Chapter 9 - Demonic Pagoda Of Nine Layers (2/2)
I couldn’t understand the first few words through his stuttering, but the last few words were very clear. Demonic PaG.o.da 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 paG.o.da and ran back to us, holding a finger to her mouth. She pointed at paG.o.da 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 paG.o.da 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 m.u.f.fled 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 paG.o.da-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 paG.o.da. 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 paG.o.da, 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 PaG.o.da’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 tobe 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 compa.s.s 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 pa.s.sed 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 PaG.o.da 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 PaG.o.da 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 PaG.o.da of Nine Layers. Legend has it that the “Demonic PaG.o.da 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 w.a.n.g 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 quant.i.ties of silk and funeral objects.
My prediction was correct. The underground river behind the Demonic PaG.o.da 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 PaG.o.da of Nine Layers was huge. The underground cavern was originally wide open, but the paG.o.da and the two mica rocks on either side took up the majority of the s.p.a.ce in the northern direction. The two sides only had a narrow area in between that barely was enough s.p.a.ce.
We were completely filled with terror as we pa.s.sed through the paG.o.da andsaw 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 paG.o.da, every step felt like it took ages to complete.
With great difficulty, we finally pa.s.sed 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 coa.r.s.e skin. Its snout was fairly round, and wasn’t as p.r.o.nounced 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 h.e.l.l, 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 paG.o.da. F*ck! If a man ate a piece of mold, then drank some refres.h.i.+ng water, it’d still get stuck in the mouth. Evidently, the ladybugs in the “Demonic PaG.o.da of Nine Layers” were awakened by the gunfire, and countless beacons of blue fire quickly lit up.
The entire underground s.p.a.ce was lit up with a shade of blue. The paG.o.da was also alit and the intensity of the fire burning became greater and greater. A couple hundred fireb.a.l.l.s 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 fireb.a.l.l.s 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 paG.o.da.
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