sbdcsierra Chapter 420 A Giant Dung Beetle?!
Chapter 420 A Giant Dung Beetle?!
"I'm going down too."
Seeing this, Zhang Haiyang and Ning Wei grabbed the ropes without hesitation and followed, as they were already used to following in Zhong Yuemin's footsteps.
Yang Qing also grabbed a rope and tied it around her waist. Although there was still lingering fear in her eyes, there was more of a stubbornness and curiosity.
"Why are you coming down here and causing trouble?" Zhong Yuemin frowned.
"I'm in charge, I need to know the situation firsthand!" Yang Qing said firmly, with a hint of defiance.
Zhong Yuemin glanced at her but said nothing more. This woman was indeed quite bold.
The group of people took turns pulling themselves down the ropes and carefully slid to the bottom of the pit. Their feet landed on the slightly soft sand and gravel, and a few torches illuminated the small underground space.
The cave was wider than I had imagined, shaped like an inverted funnel, with a bottom area of about ten square meters.
The surrounding area consists of rough rock walls, which are buried by sand and soil year-round, giving them a dark color.
However, what attracted everyone's attention was not the cave itself, but the densely packed marks that covered the surrounding rock walls!
By the flickering firelight, one could clearly see that the hard rock surface was covered with deep and shallow engravings. These were not naturally formed cracks, but rather symbols and patterns clearly carved by human hands.
Holding a torch, Zhong Yuemin approached a rock face, extended his gloved fingers, and gently brushed away the surface dust, revealing the carvings beneath more clearly.
“This handwriting…” he murmured, “is crooked and has a strange structure.”
Zhang Haiyang also came over to take a look, grinning, "What is this thing? It looks like scribbles, it's definitely not our writing!"
Wang Ye and Yang Qing rushed to the rock face, their expressions focused and excited as if they had found a treasure.
Wang Ye carefully traced a complex, twisted, vine-like symbol with his finger, his tone filled with disbelief:
“It’s definitely not any known Chinese script, nor is it an ancient script system like oracle bone script or bronze script… The structure is completely different, and the strokes have no discernible pattern. It’s more like… some kind of extremely primitive pictographic symbol that has never been discovered before, or…” He paused, lowering his voice.
"Some kind of code."
Holding a torch, Yang Qing moved slowly along the rock face. The torchlight swept across the carvings, revealing even more eerie patterns.
Some resemble distorted human figures with unusually long arms; others are the outlines of never-before-seen beasts, seemingly with horns on their heads; and still others are simply a jumble of chaotic lines and dots, making one dizzy.
"These patterns are so strange," Yang Qing's voice trembled slightly, whether from the cold or excitement, it was hard to tell.
"It's completely unlike the style of any known civilization."
As he spoke, he quickly took out his notebook and began to jot down notes.
Zhang Haiyang watched from the side, curling his lip in disapproval. He had absolutely no interest in these "scribbles." In his eyes, these things were neither edible nor could they be exchanged for money; they were not as practical as real gold and silver.
Bored, he held up the torch, his eyes scanning the small cave, his feet moving aimlessly.
I had just taken a step when my shoe suddenly bumped against something hard.
"Ok?"
He muttered something and subconsciously shone the torch at his feet. He saw something buried in the sand, with a small, pointed tip sticking out.
He crouched down and carefully used an entrenching tool to remove the surface layer of loose sand.
Beneath the sand, there were also rock walls covered with strange patterns, but unlike other places, one relief here was clearly raised.
Upon closer inspection, Zhang Haiyang noticed that the raised pattern had a peculiar shape, with a round, bulging body, what appeared to be antennae on its head, and several legs that were clearly depicted.
"Hey? Yuemin, come quick!"
Zhang Haiyang, as if discovering a novel toy, exclaimed, "What is this thing carved on? It looks so much like... like an oversized dung beetle!"
Upon hearing this, Zhong Yuemin, Ning Wei, and the others gathered around. In the firelight, the stone carving of the "dung beetle" was lifelike and detailed, standing out starkly from the abstract and distorted symbols and patterns around it.
The more Zhang Haiyang looked at it, the more curious he became. Without thinking much about it, he casually pulled out the military dagger tucked at his waist and inserted the tip of the blade into the gap between the stone carving and the rock wall, trying to pry the "dung beetle" off for a closer look.
"do not move!"
Alarm bells rang in Zhong Yuemin's mind. He seemed to have realized something and hurriedly shouted to stop them!
But it's too late!
With a soft, crisp click, Zhang Haiyang actually pried the stone carving of the dung beetle off with his dagger.
What's even more chilling is that the moment the thing detached from the rock wall, its originally stone body strangely unfolded, and its few thin legs moved rapidly, transforming into a living, black beetle the size of a fingernail. It moved with incredible speed, darting into the shadows beside it in a flash!
"Holy crap! Alive?!"
Zhang Haiyang was startled and instinctively reached out to grab it.
However, the truly terrifying scene was only just beginning...
Right at the small hole where the dung beetle had been pried open, a series of faint, dense rustling sounds came from the rock, as if countless feet were rubbing against it.
Immediately afterwards, under the horrified gazes of the crowd, thousands upon thousands of equally black and shiny, enormous dung beetles, like black oil gushing from a spring, burst forth from the small hole in an instant!
They were densely packed together, crowding and overlapping each other, and in the blink of an eye, like a black carpet that was spreading rapidly, they covered a large area of the surrounding rock walls and ground.
The dark, surging scene, accompanied by a sickeningly faint sound, sent chills down everyone's spine and made their scalps tingle!
"Holy crap, a scarab beetle!!!"