Chapter 017 Tracking

I carried Long Wu's supplies and asked the fat man to meet me on top, and then together we came to the tree where Long Wu was.

When I stood still and looked carefully, I was surprised to find that where we were was just a thick branch!

The main body of this branch, that is, the main trunk actually grows in the rock wall. Only a small part of the main body can be vaguely seen, but it is as thick as five people surrounding it!

When I came to the place with the densest branches and leaves, I couldn't help but stand on tiptoe and look at the surrounding woods. If this big tree was not ranked first in Zhelong Valley, then it would really be a ghost!

Big trees that grow in mountains do exist. The Huangshan Four Treasures Welcome Pine is one kind. That kind of tree grows on cliffs. Without soil, it only relies on sunlight, rain, dew and a small amount of nutrients. It grows extremely slowly. It takes decades to grow. A long circle.

At this time, the fat man asked me: "Old Cao, I'm a little confused now. Well, please help me calculate it. If it takes a few decades to grow a circle, how many years will it take for it to be as thick as five people embracing it?"

"Thousands of years! Even tens of thousands of years!"

I was so shocked that I could only tell him such a vague number. Because I really can't imagine that a tree can grow so huge inside the mountain. This is really a miracle, no, it should be said to be a miracle.

It is like a potted plant accidentally knocked over by some god in the sky, and planted horizontally in the mortal place of Zhelong Valley. Neither life nor death, neither destruction nor destruction.

The fat man still couldn't understand the shock in my heart. He said that when he went out to sea on a boat, he saw a foreign tree, a large banyan tree. It grows very huge, with a diameter of several hundred meters, several times larger than the one under our feet. It can be said that one tree can become a forest!

I told Fatty that if you want to see banyan trees, you don’t have to go abroad. We have them in China, and they are several hundred meters in diameter. But there is absolutely no comparison between that kind of banyan tree and the mountain rock tree we are stepping on at the moment.

Trees that can break through earth are common, but trees that can break through stone are very rare!

The roots of those big banyan trees you see grow into the soft soil. And the tree under our feet is drilling hard into the rock wall! Think about it, the roots of a tree can penetrate a hard rock wall. How much persistence and energy it takes! It has grown here for tens of thousands of years, which means that its roots have also been interspersed in this mountain for tens of thousands of years. It is hard to say that this seemingly complete mountain has already been riddled with holes inside, covered with trees that are thousands of years old. root!

I don't know if Fatty understood it, but the entrance to the cave discovered by Long Wu quickly attracted my attention again.

I hurriedly went forward to check and found that there was a cool breeze coming out of the hole, indicating that the penetration inside must be connected to other exits.

Being blown by the cool breeze, my lips became even drier. Except for the half bottle I drank in the early morning, it can be said that I haven't drunk any water so far.

It is said that eggs should not be put in one basket, but this seemingly ordinary water has been ignored by us. Fortunately, other important equipment is scattered and packed, otherwise the losses here are unpredictable.

It sounds like I'm going to give Fatty a big reprieve for missing the perfect opportunity to regain the water resources just for a short while. But then again, it's not a blessing in disguise. Without this incident, it would have been difficult to discover this hidden cave.

This time the fat man vowed to rush to the front bravely and vowed to take revenge for being teased twice in a row. He stuck out his big butt and crawled in with a squeaking sound. He crawled five or six meters in but then retreated back. He said that he didn't see it clearly just now. It was getting narrower and narrower inside, which was extremely unsuitable for my fat body shape. I was afraid that my body would get stuck later. So take off the bag first, push it in front , or put it under the chest, it will be more comfortable.

We filed in closely behind, and Long Wu chose the position at the back.

After climbing for a while, the fat man's speed suddenly slowed down. I asked him what was wrong and why he didn't crawl forward.

The fat man said in a muffled voice: "My leg seemed to have been scratched by something. I didn't feel any pain just now, but now it hurts more and more as I climb. It hurts a lot."

As he spoke, he tried hard to sit up, but the cave here was really narrow. It would be good if his fat body could crawl through it. He also wanted to sit up and see if he was injured. Obviously impossible.

I lowered the brightness of the strong flashlight slightly and shined a light on the path that the fat man in front of me crawled along. Fortunately, there was no trace of blood, which reassured me a lot.

And we are fully equipped this time, plus the weapons we acquired along the way, it can be said that we are fully armed!

The clothes on his body are all tactical equipment. Anti-cut, anti-scratch, and extremely flexible. If the fat man got a big puncture on his leg so easily, it can only mean one thing, and that is that he cut corners in purchasing! If this kid is acting secretly and sneakily while doing things for himself, it would be like shooting himself in the foot.

But the pair of real shoes under my feet told me that the fat man did not choose to do that. He was willing to spend thousands of dollars to buy shoes, so how could he be reluctant to part with cheaper tactical uniforms.

So I told the fat man that I had taken a photo just now and there was no blood. You were probably stung by some small stone. Climb slowly on the road ahead and be sure to see clearly.

Hearing my comfort, the fat man felt relieved. He gave up trying to sit up and continued crawling.

Because of this incident, I paid careful attention to pebbles along the way, but the strangest thing was that until we climbed to a wider turning area, I didn't find any hard and sharp things along the way.

In fact, everyone has claustrophobia. As long as they are normal humans, they have an innate fear of narrowness and depression. However, everyone's tolerance is different, so some people who show it are not afraid of darkness and narrowness. But in fact, it is just that the critical point of his endurance has not yet been reached.

After climbing for such a long time, even a fat man who had been a local master could not bear it. He was finally able to turn around, check his trousers again and said:

"It's better to be thinner, otherwise you'll have too much meat when you use it! This narrow cave reminds me of the time I went to the Northeast one year to play with mink. The kind of mink specializes in catching sea rats and rabbits. Tie it up A miniature camera was then put into the soil hole. It smelled the smell and chased the rabbit away. No matter how hard the rabbit burrowed, it couldn't escape. What we saw on the screen connected to the camera was really clear. .Do you think we look like that kind of mink now, and the mandrill that stole our rhinestones and got in here is a rabbit!

I really don't like the fat man trope. How could this mandrill be a rabbit? This is an extremely ferocious and cruel primate. It is only afraid of us because we have guns in our hands. But in this narrow cave, guns cannot be used at all, so we must be very alert. Don't let that black-faced mandrill take advantage of you again.

Because we have climbed so far, we still can't tell whether the black-faced ghost deliberately led us in, or whether he escaped in a panic.

The fat man was also frightened after hearing this. He smacked his lips and said: "Tsk tsk... It seems that this formation is not that easy to fight. It is really dangerous! Fortunately, the ghost mandrill didn't turn around and attack just now. Otherwise, it would be difficult to turn over in this narrow cave! Fatty! Isn’t your face going to be scratched by that thing!”

I said that catching flowers is pretty light, but I might as well chew off the whole nose. I heard that this thing is very evil and likes to bite the softest and most vulnerable parts of people's bodies. Apart from the neck, my favorite part is the nose, followed by the ears, and finally the eyes. I heard someone say before that an old farmer who went up the mountain to collect medicine accidentally encountered two mandrills. The two mandrills were one big and one small. The smaller one was confusing the old man in front, while the big one passed by coldly. The old farmer only felt that the mandrills were behind him. I felt a cold feeling between my neck and temples. I touched my face first and found nothing was missing. I wanted to touch my ears quickly. However, when I raised my hands, I found nothing on my right hand side!

Only then did he realize that one of his ears had been torn off by the mandrill passing by in the air. I saw the ghost-faced mandrill holding his ears and gnawing fiercely, and his mouth kept making crunching sounds! Naturally, the old farmer was so furious that he raised his farm knife to take back his half-eaten ear!

But he also forgot one thing, that is, there was a little one in front of him! But when I lowered my head and looked again, there was no trace of that little one!

Suddenly, he felt something warm on the back of his neck, and something furry lay on his head, with two furry legs and a red butt sitting on his neck.

The old farmer knew it was the little one that was causing trouble, but he didn't dare let it suck the blood from the broken right ear. But he had just protected his right ear and was about to raise his knife to slash, but the extremely flexible little mandrill covered his face and bit his nose! The pain of having the cartilage, skin and flesh that had been with him for decades being torn apart and swallowed was unimaginable!

After hearing this, the fat man carefully touched his nose. Looking at it, he was a little scared, but he also seemed to be secretly glad.

The fat man rubbed his nose and asked: "This cave is too tight for us, but the mandrill must be running very fast. Now there is a fork in the road. Why don't you come up with an idea, Lao Cao, which way should we go?" If it doesn't work, I'll just throw a shoe. Hey... the ceiling of this cave is a bit low, so it seems like throwing it away is in vain."

I told the fat man that there was no need to throw away the shoes. Although the two entrances on the left and right of the inverted figure of eight gave us a little breathing room, we couldn't withstand his tossing like this. We were already crowded and now we can finally turn around. Look at you quickly. Then don't cover it. Let me observe and analyze it, and we will discuss it together and make a decision.

Apart from being two circles larger than the previous passage, the two entrances have nothing special about them. I started with the smell. Although it was a little disgusting, there was no other way to deal with the ghost mandrill that had long since escaped without a trace.

The mandrill has lived in the wild for a long time, and his body is extremely smelly. Every place he crawls along the way leaves a strong smell of monkey smell. However, there was an obvious smell at both entrances. It was not difficult to guess that the mandrill must have stopped here. It seemed that it was in a dilemma, walking around here and there, not knowing which side to choose!