After he said that, Elder Feng felt he shouldn’t have acted that way and turned to Zhou Ning to ask,
"Would you take a look at these skeletons? They’ve all turned to bones, and the bones seem to be severely weathered. I don’t think they are traces left from the modern era."
Zhou Ning nodded. When Elder Feng was speaking, he had already carefully observed the state of the skeletons. The bones were severely weathered and many parts were missing.
Moreover, upon closer observation, there were many broken bones and traces of arrow penetration, especially on the four skeletons placed in the middle. The leather capes were flung open, revealing many arrows, and their ribs had multiple puncture wounds.
Clearly, these four had died a violent death; even one was missing a right arm. They were arranged sitting up, leaning against the edge of a stone.
As for the surrounding skeletons, they were curled up, with a scimitar tossed aside, their heads twisted to one side. This posture seed more like suicide, considering the state of these stones.
Zhou Ning thought that these four must have been defeated leaders, chased here, where a few loyal guards dragged them into the cave and blocked this exit. But after the leaders had died, these few also committed suicide as a final act of loyalty.
Considering the secrecy of this project’s location, probably only the creators of Red Lotus Green Tara knew. They were capable of sealing the entrance, so it shouldn’t have been a problem for the guards physically.
They didn’t take these four leaders to the coffins, so could it be that the person inside the coffin held an even higher status than these four?
Zhou Ning shook his head; this wasn’t for him to consider. However, there was a sll of rot and animal droppings beside the skeletons, which surprised Zhou Ning.
Could animals have gotten in here?
How did they get in?
"Although it hasn’t been analyzed by a laboratory, these victims must have died hundreds of years ago. After all, these are artifacts of the cold weapons era, and these four in the middle held no low positions. It seems this has nothing to do with the previous cave sacrifices we found. Elder Feng, I’ll leave this to you."
Elder Feng did not refuse.
"As per our research, the annihilation of the local Boyegu people occurred over four hundred years ago and it was instantaneous. The entire record consists of only a sentence or two. Personally, I think this was a deliberate act by the local military to gain control over the region’s ard forces.
I strongly suspect these victims might be connected to Boyegu, perhaps even their leaders. Before dying, they arranged for their trusted followers to hide their bodies in their place of worship, not to protect the bodies from desecration by other tribes, but to preserve their people’s bloodline.
After all, Boyegu and the Eight Great Families originally ca from the sa ancestor. I think we should leave it as it is here and send soone to clean up later."
"Elder Feng, look, there’s animal droppings here. It looks like it hasn’t been here for very long."
Elder Feng laughed.
"I saw it just now, it’s such a big pile. I think it belongs to a large animal. It seems the stone at the entrance has also loosened, I saw light coming through just now but didn’t notice where the worst point was. Let’s turn off all the lights."
At Elder Feng’s command, everyone complied, whether it was a flashlight, LED light, or headlamp. Suddenly the surroundings plunged into darkness. Indeed, a few beams of light ca through a gap next to the white bones.
Zhou Ning turned on his light, and the others did the sa.
Approaching the spot where the light had been seen, Elder Feng ca closer but was stopped by Zhou Ning.
"Let’s go and have a look. If large animals can get through, the gap must be big enough. Elder Feng, you wait a mont."
Just then, Guan Jian ca running over, stopping the group. He brought with him a rather thin police officer. After so exploration, they went through a gap from the side corner, and soon there were shouts:
"Director Zhou, we’ve crawled out! The gap is very narrow. Mr. Pan can go through easily, and I can manage by crawling, but Mr. Zhao with his size would have a tough ti."
Mr. Zhao’s face darkened as he had lost forty pounds and didn’t expect to still be used as a point of reference; it was unexpected for him.
"Are we going back out?"
Zhou Ning thought for a mont and unintentionally looked back at the waiting people, counting a few less than before and wondering who was missing.
"Let’s go out and take a look, confirm the coordinates. It’d help us mark them clearly on the materials later. Huh, where are Zou Jialong and the others?"
Mr. Zhao turned to look and was also surprised.
"Mr. Yang and his team are collecting cocoons in the main cave. I saw Zou Jialong when he was climbing the ravine just now. Where could he have gone? He wouldn’t have gone off on his own, would he?"
Zhou Ning got up and waved to Mr. Zhao.
"You go have a look. I’ll check where those guys ran off to—Peng Shinian’s gone too."
Mr. Zhao was startled and smacked his forehead.
"Damn it, I forgot about that guy."
With that, he ran into the crowd and quickly asked:
"Has anyone seen Zou Jialong, Pang Tianhang, and Peng Shinian?"
Everyone shook their heads. It was just the three of them who had co in with the group. The others were either following Liu Yufei or helping Mr. Yang sort out the cocoons.
Guan Jian beca anxious, sweat starting to appear on his forehead. Zhu Xingxing had been left with Elder Feng, and Guan Jian followed Mr. Zhao toward the direction of the underground river, running fast and calling out the nas of the three missing people as they went.
Zhou Ning followed quickly, trying to rember. When they crossed over the underground river rift earlier, he seed to have seen the three of them. At what point did he stop seeing them? Could they have gone to explore an exit on their own?
In the middle of the shouting, an echo ca through. Mr. Zhao and Guan Jian stopped, and Zhou Ning caught up with them. Mr. Zhao blocked the two of them and pointed in the direction of the upstream, where it seed the sound had co from.
"Which one of you shout again, are you hurt?"
"We are here. I’m not hurt, but Zou Jialong is injured, and both our powerful flashlights and headlamps are having issues."
Mr. Zhao stamped his foot in annoyance and gestured to Guan Jian.
"Go call so people, and co with to check on them. Have Elder Feng and the others retreat and gather here with Zhou Xiaozhou."
Guan Jian left to call others while Mr. Zhao shouted toward the spot from where Peng Shinian’s voice had co:
"No need to strain your throat, just find a rock and hit the wall, giving us the direction of the sound. Preserve your strength and wait there; we’re coming right away. When I find you, I’m going to twist your ear off."
Afterward, knocking sounds continued to co from the west side, but they were sowhat strange and didn’t sound like they were made by hitting a stone, sounding rather muffled instead.
With no ti to think more about it, the group quickly headed toward the source of the sound. Zhou Ning surveyed the surroundings, thinking how bold these three were to move on their own.
And when did they leave the group? Did the local staff at the back not see them?
Full of questions, they moved on for more than two hundred ters when Mr. Zhao stopped everyone.
"Don’t move, there’s a ditch on the ground."
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