This series of processes, as if magic, dazzled us, no one knows what is going on, before we asked, the madman six took the initiative to explain: "These red ants are called" red worm ants ", it is a very important medicine primer, they mainly feed on fermented earthworm corpses, there is a strong alkaline, very similar to the yeast used to make dough, but it is much more alkaline than yeast, especially the eggs it lays, the alkalinity is stronger, there are several herbs to concoct, must use this kind of ant eggs." ”

"Why is it that when the ant eggs dissolve in water, the traces of the hole can be revealed?" Sister Li couldn't wait to ask.

Madman Six smiled slightly, and said very confidently: "Well, good question, although I don't know who sealed the entrance of the cave, but according to various signs, I can guess how to seal it so that it can leave no trace."

At the bottom of some nearby ponds, there is a special layer of mud, this mud is blue-gray, exactly the same color as the stone, and what is even more wonderful is that after this mud is dug out, exposed to the air, after about two or three hours, it can completely condense into a hard stone - both in texture and color, it is exactly the same as the stone.

In the past, when gypsum was not popular, whose arms and legs were broken and needed to be fixed, they used this kind of mud paste, and after this mud solidified, it could play the role of gypsum, and when the bones grew well, then use the water that the ants had just egged on, pour it on it, and knock it slightly, and the hard shell formed by this mud will be broken.

In the past, this kind of mud is a specialty of our area, soaked in water and sold in pharmacies, that can be very popular, after foreign pharmacists purchase back, can be used as gypsum now, when my pharmacy first opened, it was sold for a while, and then gypsum became popular, and then slowly eliminated.

This kind of short time, can block a hole, and does not leave the slightest trace, must be blocked with a stone first, and then the gap and edge, with this mud carefully smoothed, because this mud as soon as solidified, it is completely the same as the stone, so no gaps and traces can be seen, but unlike the stone, as long as this ant egg is dissolved in water, it will turn red, and become as brittle and soft as a pot. ”

I see, I can't help but secretly praise in my heart: this crazy man really has two hits!

Xiao Lei took out his German sapper shovel from his backpack, and then scraped it along the red line, and the red, pot-like thing all disintegrated, and an obvious gap was exposed-as Madman Six said.

Immediately after Xiao Lei pry off the top stone along the edge with a sapper shovel, he found that there were all stones and dirt underneath, and Xiao Lei and I took turns digging and about an hour later, and the hole was cleared out again.

Now that we had found the entrance to the cave, we did not waste any more time, rested a little, and went down to the cave again.

The sunlight came in from the entrance of the cave, this dark and mysterious cave, no longer as terrifying as last night, the cool breeze inside, coupled with the layers of vines, actually made people feel a little comfortable, but we all know that in this cave, there are still many dangers, the terrible vine demon, and the holes leading to other places, there are many unknown threats, and we must not take it lightly.

Like last night, we took our flashlights and carefully examined the walls of the cave little by little, hoping to find the entrance to the spiraling cave.

But we found nothing at the exit of the cliff, and we took a closer look at the hole behind the stone gate, but disappointingly, the hole not only did not get bigger, but also shrunk a lot.

What to do? There is no entrance to the spiral cave at all.

"Oh, aren't we a little stupid, just looking at the surrounding cave walls, but not carefully checking the ground under our feet, maybe the entrance of the cave is on the ground of this cave", Sister Li felt that she had a flash of inspiration, thought of a good idea, and looked excited.

And I was next to her, and unceremoniously poured cold water on her: "When I searched just now, Xiao Lei had already reminded me of this, and we have been paying attention to the ground under our feet, but we have not found anything."

Hearing me say this, Sister Li winked at me, playfully stuck out her tongue, laughed and laughed at herself, and said, "Ha, it turns out that I am stupid alone."

"No, your reminder is very important", the madman next to him suddenly interjected, which made us a little confused.

Madman Six didn't continue to explain, but took a bright flashlight and shone it on the ground covered with vines, as if he thought of something again, and we all stood by without saying a word for fear of interrupting his train of thought, quietly watching his every move.

In this cave, not only are the walls of the cave crawling with vines, but also everywhere under our feet, when we Xiao Lei searched, we tried to kick open these vines with our feet, and carefully checked the ground below, but in the end we didn't find any holes or anything like that.

Why is Maniac Six still trying to find it on the ground?

"Do you think that the hole we are looking for is probably on the ground? And the entrance to the cave was also sealed in the same way as before, so that we could not see any traces. Hongmei suddenly asked with understanding.

"Well, you guessed right, I also checked the ground here, and found that it was very smooth and flat, and the ground was all stone, but according to the approximate location of the two caves, the hole we found was probably on the ground of this cave, but why couldn't we find it? Most likely the kind of situation you said. ”

Hongmei is really smart enough, and her guess makes sense. But the madman six still crouched there, as if he continued to observe something.

I couldn't help but say, "If that's the case, the only way to do this is to use the ant eggs to dissolve them in the water, and then pour them on the ground, and see where they turn red, there should be the hole opening." But the hole is so big, and we don't know exactly what it might be, so we have to sprinkle it all with that kind of water, but how much water is needed. ”

Crazy Six looked up at me, smiled and nodded: "Well, yes, Xiao Ming is right, if you find it with the method just now, it will be difficult to achieve, because the place here is too big, but without that method, we can also find the entrance ......to the cave."

Hearing him say this, we were both surprised and excited, and almost in unison asked, "How?" ”

The madman breathed a sigh of relief, and unhurriedly pointed to the vine at his feet and said, "Look at a few flowers here."

These vines in the cave are dotted with countless white vines, we looked at the vines at the feet of the madman, and we didn't see anything special, is there any mystery about this flower?

Madman Six then said, "Have you noticed, these vines are pale red, but all the other vines are plain white. ”

It was only after he reminded us that we noticed this—and sure enough, the vines under his feet were indeed pale red.

In order to verify the judgment of the madman six, a few of us looked at the vines in other places again, and it was really as the madman six said, all the vines were plain white, only the few flowers under the feet of the madman six were light red, but what does this mean?

We just wanted to ask the madman Six, Xiao Lei suddenly said excitedly: "I know what's going on!" ”。

Crazy Man Six smiled and nodded to Xiao Lei, the two of them seemed to have "a little understanding", but we were still in the dark.

"Xiao Lei, then you can explain it to everyone."

Seeing that the madman six "authorized" him to explain, Xiao Lei cleared his throat and explained seriously: "At the time of the above, the old-timers said that the ant egg has a strong alkaline, but that peculiar 'mud', whether it is in nature or texture, is similar to stone, and can react strongly with the alkaline ant egg solution, which shows that the 'mud' is strongly acidic, and when acid and alkali meet, a strong neutralization reaction will occur, this is junior high school chemistry knowledge, everyone should understand it."

Since this 'mud' is strongly acidic, the white flowers near it will change color when affected by the acid - like litmus; The reason why a few vines here have turned pale red is because of the acid emitted by the 'mud' here. ”

Crazy Six nodded approvingly and looked at Xiao Lei appreciatively.

When we listened to Xiao Lei's explanation, it suddenly dawned on us, it turned out that this was the case, for a while, we admired the five-body of crazy six, and we didn't expect him to have such a meticulous reasoning ability, and he could judge the location of the hole with a few small flowers, which was really amazing, worthy of being a person trained by professional spies.

We were excited, and now that we had found the location of the hole, we were ready to go.

Xiao Lei picked up a stone the size of a watermelon from the side, and began to smash it at the place that might be the entrance of the cave, and every time we smashed it high, we felt that the ground under our feet shook slightly.

After a few clicks, a circular crack appeared, which was under the heavy smashing of the stone, and the hard shell formed by the "mud" was separated from the stone by the shock, so the crack appeared, which just shows that the judgment of the madman six is completely correct, and there is really a hole here.

Xiao Lei concocted the same method - as last time, he sapped the shovel along the cracks, smashed and pryed, and lifted the top stone, and the bottom was filled with very solid gravel and earth.

The top stone that plugged the entrance to the cave alone was nearly a meter thick, and we took turns to fight until it took a long time to dig through the hole.

At this point, all of us were excited, and we finally overcame all the difficulties and found the hole.

When we went down, we found that this was the spiral-shaped cave we were looking for, and the shape of the cave was exactly as described by Wang Xingguang and the old medicine farmer - the cave was spiraling downward, and there were air holes that penetrated through the cliff wall.

But when we actually entered this cave, we became even more nervous, because we knew that we would have to walk from here to the bottom of the cliff, and we didn't know how long it would take, and we didn't know what kind of danger we would encounter, and we didn't know what kind of mysterious area was under this cliff.

Curious, excited, mixed with inexplicable fear and uneasiness, we walked down the tunnel.

In order to ease the tense atmosphere, I said half-jokingly and half-seriously: "When we get to the location of the long giant reishi that Wang Xingguang and the old medicine farmer said, we must go over and have a look, if we can really pick the giant reishi, we will also make a fortune." ”