Chapter 225: Ghost City

A Ning found it strange and asked, "Why?"

Zhaxi said to us, "My grandmother said that this Devil's City in front of you is not a tourist attraction. This yardang landform is about eighty-seven square kilometers, very vast, and still in its most primitive state with no road signs. Traveling inside at night, if you're not familiar with the environment, it's very easy to get lost. Also, it is said there are many quicksand wells here. In 1997, a team of geological surveyors disappeared inside. Many people were mobilized to search but didn't find them. Later in 1999, when a big wind arose, a few photographers taking pictures here found two desiccated corpses in a sand pit. The others still haven't been found to this day."

A Ning shook her head upon hearing this and said, "Don't worry about that. We have GPS. If, as you say, the terrain here is so complex, we must go in even more. If we wait until dawn to look, they will have already met with trouble."

With that, ignoring Zhaxi's advice, she called a few people, turned on their flashlights, and prepared to go deeper.

I thought she had a point. Zhaxi had always played the role of alarmist, so naturally A Ning wouldn't fully believe him now. Moreover, the foreigners' creed was people-first; abandoning those three would be equivalent in their minds to killing them with their own hands. These people couldn't make such a decision.

Of course I was going to follow, because those three had disappeared while I was with them. More or less, I had to put in some effort; otherwise, if something happened, I wouldn't have peace of mind. Besides, sitting here and sleeping was completely impossible.

Zhaxi was about to speak again when Dingzhu Zhuoma, who was off to the side, spoke up. She shook her head, telling Zhaxi to stop, and then quickly said something in Tibetan to him.

Zhaxi immediately wore a very puzzled expression, but Dingzhu Zhuoma's expression was firm. When Zhazi tried to protest, Dingzhu Zhuoma scolded him, and he dared not continue speaking. He nodded at Dingzhu Zhuoma, stepped back, and said to us with a frustrated look, "You're in luck. My grandmother asked me to take you in." With that, he picked up his flashlight, walked over to his luggage, and began to organize his gear.

I didn't understand Tibetan, so I asked A Ning what the old woman had said. A Ning also shook her head, saying it was too soft to hear, probably something like "take money and eliminate disasters."

I found it amusing and glanced at Dingzhu Zhuoma. The old woman had already gone back to the tent, seemingly not worried about these matters at all.

Zhaxi sorted through his own equipment and told us to leave behind unnecessary items, bring enough water and dry rations, and a signal gun. Then he woke up a driver and told him our plan. He instructed him to stay outside and be ready to assist. If he saw us fire flares inside, he was not to enter but fire flares from outside to give us directions. If we still didn't come out, he should let others come in to find us at dawn. He would leave marks along the way.

The driver agreed drowsily. The four of us packed up, and Zhaxi, with a long face, led the way toward the entrance of Devil's City behind us.

Our sheltered spot was at the edge of Devil's City. Behind the tall rock mountain where we camped was a steep slope that extended downward, ending at the castle-like rock mountain we saw during the sandstorm. This should be one of the taller rock mountains in Devil's City.

Zhaxi piled up an Arab stone cairn on the steep slope to mark the direction for those who came after. He said that whenever there was a turn along the way, he would build one. If we saw a stone pile we ourselves had built while advancing, we could not go forward anymore; going further would mean we were going in circles. That was his bottom line.

We thought it made sense and said no problem.

Soon we entered the city gate and went inside Devil's City. The surroundings began to feel eerie. Gazing out, under the moonlight, all we could see were black rock mountains protruding above the Gobi gravel. Due to the light, they were indistinct. When shining a flashlight, the wind-cut erosion gullies on the rock faces were very distinct. Under such blackness, the few places the moonlight touched appeared especially ghastly white. It felt a bit like walking on the moon's surface.

I looked as I walked, trying to recall the geological mechanics I had learned, but had forgotten completely. I only knew that the yardang wind-eroded rock formations here were still immature, probably because the terrain was relatively low, and the rock mountains and earth mounds had not been exposed to the surface for long; they had not been severely weathered, so most of the rock mountains and mounds were still quite tall.

In this situation, we could only weave between the rock mountains and earth mounds, unable to casually climb onto the mounds like in other Devil's Cities. Moreover, the valleys in this terrain were not flat; high parts protruded above the gravel, low parts were covered by the Gobi. In geology, these rock mountains are actually considered the peaks of underground mountain ranges. Although only a dozen meters high, beneath our feet several kilometers deep there are huge rock mountain bases. These giant mountains hidden under the gravel are all branches of the Kunlun Mountains. Theoretically, we were now walking on the Kunlun Mountains.

However, I didn't have time to think much about these academic issues. Once we entered two or three kilometers, A Ning started calling on the walkie-talkie, and we shouted loudly, hoping the three people could hear us and respond.

In the silent Devil's City, our voices were immediately reflected into countless echoes, overlapping and carrying far into the distance. From afar, it sounded extremely eerie, like ghost voices from the underworld.

Yelling and walking like this for a full two or three hours, we penetrated deep into Devil's City. Flashlights swept over the surrounding rocks, our eyes blurred, and our mouths went numb from shouting. But we found no trace of the Caucasians or the others, and there was no echo from our shouts. The only responses were our own echoes and the faint wailing of the wind.

We stopped to rest, and A Ning asked Zhaxi, based on his experience, what would be the best way to search. Zhaxi shook his head and said, "Only your method works. We've walked about seven kilometers now. In a straight line, we've covered a long distance, but in fact we've unknowingly turned direction. Looking at the compass, we're almost backtracking. Here people are like ants, unconsciously walking S-shaped routes. So now I can only guarantee to take you out. I can't advise on finding people... It would be fine if they didn't move, but if they too are looking for a way out, then what is the probability of two groups meeting in an eighty-square-kilometer maze?"

A Ning was dissatisfied with this answer and frowned, "Hasn't anyone gotten lost here before?"

Zhaxi was stacking stones without looking up and shook his head, "We never come in here at night." After saying that, he sighed, for some unknown reason.

【

A Ning saw our expressions, encouraged us with a few words, telling us not to lose heart. But obviously it didn't help much; we smoked several cigarettes, recovered our spirits a bit, and then continued forward.

However, things still did not develop as we had hoped. We walked while shouting again, not knowing how much time had passed. We rested four times during that time, and Zhaxi had piled no fewer than thirty stone cairns, but still we hadn't seen a single shadow of a person, no response at all. The silent Devil's City seemed to have swallowed any sound we made.

What truly made me feel terrified was that we hadn't seen any of Zhaxi's stone cairns appear, indicating we were still moving forward. This Devil's City truly seemed unfathomable, with no telling how much more distance lay ahead.

Continuing forward, we entered a canyon formed by rock walls. Under a large boulder, we really couldn't walk any further and had to stop for the sixth time to rest.

By then our throats were hoarse and we couldn't shout anymore. We drank water greedily, and everyone entered a state of speechlessness, our minds going somewhat blank.

After a period of silence, the team doctor suddenly said, "Could it be that this Devil's City really has devils? Have they been taken away by devils?"

This remark was very abrupt; we were all taken aback. Zhaxi glared at him and told him not to talk nonsense. Tibetans are rather traditional, and such words are unpleasant to hear.

"There are definitely no devils, and the people are definitely here," Zhaxi said after a long moment, holding a mouthful of water, moistening his throat as he spoke slowly. "It's just that we don't know what the situation is now."

The several of us fell silent again, each lost in our own thoughts. In fact, I knew that hope in our hearts was now very slim. When I first came in, I thought the probability of finding them was high, at least we could find some traces, but now I had no idea at all.

After resting a while longer, A Ning looked at her watch, stood up, and called for us to prepare to continue. We all reflexively stood up, took deep breaths, ready to rouse ourselves and keep shouting.

Just at that moment, we all heard a human shout suddenly come from A Ning's walkie-talkie. The static was very loud, extremely piercing, and we couldn't make out what was said.

The surroundings were deadly quiet, and this sudden sound scared us half to death. We immediately looked at A Ning's walkie-talkie.

A Ning was also stunned; it took her several seconds to react. She hurriedly picked up the walkie-talkie and listened carefully.

The sound came again, with extremely harsh static, but it was clearly audible as a person calling out.

"They're nearby!" we exclaimed in surprise. A Ning almost jumped up.

In a terrain like the Devil's City, walkie-talkies were almost useless; only within a very short distance could they receive signals. A Ning had been tuning along the way hoping to receive such a signal, but there had been no results. Now the signal suddenly sounded, clearly indicating that the other party's walkie-talkie was very close by.

We all breathed a sigh of relief. A Ning immediately began adjusting the frequency, and the sound became clearer, but we still couldn't make out what he was saying. Then she shouted into the walkie-talkie: "I'm the team leader, we're searching for you. What's your position?"

The reply was a series of indescribable sounds, with very heavy interference, but the tone had changed. Clearly, the other side could hear us.

The dejection from before vanished. The team doctor yelled, "YES!" I also took out my own walkie-talkie, tapped it, adjusted it to see if it was a problem with the device. Soon I also tuned in a sound, equally noisy.

A Ning called out again. This time the sound was slightly clearer. Several of us strained to listen, hoping to hear clearly what the other party was saying.

As I listened, I realized something was wrong. The person on the other end of the walkie-talkie didn't seem to be talking. The tone of that speaking was very strange, hard to describe. Listening closely, it actually sounded as if someone was giving a venomous, cold laugh.