How to enter the Worm Valley, there are two routes marked on the human skin map. The first is to climb over the tuyere on the mountain, and the second is to follow the Snake River around the mountain, which is a dangerous primeval forest between the Lancang and Nu rivers - although the distance is not far in a straight line on the map, anyone who has entered the primeval forest should know that it is actually ten or twenty times longer than the previous journey, and there are swamps in some places.

These two routes are not easy to walk, in comparison, only the more feasible to climb over the Shalong Mountain above 3,000 meters above sea level, but it is not a joke to venture over the snow-capped mountains without a guide.

At this time, I heard the peacock say that there was a shortcut, so I hurriedly asked for details. The peacock only knew a rough idea, so we had to go to the proprietress to inquire again. The proprietress told us that there are many dense caves like spider webs at the bottom of Shalong Mountain (the local people call it Aiteng, which means tailless dragon), and the legend is that the ancestors dug them in ancient times, and there were rebel bandits who occupied it to fight against the officers and soldiers, and the officers and soldiers were helpless against the complex terrain in the mountain, so they had to build all the holes with stones to death, and the people inside were trapped alive in it; In the future, whenever you put your ear to the rocks of Shalong Mountain, you will hear the desperate cries in the mountain.

Of course, this is just a legend circulated by the local folk, as for which dynasty and which generation the cave was built, who built it, what it was used for, who the bandits in it were, whether it was the local ethnic minorities who rebelled against oppression and exploitation, or what it was, no one can say clearly to this day.

But it wasn't until recent years that someone mined a cave with dissolved limestone and groundwater. This water flows through the mountains and flows into the Snake River at the other end of Shalong Mountain, and the water is deep enough to drive bamboo rafts, and with this waterway, you don't have to worry about getting lost in the criss-crossing caves. Due to the gentle terrain, the water flow is not urgent, and when you go, you can discharge it downstream, which is very labor-saving; When you come back, you need to make some effort to come back with a pole, and in short, it is much more convenient than climbing over the mountain.

Finally the proprietress told us that it would be a shortcut to get there, but there were many strange-shaped corpses on both sides of the cave, and no one knew when they died in it, and the faint-hearted would be scared out of the way. There have been a few times when someone has passed through the cave, but firstly, there is a lot of miasma in the worm valley over there, and secondly, there is no human population over there, and there is no point in going there, and no one has passed there for a while recently, so if you want to take a shortcut, you need to be more careful.

I said to the proprietress: "Don't worry, we go to the valley over there to catch butterflies and make specimens to serve the people, we are all communist materialists, how can we be afraid of the dead." Since there is a shortcut, it would be a fool not to go, not to mention that someone once successfully passed through, indicating that there are no ghosts in it, and it may be just a relic of the tombs of ancestors in ancient times. ”

I remembered that I had just seen the sign of a martyr's family on the door, so I asked the proprietress again, and it turned out that Peacock's brother was a martyr who died on the front line. This time I came to Yunnan this time, if I have the opportunity, I should go to see the cemetery of my comrades-in-arms, but I can't always think about getting rich and forget my roots.

In addition, I also discussed with the hostess if there were any people in the vicinity who had shotguns, and we would like to rent a few for self-defense. The proprietress asked the peacock to turn out a "Jianwei" air rifle from the back room, which was an air gun that hit steel balls, and when the peacock and her brother were alive, they often carried this air gun into the mountains to fight birds. The hostess was very kind, and since we had helped her, she was willing to lend us the gun for free without a deposit, and she could return it when she returned.

I was a little disappointed, and I thought I would have to at least get a double-barreled shotgun, which was similar to a toy for birding. But when I took a look, I found that it was really a good gun, very well maintained, and it was not an ordinary small caliber, it could hit medium-sized steel balls, the range was long, and the gun body was heavy and stable enough - not to mention fighting birds, it was no problem to fight wolves. The only drawback is the single shot, after each shot, it needs to be reloaded.

Now something is better than nothing, and there is no better gun in the vicinity for a while. So I threw the gun to the fat man and asked him to familiarize himself with the gun, and the "sword power" was temporarily used by him.

I thanked the hostess, and the three of us spent the night in the Caiyun Inn that night. This night, I slept very well with the fat man, didn't think about anything, and completely threw away the hard work along the way, and it was really a sleep to let go of the world and the wideness; It wasn't until three o'clock in the next day, when Shirley Yang grabbed our ears and woke us up, that we reluctantly got up.

The tea seller had already gone on his way early in the morning to do business. After we washed, we found that the proprietress had prepared a lot of dry food for us, as well as anti-insect herbs, and asked the peacock to show us the way and lead us to the cave at the foot of Shalong Mountain. There is a small bamboo forest there, and you can cut down a few large bamboos to make a bamboo row.

We repeatedly thanked the proprietress and took the guy into the forest behind the Caiyun Inn. The main tree species in the woods here are mostly hairy-leaved slopes, followed by fragrant fruit trees and large rhododendrons, and a small amount of silver-leaved laurel. Only a low-lying pit than the flat land has grown a large emerald bamboo, and the waterway into Shalong Mountain is not far from here.

I saw the location and sent the peacock home, so as not to make her sister-in-law wait at home in a hurry, and the fat man asked me: "Lao Hu, why don't you let this little sister give us a guide, she can sing and dance, and we are not lonely along the way." ”

I said to the fat man that forget it, we're not going on a sightseeing tour. I have a hunch that this time will not go too well, and I always feel that there is some huge danger hidden in the tomb of the king in the worm valley, and it is inevitable that there will be some big moves. Don't talk about this little girl, even if you change to another guide, we don't need anything, it's enough to have a skin map reference, and it's troublesome if there are too many people.

The fat man nodded and said, "It makes sense, don't let the old zongzi of Xianwang scare the little sister." And there are outsiders present, so it's not convenient to pick up the Ming utensils, just the three of us, let's open it up. It's too early to take care of this big event, and then let's come to Yunnan again to play. ”

Shirley Yang said to me and the fat man: "The clouds in the sky are getting thicker and thicker, and I am afraid that the sky is going to change, so let's hurry up and make a row, and strive to get ahead of the mountain before it rains." ”

At the moment, we didn't have to wait any longer, and the fat man and I each carried machetes to pick up the fat bamboo, and Shirley Yang was in charge of cutting off the branches of the bamboo with a knife. The three of them worked together and made rapid progress.

In the past, when we went up the mountains and to the countryside in the Daxing'an Mountains of Inner Mongolia, Fat Man and I both helped in the forest farm, where there were no roads and cars to transport logs, and we all put them into the river one by one and sent them downstream; In some places in Fujian where waterways are vertical and horizontal and transportation is inconvenient, there are also discharges, so these jobs are not new to us.

If the bamboo raft needs to be used for many years, it will be quite troublesome to make, and the bamboo needs to be scalded with hot oil before it can be used as a raw material, and there are some other additional processes. And we only need to use it once or twice temporarily, so we don't have to worry about it.

Shirley Yang went to the cave to explore the depth and flow of the waterway, and estimated that only six large bamboos the thickness of human legs were needed to carry the three of us plus all the equipment.

After all this busyness, I finally tied up a small bamboo raft, dragged it into the cave with a rope, and entered it with my front feet, and thunder rumbled and showers fell outside my back feet.

This is a limestone cave, and when you enter the cave, you can walk down a dozen steps diagonally and you can see a river at your feet. But it's more appropriate to say a deep stream than a river – nearly a meter below the ground, about three meters deep, and with a slow current, probably a tributary of the Lancang River, the first half of which is hidden underground until the lower terrain of the cave.

The cave here is very wide, I used the wolf's eye to shine into the dark depths of the cave, the height difference inside is very large, the wide part can be used to drive a tank, and the low part is only more than a meter high. There are many dissolved rocks that have been formed for more than 1,000 years, and they are all strange, and this is only the entrance to the cave not far from the cave, and the environment inside will be even more complicated. It seems that if you want to put a row through the hole, you need to lie on your stomach to pass through some lots. Except for the sound of the murmuring water, the entire cave is unusually quiet, and the thunder of the showers outside is not heard here, as if it is completely isolated from the rest of the world.

We pushed the bamboo raft into the water, I immediately jumped on it, and used the bamboo pole to insert it into the water from the front of the bamboo raft to fix the bamboo raft, and Y Yang then jumped up as well, and I saw her come up and take a few steps forward, and she retreated to the end of the bamboo raft at the same time to maintain her balance. Then the fat man threw up the three of us with a large backpack full of equipment and two insect nets one after the other, and then jumped into the middle of the boat himself—he came up, and the whole bamboo raft sank down—Shirley Yang quickly dragged two of the three climbing bags to the end of the raft where she was, and I dragged the other bag to my feet, so as to balance the weight for the time being, so as not to capsize.

On the bamboo raft, we made the final preparations. Since there were a lot of upside-down stalactites and stalagmites in the cave, in order to avoid breaking our heads, we all put on our hiking helmets, which had tactical spotlights on the helmets and could be driven for six to eight hours.

Finally, I put up a strong searchlight at the front of the bamboo row, which consumes a lot of energy and cannot be used for a long time, so I turned it on every one or two minutes to check the condition of the cave in front of me.

The fat man sat in the middle with a bamboo pole at the end of the horizontal end to keep his balance, and when he saw that I had installed a searchlight in front of me for a long time and had not finished installing it, he couldn't help asking, "What's wrong with Lao Hu?" Can't we leave today? I can't wait to dig out the Ming Vessel dedicated to Wang Lao'er. ”

I still had two fixing bolts left uninstalled, so I turned around and said to him: "What are you urging, then the tomb of the king is in the Worm Valley, if you go a few minutes late, can it still run with long legs?" ”

Shirley Young, who was on the back end, said to us, "I said you two don't argue. I have a suggestion, the Americans are accustomed to putting an action code name on every military operation, let's go to the fight of the king this time, it is better to take an action code name, of course, this is not meaningless, it can appear that we are more planned and purposeful. ”

The fat man said to her: "This is our Chinese territory, and your old beauty will not work." However, since the commander of the American advisory group has proposed it, then I think it might as well be called Operation Enlightenment, which seems straightforward and not hypocritical at all, and will go to the Enlightenment. ”

I had already installed the last bolt of the bright searchlight, turned to the fat man and said, "You are too direct, you look vulgar." However, it was a good proposal, as the Allied Overlord broke the Atlantic barrier of the Third Reich and shortened the course of World War II. We can also think of a nice action code, a good luck, and strive to be able to win and succeed. This time, we are acting in camouflage under the guise of going into the Worm Valley to catch butterflies, which I think is called Operation Butterfly. I announce, now Butterfly Action, begin! ”

Regardless of whether Shirley Yang and the fat man agreed or not, I turned on the bright searchlight first, saw the terrain in front of me, and reached out to pull out the bamboo pole inserted in the water. Driven by the slow flow of water, the bamboo raft moved forward and slowly drove into the depths of Shalong Mountain.

When I encountered a narrow place, the fat man set up a horizontal pole and used the bamboo pole with me to support the stones at the bottom of the water to balance the raft. A small bamboo row zigzags drift in the hole, but unfortunately it is pitch black all around, you can't see the distance without turning on the searchlight, there is no beautiful scenery, otherwise you can really roar two mountain songs.

Unlike the hot and humid weather outside the mountain, the deeper you go down the mountain, the more you feel the cool breeze hit. From time to time, you can see swarms of phosphorus fire flickering in the distance, indicating that there are animal corpses, and it seems that this is not a lifeless world.

Sitting on the raft, I could feel some water snakes and some small fish swimming, and I put my hand into the water to try it, but the water here was even a little biting cold. In Yunnan, where the four seasons are the same, such an icy water temperature is really rare, and perhaps there is snow water flowing directly down from the top of this Shalong Mountain, which is why the temperature here is very low.

Shirley Yang said that it is not because of the snow and ice, because the temperature difference between the cave and the outside is relatively large, and the human body will have the illusion that it will not feel so cold after adapting. In addition, there are no traces of artificial construction and excavation in the caves, and they seem to have been completely natural.

As he spoke, the speed of the water changed, and suddenly it was much faster than before. As a result, we all started to get nervous, and Y Yang picked up the short pole and barely managed to maintain balance with us. The river is more tortuous than before, with big turns from time to time.

I couldn't spare my hand to turn on and off the searchlight, so I had to leave it on, and I couldn't think of it, and I could see it clearly in the distance. The unimaginable scenery in the depths of the cavern, coupled with the fact that the beams of the bright searchlight swept by, and the jagged stalactites only flashed and disappeared into the darkness, which made us feel like we were entering a strange and dreamlike labyrinth.

Although some of the strange stones are only glanced at at at a moment, they leave a deep impression on people. Some are like Guanyin Bodhisattva, some are like sleeping children, some are like leisurely cranes, and some are like beasts with hideous and fierce faces. Nature's miracles are innumerable in this cave. These unique sights would never have been seen by the world without the use of a searchlight that illuminated them at a great distance. Countless magical scenes pass by in front of you, dizzying, and this wonderland is shockingly beautiful.

Suddenly, the river widened, and several thinner tributaries joined it, and the speed of the water slowed down, and the searchlight in front of it did not shake as much as it had just been.

I saw that under the illumination of the light, the cave walls on both sides of the front were full of rows of naturally smooth dissolved rock trapezoidal fields, which were stacked like waves of the sea, and it really looked like a solidified silver ocean. A huge vermilion natural stone bead hung upside down in the middle of the river, and behind the stone bead, the river water flowed into the mouth of a huge beast's head. The huge stone beast was like a tiger and a lion, as if it was opening its mouth of blood and roaring wildly, revealing a mouth full of sharp fangs, trying to swallow the stone bead, and time was frozen at this moment, its posture was fixed, I am afraid it has been maintained here for tens of thousands of years.

The river passed through its mouth, and we were facing a gate to hell, and we couldn't help but beat faster and breathe heavier, and hold the bamboo pole that held the balance in our hands a little tighter.

Why haven't I heard the proprietress of Caiyun Inn mention it in such an obvious place, could it be that the river has diverted its route and forked in the road. And through the light pillar of the strong searchlight, you can see countless ancient figurines hanging behind the beast gate, that is, when you take a long-distance bus, you can see the kind that is crushed by the car, and the stone shell is full of maggots.

The three people on the bamboo raft looked at each other speechlessly, I don't know what Shiryley Yang and the fat man thought when they saw such a scene, anyway, I suddenly had a very uneasy premonition. I feel that as long as we pass through here, in this dark and deep cave, our hands will touch a thick layer of fog from ancient times.