Chapter 238: Swamp Demon Realm

After Poker-face finished speaking, for a moment none of us understood what he meant. Several of us were stunned for a second before reacting. I found it utterly baffling, thinking that the corpse had been dead for a long time – how could it suddenly become A Ning's corpse? And wasn't A Ning standing right here, alive and well?

Everyone was very puzzled, and A Ning frowned, not knowing what Poker-face meant by saying that.

Poker-face ignored our looks; instead, he carefully removed the bracelet from the hand bone of the corpse I had just seen, handed it to A Ning, and gave her a glance that said "take a look."

Puzzled, A Ning took it, looked at Poker-face, then looked at the bracelet. At first, her expression was confused, but once her gaze fell on the bracelet, a few seconds later her face changed, turning deathly pale.

We watched from the side, and seeing her expression, cold sweat broke out on us. We thought, this isn't right, what kind of expression is that? Fatty asked bluntly, "What? Is that corpse really yours?"

A Ning didn't speak, but when she turned to look at us, her face had already turned a bit green. She handed the bracelet that Poker-face had given her to us, then extended her right hand and placed it in front of us.

On A Ning's right hand was a string of coins used as decoration. I had noticed it back in Hainan; when we were separated and lost in Devil's City, she used that string of coins as markers under rocks – seven coins in total, all Dangshi copper coins minted by the Anhui Anqing Copper Coin Bureau. At the time, I joked with her that they might be the most valuable markers in the world. She told me that she chose to use these coins for her bracelet precisely because such a bracelet would be absolutely impossible to find a second one in the world.

Because of that conversation, when she placed her hand and the bracelet from the female corpse together in front of me, I understood what she meant.

I quickly examined the bracelet taken from the female corpse with care. When I had glanced at it earlier, I hadn't inspected it closely. Now, taking a closer look, I saw that the bracelet had been fused into a single mass by copper corrosion. Pushing aside the layer of verdigris on the surface, I found several corroded copper coins inside, each faintly bearing the four characters "Guangxu Yuanbao" in Wei script.

At first I didn't believe it. I pried it open a bit more and saw the Manchu characters inside, suddenly feeling horrified. I looked up at A Ning.

"No need to look anymore, they are Dangshi copper coins," A Ning said to me. "Seven in total."

"This…" I was speechless, thinking, how is this possible? This female corpse also had seven Dangshi copper coins on her wrist… But Dangshi copper coins are extremely rare. The seven on A Ning's wrist were collected by her one by one over ten years. Not to mention the possibility of such a coincidental idea, even just the rarity of the coins makes this hard to explain… What are the odds that another woman also had the idea of making a bracelet out of Dangshi coins, and also had the financial means and channels to buy seven coins, and also worked in the field, and also came to this place and had her corpse discovered by us…

This matter wasn't just baffling – it simply couldn't happen… The others still didn't understand what was going on. I explained the rarity of these coins to them. After I finished, they still didn't get it, and Panzi said, "That's just two identical coin bracelets. Maybe it's a coincidence. There are plenty of fakes of these coins."

Poker-face looked at A Ning and shook his head.

"Then what's going on?" Panzi laughed bitterly. "This is insane! Could it be that this lady standing in front of us is a ghost? Did she die here over ten years ago?"

As he spoke, Panzi looked at A Ning and laughed, but after only two laughs, he stopped. Then his face changed; he immediately stood up and reached for the knife in his hand.

I wondered what was wrong, so I turned to look at A Ning as well. When I saw her, I almost fainted from fright.

I saw that A Ning's face in the rain had inexplicably changed. Her face twisted as if melting, her eyes bulged grotesquely, and the corners of her mouth stretched at an impossible angle, revealing a mouthful of tiny fangs.

My mind went "buzz," and I screamed internally: "Holy shit!" I reached like lightning for the dagger at my waist and simultaneously stepped back, trying to keep as much distance from her as possible.

In my panic, I forgot I was up in a tree. As I stepped back, I missed my footing. In an instant, I plunged downward.

I tensed up, thinking this is it – I'll either die from the fall or be seriously injured. I frantically grabbed at the surrounding branches but caught nothing. At that moment, someone grabbed my belt. I felt a sharp pain in my waist, almost as if I was being cut in half, but at least I didn't fall.

That person pulled me up. I steadied myself and turned to see which hero had saved me. When I saw, I was terrified out of my wits – it was A Ning holding my belt, her mouth wide open with drool streaming down onto my face.

This was deadly. In my desperation, I realized that if she pulled me up, I might lose my life, whereas falling might give me a slim chance of survival. I hurriedly tried to unbuckle my belt, but it was cinched tight around my stomach and wouldn't come undone. My scalp crawled with terror as I yanked at it. Then I heard someone saying, "Wake up, wake up! What the hell kind of dream are you having?"

I woke up instantly, sat up abruptly, and my head banged into someone's chest. With an "ouch," the A Ning beside me nearly got knocked out of the tree.

I reflexively grabbed her and suddenly became fully awake. I found myself leaning against a tree, my hand pulling at my belt, which was already half-unbuckled. Beside me was the excavation site for the snake skeleton, rain still falling, and the mining lamps all around were so bright I couldn't open my eyes.

Everyone was staring at me in bewilderment. A waterproof cloth had been set up over the snake bones, mining lamps hung from the surrounding branches. Poker-face and Panzi were sitting there, while Fatty slept beside me, snoring loudly. A Ning was holding her chest, clearly in pain from my collision.

Only then did I realize I had been dreaming. I let out a long breath. I touched my forehead – it was still wet, whether from cold sweat or yesterday's

I recalled exactly when I had fallen asleep. Earlier, I had called them down to dig up the snake bones, but the snake's skeleton had been entangled in the vines for at least a dozen years, and it was incredibly solid. We dug for a long time without finding anything, so we took turns resting. Unexpectedly, we were so exhausted from the journey that I lay down and fell asleep. My face was still covered in rainwater, and the drool from A Ning earlier was just that. I gave an awkward smile, stood up, wiped my face, and went over to continue helping. Panzi asked me with a sly grin, "Third Young Master, what were you dreaming about just now? Did you have to take off your pants?"

I slapped him, thinking that this time I wouldn't be able to explain myself even if I was right. I couldn't help but think of the story about the architect and the train, and I said to myself that such things didn't only happen in jokes.

I looked at my watch; I hadn't been asleep for long. I was soaking wet, and had only dozed off lightly. Light sleep easily brings nightmares, but at least I had slept, and my spirits were much better. Speaking of the dream, it was quite strange — eerily real. They say dreams are reflections of the subconscious. I remembered some psychological things Laoyang had told me before, and I thought to myself: could it be that in my subconscious, I have an immense fear of that woman A Ning? The dream had actually turned out like that.

I turned to look at A Ning. She had already leaned against the tree trunk, taking over my spot to rest, her eyes closed in repose. She looked a bit haggard, but that actually diminished her aggressive demeanor, making her seem more womanly. The distorted face of A Ning from my dream overlapped with the scene before me, and I felt a lingering fear.

I turned to check their progress, but found that there didn't seem to be much advancement. The vines had wound into the skeleton, and after all the effort, they had broken apart. Rotten and mineralized scales the size of a palm were scattered among the piles of vines, looking like ancient funeral paper money.

I laughed at myself, let out a long breath, and asked Panzi what they had found and why they had stopped digging.

Panzi picked up a miner's lamp and shone it into the skeleton, saying they couldn't get the corpse out. For one thing, the bones were mostly rotted and would crumble at a touch — if they dug further, there would be nothing left. For another, they had found this thing.

I followed the beam of the miner's lamp downward and saw, deep within the snake bones where the vines were tangled, a bundle that looked like chicken legs, except it was black and covered with a layer of rust. I crouched down for a closer look and discovered that it was actually three old-fashioned hand grenades tied together. They had rusted into a single mass.

Around the grenades there was a blackened ammunition belt. Clearly, these three items had been inserted into the belt and carried on this corpse's body.

I couldn't help but gasp. I suddenly didn't dare to move forcefully, and carefully backed away. Panzi said to me, "Fatty discovered this first. If it weren't for Fatty's sharp eyes, the few of us might have been blown to pieces by now."

I asked in surprise, "Who exactly is this corpse? Why would they be carrying this kind of thing?" Even if it were Wenjin's team, if they were carrying equipment, they should have brought explosives, not hand grenades. These old-fashioned wooden-handled grenades are purely combat weapons, meant to kill people, and are basically useless for engineering demolition.

"Do you remember that old woman Dingzhu Zhuoma told us that in 1993, a group of reactionary armed separatists fled into the Qaidam Basin, and the militia chased them deep into the Gobi, but that group vanished?" Panzi asked me. "I think this skeleton is one of those people from back then — maybe a female bandit, maybe a family member. They disappeared back then, and I think it's because they mistakenly entered this swamp. Over a dozen years, none of them ever reappeared; they probably all died here."

When Panzi brought this up, I recalled it and thought it made sense — that must be what happened. However, I didn't agree with Panzi's final conclusion. At that time, the armed elements who fled into the Gobi were well-armed, carrying good guns. Though few in number, they were well-equipped. If they really did enter the swamp, it wasn't certain they died — maybe they stayed there for a while and then left. This place is desolate; many poachers enter Hoh Xil from here, hunt animals, and then take smuggling trails straight to Nepal. There's no way to catch them.

They might have even settled down here, but of course that's highly unlikely—the conditions here aren't suitable for outsiders to live. I thought to myself that it would be best if they didn't; such people are too extreme, and if we met, a fight would be inevitable. We had no guns or artillery, and if anyone got hurt or killed, it would be a disservice to all we'd suffered before. Although so many years had passed, their weapons should have rusted by now.

While I was lost in thought, Fatty woke up. I told Panzi to get some sleep, but he said he wouldn't—it was too damp, and at his age, sleeping would definitely cause problems. With those few things here, we couldn't keep dwelling on the dead man. "You guys rest a bit more, and then we'll leave. The rain has let up anyway. If we walk a bit farther, it'll be daylight soon, and we can find a better spot to build a fire and rest slowly."

Even so, under these conditions, trying to fall asleep was futile. We huddled together, smoking, staring out into the darkness, listening to the rain and the wind blowing through the rainforest. Panzi cleaned his gun—it was so humid that he was worried about its condition. The others chatted, and as they talked, Poker-face fell asleep.

Panzi told me about his time in the war. He was in the mess squad back then, very young. Once, their logistics unit encountered a Vietnamese special forces unit. How could cooks and porters fight Vietnamese who had been fighting Americans since childhood? They were forced into a swamp. Because the Vietnamese abused prisoners, they decided to fight to the death together. The guard company protecting them issued each of them a grenade, intended for a final sacrifice.

The Vietnamese were clever; they didn't expose themselves but spread out, lurking in the jungle and closing in. They fired from here, then there, keeping Panzi's squad guessing where they would strike. Panzi's group fought and retreated until they reached the central mire of the swamp, where each step sank mud up to their thighs, making it impossible to move. Then the company commander ordered them to prepare.

Everyone grabbed their grenades and sank into the mud, covering their faces with mud so only their nostrils were exposed. That threw the Vietnamese into confusion; for some reason, they didn't dare enter the swamp and instead fired their guns into it. After they'd used up most of their ammunition, they withdrew.

Panzi and the others didn't dare move in the mud, fearing it was a Vietnamese trick. They endured all night, and only when they were sure the Vietnamese had truly left did they cautiously emerge. But when they counted heads, they found two men missing. Thinking they had sunk into the mud, they used bamboo poles to search the swamp and hooked out their bodies. They found that the two men had been hollowed out, leaving only transparent skin, and something was pulsing inside their chests.

After that experience, Panzi developed a fear of swamps. Later, when he was transferred to a spearhead platoon operating behind enemy lines in Vietnam, the entire platoon was ambushed and only he and the signalman survived. They fled to the edge of another swamp, but Panzi would rather risk everything to kill all the pursuers than set foot in such a place again.

As Panzi talked, he started yawning nonstop. I was also getting drowsy from listening, my eyelids heavy, and I fell asleep again.

Half-asleep, half-awake, I didn't know how long had passed. Just as I seemed to be starting to dream, I felt someone shaking me. It was the most uncomfortable moment; I wanted to push them away and keep sleeping. Before I could push them, my mouth was suddenly covered.

That made me open my eyes, and I saw that it was A Ning covering my mouth. Beside me, Panzi was gently shaking Fatty. Everyone seemed to have just woken up and was looking off to the side.

I turned to look as well, and saw a strong wind blowing a branch above our heads; the huge canopy was trembling. It seemed the wind had picked up again, but when I focused, I couldn't feel any wind around me. I looked up again and saw a massive brown python slithering over from a neighboring tree, coiling its way toward us.