Ye An

The burrow was deeper than expected.

During the fall, Ye An was very close to the rock wall. Regardless of the large bloody cut on his palm, he desperately tried to grab the raised rock and inserted the short knife into the earth to slow down the speed of the fall.

Seeing that he was about to succeed, a large piece of gravel suddenly fell from the top of his head, and several bluestones the size of basketballs flew past Ye An's side, scratching his shoulder, and the dagger almost dropped from his hand in severe pain.

There was a loud noise, the sound of a mutant elephant falling into the water.

It was only then that Ye An realized that the bottom was not earth and rocks, but a rushing dark river.

Unable to borrow strength with the short knife, Ye An fell faster and faster, and fell into the water together with the bluestone falling from above his head.

The underground river is bottomless, and the water is cold and fast.The moment he entered the water, his whole body seemed to be wrapped in ice, and his blood seemed to be frozen.

Ye An vigorously danced his limbs and swam towards the shore.

In the dark, he couldn't see the vortex under the water, nor could he judge how far he was from the shore. He could only rely on his memory before falling into the water, swimming forward again and again, and being swept away by the current again and again.

People's physical strength is limited after all, and several attempts were in vain. Ye An's limbs were filled with lead, and if he didn't pay attention, the water wave suddenly hit him behind him, and he was thrown into the bottom of the river in an instant.

Cold water poured into his mouth and nose, Ye An was completely out of breath.In pain, there seemed to be a black shadow approaching him. Ye An had no time to dodge, and was hit by the bluestone flowing down the river on his waist.He could only grit his teeth fiercely, wave his arms desperately, step on the water with both feet, and finally managed to float to the surface before his lungs almost exploded.

The moment the water broke, Ye An gasped for breath and let out a series of coughs.

Coughing, Ye An was glad that it was just a rock, not a ferocious mutated fish, otherwise with his current physical strength, he would definitely not be able to escape the predator's jaws.

The river kept scouring and sweeping, Ye An really couldn't swim to the shore, so he could only relax his body as much as possible, put his head out of the water, and let the river rush him forward, getting farther and farther away from the place where he fell into the water.

In the process of drifting forward, Ye An's eyes gradually adapted to the darkness, and he could vaguely see that the river was very wide, almost no less than the river flowing through the isolated island.The banks of the river were flanked by steep rock walls that met above Yean's head.There are dark shadows all over the rock wall, black ones next to one another, and some are connected in a row. Ye An couldn't see what it was, but felt that it was somewhat similar to the distribution of caves on the isolated island.

After drifting for a certain distance, the direction of the river changed, and the speed of the water flow began to slow down. Ye An seized the opportunity and swam towards a boulder protruding into the water.

The boulder is in the shape of a cloud, one end is connected to the rock wall, and the other end is deep underwater.Ye An was eager to get out of the predicament, and he didn't pay attention to being underwater. His calf was scratched by the washed gravel, and bright red blood flowed out.Worried that the smell of blood would attract mutated creatures in the river, Ye An ignored the pain and swam forward with all his strength.

As the distance got closer, he stretched his arms as far as he could, touched the boulder, and immediately grasped it firmly, letting the sharp edge cut through his palm, using both arms to climb up as fast as he could.

The surface of the boulder is not smooth, but pitted, with bulges on the edges, and bruises will appear when the palm is pressed down.

Ye An was extremely exhausted, he couldn't care less, he turned over and fell down, his back and front were cut open.Fortunately, most of them are not deep, only two or three spilled blood beads.

Temporarily not in the mood to deal with the wound on his body, Ye An spread his limbs and lay on the boulder, his chest heaved violently, and he kept panting heavily.After being underwater for too long, the wounds on my waist and calves were burning hot. It was a miracle that I was able to survive until now and even climbed ashore to get out of trouble.

"Survived."

With one arm resting on his forehead, his breathing gradually became steady, and his vision gradually became clear.

The rock wall above the head is extremely steep, as if a large black cloud is pressing down.A sense of claustrophobia and weightlessness struck at the same time, Ye An closed his eyes, tried his best to adjust his emotions, and suppressed the sudden anxiety and panic.

How long has he not experienced this kind of panic?

Ye An couldn't give a specific time, but he clearly knew that if he couldn't adjust as soon as possible and let himself be engulfed by the sense of weightlessness, panic would soon turn into despair, and he would be completely trapped in the dark river, unable to get out again.

"If you can go out, you can definitely go out!"

"I can survive."

"I didn't fall to my death or drown, which proves good luck, and there is nothing to be afraid of."

Ye An kept talking to himself while holding the rope tied around his waist tightly.There were three wooden tubes hanging on the rope, which contained antidote and wound medicine, and lily of the valley's ointment made from pills.

Falling from the pool, apart from the dagger in his hand, Ye An only had these three wooden cylinders that never left his body while sleeping.There is also a short knife stuck in the mutant elephant's ear. If you want to get it back, you have to continue down the river to find the living mutant elephant or its corpse.

Slowly recovering his physical strength, Ye An sat up with his arms propped up. With the help of the light shining through the cracks in the rock wall, he found a large bruise on his waist and abdomen. When he pressed lightly, he felt sharp pain immediately.Enduring the pain, Ye An took in air-conditioning and pressed carefully, until he confirmed that the bone was not broken, and then he let out a sigh of relief.

The wound on the leg was soaked in water, and the edges had turned white.Ye An opened a wooden tube and sprinkled the wound medicine, and the bleeding stopped quickly.As the powder melts, the wound is quickly covered with a layer of transparent ointment film, which can protect the wound and promote rapid scab formation.Most of the scratches on his body were not serious, Ye An didn't intend to waste the wound medicine.

After the wound was treated, Ye An stood up and began to explore the rock wall

The surface of the rock wall is uneven, and there are some stone edges extending out that are less than the width of the palm.

Ye An firmly grasped a raised stone edge, and at the same time raised his leg to step on another one. After standing on the stone edge for a while, he was sure that it was very firm, and began to climb up boldly.

Without even a piece of driftwood, going into the water is definitely a dead end.Climb to a high place, close to a crack in the rock where light comes in, and you may be able to find a way to escape.

As he climbed, the shadows that puzzled him revealed their true colors.As he guessed before, these shadows are all caves scattered on the rock wall.The big ones are more than two meters high, and the small ones are no more than one meter, and they are so narrow that you may not be able to get in even if you bend over.

Passing through a hole, the stone under Ye An's feet suddenly loosened, and he had to take the risk to rush into the hole and roll twice on the ground to avoid falling into the water again.

The inside of the cave is very spacious, and the rock walls on the left and right sides are opened up, connecting with the other two narrow caves.The ground and walls seem to have been chiseled and polished, and compared with the outside of the cave, they appear very smooth.

A few tree roots penetrated from the top of the cave and climbed along the mountain wall. The light Ye An saw before was scattered from the gap between the tree roots and the rock.

The cave is not too deep, there are about five steps from the entrance to the end of the cave.A square stone slab was placed against the wall. Judging from its shape, it was very similar to the stone bed Ye An had seen in the cave.

Ye An was surprised by everything in front of him.

Did people ever live here?

Live underground?

Ye An approached the stone bed, and found a decayed cloth bag beside the bed, and a few pieces of flint and steel were scattered out of the bag.There are also semicircular grooves in the corners, much like a hearth.Near the stove was piled a great deal of firewood slag, and detritus of unidentifiable nature.

Ye An cut off a branch, polished the flint, and lit the branch with the help of flying sparks.

With the help of the firelight, Ye An finally saw the whole picture of the cave clearly.Contacting the changes before the isolated island, perhaps this place was not once underground, but maybe it sank at a certain moment.

"By the way, this island used to be a mountain!"

Before arriving at the isolated island, Ye An used to travel with the bone fish, and through his contact with the bone fish, Ye An got to know the isolated island.This was originally a mountain, but with climate change, when the rainy season comes, the surrounding area of ​​the mountain will be flooded and become part of the delta.

Over time, most people have forgotten the original landform here, thinking that it is an island, and because the mutated frogs like to lay eggs nearby, they collectively call it "Frog Island".

Ye An seized the time to wander around in the cave, and even bent over to enter the connected cave, and found another mystery in the cave, removing the stones against the wall, it turned out to be another passage.

"All connected?"

If all the caves on the rock wall are dug through and connected to each other, it may be possible to find a way out faster.

Ye An waited for a while, and after confirming that there was a wind blowing in the passage, and the opposite side was not a dead end, he immediately cut off more tree roots and prepared to make torches.He even cut off a trouser leg, tore it into strips, and wrapped it around tree roots, just to make the torch burn longer.

Ready, Ye An held the torch and walked into the tunnel.

The fire illuminates the tunnel, revealing the patterns on the walls.

Ye An observed carefully and found that these patterns were exactly the same as those seen on the bluestone before, with simple and smooth lines, much like abstract big fish.It's just that there is no dorsal fin, and the fins under the body are unbelievably long.

"What does this represent?" Ye An was curious, and brought the torch closer.

Before, Lily of the Valley said that she didn't recognize these patterns, and that they were neither the marks of the cities nor belonged to any caravan. Ye An was busy hunting and storing cured meat, so she didn't take it to heart.Observing carefully now, especially the regular arrangement of large films, he is somehow familiar, as if he has seen them somewhere.

The flame flickered, casting twisting shadows on the wall.

At a certain moment, the shadow came to a standstill following Ye An's movements, and a picture quickly flashed in Ye An's mind, and he subconsciously touched his neck.

When he was in the snowy field, he was almost killed by Xiao Yun's hands, the sharp long knife once slashed across the top of his head and approached his throat.At that time, Ye An only wanted to save his life and had no time to care about other things. Looking back now, his memory became very clear.

If his memory is correct, there is indeed a similar pattern on the long knife.

"A coincidence?"

Ye An wasn't sure, and he didn't have the time to delve into it further, so he suppressed his doubts, and continued to explore the unknown road ahead while the torch was still on.

At the end of the tunnel was another cave, and the angle of the floor sloped upwards, which was heartening to him.

Passing through six caves in a row, more and more light fell on the top of the head, and the sight continued to expand. Ye Anneng felt that he was getting closer to the ground.Just when he was full of confidence and was about to speed up, an obstacle suddenly appeared in front of him. The place where the passage should have been was completely blocked by several boulders.

Unlike the bluestones that blocked the passage before, these boulders were heavier than expected.Over time, a large moss grew on the surface, and the dark green covered the walls, covering the gaps between the rocks, making the boulder and the surrounding environment a seamless one, and it would not be found if you didn't look carefully.

Ye An stuck the torch on the ground, held the dagger, and went forward to scrape off the moss between the crevices of the stones.In the rustling sound, large pieces of moss fell off, accompanied by broken stones.

Digging a gap two fingers wide, Ye An put down his dagger, grabbed the edge of the boulder with both hands, and pushed the stone aside with all his strength.

It was very difficult at first, the boulder remained motionless, Ye An pulled the wound on his waist, and gasped in pain.

"continue!"

Ye An gritted his teeth fiercely, the veins on his forehead and neck bulged due to the force.

Finally, the boulder was pushed out of the groove on the ground, and the rolling speed suddenly accelerated. Ye An was caught off guard and was led towards the entrance of the cave.

Ye An hurriedly let go, and fell forward to the ground.

The boulder rolled down the hole and fell into the river below, making a loud noise and splashing huge water.

Ye An looked down and found that the river turned not far away, and the male elephant that fell with him was floating in the water, stuck in the middle of several raised boulders, motionless, and had lost signs of life.

The entrance of the cave was quite high from the water surface, and there was no rope long enough. Ye An didn't intend to take the risk, and he had to give up the dagger left on the bull elephant's ear.

Withdrawing his gaze, Ye An continued to move the boulder in front of him.

All three boulders were removed, but what appeared in front of his eyes was not the expected passage, but white bones piled together, layer upon layer, filling every gap and completely blocking the tunnel.