Chapter 211

Ming Shu was still hesitating, feeling that Shirley Yang was being somewhat arbitrary, leaving the path untaken and insisting on climbing those steep, towering green rocks, while Pangzi and I knew that Shirley Yang always took such matters seriously and never joked about them; since she was urging everyone to keep their distance so urgently, she must have detected signs of danger, and besides, after her reminder I could also see that the path up the mountain was indeed too smooth, with not a single blade of grass on it, certainly not a path made by people.

Our position in the lake was very close to that smooth, mirror-like road; no matter what fierce beast came rushing down from above, it would be impossible to resist in the water, so we dared not think further about what might be on the mountain, and quickly grabbed Ming Shu and Axiang, using hands and feet together to swim toward a patch of green rock on the left shore of the lake.

Although the lakeside was densely forested, there were few places where one could land; only that unusually smooth road was accessible, while the other two sides were sheer cliffs with no visible top, and additionally, on the left there was a large expanse of deep green giant rock, over ten meters high, which would require some effort to climb.

We swam to the base of the green rock, and just as I reached out to touch the icy stone wall, I heard from the distant end of the mountain road above a series of grating sounds of rubble scraping, as if some colossal creature was rapidly crawling out from deep within the mountains; everyone's hearts sank, hearing how quickly the sound approached—something capable of wearing the mountain path so smooth must be either a giant python or a "Dragon King Crocodile" or similar beast inhabiting the deep Kunlun Mountains; whatever it was, it was enough to make us drink a pot of tea, so we hurriedly grabbed our ice axes and hooked them onto the green rock to climb up.

But the green rock was covered in moss and steeply sloped, so the ice axe was not easy to handle; Shirley Yang's tiger claws were also awkward to retrieve from her backpack, so I found a climbing rope and made a loop, using the lassoing technique she had learned in Texas to throw the loop onto a protruding rock.

Seeing Ming Shu's agility, one would not think he was in his fifties; he moved like an old ape, no wonder after years of seafaring training—when escaping for his life, he was more agile than anyone, scrambling up the rope in a few moments and pulling himself onto a natural ledge in the middle of the green rock; Pangzi and I, along with Shirley Yang, supported Axiang from below, pushing her upward, and Ming Shu reached out and pulled her up.

Then he assisted Shirley Yang in climbing the rock; at this point, the rock with the rope looped around it had already loosened. Pangzi gave a tug and both rope and stone were pulled into the water. While Shirley Yang was re-preparing the rope, Pangzi and I suddenly heard a loud "splash" from behind—something had already leapt from the mountains and plunged into the lake.

Shirley Yang and Ming Shu lowered the climbing rope from the rock to receive us; Ming Shu, from above, saw the monster in the water. He had a habitual issue, possibly an early sign of Parkinson's syndrome: when nervous, his hands shook severely, and sooner or later he would be playing string instruments—whatever he held, he could not grip firmly, and now was no exception; he was holding a rock wedge intending to fix it in a rock crevice, but suddenly overwhelmed by tension, he let go, and the rock nail fell into the water.

Pangzi and I had just grabbed the climbing rope, intending to use it to pull ourselves up, but before we could exert force, the entire bundle of rope and rock nail came down; Pangzi and I, down below, angrily cursed Ming Shu for being an Italian on our side, always helping in the wrong way.

Shirley Yang wanted to fetch another rope, but realized it was already too late, and pointing at the water surface, she said to me: "First go into the underwater cave to hide."

Although Pangzi and I did not know what kind of monster had come from the water, we knew it was surely not to be provoked, and there was no room for maneuver—it arrived in an instant, so we had no choice but to hold our breath and sink to the lake bottom; this lake was not deep, the water was clear and transparent, visibility underwater was excellent, the submerged rocks were white, and there were several seepage holes on the lake bottom connected to underground sources, plus several deep depressions—truly a landscape of countless holes and cracks; this terrain was formed by wind erosion before the area was submerged, making this a special "wind-eroded lake"; after tens of millions of years of sea changes, this massive wind-eroded rock sank to the lake bottom; perhaps when the lifespan of this "wind-eroded lake" ends, the wind holes below will all collapse, and the lake water flowing from the mountains will rush into deeper underground regions, forming an underground waterfall. The various fish in the water were thrown into chaos; aside from the most numerous "white-bearded scaleless fish," there were also "red-scaled split-belly fish" and "long-tailed black carp inch-fish"; it was unclear whether it was the explosion near the "Gate of Disaster" earlier or the sudden entry of the monster into the water, but these fish were clearly frightened by the extreme energy and scattered into the caves to hide; the "white-bearded fish" might be a branch of catfish, and before they were under one meter in size, they were not adapted to underground environments; in the panic, fish swarming into the Gate of Disaster; again they swam back, preferring to risk being eaten by the water monster rather than leave this comfortably warm "wind-eroded lake."

As I just sank into the water, I noticed in the panicked fish school a creature five to six meters long, with four short legs, large black-and-white stripes on its body, resembling a giant lizard, shaped like a "torpedo," exerting full force in the water and charging straight at us.

The name of a fierce beast suddenly flashed in my mind: "striped flood dragon"; it fears heat and dreads cold; in 1972, a brother unit constructing at the base of the Kunlun Mountains' Mada Notcha Glacier once excavated the frozen corpse of such a beast from the ice layers; someone wanted to make it a specimen, but later, for unknown reasons, failed; at the time we even specially trekked hundreds of miles of mountain road to go see it; astonishingly, this creature is fiercer than the "Dragon King Crocodile," and its skin is thick and flesh tough—even a hunting rifle cannot harm it.

Pangzi and I, seeing the "striped flood dragon" come with swift ferocity, hesitated slightly, then immediately sank to the lake bottom behind an upright, oddly shaped wind-eroded rock; the "striped flood dragon"'s hard triangular head slammed into the rock, instantly shattering the snow-white, fragile wind-eroded rock into countless fragments, and taking advantage of the momentum, it broke through the water surface.

I was startled in my heart—oh no, it wants to leap out of the water to attack Shirley Yang and Ming Shu on the green rock—suddenly water splashed everywhere, white foam flew, and the "striped flood dragon" heavily fell back into the lake; it seemed its leap could not yet reach the prey on the rocks; the "striped flood dragon" then immediately followed with a looping dive downward, but it appeared to have no fixed target, randomly charging and colliding in the lake; the fish that could not escape in time were all bitten and crushed by it.

I seized the moment to take Pangzi's oxygen bottle and inhale two breaths, then together with him we slipped into a wind cave at the lake bottom amid the chaos; here many fish had also taken refuge, and now we and the fish schools paid no attention to each other, each hiding separately; soon I understood the intention of that "striped flood dragon"—it was continuously churning in the lake, trying to drive out the fish hiding in the wind caves; those white-bearded fish indeed could not withstand the fright, swimming out from the wind caves in all directions, flailing about, and the "striped flood dragon" seized the opportunity to launch a massacre; it seemed to have a blood-deep grudge against this school of fish, certainly not merely to fill its stomach.

The "white lake child fish" had previously formed a "fish formation," likely to defend against this violent natural enemy; the clear, transparent lake water was soon stained red with fish blood, and throughout the lake lay the remains of fish bitten to pieces; Pangzi and I hid in the wind cave, watching with pounding hearts, hoping to seize the chance to escape back to the green rock below and climb up, but climbing up would take at least half a minute, and if we encountered this blood-red-eyed "striped flood dragon" midway, its speed in water would exceed that of a torpedo; if we could not rely on favorable terrain to dodge, whether in water or on land, facing it directly would leave no chance of survival whatsoever, so we could only endure in the depths, waiting for an opportunity.

Pangzi's oxygen bottle on his body also had little oxygen left; just as we were not paying attention, the lake bottom suddenly presented an even more horrific scene: the "striped flood dragon," chasing and biting the fish school, happened to swim to the wind cave where Pangzi and I were hiding; at that moment, only a white flash mixed with blood was seen in the water—the old white-bearded fish at the lake bottom, unbeknownst to gods or ghosts, had already appeared behind the "striped flood dragon," twisted its body over ten meters long, flung its head forward, and violently struck the "striped flood dragon"'s sole soft spot—the abdomen; the "striped flood dragon" was struck and flipped in the water, its massive body twisted, then surged forward again, biting down on the spine of the old white-bearded fish; although this white-bearded fish lacked scales, its skin bore a ripple-like flesh scale that was also extremely tough, especially since this old fish had a massive body, making the thickness of its flesh scales far greater than that of other white-bearded fish.

The "striped flood dragon" relied on its sharp teeth, thick skin, and keen claws; the "old white-bearded fish" had lived many years, was experienced, and had a huge body and solid flesh scales—being bitten several times would not be fatal; the two entangled, fighting fiercely with no clear victor, and the entire lake was in an uproar; however, since a large volume of water flowed in from the mountain interior, and the seepage from some bottom wind caves at the lake bed was also considerable, waves of blood mist drifted with the flow and dispersed, and the water in the wind-eroded lake remained consistently clear and bright.

Pangzi and I saw clearly that this was a battle of two tigers, contending for survival space in the "wind-eroded lake," launching a decisive battle; why they fought to the death? Perhaps due to the lake's unique water quality, or perhaps an ancient feud between natural enemies? We could not know, but if we wanted to escape back to the lake surface, we had to act now; the two of us separately sucked the last remaining oxygen from our bottles dry, avoided the battling "striped flood dragon" and "old white-bearded fish" in the lake, felt along the edge of the wind-eroded rock, and swam to the surface.

Shirley Yang, on the green rock, looked down at the lake scene—far clearer than our view from below; seeing us surface amid the chaos, she lowered the climbing rope, this time daring not to let Ming Shu help.

As I climbed the rock, I looked back downward and saw the old fish had gained the upper hand, using its head to push the "striped flood dragon" down to the lake bottom for impact; blood foam came from the "striped flood dragon"'s mouth, and seeing it could not hold on, just as I reached the rock, I found the situation had suddenly reversed—from that mountain path another, even larger "striped flood dragon" had crawled out; the old white-bearded fish only focused on its immediate enemy, leaving its rear unguarded, and was seized from behind by the second "striped flood dragon," which bit its gills and dragged it into the largest wind cave in the depths of the "wind-eroded lake."

It seemed this fierce battle for the kingship of the "wind-eroded lake" was nearing its end; Pangzi wiped water from his face and said: "After they finish biting each other, we still need to hurry down to salvage some fish meat; Ming Shu threw the food supply backpack behind the crystal wall—otherwise, tonight we'd all go hungry."

I said to Pangzi: "It's too dangerous underwater—don't risk it for the blue rust particles; drop the buckwheat noodle dough; I still have some food in my pack; we can follow the method Chairman taught us years ago: eat dry when busy, eat wet when idle, and when neither busy nor idle, eat half-dry half-wet; everyone should ration their food, and we can still manage for another two or three days."

Pangzi said: "Only with a full belly from eating buckwheat can one have a clear mind to think; later I must go down to catch fish—there's no idle time in these deep mountains and old forests; who knows what we might encounter next; if we become a starving ghost and reach the underworld, we'll still have to endure hardship."

Shirley Yang stared at the movements in the lake; she clearly felt the underwater battle was far from over; hearing our words, she said to us: "The fish here cannot be eaten; years ago, the residents of E Luo Hai City all vanished overnight, and the outside world knows nothing of what happened; there are many legends about the destruction of E Luo Hai City, but one legend says that the military and civilians of that city all turned into fish in the water; although these legends are not very credible, it is true that Tibet has long had a custom of not eating fish, and moreover, such a large group of white-bearded fish is indeed strange; we'd better not invite trouble..."

In the transparent water of the "wind-eroded lake," suddenly tens of thousands of white lake child fish appeared, packed tightly together, as if they wanted to go to the lake bottom to rescue that old fish.

At this time the sky was gradually darkening, the atmosphere hazy; to see more clearly, Wu Pa climbed to the topmost layer of the green rock, but the scene behind the green rock was even more shocking than the fish battle in the lake—a depression lower than the lake's water surface, a vast wind-eroded rock ancient city resembling a giant beehive, with at least a dozen levels, protruding and embedded within, surrounded entirely by white wind-eroded rock; 【Wu Ai】 the caves above were countless, with a stone-carved eye mark—could this be the ancient legendary "E Luo Hai City"? I felt no joy at reaching my destination after a long journey; instead, I felt my body hairs about to stand on end, for what was chilling was that this city, though lit with lights, was yet deathly silent.