The explosion outside the cave made me fall to the ground with a thud, my vision blurred, and my stomach churned.
In a daze, I felt someone pushing my body.
I turned around and found Song Laosan talking to me with his mouth wide open, but I couldn't hear anything.
After about ten seconds, I vaguely heard Song Laosan's voice: "This hole is blocked. We can't be trapped inside. Let's get out first!"
Once I came to my senses, I grabbed the monkey's clothes and started to retreat.
As soon as I emerged from the cave, a wave of heat hit me.
Flames roared in the plaza ahead, and the water from the burning ice flowed down the ground toward the cliff, making a splashing sound.
When I first came down from the altar, the ice surface of the square was completely smooth.
As the temperature soared and the ice melted, I realized that the ice on the square was not naturally formed, but rather pieced together from ice blocks on a stone platform.
The platform below is tilted towards the cliff. As the gaps between the ice blocks melted, they began to loosen and all slid down towards the cliff.
"boom!"
Another explosion came from the direction of the altar, and then the cave began to spew fire.
The three of us watched the ice slid down wildly, and to avoid getting hurt, we hid back inside the cave.
The monkey looked at the howling flames outside and patted its chest repeatedly, saying, "Is there almost no oxygen left in here? I feel like I'm having trouble breathing!"
"It's not that oxygen is scarce, but rather that methane hydrate releases other gases. This stuff is like a compressed natural gas container. One cubic meter of methane hydrate, after decomposition, can release approximately 160 cubic meters of natural gas and 0.8 cubic meters of water!"
Song Laosan said with rapid breathing, "The explosion just now should have been an explosion of deposited gas. As the temperature rises, more methane will inevitably be produced here. Once all the gas here is released, this cave might even collapse!"
At this moment, I tried to calm myself down and my mind raced: "There is only a cliff between us and the temple, and there is no other way out, so the entrance to the tomb passage must be on this side of the square! Now most of the ice on the square has melted, which will make it easier for us to find the tomb passage. This fire will definitely not go out anytime soon, so we have to leave now!"
Old Song peered over and observed for a moment, then pointed towards the altar and said, “Let’s go over there! There’s no ice on the cliff where the altar is located. If we walk close to the wall, the chances of being hit by falling objects are relatively small. However, I’m worried that the fire at the altar might crack the rocks on the cliff face.”
"Being in danger is better than waiting to die!"
I saw that the rocks beneath the ice had been exposed outside the cave, and the altar cave was still burning. I was the first to crawl out, preparing to follow the outer edge of the plaza to find an exit.
I had only taken two steps when I felt someone tap my shoulder. I thought it was either Song Laosan or Monkey asking me to help them up, and just as I was about to reach out, I felt a sharp pain in my shoulder and instinctively reached out to cover it.
It felt cool and slippery to the touch; it was clearly a snake half a meter long.
I was startled by the snake and threw it away immediately.
Song Laosan stepped out and crushed the snake's head, then shone his flashlight on it: "It's not a poisonous snake!"
"Crackling and popping!"
Just as Song Laosan was speaking, we heard a series of sounds of things falling to the ground around us.
I turned my head and saw that the ice on the mountain wall where we had just hidden had melted, and it was covered with dense holes like cheese. These snakes were crawling out of these holes.
The snakes that fell from a height landed on the ground, all twisted into a ball, while the snakes that fell from a height all surged towards us.
"Run!"
I saw the dense swarm of snakes on the ground, and ignoring the pain in my shoulder, I ran straight towards the altar.
Snakes are cold-blooded animals and are very sensitive to temperature. When they sensed the heat of the flame, they stopped in place and kept wriggling their bodies.
At this moment, we were in front of a sea of fire. Although the snakes could not get close for the time being, we were also in a dilemma.
Song Laosan shone his flashlight into the distance and discovered that the opposite mountain wall was also full of holes, with many snakes visibly crawling in them: "Damn it! Now that the ice on the mountain wall has melted, the snake holes behind it have been exposed, making it even more difficult for us to leave this place!"
The monkey, with its peculiar train of thought, replied, "This might not be a bad thing. Now there's water here, and so many snakes. At least we won't starve to death!"
Old Song cursed, "Do you think snakes are like watermelons picked up from the ground? If it weren't for the flames around us, these snakes would have swallowed us whole!"
Looking at the slope beside him, the monkey had a sudden inspiration: "Young Master Duan, why don't we go to the cliff below? All the water here is flowing towards there. I've read in many novels that people can escape through underground rivers!"
"The kind of situation you described might be possible with a tomb on a mountaintop, but don't forget, we're underground now. If we run out along the underground river, we'll only sink deeper and deeper. Besides, the bottom of that cliff is covered in combustible ice. Falling down there is no different from self-immolation."
Listening to the sounds of burning flames and hissing snakes, I shook my head and said, "Finding the tomb passage is the only viable solution to escape our current predicament!"
The ice that fell in front burned for a while, and then, propelled by the molten water, it gradually slid down the slope.
With the high temperatures receding, the snakes on both sides are starting to stir again.
As I watched the swarm of snakes surge towards me like a tide, I took off my shirt, soaked it in water on the ground, wrapped it around my hands, picked up a small, still-burning piece of ice, and threw it with all my might.
The ice block shattered into flames on the ground, instantly driving away the surrounding snakes with its intense heat. Seeing this, the monkey and Song Laosan followed suit and began throwing ice blocks as well.
The burning gas was extremely hot, and my hair and eyebrows were quickly singed.
Using the ice to clear a path, the three of them quickly cleared a way ahead. Song Laosan shone his flashlight around and pointed to a corner: "Xiao Duan, there's a shadow over there!"
When we came down from the altar, the walls were covered with ice and frost, forming a closed space. Now that the ice has melted, there is indeed a clear crack at the junction of the two mountain walls in front of us, which casts a shadow under the flashlight.
"This plaza currently only has this one exit, which is very likely the tomb passage!"
When I saw the huge crack over there, I was immediately overjoyed. Just as I was about to go and check it out, I saw a giant python, thicker than a person, suddenly rush out of the crack, its eyes, as big as light bulbs, staring straight at me.
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