Chapter 120: Petrified Forest

The ╦╧-shaped tunnel was traced by the trajectory of a fired illumination round, and one could see an opening at each end on the left and right in asymmetrical positions; the deepest opening was not very clear. The main passage was piled high with white bones on both sides; due to the distance, only a large number of white, conical, arc-shaped giant ivories could be distinguished, and there also seemed to be some other animal bones. The illumination round reached the end, where a glint of water ripples could be seen; judging by the position, it should be the underground water system of the Snake River.

Although we didn't expect the entrance of the tunnel below to be a burial pit filled with so many white bones, judging from the scale below, since there is a water system flowing downward parallel to the deep valley, this tunnel definitely leads to the main burial area of the Xian King's Tomb.

We discussed it; although this tunnel is likely to have dangerous mechanisms, compared with the boundless mountain miasma and poisonous fog, venturing into the Xian King's Tomb via the underground tunnel is still feasible. Besides, the three of us are still quite capable, unlike last time when we went to the Xinjiang desert with a bunch of scholars, which made things cumbersome. Grave robbing is best done by a team of two or three; relying on the powerful firepower of the 'Chicago Typewriter' and the phosphane injector, plus the traditional tools of the Corpse Exhuming Commandant, we can handle whatever we encounter.

So we took a brief rest at the cave mouth and readied our equipment. Since we had no bamboo raft this time, if there were underground water we would need to make an armed crossing, so all unnecessary items were temporarily cleared out and left in the shrine of the mountain god.

First we put on shark-skin wetsuits, wore elbow and knee guards, adjusted the searchlight on the mountaineering helmet to the side, replaced the batteries with new ones, equipped the helmet with a diving mask, and hung a small refillable oxygen cylinder on our backs. Each person carried only one waterproof pack, containing emergency medicine, spare batteries, cold smoke flares, gas mask, fluorescent tube, candles, apotropaic items, and a Wolf Eye flashlight, among other needed supplies.

Pangzi's wetsuit didn't fit well, so he didn't intend to wear it. I told him, 'It's fine if you don't wear it; anyway, you're a silly kid who sleeps on a cold bed, relying solely on firepower.'

Shirley Yang said, 'You must wear it! Don't you remember how cold the water below Zhelong Mountain was? The longer you swim, the more likely you are to suffer hypothermia; even if the suit is tight, you have to make do, otherwise you stay here and wait for us—you're not allowed to go in.'

Pangzi recalled the scene of Shirley Yang falling off the raft at Zhelong Mountain, when she swam back her lips turned purple; it seemed that although the vicinity was hot and humid, the underground water system was unusually cold, no joke. Moreover, the Xian King's Tomb's large cache of burial goods was not far away—how could he stay here waiting? He sucked in his gut and forced the wetsuit on, then kept complaining, 'Damn, the shoes are small and the shorts short; whoever suffers knows it themselves.'

The entrenching tool, ice axe, various ropes, and canteens with food—these heavier items, plus weapons ammunition, detonators with sixteen charges of explosive, and phosphane cans that can spray flame—were all placed in a large waterproof bag, with inflatable bladders tied around it, so the gear could be kept afloat on the water by buoyancy at any time, and while we swam we could pull it to save effort.

The remaining items were packed and placed in the main hall of the mountain god's shrine; by the time everything was ready, it was already sunset, the golden crow sinking and birds returning to their nests. Taking advantage of the twilight gloom, the three of us entered the tunnel.

Shirley Yang led the way, carrying the Diamond Umbrella and holding up the Wolf Eye flashlight; I and Pangzi together lifted the large heap of gear packed in the waterproof bag and followed behind, descending gently along the slight slope.

This section of the passage at the entrance was clearly man-made, with neat large strips of greenstone stacked on both sides, the joints sealed with vermilion lacquer, and the large square bricks on the floor very level, resembling a corridor in an ancient tomb.

Along both sides of the passage, complete elephant skeletons were neatly stacked, obviously brought after being slaughtered outside. Placing whole elephant bones or ivory in the burial pit was to take advantage of the homophone 'xiang' (auspicious). The elephant itself, huge and gentle, symbolizes good fortune and prosperity; in ancient China, as early as the Shang Tang era, elephant bones and ivory were already used as burial goods. Large quantities of ivory have been unearthed at Yin Xu; at that time, the Yellow River basin still had a considerable number of elephants, which are now extinct.

These burial white bones were intentionally half-buried, not completely covered like in a burial trench; this indicates that the tomb's occupant, in seeking immortality, no longer cared much for worldly things, and half-buried grave goods signify the intention to ascend together with the deceased.

I counted them; this single burial pit alone contains sixty-four complete elephant skeletons, and the number of ivories is uncountable. There are also scattered small animal bones that have rotted over time into soil, making it impossible to identify what animal they were; according to Shirley Yang's inference, they could be from hunting dogs and horses, as well as human bones of slaves.

We once again appreciated the vast scale of the Xian King's Tomb and the luxury of its burial goods. I said to them, 'Even the tomb of a small southern border kingdom like ancient Dian is this extravagant—for one person, hundreds of thousands of commoners suffer the agony of being hung upside down, using the people's blood and sweat to build such a massive tomb; in the end, the notion of ascending to immortality after death and preserving the realm for ten thousand years is nothing but a fleeting dream, and these things remain deep in the mountains to rot with the sun and moon. Looking back now, how absurd it is—tombs built with the people's fat and ointment should be overturned as much as they were built.'

Shirley Yang said, 'I didn't expect the Xian King's Tomb to be this large just from its burial pits.' As she spoke, she had already gone ahead to the junction of the '╣'-shaped passage, where she exclaimed strangely, 'What are these used for?'

Pangzi and I followed over and shone the Wolf Eye flashlight around the bend; we saw that it wasn't a passage, but merely a recess in the main passage's stone wall, a few meters deep, with several long rods scattered about that looked like they could be joined together. I also found it odd and reached to pick one up to examine, but as soon as I touched them, the rods, though appearing intact, crumbled into mush. Because there is an underground water route and no sealing measures were taken inside, objects from two thousand years ago rot at the slightest touch.

This niche in the passage wall seems specially designed to hold those long rods; could it be for measuring water depth? The three of us couldn't figure it out, unable to guess its purpose. The Xian King's Tomb area contains many strange and eerie things; compared to them, these items are insignificant, so we ignored them and moved on.

We reached the end of the passage, which is the area where we fired illumination rounds and saw the water's reflection; after walking down the sloping passage we were already about tens of meters below the surface. From here on, it is no longer an artificially dug tunnel but a natural underground cavern; however, it is completely submerged, so to continue forward we must enter the water and swim.

Along the stone wall beside the water lay several wooden ancient boats, possibly used by those who went to the Minglou to worship the tomb. But due to their great age, the boats have rotted away, leaving only frames, and are no longer usable.

We opened the air bladders tied to our large backpacks, letting them fill with air and float on the water surface, placing the submachine gun and other weapons on top for easy access. We stowed the Wolf Eye flashlight, turned on the tactical searchlight on our helmets, then entered the water, holding onto the large bladders on our packs as we waded forward.

After walking a dozen meters in the water, our feet could no longer touch the bottom; the icy, bone-chilling groundwater grew deeper. I checked the compass; the water flow was exactly parallel to the direction of the Insect Valley.

In this cavern, many huge natural stone pillars exist in the water, resembling underwater coral with countless branches; because the cavern is pitch black, it's hard to see clearly how these strange stone pillars formed.

The distance from the water surface to the overhead is very low, creating an especially oppressive feeling; I looked up and saw many huge plant roots and stems from the valley growing downward from above, some so long they extended directly into the water, forming a rare plant-covered ceiling.

As we swam farther, the terrain gradually lowered. In the water-filled cavern, the distance between the water surface and the ceiling gradually increased, making breathing noticeably easier than before, while the plant roots and stems hanging from the ceiling and the weird stone coral became ever denser. I also noticed some fish in the cavern's water that occasionally brushed against our bodies underwater before darting away; I silently breathed a relief, glad they weren't piranhas.

To further confirm our forward direction, Shirley Yang had Pangzi take out the signal gun to fire another illumination round ahead. Pangzi counted the remaining illumination rounds: 'Eight left; we brought too few this time, we need to use them sparingly.' After loading one into the signal gun and adjusting the range, he fired it forward.

The illumination round traced a bright arc, finally catching on a tangle of plant vines not far away; in that instant, the white light flooded the surrounding cavern, making it snow‑bright, revealing a rare and terrifying natural spectacle before us.

It turned out those coral‑like stone pillars are fossils of forest trees from ancient times, and the 'ancient' referred to here is beyond what modern people can trace.

Fossils are ancient remains buried in strata, formed by tens of millions of years of sediment burial. The most common are animal fossils, because animal bones and teeth contain relatively little organic matter and more inorganic material; when buried in sediment, their decay slows, and groundwater slowly flowing through the sediment pores flushes out, causing excess minerals to precipitate as crystals; if these mineral crystals can completely replace the organic matter before the bone fully decays, a true fossil forms.

However, plant fossils are very rare, because plants decay much faster than animal bones. Shirley Yang excitedly said, 'Zhelong Mountain may have been a huge active volcano hundreds of millions of years ago; during the final apocalyptic‑like volcanic eruption, a mudflow also occurred nearby, the lava engulfed the forest at the mountain's base, and the trees instantly carbonized by the high temperature were immediately swallowed by the ensuing mudflow before they could be destroyed, with the temperature also dropping instantly.'

After tens of millions of years, as nature changed and the underground water system repeatedly scoured the sediments, the forest that had been sealed in the mud for countless years was revealed underground.

I didn't find these stone trees particularly remarkable; I had dug up similar ones on Kunlun Mountain before. But lately Shirley Yang has seemed worried and gloomy, rarely showing joy, so I told her, 'Although our journey through Yunnan has involved plenty of frights, we have also seen real mountains and waters, and witnessed things ordinary people never see in a lifetime—this trip was not in vain, and we have gained quite a lot.'

Pangzi interjected, 'Just looking at some broken stones would be a pity; we should also snatch a few earth‑shaking burial goods to take back, then shake up Da Jin Ya and his gang at Panjiayuan, break out of Panjiayuan, and march on Liulichang—only then would it be truly satisfying.'

Just as I was about to speak, the illumination round hanging ahead ran out of power and immediately dimmed; the cavern plunged back into darkness, leaving only the faint beam from the tactical searchlight on our helmets. I felt as if we were drifting in a black ocean, the world reduced to just the three of us, as the last thread of light from the illumination round was slowly swallowed by darkness, a sudden sense of loneliness and oppression spread through my brain.

I found it strange that I would feel this way; during the shift from light to darkness, it seemed as if a weak current struck me, and then I was overcome by an inexplicable sense of loss, my mood instantly turning despondent. I glanced at Shirley Yang and Pangzi; they too seemed to sense something off, but how this subtle change arises, what it foretells, and why a sudden panic should strike—

At that moment, the illumination round fired straight ahead finally went out completely; yet we noticed that, as the last sliver of its light vanished completely, a faint white humanoid shape slowly emerged from the dark depths of the underground water. Although the cavern was pitch black, the white glow on that figure's body grew ever clearer—I could tell it was a female corpse dressed entirely in plain white. She seemed to have drifted from the water; as she drew nearer, her frost‑like visage became visible, my heart began to race, and the nightmare‑like panic intensified further.

Many floating aquatic plants covered the water ahead, blocking our progress on the surface, so we kept using the entrenching tool to push aside the drifting vegetation. Duckweed and water plants hosted numerous mosquitoes, water spiders, and leeches, which continually flung themselves at our faces.

Just as we were fed up with the annoyance, we suddenly heard a buzzing of insect wings ahead. I instinctively pulled the submachine gun from the waterproof bag; to see what they were, Pangzi fired another illumination round. In the light we saw that the front was completely screened by dangling plant roots and vines, behind which countless huge black flying insects resembled tiny dragonflies but lacked eyes, numbering in the tens of thousands, like a black cloud passing by, swirling back and forth around those plant roots.

No one has ever seen this kind of insect; it may exist only in the special humid underground environment. Insects are the largest group on Earth, with about one‑third of their species still unknown to humanity.

Although these black‑dragonfly‑like flying insects appear not to attack people, such a massive swarm is nonetheless enough to make one's scalp tingle.