Chapter 829

Professor Cardwell and his team continued to walk through the narrow passage. The smell of decay in the air seemed to become thicker, and the mixture of moisture and fishy smells heavily oppressed everyone's breathing.

The flashlights in everyone's hands in the passage emitted a faint light, and the light of the flashlights cast a silhouette on the moss-covered rock wall, adding a bit of mystery and oppression.

Everyone's footsteps and breathing echoed in the narrow space, accompanied by the occasional rustling of animals, and the whole environment made people feel as if they were in a forgotten world in the past.

Professor Cardwell, who was walking in the front, stopped every once in a while to check the road conditions ahead, carefully assessing every possible danger.

Just when the tension of the scientific expedition team members almost reached its peak, the passage finally began to gradually widen. The rocks on the wall gradually became smooth, and even the light in front seemed to begin to increase slowly. Suddenly-

They came to a huge open space, as if they had suddenly crossed from the earthworm hole underground to the vast world of the outside world.

As the team walked out of the passage step by step, everyone unconsciously showed a relieved smile on their faces.

They came to a huge natural cave with a skylight on the top. Natural light poured down from above, illuminating the entire cave. The center of the cave is a naturally formed circular site composed of limestone and other minerals, surrounded by various strange stone pillars.

There are also small streams flowing between the stone pillars, which are clear and visible to the bottom. Obviously, this is the spring water from the underground river.

Although George Crater is located in the desert, the desert does not mean that it is completely sand from top to bottom and from the sky to the ground.

There will be rain in the desert, and there will be underground rivers when there is rain. Underground rivers plus appropriate water can give birth to oases and ecosystems.

The light above the skylight of the cave brings sunlight into the cave, forming a spot of light, which is reflected on the quiet cave water surface, producing a dreamy effect.

Even in such a dark cave, because of these little bits of light and a few trickles, it has vitality.

After a long period of depression and walking in the dark passage, being able to breathe in such a bright and free space is a great relief for every team member.

Moreover, when they got here and saw the sunlight pouring down from the skylight of the cave, it also meant that they were about to approach the inner ring of the George Ring Mountain Range and were about to walk out of this dark and narrow corridor.

"Everyone, take a short rest here." Professor Cardwell ordered, "Set off in a quarter of an hour."

"Okay!"

"Yes!"

Everyone had no objection. Some people squatted down quickly to recover their strength as much as possible, while others bent down and soaked their hands in the cold underground river water.

The river water here is not suitable for drinking. Many scientific research teams have tested the river water here before and found that although the river water here does not contain pathogenic heavy metal elements such as lead, chromium, nickel, and mercury, it contains high sodium, potassium and iron elements, which are not suitable for direct drinking.

Tiyela was also very curious. She squatted down gently and put her hand into a small underground river.

Feel the clear water flowing through her palm.

"Mr. Lockhart, are you used to it?" Professor Cardwell ran to Tierra's side while resting, and also wanted to squat down to get close to Tierra, but--

he fell backwards and fell flat on his face.

"Professor Cardwell!" Fortunately, Tierra was quick-witted and reached out to pull Professor Cardwell, so that he didn't fall down.

"Hehe, old, old, hahaha." Professor Cardwell laughed twice, as if to make up for himself, "But Mr. Lockhart seems to have Mongolian ancestry?"

"Why do you say that?" Tierra raised his eyebrows and asked back.

"Your squatting posture." Professor Cardwell pointed at Tierra's legs and said, "It's obviously an Asian squat."

"What? Is Professor Cardwell still a staunch racist?" Tierra asked half-jokingly.

"Oh no, no, no, please don't misunderstand. It's just that it's rare to see a Caucasian squatting like this, and," Professor Cardwell carefully observed, "and Mr. Lockhart really has no body odor. That's why I asked this question. Of course, I'm just curious, hahahaha, just curious, hahahaha."

After smelling the last, Professor Cardwell couldn't help but laugh awkwardly.

"Nothing, it's not a secret." Tierra chuckled and shook his head, "I'm Asian."

This is indeed a "feature" that Tierra didn't consider.

Although "Gilderoy Lockhart" is a very common leather suit, he is still somewhat lacking in the details of disguise.

Because he has absolute power, disguise is often just for convenience -

For example, this scientific expedition project, participating in the scientific expedition as a thirty-something, blond, blue-eyed, successful fantasy novelist is always more convenient than participating in the body of a sixteen or seventeen-year-old, underage child.

Although most of these great professors and scholars were after Gilderoy Lockhart's money, they at least maintained basic respect on the surface.

"Hahaha, so that's how it is." Professor Cardwell laughed awkwardly twice and said nothing more.

"By the way, don't you and your students need to collect some samples here and take them back?" Tierra asked.

"Not for now." Professor Cardwell replied immediately, "We can collect them when we come back."

"This place has been studied many times. Even if we collect better samples, they can only serve as auxiliary research for the entire ecosystem of George Crater." Professor Cardwell continued, "After all, our most important goal this time is the largest oasis in the center of George Crater."

"Few people have reached that oasis, and even if they have reached it, they only take samples at the edge of the oasis and do some simple surveys. With your financial support this time, we hope to go deeper into the center of the oasis and do some more in-depth research." Professor Cardwell continued to explain,

After all, Tierra is his big sponsor, and he has to let him know where his money is spent.

"Oh, so that's it." Tierra smiled and nodded, "Then I wish Professor Cardwell can get amazing data!"