Chapter 212: Main Text Chapter 214 Ox Head

Main Text Chapter 214 Ox Head

Under the shroud of twilight mist, the 'E Luo Hai City' had countless specks of lights inside, appearing especially hazy in the thin, almost invisible fog, as if the city's residents had already lit candles, preparing to welcome night's arrival, yet the city was deathly silent, devoid of any vitality; after just a few glances I broke out in a cold sweat. Legend says the city's residents vanished mysteriously, and even the later Reincarnation Sect has been extinct for hundreds of years, so how could there still be light in this city? A city that could hold tens of thousands had not a stir, so it seems it is not a 'dead city' but a 'ghost city'.

Just as I was astonished, the others gradually climbed to the top of the green rock; like me, seeing this ancient city that held the huge contrast of 'death' and 'life', they were speechless for a long time.

It is said that the ancient city of Pompeii from the Roman era was also destroyed overnight by a volcanic eruption disaster; later archaeological excavations found that the residents, at the moment of death, still retained the appearance of their normal daily lives at home, and the posture of Pompeii City was forever frozen at that instant of destruction.

Yet the ancient city before us seems to have had its residents completely evaporated into thin air; only the beehive-like 'E Luo Hai City' stands brightly lit in the twilight, so perfectly preserved that it feels as if it has broken free of time's shackles, unchanged over thousands of years—what disaster could have happened here? Just thinking about it is terrifying.

We inevitably thought this city might be a 'ghost bite', but after asking A Xiang we got a negative answer: this devil's lair truly exists, not a phantom created by dead spirits.

We were about to discuss how to enter the city when we suddenly heard the lake water churning in the 'Wind Erosion Lake' below the cliff; the sky was not yet completely dark. Looking down from above, the crystal-clear Wind Erosion Lake lay fully visible, though somewhat blurred and hazy; the 'White Bearded Old Fish' and the two 'Banded Flood Dragons' had already settled their fierce battle, with tens of thousands of white-bearded fish, to help their ancestors, fearlessly ramming the Banded Flood Dragon underwater with their bodies.

Each white-bearded fish has a deep red spot on the top of its head, seemingly its strongest part; averaging about half a meter in length, they can launch themselves in the water with enough force to make a person spit blood. Although the pair of Banded Flood Dragons are fierce and tenacious, being struck by eight or ten large fish does not faze them. But they cannot withstand the frantic barrage of tens of thousands of large fish, especially when the old fish seizes the moment to counterattack; the Banded Flood Dragons cannot defend themselves and retreat to the riverside woods. The trees knocked askew by the impacts vanished instantly.

The battered old fish floated in the lake, its flesh and scales bitten away by the Banded Flood Dragon in many places; a large chunk of its gills was torn off, and its offspring gathered around, using their mouths to plug the wound. More and more white-bearded fish assembled, and within moments they re-formed the 'fish formation'—a vast dark mass covering the surface of the Wind Erosion Lake.

Seeing the fish formation slowly sink to the lake bottom, I thought: it seems the white-bearded fish and the Banded Flood Dragon often have such fierce clashes; the Banded Flood Dragon appears to want to exterminate the fish entirely, not merely to eat them, yet the fish have a fish king leading them, so even though the Banded Flood Dragon is formidable, it hardly gains any advantage—could their conflict simply be over contention for this rare Wind Erosion Lake? What makes this lake special? Perhaps it involves many ancient secrets, but we have no time to ponder now; while the sky is not yet totally dark, we should first enter the E Luo Hai City.

Shirley Yang asked whether we should go straight into the city; although lights were clearly flickering inside, it was eerily quiet, a strange sign that made one feel apprehensive.

I said to Shirley Yang: 'If you don't enter the tiger's den, how can you get the tiger's cub? Since A Xiang said there's nothing unclean in the city, I think we've already suffered thirty-six defeats and still have nothing to fear; however, this ancient city indeed exudes an evil air from inside to out, and seems to hide unimaginable things, so we can only take it in stride and charge straight in.'

Then everyone took the remaining supplies and sought a path into the city; the ancient city resembled a giant beehive, sunk underground, with barrel-like white walls that seemed mere decoration, lacking much defensive function, yet vast in scale—going around would be laborious. Strange thin mists drifted through the city; the houses were all cavities in the beehive, interconnected in every direction. Worried about getting lost, we dared not rush in, only peeking into a few entrances, and the more we looked, the more our hearts pounded.

Although there was not a single person in sight, within ten li seven or eight households had lit lamps; these lamps were not eternal flames but ancient fuel made from mixed dried animal dung and oil, seemingly just lit not long ago. Moreover, although the city and its caverns are old, they show none of the wear of a thousand-year-old ruin—some utensils and animal hides inside look brand new, and there is even a half-polished skull cup.

Time in this city truly seemed to have frozen; the frozen moment appears to be exactly when the city's residents vanished. We discussed that wandering at night in the city easily leads to getting lost, and the streets of E Luo Hai City—including government, educational, religious institutions and key buildings—might lie deep within the great beehive. The city has thousands of gates and households, utterly unlike ordinary urban layouts. The safest course for now is to wait until dawn, examine the beehive's structure from the outskirts, find a shortcut into the deep sanctuary, and absolutely not blunder about recklessly in the city; when it's time to play the fool we cannot be vague, but when caution is needed we must not act rashly.

We had originally planned to spend the night on the city wall, but when we passed a hole at the base of the wall, Pangzi sniffed like a hound catching a rabbit's scent, inhaled and said: 'What smell is so fragrant? It's like someone's family is stewing beef—damn the ox demon king's sister—this really scratches an itch for Grandpa Pang.'

Hearing Pangzi say that, I also seemed to smell the aroma of boiled beef coming from that cave dwelling; I was worried our food was running short, not enough to distribute, and just earlier by the Wind Erosion Lake shore I'd said we could last two or three days— that was just comforting the group, actually not even enough for one meal—so upon smelling the meat we naturally had to go look. Right then Pangzi and I led the way into the cave; sure enough, the stone cauldron held yak meat boiling till tender, steaming, truly fragrant and tasty, with flavors well balanced.

Pangzi swallowed his saliva and said to me: 'Commander Hu, we really get what we wish for. Though butter is fragrant and sweet, it's not as good as tsampa after eating; tsampa may be fine, but it still can't match yak meat for staving off hunger—this pot of beef must have been prepared for us, right? …Can we eat it?'

In this city devoid of any human figure, there was actually a pot of freshly cooked beef boiling. This is hard to fathom by ordinary reasoning; I recalled when I first went down to the countryside as an educated youth, in the 'Ox Heart Mountain' of the Nine Dragon Cover Jade Lotus, 【I love】 eating that old lady's fruit. Could this also be a ghost market set up by spirits? All sorts of frogs and earthworms transformed into illusions—eating them would give you diarrhea. Thinking of this, I couldn't help hesitating; the condition of this meat is unclear, so better not to eat it—although it looks like beef, maybe the pot is actually cooking human flesh.

At this moment Uncle Ming was also hungry to the point of his chest sticking to his back; he and Pangzi stared straight at the yak meat in the pot, and in a short while they had probably already eaten several pieces with their eyes. I asked Shirley Yang whether she had any opinion about this pot of meat.

Shirley Yang shook her head decisively, then confirmed with A Xiang again: the yak meat being cooked in this pot is genuinely real, without any adulteration.

Upon hearing A Xiang say that, Pangzi could wait no longer, unafraid of the heat, he reached out, pinched a piece of meat and swallowed it: 'I sacrifice myself for righteousness, I'll taste first for the comrades—if the meat has poison or medicine, let it affect me first.' He spoke while eating, and before finishing a sentence he had already swallowed seven or eight pieces of beef down his throat, impossible to stop.

We waited a moment, seeing he had finished with no ill effects; by then Pangzi himself had polished off half the pot of beef. I thought we couldn't keep observing—if we waited any longer even his mother's cucumber greens would get cold. Since there was no poison, what was there not to dare eat? So everyone steeled themselves, preferring death to starving as ghosts, and they all used paratrooper knives to fish the beef out of the pot and eat it.

As I ate, I suddenly thought of something and told Uncle Ming: 'Tomorrow at first light we want to go into the deep part of the great beehive; we don't know what dangers lie there, and it surely won't be peaceful. You and A Xiang should stay outside the city where it's safer, and after we finish we'll come out to meet you.'

Uncle Ming had a mouthful of beef chunks, wanting to speak but unable; in his anxiety he simply gulped the meat down whole, choking and rolling his eyes for a while, then he said to me: 'We're sooner or later going to be one family—why are you talking like an outsider? Though I and A Xiang aren't very capable, we can still help you a bit…'

Before, Uncle Ming had said he wanted to marry A Xiang to me, a matter we two had discussed privately; I had never agreed. Now Uncle Ming said we would eventually be one family, and Shirley Yang, hearing this, immediately asked Uncle Ming: 'What do you mean by one family? Are you trying to become kin with Old Hu?'

Uncle Ming said: 'Yeah, I see Old Hu Brother's character is beyond reproach—when a man grows up he should marry, when a woman grows up she should wed; as their elder I naturally ought to look out for them. If my foster daughter marries him, she'll have support for life, and when I die I'll be able to close my eyes in peace, counting it as making good on A Xiang's biological parents.'

I hurriedly cut off Uncle Ming's words: 'For thousands of years, the blood of China's working people has flowed into seas; we fought, lost, fought again after loss, until final victory, all to overthrow the three great mountains weighing on our Chinese people. I have revolutionized half my life, only to end up wanting to arrange a feudal arranged marriage for me? Wanting me to suffer bitterness twice over and create more sins? I firmly oppose this—whoever brings it up again, I will revolt against them.'

Pangzi had just eaten his fill; he always loves to stir up trouble, so upon hearing us he immediately joined in, saying to Uncle Ming: 'Uncle, I'm your paternal uncle—don't bother with the Eight One 【August 1st】, get him a wife; this is a windfall like a pie falling from heaven, but he stubbornly dislikes that the filling isn't the three fresh kinds—why not give A Xiang to me instead? My parents died early; reckon I could marry into your house as a reverse son-in-law? From now on I'll treat you as my real father and be filial; when you pass, I guarantee I'll howl from Tiananmen to Babaoshan for you, promising Chairman Mao—not a single pause—however sorrowful I feel… just as much as…'

Pangzi patted Uncle Ming; I nearly spat out the beef in my mouth. Just then a lowing of a yak came from the depths of the cave dwelling, breaking everyone's chatter; all inside heard it. Although a yak's sound is not strange in Tibet, hearing it in this silent ancient city, plus we had just eaten beef, was enough to make our scalps tingle.

I had Shirley Yang stay behind to look after Uncle Ming and A Xiang, waved at Pangzi, and the two of us picked up our weapons, holding the 'Wolf Eye' as we sneaked into the cave's depths. When I entered I had glanced around briefly; the structure was much like the other caves, except there seemed to be an extra stone door. Having looked at several caves and found no one inside, I just took a casual look thereafter without paying much attention; but upon reaching the stone door I sensed something was wrong.

The stone door was slick, with a bloody handprint; it seemed someone's blood‑soaked hand had slapped it, and in their haste they pulled the door shut. Touching it, the stain appeared still fresh, not having been there long.

I nodded to Pangzi; he stepped back two steps, then lunged forward, slamming the stone door open with his shoulder. I followed, raising my gun, but inside there was still no sign of people—only the walls all around smeared with fresh blood, the stone slab and wooden posts in the middle equally crimson. Seeing piles of fresh yak meat, this was the city's slaughterhouse; a few hides still bloody and steaming, as if just peeled off the cattle.

Having just eaten the cooked beef, Pangzi and I both felt a bit nauseous; suddenly we sensed something above us, and when I jerked my head up I saw a bovine head two or three times larger than an ordinary yak, hanging upside down, its skin stripped away, eyes wide open, blood and flesh dripping, its nostrils still blowing air, half a tongue lolling out, seeming still alive, it let out a heavy groan toward Pangzi and me.