C85

"Right here." "This is the mark my father left when he found the entrance to Death Valley."

They noticed that behind the branch was a mountain wall. The wall was somewhat sunken, as if it was made by humans. Several people immediately measured the area of the depression and found that it was basically circular, with a diameter of about 4 meters.

Shen Yuan immediately pushed aside the branches and leaves on it. There was also a layer of loose soil on top of the tree, revealing an iron ring on it. Ding Wei grabbed the iron ring and pulled it. A deep hole appeared in front of everyone's eyes. Immediately afterwards, a pungent smell assaulted her nose, causing her to feel so disgusted that she almost vomited.

Shen Yuan took out a measuring instrument that was shaped like a glass rod from his backpack and said, "You guys stand far away first. I want to test if the air quality inside the cave can guarantee our breathing."

The rest of the people were standing 15 meters away from the entrance. Shen Yuan stuck his body completely onto the wall beside the hole, inserted a wooden stick onto one end of the measuring device, ignited it and then extended it into the hole. The flame swayed and gradually weakened until it went out. Standing outside the cave, they could clearly feel a warm current of air rushing out from inside.

After about half an hour, the flow of air seemed to have weakened. Shen Yuan patted the dust off his clothes, and waved to everyone, signalling for them to come over, "There shouldn't be a problem, prepare to go in. You brought a flashlight, right? "

"Don't worry, I did." Ding Wei took out two flashlights from his backpack.

"Right, should we leave people to guard the cave entrance?" Shen Yuan said.

Ding Wei passed one of the flashlight in his hand to Shen Yuan. After lighting it up, he first walked into the cave, then turned around and said, "No need, no one else here knows. There shouldn't be anyone following behind us, so just relax and go in!"

Ding Wei explored while walking, then pointed to the right, "Follow me closely and be careful not to fall behind. If anything happens, do not split up. "

Although the cave was dark, there seemed to be faint light that illuminated the areas where the flashlight did not reach. The outline of the cave's terrain could be vaguely seen. The cave was long and narrow, and the cave entrance was connected to the cave entrance. The terrain was complicated, making it difficult to determine the direction.

Ding Wei took a few steps forward, put his nose close to the ground and sniffed. Then he raised his head and asked Yang Xue, "Where are we going? Are we trapped in the poison gas inside? "

"Keep going until you find another opening. It was through this hole that my father found the beetle. " Yang Xue replied.

Shen Yuan squatted down, touched the soil on the ground and sniffed, "The smell inside is not right."

Just as he said that, Shen Yuan's foot touched something, he picked it up and saw that it was a white skull. Although Shen Yuan usually had quite a bit of courage, being able to suddenly see this thing in this dark environment and even holding it in his hands caused him to be greatly shocked, as if he had picked up a ball of high-temperature, red-hot charcoal. He quickly threw it on the ground and shouted: "Aiya, my mother."

"What is it?" Ding Wei asked.

"Skeleton." This must be the person who died when he jumped off the cliff and crawled into the cave. " Shen Yuan inhaled deeply, "The smell inside is not right."

Ding Wei could also smell it. It wasn't the smell of a rotting corpse, but some kind of poisonous gas that had accumulated inside the cave. Shen Yuan suddenly thought of the various gases in the Goose-Ridge Valley and could not help but shout out, "Let's quickly run forward at our fastest speed."

Sure enough, after running for five minutes, a hole appeared in front of them. As he ran out of the cave, he found himself in a ravine made of rocks.

"I see, this hole is filled with a lot of carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide and sulfur dioxide, all kinds of toxic gases, and it's very dangerous inside. Before entering, you must release some of the gas that had accumulated inside the cave and then quickly run out. If you do not understand this principle, you will most likely be suffocated or poisoned to death. "

What they saw before them now was something else. The valley had unique topography, lush vegetation, abundant rainfall, and high humidity. Mountain fog had become a feature of the valley. As far as the eye could see, mist lingered around the valley as plants and trees began to appear and disappear. The mountain fog here was full of forms. Sometimes close, sometimes far, sometimes quiet, sometimes bright and sometimes dark.

"This is the legendary Death Valley." Shen Yuan said.

"That's where my father found the beetle." Yang Xue pointed up and said, "Look, the suicide cliff is right above us."

When everyone looked up, they saw that the cliff face of the Suicide Cliff was jutting out in this direction. The path on top of the cliff was as if it was circling above them.

"We have to walk carefully, hand in hand." Ding Wei said and led the way in.

Shen Yuan was at the back.

After entering the strange fog deep in the mountain valley, the terrain was unfamiliar. It was as though they had entered a trap in the Valley of Death. The mountain mist was like a soft cloth, intertwining and intertwining with each other. Once you entered into it, it would surround you and swallow you up.

Ding Wei and Shen Yuan turned on their two flashlights and advanced in formation in the cliff and jungle. The initial feeling of fear gradually disappeared with each step. Everyone only had one thought — what could be inside?

After walking about ten meters, they came upon a stretch of road that had collapsed. The soil under his feet was soft, and if he wasn't careful, he would fall along with the earth. He tied the safety ropes on the two ends of the road and climbed over them one by one. After they passed the collapsed road section, everyone stopped talking and quickly walked away with their heads lowered. Finally, at around half past five, they found a small slope. The sunny slope was covered with small wildflowers. In the deep valleys, ravines crisscrossed the ground, forests and shrubs grew, and the only light in sight was the clumps of fiery red rhododendrons that filled the mountainside. The road forward was becoming more and more difficult. Not long after they advanced, the mountain road that was already faintly discernable completely disappeared into the mountain full of shrubbery. After continuously exploring and opening up a path, the team's speed slowed down. Even after two to three hours, they still hadn't walked too far away. The rest of the journey was through the dense forest, with bloody wounds all over his arms and legs.

After walking another ten meters, Zhou Jinshan suddenly cried out in alarm. Everyone looked in the direction he pointed. In a puddle of water in a deep tunnel, they found a corpse. It was in its seventies, looking exactly the same as it did when it died. It looked as if the dead had been attacked by pain while they were still alive. They bit their tongues tightly, and their hands and feet trembled as they maintained an unnatural state.

"Who could it be?" Yang Xue said in surprise, "They actually came to this kind of place?"

Shen Yuan walked over to inspect the surroundings, and said, "This person has been dead for over 30 years, from the looks of it, it should have been in the early 1970s."

"How could that be?" When Yang Xue heard this, she felt incredulous.

Shen Yuan slightly smiled and said, "Usually the body is buried in the ground and the body cannot touch the air. The rate at which the corpse decays is one-eighth of its normal speed and it will be even slower in the water. The water in the pit had seeped out from the underground river, which was equivalent to a gushing spring. Because of the four seasons, the tunnel maintained enough water to cover the body. The water contains a large amount of carbon dioxide gas and a high concentration of minerals, but no air, such an environment is extremely antiseptic. For more than 20 years, the corpses have not been corroded. "

"But why does it look so strange? It doesn't look like it was murdered. "

"More than 20 percent of the carbon dioxide in the air is taken in by humans or animals, which convulse violently, and a few seconds later they bite their tongues and die. It looks like suicide on the surface, but in reality it is caused by a spasm caused by the inhalation of poisonous gas or the ingestion of toxic substances. The victim first encountered the poisonous gas, then encountered the fog, did not know the direction, fainted and fell into the deep water tunnel, thus ending her life. "

"But how do you know he died in the early seventies?"

Shen Yuan took out the mask from his backpack, carried the small oxygen cylinder, walked over, pointed at a tree root exposed above the dead person's head and said, "When the dead person fell down, they broke the branch above and the root below at the same time. After being broken, the plant stopped growing and stopped at that period of time. The roots grow like the trunk of a tree and have rings. Once the root meristem area is destroyed, there will be no more woody cells in the area, leaving permanent damage. By calculating the age of the damaged rings, one could deduce the time when the bodies were submerged. Of course, when estimating the time of death by the growth of a tree root, one can usually only predict the shortest time of death, and the exact amount of time required to do that is in years. "