My speculation surprised everyone present. Wei Shengnan looked at the densely packed insect molts in the cave, and her expression gradually became serious: "If Duan Shenxing's guess is correct, if the adult jade insects can feed in the air, does that mean they are some kind of moth, or winged flying insects?"
Old Song interjected, "You can't say that. Even ordinary insects can climb to high places without any problem! What if the designer's original intention in hanging the corpse was to prevent rats from coming and eating it?"
"I think our most urgent task is not to discuss what form the adult insects take, but to think about where the adult insects have gone."
I interrupted their conversation and said seriously, "Since we just saw live jade worms, it means that these worms have not stopped reproducing and still exist in the underground river basin. But we haven't seen any adult worms at all. Don't you think that's a bit strange?"
"If the corpses in this cave are indeed food for adult jade worms, it means that these worms must be extremely ferocious. We can't stay here any longer, otherwise, once we attract these creatures out, we will all be in dire straits!"
Qu Ruilin waved his hand: "Now that everyone has recovered, let's leave this dangerous place as soon as possible and continue searching for Duan Jinyan."
Wei Shengnan also looked at the Wei family members: "Fill our flamethrowers with fuel and prepare to deal with possible attacks from flying insects!"
The large number of insect molts found in the cave made us all realize the intense danger. Although we were still slightly numb, we all endured the discomfort and began to flee this area where an insect swarm might occur.
Continuing deeper into the cave, it resembles a vast canyon, with layers of skeletons on the ground and countless insect exoskeletons covering the mountain walls, making it appear as if the mountain has been overgrown with parasites.
Stepping over the corpses scattered on the ground, afraid of waking the insects hiding somewhere, Song Laosan said in a very low voice, "There are just too many corpses in this valley, it's practically a mass grave! How many insects do you think the person who designed this place put in here?"
“That’s not the most terrifying thing! I just examined the skeletons here and found that their neck bones and skulls were undamaged, which means that these people were driven in alive back then. There are also teeth marks on some of the bones.”
Wei Shengnan sighed: "These people must have all been slaves back then, forcibly driven here to be used as feed for Gu worms. But the development of Gu worms is a slow process, so most of the people here probably starved to death."
After listening to Wei Shengnan's words, Manjing asked me in a muffled voice, "Brother, weren't the people of Ping'an Village supposed to be the guardians of this tomb? Why are they so vicious too?"
"They are indeed tomb keepers, but no one would say that tomb keepers are good people. In feudal dynasties, who among those who had the ability to build large tombs did not have blood on their hands? Even the most famous emperors you read about in books would not treat the common people as mere ants! The so-called prosperous era was just a way for them to maintain their rule and seize profits. When the people suffered, they lived well; when the people lived well, they lived even better."
I paused for a moment: "Every era has its own tragedies, and these are none of our business. If it weren't for those tyrannical and oppressive kings and nobles of ancient times, what would we eat... Wait, did you hear anything?"
"The sound of water."
Qu Ruilin was the first to respond: "It seems that there is more than one underground river here, or rather, the place we are in now is just a huge reef protruding from the river."
"Let's go take a look."
I gripped the knife tightly in my hand: "We haven't encountered any danger on land, but the known threats are all in the water. Everyone, please be careful."
Two members of the Wei family, each armed with a flamethrower, took the lead, and the rest of us cautiously followed behind.
The sound of water grew louder and louder, and before long we reached the end of the valley.
A cliff several meters wide appeared in front of us, with a rushing underground river flowing beneath it.
Song Laosan shone his flashlight across the street and waved it around: "Look at the statue over there!"
Several beams of flashlight shone towards the opposite side, illuminating the cave.
The cliff opposite us stretched into the depths, dark and seemingly endless. On the cliff directly opposite us, there was a row of statues built against the mountain. These statues were all busts, each more than ten meters tall, reaching the top of the cave. Their hands were pressed against the cliff, like evil spirits crawling out of the gates of hell.
These statues are all fierce and menacing. Although they have human facial features, their shapes are very strange. Each one has long, thin eyes with slanted corners, slightly upturned noses, and protruding mouths that are wide open, almost reaching the ears.
Song Laosan muttered to himself, "Why are all these statues so ugly? But then again, Buddhist Arhat statues are also fierce-looking, aren't they? Xiao Duan, do you think these statues might be the deities of some ancient tribe? These ancient people were quite amazing; they carved their own Mount Rushmore thousands of years ago!"
"I don't know. At least I haven't seen any similar statues in Ping'an Village. But over thousands of years, everything can change. Even the stories in the Four Great Classical Novels can be interpreted as conspiracy theories. Liu Bei has also been described as a treacherous villain. This shows that people's thoughts are always changing, and beliefs can change as well."
I shone my flashlight on the platform beneath us to make sure there were no problems around us, and said to Wei Shengnan, "Qu Ruilin's guess is correct. The area we are standing on is just a protruding rock in the underground river. Those stone statues on the other side are also part of the Miao Jiang Immortal Palace. Let's use the rope gun to cross the river!"
"Everyone, get out of the way!"
Wei Shengnan told us to disperse, then raised her rope gun and aimed at the stone statue opposite. She fired three shots before successfully hooking something, tied the other end to a rock behind it, and tugged on the rope: "No problem, you can pass now."
I tightened the belt around my backpack and tucked the knife into it: "I'll go first. I need to check if there are any traps or mechanisms around those statues."
When I was in Fengmen Village, I had received training, and the rope, which was more than ten meters long, was a piece of cake for me. I reached the other side without much effort. While the others were crossing the river, I began to examine these strange giant stone statues.
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