The end of the world: mountain and sea disasters

The appearance of Zhong Ling's dirty blood last night forced Yu Ke to evacuate with the wind chime, and finally found a place to rest outside the Yanling District.

Early the next morning, Yu Ke continued to act.

Passing through the dense jungle, we reached the edge of a cliff and looked ahead.

The orange-red morning glow filled the dark blue sky, and the sun had just risen.

Yanling District is located at the junction of Jinghu Forest and mountains.

The overall environment belongs to the combination of these two areas, forming an extremely unique sandstone peak forest landform.

Towering rock pillars covered with lush vegetation can be seen everywhere. Due to the influence of various forces, they often show an angular and straight appearance. Coupled with the environmental changes in the Cataclysm Era, their heights often exceed five or six hundred meters. , thousands of meters are also very common.

Standing at Yu Ke's current position, the rock pillars in his field of vision are like "tall buildings" in nature, scattered throughout the jungle.

Beyond the rock ridge area is the boundary of the mountains adjacent to Jinghu Forest. At this time, the light is not bright enough. Looking from a distance, you can only see undulating gray lines, like an ink painting spread on the horizon.

He turned on his watch to check the message that had just been sent. The Disaster Prevention Bureau had begun satellite monitoring of the Banyan Tree District, and asked Yu Ke if he had noticed anything unusual and if he needed to send anyone over for support.

A simple reply asked them to keep monitoring, and Yu Ke entered the rock ridge area under the guidance of the forest spirit.

The complex terrain could not stop Yu Ke. It took nearly an hour to reach the mineral vein area found by the forest spirit.

Of course, just because you find it doesn’t mean you can get in immediately.

Standing on the cliff on the shore, Yu Ke looked down at the rushing Jinghu Lake tributary below, with his hands on his hips, feeling helpless for a moment.

I don’t know how many years have passed, but the terrain of the Yanling area has already undergone drastic changes.

Even the temple and underground palace were buried in the valley, not to mention the mines that were originally dug.

The only good news is that the vein is not under the river, but inside the cliff opposite Yu Ke. To be precise, it is somewhere underground.

With the current ability of the forest spirit, all it can achieve is a rough positioning, and it is difficult to confirm the precise coordinates of the mineral veins.

"How should I get in? I can't let the Disaster Prevention Bureau airdrop an excavator now, right?"

Although he had expected this embarrassing situation, Yu Ke still felt his scalp was numb when he actually faced this situation. After finally getting here, he could not turn around and go back, so he asked again,

"The reliefs on the surface of the stone pillars that sealed the Birdman show that they guided humans to find the mineral veins. The subsequent mining work was done by humans. In this case, there must be a large enough space and mine tunnels in the mineral veins. Can you find the mine tunnel closest to the surface? ?”

Yu Ke did not have the ability to drill holes into the ground, so he had to rely on other means to enter the inner space of the mineral veins.

Finding the nearest mine tunnel is the most convenient way. Then as long as you move along the mine tunnel, you can always enter the inside of the vein.

"There is a better way. There are ferocious beasts here that are good at digging. Look at the rock wall in front of you."

The forest spirit first detected the approximate location of the mineral vein, and obviously knew the situation here, and still guided Yu Ke here. It was obvious that he had already thought of a way to deal with it.

Looking in the direction indicated by the dark green fluorescent light, Yu Ke discovered that there were a large number of caves about two meters in diameter between the cliffs on one side of the river, and there were many lumps of gray-brown mud outside.

Compared with excavating machines that require professional and technical personnel to operate, this purely natural "hole drilling machine" is undoubtedly easier to use.

Since he had already found the hiding place of the other party, there was no need for Yu Ke to set up a special bait to lure the beast out this time. The forest spirit turned into a dark green fluorescent mass and went straight across the river and into the cave between the cliffs.

Yu Ke sat on the bank of the river, taking out a pack of snacks from the mark, admiring the surrounding morning scenery while waiting for the forest spirit to return.

About five minutes later, Yu Ke felt a faint vibration coming from the cave in front of him. The wind chime that was ravaging a wild flower beside him also suddenly lowered his body and let out a menacing roar.

At the entrance of the hole, some gravel flew out along with dust, and then a worm head with a diameter of about two meters emerged from it, covered with gray mucus and dust.

At first glance, it looked like an earthworm, but the next second the front of its head suddenly cracked into several forked ferocious mouthparts, filled with corrosive liquid and spewed out from it. This should be the key to allowing it to travel freely through the land. .

The length of this guy is also quite exaggerated. Even though his torso is nearly ten meters outside the cave, he can still raise his upper body like a cobra and twist towards Yu Ke, causing the latter to frown subconsciously.

His own perception told Yu Ke that the long insect in front of him looked scary, but its actual combat power was quite average.

Forest spirits that gradually regain some of their divine power can communicate with ferocious beasts.

Especially this kind of guy whose brain and mouthparts grow together, and who doesn't look very smart at first glance, doesn't even need to communicate, and it's not too difficult to directly control its actions.

The worm's forked mouth opened and closed one after another, shaking its head to signal Yu Ke to follow, and then turned around and drilled into another cave on the lower right.

With the full control of the forest spirit, the efficiency of this "tool bug" is faster than that of Yu Ke's temporary ground digging machine.

When the worm's body completely entered the cave, Yu Ke followed decisively with the wind chime.

What follows is a journey that is similar to the journey to the secret realm of the catacombs, except that it was vertically downward at the time, and this time it was tilted. There was no need to worry about suddenly missing the mark. There was a forest spirit leading the way, and Yu Ke did not have to worry about losing his way.

I won’t go into details about the process. I used my watch to time it. After walking in the cave for about half an hour, there was a sound of falling rocks in front of me. Not surprisingly, it must have been that the worms had dug through the rock layer leading to the inner space of the mineral vein.

Adjust the output power of the mask light, and the two beams penetrate the smoke-filled cave to illuminate the farther area.

The worm's tail disappeared, and the wind chime jumped out first. Although it is still in its infancy, the transformation of natural energy and the teachings of the Shadow Moon Leopard have given it initial combat power, which is enough to cope with many situations.

After walking forward for another twenty meters, Yu Ke finally reached the end of the temporarily opened passage. The will of the forest spirit that had escaped from the worm returned again, telling him that the cave in the mine was ahead.

Yu Ke stood at the edge of the cave entrance, trying to see clearly what was ahead with the help of his helmet's light.

However, the size of the cave within this vein undoubtedly exceeded his expectations, and the area that the light could illuminate was still dark.

The worm's first goal when digging through the rock formations is to enter the cave. It is impossible to dig in circles to reach the bottom of the underground cave first. Therefore, when Yu Ke looked down, he saw the same darkness.

This is enough to prove that he is currently in the middle level of the entire mine cave with a high probability.

In order to confirm the specific situation around him, Yu Ke took out the black thorn longbow, raised his hand and shot a bright arrow forward.

After the arrow flew more than ten meters, the mechanism was activated, and a dazzling white light suddenly bloomed inside the cave.

Arrows that released strong light flew over the cave, briefly dispelling the darkness and allowing Yu Ke to have a panoramic view of the situation everywhere.

It turned out that his guess was correct.

The size of the cave is huge. Although it is not comparable to the secret caves discovered not long ago, it should be about the size of five football fields. The overall size is like a "back".

The central area is a platform standing inside the cave. Through the light, you can barely see that there are many strange things on it. It is most likely the area where the miners live and work.

In the direction of this platform facing Yu Ke's position, there is a stone bridge that can allow two cars to run parallel.

The ore that was excavated and smelted back then should have been transported to the outside world through this bridge and used to cast bronze tripods to suppress the beast tide.

Yu Ke couldn't wait to check the situation on that platform and search for any clues that might be left behind.

The probe took a look at the situation below. Yu Ke was now about ten meters away from the stone bridge vertically. Before that, he might have had to find a way to climb down the rock wall with a dagger and a tomahawk.

Now that the upgraded forest mark is with me, things are much simpler.

Take out a few seeds from the imprinted space and throw them under your feet, inject some natural energy, and thick and long roots will immediately penetrate into the rock formations, and form a platform in the empty space outside the cave that is large enough to accommodate Yu Ke and Feng Chime, carrying one person A leopard extends downward.

While landing, Yu Ke took out a camping searchlight and observed the surrounding rock walls.

Sure enough, some traces of the plank road can be clearly seen on the nearby rock wall. The miners worked here before, but unfortunately they could not find the kind of ore used to cast the bronze tripod.

The vines did not disappear after sending Yu Ke and the wind chime to the stone bridge, but remained connected.

So that you can return along the original path after exploring this area later.

Yu Ke raised his foot and stepped on the bridge several times. He was surprised to find that the bridge was still very strong and showed no signs of collapse. He couldn't help but walk to the edge of the bridge and scanned the bottom of the bridge twice with a searchlight.

What surprised him was that underneath the stone bridge was a completely solid rock wall instead of the stone pillars he imagined. There were also dark abyss on both sides of the rock wall that even searchlights could not penetrate.

You must know that although the searchlight used by Yu Ke is ordinary, the lighting distance is about two hundred meters.

This means that the abyss on both sides of the stone bridge must be deeper than this lighting distance. More importantly, judging from the state of the rock formations at the bottom of the stone bridge, the abyss is most likely dug out by people rather than naturally formed. Hollow in the ground.

Based on the conditions shown in the mural reliefs, how long did it take those people to dig out a cavity of this size using the most primitive manuscripts?

ten years? Twenty years? Or

Full of doubts, Yu Ke crossed the stone bridge, stepped onto the platform, waved his hand and sprinkled a handful of seeds forward.

The range that the searchlight can illuminate is limited, and the dark environment makes it difficult for Yu Ke to explore this area, so he might as well do it in one step.

Natural energy can catalyze plants and their seeds, which naturally include the lantern flowers in the temple's underground palace.

In just a few seconds, more than a dozen lantern flowers emerged from the ground on various parts of the platform. The blooming flowers at the top released a faint blue light, lighting up the entire platform.

Looking at the platform up close, Yu Ke couldn't help but frown under his helmet.

The first thing he saw were several large smelting blast furnaces in the center of the platform. They were shaped like trumpets with the tips pointed downward. After years of erosion, the surface conditions could no longer be seen clearly, and they were just vague shapes.

Surrounding these blast furnaces are several hills of dark ore, which should be ore that has not yet been smelted.

Immediately afterwards, Yu Ke placed a huge bronze bell on the right side of these blast furnaces, hanging on a shelf also made of bronze. Compared with several blast furnaces, it still maintained its original state, and might be able to be rung.

His eyes turned to the more peripheral areas, and the pupils of his eyes contracted slightly.

Generally speaking, miners working deep in the mines should have some auxiliary buildings, like the stone houses for giants in the temple underground palace, or tables and chairs for short rest.

However, what Yu Ke saw on the outer edge of this platform were rows of large bronze coffins neatly arranged.

These coffins had no lids and were placed around the platform. Yu Ke roughly estimated the number, more than 300!

Bending down and grabbing a fist-sized piece of ore from the ground, Yu Ke scraped the black ash on its surface with a dragon tooth dagger while walking towards these bronze coffins. The more he thought about it, the more he felt something was wrong.

Not building houses, tables and chairs in the mine, it would be fine. Maybe the miners were all slaves and didn't deserve such treatment.

How could they put coffins next to the blast furnace?

Not to mention taking up space, are they going to let the miners rest inside, or are they using this to intimidate them? If anyone doesn't work hard, will they be immediately sent to lie in a coffin and be executed?

This is a bronze coffin, not small in size. Each one is nearly two meters and three meters long and about one meter wide. If it is moved outside, it will definitely be a treasure that can be sent to a museum!

Is its value not as good as a shed built with wood?

It is too extravagant to say that it is used as a coffin to collect the bodies of miners after death?

Standing next to the nearest bronze coffin, Yu Ke stretched out his hand to brush the edge of the coffin, and cast his eyes into it. What he saw was not the expected bones, but the gloomy soil block that filled half of the coffin.

Walking around quickly, he found that all the coffins were covered with soil, and there was nothing else.

There were no bones or burial objects, only soil in blocks.

Even if the body weathered into dust and accumulated inside, would the amount be so large?

Such a weird arrangement made Yu Ke's back cold.

The dragon tooth dagger in his hand cut a hard object. Yu Ke looked down and peeled off the dust. He found that the inside of the ore was a dark blue substance.

So he carefully observed the ore at hand, preparing to find out its origin by checking for leaks and filling in the gaps.

But at this moment, somewhere in the silent cave platform, there was a rustling sound.

Yu Ke keenly caught the sound, his expression suddenly became nervous, and he turned to look in the direction of the sound. The Leviathan Axe was already in his hand.

Who is there?

His eyes wandered around the bronze bell that made the sound, and finally focused on the bronze frame where it was hung.