, so that the Yin soldiers could go to the front and explore the route without any injuries.

"We can do that too."

Li Wu hesitated for a moment and excused himself.

"No need to say more, let's change."

Zheng Yun insisted on his request, took Ji Dao and the Yin soldiers and ghost generals, took off the locks and climbed to the front of the crowd, and let three Yin soldiers take the lead, while the four ghost generals stood guard behind the Yin soldiers.

Just in case.

Zheng Yun asked the ghost general to unsheath his sword.

Everyone in Gubo's archaeological team would probably be able to recognize the Ghost Sword. After all, even Nia could recognize it, so how could Gubo not recognize it, but they couldn't see it in this environment.

After some tossing, the team continued to move forward. Xiao Wu and others communicated more frequently. They kept talking on the channel to relieve their depressed emotions, but were stopped by Li Wu.

They turned on their sonic equipment.

Sound is the key to finding life in the swamp, whether it is a threatening creature or the movements of Mr. Sun and others.

Zheng Yun and Jidao let go of the orange-red rope and climbed forward along the iron rope until they did not reach the end of the 100-meter line.

"It's already a thousand meters."

Li Wu looked at the rope marking reminder.

"We can't contact the top either. The signal is cut off. It seems that Mr. Sun and the others are in the same situation. It's not necessarily an accident. It's more likely that the signal was lost after entering the third underground floor. Why don't you go back and report the situation? "

Other teammates offer suggestions.

"Okay." Li Wu nodded.

The team stopped again.

They need to explain the situation to the superiors to prevent them from making a wrong judgment and thinking that they are also out of touch.

Zheng Yun and Ji Dao were squatting in the corner. The iron rope had no end at all, and it was completely synchronized with the rope. When they encountered a fork, they would turn left or right, so they were sure to be handrails.

"The situation is a bit complicated."

Zheng Yun turned off the headset again.

Combining the iron cables and the secret passage, we can roughly guess that the third floor of the underground sewer was filled with water or silt in the era when Nanze was not left behind.

Or maybe the iron cables were laid after the ancient city of Nanze was buried in a swamp, and someone used the iron cables to get in and out of the ground.

Because if the underground waterway is clean, then this iron cable has no value and there is no need for this handrail.

Cables and ropes serve the same purpose.

Can only guide the way in mud or water.

It is estimated that Mr. Sun's archaeological team discovered this iron cable, so they explored along the iron cable.

But this passage leads to the underground. Why did the ancients go underground? What is there under the ground?

You can also make a rough guess.

The underground is a complete swamp. No matter whether the ancient city of Nanze is submerged in a swamp or not, whether it is today or hundreds of years ago, the underground of the ancient city has always been and must be a swamp.

And it's a deep swamp.

Today, the depth of the ground reaches 60 meters, while hundreds of years ago, when the ancient city was not buried, it was 30 meters deep.

Things have come to this point.

Zheng Yun could only guess at the methods of gods and ghosts. The ancients went to the depths of the earth, indicating that there was something strange underground.

"Master Xian, I heard some noise. There seems to be someone in front of me." Jidao suddenly leaned into Zheng Yun's ear and whispered.

"What's the noise?"

Zheng Yun's heart skipped a beat and he looked forward.

If Mr. Sun's team followed the iron rope and drilled into the ground in one breath, the situation would be quite bleak.

Because there are no brick walls underground.

It was pure silt on all sides.

If there is danger in the mud, they will have no shelter or even a support.

"It seemed like a cry."

Ji Dao listened carefully and then spoke.

"Li Wu, speed up and move forward."

Zheng Yun didn't care about anything else and immediately ordered the Yin soldiers and ghost generals to move forward along the rope and speed up towards Mr. Sun's position.