Endless route

Chapter 284 54. The center of the lake is strange

Professor Zhang's scientific expedition team had a special mission and could only act independently. After the Fuen archaeological team set off for the ancient city of Nanze, the scientific expedition team began preparations slowly.

With a list of supplies in his hand, Liu Ming took Hu Zi Hu Ruihua and others downstairs to the Material Management Office, where they directly collected the necessary supplies for going deep into the swamp inside the camp.

The list is very long.

From kayaks to diving suits, to various emergency supplies and food, as well as related equipment needed for scientific expeditions.

There were originally twelve people in the team, and with Zheng Yun and the two ghost generals included, there were fifteen people. Everyone's backpack was full.

The good news is that on the aerial photos provided by the camp, there is a swampy river leading directly to their destination. They only need to drive to the river and then continue on by kayak.

It didn't take long.

Thanks to the ridiculous material reserves in the camp, they quickly received all the equipment. Four off-road vehicles with special rainforest tires were even filled with supplies on the roof.

Count people.

Get in the car and set off.

Zheng Yun drove a car himself, but the co-driver was not Liu Ming, Song Wan or Gui Jiang, but Professor Zhang himself.

The off-road vehicle once again sets foot on the dirt road.

This route was easier to walk than the one Zheng Yun had walked before. The archaeological team had maintained this road and basically paved it with sand and gravel. There was not much mud flying around under the tires.

Everyone was talking along the way.

Professor Zhang's knowledge is amazing, and he gave Zheng Yun a general explanation of the local ecological situation in very concise terms.

He also said something else.

The most mysterious and magical thing in the entire Endless Route is the endless creatures. All creatures alive to this day have an evolutionary history of at least one billion years.

Compared with the short history of human science, which spans hundreds of years, the history of biological evolution, which can take as long as a billion years, is like a chart that cannot be penetrated throughout life, always full of mystery.

The biological structure is so exquisite that it is unimaginable.

The more extreme the environment, the easier it is to breed creatures beyond understanding. The further away from the earth, the more obvious the biological differences become, completely different from the earth's ecology.

The Endless Line builds a bridge that allows them to travel to alien planets and see these alien creatures with their own eyes.

But it also brings dangers.

Human beings are at the top of the food chain on the earth, with almost no natural enemies. They are the ultimate winner of the earth's ecology. They not only dominate the earth, but also dominate more than a dozen shipping routes.

From E-09 to W-07, all creatures that threaten humans have been controlled and cannot affect human dominance, but this may not be the case on farther planets.

Biological structures are delicate yet fragile.

No living thing is completely perfect.

Humans themselves are not perfect, there are many genetic defects, and we still need to keep moving forward on the road of evolution.

This flaw is often fatal.

Every flaw represents a weakness, and as long as there is a weakness, there must be a natural enemy that specializes in it.

This is the theory of natural enemies in biology. Starting in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the West made relevant predictions:

The farther humans travel on the endless route, the easier it is for them to encounter their own natural enemies, and they may not be aware of them at all, and by the time they discover them, they will be unable to turn back.

Zheng Yunshen felt the same.

He had come to the same conclusion before.

I have experienced many dangerous places with gods and ghosts. Except for the Hades Pavilion, the truth of each dangerous place is that it is a special creature.

The topic has developed to this point.

The atmosphere in the car became dead.

Huzi Xiaohu and others were sitting in the middle and back rows. When they heard Professor Zhang's words, they didn't know what to say for a moment.

This scientific theory of natural enemies is different from the stories about gods and ghosts that Zheng Yun told before. It does not bring fear and fear to people, but a sense of powerless oppression.

Professor Zhang also expressed some words of comfort to others.

The human immune system evolved in the earth's ecology, but this system has great limitations in the alien ecology.

Therefore, the number of human natural enemies has long been astronomical, but most of them can be artificially defended, and can be directly intercepted by wearing anti-virus and insect-proof protective gear.

Hear this.

Everyone quickly put on their masks.

The rules of the archaeological team are very strict, requiring everyone to wear masks when going out, and they must disinfect and shower on the first floor when returning to the dormitory building, but they occasionally ignore it because they are depressed.

Not long after.

They turned off the main road and continued along the path. Not long after walking, they stopped by a swampy river.

Zheng Yun had encountered this river before, but it was in the lower reaches of the river, and there was a simple port built by the archaeological team by the river.

Everyone got out of the car and started getting ready.

Take the four kayaks off the roof of the car, move them to the river and put them down, and then transfer the supplies up bit by bit.

The camp’s kayak is also specially made, with a front windshield and a wire mesh roof, which can shuttle through dense swamp plants while blocking small insects from getting into the boat.

This boat is very powerful.

And it has certain amphibious capabilities.

Not only can it be driven in water, it can even be driven on mud. As long as there is a few centimeters of water on the mud, the kayak can use full power to rush over without hitting a tree.

Everything was carried out in accordance with the rules of the archaeological team. Everyone assembled the parts on the kayak and then boarded the boat in batches, with Lao Zhang, the first mate of the rescue team, leading the way.

This swampy river is not very deep.

The left and right sides of the river are full of rainforest plants, which often cover the entire river. It may look like land, but in fact there is water underneath the weeds.

It tests the driver's experience very much.

In fact, they had no experience at all. Lao Zhang used to drive a large boat, and later he never entered a swamp when doing rescue work.

In fact, in the entire East and West, except for those senior explorers who have been exploring outside all year round, almost few people have this kind of experience. Who would sail a boat into the swamp for fun.

So they could only let Lao Zhang explore the way ahead and find a route in the gaps between the plants in the river. Lao Zhang had good boating skills and could find a way out even if he got stuck in the mud.

This journey is very difficult.

Even though they had the aerial photos provided by the archaeological team, they were still struggling and the team moved forward very slowly.

Zheng Yun sailed the boat and followed behind.

The space inside the kayak was very small. Liu Ming, Song Wan and others were huddled behind him. River water and mud occasionally splashed in, and branches often penetrated the iron sand net and scratched the skin.

Fortunately, after walking two kilometers.

The river gradually widened.

The closer we get to the lake, the wider the river becomes, there are fewer and fewer plants on the surface of the river, and the sun shines directly overhead.

It's already morning.

Fog gradually began to form in the rainforest.

Before they had a good time, the river in front of them was obscured by the rapidly evaporating water mist, and they could only vaguely follow through the red searchlight at the tail of the kayak.

Close to two hours.

They finally reached the finish line.

Suddenly there was a gap in the Marsh River, and a huge lake appeared in front of us. It was completely different from the situation in the rain forest. The water mist on the lake was much thinner.

The first mate, Lao Zhang, had already driven the kayak into the lake and was looking for a place to park the boat along the lakeside.

No one has been to this lake.

It remained peaceful for hundreds of years.

Western explorers may have come here twice, but no one stayed here to explore. The lake is all in a primitive state.

"Isn't there something under the lake?"

Liu Ming looked at the lake and swallowed.

The color of this lake is very strange. It is actually layered. There is a clear water layer of about one meter on the surface, and then it becomes greener as you go down. Three meters down, the green becomes black.

If something suddenly emerged from the bottom of the lake, it would be hard for them to guard against it, and they would be hit if they were not careful.

"It's impossible to be sure, but the possibility of large swamp creatures is very high. Therefore, Bo has discovered swamp snakes with a body length of twenty meters. You'd better be vigilant."

Professor Zhang picked up the walkie-talkie to remind everyone.

Zheng Yun glanced sideways at the lake without saying a word. He carried with him some toxins extracted from the ghost figurines, so that even if they were attacked by swamp creatures, they could quickly kill them.

This environment is very suitable for the appearance of ghost figurines, but the ghost figurines are too weird to be exposed to the light, so they can only be replaced with toxins.

"I have a nice place here."

The voice of the first mate, Lao Zhang, sounded on the intercom.

Everyone immediately moved towards Lao Zhang's boat. A collapsed tree trunk appeared on the right side, half soaked in the lake water. The part under the water surface had rotted, but the tree trunk on the shore was intact.

They can build a platform, move down the detection equipment, and use drones and other equipment to detect it first.

"It seems that it is impossible to camp in this environment. If we want to spend the night nearby, we can only go back and set up camp around the off-road vehicle." Hu Ruihua said.

"Let's do a simple detection first."

Professor Zhang agrees with this conclusion.

Everyone began to make preparations. Hu Ruihua and others got off the boat, tied up all the boats with ropes, took out some wooden boards and put them on the tree trunks by the river to create a platform.

Then Professor Zhang took Liu Ming and others to unfold the equipment.

Xiao Hu and others also took out their drones and flew to the lake for detection. They scanned the entire lake before talking.

during detection.

Zheng Yun, Hu Zi and others remained alert.

What they had to guard against was not only what was under the lake, but also the depths of the rainforest behind them, the canopy of the trees above their heads, and even the mud beneath their feet. They had to guard against everything in all directions.

There are many threats in the rainforest.

There is no obstruction on the lake, and the sunlight can shine straight down. The lighting conditions are very good, but the rain forest behind is full of water mist, which also escapes to the lake.

"Zheng Yun, the detection will take about four hours. If there is an accident during the process, we will retreat immediately."

Professor Zhang warned Zheng Yun.

They are here to do research, not to risk their lives on adventures. If something unexpected happens, they should run away immediately.

"good."

Zheng Yun nodded and asked Hu Ruihua and others to choose a direction and disperse around the lake shore with guns.

He himself was on duty at the lake.

Staring at the lake in front of him without moving.

You can't tell how deep the lake is. Fortunately, Professor Zhang's equipment is ready. Their first detection task is the depth of the lake, using special instruments to insert into the lake to read the data.

The person who presided over this detection was Liu Ming.

He squatted next to Zheng Yun holding the instrument, as if this way he felt safe, and then held the screen to measure bit by bit, so that he could see the underwater situation directly from the screen.

The bottom two meters of the lake are water layers.

Slightly turbid between two and ten meters.

Starting at ten meters, the mud content of the lake began to rise rapidly, until after twenty meters, it completely turned into silt.

Look from the video screen.

The 20-meter-deep lake water is almost the same as the mud in Nanze Ancient City, and people can get in and move around.

But this does not mean that they have detected the depth of the lake bottom. Even if they encounter silt, they can still continue going down.

The swamp ecology is like this. Just find a place on the roadside and insert the instrument down. As long as the force is strong enough, it can be inserted ten to twenty meters away. The key lies in the data on the instrument.

The detector keeps going downwards.

Various data appear on the screen.

When he reached thirty meters in one breath, Liu Ming looked at the screen and said to Zheng Yun: "It's basically the end. The degree of carbonation of the silt at a depth of 30 meters is much higher than that of the upper layer."

"Is it possible that this is a man-made ancient building?"

Zheng Yun asked casually, he and Liu Ming didn't have so many rules and tricks, so it didn't matter even if they were timid.

"I can't say for sure. The common view now is that the ancient city of Nanze was flooded for thirty meters hundreds of years ago. The detection data shows that the lake is only thirty meters deep. In other words, this lake was flooded in the past. It’s probably not a lake.”

Liu Ming shook his head.

"What if we look forward?"

Zheng Yun still felt that there was a problem. The swamp covered hundreds of miles around Nanze. Logically speaking, it should be even. Why is there a lake in this place?

A puddle of mud covered the flat ground.

It should be flat ground in the end.

River erosion is a factor that must be considered, but river erosion in swamp ecosystems will only bring more silt to fill the lake. After the lake is filled, it will be diverted and flushed elsewhere.

Where did this lake come from?

"Xiao Liu, you measure diagonally, toward the position under our feet." Professor Zhang suddenly interrupted and gave some guidance.

"Okay." Liu Ming immediately obeyed.

He pulled out the detection equipment, inserted it back under his feet at an angle, and then continued to move it down bit by bit.

The data this time is different from before.

At about twenty meters, the detector suddenly touched a hard object, and it was inserted down against the object. When it was thirty meters away, the detector actually got stuck.

"Teacher Zhang, this is..."

Liu Ming turned back and asked Professor Zhang.

"I guessed before I came that there might be an ancient building in this place, because the more than 30 lakes are basically distributed in a straight line, and there is a causal relationship between them."

"There are not many causes for a lake to appear in a swamp area and there are no plants on the lake surface to meet both conditions at the same time."

"Looking at this detection data, the most likely scenario is that there is a stream of living water at the bottom of the lake, which makes it difficult for the silt to settle. The silt is empty and plants cannot take root."

"The second situation is subsidence. There are cavities or channels under the lake, causing a large amount of silt to flow into an unknown space, and more than thirty lakes collapsed."

"This does not mean that there are problems under all 30 lakes. It is possible that only one lake subsided and sucked away the silt from the bottom of other lakes, sucking out a series of lakes."

Professor Zhang looked at the screen and gave his guess.

Zheng Yun looked at the lake thoughtfully. There was no doubt about what Professor Zhang said. What he said must make sense.

There is no conflict between his two guesses.

Continuing to follow his words, if there is only one lake with subsidence, which lake is it?

"Brother Zheng, there is movement on the lake."

Song Wan suddenly reminded her. She had been holding on to an instrument, but her eyes kept staring at the lake.

Everyone looked in the direction of her finger.

The fog on the lake was thin, and they could vaguely see something floating from the center of the lake about forty meters in front of them. It was black in color.

It is only a few centimeters above the surface of the lake.

When I raised the telescope and looked at it, I couldn't tell what it was. It might be rotten wood or rotten leather.

But like a crocodile or an iceberg, no one knows what lies beneath the surface, and it could be huge.

Moreover, the creatures in the swamp ecology have all kinds of strange looks and are also camouflaged. Maybe this is a special swamp creature that looks like rotten wood.

"Stay alert."

Zheng Yun raised his pistol on guard.

Hu Ruihua quickly mobilized his team members, took Professor Zhang and others a few steps back to the shore, and got into the bushes and plants on the shore, intending to use the tall trees around him for protection.

The thing was getting closer.

Soon it floated to around thirty meters.

The part under the water is also faintly visible.

Zheng Yun adjusted the telescope to observe carefully, but found that it seemed to be a dead object, and it seemed to be a wooden coffin...