My heart was like a cow bouncing its hooves, and it almost fell out of its cavity.

Liu Fashan pulled up Lu Dachuan and asked, "What's the matter?" ”

"Something trips me up."

Liu Fashan looked at Lu Dachuan in front of him and said, "There's nothing in front, you didn't lift your feet and stumble on the steps, right?" ”

"That's not right!" Lu Dachuan put the night vision goggles on the door of his head to his eyes, "My mom! Quick, quick, turn around and run! ”

The back team changed to the front team, and we ran down about ten meters in one go. Lu Dachuan turned around and put on the night vision goggles again, looked up for a while and said, "Stop, don't run." ”

I asked curiously what happened to Lu Dachuan? Lu Dachuan handed me the night vision goggles, and when I put them on, I saw countless rootless trees of all sizes above my head, wriggling up the steps.

Fortunately, the rootless tree at the back is a small point, if it is a big guy, or Lu Dachuan reacts slowly, I am afraid it will not be as simple as being tripped up.

Seeing that the rootless tree did not notice us, it gradually drifted away, and slowly became invisible to the stone steps protruding from the mountain wall. Our hanging hearts let go, but a big question arises:

With so many demon trees going up, what is it that attracts them?

Despite our curiosity, we sat down on the steps to rest. After all, it is unrealistic to want to go beyond the front of the demon tree to see it.

In order to save power, we turned off all the lights and only folded a cold fire stick and put it on the steps to illuminate.

At this time, we had not yet walked a third of the way up, and the rootless tree in front of us was "walking" very slowly, and it seemed that we were far away to complete the rest of the journey. Lu Dachuan was worried about the kettle that was about to run out, and he couldn't help but regret that he didn't bring some water from the metal container in the Lonely Mountain Cave for backup. Water 10,000 years ago was also water, it was better than dying of thirst!

I was thinking more about the rootless trees, and after I had a basic understanding of them, the strong fear in my heart disappeared, but I still felt uneasy at the thought that if they gathered somewhere above and blocked our way out, there would inevitably be a fierce battle.

Compared to us, Lu Keqin and Lin Xian'er's state can be described as carefree. Because they have pestered me to continue telling the story of the expedition that was interrupted by the rootless tree.

Anyway, if something happened to Lu Dachuan and them, I didn't shirk it, adjusted my state and asked, "Where did we talk about just now?" ”

Lin Xian'er said: "Investigation team. ”

"Oh." I thought for a moment and then said, "At that time, the first national census was coming to an end, and the census staff in Tibetan areas reported that they had discovered an unknown ancient village, and the villagers in the village were generally not tall, with large heads and slender bodies, somewhat like legendary aliens. Originally, in accordance with the relevant provisions of the census, the method of indirect investigation was adopted to obtain data in remote areas, but it was precisely because of this unusual discovery that the departments concerned set up a special investigation team.

The mission consisted of a total of 12 members. When Yang Hongqi and the others changed their clothes and weapons, their company had already sent two other vehicles to pick up the personnel of the investigation team and their equipment. According to Yang Hongqi, he only learned about these details after entering the unknown village. At that time, after the car he was in and the two cars that received the investigation team converged on the road, Comrade Huang simply told them that their task was to protect the personal safety of the people in the three vehicles, and then divided them into three groups and arranged them in three vehicles.

Yang Hongqi sat in the car that walked at the back. There were four people in the car, all men, the youngest in his thirties, and the oldest with gray hair. The car that carried him and his comrades out of the company was headed. The personnel in the car in the middle were only seen by Yang Hongqi when they were resting halfway, in addition to the three soldiers, there were also seven members of the investigation team.

At that time, it had been almost five years since the founding of the People's Republic of China, and the situation in the whole country had been relatively stable, and even a few saboteurs did not dare to brazenly argue with the PLA, so they had nothing to do on the way from Beijing to Tibet except to endure bumps and replace the drivers. In short, after a few days and nights, they arrived at the Qinghai Military Region office. After a day of repairs, the three drivers and cars from Beijing were on standby, and the military region organs sent another car to take 10 soldiers, including Yang Hongqi, and 12 members of the investigation team to the homes of Tibetans who had discovered the ancient villages. They were also given a Tibetan warrior as an interpreter.

According to Yang Hongqi's recollections, I think the route they took was similar to ours. In other words, the ancient village they are talking about is the village at the bottom of the lake. ”

"I said in advance that Zha Wang needs a translator to talk to the investigation team, and we are telling stories now, so I won't follow what Yang Hongqi said, let a translator be caught in the middle, and let Zha Wang speak Chinese to save trouble." I explained this, and then I continued, "When we got to the lake, the Tibetan climbed down and kowtowed, stood up, and said, 'It's finally here.'" Yang Hongqi and the others looked at the empty lake and the bald mountains surrounding the lake and felt inexplicable. An old professor surnamed Wang in the investigation team asked: 'Where are you there?' The Tibetan smiled mysteriously: 'O village! ''Where?'' Why don't I see anything? The crowd turned their heads and looked around. The Tibetans pointed to the calm, sapphire water of the lake and said, 'Down there.' ''Inside the lake!'? Yang Hongqi and the others screamed, their eyes wide open. The Tibetans looked at them and nodded solemnly. Comrade Huang's thirsty fish-like mouth opened several times before he spoke: 'You're joking with us! How can a village be inside a lake? I didn't believe it when I found it, but it was at the bottom of the lake and the entrance was on the mountain. The Tibetans left a sentence and walked along the lake to the mountain peak on the left.

Although the 12 members of the team did not believe that there were villages and people living at the bottom of the lake, after a brief discussion, they decided to follow along. Yang Hongqi and his comrades-in-arms are tasked with protecting the security of the investigation team and have no say in the question of where to go. After the investigation team made a decision, they held steel guns in their hands, watched and listened to all directions, surrounded Professor Wang, Comrade Huang, and others in the center, and caught up with the Tibetans who were striding forward and walked towards the root of the mountain.

The Tibetans led the team up to the sinkhole halfway up the mountain, pointed to it and said, 'The entrance to the bottom of the lake is in this hole.' Professor Wang thought that there was a huge group of karst caves under the sinkhole, so he knocked down a few pieces of debris on the rocks with a trekking hammer in his hand, took them in his hand, and frowned, and said, "The stones on this mountain are not limestone, how can there be a group of karst caves in the mountain!?" The Tibetans did not understand what the professor meant, and asked, 'What is a group of caves?' The professor explained to him for a long time, but when he understood it, he said, "It's not a group of caves, it's a cave dug by hand." ’

They were stunned to hear the words of the Tibetans. The Tibetans explained: 'The caves in this mountain are not only hand-dug but also cemeteries in villages at the bottom of the lake. If I'm not mistaken, this large vertical hole is what they use to allow the souls of the dead to ascend to heaven. The professor's brow furrowed even tighter: "Soul ascends!" How do they bury themselves in the cave? Seeing that Professor Wang had misunderstood what he meant, the Tibetans remembered that they were in a hurry after the meeting, and that the journey was not smooth, and before they could tell them how they had found the village, they roughly told them about it: I was grazing a calf that was lost, and when I was looking for the calf, I accidentally found this lake, and later found such a big pit on the mountain, and I was very curious, so I looked forward to the pit wall and walked down. In the end, I looked at the inside quite big, and there was a pile of stones piled up on the ground not far away, and at first glance I thought it was Nima, and I had an indescribable shock in my heart, and then I looked carefully through the bright light shining in from the outside, and found that it was not, and I couldn't help but be more curious.

Who has nothing to do with so many piles of rocks here? I thought about going around, and seeing that there was nothing but the pile of stones, and thinking about the lost calf, I thought about getting out quickly. Who would have thought that just as I was about to climb out, there was a 'click' sound from the cave, and I leaned on the cave wall to listen carefully, and faintly heard the sound of chaotic footsteps.

There is no one living nearby, how can there be footsteps in the cave? My heart was going to stop.

Frightened, but unable to resist my curiosity, I went back to the cave, discerned the direction from which the sound was coming from, and tiptoed forward. The further I went, the more surprised I became, the cave was bigger than I had imagined. After walking about twenty meters, a staircase descending appeared next to a large stone pile. I stopped and listened carefully, and the voice was coming from below. Seeing that the inside of the corridor of the stairs was much darker than the outside, I pulled out the hidden knife in my waist and held it in my hand to give myself courage, and held on to the wall to walk deeper into the corridor step by step. The black hole didn't know how far it had gone, and the road turned in vain, and a faint light appeared at the end.

Seeing the bright light, I became much bolder, and I couldn't help but speed up my pace, and soon walked to the exit. Due to the uncertainty of the situation, I did not dare to go out and poke out half of my head to look longingly:

Like above, there is a rather large hole underneath, and the ground is littered with piles of stones. In a small open space seven or eight meters to the right of the entrance of the cave, five or six people were piling stones on a rectangular object, and behind them there were several people carrying baskets back and forth to bring them stones from a distance.

I was stunned to see what these people looked like. Not only are they not tall, but their head and body are severely out of proportion. On their heads, which were surprisingly large compared to their bodies, two triangular ears were particularly long, a broad forehead, a thin chin, and two toad-like bulging eyes on their faces were almost crowded together, and the garlic-like nose and mouth below were strangely far away. ”

Lu Keqin interrupted me and said, "Are the people in the village you see so ugly? How come I haven't heard you say that. ”

I thought back to the appearance of the little people we saw: "I don't think so, I guess he saw the uglier ones in the village!" ”

Lu Keqin gave me a blank look, obviously not believing my far-fetched explanation.

I didn't see it and continued: "I stared blankly at these monster-like people that I never dreamed of, and my mind didn't go around until they had piled up the pile of stones and walked into the distance, and followed them from a distance through a pile of stones, and into a tunnel that went diagonally downward......

At the end of the tunnel is their village. As for the magic of the village, you will see it when you go in, so I won't say much more.

Coming out of the village, I wondered what they had hidden under the rocks, and found the pile of stones they had piled up not long ago, and when I opened it and saw that it was a corpse, I realized that the cave below was their graveyard.

So I guess that this big hole that soars to the sky was specially dug by them to allow the souls of the deceased to ascend to heaven.

After listening to Zawang's story, the professor thought for a moment and said, 'Maybe it's their vents.' The Tibetans' heads shook like rattles: 'Not at all.' When the professor asked the Tibetans why they were so sure, Zhawang smiled mysteriously and said, "You'll know when you go in a moment." ’”

The Tibetan told me how the village was discovered, and the team heard that it didn't look like it was made up, so they dispelled their worries and couldn't wait to go into the cave to see what was going on. Professor Wang pointed to the entrance of the cave and said, 'Prepare the rope and get down.' ’

The rope was bolted, Yang Hongqi and the others went to investigate first, and sure enough, as the Tibetans said, they let the personnel of the investigation team in.

After all the personnel entered the cave, Professor Wang looked around, called Comrade Huang aside and talked in a low voice for a while, and divided the team into two groups, the reason was that the more than 20 people entered the village with a bit of momentum, so it was better to divide them into two groups, one group went first to find out the reality, and one group waited outside, in case something happened, there would be a response.

Yang Hongqi was lucky to be assigned to the group that entered the village, along with his five comrades-in-arms, and the investigation team had four people, including Professor Wang, plus Zha Wang, who led the way, a total of eleven people. The rest of the people followed Comrade Huang to answer outside. The arrangement was made, and the two groups broke up at the tunnel entrance......"

As I was spitting as I spoke, Lu Dachuan suddenly turned on the flashlight.

We were all immersed in the story, startled by the bright light that suddenly pierced into our eyes, and looked at Lu Dachuan blankly one by one.

Lu Dachuan leaned over and climbed on the edge of the steps, looked at the bottom of the deep cave and said, "I feel that something is wrong down there." ”