to blame

The vertical distance between the underground channel and the ground is about ten meters, the channel width is about three meters, and the height is between two meters and four meters. The stones are stacked neatly, forming a step several meters long and two feet wide at the bottom of the stairs.

It was probably built by the previous residents for the convenience of taking water.Judging from the imprints on the steps, the underground river flowed all the way to the stairs when the water level was the deepest in the early years.But as time goes on, the underground river may change its course, or it may have dried up long ago. Now the riverbed has no water vapor at all, and only a pile of large and small pebbles remains.

Ming Xia seized the time to draw a few sketches with the light of Tang Xun's debugging instrument, and then heard the beeping of the instrument beside him.

The electronic screen was swiped on, and green lines spread out quickly on the screen, followed by small red dots lit up one after another between the green lines, with some not-so-bright yellow dots mixed in among them.

Tang Xun adjusted the scale of the map, pointed to the line extending north on the map with some surprises and said: "This is the direction leading to the ancient city of Liangtai on the map left by Mr. Hu. From our current position, it is going to this side Walk."

Tang Xun pointed to the front of the underground river, "And there is something very strange, when we go underground, the instrument shows that the magnetic field interference has disappeared."

Nan Jiang and Bi Lao looked at each other.They tried, but since they passed the Bronze Pass, they lost contact with the branch, and after entering the ancient city, the magnetic field disorder made all the instruments useless.When the interference disappears here, the terrain scan matches the map again. Could it be that Mr. Hu and the others were in the underground river when the map was drawn?

If this is the case, Bi Lao’s previous suspicions can be ruled out: the two ancient cities do not overlap geographically.

"This is the location of the ancient city of Liangtai marked by Mr. Hu." Tang Xun pointed to a red triangle icon in the northeast direction, "The ancient city of Liangtai is connected to the underground river of the ancient city of Hedao. Go here...here...you can go there."

"My opinion is to go." Nan Jiang said: "I don't know when these wolves will disperse."

Liu Enzheng looked at Elder Bi hesitantly.

Bi Lao said: "My opinion is to go."

Ming Xia felt that the situation in front of him was somewhat similar to when they were on a mission in the North Peak. That time they were surrounded by snow wolves at the supply station and forced to take the secret road in the mountain, but this time they took the underground river instead.I don't know if there will be any danger in the river.

But when Nan Jiang looked over, Ming Xia nodded firmly.He also agreed to go, staying and spending time with the wolves was simply not an option.

When we were on the road again, the sixth team was at the head, the second team was at the end, and the club team was in the middle.

Tang Xun took the equipment to lead the battle, Qingqiu still maintained the appearance of a big fox, and walked behind with Ming Xia.As far as the current situation is concerned, the most likely danger is the wolves in the ancient city.Therefore, Qingqiu, who had the strongest personal fighting power, was left at the end.

Qingqiu is a little proud of this, because Ming Xia also praised him, saying that he is getting better and better.In fact, he also understands that in an environment like an underground river, if the wolves really catch up, everyone shoots together and there may still be wolves that slip through the net and pounce on them. .

After walking two kilometers along the underground channel, they entered a purely natural underground cave from the artificially excavated channel.When we got here, the river bed under our feet slowly became wet.The light shines through, and you can see mud in the crevices of the cobblestones, as well as low moss plants.

Old Bi who was walking in front suddenly stopped, and he turned his head sideways with hesitant eyes.

"Did you hear anything?"

Everyone listened attentively, and it seemed that the sound of gurgling water came from a very far away place in the cave.As we go forward, the sound of water becomes more and more abundant: the sound of smooth flowing in the quiet bay, the sound of impacting on the rocks, the soft sound of splashing water, and the sound of dripping wet water above the head. The sound and the echo from the cave were intertwined, like a dense net, almost covering their hearing.

The air began to become humid, and the smell became more complicated.

Ming Xia blinked blankly in the darkness, and whispered to Nan Jiang next to him, "I didn't hear anything special, but I think the smell here is really bad."

When it comes to smell, everyone is aware of it.In the slightly fishy water vapor permeating the air, an inexplicable stench has been mixed in from no one knows when.

"This smell seems to have become stronger." Qingqiu frowned in disgust, "It wasn't so smelly just now."

Not far from them, something fell into the water with a splash.Immediately afterwards, like dumplings, something fell into the water one after another.

Qingqiu was still remembering where he had smelled this smell before, when Liu Enzheng in front of him scolded, "Light! Nine o'clock direction! What's the sound?!"

Ming Xia and Nan Jiang walked at the end, and the light of the emergency lights here could barely reach, so as soon as the lights flickered over, Ming Xia immediately felt a little bit hard to open his eyes.However, the strange sounds in his ears became clearer, and he heard rustling sounds coming from all directions, in the water, on the rock wall, and even on the top of the cave.

Ming Xia opened his eyes, and saw a piece of yellow-green light the size of a pea in the darkness sweeping in like a tide.

Ming Xia's scalp tingled, "Is it a mouse?!"

Nan Jiang was also startled, but quickly realized again.If Tang Xun's instrument displayed a bunch of yellow dots, and the yellow dots were particularly weak in brightness, it would indeed not attract everyone's special attention.There are many of them, and under normal circumstances, the animals will walk around them.

Tang Xun's voice came from the front, "There is no energy fluctuation, it's just an ordinary mouse. The instrument didn't alarm."

If it was an ordinary mouse, it would have been gone by now.However, not only did they not leave, but instead surrounded them from all directions, as if cautiously waiting for the best time to attack.

Qingqiu muttered softly, "...is it just a mouse..."

Just because it was an ordinary mouse, he didn't call the police in advance.Although he has never eaten the rats that grow in the damp river, he has eaten many bamboo rats before, and the bamboo rats are fatter than this kind of gray rats just by looking at their size... Uh, digressing.The key problem is that in Qingqiu's view, mice are a kind of food, and he never thought that these foods would attack them in turn.

Ming Xia looked up and saw countless mice clinging to each other on the rocks on the top of the cave. Perhaps they were afraid of the lights below. They dodged slightly as the lights moved, always staying above the lights. Make a roughly circular blank.

Ming Xia stared at the blank space for a while, and suspected that they were actually hiding from the Dragon Tongue Bow.

Nan Jiang leaned close to Ming Xia's ear and whispered, "There's something wrong with these mice. Look at their size and eyes... Ordinary mice don't look like this, not even frontier mice."

Ming Xia didn't think he had trypophobia, but it was the first time in his life that he saw so many rats, and he would feel disgusted by himself, so he naturally wouldn't look at them carefully.After being reminded by Nan Jiang, he realized that these mice were indeed different from the ones he had seen before.

First of all, they are relatively big, and all of them are very fat. Secondly, their coat colors are very strange, not the usual black, white and gray, but mottled grayish yellow.Nearly every mouse has ulcers on its body.I don't know if it's the reason, but they don't have the instinctive cautious fear when they see lights or encounter large animals. Instead, they have a kind of fierceness that is desperate after seeing the prey.

Ming Xia thought to himself, maybe it's not prey, but food.

With just such a distraction, the swarm of rats has already rushed forward.

As soon as Qingqiu sprayed out the fire, a group of mice would be burned to ashes, and the black shadows screeched and fled in all directions. However, when the fire was a little weaker, they quickly gathered and rushed up again tirelessly.Those who climbed on the top of the cave even jumped on them and bit them, as if they had forgotten their instinct of being afraid of light and people.

Ming Xia was panting and ran forward with Nan Jiang, and when he turned his head, he saw a mouse with festering flesh leaping towards him from mid-air, its fangs bared at the corners of its mouth seemed to be dyed thin in the flickering light. A thin layer of blood.

It moved so fast, Ming Xia didn't have time to dodge, and in the blink of an eye, it had already jumped on top of him, and then jumped out from the side of his shoulder in an extremely twisted posture.

Ming Xia's suspicion was once again confirmed.The mouse obviously changed its mind after jumping closer, so it tried its best to adjust its direction in mid-air to avoid jumping on him—the difference between him and others should be the dragon tongue bow .

Ming Xia observed carefully, and sure enough, the swarm of rats ran towards other people one after another, but none of them landed on him, and some even changed direction temporarily when they got very close to him.Occasionally, a few of them couldn't hold back their hands and feet, and quickly yanked their paws on him before jumping away in a hurry, as if he had radiation on him, and they would feel scared if they got close.

Ming Xia untied the bow bag and released the Dragon Tongue Bow.

The Dragon Tongue Bow emits a light white light in the dim cave. The soft light is not dazzling, but it seems to have some kind of mysterious magic power. No matter where it appears, the rats will quickly retreat from this place.

And in the place where the Dragon Tongue Bow can't radiate, the rats rush up one after another. Even with Qingqiu, a lighter that keeps spouting fire, the attack of the rats is still difficult to parry. All were scratched.

The space in the underground cave is limited, and the people are too dense. Qingqiu was afraid of hurting his own people, so he only dared to set fire in small groups.Even so, the firelight still suppresses the rats by nature.When encountering a fire, they will hide and wait for the fire to go out before jumping up.

Around them, the corpses of rats piled higher and higher. The stench of festering flesh and burning smell mixed together, making it suffocating. However, rats continued to pour out from every corner.

Li Youran tore off a mouse from its neck with a hiss, threw it on the ground forcefully, grabbed the collar and hurriedly wiped the blood on its neck, "I don't know if it's poisonous, damn it, it won't be carrying the plague."

Qingqiu dragged Li Youran's trousers back in his mouth, "Go to the back! You're in the way!"

Li Youran, "..."

The personnel retreated, and Qingqiu spewed out a big mouthful of fire.

The dense group of rats suddenly emptied out, and many rats with sparks on their fur squeaked and scurried wildly.Animals' instinct to be afraid of fire made the group of rats a little restless.But more mice stepped on the corpses of their companions and chased them from the water.