India

What greeted them at the bottom of the cave was a thick layer of silt, and when they stepped on it, they would make strange noises, which sounded strange in the empty and dark environment, and Ji Guiran couldn't help frowning.

"It's so dark down here... Wow, this mud!! It's so soft!" Ji Tianze couldn't help but began to stomp on it, "It's very comfortable, do you want to come and stomp on it too?...Oh my god, it smells so bad... "

Compared with Ji Tianze who was still in the mood to play around, Ji Guiran hated the smell of the sticky soil even more, so he couldn't help urging: "Come down and then?"

"Then?" Ji Tianze was taken aback for a moment, then continued, "...Wait, I seem to have forgotten..."

"..." Ji Guiran began to suspect that this person was also confused.

"Don't worry, I'll think about it..." Ji Tianze patted his forehead, trying to remember.

After being silent for a while, he seemed to have remembered something, and looked around at the surrounding rock walls.While scanning, he murmured: "I remember he said that there was something on the wall, but I really forgot the specifics... Anyway, we can't run under here, let's look for it." After finishing speaking, he lifted his foot and walked to the side .

"Wait." Ji Guiran stopped him.

"?" Ji Tianze reacted after being puzzled for a second, "Oh, I was almost impulsive! I scared the baby to death... Dude, I will remember the grace of saving my life!"

Ji Guiran didn't talk too much with him, and said, "First, make sure the snake is there."

"Understood." Ji Tianze looked at him seriously.

Seeing his determined appearance, Ji Guiran couldn't help being puzzled: "Do you have a solution?"

"Of course, sir, I am a highly intelligent human being with future wisdom, look at me." Ji Tianze scraped the wing of his nose with his thumb, and after bragging, he cleared his throat and raised his voice hoarsely, "Ah! !You broken snake! Come out!—Come out!—Don’t hide inside and keep silent! I know you are at home!! You have the ability to snatch a man, you have the ability to come out!—Come out!!”

After roaring a few times, as if he still felt that it was not enough, he stomped on the muddy ground with his feet, and the mud made a dissatisfied puffing sound when he stepped on it.

"..." Ji Guiran covered his ears, feeling more and more regretful about going out.

Ji Tianze stomped and roared for a while, but there was still no other movement in the empty cave except for the echo of knocking everywhere.

He was also tired of shouting, leaned upright on the rock wall and took a few deep breaths, waved his thumb at Ji Guiran, and concluded: "It's ok! It's not at home."

"... Can I really trust you?" Ji Guiran looked contemptuous.

"Meow meow? Why not??" Ji Tianze was puzzled by his undisguised disdain, "I'll work so hard, okay?!"

"Okay," Ji Guiran said simply, fearing that he would continue to shout, "Let's find clues."

"Well, let's find it!"

This is the time when the sun is most abundant in the day, and the clear light shines through the entrance of the cave, illuminating a wide range of vision. At the same time, this is also the time when the bottom of the cave can be seen the widest in a day.

In less than a stick of incense, the two found what they were looking for in the cave.

"Hey, look, over there," Ji Tianze pointed to the rock wall opposite him, "Is there something protruding from the middle?"

The place he pointed was at the edge of the visible area in the cave, Ji Guiran was a little far away and couldn't see clearly, so he took a few steps in that direction.

Indeed, as Ji Tianze said, there is a protruding rock on it, which is different from other moss-covered stone walls. Its color is slightly lighter, and there is still a faint outline of a pattern on the stone.

Ji Guiran was about to walk over directly, but was stopped by Ji Tianze.

"Let me go, I brought tools." He said while taking out a book from his pocket.

Ji Tianze opened the book, and what was revealed was the slightly wrinkled paper, as if it hadn't been used for a long time.Then he stretched out his hand again and took out a strange thing from his sleeve.

Ji Guiran thought it was some kind of hidden weapon like a knife, but Ji Tianze casually clamped the book under his armpit, then pinched the lower part of the thing with one hand, and lightly applied force on the other end with the other hand , Just pull out a small piece, and after that small piece is separated, what remains is a relatively sharp place.

Needle?Ji Guiran was puzzled, trying to guess what it was, when he saw Ji Tianze place the small piece of peeled-off thing on the bottom, put the booklet back into his left hand after inserting it firmly, and naturally turned the thing with his right hand , just write it on paper.

At first, the pointed tip didn't leave anything on the book, but after he wrote a few times, there were traces of his strokes on the paper, and the thin black lines became more and more clear with the handwriting.

Ji Guiran thought it was amazing.

"Well, it still works." Ji Tianze nodded in satisfaction, and then he saw Ji Guiran's eyes looking at him, and he had no intention of hiding anything.He tapped on the booklet with that thing, and replied: "Water pen."

Afterwards, he left Ji Guiran to think on the spot alone, and walked towards that place with this posture of writing.

It is located at the edge of the bright place, the light there is a bit dim in comparison, Ji Tianze was almost one step away from it before he could see clearly what was engraved on it.

"Hey, this is..." He was a little surprised, and after a moment's distraction, he lowered his head and drew it on the paper according to its appearance.

Before he could draw a few strokes, suddenly, something moved in the darkness not far away, and his eyes were attracted by the movement.

Ji Tianze immediately became vigilant, he hadn't forgotten what existed in the hole, so he stopped the pen in his hand, stared at it firmly, and put his whole body on alert.

I saw that thing moved a few times, and then crawled out from the dark shadow little by little. It was a black multi-legged crawling creature, about the size of a palm.

Common name, spider.

Ji Tianze stepped forward abruptly and backed away, suddenly staggered by the mud, and the things in his hands almost fell off.

Not far away, Ji Guiran saw his big movement, and became alert, and asked, "What happened?"

Ji Tianze stood still, as if he had been frightened by something, he looked back at him nervously, pointed at the place with trembling fingers, and said in fear: "You, you... look at that..."

Ji Guiran followed the trend and quickly saw the creature. He was taken aback for a moment, then immediately turned his eyes away and stopped looking at it.

"Did you see it?!"

"Hmm..." he said deeply.

"Then it's not that I misread it...it's really that thing?! It's that...the furry...the crawling...the hideous one..."

"Correct."

Ji Tianze wiped off the cold sweat from his forehead in shock, and glanced at Ji Guiran's expression, he was not much better, his face was livid, and he looked like he was facing an enemy.

"It's really tricky..." Ji Guiran squeezed out a few words between his teeth, and asked Ji Tianze in a deep voice, "Retreat?"

"I want to too...but I can't," Ji Tianze squeezed the booklet in his hand, "I've already drawn half of it."

Hearing this, Ji Guiran knew that he was unwilling to give up halfway, but in this situation, he was neither advancing nor retreating.

But the spider treated the two of them as air, and crawled forward a few more steps, and stopped beside the protruding stone.

"Then you go up." Ji Guiran glanced again and said.

"Fuck! Why should I!" Ji Tianze would rather die than surrender.

"your things."

"Then it's for you, buddy, come on." After saying that, Ji Tianze was about to stuff the things in his hand to Ji Guiran.

Before he let go, the latter quickly dodged sideways, and the cold sweat on his forehead slid down his face due to this movement.

"It's human nature to do things from beginning to end." He said seriously.

"A man can bend and stretch, and advance and retreat is the basis!" Ji Tianze was not to be outdone.

The two confronted each other stiffly for a long time, neither of them planned to take a step back, and the atmosphere was rather awkward.

"Well," Ji Tianze took the lead to break the dead silence, "I can walk over by myself..."

"Then I'm leaving, take care."

"What the hell are you doing! I haven't finished talking yet! You have to cover me! Otherwise, I'm going to die?!"

"cover?"

"Yes, you find a rock first, watch from behind, and hear clearly, when I go up to record..." Ji Tianze was unprecedentedly serious, "If it moves a little! Just hit it! Do you hear me?!"

Ji Guiran frowned, hesitating whether to promise him or not.

"We are comrades in arms. Saving a life is better than building a seven-level pagoda!"

"...OK." He reluctantly agreed.

Ji Tianze was overjoyed when he heard the words, he hurriedly picked up a stone from the corner, and stuffed it into Ji Guiran's hands regardless of whether it was dirty or not.

Ji Guiran didn't care about the stone rolling in the mud, he held it tightly in his hands, and signaled Ji Tianze to go quickly with his piercing eyes.

The latter did not hesitate, and began to walk towards the rock step by step. The moving steps were extremely slow. Every step forward seemed to be in pain like falling into a deep hell. His eyes were still fixed on the creature. On top of it, stay together for a moment.

For the first time, Ji Guiran did not urge him, the stone in his hand was already stained with cold sweat.

When Ji Tianze managed to move in front of the rock, he insisted on taking the furthest distance, about three steps away, he could just see the thing above it in front of him.He picked up the pen tremblingly, his hands were trembling, and he did not forget to remind the people behind: "Look, take a good look..."

"Hmm...write it quickly." In fact, Ji Guiran's hand holding the stone was also trembling.

Only then did Ji Tianze calm down his pounding heartbeat, and shifted his attention to the paper, his peripheral vision still stayed on the enemy, not daring to let go, he described things at the fastest speed in his life, afraid that the next second would be was devoured.

He hastily drew a rough outline, although it is a bit ugly, but he can't take that much into account, as long as he can understand the content, he is about to add the last touch to finish, when suddenly he saw the creature move from the corner of his eye .

The overwhelming panic quickly filled his heart, and the pen he was holding on the paper was frightened and the drawing was crooked. He didn't have time to pay attention to this, but hurriedly shouted: "Smash!!!"

Ji Guiran received the signal, and threw the stone in his hand violently. The stone hit the rock wall and made a knocking sound, and the echo echoed continuously in the cave.

He threw it very hard, if it hit it, it would be a fatal blow, but unfortunately Ji Guiran's hands were shaking, he was anxious and didn't find the right direction, so he missed it.

"!!!"

Leaving aside the missed shot, the important thing is that the creature was frightened by it. It was motionless, but when it raised its furry feet, it was about to get up, and it still climbed up the rock below.

"Hey!!—" Ji Tianze screamed, threw the pen out of his hand, tore off the page of the book in his hand, stuffed it in his arms, and then threw the book on the ground.He shouted: "Let's run!! It's coming to the ground!!"

So the two hurried to the entrance of the cave, scrambling to get out of the cave without saying a word.

"Come one by one! This pole can't hold it!!"

"Then hurry up!"

"Wait...my feet are weak, I can't do my usual speed!"

"Then you come down and I will go first."

"Hey, you're sick, I'm already half way up!"

"Tch... Hurry up!"

……

After tossing and tossing for a while, the two of them finally managed to get out of the cave, and they sat on the ground panting for a while, soothing their frightened hearts.

"Ah, what a shitty place! I'll never come here again!!" Ji Tianze said frightenedly while regaining his composure.

"...En." Ji Guiran agreed with him very much, and raised his hand to wipe the cold sweat off his face.

"I didn't expect... Phew... I didn't expect the bottom to be so terrifying, I really underestimated it..." Ji Tianze let out a long breath, and stretched out his fist at him, "Dude... we can escape together, It's a lifelong friendship, from now on...if you have any questions, just ask me, I'll tell you everything, including love affairs! Come!"

"A friend in need," Ji Guiran clenched his fist and touched him, solemnly said, "You should remember it."

The two stayed in place for a while, and their breathing finally calmed down.

Ji Tianze took out the drawn paper from his arms, glanced at the creases on it due to excessive movements, put it back, and then said to Ji Guiran: "It's ok, the task is completed, go get the reward .”

"Well, go back."

After the rest, their mental state eased a lot, and walking briskly was not very strenuous, and the two of them returned to the house soon.

"...you..." Mo Nan looked at Ji Tianze and Ji Guiran who were in a state of distress. Both of them had pale faces, as if they had experienced some great catastrophe.He couldn't help saying: "I...I want you to go to the cave to have a look, not to be a corvee..."

Just as Ji Guiran was about to say something, Ji Tianze who was next to him screamed and rushed forward, not caring about the mud on his body, he kept rubbing against Mo Nan's body.

"Woooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo..."

"What's the matter?" Mo Nan was puzzled, and asked worriedly, "Did you encounter a snake?"

"No...that's something more terrifying than snakes...the baby almost died in the underworld, and his soul returned to the west, and he will never be reincarnated..."

Seeing Ji Tianze crying so miserably, while Mo Nan felt sorry for him, he was also a little curious.He comforted the poor Ji Tianze, and asked Ji Guiran who was beside him: "Really? What is it?"

Ji Guiran didn't answer the second half of his sentence, but just nodded sullenly.

Seeing that it was not only Ji Tianze, but also Ji Guiran, Mo Nan had a very bad expression on his face. He believed in their distress, but he couldn't imagine what kind of monster could scare them like this.

"Hey... so scared..." Ji Tianze was about to press Mo Nan into his body, with a begging expression on his face.

"All right, all right, don't be afraid," Mo Nan gently rubbed his head, coaxing, "They're all back, it's all right..."

"En..." Ji Tianze let go of his arms a lot, and then rubbed against his neck contentedly.

"And... did you find it?"

"Huh? What?...Oh, of course! I even drew everything carved on the stone! Praise me!" Ji Tianze hastily let go of Mo Nan, took out the piece of paper from his arms, and happily sent it to Mo Nan. into his hands.

"Let me see."

Mo Nan took his paper, and when his fingers touched the paper, he felt that it was different from ordinary paper, as if it was much smoother. He didn't care about these details, and turned his attention to the things drawn on it.

"Hey, isn't this..."

On the paper is a bite-tailed snake. The snake is in a circle, and there is a mysterious symbol in the middle of the circle. It is impossible to tell what it is.The upper part of the whole pattern is fairly neatly drawn, but the second half is crooked, and a black line is drawn straight at the tail of the snake, passing through the middle symbol stiffly.

Seeing Mo Nan looking puzzled, Ji Tianze was a little embarrassed and said: "This... that thread is purely a mistake. En's hand slips when he is nervous and afraid. Anyway, don't pay attention to these details."

"Oh..." Mo Nan replied, then pointed to the symbol inside and asked, "What's in the middle?"

"This, you may not believe it, but it is the key."

"Real or fake?" Mo Nan stared at the magical symbol in disbelief, he had never seen a key like this before.

"Oh, how could I lie to you..." Ji Tianze looked sincere, "I can't guarantee 100% that it is the key to the iron door, but... at least it is indeed a key."

Mo Nan nodded suspiciously, and then stared at the pattern in a daze.

"Look at it first... I'll change clothes and then drink some water to calm down. It's too fucking dangerous." Ji Tianze got up, "By the way, remember to ask me again if you have any questions."

"it is good."

After Ji Tianze left, only Mo Nan, who was staring at the paper with hair in a daze, and Ji Guiran, who was staring at something in a daze, were left in the room. The two of them were in the same room, and it was rare and clean.

Mo Nan didn't care what Ji Guiran was thinking, he just looked at the shape and kept putting together the existing clues in his mind.

The circular snake hole, the numbers on the iron door, the mysterious key symbol, and the familiar biting snake... What is the connection between them, and will the key of the iron door exist in the hole?

He stared at the symbol, and thought of the keyhole of the iron door, thinking that he should go to the study to see the door.When he was about to leave, he remembered Ji Guiran who was silent beside him, and called out, "Hey, Ji Guiran, come here."

Ji Guiran looked up at him, his expression didn't seem very friendly, but fortunately Mo Nan was already numb to this, so he ordered without caring: "Help me to the study."

Mo Nan thought that this guy would at least have a few words to argue with him, but he was unusually obedient, and when he came over, he grabbed his waist and lifted him up, except for using too much force, it couldn't be better.

"Hey, my ancestral grave is emitting smoke again?" Mo Nan couldn't help saying, "What's the matter with you, sir, did you decide to change your face after experiencing life and death?"

Hearing this, Ji Guiran tightened his grip on his waist.

"Oh, it hurts, it hurts, stop! You are still as unreasonable as usual, you are full of strange power..."

Ji Guiran turned a deaf ear to Mo Nan's nonsense, suddenly grabbed his wrist with the other hand, and pulled it towards him.

"What??" Mo Nan was a little nervous.

"..." Ji Guiran seemed to have something to say, but he seemed hesitant to speak.

"Let the fart go."

"I……"

"you?"

Ji Guiran stared at him for a long time, finally gritted his teeth, made up his mind, and squeezed out a few words: "I'm afraid too."

"..."

Mo Nan doubted what he had heard, and was in a daze for a while before he was convinced that the few words Ji Guiran just said were not his hallucinations.

Then he made a decisive decision, couldn't bear the strong emotions, and burst out laughing without hesitation: "Hahahahahahahaha, you say what you said again, oh my mother hahahahahaha I heard it right... Wait, let me laugh, puff hahaha..."

"..."

Seeing his increasingly gloomy face, Mo Nan didn't dare to laugh too presumptuously, and suppressed the urge to laugh wildly for a while, but he couldn't hide the twitching corners of his mouth after all.

"..." Ji Guiran was furious in his heart, and let go of all the strength in his hands. Mo Nan suddenly lost his support and fell to the ground suddenly.

"Hey, don't be like this! I don't laugh anymore! Pfft... I really don't laugh anymore, it's not funny at all, this is human nature, common sense... I, I understand!! Help me go first, I promise... I promise I won't laugh at you on the way..."

"Climb yourself!" Ji Guiran said angrily.