Seeing the situation in front of her, Song Siyuan nodded to everyone and said, "My prediction just now was right. As the jade veins move forward, what we find is that there will be more and more ores. Now the jade veins have changed from this kind of filamentous veins." There are more and more irregular jade stones begin to appear. This situation just proves that the rock formations here seem to come from the Hongbai Mountain. It is likely that the faults of the Hongbai Mountain fell on the tiankeng. This also means that we are walking In the right place, the more jade veins and ores there are, the more proof we are that we are very close to the sinkhole."
Song Siyuan's statement cheered everyone up, and their steps became faster and faster, looking for these green and white jade ores to continue on their way.
The further you go, the more you can feel the black and gray ordinary rocks gradually receding, and the surrounding rock formations are gradually replaced by raw jade ores. Some of the ores have shed their stone skins under the erosion of the water flow, and it can be seen that the jade embryos have been polished to be crystal clear. It is clear, smooth and round, as if a large Yuchuan River has emerged from the rock formations, completely different from the black and gray mottled rocks.
They walked a few hundred meters further, and the black limestone layer had completely faded away. As far as the eye could see, it had become a world of raw jade, and the underground river had also changed from a grotto to a rock cavity. It was unknown how wide the cavity was.
, how wide, how high, how big, I can only feel that even the flashlight lamppost is beginning to be unable to illuminate the stone wall in the distance.
It can be seen that there seems to be an underground jade river in the cavity of this rock layer. They are rugged, stacked on top of each other, hanging upside down like canine teeth, and upright like bamboo shoots. They are of different sizes, connected front and back, falling on their backs, lying prone, and bending. Various postures stretch in this rock formation cavity.
The smooth surface they produced after being eroded by running water adds a sense of crystal clearness to these jade mountains. Walking among these jade mountains, whether you look up or down, or in the four directions of southeast, northwest and northwest, you can only see the beautiful scenery. It feels like being surrounded by endless green and white jade, and even the upper and lower boundaries are blurred.
There are often ponds and flowing rivers around these jade rivers. Under the illumination of flashlights and torches, the lights flow along the direction of the river, reflecting the brilliance, and even the surrounding jade peaks are completely illuminated, leaving only the dazzling and gorgeous scenery. The original roughness just now is no longer visible.
If we have to make a comparison, just now they seemed to be walking in a dark and strange underground river, and now they are like walking on a snow-capped mountain glacier on the ground. There are crystal clear translucent jade everywhere. There is no longer a feeling of darkness and chaos, and the surroundings are bright. In pieces, their bodies have been completely illuminated. ..
As they walked, the erosion of groundwater never stopped, flowing slowly across the jade surface and carving out the smooth bottom.
"How did this landform form?" Xu Xiake asked curiously.
Although everyone was surprised by the gorgeous and crystal clear Jade Mountain, they were also curious about the formation of the Jade Mountain. For them, if it was just a break in the rock layer, why was the landscape of the Jade River formed only here? And other rock formations are just ordinary underground rivers. When groundwater shapes the space of rock formations, does it have to be divided into priorities?
Song Siyuan obviously didn't quite understand this point. When everyone walked to the edge of Yuchuan, the end seemed to be completely cut off, leaving only a downward sloping slope.
Everyone stood on the edge of the slope. The underground river water behind them continued to flow into the depths of the slope through the height difference. As the water speed accelerated, the light on the surface changed from slightly reflective to gradually fragmented, like broken glass, flowing with mottled light. , constantly rushing into the gap under the slope.
If you look closely, you will see that the upper layer of the slope is made of jade stones that hang upside down like canine teeth. From the bottom of these hanging stones, the height to the slope is only four or five meters at most. Compared with the height of the entire rock cavity, it is considered narrow. Compared with the narrow upper and lower height of the gap, the left and right width is incalculable. Judging from the left and right opening and closing distance of the slope, it at least matches the width of the entire rock cavity.
If you look at it from a distance, this slope looks like a huge crack at the end of the Jade Mountain, extending downwards to the grotto that they cannot see.
Song Siyuan observed the situation here, and then she wanted to understand why the rocks were carved like this. Her eyes lit up and she explained: "If I guessed correctly, this is already the end of the Hongbai Mountain fault rock. This huge lateral The crack is probably located at the edge of the sinkhole and fault rock. If we understand it this way, the huge cavity and jade peaks in front of us appear here.
Understandable. "..
She motioned for everyone to look at their feet. The speed of the underground river under their feet obviously became faster as it passed through the slope. Under the height difference, it fell into this transverse crack like a waterfall. When the water flow was too fast, you could even see some The loose jade particles on the surface were washed directly into the narrow gaps, which shows that the underground river washed downwards with great force.
Seeing this, they already understood the role of slopes. Song Siyuan continued to explain: "The shaping of underground rock formations is mainly related to two factors. One is the fission of rock formations caused by plate geological movements and earthquakes. The other is the impact of underground rivers and underground water veins on rock formations. The scouring, the Iwakō Tamagawa we see now, can be shaped like this. It is mainly due to the latter."
At this point, she pointed at Tamagawa and said: "There are countless cracks in the rock formations above the underground river where we are. When there is abundant rain in the desert, the rainwater will pass through the sand layer and settle into the gaps in the faults. Eventually, it will seep into the groundwater through the gaps and collect. Into the underground river we walked along."
"Because the Hongbaishan fault covers the tiankeng, under the principle of water flowing to lower areas, the closer the underground river is to the tiankeng, the faster the flow rate will be due to the height difference in the terrain, and will eventually be converged by the slope we see now. Go deeper into the rock formations.”
For any stone, the faster the water flow, the more severe it will be eroded, and the slower the water flow, the slower it will be eroded. These Tamagawa Rivers are located in the section of the river with the fastest flow rate, coupled with the jade texture It is softer than most stones, and after being washed by rivers, it becomes easier to become round and bright. After thousands of years of rain washing, the rock cavity Yuchuan they see now is formed.
"I guess the end of this slope should be the sinkhole where the royal city is located. We have to go down to the slope and have a look." Song Siyuan said decisively after analyzing to the end.
"Then this is dangerous."
Keli took a flashlight and shined a light on the Tamagawa River below the slope. The slope was shaped like a horizontal crack, and was staggered up and down by canine-like jade stones. It was impossible to see what was at the end. It looked like it was some bottomless place. Glacier, without knowing what is at the end, it is a bit too dangerous to slide into Tamagawa rashly.
Gu Hengxi said: "In my opinion, let's choose two people to go explore the road first. Don't rush in all at once. In case of danger, the two of them can take care of each other."
Yue Guanchao nodded. He also agreed to their proposal and said, "Then let Keli and I go explore the way. We are the two of the most skilled people here. We can help each other in danger. You just stand there. Help us pull the rope on the shore."
Just as they were told, he and Keli took out the rope and tied it around their waists, then fixed the other end of the rope to some prominent Jade Mountain stone pillars. They began to pull down the slope and slid down the slope, between the edges and corners of the glacier. Touring between.
After about a stick of incense, the rope was pulled, and everyone slowly pulled them up the slope.
After the two men let go of the rope, Song Siyuan asked: "Judging from the time you took off the rope, the length of the entire slope should be about 500 to 600 meters. What is at the end of the slope?"
Yue Guanchao took a breath and his face became excited: "I guessed it right. The end of the slope has reached the bottom of the sinkhole. We have already seen the ruins of the royal city. You will find out when you go down with us later."
After Yue Guanchao and Ke Li explored the route in advance, they became less headless when they went down. They added two more ropes and fixed them on the stone pillars, and climbed directly down to Yuchuan River along the ropes.
When they all climbed to the end of Tamagawa River, the situation at the bottom of the sinkhole came into view.
The area of the entire tiankeng is much wider than that of the Royal City. It has an irregular shape. It is neither round nor square. It looks like a huge hole struck by some meteorite or heavy object. The top is split into Several pieces of fault rock are completely covered.
The location where they came out happened to be the part where the fault broke along the edge. It was like a slope, leading underground river water to the bottom of the sinkhole. After thousands of years of erosion, some winding river channels in the sinkhole were formed.
Looking carefully at this fault rock, the surface is similar to the mineral veins they have seen. On the black stone background, there are many jade veins and hairsprings that are constantly involved. Otherwise, they are
Some spar, agate and other particles protruding from the rock formations glowed with starlight under the candlelight, and the huge rock top became a bright starry sky. ..
Under the fault rock is the stone wall of the sinkhole!
You can see that the rock wall near the Hotan River is relatively steep, almost straight up and down, and there are many cracks on the rock wall. These cracks rushed out of small waterfalls, forming various arcs and falling into the underground river. Looking at the direction in which they came down, the stone wall was not so steep, forming a gradually descending slope. The top was rugged with strange rocks, mixed with a large number of Tamagawa, There are also gravel stalls in the grotto.
Further down, you can already see the Shahai King City that they have been looking for for many days!
