The entrance to the underground river of Miao Jiang Xian Gong.

After listening to Song Laosan's words, Lin Que said confidently, "This isn't my first time going into a tomb, so I'm definitely not nervous. I really did see something just now!"

Seeing Lin Que's appearance, I shone my flashlight into the rushing river. The river was so dark, as if it had been splashed with ink, that the flashlight could hardly penetrate it.

After searching for a while, I still couldn't find anything in the river. I asked Lin Que, "Are you sure it's a woman? Did you see her face?"

Lin Que shook her head: "No, I just saw a big, dark thing float past under the boat. It looked very ethereal, like a woman's hair. To be precise, it didn't float, but swam, because the hair was moving against the current."

"Don't scare yourself. What you see is probably just seaweed or moss. Although this is an underground river, it's possible that it connects to ponds or rivers on the surface. It's not impossible that some things in the water could be swept underground by the whirlpool."

I shone my flashlight into the water again to make sure there was nothing there. I waved to everyone and said, "Alright, everyone, board the boat and get ready to set off. Be careful along the way. The river ahead is narrow, so don't move around too much or you might fall in and be swept away by the current."

Seeing that everyone else had moved, Lin Que squatted by the river and looked for a long time. After finding that there was really nothing unusual down below, he got on the boat.

As the boat behind us slowly released the rope, our two assault boats began to move along the river.

Leaving the platform, we felt like we were entering a pipe. The stones on both sides had been polished smooth by the water flow, but the stones overhead were sharp and angular, so we had to keep our bodies low to avoid bumping our heads.

The river narrowed as we went, soon becoming about the same width as our rubber boat, with only about ten centimeters of space on each side.

I lay on the bow of the boat in front of me, holding a two-meter-long retractable multi-purpose steel pipe, constantly probing the water ahead to prevent underwater rocks from puncturing the rubber boat.

Song Laosan lay down beside me, shining his flashlight around the surroundings: "This passage is getting narrower and narrower. If it continues to narrow and gets stuck in the rubber boat, that will be troublesome."

"Hopefully this won't happen, but if it does, then we have no other choice but to deflate the rubber boat."

Qu Ruilin paused for a moment: "But after the rubber boat is deflated, its load-bearing capacity will also decrease. At that time, everyone can only use it as a swimming ring and hold onto it to swim."

"Bang!"

Just as Qu Ruilin was speaking, the steel pipe in my hand suddenly swung back and hit my chest.

Lin Que saw me lean back and instinctively pressed down on my head to prevent me from hitting the rock above me: "Brother, are you alright?"

"fine!"

I raised the stick, turned around and shouted, "Manjing, pull in the rope!"

As Manjing tightened the rope, our two boats stopped in place and began to sway from side to side, constantly bumping against the cave walls on both sides. Song Laosan moved his body and braced his legs against the wall to stabilize the boats: "Xiao Duan, what happened? Why did we stop the boats?"

"Splash!"

I stirred the water with the steel pipe and turned to shout, "There's something in this water. When we walked through before, there was nothing in the river, but there are obstacles here. Judging from the feel, there should be spears stuck in the water."

"This river is so rapid, with such a swift current, how could there still be spears in it?"

Song Laosan was somewhat surprised: "A lot?"

I swept the steel pipe across the water, then reached into the water and felt around: "There are quite a few of them, and they're all lined up together. They must be hidden weapons placed in the water."

I reached into the water and quickly grabbed a tilted cylinder. I shook it and then pulled it out of the water.

What I have in my hand is a cone-shaped spike with conical patterns on it, looking like a large screw.

Lin Que saw what I was holding and leaned over to take a look: "Brother, this doesn't look like cast iron. It looks more like a stone sculpture."

I turned the cone in my hand around to make sure it was hollow, and shook my head, saying, "This thing is not a stone carving, but a hornstone."

"That's still stone! Come to think of it, with the ancient people's casting technology, they certainly couldn't make stainless steel. Using stone to make concealed weapons is not a problem, but stone that has been soaked in flowing water for many years should be worn away, right? Isn't there an idiom called 'constant dripping wears away a stone'? How come their stone hasn't been washed away?"

"Cornstones are fossils that resemble the horns of cows or sheep. They are generally straight, but some are curved or coiled. These creatures were the dominant marine predators during the Ordovician period, more than 400 million years ago! As hornstones develop, the diameter of their shells gradually increases. As their bodies grow, they move forward and secrete calcium from the shell, eventually attaching to the front of the shell to form a living chamber. They are also very hard."

Old Song took the "spear" from my hand and glanced at it: "The scientific name of this thing is Sinian ceratops, which is a kind of fossil produced in our country. It is also circulated in the antique market. Because the production is high and it has not been hyped up, the price is not very high."

I reached into the water and pulled out a broken rock: "There are quite a few of these in the river here, but many of them are broken."

Qu Ruilin reached into the water and pulled out a horn stone. He examined the broken end and then looked at the horn stone in my hand: "Both of our horn stones are broken, but the broken end of yours has been smoothed by the water, while the broken end of this one in my hand is still very sharp, which means that the damage was not long ago. It should have been left by Duan Jinyan and the others when they passed through!"

I glanced at what Qu Ruilin was holding and shouted to the back, "Manjing, slowly lower the rope. Everyone lend a hand and clear the rocks in the water. Be careful not to cut your hands!"

As Manjing slowly lowered the rope, we all leaned out and began to search for the horn stones in the water. The bottoms of these horn stones that were dug out all showed signs of wear, which must have meant that grooves were pre-reserved in the riverbed.

In a short while, I had pulled out several horn stones. When I reached in again, I felt there was nothing left in the water. I raised the steel pipe and stirred the water in front of me: "The horn stones have been mostly removed. Everyone check again. If there are no problems, we can increase the speed!"

"ah!!"

Before I could finish speaking, a member of the Wei family who was scooping up cornerstones screamed, and a large patch of water beneath him turned red.