Chapter 26 Entering the Underground Palace
"Damn it!" Chu Ziyi cursed inwardly, and immediately stood up and pressed the emergency bell. Soon, several nurses and doctors rushed in. They retreated tacitly.
The two walked silently along the corridor until they reached the bottom of the hospital. Chu Ziyi asked, "What do you think... is on it?"
Jiang Xian shook his head: "At least, it is something that can automatically block people's memories when they recall it. It must be very scary... As for what it is, we will know when we go in."
Chu Ziyi gently stroked his white beard and pondered, "What about the statue? This should be a very important clue. Do you have any ideas?"
Jiang Xian's eyes flickered slightly: "I have some ideas. However, everything will depend on seeing the statue first."
"As the mechanism is triggered, the dry well should be blown to pieces, and the underground palace below should also be exposed... Sect Leader Chu, how long will it take for your people to arrive?"
"Tonight, there is a charter flight from Yanjing to Chang'an."
"Okay!" Jiang Xian took a deep breath: "We'll check the equipment tomorrow morning. Tomorrow afternoon, we'll officially go to the field!"
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Time passed very quickly. At 10 o'clock that night, all fifteen reinforcements arrived. Together with the remaining exploration team members and Jiang Xian and his four companions, the entire exploration team had reached 24 people!
These are veterans who have had several exploration experiences. No secondary training is needed.
At night, a heavy rain fell. Nothing happened that night. Soon it was the next morning. Jiang Xian woke up early and began to check the equipment of the team members in the rented temporary warehouse. At a glance, he couldn't help but whistled: "What a luxury."
The Marmot goose down sleeping bag costs nearly $700. It is 78cm wide and 200cm long, with built-in vertical heat dissipation channels and a filling tube barrier system. It covers the entire body, and once the zipper is closed, only a small part of the mouth and nose is exposed. The sleeping bag is nearly two meters long and one meter wide, and the total weight does not exceed 0.90KG .
And most of the equipment from Msr, whose full name is Mountain Safety Research: from high-tech stick-type water purifiers to micro stoves, waterproof lamps, and compasses.
Msr is also the Hermes of expedition equipment, especially the famous expedition bag, which includes cooking utensils weighing no more than 3KG, including the tripod! The whole set of cooking utensils is placed in a cylindrical bag that is also one foot square.
Including him, there are four core members in this team. They are extremely well-equipped and all carry Gregory backpacks. And they are the best-selling Baltoro series - it is known as the Rolls-Royce of backpacks, and is selected by many snow mountain expeditions, field schools, and even the US special forces. It is also the classic bag used by the most mountaineering guides in the world.
Jiang Xian picked up a stick-shaped water purifier and looked at it. He sighed twice. The equipment for this exploration was so luxurious that even the top exploration teams in the country would sigh in admiration. Let alone the water purifier in his hand, which was no more than one foot long. But... any water filled with it can filter out all toxic substances within ten minutes!
Of course, this does not include germs.
"Is this a picnic?" Just then, a voice came from behind. Hong Si Niang leaned against the door frame without knowing when, holding the long pipe in her mouth, and leisurely exhaled a puff of smoke: "The young generation nowadays is really worse than the previous generation... In our time, we just carried a Luoyang shovel to the fields, how could there be so many fancy things?"
"That's why there are Grave Robbers' Chronicles and Ghost Blows Out the Light." Jiang Xian shrugged indifferently: "Times have changed. Who dared to go down there at that time didn't have special skills? Even though Chu Ziyi is old, when he was young, he was also a leader among the Northern Robbers. Now that there is something that can do it for you, why not use it? Do you think everyone is a little brother?"
Perhaps because she was going to work in the fields, Hong Si Niang was wearing camouflage uniforms today. With her tall figure, if it weren't for the orchid fingers that occasionally raised up to ruin her image, she would really look like that.
The two were silent for a while. After a long while, Hong Si Niang tapped her cigarette butt and asked, "How do we divide it?"
Of course it will be distributed afterwards.
Jiang Xian didn't even raise his head: "I have been working for five or six years. When have I ever treated my own people unfairly?"
"One for each of us, husband and wife?"
"certainly."
Hong Si Niang was silent again. After a few seconds, she raised her head and smiled sweetly: "I don't want my share anymore."
"Oh?" Jiang Xian looked at the other person in astonishment: "You are..."
"Bring my wife back." Hong Si Niang rolled her eyes at him and rubbed her nails : "Although she is a little fat and heavy, I can still bring her back if I think of a way."
Jiang Xian suddenly raised his eyes and looked at the other person. Hong Si Niang smiled coquettishly: "What are you looking at, little brat, you don't know the taste of love. I have enjoyed enough, and I am afraid that my wife has not enjoyed enough. Come back alive... at least you can remarry once."
Jiang Xian was almost laughing out of anger: "With your bad mouth, it's not easy for the Eight-Armed Arhat to live with you until today."
"You want to kill me but you can't," Hong Si Niang said with a smile while raising her eyebrows.
Jiang Xian continued to lower his head: "If you want to bring it back, go and bring it yourself. It's too heavy for me to carry."
"If this is an ordinary place, I don't have time to talk nonsense with you." Hong Si Niang lit another roll of tobacco for herself. As if she had said it out loud, he let it go: "We are different from you. We have never been to the ground... So, I don't have much confidence that I can come out safely. Anyway, try your best... You call the people, so you naturally have the obligation to clean up the mess. It's the rules of the road."
Jiang Xian didn't look up this time, but casually threw a water purification stick. After a long time, he said in a deep voice: "I promise you."
"As long as I don't die, she won't die."
"What a fair situation." Hong Si Niang stopped talking nonsense, turned around and left the warehouse.
Ten seconds later, Jiang Xian finally stood up and looked deeply at the equipment on the ground.
Even a master like Hong Si Niang did not have the confidence to win against this behemoth. This ancient tomb, even a part of the pit, was very dangerous. The others... even if they brought these equipments, how many people could survive?
He looked up at the sky.
There is no sun today and it is cloudy.
"What a lousy weather!"
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Swish... In the heavy rain, six off-road vehicles headed straight towards Darong Village.
Jiang Xian was sitting in the second car, along with Ling Xiaozi and Chu Ziyi. From a distance, one could see that Darong Village was charred. It was not known whether the fire was put out by the forest protection team or by the heavy rain last night. But it was obvious that Boss Song had great influence.
"They walked along the way without any restrictions. We didn't see any strangers, and there was no news of forest fires. I watched the city news carefully last night." Ling Xiaozi flicked his whisk and said lightly, "Is this the rhythm for us to play freely?"
Jiang Xian looked at the rain outside the window and said calmly, "No, it's to make it easy for us to deal with our funeral even if we die."
"Can you be a little more f**king auspicious?"
At this moment, the car suddenly braked, and the driver turned around and said with a wry smile: "Captain, we can't drive anymore."
Jiang Xian looked out the front window. There was a fallen rock in the middle of the road. Landslides were very common in this kind of cliff area. He looked up and saw that he was still 500 meters away from the pit in Darong Village.
"Call all team members to set up camp within 50 meters of Darong Village." He said to Chu Ziyi, then opened his black umbrella and walked straight towards Darong Village.
The rain seemed particularly heavy in the open. In this unsheltered nature, the strong wind and heavy rain rushed towards people. Just as Jiang Xian stepped into the Darong Village, a thunderbolt suddenly streaked across the sky, and then the rain fell down like it was out of control.
Jiang Xian ignored all this. Right in front of him was the former Darong Village. Now there was only a huge hole left. There were cracks all around, and because of the burning fire, the entire hole was pitch black.
The pit, which was hundreds of meters in radius, was vast and wide. From here, the golden wheel lock mentioned by the old man could not be seen at all. But standing on the edge of the cliff, it seemed as if... one could hear the sound of the Nine Nether Wind coming from below.
It was like the abyss of hell, with countless souls wailing.
Behind him, team members wearing raincoats and carrying equipment boxes walked quickly. Chu Ziyi gave instructions for a while, then walked in front of Jiang Xian wearing a black raincoat and wiped the rain off his face: "Is it going to rain today?"
Jiang Xian didn't say anything, but turned his head, pointed his ear toward the cave, and closed his eyes.
One minute, two minutes... Chu Ziyi didn't get an answer, but it was difficult to leave. He could only stay there awkwardly. Three minutes later, Jiang Xian finally opened his eyes and said decisively: "Now!"
Chu Ziyi looked at the other person curiously: "You just..."
Jiang Xian raised a finger to his lips and pointed to his ear. Chu Ziyi frowned and tried his best to expand his hearing. Ten seconds later, he suddenly heard a different sound in the noisy scene.
Ding...ding ding ding...in an endless stream.
"Is this... the sound of rain hitting something?" Chu Ziyi said in surprise.
"Bronze." Jiang Xian licked his lips and said, "This is the sound of rain hitting bronze. There is something underneath."
"The human visual range is only 25 meters. The weather is not good today, but we can hear faint sounds... The thing below is about 30 meters away. Do you remember what the old man said? It was a sculpture several dozen meters tall... Let the exploration team prepare a rope of about 100 meters."
Chu Ziyi's Adam's apple moved, and he looked at Jiang Xian as if he had seen a ghost. He said nothing and went back to arrange his work.
Dozens of minutes later, all groups reported at the same time: "Air testing completed, slight mercury toxins remain. Heavy rain has reduced the mercury content in the surrounding air to a very low level. It will not affect the human body."
"The soil has been inspected. The surrounding soil has a very high mercury content. It is not recommended to directly contact the ground." "The tents have been set up." "The backpacks have been distributed." "All teams are ready!!"
Karala... Another flash of lightning passed by, and at the edge of the huge pit, except for the ten people who stayed in the logistics, the fourteen team members wearing black raincoats stood neatly in the heavy rain, like fourteen sharp blades about to be unsheathed.
"Hello everyone, I'm your leader, Jiang Xian." Jiang Xian was also wearing camouflage uniform and standing at the front holding a black umbrella. "The place we are going to is full of traps and murderous intentions - this is not a joke. So, if you want to come back alive and enjoy the reward, you'd better listen to my orders carefully."
His eyes swept over everyone. Some looked solemn, while others remained calm. He raised his hand calmly: "Get ready. Everyone go to the ground in five minutes."
The first group of people who went down to the ground had already reached the pit, tied ropes to adapt to the weight, and leaned against the cliff wall. Below them was the endless abyss.
Click, click... the second hand seemed to be ticking in the air. Just five minutes later, Chu Ziyi's "Down!" broke through the rain. Immediately, the first group of seven people fell into the bottomless cave together.
Kakaka! Seven cold light flashlights were turned on at the same time, forming a continuous light curtain to monitor the surroundings. Two people on each rope. Jiang Xian, Ling Xiaozi, Hong Si Niang, Eight-armed Arhat, Chu Ziyi and others stayed at the end. When the second person climbed down the rope, Jiang Xian finally walked to the pit and tied the elevator. He jumped along the rope and stood diagonally on the cliff.
It's about to begin... He shut out all the noise, closed his eyes, and took a deep breath.
You can even hear the sound of your heart beating faster.
He was about to fight against the masters of architecture, machinery, and feng shui who had been around for thousands of years. Even though he had collected a lot of information, he didn't have much chance of winning this battle that spanned thousands of years.
"But... I don't want to die unclearly!"
Swish—he quietly opened his eyes, with only a calmness in them. Then he jumped and landed without hesitation.
Either die or live!
