Chapter 172: Siege

Countless human-faced strange birds, like sculptures, surrounded us, landing silently, standing without making a sound. I suddenly thought of the gargoyles in foreign horror movies—those monsters that are stone statues during the day and become animals at night. Could this bird be their prototype?

Moreover, from the look in these birds' eyes, they seemed intelligent. Surrounding us like this—did they have some sinister purpose?

Soon my premonition came true. Suddenly a bird swooped over us and dropped something that landed with a thud in front of us, splattering blood everywhere. I saw it was Ye Cheng—his neck had been bitten off, and he was still coughing, but his eyes were unfocused. There was no saving him.

Then another body was thrown down. I didn't recognize who it was, but the head was gone, and the body was covered in blood.

After Chenpi A'si split up with us, he charged straight into the imperial tomb. Obviously, they too had been attacked by these strange birds. Ye Cheng must have been caught by these giant birds in the center of the tomb. Without Third Uncle's signal to guide them, these people had met such a miserable end—I never could have imagined it.

I thought Chenpi A'si might not have survived either, but the next few bodies thrown over were all A Ning's men. Clearly not everyone had escaped earlier. Fortunately, I didn't see Third Uncle or Panzi's bodies, so at least they should be safe.

Fatty was really scared now. He asked me, "What do these birds want with us?"

I said to him, "It seems like they are gathering their prey. I'm not an expert on this; I don't know what they want. Do you have any explosives left? We might have to pull a Dong Cunrui."

Fatty shook his head. "Used it all to blow up the Slave King. You didn't say to save some."

I thought to myself, now we're in trouble. No matter how much I calculated, I never expected that I, Wu Xie, would die like this—surrounded by birds with no gaps, not even a chance to run. Are we really going to die here and turn into bird droppings? Just as I was burning with anxiety, Fatty suddenly pulled me back. "Being attacked from front and back like this is too disadvantageous. There's a rock crevice here; let's hide in it. We'll each guard one side. Even if we die, we won't let these damn birds get us too cheaply."

I turned around and saw a crevice at the junction of two giant boulders in the rift valley. It was wide enough for one person, open at both ends. Moving around inside might be inconvenient, but it was a first-rate place to defend.

Dying immediately vs. holding out a while before dying—holding out a while is obviously better. So I unbuckled the ammunition belts from the bodies, quickly crawled into the crevice. The space inside was very small; I could barely move, and Fatty was really cramped. I figured the birds would have a hard time squeezing in too.

Fatty had experienced many life-and-death situations before; he was much calmer than me. Once inside the crevice, he immediately piled up a few stones as a barricade. He said to me, "They can only come in one at a time. If we kill a few, they'll block the entrance, and we can hold out a bit longer."

I smiled bitterly in my heart. We didn't have many bullets, and there was no time to reload. Once the magazine ran out, that would be the end. But it wasn't time to die yet; I still clung to a sliver of hope.

My mind was still wandering when I suddenly heard the flock of birds outside start shrieking. Through the crevice I saw the lead strange bird open its mouth disproportionately wide, revealing a mouthful of fangs. Then from its mouth, it suddenly spat out a creature like a macaque, extremely agile. It darted to the ground, cautiously looked around, then ran into the pile of corpses and began tearing at them. I looked closely and saw that the monkey had no skin, its whole body was bloody red, and it seemed to be some kind of organ of the strange bird.

Then the other strange birds began spitting out these creatures too. Countless "mouth-monkeys" rushed out from among the birds, charging toward the pile of corpses in the middle. There seemed to be no hierarchy; they swarmed in and started devouring. Instantly, flesh and blood were everywhere, and conflicts broke out as they fought over the food.

Fatty and I both frowned, almost vomiting. We thought if we were going to end up like this, we could never accept it.

The number of "mouth-monkeys" was enormous. Soon the outside corpses were completely devoured, and the bloody smell in the air reached an unbearable level. Fatty's eyes were bloodshot; he knew we were next. He took a gulp of white liquor and said, "Damn it, if you want to eat your Fatty, see if you got iron teeth." I was trembling uncontrollably. I took the bottle from him and gulped down more than half. My throat burned. Alcohol really is a good thing. A man with alcohol and without feels completely different.

The "mouth-monkeys" outside were searching through the remains when suddenly one noticed us in the crevice and let out a strange screech. Then other "monkeys" curiously gathered around, poking their faces in to stare at us.

Only then could I see clearly: those "monkeys" had no lips, which was why their fangs were so sharp and fierce. What puzzled me most was that on the neck of every mouth-monkey hung a bronze hexagonal bell—some intact, some just half. But as the monkeys moved, the bells made no sound at all.

(At the time I was extremely scared and didn't consider what this meant, but afterward I thought: these bronze bells must be closely related to the whole mystery, even though they seem to belong to a different culture.) The "mouth-monkeys" were still cautious at first, lingering at the entrance for a long time. Fatty and I barely dared to breathe, holding our guns waiting for them to come in. After a while, a few couldn't hold back anymore. Suddenly they hung down from the cliff above the crevice, leaped in, and charged recklessly at Fatty.

Fatty was caught off guard; he fired almost point-blank at the strange monkey's head. As the bullet tore through, it also sent the body flying out into the corpse pile. Then his gun started firing automatically, bullets sweeping across. The monkey pack let out terrified shrieks, and several monkeys were torn to bloody pieces.

Instantly all the monkeys noticed us in the crevice. The situation got out of control. The lead mouth-monkey let out a piercing cry, and all the monkeys began to squeeze into the crevice.

I swallowed my saliva, knowing my nightmare was about to begin.

Before I could even pray, two monkeys darted like lightning into the crevice, hanging from the top, opening their huge mouths at me. The Type 56 assault rifle was too long to use as a club, so I kicked one out and shot the other two times, causing blood to burst out and splash all over my face. Then another five or six charged in wildly. I had no mental fortitude for aimed shots anymore; I just raised the gun and started spraying.

In those five or six minutes, I had no idea what I was doing. I only saw one ferocious monkey after another charging at me and getting blasted back by my fire. Blood was flying everywhere. The monkeys went completely mad without any fear. Sometimes several would squeeze into the crevice at once, getting stuck, and I kicked them hard to send them back out. But more monkeys surged in like a tide. Even if the bullets cut them in half, as long as they could still move, they kept boring into the crevice—utterly relentless.

Soon I was covered in blood. Both Fatty and I realized that holding this position was impossible. We were forced back by the incoming monkeys until our backs touched, and even continuous gunfire couldn't buy us any space.

Soon our ammunition ran out. I originally thought we could hold out for at least an hour, but in actual combat, you can't control bullet consumption. I still had many ammunition belts, but as long as the monkeys didn't stop their charge, we had no chance to reload.

Fatty jammed first. He was already bloodshot with rage, cursing as he threw away his gun, pulled out his military knife, and wanted to go out and fight hand-to-hand. But the monkeys didn't give him that chance. In an instant, five or six monkeys jumped onto him and started biting hard. Fatty screamed in pain, killed two with his hands, but then four more pounced on his face.

Then I ran out of bullets too. I squeezed the trigger a few times with a click-click-click, and my heart suddenly went cold. Several red figures instantly rushed in front of me. Before I could even draw my knife, I was wounded in the shoulder and inner thigh. Instinctively, I tried to scare them with my injured hand, but it was useless. In the struggle, only one thought remained in my mind: I, Wu Xie, and Wang Pangzi would probably never leave this Changbai Mountain secret realm alive. Even with our tough luck, we had to die someday.