Stern had always thought that after crossing the moat and climbing over the walls, they would reach the end of their expedition, a large ruin like Angkor Thom. www.biquge.info But now the rainforest in front of me stretches for at least a few kilometers wide, and there are no ancient ruins to be seen except for the ancient city wall.

Stern looked down with a telescope to make sure that there was no other tree than the tree, and then said to the professor, "Professor... And where is the city of the king of the gods, of which you speak? I think it's a big rainforest, could it be that the Khmers planted a large area of trees behind this wall for us to investigate? ”

"It's normal that Angkor Temple was not used by Henry. Mouão had also been buried in a dense forest before discovering it. ”

"But as far as I know, he accidentally found Angkor Temple by catching a few butterfly specimens. Now the point is that we have come for a temple recorded in the inscription, and this temple has not been seen at all. ”

"We're going to go through this rainforest first! Reach the upper reaches of this river to reach the city of reincarnation. The professor replied in the affirmative.

"What! Do you know what it means to travel through this pristine rainforest? This is not the same environment as the jungle three days ago! "Indeed, the first three days of their journey up the bank outside the city walls to the outside of the moat had been quite smooth, for there was no need to worry about the dense bushes blocking their way because of the large drop in that section of the river, and the many rocky beaches on the banks.

However, I don't know if this scene was intentional on the part of the Brahmin who built the city of reincarnation, and the section of the city wall was blocked by the strong city wall, and the river bank was significantly widened, so that many low-lying areas became swamps. As a result, the dense shore vegetation took up every inch of the riverbank, and there was no way out, as they had already experienced when they climbed over the walls yesterday.

Stern pointed to a large patch of green on the riverbank and said, "It's the rainy season, and the banks here are swamps, so you can't walk at all!" We don't have a water vehicle to go up the river from the waterway, and even if we have to use an assault boat to see the speed of the current! ”

In fact, when Stern asked this sentence, he was already thinking about persuading the professor to turn back, after all, the environment was not as good as he imagined, and now that the professor had collected some useful information and found this place, it was best to go back and make a comprehensive investigation next time when he was well prepared. And Stern had his own reasons for doing so, which had to do with the nightmare he had this morning from last night's conversation about that unexplained Sanskrit. He had a vague sense of fear at the contents of the nightmare, and always felt that there would be some danger along the way.

"No, we can actually walk from the rainforest, it's not too early, let's go." As if he had found his way, the professor went deep into the rainforest farther away from the riverbank.

"What do you mean? The strength of the five of us to drill into this primeval rainforest, teach you crazy? Rainforests are much more dangerous than swamps, and it's easy to get lost! ”

Stern hadn't expected the professor to offer to cross through the rainforest, considering that even if he was with a team of special forces, he would have to think twice about crossing the pristine rainforest. What's more, there is an expedition team in front of him without any expertise to speak of, except that he and Kansa may have some experience and physical strength, but he himself has already injured his leg, and if he encounters some danger in the dense jungle, he will not be able to protect himself.

However, the professor said to Stern in a very determined tone: "Anne and I have carefully studied the contents of the reliefs of the walls last night, and I am pretty sure that this rainforest is not as difficult to pass through as we thought, and the reliefs of the walls have shown us a clear path!" ”

Stern looked at the professor first and then at Anne with a look that he did not expect, as if waiting for the rational lady's answer.

Anne saw through his thoughts, quietly took out one of the relief sketches from the notebook in the waterproof bag, and told him as she walked: "Sergeant, here's the thing, during the period after your rest last night, the professor and I studied several key discoveries about Samsara City on these reliefs. Among them is that there may be an ancient path built by Brahmins in this primeval forest. ”

Downey regretted not being involved in these crucial discoveries last night, and before Anne could finish speaking, he began to ask, "What did you discover last night?" Is it possible to bypass swamps and jungles directly? ”

"So what? Are you saying there's a path in this forest that leads to the city of reincarnation? Stern asked Anne in a tone of disbelief.

The professor was obviously a little impatient on the side, and suggested that he follow along and explain again, trying to get through the primeval forest before it gets dark. So everyone could only follow the professor step by step through the bushes and vines in front of them, while listening to Anne.

Anne briefly said according to the results of the discussion with the professor last night: "We combined the relief paintings of the ancient city wall last night, and guessed that the ancient Brahmins built a 'reincarnation city of the king of the gods' very early in the upper reaches of this river, and they also built a magnificent temple in order to do some mysterious rituals, that is, the temple engraved on the relief. Let's call it the Temple of Reincarnation for the time being. ”

"What does that have to do with the easier way you said?"

Anne ignored Stern's interjection and continued: "We deduce that these brahmins may have traveled along the river during the time they built the temple of reincarnation, but after they built the temple of reincarnation, they changed the original geographical environment of this place in order to isolate it from the outside environment. As we see now, it may be that outsiders who are not Brahmans are forbidden to enter. However, in order to facilitate the annual reincarnation temple and then perform the rituals, the brahmin in the back probably opened a road in the rainforest to the main building of the reincarnation city. ”

"Wouldn't it be nice if they just took the waterway? How can a road be carved out of the rainforest, and how can this achieve the effect of prohibiting outsiders from entering? Doesn't that contradict itself? Stern listened to Anne's analysis and asked a barrage of questions.

Instead of being asked, Anne responded affirmatively to Stern's question: "It is not for this reason that this ancient road has been built so secretively that it is impossible for ordinary outsiders to find it except for these Brahmans." It's the same as the ancient pirates who plundered a lot of treasure at sea sometimes found an island to hide it and make a mark that only they could understand, so that the next time they came to collect it, they could know the specific location of the treasure. As for why they built this ancient road, we don't have a relatively definite conclusion yet. ”

"And how did you discover this ancient path?"

"We preliminarily deduced the existence of this ancient road on the Sanskrit text of the stone lion statue, and then when discussing the relief carved with the 'human-shaped tree', the professor remembered that he had missed some details in the process of painting, so we went back to the city wall and looked at it carefully, and it turned out that in front of the 'human-shaped tree' we found an oval relief carved with a strange symbol, which was almost connected to the tree. You must know that the craftsmen who make the relief carving will definitely not carve an extra humanoid tree and symbol on the relief for no reason, then the reason why they do this may be because the place really exists, and there is a certain symbolic meaning in it. Therefore, we unanimously agreed that this is the mark of the ancient road, and if you find it, you can find the ancient road through the rainforest. ”

"But even if we have found this so-called ancient road, as you said, the ancient Khmer people built this place with anti-theft in mind, so that road may also set up unpredictable barriers to prevent people from entering at will! So Professor, I think we can think about coming back next time to do a further investigation. Stern had no intention of giving up, and continued to tentatively persuade the professor to change his plans to move on.

"No, the time left for me... Not much! With his left hand, the professor severed a vine in front of him, and said the words with certainty.

Stern paused when he heard this, and wondered why there was not much time left for the professor, could he ......

Anne, who was a little ahead of him, carefully chopped off some thorns on the ground, helped Stern's arm, reminded him to watch his feet, and explained to him that in the past few months, he had received news that the coup movement in the country was getting bigger and bigger, and that the current Phnom Penh government could collapse at any time, and that the domestic agency in Phnom Penh had informed the professor to evacuate the country as soon as possible to avoid being affected.

I see, Stern smiled bitterly, thinking that it seemed that it was impossible to persuade the stubborn scientist in front of him to change his mind, and he could only take one step at a time.

Just when they were still working hard to open the way, Kansa, who had been walking in front of the road with the professor, suddenly knelt down when he was approaching a dense forest, muttered some words that he couldn't understand, and then fell to the ground and couldn't get up......