Chapter 3 Beast Instinct
Swish...the light of the flashlight shone in the cave, illuminating the solemn figures of a group of five people.
Surprisingly, less than ten meters into the cave, the entire cave began to show a slight uphill slope. At this moment, Jiang Xian stopped.
Just as he stopped, Song Lianshi also came over. Jiang Xian didn't have time to care about other people now, as there was less than half of the golden 24 hours left for search and rescue. As long as Song Lianshi was willing to cooperate, this team might not be able to do everything, but it would definitely be a help.
"Is it here?" Song Lianshi asked in a deep voice.
Jiang Xian nodded. "According to the files, the eyewitnesses said that the rope was stretched straight at the time. The rope was 23 meters long, and after it was bitten off, there was only about 14 meters left. We had already entered more than 9 meters. So, the place where we were attacked was around this one meter."
Click... Song Lianshi turned on the flashlight and said in a deep voice: "This is uphill. It rained heavily last night, and the water couldn't reach here, so there is probably still blood here."
As if to confirm their thoughts, right in front of them, under the illumination of the flashlight, a slope appeared at the bottom of the pit. On the slope, there were more than a dozen fist-sized scars. Dark red. There were also some around, and more, dotted, extremely clear dark red marks.
Bloodstains!
"Bleeding profusely in an instant." Song Lianshi took a deep breath. As the captain of the criminal investigation team of the county public security bureau, he was no stranger to this kind of blood. He said solemnly: "When he was attacked, he was completely defenseless. The injured area should be above the abdomen. It is likely to be the chest or neck artery. But there is one question I can't figure out."
He squatted down, rubbed his chin, frowned and looked at the blood on the ground, then looked forward. With the flashlight shining, the front was actually white.
No.
Apart from here, there is no more blood on the ground!
"Where's the blood?" A young police officer in the team behind him, about 23 or 24 years old, about 1.83 meters tall, opened his eyes wide when he saw this scene, and said in disbelief: "Such a serious injury, with a sudden spurt of blood, but the other party didn't leave any bloodstains? What's going on?"
Just like this seriously injured person, who suddenly disappeared on the ground after a heavy bleeding!
Unbelievable.
"It's very simple." Jiang Xian finally spoke in the oppressive silence. He slowly raised the flashlight and shone it towards the top of the cave.
At this moment, Song Lianshi suddenly felt a terrifying sense of telepathy in his mind. He took a breath, raised his flashlight and looked upwards.
Above his head... there was an obvious bloodstain, extending intermittently into the depths of darkness!
Dead silence.
Everyone in the team looked up at the dried bloodstain in astonishment. A few seconds later, a skinny man in his thirties came up from the rear team holding a flashlight. He opened his mouth slightly, shook his head gently, and said in a deep voice with an expression of disbelief, "What the hell is this?"
"Why is the blood on top?"
I originally thought it was just an ordinary search and rescue, but I didn't expect that after entering less than ten meters, I saw a scene that could not be explained by common sense.
"He was pulled up directly." Jiang Xian spoke again, pressed his hand, and without waiting for others to speak, he continued: "I know, you may want to say that even if he was pulled up in the air, the blood should fall to the ground. This is the rule of gravity."
Unconsciously, everyone's eyes turned to him. The same was true for Song Lianshi.
With a scorching gaze, Jiang Xian said calmly, "Sloth."
Song Lianshi's eyes suddenly lit up, and he couldn't help but pat his thigh lightly.
Sloths... a very vivid metaphor. If they can crawl on the top of the cave, they must be on their backs. And beasts that are used to a certain way of behaving will inevitably adopt that way when they return. So...
He looked at the cave ceiling with burning eyes : "I understand... The other party crawled all the way into the cave in the posture of a sloth. In this posture, Er Ganzi's body can only be placed on the monster's belly! Because it has no other organs to carry Er Ganzi's body. Because of this, Er Ganzi's bleeding body rubbed against the monster's belly and the cave ceiling, so... left a discontinuous bloodstain."
Quiet.
All the team members blinked and looked at Song Lianshi. After a moment, the thin man clapped his hands and suddenly realized: "So that's it!"
"Captain Song is awesome!" The young police officer also flattered him appropriately. However, Song Lianshi did not look at them, but nodded slightly to Jiang Xian for the first time.
He was given the position of the captain of the criminal investigation team only after Director Ma gave him the nod. This is the position in the entire Public Security Bureau that is easiest to achieve results. In return for his kindness, Director Ma told him that he wanted to change the team leader. Of course, he had no objection.
However, Director Ma did not explain to him the other party's origins, but only said: If this is a maze full of monsters and demons, then the only person who can lead them out is Mr. Jiang.
However, when he saw that the so-called "Mr. Jiang" was only about the same age as Zhao Boli in the team, he was a little suspicious. But now... he suddenly felt that this young man seemed to... have something.
"No... If Er Ganzi was lying on the other person's stomach, because of the shape of the abdomen and its crawling posture, blood would still drip onto the ground. But, there is still nothing now!" He couldn't help but continue asking.
Sloth… Are these two words that break the situation just a flash of inspiration from your mind, or do you really have such a deep knowledge accumulation and such a quick mind?
Jiang Xian said: "Maybe it's because... it's drinking blood."
The answers are more shocking than each other, but... they are all equally irrefutable.
Jiang Xian continued walking forward along the blood trail and gestured for everyone to follow. As he walked, he said, "Do you remember what the witness said?"
"Covered with silver hair? Over three meters long? Blood red eyes?" The one who answered this time was the last man who had been silent.
He was a big man, about 1.79 meters tall, with a deep voice.
Jiang Xian nodded and said solemnly: "The key point is the silver hair all over the body."
"It's impossible that it was born with white hair. A hunter living in the dark will not evolve details that go against the living environment if it wants to hunt successfully. This is a basic way of survival." He paused, looked into the deep cave, and said lightly: "If the other party lives in such a place for a long time, there are two results for the silver hair all over the body. The first is that it has not seen the sun for a long time. The second is..."
“Lack of salt.”
"Do you know the opera White-Haired Girl? The girl was oppressed by feudalism and lived in the mountains for decades. Due to lack of salt, her hair turned completely white. Apply it to the beast. Maybe it is the first time it sees a human, or it doesn't know what humans taste like. However, the lack of food in the cave makes it take the initiative to attack. At the same time, when the second courageous child gushed out blood, it will understand that this creature, like other animals, has salt in its blood. Creatures that have lived here for a long time will not miss this opportunity."
Song Lianshi sighed with emotion.
At this time, he inexplicably remembered a saying: Real gold is not afraid of fire.
Jiang Xian's voice continued: "This creature can fit two eggs on its belly, which means it is probably bigger than we thought. And it is very smart. This is consistent with my previous speculation - this is a primate. Primates are also good at rock climbing and are omnivorous."
He swung the flashlight and said, "So... on the rest of the journey, everyone must be extra careful. This thing is probably no less dangerous than a hungry tiger. Moreover, after eating Erganzi's blood, we... have all become its menu."
His footsteps faded away, and this time, all the team members looked at each other and followed him almost at the same time.
"Captain Song..." The young police officer caught up with him, panting slightly and whispering, "This leader...seems a bit crazy?"
"Talk less and learn more." Song Lianshi glanced at the other person and replied in a low voice: "You just graduated, you are still young."
The group continued to move forward.
This tunnel was unexpectedly long, and it got wider as you went in. There were no other side roads, and at first the tunnel was only ten meters wide, with an upward slope, but after walking a hundred or two hundred meters, the slope began to slowly go down.
The bloodstains above their heads also became lighter and lighter. Finally, after half an hour, they disappeared completely.
"It's difficult." The thin man sighed: "With this amount of bleeding, it's already so far... I'm afraid it will be difficult for Er Dazi."
It's getting lighter and lighter because there's no more blood to come out.
Jiang Xian did not answer. Within twenty minutes, he raised his luminous watch to check the time. After another twenty minutes, he finally frowned and raised his hand .
The team stopped instantly. Before they could speak, Jiang Xian said in a deep voice: "Do you feel... the temperature here is a bit high?"
"Indeed." Song Lianshi nodded. He had already unbuttoned the top button of his camouflage uniform and pulled the zipper down an inch.
"This temperature is not normal." Jiang Xian pondered for a moment, took out a map, squatted down, and waved his hand to let everyone gather. Pointing to the direction of Xingyuan City on the map, he said in a deep voice: "Everyone, the temperature will be higher the deeper you go underground, but the current temperature is at least two or three degrees higher than the underground caves I have been to. This means..."
He took a deep breath and tapped the map lightly: "There may be an underground volcano below here."
"Impossible." The thin man shook his head: "There are no volcanoes in the entire province of Xijing."
"That's where the problem lies." Jiang Xian pointed at the location of Foping on the map, and then drew directly to the northeast. That was the important town in the west, the capital of Xijing Province, and the ancient capital of 13 dynasties - Chang'an.
The burly man gasped, "Chang'an? This tunnel is heading towards Chang'an? Are you sure?"
Jiang Xian didn't answer, but nodded vigorously.
The whole scene fell silent. Song Lianshi nodded, and the young policeman immediately took out a compass. However, as soon as he took it out, he was shocked and said, "Captain Song! The compass is not working!"
Jiang Xian took out a pin and handed it to Song Lianshi: "Rub it on your hair for one minute."
Song Lianshi took it with a puzzled look, but still did as he was told. He didn't even ask why.
Then, he took out the cup and poured a cup of water. After Song Lianshi finished rubbing, he took out a board of capsules. He picked out a capsule, carefully separated it, poured out the pill in the middle, and put it back together. Finally, he put a pin through the capsule and put it in the cup lid. Then he put the cup lid on the map.
Looking at the capsule with a needle tremblingly pointing to the south of the map, all the team members remained silent, but just looked at each other as if they had seen a ghost.
Is this... even possible?
"My sense of direction is correct." Jiang Xian spoke again, and this time no one raised any questions. He said solemnly: "Although Chang'an and Xingyuan are adjacent to each other, the temperature difference is huge because of the Qinling Mountains in the middle. We should be approaching the hinterland of the Qinling Mountains now. However, I have never heard that the Qinling Mountains are formed by volcanic accumulation."
Song Lianshi looked at the compass in astonishment. He suddenly felt that this search and rescue operation might be much more dangerous than they had imagined.
"Everyone." Jiang Xian stood up and clapped his hands: "Go forward for another fifty minutes. If there is still no clue, we must retreat."
Without waiting for anyone to ask, he swept his eyes over everyone and said solemnly, "Perhaps you think that people can walk 5,000 meters in an hour, and we can walk faster after training. If we walk for another 50 minutes, we will only have walked for an hour and a half, and the total distance is more than 7,000 meters. This distance is nothing at all."
"But you may not know another set of data. The third place, the so-called bottomless pit, Deer Hole in the UK, is only more than 6,000 meters. The second place, Hang Son Doong, is 8,800 meters. Everyone... do you know what this means?"
Song Lianshi's Adam's apple moved violently, and he said hoarsely, "You mean... if we still can't find the end after walking for another fifty minutes, then the length of Wowokeng has surpassed the world's third longest Deer Cave?"
"That's right." Jiang Xian's eyes swept over everyone. "Moreover, if it was once a volcanic layer, it is very likely that a huge underground maze would appear due to the lava flow. Whether in terms of equipment or personnel, this is definitely a challenge beyond our current configuration. We'd better pray that we can find Er Ganzi before we encounter such a situation. Otherwise..."
"That is the limit of our search and rescue efforts."
