Chapter 230: Snake Swamp Ghost City (Part 2) – Apocalypse

We had to stop and look around. This was a crossroads, and the Arab stone pile was right in the center. I had no idea what it meant.

I looked back. In the distance, those suffocating buzzing sounds mixed with chaotic, sneering-like noises—whether they were from the insects or some other cause—still made my scalp crawl.

As she ran, panting and almost out of breath, A Ning asked me what was going on. She clearly understood the severity of things but hadn't fully processed it yet.

I told her everything that had happened and the toxicity of the King Insects. As soon as she heard that Old Wu had already been hit, A Ning's face turned pale.

No sooner had I finished than the buzzing sound drew closer. Looking up, I saw those King Insects in the distance scattering, with even more flying over. A massive red, mist-like swarm of insects appeared in the sky, like a flock of wasps taking off en masse, all heading our way.

I thought, Damn it, no time to ponder. I grabbed A Ning, stood up, and bolted.

I ran for my life like never before, never imagining I could sprint so fast. I didn't care about the Arab stone pile anymore; I just charged forward. I must have run over a thousand meters, zigzagging through rock formations a dozen times, until I couldn't run anymore and finally slowed down.

Looking back, the sky was filled with insects. That red mist-like swarm had followed us, covering the sky and earth, moving at incredible speed, pressing down from behind.

"Damn it!" I yelled, fighting off dizziness as I kept running. A Ning, with better stamina than me, was pulling ahead. She shouted, "Don't just run! Find somewhere to hide!"

The moment she said that, a gentle slope appeared ahead. Without warning, I tripped over something and tumbled down.

I rolled all the way to the bottom. A Ning helped me up; I was completely disoriented. She dragged me along as we sprinted for several hundred more meters. Up ahead, a huge stretch of rock like a city wall blocked our way. We immediately turned and ran along the rock face, trying to go around it. But halfway along, we saw that the other end was sealed off—this was a closed semicircle, a dead end.

Seeing this, I cursed loudly and looked back. The red mist swirled in, descending from the top of the rock face, covering everything like a blanket.

I thought, This is it, no escape. Those King Insects were acting like they were hunting us! But I wasn't about to give up. I looked around for any hiding spot. The place was all rock, nowhere to conceal ourselves.

Just as I sighed, A Ning suddenly yelled, "Over here!"

I turned and saw a dent in the rock wall—too small to hide a person, but it was the only shelter we had. We'd have to rely on luck.

I rushed over and crouched with A Ning into the dent. I pulled off my T-shirt to cover my face.

Through the shirt, I saw a huge cloud of insects descend. The air exploded with buzzing, and a pungent smell filled my nostrils. Soon, countless red trails surrounded us. Many insects slammed into the rock around the dent, making squeaking sounds like bullets strafing us.

I felt suffocated and instinctively pressed deeper into the dent, but it was so small that I couldn't fully squeeze in.

I almost closed my eyes, resigned to death. With so many insects, if even one happened to fly in, the consequences would be unimaginable. Deep down, I didn't think we'd be that lucky. I was almost waiting for that moment.

Strangely, despite the tension, I felt no fear. My mind was nearly blank.

But what I didn't expect was that the noise outside gradually diminished. Bit by bit, the sound of insects hitting the rock grew sparse. Soon, it was quiet again.

I clenched my teeth for a long time. It wasn't until A Ning tapped me that I snapped out of it. I poked my head out and saw that the King Insect swarm had already flown away. Only a few stray insects were left, dazed on the ground. As I watched, they too flew off one by one.

A Ning and I looked at each other, baffled, but both of us breathed a sigh of relief. I leaned back against the rock behind me and let out a strange laugh. This was too damn intense; I couldn't take it mentally.

After a few laughs, A Ning covered my mouth and whispered, "Looks like they weren't chasing us. They might have been trying to fly out, and we just happened to be going the same direction. Don't let your guard down, or you'll attract them again."

I thought she had a point and quickly nodded. A Ning let go. We stayed silent, remaining in the dent for a while before cautiously poking our heads out.

The Devil's City outside was dead silent, as if the terrifying scene moments ago had never happened, as if it were just our imagination.

I took a few deep breaths before finally calming down. Then the fatigue from the mad dash set in. My leg suddenly cramped, making me stumble a few times before I could straighten it and stand.

Limping, we found some rocks, checked them for insects, and sat down. I felt the pouch at my waist, wanting some water, but my hand found nothing—I hadn't brought anything.

Then I remembered: when the incident happened, I had just gotten up and hadn't even taken my coat. Luckily, it was daytime; at night, I might have frozen to death.

I turned to look at A Ning and saw she was worse off than me—wearing only a short vest, just out of her sleeping bag, hair messy. On closer inspection, it seemed she wasn't even wearing a bra.

I felt a bit awkward, realizing I had pulled her to safety in such a rush. I averted my eyes.

"What exactly are those bugs? How much do you know?" A Ning asked.

I thought, How do I explain? I've heard about them many times, but this is only the second time I've actually seen them. The first was in Lu King's Palace, where they crawled out of a blood corpse. Just one of them almost killed us all. And today, seeing so many of them blot out the sky—that's a first for me too.

I told A Ning what I knew. She clearly found it hard to comprehend—everything had happened too suddenly. She was half-convinced, half-doubtful.

I myself found it hard to accept and didn't have the energy to explain in detail. I felt strongly that this was connected to the ancient Queen Mother of the West kingdom we were looking for. Those human-head jars might have been containers for cultivating these King Insects. My Third Uncle also said he'd seen similar human heads in the underwater tomb. It seemed these insects bred inside the human cranial cavity and could stay alive for an incredibly long time—very frightening. What did the Queen Mother of the West kingdom want such terrifying insects for? As weapons? If they could really wield such a biological weapon, it might explain how that barbaric, backward ancient kingdom ruled the Western Regions for so long.

As I pondered, I looked around. Where had we escaped to? The area inside this closed rock wall was completely unfamiliar; I had no memory of it. I had no idea how many turns we'd taken while running. We were thoroughly lost.

We had been running in a north-northeast direction. According to Zhaxi, this place was over eighty square kilometers wide. I didn't know where we were, but we probably weren't at the edge of the Devil's City. The vast Gobi Desert was still not in sight ahead.

The "streets" in the Devil's City—the distances between wind-eroded rock formations—were very wide. Although the rocks varied in shape, a change in angle made them look completely different. I hadn't had time to memorize them. Combined with the wide field of view and deep visual perspective, it was very disorienting. I doubted we could find our way back. We could only pick a direction, walk to the Gobi first, then follow the edge of the Devil's City in a loop back to where the car had broken down and meet up with Poker-face and the others.

I didn't know how long those insects could survive. The sky was full of stratocumulus clouds; it was overcast with no sun. If they rode the wind to the highway, the consequences would be dire. But we were already quite far from the road, and there was no water source. I figured that once the sun came out and baked them, these insects wouldn't last long.

I explained my plan. A Ning thought it was feasible. We had nothing on us now and had to get back before dark. But it was only noon, so we had plenty of time, and there was no sun—that was a stroke of luck for us.

Once the route was decided, we rested a bit and then set off. I looked around and memorized the shapes of several rock formations nearby, all resembling castle turrets—if we unfortunately backtracked, coming back to this spot would alert us.

At the time, I thought it would just cost us some legwork. None of us expected that this walk would become so agonizing, almost leading us to the gates of hell.

We got lost.

As we traversed the Devil's City, we didn't let our guard down. Those poisonous bugs could be flying anywhere now—if we ran into them again, our narrow escape earlier would be a joke.

So as we moved forward, we kept listening to the sounds around us. At some point, the wind picked up again, and the Devil's City was filled with all kinds of eerie noises. Fortunately, the wind wasn't too strong; the sounds were faint and intermittent, not enough to fray our nerves.

A Ning and I had little to say to each other. Besides, her clothes were disheveled, and walking side by side, I couldn't help stealing glances at her, so I simply took the lead. Neither of us spoke, only occasionally stopping to exchange a few words.

She wore a blank expression, clearly exhausted both mentally and physically, with no energy to think about anything more.

To be honest, if this were a sightseeing trip, walking through this eerie Devil's City with a beautiful woman, marveling at the mysterious wind-carved rock formations and listening to the wailing of demons—though hardly a sensible plan—it wouldn't be a bad experience. But the world was so strange. Seeing the two of us simply walking here, one would never guess that we had just narrowly escaped death. Under such circumstances, no matter how leisurely my state of mind, I couldn't see the scene as pleasant. We walked on. For the first three and a half hours, it almost felt like tourism. Looking at the oddly shaped rocks, I sometimes had the illusion of wanting to reach for a camera.

Half an hour later, thirst began to torment us. We lost water through sweat, and both our lips became dry and swollen. I had at least drunk a cup of butter tea that morning; A Ning hadn't had anything. But in reality, we both felt the same.

This thirst was excruciating. We licked our lips and tried not to think about it just to keep moving. Luckily, there was no sun, or I might have already suffered heatstroke.

After another hour or so, based on my initial estimate, we should have reached the edge of the Devil's City by then.

We stopped to catch our breath, but looking around, the scenery remained unchanged—tall wind-eroded rock formations as far as the eye could see, with no sign of the Gobi.

I felt a bit uneasy. The distance seemed too long. Assuming A Ning and I could only cover five kilometers per hour, we'd already walked fifteen kilometers. The Devil's City couldn't possibly be that vast. Clearly, we were taking a detour.

Still, along the way, I had carefully memorized many distinctive rock formations to avoid retracing our steps, but I hadn't seen any of them. Apparently, we were still moving forward, not circling back.

That relieved me somewhat. I consoled myself, maybe our pace had unconsciously slowed, or the path was more winding than expected. No need to worry—as long as we kept going in one direction, we'd eventually get out.

We couldn't rest now, because dusk was approaching. I figured we weren't in the Gobi yet, but it couldn't be far, and it shouldn't take long to exit. After that, we'd still need time to return to the camp outside the Devil's City, which would also take a while.

So we pressed on, deliberately quickening our pace. But the more we walked, the more something felt off. Hour after hour passed, and the scenery remained the same, as if the Devil's City was moving with us.

We gritted our teeth and persisted until darkness fell, yet still there was no sign of the Gobi. I realized the severity of the problem—this couldn't be explained by slow walking alone. Even if the area were twice as large as eighty square kilometers, we should have reached the edge by now.

A chill ran down my spine. The situation in the Devil's City was far more complicated than I had imagined. It wasn't just a bunch of rock formations; we were hopelessly lost.

The sky gradually darkened, and night was about to fall. At that moment, I could feel what the Caucasian and the other two victims must have felt when they got lost here. Just as I was pondering what to do, A Ning behind me called me to stop.

As soon as we halted, both of us collapsed from exhaustion, unable to take another step. The temperature in the air dropped sharply, and our sweat turned cold. The temperature difference between day and night here was enormous.

"We can't go on," A Ning said, sitting down on the ground. "We definitely won't make it out before dark. We don't have flashlights, and there's nothing but rocks here—we can't even start a fire. We need to find a place to spend the night before it's completely dark. There won't be any moonlight tonight; it'll be pitch-black here."

I slumped to the ground as well, looking up at the sky. Dark clouds hung low, and the golden rays of the setting sun pierced through the gaps like swords, forming a huge golden cross—a magnificent sight. With clouds this thick, unless the wind picked up, they wouldn't blow away.

That night, we built a stone shelter with rocks and huddled inside. A Ning and I were only wearing thin clothes. I felt a bit embarrassed, but A Ning simply curled up into my arms, and we held each other for warmth. In the Devil's City at night, there was not a single ray of light. You can't imagine the terror—you couldn't see anything around you, only hear all kinds of sounds coming from all directions. Sometimes you could even hear sounds passing right by you, as if something was moving through the Devil's City.

Under such conditions, it was almost impossible to sleep, so we chatted to pass the time.

During that time, we discussed why we couldn't find our way out. We thought of many possibilities but couldn't make heads or tails of any of them. After much deliberation, only one possibility remained: the information Zhaxi had given us was wrong. Maybe the Devil's City here was far larger than eighty square kilometers. A Ning said that if we still couldn't get out tomorrow, we should find a high cliff and climb up to have a look.

It struck me as strange—I wasn't close to A Ning. Under normal circumstances, such intimate behavior would have made me very uncomfortable, but now it felt perfectly natural.

She was soft and fragrant in my arms, but I had no improper thoughts. I suddenly thought of Liu Xiahui and understood him well. Back then, on a freezing night, he had held a woman in his arms without any inappropriate behavior. I was the same. Thinking about it, if a man walks all day in the desert and then hugs a woman in near-freezing temperatures at night, even if she were a stunning beauty, he wouldn't have any improper intentions—simply because he had no energy left.

I hardly slept that night, only dozing off a few times, waking up after ten or fifteen minutes each time. All night, my mind wandered, and most of all, I thought about sleeping bags and tents, about the snoring of the Tibetans. Back then, I couldn't fall asleep and even complained that sleeping in a tent was bad for my neck. Now, just thinking about a sleeping bag filled me with longing.

At the first glimmer of dawn, we crawled up. We were in terrible shape—I had never been so exhausted. I felt like every muscle in my body was out of control, and my vision was blurry. Worst of all was the thirst, which had become unbearable; even the saliva in my mouth was gone.

I knew my own body well, and panic set in. A Ning and I rubbed our arms and started moving again.

We continued on, this time with A Ning in front because she had managed to sleep a bit and was more energetic than me. We followed the same method as yesterday, pressing forward. Soon, another three hours passed. The endless Devil's City now felt more hopeless than the endless Gobi. Looking at the countless dark shadows of rock formations stretching into the distance, I couldn't figure out what was happening. I felt like an ant trapped in a huge sandbox, toyed with by some unknown force.

Hour after hour dragged on, and soon it was noon. At this point, I began to feel hungry, but compared to my thirst, it was negligible. My throat felt like it was on fire; I thought it would crack if I coughed.

As we walked on, we couldn't stand it any longer. A Ning started looking for a rock formation to climb. But all the formations along the way were difficult to scale. Finally, we found a relatively tall mound of earth and, gritting our teeth, climbed to the top to survey the surroundings.

It was no use, though. The rock formations here were all about the same height. As far as the eye could see, there were only rocky hills of various sizes, with no end in sight. Beyond that, we couldn't see anything, but one thing was certain: we were definitely not at the edge of the Devil's City.

A Ning and I stood there dumbfounded, wondering what was going on. Why, no matter how we walked, did it feel like we were always in the center of the Devil's City? Could some force be preventing us from leaving this place?

We climbed back down the mound and found a shady spot to rest. I discussed with A Ning what to do. It seemed we were at a dead end. We couldn't find our way out, we had no food or water, and soon we wouldn't even have the strength to walk. We might die here.

My mind raced, and a chill spread through me. I was already calculating how many days a person could survive without water.

In a cool, comfortable environment, it's said to be three days. But we had already been walking for a full day and night, with significant fluid loss. I estimated that lasting three days would be the limit. I heard that drinking urine could extend life by a day, but damn it, I didn't even have any urine to drink.

Despair set in. Even if I stayed put and did nothing, I could only survive for another two days at most. If no one came to rescue us and we couldn't find our way out...

A Ning was clearly also making the same plan, her head lowered.

What to do next was a very simple multiple-choice question: keep walking, and maybe we could make it out; but if we failed, then tomorrow could be our death day, and we would die of dehydration here. If we didn't walk and waited for rescue, the hope was extremely slim, and we could live at most two days before dying anyway.

A Ning was a person of very strong character. Although I had thoughts of giving up, at this life-and-death moment, I wasn't completely foolish. In the end, she and I decided together to keep walking until we died.

But A Ning was calmer than me at this point. She started making marks with stones and removed the copper coins from her bracelet—she had a bracelet strung with copper coins—and placed them under the stone marks. She said that if anyone was looking for us, this would be a hope; at the very least, they would be able to find our bodies.

These copper coins were quite valuable. Placing them here as a marker was like putting a gold brick here. I thought this might be the most expensive marker in the world, but unfortunately, it pointed to our burial ground.

For the next two days, we continued traveling through this Devil's City. I don't even know how I survived that time.

For three days and three nights we hadn't had a drop of water. By the end, I had no willpower left, like a walking corpse.

From the night of the second day, all my senses were no longer clear. What I saw was only the gravelly Gobi and the towering rock mountains around. Sometimes these scenes even seemed to spin. I didn't know if I was turning or if the sky was actually turning. I could no longer distinguish what could happen from what couldn't. Sometimes I felt I was already dead, that I was flying. Then the next second, I saw A Ning stumbling ahead of me, and the agony continued.

At this point, I was still hoping, hoping to suddenly see the vast, boundless Gobi, or that once we passed the rock mountains ahead, we could see the Gobi. But there were only rock mountains, one after another, as if they would never end.

Finally, in the end, A Ning fell down first. I saw her suddenly disappear from my field of vision. In that moment, I had a flash of clarity, and then I tripped over something and also rolled to the ground.

I didn't know what I had tripped over, nor whether I had fallen on stones or on the sandy ground. In that instant, I saw the sky—it wasn't a blue sky, but dark, heavy clouds.

I smiled bitterly to myself. If not for the lack of sun, I think I would have already started to rot. But even if I had been granted a few more hours to live, time was up.

Looking at the dark clouds, I wanted to stand up, but I had no strength anywhere. My eyelids grew heavier and heavier. In the moment they completely closed, I suddenly saw a flash in the sky, like lightning. Then everything became quiet, everything faded away. I slowly sank into the abyss.