The two children walked in the shallow water, and the tide washed ashore continuously, washing away the smell and the footprints.

"You're going to surprise me, aren't you?" Beelzebub asked, turning his head to look at the gloomy sea, and he involuntarily jumped when the gun suddenly rang out.

"Absolutely." Sasha replied.

What Sasha is doing now is a test question, and his father, Anthony. Hopkins left him - the test questions are revealed in an hour or sooner, open book, no time limit, but you have to have a solid foundation and review and consolidate in advance, before you even know that this test question exists - Sasha believes that he can get at least 4 points (out of 5), the only thing he can't grasp is the guy next to him, Sasha's footsteps paused slightly, Beelzebub was not in his plan.

Just as Chegalle's life was saved by Hopkins the Great, it was Hopkins Jr. who fished Beelzebub out of mortal condition - in any case, Beelzebub gave him a lot of help, and without his guarantee and recommendation, Sasha would undoubtedly have had some difficulty in completing this task - just a little, so he only reached out when necessary.

That's one of the reasons, and the second reason is that this optional additional question may be able to sprinkle sand. Hopkins brings a lot of pluses...... He was saying, not just from his father, the big Hopkins.

"What did they encounter?"

Sasha followed Beelzebub's line of sight, the lights of the ships floating on the sea, but they never came closer, or rather, they didn't seem to move at all. What else could there be? A group of whale sharks at the right time, the smallest of which weighed more than ten tons. Whale sharks, whose staple diet is plankton, giant algae, krill and small automigrants such as small squid and vertebrates, have been cruising the nearby reef for nearly two months, feeding on the eggs of giant Brazilian snappers – who are not interested in humans, or humans, at all. But they are willing to do a little bit of a sand distraction, for example, by slapping over a boat or two with their unfolded tail fin, which is the size of a small lifeboat.

But that doesn't mean they're safe now.

Sasha didn't keep Beelzebub waiting long, and before the children's physical strength was exhausted, the newest and final destination appeared before Beelzebub's eyes.

A cave.

"You said it would be a surprise." Beelzebub said that his face was not very good, "but all I got was fright." Do you really know what this place is? ”

"Shelter." Sasha replied calmly, "It is said that even death cannot find a place. ”

The name of the cave is ironic, as only the dead can be sheltered here - sometimes the members of the "Masoye" are also compassionate, and if conditions allow, members of rival families can be given a chance to pray for the dead or a cemetery; Policemen, private detectives, government officials, and mercenaries were not so lucky, because children often played in the neighboring seas, and the people of Poseidon Island seldom poured people into the sea like their close relatives of the Western Continent Federation, and the superstitious old people believed that this would lead to the pollution of the sea; Cremation was impossible to keep the air fresh and the skies clear, let alone buried in the graveyards, which were already in short supply on Poseidon Island - and they had been bothered about this for a long time, until a young and reckless explorer discovered the "Sanctuary" cave.

It's not entirely true to say that it was discovered, because this cave full of free-tailed bats has been known to the locals for more than a hundred years, but no one has ever wanted to enter it. The small bowl-shaped cavern is crowded with at least a million bats, which hang upside down on the rocks at the top of the cave, and the resulting heat keeps the entire cavern above 40 degrees all year round, and the ground is littered with bat droppings, several feet thick, and countless carnivorous beetles, dung beetles, cockroaches, and giant centipedes wriggling in the dung...... Disturbed bats frantically pound their invaders, their teeth and claws small, but the quality of their numbers is still impressive, and like warm-blooded animals such as dogs and cats, their saliva contains extremely dangerous bacteria, microorganisms, and viruses – and that's not the most disturbing, but the daunting thing is the large amount of ammonia produced by bats and reptiles combined with water vapour to form a large amount of ammonia gas that can be fatal at slightly higher concentrations.

Loose tailed bats whose tail hairs are bleached with ammonia to a reddish-brown color can neutralize ammonia by reducing their metabolic rate and increasing carbon dioxide in their blood and respiratory mucus, allowing them to live peacefully in this lightless cave. If an unsuspecting human is put in for a few minutes, the high concentration of ammonia will trigger a central nervous system excitation, which will cause convulsions, convulsions, drowsiness and coma, and if the stupid guy insists on staying where he is or continues to go deeper, the higher concentration of ammonia will directly cause him to reflex cardiac arrest and respiratory arrest.

The explorer entered the cave at night with a small compressed oxygen cylinder for diving, and he was surprised to find that the cave was not as plain as people imagined, after walking through the territory of the bats, it was a relatively flat depression, the center of the depression abruptly concave downward, forming a funnel-shaped shaft, the shaft was bottomless, but the rope that fell down told people that there was water below, the surface of the water was about 200 feet above the ground, and the water was more than 100 feet deep - there were only a few mutated transparent small fish and shrimp in the water, The water was also just ordinary seawater, and people were a little disappointed, but soon, its true purpose was unearthed - the corpses that had nowhere to go were thrown into the deep wells of the caves.

The cave was like a bloody mouth connected to the esophagus, insatiable and unrejected, perhaps because of the relationship between ammonia and the heat, and the corpse would soon rot to the point that it would not be able to be fished out.

Even the boldest children rarely approached this place, so Beelzebub didn't find out where they had come in the first place.

"I don't think we're going to be able to take refuge here." Beelzebub said.

"You know, Poseidon Island isn't too big." Sasha gently persuaded, "If you're worried that there isn't much gas to breathe in the cave, don't worry, it's just for ordinary people. ”

"We're not ordinary people?"

"What made you insist that I and yourself are ordinary people after so many unreasonable things?" Sasha smiled and shrugged, "Yes, you're not, I'm not, and neither is our father. ”

***

The bats had been flying out for a long time, but the cave was not quiet, the carnivorous beetles in their droppings were shutting down, and thousands of gray, fluffy young bats were flying on the top of the cave, practising their flights, and every few minutes the little ones who couldn't dodge were knocked down by their companions.

"What are we going to do? Walk over? "After the first stage of sore throat, Beelzebub adapted to the foul and foul air of the cave with unimaginable speed, as Sasha said, and he gasped, feeling bad, but still alive.

He bent down and observed the dung that was getting deeper and deeper into it, and a small bat fell into the dung heap, and the reptiles swarmed up and ate it to bones in a few minutes.

Beelzebub moved his toes, and it was then that he noticed that Sasha was wearing calfskin boots, a rarity on the Double Islands.

"It's just a stink," Sasha took a few steps inside, and the worms tumbling in the feces retreated to both sides like a tide of insecticide, "Come on, don't be like a little girl." He said.

Beelzebub's expression at this time was really worth seeing.

The further you go inside, the colder it gets, and the air gradually becomes fresh and salty.

"It's windy." Beelzebub raised his finger and felt it, and winds of different sizes blew from several directions: "There are branches." ”

Sasha nodded.

Halfway through, they turned into one of the branches, which was so narrow that even the two children had to crawl on the ground in the last few steps.

At the end of the branch was a wonderful space, round, smooth as an air hole in cheese, with stagnant water at the bottom.

As in the rest of the cavern, there was no outside light, but Beelzebub was sure that he saw translucent threads of fluorescent silk hanging from the top of the small cavern, long enough to touch Beelzebub's nose and as short as a little finger, and the children's movements touched the air, and they trembled very slightly.

Sasha grabbed Beelzebub's shoulder and pursed his lips in his ear: "Don't speak loudly. ”

"What's that?" Beelzebub kept her voice as low as she could, but it still seemed to alarm something.

"Fireflies." Sasha said.

"It's unimaginable."

"That's right." The larvae of this firefly glow and secrete sticky silk threads like spiders, and the glowing silk threads attract insects that are at a loss in the dark for them to feast on - the death traps they create are like fairylands, but that's not what impresses Sasha - the males of this firefly don't have mouths, they are born only to mate, and they consume only two to three days of life in the process of reproduction, and then, just before death, they don't fall to the ground. Instead, pounce on the hanging silk thread and deliver a safe and delicious meal to your child.

A good father.

The two children washed their shoes and feet quietly in the dark, and what Beelzebub thought was standing water was actually an underwater culvert that connected to the outside world.

The sand is well prepared, towels, moisture-proof mats, compressed sleeping bags, forks, knives, bottled water, chocolate, cheese, ham, oranges...... Maybe something else, the food is still fresh.

"How long do we have to stay here?" Beelzebub silently calculated the time of the high tide tomorrow, and he didn't want to drown in his sleep in the nests of bats and fireflies.

"One night." "In one night, everything should be settled," Sasha said. ”

(To be continued)