Chapter 27: Main text Chapter Twenty-seven Black Tower

Main text Chapter Twenty-seven Black Tower

Sand Sea Demon Lair 17

Who would have thought that Old Man An Liman would suddenly change his mind, shaking his head like a rattle drum, refusing to enter the ruins of Jingjue Ancient City no matter what, saying that dying companions in the desert is an ill omen, and what's more, Ha Aiguo was killed by a poisonous snake that was an emissary of the devil, the appearance of a poisonous snake with a black tumor on its head indicating that the legend that Hu Da abandoned this desert to the devil is true.

An Liman has strong religious convictions; without a place protected by Hu Da, even if we killed him, he would not go. We were helpless, so we rearranged things, letting him set up camp at the mountain pass to guard the camels and supplies.

I originally wanted Pangzi to stay and keep an eye on him, in case this old man fled at the critical moment, leaving us stranded…… If he ran away, it wouldn't matter; without camels, we'd have to drive back in Vehicle 11 all the way, and how far Vehicle 11 can go in the desert is hard to say.

Upon further thought, An Liman probably wouldn't run off alone, after all he's come this far, and besides, he hasn't yet received his guide's wages, which is no small sum, enough to support him for the rest of his life.

But because I've been too careless and suffered many losses, I now needed to be more cautious, so I grabbed An Liman's old man's hand and asked, 'Old sir, how does Hu Da punish those who lie and betray trust and righteousness?'

An Liman said: 'Well, it will turn his family's money into sand, even his salt will turn into sand together, and in the end he will starve to death, just like dying in the black desert, and after death he will go to the hot sand hell to suffer eighteen kinds of torment.'

Seeing his solemn words, I put my mind at ease; a person with firm religious faith has the advantage of fearing punishment after death, so they dare not do anything too contrary to heavenly principle and conscience.

Now only seven people entered the ancient city, among whom Ye Yixin was unconscious, carried on Chu Jian's back; the remaining five had to carry some equipment and weapons, plus food and water cans, so each person's load was not small.

There is a saying in the army: 'Whether you are a soldier or not, you carry forty catties.' This means that in the army, officers and soldiers, when marching, carry at least forty catties of equipment, and some also have to carry machine guns, flamethrowers, or anti-tank equipment and other infantry heavy weapons, making it even heavier.

I had been in the field army for ten years, carrying a lot of gear, and I didn't feel it much, but Professor Chen and the others couldn't take it; finally we had to go light and entered our final destination, 'Jingjue Ancient City'.

From the mountain pass to the ancient city it's not far; after a meal we reached the city gate, which had already collapsed beyond recognition, the moat in front of the city also filled with yellow sand, and we entered the city through a breach in the wall, where the surrounding ruins were deathly silent.

This was far from what I had imagined, and I couldn't help feeling greatly disappointed; the streets and houses in the city were either collapsed or in disrepair, looking okay from afar with some scale and grandeur, but up close there was nothing—just sand, rotting wood, and broken stones, where was any gold, silver, or treasure?

Only a few severely damaged giant wooden columns and beams remained, their vermilion lacquer long peeled off, still allowing a glimpse of the former luxury of the city.

We wanted to check out the few ruined houses near the city gate, but found that although the ruined houses were mostly exposed to the desert outside, the yellow sand inside was piled up to the roof.

Legend says this city was once destroyed by war; the allied forces stormed the palace, and just as the battle was nearing its end, a black sandstorm buried Jingjue Kingdom together with the city's residents and army indiscriminately deep in the yellow sand. Only in the nineteenth century did the shifting sands reveal it again.

On site, it basically matches the legend, except we didn't see any desiccated corpses; they must all be buried in the sand.

I found it boring, yet Professor Chen and the others seemed interested in everything in the ancient city, even able to stare at a broken wall for half a day.

I had to remind them that this young lady Ye Yixin was still ill; saving lives is the most urgent matter, and it seems the residential area of the city is filled with yellow sand, even a drinking well cannot be found, so we might as well go look in the palace, where there might be a water source.

Professor Chen slapped his own forehead: 'Ah, I'm old and muddle-headed; saving little Ye is urgent, let's hurry to the palace. In this desert kingdom, buildings are constructed near underground rivers close to the surface, some underground palaces even have rivers flowing through them, and palaces are generally in the city's center.'

Everyone searched for direction in the ruins, heading toward the city's center, when Pangzi said to me, 'Old Hu, do you know what I most want to eat right now? I most want to eat Hami melon and mare's milk grapes; a piece of watermelon would do too. Ah…… never mind, the more I talk the thirstier I get, my throat is practically smoking, and once I find the underground river I'll jump in for a bath first.'

I said to Pangzi, 'The Jingjue Queen's life before death was very luxurious; she surely often enjoyed chilled watermelon soaked in the cold underground river water, but even if that watermelon had been preserved to today, it would most likely have turned into watermelon stone, and the grapes probably into raisins.'

Pangzi complained: 'This damn place where not even a bird would shit, I can't imagine anyone ever lived here; next time don't offer me twenty thousand bucks, even if piles of gold and silver mountains were stacked before my eyes, I still wouldn't enter the desert; among the ways to die in this world, the most unpleasant is surely to die of thirst.'

Whenever death is mentioned, I think of Ha Aiguo, bitten to death by that strange snake; although he died quickly, I don't know how painful his final moments were. The snake's appearance is also odd: a black tumor on its head full of black fluid, and even if chopped in two it can still fly and injure people. Such a snake Shirley Yang has never seen, and I don't know whether there are any in this city.

The seven of us searched for a path through the ruins, detouring around collapsed and sunken areas, and after a long walk we reached the city's center, where the streets are quite broad; although yellow sand covers everything, the layout and pattern of the streets can still be discerned.

However, aside from that leaning black tower nearby, there are no other large buildings—not to mention the palace, even a decent dwelling doesn't exist; it's just eroded earthen walls everywhere.

Professor Chen said the palace here might be built underground, with too much sand in the city; let's go up the black tower and observe from a height to see if we can find the entrance to the underground palace.

The base of the tower and most of its arched stone gate are buried in the sand; this black tower is entirely carved from large stones of Zage Lama Mountain, standing six stories high, slightly tilted but still very sturdy. Besides the building material being extremely rare, at the very top of the tower there is a black olive-shaped stone ball.

Professor Chen put on his reading glasses, tilted his head up and looked for a while, then used a telescope, muttering to himself as he looked: 'Exactly, why didn't I think of that before?'

I wanted to ask what he hadn't thought of, but Professor Chen bent low and slipped into the tower gate, seeming eager to verify something, and we hurriedly followed behind.

The tower walls were densely inscribed with peculiar Ghost Cave script, each level having a black stone statue; the first level is a stone sheep, which is nothing special.

The second level is a stone elephant about the size of a person, with a high nose and deep eyes, half-kneeling in the tower. The third level is actually the 'Giant Pupil Stone Statue' we saw when we took shelter from the sandstorm in the nameless small town.

Professor Chen stopped on the third level of the black tower and said to us, 'It seems my guess is correct; the source of those giant pupil stone statues unearthed everywhere is Jingjue Kingdom, and the material is the black stone from Zage Lama Mountain.'

Sa Dipeng asked, 'Professor, what is this tower used for? Why does each level have a statue?'

Professor Chen said, 'I surmise this black tower is used to display the status of the Ghost Cave Clan; each level's stone statue represents a different rank. The first level is livestock; if I'm not mistaken, underground there should be another level holding the hungry ghosts of hell. The second level is ordinary people, including all the Hu people of the Western Regions, whose status is only above cattle and sheep, equivalent to slaves. The third level is this giant pupil human figure; I just saw that the stone ball at the top of the tower is shaped like an eye. The giant pupil stone statue and the eye-shaped totem represent this people's worship of the eye. Let's go up and take a look to see what holds a higher status in Jingjue Kingdom.'

Pangzi said, 'Even someone of my level can guess that; I bet the statue above is definitely the queen's.' Saying that, he rushed up to the fourth level.

I followed closely behind; upon going up and looking, I was surprised to find that the stone statue on this level had a snake's body with a human head, thick limbs, the hind limbs beast-like, the fore limbs human-shaped, holding a sword and shield, the head a male face, fierce and glaring with both eyes, resembling the wrathful vajra of inland temples, and the back of the statue's head also had a black ball, just like the strange snake in Zage Lama Mountain.

Meanwhile, Professor Chen and the others also came up one after another; seeing this strangely shaped stone statue, they clicked their tongues in wonder: 'This seems to be the kingdom's guardian deity; there is also a black ball shaped like an eye on its head, showing that the Ghost Cave people truly believe the eye is the source of all power, and the guardian deity's rank is still below the queen's, indicating that the Jingjue Queen was indeed deified. Come on, let's go to the fifth level to see if that is the queen's statue.'