sacred tree
Not far away, Liu Muze pushed aside the grass that had grown to thigh height and walked towards a cliff. Ye Jingan saw a hole in the ground, not big enough for a person to jump down.
"I'll go down and take a look first, and then call you down." Liu Muzhe said.
"Well, Brother Liu, be careful." After Ye Jing'an and Qiu Zimu waited at the cave entrance for a while, they saw Liu Muzhe shaking the flashlight at them and saying that they could come down.
The space inside the cave is very small, and you have to hunch over to move forward.
"Is this the hole dug by that monster? It can't be some big rat spirit?" Ye Jing'an imagined the appearance of a bamboo rat in the mountains. It would be scary if the big rat jumped out from the front. He wouldn't have time to run with his waist bent, and there would be no place to hide. So he urged Brother Liu to leave quickly, as he always felt that this tunnel was not very safe.
After turning two corners in the tunnel, we entered another space.
"Hey, this place is the same as the mine we just entered." Qiu Zimu touched the stone walls on both sides and found the traces of rock excavation were the same.
Liu Muze led the two to the right. After a few steps, they could see a few bones on the ground, both large and small. They were the leg bones of some unknown animal. About two hundred meters away, an iron gate appeared before the three of them. The rusty iron gate had many obvious scratches on it, and compared to the outer facade, the inside looked even more dilapidated.
"That monster was just banging on the door here. Where is it hiding now?" Ye Jing'an shone the flashlight around but didn't see any obvious traces.
"Let's go in and take a look." Liu Muzhe asked Ye Jing'an to borrow Ye An's sword and walked in front.
"Brother Liu, you are so good at swordplay, you must have your own sword, right? Why have I never seen you take it out?" Ye Jing'an asked curiously.
"I'm too lazy to bring it." Liu Muzhe replied casually.
"Please bring it to me someday and let me take a look. I want to see what your sword looks like." Ye Jing'an said.
"I don't want to take it." Liu Muzhe said.
"Why? You always ask to borrow my sword, but you can't even let me see yours?" Ye Jing'an said angrily.
Liu Muzhe remained silent, thinking about how to fool him.
"Speak!" Ye Jing'an said.
"I lent it to someone else and they haven't returned it to me yet. I'll show it to you when I return it." Liu Muzhe said helplessly.
Ye Jingan smiled with satisfaction and went to the side to study the rocks in the mine: "What kind of mine is this?"
"I don't know. Aren't you good at geography? Who are you asking?" Qiu Zimu said.
"The rocks here aren't anything special, and I can't tell what kind of mine it is. I guess we need to go deeper." Ye Jing'an smiled with narrowed eyes, "Could it be a gold mine?"
"Stop daydreaming. There's a gold mine waiting for you," Qiu Zimu sneered.
"With this monster around, those mine owners would be more careful about their lives. Let's go quickly, maybe there's some precious ore waiting for us." Ye Jing'an took two big steps and walked to the same row with Liu Muze, "Right, Brother Liu."
"I don't know whether there is a gold mine or not, but the monster is waiting for us anyway." Liu Muzhe said lightly.
"You are here for me. You fight monsters and I dig treasures!" Ye Jing'an said with a smile.
Liu Muzhe glanced at him and drew his sword back.
"Brother Liu, don't be polite with me. You can use my sword as you like!" Ye Jing'an said.
Liu Muzhe suddenly had an idea that he didn't want to care about Ye Jingan's life or death. It was so tiring to take care of a child and not get angry!
"What was that look you gave me just now? Why were you walking so fast?" Ye Jing'an chased after him.
Ten minutes later, they reached the end of the tunnel. Excavation hadn't even begun here yet. Tool racks lay scattered on the ground, covered in a thick layer of dust. Ye Jing'an and Qiu Zimu suspected that the miners had encountered the monster when they reached this point, halted work, and sealed off the road, daring to dig further.
"Hey, that's not right." Ye Jing'an shone his flashlight on both sides of the mine tunnel and said, "I don't see any forks here. Where did the monster hide?"
"Maybe during the time when we were walking from the iron gate to the cave, he ran out of the cave again?" Qiu Zimu said.
"Go back." Liu Muzhe walked very slowly, stopping after every few steps to observe the walls around him.
When he reached the middle of the mine tunnel, Liu Muzhe stopped and waved the flashlight at the top of the tunnel. He hummed suspiciously and looked at it from several different angles.
"Take the sword." Liu Muzhe bent his knees and jumped, clinging to the rocks at the top of the mine with both hands.
"Brother Liu, your hand..." Qiu Zimu and Ye Jing'an widened their eyes in disbelief as they saw his hand directly inserted into the smooth stone.
Liu Muze pulled with both hands, and his upper body also entered the stone, as if it was cut off from the waist by the stone, with only his feet hanging in the air. After a while, his feet also went in.
Ye Jingan and Qiu Zimu stood there in a daze, starting to wonder if there was something wrong with their eyes or if there was something wrong with their brains.
"Come up." Liu Muzhe's voice came from the stone above.
"Ah? How are we going to get up here when there's nothing here?" Ye Jing'an asked.
"Put your hands here." Liu Muzhe stretched out his hands and patted them.
Ye Jing'an rubbed his eyes. He really didn't see any cracks there where he could grab a hand. But when he saw Liu Muze's hand appear out of thin air, he couldn't help but believe it was there. Determined to give it a try even if it meant breaking his fingers, he jumped up and actually grabbed the stone wall with both hands. When he looked up, he saw a stone slab.
"This is strange!" Ye Jing'an imitated Liu Muzhe's previous movements and did a pull-up with his eyes closed. He did not hit his head against the stone wall as he had imagined. When he opened his eyes, he saw another large space.
He climbed up and saw that the place he had just climbed up was a round stone cave. Looking down from above, Qiu Zimu was still standing there in a daze. Ye Jing'an waved his hand and asked Qiu Zimu if he could see him.
"I can't see, Ye Jing'an!" Qiu Zimu shouted, "Please help me, I can't get up."
"Tsk, why are you like a little girl, unable to do a single pull-up?" Ye Jingan pulled him up with a look of contempt.
"When doing pull-ups, you grab the bar. The stone slab is so thick, how can it be the same? I can't even cover it with my palm, how can I exert force?" Qiu Zimu said unconvinced.
Ye Jingan pinched Qiu Zimu's arm and said, "Look at your thin arms and legs, practice more!"
Qiu Zimu rolled his eyes and muttered, "What's so great about a muscular body? Gu Masters rely on technique, not brute force!"
"Come on, Brother Liu has gone ahead, hurry up." Ye Jing'an quickly followed and asked curiously, "Brother Liu, why can't we see the cave from below? What is this place?"
"It's just a trick. This is a monster's lair. Be careful." Liu Muzhe said.
The space here was vast, a large cavern, very damp, and from time to time one could hear the sound of dripping water, which even echoed in this empty space. The walls on both sides were made of a light green, translucent stone, with round grapes piled together like green grapes growing on the walls.
"This stone is so beautiful." Ye Jing'an exclaimed.
The green stone reflected faint blue spots. Looking up, I saw a blue-green fluorescent object on the cave ceiling in front of me. It looked like a blue tree canopy printed on the cave ceiling, or like a bright starry sky in the dark cave, adding a dreamy feeling to the cave.
"What is that?" Ye Jing'an asked, "Fireflies?"
"I don't know, let's go closer and take a look." Qiu Zimu ran over to take a look.
From the ceiling dangled numerous silk threads, of varying lengths, the longest about a meter long. Numerous tiny, glittering water droplets gathered on each section of the thread, countless tiny droplets hanging in mid-air. Each thread glowed a blue-green fluorescent light, with different strands exhibiting varying degrees of brightness. Like strings of transparent, shimmering beads, or perhaps even individual blue-glowing jellyfish, they floated quietly on the cave ceiling.
There are many small clusters of blue fluorescent bodies flashing on the rock wall. They look like some kind of mysterious creatures. The faint light created by these creatures seems to be in harmony with the starry sky outside, forming a beautiful starry sky map in this dark and dim cave, which is mysterious and beautiful.
Qiu Zimu said in a daze: "Is this... a fungus gnat?"
"What the hell?" Ye Jing'an said.
"Ahhh, there are fungus gnats here, oh my god!" Qiu Zimu was jumping around like crazy, "I found fungus gnats, hahahahahaha!"
"Stop howling. This is the monster's lair. Don't howl at anyone." Ye Jing'an covered his mouth.
Qiu Zimu tried his best to suppress the excitement in his heart and said to Ye Jingan: "I want to grab some to take back to my dad. I can't reach it, can you carry me on your back?"
Ye Jingan crossed his arms and said calmly, "No."
"Brother Liu..." Qiu Zimu looked at him pleadingly.
Liu Muze paused. Although he was an old man, he was still strong and could carry a half-grown child. However, he didn't like too much physical contact with others. The thought of Qiu Zimu pressing against him, with her legs probably wrapped around his waist, made him feel uncomfortable. Seeing Qiu Zimu's pitiful appearance, he hesitated and said, "Okay."
"Wait a minute!" Ye Jing'an grabbed Qiu Zimu's collar and said in an unhappy tone, "Brother Liu is wearing white clothes, don't let him get them dirty. Let me carry you."
Liu Muzhe secretly breathed a sigh of relief, glanced at Ye Jingan, and slightly raised the corners of his mouth.
Qiu Zimu automatically ignored Ye Jing'an's murderous glare, kicked him on the back, and used his insect net to scoop up fungus gnats from the cave ceiling. He pulled out three small breeding bottles and carefully placed the gnats in them, holding them tightly in his hands like treasures, looking at them with a silly smile, taking many photos, and shouting that he wanted to make his father envious.
Ye Jingan took a bottle and took a look. It was just a small worm. He didn't know why he was so interested in it. "Go, go, go, keep your big treasure!"
The further you go in, the narrower the space becomes. It is funnel-shaped overall, with the stone walls on both sides converging in front, leaving only a crack in the rock that only one person can squeeze through sideways.
After slowly passing through this crevice, the scene before them left them all stunned. In the very center of this fan-shaped area stood a tree, approximately two meters tall. Unlike any other tree, it was completely transparent. Running through its trunk was a blood-red tube as thick as an arm. It gradually tapered upwards, branching out to the crown above, much like human blood vessels. One could clearly see the blood flowing through it.
"It turns out that it really exists..." Liu Muzhe murmured in a low voice.
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