Chapter 2: The Ancient Dragon Cave

  "Go to the dock and take a look, have the equipment arrived? Make a phone call to urge them, hurry up and transport it over."

  Professor Han stood at the entrance of the cave and instructed several archaeological team members beside him. This time, he led a team of ten people to come here, but compared with the previous preparations and the current discovery, it was still far from enough.

  "Be careful, Professor," said one of the archaeological team members at the entrance to the cave. "There's a lot in there; we'll go in nine together and wait for you at the entrance."

  Professor Han waved his hand impatiently, his eyes fixed on the relics inside the cave, and the flashlight kept scanning. Several members of the archaeological team looked at each other helplessly and left together to fetch more advanced and accurate detection equipment. This discovery was not trivial, and the detection equipment was airlifted as quickly as possible, even startling relevant departments, which were already preparing for conservation and research work.

  "An ultra-ancient civilization, reversing the modern history of human development, existing in the impossible," Professor Han exclaimed, "Once in Oklo, Gabon, Africa, an ancient nuclear reactor was discovered, consisting of 6 regions with approximately 500 tons of uranium ore, estimated output power of 100 kilowatts, operating for a full 50 million years, and its age can be traced back to 2 billion years ago. Now the site we have found is equally strong evidence, it's a miracle in international archaeological history, an immortal monument, only..."

  Professor Han couldn't figure it out, what was the connection between the Tyrannosaurus fossil and this ancient civilization site? Looking at those stone spears, copper swords, and armor, were they ancient dragon slayers? It seemed a bit too fantastical.

  "Let's go and take a look!" Professor Han gritted his teeth and slipped into the cave with a nimble movement.

  "Professor!" Qin Chuan was shocked and couldn't stop it in time.

  "Nothing much, let's just take a look at the entrance, this is a first-hand report, don't you want it?" Professor Han glared and began to search in the ruins of the entrance.

  "Let's go."

  Su Jing said faintly, this woman rarely speaks, but at this moment she was the one who reacted the fastest. Xiao Yi slightly furrowed his brow, looking down at his feet, a fine crack in the ground had opened up, and he felt a jolt in his heart. His gaze swept over the Tyrant Dragon's remains, finally landing on the fine cracks on the dragon's claws, and at this moment, another crack appeared, silently and soundlessly, entering Xiao Yi's line of sight.

  No good!

  Xiao Yi was shocked, stretched out his hand to grab Qin Chuan's waist as he entered the hole, but it was too late. Qin Chuan only felt a void under his feet, and the cries of Professor Han, Qi Yong, and Shu Jing rang out simultaneously.

  Rumble!

  Xiao Yi only felt a surge of great force coming from his palm, and the next moment, his body was unstable, and he was dragged into the hole. The sound of wind whistled in his ears, and after a few seconds, he fell into a sheet of icy water. A chill ran down his spine, and his limbs were almost instantly frozen stiff. With great difficulty, he floated to the surface, and what appeared before Xiao Yi's eyes was an underground cave with a height of over 20 meters. The cave was deep and dark, like the mouth of a giant beast, cold and eerie.

  Fortunately, the shore was not far away, about three or four meters away. Including Professor Han, all four of them from Qin Chuan knew how to swim, but the water temperature was too low, especially for Professor Han, whose face turned pale as soon as he floated out of the water.

  "Hurry up and get ashore!" Qi Yong shouted, although his body was stout, but his movements were not slow, and he swam to the shore in just a few strokes.

  Several people climbed ashore, and a faint light fell from over 20 meters high, like a midsummer night. Xia Jing's thin silk dress was soaked in water, clinging to her body, revealing the beauty of her skin and curves. Qin Chuan and Qi Yong both had shining eyes, but they didn't dare look more, Xiao Yi glanced twice and quickly looked away, compared to such a beautiful scene, their own safety was the most important at this moment.

  Shu Jing's face didn't look good, but he didn't have an outburst either. Professor Han trembled slightly as he stood up, and the flashlights that several people had with them hadn't been lost. The five beams of light turned on one after another, and Xiao Yi's heart rate accelerated. What appeared before their eyes was a vast, mottled cave ground. The ground had patch after patch of black spots, each one as big as a human head, just like giant drops of blood that had fallen to the ground.

  "What is that!" Qin Chuan suddenly exclaimed, and several people's eyes were drawn to his flashlight.

  It was a stone pillar as thick as a bucket of water, about five meters high, with obvious signs of fracture on the top. The light shifted, and only one side that came into contact with the ground could be seen, which was a huge spearhead. There were also black spots on the spearhead, dense and numerous, even if they were separated by hundreds of millions of years, there was still a majestic and brutal aura emanating from it.

  "A gigantic stone spear that has been shattered! Could it be... could it be the weapon of a giant?!" Qi Yong took a deep breath, his eyes filled with shock.

  Xiao Yi was also shocked, this is a broken stone spear, it's actually big to such an extent, could it be that in the unknown years of humanity, there existed a kind of ancient human with a gigantic body, capable of uprooting mountains and rivers.

  The five of them almost couldn't help but walk towards the inside, and the strong light from their flashlights faintly illuminated what was at the end. Along the way, there were huge iron spears, copper whips as thick as a person's arms, unknown giant shields, and fist-sized greyish-white stones that grew more and more numerous, until soon they could see small piles everywhere, with nearly a thousand pieces in each pile.

  There was also a half-meter-long stone rod, a one-foot-long copper sword that looked like a dwarf's weapon, and many other unknown ancient objects. Professor Han didn't know anything about them either.

  After walking nearly a hundred meters, the end of the cave finally came into view. Among the piles of rocks, a half-meter-high fossilized dinosaur egg appeared before their eyes. Professor Han was taken aback and muttered to himself: "A Tyrannosaurus Rex's fossilized egg? Could it be that this used to be its lair?"

  Several people were moved by the news, Xiao Yi secretly thought that this might be a ancient dragon cave, which existed in the early Cretaceous period or even earlier. Then, are these broken arms and blades the spoils of war of the Tyrannosaurus Rex?

  This idea emerged and cannot be stopped, if it is true, then in the distant Middle Ages, there were human civilizations different from now on Earth, with different ethnic groups, giants, dwarfs? They mainly used cold weapons or others.

  "Hmm, the fossil pattern on this dinosaur egg is not right. It's quite different from the Tyrannosaurus eggs that have been unearthed before. The texture of this fossil is so fine, it looks like jade." Professor Han carefully observed for a moment before revealing a look of surprise.

  "There's a mural behind!"

  Qin Chuan let out a low shout, and Xiao Yi's four people were all startled. Their eyes passed over the dragon egg fossil, and they saw that on the flat stone wall behind it, a huge mirror was carved, with a height of several meters. This mirror was simple and unadorned, standing out on the smooth stone wall, with ancient textures etched onto its surface. Below the mirror, there was nothing at all.

  "What kind of thing is this, it's actually a mirror," Qi Yong curled his lips and then was stunned, "Were there mirrors back then?"

  Xiao Yi sank into thought, there were too many abnormalities in this super ancient civilization site, all of which went against the trajectory of history. Almost subconsciously, he swept the beam of his high-intensity flashlight onto that mirror.

  Crack!

  On the stone wall, a crack appeared on the protruding mirror as it was illuminated by the shaft of light. Then a small piece of the stone wall fell off, and a golden, flawless glow burst forth, accompanied by a fierce aura that spread outwards. As the glow intensified, the air grew thick with the smell of blood, and in the distance, Xiao Yi seemed to hear an ancient melody.

  "The heavens will collapse and the earth will shatter. People will not be wronged, even if it means sacrificing life. Sacrificing life does not mean betraying one's kin. The soul returns..."

  At that moment, Xiao Yi couldn't hear the voices of Qin Chuan and the others, nor could he see anything except for the light. The entire sky and earth had turned golden, until several seconds later, when the light gradually dimmed and the world slowly became clear again. The ancient song also finally dissipated, leaving only a faint warmth in Xiao Yi's chest, as a speck of golden light vanished before his eyes.

  "This is..."

  When Xiao Yi opened his eyes again, what appeared before him was a shocking scene. In the bright cave, there were white lights everywhere, like a sacred heavenly court, the legendary home of the immortals. The air was so fresh that it was startling, and with each breath, Xiao Yi could clearly feel his physical strength increasing, his body becoming much lighter. But most importantly, Qin Chuan and the others were no longer by his side. The dinosaur egg fossil in front of him had transformed into a golden jade color, with a radiant glow, surrounded by auspicious clouds, mysterious and beautiful, with a rich life energy that was almost palpable.

  Under the shock, Xiao Yi suddenly turned his head to look back at the road he came from. The fragmented path had disappeared, replaced by a bloody ground. The crimson blood dripped down from the broken blades, and the shattered giant halberd seemed to have come alive, emitting waves of intense energy that hit him in the face. Xiao Yi took a deep breath, and suddenly his forehead was covered with sweat. This was a kind of mental pressure, like the great generals of the anti-Japanese war era, who could make ordinary people lose their minds with just one loud shout. Nowadays, those in power, who have accumulated prestige over time, also possess an aura that can make ordinary people tremble with fear.

  Xiao Yi looked again, and the grayish-white stones on the ground had also turned milky white. The hazy light was emanating from these stones, and there was a faint aura that made him feel refreshed with just one breath. These strange stones, although he didn't know what material they were made of, Xiao Yi could be certain that they were far superior to some so-called "warm jade" worth hundreds of millions of RMB that he had seen before.

  "How is this possible! Is it a reversal of time and space, have I returned to before the Middle Ages?" Xiao Yi muttered, everything in front of him, from the disappearance of Qin Chuan's four people to the strange changes in this ancient dragon cave, all indicated that everything from back then had reappeared, and the desolate and decaying aura that could be clearly felt before had vanished without a trace.

  But why was it only himself, Qin Chuan and the others were not brought back. Taking a deep breath, Xiao Yi decided to go out of the cave to take a look, he still held a glimmer of hope in his heart, hoping that all this was just a local phenomenon, and he was still on Earth.