Chapter 233: Snake Swamp Ghost City (Part 2) - Heading to the Oasis (Part 2)

In the moss, there was a stone carving of a bird with a human face, its style identical to the carvings on the pottery jar we had found on the ancient sunken ship—a genuine carving of the Queen Mother of the West's kingdom. After a thousand years of erosion, the surface of the stone carving was covered with dendrobium, making it blurry. After I removed all the dendrobium, the entire carving emerged. It was a standing statue, directly chiseled out of the cliff. The bird's head was a strange female face that was human yet not, with two pairs of eyes, expressionless and exceptionally cold. Under its two feet were carved five skulls, and the bird stood on two of them, as if these skulls were the remains of its prey.

Fatty was watching from below and exclaimed, "Heavens, Little Wu, isn't this damn well…"

After jumping down and seeing the whole stone carving, I also drew in a sharp breath.

So the stone statue of a bird with a human face in this cliff cave was actually almost identical to the strange bird we had seen in the underground crevices of Changbai Mountain.

The carving was extremely vivid. Looking at the surface of the rock, it must have been painted with pigments when it was carved. If not for the moss covering, seeing it in this dark jungle, one would surely think that strange bird had flown here from Changbai Mountain.

Everyone showed expressions of astonishment, even Poker-face seemed surprised. Everyone here had been to Changbai Mountain, and seeing these stone carvings inevitably brought back the terrifying memories.

Fatty and I quickly got to work, scraping open the carvings in the other caves one by one, and found that they were all the same human-faced bird stone carvings, some big, some small, with different postures.

A Ning took a breath and said, "It seems our earlier deduction was correct. The human-faced raptors in Changbai Mountain are the prototype of the Queen Mother of the West's totem—the Three Green Birds. The Queen Mother of the West might have possessed some ancient technology we don't understand, allowing her to tame these strange raptors. The underground tomb in Changbai Mountain should be related to the disappearance of the Queen Mother's kingdom and the mysterious eastward migration of its remnant people. Those strange birds might have originally lived in this oasis, and later were taken east by the seceded remnants to serve as tomb guardians."

I said, "Correct. I always felt that the terrain here is so similar to the underground imperial tomb in Changbai Mountain—both are in a huge crater-like basin. It seems that place might be a replica of the Queen Mother's palace. Our experience in Changbai Mountain was just a rehearsal; this is their real lair."

When Fatty heard this, he wiped his sweat and said, "Damn it, according to what you're saying, this is the hometown of those ghost birds? Then aren't we just going to our deaths by going in like this?"

This was hard to say. I turned back and smiled wryly. A Ning said, "Not necessarily. So many years have passed, the climate here has changed drastically. The vast grassland has shrunk into this one oasis, with too little food. This kind of bird might have gone extinct here. The ones we saw in Changbai Mountain might be the last survivors. However, regardless, the Queen Mother's kingdom used the Green Bird as its guardian. Having this totem here indicates we have entered the domain of the Queen Mother's palace. This cave totem carved here is both a marker and a warning to outsiders. From now on, we need to be doubly cautious."

We all nodded. Fatty said, "Damn it, let's hope your words come true. If those ghost birds really are extinct, that would be best. Otherwise, if they get me, the Touching Gold Captain will go extinct."

Fatty's concern was ours as well. We exchanged glances, said nothing, and our expressions were complicated.

After a short delay, A Ning took photos of these statues and looked around. There was nothing else besides the rocks. Poker-face then told us to set out.

We took one last look at those caves, pulled ourselves together, and left this cliff face, continuing deeper into the canyon. Probably because of the influence of those cave statues, at that moment, I felt a sense of unease beginning to envelop the jungle. We seemed to be walking into a bizarre world that no one understood.