"No one knows how the slope existed, when it appeared, whether it was natural or artificial, how big and how long it was, anyway, the old man, I have walked on this slope for fifty-four years, and it must be older than me."

Sean walked at the head of the group on crutches. The whole caravan followed behind the old man, and twelve men pulled four trailers and slowly walked up the slope.

"Keep up, even if it's a safe route, the slopes aren't as safe as you think."

The slope is an area full of stone walls and pillars that rise to the sky, and it is said that it is a natural huge underground space created by the erosion and diversion of ancient underground rivers. In ancient times, people called similar places karst landforms, stone forests? Karst cave? I don't remember exactly, that's what the book says.

However, in Spices, the land outside the tunnel is called Poe. There is no border in sight, there are slopes with various pillars and walls, and there are slopes that contain dangerous roads and prosperous roads.

The slope was wide and large, and although the caravan was slow in it, the view was limited by the stone pillars, but it still did not erase the fact that no Spice had managed to reach the edge of the slope so far. The only person in the town who knows the most about Poe is Sean, who has led the caravan for fifty-four years. However, even Sean didn't know what the depths of Poe looked like. After leading the first dozens of caravans to successfully open up safe trade routes, Sean has never had the experience of going deep into a slope.

"Don't look around, follow Old Man Sean." The mountain whispered to Raymond, who was curious about going out for the first time, "There is a monster in the depths of the slope that is said to suck people's souls, and if you are not careful, it will kill you." ”

"Don't tell the weird stories that deceive children, Raymond, I'm just fat, not a child." Hearing this, the fat man shrank his hand and stretched out to touch the stone wall, and then turned his face white and continued to touch it.

"The mountain is a little superstitious, but it's better to look at the road." Garcia rubbed the bulging bag on his back upwards and turned to the curious Raymond. "The slope is not bigger than home, the place here is bigger, and there are too many stone forests and stone walls, too the same, if you don't have people who have walked many times, you will be trapped in it and can't get out if you are not careful."

"You see that some of the stone walls on the forks are made ......of red stone," Garcia said, turning his head back and sighing silently, "You know, for this safe route, Spice sacrificed too many people. ”

Raymond froze, the caravan had just turned a few minutes earlier from a fork in the road, and he still had the faint marks of the red stone marks on his fingers on the stone wall of the fork in the road.

"Do you hear me, stop it." Yama slapped Raymond's fat hand on the stone wall, knocking the fat man's hand down.

"Hey, old mountain, you light." The fat man came back to his senses, retracted his fat hand, which was already a little red, put it to his mouth and blew, "You will pay for the damage." ”

"That is, what should I do if I break someone's little lady? Isn't his father-in-law missing a hand? Blair laughed and stirred up, but also deliberately guided the topic in a relaxed direction, "Raymond is much better than you kid, you see that people have a little lover when they are only sixteen years old, and you were still playing in the mud at the entrance of the town when you were sixteen." ”

"Say it like you have a wife." The mountain, in turn, mocked Blair at the same time.

"Don't make any noise, be quiet." Garcia's voice came through the bag blocking his back to the back, "You seniors who pull the cart behind can't watch the road seriously." ”

"It's really strange, the team leader is not usually this temper, how can he seem to be a different person on the road." The little fat man muttered in a low voice, but in an instant, Blair, who was also serious, hooked his shoulders and pulled him hard.

"Walk well. Gossip and wait for the camp, you look at the seniors behind. ”

Raymond turned his face to look at the team behind him, the slope at this time was a little steeper than before the turn, and it was a little laborious to drag, twelve middle-aged men in their thirties dragged the cart with their arms stretched, even Uncle Maddy, who liked to joke the most when he set up camp, had a serious expression and gritted his teeth.

All that remained of the caravan was the sound of the crowd and the dull sound of the wheels of the trailer hitting the pebbles on the ground. The hand-cranked lights installed on the trailer also shone a rickety light on the ground because of the shaking of the trailer, dragging the shadows of everyone on the front and back of the trailer.

The bell on Mr. Sean's crutch was put away the moment he left the tunnel of return, and Mr. Shaun said that it was because there were some mutated creatures in the depths of the slope that would be attracted by the ring, and the dull sound of the bell would be transmitted far away on the slope, undoubtedly erecting a lighthouse for those creatures. Strictly speaking, the bell has only two functions, one is to tell the settlement ahead that we have arrived when we are about to reach the settlement, and the other is to tell the other party the location of the caravan through the sound of the bell when a member of the caravan is missing, so that the stragglers and the trailer can successfully return to the right path. However, this method also has a certain risk of summoning mutated creatures that hear sounds when summoning party members...... Luckily, however, the large army has followed the path leader for decades, and there are only a handful of times when the second function of the bell is used.

Mr. Sean, who had replaced the bell, also fixed his portable flashlight on the brim of his hat that matched his trench coat, and at this time the flashlight was shining in front of him, and there was a bright hall between the two stone walls that were not wide.

The caravan walked slowly among its own sounds and lights.

"Someone for a favor, it's stuck." Occasionally, there are such words from the rear trailer team. Then Sean stopped, waited for the group behind to help remove the stone stuck in front of him, or break it, and then the men pulled up the trailer again and began to move, and Sean returned to his post of leading the way.

Spices is no bigger than those places, there are advanced means of transportation and advanced transportation technology, the book says that the caravans in the advanced areas travel far away by the big guys who can walk with electricity and roads paved with steel, but the most advanced means of transportation that Spice has is these painted metal trailers, and before these painted trailers, even the trailers have to be replaced several times a year, because the cars are more likely to rust and rot in the humid air. Steel-paved roads? No, there were a lot of stones, and 95 percent of the whole slope was the hard, damp and smooth surface of the stone, and the remaining 5 percent was the underground river that flowed through the cracks in the stones.

The upside-down stalactites drip a drop of clear water, creating a ripple in the puddle below.

Then the wheels of the trailer pressed over the shallow pit and splashed, leaving only the scattered surface of the water and the reflection of the distant convoy scattered on the surface of the water.

After about fifteen or sixteen minutes of walking, another fork in the road was crossed, and the caravan began to go straight, and the road began to widen, apparently after the steep slope that was more dangerous and difficult to walk, and the sound of conversation was heard again in the caravan, and from the towing caravan came the sound of boos and sighs, and the sound of wiping sweat, and the old jokes of the men who were just trying to get rid of fatigue and dullness, and which did not make much sense. Old man Sean, who led the way in front, also started chatting with Garcia, who had the deepest friendship with him among the four members of the security team.

"Garcia should have been the most in Polo."

The bottom of the old man's crutches wrapped in a leather case made a sound that spread not far from the ground, as if it was for the old man to walk as a support, but even if the old man Sean was seventy this year, the role of this crutch was more just a guide, the old man was tough, and he still walked with a tiger's wind, and he also spoke with a breath in his mouth.

"Indeed, counting this time, I have been here seven or eight times, but all of them are short trips of five or six days, and the team will drop me down when they arrive at Yingxi Town, and the Wanshui Town and Bruno Mining Area in the back have not been to either."

Garcia shrugged, "Old man, you always say I'm young. ”

"Indeed, I remember when you first followed me on the business trail when you were only twelve years old, and Hyde hadn't even left yet."

Sean's laughter was hearty and powerful, and he remembered Garcia as a hairy boy vividly.

"I remember that at that time, in order to correct your concept of me, you sent you here to experience a long journey, saying that you kid always peed on my statue in the town...... Hey, you don't remember, that old boy blew his beard and glared when he talked about this, and you kid didn't look like a weapon. ”

"I remember, I remember......" Garcia was a little embarrassed, and said that the security team he led was still walking side by side, and your old man said that this did not consider the difficulties of me leading the team in the future...... However, after all, Sean is an old-timer or a hero in the town, and he is happy, so it would be good for him to laugh as a junior. So he showed humility, "I was indeed a little stubborn when I was young......"

"Where, you see you're not very good now, I got the badge of a junior arranger three years ago, and now I'm a teacher in school more than when I was a child!"

Because of the distance, the old man's voice shook Garcia's ears a little painfully, but after all, his team members were all there, and he didn't know how to answer at this time, his modesty was not good, but he would leave an impression of pride, so he scratched his head and laughed twice in embarrassment, directly bypassing Old Man Sean's praise for himself, "No, No, Old Man Sean, you have been walking on the business road for almost four years when you were my age, and you can't compare ......."

"It's really different...... here Garcia was embarrassed, but suddenly heard the whispers of the three people behind him, Raymond whispered to Blair next to him, "You see the leader is much more humble today than when he was in Spice." ”

"That's it, seeing that he usually looks like he is in control of everything in the security team, even when the big bugs invaded a few days ago, he was indifferent......

"I feel the same way......"

Etcetera.

Garcia naturally heard the whispered conversation of the three people behind him, but because of the bad existence of Old Man Sean, he immediately turned around and twisted all six ears, so he had to silently scold the three whispering guys in his heart, thinking that he would clean you up when he got to the camp in a while, and then continued to chat with Old Man Sean with a smile.

In fact, there is nothing to talk about, just some legends about Poe and the experience of Old Man Sean walking on the slope for more than 50 years, but Garcia gradually immersed himself in the dialogue or attracted by the old man's experience over the years. There are many things to know about how to choose a fork in the road, how to identify dangerous mutated creatures from a distance, and how to identify the direction of the water flow when you get lost.

"Okay, that's all for now."

And just as Garcia was listening energetically, he suddenly found that the old man had finished talking about these topics, and then stopped, raised his throat and turned to shout back.

"Set up camp and rest!"

It turned out that the caravan had passed the first intricate and illegible fork in the road, and had reached a relatively spacious open area—an open high-roofed area, in which the stone pillars were all upside down on the ground, weathered and eroded, dragging long shadows under the light of the caravan and the old man. The area is slightly lower than the road, and there are eight forks in the road, which are connected to the fork in the road like a spider's eight legs and belly. This is the first camp on the trade route near Spice - the Spider Camp.

In the middle of the camping area, against a huge fallen stone pillar, there were several rudimentary sheds and abandoned cauldrons with electric stoves.

"Spider Camp has arrived. However, it seems to have been destroyed by the insects that came out to feed. ”

Mr. Sean saw the shed lying on the ground from a distance, gradually narrowed his eyes, and then whispered to the caravan behind him, "You wait a while, I'll take a look." ”

"I'll go, you rest." Garcia grabbed Mr. Sean, who was about to step forward.

"Think I'm old?" Sean glared at Garcia, trying to swing his hand away from his sleeve.

"How is it possible, but with a junior like me here, it won't be your turn."

Garcia gave the three people behind him a look, asked the three of them to watch the old man, don't let the old man get into danger, and rejected the idea of the three of them replacing his past.

"You're guarding the old man and the caravan here." Garcia pulled out the knife at his waist and walked towards the middle of the spider camp with a smile, "I was relieved to hear from the school teacher that none of you listened well to the biology habits class." ”

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Thank you to the reader [Hunt Yu] 588 for tipping!! The lord of the country is very happy! This is the happiest thing I found today! (Since the people who used to reward were basically acquaintances and friends, I still wondered if I didn't write well enough...... In addition, [I am Lao Shen, I am the most**] reward 588, hawkers, Lao Shen is a bargain! And all the book friends have also remembered the reward of the lord of the country! As for the sad brother and myself...... I won't be grateful.

In addition, the lord of the country is happy that he accidentally found that "Underground Country" is on the list of new authors' new books! It's currently in the middle of the list.,Hawkers,Ask for tips and recommendation votes from book friends~~~~~

(The lord of the kingdom is happy today!) There's another chapter later! ）