endless route.

Chapter 398 8. The ancient building at the bottom of the lake, the Heshan Laoye Temple

The brown animal skin that Nia found was hanging on a very sharp stone, as if some creature accidentally scratched it while swimming and scraped off a strand of its own flesh.

This is indeed a clue.

But it’s difficult to identify the original owner through skin and flesh.

"It's just a little bit of skin, nothing can be seen at all. There are many kinds of monsters and ghosts. Who knows where this skin comes from, and it may not be related to Master Shan."

Ji Dao rubbed his chin and shook his head.

There are a lot of skinned things in the entire underground lake, and the animal skins that Zhou Jiu prepared to survive the rainy season may be scratched on sharp stones unintentionally.

"But Mr. Dao, if this skin is really Mr. Shan's, what exactly is this thing? I think the surface is smooth and oily, somewhat similar to human skin."

Zhang Ergou reasoned seriously.

But what he said was very shocking.

Zheng Yun stared at the screen and said.

The reason for this result should be related to the source of the underground lake water. In addition to the water accumulated over the years, there is also a lot of rainwater from the outside.

The observed results are also consistent with the speculation.

The underground lake is huge, and it will not be possible to detect it all in a short time. At present, they have only detected the surface atmosphere near the lake surface, which is as deep as ten meters underwater.

The area near the lake is generally safe.

Keep going down.

This part of the lake is still busy.

The Yin soldiers and ghosts will act quickly. While Zheng Yun and Nia are diving into the detector, ten Yin soldiers are selected to wear closed diving suits and are ready to dive into the water physically.

But nothing huge.

"Take photos and record."

"The water temperature suddenly dropped, there were undercurrents and whirlpools under the water, the water became turbid, and there was a stream of living water nearby."

The archaeological team's detectors have a large number of built-in sensors, ranging from thermal sensors to terrain detection radars, etc., which transmit data to the screen in real time, but ordinary people cannot read it.

If Mr. Shan is really not that big, then why on earth does he want to live in an underground lake and insist on living here.

It didn't take long for them to detect signs of life and photograph dozens of creatures living in the lake.

Zhang Ergou set off immediately.

"Stand by the lake."

The soil must contain a variety of seeds and debris, which flow into the cracks in the rock wall during heavy rains, replenishing the entire underground lake with nutrients and fresh plant seeds.

Perhaps there are other ancient ruins at the bottom of the lake, and Mr. Shan is hiding somewhere, secretly watching their exploration.

The rock walls above the water are covered with shade-loving plants in the gaps, while the underwater rock walls are covered with algae and some aquatic plants.

The rock wall can roughly be divided into two parts.

The two detectors dived against the leftmost and rightmost rock walls respectively, and observed many details along the way, including large and small 'cave mouths' and numerous mountain crevices.

Zheng Yun spoke to Nia.

Zheng Yun made next arrangements based on the results.

"It's really weird."

Ji Dao was puzzled.

But we still don’t know what lies at the bottom of the lake.

There were no traces of the activity of the behemoth. It seemed that the entire underground lake could not accommodate any creature that was too big.

In the area of ​​30 to 60 meters underwater, the lake water suddenly became dead and cold. No trace of life could be found within the range of the searchlight, and the life detector also found nothing.

"There are some anomalies in the data."

Rainwater flows down from the mountains.

"There are basically no clues near the water surface. Let's go to the bottom of the lake and have a look. In addition, we can also have the Yin soldiers prepare."

"I'll go right away."

There is a stable ecosystem in the underground lake. There is no shortage of everything from plants to swimming fish, and there are even quite a lot of them.

There is a lot of soil mixed in it.

At the same time, he also operated an unmanned probe, shifting the focus of exploration away from the ancient ship and instead observing the rock walls near the ancient ship, especially the deep lake directly below the ancient ship.

The two detectors explored back and forth.

Nia stared at the detector data and said.

Basically can be sure.

There are many fish at this height.

The picture on the screen kept changing, and the diving depth became deeper and deeper. Soon, he dived from ten meters underwater to thirty meters underwater, and arrived near the middle water of the underground lake.

As soon as Zheng Yun heard about human skin, he turned his head and looked at Zhang Ergou with a scrutinizing gaze. Only then did the latter realize his mistake and quickly explained to Zheng Yun and Jidao:
"I just saw it in Qianxiantai. Qianxiantai is a mixed bag of fish and dragons. Everyone is there. There are also some weird magic weapons. They are said to be related to human skin, but in fact they may not be."

Nia can read.

She can find the source of the problem.

"Somewhere at this depth, there should be a gap in the mountain that meets the underground river, bringing cold water from the underground river. It is different from the rainwater in the upper layer, and the water flow is not small."

Nia concluded.

"Keep diving."

Zheng Yun nodded and continued the operation.

The intersection of the underground lake and the underground river is inevitable. There is nothing surprising about this. The key clue it brings is that it allows me to know the normal water level of the underground lake.

The water level of the underground lake is related to rain. It rises when it rains during the rainy season, and falls back to a normal height during normal times.

Previously they had been unable to judge the water level.

Now it is known for sure that the height of this underground river is the lowest value of the water level, and it cannot be lower than here.

The detector continues down.

Soon he crossed the cold water layer of the underground river and dived to an area of ​​60 to 100 meters below the surface. The environment here suddenly became calm, like a pool of silent stagnant water.

The water color is black.

Contains rich nutrients.

It is very close to the bottom of the lake. A large amount of silt floats on the bottom of the lake, evenly distributed throughout the bottom layer, and turns into small vortices with the wake of the propeller.

"There's something unusual here."

Nia suddenly noticed a problem. She turned her head and looked at the screen in front of Zheng Yun, and pointed to a data graph in the corner of the screen. It was Zheng Yun's detector that discovered the problem.

"What do you mean?"

Zheng Yun followed the finger and looked.

That is the detection result of terrain detection radar. It contains imaging pictures and text data, which non-professionals cannot understand.

Zheng Yun couldn't understand the data either.

The archaeological team's detector is professional equipment, and non-professionals were not considered when designing the equipment, because non-professionals will not have access to this equipment at all.

Therefore, the detector does not have a 'dumb version' operating system, and the data summary and conclusions are also at a professional level.

Ordinary people can only understand concise data imaging such as thermal imaging. Once it involves detection radar, they are blind and cannot understand the meaning of those lines.

"There is a large and strange bulge at the bottom of the lake. Based on my past experience, it should be an ancient building, or it may be some sunken ships piled together."

Nia came to the conclusion directly.

The detector scans the lake bottom regardless of the silt, and can scan out the outline of the lake bottom terrain, which is displayed on a chart as a large number of numbers. After rendering and transformation, it can be turned into a three-dimensional map.

But there's no time to render the transformation now.

I can only speculate based on personal experience.

And she happened to have relevant experience. She had spent a year in a deep-sea floating city, conducting high-intensity detection of the deep sea thousands of meters underwater, and using radar to directly detect deep-sea floating ships and floating cities.

The current work is almost exactly the same as the original work on the Deep Sea Floating City, even the details are highly the same. The difficulty has also become much lower.

The depth of the underground lake is only more than a hundred meters, which is incomparable to the depth of the deep-sea floating city, which is often three thousand meters.

It was a wise move for Zheng Yun to transfer her out. She has very rich experience in deep-sea exploration. When faced with the detection data, she can make conclusions with almost no thinking.

If you want to go to sea later.

You can also take her to explore the seabed.

"Master Xian's detector is located directly under these ancient ships on the lake. Since there are five ancient ships floating on the lake, is it normal for a sunken ship to appear at the bottom of the lake?"

Zhang Ergou looked at Nia and asked.

Perhaps there are many ancient ships in the underground lake, most of which sank at the bottom of the lake, leaving only five floating on the lake.

Hundreds of years have passed, and it is difficult for these ancient ships to be preserved in good condition. Rather than floating on the water, sinking is more reasonable, and this is also the final destination of most ancient ships.

"Did the life detector find anything?"

Zheng Yun looked at another data and asked.

Ji Dao has always said that Master Shan is huge, and the weird bulge at the bottom of the lake is possible. Is it possible that it is a living creature?
"No, the thermal imaging did not detect a temperature difference. The heat distribution at the bottom of the lake is very even. There are only some small anomalies, which should come from some small aquatic creatures."

"But these data cannot rule out the possibility that this bulge at the bottom of the lake is a creature, because didn't you say that this creature is a strange creature, and anything is possible."

Niya looked at Zheng Yun and said seriously.

Based on the data alone, it is basically certain that the bulge at the bottom of the lake is a dead thing, but the strange creature that Jian Xiansi came to look for personally might also have the ability to regulate body temperature.

"Take a closer look."

Zheng Yun controlled the detector to continue going down.

Since the bulge at the bottom of the lake is right under the detector, you can go down through the silt lingering in the water and take a look. You will know whether it is a shipwreck or a mountain master.

Wow.

The sound of the propeller sounded slightly.

The command room remained absolutely quiet, and everyone held their breath and watched the real-time scene in front of Zheng Yun, from Zheng Yun, Jidao Zhang Ergou, to Niya and the little Taoist beside him.

The atmosphere became more solemn.

The brightly lit ancient house was silent, except for the continuous sound of wind and rain outside the window, sometimes gentle and sometimes roaring. Thousands of raindrops drifted left and right in the lanterns under the eaves.

The depth keeps decreasing.

The detector started from 80 meters underwater and slowly approached 100 meters underwater, getting closer and closer to the bulge on the lake bottom below.

The detection screen is murky.

Under the bright searchlight, the disturbance of sediment is like wisps of dust. The visible distance is no more than ten meters. It seems that there are countless grains of sand and gravel in front of us, constantly passing upward from the left and right of the detector.

Wow.

A soft sound.

The detector broke out of the last layer of mud, and the detection picture suddenly became clear, giving a clear view of the entire lake bottom.

Not a weird creature.

Nor is it a pile of shipwrecks.

The outline of a building sunk in the mud actually appeared in front of me. The eaves and attics of this ancient building could be vaguely seen, like a 'Undersea Dragon Palace' standing at the bottom of the lake.

"This is……"

Zhang Ergou exclaimed and looked at Jidao.

"I can't tell what kind of ancient building this is. There is a gatehouse in the front and an attic in the back. It looks like an ancient mansion, an ancient dojo, or some exquisite temples..."

Ji Dao frowned and stared at the screen.

This ancient building was half buried by the sediment at the bottom of the lake, and everything was covered with a layer of sediment. Most of the buildings were unrecognizable. Only the outlines and the pattern of the ancient buildings could be discerned.

The boxy area is not large.

Like the mansion of a dignitary.

It also looks like some ancient temples.

"Is it possible that it collapsed from the cave? This ancient building was originally built above the underground lake, and the mountain below collapsed to the bottom of the lake."

Zheng Yun came up with an idea.

On the way from the corridor to the cave, there is an ancient stone road of considerable width, but at the end of the stone road is a cave blocked by stones without any ancient buildings.

This itself is contrary to common sense.

There are even bluestone lampstands on the left and right sides of the stone road. Although they are broken by the vicissitudes of life, the ancient charm of the lampstands can be vaguely seen. If it is turned on on a summer night, it will definitely be a beautiful scene with misty lights.

But such a stone road.

But it leads to an empty cave.

Stone roads are usually just a foil for ancient buildings. The more important the building, the higher the grade of the stone roads.

Ancient craftsmen worked in a systematic way. It is impossible to have a bare stone road without matching ancient buildings.

"What Master Xian said makes sense."

Zhang Ergou tapped his forehead and nodded repeatedly. It was obviously unreasonable for the stone road to lead to the cave, but if there were ancient buildings built on the mountain in the corner of the mountain pass, then everything would be much more reasonable.

"It is indeed possible, but how did the beautiful mountain collapse? Was it blown up by Triton using explosives?"

Jidao looked at Zheng Yun subconsciously.

At this moment, his thoughts coincided with Zheng Yun's. Once something like this happens, it is almost impossible to go wrong by guessing Haiwei. The culprit behind the scenes is most likely Haiwei.

"You said earlier that the mountain pass where the cave is located is a geomantic treasure, and this place is also known as the Master of the Mountain. Perhaps this ancient building is a Taoist temple built halfway up the mountainside."

"It is Shanlaoye Temple."

"As for why it collapsed at the bottom of the lake, there may be two reasons. One is that there are gods and ghosts in the temple, and the other is that Haiwei escaped and accidentally entered the lake and accidentally collapsed the lake."

Zheng Yun gave a complete guess.

Most of the clues have been discovered before. After seeing this ancient building, I connected the clues and finally came to the only two conclusions.

One of them will not be described again.

It's natural for Triton to slay the demon.

The second reason is also there.

If the several ancient ships on the lake are survivors of the group of wreckage of the navy, then when they fled into the river cave to avoid pursuit, they probably used explosives to completely cut off their escape route.

The more powerful the explosive.

The more likely it is that the temple will collapse.

"Master Immortal, I think there should be gods, ghosts and evil things in the Taoist temples, and these gods, ghosts and evil things are Master Shan. After the temple was sealed off by Haiwei, he was imprisoned deep in the lake."

"As for the few ancient ships on the lake and the blocked estuary, it was done by Triton afterwards."

Ji Dao watched Zheng Yun make his own choice. This logic was smoother and easier for people to accept.

This ancient building is immersed under the ancient ship.

But this does not mean that these ancient ships also docked here when the ancient buildings collapsed into the water. It is more likely that after the dojo temple collapsed, Haiwei sent ships to investigate.

These ancient boats were not running for their lives, but came specifically to see the collapse of the temple and see if Lord Shan had escaped. They stopped right above the ancient building for their inspection.

"If that's the case, maybe Master Shan is in this ancient building? He was enshrined in a temple during his lifetime, and was brought to the temple by our sea guards and the demons, and the whole nest was blown into the bottom of the lake?"

Zhang Ergou stared straight at Gu Jiandao.

Tritons usually do not use such rough methods to deal with gods, ghosts and immortals, but rather deal with them delicately and meticulously.

Even the demon and the temple were suppressed together.

This shows that the evil spirits in the temple are so powerful that it is difficult for Haiwei to deal with them accurately. He pulled out Master Shan alone and killed them, so he had no choice but to blow them all up and block them all as quickly as possible.

If this is the case.

That mountain master is still in the temple!
(End of this chapter)