I put down the map in my hand, and when I saw that Team Cao's face gradually eased, I straightened up, patted him on the shoulder, and asked again, "Old Cao, after finding Xiao Lei and Doctor Chen, you entered the center of the Five Directions Fire Gathering Array, and what did you see?"

Team Cao still leaned his body against the cave wall, took off the towel from his waist, wiped the sweat on his face, and resumed his usual unstinting tone, "Chang, we have been tracking in, thinking that Liu Xiaowu was inside, but I always feel that what happened inside should be synchronized, and the situation we encountered, you must have encountered it outside, for example, not long after we went in, when we were close to the mine where Dai Mine Chief and they were digging coal and jade, the flashlight and mining lamp all exploded, I asked Xiao Lei, they also encountered the same thing." ”

"I estimate that it is a special electrostatic discharge phenomenon, which produces extremely high voltages in a short period of time, and within a certain range around the five-sided fire array, electronic equipment will be affected. Sun Ping answered on the side.

"It seems to be some kind of selective, Lao Sun, only the lighting equipment has problems, but the ultrasonic rangefinder and depth meter I brought are fine, Lao Chang, I bet that the other thermal imager in your waist must be fine. ”

I nodded, the camera's on/off lights shimmering greenish in the darkness. But the angle from which Cao team thinks about the problem is indeed very interesting, if his hypothesis is true, then all the lighting equipment is suffocated, and the people who enter the mine, in the dark, will definitely pay attention to the coal essence jade wall that can emit a faint light, which is the real purpose of destroying the lighting equipment. Selective destruction? This assumption sends chills down the spine. I made a gesture for him to continue.

"We passed through the mine cave dug by Dai Mine Chief, with Dr. Chen's reminder, we didn't dare to go in, all the way forward, there are about 20 such mines, most of them have a lot of coal and jade ore that they haven't had time to transport away, and some of them are numbered, it seems that Dai Mine Manager and they have been digging below for a while. ”

"But later, we came to the huge coal and jade wall that Dr. Chen said, Xiao Duan and I couldn't help but look at it, the wall was too big, how to say, it was like a huge movie screen, flashing, there were many jumping flames in it, and it felt like a wonderful blockbuster was about to start. ”

"But I'm sure what we see in front of that screen is completely different, even though it's all jumping flames, and what people see through the flames must be hallucinations. In the face of these flames, people's imagination will be infinitely magnified. What I saw was a long, narrow road with no end, all neatly built of large bluestone. What you see in the small section is a series of rolling snow-capped mountains and a calm lake. Chang, I wonder if you are in front of that stone wall, you must see the sea eye well. ”

"Old Cao, do you mean that the projections from the stone wall are the most secret thoughts in people's hearts?" I couldn't help but interrupt Team Cao.

"I don't know, old man, maybe these are our hallucinations in themselves, and there may be nothing on the stone wall. ”

"But, Lao Chang, don't you think the oxygen content under this mine is a bit strange? the further you go to the center of the array, the lower the oxygen content, this is nothing, after all, the center of the Five Directions Gathering Fire Array is the lowest, and there is a fire burning in the middle, which consumes more oxygen. However, some of the mines have higher oxygen content, some have a feeling of suffocation as soon as they enter, and those forks in the tunnel, as long as they do not lead to the center of the Five Directions Gathering Fire Array, the oxygen is obviously sufficient. What I'm trying to say is that the roadways are all connected, and the air is moving, so how can there be such a difference? Is there something invisible that can block oxygen?"

Team Cao paused, as if he wanted to emphasize his discovery again, and continued: "After entering the tunnel, everyone should have a feeling that it is too quiet here, and the dialogue between us, the tone will change somewhat, at first I thought it was a problem with my voice or ears, but later I found out that everyone has this situation, is this a problem with the oxygen content?"

Neither of us spoke again, but sat around thinking about our own thoughts.

For example, Sun Ping thought that something must be wrong with the air in the alley, whether there was some kind of hallucinatory gas in the air. And Xiao Duan must be wondering, after this investigation, whether there are any clues that have been missed, and what other mines have hidden the answers, we have not found.

With my more than 20 years of knowledge of Team Cao, I understand that the message he told me is that this tunnel is evil, there is something we can't see, but it can hide in the dark, and it can dictate our every choice. Indeed, the lag in sound propagation, the unevenness of oxygen, and even the abnormal heartbeat that began soon after we entered the cave, as well as the strange dreams of the Cao team, were enough anomalies. But I'm sure it's not a paranormal event.

Hundreds of years ago, the Taoist priests of Longgang thought that there were ghosts and monsters and foxes in the coal spirit jade stone wall, and laid down the Longgang array, but it obviously had no effect.

Since the Ming Dynasty, snakes and rats in the mine tunnels will be polluted by an unknown liquid in the stone wall, and escape to the ground to self-gasify. And hundreds of miners have spontaneously combusted in the past hundred years, but there seems to be no further harm other than some psychological panic to the surrounding residents. In the same way, Dr. Chan's belief that the fluid in the water urchs is some unknown virus should not be valid. After all, the virus has to multiply through transmission, which is the instinct of life, and it is impossible for it not to spread for so long and not be discovered.

But in the story of the Cao team, one thing is right, in the deep dark alley, it is by no means only us intelligent advanced life forms, the strange sound and oxygen, electromagnetic interference, high-frequency current penetrates all the lighting equipment, especially the mysterious flame in the stone wall that can transform into different forms, one ring after another, I even vaguely feel that the initiator we can't see is understanding more and more about human nature, the greed in nature, the desire after greed and the unscrupulous means in desire.

Perhaps because of this, the miners who first entered the tunnel put down the task of opening up the Ming Dynasty mine road and re-entered the center of the five-party fire array.

Although we don't know the form of existence and the way of reproduction, it is obvious that it is using its methods to understand us and attract us in human ways, and this cognition is constantly evolving.

Thinking of this, I couldn't help but think about it, and the question of the Longgang Taoist priest's formation seemed to have been figured out a little. Just outside the cave, when Curator Qi gave me the formation map, I had a question. The Taoist priest of Longgang went into the mine to subdue the demons and subdue the demons, he knew that this demon could send out karmic fire and burn people to ashes, so why did he go to great lengths to set up a five-way fire array? Is it really because the demon is one foot high and the road is one foot high? The fire array can trap the karmic fire?

According to the topography of this mine, it is only right to set up a water array where yin and yang are mutually reinforcing, and I don't believe that Longgang Taoist priests would make such a low-level mistake.

But now that I think about it, the Taoist priest's thoughts are incredible. He must also be aware of these anomalies discovered by the Cao team, and they must be more detailed than we know, after all, he has been in this pit for a year, and he should know better that there is no demon inside, and it is useless to use ordinary Taoist spells, so he set up this five-party gathering fire array, in a sense, it is to make a mirror image of the unknown wisdom in the stone wall.

The art of Taoism has a long history, and many of them have been lost to this day. The so-called "Mirror Rim", "Bottle Realm" and "Huangliang Dream" do not only exist in legends, giving people some beautiful imagination, but real Taoist methods.

Mirror the devil against the devil, and seal the devil with the mirror. Of all the things in the world, is there any place that is more memorable than the beautiful scenery imagined by the brain? What kind of cage is stronger than the cage in the brain? This is definitely the ultimate play of the word "sleepy" in Longgang Taoism.

At this time, I couldn't help but think of the phone call I had with Zeng Qian two days ago. Although human footsteps have long since entered space, we still know very little about the land beneath our feet. We always think that in the mantle layer of several thousand degrees Celsius, no living thing can survive. This is based on our understanding of carbon-based life on the surface, but what if this life is not carbon-based, but silicon-based life with a higher melting point? What if it is hydrogen-based life that can freely transform into forms in solid, business and gaseous states? Even in the extreme underground world, the meaning of life is different.

Seeing that I was in a meditation, Team Cao touched my arm and handed me a cigarette, interrupting my thoughts. "Boss, what's next? I'm afraid we don't have time to do scientific research. ”

"We are now going to the center of the Wufang Gathering Fire Array to look for death, let's go to another life gate to see, since Mine Chief Dai and those people have been there, they must have their purpose, if we can find Liu Xiaowu, we will withdraw immediately, but I always feel that closing the mine is our only choice. ”

(Those who are considerate are easy but not poor, and those who are willing to work in vain.) Away from Zhu Zhiming, the needle is a hundred steps away, and you can't see the fish in the spring. The teacher is intelligent, and he is in tune with the eight winds, but he can't listen to it ten miles away. Therefore, the ability of any one person is not enough to manage a three-acre house; according to the number of truths, because of the nature of heaven and earth, the six combinations are not enough. --"Huainanzi")