"boom!"
The third shot.
"boom!"
The fourth shot.
"Chi chi chi——"
The effect of the fourth shot was very obvious. It must have triggered some structure. A hot white smoke with a foul smell rose rapidly from the pit. At the same time, the two men also felt the ground beneath their feet shaking slightly.
This vibration is different from the vibration caused by the giant insect.
Bigger.
That is a force that is enough to tear the earth apart.
"Hurry up and leave!" Hitzfeld's face changed suddenly.
Before she could open her mouth, Xia Yibing picked her up again, and the two of them rushed to the cave entrance in less than ten seconds. At this moment, Xia Yibing's feet suddenly went soft - the entire ground began to collapse.
Rumbling--
A large amount of white smoke suddenly blew out from the darkness of the cave behind them... They were obviously not ordinary smoke because they were incredibly hot. These things almost swallowed up the two of them in an instant, and the protrusion of the stone wall that Xia Yibing reached out to grab broke at this time.
With a "snap", a skinny but strong arm reached out from above and grabbed her. She knew how rare this opportunity was, so she simply took the risk and stepped hard on the collapsed rock wall, using the two forces to jump up with the girl.
"This is what happens when you don't wait for me!"
As soon as they went up, they saw Darent's face that deserved a beating.
Hitzfeld didn't even look at him. He pulled Xia Yibing up from the ground and continued to run out with his head down.
Darent's smile froze for a moment, and as if he remembered something, he immediately followed them outside.
This is definitely the right choice.
The moment he took his first step, the ground he had just stood on collapsed again.
A large amount of hot smoke spewed out from underground, this time even mixed with sparks... The ground collapse was chasing the three people in front at an alarming speed. If you zoom out and look down from a high altitude, this campsite... The entire rock formation was surrounded by a gradually emerging orange light.
"She succeeded!?"
On the cliff, the rest of the patrol team noticed the changes below. Smail held up the lantern and approached the giant insect, only to find that it was indeed retreating... and retreating more resolutely than ever before.
The ground collapsed.
The lava spring erupted prematurely, and the entire cave was now immersed in boiling magma. As time went on, the magma would spread up and soak the cliff where they were standing.
"It is afraid of high temperatures..."
Seeing the giant insect hissing and gradually retreating, Frick grinned in surprise: "She's right! This really works!"
"But another question is how can we break through the magma siege..."
Smail was breathing heavily, his arms were sore, but he still didn't dare put down the lantern.
It would be great if they could force the monster away, but if they didn't find a way to leave here as soon as possible, they would still be burned to death by the lava.
boom!
At this moment, the cliff platform where they were standing shook violently.
"This is……"
boom--
Before they could communicate, a louder and wider collapse occurred again. This time, the entire cliff platform tilted violently, and all the people... all the remaining horses and supplies were thrown down the slope unexpectedly and swallowed up by a thick smoke.
Chapter 46 Dispute
……
I don’t know how much time had passed before Hitzfeld slowly woke up from the drowsy darkness again.
As soon as she moved, she felt a piercing pain in her right arm and couldn't help but let out a slight groan from her nose.
The noise quickly alarmed the caretaker, and she felt someone holding her back and helping her up to sit against the rock wall, while helping her separate the hair that had fallen in front of her and was in the way.
The vision gradually became clear, and Xia Yibing's face gradually emerged from the darkness.
Seeing this face, Hitzfeld immediately closed his eyes, relaxed his tense nerves, leaned his head back, and slightly raised the corners of his mouth.
"Your hand is broken, and you still have the mind to laugh?" Xia Yibing opened her mouth, and it was unclear whether her expression was funny or angry. She continued to lean forward and pinch the girl's face, as if she wanted to check whether she was mentally traumatized.
"Don't come on, my brain is not broken." Hitzfeld raised his hand to block her, half-opened his eyes and met her gaze, "I just think that in that situation... we were lucky to survive...
Xia Yibing frowned, seeming to be hesitant to speak.
But seeing the girl's smile, she chose to shut up temporarily and put her down again.
The burden on Hitzfeld's body may be heavier than she thought. Her extreme mental relaxation even allowed her to temporarily break through the limitations of insomnia and fall into a deep sleep again.
After wandering in the dark for a while, Hitzfeld suddenly opened his eyes and sat up from the stretcher.
She saw Xia Yibing again. The woman's face and body were very dirty. Almost every corner of her face was covered with mud. Her hair, which had not been washed for who knows how long, was clotted with mud. A strand of hair hung down in front of her forehead. She was dozing off against the stone wall next to her.
She also saw the firelight, and following the light, she saw at least dozens of people sitting in the corner on the other side. Next to them were some rags and large boxes. She even saw two intact horses.
"You're awake!" She made almost no sound, but Xia Yibing woke up quickly. The woman came over and held her shoulders, trying to push her down: "Why did you get up? Lie down quickly!"
Hitzfeld was pushed back obediently by her, but his eyes were still wandering everywhere.
She didn't quite understand what was going on.
If I remember correctly, they detonated the lava spring as planned... and relied on the spreading hot magma to drive back the giant insects. Then the ground collapsed violently, and many people, including her, fell down.
But what was going on now? If she was right, she was still underground?
"It seems you guessed it."
Along with this familiar voice, Smail came over holding a wooden bowl.
Darent and Frick followed closely behind, each of them holding a bowl in their hands. Judging from the smell in the air, it was most likely filled with broth.
"Tell me what happened next." Hitzfeld glanced briefly at Darent's face and then his eyes fell on Smail.
"Drink some soup to warm yourself up first." Smail squatted down and put down his bowls with the others.
Hitzfeld looked down and saw three bowls. One bowl contained soup, and the other two bowls contained shredded cooked meat and fried eggs.
It was ordinary, but considering their current conditions, such treatment could be considered luxurious.
"Don't feel bad about it." Frick stopped her with one sentence, "You are the key to our survival. It's no exaggeration to say that you saved all of us, so you deserve to enjoy them."
Hitzfeld sniffed hard.
The smell of the food was tempting her, and she finally felt hungry. Judging from the twitching feeling, she hadn't eaten for at least twenty hours.
Glancing at Xia Yibing, the woman nodded vigorously at her.
She simply stopped being polite and took a sip of the soup, then grabbed the fried egg and stuffed it into her mouth.
During this process, Smail and others began to explain to her what happened during her coma.
"The lava spring burned through the red soil layer. Under normal circumstances, the gushing magma would continue to burn the soil layer and expand the area until it encounters a deeper fault layer to form a lake... Our fate is to become the seasoning in this hot pot."
"But fortunately, oh, to some extent, this is inevitable - because the beast drilled a lot of cave tunnels around, which of course also included fault layers. A large amount of magma was led away by different branch pits, and the slope we slid down at the beginning happened to correspond to a cave tunnel leading deep underground."
"We just slid down along the angle, along with all the remaining materials. The magma gradually solidified during the sliding process, and the collapse dumped a lot of sand and soil, and the hole leading to the lava lake was blocked."
The person responsible for explaining this part is Weirensel.
He was luckier than Hitzfeld in that his hand was not broken.
There were also some bad things - his left hand had become necrotic due to being contaminated by lava, and had now been completely amputated from the wrist.
"That means," Hitzfeld swallowed the last bite of food, "we are trapped here."
"Yes, great detective!" Darent pouted and whistled, "Thanks to you."
"Mapsdalen!" Xia Yibing growled.
"You all look dead, so what's wrong with me livening up the atmosphere?"
"It's hard to say at the moment," Smail said in a low voice. "According to the professor, there is hope if we follow the cave tunnel further in... You can see that we can still light torches now."
"But its slope is very steep," Frick said. "It obviously leads to a deeper underground. It doesn't look like the way to the surface..."
"In short, you're worried that if you continue down, you'll reach the insect's nest..."
Hitzfeld interrupted him. "That's right."
"That's right." Willensel nodded first, "But it's also possible that we can find a fork in the road, because there must be some place that can ventilate. It depends on whether we can find it before the supplies are used up."
"How long have I been in a coma?"
"About twenty hours." Xia Yibing said.
"How many more of us are there?"
"32 people," Smail said, "...most of them didn't survive."
Hitzfeld nodded slightly.
"How many of them are fighters?"
"Twenty people," Xia Yibing replied, "...including me."
That's a really bad situation...
Hitzfeld reached out and pinched his brow hard.
She is a detective, not an explorer. Moreover, even the most professional explorer would be helpless in this situation.
"We still have two horses, which can provide six days of dry food for everyone." Smail began to calculate the accounts for her. "If we count the horses, we can last a few more days, but there are so many of us after all... You know, this is far from enough."
"What do you want to say?"
Hitzfeld stared up at him.
She could tell there was something else behind his words.
"While you were asleep, they argued over whether they should 'go all the way down to find a way out' or 'climb up to find scattered supplies' and try to dig up the soil as they went along."
Xia Yibing said.
"He probably wants to ask for your opinion."
--------
There is one more chapter during the day.
Chapter 47: Cut off the escape route
Everyone was staring at him, causing Hitzfeld to feel a great deal of pressure.
She put her hand to her forehead again, her thumb pressing on her temple, but what she was thinking about was not the direction problem that was bothering the team, but rather - why could she come up with such a crazy idea as exploding the lava spring?
They all attributed the credit to her, but she was the only one who knew that it was not entirely her idea. Normally, it would have been difficult for her to think about it at the time. She did it because she "saw it".
In the darkness, her eyes penetrated the soil and rocks, saw the vague structure of the lava spring, and naturally caught a glimpse of the hidden cave tunnels underground.
She even looked farther and saw an insect nest, with worms densely packed together below. At that moment, it seemed as if the entire red soil plain had no secrets left for her.
Is it because of the left eye?
Reflexively, she moved her fingers closer to the left side and gently pressed the left eyeball through the eyelid with her ring finger.
But what was that thing I saw in the void...
Seven giant eyes carved on the outer teeth of the Emperor Worm. That thing also has seven eyes...
Could it be that thing is also a kind of evil creature?
Is it in the universe?
Could it be the source of the "Seven Days Theory" in the Sun King myth?
Are the carvings in those photos... and the carvings on the emperor's teeth meant to celebrate it...
And the name I chanted...
"Aibu..."
