Zha Wenbin took another look at the lines and shouted upwards, "Its okay, keep releasing!" Superzi responded with a shout, and the two began to work together again. The release speed was very slow, and as the depth gradually increased, Zha Wenbins figure became increasingly unclear. After a while, only the two beams of light emitted by the lamp on his head were left.

  At first, every five meters, Chaozi would stop and check the signal. If Wenbin pulled the rope once, it meant it was safe to continue lowering him down. Two pulls meant he needed to stop, and three pulls meant they had reached the agreed-upon depth. If the rope shook continuously, it meant there was danger below and they needed to quickly pull Chaozi back up. As they went deeper, the distance between Chaozis stops grew shorter and shorter, gradually becoming every meter needing a signal check.

  And what about Cha Wenbin? What else did he find at the bottom of the well? What kind of world is down there in the ancient well, we need to adjust our perspective.

  As Cha Wenbin descended along the lines, he began to notice the ancient wells wall. The deeper he went, the more water erosion marks there were, and the color of the wall gradually changed from grayish-white at the top to brown. On the other hand, the moss decreased with depth. At one point, the stronger airflow from below blew against his chest, where his bag was hanging. The fresh air brought by this airflow was many times better than the outside air. When he took a sip, his tongue felt a hint of sweetness, which slightly relaxed his tense body. Human instinct always takes bitter, sour, and pungent smells as warning signals for danger, while sweet and fragrant scents are seen as signs of safety.

  There was one thing that had not changed from beginning to end, and that was his gaze never left the well wall half a step. On those ancient rocks, there were obvious artificial marks. With a little attention, you could still restore the scene of the labor when this ancient well was excavated. Every three meters or so, there were some simple line patterns similar to murals, mostly fish, birds, and trees, occasionally with one or two human-shaped patterns flashing by. The deepest impression left on Zha Wenbin was a person painted with huge eyes and huge ears. Because these lines were very rough, Zha Wenbin only took a quick look and remembered them in his heart.

  About a hundred meters later, Cha Wenbin suddenly discovered a secret. This ancient well was actually man-made and the traces left behind, although eroded by time, were still clear and visible. After passing a hundred meters, the direction of excavation on the well wall began to change.

  At first, the direction of excavation of this ancient well was from top to bottom. All the marks left behind were thick at the top and pointed at the bottom, which undoubtedly proved that when people dug wells, the direction of force applied was from top to bottom, leaving such traces.

  After 100 meters, Cha Wenbin found that the excavation marks changed to a sharp top and a thick bottom, almost on a very obvious dividing strip. What does this mean? Is it said that when the ancient well was drilled, the troops were divided into two routes, with one part of the people drilling down from the ground surface of the village, and another part of the people drilling up from the underground several hundred meters deep? Not to mention how those people got into the underground, there is airflow proving that there should be a space leading to the outside world below, they just didnt discover it; but to ensure that an ancient well runs along almost vertical lines, still drilling from both ends towards the middle, this is probably impossible even in modern society with geological exploration and map design!

  Its a very simple principle. When a person is blindfolded and standing on the top of a 100-meter-high building, how can you make your also-blindfolded partner stand in the basement under the building, so that you and your partner form a straight line, and this line is perpendicular to the ground? This experiment tells us that without measuring instruments and three-dimensional mapping, it was almost impossible to complete such an engineering project in ancient times!

  Cha Wenbin was shocked by the sudden change in the mural on the wall, the original bird and fish patterns had disappeared, replaced by a new pattern: insects; the originally bare trees began to have leaves, almost from scratch, these patterns also changed with it.

  Chaozi and Zhuo Xiong, who stayed by the old well, could no longer see the light. As Cha Wenbin went deeper, all that was left for them was the heavy rope in their hands, with no other information. Fortunately, every meter or so, they still had communication, but the pulling sensation from the rope became weaker and weaker, almost imperceptible later on. The power of one persons pull had been dispersed by the long rope along the way, which was something they had not anticipated at all!

  Chaozi looked at the rope in his hand, calculating the depth of Cha Wenbins descent, which was already about 200 meters. With that attention to detail, he could still faintly feel the signal being transmitted from below through the palm of his hand. The two were focused on the rope in their hands and neither of them noticed the astonishing changes happening around them!

  Zhuo Xiong was an old smoker, and it had been two hours since Cha Wenbin went down the well. He hadnt even had a chance to take a puff of smoke yet, and now he was suffering from nicotine withdrawal. Taking advantage of the brief moment when they exchanged signals, he hastily pulled out two crumpled cigarettes from his pocket and lit them up: "Chaozi, Ive already lit the cigarettes for you, here you go."

  He Yi Chao turned his head to look, and hey, that kids forehead was already starting to smoke. He thought to himself, "You little guy really knows how to make a scene." But this nerve had been tense for an entire morning, so it was time to come up with a root of tobacco to relax a bit. Just as he turned his head to take the cigarette, he suddenly lost all reaction and stood there stiffly. The cigarette in Zhuo Xiongs mouth was almost burned to the butt, but He Yi Chao still didnt move, staring at Zhuo Xiongs head with unblinking eyes, making Zhuo Xiong feel a bit embarrassed: "Super, Im asking you why you keep staring at me. What are you spacing out about? You havent taken one puff of this cigarette and its all going to waste. Are you dissatisfied with my cigarettes? In the old days when we were in the army, I even picked up cigarette butts from the company commander to smoke. Now youre still picking on me, not smoking, Ill just throw it away."

  He had a habitual action when throwing cigarette butts, never forward, only backward. The cigarette butt was thrown several meters away by that kid with a "whoosh" sound, and his head also turned around in sync. Just as he turned his head back, the opposing He Yichao was still in the same posture. Thinking of what he seemed to have seen earlier, he suddenly turned around again. Zhuo Xiong exclaimed: "My god, isnt that the Qi Feng Shan that old man talked about?"

  Not far behind the two, a huge mountain stood tall among the clouds, its straight body like a black giant dragon, rising from the ground. A few white clouds floated around the waist of the mountain, and from a distance, it seemed as if cranes were flying back and forth among them, just like a paradise depicted in a painting! The two people on the ground were so captivated by the sight that they forgot not only to smoke but also that there were still people waiting for them to drop the rope down the well.

  Down in the well, Cha Wenbin only felt that the rope suddenly stopped moving, and he pulled hard again without seeing any reaction. The first thought that came to his mind was: "Not good! Somethings happened above the well, have those two kids been ambushed again?!" He thought about how he hadnt heard a single sound, and wondered if they had disappeared like Old Wang and the others for no reason at all. Thinking about being stuck in mid-air in this ancient well, Cha Wenbin was getting anxious to the point of stomping his feet. Meanwhile, the two kids above were watching a rare spectacle that only appeared once in a century!

  Chaozi suddenly remembered that Cha Wenbin was still hanging in the well, and quickly woke up Zhuo Xiong, who was also indulging in the beautiful scenery, to let him lower the rope. At this moment, Cha Wenbin below was about to go crazy, pressing against the wall of the well to test its width, preparing to climb up by himself! Suddenly, the rope began to descend again, following the same pattern as before. Only then did he breathe a sigh of relief, thinking that these two kids had been stuck for too long and were taking a break.

  He Yichao, who was standing above, shouted with a tilted head: "Blind man, didnt your dad say that the misty mountains of Qiufeng are shrouded in fog and poisonous gas all year round? And arent there venomous snakes up there too? Take a good look, its simply a paradise on earth! Such a great place was actually said to be a hell on earth by him! I think your dad must have done something bad here back then and was driven out by the villagers."

  Zhuo Xiong stiffened his neck, not showing weakness: "Dont follow that nonsense, my mother and sister are still on that mountain, if its really like you said, how could they not find them? My father may love to brag, but he wouldnt joke about his own wife and children!"

  Wow, thinking about it, thats really the case. Even if that old man wanted to brag, he wouldnt need to use his wife and children as examples. So theres only one possibility: what Old Zhuo said is true. Mount Qiufeng might have been hidden in the clouds all along, just like when they first saw it. Whats going on today? Could it be that the mountain god is giving them face, seeing that theyve come and specially removing its veil to welcome them into the mountains?

  read3;