Chapter 631: Painstaking investigations (II)
Translator: Translation Nation Editor: Translation Nation
As it eyed the chill seeping stream, that lowland Tapir chose to directly dive into that tiny stream, ignoring the possibility of drowning just to quench its thirst.
After reaching his destination, Sheyan allowed it to flee for its life, as he started strolling beside the tiny river bank while carefully searching around.
The flow of the river stream wasn’t large or small, looking like it led towards the Kijuju Marshland. This implied that one could borrow the momentum of the river to advance. The majority of wild animals could partake of the river water, which signified that after boiling the water, even ordinary humans could consume this fresh water.
More importantly, after trailing along the river bank briefly and determining it was approximately three kilometres from the Kijuju Marshland, he could see an uncommon landmark of a hill cliff.
The size of this hill cliff could scarcely resemble an artificial mountain range made by humans in parks. Evidently, if one desired to select a base camp, one would surely be assured with an insurmountable cliff behind one’s back. At least, they could save some effort when conducting surveillance.
Soon after, Sheyan located an easily found cavern along the cliff hill, a group of green anacondas had made it their home. Very quickly, Sheyan assisted these over-8-metre long, slippery brats to move out of their home.
To everyone’s knowledge, snakes weren’t creatures that loved moving. Apart from their lightning-quick darts when hunting prey or escaping, they wouldn’t normally possess an admirable lackadaisical elegance. A snake who ate its full could even stay in its nest without moving for a whole month! Therefore, fortunately, under normal circumstances, a snake would only deal minimal damage to the original environment. If it had been pigs, bears or other animals, perhaps just 2-3 days later, this entire place would only be described as a sty.
When Sheyan marched into this cavern, the first thing he noticed was the shocking huge pile of snakes. These unlucky green anacondas had seemingly already lived here for a long long time.
Following that with a sweep of his gaze, Sheyan immediately noticed clear burnt marks near the cavern walls.
Indeed, although it had been centuries since Bernard Fokke departed from this place, Little Lord Fokke was merely 40 years old when he died. He should have been roughly 20 plus years old when he first arrived here, after he perceived his family to be on the verge of collapse, according to the full copy of the journal log.
Under such circumstances, all traces of Bernard Fokke had long since withered away by the winds and rain.
Nevertheless, within the special ambient of this cave, the traces left behind by Little Lord Fokke would still be of relative assistance.
Sheyan even rejected guide Mbenga’s desire to help, due to his misgivings that with Mbenga’s crude and brutish personality, he may ruin any tinge of surviving clues.
Within the depths of this cave, Sheyan swiftly discovered many objects of great value....two wooden planks with the distinct Fokke family emblem, two skeletons, several decaying ropes, and a half used candle made with dugong fats.
Moreover, he also noticed extremely distinct short carving marks along the cavern wall. Finally, Sheyan discovered several linen garments that reeked of an awfully moulded stench.
Honestly speaking, Sheyan had expended a relatively large amount of energy to locate these items. Furthermore, differentiating these objects wasn’t a straightforward task. All in all, he took a total of 4-5 hours over here. Nevertheless, after located these objects, Sheyan abruptly erupted with maniacal laughter, as tears rolled down his eyes.
This was because he had found what he desired!!
Indeed, he could already sense himself encroaching nearer to the greatest mystery, the mystery of how an ordinary individual like Bernard Fokke then, could venture into the inner reaches of the Kijuju Marshland.
Just from this pile of junk, this insignificant pile of junk.
Firstly, the wooden planks could verify that Sheyan had indeed located Little Lord Fokke’s base camp.
Furthermore, although westerners didn’t have the custom of burying the deceased at rest, they definitely didn’t allow the dead to be profaned, and would frequently bring the corpses of their comrades back rather than leaving it recklessly behind. Therefore, the appearance of the two corpses undoubtedly indicated, that Little Lord Fokke’s escape wasn’t a calm process at all. Instead, it was extremely rushed, where he abandoned his subordinates’ corpses instead of bringing them back to their homeland.
Judging the length of the ropes, they minimally surpassed 50 metres. Moreover, Sheyan could barely differentiate that these ropes, belonged to the category of life-saving ropes with exceptional sturdiness. Like the present day hawsers used to tie down essential objects on board the ship, to prevent them from falling overboard during tempestuous rainstorms.
These ropes hinted that Little Lord Fokke was aware he would be advancing into an exceedingly strategic but treacherous location, one that required the use of ropes; obviously, to descend and to climb back up. Hence, every individual had brought along their life saving ropes, leaving two remaining clusters of ropes that most likely belonged to the two fallen souls.
As for the candle made with dugong fats, it was clearly used for illumination. Firstly, it could remain burning for a long period, and secondly, it wasn’t easily extinguished; almost analogous to the baton torches of present times.
Finally, those few tattered and foul-smelling garments. From their thick appearance, one could immediately tell those garments were used for battling against the cold, something that each individual most certainly had. The ones discarded here were probably used to cover the two fallen souls...…
"Damned, this is a bloody hot jungle with year-round temperatures exceeding 28 degrees! This place is stifling hot and humid ."
One could only imagine why Little Lord Fokke and his gang were wearing cotton-padded winter clothes....
The carvings on the wall varied in lengths but were worth pondering over. On average, with every 30 short ones, there would be one long one. Naturally, such a scene suggested a calendar of time. If a short one meant a single day, then the long one represented a month. Calculating the carvings in this manner, these bunch of individuals had stayed for precisely 5 months and 16 days!
"Thus, by piecing the undying essence beneath these crucial points together…..a flustered escape, life-saving ropes, a torchlight equivalent, winter clothing amidst a humid rainforest…....with these factors linking together, Little Lord Fokke’s destination is naturally very simple. Undoubtedly, it must be a dark, bitingly cold, and treacherous place with a complex terrain. Where exactly can such a place surface in this sultry rainforest…."
"The only feasibility is…..ah! An underground passage!"
Indeed, this was conclusion was in accordance to Sheyan’s earlier analysis of the inner reaches of the Kijuju Marshland. Forcibly intruding was impossible and the only two possibilities would be by air or underground.
Since the Ndipaya tribe could leverage on a dried underground river, as the foundation for their passageway to the outer reaches, why couldn’t there exist another secret underground passageway?
Of course, many unsolved riddles still remained.
Why didn’t the Ndipaya villagers of the past discover this passageway and block it? Or how did Bernard Fokke execute a full retreat after committing those misdeeds, and even managed to guarantee his descendants could replicate his act, by leveraging this passageway centuries later. Such enigmatic mysteries could only be uncovered by venturing deeper…..
"Excellent, this fact verifies that my earlier conjecture was correct." Sheyan strolled out of this dark cave and took a deep inhalation.
"Therefore, the next step is to locate that theoretically existing passageway. Oh right, 5 months 16 days! If it was Bernard Fokke, who ascended onto this continent of Africa for the first time, staying for 5 months and 16 days would be pardonable…..but why did Little Lord Fokke, who merely needed to follow his ancestor’s journal conventionally, need to stay here for so long? Was he merely playing a game with guided instructions? Could it be, the truth is…....….they were waiting!"
"Yes, they must be waiting for an appointed period! Only during that appointed time, would that damnable secret passageway be genuinely revealed."
Thinking of that, Sheyan immediately seized the intoxicated Mbenga.
"Hey, big black brother! Does your tribe experience any special events yearly? Or perhaps, you’ve heard of any bizarre legends that speak about something occurring once after long periods of time?"
Upon hearing him, Mbenga yelped loudly in high spirits.
"It is rumoured that killing 10 male lions, and eating their playthings, can cause one’s capabilities to become bolder and fiercer than lions!"
Sheyan replied.
"...what else?"
Mbenga shrugged his shoulders and answered.
"I heard that if one acquires a Magnate Flower that only blooms once a decade, one will obtain the affection of the tannest girl in the village."
"Brother…..can we not talk about female related stuff?" Sheyan truly didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.
Following that, Mbenga proceeded to divulge on few other legends. However, Sheyan heard nothing that pertained to matters concerning the Kijuju Marshland. But if he continued probing, Mbenga would possibly experience splitting headaches and start groaning loudly.
Actually, in the real world, this term was called ‘Anterograde Amnesia’. In order to protect oneself, one’s body may choose to forget fragments of horrifying traumatic memories, ones that could deal vast psychological devastation to the victim. To recover from it, one must journey with the victim, allowing the victim to slowly recollect those related fragments of memory.
That was also the reason why Mbenga knew where to look for certain hidden treasures.
Furthermore, during repeated crucial moments, like when his life was threatened, he would always instinctively react with utmost rationality and reasonable judgement.
That was why, no matter what, Sheyan wanted Mbenga to remain by his side; because once he encounters danger, Mbenga’s old experiences may very possibly morph into a ray of hope.