Chapter 1403 Visiting Hell

After about twenty minutes' drive, the rover reached the edge of the "gate of hell".

Finding a pass along the contour line that allows the Mars rover to pass through, Fan Tong turned the steering wheel and drove the car over.

As the rover continued to go deep into the mountains along the rugged and narrow path, the signal was affected by the nearby hematite, and it began to be intermittent.

Glancing around the steep cliffs and rock walls, feeling the oppressive atmosphere that made people breathless, astrophysicist Aubrey shrank his neck and couldn't help but complain.

"Speaking of which, why is this place called the Gate of Hell? Don't you feel panicked when you give this place this name?"

Fan Tong, who was driving, said casually.

"I'm afraid you have to ask NASA, they took the name."

As the first organization to send the probe to Mars, the slightly larger terrain undulations were basically given a name by Curiosity.

Perhaps the scientific researchers responsible for naming at that time felt that this word was more artistic, so they gave this mountain range this name. It's hard to say whether there are art bacteria now, but the image is nothing to say.

"Some meters-long cracks will randomly appear around the gate of hell. These cracks are very similar to earthquake cracks, through which you can directly enter the range of the ruins. Of course, these cracks are not the only way to enter the inside of the ruins. When you come out of it, you pass through a fixed entrance. Its location is probably in the middle of the Gate of Hell Mountain Range, embedded in the rock wall on the side of the rift... just ahead, we are here."

Propelling forward along the rift, the rover with its engine turned off slowly stopped beside a ridge. After the group got out of the car, they followed Fan Tong's footsteps to a standing stone pillar about four or five people tall.

Behind this stone pillar, a steep downward slope can be seen.

The brilliance of the morning sun shone on the back of the stone pillar, and a sacred radiance stretched down along the shadow track. Just like some kind of natural miracle, just looking at it can't help but make people feel awe.

Just looking at the appearance, it does feel a bit of a relic.

"... a bit strange."

With a slight hey, Professor Vernal, an archaeologist from Oxford University, frowned, walked to the stone pillar and squatted down. After groping along the surface of the stone pillar for a while, he suddenly opened his mouth and continued.

"Is this a marine sedimentary environment?"

Standing behind Professor Vernal, Fan Tong had a look of surprise on his face, nodded and said.

"I agree with you... Billions of years ago, this place should have been an ocean."

"And the altitude is probably a bit deep." Groping along the outline of the stone pillar with his palm, feeling the hard touch coming through the graphene fibers, Professor Vernal continued muttering, "The hydrogeological environment here Some unique, there should have been many major geological disasters in history. Volcanic eruptions, plate collisions, and special tectonic movements that do not exist on the earth...It is really incredible."

"Compared with the geological structure here, let's focus on the ruins underground," astrophysicist Aubrey walked to the front of the group, turned back and cast a eager look at Lu Zhou, "What do you think? What? Boss."

"...I have no opinion, but if we just stand outside, I'm afraid we won't be able to figure out anything," Lu Zhou didn't respond to the title of the boss. After thinking for a while, he continued, "Go ahead, we Lead the charge."

Wang Peng raised his hand, put the paratrooper rifle with the flashlight in front of him, and walked to the entrance of the cave.

"Let me do it."

Aubrey and Vernal glanced at each other, exchanging an odd glance. Fan Tong also shrugged helplessly, and threw the rock sample he was holding aside.

"Although I said that weapons may not be useful...but since you insist, it's up to you."

Although it is true to say so, I have to admit that there is a gun opening the way in front, which still brings a lot of security to the group.

Even if everyone knows in their hearts that if they really encounter some living aliens, most of the weapons on the earth will be difficult to guarantee them to retreat unscathed. But at least in the sense of heart, the black muzzle can still bring them some comfort.

Walking beside Lu Zhou, Schultz asked in a low voice.

"Are you sure those Martians are... dead?"

Scanning the surrounding environment vigilantly, Lu Zhou shrugged his shoulders and replied in a casual tone, "I'm not sure...but if they didn't die, we must have seen them on Earth long ago."

Able to survive billions of years in this universe...

Even if they didn't occupy the Milky Way, the star field with a radius of thousands of light years around the solar system should have been under their control long ago.

At this time, the aerospace engineer Dr. Lomonov, who had been silent all this time, suddenly said a word.

"Could it have been seen before, and we just didn't realize it?"

Hearing this, Aubrey couldn't help shivering, coughed dryly and said.

"Don't tell such ghost stories!"

A group of people continued to move toward the depths of the tunnel.

So far, the expedition has been going well without any setbacks.

Relying on the marks left by Fan Tong when they came out, they successfully advanced at least two kilometers into the cave. And according to the data displayed by the depth detector, they are now about 200 meters deep from the surface.

As their footsteps descended deeper, the feeling of alienation from civilization became stronger. It feels like a baby who has just had its umbilical cord cut and thrown into a bottomless well.

The communication between each other is getting less and less, whether it is talkative or nervous, everyone has kept silent tacitly.

At this moment, Fan Tong suddenly stopped, looked at the fork in front of him and said.

"Something's wrong..."

Everyone stopped.

Looking at Fan Tong who stopped, Lu Zhou cast him a questioning look.

"What's wrong?"

"The mark is broken here."

Walking to the side of the rock wall, Fan Tong reached out and groped on it for a while, and found a scratch cut off from it.

This is the mark left by the multi-purpose shovel when I came out of the underground ruins. Originally, this clue should point directly to the deepest part of the ruins, but now it is cut off from it.

Looking at the two forks in front of him, the expression on Fan Tong's face became more serious, and he muttered to himself.

"Sure enough...the passage inside the ruins has changed. I haven't seen any fork in the road. I have to go back for about a kilometer to encounter the first fork."

"However, a fork in the road appeared ahead of schedule."

"I'm afraid it's not as simple as qualifying ahead of schedule."

Muttering to himself, Professor Vernal stepped forward, squatted beside the fork in the road, chiseled some debris from the rock wall with the multi-purpose shovel in his hand, held it in his hand and looked at it for a moment.

"...unbelievable."

Schultz swallowed, looked at him and asked.

"Unbelievable what?"

"Three billion years ago...or earlier, this place should have been a cave covered with alloys." Standing up, Professor Vernal carefully put the rock debris into the sample bag and stuck it on A marked label, "Although the traces of civilization have been weathered by time, rocks will not lie."

Professor Aubrey frowned.

"what are you saying?"

"What I mean is, judging from the weathering traces, the structure of the road on the left is obviously more complicated than that on the right." After glancing at Fan Tong who was lost in thought, Professor Vernal continued to look at Lu Zhou, Shrugging his shoulders, "You are the captain, you can choose which way to go."

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(Recommend a good fantasy book "Lin Yuan Xing", the new work of the house pig boss, recommended by the wall crack~)