Chapter 200

The tent was about to be burst open by the giant outside—could this be the "Snow Maitreya" the guide mentioned on the first day? I saw Han Shuna in the ice pool at night, though not clearly, but her body showed no change. The ice cave had temporarily collapsed and sealed; less than two hours had passed. Even if she crawled out from elsewhere, how could she have become so large?

The guide had mentioned being entangled by a "Snow Maitreya," causing the dead to grow increasingly obese, but I hadn't had time to ask what he meant when this thing suddenly appeared outside the tent. If we let it keep pressing, the tent would collapse. In the wind and snow on the Dragon's Peak glacier, losing the tent would be disastrous.

To avoid shooting and tearing the tent, I picked up a trekking pole lying on the ground and thrust it at the face outline visible on the canvas. But the sensation from the pole told me the large face seemed to have form yet no substance—it only dented inward where the canvas was poked back by the pole tip.

The tent entrance was just blocked. Ming Shu panicked, trying to crawl out and escape, but I quickly grabbed his leg and pressed him to the ground. We didn't know what the Snow Maitreya outside was, aside from what the guide had heard. Fortunately, the tent could still hold it off temporarily. Charging out recklessly would be like running onto a blade.

Pangzi imitated me, picking up a vertical flag used for glacier positioning and struck the face twice. Seeing no effect, he grabbed a Remington, not thinking about what to do if the tent was ruined, pressed it against the face, and fired at close range. The thing outside was hit by buckshot, its momentum slightly reduced.

The canvas on the tent roof was shot into a sieve by that blast, revealing many white things inside. I couldn't tell what they were, only that they resembled the snow outside. It seemed the figure out there was a giant snowman.

Pangzi kept firing, Peter Huang and Chu Yi also drew their guns and shot, but to no avail. Suddenly, the tent's support pole snapped, and the tent collapsed instantly, burying all seven of us underneath.

I thought we were done for—the tent had fallen apart, arms pressed against thighs inside, let alone trying to escape, even struggling to sit up was extremely difficult. Though I thought so, my body didn't stop. I summoned all my strength to push off the person pressing on me and quickly crawled out from under the tent.

I hadn't even stood up when I drew my M1911, but the outside wind howled and snowflakes swirled—nothing was visible. Then Chu Yi, Shirley Yang, and Pangzi crawled out one after another, raised their guns, and fired in all directions, yet saw no enemy.

Still, Guide Chu Yi was familiar with the terrain of this snowfield and glacier. He aimed in a direction and fired; we followed his gun barrel. Perhaps night had passed, and the Dragon's Peak glacier was no longer pitch black. The thick ink-like dark clouds above and the outlines of the surrounding snow peaks became faintly visible. We saw a huge white figure, braving wind and snow, running toward the white expanse in the distance.

That was the Snow Maitreya that had just attacked the tent. If it weren't for Chu Yi's sharp eyes, it would be hard to spot its trail in this white expanse. Chu Yi, Pangzi, and I fired while stepping in snow, chasing from behind. Shirley Yang shouted from behind: "Don't chase—watch for ice cracks under the snow!" But her voice was quickly swallowed by the wind and snow blowing behind us.

The snow on the glacier had melted overnight, no longer reaching our calves. After running less than ten or so meters, we saw the huge white figure suddenly sink down and vanish into the snowfield. We followed and found a deep ice cave here, seemingly connected to the earlier ice pool and leading to the Nine-Story Demon Pavilion below the ice slope. On this ancient glacier, who knows how many such ice caves exist? Their subterranean structures are too complex to comprehend by ordinary reasoning.

Once the Snow Maitreya hides in there, we can't do anything to it. We could only rush to the ice cave's edge and curse a few times before retreating resentfully. I and Pangzi asked Chu Yi: How did the Snow Maitreya gain the upper hand, only to flee first? What is it exactly? How could it turn a woman's corpse into this in just a few hours?

Chu Yi said there was no time to discuss this now. We men are fine, but the team still has two girls and an old comrade. The tent is gone—we can't let them stand in the wind and snow on the glacier. First, find a sheltered, safe place to settle. Then we'll talk about the Snow Maitreya later—don't worry, it won't come out after dawn. The real danger is if the snow doesn't stop tonight, the wolf pack won't retreat, and we'll face a two-front attack—but we can endure it.

We returned to where the tent had fallen. The sky was already bright, but the snow kept falling without pause. The tent was ruined—we had to abandon it. On the endless snowfield, the surface was covered by snow, but before the ice surface fully froze, walking far was dangerous. Nearby were only a few uneven snow mounds—no place to take shelter.

Shirley Yang said there was only one option: dig open the Nine-Story Demon Pavilion, at least the top layer first, so we could shelter from this storm. Light a fire inside—the airflow would rise and block snow at the entrance, preventing it from being buried before the snow stops. Also, wolves fear fire and won't dare attack lightly.

We all agreed this was a good plan. In this icy wilderness, freezing outside, we all wanted to dig open the Nine-Story Demon Pavilion quickly, no matter what ghosts or birds were inside—even just to sleep a while to regain strength. Then, with renewed energy, we'd dig out the "glacier crystal corpse" in one go, and during the cold snap sealing the glacier, we could withdraw our team.

Everyone said: let's do it. We moved gear and supplies to the windward side of the snow slope, dug out a large chunk of snow, revealing the dark blue ice layer below. As before, we brushed ginger juice on the ice surface, waiting for it to seep in. Meanwhile, Chu Yi told us about something he'd heard two years ago—though it happened in the deep mountains of Kunlun, it was far from Kalamail.

An old terror legend spreads among the Tibetans: on snow mountains, whenever night falls, a kind of ice-dwelling monster emerges to seize corpses that have just died. It burrows into the corpse's clothing, turning the surface white, as if wrapped in a layer of white flesh. As this layer continuously absorbs, the body swells larger and larger—up to the size of two people combined. Then it gradually shrinks from consumption, yet during this process, it keeps biting and eating living people and livestock. If it doesn't eat live prey within two or three days, it slowly dries, shrivels, and disperses, burrowing back into underground glaciers to hide until it finds a new corpse. It likes to lurk in snow gullies and ice pits, only appearing at night. Over seven hundred years ago, it once caused a great disaster—countless dead people and beasts. In the temple's scriptures, there is a set of "The Biography of the Supreme Master Zongkaba," which records this in great detail.

I asked Chu Yi: "So the Snow Maitreya isn't one thing, but a group? Many gathered together?"

Chu Yi nodded: Exactly. At most, a dozen or so of these things can attach to a single corpse. Only after they absorb the corpse's flesh and blood do they become obese, like lumps of fat, layer upon layer clinging to the dead body. From afar, they look like ten very fat snowmen—that's what locals call the "Snow Maitreya." When the Snow Maitreya caused disaster before, it was long ago. Due to the vast time, people have gradually forgotten these events.

Until two years ago, when something serious happened—many died—because some members of the geological survey team went to work above the snow line on Kunlun Mountain. They dug up dozens of white, plump, chubby snowmen from the snow. Before the geological team could figure out the situation, those white humanoids pounced into their snow dens. The whole team of ten only had two escape alive.

The area where the geological team members were killed had just recently experienced a landslide. A multinational climbing team had lost contact with the outside world there. The elder monk in the temple said those plump snowmen the geological team encountered might be the corpses of the climbing team members entangled by the "Snow Maitreya." Coincidentally, orders had just come to send people to find the missing Cangshan team and the geological team's corpses. So nearby herders and lamas, plus the military, sent over a hundred people to search the snow mountains for five full days—found nothing.

The Snow Maitreya's only weakness is that it can only come out at night—even if there's rain or snow during the day, it dare not appear. Besides, the "Biography of the Supreme Master Zongkaba" mentions that this thing especially fears large amounts of salt.

Chu Yi told us: "But we have no large salt, and little regular salt. The Snow Maitreya will surely come back tonight. The wolf pack is definitely hiding in some nearby ice gulley, out of the wind and snow, waiting to ambush. Looks like tonight on this glacier, there'll be a good show."

Pangzi gripped his sport rifle and said: "Too bad the weapon isn't easy to handle, and this terrain is very unfavorable for us. Otherwise, Pang Ye alone would dare to single-handedly train against it—whatever Snow Maitreya, when it meets me, I'll pinch it into a skinny figure."

Pangzi's words do make sense: the glacier covered in snow is full of ice crevasses and traps—very dangerous. For now, it seems we must first dig open the ice layer beneath to examine the Demon Pavilion's interior and see if it can serve as a defensive position.

In no time, the ginger juice had seeped into the ice surface. Everyone then exerted force together, digging open the ice layer. Five or six meters down, we dug out large blocks of wood similar to the Qilian cypress—just like what I saw in the volcano: square timber, round timber, and rammed earth combined. Working here, carpentry and masonry turned out to be more tedious than digging solid ice, but thanks to many hands, full tools, and quick work, we opened the first layer of the Demon Pavilion in less than half an hour.

To guard against "Infinite Karma Fire" and "Dap Ghost Insects" below this ice layer, we made full preparations—but unexpectedly, the first layer of the Demon Pavilion had nothing inside. Entering, we saw it was merely a low, timber-and-rammed-earth room, dominated by black wood and gray-white rammed earth, with a somber tone. In this layer, only a large ice disk lay on the ground—transparent, very thin, with a deity carved on its surface. To dig further, we'd have to shatter this ice disk first.

Shirley Yang looked at the carving: a human body with a wolf's head, wearing armor—a warrior figure. The wolf head was white, the armor silver. This image seemed familiar, but I couldn't recall where I'd seen it. As I pondered, Ming Shu and others also descended one by one into the pavilion.

At that moment, to seize an early chance to rest, Chu Yi and Pangzi had already begun chiseling the ice disk with ice picks. But the sound felt off. Removing my gloves and touching it with bare hands, I realized: it wasn't ice, but a large round crystal.

Ming Shu also watched from the side as Pangzi and the others worked. The pavilion was pitch dark, so he hadn't seen the wolf-head carving. When we gathered close to examine the disk's material, the headlamps on our mountaineering helmets shone on it. Only then did Ming Shu follow suit and see it. His face suddenly changed—he hastily pulled out the Reincarnation Sect's scripture, pointed at the wolf-head demon god on the crystal disk, and said: This ice mountain crystal stone must not be broken. Inside lies the curse of the Bai Guo White Wolf Demon Slave. Break it, and the curse will be released.

I shook my head in disbelief. In the "Sixteen Characters Yin-Yang Feng Shui Secret Technique," it explains the layout of the Nine-Story Demon Pavilion. I'd seen something like this in the volcano—this layer couldn't possibly have any mechanism. This ice mountain crystal disk should be a "spirit cover" tomb ornament, present at every connecting level.

But I still wasn't clear on the difference between a "curse" and a "mechanism." At this point, even if I believed Ming Shu, it was too late. The crystal disk carved with the wolf-head demon slave had already been cracked by those few chisels just now—it only needed a light touch to shatter completely.