Seeing the golden object, I was also a little excited, and hurriedly shouted at Lao Yang and Uncle Ma to let them look forward. I saw that under the light of the flashlight, a golden light faintly revealed in the dense fog ahead, in the shape of a strip in the crack cave, that kind of gold made us involuntarily think of the treasure of the restoration of the country, reminiscent of boxes of heavy gold bars and large gold bricks.

Lao Yang and Uncle Ma hurriedly sped up the movements in their hands, and the small box of silver dollars scattered on the ground was quickly pocketed by them, and Uncle Ma also deliberately kept a piece and stuffed it into his mouth and bit it hard with his teeth, and he was relieved to see the row of tooth marks left on the silver dollar, and smirked at Lao Yang.

"Now we're going to get rich!" Uncle Ma couldn't help but be excited, for Uncle Ma, even if the silver dollars were divided equally, he could also get more than 100,000 silver dollars, which was obviously a lot of money for Uncle Ma, who guarded the forest farm and farmed for a living, at least he didn't have to worry about the child's tuition anymore.

After they had cleaned up, we finally focused all our attention on the golden light in front of us, we all thought that it was definitely the gold bar left behind by the treasure collector back then, otherwise how could it emit a hazy golden light? Moreover, the treasure hunters must have had a disagreement in the cave, and even killed each other, and the survivors tried to escape from the cave with a part of the treasure. After all, in this dark underworld, no amount of wealth has any real value. Thinking like this, we took an inexplicable step forward excitedly, but just after walking out of the distance of four or five meters, I don't know why, the hazy long golden light suddenly squirmed. We were startled, and for a moment we froze in place, and even though it was extremely hot, we could clearly feel a cool air coming from our backs.

"What is this?" Uncle Ma trembled and spit out, revealing a look of disbelief, "How can it move?" ”

After Uncle Ma finished speaking, he cast an inquiring glance at me and Lao Yang, but we were also frightened when we saw the wriggling golden light, and we didn't know why it moved. Is it because as we move, the reflection of that mass of things changes, so that it creates the illusion that it moves? However, the long strip of golden light only squirmed slightly, and then stopped, as if observing us through the hazy mist.

Several of us looked at each other for about two minutes, and when we saw that the mass did not move again, we finally gained the courage to continue moving in that direction. But as soon as we took two steps, the mass of things squirmed forward again, and the position of the "head" suddenly rose in the air, and then stood in mid-air to "watch" for a while, and then, this long strip of golden light actually squirmed forward like a giant snake, and the speed was amazing!

"It's a big snake!"

Uncle Ma pointed to the fading golden light and said in a trembling voice.

I saw that the golden light wriggling on the ground really looked like a snake-like creature. But if it's a snake, it's too big, and from the outside, it's at least nearly 10 meters long, thicker than an ordinary person's thigh, how can this kind of monster live in a cave, and it's not afraid of these high-temperature mist like sweat?

"What breed of snake is this? How is it golden? Lao Yang asked in horror on the side.

"I guess it's a golden python," I said, "I've seen one at the zoo, but it's not that big, it's only five or six meters, and it's a species imported from Burma." This snake is an albino variant of the Burmese python, the number is very rare, only Laos, Myanmar and other places in the world are very rarely distributed, because the body is covered with golden markings, also known as the golden python, there is no official proof of the existence of this python in China, but it is said that in the deep mountains and dense forests on the border of Yunnan, some people have seen the golden python shuttling in the bushes. ”

Lao Yang listened to my explanation, nodded as if he had a realization, and said, "Since this is the case, then how can we have this kind of python here?" I've never heard an adult say it when I was a kid. ”

I thought about it for a while and said, "I once heard my dad say that in the mountains and forests near our hometown, the people who built the iron tower in the early years had seen blue-black pythons in the mountains. Also, creatures that live in caves for a long time are more likely to have albino mutations, which is probably why we happen to encounter this golden python in the cave! ”

When Uncle Ma heard me say this, he couldn't help but interject: "The young man said it well, when I was young when I was catching snakes in the mountains, I happened to see a small python once, although it was a young snake, but the body length has reached about 4 meters, and it is the thickness of an adult's arm, and it is covered with black and white markings." I was young and vigorous, trying to catch it, but it suddenly burst out and entangled me, I struggled for a long time to get out, fortunately it was only a young snake, if it was an adult female snake, the power could easily strangle my bones! ”

"But we're outnumbered," I said, "and it can't help us." ”

As soon as my voice fell, a short strange laugh suddenly came out of Yang Xue's mouth, I was stunned, and hurriedly glanced at Yang Xue, and found that she struggled to squeeze out a smile, and said to us weakly: "I really can't help but want to laugh when I hear your conversation!" It's really funny that you didn't see what it was, so you just speculated and discussed it here for a long time, why did you say that the thing just now was a snake and not something else? ”

"What could it be?" I saw that Yang Xue was not possessed by a ghost, so I was immediately relieved and asked her.

Yang Xue said weakly: "Could it be the kind of monster from hell that Uncle Ma said?" ”

"How is that possible!" Uncle Ma immediately retorted, "That kind of monster is fiery red all over, how can it be golden?" And they can fly! ”

Yang Xue smiled and said nothing, pondered for a moment, and speculated: "Didn't you say that no one has seen that kind of demon from hell with their own eyes? That's right, no one has seen it with their own eyes, it's all speculation, and naturally it will be exaggerated. And, did you know that the color of volcanic magma is golden from afar, red up close, and black when cooled? Perhaps, the color of that monster has changed due to the different viewing angles of humans! ”

Yang Xue said it clearly, which sounded very convincing, but it was just her inference. As for what the golden thing was, I was more inclined to judge that it was a golden python, because in terms of its shape and movement, it was very similar to a snake, not like a flying animal.

We delayed for a while, and after a few people were calm, we continued to move along the crack. However, for the sake of safety, we all took out the weapons we could put out, and we were ready to fight a rushing python at any time. Since the discovery of that small box of silver dollars, Lao Yang has not mentioned anything downstream, it seems that the power of money is more effective than our persuasion, and in any case, we are quite happy to be able to pick up a box of silver dollars in the crack of the mountain.

"Tell me," I began to talk to them as I walked to break the oppressive boredom, "why did the man who escaped from the depths of the cave bring with him only such a small box of silver dollars, and not a box of gold bars or some other more valuable treasure?" ”

"Maybe it's because of a momentary panic," Lao Yang guessed randomly, "Imagine that the white bone must have encountered some life-threatening danger before his death, so he was hungry in a panic, grabbed a box and ran out for his life." ”

"I also agree with this possibility," I echoed, "that group led by Daoist Zhang back then may have really encountered something unexpected on the way to transport the treasure, and it is very likely that they encountered the invasion of mountain ghosts or something, causing the result of destruction." But then again, even if they didn't encounter the attack of the mountain ghosts, that Daoist Zhang was not prepared to leave any alive, and after they buried the treasure, they still couldn't escape death. ”

"yes, boy!" Uncle Ma couldn't help but say, "The Daoist Zhang you said is really ruthless, and I don't know if anyone escaped from this demon cave alive in the end, and went out with a box of treasures, wasn't it an overnight rich?" But we've made a lot of gains now, and we haven't made a trip in vain. ”

We chatted for a while, gradually forgetting the hardships of the journey and the hot air, and climbed up for about half an hour, and the smell of sulfur in the air gradually faded. It seems that we have bypassed the center of the heat source for the time being and come to the other side of the mountain, however, unfortunately we still have not found any way out.

Everyone's mental state is not very good, the long-term heat wave makes our body lose water rapidly, we have little drinking water left, and there is no supplementary water source for the time being, and the mood is inevitably a little irritable. We rested in a slightly flat place, Lao Yang and Uncle Ma ate some compressed biscuits, while I broke the biscuits as much as possible and fed them to Yang Xue little by little. After a long journey through the dense fog, Yang Xue's complexion was a little better, looking at her appearance, her face actually regained some ruddyness, which was probably caused by the mist with the smell of sulfur.

"Eat more"

I observed the surrounding environment while feeding Yang Xue, always paying attention, but at this time, the golden object appeared not far in front of me, and this time, because there was no fog, I could see it more clearly. At first, I thought I was wrong, so I blinked my eyes a few times, and then I looked at it with bated breath, and the golden thing was lying quietly on a stone shelf more than 20 meters away, looking back at us with a pair of red eyes in a daze, as if in thought.

"Look," I lowered my voice and beckoned Uncle Ma and Lao Yang, "it appears again!" ”

Lao Yang and Uncle Ma stopped eating, and according to the direction I pointed out, their eyesight was better than mine, and they could see more clearly. When they looked at it for a while, I hurriedly asked them what they saw, what the golden thing was, how it turned and squirmed away when we tried to get closer, and when we had no intention of approaching, it crouched there quietly and observed us, which was strange, as if it were highly intelligent, and it was unsettling.

"It's a bit far," Uncle Ma muttered to himself, "but it looks quite big, thicker than an ordinary person's thigh, almost as thick as a bucket, very long, more than 10 meters!" ”

Since Lao Yang has been trapped in the cave for more than ten years, and his ability to discern in the dark environment is stronger, he stared at the golden thing intently at this moment, and after looking at it for a while, I pressed the urge to interrupt him, thinking that when he saw it clearly, he would naturally tell us. I waited in place for a few more minutes, and then Lao Yang came back to his senses and whispered to us:

"It looks like a dragon!"

All the people were stunned for a moment, if it was a snake, we could still accept it, at most a golden-scaled python, and the three of us men could still deal with it together. But if it's a dragon, how do we parry? Wait, what is a dragon? The legendary ancient Chinese python-shaped dragon? Or is it the rich dragon in Western magic?

However, it seems that the "dragon" does not have a big belly, it looks more like a python, and it should be a Chinese dragon. But how can there be dragons in this world?

"Are you sure?"

I patted Lao Yang on the shoulder, he still kept his eyes on the golden monster, staring at the other party firmly, and did not dare to relax for a moment.

"It's very similar to the golden-scaled dragon in the New Year's painting when I was a child!" Lao Yang seemed to say to himself, "I can't help but have four claws, and there are black feet and golden tentacles on top of the dragon's head!" ”

"Are you sure you read that right?" I questioned Lao Yang again, because what he said was simply unbelievable, and this is not a dragon vein, how can there be a real dragon? Moreover, Chinese know that the dragon is just a virtual creature symbolizing imperial power portrayed by the ancients imitating the giant python, and there is no record of a real dragon in various official sources, but some folklore always puts the dragon on the lips.

In response to my question, Lao Yang responded to me with a roll of his eyes and said impatiently:

"You won't see for yourself, what am I lying to you for, it is lying there, staring at us, not knowing when it will pounce on us!"

I told Lao Yang that my eyesight was not good, and I didn't know where I got the courage, probably because I was too curious about the so-called "dragon", so I gritted my teeth and took a few steps forward, trying to shorten the distance between me and it so that I could see more clearly.

Unexpectedly, as soon as I moved my steps, and walked less than three meters forward, the golden dragon-shaped creature suddenly moved vigilantly, and then before I could get close again, it squirmed very nimbly, and quickly crawled away along the crack in the mountain. To be continued.

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