XVIII. The City Gate

The three of them floated in the water, looking at the cliffs on both sides, there was obviously a sense of depression coming to their faces, although they had been to the Three Gorges and there were such cliffs, but after all, it was daytime, and the mountains on both sides were lush, and the river was much wider than this, now there was nothing on these two sides except for the straight stone cliffs, and they couldn't see anything except the three pillars of light in the darkness when they shone up with a flashlight, and the three of them felt that the cliffs on both sides were pressed straight down in the not wide water. Pen, fun, and www.biquge.info

Su Xiaoxiao has been swimming for so long, and his physical strength has obviously begun to run out, Zhou Zheng also feels a little struggling, Qin Lai is fine, but now that he looks at both sides, he doesn't know which way to go.

Zhou Zheng asked Qin Laidao: "Haven't you been here before, what should you do now?" ”

Qin Lai said: "The last time I came, it should be right that this river was there, but I didn't swim far, didn't I rush back to save you." ”

"It's not going to be the same as the ice room again, is it?" Zhou Zheng said depressedly.

"What ice room?" Su Xiaoxiao's physical strength is exhausted, and his ears are very bright.

"It's nothing, the escape room game I played before," Su Xiaoxiao didn't believe it, but now seeing that the two of them refused to say anything, they couldn't do anything, so they could only glare at Zhou Zheng, Zhou Zheng turned his head and pretended not to see it and asked Qin Lai, "Then what now?" ”

"Let's swim along the river."

The three of them had no choice but to swim forward slowly, and after swimming for a while, Su Xiaoxiao couldn't swim anymore and began to sink, Zhou Zheng hurriedly went up and took the gas tank on her back, so that she could barely continue to swim forward. The three of them swam for a quarter of an hour, but it was still dark as far as the torch post could reach, and they couldn't see how far it was. Looking back at the bottomless at both ends, Su Xiaoxiao kept swimming for a while and then sank, if it wasn't for Qin Lai and Zhou Zheng, she would have sunk a long time ago, but Xiao Nizi's mouth was very hard, and she didn't shout tired or shouting. Zhou Zheng saw that this was not a way, so he could only take Su Xiaoxiao to the side, wanting to see if there was anything on the stone wall where he could settle down or borrow strength to stop and rest, and when he arrived at the side, he was dumbfounded, the stone wall by the river was extremely smooth, and there was no place to borrow at all, I don't know if it was caused by the erosion of the flowing water for many years or it was specially built at the beginning. Zhou Zheng had no choice but to beckon Qin Lai and Su Xiaoxiao to put on the masks, and the three of them simply dived to the bottom of the water and held the stone underwater to rest. Luckily, the water isn't deep, so it's easier than swimming all the time, and the water is so clear that the diving lights shine directly out of the water. The three of them used diving lamps to shine everywhere in the water, except that the water was very clear, beyond the range of the flashlight, it was pitch black, there were no impurities in the water, no fish and no aquatic plants. After resting for about ten minutes, the three of them surfaced, took off their masks, and continued to swim forward.

The three of them swam for a while and then sank down to rest for a while, repeating a few times and not knowing how long they swam, and when they poked their heads out again, a sharp shout suddenly broke through the air, which sounded particularly harsh, as if the shouts of the two microphones together came out through a high-power speaker, which stabbed the heads of the three people and tingled their eardrums. Quickly raised the flashlight and looked up, a dark shadow flashed above them, and in a blink of an eye, it disappeared into the darkness overhead. The three of them were so frightened that they hurriedly shone their flashlights everywhere, but they could not find them anywhere. But the shrill sound came from above, as if it was hovering above their heads. The three of them looked at each other, Qin Lai and Zhou Zheng were quite calm, Qin Lai was bold, not to mention that he was still holding a sword in his hand, Zhou Zheng had seen the world in the cave, this situation was not so frightening, Su Xiaoxiao was different, he was already tired and a little pale, but now he looked more and more pale under the light. Zhou Zheng hurried up and comforted: "Master, don't be afraid, it's just a small skill of carving insects, we are here." Su Xiaoxiao turned her head to look at Zhou Zheng, nodded very seriously and said, "Well, I'm not afraid, you haven't paid me back yet." Zhou Zheng didn't spurt out a mouthful of old blood when he heard it.

The three of them listened to the sound and kept hovering overhead, so they could only hurry up and swim forward. Not long after, they felt a piercing cry from behind the air again, and the three of them involuntarily shrank their necks, and the flashlight shone upward, this time they could see more clearly, and a black shadow with wings dragged its long tail and flew overhead, submerging into the darkness overhead. The flashlight shines upward, it turns out that there is a retracted suspension bridge on the cliff wall on one side of the cliff more than ten meters high, there seems to be a gate behind the suspension bridge, and a big cave appears on the opposite cliff wall, the suspension bridge is put down just enough to cross the river, but because it is too far to see the details, you can only see the outline clearly, the suspension bridge is about ten meters wide, the length is slightly longer than the river surface, the logs are tied by iron chains one by one, and two arm-thick iron chains stretch out from the stone wall above the gate to pull the upper end of the suspension bridge, Pull the suspension bridge into an almost 90-degree erection position. The cave on the opposite side is five or six meters wider than the suspension bridge, more than ten meters high, and the upper end is semicircular, which is similar to the shape of the gate behind the suspension bridge, but it is a little wider than the gate. Look at the black shadow that flew by just now, it was stopping on the suspension bridge and screaming vigorously. Zhou Zheng immediately understood that this was originally a moat. But whose moat is built underground, and the cliffs on both sides are enough, why do you have to dig such a river out, what a big project? These thoughts flashed through my mind, and what matters now is how to go up, and it is not too late to discuss it in detail.

The three of them were a little irritated by the screams, but people could fly, and they couldn't do anything about it. Su Xiaoxiao asked, "What should we do now, from which side?" ”

Zhou Zheng said: "Have you ever seen a drawbridge placed opposite the city wall? ”

Su Xiaoxiao didn't react for a moment, looked at Zhou Zheng and asked, "What do you mean?" ”

Qin Lai pointed to the side of the drawbridge and said, "Let's go up here." ”

Su Xiaoxiao reacted at this time, glared at Zhou Zheng and said, "Dare to talk back to the master, I don't want to eat dinner." ”

Zhou Zheng patted his backpack and held his head high, looking arrogant, meaning that the food is in my bag, and your dinner is here.

Su Xiaoxiao's hands slapped the water directly, and the snapping sound caused the strange bird to scream again. Zhou Zheng was afraid that the bird would really be anxious to make a dive, so he hurriedly said: "Master, don't be angry, don't be angry, I'm joking with you." Su Xiaoxiao just gave up.

Qin Lai looked at the two living treasures helplessly, took out the rope from his backpack, tied the flashlight to one end, grabbed the rope and waved it twice in his hand, and as soon as he let go, the light pillar of the flashlight flew straight to the suspension bridge in a circle in the dark, until he flew to the top of the suspension bridge and pulled the iron chain of the suspension bridge and turned a few times, and wrapped the rope around the iron chain. Qin Lai pulled the rope a few times, and after pulling it tight, he said to Zhou Zheng and Su Xiaoxiao: "I'll go up first, and then I'll pull you up later." Before he finished speaking, he heard a pop, and the flashlight fell directly to the bottom of the water with a rope, and when he looked up, the strange bird was standing on the chain that had been around the rope and screaming. Needless to say, it must have done a good job. Qin Lai pulled the rope up, pulled the flashlight out of the water, went around to the other side and threw the rope up, just tightened, the strange bird went up and pecked the torch and the rope off with two long beaks, stood on it and continued to scream, this scream will be a little ridiculous in the ears of the three people. So angry that Su Xiaoxiao pulled out Qin Lai's bronze sword and waved it at the strange bird, but he didn't expect the strange bird to see Su Xiaoxiao swinging the sword at it, and he actually shrank back and jumped away from the chain, screaming even higher. Qin came to see it, and asked Su Xiaoxiao to continue to wave the bronze sword at the strange bird, and he threw the rope up again, this time the strange bird did not immediately peck the rope away, but stared at Su Xiaoxiao's bronze sword monster, as if he was bluffed. Qin Lai hurriedly climbed up quickly along the rope and stood directly between the drawbridge and the gate inside. The strange bird stood on the top of the suspension bridge, staring at Su Xiaoxiao for a while, staring at Qin Lai for a while, and continuing to scream. Zhou Zheng hurriedly asked Su Xiaoxiao to grab the rope and climb up first. Su Xiaoxiao grabbed the rope and said that it was climbing, but in fact, Qin Lai pulled it up, and followed Zhou Zheng to climb up smoothly.

The three of them took off their wetsuits and equipment, and felt a lot more relaxed. Standing between the suspension bridge and the gate, I realized that the suspension bridge was more imposing than it looked below. The logs were the size of a man tied together by thick iron chains, which were rusty and mottled, but apparently large enough to support the weight of the logs. Behind the drawbridge were two stone gates, I don't know how thick, but they looked obviously heavy, and the three of them stood in the doorway to make the gate even more grandiose and heavy. The two gates are made of two single stones, and there are no copper nails decorated on the city gates, and some patterns are carved on the stone gates, which are some birds and beasts, but there are two kinds of three people who know each other, one is the dragon, and the other is the animal that Qin Lai's feet imprinted-the green harrier. There was a protrusion in the middle of the gate five or six meters high, and when the flashlight shone on it, it felt like a large lock locking the two stone doors.

Zhou Zhengdao: "I've seen a lot of city gates, but I really haven't seen the city gates locked from the outside." ”

Qin Lai and Su Xiaoxiao nodded in agreement, and the three of them tried to push the stone door, but there was no movement at all, only the scream of the strange bird as if laughing at them. Angry that Su Xiaoxiao was about to swing his sword at him again, Qin Lai hurriedly said forget it, don't really mess with him, it's not good, Su Xiaoxiao could only hold down his breath and waved his fist at the strange bird.

Zhou Zheng looked up at the strange bird, now because it is closer, he can see a lot more clearly, the strange bird has a long beak, the head is a bit like a chicken head, there are two long sharp horns on the head, which grow out from above the eyes and extend back, under the illumination of the light, the blood-red eyes are staring at them, the screaming mouth is open, the mouth is bright red, I don't know if it is the tongue or the palate, fortunately I don't see the teeth, which obviously makes Zhou Zheng breathe a sigh of relief, he always thinks that the toothless at least than the toothless attack is less likely than the toothless. It may be the answer to Su Xiaoxiao's waving fist, the strange bird stood up and waved its wings twice, and Zhou Zheng found out that it was actually the same for them whether he had teeth or not, because the strange bird that stood up was obviously much taller than Zhou Zheng, and the two wings were the same as the bat's wings, growing from the forelimbs to the hind legs that stood up, and the edges of the wings and the bones in the middle exposed long pointed heads. The retreat is thick and powerful, with eagle-like claws. The body is elongated, looking like a large snake with chicken head wings and eagle legs, and its tail is twice as long as its body dragged behind it, and its body is covered with scales. Zhou Zheng took a breath after reading it, thinking that it was lucky that it would scream and did not attack them, otherwise where would they be able to get up. But it always felt like the scream was sending some kind of notice or some other intention. I always felt a little wrong in my heart. After talking about their feelings with Su Xiaoxiao and Qin, the two also nodded in agreement, reminding each other to pay special attention next.