Chapter 144: Volcanic Crater

Shunzi's voice came out of the darkness: "This kind of insect is worshipped as a god around here, because it can live for a very long time, and when one centipede dies, its corpse attracts many, many of its kind. So we need to be very careful when we move, and never step on them."

With that, he turned on his flashlight. As soon as the light came on, the surrounding green sea of stars immediately vanished, replaced again by boundless darkness.

The protective coloration of these centipedes was too effective. If we hadn't turned off the flashlight, we never would have noticed them. I felt a wave of fear after the fact—if I had accidentally squashed one while climbing, aside from the disgust, I might very well have died here.

We pulled ourselves together and continued slowly climbing up the stone steps, carefully passing through this section near the hot spring. The rock-patterned centipedes gradually decreased in number, until finally there were none to be seen. It was clear, as Shunzi had said, that the ecological chain of the snow mountain revolved entirely around the hot springs.

Still, that sight we just saw was truly magnificent. If I had the chance, I would have loved to take a few more looks. It's hard to imagine such ugly insects forming such a beautiful scene. This world is truly strange.

Without the rock-patterned centipedes, our pace picked up somewhat. But the darkness above seemed endless; we had no idea when we would finally emerge from this crevice and reach the other exit of this natural drainage channel.

As he climbed, Fatty asked, "Hey, old master, let me ask you something. Back at the station, you told us about that 'Nine Dragons Carrying the Corpse' thing. I've been listening, but I haven't heard you mention it again?"

Chenpi A'si stopped, looked at him, then glanced at Monk Hua, signaling him to explain. Monk Hua said, "We don't really know either. All our information came from that dragon fish. 'Nine Dragons Carrying the Corpse' might be a lost burial system. According to the original text, it seems to say that Emperor Wannu's coffin was carried by nine dragons, guarded by nine dragons, and no one could approach it. But the Jurchen language is almost extinct, and I'm not sure if my translation is accurate."

Then he recited the original text for us. The Jurchen pronunciation was so unfamiliar that I didn't understand a single thing.

"Wow, if what's written on that fish is true, then to open Emperor Wannu's coffin, we'd have to learn to be Nezha first and fight the Dragon King's third son?" Ye Cheng joked.

"Don't you worry about that. I think this 'Nine Dragons Carrying the Corpse' coffin probably means there are nine dragons carved on the bottom of the coffin, just as a symbolic gesture," Fatty said. "If there were real dragons, we'd be rich. We could catch one, put it in the Forbidden City, and it'd be packed with people. We'd make tens of thousands just from ticket sales."

I said, "Is that all the ambition you have? Just thinking about money. If you could actually catch a dragon, you'd be Sun Wukong. I've never seen Sun Wukong with your build."

Fatty got angry and cursed, "So what if I'm fat? Fat Master here commands heaven and earth with this divine blubber. A shake and the winds shift; a tremor and the earth quakes—Aiya—"

Before Fatty could finish, a sudden gust of wind blew from one side of the cliff, nearly knocking him off. I quickly grabbed him and pulled him back against the cliff face. Turning to look, I saw that the crevice had ended. The steps had reached the end of the gap. Beyond, there seemed to be a large open space, but it was pitch black and nothing was visible.

We're here! My heart suddenly raced with excitement.

The group fell silent, pressing forward toward the edge of the precipice. There was a protruding rock ledge, and we climbed onto it. Monk Hua first lit a cold flare and shone it around, but aside from the cliff face where we stood, nothing ahead was illuminated.

Then he tossed the cold flare down the cliff. The flare fell straight down, quickly shrinking to a small point. We watched it grow smaller and smaller until it hit the ground, barely visible.

We were astonished. What kind of place was this ahead? It looked like a huge basin surrounded by cliffs.

"Flare," Chenpi A'si said.

"Bang!" Immediately, a flare like a shooting star traced a long arc, shooting into the darkness before us, flying about one hundred sixty or seventy meters before descending. Then a dazzling white fireball exploded, and the light instantly illuminated the entire dark area ahead.

I wanted to lift my binoculars to look ahead, but halfway through the motion, I froze. Suddenly I couldn't hear any sound, and time seemed to stand still.

Under the white light, an enormous volcanic crater, at least three kilometers in diameter, appeared before us. The giant basin formed of gray basalt looked like a huge stone bowl, and we were standing on one side of its rim, like tiny ants, utterly insignificant.

"I never thought we'd end up directly in a volcano," someone beside me said, but I couldn't even tell who it was. My mind was filled only with the spectacular scene before me.

If the Nine-Headed Snake Cypress and the Bronze Ancient Tree had only given me a feeling of wonder, then this underground volcanic crater basin was nothing short of a divine trace.

The basin was covered with a large number of dead trees. Clearly, this crater had once been exposed to the atmosphere. It must have been an "underground forest" originally. Possibly due to a volcanic eruption or sudden volcanic activity, the trees here had been sulfidized and died. Now the remains of the forest still stood within the basin.

"Look over there," someone continued to call out. I couldn't distinguish who it was anymore. Then two more flares were fired, flying above the crater.

Under the intensified light, we saw a magnificent complex of buildings deep within the underground forest at the center of the volcanic basin. A huge, dark stone city was barely visible in the gloom.

Could that be our destination—the eternal mausoleum of Emperor Wannu? The underground palace of the Cloud Summit Palace was actually inside a volcanic crater?