readx; The first thing Ning Xiaofan did when he returned to his residence was to knock on the door next to him, gather the fat man and Hou San and the others together, and then inform him of the departure at three o'clock in the afternoon......

Ning Xiaofan's sleep time was not long, but after about two hours of deep sleep, the effect was not good, but he also recovered a lot of energy. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

Getting up, washing, and packing up things, Ning Xiaofan only took 10 minutes to get it done.

Stepping out of the door, the fat man, Hou San and the others were already waiting in the hall, and a group of people were bragging and farting there, chatting happily. In a blink of an eye, Yang Hai was actually among them, and it seemed that he had been notified by the goblin to come to rendezvous.

After Ning Xiaofan stepped forward to say hello to everyone, he said, "Let's check the equipment to see if there is anything missing?" Check it out and report it to me one by one."

The fat man and the others are very experienced, knowing that there are many dangers in the depths of the ground, and they can't tolerate half a mistake, so they rechecked their equipment very seriously.

Soon, after everyone checked, the fat man was the first to respond: "I'm fine." ”

"I'm fine." Hou San responded.

Next, Zhang Chun, Chen Biao, Lao Wang, Xiao Shanzi, and the newly joined Yang Hai responded one after another.

Of course, when everyone checked the equipment, Ning Xiaofan, as the team leader, also checked himself, and after the inspection, he also said in accordance with the rules: "I'm OK too." ”

After checking the equipment, Ning Xiaofan glanced at his watch, and was still a few minutes away from the agreed departure time, and at this time, there was a sound of footsteps outside the hall, and then he saw Aunt Xiang coming to the hall with a backpack on her back, she had already changed into outdoor clothes, and she looked quite practicable.

"Aunt Xiang, you're here." Ning Xiaofan stepped forward and said hello.

Aunt Xiang responded with a smile: "Well, it's all ready, let's go when it's ready......

Ning Xiaofan nodded, then turned around and motioned for the fat man and the others to pack up their equipment and set off.

The group went out of the hall, but instead of going out of the passage, they came to the iron gate at the end of the passage.

Originally, Ning Xiaofan didn't know what was behind this iron gate? However, when I discussed the departure with the goblin this morning, I learned that behind this iron gate is a passage, and in Area H, every team accommodation has such a passage to the underground.

Ning Xiaofan took out a magnetic card that the little goblin gave him in advance, and swiped it on the chute next to the iron door, only to hear a "click" sound, the bolt behind the iron door popped open, and with a push of his hand, the iron door was pushed open

Behind the iron gate, there is a descending staircase, and at every three meters or so at the end of the wall on one side of the staircase, a miserable white energy-saving lamp hangs to make the staircase transparent and bright.

This spiraling staircase is relatively simple, it should be made of local materials and carpooling, and it is not even polished, with potholes, unevenness, and some stumbling.

Ning Xiaofan and his party went down the stone steps, and it took more than ten minutes for the stairs to reach the end, and what caught their eyes was an artificially dug tunnel, and the walls on both sides were also uneven.

When you get to this tunnel, there is no lighting, the tunnel is deep, dark, and I don't know how long?

Everyone turned on their flashlights and helmet-top lights and walked down the tunnel, and soon after, the sound of running water could be faintly heard. After walking for a while, the sound of flowing water became clearer and clearer, and under the reflection of the illuminating light, an underground river appeared in front of him.

The tunnel has come to an end, except for this not wide underground dark river, there is no road, in this regard, Ning Xiaofan is not surprised, he has learned from the little goblin that this tunnel is flooded by the underground dark river due to water seepage, and he has to walk a long way of waterway.

Fortunately, this flooded place is not deep, but it can be submerged over the calf, so there is no need to take out the rubber boat.

The group waded all the way through the water, and after about an hour, they came to a cave. The cave is relatively large, with oddly shaped stalactites everywhere, most of which are flooded, but the cave is higher to the southwest, revealing a small open space that can accommodate people for a while.

Everyone went to the open space that was exposed to the water, and while they were resting, Ning Xiaofan went to the water's edge to measure the depth of the water, and found that the dark river water accumulated here was much deeper, almost up to the waist, and it was obviously unrealistic to continue wading on foot, so he ordered Lao Wang to take out the rubber boat.

After the old king inflated the two rubber boats, everyone was almost rested, pushed the two rubber boats into the water, and then took the two rubber boats down the river.

Although it is down the river, the water in this flooded underground tunnel is not urgent, but rather gentle, and if you just drift, the speed is like a snail crawling, and you have to paddle to speed it up.

After a short walk, the artificially dug tunnel seemed to have come to an end, replaced by a naturally formed cave, much more spacious, and along the way you can see stalactites raised or hanging on the sides and top of the cave.

Following the route shown on the tablet, entering the naturally formed cave meant that it was not far from the grotto's outpost, and it took less than half an hour to paddle downstream, with faint lights in front of you and the rumbling sound of diesel generators.

The outpost has arrived.

The so-called outpost is the last place in the sinkhole where humans exist, and the last mini-base where prospecting teams can be supported by manpower.

This outpost is set up in a wide karst cave, Ning Xiaofan has heard the goblin briefly introduce the situation of the outpost, and knows that the outpost is a transit place to the mining area, no matter which passage from Area H enters the mining area, it will eventually pass through the outpost transit, and this outpost is not only equipped with 10 permanent personnel stationed for a long time, but also set up a small warehouse, a medical office, and several board rooms to provide rest for the prospecting team.

When I entered the cave, I saw a resident staff holding a flashlight to guide everyone to row a boat to the shore.

Similar to the one I passed earlier, this cave is mostly infiltrated by underground rivers, and everywhere you look, except for the area with artificial structures, it is surrounded by water.

Ning Xiaofan also knew that originally this cave was not only spacious, but also relatively dry, there was no dark river at all, and the infiltration of the dark river water also happened three days ago, according to the information revealed by the little goblin, it was a large-scale collapse underground, which was flooded by the gushing groundwater Most of the places, the deepest place was more than two meters, if it weren't for the artificial buildings of the outpost were built on higher ground, this outpost is estimated to no longer exist.

Moreover, due to the influx of underground rivers, the passage for people to walk was completely submerged, which meant that all prospecting teams had to face the problem of diving underwater to the other end of the cave to get underwater. The problem is that this flooded natural passage has not yet been explored, and it is not known how long it will take to dive or if there will be a place to stop on the way. This is also the information that Ning Xiaofan wants to know most at present.

At this time, Ning Xiaofan and his entourage, under the guidance of the resident staff, came to a board room.

The board room is brightly lit, except for the folding chairs in the room, there is no other furniture, like a conference room, and there are already three or three people sitting on the chairs in the board room, all foreign men, a total of eight people, smoking, chatting and chatting, judging from the wet marks on the trouser legs of these foreign men, it must be the prospecting team that has just arrived.

In addition to the prospecting team, which consisted of foreign men, there was also a man in his 30s who wore outdoor clothes and had an Asian face. The man had a work badge on his chest and was supposed to be a permanent staff member of the outpost.

After Ning Xiaofan and his entourage entered the board room, the staff member greeted with a smile: "Everyone can sit casually...

After Ning Xiaofan and the others sat down, the staff member continued: "Let me introduce myself first, my surname is Chen, Chen Li, and I am the person in charge of the outpost......

This time, the staff member used English, obviously taking care of these foreign men, but fortunately, Ning Xiaofan, Aunt Xiang and the fat man's English foundation is not bad, so there is no need to worry about not being able to understand.

"Okay, there are currently two prospecting teams here, so I won't wait for the other teams, I'll give you an introduction to the situation here......

Needless to say, the person in charge of the outpost called Chen Li mainly explained the difficulties faced in the next trip.

According to Chen Li, the underground passage was not simply flooded by an underground river, but the unexplained collapse three days ago, which not only caused geological changes, but also caused the passage to be blocked, and three of the passages leading to the other end of the cave were buried by the collapsed boulders.

The outpost has sent several staff members to dive into the tunnel several times to investigate this geological change, but so far, no exit to the other end of the cavern has been found.

After Chen Li reported the current situation, he then called the leaders of the two prospecting teams to send people to the warehouse to collect the diving equipment.

To say that the reaction of Base 3 is still fast enough, after the passage of the mining area located at the outpost was flooded, Base 3 was notified and immediately dispatched a batch of dives to the outpost as soon as possible, otherwise, even if Ning Xiaofan and the others came here, they could only sigh.

At that moment, Ning Xiaofan arranged for Lao Wang and Xiao Shanzi to receive the equipment, while he himself asked Chen Li, the person in charge, to download the channel plan.

After downloading the passage plan to the tablet, Ning Xiaofan brought Aunt Xiang and the fat man together and began to study the route after diving.