Zhang Fatzi's face turned pale with fright, his legs trembled like chaff, he almost couldn't stand, and his voice trembled: "This, what the hell is this place?"

No one answered him, and everyone wanted to ask the same question.

Only the echo outside sounded like a mockery: "Ghost place ~~~ Ghost place ~~~~"

Everyone's faces turned a little pale, but the mouse seemed quite calm, about he used to rob tombs and dig graves, maybe he had seen more strange places than here, so it was not strange.

He leaned over and held the torch aloft, but the faint light of the torch was so weak that he could not see anything in the darkness.

He suddenly let go, and the torch in his hand pressed against the outer wall of the royal city, and fell straight down.

Along the way, the faint light of the torches only illuminated the outer walls of the royal city, and nothing else could be seen, and after a while, the torches "snapped" and fell to the ground.

The rat kept staring at the torch, and as the torch landed, one of his hearts fell to the ground.

There is not an abyss hollow below, let alone a ghost domain underworld, it is the real ground, and the Loulan King City stands on this ground.

What's more, as the torches fell, he faintly saw a little reflection not far away.

It's the water!

There's really a water source down there!

The rat turned to the crowd and said, "The stairs are no longer passable, there is the ground below, let's go down from the cave first." ”

"Next, go?" Zhang Fatzi's voice changed, and all the Zhiwei that he had seen since he was a child suddenly appeared in his mind, and the images of those demons and monsters with teeth and claws suddenly felt a little cramp in his legs and stomach.

Although the others did not react as strongly as Zhang Fatzi, they also looked at each other, and their faces changed greatly.

Seeing everyone's reaction, the mouse said helplessly: "Don't worry, everyone, there are no ghosts down there, and it's not a sinister place, it's the real ground." I'll explain it to you when everything continues. ”

He turned his head to look at the pale-faced fat man again, and said, "When the torch fell just now, I clearly saw that there seemed to be a water source below. You can't go down?"

Zhang Fatzi's body is fat, he has always been afraid of heat and thirst, and the drinking water he carries with him today has already been drunk by him, and there is not a drop of water left.

He was embarrassed to be cheeky to ask others for water to drink, because the daily drinking allowance for each person was regulated, and even Vice General Hao and the sergeants could only kill horses and drink horse blood, so he could only endure it all the way.

At this time, I have already had a dry mouth, thirsty and unbearable, suddenly heard that there is a water source below, and when I came to the spirit, I put my heart horizontally, anyway, if I wait any longer, sooner or later I will die, rather than being killed by thirst like this, it is better to go down and fight.

He threw his neck and shouted, "What kind of ghost? Who is afraid? Go down, what's the big deal?"

Even the timid Zhang Fat Man said so, and of course the others had no opinion.

So the rat asked Adjutant General Hao and the sergeants to tie the rope together, and then tied it to himself, and slowly climbed down from the hole to the outer wall of the royal city.

It wasn't until he saw the rat safely on the ground and waved the torch at them that Zhang Fatzi really relieved his heart and rushed to go down for the second one.

Zhang Fatzi was a little too heavy, and the five sergeants couldn't even hold him, so everyone helped together, and seven or eight people barely grabbed him and slowly put him down.

As soon as he landed, he asked anxiously: "Water, where is the water?"

The mouse ignored him, but squatted on the ground, grabbed a handful of mud and sand on the ground and carefully observed it, and muttered, "Sure enough!"

He had lit several torches and planted them on the ground, and in the firelight, Zhang Fat Man saw the water flashing not far ahead, and sure enough, there was one

The pool of water in the pond was immediately overjoyed, and ran over with a cheer.

He threw himself down on the edge of the pool, and was about to drink heartily, when he felt that someone grabbed him by the collar behind his head and dragged him away.

He jumped up and turned his head to look, but it was a mouse.

Zhang Fatzi glared at the mouse angrily and asked, "What are you doing?"

Unhurried, the mouse held the torch and looked at the ground next to him, and said, "What do you think this is?"

Zhang Fatzi was stunned for a moment, looked down, but saw that there was something faintly reflected on the ground, and if he looked closely, it was a layer of white crystals.

He reached out and touched it, put it in his mouth and tasted it, and said a few times in a row: "Bah, salty, this is salt!"

The mouse nodded: "That's right. As you all know, Shiozawa used to be a saltwater lake, and its water should be connected to it, so there will be salt grains here. It's also possible that there is salt water in this pool, and you know what happens if you drink it by mistake?"

Zhang Fatzi shook his head blankly, he really didn't know.

"Thirsty people are already lacking in water, and if you drink a lot of salty water, it will cause the loss of water in your body aggravated, and you will feel more thirsty, or even die of dehydration," said Mouse. ”

Zhang Fatzi stuck out his tongue: "Is it so serious?

The mouse stared at Zhang Fatzi with his eyes, was silent, and suddenly reached out and picked up a handful of water from the pool, put it to his mouth and took a shallow sip.

The fat man looked at the mouse with hope and envy in his eyes and smacked his lips, then drank all the water in his hand, and then said to him lightly: "It's okay, it's fresh water." ”

After saying that, the mouse stood up casually, turned around and walked away.

Zhang Fatzi didn't answer, turned his head and plunged into the pool, babbling in his mouth: "You are the most important, you just took off your pants and put ......"

The latter words were blocked by the water that poured into his mouth, and there was only the sound of "coo-dong-coo-dong".

At this time, everyone went down to the ground along the rope one after another, and even Miss Cheng and Xiao Sanji came down, and the trouble was the old man Fu Shuangling, because his eyes couldn't see, and he had to rely on others to grab the rope and put him down little by little, which took some time.

Vice General Hao looked at the old man Fu who was struggling to descend, and shook his head secretly in his heart, he originally wanted to leave the blind old man and the child outside, but unfortunately they couldn't resist and kept asking to follow.

But if you think about it, how many people in the world can have the opportunity to see such a spectacle in their lifetime?

After everyone came to the ground, their first reaction was to run to the pool, lying on the edge of the pool and drinking happily.

At this time, Zhang Fatzi had already drunk so much that he couldn't pour it anymore, and was lying on his back on the edge of the waterhole with a big belly, panting with satisfaction.

Ye Feng only leaned over and took a few sips, then stood up and looked left and right at this mysterious cave.

At this time, the rat commanded the sergeants to stick all the torches in their hands on the ground, illuminating the vicinity.

It's not so much a cave as a passage.

There were black rock formations above and on both sides of everyone's heads, and the front and back were swarthy and I didn't know how deep they were, and I didn't know where they led.

The huge Loulan Imperial City was slightly inclined to penetrate the rock layer on top, and was obliquely inserted in front of everyone's eyes.

This huge dark passage and the mysterious royal city in front of you constitute a magnificent and somewhat strange picture, which makes people feel extremely shocked.

Ye Feng looked at it and asked the mouse on the side: "What kind of place is this?

The rat scanned the magnificent scene before him, and seemed to be amazed by the wonder of nature. After a long while, he spoke, "If I am not mistaken, this should be the course of an underground river from a long time ago. ”

Underground Dark River?

Everyone listened inexplicably, and they all looked at the mouse, waiting for him to continue.

The mouse leaned over and grabbed a handful of sand on the ground, and said, "The fine sand on the ground here shows that there should have been an underground river here, and looking at this river, this dark river must be very huge. Since it is the former large lake Shiozawa, it is believed that this dark river should be one of the main sources of water for Shiozawa. ”

"But judging from the salt crystals on the ground, there must have been salt water here, and I have a bold conjecture when it comes to the legend of the Loulan King City and the Flying City in front of me. ”

Ye Feng asked, "What conjecture?"

The mouse said slowly: "Originally, this underground river and the salt above it were separated by this thick layer of rock, and it was the lake that did not interfere with the river water. But one day, just like the story that Old Man Fu told in front of the mural before, this royal city suddenly flew up, and suddenly fell down here. ”

"As everyone saw just now, the entire inner layer of the royal city was made of strange metal, and it was extremely heavy, so when it fell, it smashed through the rock layer at the bottom of the lake and fell directly into the dark river. ”

So the rock layer between Shiozawa and the Dark River was opened, and the salty water in the lake poured into the Dark River through the smashed place, and drained away along the river, although this amount was very small for the three hundred miles of Shiozawa, but over the years, it still caused the area of Shiozawa to slowly shrink, and eventually dried up. ”

Hearing this, Old Man Fu nodded and said, "Yes, it is precisely since the royal city flying in the air fell into the lake, the lake water in Yanze began to dry up slowly, which directly led to the collective migration of the remaining Loulan people and changed their name to Shanshan. ”

He sighed: "It is said that it is because of the use of black magic by King Loulan Angui that it will cause the slow disappearance of Shiozawa, but I don't want it to be because of this!"

The mouse continued unhurriedly: "And the dark river we are standing on now, due to the large influx of water from Shiozawa Lake, the change in the flow has caused the downstream of the dark river to be diverted. As a result, after Shiozawa dried up, the river gradually dried up because there was no water from the upper reaches of the river. ”

"The salt crystals scattered on the ground are evidence of the massive influx of salt water from the lake above. And this pool of clear water," said the mouse, pointing to the pool next to it, "if I'm not mistaken, below it is the dark river that has been diverted!"

(The salt mentioned in the article is what is known today as Lop Nur, and there have been many theories about the reason why Lop Nur dried up in the past, and the diversion of the underground river caused the lack of water is also one of them.) ）

Everyone was listening to the mouse's words, so they heard a "poof", and turned their heads to look, but it was Zhang Fat who took off his clothes and plunged into the pool.

After days of hard work and the scorching heat and lack of water in the desert, the clothes on Zhang Fatzi's body were soaked and dried by sweat, dried and soaked, and his whole body had long felt sticky and extremely uncomfortable.

The waterhole is actually not big, he stretched his body and swam towards the center of the waterhole, while swimming, he shouted strangely: "Ouch, this water is so cold, so deep, and there is no bottom!"

Seeing his white flesh fluttering happily in the waterhole, Xie Zhenliang shook his head, walked to the edge of the waterhole and shouted to him: "Hurry up, you dead fat man, you wait for everyone to fill the water bladder before going into the water, do you want everyone to drink your bath water?"

Before the words fell, there was an exclamation, followed by a "poof".

It turned out that Zhang Fatzi jumped up from the water and pulled Xie Zhenliang into the pool.

He laughed and said, "Second brother, this water is good, you can also come down and cool off!"

There was a lot of laughter all around.

The nerves that everyone had been tense all this time seemed to have finally been relieved for a moment at this moment.