"What did you discover?" The others imdiately gathered around.
"Look at the cave wall, there are marks made by soone chiseling." Sun Hang said, "It looks like a cross."
Just as he said, about half a ter deep into the cave from the entrance, at a central height, there was a cross-shaped mark.
This engraving seed to be chiseled out gradually using so kind of tal tool, with very uniform thickness, both the vertical and horizontal lines were a finger's width, about two milliters deep, with the top and the sides of the cross being of similar length, only the bottom extending further.
"Isn't this a cross symbol?" Wang Xiyi imdiately said, "The cross, and this is the thirteenth cave... this seems to have so special religious significance, doesn't it?"
Yang Lian labeled the cave entrance in order, starting from the first one, and this entrance happened to be the thirteenth.
"A secret underground religious relic?" Candle Dragon showed an interested expression, "Hmm, interesting."
"The cross and the number thirteen... this should definitely be related to Christianity, right?" Yang Lian said, "I rember Christianity once spread widely in the Shuzhou Region in the early years, and it was one of the main activity areas for Western missionaries in Xiazhou..."
Yang Qi continued, "But later, as the strange entities appeared on a large scale, many church organizations began to change, even spawning a large number of cult organizations based on it... After that, the Federation Governnt imposed nurous restrictions on religious organizations and activities within Xiazhou, with many churches being dissolved, and churches and temples being demolished. Only a very few were preserved in the form of tourist attractions and historical relics."
"Turning into cults seems normal, after all, no one knows whether God exists, but those strange entities with all sorts of supernatural powers do genuinely exist." Sun Hang, who had dealt with cults, said, "Even feeble weird creatures like the Taizui, who can only hide and covertly spread faith, have many worshippers, let alone those super weird entities that can destroy a nation at the drop of a hat."
The thirteenth cave entrance was about one and a half ters above the ground, and the cave wall had no footholds. Yang Qi tried twice but couldn't climb up.
"Give a hand." Yang Qi said angrily to Sun Hang—this guy just watched her slide down from the edge of the cave twice, without offering a hand to pull her up.
"Oh." Sun Hang grabbed Yang Qi's wrist and pulled her up, joking, "I was wondering why you were rubbing against the rock wall; turns out you were trying to climb up?"
"You did it on purpose." Yang Qi glared at him but did not pursue it further. Instead, she took out her equipnt and snapped over a dozen photos of the cross marks on the wall.
Imdiately after, Yang Qi fished out a steel needle from her toolkit and gently scraped at the markings.
The dust that had ford a crust on the surface fell away, revealing a small patch of dark red mark.
"Is this... blood?" Yang Lian exclaid in astonishnt.
"No, blood couldn't adhere to the rock like this, nor could it last this long." Yang Qi said softly, "It should be so kind of dye."
"Should we explore deeper into the cave?" Sun Hang suggested, "Since the cross symbol is just at this entrance, it suggests that this might be a rather special place."
"I'll call back the drones surveying the other caves first..." Just as Yang Qi said this, the drone control terminal on her waist beeped with a "beep beep beep" alert.
This ans that the drones sent to survey the other caves have finally made a new discovery.
Yang Qi imdiately grabbed the control terminal and flipped open the foldable screen.
The alert ssage ca from Cave No. 1, which was also the earliest surveyed and the one with the greatest depth, with a snake-like drone.
The number displayed at the bottom right of the screen shows that this drone had penetrated 160 ters into the cave and found a largely intact human-ford skeleton on one side of the cave wall.
"Human bones?" Yang Lian climbed into the cave too, leaned beside his sister, and exclaid at the images transmitted by the drone.
"Sothing seems off..." Yang Qi switched the drone's control mode from automatic to manual, gently pushed the control stick, and continuously adjusted the drone and cara's position and angle.
"Not a normal human skeleton." As the images from different angles appeared on the screen, Yang Qi concluded, "The sternum and ribs have significant deformities, the number of vertebrae... thirty-nine, forty, forty-one... this skeleton has as many as forty-one vertebrae, a full seven more than a normal human..."
"A deformity?" Ye Xuan squinted slightly, "Or an... infected one?"
"I am inclined towards the latter." Yang Qi murmured, "The skeleton's various data have been recorded, I will now transmit this data back to the research institute, the computer can draw the restoration image of this deceased within half a minute."
"And that rusted iron ring on the carpal bones..." Yang Qi pointed at one of the photos sent back by the drone, "Looks like a shackle, sis, look, there are quite a few broken chain links in the corner..."
"I see it." Yang Qi nodded and gently moved the drone cara upward.
Sure enough, about fifty centiters from the ground, two rusty iron rings were embedded in the wall, each with a small segnt of broken chain still attached.
Judging by the chain's break, it seed to have rusted off forcibly.
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