About half an hour later, the team reached the top of the underground water station. Chen Xing lifted the covering at the entrance of the cave and ordered the work to begin.
Some workers took off shovels, shovels, plastic buckets and other working tools from the pallet truck, and excavated to one side of the hole to prepare a slope to come out. Another group of workers began to set up tents and put up barbed wire fences around the perimeter to establish military defense zones, both for cover and for long-term operations.
Later, Chen Xing asked Aaron to go back to Orchid Town and hired three cooks to take care of laundry, cooking and other trivial matters.
Two days later, the camp was built and the slope was dug out. Workers began to move the bodies below, as well as the part where Chen Xing was buried nearby some time ago.
There were more than a hundred corpses cleaned up. Aaliyah introduced a corpse dealer to buy them at a unit price of 6 silver and 5 coppers, and dragged them away in two trucks. The bodies were sold for a total of more than seventy gold coins, all of which were taken away by Ye Yang Bailiu.
According to the latter's accounting, there are currently 362 gold, 5 silver, 7 copper and 2 cents in the public account. But hiring so many people costs money every moment. Just eating alone would cost several silver coins.
After cleaning up the bodies, Chen Xing transferred half of the workers to radish and prepared to plant crops around it. Because on the first day here, Carrot said that the black soil is fertile and can grow things. The remaining workers cooperated with the two engineers to repair the water station equipment.
After the ventilation equipment resumed operation, Chen Xing took Ye Yang Bailiu and two team members to the power generation room and began to clean up the mutated termites underground.
This kind of termite is also called "iron-eating ant". Its jaws can secrete formic acid that breaks down steel and absorb iron elements. After devouring a certain amount of steel and spiritual minerals, they can also advance to possess more powerful mining and combat capabilities.
The four of them worked together to move the things piled in the corner, revealing the dark hole.
"Stay here and wait for me to come out."
After checking the assault rifle, pistol, bullets, flashlight and several fragmentation grenades, Chen Xing gave Ye Yang Bailiu the order to stay put.
"Well, be careful." Ye Yang Bailiu said softly. Although the man in front of her was not a good thing, she, who was kind-hearted, couldn't help but care about him.
"Okay." Chen Xing nodded, bent down and got into the tunnel dug by the termites. Logically speaking, as the captain, he does not need to be on the front line. But currently, he is the only one in the entire team who is qualified for the task of exploring the anthole. These newly recruited team members have neither experience nor sufficient ability. Sending them down would be tantamount to sending them to death.
Furthermore, Chen Xing's "danger perception" is a powerful tool for exploring unknown areas. Let him go, the safety factor is greater. But the current level is still a bit low, with only a sensing range of about fifteen meters.
Looking forward, the corridor is dark and far-reaching, and the incandescent beam of light cannot reach the end. His lighting equipment this time was the same as last time, a miner's lamp worn above his head and a flashlight strapped to the barrel of the gun.
The tunnel dug by termites is about one and a half meters in diameter. For him, he can barely keep standing. But if Ye Yangbai Liu comes in, he can only crawl. As for Allen, he might not be able to fit in even if he curled up into a ball.
"Fame and fortune come from danger, wealth and honor come from danger..."
He muttered in his heart, held the gun in both hands, lowered his head, bent his waist, and walked slowly forward in the corridor. The surrounding soil was wet, and the cave wall was a bit slippery. Under the illumination of the flashlight, it glowed with a liquid sheen.
Termites have very poor eyesight and can only perceive strong sunlight and have no awareness of the cold beam of a flashlight, so Chen Xing does not have to worry about the lighting system alarming them.
After walking forward for a while, about twenty or thirty meters, the corridor began to slope downward. A termite nest is like an underground kingdom, consisting of a network of tunnels and chambers. For the convenience of movement, it is divided into "horizontal passages" and "up and down passages". The former is like the corridor of a building, while the latter is equivalent to stairs.
Chen Xing hesitated for a while, then put down the gun, took out the climbing rope from his backpack, fixed it with several rivets on the ground and the cave wall, and then started to move downward. He did this because it was easier to get down than to get up.
Although the slope of the corridor is not very steep, it is not very slippery either. But if you encounter danger and fall when you come up, you will probably be caught up and torn into pieces. Navigating the ship with caution has always been his code of conduct. If your body's strength is not enough, you must make up for it with caution. Otherwise, in his previous life, he didn't have to wait for the Abyss Demon. A random sickle beetle in the wild could send him on his way.
Like Ye Yang Bailiu, even if he is a little stupid, his strength is 37 and his constitution is 45, he will be fine with a few cuts and he can withstand mistakes. And for a scumbag like him with strength 12 and constitution 9, he can be finished with one knife, so he can't be careful.
He walked down bit by bit, and after a few minutes, he reached the bottom of the slope. The flow of air has slowed down significantly. When we were up there, we still felt a breeze, but there was nothing here, and it was cold and wet, at least at a depth of more than thirty meters.
It was quiet all around, and looking into the depths, the cold beam of light was filled with hazy water mist, and the visibility was only about seven or eight meters. With every step I took, there was the sound of mud under my feet, which was very uncomfortable to hear.
Listening carefully, it seems that there are some small sounds mixed in, which are vague and not very clear.
In such an environment, even if he was a human being for three generations, he couldn't help but feel nervous and his steps became extremely slow, fearing that a bunch of big white ants would suddenly appear from somewhere.
After walking another ten meters or so, the corridor split into two, forming a fork in the road. When I shine the flashlight, there are bends on both sides, so I can't see very far. Chen Xing stopped and thought about whether to move on.
From the time he came in until now, there was only one way, and he could be sure that there was nothing behind it. But the bifurcated roads are different. If he enters one of them, if something happens, he may be blocked by termites coming from the other way.
After careful consideration, he pulled out his dagger, made a mark on the cave wall, and then walked towards the corridor on the right. It’s all down anyway, and stagnating is not an option. Moreover, he has a sense of danger, and termites are low-IQ creatures, so the possibility of encountering an accident is very small.
As long as it doesn't go too deep, you'll be fine.
After walking forward for more than ten meters, I turned a corner, walked a few more meters, and then turned another corner. The corridor became larger and larger, with the diameter gradually increasing from 1.5 meters to two or three meters.
When he turned the third corner, a bunch of black things suddenly came into his eyes, which almost made him slip.
In the pale light beam, there were piles of corpses several meters high, with distorted human faces, open mouths, and rolling green eyeballs, sandwiched among the piles of corpses. The rotten limbs stretched out, like a pile of rotten meat filled with chopsticks. The surface was covered with blue-black mold, and the shape was extremely terrifying.
What's even more tingling is that there are spherical white spots crawling on the pile of corpses. It was as big as a fist, and upon closer inspection, it turned out to be termite larvae, dragging their fat bellies and crawling around on it.
He just felt like his stomach was churning and there was something stuck in his throat, which was extremely uncomfortable. Resisting the desire to vomit, he looked around for a while and determined that it was a termite storage room.
"grumble……"
Just as he was about to exit, he suddenly felt a foreign object touching his feet, which was a bit itchy. He instinctively looked down and saw a larva with a slender front body and a spherical body, twisting its triangular head, swinging its tentacles, and burrowing into his pants.
The itching feeling was caused by the larvae's long and thin legs, randomly pulling at the legs of the pants.
Goosebumps suddenly appeared all over my body. Chen Xing trembled all over, raised his foot, shook off the termite larvae, and then stepped on it.
"Poof!" Under the military boots, a large amount of white slurry spurted out from the abdomen of the termite larvae, and it continued to struggle and let out a sharp scream.
"grumble!"
The moment the neighing sound started, the termite larvae on the pile of corpses swarmed into a mess, twisting their fat bodies and trying desperately to burrow into the pile of corpses.
When Chen Xing saw this, he became worried and took out two incendiary grenades.
"Ding ding!"
There were two soft clicks of the pull tab in succession, and two can-like objects fell on the pile of corpses.
Before the grenade exploded, Chen Xing turned around and ran away. Just after running a few meters, there was a flash of fire behind him, and with a "boom", a large stream of hot air hit his back, pushing him forward.
"Chi chi chi chi!"
The next second, the blazing fire lit up the entire passage, and the sharp sounds of insects continued to sound behind them. Chen Xing shook his head and climbed up, but at this moment, the originally smooth cave wall suddenly twisted...
Looking through the firelight, long pointed insect legs emerged from the soil.
"Chichichigugu..." The body in the earth wall struggled wildly, making a low insect chirp, as if it would break out of the earth at any time.
Judging from the looming body shape and the head as big as a basketball, it is most likely a soldier ant among mutated termites. Unexpectedly, they are hiding in the soil and sleeping!
Chen Xing's face suddenly turned pale, and he rushed forward while crawling on the ground. He must escape before the soldier ants come out, otherwise there will be only death.
I saw him bent over, holding a gun, and moving quickly in the corridor. The soil under his feet was wet and slippery. He fell several times and felt that all the bones in his body were about to fall apart. But he still bit the roots, got up and continued running.
"Chi chi chi chi!"
On one side of the cave wall, soldier ants emerged half of their bodies, bared their teeth and claws at him, and made a sharp insect sound. The scene was like being in a netherworld, with withered ghost hands everywhere, it was extremely terrifying.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Chen Xing was so nervous that he yelled, picking up his assault rifle and shooting at the soldier ants with half of their bodies exposed in front of them.
"Da da da da da da da!"
In an instant, gunshots resounded through the underground corridor, and the echo made the ears buzz. The hot bullet shell hit his face, burning out wisps of white smoke. But he didn't know it and ran forward screaming.
One second earlier and one second later is life and death.
When Chen Xing ran up the ramp, many termite soldiers behind him had already emerged from the earthen wall and rushed towards him.
"Go to hell!"
Chen Xing grabbed the climbing rope with one hand and climbed up, took out the fragmentation grenade with the other hand, bit open the ring with his teeth, and smashed it at the soldier ants in the corridor.
The can-shaped fragmentation grenade landed on the hard-shell head of the front soldier ant, bounced, flew back, and then rolled into the ant colony with a "gurgling" sound.
"boom!"
There was a loud noise, deafening. Several soldier ants at the center of the explosion had their limbs shattered on the spot. The hot iron pieces flew out, like razor blades, whirling into their bodies at high speed, and white slurry spurted out.
Chen Xing also felt uncomfortable. His ears felt like they had been pricked by thousands of needles, and the pain was so painful that his eyes were about to burst. He could no longer hear the sound and was dizzy, but he gritted his teeth and climbed up.
