Chapter 143: Entering the Drainage Tunnel

We stayed at the cave entrance for a long time, discussing the possibility of this cave; during that time, Chenpi A'si suddenly stiffened and died for a while, then miraculously recovered, leaving us baffled, but Chenpi A'si seemed unwilling to mention what had just happened, so we had no choice but to shift our attention back to this strange ice cave.

We gathered around the edge of the cave, discussing the specifics of going down; although all of us had experienced quite a few cave explorations, they had been on plains and in mountain areas, vastly different from this place, so we needed to plan carefully.

At the start, the cave descended at an angle of about forty degrees; it was very deep and not easy to navigate—just now, Fatty and the others fell down, and if they couldn't control their posture, it would be extremely dangerous, as they might roll inside the cave and smash their heads flat at the bottom.

Panzi threw down a glow stick; the yellow cold light quickly rolled down, bounced a few times far away, and then disappeared.

If Monk Hua's explanation was correct, recalling the layout between the two snow mountains, this cave must be a "V"-shaped route that goes down and then up; since the two snow mountains belong to the same mountain range, the valley between the peaks is also at a high altitude, and the distance of this "V"-shaped route should not exceed five kilometers.

Of course, if the craftsmen at the time were foolish and liked to dig in a "Z" shape, then we would have no choice, but such an unreasonable possibility shouldn't be considered.

Since it was a man-made passage, we didn't need to worry about oxygen; after discussing, we decided that Panzi would explore the cave first, and this time we had prepared weapons so that if that corpse fetus was still inside, we would take care of it on the spot.

Panzi had been dragged in just now and felt humiliated; he spat on his hands, pulled out climbing rope, tied one end around Fatty's waist, threw the other down the cave entrance, then climbed down first, and after the time it took to smoke a cigarette, we heard his shout for us to come down.

We also slid down the cave entrance one after another; the tunnel was very

We went down one by one, with Fatty being the last to come down. Suddenly a crowd of people was crowded at the end of the stone path slope above, gasping for breath. Here we saw a lot of black liquid, definitely the bodily fluids of the corpse fetus, but there was no trace of the corpse fetus itself; it might have gone deeper into the cave.

This narrow ice-covered cave slanted downward. At the bend below, it became upright and elongated. Further inside, the height of the cave seemed to continue increasing, opening up, and the space seemed to become very large, but it was pitch black, and the flashlight couldn't penetrate it.

At first I thought this was a deliberately wider section they had dug when excavating the tunnel. In our tomb-raiding trade, this is called a "pigeon room", a place used to store air and hold soil. Of course, the method for making a pigeon room is complicated; there is a very clever trick to dig such a large space in the ground that allows two people to turn around without spilling a single grain of soil from the entrance.

But when we shone the flashlight, we were stunned. It turned out that this drainage tunnel had ended here; ahead it rapidly contracted and narrowed, leaving only a stone crevice barely wide enough for a single person to enter sideways, like an irregular sword scar, stabbing deep into the mountain rock.

Panzi asked: "Wasn't this supposed to be a secret passage for the craftsmen to escape? It's turned into a peephole slit? Can we still get through?"

Monk Hua thought for a moment, then suddenly had an expression of epiphany and said: "I guessed right. I think this drainage tunnel might have made use of a natural volcanic lava tube. Volcanic caves are very common in the rock layers of volcanic areas, extending in all directions. The longest volcanic lava tube can reach thousands of kilometers, spreading underground like a spiderweb. This volcanic fissure might lead all the way to the opposite Three Sacred Mountains. That's exactly why they could dig such a long secret passage—they were taking advantage of a pre-existing channel made by nature."

Fatty said: "Then we have to go into this crevice too? You guys are all fine, but with my figure I'm in real trouble." Fatty had been saying he needed to lose weight since the Underwater Tomb, but so far there were no results. Looking at his build, it really was tough.

Monk Hua said: "Shouldn't worry about that. This kind of volcanic cave has a dendritic structure; these cavities should all connect to larger fissures. In geology, this is called an underground corridor. Some underground corridors are extremely large, and they can even develop their own unique ecosystems. I believe that soon after entering, the crevice will definitely widen, because this type of geological breakdown starts from the inside."

Monk Hua spoke with conviction, but I didn't really trust him. However, at that moment there was indeed no reason to refute him. So we rested for a while, sorted our gear, and with Fatty taking the lead, continued crawling into the crevice.

Inside the crevice was completely dark, and even a flashlight was useless because the darkness was all-encompassing. In Europe, people believe that all such crevices are passages to hell, and Tibetans also consider caves to be the domain of demons and never enter them. Although I have had many such experiences, at the moment I entered the crevice, my heart still beat uneasily.

After entering the crevice one by one with our stomachs sucked in, we walked sideways like crabs. At this spot, the cave walls no longer showed any trace of artificial work. Inside, we could barely turn our heads. Looking ahead, our eyes were filled with traces of obsidian; large amounts of stalactitic drips of various colors covered all the rocks, and on top of them were crystallized transparent frost, arranged evenly like frozen water pillars.

When I studied architecture, I learned a bit of geology. I had a vague memory in my mind; the things before us should be volcanic extrusive rock, the same as the volcanic crevice we took shelter in when we encountered the blizzard. The formation of this kind of terrain is different from common volcanic rock caves. This crevice was formed in an instant during a volcanic eruption, and then carved out at extremely high speed by pyroclastic flow. Its characteristic is that the volcanic fissure channel formed is extremely long, but the tunnel is single, and does not form a labyrinthine cave group like volcanic rock caves.

The initial part of the crevice was very narrow, and we had to move with breakdance-like moves. Within fifteen minutes we were already sore all over. Thinking of the craftsmen who fled through here back then, it must have been quite difficult for them to crawl out. But as we walked on, the crevice really did gradually widen as Monk Hua had said, until finally we could turn around and walk forward.

Inside the crevice it was pitch black, but the surrounding obsidian and melted mica reflected our flashlight beams, creating a magical effect. Together with the large areas of pyroclast-covered lava spines, ropey pahoehoe crusts, and lava stalactites, it was dizzying and very beautiful.

As we walked deeper, we gradually discovered some signs of human activity. For example, discarded rusted iron tools and traces of campfires—all very ancient.

We didn't encounter anything strange along the way. The crevice was very clean. After walking for nearly six hours, we had reached a tunnel of the scale Monk Hua had called an underground corridor. Here the crevice had become very, very wide. At this point, I again discovered a large number of traces of artificial construction. On one side of the crevice wall, many crude steps had been chiseled out, leading upward. These steps were called steps, but they were actually just protruding rocks. If someone had feet as big as Fatty, they would probably get dizzy after a few steps.

We stopped to rest. I made a rough calculation of the distance we had walked and the slope we had descended, and found that the altitude we were at now was already below the snow line, probably located beneath the valley between two peaks. If we had walked on the surface between these two peaks, even in a straight line, it would take at least eight hours. Now by traveling underground, we had saved a lot of time. If the border patrol above knew about this underground corridor, they would definitely be astounded.

Now that we were here, if we continued walking along the bottom of the crevice, we might end up walking to the center of the earth. These crude steps probably indicated that the tunnel had entered a second stage. The end of the steps might be the mysterious underground palace of the Cloud Summit Palace.

After resting for a while, none of us could hold back our excitement, so we immediately set out again. However, this time the journey did not go so smoothly.

The few of us tied ourselves together with climbing ropes, then pressed as close to one side of the cliff as possible, stepping on the joke-like "stone steps" and inching our way up. At first it was okay, but after climbing to a certain height, we immediately felt like rock climbers—yet we had absolutely no rock climbing experience. This feeling was indescribably panic-inducing.

Fatty's feet were big, and stepping on these steps was like walking on stilts. After just a few steps, his legs started trembling. I could see him muttering "Amitabha" repeatedly.

Fortunately, we moved carefully all the way, almost like a woman doing needlework, climbing upward bit by bit. Soon, below us was a pitch-black abyss, the height of which was impossible to estimate. Looking down made us dizzy. If we hadn't just come up from below, I'm sure I would have thought that below was connected to hell.

Over the next few hours, we climbed higher and higher, until we could no longer judge where we were or what time it was. Everyone entered a dazed state. But not a single person suggested resting—whether it was the inherent greed of tomb raiders or because the environment made rest impossible. You can imagine with one foot on a palm-sized rock and the other dangling over a ten-thousand-foot cliff, how could anyone rest? As we walked, we suddenly heard the sound of water around us. We shone our flashlights and saw that on one side of the cliff there were actually several spring waterfalls flowing down the cliff wall, varying in size. Seeing the steam, it seemed to be hot springs. Where the hot spring water came from was unknown, but the sound was quite loud, as if there was an underground water vein active nearby.

Fatty asked if we could climb over to wash our face and feel comfortable. The nearest hot spring was only an arm's length away from him. Actually, we were already exhausted from the journey, and since we had memories of resting by a hot spring before, several of us wanted to stop here. But Shunzi shook his head and said, "No!" Then he pointed at the rocks by the hot spring. We looked, and at first we didn't notice anything, but upon closer inspection, we almost shuddered.

On the rocks by the hot spring, there were many very strange patterns. At first glance, I thought they were volcanic veins, but when I looked closely, my hair stood on end. It turned out these patterns weren't on the rocks at all—they were actually centipedes as thick as an arm, clinging to the surface. Their color was exactly the same as the volcanic glass rock beside them, so you couldn't tell them apart without careful observation.

We looked around and realized that almost every rock here was covered with these things, motionless, as if they were all dead.

Suddenly, we all fell quiet. Fatty said softly, "What's going on? How did we end up in a bug nest?"

Shunzi said quietly, "Creatures on snowy mountains usually gather near hot springs, so don't think about getting comfortable as soon as you see one. Some hot springs are even full of leeches. But right now, it's still relatively cold, so these things are clinging here in a semi-dormant state. Without particularly strong stimulation, they won't wake up. Let's move quickly—once we pass this section, we'll be fine."

We immediately started moving. Fatty, walking on tiptoe, asked as he shuffled along, "What kind of particularly strong stimulation are we talking about?"

Before he finished speaking, Shunzi suddenly raised his hand, gesturing for us all to stop moving.

Not knowing what had happened, we instantly froze like statues, staring at Shunzi. But Shunzi was looking at a pitch-black cliff abyss.

After a moment of silence, we gradually heard a creepy rustling sound, as if countless feet were scratching against the cliff rocks, closing in on us.

"Turn off the flashlights," Shunzi said softly.

We immediately turned off our flashlights and looked around. Holy crap, almost the entire cliff face within sight was covered in faint green dots, large and small, so numerous they were like a sea of stars. In this darkness, those billions of dots of light were like something out of a fantasy, and we felt as if we were floating in a universe of stars. The spectacle was beyond words.

But when I looked down, I suddenly realized the scene around us was nothing compared to this. In the pitch-black void of the abyss below, a green Milky Way meandered away, like a gorgeous emerald tassel on a jet-black curtain, stretching through the boundless darkness from one end of the sky to the other.

My jaw dropped. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. The number of centipedes down there must have been in the billions.

Just as we were stunned by this magnificent, almost ethereal sight, a few huge red fluorescent dots suddenly flickered among the lights below. Those dots twisted and moved through the sea of stars, then vanished into the darkness. Clearly, some of the centipedes down there were not small in size...