Li Jinlong paused for a moment, then asked, "Do we still need to wait?"
Lan Gao shook his head, pointed to the bamboo basket and said, "Tie a strong light to the rope on the bamboo basket, and then tie the camera to it, and see if you can see anything."
Li Jinlong suddenly realized that this was certainly better.
Immediately, he tied the steel rod and the high-powered lamp to the bamboo basket, turned on the high-powered lamp, and then slowly lowered it down. The rope was very long, about 300 meters in one loop, and he brought it up four times in total.
The police officers who came with Ling Hui then set up the monitor with lights and adjusted it, and the screen immediately displayed the image in the direction the camera lens was pointing.
After the bamboo basket was lowered into the cave, it was lowered to about a hundred meters when only a faint, star-like light could be seen. After the rope was lowered all the way down, the light disappeared completely, but the bamboo basket had not yet sunk to the bottom. Li Jinlong waved his hand, and Li Feihu quickly pulled over another loop, tied the knot, and lowered it down again. Watching the rope being lowered into the cave and disappearing one loop after another, the people at the cave entrance couldn't help but gasp!
Zhou Xuan's scalp tingled. In the US, the underwater cave was eerie and terrifying, but it was only a little over 200 meters deep. This cave, however, seemed bottomless.
The camera lens is pointed in a horizontal direction, not downwards, so what you see on the monitor is always the rocky cliff face.
As the third loop of rope was almost finished, Li Feihu took the last loop and attached it. The people who turned around at the cave entrance all had grim and unpleasant expressions.
The rope that has been lowered is already nine hundred meters long, and the curtain hasn't even reached the bottom yet. What kind of scene will it be like when someone goes down?
The four men—Li Jinlong, his uncle, his nephew, and his son-in-law—along with the Wang Qiang brothers, all looked rather grim. They were skilled tomb raiders, having dug into hundreds, if not thousands, of tombs, but none of them had ever entered a sinkhole or descended into such a deep cave. The deeper the cave, the more beyond their imagination it was, and the more ropes they laid down, the more terrified they became.
When the rope was lowered to about fifty meters on the last loop, the pressure eased, the monitor screen shook slightly, and then it stabilized.
The policeman immediately shouted excitedly, "We've reached the end!"
Because it was so deep, pulling the rope couldn't adjust the camera's direction; they could only see the side the camera was pointing at. Even under the bright light, they could only see about five or six meters ahead. Clearly, a horizontal cave stretched out before them, pitch black and seemingly endless. Next, everyone could only wait. Li Jinlong had set a timer of fifteen minutes. If there was no air at the bottom of the cave, fifteen minutes would be enough to determine that the rooster couldn't possibly survive fifteen minutes without air.
As the time ticked by, fifteen minutes passed, and Li Jinlong said in a deep voice, "Feihu, Dagui, pull!"
Li Feihu responded with a strong pull, and just as the rope was lifted upwards, the camera moved slightly, and the monitor screen shook.
When Li Jinlong glanced at the screen, he immediately waved his hand and said, "Flying Tiger, stop, don't move!"
Li Feihu and Wang Dagui were taken aback, then pulled on the rope and stopped moving.
Li Jinlong looked closely at the screen, which displayed the rock wall above the horizontal cave, with five large characters on it.
These five characters are difficult to recognize; they resemble both seal script and other shapes. The first character is crooked and looks somewhat like the character "九" (nine).
However, he couldn't recognize the people after that. Zhou Xuan looked at them for a while, then looked at the others, but he still couldn't recognize them.
Li Jinlong's expression changed drastically. He tremblingly took out a small cloth bag from his backpack. The cloth was a dull color, as if it were something from many years ago.
Li Jinlong unwrapped the cloth layer by layer, and under everyone's gaze, he lifted the last layer of cloth, revealing a piece of cloth that looked like it was woven from coarse hemp. On the cloth was a picture, but the picture was very strange, with crooked lines, like an architectural drawing, but completely different from the architectural drawings we see now. There were five characters above the picture.
When Zhou Xuan saw the words, he was stunned. He looked at the display screen and found that the five words on the rock wall on the screen were exactly the same as the five words on the picture!
Zhou Xuan's heart skipped a beat! Could it really be that he had stumbled upon the ancient city by sheer coincidence? Had he really found the treasure? And that terrifying extraterrestrial stone? He was filled with both joy and fear!
The pleasant surprise was that he caught Li Xinyuan's wife talking about the rope and found a flaw in the clue, finally finding the address of the lost ancient city again!
What I fear most is the strange stone from outer space that kills without a trace. The terror of the miniature coffin is enough to imagine how terrifying the stone is. How should I deal with it?
Trying to calm himself down, Zhou Xuan held his rapidly beating breath and used his icy energy to test the map in Li Jinlong's hand.
The result indeed showed a year of 3,600!
This makes the legend seem somewhat believable!
Li Jinlong stared blankly at the picture for a long time. After regaining his composure, he looked at everyone's gazes, all of whom were looking at him.
After taking a deep breath, Li Jinlong said in a trembling voice, "High-ranking Lan, I estimate that this is indeed the entrance to the ancient city's treasure!"
Although Lan Gao's expression was also slightly agitated, he was much calmer than the others, and said in a deep voice, "Tell me what you think!"
"Look," Li Jinlong said, pointing to five characters on the screen, "You see, those five characters on the rock face are exactly the same as the five characters in this picture. These characters are called 'Nine Turns and Eighteen Caves'!"
"Nine Turns and Eighteen Caves? What is this? And what does it mean?" Lan asked, staring at the screen.
Li Jinlong was indeed excited, his hands still trembling slightly. His voice also trembled a little: "Nine Turns and Eighteen Caves, that is the most profound craftsmanship of my Li family ancestors. Nine Turns and Eighteen Caves is the name of this craftsmanship, it represents the highest level of skill in tomb construction and feng shui mechanisms!"
Li Jinlong tried to calm himself down and continued, "This drawing is one of the craft drawings for the Nine Turns and Eighteen Caves passed down from my ancestors. This drawing is actually just a general plan. The original construction techniques have been lost. However, I can confirm that this entrance is the location of the ancient city's treasure. My ancestor was conscripted by King Zi Tang to build this tomb and never returned. The five characters on the rock wall in this cave are exactly the same as the ones in my ancestor's drawing, both in terms of strokes and style."
Li Jinlong took a breath and said, "That means the words on this rock face were left by my ancestors!"
Volume One: The Lotus Buds Just Begin to Emerge, Chapter Ninety-Seven: Exploring the Bottomless Pit
Jiang Jinlong's words didn't immediately make sense to the others. However, the higher-ups and the others understood his meaning: the legendary place of the treasure in the ancient city of Shixianggou in Yanshi did indeed exist, although it was unclear whether it was a treasure or a disaster. But it was certain that it existed.
Li Jinlong was too shocked and too excited. He never expected that the treasure that his ancestors and countless generations of tomb raiders had spent their entire lives searching for could actually be found by him today.
While Li Jinlong was still in a daze, Li Feihu, pulling the rope with some difficulty, asked, "Third Uncle, should we pull?"
Li Jinlong then realized what was happening and quickly said, "Pull, pull, pull it up quickly."
The basket wasn't heavy, but the rope, which was over a hundred meters long, was quite heavy. Several policemen came forward to help, and together with Li Feihu and Wang Dagui, they pulled the rope, making the journey much faster.
The lights on the screen were also shaking violently. Zhou Xuan probed the ice energy into the cave from the entrance, but even with all his strength, he could only extend it to six or seven meters. The ice energy still hadn't recovered to its previous level. In the United States, when the ice energy power reached its peak, it could extend to a distance of eleven or twelve meters in the air.
After the bamboo basket was pulled up, everyone gathered around. The kerosene lamp inside the basket was still lit. Ling Hui took down the high-powered light and the camera.
Li Jinlong lifted the rooster out, pulled out the dagger from his leg, and cut the ropes binding its feet and wings. As soon as he let go, the rooster flew to the ground, clucking and running away.
It seems there is air at the bottom of the cave; although it is deep, it is well-ventilated and free of toxic gases.
The police officers who came with Ling Hui only brought four steel wire pulleys. These pulleys can only be used individually, so only four people can go down at a time.
This requires selecting and confirming the candidates.