"Let's go our separate ways."

Looking at the two forks in the road in front of him, Lu Zhou thought for a moment before he spoke, "Let's continue along the passage on the right, you ...... Or take one more person and explore along the path on the left. If it's a dead end, go back from the front and continue along our path, where we meet. ”

"I'm afraid it's very difficult to do," Fan Tong said with a look on his face, "The underground passage has been in a state of dynamic change in a two-hour cycle, and even if we return along the same path, we may not follow the exact same path as when we came." ”

When these words were spoken, the members of the expedition team let out surprised sounds, except for Wang Peng and Lu Zhou's expressions, which were quite calm, the faces of the others almost invariably showed surprised expressions.

Aubrey couldn't help but say.

“…… How is this possible, the road traveled can still change, and this can still be haunted? ”

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

"Even if it's a violent tectonic movement...... Two hours is also too short. ”

"If you can't go back the way you came, then meet at the front," Lu Zhou looked ahead, "Since all roads end in the same place, we will meet at that opaque wall in the same place. ”

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

"I'll go with Professor Vernal, and you and I are both collaborators on the ABC conjecture proof paper, in case something unexpected happens...... Somebody has to get there. ”

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

"That's it. Professors Schultz and Vernal were divided into group A, and the rest were grouped into group B, where we converged. ”

After separating a portion of the supplies for the two men, the group began to go their separate ways, continuing along two distinct passages.

Although there is another option, that is, everyone advances and retreats together, and one road goes to the dark, but Lu Zhou's hope is not just to find the holy relic, on this basis, he hopes to collect more secrets about the Martian civilization and the holy relic from this ruin.

With the professionalism of Professor Vernal, it should not be difficult to accomplish this task.

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

If something happens to the other team, at least they have a second chance......

Continuing along the narrow tunnel, Schultz, flashlight, looked around. If he had had hoped for the discovery of traces of the Martian civilization, that expectation has now almost zeroed.

They had been walking for almost an hour, and yet they had found nothing.

He felt like two headless flies scurrying aimlessly through the ruins.

Finally he couldn't help it, he asked.

"Are you sure there were ever traces of civilization here?"

Unlike Schultz, Professor Vernal's tone was full of affirmation, even excited.

"I'm pretty sure! The strata around this area do not appear to be naturally formed, but rather a vein of hematite containing rare metals formed by a special steel mixed with rare metals under the action of long-term oxidation and mechanical fragmentation. You know, hematite in general is very brittle. ”

"Brittle?"

"Yes, it's easy to get crum......bs just by throwing them on the ground or knocking them," said Professor Vernal, picking up the multi-purpose shovel in his hand and chiseling it into the reddish-brown rock mass beside it, making a clink.

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

"You see...... My shovel only left a scratch on it, let alone knocking it off, and my hand was almost dislocated. ”

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

However, the latter did not puzzle him for long, and after putting away the multi-purpose shovel in his hand, he continued in a fascinating tone.

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

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

"For some reason, the Martians dived to the bottom of the ocean and built this tunnel that led deep underground, which is where we are now. Both the technology they employ and their motivations are so fascinating...... Maybe it's for that relic? I'm getting more and more curious about what's at the end of this passage! ”

Schultz opened his mouth, and after a long moment, gave an ambiguous assessment.

"It sounds like some kind of science fiction story."

Professor Vernal smiled and said, "People who study fossils and stones are good at making up stories, especially stories that go back tens of millions or even hundreds of millions of years. Three billion years, God ...... I have never seen such an ancient formation, even the age of the Loraima Mountains is only 300 million years old, and to investigate such an ancient formation on Earth would have to drain the Mariana Trench. If I could go back, if I could write these findings into a paper, it would definitely break the world record! ”

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

"We can definitely go back."

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

"Don't worry, young mathematician, we can definitely go back...... I'm just making an academic assumption. Those of us who study archaeology don't have a light view of decades of life, so please don't care. ”

"I don't care, but I want to know, how long are we going to go?" Schultz glanced around, "Or, with your expertise, is there any difference between the section we walked an hour ago and here?" ”

"The difference is that we're getting deeper and deeper, and the rocks around here tell me that there was a seawater intrusion here three billion years ago, or earlier. Hundreds of millions of tons of seawater poured into the area, and the terrifying pressure tore apart all the artificially designed structures in this channel, and it took hundreds of millions of years for the area to completely dry up, and the fruit was exposed to the surface of the earth, to be eroded by the wind and sand...... Wait a minute. ”

Hearing this and so on, Schultz subconsciously stopped.

Just as he was about to ask what was going on, Professor Vernal took two steps forward, crouched at the base of the rock wall, grabbed a handful of sand and pinched it in his hand.

"What did you find again?"

Confused by his startling, Schultz stepped forward and stood behind him, looking at the sand in his hand, but did not see anything out of the ordinary.

"The sand here is new...... Professor Vernal looked around, "at least it's much newer than the ones we've just seen." ”

Schultz frowned.

"Any questions?"

"It's a big problem...... How did this sand get here? Muttering to himself, Professor Vernal's pupils filled with disbelief, "It's like the sand that falls first in an hourglass and ends up on top of the sand...... Can you see what I mean? ”

"The sand that fell first appeared on it...... Schultz's brow furrowed deeply, "how is this possible?" ”

"But that's what I have."

Standing up, Vernal carefully packed the sand into the sample bag he was carrying, and with a look of uncertainty on his face, pulled out a sticky note and attached it to the side of the sample tape.

Then, he scribbled the approximate depth location on the sticky notes with a marker pen against the depth values on the computer on his wrist, and then continued.

“…… There are two possibilities, either we have lost our way and just passed here, or a section of tunnel on the surface has been moved in front of us. ”

Schultz: "Either one sounds like a dream. ”

"I think so too, but ......"

Before Professor Vernal could finish his words, a strong tremor suddenly came from all directions. Caught off guard, the two of them almost didn't stand still, and were overturned to the ground by the sudden earthquake.

Rubble continued to fall from the top of the cavern, clanging against the two men's helmets.

Standing steadied from the ground, Schultz struggled to look back, his pupils suddenly constricting into a point. I saw that the passage they had walked through before was closing in the middle in a strange manner.

It is different from ordinary mine cavern collapses.

The rock wall approached at an even speed seemed to be pulled by some unknown force, and it did not give the slightest stiffness that a rock should have.

It's like a perisquializing esophagus......

It's like being alive!

“…… Earthquake! Shouting in the communication channel, Schultz grabbed Vernal, who was lying on the ground, "Hurry up!" Let's get out of here. ”

Horror was written on Professor Vernal's face, and the expression that had been at ease was not at all.

"Damn! This is more than 1,000 meters underground, where can we escape?! ”

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

Finally, the fear of death triumphed over the despair of nature.

Perhaps awakened by Schultz's roar, Professor Vernal scrambled up from the ground with all his strength, threw his multi-purpose shovel at the rock wall behind him, and ran forward without looking back.

In the face of danger, the two men burst out with extraordinary courage and strength, and they were able to avoid the sand and haze that swept behind them and the stones that crashed together.

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

Rising from the ground, Vernal gasped as he shook off the rubble and rubble on his body, and cursed.

"Damn...... I thought I was going to die this time. Germans - are you okay? ”

Also getting up from the ground, Schultz raised his hand with difficulty, and although he looked just as embarrassed as he was, fortunately it was fine.

"I'm here, Shet...... What did you just call me? ”

"Dear Germanic mathematician! Sorry, I didn't mean to...... Just because it's a little exciting to survive. ”

Grabbing Schultz's right hand, Vernal pulled him up from the ground with all his might.

The two men leaned against the wall, their faces full of joy for the rest of their lives after the catastrophe, and expressions of horror.

"It's not a good place to stay long...... No one knows if it's going to happen, damn it, it's been two hours," and after taking a deep breath, Professor Vernal checked his oxygen reserves, then looked at Schultz, "Let's go ahead, my gut tells me it shouldn't be far away—wait, what's that?" ”

He was halfway through his sentence when Professor Vernal suddenly stopped.

His eyes were fixed on the clearing in front of him, completely oblivious to what he had meant to say.

Noticing his expression, Schultz followed his gaze with a strange look on his face, looking ahead of the two. However, almost instantly, the expression on his face froze with it.

It was a shovel.

If he remembered correctly, it was clearly the one Professor Vernal had thrown backwards earlier.

Falling to his knees, Professor Vernal reached out his trembling hand and picked up the familiar multi-purpose shovel from the ground, his face full of disbelief and shock.

"This, this is ...... I just dropped it. ”

Schultz also swallowed and said in a trembling voice.

“…… The results came before us. ”

The two silently exchanged glances.

Through the gray masks, they saw the shocked expressions on each other's faces.

“…… Do you want to move forward? ”

"It's only going to move forward."

There is no such thing as a way back.

It's been two hours since they've descended into Hell, and the distribution of the 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.

It took about ten minutes.

As they passed through a narrow doorway, the view suddenly opened up.

Faced with everything in front of them, the two of them were stunned in unison.

There was an unbelievable shock in his eyes, and it took a few moments for Professor Vernal to squeeze a word out between his lips.

“Jesus……”

It's simply ......

It's incredible!

Lamp pen