Chapter 4 Chapter 4 The Silent Valley

When we looked up, it turned out that the signal smoke in the distance was getting thinner day by day. We don't know what happened there, or the smoke balls were not enough.Looking at it this way, the smoke must not persist until we reach it. In the jungle, if there is no guidance from the signal smoke, we will definitely not be able to reach that place without navigation.We asked Pan Zi what to do?Pan Zi climbed up the canopy, took the position of the signal smoke as the central axis, and used the strange rocks on the cliffs on the edge of the basin in the distance as a reference to mark the compass. If you walk at the key point, you must pass the burning point of the signal smoke.However, the jungle is so dense that we might miss it even with an error of ten meters, so we have to get as close as possible before the smoke goes out.

There was no need to delay any longer, we straightened our equipment immediately, aligned the compass with Pan Zi, waded into the swamp and headed towards the direction of the signal smoke. It is very easy to pass through the waters at the edge of the swamp during the day, because the water level of the swamp where the rainwater gathers is high and clear. We can look for rocks at the bottom where we can settle down, and swim if there is no place to stay. We can get through with half a cigarette. In the past, come to the true edge of the swamp. It is a relatively sparse rainforest belt. The terrain here is obviously higher. Many connected "tree groups" protrude from the water surface, like some huge islands. You can see that there are a lot of rocks mixed with mud under this area. , it seems that the water level is not deep.

But when you walk in, you will find that the trees are densely packed in this area very quickly. After only about two hundred meters, the tree crowns are so dense that the sky cannot see through.The roots of the tree are wrongly connected together. I actually had an idea before, which was to build a canoe, so that I don’t have to wade through the water so carefully. But looking at the underwater environment, I know that the canoe is also difficult to move here. People have to go by themselves. Going deep into the forest, the light is very dim, and soon the surroundings are surrounded by terrifying tree roots. The roots are covered with vines, and the vines are covered with green moss. The humidity is overwhelming. In some places, we all crawled down to barely pass, which made people feel like entering a huge cave full of trees.

Pan Zi cut down the vines that blocked the road, because almost all the trees have a lot of roots connected to the vines, so we almost didn't have to wade in the water, and it was very safe to walk on the thigh-thick vines. However, what surprised us was that in such a dense forest, it was surprisingly quiet. Except for the sound of our progress, we couldn't hear other movements, which was a bit uncomfortable. "The Queen Mother of the West's territory is really evil," the fat man said as he walked, "there's not even a bird's cry." "More than that, it's as if there's nothing here." I thought to myself, the silence was really abnormal, which gave me an illusion: we might be the only creatures in this rainforest besides these trees.

"Maybe there are too many snakes here, and the birds are all eaten up," Pan Zi said. "Impossible, what do these snakes eat now?" Thinking of that kind of snake, several people felt nervous again, but we were a little surprised that there was no trace of any snake along the way. We tightened our nerves and continued to move forward. Soon we saw some ancient architectural relics wrapped in trees and protruding from the water. Because of the age, these remnants have become stones of different shapes, a large number of vines and moss It takes root in the gaps of these buildings, and then covers the whole body. It is difficult to distinguish when mixed in the rainforest, and you can't find it unless you are close.

These buildings must have belonged to the top parts of the building at that time, so they can still protrude above the water, because the underwater part cannot be seen, and the overall shape is unknown, but looking at the top, they all look like simple towers.There are a lot of them, scattered high and low, and different in size. They look like the kind of Tallinn where monks are buried. I basically didn’t see the remains of the Queen Mother of the West along the way. Now I finally saw it, but I was relieved. I had a guess before that we should not make a mistake. After all, there is no sign at the entrance of the canyon that says "West Queen Mother City is 2 kilometers inward, mobile signal Already covered", I went in after a while and found that there was nothing in it, that's a big joke.

We didn't have time to stop and look at these ruins, and we went deep into them quickly, but although we didn't want to study them subjectively, but the route of progress was winding, and there were always times when we went around these ruins. , but extremely solid, very strong, and what is strange is that all these "towers" have a lot of square holes, which were obviously polished during construction at that time. Fang Kong said whether it is big or small, maybe people can't pass it, but things smaller than people are not a problem. The fat man looked strange, and subconsciously used a miner's lamp to look inside when passing by, but he couldn't see anything, only the sound of water below.I don't know where it leads.

Pan Zi didn't have time to pay attention to these things, so he urged him to leave quickly. The fat man knew that people were in a hurry, so he had to take a cursory look and followed. The absolute area of ​​this valley is not large. The further you go in, the silt under the water is significantly reduced, and the remains of various underwater monuments are exposed, which are very clear, forming a very strange but spectacular scene. The depth of the water is only about two or three meters, and the countless remnants of jade and the roots of the trees under the water are mixed together, which makes me feel like a world apart with only a thin layer of water surface.

It wasn't until this time that I felt like I had entered an ancient city. Looking at these remnants, I could vaguely imagine how prosperous it was back then. With emotion, the speed of the water flow under his feet suddenly changed, and there seemed to be a steep downward slope in front of him.Let's be careful, there are too many trees here, slipping and stepping on the air will cause serious injuries. After walking a few steps around a big tree, the fat man exclaimed. We saw a huge strange face suddenly appeared in the dense forest in front of us. It was less than ten meters away from us. It was about the size of a truck head. The upper part is green and colorful, with big eyes and high nose, which is exactly the same as the gargoyle grotto we saw at the mouth of the canyon.It was a huge stone sculpture wrapped in moss and vines.

The fat man turned on the miner's lamp and shone the light. The body of the stone sculpture sank into the swamp, leaving only the head, which merged with the dense forest. The bird's body in the water presented a very strange squatting posture, as if it was about to spread its wings suddenly. , like a feline gaining momentum before attacking.You can also see some strangely shaped black shadows under the water below the stone carvings. I don't know what sank there. We looked at each other and remembered our previous thoughts. If the statue of the human-faced bird outside the canyon told the outsiders that they had entered the territory of the Queen Mother of the West, then what did the huge stone sculpture of the human-faced bird here represent?Could this be a more serious warning.

I subconsciously looked at the sea of ​​trees behind the statue, thinking that there might be some great danger waiting for us uninvited guests in the area behind the stone sculpture.