Chapter 1404 Separate Actions

"Let's split up and act."

Looking at the two forks in front of him, Lu Zhou thought for a moment, then said, "Let's continue along the path on the right, you...or take another person and explore along the path on the left. If it is If there is a dead end, turn back from the front and continue along our road, and we will meet at the front."

"I'm afraid it's difficult to do," Fan Tong said with a look of embarrassment. "The underground passage is in a state of dynamic change every two hours. Even if we return along the original road, we may not go exactly as we came. the same way."

When these words were spoken, the members of the expedition team made surprise voices. Except for Wang Peng and Lu Zhou, who were still calm, the faces of the others almost showed surprise expressions in unison.

Aubrey couldn't help but said.

"...How is this possible? The path you traveled can still change, can this still be haunted?"

Professor Vernal's face was also a little ugly, and his tone was full of suspicion.

"Even if it is a violent tectonic movement... two hours is too short."

"If you can't go back the same way, then we can meet up in front." Lu Zhou looked forward, "Since all the roads end in the same place, it's the same for us to meet up at that opaque wall."

Taking a deep breath, Schultz stood up, looked at Lu Zhou and said.

"I'll go with Professor Vernal. You and I are both co-authors of the paper on the proof of the ABC conjecture. If something happens...someone must be there."

Hearing the meaning of Schultz's words, Lu Zhou nodded in agreement.

"That's fine. Schultz and Professor Vernal are divided into group A, and the rest are grouped into group B. We will meet in front."

After distributing a part of the supplies to the two, the group began to part ways and continued forward along two completely different passages.

Although there is another option, that is, everyone advances together and goes all the way to the dark, but what Lu Zhou expects is not just to find the holy relic. Gather more secrets about Martian civilization, about that holy relic.

With Professor Vernal's professional quality, it shouldn't be difficult to complete this task.

In addition, as Schultz said, at least one of the two people must reach the deepest part of the ruins.

If the other team has an accident, at least they have a second chance...

Moving forward along the narrow tunnel, Schultz looked around with a flashlight. If he had hoped for the discovery of traces of Martian civilization before, then this hope has almost returned to zero now.

They had been walking for nearly an hour, and found nothing.

He felt like he and Professor Vernal were running around aimlessly in the ruins like two headless chickens.

Finally unable to bear it any longer, he asked.

"Are you sure there were traces of civilized activities here?"

Unlike Schultz, Professor Vernal's tone was full of affirmation, and he even said excitedly.

"I'm very sure! The strata around here don't seem to be formed naturally, but some kind of special steel mixed with rare metals. After a long period of oxidation and mechanical fragmentation, a line of hematite containing rare metals is formed. Ore veins. You know, ordinary hematite is very brittle."

"crisp?"

"Yes, just throwing it on the ground or knocking it is easy to produce debris..." As he spoke, Professor Vernal swung the multi-purpose shovel in his hand, and savagely chiseled on the reddish-brown rock mass beside him, sending out There was a crisp sound of ding.

Shocked by the recoil, he took two steps back, Professor Vernal looked at Schultz and smiled.

"You see... my shovel can only leave a scratch on it, let alone knocking off a piece, my hand was almost dislocated by the shock."

Schultz frowned, not quite understanding what Professor Vernal wanted to say.

However, the latter did not confuse him for too long. After putting away the multifunctional shovel in his hand, he continued to speak in a fascinated tone.

"This used to be a passage paved with alloy steel!"

"It's at least three billion years old!"

"For some reason, the Martians went down to the bottom of the ocean and built this tunnel into the depths of the earth, which is where we are now. Both their technology and their motivations are so amazing. Fascinated...Maybe it's because of that holy relic? I'm getting more and more curious about what's at the end of this passage!"

Schultz opened his mouth, and after a while, he gave an ambiguous evaluation.

"It sounds like some science fiction story."

Professor Vernal laughed and said: "People who study fossils and stones are good at making up stories, especially stories about tens of millions or even hundreds of millions of years ago. Three billion years, God... I have never seen Such an ancient formation, even the formation of Mount Roraima is only 300 million years old. If you want to investigate such an ancient formation on the earth, you may have to drain the water in the Mariana Trench. If I can go back, if I Writing these discoveries into a paper will definitely break the world record!"

Schultz's expression was not very good, and he added something behind him in a corrective tone.

"We can definitely go back."

Seeing the stiff expression on Schultz's face, Vernal smiled and patted him on the shoulder.

"Don't worry, young mathematicians, we can definitely go back... I'm just making an academic assumption. Those of us who study archeology take decades of life relatively lightly, please don't mind it."

"I don't care, but I want to know how long we have to go?" Schultz looked around, "Or, with your professional knowledge, the section of road we walked an hour ago, and what is here Is it different?"

"The difference is that our position is getting deeper and deeper, and the rocks nearby tell me that seawater backflow occurred here three billion years ago, or earlier. Hundreds of millions of tons of seawater flooding Entering here, the terrifying pressure tore apart all the artificially designed structures in this channel. It took hundreds of millions of years for this area to completely dry up, and the fruits were exposed on the surface, allowing the wind and sand to erode... etc."

Hearing this wait, Schultz subconsciously stopped.

Just when he was about to ask what happened, Professor Vernal took two steps forward, squatted at the base of the rock wall, and grabbed a fistful of sand in his hand.

"What did you discover again?"

Feeling confused by his surprise, Schultz stepped forward and stood behind him, looking at the sand in his hand, but he didn't see anything unusual .

"The sand here is new..." Professor Vernal looked around, "At least it's much newer than the ones we saw just now."

Schultz frowned.

"Any questions?"

"This is a big problem... How did the sand get here?" Muttering to himself, Professor Vernal's pupils were full of disbelief, "It's like the sand that falls first in an hourglass, and finally appears in the sand. on top of the sand...do you know what I mean?"

"The sand that fell first appeared on it..." Schultz frowned deeply, "How is this possible?"

"But these are what I have."

Standing up, Vernal carefully packed the sand into the sample bag he carried with him, pulled out a sticky note with a puzzled expression on his face, and pasted it on the side of the sample belt.

Then, he compared the depth value on the wrist-mounted computer, scribbled down the approximate depth position on the sticky note with a marker pen, and continued.

"...Two possibilities, either we lost our way and passed here just now, or a certain section of the tunnel on the surface was moved in front of us."

Schultz: "Either one sounds like a dream."

"I think so too, but..."

Before Professor Vernal finished speaking, a strong tremor suddenly struck from all directions. Caught off guard, the two of them almost lost their footing and were knocked to the ground by the sudden earthquake.

Stones kept falling from the ceiling of the cave, crashing randomly on the helmets of the two men.

Standing on the ground in embarrassment, Schultz looked back with difficulty, and his pupils suddenly shrank into a dot. I saw that the passage they had walked through before was closing in the middle in a strange gesture.

It is different from general mine landslides.

The rock walls approaching at a constant speed seemed to be pulled by some unknown force, without giving people the slightest feeling of stiffness that rocks should have.

It's like a wriggling esophagus...

It's almost like being alive!

"...Earthquake!" Shouting through the communication channel, Schultz grabbed Vernal who was lying on the ground, "Get up! Let's get out of here."

Professor Vernal's face was full of horror, and the original expression of ease was gone.

"Damn! This is more than a thousand meters deep underground, where can we escape?!"

"No matter where you run, at least it's better than standing here waiting to die! Now we can only move forward! Quick, run!"

Finally, the fear of death overcame the despair of nature.

Or maybe it was woken up by Schultz's roar. Professor Vernal got up from the ground with all his strength, and slammed the multi-purpose shovel in his hand towards the rapidly closing rock wall behind him. , ran forward without looking back.

In the face of danger, the two of them erupted with extraordinary courage and strength, narrowly dodging the sand haze and the stones that came together behind them.

Almost clinging to the closed rock wall, the two rolled into an empty grotto.

Getting up from the ground, while panting, Vernal shook off the gravel and rubble from his body, and said cursingly.

"Damn . . . I thought it was dead this time. German—are you all right?"

Also getting up from the ground, Schultz raised his hand with difficulty. Although he looked as embarrassed as him, fortunately he was fine.

"Here I am, Shet... what did you call me?"

"Dear German mathematician! Sorry, I didn't mean it just now... just because I was a little excited to survive."

Grabbing Schultz's right hand, Vernal pulled him up from the ground forcefully.

The two leaned against the wall, their faces filled with the joy of remaining alive after the catastrophe, as well as expressions of undecided shock.

"It's not suitable to stay here for a long time... No one knows if what happened just now will happen again. Damn it, it really took two hours." Finally, taking a deep breath, Professor Vernal checked the status of the oxygen reserve, and then looked at Schultz, "Let's move on, my gut tells me it's not far away—wait, what's that?"

Just halfway through the conversation, Professor Vernal suddenly stopped.

His gaze was fixed on the open space in front of him, completely forgetting what he wanted to say earlier.

Noticing his expression, Schultz followed his line of sight with a strange face, looking in front of the two of them. However, almost in an instant, the expression on his face also froze.

It was a shovel.

If he remembered correctly, it was clearly the one thrown back by Professor Vernal earlier.

Kneeling on the ground, Professor Vernal stretched out his trembling hands and picked up the familiar multi-function shovel from the ground, with incredible shock written all over his face.

"This, this is... what I dropped just now."

Schultz also swallowed, and said in a trembling voice.

"...The result appeared in front of us."

The two exchanged glances silently.

Through the gray masks, they saw the surprised and uncertain expressions on each other's faces.

"...Do you want to move forward?"

"You can only move forward."

There is no such thing as a retreat.

It has been two hours since they went deep into hell, and the distribution of underground tunnels has completely changed. Whether it's the exit or the end of the maze, if you want to survive, you can only keep moving forward!

The two continued to walk forward.

About ten minutes passed.

Just as they passed through a narrow door-shaped structure, the scenery in front of them suddenly opened up.

Facing everything in front of them, the two of them were stunned at the same time.

With unbelievable shock in his eyes, it took a long time for Professor Vernal to squeeze out a word from between his lips.

"Jesus..."