Chapter 127: Crack (Part 1)

The Changbai Mountains are a potential active volcano. According to historical records, the last small-scale eruption was about a thousand years ago. Although the volcano is now dormant, the geothermal heat in the area is extremely abundant, and many geological fissures and lava vents from the volcanic period still maintain extremely high temperatures. Behind this coiled dragon seal stone, there might be a hot crack emitting steam, which is why there is a smell of sulfur.

This was undoubtedly good news for us. In such an environment, having a stable heat source is definitely more economical and practical than lighting a campfire. However, the huge black coiled dragon seal stone was pressing down on top. By eye, it weighed at least a dozen tons. We had no mining equipment, so turning it over was really a bit difficult.

Fatty was a man of action. He rolled up his sleeves and called us to move the stone. Several of us went up and tried to lift it a couple of times. The whole group was sweating profusely, faces red with exertion, but the stone didn't budge an inch.

Fatty panted and cursed, "It's no good, old man. I told you our gear wasn't enough. Look at this situation—if only we had some explosives!"

Monk Hua said, "If you don't understand, don't spout nonsense. Our boss has crossed more bridges than you've walked roads. Not bringing explosives was the right call. Think about it—we're at the bottom of a valley, with snow-capped peaks above you. If you set off a blast anywhere, the snow would be shaken loose and bury us alive in no time."

Fatty had no comeback. At that moment, I noticed that along the lower edge of the coiled dragon seal stone, there were many stones of various sizes wedged in. A sudden idea struck me, and I said to them, "Maybe we don't need explosives. Let me handle it."

With that, I took a stone hammer from the luggage, walked to one side of the coiled dragon seal stone, and carefully inspected a few of the larger stones underneath. Then I aimed at one of them and struck it hard. That stone, already under a dozen tons of pressure, took the sideways hammer blow and immediately cracked. Then came a series of grinding noises, and the coiled dragon seal stone above, its support suddenly changed, began to slide down the rocky slope.

We quickly backed away. The coiled dragon seal stone slid down a few inches and then began to tilt, but the stone was simply too heavy—it stopped after moving only a little. Still, we could see that behind the seal stone, a rock fissure in the mountain was exposed.

The rock fissure was about the width of a head, just barely wide enough for a person to squeeze through. The edges of the opening looked like torn rock layers, with no signs of artificial carving. The wafts of sulfur smell were coming from inside.

Fatty turned up his flashlight, reached his arm inside to look, then turned back and said, "It's warm in there, but the angle is awkward—can't see much. And, there seem to be characters on the rock wall inside."

"What does it say?" I asked.

Fatty squinted and looked carefully, then said, "Can't read it. Damn, I don't know what it says."

With that, he tried to hunch over and crawl in, but Fatty was indeed too fat. The hole was obviously not suitable for him. He tried to squeeze in several times but couldn't. Finally, he took off his overcoat and managed to squeeze in.

Chenpi A'si had Ye Cheng, Lang Feng, and Panzi stay outside to keep an eye on things. We followed Fatty and crawled into the fissure.

This entire place was just a rock fissure that had split open during a mountain movement. After entering, we found the fissure sloped steeply downward. It was extremely dark and appeared to go very deep, probably leading into the mountain's interior.

The space near the fissure's opening was small; two people couldn't walk side by side. And inside it was very hard to walk—the bottom was full of large, angular rocks. The sulfur smell was very strong, and the temperature was at least thirty degrees. When we touched the rocks, they were even hot.

We crawled forward a few steps on all fours. Fatty shone his flashlight to one side and said, "Look, what are these characters?"

I turned my head. The characters were not carved on the fissure wall, but on a block of stone lying horizontally among the rubble at the bottom. They were several unfamiliar characters, a bit like Chinese and a bit like Korean, carved very haphazardly.

Monk Hua leaned in to look, then confirmed, "They're Jurchen script." "What does it say?" Fatty asked.

Monk Hua said, "Wait, I'm not that good. I'll need to study it to know. Let me copy it down first."

We waited a moment while Monk Hua copied the characters into his notebook. Fatty took the lead, and we lined up single file and continued deeper into the cave.

Call it walking, but actually we used our hands more than our feet. The entire fissure sloped downward at almost thirty degrees, without any steps, so we had to crawl down. Inside, it was sometimes wide, sometimes narrow, sometimes high, sometimes low. In some places, we had to sit to get through.

The only comfortable thing was that it was much warmer inside. As we crawled, we started sweating and had to unbutton our clothes. Then Fatty asked, "Old man, do you think that seal stone blocking this fissure might not be a coincidence?"

Chenpi A'si mused, "To build a tomb, they use local materials. All the rubble outside suggests this was a quarry for stone when the tomb was built. Perhaps they discovered this fissure while quarrying, and for some unknown reason, they sealed it with a stone in the end."

After descending less than a hundred meters, the sulfur smell grew stronger and the rocks turned blacker, showing a lustrous glaze—traces of mica melted at high temperatures. I exclaimed, and inside I was thinking, this must be a volcanic lava vent. The Changbai Mountains are a potential active volcano. If it suddenly erupted and magma burst out from inside the mountain, we'd be dead for sure.

Lost in these wild thoughts, suddenly the two people in front stopped. Shining the flashlight, we saw that the fissure ahead abruptly narrowed, with rocks piled up, leaving only a tiny gap to go down.

I crouched down and shone the flashlight inside. It was caused by a partial collapse of the fissure; the space inside was very small, and it looked like we would have to crawl on our bellies to get in.

Chenpi A'si looked at the opening and knew that with his physical strength, he couldn't crawl in. After a discussion, I had Monk Hua stay with him to wait for us. The three of us—me, Fatty, and Poker-face—would go in to see what else was inside.

We took off our outer coats to minimize our bulk. This time, Poker-face took the lead. The three of us went down one after another, squeezing bit by bit into that crack.

I thought this collapsed section was just temporary, that after crawling a few steps forward, there would definitely be an exit. If it turned out to be a dead end, we could turn back in time. But unexpectedly, this section was very long. We crawled for a long time, and still there was passage ahead. It was surprisingly deep.

The rocks inside were very sharp. After crawling a few steps, my clothes were already torn in several places. The rocks pressed against my lungs, and with the temperature rising higher, I gradually began to feel difficulty breathing.

Fatty behind me felt the same. He grabbed my foot and said, "It's no good. The air quality in here might be bad. We came in without checking first—too reckless."

I wanted to look back, but the space was too small—I really couldn't. Considering we had already crawled such a long distance, it was a waste to go back now. Moreover, in the current situation, crawling backward would probably be even more painful than coming. So I said, "Let's go a few more steps. If we still don't reach the bottom, we'll back out."

Fatty agreed. At that moment, suddenly, Poker-face ahead let out a sound: "Huh?"

I turned my head to look forward, but ahead was empty. The Poker-face who had been blocking my view just now had disappeared, leaving only a dark rocky passage, leading who knows where.