Chapter 242: Snake Marsh Ghost City (Part 2)

We all looked at each other, a sense of fate washing over us. It turned out that we were only about a dozen minutes away from the exit of the so-called canyon last night, and yet we had chosen to stop. If we had persisted and kept going, the outcome might have been completely different.

After taking a few more steps, we reached the edge of the swamp. From here, the view of the swamp was limited, not as vast as what we had seen from the top of the valley outside. If we hadn't been walking along the mountain wall, we wouldn't have known we had already exited the valley. Ahead was still a dense forest, feeling like just an extension of the canyon. Of course, there were differences. The more we walked, the more something felt off underfoot. The water was getting deeper, and the mud beneath was increasingly unable to support us.

Fortunately, in the shallow part of the swamp, there was a large flat rock protruding abruptly from the swamp, not submerged by the water. We found it strange that such a large rock was here. Carefully wading over and climbing onto it, we discovered that this huge stone was carved with complex decorative patterns, and underwater there was a very large shadow that seemed to be part of several large statues lined up side by side.

This was an entrance to the Queen Mother of the West's city. The Queen Mother of the West was the king of the Western Regions and had been the absolute spiritual leader of the Western Regions for a long time. Naturally, the entrance to her city would not be too shabby. Perhaps this was a stone carving from that time, or a statue on the city's defensive structures, used to exert psychological intimidation on visiting envoys. Of course, after so many years, such a statue could not have survived the erosion of rain.

At first glance, the ancient patterns on the stone reminded me of those at Angkor Wat, but upon closer inspection, I realized they were not Khmer Buddhist patterns. Rather, the stone had been weathered black and gray by wind and rain, making it look especially ancient and mysterious. Just as I was thinking that if there were a collapsed statue here, there might be other ruins beneath the swamp, I heard Fatty call out, telling us to look his way.

We turned to look, and under the sunlight, in the deeper part of the dark swamp ahead, dense clusters of huge black shadows appeared, as if something were submerged. They looked like rocks, some completely underwater. When Poker-face and I looked through binoculars, we were surprised to find that the shadows under the swamp water seemed to be nothing but ruined walls and collapsed structures, stretching all the way to the center of the swamp.

The ancient ruins of the Queen Mother of the West's city were actually buried beneath this swamp.

"There should have been a very prosperous ancient city in this valley. After the kingdom of the Queen Mother of the West collapsed, the city was abandoned, the drainage system failed, groundwater rose, and combined with thousands of years of rainwater carrying silt and mud flowing back in, the entire city was submerged underwater. It seems the Queen Mother's city was on a very large scale. What we see now is just the tip of the iceberg," Poker-face said calmly.

I was also somewhat shocked. It's actually quite common for an ancient city to be submerged by water. In reality, the total area of this swamp is not large, yet the ancient city had already developed to the edge of this basin, indicating that the civilization at that time had reached its peak. But if that's the case, wouldn't the Queen Mother of the West palace also be buried under water and sludge? How would we enter? However, recalling Wenjin's notes, this swamp didn't form in just a year or two. In her team during the 1990s, Huo Ling entered the Queen Mother of the West palace after a heavy rain as well, so there must be a way in; we just haven't reached that stage yet. As long as we keep going deeper, I believe there will always be traces for us to see.