There appeared to be a dark tunnel inside the tree hole. As Gu Jun walked forward, he felt like he was being surrounded, swallowed, and buried by the darkness.
His body was fine, and his mind was clear, so he could sense the silence. Even the sound of his own footsteps had disappeared.
Gradually, a faint white light appeared in front of him. He walked in that direction as if he was about to enter a hypnotic illusion.
The weak sound of conversation broke the silence. Gu Jun walked out of the tunnel and saw Captain Xue and the rest standing before him. The sound of their conversation was loud and clear.
Gu Jun took a deep breath, and his first reaction was to look around. The dead tree was right behind him. It was just a broken trunk, and there was a rotting hole at the bottom. He could not tell what kind of tree it was.
The ground beneath his feet was black and rotten soil. It was not muddy, and according to Captain Xue, there was no stench, but it reminded him of death. The soil must have been dead for a very long time for all the traces of life to have disappeared so cleanly.
The Demon Hunters had brought some soil from this place out for testing. They could analyze its composition, but they could not determine its age.
The oldest soil found on Earth was about 3.7 billion years old — it was found in a rock in Greenland, and the age of Earth was about 4.6 billion years old. The soil here was much older, so much older that all methods of measurement such as radioisotopes had lost their effect.
This space was not on Earth.
Phew. Gu Jun looked around, and all he could see was this kind of wasteland. It was like the reflection of a giant demon.
The sky was gray, so gray that it did not move. It did not look like a dark cloud but more like a tower hanging over the sky.
Was this a giant tower in the middle? Or a cage?
The horizon was blocked by the stone walls. Even if he looked up, he could not see the top of the walls. The walls stood in the distance, but they also stood in his heart.
"Ah Jun, how are you doing?"
Xue Ba's voice came from Gu Jun's communicator. The radio could be used normally in this space. He replied, "Everything is fine."
Xue Ba nodded at him and reported to the command central in the other world. "Command central, the Demon Hunters have arrived at the space behind the high wall. Everyone is in good condition. Prepare to split into two teams. Team A will head toward the wall while Team B will guard the entrance. Over. "
Their signal could be sent out, but they could not receive a reply from the command center, so this was a one-way communication.
The division of the team had been decided while they were still outside. There were a total of 16 people. Team A had 10 people, most of whom were investigators and researchers; Team B had 6 people, most of whom were miscellaneous workers. Both teams had firepower output members overseeing them, and everyone had a gun in front of their chest.
At the same time, although the images captured would be distorted and blurry, both teams had people recording with cameras, and the images would be sent out using ground wave signals.
In fact, Gu Jun didn't like splitting up. In horror movies, it was usually when the team split up that something bad would happen …
But looking at everyone's equipment, some of them were carrying C4 explosives, and even Uncle Dan, the team medic, was armed with a CQ assault rifle.
Actually, all the members of Special Mobile Force had military skills. This was because they had to go through training before and during the mission. Of the whole team, Gu Jun was the only rookie.
"Team A, follow me." Xue Ba immediately led the way. The other nine followed, and they moved forward on this ruined wasteland.
Here, the compass did not work. They used the entrance of the dead tree to determine their direction. The wall of foreign text was to the north.
Gu Jun followed beside Uncle Dan and Zhang Huohuo. Other than the light footsteps of the team, there was only silence. There was not even the slightest breeze.
But the three firepower output members from the Action Department, Lou Xiaoning, Zhou Yi, and Gao Mingpeng, were still paying close attention to their surroundings.
Lou Xiaoning was one of the few female members in the team. She was in her thirties. She was not particularly tall, but she carried a Type 95 automatic rifle, a QN-202 mini missile launcher, and a backpack that stored six missiles. She was the leader of firepower in the team, and she had a tough personality.
Along the way, Gu Jun sensed something and asked Xue Ba, "Captain Xue, is there a day and night cycle here?"
"No!" Uncle Dan answered first. "Don't you think this is some kind of ghost? It's always this brightness, and the sky is always that color. "
Everyone could hear that. Lou Xiaoning grumbled, "Uncle Dan, you are our doctor! How dare you create panic every day? You don't want to lose your job, do you? You're such a bad old man. "
The group laughed. "Then how about I tell you a joke?" Uncle Dan said with amusement. Then he started his joke, and it was a dirty one. This made the group laugh even louder. Even Gu Jun chuckled. Uncle Dan was such a greasy uncle.
Xue Ba laughed the loudest. Uncle Dan telling dirty jokes was a regular part of the Demon Hunters' routine. It was proven to be effective in easing everyone's anxiety.
The journey of 1037 meters was not that long. The group of ten walked for about ten minutes before they reached the wall. They were less than twenty steps away.
Earlier, Gu Jun had seen the magnificence of this wall. It was made from large gray rocks. The gaps between the rocks were so small that they were almost invisible. The craftsmanship was breathtaking. It was so tall that the top could not be seen. The walls stretched out in a circle. Even after the passage of time, there was no sign of damage on the wall.
The size of this circle of walls was larger than all the ancient buildings that had been built by human beings.
Similar to the soil under their feet, the geologists could not tell what kind of rocks they were, and they had no idea why each of the rocks had some strange patterns on them.
The group moved closer to the bottom of the wall. Xue Ba pointed and said, "Ah Jun, that line of foreign language is over there."
"I'll go take a look." Gu Jun continued to move. Xue Ba and Lou Xiaoning flanked him.
When they were still ten steps away, Gu Jun could already see the foreign language on the wall. The inky black color and the frantic handwriting were carved on the giant rock at the bottom of the wall.
He took another few steps forward and focused his eyes to study it. He could feel the words wriggling, bulging, awakening …
"The eternal slumber is not the dead. In this strange eternity, even death will vanish."
Gu Jun repeated this sentence in his heart. He lifted his head to look at the wall that seemed to reach the top, and a sense of insignificance rose in his heart …
"Ah Jun, can you understand what it means?" Xue Ba asked. His voice did not hide the eagerness and anticipation in his voice. Lou Xiaoning and Uncle Dan were also listening closely.
"I can understand it …" Gu Jun nodded slightly and was about to say that.
Suddenly there was a loud rumble, and the giant rock with the foreign language collapsed. It turned into a pile of rubble that sank into the decaying soil. Behind the giant rock, a dark underground entrance appeared. There was a stone staircase that led down, and it was so deep that they could not see the bottom.
The group was shocked by this sudden change. Then the shocked voice of the members of Team B came through the walkie-talkie.
"Leader, the old tree suddenly collapsed, and the tunnel seems to have collapsed … The light has disappeared, and the tunnel has disappeared!"
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