From the entrance down, there is initially a narrow and low slope, with rough traces of artificial excavation clearly visible on the surrounding rock walls, but after walking forward for more than ten meters, the passage ahead begins to become wider and the slope becomes slightly gentler.
The faint green fire spread among the rocks, and the light it emitted illuminated the way ahead. Duncan looked at the corridor that continued to extend into the darkness, and his brows gradually furrowed.
"These were all dug out by the cultists within a few days after the sun went out?" He couldn't help but look at Shirley. "In such a short time, they dug such a deep passage?"
"No, they just dug through the entrance of this passage and dug through the rocks at the bottom," Shirley shook her head, "It seems that this section of road under our feet has always existed..."
"A passage that originally existed deep underground on this 'Holy Island'?" Morris frowned slightly upon hearing this. He came to the rock wall in front of him, carefully observing the surrounding stones and the ground under his feet, and spoke thoughtfully, "That means someone had dug here before those cultists found this place..."
He suddenly stopped, frowned in confusion, and after a moment he slowly raised his head and looked at the road ahead illuminated by the dim green fire.
"No, it doesn't look like it was dug by humans... This 'previously existing passage' was made by something else..."
Duncan stepped forward upon hearing this and asked, "What did you find?"
"Look at the marks on these rock formations," Morris pointed to the surrounding walls, "these smoothly undulating faults and regularly distributed ring-shaped lines... They don't look like they were man-made."
Duncan immediately noticed the unusual marks on the surrounding rock walls that Morris had mentioned.
He saw that the rock walls of the corridor in front of him were smooth, and the hard black and gray stones appeared to have been cut as a whole by something sharp, presenting a continuous shape. There was also a circle of raised structures that could be seen every three meters or so, distributed in a ring shape throughout the passage. The ground under his feet was flat, and the stones of all sizes seemed to have been carefully carved and embedded tightly in the entire ramp - this was certainly not a trace that could be created by the cultists' human tools or their demonic spells, nor was it obviously the "excavation result" of someone before.
Even today's city-states do not have such underground excavation and construction technology.
Morris slowly stroked the smooth rock walls on both sides with his fingers and whispered, "It's like we are walking inside a huge pipe..."
"... Some areas of the large cavity under the Frost also showed this state... And the scholars in the city-state could not explain how this smooth fault was formed in the end. They could only think that it was the 'erosion cavity' left after the flesh and blood of the Deep Saint faded away," Duncan whispered, "But this holy island... It is a part of the Deep Saint Saint, why is there such an 'erosion cavity' inside it?"
Shirley was listening to the conversation between Morris and the captain. Suddenly, an idea flashed through her mind: "… Maybe this is the rectum of the Deep Lord?"
As soon as these words came out, everything fell silent. Duncan and Morris's faces suddenly became darker than Shirley's. Duncan glared at the girl: "Even if you say it's a blood vessel?!"
Shirley subconsciously shrank her neck, scratched her hair and pretended to be calm as she changed the subject: "It seems that the blood vessels may also be... "
Duncan did not continue to argue with Shirley, but frowned thoughtfully after blurting out a sentence just now.
Blood vessels… pipes in the body
If this holy island is really the "flesh of the ancient god" as Shirley described, then are there really so-called "blood vessels" and "nerves" in this flesh? If so... will they really appear like this "channel" in front of us
Duncan subconsciously associated and imagined what the Lord of the Deep looked like and what his "physiological structure" was like. At this moment, he suddenly noticed that Alice had not spoken for a long time.
Normally, the puppet girl who followed the captain to explore the unfamiliar environment would be noisy all the time, but today she seemed particularly quiet.
"Alice," Duncan felt something was wrong, and immediately looked at the puppet standing next to him who seemed to be distracted, "What are you thinking about?"
After calling twice in a row, Alice finally came back to her senses as if she had suddenly woken up and turned around quickly: "Hey... Hey? Captain, what did you say?"
"I asked you what you were thinking about. You seemed to be distracted just now." Duncan frowned slightly and looked into Alice's eyes with some worry. "Did you see or hear something again?"
Alice looked around in confusion, and after hesitating for a long time, she said to Duncan very cautiously, "I haven't seen anything yet... but for some reason, after walking here, I have a feeling of... familiarity."
Duncan and Morris said in unison: "Familiar feeling?"
"Well, familiar, reassuring, like..." Alice gestured and thought for a long time before finally finding the right description, "Just like lying in my wooden box."
As she spoke, she raised her hand and pointed to the darker depths of the corridor: "And in that direction, there is an even stronger sense of familiarity, as if... I have been to this place a long time ago, or... I have been in this place for a long time..."
Duncan listened to Alice's description with a serious expression. After a moment, he nodded slightly and said, "Let's go deeper. Alice, Shirley, Agou, if you see or hear anything unusual, tell me immediately."
With an increasingly cautious mood, the group began to walk deeper into this seemingly endless passage.
The flames slowly spread in the passage. After moving forward for an unknown amount of time, Duncan noticed that the surroundings suddenly became more open.
They seemed to have entered a huge underground cave structure. The passages on both sides, which were like some kind of pipes, suddenly expanded into spacious rock walls, and the cave ceiling above became more than ten meters high. The sudden expansion of the underground space caused the surroundings to fall into a brief darkness, but in just one or two seconds, the dark green flames quickly spread to the surrounding ground and began to illuminate this spacious area.
Shirley looked up at the underground cavern that looked like a huge assembly hall with amazement. Although she had seen it briefly in her "vision", she couldn't help but marvel at the spaciousness of the place when she saw it with her own eyes: "... Holy shit..."
"... I suddenly think it's okay for Vanna to come over," Duncan stroked his chin thoughtfully, "This place seems big enough for her to take off..."
Morris said nothing. The old scholar seemed to be completely absorbed in this strange cave full of secrets. He walked slowly forward along the path illuminated by the spiritual fire while observing his surroundings carefully. Then he suddenly stopped in front of a rock wall.
"There's something on it!"
Duncan walked over quickly, and a scene like a "relief" appeared in his eyes.
On the dark stone wall, a creature with strong limbs, crawling and a slender body appears vividly.
Shirley and Agou followed closely and looked at the "relief" on the wall with Duncan.
After a long while, Duncan heard Shirley muttering, "… Is this the Deep Hound?"
"It seems... yes," Ah Gou's voice was particularly uncertain, "but it doesn't look like me... This one looks like it has flesh and blood, and the body proportions are not right..."
Before it finished speaking, Morris' voice came from the front: "There's more over here!"
Following Morris's guidance, Duncan saw the second relief.
It was a jellyfish-like creature floating in the air - but it was not smoke, but had a solid body, a more sophisticated tentacle structure, and even organs resembling eyes could be seen on its "head".
Duncan slowly raised his head. In the cave illuminated by the spiritual fire, more reliefs were vaguely embedded in the rock wall, and seemed to extend infinitely in his field of vision.
He frowned slightly and took another step towards another relief—
A flickering light appeared at the edge of my vision.
Duncan stopped abruptly.
At almost the same time, the light and shadow in front of his eyes changed.
Everything seemed to suddenly turn into collapsing and scattered fragments of light and shadow. The dark cave and the ancient mysterious reliefs silently disintegrated before his eyes. After a moment, the collapsed fragments of light and shadow swirled and swarmed up again, reorganized, lit up, and appeared—
Amid the silent "roar", he saw a hall, a hall that seemed to have no boundaries. It whizzed and reorganized in front of Duncan's eyes. He saw some unknown silver-gray substance extending into a solid ground in his field of vision. Mysterious patterns emitting a dark blue glow were spread all over the floor. The high dome was brightly lit, and huge pipes and cables were intertwined in the dome like nerves and blood vessels.
And in this hall, there are cylindrical platforms one after another.
The platforms were emitting a faint glow, and there seemed to be some kind of invisible force field above the platforms, imprisoning all kinds of things that were suspended in the force field - hound-like creatures with strong limbs, predatory beasts, various kinds of birds, and many creatures that he did not recognize at all and could not see the outlines clearly.
The light in front of him flickered, and the lights in the hall flickered. In the blink of an eye, Duncan felt as if he saw the dark cave again, and saw those "reliefs" neatly arranged on the cave wall -
But the next second, the dim cave collapsed into the shape of a hall again, and he saw something standing at the end in front of him. It seemed to be a huge machine, or some kind of... terminal. Countless pipes surrounded the complex prism, and black mud with a metallic luster surged in the pipes. On the prism as the core, lights flickered, and there was something like a holographic projection floating in front of it, with lines of characters constantly refreshing.
Those were unfamiliar characters, and Duncan did not recognize that kind of text - but with just a glance, the meaning of those characters seemed to be reflected directly in his mind -
"… New Hope… Main systems offline…
"LH-01, Pilot One, Ecological Reconstruction Host... Status abnormal.
"LH-02, Pilot No. 2, data and main control host... abnormal status.
"LH-03, Pilot Three, navigation host... offline.
"The spacecraft has disintegrated..."
(End of this chapter)