This is a problem.
Many people frowned immediately.
Yeah... even riding a horse might not be enough to outrun a giant insect on the plains, let alone relying on just two legs.
Thinking about it more carefully, going up means they need to dig out the hardened magma blocking the cave entrance. And they don't know whether the magma above is completely solidified. Doing so may lead the magma down, which is even more suicidal.
"I'll send someone to explore the way." Smail took a deep breath. "If we find something wrong, we can turn back... We have six days of rations and fresh water, so we have enough time."
"What if that thing is also digging downwards now?" Xia Yibing said immediately.
"What if this is all the time we have to escape?"
"Are you still planning to go back and die?"
"Maybe it's suicide." Smail curled his lips, "But I must try."
Xia Yibing turned her head and looked away, as if she didn't intend to communicate with him anymore.
"Uh... Actually, there's no need for us to do this." Frick raised his right hand. "Go down... Will it be safe if we go down? Think about why these murals appear here, and think about how this cave came about... Who can guarantee that there aren't more bugs down there?"
He actually didn't understand how the situation had developed. Disagreements were disagreements, but there was no need to argue like this - the danger levels on both sides were clearly the same~
Hitzfeld also found the situation absurd.
Xia couldn't be afraid of death, nor could he be so stubborn for no reason.
Then why did she insist on going down, even at the cost of confronting the team leader Smail?
Is it simply because this is the solution they discussed?
As she thought about it, she lowered her head and glanced at the mural at her feet.
Then she saw that——
A human skeleton buried deep underground with a little bit of bones exposed above the surface.
Chapter 52: Strange Intensification
Without paying any more attention to the dispute, she half-knelt down, reached out to touch the skull's eye sockets, and tried to dig away the covering dirt with her fingernails.
This is not very realistic because the rock and soil around the tunnel is a mixture of red soil and fault rock, which is very hard and difficult to dig open with just fingernails.
"Maps, dagger." She stretched out her hand to the side. "I remember you brought a dagger. It was the only cold weapon you carried."
"You observe very carefully." Darent took out a dagger wrapped in a leather sheath from his arms and handed it to her along with the sheath. He suddenly frowned and asked, "What did you find?"
Xia Yibing also noticed the unusual situation here. She also had a dagger on her. She squatted down and worked with Hitzfeld to dig out the skeleton together.
It was limited to the skull - the other bones were too scattered, and some were buried very deep, so they could not be dug out in a short time.
"Here is a famous brand!" Darent was quick-eyed and quick-handed. The next moment Xia Yibing pulled out the skull, he reached into the hole and grabbed a metal pendant from inside.
The pendant is dark gold in color, and at the bottom is a small iron plate with a name engraved on the surface.
"Gini Armand..." The wooden man read out the name, and the next moment, the name tag was snatched away by a big hand.
It's Smail.
He first stared at the small iron plate for a while, and under the gaze of others, he pulled out a pendant of similar specifications from his neck. It also had a plate engraved with the owner's name, but the difference was that it was made of brass.
"All Flint Knights who served in Onsin, whether or not they passed the Golden Trial, had similar identity badges," he said. "This skeleton is our companion... He must have left these carvings."
"Hart!" He turned suddenly. "You said you could decipher the code on the mural? Can you explain it now?"
"It's very simple." Hart shook his head. "It's nothing more than that he saw the birth process of the monarch worm after going deep into the worm nest. But at the same time, he was also contaminated and might not live long, so he must record the secrets he saw before he dies."
"Please be more specific."
"Ah... Actually, it is." Hart glanced at Hitzfeld, "It's the general route to go down along this road and enter the hive."
When these words were spoken, the onlookers were somewhat shocked.
Can this be considered good news? With a general route guide, at least they can avoid rushing in without any preparation, and maybe they can use the process of elimination to find other forks in the middle and get back to the ground.
But on the other hand... this is to confirm that this road definitely leads to the insect nest...
There are densely packed red soil worms, crawlers, and an unknown number of emperor worms, and in the end, they may have to face the "Saint Jodin" whose life or death is unknown... The pressure is equally huge.
"Didn't you say before that he didn't want others to know?" Frick frowned.
"Yes, he didn't want us to know." Hart nodded. "This is because he was afraid that we would follow his example and go deep into the hive. He realized that he might have done this under control only after he finished carving these things. I guess his consciousness was very confused at the time... Maybe something was fighting with him for control of his body, and he couldn't resist that thing. The only way he could resist was to write them in secret codes that ordinary people couldn't understand."
Hitzfeld looked at Xia Yibing and found that she looked better.
Once Hart translates the route instructions, their chances of survival if they continue down will be greatly increased, which is tantamount to supporting her idea.
Smail frowned. After thinking for a while, he decided to send someone up to take a look first.
Since Hitzfeld and the others couldn't convince him, he had to do it himself.
Personally, she felt that there was no need to argue about such things. Smail was right - they could give it a try while they still had enough rations and time.
What if that thing is gone?
What if she was wrong?
If she was wrong, then going further would be a waste of time... It would not be appropriate from the perspective of survival or completing the mission.
But Xia Yibing said that it was no problem, there might indeed be time variables that might delay the chance of escape... Most of the choices when facing dangerous situations were fifty-fifty.
The odds were similar, so she stood on Xia's side without any hesitation.
Smail had already arranged for a small team of knights to set off.
The team consisted of six people, and their task was to carry ropes and climb up the tunnel. After reaching the blocked end, they would use the ropes to measure the approximate distance, and then try to dig out some mud with the tools they carried and bring it back to Weirensel for detailed analysis.
Weilensel has done considerable research on geology, so perhaps he could analyze what the situation is up there.
Hitzfeld returned to his original seat and sat down, holding the name tag he had requested.
Smail attached great importance to this thing and believed it was important evidence.
But she just wanted to borrow it to take a look, so he gave it to her without saying anything.
Ginny... Armand...
Gini...Gini?
She frowned slightly, as she felt like she had seen this name somewhere.
Where is it?
Related to the parish knights.
Related to specific names.
At the same time, it is near Unsayn.
Oh - she remembered, it was the church cemetery that Frick had taken her to before they set out!
Those messy tombstones, if I remember correctly, the first tombstone on the left side of the door has this name engraved on it - Ginny Armand!
How could there be such a coincidence in this world?
Hitzfeld was a little surprised. She swore that she only remembered this name, but it just so happened that the skeleton they found was that of the Guinea Knight!
"It's either a coincidence... or there are more skeletons buried underground, and Gini Armand is just one of them."
"What are you thinking about?"
Xia Yibing sat next to her and tilted her head to look at her profile.
Hitzfeld simply told her what he had discovered, frowned, and asked her, "What happened to you just now? There was no need to confront him in front of so many people..."
She was naturally moved by the fact that her reasoning was so supported, but she felt that... Xia had gone a little too far.
Everything has a limit. In this matter, Xia went too far.
"It's not good enough to protect you?" The woman curled her lips. "They haven't seen those things like you, so of course they don't know the danger of going up there. Do I want him to take all of us to die with him?"
"Then you can also discuss it with him privately after everyone has left..."
"Then there's even less hope." Xia Yibing interrupted her.
"He looks gentle, but he actually has a very strong personality. If I hadn't objected at the time, he would have made the decision. In private? He wouldn't have acknowledged it in private!"
"...In fact, you seem even weirder to me."
Xia Yibing moved closer to the girl, squinted her eyes and spoke softly.
"Your will is not very strong... Why? This is your reasoning, why don't you insist? And you still have to think about him all the time?"
“…Maybe I have some problems too.”
Hitzfeld frowned slightly, but went along with what she said and admitted his mistake.
Although she didn't think she was wrong.
Something is not right...
She also narrowed her eyes and looked carefully at the woman in front of her.
A very familiar face.
Every inch of skin, even the angle of the eyelashes, was exactly the same as she remembered.
but why.
This feeling.
Why do I always feel like something is different...
Chapter 53: Melodious Piano Music
When his eyes fell on the name tag in his hand, Hitzfeld suddenly had a terrible idea.
Why do humans deconstruct the "world"?
Sensory.
Vision, hearing, smell, taste, touch, and heart.
Take Xia Yibing, who is still looking at her, for example... She can see her image, hear her voice, and smell the faint fragrance mixed with sweat wafting from her body.
But this alone was not enough to make her feel "Oh~ this is the person I know best."
She also needs to add her mind and some stored memories. She has to compare "the Xia Yibing I see now" with "the Xia Yibing in my impression" - this process is completed subconsciously in a very short time. She may not be aware of it, but she makes a decision based on it to judge whether the person she is facing is real or fake.
In other words, if there was something that could manipulate her senses.
Replace what she sees with images of Xia.
Replace the sound made by that thing with Xia's voice.
Replace the smell of that thing with summer's hair fragrance.
Then further read and deconstruct her memory, giving it the same expression, movements and language habits as "Xia Yibing in Hitzfeld's impression".
Then she would definitely be able to accurately determine that this thing is not Xia?
No, she thought she couldn't.
At least you can't tell them apart at the first sight.
That's a scary assumption.
What's even more terrifying than this assumption is that she happened to have contracted a curse called "anosthenia". Unlike most evil curses that can harm people's lives, the symptom of this curse is only anosthenia - it can directly affect all kinds of senses of the patient.
Although she only triggered the "anosmia" and all the fragrances she smelled smelled like corpses during that period, after coming to Onsayin, she saw more cases and confirmed that this curse can also affect hearing, smell, taste and touch.
She hasn't fully understood the triggering principle of this curse yet, which means that she is not 100% sure... to avoid being infected by it.
So is it possible that... I've triggered aesthesia again, and this time it's directly tampering with most of my senses.
Smail is fake.
Flick is fake.
Willensel and Leah are fake.
Darent and Xia are even more fake.
Even the "awakening" thing is fake.
