In the cold and dark cave, although the flare just flashed by, under the keel of Xinyuan, Han Le clearly saw thousands of bones!

This kind of scene of corpses and seas of blood was only seen when Han Le was planted into the Netherworld Eye last time.

But this time, there is no blood or flesh, and there are only thousands of dead bones!

"This is not a human skeleton."

Han Le took a deep breath and walked forward a few steps.

Soon, fragments of bones appeared on the ground.

The closer you get to the Xinyuan, the more complete the bones are.

Han Le traveled through the pile of white bones and came to the front of the dragon bones.

From this perspective, Xinyuan was not buried by some soil and quicksand, but was surrounded by these white bones!

He finally found a relatively complete corpse.

There is no difference between the upper body and human corpse.

However, the lower body showed obvious atrophy, and there was only a bone similar to a leg bone but much thicker one below the spine.

This shape easily reminds Han Le of the mermaid in the legendary past life.

When he was reading idle books in Tai'an No. 1 Middle School Library, he also learned that there were some legends about the mermaids near the East China Sea.

But the legend is a legend after all. At least in Tai'an, the existence of mermaids is always a mystery. Most people think it is superstition and hallucination of fishermen, and only a very small number of people firmly believe that mermaids really exist.

Han Le didn't know if these corpses belonged to mermaids, but what he knew was that these corpses must be from some kind of creature.

What was their purpose for the deaths in such neat manner?

Regarding the emergence of the Bronze Gate, the strictness of the expedition plan, and the truth that the Xinyuan was buried, Han Le felt so upset that he couldn't speak.

How tragic was the Brutal Island back then?

What a miserable hell-like scene on earth when these creatures were killed?

Living sacrifice.

Such a word appeared in Han Le's mind.

In fact, in the conversation with A Qing, Han Le noticed some foreshadowings and words. At that time, he couldn't understand A Qing's hint, but now he understood everything!

The opening of the bronze door is a price.

In other words, there is a time for reincarnation when the bronze door is opened. When it is opened normally, anyone can go in; but when it is closed, if you want to open the bronze door, you must use the "key".

Before, Han Le thought that the key was a precious item.

But when he saw so many corpses, Han Le instantly understood what the so-called key is!

That is the lives of a large number of creatures!

"He Qingzhi and the others hid the Xinyuan here and sacrificed so many innocent lives before opening the bronze door."

"It's a pity that they are full of confidence and want to expedition to the world behind the Bronze Gate, but are defeated by the sea beasts rushing out from behind the Bronze Gate."

"Is the original expedition plan really for the welfare of mankind?"

"Or, for your own selfish desire?"

Han Le deeply doubted this.

In the initial draft book of the expedition plan, he always remembered the names of the five people.

Those five people should be gone now, except Jiang Dongyun.

Now, after seeing so many corpses, Han Le really wants to ask: Is it necessary?

Unfortunately, Jiang Dongyun is still in Yu Changge's musical realm. When Yu Changge did not wake up, Han Le could only remain silent.

He adjusted his mood and tried to climb the Xinyuan, but found that most of the Xinyuan was pressed down by those bones, and it was very difficult to get into it.

At least these bones need to be moved out.

He could not do it alone.

He walked around the Xinyuan for a while, and after confirming that the ship was the one he was looking for, he left a mark nearby.

He did not return immediately because the underground cave was very long.

He walked along the road ahead and soon arrived at a place that was now dry but once seemed to be the sea.

It was an underground space similar to a cylinder, with many small caves on the cylinder wall.

The space in the cave is quite open, with some simple living facilities, including scallops and polished stone tools.

Not far away is a long corridor.

Han Le walked past the corridor and found that it was a mural that had not been completed.

At the beginning of the mural, the style of painting was quite lively.

Although Han Le can't understand the above text, he can still understand the general meaning:

At first, the sun rose from the seabed, and at the bottom of the seabed where the sun was no longer visible, a group of humanoid creatures with tails were born.

They can breathe freely on the seabed, they feed on seaweed, and occasionally paint scenes of mermaids hunting sea beasts in the murals.

They live in this cylindrical underground space, and each cave is the residence of a mermaid tribe.

They are working hard to live for the continuation of the tribe.

Until one day, they came to the sea and met fishing humans.

They have an upper body similar to a mermaid, but the difference between language barriers and biological properties itself has caused a lot of conflicts between the two sides.

As you can see in the mural, the mermaids were very panicked when they first came into contact with humans.

The one who was lifted out of the way should be human fishermen, but at that time, humans had a certain experience in resisting wild beasts. Compared with unarmed mermaids, they were more aggressive.

The mermaid tribe was severely damaged, and many mermaids even died on the sea.

Time passes slowly, and as more and more mermaids are unwilling to be lonely and rush out of the sea, the more frequent their contacts with humans.

At first, they were still hostile.

But gradually, the wise man between the mermaid and humans found a way to communicate.

They gradually build up trust.

Although he has not become a very friendly partner, he is at least not as tense as he was at the beginning.

Through the murals, we can see that the person who established social interactions with this mermaid tribe should be fishermen from a small village near the East China Sea.

In the following days, the two sides occasionally had contact and even traded. The mural described it as calm.

The next picture shows a ceremony that begins to depict the mermaid tribe after a change of style.

Because of the language barrier, Han Le could only see that they seemed to be celebrating something.

This ceremony seemed unusual. When they celebrated, they did not go to the bottom of the sea, but chose to float on the surface of the sea. The murals even painted spectacular scenes of thousands of mermaids jumping out of the sea at the same time.

And during the ceremony, they encountered a ship.

The people on the ship didn't know them, and the sailors in the murals all had very exaggerated and surprised expressions.

Only one person stood at the bow of the boat and walked down very friendly.

He could walk on the sea, and he communicated with the mermaids.

All the characters in the entire mural are very vague, but this person has a clear and excessive style, which is completely realistic painting.

Han Le knows this person.

That is the sword god He Qingzhi many years ago!

"The mermaids met He Qingzhi during the ceremony? Judging from the murals, they should be very friendly to He Qingzhi. If He Qingzhi sacrificed these mermaids alive, then the mermaids who survived would definitely turn him into a big devil when painting the murals, right?"

"What's next? What happened next?"

Han Le turned his eyes curiously to the back.

It’s a pity that he couldn’t see anything when he got here.

There are only large sections of blank space.

Han Le found a lonely corpse in the corridor.

It should be the author of the mural.

He also held a broken carving knife in his hand.

The carving knife is obviously not a product of the mermaid tribe, it should have been exchanged for it from humans.

"It's the carving knife that is broken, so can't you continue to draw?"

"He Qingzhi met a mermaid, and then chose to sacrifice these lives to open the bronze door?"

This is one of the more reliable versions that Han Le thought.

Unfortunately, the mural has not been finished, and the real historical truth will probably be buried in the dust.
To be continued...