No words were spoken that night.
In the morning, when it was just dawn, the sun rose.
While eating the breakfast brought by Aliwang, the Chamber of Commerce team also brought some bad news. From last night till now, Yueguang has woken up and fallen asleep, and has fallen asleep and woken up several times.
The number of snake scales on the body has also increased, but fortunately not much, only five more than yesterday evening.
Moreover, although Moonlight did not have a fever, the vital energy in his body was still slowly draining away.
But at least, her symptoms were much milder than those of other patients with 'loss of essence'. Tianyang didn't know whether it was because he had used dark particles to 'disinfect' her, or because after she woke up for the first time, as an ascender, she naturally began to resist this disease.
But no matter what the reason is, as long as the problem is not solved at the source, Moonlight will still recur.
After breakfast, Shi Huo came over with four or five thin men. They were all wearing tight pants and their clothes were as close-fitting as possible to facilitate movement.
Everyone carried one or even several backpacks made of animal skins, which were filled with things.
"We can set off now." Shi Huo said to Tian Yang.
Tianyang stood up and nodded: "Please lead the way."
When they were about to leave the settlement, Tu Moshan came and asked someone to give Tianyang several backpacks containing food, water and first aid medicines.
"Brother Tianyang, please come back soon. We will be waiting for you here."
Tu Moshan patted Tianyang's shoulder vigorously and said.
Tianyang nodded, and left with Xingluo and others, following Shihuo and his men.
After they walked out of the settlement, they continued to walk towards the woods behind the settlement. After a while, they came to the outside of the woods. There were several magnetic energy vehicles parked outside the woods. At first glance, they were all modified vehicles.
These vehicles sacrifice speed and focus on elements such as sturdiness and firepower. Each one is like a steel monster.
Shi Huo made a gesture and let his companions use one car, while he and Tian Yang and others shared one.
Shi Huo seemed to be a taciturn person. He focused on driving as soon as he got in the car and did not introduce the situation of the underground ancient city to Tianyang and the others in advance.
Tianyang opened a window and saw a "road" with many tire tracks outside. The road continued forward. After the two cars drove about one or two kilometers, Tianyang began to see some building wreckage towering on the ground.
In the front cab, Shi Huo finally spoke up: "From here we can actually be considered to have entered the city. What you see now is the part that has not sunk into the ground."
"This is the outskirts of the city. There aren't many buildings here. I heard from the uncles that when they were young and reclaimed the land, there were more houses in this area, and they were taller."
"But over the decades, many of the buildings have collapsed, so this is all that's left."
After walking a little further, we could already see the broken road surface. These were hard roads, completely different from those paved with sand and gravel.
It seems that this ancient city sunk underground must have been prosperous for a time, just like Sunset City. Otherwise, ordinary cities would not be so extravagant as to build hard roads on the edge of the city.
But here, there are more and more buildings, but only the frames are left, and the damage is worse than the sunset.
The city was in much worse ruins.
squeak-
The magnetic car stopped. Shi Huo picked up the leather bag beside him and said, "We can only get so far. We have to walk from now on."
After getting off the car and looking at the vast ruins of the city, Tianyang could see occasional human figures flashing between the doors and windows of the dilapidated buildings.
Fatty Fusheng couldn't help but wonder, "Is there anyone still scavenging here?"
Shi Huo said expressionlessly, "Yes, there are some elderly people or women who no longer have any labor force. They cannot explore underground, so they can only try their luck on the surface."
"They would pick up some metal and if they were lucky, they might even find a complete artifact. If they found just one, they wouldn't have to worry about food and drink for a month."
Tianyang didn't say anything.
This is where a settlement differs from a fortress.
No matter how badly the residents of the fortress lived, as long as they were willing to work, even the elderly and women could barely make ends meet.
But the people in the settlements were not so lucky. Sometimes, even if they were willing to work, they had no chance to make a living. They often just lived from day to day, and how long they could live depended entirely on luck.
Soon, Tianyang saw an abyss.
It was right in the city. No one knew what happened and the whole city sank into the ground.
Shi Huo pointed to the abyss below where dust and smoke were floating all year round and said, "A scholar came here before and said it was an ancient underground city, which was caused by some geological movement."
"He said that a hole suddenly appeared in the underground rock layer, causing a large part of the city on the surface to sink. Then the surrounding soil and rocks buried it, but because the city's buildings acted as 'pillars', it formed a fragile structure underground."
"That scholar said that sooner or later, the ancient underground city will be completely 'submerged' in soil and rocks. At that time, we 'mole' will not be able to dig a hole in it even if we want to."
"However, I probably won't see this day." As he said this, he led Tianyang and the others to a relatively clean platform where there were obviously people active.
"Let's go down from here."
Tianyang glanced down at the platform and thought that it would not be difficult to fly down with the "Mellow Feather".
But now, it is not difficult to go down. Below the platform is a landslide that slopes downward. Probably to facilitate movement, the people in the settlement have built wooden beams here to form a "staircase" structure, extending along the slope to the "gray cloud" below.
Shihuo took off his headscarf and tied it around his nose, covering his mouth and nose.
He pointed to the gray cloud below and said, "That thing is full of dust. It's very choking. You'd better not breathe it when you go down there. Or use a ventilator or something. In short, don't inhale the air, otherwise you will feel like your chest is on fire."
"Also, it's best to wear a blindfold unless you want to go down with your eyes closed."
Tu Moshan had prepared eye masks and respirators for them. Tianyang had found them when he checked the backpacks when they came here. He and Xingluo took out these devices to protect their eyes and noses.
At this time, Shi Huo and the others had already started climbing down. Even ordinary people like them could climb down easily, let alone Tian Yang and his companions who were ascenders.
After descending about a hundred meters, he began to approach the "gray cloud". Although the gray cloud blocked his sight, it could not prevent his perception from penetrating. As Tianyang climbed down, he extended his perception. Now that he was at level 6, even without the help of the black fog, Tianyang's perception could reach hundreds of meters away. If it was condensed into a line, nothing within a kilometer could be hidden from him.
In his perception, there were piles of rocks deep in the gray clouds, and among them, below their "stairs", there was a man-made "gap".
The gap is reinforced with metal parts around it to prevent rocks from falling and burying the "gap".
When they entered the 'gray cloud', they could not see anything around them. The visibility was only a few dozen centimeters, or even lower.
Without the help of perception, Tianyang could only see dark shadows around him and had no idea what they were.
But after passing through the gap, visibility suddenly improved. Tianyang took off his blindfold and looked down. Right next to him was a building with cracks all over its exterior wall!
Just as Shi Huo said, after sinking into the ground, the tall buildings in the city acted as "pillars". They supported the large amount of rocks that slid down and covered the ground, thus forming a "hall" with a fragile structure underground.
At this time.
Shi Huo and others below turned on their lighting equipment one by one. The flickering rays of light allowed Tian Yang to see that some of the buildings below were pierced by protruding stone ridges. These stone ridges were probably formed during geological movements due to the squeezing of underground rock strata.
They penetrated the buildings and formed partitions, turning this ancient underground city into a three-dimensional maze.
The 'staircase' that Tianyang and his companions climbed ended at a wide stone ridge. This thing was like a bridge without guardrails, crossing the underground space and passing through the building next to it. The other end was in invisible darkness.
After landing on the stone edge, Shi Huo gestured: "Follow me."
They walked forward along the stone edge and stopped after walking for a while. Tianyang saw that there were iron bolts with chains on them, extending for about 20 meters, crossing the dark space and disappearing into the window of a building in front.
Shi Huo and the others began to take out ropes from the leather bags, tied one end around their waists, and wrapped the other end around the chain and tied it to the main rope around their waists to form a loop.
After taking safety measures, they began to use their hands and feet to climb over with the help of the chains.
It is conceivable that before these chains were built, many explorers would have lost their lives here. After all, the sense of space below is very strong, and the drop is probably at least 40 to 50 meters.
If an ordinary person falls like this, there is no chance of survival.
Tianyang and his friends didn't have to go through so much trouble. After Shihuo and his friends passed by, Tianyang and Xingluo used the rope chain as a foothold. With one leverage, they landed in the window of the building 20 meters away.
Liu Ya also came over easily, only the fat man Fusheng honestly protected himself and then climbed over along the iron chain.
Liu Ya, who had come to Tianyang's side, gestured in the air a few times with his hands, and Tianyang read it out: "He is afraid of heights?"
The fat man who was halfway up the mountain yelled, "You dumb bastard, don't expose my shortcomings. Be careful or you will have nothing to eat in the future."
Before he finished speaking, Tianyang suddenly heard a sharp whistle coming from under the iron chain...