Chapter 230

The black deity statue was actually just a mountain-sized boulder, only its interior had been hollowed out into a shell; since the rock was entirely pitch black, the space within was utterly devoid of light. Shirley Yang held the "Wolf Eye" flashlight and shone it toward the passage behind us. The narrow beam struck a corner, where we saw Ah Xiang standing with her head lowered, facing the wall. Until then, none of us had noticed her movements. Now we saw her standing there silently like a ghost, as if she had suffered another episode of soul-loss syndrome, and we couldn't help but worry for her. But beyond that, we felt an added sense of vigilance toward the good.

Before Shirley Yang could call her name, Ah Xiang turned around on her own, her face toward us. We saw her turn, and we nearly cried out in shock: her cheeks were streaked with two lines of black blood, like tears of blood. Though her eyes were open, they had lost all luster; the black blood flowed from her eyes.

Seeing Ah Xiang's eyes bleeding, Shirley Yang rushed forward to examine her wounds, but Ah Xiang suddenly raised her arm and pointed at the wall behind her, saying: "There's a woman there, she's on the wall…… not just here, every wall in the cave has a woman." As she spoke, her body swayed as if she might collapse.

Shirley Yang quickly stepped forward to support Ah Xiang, wiped the blood from her face, and carefully inspected her eye injury, but in the pitch darkness we could not see where the blood was coming from. When we asked her, she felt no pain; the blood seemed to come from her tear ducts. Fortunately, her eyes were not blinded, and everyone breathed a sigh of relief. At that moment, Ming Shu, who had been searching for fuel in the adjacent chamber, heard the commotion and rushed over, sighing deeply. He then told me that the yin energy here was too heavy; Ah Xiang had seen something unclean, causing her nose and eyes to bleed for no reason. Though such bleeding tears were extremely rare, they had occurred only twice in recent years: once when we visited Hong Kong's most haunted house, and once when we handled a "antique" salvaged from the South Sea that we couldn't bring up. Both times, Ah Xiang's unusual behavior had aroused Ming Shu's suspicion, and after much hesitation he had refrained from interfering. Later we learned that both incidents had triggered multiple unresolved murder cases. Ming Shu had not participated, truly a stroke of luck. Since Ah Xiang behaved so strangely within this deity statue, this place surely cannot be lingered in any longer, or else someone will surely die.

After finishing, Ming Shu recalled the swarms of poisonous snakes outside, especially the large snake dripping red saliva, and thinking of it made his flesh creep. After weighing the options, he said: although the yin energy here is oppressive, at least no vicious ghosts have crawled from the walls to claim lives. Thus he reiterated that black corresponds to flourishing water, and at this time we should naturally trust Brother Hu and not Ah Xiang; it's best to stay here.

Pangzi was checking the rifle's ammunition. Hearing Ming Shu urge everyone to leave quickly, he said: "I just saw those snakes outside already swarming in, whether north or west. If we retreat, we must do so at once; if we stay, we must quickly find a place where we can advance and retreat, with room to maneuver, so we can fight guerrilla-style and overcome the strong enemy."

I told everyone: "Forcing our way downward now is suicide. No matter which direction, we definitely cannot escape; even if we run as fast as we can, we cannot shake off those black snakes. Who knows how many holes are in this stone ancestor's body? Though we've blocked the entrance, we don't know if they have a back door. But compared to that, this place's terrain is narrow, easy to defend and hard to attack, so we should still be able to hold out for a while." Knowing that holding a desperate position is no solution, but for now we have no alternative.

Shirley Yang also agreed that under the current circumstances, we can hold but cannot run; regardless of speed, judging solely by terrain, any place to retreat to would inevitably be exposed and unobstructed, and once we ran, we would absolutely have no path to survival. Of course, if we remain here, it's merely a difference between dying early or dying late. So we should make full use of this time to see if we can find something nearby to repel snakes, which would allow us to break out.

While discussing strategy, everyone also kept busy, constantly moving things to block doors and passages, but the more we worked, the colder our hearts felt. This place has too many holes; we cannot possibly block them all. The sound of black snakes moving below grew nearer and nearer. Left with no choice, everyone continued to retreat upward, and along the way tried every means to slow the snakes' ascent.

We kept climbing upward; each level up, we pushed stone slabs to block the passage behind us. Finally we reached the top level. Looking at the terrain here, it was truly perilous to the extreme. Our position was a narrow passage, with three small stone caves on each side. The upward passage lay in a stone cave at the very end—this was the only way upward. But above was already open air; this deity statue's head only had half remaining, the portion above the nose unknown whether collapsed from age or otherwise, and now gone entirely. Climbing up from the passage, we could see three faces of cliff walls chopped by swords and axes, facing each other. This statue was originally immensely tall, but in this underground abyss it seemed rather insignificant. Standing on the deity's head, we felt as tiny as ants. I and Pangzi climbed to the exposed half of the deity's brain, looked down only once, and Pangzi nearly fainted. The gloomy airflow in the underground canyon formed a sound that could sob, and the air also carried a strange sulfur stench. This nightmare-like environment made one tremble with the urge to die; I dared not look again, and quickly dragged Pangzi back down to the lower level.

Shirley Yang placed Ah Xiang in a corner, letting her rest on her backpack. Seeing me and Pangzi come down, she asked whether there was a retreat route above. I shook my head; even standing briefly above made my heart race, and I didn't even want to think about leaving. But Ming Shu was nearby, and to avoid causing him panic, I didn't speak directly, only saying that we had reached the top here. Fortunately, the terrain of the deity's head constricts; as long as we block the upper passage, snakes cannot enter. This deity is too tall, and the outside angle is too steep; poisonous snakes could not enter from outside.

Fortunately, each stone cave layer contained some black stone slabs, resembling coffin lids, though we couldn't tell their purpose. We found a few suitably sized slabs, covered the upper entrance with them, then placed stones on top to weigh them down. It looked fairly secure; though the black snakes are fierce and venomous, they cannot bite through stone.

After confirming no gaps were missed, everyone sat together in a circle. Since each layer had obstacles, a large swarm of poisonous snakes would need at least one or two hours to climb up. This might be our final moments. My thoughts surged: this enormous deity, tens of meters high, we had lost count of how many levels we had ascended. Tactically, if used to resist a massive snake invasion, this top level would be the safest and most stable. But from another angle, there is no room to maneuver here. Once the snake swarm surges in, we have only two options: feed the snakes, or jump from tens of meters high into the canyon to commit suicide. Either way is unpleasant. I never imagined that at the final moment, we would fall into a dead-end with no life. Although since becoming a grave robber I have faced countless dangers, looking at the situation, this time our predicament is the most dire: no food, no water, lacking weapons and medicine, surrounded by steep cliffs we cannot climb, while hordes of giant venomous black snakes lurk below. I racked my brain for possibilities, and only growing wings could let us escape.

What sort of person is Ming Shu? When I spoke with Shirley Yang just now, although I did not directly say whether we could retreat, Ming Shu already understood. He shook his head helplessly, as if to say: even if the "Heavenly Mechanism" is miraculous, it cannot save those destined to die. Heaven has ordained that Lei Xianming shall die in "Great Black Heaven Thunderstrike Mountain."

I and Pangzi said to Ming Shu: "Don't hang your head in despair. When you first coerced us, that aura of severing chicken heads and burning child paper—where did it go? Are you really suffering from split personality? When timid, you're braver than a rabbit's gall; when bold, for the sake of words you'd even pierce a hole in the sky. You've lived this long—how can you still be so unclear about life and death? Ah Xiang hasn't acted like you; can't you set a proper example for us juniors? Know this: how many pairs of admiring eyes are earnestly looking at you?"

I and Pangzi have always held a grudge against Ming Shu's actions at the altar. Though the situation is dire, since we have the chance, we naturally want to take the opportunity to mock him. But before we two could unpack the implications of our words, Shirley Yang interrupted, asking Ming Shu: "Ah Xiang's background is so pitiful; can you tell us about her past? What was her history like? Also, as you mentioned earlier, Ah Xiang once had two episodes of bleeding tears in Hong Kong—what were the details?"

Upon hearing this, I also felt curious. I looked toward Ah Xiang and saw her head resting on Shirley Yang's lap, drowsy and asleep, likely due to blood loss. Since entering the underground altar from the Wind-Eroded Lake, her spirits have been listless. Now that she has stopped moving, she has fallen asleep; she indeed needs proper rest. However, in her sleep she seemed to be trembling.

Seeing Shirley Yang's request, Ming Shu did not feel troubled, but at this moment, with our lives hanging by a thread, what else is there to say? Still, he recounted Ah Xiang's entire past. Ah Xiang's parents were also overseas Chinese of American nationality, devoted followers of the famous worldwide secret religious sect "Scientology." Although "Scientology" bears the characters for science, its doctrines are actually extreme idealism: they believe the gods of ancient Earth civilizations were extraterrestrials, and they strive to develop human potential. Many social elites, including government officials, renowned directors, and movie stars, are devout followers of this sect. They have collected numerous strange and mysterious ancient secret documents, studying them obsessively, forgetting sleep and food. A group of people in Tibet's secret manuscripts learned of a method to open the heavenly eye: place a newborn girl in an isolated stone chamber, forbid her from seeing any human or animal eyes, and after ten years, the child thus raised can supposedly see the "spirits" of the gods.

However, "Scientology" also has its own views: they consider this ancient, mysterious method not to be baseless, because scientists worldwide have long pointed out that all mammals, fish, amphibians, birds, and reptiles possess a third eye invisible from the surface, located in the upper part of the thalamus nerves in the brain—the "pineal gland." In vertebrates, the pineal gland mostly lies beneath the skin at the top of the skull. It is highly sensitive to light, heat, and minute microbial electromagnetic waves. Due to its proximity to the thalamus nerves, those with a developed pineal gland perceive surrounding objects with sensitivity far exceeding ordinary people. Legends say some people have yin-yang eyes or have opened the heavenly eye; if not innate, this results from a sudden severe illness or surviving a great catastrophe. This ancient secret method may thus be a time-honored tradition—achieving the opening of the heavenly eye through ten years of extreme stillness.

Ah Xiang's birth parents were firm believers in this theory, so they secretly used their own daughter as an experiment: from the moment she was born, they placed her in a sterile environment, requiring anyone approaching her to wear special goggles to prevent her eyes from contacting any living being's eyes. By the time she was nearly ten, her birth parents died in an accident. Ah Xiang had no relatives; Ming Shu was wealthy at the time, and to conceal his disreputable business, he needed a good social image, so he frequently engaged in charity, taking in Ah Xiang as one such case. Unexpectedly, several times later, Ah Xiang saved his life—most dangerously during the incident known as "Hong Kong's Most Haunted House," and once during the "South Sea Bone Jar."