"Professor Lu, I have a discovery here!"
Inside the cave.
Upon hearing Cao Yi's words, Lu Chaoyang quickly turned to look at him:
"Comrade Cao Yi, what's the new situation?"
Cao Yi lowered his head to observe again and pointed to the ground:
"Professor Lu, there is an animal-like footprint here.
Although it's quite large, I can't determine what animal it is, but it shouldn't be Fat Tiger's."
Hearing this, Lu Chaoyang exchanged a glance with Ouyang Yuanshan, and the two of them moved forward to take a closer look.
At this moment, Cao Yi's position was at the right front of the groove, more than two meters above his head was the cave's ceiling, surrounded by some chaotic protruding rocks.
The position Cao Yi pointed to was about 20 centimeters above the ground, and there was a clear footprint!
This footprint was about the size of an adult's palm, deeply embedded in a softer soil, and it seemed to have some age.
However, perhaps because of the extremely low temperature inside the cave.
The footprint was preserved very well, almost without any sign of being filled with sand or stones.
Looking at this footprint, Lu Chaoyang's expression became serious again.
If the footprint was left in a very ancient era, even before the appearance of ice coffins or low temperatures in the cave—say, thirty million years ago, when some wild beast stepped down out of boredom after a hearty meal.
Then there wouldn't be much to say, at most just a new archaeological discovery.
However, if the footprint was left after the cave's temperature dropped, then it would be very much worth investigating the specific circumstances.
It should be noted.
Previously, Su Bai and his team measured that the temperature at the end of the cave had reached minus 102.7°.
Such a temperature could freeze a person solid and basically no known animal could survive in it—including Fat Tiger.
Even in a time thirty million years ago, when animals had thick skins and tough muscles, theoretically only someone like Ultraman could do this.
Thus, the appearance of this footprint was clearly abnormal.
Subsequently, Lu Chaoyang turned around and said to Cui Xiaofeng beside him:
"Professor Cui, please come and take a look."
Cui Xiaofeng nodded, quickly stepped forward, and carefully observed the footprint.
But soon.
His brows furrowed more than Lu Chaoyang's, and he murmured to himself:
"Strange... how... how is this possible?"
Seeing this, Lu Chaoyang asked promptly:
"Professor Cui, did you recognize what animal's footprint this is?"
Cui Xiaofeng pondered for a moment and pointed at the footprint:
"Professor Lu, though I'm not sure why the footprint could be so large...
But look at its front, there are four claws here, forming a narrow rhombus.
This is a very typical fox footprint, with the pressure point on the rear part; it should be a snow fox."
Then Cui Xiaofeng gestured with a width of over a meter in front of his chest and explained:
"A snow fox is what we refer to as a white fox, of course, some TV dramas directly use Samoyeds as substitutes.
Generally, a snow fox's body is 50~60 centimeters long, with a tail length of 20~25 centimeters, weighing 2.5~4 kilograms, and its foot soles have particularly thick fur.
Thus, snow fox footprints are usually not large, which is why in winter, snow fox traces are often referred to as 'plum blossoms'."
After speaking, Cui Xiaofeng paused, and his tone grew somewhat serious:
"The largest fox ever discovered globally was a red fox found in Copenhagen in 2003.
That red fox, along with its tail, reached 1.76 meters, which was 13 centimeters longer than the second-largest fox.
But even for a fox of that size, the largest footprint length was only about 9.4 centimeters.
Based on visual estimation, it probably doesn't even reach half of this footprint's length."
Lu Chaoyang glanced at him thoughtfully:
"A 1.76-meter footprint of 9.4 centimeters...
Professor Cui, are you saying that the creature that left this footprint could possibly have a body length of over 3.5 meters?"
Cui Xiaofeng let out a wry smile and shook his head:
"It might be even more than that.
Foxes are a part of the mammalian order of carnivores, family Canidae, and their body length and footprints conform to a certain formula.
Let me do a simple calculation...
Assuming 20 centimeters, Σ takes 9...
Hmm, it's 4.8-5.2.
This means if the footprint was indeed left by a fox, the fox would be almost five meters long.
Five meters... even the legendary Nine-tailed Fox might not be that big."
Lu Chaoyang was previously calculating the footprint testing issue in his mind, but hearing Cui Xiaofeng's last sentence, he suddenly shivered:
"Professor Cui, what did you say?"
Cui Xiaofeng looked bewildered and blinked:
"Huh? I said the fox might be five meters long..."
"I meant the last sentence!"
"The last part? Oh, the Nine-tailed Fox..."
Lu Chaoyang's eyes suddenly lit up:
"Yes, the Nine-tailed Fox!"
Then he quickly took out a map from his backpack and started looking at it on the spot:
"This is Xinxiang...
Southwest is Luoyang...
Just 160 kilometers east is Heze... at the junction of Central State and Haida region..."
Lu Chaoyang became more and more excited as he spoke, and Zhu Yuhao gradually realized something beside him.
Cui Xiaofeng and others were recently 'regularized' members, so they knew nothing about the research directions of Damo Realm and the homeland.
But Zhu Yuhao was different, he was the dispatch manager for this project!
Therefore, he was very clear about the true intention of the Qinling project:
One reason was because of the precedent of Qingcheng Mountain Celestial Palace, the local search for other possible ruins along the dragon vein.
The second was...
To search for Qingqiu!
According to the positioning of experts at the time.
Qingqiu should be within a 150-kilometer radius with Heze at the center, with a slightly smaller probability towards the southeast, at the junction of Central State and Haida region.
The cave where Fat Tiger was located was exactly within this radius!
Just initially, considering that Fat Tiger's body seemed to be altered by spirit fruits, which seemed related to Spiritual Energy.
So including the base camp.
Everyone subconsciously directed analyses towards 'Celestial Palace', 'ruins', or the kind of situation like Wu Long's Tomb.
The base camp even specifically looked through myths and legends around the Central State area to prepare for the potential appearance of "xx ruins" or "xx tomb".
Especially after the discovery of ice coffins in the cave.
The core level was considering whether there might be some connection between the homeland and the Damo Realm.
The unexpected result was...
That this cave was related to Qingqiu?
Is it that this place or its surroundings are Qingqiu, or is there a relation between Qingqiu's foxes and the target that left the footprint?
Then Lu Chaoyang suddenly thought of something that happened not long ago, and his scalp tingled:
When entering the cave, Ouyang Dongshan had judged the wind direction!
Clearly, the wind direction should have been from outside to inside, but it turned out to be from inside to outside!
Finally, Ouyang Dongshan made a judgment:
A certain area at the end of the cave entrance...
Likely had another exit!
But this judgment might have been biased by the special conditions inside the cave and was later overshadowed by the discovery of the ice and footprints, leading Lu Chaoyang to gradually overlook this possibility.
If that judgment were true, and the end of the cave was a completely closed whole...
Then the possibility was one and only one:
Underneath the ice coffin, there was an unknown entrance!
And...
Supposedly Qingqiu!
....
Note:
Let me reiterate here, I won't speed up, the original pace is as it is.
For example, you can see that these two chapters remain at the original exploration pace.
There will be updates every day, but I can't guarantee the word count or time; I'll just post as soon as I finish writing, preparing not to go out in the coming month.
