Chapter Forty-Six: The Way Ahead
Thinking in a jumbled mind, we continued to walk, the darkness pulling us to a chain that dragged us tirelessly with it.
We wanted to speed up and get out of here as soon as possible, but as soon as we ran a few steps, we felt a trance in front of us, and the breath in our chest was blocked.
I stopped again, I understood the situation, and I felt the same way in the cave above, it was terrible, maybe I should think of something else.
Finally calming down, we felt that the oxygen around us was getting thinner and thinner, and even felt that the flowing air had slowed down here, just like our steps.
I wanted to push the crack open, but reason told me not to do that, it would only make me worse.
Last experience, I learned that this is not a solution, the further we go inside, the less oxygen there is, and if we don't come up with a solution as soon as possible, we may not be able to escape.
With that in mind, I shook my flashlight and began to look between the stone walls on both sides for an immediate improvement in the hypoxia.
Except for me, the two of them didn't feel well, so they also started to look for a larger place, where they could rest for a while and find other ways out.
The length of this crack was much longer than we expected, and Dongfang took out Kun Tiandou again, and after looking at it a few times, he sighed.
I leaned over and saw that the hands were constantly shaking, as if they were also struggling in this narrow crack, just like us.
The magnetic field here is very unstable, and this crack is like a hole in the tomb, and the slender water continues to rush outward, and the original sense of balance is completely useless here.
It's not like in the tomb, although there are already cracks around it, so that the luck here is dissipated, but it can barely balance each other, so that the magnetic field will not fluctuate too much.
But this place is completely different, the passage is long and narrow, and there is nothing to block and balance it, so the luck here keeps flowing out.
Feeling more and more depressed, we all took off our gas masks and took a few breaths of air as we stuffed them into our backpacks.
After a pause, we picked up our spirits again, not daring to take a big breath to calm our breath.
Just when we had just settled down, Liu Ran's flashlight in front of us suddenly shone on a concave stone cave.
Seeing the cave, we finally grabbed a straw like drowning people and climbed over to that place with ecstasy.
The light of hope shone here, led by Liu Ran, Dongfang and I followed, and climbed along the stone walls on both sides.
The hole was not in front of us, but about two or three meters above our heads.
It didn't look like it was a natural formation, because the hole that suddenly appeared in the straight crack was very abrupt, but in this state of affairs, there was no time for us to hesitate any longer.
With my hands and feet propped up on the stone wall, my body was half in the air, and I followed the uneven stones on the stone wall, followed Dongfang, and finally climbed to this hole.
After walking over, I took a few breaths before I had time to look around at the scene.
I didn't see the whole picture of this hole from below, but now it seems that this hole is very large and deep, and it is more than two meters deep by visual inspection, and there is a slope that clearly appears from the inside to the outside.
After walking in, we found that there were several round balls made of stones, and those stone balls seemed to be carved with pictures of birds, beasts, flowers and trees.
After Dongfang and Liu Ran walked in, they felt that the structure here was very special, and there were tools for digging holes, and when they looked closely, they didn't look like human tools had excavated them at all, and it was impossible for anyone to dig such a large space here.
Guessing, they went around looking for traces of the tools used to dig the hole to determine the cause of the hole. As soon as I came in, I was attracted by the stone balls, so I walked straight over and looked at them with a flashlight.
These things are out of place with everything around them, as if they don't belong here, and both the material and the form make it feel like they've been moved from somewhere else.
At a cursory glance, you can see that the material of this stone is different from the stone here, because the stone ball is light white, and there are a few strange lines on it.
Other than that, it's the patterns on it, and I reached out to touch it, and I felt a layer of rough nicks.
Maybe these things have been here for a long time, but judging from the thickness of the marks on them, they must have been consciously carved up, but because of the destruction of the wind and rain, those nicks are a little blurred.
It's dark and damp, but there's no wind or rain to give the stones that kind of rough marks at all, so it confirms my last suspicion that they didn't belong here.
Looking at the surface of the stone, there is no other decay other than these marks, which indicates that the hardness of the stone is extraordinary.
Taking a step back and not thinking about this, my eyes looked back at the images on the surface of the stone ball, which depicted a strange bird.
They have one leg, but many toes, as if they were tied together.
In the background of the picture is a small river with a three-way estuary, and three streams of water flow in three different places.
Looking further into the painting, I also found that behind this strange bird, there was a white moon in the water, but when I looked overhead, it was clearly depicted with a round of sun.
There are so many scratches attached to the moon shadow in this water, maybe it was destroyed by an external force, so that the reflection of what should have been the sun became the moon!
But when I think of this, I feel that it is not right, even so, how can the sun be so clearly reflected in the water.
I felt the stone ball and looked at it again, and I always felt that the shadow in the water was very strange, but speaking of which, it may have been deliberately explained in this form.
After convincing myself in this way, I went to look at the other stone balls, but when I picked up the other stone ball, it didn't feel right, because the weight on my hand was much lighter than the one I had just held.
It feels more like a basketball, with rattan inscriptions engraved on it, almost everywhere on the ball.
I picked it up slowly, shook it carefully, and vaguely heard a noise coming from inside.
When I heard the sound inside, I immediately put it down again, and when I looked at the stone ball on the ground, I thought to myself, maybe it was a hollow one.
The intertwined vine script on it made me completely unable to understand what it meant, and finally I raised my hand and carefully tapped it on the stone ball a few times, but after all, it was a stone, and it seemed that the hollow inside was very small, and it could not produce much echo at all.
I fiddled left and right for a while, but no matter how I knocked it with my hands or on the ground, I had to throw it aside and continue looking for other stone balls.
There are about a dozen stone balls here, which are randomly placed next to the stone wall inside, and they don't look regular, but they have been unconsciously thrown here.
But who left them here? And what does the above mean?
After that, I looked at the other stone balls, and there were no patterns on them that I could understand, only some rattan characters.
I thought that these things could be kept as evidence of our visit, so I took out my camera and took a few pictures, and prepared to find someone to translate these words when I went back.
There are many experts in archaeology in the Forbidden City, and there should be people who study writing.
I walked along the stone balls, but when I got to the last one, I suddenly noticed that the stone ball had a place where the light was reflected.
In the dark, this discovery was sudden, and I subconsciously took a step back and looked around vigilantly.
But after looking at it several times, I didn't find anything wrong, so I put my mind down again.
The camera was on the stone ball, and I pressed the shutter sharply, and after a click, the reflective spot reappeared.
I didn't dare to move the flashlight this time, but the light really just flashed away, and before I could take a closer look, the light disappeared again.
My flashlight didn't move, so the disappearance of the reflection couldn't have been caused by me, and finally I slowly flipped the stone ball again, but I fiddled left and right for a while, and I didn't see the light just now.
I looked at it a few more times, and there was really nothing else except the vine text on it.
Puzzled, I looked down at the camera in my hand again, and finally pointed the lens at the stone balls again, and then nervously pressed the shutter.
This time, the light reappeared, but it was also quickly gone, but this time I learned wisely, and noticed that the reflection was on a vine inscription in the sphere.
With a flashlight, I found the place, and looked at it carefully, but the stone was still a stone, and there was no mercury on it, nor a mirror, and there was no crystal inlaid in it, which could refract light.
In the hand, this is indeed an ordinary stone ball, the only difference is the pale appearance, but what does this mean?
Under the flashlight, the stone has absolutely no reflection, but it will reflect under the lens, if it is not the problem of this stone ball, could it be that there is a problem with my equipment?
Thinking about it, I put down the stone ball and turned on the camera again to check if there was something wrong, but as soon as I opened the photo I had just taken, I was surprised to find that the photo I had taken was just an empty stone ball.
Those vine characters mysteriously disappeared from the picture.
I really can't imagine that this is absolutely impossible to be a problem with the equipment, I believe that Lao Zhong attaches so much importance to this matter that he will definitely not bring us those cheap goods.
Although I don't know much about this digital device, the simple operation is still fine.
On the display, I looked at the photos one by one, except for the pattern of the strange bird, the other pictures had changed, and the vine characters on them had disappeared.
Flipping back to the end, I decided to take another picture, this time focusing on the camera, and as the shutter faded away, the light on the stone ball quickly disappeared.
When I looked at the picture again, all I saw was the stone ball, which was empty.
Looking at the camera in my hand, and then at the stone ball in front of me, I don't know what to do, whether it's my eye, or the stone, or the camera.
Think about it, how smart is it that can reduce the text of the captured photo in an instant?
The final problem is the stone ball, which I know is unavoidable, but unfortunately I can't find an explanation.
Perhaps there is a spirit hidden in this stone, and when an external force wants to keep the things on the stone ball permanently, the spirit will use the reflected light to erase the recorded contents.