Meng Zitao searched around the waterhole for traces of the dark shadow, but did not find it, as if it had disappeared out of thin air.

A moment later, the army came over and told Meng Zitao that there was no trace left by man within a radius of 100 meters, which made everyone feel very strange.

Meng Zitao looked around and said, "You don't care about that person just now, you go back first, I'll wait here for a while." ”

The army didn't ask much, nodded, and left with the people.

When the others left, Meng Zitao walked to the corner of the waterhole, suddenly drew out the cicada wing sword, and stabbed it at the water.

However, the water surface is calm and there are no special conditions.

"Is that wrong?"

Meng Zitao frowned slightly, feeling that there was no danger around, and reached out to touch the bottom of the pool. The bottom of the pool was not deep enough to reach without going into the water, so he touched it a few times and took out a black pebble.

Meng Zitao looked carefully, the surface of the pebbles was carved with patterns, the patterns depicted the demons in his previous murals at the bottom of the well, but there was only a bust of the demon on the pebbles, as if it was imprisoned by something, and it roared while struggling.

The patterns on the cobblestones are vivid and vivid, in the same style as the murals at the bottom of the well, but Mencius couldn't figure out what the painting was trying to convey.

Also, just as he accidentally found this puddle, was this pebble deliberately left behind by the man in black? What did he want to do?

Meng Zitao returned to the camp with these questions.

The evening was calm, but yesterday's two sudden accidents still made everyone a little panicked and affected the morale of the team to some extent.

Fortunately, early the next morning, a helicopter was sent over to take away several suspects, and everyone was much more relieved.

Before the helicopter returned, Meng Zitao also asked the pilot to reconnoiter in the northwest direction of the waterhole, but the information returned was inconclusive. And not only in that direction, but also in other directions, it is still a vast desert.

"Shall we go in that direction again?" asked the army.

Meng Zitao was silent for a moment and said, "Let's go ahead according to the original plan, maybe there are answers we can't imagine." ”

The two professors glanced at each other and shook their heads slightly, but they didn't say anything, and they agreed with Meng Zitao's decision.

The team packed their bags and set off, walking eight kilometers northwest of the waterhole, but still found nothing, and the two professors had some opinions.

Professor Qi rode a camel to Meng Zitao's side and said, "Team Meng, let's just go on like this?"

Meng Zitao was also a little hesitant in his heart, but his intuition told him that the destination should not be far away, so he nodded.

Professor Qi frowned slightly: "But what if you still can't find it?"

"Again, I can't guarantee you this. Meng Zitao said: "I don't know if Professor Qi has any good suggestions, just mention it." ”

Professor Qi was stopped by this sentence, although he was dissatisfied with the status quo, it was difficult for him to give a useful advice.

At this time, someone in the team suddenly shouted: "There is a mountain there!"

"There are mountains?"

At this time, the large group happened to climb a sand dune, and they also quickly noticed the strange scene ahead, a mountain towering in the middle of the desert.

Meng Zitao was surprised, and he was a little puzzled in his heart, obviously the helicopter had searched for it, why did a high mountain appear here? It couldn't be a mirage.

The Taklamakan Desert is an obvious continental climate, during the summer daytime, the Taklamakan red sun is scorching, the silver sand is dazzling, the temperature of the sand surface is sometimes as high as 70-80 degrees, and the vigorous evaporation makes the surface scenery erratic, and desert travelers often see a hazy "mirage" in the distance.

So, it's understandable that the mountain is a mirage, but it's unlikely that a mirage will be a bare mountain.

Could it be that the mountain is real? But not that the helicopter didn't see it, and the satellite map didn't show it, did the hill pop up out of nowhere?

To verify that the mountain is not real, the method is very simple, just go over and take a look.

As Meng Zitao gave the order, the whole team set off towards the hill, and as the distance between the two sides got closer and closer, Meng Zitao became more and more sure that the hill was real.

Just as the army approached the hill only a hundred meters, the army warned everyone that there were signs of human activity there, and at least several camels were sighted, as well as some tents and supplies.

At this time, at this location, Meng Zitao immediately thought that it might be the people of the Lingwei, and the other party's next actions also confirmed this to him.

"Whoosh!"

Suddenly, a large number of bullets began to rain down on them, startling everyone, and the camels were also frightened and began to flee in all directions, and many scientific researchers like Professor Qi were thrown off the camels' backs.

During the panic of the team, Meng Zitao asked the army to protect everyone, and he took out an automatic rifle to fight back.

"Da Da Da!"

The gun in Meng Zitao's hand did not stop for a while until all the bullets in the magazine were emptied, and then he loaded the magazine at a flying speed and continued to shoot.

Although Meng Zitao is only one person, his firepower is too fierce, and although he can't say that there is no bullet, at least he can threaten the life of the other party.

Meng Zitao was unforgiving, while shooting, while approaching the enemy, although the frequency of shooting has decreased, the enemy has no way to deal with him, just showing his head was shot, no one dares to confront Meng Zitao.

In this way, when Meng Zitao arrived at the enemy camp, only a few corpses were left, as well as some ordinary luggage, and the rest of the people did not know where to go.

Meng Zitao looked around and saw that the entire hill was formed by rocks outcropping the ground. The height of the hill is estimated to be only about 10 meters, and due to the perennial erosion of wind and sand, the wind erosion mushrooms have formed on the mountain, which reminds Mencius of the Holy Sepulchre Mountain in the Taklamakan Desert.

The surrounding environment Meng Zitao just swept away, and what he was most concerned about now was where the rest of the people went.

When the people fled just now were too hasty, the traces left were very obvious, and Meng Zitao soon found a hole at the foot of the mountain, and shone it into it with a flashlight, which was very deep, and he couldn't see what was going on inside.

When the army arrived with people, Meng Zitao said to Professor Qi and the others: "It's too dangerous here, next, don't go in." ”

Professor Qi hesitated a little, half loud, he gritted his teeth: "I'm going in, if I die, it's my own bad luck, it's none of your business!"

Professor Qiu made the same decision.

Meng Zitao waved his hand: "Two professors, I know what you think, but I am the commander of this operation, in case I don't bring you back, it will be my dereliction of duty." ”

Professor Qi said: "Team Meng, I know that some strongmen are difficult, but when we came here this time, we already had the intention of clashing with Xunlingwei, and it is normal to encounter danger. If you are concerned about liability, then I can apply again now. ”

Professor Qi asked for a satellite phone in a hurry and applied to the department for a plan to act with Meng Zitao.

In the end, the department still agreed to the application of the two professors, Meng Zitao was somewhat helpless, from the sudden attack on them just now, he knew the enemy's ferocity, in this case, he even wanted to go down alone to investigate, so it was undoubtedly much safer.

But since there is such a request above, it is not easy for him to refuse, the fate is taught by Qi and their own, and they can only do their best, otherwise they can't blame themselves.

With the two professors on board, the other researchers will definitely have to find a few to join the professors as assistants, but this is not mandatory, and Mencius will not agree to bring all the staff in.

After selection, three more staff members were added to the team, plus Meng Zitao and Dajun, and four security personnel, for a total of eleven people.

The cave was tilted downward at 45 degrees, and the group carefully advanced downward, and Mencius estimated that the vertical distance was already fifty or sixty meters, and the ground began to flatten.

"What's up ahead!" Professor Qiu suddenly stopped, pointing to a black whirring object not far away, which seemed to be a human with two legs, still standing upright, startling him.

Meng Zitao held a gun in his hand, no matter how many shots he had fired at 3721! When the bullet hit the thing, something splashed out in all directions, as if it were some fragment.

"Team Meng, why are you so reckless!" Professor Qi shouted, "What if it's a precious cultural relic?"

Meng Zitao looked at Professor Qi: "Safety is the most important thing now, and someone has already passed first, if it is a precious cultural relic, will they keep it?"

Professor Qi was silent for a moment and said, "You are right, but I think it is still necessary to protect the cultural relics as much as possible." ”

"If you don't say that, I know that. ”

After communicating with Professor Qi several times, Meng Zitao didn't like this person's personality very much, and felt that he was sometimes too aggressive, just like now, as if he was a person who didn't know anything about cultural relics.

Seeing that there was no danger over there, the group walked over and found that it was just a pair of feet of the figurine, and the body had been broken by someone.

Meng Zitao squatted on the ground and carefully observed the pottery shard, and suddenly he realized that something was wrong, there were still bones in this pottery figure.

The bones were very conspicuous, and soon everyone found them.

"It's a figurine!"

This phenomenon was not uncommon in ancient times, but making a living person into a terracotta figurine, just thinking of that kind of picture, Mencius felt very uncomfortable.

"Who the hell is it that actually makes living figurines, this is too cruel!" Professor Qiu said with a frown.

"Look, there's still one ahead!" the army took a flashlight and shone it not far away.

Sure enough, at intervals in the cave, there were figurines, and all of them were all vandalized.