Endless route

Chapter 135 42. Deep into the Rift and the Tongueless Thing [2-in-1]

Everyone continued to explore forward, moving slowly along the winding passage, wiping the ice walls around them at intervals to see if there were any changes in the ice layers on the left and right.

The ice beneath my feet turned downhill.

But the slope is very small, just enough for people to feel it, and the ice sled cannot slide down automatically.

"We have walked two kilometers, and the angle is getting smaller and smaller." The man from the rescue team in white said.

"It should be almost time to cross."

Hu Ruihua looked to his right hand. They were hundreds of meters away from the impurity layer just now, but now they are only more than a hundred meters away. It is estimated that they will intersect in a short distance.

Whether it is another way or not, you will know if you go further, and there is not much point in guessing now.

Zheng Yun paid attention to several data.

They were now two kilometers deep into the crevasse, but the direction they were heading was still almost due north.

This means that although this ice crevasse is winding and winding, it is overall straight without much difference.

Look up to the top of your head.

The 'sandwich' at the top of the ice crevasse is becoming more and more obvious. It is so dark that a flashlight cannot shine through. I don't know how deep it is. I only know that it is about the height of a person and can allow people to walk.

Still hard to tell.

When cracks form naturally, they originally represent collision or division. The cracks are A-shaped, but it is not completely impossible to form a T-shaped interlayer at the top.

The most important thing is the oxygen concentration. Bai Yi and the others have brought oxygen detectors, but it seems that the oxygen inside has not changed much and is higher than the earth.

This clue may prove that this place is not the same place as the previous ancient ship chain.

Everyone continued walking deeper.

The sound of footsteps on the ice echoed around, the sound of the ice sled sliding on the ice was a bit harsh, and the ice cracks were so quiet that even their breathing could be heard clearly.

Fortunately, there is no shortage of light sources, otherwise ordinary people may develop phobias when walking in such a narrow environment.

"It's already 2.5 kilometers." The captain in white would report their progress every once in a while.

Snap.

Huzi, who was walking at the front, suddenly slipped and almost fell to the ground. He was dancing and walking on the ice, and it took him two or three seconds to stabilize his body.

"what happened?"

Hu Ruihua went up immediately.

Everyone was startled and quickly scanned the ground with flashlights, but there was only an obvious car mark on the ice under Huzi's feet, which was left by the scientific expedition team's car.

"I slipped."

Huzi scratched his head, readjusted the rope on his back, and looked around on the ground with confusion on his face.

After searching to no avail, everyone moved forward cautiously again, but they always felt that there was something slightly wrong with these cracks, which were exactly the same as when they first came in.

"What is the purpose of the scientific expedition team driving the car in? Are they so brave?" Hu Ruihua looked at Zheng Yun. There were still car marks on the ground after they had walked so far.

"not sure."

Zheng Yun shook his head. The only information he had now was that the archaeological team burned the snowmobile twenty years ago.

We walked another five hundred meters.

The unchanging cracks finally changed.

They saw a huge ice room in front, about 600 square meters, and it was divided into two branches, one facing the left front and the other facing the rear.

Everyone walked into it cautiously. Huzi immediately raised the flashlight and looked at the dome of the ice room.

Uneven, but no ice picks.

Ji Dao also looked up. He was mainly looking at what he thought was the 'city wall corridor'. As a result, he found that the corridor went deeper with the fork in front of him on the left.

Hu Ruihua walked to the right and glanced back with the flashlight. It turned out to be an ice crevasse, and the crack passage was actually wider than the way they came from.

"Shall we go forward?"

Huzi lowered his head and looked at the car mark on the ground. The car mark was facing the left front, but the passage in the left front was obviously shorter.

"Let's go. This icehouse only has car prints and some marks of equipment. The scientific expedition team should have stopped here." Hu Ruihua walked around and concluded.

"What can you hear?"

Zheng Yun turned to look at Jidao.

Ji Dao took a deep breath and frowned, walking to the intersection of the two roads, waving his hands to silence the others, and then listened carefully.

After a while.

Jidao looked at Zheng Yun: "The sound that sounded like human voices was cut off, but the sound of banging on the ice wall was still there. It came from the passage on the left front, but strangely, there were also some sounds in the fork in the back. , can’t hear clearly.”

"Where's the sound of water? Is it far away?"

Zheng Yun nodded and asked, as long as there is running water, it means that the ice structure is unstable, and they need to give advance warning.

"Very far." Ji Dao nodded.

Everyone stopped talking and simply rested in the ice room. They continued on the road and started along the fork in front of them on the left. This time they walked two kilometers in one breath and walked into another ice room.

The ice room was obviously larger, and there were several forked roads, like a naturally formed maze of cracks. There were no rules. Fortunately, they did not need to choose. The goal was fixed and they only needed to follow the car marks on the ground.

"The situation is not right. We have penetrated very deep into the iceberg, but the altitude has not dropped much. The current altitude is 330 meters and has only dropped 70 meters."

The white-coated captain spoke.

As soon as he finished speaking, Huzi, who was walking in front, exclaimed, turned around and said to Hu Ruihua and Zheng Yun: "There is a cliff in front of you on the right! It's very deep and pitch black."

Everyone ran over quickly.

After viewing it, everyone was shocked.

Because the cliff Huzi mentioned was not on their road, but at the foot of their right hand side. Huzi saw it through the iceberg, and it was pitch black over there.

Flashlights flashed over at the same time.

This cliff also faces north and south, about three to four hundred meters away from them. A strong flashlight can shine directly over it. The light beam penetrates the ice and shines into the cliff.

Very deep.

Unfathomable.

The length is also unknown.

It was like an underground rift. It was not a crack at all. It was more than twenty meters wide and became wider as it went downwards. It looked dark and had a strange smell.

"Fake, this place is too complicated. Why is there such an ice crack valley down there?" The captain in white screamed strangely.

"I'm a little dizzy." Huzi covered his forehead. He felt like he was stepping on glass. Although the cliff was on the right, he still felt like he would fall in.

"Perhaps the goal of the scientific expedition team is this rift valley?" Hu Ruihua was also rarely worried.

"Keep moving forward, our progress is a bit slow." Zheng Yun sighed silently and asked everyone to speed up.

If nothing else goes wrong, the rift valley below is where the archaeological team was killed twenty years ago. The place where they were finally trapped may have a river connected to Broken Ice Lake.

Then everyone speeded up and encountered several ice houses and forked roads on the way. They all followed the car tracks.

After accumulating about ten kilometers, the vision suddenly opened up, a gap appeared in the crack, and the aurora came in.

Everyone quickly ran to the gap.

But what is unexpected is.

Outside this gap is actually an open-air ice valley, with towering and steep icebergs in all directions. There is no way out, but the area is very large, with a length of thousands of meters.

On the edge of the gap.

They saw snowmobiles, but there were only two of them, and they couldn't tell whether they belonged to the rescue team or the scientific expedition team.

"no one."

Hu Ruihua swept around and said.

Zheng Yun also looked around. This ice valley was very similar to the place where the car was burned in the video. The environment was somewhat similar, but it didn't seem to be the same. Maybe there was a similar gap deep down.

"This place is very nice. How many cars can I ask them to bring in?" Hu Ruihua turned back and looked at Zheng Yun.

"Okay." Zheng Yun nodded.

By driving the snowmobile here, even if they encounter any special circumstances, they can return here to get supplies and support, which is more convenient and faster than the ice valley ten kilometers away.

After some discussion, two people from the white-coated rescue team went back. They would drive two cars in and set up camp.

Others moved on.

Hu Ruihua took a notebook and wrote down all the forks and gaps along the way. He said to Zheng Yun: "We have deviated from the direction of Broken Ice Lake. We are still four kilometers away from Broken Ice Lake, and the altitude difference is more than 200 meters." rice."

"It seems like this is still a long way to go."

Zheng Yun nodded. They probably had to go around this place for a long time, and they would be able to get around it in a while.

After reaching this conclusion.

Everyone continued to move forward quickly along the car tracks on the ground, almost running. After a few kilometers deeper, the situation finally changed again, and the passage became obviously much steeper.

In the following section of the road, their altitude dropped by a full hundred meters, but there were two forked roads in front of them, and on both forked roads there were car prints of the scientific expedition team.

The real maze begins.

Zheng Yun looked back at Ji Dao. From now on, it was up to him. If he could make the right choice, he would make the right choice. If he made the wrong choice, he would be in vain.

"There's a voice on the right."

Noriichi pointed to the fork in front of him on the right.

Everyone did not hesitate and chose the right front. This road was heading northwest. In theory, it was indeed closer to Broken Ice Lake. However, not far away, the crack suddenly turned around.

A very sharp triangular ice chamber caused the road to turn around and head towards the southwest direction from where it came.

"You're going to fool me." Huzi had a headache.

"No wonder they drive." Hu Ruihua also nodded. After walking so far, their physical strength was also exhausted.

"The most incredible thing is that there is no car now. Where did they drive the car? How deep is it here? Is the ice-cracked lake also a gap?"

The captain in white also complained repeatedly.

But there was no other way. They could only continue forward, letting Ji Dao lead the way with his voice, and kept moving up and down in circles in this maze-like ice crevasse.

until the rope is exhausted.

Hu Ruihua and the others' ropes have long been gone.

However, the white rescue team brought twenty bundles of ropes and connected them one by one. The cumulative length reached 20,000 meters, but they were still used up.

During this period.

They encountered another gap. Outside the gap was a very small open-air ice valley. It was the Death Valley that no one could reach. They could not get out from inside, nor could they enter from the outside.

The complexity of this place is unbelievable. It completely stuns people. It is even difficult to understand. How can such a large crack running through the glacier mountains remain stable?

Another breath and a long walk.

They finally found some clues and found a vehicle abandoned by the scientific expedition team in a small gap.

Four cars in total.

No one.

But there are traces of a distress gun on the ground, which means someone fired a gun here some time ago and sent out a distress signal.

"There's something wrong with this car. All the oil has been drained." Hu Ruihua walked around the car and discovered something unusual.

"No gas?" Zheng Yun frowned.

This is completely opposite to the burning cars of twenty years ago.

"There is a gap on the opposite side." The captain in white had sharp eyes and shined his flashlight into a dark corner, revealing a gap on the opposite side, which was also a crevasse passage.

They walked over immediately.

As soon as they took a glance, everyone couldn't help but exclaimed, because there was actually a narrow path with a width of only one meter under their feet, hanging in the air on the ice wall of an ice chasm valley.

Flashlight swept down.

This rift valley is at least 200 meters deep. There is running water at the bottom. The river surface is more than 90 meters above sea level. It is likely that it goes down to the deepest continental rock layer of this glacial mountain range.

This is what they saw at the beginning, the unfathomable ice chasm. After circling for a long time, they still entered it, and the scientific expedition team was inside.

There are obvious marks on the ground.

And Ji Dao heard the sound immediately. There was an obvious abnormal noise in the north of the rift valley.

"Let's take a rest."

Zheng Yun looked back and glanced around. The ghost general was in good physical condition and his face was quite rosy, so he should be fine.

"Eat a meal before leaving." Huzi turned around and sat on the ground in the ice valley, taking out food from his backpack and preparing to cook.

"Looking at the map, it seems that this place is getting further away from the Ice Cracking Lake." Hu Ruihua took out his notebook and sighed.

Everyone felt tired, so they took out the gas stove to boil water, cooked some hot soup and pasta, and ate together without saying a few words, and then sat on the ground to rest.

Then they began to discuss plans.

This rift canyon is difficult to walk. The one-meter width requires professional preparation. You must find a place to lay ice spikes.

Woohoo...

at this time.

There was a sudden sound in the rift valley.

Everyone heard the sound, but none of them heard it clearly. They only felt that the sound was like the sound of wind or the howling of some kind of animal. It was very abrupt and strange.

Everyone's backs trembled when they heard this.

Huzi and the others even drew their guns directly, pointed their flashlights in the direction of the rift valley, and stared into the darkness with their guns in hand.

Zheng Yun's expression was solemn. He couldn't tell what the sound was, but it was definitely not normal. He subconsciously looked back at Ji Dao, only to see that the latter also had a strange expression.

"What's wrong?"

Zheng Yun was startled.

Jidao's face was full of disbelief at this time, as if he didn't believe that he heard such a sound here, and he froze in place. Zheng Yun asked him and he calmed down, then stretched out a few fingers and pointed at the crack. Direction:

"Master Yun, this is a human barking, but this is not a normal person, it is more like a tongueless thing in the records."

“What is a tongueless thing?”

Zheng Yun's scalp went numb and he asked quickly.

Hu Ruihua and Hu Zi also looked back at Jidao, with goosebumps all over their bodies, and stared at Jidao nervously.

"There are three taboo living creatures recorded in the ancient books of Triton. Once these three living creatures are born, they must be notified immediately. Triton will use all their resources to destroy and slaughter them at all costs."

"The tongueless thing is one of them. It should be regarded as a kind of monster. It looks somewhat similar to humans, but it has no tongue and can only make this whining sound."