1.4 Strange Forest (Part I)

"Oh, okay! I know you're grateful to me for saving your life, but you're not going to lick my feet, Regham! Hurry up and get flat! Hey, hey, hey......"

Through the bright green light in the cave, Rui Gong watched in confusion as Ke Zhenshi was lying on the ground with his arms stretched out and kicking his legs, dreaming hehehehehe She tiptoed over to Ke Zhenshi and squatted down, indifferently looking at the face with fluttering eyebrows and drooling, and quickly stretched out her hand.

Bang Bang Bang!

"Who would dare to slap Lao Tzu in the face!? See if I don't ......" Ke Zhenshi woke up with his beaten cheeks, sat up suddenly, blinked his eyes for a while, and then saw clearly who the gloomy girl in front of him was.

Rui Gengteng stood up, looked at Ke Zhenshi condescendingly, and didn't say a word. Her eyes looked particularly terrifying in the dim environment.

Ke Zhenshi moved his feet suspiciously, a little stunned for a while, and muttered, "Why are you ...... You're not ......."

"What am I doing?" Rui Gong's voice was echoing, and it sounded a little oozing.

"Positive...... Correct...... Hey...... It hurts me to death......" Seeing that the situation was not good, Ke Zhenshi groaned, "Where is this?" Why is it so dark? Am I going to hell......"

His voice was slightly weeping, and it sounded annoying, and it was difficult to distinguish the real from the fake for a while. Rui Gong interrupted Ke Zhenshi's ghost crying wolf howl, "What's the matter? Where are we? ”

"Where are we?" Ke Zhenshi stopped moaning, looked around and muttered, "How do I know?" Obviously, I walked on the stone road, but I didn't know what was going on, and I stepped on the air...... Hey? Why are you here? Could it be ...... You're also in the air? ”

Instead of answering, Rui Gong began to probe.

It's a cave, and when you reach out and touch it, the rock walls are slippery and slippery, and covered with moss. The glowing green light on the rock wall is emitted by an unknown small bug. By the light, you can vaguely see that there is a long and narrow passage in the cave, which extends somewhere. For some reason, she couldn't find the hole she had come fromβ€”but she remembered that she had fallen through a round, vertical hole.

While they were in doubt, a squeaky hum came from the other side of the silent cave, startling the two of them. Ke Zhenshi jumped up from the ground and shouted, "Who? Who's crying? Are you a human or a ghost? The sobs didn't stop, but they grew louder.

Rui Gong and Ke Zhenshi glanced at each other. She quickly picked up a stone, and was just about to throw it in the direction of the humming sound, when she saw Ke Zhenshi rushing forward like a whirlwind, and he was still screaming in his mouth, "It doesn't matter if you are a human or a ghost, I, Ke Zhenshi, want to catch it today!" ”

"You'll ...... later"

Before Rui Geng's words fell, he saw Ke Zhenshi's figure stunned, so he pounced straight up.

"Boom!"

was kicked hard in the ribs, which made Di Qingchuan feel heartbroken. He opened his eyes sobbing, and saw a spirit behind Ke Zhenshi lying on top of him, so he quickly pushed him away and got up. He touched his ribs, moved his arms and legs, and it was okay, except for where he had been kicked, everything was fine. He picked up Ke Zhenshi and asked softly, "Are you okay?" ”

Seeing a figure much taller than Ke Zhenshi standing up, Rui Gong already knew that - sure enough, all three of them had fallen off the mountain road behind the boulder.

Seeing that the quirky girl was also here, and preferring him with a "I knew it would be like this" look, Di Qingchuan was a little surprised, and quickly explained, "I...... I stepped on the air and accidentally ...... I didn't know that road was easy to follow...... Otherwise, I'm sure I'...... Sure...... I won't let you risk ......"

"Do you know the exit?" Rui Gong didn't care about his explanation, just looked around at the rock wall around him and asked thoughtfully, "Can you find the hole where we fell?" ”

Di Qingchuan seemed to have broken his leg just now, he limped around the cave a few times, and was silent for a while, constantly rubbing his hands, and said embarrassedly, "This is ...... This is the first time I have been on Fengshan...... I ......"

"Oh, then we'll have to get out of that way." Rui Gong glanced at him and walked to the other side.

"This ......" Looking at the narrow and pitch-black passage in front of him, Di Qingchuan hesitated. The almost enclosed caverns and the eerie glow of the green worms already creeped out to him. This Qifeng Mountain Group stretches for thousands of miles, in addition to the strange places, there are also large areas of mountains and forests that no one has entered, and if you are not careful, you may lose your way and never be able to go out again, and there will be no one to collect the corpse when the time comes.

"Don't this, this, this, we have no other way out." Ke Zhenshi just saw Di Qingchuan inspecting the cave in a matter-of-tentative manner, so he followed him around the back of his ass for half a circle, but he didn't see any other exits except for the passage. The passage looked dark and made him a little timid, but when he saw Rui Geng's idea, he was not to be outdone, and walked over after him. Seeing Di Qingchuan standing still and not moving, he said again: "Aren't you leaving?" ”

"But...... We don't know where this road leads, in case we can't get out......"

"Wherever it leads! If you can't get out, go back the same way and find a way! Ke Zhenshi was a little excited: "If you don't keep up, you just stay alone!" ”

"You just stay alone...... Ke Zhenshi's words echoed in Di Qingchuan's mind, watching the backs of the two gradually disappearing into the darkness, a strong sense of loss filled his heart, and he said to himself, "It's really a dream." With that, he trotted after him.

The passage in the cave is twisted and curved, and the three people without lighting equipment slowly grope forward by holding on to the slippery rock wall with the sporadic green insect light. I don't know how long she walked, the green light suddenly increased, Rui Gong was a little hesitant, she turned her head to look at Di Qingchuan who was following last, under the green light, this tall young man was frowning, looking at the insects on the wall with a thoughtful expression. Soon, the green insect light was connected.

"Wow - it's spectacular!"

Hearing Ke Zhenshi's excited exclamation, Rui Gong said secretly, "This guy is really going to cause trouble." ”。

Disturbed by the sound of the intruder, the green-light bug flew up from the wall in an instant, flapping its wings. Seeing the dense swarm, Rui Gong's scalp was numb for a while, and he subconsciously hugged his head and squatted down.

The vibration of the hula's wings gradually became smaller, and Rui felt someone gently pat her on the shoulder, and when she looked back, it was Ke Zhenshi. I saw that his face was full of surprise, and his finger pointed forward. Rui Gong looked up and saw that these green insects seemed to be commanded by someone, forming a ball of light in one direction, turning into balls of light the size of a light bulb hanging on the roof of the cave, illuminating the surroundings. Before she could recover her senses, she discovered something even more surprising.

With the help of green light, in the narrow cave, Rui Gong can clearly see the petroglyphs on the walls. The style of the petroglyphs reminded her of the kind of artifacts she had seen in museums that had not yet been written thousands of years ago and had to rely on drawings to tell stories. She stood up and looked carefully, only to see that the color of the mural was as fresh as new, but Rui Nai, who had never studied history and painting, could feel a strong shock and inexplicable resonance from this deep mountain petroglyph.

"It's ...... Fox? On the other side, Ke Zhenshi put his hands on the wall, stared at the portrait and examined it, and said with a tangled face: "But why does it have so many tails?" ”

Rui Gong walked over. On the wall, a fox-like animal stood on the cliff of the Full Moon Mountain, and saw it with its head held high, its expression arrogant, revealing a noble demeanor like an emperor, and its limbs seemed to be pacing gracefully one after the other. And at its tail, there are nine fluffy and curly tails.

"Nine-tailed fox," Rui Gong said lightly, "a spirit animal in ancient myths and legends." ”

Ke Zhenshi vaguely remembered that in the cartoons he had watched, there seemed to be such a spirit animal called the nine-tailed fox. But being "popularized" by Rui Gong made him feel a little unhappy. He took a few more steps forward, leaned on a rock and looked at himself, and pretended to be deep, "Look at it! There's an old hen here, but in my opinion, it's more than just an old hen. ”

"Old hen?" Di Qingchuan was a little puzzled.

Rui Gong stepped forward, only to see a huge bird on the wall spread its wings and fly towards the sun, this bird has a beautiful body, slender tail feathers, and its whole body is dyed with red dye, and there is a kind of amazing strange feeling under the green light. In an instant, Rui Gong felt her brain explode with a "bang": this bird, she seems to have seen it.

She hurriedly grabbed the fragments of the past in her mind and put them together: this bird, the big red bird with wings, was the big bird that had been repeated in her dreams, and the big bird of fire that she had dreamed of in the cave just now.

"Here...... And paintings. At some point, Di Qingchuan walked in front of them and said, "This way...... It's always ...... That's a lot...... As if it were, it's a story. ”

Rui Gong hurriedly walked over, but before she could see clearly, the green insect light suddenly dispersed, and then a swarm of bees flew deeper, and disappeared in the blink of an eye, and the cave was suddenly plunged into darkness.

"Keep up! They're supposed to be flying towards the exit! Seeing that the last glimmer of light was gone, Rui Gong suddenly reacted, stumbling forward against the wall.

Gradually, the cave lit up, and it was sunlight. Soon, the road in the cave became smooth and smooth, and a wide hole appeared in front of it, about one person high, and the green vegetation and mountains outside could be faintly visible. Looking at the entrance of the cave in front of him, Ke Zhenshi, who was disappointed, and Di Qingchuan, who was relieved, said in unison.

"Huh? It's coming out so soon? ”

"Hey...... It's finally out. ”

"Here...... It seems to be the other side of Qifeng Mountain. Rui Geng, who had already jumped out of the hole, looked at the scene in front of him and thought in his heart, "It stands to reason that I fell from the steep cliff on the side of Taowu Village, and there were only some abrasions on my body that did not hurt my muscles and bones, indicating that the height was not much, and I would not roll directly to the foot of the mountain." Walking so far in the cave, although it is a little rugged, it is almost parallel, and there is rarely a climb or downhill, so it does not lead directly to the bottom of the mountain. In this way, the open space in front of you should be the other side of Qifeng Mountain. I just didn't expect this other side to be more like a fairyland. ”

With a sound of kicking and trampling footsteps, Ke Zhenshi Fei also rushed over, shouting loudly, "Wow! I really chose the right place for this spring outing, it's really beautiful here! ”

Di Qingchuan's hesitant voice came from behind him, "We...... Where have we been? How does it feel...... Feel like this isn't Qifeng Mountain? ”

"Huh? What the? Hearing this, Rui Gong subconsciously turned around and asked, but his eyes instantly widened and stared at Di Qingchuan's back, and he muttered, "You...... You just ......".

"How...... What's wrong? Rui Geng's expression made Di Qingchuan a little flustered, he didn't know what he said wrong.

Rui Geng frowned and asked, "Where did you just come from?" ”

Di Qingchuan blushed, wringed his hands and said uneasily, "I...... I'll follow you out of the hole......"

Rui Gong said unrelentingly, "The entrance to the cave? Which hole? ”

Ke Zhenshi ran over, looked at Rui Gong with some dissatisfaction, and said, "What are you talking about?" We came out together, didn't you take us out? From that hole. Pointing in the direction he came, "Huh? What about the hole? ”

Di Qingchuan hurriedly turned around, only to see a huge, bare cyan boulder standing in front of him, where was there any hole. He was full of horror, and his mouth stumbled, "I just came out...... Obviously just came out...... I've only walked a few steps, why is it gone? ”