83 pattern
Is it blood?
After entering the cave, the surrounding light became a little darker than before.
The men exploring the way ahead brightened their flashlights again and moved slowly forward along the stone wall. There were no steps under their feet, but a long and deep dirt road winding downwards, and no one knew where it led.
There was nothing noteworthy around, and no fork in the road. The crowd did not stop and kept walking and walking, and they didn't know how long they walked.
"Why is it so deep?" The group had barely rested since morning. They finally reached their destination, only to have to keep going endlessly. The leader, a man named Guaizi, began to complain, "When will this end?"
"Stop talking so much nonsense." Ah Hai glanced back at the one-eyed man and whispered, "Just keep going. Don't upset Brother Lu."
"Oh." The beggar shook his head, helplessly gritted his teeth and continued to persevere.
They turned the next corner and intuitively felt that the passage here seemed wider than the previous one. However, when they shone the flashlight forward, they found that something densely packed and tangled was blocking their view.
——It’s a tree root.
Countless thick and hard tree roots were intertwined together, almost blocking the way forward. They should be part of the giant tree above. They were dark in color, black and brown, and looked very scary.
"Oh my god!" the kidnapper exclaimed. "How can we continue to move forward?"
"Get up and chop them with machetes." The one-eyed man frowned and ordered the others to go forward and clear the tree roots. No one dared to delay and quickly did as they were told, taking out their machetes.
The crook who was closest to the tree roots was the fastest one. He tilted his head to hold the flashlight, held a knife in one hand, and stretched forward with the other hand, hoping to grope to find the thinner part of the tree roots so that it would be easier to start.
But the moment he touched the roots of the tree, suddenly some liquid sprayed onto his hand in a parabolic arc. Suddenly a "hissing" sound was heard on his skin, and the liquid was quickly corroding his flesh!
The kidnapper was stunned for a moment, then he realized that there was a sharp pain, which made him open his mouth and wail loudly: "It hurts, it hurts, help me, it hurts so much!"
"What's wrong?!"
"What happened?!"
A crowd gathered around in panic. They had no idea what had happened. They only saw the beggar wailing in pain with his bloody right hand raised. It had only been a short while, but the liquid had corroded and penetrated his bones. His flesh and finger bones were like a pool of black, smelly mud, falling down his body with crackling sounds.
"Hurry, where's the water, where's the water?" In order to prevent the liquid from continuing to corrode, Ah Hai hurriedly took the kettle from everyone's hands, poured bottle of water into it, and washed the beggar with treacherous hands.
The beggar was in so much pain that cold sweat broke out, his body was convulsing unconsciously, and he almost fainted. Fortunately, the flushing was effective, at least the remaining half of his palm was saved. The one-eyed man took out the bandages and potion with a dark face and bandaged him himself.
"Thank you, Brother Lu..." The beggar gasped and said tremblingly.
After what happened just now, no one dared to approach those tree roots anymore: "What's going on?"
"I don't know." The kidnapper said weakly, "I just touched the roots of the tree, and then I was inexplicably attacked by a liquid."
"Could it be that the roots of this tree are poisonous?" Ah Hai asked with a grim face.
No one can tell.
After a while, Qi Qiuxue lowered her eyes and picked up the flashlight that Crutcher had dropped on the ground. She adjusted the light to the brightest and shone it forward again.
"Be careful, Axue." Li Yiqing reminded her worriedly.
"It's okay." Qi Qiuxue said, walking forward silently. Just now, Ah Hai and Guaizi stood in front of the tree roots for so long without any harm, and were attacked only when they touched the roots. It seems that the secretion of liquid is subject to conditional restrictions. It should be fine if they don't touch the roots and just watch from a distance.
But Qi Qiuxue didn't dare to get too close. She stopped at a safe distance, used her backpack to protect her exposed skin, lowered her eyes, picked up a stone and threw it over.
"Pa", the stone hit the tree root, making a dull sound.
Everyone held their breath and watched by the light of the flashlight to see what would happen next.
The atmosphere was quiet for a brief moment, as if nothing had happened, but in the next second, several huge black insects suddenly crawled out from the roots of the tree. Their backs were hard and smooth shells, and there were countless legs growing on both sides of their bodies. They moved very fast and gathered together in a short while, spraying venom desperately at the places where the stones had hit.
This kind of scene is extremely unfriendly to people with trypophobia.
Liu Ge's scalp suddenly numbed with disgust when he saw this. He unconsciously took a few steps back, rubbing his arms vigorously with his hands, "How disgusting."
"Axue, come back soon." Li Yiqing quickly grabbed Qi Qiuxue's hand and pulled her back. After a few seconds, the insects hid back in the tree roots, and everything returned to silence, as if nothing had happened.
"Brother Lu, what should we do?" Ah Hai looked over with a mournful look on his face. "With these bugs messing around here, we can't get through at all."
"Burn them." The one-eyed man paused, then called a few people out. "You are responsible for attracting the insects' attention. The others prepare their muskets."
There really is everything.
Qi Qiuxue was not a person who liked trouble, so she naturally retreated to the second line and watched this group of people working hard to eliminate the poisonous insects. It was also a blessing from God that the fire took effect. Under the high temperature burning, the poisonous insects gradually turned into ashes.
After about half an hour, the poisonous insects in front of him were finally cleared away.
The one-eyed man heaved a sigh of relief and ordered the others to continue chopping the tree roots. Even after the burning just now, most of the tree roots still looked intact. There seemed to be some substance gathered on their surface, which protected the roots to a great extent.
After more than an hour, everyone finally found a way forward.
Everyone passed through the area one by one and came to the front. After walking for an unknown amount of time, the scene in front of them finally changed.
——A huge door appeared in sight.
The moment they saw this door, everyone couldn't contain their excitement. They had indeed found the right direction. As long as they passed through this door, the place they had been thinking about for a long time would be behind it!
"Be careful." The one-eyed man warned his men and ordered a few strong men to open the door. With the lesson from last time, they were well prepared this time and wrapped their bodies tightly without exposing an inch of skin.
The door seemed very heavy and had no handle. Several people tried pushing it for a long time but could not open it no matter what they did.
"There should be some mechanism nearby." The one-eyed man looked around. There was nothing around except the stone walls. No matter how hard he searched, he couldn't find anything special.
So they had to focus their attention on the door again, but still failed to find any useful information.
"What's going on?!" The kidnapper was really about to collapse. If he couldn't get in, his hand would be injured in vain.
With the one-eyed man staring at him from behind, the beggar didn't dare to complain too much. He lowered his head and kicked the stones on the ground angrily. A small piece of soil under his feet gradually loosened, revealing something hidden underneath.
It's a pattern, a very deep pattern, like some kind of mechanism.
"?!" The beggar squatted down as if he had discovered a new continent. He tilted his head to hold the flashlight and used his intact left hand to desperately dig the soil under his feet. As he moved, more and more patterns appeared.
They seem to be converging in a certain direction.
"Brother Lu, Brother Lu, look what I found!" After all, the power of one person is limited. Guaizi excitedly called the others over, and everyone squatted down and worked hard together to dig until all the patterns were dug out.
Each line is very deep, and the direction where each line finally converges is exactly the center point of this area.
It looks like something could be dripped onto it.
The one-eyed man tried to open a bottle of water and poured it along a certain line. The water began to flow and quickly converged towards the center until it reached the end. Then it disappeared without a trace as if it was swallowed by something.
Everyone waited for a while, but nothing happened.
It doesn't look like water.
What is that, blood?
"Come here." The one-eyed man pulled his subordinate's arm without any hesitation, cut his skin with a sharp blade, and let his blood drip onto the lines.
The blood began to flow again like the water just now, rushing towards the center. The lines soaked in blood began to glow, as if they had been fully nourished.
After the blood disappears, the line remains bright.
It seems that I tried it right.
The one-eyed man looked around and roughly counted. There were thirty-five lines under his feet, and there were exactly thirty-five of them. The number was too coincidental, as if it was deliberately prepared for them.
But even if there is a trap ahead, even if there are many dangers hidden behind the door, we have already gone through untold hardships to get here, and we should not look back under any circumstances.
"Everyone find a route and let the blood out." The one-eyed man rolled up his sleeves decisively and took the lead in cutting flesh to draw blood. Seeing this, the others hurriedly cooperated and cut their own flesh, letting the blood flow.
"You come too." The one-eyed man looked at Qi Qiuxue and others not far away.
"I'm weak." Qi Qiuxue raised her hands in a gesture of surrender, the corners of her lips curled up slightly. "It's the same with them. The reason we ended up in Buge Village was because we were seriously injured and had no choice but to stay for a few days."
"We haven't fully recovered yet. If we get hurt again, our bodies won't be able to hold on any longer," she said worriedly. "If we accidentally die along the way, and something like the light ball happens again, what will you do?"
One-eyed man: "..."
What Qi Qiuxue said made sense. The one-eyed man withdrew his gaze with a dark face and called a few strong men to step out of the line: "You three are in good health, play it again!"
"Oh, okay." The three men cut their skin again with a look of misfortune, and the blood dripped into the lines.
Now all the patterns lit up, and the circular pattern in the middle began to swing left and right, and then there was a loud noise and it sank directly.
"Click." A crack appeared out of thin air in the middle of the huge door. With a slight push, it opened inward effortlessly.
Success!
Everyone was overjoyed, and even their fatigue was alleviated by this scene: "Let's go, let's go in and find the treasure!"
"Did you see it?" Amidst the laughter, Qi Qiuxue silently asked the two people beside her.
"I saw it." Li Yiqing continued softly, "The moment they cut their skin, something floated into their wounds."
"Yeah." Qi Qiuxue nodded. For some reason, only the three of them could see this scene.
"They are faint blue lights."
【Author’s words】
Here we come!
Thank you all for your Bawang tickets and nutrient solution, thank you for leaving comments and reading~
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