Song Siyuan nodded to everyone: "This frozen soil is not unmeltable, but has a very high melting point. Simply burning it will only melt it on the surface, and that is the evaporated water droplets we are seeing."
She paused and picked up a flashlight to shine into the thick fog: "In this cave, there are permafrost ice crystals from tens of millions of years ago. Due to the natural difference in temperature between the cave and the outside, the permafrost has never melted. It has been kept in the upper level of the cave.”
"The underground hot river that has flowed for thousands of years can't melt the permafrost?"
Xu Xiake was quite surprised. The temperature of these hot springs was enough to melt solid ice.
Song Siyuan nodded: "Although there is an underground hot river in this cave, due to the limited number of caves that the hot river flows through, most of the caves in the nine-turn loop are still frozen. The natural temperature difference and rugged space inside and outside the cave also ensure that The temperature and hot wind outside cannot affect this place. The only thing that can affect the temperature inside the cave is these geothermal springs."
She continued to explain: "The hot air generated by these geothermal springs is indeed very hot, but the heat is also easy to dissipate. These mist are lighter. They melt, absorb heat, solidify and release heat. As the mist rises, it loses heat. When it reaches the upper level, there is basically no temperature. It is easy to be frozen into frost flowers. Even if the fog can really float to the frozen soil, it will only be completely captured by the frozen soil and become part of the frozen soil. The ice crystal layer outside the frozen soil is probably where the fog continues to form. "
"Over the past thousands of years, the geothermal mist has not only failed to melt the permafrost, but has added bricks and tiles to the permafrost, forming a new ice layer, making the cave cold all year round, directly freezing these corpses and preserving them to this day,"
When Song Siyuan said this, she glanced at everyone: "This is probably how the wonders in the cold and warm cave came about."
"Are you so sure?" Xu Xiake questioned.
After that, she lowered her head and glanced at the shiny stones on the ground. These stones were irregular, square, round and triangular in their own shapes. They were completely uncarved and glowed faintly under the light of the flashlight: "Have you seen these stones? "One of the conditions for lava to form crystals is the cooling of magma. These crystals are formed after the lava cools and are washed out by underground rivers, forming what we see."
"These lava crystals at least prove that there have been geological movements here, plus several ice ages on the earth. The production of permafrost is also reasonable."
"What I'm more worried about is not these, but what happened in the Guifang world. We have to get out of the bamboo forest to the tideland as soon as possible. What happened along the way tells me that the Guifang people have probably disappeared. Otherwise, they How could you let Ah Xi run away?"
Song Siyuan's worries were not unreasonable. Gui Fangzong nodded: "I think so too. Fortunately, we are almost there. We have to hurry up."
Worried about this, they returned to the carriage and followed the river out of the cold and warm cave. Fortunately, they encountered no danger in the arrow bamboo forest. They walked through the bamboo forest for about half a day and arrived at the tidal area in the evening.
The carriage left the Arrow Bamboo Forest and arrived at the deep mountain canyon where the tidelands are located!
This place is much wider than the canyon where Gui Yulin is located. The peaks are arranged in a zigzag pattern. The tall peaks are connected to each other to form an unreachable mountain. The mountain is no longer barren like Danxia Land, but is covered with lush vegetation. The highest It is mottled with green and yellow, exposing weathered rock formations.
They looked back to their neighbor, the huge lake in the canyon.
Ghost Fang Zong has already introduced that this lake is completely horizontal in a deep mountain canyon. On both sides of the canyon are high mountains and dangerous peaks standing thousands of feet tall, and at the bottom of the valley is a rushing lake.
It was already approaching dusk. Standing on the shore, they could see the bottom of the lake at a glance, probably only up to their calves. It was so clear that aquatic plants, fish and shrimps could be seen clearly.
Yue Guanchao observed the surrounding canyons and said: "These canyons are almost closed, with no tributaries or waterfalls. In this case, can the water really rise with the moon?"
Ghost Fang Zong said that at night, the lake becomes visibly deeper and deeper, and it will even overflow the trees on both sides, forming an extremely wide giant river surface, submerging all living people who have no time to escape. If it can appear, it either means there is a tributary flowing in, or it means there is groundwater gushing out.
"We're afraid we need to conduct some exploration first to find out more about this situation."
Yue Guanchao and the others took off their shoes and socks and walked a few steps forward. They first picked up the engineering shovel and tested the hardness of the bottom of the lake to make sure it was not mud or swamp before jumping into the water.
It is spring and summer, and the lake is very shallow. After being exposed to the sun for a day, it has become extremely warm, just like hot water suitable for washing feet. When walking, the warmth soaks into the feet, and only water plants can be seen drifting freely and wrapping around the calves.
They followed the place where they entered the water and searched for about tens of meters. There were no holes except mud at the bottom of the lake. It was almost impossible to search the entire lake, so they had to go ashore first.
Seeing that they found nothing, Song Siyuan became curious: "If there are no undercurrents and caves at the bottom of the river, and there are no waterfalls around, how did the water rise? Or, the legend of the rising water is false."
Thinking of this, her eyes lit up: "If the water rises and falls every day, it will probably leave traces on the surrounding mountain walls. Let's take a look at the traces on the surrounding mountains."
After that, Yue Guanchao took them to the mountain beside the lake and began to inspect the traces of the mountain.
If it is true that the tide rises at night, then the surrounding mountains will be soaked in the lake water for many years, and there will definitely be traces. Even if the water falls during the day, there will definitely be traces of the water from the previous night.
With this plan in mind, they began to check the rock formations and soil around them, and what they found really surprised them.
After Yue Guanchao and Song Siyuan met, they looked at each other. Her eyes were unclear and she said: "I see that these soils are completely dry, and even the rock formations have no traces of water. This means that there are no traces of the rise and fall of the water surface at all. If there are any If so, it is impossible for there to be no traces of water erosion over many years."
"How can it be?"
They told the result to Gui Fangzong, and the old ghost man was also very confused: "If the water does not rise, then is the sun rising, the moon declining, and the tide also fake?"
Now, the situation they face becomes difficult.
Song Siyuan waved her hand: "It's not necessarily fake. This thing is part of the strange terrain created by the ancients. Maybe the sun rises and the moon rises and the tides refer to something else."
"Fortunately, it's getting late. The truth will probably be revealed in the evening. Let's hide in the bushes by the lake and take a look."
When the situation changed, they had no choice but to hide first. After sunset, the sunlight gradually extinguished, and everything around them was hidden in darkness, leaving only the moon that had just climbed above their heads, emitting a dim light and hanging slantingly on the clouds.
The place where Yue Guanchao and the others were hiding was in a bamboo forest not far from the lake. With the help of bushes, no one could find him.
At this moment, everyone was lying in the bushes, staring curiously at the lake. Apart from the chirping of insects and the rustling of trees, there was basically no sound. The lake in the distance reflected the moonlight and cast a trembling light. This appearance was not so strange. As for the rising water in the lake, that has not happened at all.
About two hours later, the moon shed its hazy veil and hung high in the sky. There was finally other movement around, and rustling began to appear in the bamboo forest!
"This sound, is something moving?"
Yue Guanchao's ears were very good, and he had already noticed that the bamboo forest was swaying. It was definitely not the wind blowing the trees, but it was being shaken by something coming from the ground.
"Is it a giant?" Xu Xiake asked curiously.
Song Siyuan picked up a copper basin and placed it on the ground. When her ears were close to the copper basin, many noises were blocked by the copper basin, and the sounds from the underground were clearly transmitted to her ears.
"Why is there the sound of water underground?"
When Yue Guanchao heard this, he lay on the other side and listened carefully. There was indeed the sound of water coming from tens of meters deep underground. His eyes became confused: "It's probably the movement of underground water. Could it be that we guessed wrong? The lake is really Is the water going to rise?”
"It doesn't necessarily mean that the water has risen? What if it falls into the water?"
After that, she picked up the telescope and looked at the lake. The water in the lake gradually started to churn, and it could be seen that the water in the lake continued to disappear.
The appearance of this scene confirmed Song Siyuan's guess. Just at the moment of speaking, the water in the huge lake had already bottomed out, and even the bottom of the water, aquatic plants and gravel had begun to be exposed.
Xu Xiake suddenly realized and said: "It seems that we still haven't found the right place. There should be undercurrents or caves at the bottom of the lake. Otherwise, it would not be possible to enter the water so fast. But what does it mean that the lake water has fallen? Why is it the same as the legendary strange phenomenon? Is it the other way around?”
Song Siyuan looked around and said, "Let's continue watching. Judging from the movement heard in the copper basin just now, the underground of the lake is connected to the bamboo forest. It is probably because the water level in the underground cave has dropped, and the water in the lake has also been drained. Take it in.”
Everyone continued to wait in the bushes. After the water level completely dropped, fireflies began to appear from the caves in the lake, like stars in the dark night, floating near the dry lake.
But over time, the number of fireflies gradually increased, gushing out from the underground cave like a waterfall. Like a shining waterfall, it gradually enveloped the lake. As more and more fireflies accumulated on the lake, the fluorescence eventually completely filled the lake and spread to Canyon waist.
The fluorescent light was rippling and flowing continuously. They saw that the canyon was filled with fireflies like rising water. They basically understood what the rising sun and the rising moon meant.
This scene made everyone wonder: "So that's what it means? But what are these fluorescent lights?"
"Is this light coming from those human-faced bugs again?"
Yue Erpao's words made everyone's hearts tighten. There were so many human-faced bugs that no one could escape.
Yue Guanchao nodded and said: "No, the stink bugs attack living creatures to hunt. These should be just ordinary fireflies. They appear here to eat mayflies and water bugs left on the water plants."
