Chapter 204: Working People Spanning Thousands of Years

Hundreds of meters underground.

The remains of a mine thousands of years ago. Yu Ke spread his perception as soon as he stepped onto the platform.

There was no breath of life here except for him and Feng Ling!

Where did the sound come from?

Yu Ke held the Leviathan Axe in his right hand and tapped Feng Ling's neck with his left hand. The latter immediately dived into the shadows.

His sight locked on the shelf where the bronze bell was hanging.

The blue light projected by the lantern flowers nearby reflected the bronze lines on the shelf.

When he passed by before, Yu Ke's sight only stayed on the bronze bell and did not notice the human-shaped relief on the surface of the shelf.

At this moment, Yu Ke, who was looking for the source of the sound, accidentally saw the human-shaped relief blinking. He was surprised and took a step forward. After a closer look, he found that the relief had returned to its original state.

Is it an illusion caused by the chaotic light?

No, you read it right, the relief just blinked!

The feature of calculation and analysis greatly improved Yu Ke's perception. He would never be dazzled in a normal state.

Yu Ke had no time to guess whether it was his intrusion or the glow released by the lantern flower that triggered the mechanism.

He walked quickly to the front of the bronze bell. Just as he wanted to observe it closely and use the characteristics of checking for leaks and filling gaps to obtain information, he saw the human-shaped reliefs surrounding the bronze frame suddenly swelled as if injected with life.

The flat lines bulged and turned into substantial shapes. Seven or eight human-shaped monsters with only the upper body were hung on various parts of the frame. What was even more bizarre was that these monsters had no heads.

The eyes were born at the position of the nipples, and the abdomen opened its mouth, making a high-pitched sound, as if calling for something.

Before Yu Ke could figure out their intentions, the headless people seemed to have received a unified command. The upper body pressed against the bronze bell, raised their arms high and fell at a very fast speed, continuously hitting the surface of the bronze bell.

After a long time, the bronze bell was struck again.

The dust on the surface of the bell body was scattered, and first the rhythmic knocking sound echoed on the platform, and then the huge bronze bell began to shake in this continuous vibration.

Until the frequency of the knocks gradually overlapped, the shouts of the headless people "growing" on the shelf became louder and louder.

Ding! Ding! Ding!

After three consecutive bell rings, Yu Ke, who was closest to him, felt dizzy. Fortunately, he had the spiritual awakening and heart-anchoring characteristics, which allowed him to quickly regain consciousness. He immediately swung his axe at the bronze bell and the copper chain connecting the platform without hesitation.

His intuition told Yu Ke that the continuous ringing of the bells was not normal and must be stopped.

Facts have proved that nothing can withstand the ravages of time.

Even if it still looks normal on the surface, when the wind-frost-wrapped axe blade chopped on the copper chain, it didn't take much effort to cut it off.

The bronze bell fell to the ground, splashing a large amount of smoke and dust.

At the same time, the headless people on the surface of the bronze platform soon calmed down and returned to their original state because they lost the target of knocking.

"How did they do it? No matter how sophisticated the mechanism is, it can still be used in this era?"

This sudden change really exceeded Yu Ke's expectations. He took a breath, stared at the bronze bell and whispered to himself.

But in the next second, a new knocking sound suddenly sounded.

This time it was not the bronze bell. The sound came from the abyss around the platform, and it no longer had a specific rhythm. What entered Yu Ke's ears was a chaotic knocking sound from all directions.

Rather than saying they were bell sounds, they were more like the most common sound in the mine, the sound of a pickaxe hitting the ore.

The whole mine seemed to have returned to a thousand years ago. Thinking of this, Yu Ke's expression became more and more solemn, and he just felt absurd.

The mine had been completely abandoned a thousand years ago. How could anyone still be mining?

But such a mixed sound could not be made by the ferocious beasts living in the cave, not to mention that the timing of their appearance was quite special, just after the bronze bell rang!

After confirming that he was not hallucinating and that the sound he heard was real, and even became clearer as time went by, Yu Ke quickly realized that there might be secrets hidden in the abyss around the platform.

Returning to the stone bridge he had passed before, Yu Ke bent his bow and drew his arrow, trying to use a strong light arrow to check the situation at the bottom of the abyss.

Loosening the string, the strong light arrow shot out, bursting out a dazzling white light halfway, illuminating the area that the searchlight could not reach.

When he saw the situation below clearly, even Yu Ke felt his scalp tingling and was horrified.

Just as the light spread to an area more than 300 meters deep, Yu Ke saw the bottom of the abyss, and at the same time saw dozens of black humanoid monsters.

They were distributed in various parts of the area covered by the light, waving the manuscripts in their hands and constantly hitting the ore, like a robot with a set program, just focusing on work, completely ignoring what happened in the outside world.

Previously in the underground palace of the temple, Yu Ke had briefly seen the scene of casting the bronze tripod a thousand years ago.

At that time, there were quite a few alien races in the workshop, and now it seems that the one responsible for mining should also be an alien race.

The question is what kind of alien race is it that can survive for thousands of years, and in an underground cave without any drinking water. This undoubtedly violates the most basic law of life, making Yu Ke have to suspect that they have been transformed into some kind of monster.

From the time Yu Ke entered the mine cave to the time when the bronze bell was struck by the headless, they should have been in a dormant state.

If there is no external influence, they will most likely continue to dormant.

However, Yu Ke's arrival broke the balance, and the bronze bell on the platform was activated, waking them up.

Of course, the above is just Yu Ke's speculation based on the existing intelligence. He cannot be sure, but one thing is certain, that is, these guys below are most likely miners from thousands of years ago!

In other words, as long as they still retain some intelligence, there may be a chance for the forest spirit to communicate with them.

Is there a more direct way to obtain intelligence than communicating with aliens from thousands of years ago?

Although this idea may be a bit absurd, we have come this far and have to try it anyway.

Judging from their current mining behavior, these humanoid creatures have revived after falling into hibernation. Regardless of whether they have intelligence or not, they are at least habitually maintaining their original state.

This means that after digging enough ore, they will most likely return to the platform and pile the dug ore next to the blast furnace. That will be Yu Ke's chance to take action!

Yu Ke is not short of patience. Compared with going to the unknown abyss along the cliff outside the platform, he would rather wait here for a while.

At least this place is very close to the escape passage. If an accident really happens, Yu Ke can retreat along the original route at any time instead of being trapped in the abyss.

Having made up his mind, Yu Ke did not rush to shoot the strong light arrow down, but returned to the platform and picked up the ore he had cut. He wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to find out where the ore in this vein came from and check the bronze bell at the same time.

Accompanied by the sound of ding-dong-dong, the characteristics of these two things gradually emerged in Yu Ke's mind.

Mystic copper ore: extremely rare ore, the black copper contained in it is nurtured by heaven and earth, and has a strong suppressive effect on specific existence!

Bronze soul-calling bell: a treasure cast with a special technique, the bell sound emitted by striking at a specific frequency can touch the soul.

The characteristics of the bronze soul-calling bell are enough to prove that it is indeed the key to awakening the guys below. Yu Ke even suspects that the humans thousands of years ago used it to control the aliens below, and used the bell sound to control them to dig ore day and night.

No salary, no water, a real 007 mode.

Compared with them, the work and life of social animals are heaven.

More importantly, the black copper ore in Yu Ke's hand, as the main material for casting bronze tripods, its characteristics really involve suppression effects, and this so-called "specific existence" should be the source of the beast tide.

Playing with the black copper ore in his hand, he put it back into the mark space.

After understanding the characteristics of this kind of ore, Yu Ke looked at the hills of black copper ore piled on the platform with his eyes shining.

Without the casting technology provided by the aliens, it is not realistic to recast the bronze tripod, but with modern casting technology, there is no problem in using these black copper ores to create a set of equipment.

Needless to say, the power of special attack treasures against monsters such as beast tides.

It's so beautiful just to think about it!

With this gain, this trip is not in vain.

Just as Yu Ke was imagining how to use the black copper ore to make weapons, armor or other equipment, the forest spirit suddenly reminded him,

"They are climbing up, be careful!"

In order to avoid alerting the enemy, Yu Ke, who was awakened from his fantasy, hurriedly withdrew from the platform.

The knocking sounds in the abyss were indeed much sparser, and it seemed that many miners had reached the target.

Crouching in the middle of the stone bridge, Yu Ke turned off the searchlight and asked the forest spirit to help cover up his breath. At the same time, he put on his helmet again, turned on the telescope function, and kept scanning the edge of the platform.

The climbing speed of those miners was much faster than expected.

Only about a minute later, Yu Ke saw a black shadow leap up from the northwest corner of the platform and landed on the ground of the platform. Behind it, more than a dozen tall and strong black shadows appeared one after another.

The lantern flowers that Yu Ke had planted in advance came in handy at this time. When they entered the lighting range of the lantern flowers, Yu Ke immediately saw their general appearance.

As expected, they were just aliens with humanoid shapes.

The monster's feet were about twice the size of an adult, with sharp claws that allowed it to climb the steep rock walls. Its burly body was generally more than two meters long, covered with black hair, and was about the same size as the bronze coffins neatly arranged next to it.

Two strong arms that were as thick as thighs hung down at its sides. Yu Ke noticed that each arm would split into two palms that were similar to claws at the front, each holding a huge pickaxe.

When it got closer, Yu Ke could see the monster's heart exposed on its chest. At first glance, it looked like a tumor wrapped in blood vessels and meridians, constantly shrinking and expanding. There seemed to be some tentacles on the surface, catching something in the empty space in front of it.

Then the sight went up to the huge and ferocious head, with rows of eyeballs growing on both cheeks. What surprised Yu Ke was that the mouth of this alien race was not horizontal, but grew vertically in the center of the head, penetrating the top of the head.

This made its head look like a wide-open bloody mouth, full of sharp fangs in the middle, and the eyeballs on both sides blinked.

Seeing the "handsome" faces of these alien races who could be called "willful", Yu Ke realized that it would be very difficult to communicate with them. He could only suppress the idea of ​​showing up and see what these alien races wanted to do.

The alien races that returned to the platform from the abyss all had a large amount of black copper ore tied with hair on their backs without exception. They looked like they were carrying a small mountain on their backs. When they walked, they were like puppets being controlled, and their postures were extremely awkward.

In just a few minutes, Yu Ke saw nearly a hundred aliens with almost the same appearance on the wide platform. They gathered near the blast furnace, unloaded the ore from their bodies, and then turned and walked towards the bronze coffin next to them.

The entire process showed no response to the surrounding environment, which made Yu Ke's heart sink.

Any creature with some intelligence should realize that everything in the mine is no longer what it used to be. However, the eyes on both sides of the heads of these guys in front of them are obviously for decoration, completely ignoring the surrounding environment.

‘Could it be that they are actually dead and were made into zombies thousands of years ago, and then use bronze soul-calling bells to control their actions, and continuously mine black copper ore for mankind’

After moving forward for a while, Yu Ke thought to himself that this seemed to be the only explanation for the scene in front of him.

Zombies can exist for many years without decaying. They do not need to eat or drink. They are extremely powerful and only need a coffin to rest. This is highly consistent with the characteristics of these alien races.

However, what happened next overturned all Yu Ke's speculations.

As if they knew the location of their coffins, these monsters swayed to the side of their own bronze coffins.

Yu Ke originally thought that they were preparing to rest, or lie down in the coffin to replenish energy.

After all, they have been in the abyss for who knows how many years. Even zombies have to take care of themselves.

But after they stood still, they dropped the pickaxe in their hands, then raised their hands to clasp the sarcoma on their chests, which was their "heart", and forcibly pulled it out of the body, then leaned towards the coffin, like It is to put them into the soil inside the coffin.

Yu Ke stared at several monsters and noticed that the moment their hearts entered the bronze coffins, their bodies would completely stop moving.

What does it mean to let the "heart" enter the bronze coffin, but the main body is guarding beside the coffin?

All kinds of strange phenomena made Yu Ke's brain almost unable to turn around, and he was filled with confusion and no answers.

"Do you think they can communicate?"

Yu Ke asked the forest spirits in his mind. Rather than guessing by himself, it was undoubtedly more convenient to ask them directly.

Yu Ke responded with a long silence from the forest spirit.

It is said that communicating with living creatures is the best ability of forest spirits, but these aliens who appear out of nowhere are really jumping back and forth on the boundary between living things and non-living things.

After much thought, Yu Ke decided to wait until they all "slept" before trying to get closer.