Endless route

Chapter 292 62. Taoist ruins and auspicious murals

It was getting dark, and at 5:20 local time, the convoy arrived at the Taoist ruins camp. Dozens of vehicles parked in a special parking lot prepared by the Taoist archaeological team.

Everyone opened the door and got out of the car.

In the evening, the special foggy weather in the rain forest appeared again. The camp was shrouded in thick water mist, so Gubo placed a large number of warning lights around the camp.

In the haze.

The entire camp glowed with red light.

"This camp is really big, bigger than that of the Sunken Lake." Huzi closed the door and looked at the scene ahead.

The sun has not yet set, and there is enough light in the rainforest. You can see that the camp tents are elevated by simple steel structures, like stilts, firmly fixed deep in the mud.

Even if the ground falls again.

The tent won't sink into the ground either.

"Because there are more people, there are more than 200 people in our convoy alone, and there are also many people in the camp itself."

Hu Ruihua closed the door with a bang.

"Secure the vehicles."

The camp director wore a raincoat and walked through the center of the convoy with a loudspeaker, distributing vehicle fixed equipment.

Zheng Yun and others fixed the off-road vehicle and did not enter the camp. Instead, they walked to the Taoist ruins and took advantage of the last two hours to take a look at the Taoist ruins.

Xu Yu personally led the team there.

There were dozens of people walking together.

The Taoist temple ruins are just to the west of the camp. The surrounding rainforest has been cleared by the archaeological team. Special materials have also been scattered along the way, which can be quickly solidified after being mixed with silt.

Professional archaeological teams are just different.

Keep the archaeological site clean.

It was also the first time for Xu Yu to come to the No. 2 Ancient City District. His colleague Gu Bo led them to the ruins and briefly introduced the situation. Zheng Yun followed behind and listened closely.

The Taoist temple ruins were discovered a few days ago. When the accident occurred at the Sunken Lake this morning, they had already gone in to take a look. At the same time, they noticed some abnormalities before the accident.

There is nothing wrong with the Taoist temple itself. It is a very common Taoist temple, with relatively ordinary standards and furnishings.

But there are special murals in one hall.

One of the murals depicts the patterns on the auspicious porcelain vases, with deers fleeing in fright under the colorful clouds in the mountains.

The weirder situation is.

There are traces of futons underneath those murals. This Taoist temple worships not Taoist immortals, but these very special murals, as many as a dozen in size.

Most of these murals can be found in corresponding porcelain vases in the ancient city of Nanze. According to the Gubo archaeological team, they also found the same patterns in people's homes.

Not only on porcelain bottles, but also on the walls of people's homes, on beams and wooden posts, and on doors.

That is to say.

These murals exist throughout the ancient city of Nanze, not only within the city walls, but also in thousands of households.

According to Gubo's speculation, this special painting is likely to be similar to the New Year pictures posted during the New Year. It is a special custom limited to the ancient city of Nanze. The specific meaning is temporarily unknown.

This part of the content is consistent with Zheng Yun’s guess.

He had previously suspected that the auspicious patterns were a consensus among the people in the ancient city of Nanze, but he also did not know the cause.

The Gubo archaeological team originally planned to excavate slowly, but suddenly something happened this morning. As a result, the Taoist temple was also involved in explosives, collapsed, and the entire Taoist temple was submerged in mud.

Even if they penetrate the entrance again, the damage caused by the silt to the Taoist temple ruins will be irreversible. Valuable cultural relics will be damaged and it will be greatly difficult to continue exploring.

Just like those murals.

Only electronic photos are available at the moment.

Zheng Yun also received a photo and looked through it on his phone. In addition to auspiciousness in the mountains, there are also various auspiciousnesses such as auspiciousness in the sea and auspiciousness in the valleys.

It looks very weird.

Even the old blog has no clue.

But these patterns actually have one thing in common. The content drawn on them is completely unknown in the ancient city of Nanze.

Such as the auspiciousness in the mountains.

There are no mountains near Nanze Ancient City, and there are no mountains within hundreds of kilometers. Jidao once lamented that the plain of Nanze Ancient City is good because there are no mountains around it.

There were also no deer.

The deer in the auspicious picture is an Asian deer.

With the conditions of Nanze Ancient City, unless there are dignitaries specializing in breeding, there will be no deer in the swamp rainforest.

All pictures are like this.

The contents drawn above are all common sights on the earth and neighboring planets, from E-02 to W-02.

Could it represent homesickness?

All the military households in the ancient city of Nanze migrated here from the vicinity of the earth. Are these patterns to commemorate their hometown?

Putting this aside in advance, Xu Yu asked about the situation before the explosion in the collapsed lake and what abnormalities were found here.

According to Gubo colleagues, before the explosion, their team members inside the Taoist temple heard some very dull sounds, but they could not hear them clearly because they were too far away.

But at that time, their walkie-talkie received a distress signal. Before losing contact, the group of Western explorers searched the walkie-talkie channel and connected to the archaeological team's channel to ask for help.

There is a recording of this part.

Gu Bo colleagues asked Xu Yu to listen to the recording directly, because the words of the Western archaeological team were really impossible to translate.

Xu Yu put on headphones and listened alone.

Others could only observe Xu Yu's expression, and saw that just a few seconds after he listened, the expression on his face changed rapidly, and his eyes instantly became cold and serious, as if something big had happened.

"..."

Everyone else held their breath.

Xu Yu didn't say a word until he finished listening to the recording before he turned to his colleagues and asked, "How many people have listened to this recording? Where are they currently?"

"Except for the colleagues who heard it directly at the time, there were no more than five. Zhao Qiufu's command prohibited the recording from being broadcast outside. Everyone who heard the sound was resting in the center of the camp."

The old Bo colleague shook his head.

His expression was equally solemn.

Xu Yu remained silent for a long time, then suddenly turned around and looked behind him, waving to Zheng Yun: "Come here."

Zheng Yun walked to the front of the team.

Xu Yu handed a pair of headphones to Zheng Yun and asked in a low voice before letting go: "Listen, is there a ringtone in the background? Or is something crying?"

Zheng Yun put on his headphones and clicked play.

As soon as the recording started, there was a burst of hoarse shouting. The Western explorer seemed to be struggling before death. The scream was extremely miserable, as if he was being burned alive in a frying pan.

Obviously, the recording was started by Gubo’s colleagues while they were calling for help after they realized something was wrong.

Distinguish this sound carefully.

There was more than one person screaming. In addition to the screams, there were several people muttering and talking.

But the screams were too loud.

I really can't hear what others are saying.

As time went by, the screams gradually became smaller, and the source of one of the screams went through a process of 'from near to far' in a short period of time and quickly disappeared.

Like falling off a cliff.

After some time, all the screams suddenly stopped at the same time, and the mutterings suddenly became clear.

"No more."

"We can't get out."

"There is no rescue."

"We can't wait here to die."

"Give Peter a shot, quickly."

"Isn't Peter dead a long time ago?"

"When did I die, wasn't I Peter? Peter, can't you see me standing right behind you?"

"Here he comes, it's behind you!"

"Dynamite, use dynamite quickly!"

Sizzle.

The recording ends.

Zheng Yun frowned and took off his headphones. The distress recording was messy. Xu Yu asked himself if there were any cries or screams in the background, but he didn't hear it from beginning to end.

"Any idea?"

Xu Yu asked softly.

Zheng Yun shook his head and returned the headphones.

"It's getting late. The Gubo team is about to withdraw from the Taoist temple. Senior Xu, do you have to enter?"

A colleague from Gubo asked aloud.

"Forget it's too late, let's do it tomorrow."

Xu Yu frowned and shook his head, put the recording directly into his pocket, turned around and walked back with the team members.

Zheng Yun hesitated a little, but Xu Yu gave up the idea due to the danger, but he really wanted to go in and take a look now.

But this place is really dangerous.

There is no need for me to be in the limelight.

So Zheng Yun didn't say anything, and took Song Wanhuzi and others to follow Xu Yu and returned to the camp along the same route.

There are tents allocated at the campsite.

Zheng Yun was thinking about the recording. He followed the arrangement and went to the outside of the camp to disinfect and change clothes. He entered the tall tent belonging to their rescue team. He was still thinking about it until he went upstairs and sat on the bed.

"Brother Zheng, what's in the recording?"

Song Wan sat next to Zheng Yun and asked.

As soon as she said this, Hu Ruihua, Hu Zi and others also looked at her, especially Hu Zi, who swallowed expectantly and nervously, and was ready to listen to the ghost story.

"It's hard to describe. There were some hoarse screams, but they were very weird. Those screams were very dry."

Zheng Yun frowned and recalled.

"What does it mean to be very dry?" Huzi asked in shock.

"It was very dry. There were only screams. There were no sounds of fighting or killing, not even the sound of walking. The group of people seemed to be sitting in an open space and screaming."

Zheng Yun described it exhaustively.

This was his first feeling.

But this conclusion is really elusive.

"Is there more?" Song Wan asked again.

"Then there were some bizarre conversations. Their mental state was abnormal. I don't know what they encountered before asking for help, but the conversations were really weird."

Zheng Yun shook his head and stopped thinking about it.

Looking down at the time, it was almost seven o'clock. Outside the plastic window, the entire camp was completely white, and even the tents on the opposite side could hardly be seen clearly.

The miasma has arrived.

It was dyed orange-red by the sunset.

"We are going to spend the night here, and a notice was sent to the group with strict regulations for tonight."

Hu Ruihua looked at the phone and said.

"Brother Zheng, there is also a message on your mobile phone. It was sent by Li Wu. The team of Western explorers sent information."

Song Wan handed Zheng Yun's mobile phone to him.

Zheng Yun took the phone and took a look. Li Wu reached a cooperation with the team of Westerners and obtained some very special information, including the expedition team's 'exploration black box'.

This expedition black box records the vital signs of the thirty-three members of the expedition team in distress for 24 hours, and automatically sends them after the signs disappear.

Li Wu gave a rough summary.

Thirty-three members, starting from two o'clock in the evening, everyone's heart rate increased rapidly until it reached a subversion around four o'clock, and the highest one was even 200 beats per minute.

But my heart rate dropped again after four o'clock.

From four o'clock to seven o'clock before the explosion, everyone's heart rate remained at a high level. Even at the moment the explosion occurred, the heart rate was not as high as at four o'clock in the morning.

There is another key clue.

Of these thirty-three people, only ten died in the explosion, eleven others died before the explosion, six died after the explosion, and six more seemed to be alive now.

Except for this information.

They also provided another piece of information, which was all the information sent by the expedition team in distress, including several videos recording the results of their explorations in the past few days.

Refining the information leads to a conclusion.

This team of explorers was very professional and very careful. They clearly knew that it was extremely dangerous under the collapsed lake, and they were extremely cautious during the exploration process, but they were still killed in the end.

And look through the videos.

None of them knew the cause of their death.

There is no way to know the cause of the death until the bodies of the victims are found, the cameras they carried with them are found, and the exploration records on the day of the death are directly reviewed.

"As we suspected."

"It has something to do with the weirdness of midnight."

Li Wu also sent two lines of text.

"You must be careful."

Zheng Yun frowned and replied to Li Wu that they were going to spend the night in the Sunken Lake and there was a risk of being tricked.

But I can't go back now.

Li Wu only had fifty or sixty teammates, and there were at least three hundred people in this camp. It was also very dangerous here.

"The group asked me to go get the meal. I'll go alone and inquire about the situation." Hu Ruihua sighed lightly.

"Thank you." Zheng Yun put down his phone and looked around.

There are six bunk beds in this tent, which can sleep twelve people, and there are only seven of them in total.

Totally able to sleep.

Looking out the window, as the sun sets, the searchlights in the entire camp are soaring into the sky. It looks like a military camp, and it seems to replace the sun to illuminate the midnight.

There are watchtowers at the four corners of the camp.

There are drones hovering above.

Judging from the arrangements of the camp and Xu Yu and others, they have made comprehensive preparations and must be more cautious than themselves. I am afraid that at least a hundred people will not fall asleep that night.

"Is this battle really just for archeology?"

Hu Zi seemed to recall his military career.

"It's really rare. When I came here just now, I even saw the CIV-35 thermal imaging detection vehicle. The foreign trade export version of that thing is used for urban street fighting."

Lao Meng, a member of the rescue team with a background as a special forces soldier, interjected, and then added: "But in China, it is just a special rescue vehicle..."

"Then what are you afraid of?"

Huzi simply lay down on the bed.

"The situation is different." Zheng Yun opened Ji Dao's dialog box with his mobile phone and sent some information to Ji Dao.

Something might happen tonight.

It’s not just the depths of the swamp.

There is also a Taoist temple ruins nearby.

They have to spend the entire night between the Taoist temple ruins and the collapsed lake, and no one can predict the outcome.

"Are we waiting here?" Song Wan asked quietly.

"Well, I'll take a nap first. Wake me up at two o'clock." Zheng Yun nodded, pulled out a quilt and closed his eyes to fall asleep.