“Let’s split up.”
Lu Zhou looked at the two paths in front of him and pondered for a moment. He then said, “We’ll move on along the passage on the right. You… take another person and explore along the left. If it’s a dead-end, then retreat and come back.”
“I’m afraid it will be difficult to do.” Fan Tong said, “The underground passage is in a state of dynamic change with a two-hour cycle. Even if we return along the same path, we won’t be exactly where we were.”
The members of the expedition team were shocked. Except for Wang Peng and Lu Zhou’s calm expressions, everyone else looked astonished.
Aubrey couldn’t help but speak, “How is that possible? How can the paths change? Are there ghosts here?”
Professor Vernal’s face was also in shock; his tone was full of suspicion.
“Even if there are violent tectonic movements… Two hours is too short.”
“If we can’t go back the same way, then we will meet in front.” Lu Zhou looked ahead and said, “Since all the roads lead to the same place, we’ll just meet at the invisible wall.”
Schultz took a deep breath. He then stood up and looked at Lu Zhou.
“I’ll go with Professor Vernal. Both you and I are collaborators on the ABC conjecture proof paper. If an accident happens… One of us will still be there.”
Lu Zhou nodded in agreement.
“Okay then. Schultz and Professor Vernal are in group A, the rest are in group B. We’ll meet at the front.”
After separating the supplies for the two groups, the groups began to part ways and continue along two completely different passages.
There was another option, which was for everyone to move forward and retreat together. But Lu Zhou didn’t just want to find the Holy Relic, he wanted to be able to learn from this relic. To collect more information about the Martian civilization.
With the help from Professor Vernal, it should not be difficult to accomplish this task.
Also, like Schultz said, at least one of them should reach the deepest part of the ruins.
If another team had an accident, at least they had a second chance…
Schultz continued along the narrow tunnel with a flashlight. His expectation regarding discovering traces of a Martian civilization had completely disappeared.
They had been walking for almost an hour but found nothing.
He felt like he and Professor Vernal were like two headless chickens, running around aimlessly in this maze.
He couldn’t help but ask.
“Are you sure there have been traces of civilization activities here?”
Unlike Schultz, Professor Vernal’s tone was full of confidence. He spoke excitedly.
“I’m very certain! The surrounding stratum does not appear to be naturally formed. It’s a special type of steel mixed with rare metals, formed under long-term oxidation and mechanical fragmentation of hematite containing rare metals. You know, normal hematite is very brittle.”
“Brittle?”
“Yes, it’s easy to break just by throwing it on the ground or hitting it…” Professor Vernal picked up the multifunctional shovel in his hand and smashed it on the reddish-brown rock on the side.
After taking two steps, Professor Vernal looked at Schultz and smiled.
“See… My shovel can only leave a scratch on it, let alone breaking it. I almost dislocated my hand.”
Schultz frowned, not quite sure what Professor Vernal was trying to say.
However, after putting away the multifunctional shovel in his hand, Vernal 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 dove to the bottom of the sea and built this tunnel. Which is the ruins we are now in. Their technology and their motivations are fascinating… Maybe it’s because of the Holy Relic? I am getting more and more curious about what is at the end of this passage!”
Schultz opened his mouth. After a while, he gave an ambiguous assessment.
“This sounds like a science fiction story.”
Professor Vernal laughed and said, “People who study fossils and stones are good at making up stories, especially stories that are tens of millions or even hundreds of millions of years ago. But three billion years, Jesus… I have never seen such a thing. Even the age of Mount Roraima is only 300 million years old. If you want to investigate such an ancient place on Earth, you would have to drain the water in the Mariana Trench. If I can go back and put these findings in a paper, I will definitely break a world record!”
Schultz’s expression was not good.
“Not if we go back, when we go back.”
Vernal smiled and patted Schultz’s shoulder.
“Don’t worry, young mathematician, we will definitely go back… I was just making an academic hypothesis. Our archaeologists have a relatively indifferent view of life. Please don’t be offended.”
“I’m not offended, but I want to know, how long do we have to walk?” Schultz glanced around and said, “Judging by your expertise, are there any changes in the path?”
“The only difference is that our position is getting deeper and deeper. The nearby rocks tell me that there was a seawater intrusion here three billion years ago, or even earlier. Hundreds of millions of tons of seawater flooded here. The terrifying pressure tore through all the artificially designed structures in this passage. It dried up hundreds of millions of years ago.”
Schultz stopped walking.
He saw Professor Vernal take two steps forward and grabbed a handful of sand near the wall.
“What did you find now?”
Schultz stepped forward and stood behind him. He looked at the sand in Vernal’s hand, but he didn’t see anything unusual.
“The sand here is new…” Professor Vernal looked around and said, “At least it is much newer than the ones we just saw.”
Schultz frowned.
“What’s the problem?”
“It’s a huge problem… How did these sands get here?” Professor Vernal’s pupils were filled with disbelief, “It’s like the sand that fell in first in the hourglass suddenly appeared on top again… Do you understand what I mean?”
“The sand that fell first appeared on top…” Schultz frowned and said, “How is that possible?”
“But what is in my hand then?”
Vernal stood up and carefully packed the sand into the sample bag he carried with him. With a suspicious expression on his face, he pulled out a sticky note and stuck it on the side of the sample bag.
He looked at the depth value on the wrist-mounted computer. He then scribbled the approximate depth position on the sticky note with a marker and spoke.
“There are two possibilities. Either we lost our way and passed here already, or the tunnels on the surface were moved in front of us.”
Schultz: “Both of them sound impossible.”
“I think so too, but…”
Before Professor Vernal’s words were finished, a strong vibration suddenly came from all directions. The two almost fell on the ground from the sudden earthquake.
Stones fell from the top of the cave, banging on their helmets.
Schultz looked back. He saw that the passage they had walked through before was closing in the middle.
It was different from a normal cave collapsing.
The rock wall moved closer together at a constant speed. It seemed to be pulled by some unknown force. It didn’t give people the solid feeling that rock should have.
It was like a squirming esophagus…
Like it was alive!
“Earthquake!” Schultz screamed in the communication channel. He grabbed Vernal and said, “Get up! Let’s get out of here.”
Professor Vernal’s face was full of horror.
“Damn it! This is more than a thousand meters deep underground, where do we go?!”
“It doesn’t matter where we go, it’s better than standing here and waiting to die! We have to go forward!”
The fear of death defeated the despair of nature.
Professor Vernal used all his strength to get up from the ground and dropped the multifunctional shovel in his hand. They ran forward without looking back.
The two of them exploded with extraordinary courage and strength. They barely escaped the rock walls closing behind them.
The two were in a spacious rock cave.
Vernal got up from the ground and shook the dust from his body as he spoke.
“Dammit… I thought we would be dead. German guy, are you okay?”
Schultz raised his hand and looked like a mess. But, fortunately, he was fine.
“I’m fine, wait… What did you call me?”
“The German mathematician! I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it… I was just a bit excited.”
Vernal grabbed Schultz and pulled him from the ground.
The two leaned against the wall. Their faces filled with joy and uncertainty.
“We can’t stay here for long… No one knows what can happen again. Damn it, it really is two hours.” After taking a deep breath, Professor Vernal checked the oxygen reserve and looked toward Schultz, “Let’s go ahead, my instincts tell me it shouldn’t be far away… Wait, what is that?”
Professor Vernal stopped suddenly.
His eyes were fixed on the open space in front of him, completely forgetting what he wanted to say before.
Schultz followed his eyes with a strange face and looked in front. Instantly, he froze.
It was a shovel.
It was clearly the one that Professor Vernal dropped just a second ago.
Professor Vernal kneeled on the ground and reached out his trembling hand. When he picked up the familiar multifunctional shovel from the ground, his face was full of shock.
“This, this is… The one I just dropped.”
Schultz swallowed and spoke in a trembling voice.
“… And now it’s here.”
The two of them looked at each other.
They saw the uncertain expressions on each other’s faces through the spacesuits.
“… Still go forward?”
“That’s the only thing we can do.”
There was no such thing as retreating.
Two hours had passed since they went inside. The distribution of underground tunnels had completely changed. Whether they wanted to find the exit or the end of the maze, if they wanted to live, they could only move forward!
The two continued to walk forward.
Ten minutes went by.
They passed through a narrow gate-shaped structure. Suddenly, a scenery appeared in front of them.
The two of them were stunned at the same time.
It took a while before Professor Vernal could squeeze out a word from his mouth.
“Jesus…”
This is…
Unbelievable!
