By the dim light of the fire, everyone looked towards the center of the stone platform, and sure enough they saw that the mouth of the snake statue, which was originally closed, had opened its mouth silently at some point, and became exactly the same as the previous relief at the entrance to the mountain top. High quality updates]
Liang Wude took out the jade ball composed of two pieces of Panlongjue from his arms, walked a few steps, handed it to Sima Rulan, and said: "Miss Sima, put the jade ball into the stone snake's mouth. Go in, but don't play any tricks."
Sima Rulan didn't ask for help, so she took the jade ball from Liang Wude's hand, walked to the statue of the snake, put her delicate hand into the statue's mouth, and put the jade ball into the statue's mouth.
Only a "click" sound was heard, but the stone snake's eyelids suddenly opened, and the light burst out.[
Hua Bushi's guess was not wrong at all. The mechanism on this statue was indeed exactly the same as the mechanism on the stone sculpture on the top of the mountain. The only difference was that the eyes of the stone snake relief on the top of the mountain were embedded with sapphires. When the machine apocalypse is revealed in this statue of the snake god, there are two rubies in its eyes, and the light emitted is also blood red.
Seeing this scene, Liang Wude looked happy and shouted: "Miss Sima, quickly press the ruby in the snake's eye, and you will surely be able to open the stone gate that locks the secret passage."
Sima Rulan pressed the ruby in the stone snake's eyes as she was told, and only heard a thin "crunching" sound. Sure enough, a mechanism was activated, but it was not the stone gate that fell at the entrance of the secret passage rose, but the stone gate that fell at the entrance of the secret passage rose. On the ground behind the stone statue, the stone slab suddenly slid open, revealing a hole seven or eight feet square.
Looking down from the stone platform, the entrance of the cave was pitch black, and I didn't know what was hidden there. But as soon as the hole was opened, a salty smell came in and filled the air around me. Standing on the stone platform Everyone looked at each other in shock, with a look of surprise on everyone's face, and no one said a word for a while.
Liang Wude took the torch from the hand of a pirate henchman, walked slowly a few steps, and shined the light of the torch at the entrance of the cave. However, he saw only a stone staircase going straight down inside the cave. He didn't know where it led. From outside the cave, I can't even see clearly what's going on below.
"Master Xiong." He shouted sharply.
Xiong Tiannan was the one who had stayed away the furthest. He was almost about to get off the stone platform. At this moment, he heard Liang Wude calling and had no choice but to come back and said, "Master Liang Wu called me, is there something wrong?"
Liang Wude handed the torch in front of him and said, "Take the torch, go down the stone steps at the entrance of the cave, take a look at what's underneath, and then come up and tell me."
Before Liang Wude finished speaking, Xiong Tiannan's face turned pale with fright.
He is tall and tall, and has practiced martial arts for many years. However, he has been pampered in Xiongjiazhuang since he was a child. His courage is exactly the opposite of his body size. At this time, he saw the darkness under the cave and a salty smell. The fishy smell hit his nostrils. He dared not go down. He said in a trembling voice: "Master Liang Wu, that cave is dark and rumbling. There are probably monsters hiding underneath. I think we should ask the boy named Hua to go down."
Liang Wude glared and scolded: "Idiot, if I tell you to go down, just go down. Don't be wordy."
This cave entrance is very likely to be the path out of the secret cave. Of course, Liang Wude cannot let Hua Bushi or Sima Rulan go down first, otherwise they will definitely escape first if they have the chance, and they may even do tricks in the cave, and in Liang Wude In his eyes, the lives of the Xiong family and his son were not valuable, and it didn't matter even if they died, so he asked Xiong Tiannan to go to the cave to explore the way.
A traitor is a traitor, and can never be trusted. No matter how good the Xiong family's martial arts skills are, no matter how powerful they are, they betrayed "Wanjintang" today, and they might betray "Black Dragon Palace" tomorrow, so the life and death of such people are not only Black Dragon The king didn't care, and even people like Liang Wude didn't take them seriously.
Xiong Tiannan didn't dare to say anything anymore, so he had to reach out and take the torch, but his legs were trembling. He timidly moved to the entrance of the cave, but still didn't dare to go down. However, Xiong Bailing strode up and grabbed the torch from his son's hand. He said, "Fifth Master, the dog is timid and can't do anything, so let me go down on his behalf."
Although Xiong Tiannan has no future and often makes mistakes, Xiong Bailing always feels that he hates him, but he is Xiong Bailing's only son after all, and Xiong Bailing has always doted on him. As a father, Xiong Bailing can't just watch. The son went into the cave to have an adventure.
Liang Wude said: "That's fine, then Hall Master Lao Xiong will do it."
Xiong Bailing's martial arts is much higher than that of Xiong Tiannan, so he has no problem with Liang Wude's willingness to join him.
Holding a torch in his hand, with a look of fear on his bearded face, Xiong Bailing walked to the entrance of the cave in a few strides, stepped down the steps without hesitation, and walked towards the entrance of the cave.
He walked like a tiger, making a "dong-dong" sound with every step he took on the stone slabs. Everyone watched as Xiong Bailing walked down the steps and disappeared into the entrance of the cave. The sound of his footsteps gradually faded away and could no longer be heard.[
However, not long after, the sound of footsteps came up from the stone steps again, and everyone heard Xiong Bailing shouting: "There is no danger down there, it is just a small lake, you all just come down."
Hearing this shout, everyone breathed a sigh of relief.
Liang Wude said: "Miss Sima, Master Hua, you two leave first, let's go down and have a look together."
Sima Rulan and Hua Bushi walked in front, followed by Liang Wude, Xiong Tiannan and four pirates. The group of people walked down the stone steps and entered the cave.
The stone steps were not too long, and they reached the end after walking only **10 steps. Xiong Bailing was standing below holding a torch. Just as he shouted just now, under the stone steps, there was actually a lake underground.
The shape of this lake is extremely irregular, and it is not too big. It should be less than sixty or seventy feet in diameter. To say that the lake is a bit weak, it might be more appropriate to call it a large pond. The lake is very calm, and under the dim light of a few torches Below, it shows a dark black color, but I don’t know how deep it is.
There are rugged rocks beside the lake, and there are many natural stalagmites and stone pillars connected to the top of the cave.
This underground lake is actually located directly below the large cave above. The difference is that the cave above is very flat and was obviously built by later generations, while here it is a completely natural scene, except Apart from the stone steps leading down, there is no trace of manual excavation.
Everyone walked down the stone steps and came directly to the lake.
Xiong Bailing said to Liang Wude: "The old man by the lake has checked it, and there is nothing special about it. The lake looks like sea water."
Liang Wude nodded and ordered the four pirates: "Go and search around the lake to see if there is a way out."
The pirates left in response. Liang Wude walked to the lake, stretched out his hand to dip some lake water in his mouth, and said, "It is indeed sea water. No wonder the smell in this cave is so salty."
Hua Bushi also walked to the lake, twitching his nostrils and smelling the smell in the air, with a thoughtful expression on his face. Sima Rulan stood there and looked around, looking quite nervous.
Liang Wude asked: "Miss Sima, have you ever entered this cave before?"
Sima Rulan shook her head and said: "I've already said it! I have never opened the mechanism on the altar above, and of course I have never come in here."
Liang Wude stared closely at Sima Rulan's jade face, but saw that although she was quite frightened, she didn't seem to be panicking.
Not long after, the four pirates who went to the lake to search came back, but they didn't find anything. There was still an outward passage in the cave.
The pirate named Baoya Chen walked up to Liang Wude and said: "Fifth Master, since the water in this lake is sea water, I think there must be a waterway at the bottom of the lake connected to the sea outside. We just need to swim in it." Maybe we can get out of this cave and swim into the sea."
Liang Wude nodded and said: "Well, you are right. Then dive into the lake to investigate and see if there is a water channel to get out of, and then come up and report it."
After entering the secret cave from the top of the mountain, the stone steps everyone walked went all the way down. If you want to calculate the distance, this place is almost exactly at the height of the sea level. It is doubtful that this small lake is connected to the sea. Liang Wude I have thought about it early on, but the lake here is dark and bottomless, so it is still quite dangerous to go down to investigate.
He was still thinking about who should be sent to the lake to investigate, but Baoya Chen came to the door himself, and Liang Wude simply sent him down directly.
The toothy Chen stepped forward to offer his advice because he was being smart, but now he had no choice but to admit that he was unlucky.[
Three torches were held at the edge of the lake to illuminate the water as much as possible: with a "pop" sound, Big Tooth Chen jumped into the lake, swam forward for several feet, then turned over and dived to the bottom of the water.
Everyone's eyes were fixed on the lake. Apart from the crackling sound of burning torches, there were no other sounds in the cave. Time passed little by little, and the water surface had long since returned to calm, but there was still no sign of Big Tooth Chen floating up.
The pirates of the "Black Dragon Palace" have been plundering ships in the South China Sea for many years. Of course, they are very good at water. It can be easily done by diving into the water for half a cup of tea. But it took more than a cup of tea for Baoya Chen to sneak into the lake. But it still didn't come up, which is a bit unusual.
"Baoya Chen has always been cunning. He didn't just find a secret passage under the water and just swam away by himself." The pirate named Liu Da muttered.
Liang Wude squinted his eyes and looked at the lake, but he saw that it was completely dark under the water, and the light from the torches on the shore was very limited, making it difficult to see clearly what was going on.
He frowned and ordered: "Chi Haigou, get down."
Among the four pirates who entered the cave, Chi Segou had the best water skills, so Liang Wude assigned him to go to the lake.
After hearing the leader's order, Chi Haigou was frightened and frightened, but he did not dare to disobey the order. He had to tie up his clothes and walked towards the lake.