Chapter 114: Escape

This red eye was filled with throbbing blood vessels, looking extraordinarily eerie. The moment I met its gaze, I felt as if my soul was being pulled away, with intense nausea and dizziness, so I quickly turned my face away.

Liang Shiye, however, seemed possessed, his eyes fixed blankly on that bloodshot eye, not moving at all. I called out to him twice, but there was no response.

Liang Shiye had said that the yin eye of the Zhu Jiuyin connects to hell. I knew something was wrong, so I quickly cupped a handful of water and splashed it at him.

But whether it was because the Zhu Jiuyin suddenly leaned forward or something else, that handful of water didn't hit Liang Shiye; instead, it splashed onto the Zhu Jiuyin's head.

Startled by the splash, the Zhu Jiuyin closed its eyes, pulled its head back, and prepared to attack. I quickly pressed myself behind the bronze tree. Its head slammed into the bronze tree, bending all the branches. At that moment, I thought of the backpack I had taken from Old Yang, which might contain some weapons, so I hurriedly swung the backpack around to the front.

There was definitely no gun in his bag, but I remembered there were a few blasting tubes they had originally used to blow up tomb walls. Now unarmed, I thought having something with a bit of power to intimidate these things might help.

The Zhu Jiuyin coiled around one side of the bronze tree. As I moved to keep out of its sight, I scrambled and crawled up, grabbed the backpack, and reached inside.

The backpack was stuffed full. I took out all the food and threw it into the water, finally pulling out what I thought were blasting tubes. Upon looking, I was stunned—damn, I had been too careless earlier. That bundle turned out to be black candles.

At that moment, the snake head had already come around. Seeing me, it suddenly bent its neck again, assuming an attacking posture.

The average attack speed of a snake is only a quarter of a second. Though this one was bigger, it probably wasn't much slower. I knew that if I delayed another second, I was done for, so I grabbed the backpack and jumped into the water.

But I was still too slow in my descent. Suddenly, a black shadow flashed, and the shooting snake head caught me in midair. Then it coiled its body, trying to wrap me up.

I fumbled blindly in the backpack. At that moment, I touched the flare gun they used. In a panic, I pulled the trigger out of instinct. The backpack blew a huge hole. In the chaos, I didn't even know if the flare exploded inside the snake's mouth, but I felt a heat at my thumb, and then everything spun.

I landed in the water with a splash and came up for air. Turning back, I saw that the flare inside the Zhu Jiuyin's mouth was emitting a blazing white light. The air was filled with a smell of candles, and for some reason, blue smoke started rising from its entire body.

The fat in this snake's body is highly flammable—that's why the ancients hunted it to make candles—but I never expected it to catch fire so easily. What exactly is flowing inside its body? The Zhu Jiuyin was in extreme pain, no longer caring about us. It writhed continuously, its massive tail slapping against the rock. On that side, a huge crack had already appeared. As it kept slapping, the crack spread into several smaller ones, and the entire rock face kept splitting, as if the whole cave might collapse.

I didn't know if the Zhu Jiuyin would die that easily. I continued rummaging through the backpack, but there was nothing useful left. I threw the backpack into the water. At that moment, suddenly, the underwater current rolled, and the pool water surged into the crack created by the Zhu Jiuyin.

The mountain was full of interconnected caves. It seemed the crack had broken through to another part of the mountain. I had no idea where the water was going. I took one last look at the ancient bronze tree, then searched around for Liang Shiye, but he was nowhere to be seen. Seeing the rocks above start to collapse in large chunks from the gushing water, and the Zhu Jiuyin thrashing wildly, I quickly leaned back and let the current sweep me into the crevice.

The crevice was extremely deep, pitch black inside. Since it was a collapse-formed passage, the rocks were very irregular, and the water created many whirlpools. I tumbled and bumped along, barely aware that I was being carried downstream.

After about ten minutes of spinning, I suddenly felt free fall, then plunged headfirst into water. I struggled to the surface and saw that I had been carried into the underground river from when we came. The current here was much faster than what we had seen earlier. It must have been, as Liang Shiye said, that it had rained heavily outside.

Though the current here was very fast, there weren't as many whirlpools as in the rock crevice, and the water was a bit warm. I managed to control my posture and began to think about the situation ahead.

This underground river flowed downward, and I had no idea where it led. If it plunged straight into the earth dozens of meters deep, I'd have nothing to say. But judging by the direction we came from, if it didn't change course significantly, I estimated I would be swept into the river we had crossed earlier.

Of course, that was assuming the journey went smoothly. I stared nervously ahead, afraid of any forks. At that moment, a glint caught the corner of my eye—something was carved on the wall of the underground river.

Judging by the rock erosion, the history of this underground channel should be as old as the mountain itself. Whatever was on it probably wasn't carved in recent times. I seized an opportunity, grabbed a stalactite hanging from the ceiling, stopped myself, and shone my flashlight. I was stunned.

Both sides of the river wall were covered with the same relief carvings as those inside the coffin on top of the bronze tree—continuous scenes in succession. Some had collapsed, but most were well-preserved, with smooth, flowing lines, drifting folds in clothing, each side different, vivid and dynamic.

One look at these reliefs told me they depicted the ancient minority's ritual of worshipping the bronze tree. The scenes were extremely vivid. In one relief, the giant bronze tree was hung with the corpses of slaves, their blood flowing into the tree, converging down its grooves. In another, they were throwing the corpses of slaves into the interior of the bronze tree. A large part of the reliefs was submerged in water; the bottom had been worn smooth by the current, indicating that there was no water here when they were carved.

Judging from these reliefs, the scale of the bronze tree ritual was enormous. But as I continued watching, I found it increasingly strange. Some reliefs depicted scenes that were different from the ritual, and I couldn't understand them.

One relief showed the ancient ancestors pouring some liquid into the bronze tree. In the next, a "Zhu Jiuyin," exactly like the one we had just seen, emerged from the bronze tree. Many ancestor-like warriors surrounded it with bows, arrows, and spears—clearly a hunting scene.

Based on my earlier understanding, this bronze tree was supposed to be a symbol of divine authority in ancient times. The "Zhu Jiuyin" inside was considered a dragon in antiquity, even elevated to the status of Pangu in some anecdotal novels. It should have been worshipped as a divine beast. Why would these people hunt it?

I continued looking, hoping to find the answer later. There were more ritual scenes—all the ancestors wore masks, their expressions blank. But in every relief, there was one figure carved especially large and robust. From his clothing and demeanor, I could basically tell that this person was their leader, and he should be the original of the statue I saw on the cliff at Jiazigou.

The head of that statue had been blown off by a bomb. I had always felt something was off, but I hadn't seen his head throughout the journey. This time, I could get a good look.

Holding onto the stalactite above, I pressed close to the rock beside me, wiped off the grime, and leaned in to look.

The image of the leader in the relief was almost twice as large as the others, like a giant. If, as I had previously assumed, all carvings here were to scale, then this leader might really have been that tall.

But strangely, in all these reliefs, the leader had a snake head growing from his neck, and it didn't look like he was wearing a mask or anything.

Although I have some archaeological knowledge, I didn't have enough reading background to make sense of this. I only knew that based on the literal meaning of these reliefs, I felt that Liang Shiye's earlier judgment might have been off. This bronze tree might not have been purely for rituals, but for some kind of hunting ceremony. The sacrificed slaves might have been bait to lure the Zhu Jiuyin out of the ground.

The bronze tree extended deep into the earth—who knows how deep. These Zhu Jiuyin must live in extremely deep underground. How they survive in such a place is beyond me. I was just very curious: why did these ancient people go to such lengths to hunt the Zhu Jiuyin? The reliefs didn't give me the answer. At the end, there were only celebration scenes; what they did with the hunted Zhu Jiuyin wasn't carved.

I had a basic understanding of the situation. I checked the water level, which seemed to be rising, so I let go of my hands and continued drifting downstream with the current.

After so much time, my flashlight had become very dim, until finally it was completely useless. I turned it off and drifted in the darkness.

This period was very tough. I was swept down several small waterfalls several times, not fatal, but I ended up bruised and battered. For hours, I didn't know what was around me or where I was going.

I began to feel desperate. I didn't know if I had turned or entered a fork. If my judgment was wrong, I might now be being carried into the depths of an endless underground river. Where did this river lead? Would it take me to the strata where the Zhu Jiuyin lived? What kind of place was that? Or maybe some emperor's tomb was built deep in the underground river—that would be an interesting idea. Just as I was letting my mind wander, I suddenly saw a glimmer of light ahead. It jolted me, and then I heard a rumbling sound of water. Overjoyed, I knew it must be an exit. I hadn't seen natural light for over ten hours. I threw away my flashlight and swam forward.

I was moving extremely fast. In just a few minutes, my vision suddenly flashed, then a blinding white light, and I couldn't see anything—it was visual lag from not seeing light for too long. I yelled in my heart, but at that moment, a familiar feeling suddenly came from beneath me.

Another free fall! Another waterfall!

And judging from the force of the water rushing out and the sound coming from below, this waterfall was certainly not small. I didn't know what was below. If the water was too shallow, I would die unjustly.

A roar filled my ears. In a flash, before my vision could recover, I plunged headfirst into the water. At that moment, I reached down and immediately touched a rock. Damn, it was too shallow! As soon as I realized this, my head hit something, my vision went black, and I knew nothing more.