Chapter 9 Teaser
The mountain crevice that we fell into was narrow and deep. Beyond the range of our flashlight was pitch-black. Visibility was limited, and there was no way of knowing what the terrain beyond looked like.
Giant reached out and placed his finger under Liu Gong’s nose, and with a trembling hand he said, “Oh sh*t oh sh*t we’re screwed, he ain’t breathing.”
I crawled over and checked Liu Gong’s carotid pulse; He really was dead. the heartbeat was gone. With a heavy sigh I said to Giant, “Let’s bury Liu Gong then.”
I took the military shovel intending to dig a hole, but Ga Wa who was beside me, blocked my path and pointed to the ground: “Bug, fire.”
With Ga Wa’s warning, I instantly recalled the fact that we had accidentally dug up the devil-like ladybugs because we had intended to bury the engineer who had fallen to his death. Our small squad had fourteen people, and in a few terrifying minutes, ten people had died. It appeared that the land couldn’t be dug as one pleased. Only Heaven knows what crazy thing might lie beneath the soil.
I had a feeling that those weird bugs were not something that could be explained as easily as undiscovered creatures. After burning two people alive, there was one that divided itself into three; was this only a coincidence? There was no possible explanation no matter how you thought about it.
Despite everything, we couldn’t just leave a comrade’s body outside. We figured that we could only use this method. I used the flashlight to light up the area while Ga Wa and Giant each went nearby to pick up broken pieces rock to cover up Liu Gong’s body to create a simple rock tomb.
Throughout this process, Luo Ning sat on the ground motionless from beginning to end, quietly observing Liu Gong’s stone tomb. Finally unable to endure it anymore, with a “Wa!” she started crying. She couldn’t repress the feelings in her heart any longer, she poured out in tears, like a broken dam.
I wanted to console her, but I honestly did not know what to say. Touched by the sound of weeping, a lump formed in my throat. I felt as though my heart had been sliced through with a blade. I recalled our carefree attitude yesterday night: the small squad circled around a campfire singing military songs aloud. Those clear voices were still echoing in my head, and yet today, a majority of them forever laid in eternal rest beneath the big glacier of Kunlun Mountain.
I supported Luo Ning to her feet as we all gave Liu Gong and the other comrades a moment of silence. At that time, regardless of the situation, the selected works of Mao Zedong were to be quoted. I recited while taking the lead: “The sky is filled with white, the soldiers eagerly pressing forward through the snow.”
The remaining three people responded in turn: “The mountains loom above us, the wind unfurls our red flags as we cross the great pass. Only through sacrifice can we achieve lofty goals, to dare order the sun and moon to shine in new skies.”
Soon after, everyone raised their right fist and vowed: ”Long live the great leader Chairman Mao and may Chairman Mao’s close comrade Lin Biao be healthy. My fellow comrades, friends, please be at ease leaving, some people’s death is a trifling matter, some people’s death is as important as Mount Tai, for the people’s benefit with death will be more important than Mount Tai; your deaths are sacrifices for the benefit of the people. We must carry on the mission left behind by the martyrs of revolution and follow the footsteps that you forged with sweat and blood. We will carry the Cultural Revolution till the very end, the last victory will always belong to us the workers, peasants and soldiers.”
At the time, I was still a greenhorn army recruit and had never participated in a comrade’s funeral service. I had no idea what should be said and only remembered what others had said before me. In these circumstances, there was no difference between what was suitable or not.
After a long period of time, people started calming down from their grievances and treated the wounds on their bodies. Thankfully they were all minor injuries and did not hinder mobility.
Ga Wa patted his empty bullet pouch, indicating the limited amount of ammo. Since we needed to carry a lot of equipment when we entered the mountains, the allocation of ammo was the least prioritized. Each person only had three rifle magazines; after all, this wasn’t a combat mission. This region didn’t have many bandits either, and as a result the early planning was a bit careless. During the avalanche we had also thrown away a portion of our ammunition, so now each person only had about twenty rounds of bullets and a total of two grenades. Since there shouldn’t be many beasts living underground, having an excess of bullets would be pointless. However, this amount was plenty for self-protection.
Dry rations were completely out, as we had just finished the last portion. We had to think of a way to find an exit within the next two days, otherwise we would starve to death underground. Despite everything, there was still a compass on Luo Ning.
The mountain crevice’s depth was beyond expectation. After walking southward for a while we reached the end, but then the crack took a 180 degree turn to the north. Based on instinct it felt like we had walked to the bottom of the glacier.
We walked forward in the darkness for more than ten hours. The more we walked the farther we went down, where it became more and more open. Luo Ning used the barometer to test the atmospheric pressure and converted its findings to show our altitude. Surprisingly, it only gave four hundred meters, which was comparable with that of the Szechuan province, but much lower than the Qinghai-Tibetan plateau’s average altitude of four thousand meters. If we kept going at this rate, I fear we would walk to the Earth’s core.
Finally the terrain started leveling off and the sound of a rapid stream of water could be heard, almost as if there was a big underground river in the distance. I saw that there wasn’t any more of a slope, so I used the flashlight to scout about in all directions. I wanted to see if there were any paths leading upward, suddenly in the direction the flashlight was shining at, many faint reflections of light appeared on the cliff wall. It was as if hundreds of broken mirror pieces were shone on.
Luo Ning called in surprise: ”That’s mica!”
The other three people who heard her wondered what mica was, but her tone made it sound like she was very frightened, and they thought it was an emergency. They quickly protected Luo Ning by placing her behind them; hastily, they removed their type 56 automatic rifles off their backs, pulling open the gun bolt, preparing to fire.
Confused, Luo Ning asked, ”What are you guys doing?”
While arming myself with the gun I asked Luo Ning: What are you talking about? Where is it?”
Luo Ning replied, ”It’s not an animal, I’m saying that the surrounding area is full of crystal bodies. Mica and crystals commonly form within the same stratum. Ah, sure enough, there’s also a crystal here.”
Although Luo Ning was mainly in charge of mapping the area, she frequently worked together with the geology surveyor team thus gained a lot of knowledge in regards to ore formation. We were surrounded by a seemingly thin layer of glass crystal-like body. The mica’s monoclinic crystal structure could only be formed in the Pacific Paleolithic layer. The underground reserve of HeBei province was huge, making it difficult to pinpoint our location. The mica’s colour here was much darker than usual, and appeared as a large hexagonal shape. The quality far surpassed the ones created in the inner HeBei province’s Lingshou county, judging by the depth of the mica’s colour. Our current position was so deep it was hard to imagine, otherwise.
Luo Ning was attracted to the rarely seen surrounding mica, examining this and that. I randomly picked up a small piece to take a look, but I couldn’t find anything that deemed it out of the ordinary.
Suddenly, Giant shouted at Ga Wa: ”What are you doing La Mu Cuo? Get up quickly!”
I shined my flashlight and saw Ga Wa on the ground kowtowing in the Tibetan way, with his entire body prostrating on the ground. What was this kid doing? Who was he kowtowing to? I illuminated the area ahead of him and couldn’t help but suck in some cold air.
Underground, there unexpectedly stood a pagoda made of thousands of wooden beams resembling the “gold” character1. Its body was twinkling from hundreds of starlike red flashes. The flashing lights helped us see that the base of the pagoda was close to two hundred meters wide and was built with mud and rocks. The pagoda had nine floors, all of which were made of thousand year old cedar. Each layer was piled with dried up skeletons donning peculiar ancient costumes. Men, women, young and old were all present. Each beam of wood was carved full of archaic Tibetan characters. Was this a tomb? On a scale so immense, who built this underground?
I went over and pulled Ga Wa up to his feet. He was kowtowing on the ground: ”Even though our party and our military respects ethnic policies and you little rascal are Tibetan, when you don your military clothing, you are a member of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army. Since you are a communist you shouldn’t play around with the charms of idealism. You’re not permitted to engage in religious superstitions.”
Giant was at the side grinning: ”Not bad Old Hu, based on this little speech of yours, you have real potential to become an instructor.”
Luo Ning, who was continuously looking at the mica stones, heard the three of us bickering and came over to spectate.
I wagged my finger at Giant to tell him not to interrupt, and continued to ask Ga Wa: ”What is this tower? Can you read the words on it?”
Ga Wa profusely shook his head.
I said: ”This kiddo... if you don’t know then why are you kowtowing? Has seeing all those skeletons scared you silly?”
Ga Wa’s facial expression was full of panic. Using broken bits of Chinese, he said ”Hu ga, oh let you oh explain, must oh pull, pull you pull this, nine layers…Demonic Pagoda of Nine Layers.”
I couldn’t understand the first few words through his stuttering, but the last few words were very clear. Demonic Pagoda of Nine Layers. What was it for though? Wasn’t it just meant for burying dead people?
Before waiting for Ga Wa to finish speaking, Luo Ning tiptoed around the pagoda and ran back to us, holding a finger to her mouth. She pointed at pagoda behind us and whispered, ”Be extremely careful not to make a sound that’ll wake them.”
I saw her serious expression knowing there could be problems, but I didn’t know what she was pointing at. Thus I lowered my voice and asked: ”Alarm what? The dead?”
Luo Ning replied tensely: ”No, it’s those ladybugs with fire. They’re all sleeping on the dead bodies and there’s too many to count.”
After hearing Luo Ning’s words, I finally located them. The densely packed red flashes in the wooden pagoda were actually from the bodies of all those see-through ladybugs.
It can be said that I possess some fearless spirit of revolutionary soldiers, but at the thought of the bizarre ladybugs, I was panic-stricken. This abnormal lifeform was extremely difficult to handle, and the tragic occurrence in the valley left me with immense fear.
I made a hand gesture, and the four members quietly returned the way we came from. Not even walking a few meters, Ga Wa suddenly stepped into nothing and fell into a ditch.
This ditch was very subtle and it was parallel to the path we were taking, thus we didn’t discover it before. Even though the ditch was only one meter deep, Ga Wa still gave out a muffled cry when he fell. I quickly jumped down to support him and saw Ga Wa holding his foot. His entire face was grimacing in pain.
Using the flashlight, Luo Ning and Giant each leapt into the ditch, only to see Ga Wa’s foot pierced by a sharp bone. Both his foot and shoe were skewered, leaving a gaping hole with blood pouring out. Within the ditch was layer upon layer of various animal bones, there were too many to count. It seemed like this ditch was a sacrificial pit for either a cow, a horse, a goat, or a dog-like animal.
In order to not disturb the nearby pagoda-surrounding ladybugs, Giant used his hand to cover up Ga Wa’s mouth, stopping him from shouting out in pain. I pulled out the bone that pierced his foot in one swift motion, and Luo Ning used the portable first aid bag containing Yunnan province medication and sprinkled it on his wound. In addition, she took out fresh bandage to wrap it up and stop the bleeding.
My hands were covered in Ga Wa’s blood, which I carelessly wiped all over my military uniform. An idea suddenly popped into my mind. This cow/horse burial pit was very odd as it wasn’t square or round shaped, but rather dug like a long groove which directly lead to the corpse-laying pagoda. The shape also just so happened to resemble the “Secret Feng Shui Technique” which mentioned an arrangement called “Despair”. If it were truly the same, then parallel to its location should also be an identical burial ditch.
The two parallel burial ditches were attached to both sides of the burial grave pagoda, forming a figure of two dragons inhaling a bead. According to this deduction, the ditch on the opposite side must be for the objects used by the grave’s owner. Except the two burial ditches were either man-made or naturally occurring? It looked like the latter was more plausible.
The nearby river’s flowing water was very loud, and based on the river’s whitewater sound, it was located in the northwest. It also meant that at the Demonic Pagoda’s rear there was an underground river, because dragons are unable to leave the water.
If it was truly what I expected it to be, then that meant that I already had the underground world’s map in my head. It’s just that the other burial ditch had to be found in order for me to extrapolate.
Giant nudged my shoulder: ”Old Hu, whatchu thinkin bout?”
It looked like I was possessed, having him nudge me brought me back from my thoughts. I asked Luo Ning: ”Colleague Luo, can you evaluate our current position? Approximately where are we on the map?”
Luo Ning calculated our position by using the compass as reference to the map, and muttered for a bit before finally saying, “We’ve been travelling underground in the north direction a couple of hours. Based on our estimated speed, we’ve already passed the glacier over our heads and should be almost out of Kun Lun Mountain.”
I told everyone my earlier thoughts. If we were to head back right now, we’d have no choice but to arrive at the avalanche-covered mountain crevice. If my deductions were correct and we followed the underground river, we should be able to exit this place. Except in order to follow this method, we would have to take risks crossing through the bottom of the Demonic Pagoda of Nine Layers. This was a plan playing with death.
The four huddled for a brainstorming session. They felt that even though it was full of danger, it was worth risking their lives. But first I decided to go find the other burial ditch to confirm my suspicions.
Before the plan was set into motion, I asked Ga Wa, what in the world was the Demonic Pagoda of Nine Layers?
Speaking in Chinese was extremely difficult for Ga Wa, and after talking for quite a while I finally understood some parts of it. At the center of his native home, there were also remnants of an identical Demonic Pagoda of Nine Layers. Legend has it that the “Demonic Pagoda of Nine Layers” was the tomb of the king of the demon country. After the demon country perished, that tomb was destroyed by the hero King Wang Gesaer. All that remains of the country are rotting planks and some old folk songs in Tibet’s plateau which praise King Gesaer. In the eyes of the Tibetan herdsmen, he became as dazzling as the sun.
The Tibetan herdsmen who traveled by the relic all had to prostrate before it, and recite the tale. This was not a way of displaying fear to the tomb of the demon country’s king, but to express admiration to King Gesaer. Ga Wa also said some things related to the religion, which I could not understand at all. It was impossible to find out if those demonic fire-like ladybugs were the spirits of the dead.
I left Luo Ning and the rest of the crew where they were while I continued forward. After reaching a hundred meters or so away from the cow/horse burial ditch, sure enough there was the other burial ditch. The inside was full of ancient leather boots, old Tibetan scrolls, ornamental wood and gold decorations, wooden plates, wooden wings, wooden birds and beasts, bronze ware, rations, and huge quantities of silk and funeral objects.
My prediction was correct. The underground river behind the Demonic Pagoda of Nine Layers had to be connected to the outside. I headed back to the animal burial ditch to fetch the other three.
I was in front clearing a path while Giant carried a gun behind me and Ga Wa followed with his pierced foot in serious condition. Luo Ning supported him from behind.
The Demonic Pagoda of Nine Layers was huge. The underground cavern was originally wide open, but the pagoda and the two mica rocks on either side took up the majority of the space in the northern direction. The two sides only had a narrow area in between that barely was enough space.
We were completely filled with terror as we passed through the pagoda and saw the flickering ladybugs that smelled like fire. It almost felt as if our hearts were going to burst from our chests. While travelling the two hundred meters of pagoda, every step felt like it took ages to complete.
With great difficulty, we finally passed the Demonic Tower. However, not even travelling two hundred steps, the floor suddenly felt soft, almost like stepping onto a gigantic animal. I used my flashlight to take a look, and underneath my feet there was a huge reptile that I had never seen before. It flicked out its long tongue. Its skin had very similar complexions to the ground and it was kind of shaped like a monitor lizard. It’s outer appearance was similar to that of a crocodile, but it didn’t have coarse skin. Its snout was fairly round, and wasn’t as pronounced as a lizard’s. The reptile’s tongue was like a snake’s, red and very long with a fork at the tip. Its skin was pitch black, covered with large white circles. Just based on its outer appearance, it looked like a long-tailed frog.
In all my life I’ve never been afraid of the heavens nor the depths of hell, with the only exception being this type of disgusting thing. It scared me so much that I slunk behind Giant. Giant also saw this curious animal, and his reaction was similar to mine as he also jumped up in fright. Perhaps the only thing a military man could count on was his rifle, as his immediate reaction was raising the rifle and shooting. Bang bang bang, a burst of shots fired out, and the reptile twitched a few times before finally dying.
At this moment Luo Ning, who was at the end of the line, walked over and looked at the dead animal on the ground. With a hushed voice she said, ”This is the local fire-bellied salamander. It eats insects and mayflies but doesn’t hurt humans.”
I was not heartbroken after the killing of this animal. I was worried for Giant who recklessly fired the gun. It might have woken up the sleeping bugs in the pagoda. F*ck! If a man ate a piece of mold, then drank some refreshing water, it’d still get stuck in the mouth. Evidently, the ladybugs in the “Demonic Pagoda of Nine Layers” were awakened by the gunfire, and countless beacons of blue fire quickly lit up.
The entire underground space was lit up with a shade of blue. The pagoda was also alit and the intensity of the fire burning became greater and greater. A couple hundred fireballs came hurdling towards us. There was so much fire, yet we did not feel a sliver of heat. It was quite the contrary; we felt a cold air pressure us and our teeth started to chatter.
Upon seeing the terrible situation, Giant fished out the two hand grenades from his military equipment and was about to pull the string to throw at the fireballs when I managed to put a palm over his hands: ”Throw only one, leave the other if we need to go out in a blaze of glory, I don’t want to be burned alive by those demons.”
Footnote:
The Chinese character “金” resembles a pagoda.
Chapter 9 Teaser
The mountain crevice that we fell into was narrow and deep. Beyond the range of our flashlight was pitch-black. Visibility was limited, and there was no way of knowing what the terrain beyond looked like.
Giant reached out and placed his finger under Liu Gong’s nose, and with a trembling hand he said, “Oh sh*t oh sh*t we’re screwed, he ain’t breathing.”
I crawled over and checked Liu Gong’s carotid pulse; He really was dead. the heartbeat was gone. With a heavy sigh I said to Giant, “Let’s bury Liu Gong then.”
I took the military shovel intending to dig a hole, but Ga Wa who was beside me, blocked my path and pointed to the ground: “Bug, fire.”
With Ga Wa’s warning, I instantly recalled the fact that we had accidentally dug up the devil-like ladybugs because we had intended to bury the engineer who had fallen to his death. Our small squad had fourteen people, and in a few terrifying minutes, ten people had died. It appeared that the land couldn’t be dug as one pleased. Only Heaven knows what crazy thing might lie beneath the soil.
I had a feeling that those weird bugs were not something that could be explained as easily as undiscovered creatures. After burning two people alive, there was one that divided itself into three; was this only a coincidence? There was no possible explanation no matter how you thought about it.
Despite everything, we couldn’t just leave a comrade’s body outside. We figured that we could only use this method. I used the flashlight to light up the area while Ga Wa and Giant each went nearby to pick up broken pieces rock to cover up Liu Gong’s body to create a simple rock tomb.
Throughout this process, Luo Ning sat on the ground motionless from beginning to end, quietly observing Liu Gong’s stone tomb. Finally unable to endure it anymore, with a “Wa!” she started crying. She couldn’t repress the feelings in her heart any longer, she poured out in tears, like a broken dam.
I wanted to console her, but I honestly did not know what to say. Touched by the sound of weeping, a lump formed in my throat. I felt as though my heart had been sliced through with a blade. I recalled our carefree attitude yesterday night: the small squad circled around a campfire singing military songs aloud. Those clear voices were still echoing in my head, and yet today, a majority of them forever laid in eternal rest beneath the big glacier of Kunlun Mountain.
I supported Luo Ning to her feet as we all gave Liu Gong and the other comrades a moment of silence. At that time, regardless of the situation, the selected works of Mao Zedong were to be quoted. I recited while taking the lead: “The sky is filled with white, the soldiers eagerly pressing forward through the snow.”
The remaining three people responded in turn: “The mountains loom above us, the wind unfurls our red flags as we cross the great pass. Only through sacrifice can we achieve lofty goals, to dare order the sun and moon to shine in new skies.”
Soon after, everyone raised their right fist and vowed: ”Long live the great leader Chairman Mao and may Chairman Mao’s close comrade Lin Biao be healthy. My fellow comrades, friends, please be at ease leaving, some people’s death is a trifling matter, some people’s death is as important as Mount Tai, for the people’s benefit with death will be more important than Mount Tai; your deaths are sacrifices for the benefit of the people. We must carry on the mission left behind by the martyrs of revolution and follow the footsteps that you forged with sweat and blood. We will carry the Cultural Revolution till the very end, the last victory will always belong to us the workers, peasants and soldiers.”
At the time, I was still a greenhorn army recruit and had never participated in a comrade’s funeral service. I had no idea what should be said and only remembered what others had said before me. In these circumstances, there was no difference between what was suitable or not.
After a long period of time, people started calming down from their grievances and treated the wounds on their bodies. Thankfully they were all minor injuries and did not hinder mobility.
Ga Wa patted his empty bullet pouch, indicating the limited amount of ammo. Since we needed to carry a lot of equipment when we entered the mountains, the allocation of ammo was the least prioritized. Each person only had three rifle magazines; after all, this wasn’t a combat mission. This region didn’t have many bandits either, and as a result the early planning was a bit careless. During the avalanche we had also thrown away a portion of our ammunition, so now each person only had about twenty rounds of bullets and a total of two grenades. Since there shouldn’t be many beasts living underground, having an excess of bullets would be pointless. However, this amount was plenty for self-protection.
Dry rations were completely out, as we had just finished the last portion. We had to think of a way to find an exit within the next two days, otherwise we would starve to death underground. Despite everything, there was still a compass on Luo Ning.
The mountain crevice’s depth was beyond expectation. After walking southward for a while we reached the end, but then the crack took a 180 degree turn to the north. Based on instinct it felt like we had walked to the bottom of the glacier.
We walked forward in the darkness for more than ten hours. The more we walked the farther we went down, where it became more and more open. Luo Ning used the barometer to test the atmospheric pressure and converted its findings to show our altitude. Surprisingly, it only gave four hundred meters, which was comparable with that of the Szechuan province, but much lower than the Qinghai-Tibetan plateau’s average altitude of four thousand meters. If we kept going at this rate, I fear we would walk to the Earth’s core.
Finally the terrain started leveling off and the sound of a rapid stream of water could be heard, almost as if there was a big underground river in the distance. I saw that there wasn’t any more of a slope, so I used the flashlight to scout about in all directions. I wanted to see if there were any paths leading upward, suddenly in the direction the flashlight was shining at, many faint reflections of light appeared on the cliff wall. It was as if hundreds of broken mirror pieces were shone on.
Luo Ning called in surprise: ”That’s mica!”
The other three people who heard her wondered what mica was, but her tone made it sound like she was very frightened, and they thought it was an emergency. They quickly protected Luo Ning by placing her behind them; hastily, they removed their type 56 automatic rifles off their backs, pulling open the gun bolt, preparing to fire.
Confused, Luo Ning asked, ”What are you guys doing?”
While arming myself with the gun I asked Luo Ning: What are you talking about? Where is it?”
Luo Ning replied, ”It’s not an animal, I’m saying that the surrounding area is full of crystal bodies. Mica and crystals commonly form within the same stratum. Ah, sure enough, there’s also a crystal here.”
Although Luo Ning was mainly in charge of mapping the area, she frequently worked together with the geology surveyor team thus gained a lot of knowledge in regards to ore formation. We were surrounded by a seemingly thin layer of glass crystal-like body. The mica’s monoclinic crystal structure could only be formed in the Pacific Paleolithic layer. The underground reserve of HeBei province was huge, making it difficult to pinpoint our location. The mica’s colour here was much darker than usual, and appeared as a large hexagonal shape. The quality far surpassed the ones created in the inner HeBei province’s Lingshou county, judging by the depth of the mica’s colour. Our current position was so deep it was hard to imagine, otherwise.
Luo Ning was attracted to the rarely seen surrounding mica, examining this and that. I randomly picked up a small piece to take a look, but I couldn’t find anything that deemed it out of the ordinary.
Suddenly, Giant shouted at Ga Wa: ”What are you doing La Mu Cuo? Get up quickly!”
I shined my flashlight and saw Ga Wa on the ground kowtowing in the Tibetan way, with his entire body prostrating on the ground. What was this kid doing? Who was he kowtowing to? I illuminated the area ahead of him and couldn’t help but suck in some cold air.
Underground, there unexpectedly stood a pagoda made of thousands of wooden beams resembling the “gold” character1. Its body was twinkling from hundreds of starlike red flashes. The flashing lights helped us see that the base of the pagoda was close to two hundred meters wide and was built with mud and rocks. The pagoda had nine floors, all of which were made of thousand year old cedar. Each layer was piled with dried up skeletons donning peculiar ancient costumes. Men, women, young and old were all present. Each beam of wood was carved full of archaic Tibetan characters. Was this a tomb? On a scale so immense, who built this underground?
I went over and pulled Ga Wa up to his feet. He was kowtowing on the ground: ”Even though our party and our military respects ethnic policies and you little rascal are Tibetan, when you don your military clothing, you are a member of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army. Since you are a communist you shouldn’t play around with the charms of idealism. You’re not permitted to engage in religious superstitions.”
Giant was at the side grinning: ”Not bad Old Hu, based on this little speech of yours, you have real potential to become an instructor.”
Luo Ning, who was continuously looking at the mica stones, heard the three of us bickering and came over to spectate.
I wagged my finger at Giant to tell him not to interrupt, and continued to ask Ga Wa: ”What is this tower? Can you read the words on it?”
Ga Wa profusely shook his head.
I said: ”This kiddo... if you don’t know then why are you kowtowing? Has seeing all those skeletons scared you silly?”
Ga Wa’s facial expression was full of panic. Using broken bits of Chinese, he said ”Hu ga, oh let you oh explain, must oh pull, pull you pull this, nine layers…Demonic Pagoda of Nine Layers.”
I couldn’t understand the first few words through his stuttering, but the last few words were very clear. Demonic Pagoda of Nine Layers. What was it for though? Wasn’t it just meant for burying dead people?
Before waiting for Ga Wa to finish speaking, Luo Ning tiptoed around the pagoda and ran back to us, holding a finger to her mouth. She pointed at pagoda behind us and whispered, ”Be extremely careful not to make a sound that’ll wake them.”
I saw her serious expression knowing there could be problems, but I didn’t know what she was pointing at. Thus I lowered my voice and asked: ”Alarm what? The dead?”
Luo Ning replied tensely: ”No, it’s those ladybugs with fire. They’re all sleeping on the dead bodies and there’s too many to count.”
After hearing Luo Ning’s words, I finally located them. The densely packed red flashes in the wooden pagoda were actually from the bodies of all those see-through ladybugs.
It can be said that I possess some fearless spirit of revolutionary soldiers, but at the thought of the bizarre ladybugs, I was panic-stricken. This abnormal lifeform was extremely difficult to handle, and the tragic occurrence in the valley left me with immense fear.
I made a hand gesture, and the four members quietly returned the way we came from. Not even walking a few meters, Ga Wa suddenly stepped into nothing and fell into a ditch.
This ditch was very subtle and it was parallel to the path we were taking, thus we didn’t discover it before. Even though the ditch was only one meter deep, Ga Wa still gave out a muffled cry when he fell. I quickly jumped down to support him and saw Ga Wa holding his foot. His entire face was grimacing in pain.
Using the flashlight, Luo Ning and Giant each leapt into the ditch, only to see Ga Wa’s foot pierced by a sharp bone. Both his foot and shoe were skewered, leaving a gaping hole with blood pouring out. Within the ditch was layer upon layer of various animal bones, there were too many to count. It seemed like this ditch was a sacrificial pit for either a cow, a horse, a goat, or a dog-like animal.
In order to not disturb the nearby pagoda-surrounding ladybugs, Giant used his hand to cover up Ga Wa’s mouth, stopping him from shouting out in pain. I pulled out the bone that pierced his foot in one swift motion, and Luo Ning used the portable first aid bag containing Yunnan province medication and sprinkled it on his wound. In addition, she took out fresh bandage to wrap it up and stop the bleeding.
My hands were covered in Ga Wa’s blood, which I carelessly wiped all over my military uniform. An idea suddenly popped into my mind. This cow/horse burial pit was very odd as it wasn’t square or round shaped, but rather dug like a long groove which directly lead to the corpse-laying pagoda. The shape also just so happened to resemble the “Secret Feng Shui Technique” which mentioned an arrangement called “Despair”. If it were truly the same, then parallel to its location should also be an identical burial ditch.
The two parallel burial ditches were attached to both sides of the burial grave pagoda, forming a figure of two dragons inhaling a bead. According to this deduction, the ditch on the opposite side must be for the objects used by the grave’s owner. Except the two burial ditches were either man-made or naturally occurring? It looked like the latter was more plausible.
The nearby river’s flowing water was very loud, and based on the river’s whitewater sound, it was located in the northwest. It also meant that at the Demonic Pagoda’s rear there was an underground river, because dragons are unable to leave the water.
If it was truly what I expected it to be, then that meant that I already had the underground world’s map in my head. It’s just that the other burial ditch had to be found in order for me to extrapolate.
Giant nudged my shoulder: ”Old Hu, whatchu thinkin bout?”
It looked like I was possessed, having him nudge me brought me back from my thoughts. I asked Luo Ning: ”Colleague Luo, can you evaluate our current position? Approximately where are we on the map?”
Luo Ning calculated our position by using the compass as reference to the map, and muttered for a bit before finally saying, “We’ve been travelling underground in the north direction a couple of hours. Based on our estimated speed, we’ve already passed the glacier over our heads and should be almost out of Kun Lun Mountain.”
I told everyone my earlier thoughts. If we were to head back right now, we’d have no choice but to arrive at the avalanche-covered mountain crevice. If my deductions were correct and we followed the underground river, we should be able to exit this place. Except in order to follow this method, we would have to take risks crossing through the bottom of the Demonic Pagoda of Nine Layers. This was a plan playing with death.
The four huddled for a brainstorming session. They felt that even though it was full of danger, it was worth risking their lives. But first I decided to go find the other burial ditch to confirm my suspicions.
Before the plan was set into motion, I asked Ga Wa, what in the world was the Demonic Pagoda of Nine Layers?
Speaking in Chinese was extremely difficult for Ga Wa, and after talking for quite a while I finally understood some parts of it. At the center of his native home, there were also remnants of an identical Demonic Pagoda of Nine Layers. Legend has it that the “Demonic Pagoda of Nine Layers” was the tomb of the king of the demon country. After the demon country perished, that tomb was destroyed by the hero King Wang Gesaer. All that remains of the country are rotting planks and some old folk songs in Tibet’s plateau which praise King Gesaer. In the eyes of the Tibetan herdsmen, he became as dazzling as the sun.
The Tibetan herdsmen who traveled by the relic all had to prostrate before it, and recite the tale. This was not a way of displaying fear to the tomb of the demon country’s king, but to express admiration to King Gesaer. Ga Wa also said some things related to the religion, which I could not understand at all. It was impossible to find out if those demonic fire-like ladybugs were the spirits of the dead.
I left Luo Ning and the rest of the crew where they were while I continued forward. After reaching a hundred meters or so away from the cow/horse burial ditch, sure enough there was the other burial ditch. The inside was full of ancient leather boots, old Tibetan scrolls, ornamental wood and gold decorations, wooden plates, wooden wings, wooden birds and beasts, bronze ware, rations, and huge quantities of silk and funeral objects.
My prediction was correct. The underground river behind the Demonic Pagoda of Nine Layers had to be connected to the outside. I headed back to the animal burial ditch to fetch the other three.
I was in front clearing a path while Giant carried a gun behind me and Ga Wa followed with his pierced foot in serious condition. Luo Ning supported him from behind.
The Demonic Pagoda of Nine Layers was huge. The underground cavern was originally wide open, but the pagoda and the two mica rocks on either side took up the majority of the space in the northern direction. The two sides only had a narrow area in between that barely was enough space.
We were completely filled with terror as we passed through the pagoda and saw the flickering ladybugs that smelled like fire. It almost felt as if our hearts were going to burst from our chests. While travelling the two hundred meters of pagoda, every step felt like it took ages to complete.
With great difficulty, we finally passed the Demonic Tower. However, not even travelling two hundred steps, the floor suddenly felt soft, almost like stepping onto a gigantic animal. I used my flashlight to take a look, and underneath my feet there was a huge reptile that I had never seen before. It flicked out its long tongue. Its skin had very similar complexions to the ground and it was kind of shaped like a monitor lizard. It’s outer appearance was similar to that of a crocodile, but it didn’t have coarse skin. Its snout was fairly round, and wasn’t as pronounced as a lizard’s. The reptile’s tongue was like a snake’s, red and very long with a fork at the tip. Its skin was pitch black, covered with large white circles. Just based on its outer appearance, it looked like a long-tailed frog.
In all my life I’ve never been afraid of the heavens nor the depths of hell, with the only exception being this type of disgusting thing. It scared me so much that I slunk behind Giant. Giant also saw this curious animal, and his reaction was similar to mine as he also jumped up in fright. Perhaps the only thing a military man could count on was his rifle, as his immediate reaction was raising the rifle and shooting. Bang bang bang, a burst of shots fired out, and the reptile twitched a few times before finally dying.
At this moment Luo Ning, who was at the end of the line, walked over and looked at the dead animal on the ground. With a hushed voice she said, ”This is the local fire-bellied salamander. It eats insects and mayflies but doesn’t hurt humans.”
I was not heartbroken after the killing of this animal. I was worried for Giant who recklessly fired the gun. It might have woken up the sleeping bugs in the pagoda. F*ck! If a man ate a piece of mold, then drank some refreshing water, it’d still get stuck in the mouth. Evidently, the ladybugs in the “Demonic Pagoda of Nine Layers” were awakened by the gunfire, and countless beacons of blue fire quickly lit up.
The entire underground space was lit up with a shade of blue. The pagoda was also alit and the intensity of the fire burning became greater and greater. A couple hundred fireballs came hurdling towards us. There was so much fire, yet we did not feel a sliver of heat. It was quite the contrary; we felt a cold air pressure us and our teeth started to chatter.
Upon seeing the terrible situation, Giant fished out the two hand grenades from his military equipment and was about to pull the string to throw at the fireballs when I managed to put a palm over his hands: ”Throw only one, leave the other if we need to go out in a blaze of glory, I don’t want to be burned alive by those demons.”
Footnote:
The Chinese character “金” resembles a pagoda.
