Chapter 251: Crack

My scalp went numb, and I thought to myself, we've run into a ghost again—is this thing actually alive?

Fatty had already rushed in front of us; without stopping, he grabbed us and ran, shouting: "What are you spacing out for!"

We were pulled several steps by Fatty, still not snapping out of it, but when we looked back, we saw an even stranger scene: the stone carving's face had actually shattered, its features shifted out of place, as if something wrapped inside the stone was trying to emerge.

"Son of a bitch!" I cursed loudly, realizing that my premonition had been correct, and immediately broke into a sprint.

We were in a vast expanse of ruins, with rubble and vines underfoot, making it hard to speed up; we had to follow the slope of the ruins, running wherever was convenient, falling several times and scraping our knees, until we were exhausted. When we looked back again, we realized we hadn't run far, but the stone carving was still in place, not chasing after us—at this distance we could no longer see clearly.

During the mad dash, our stamina created distance between us, and Fatty and Panzi had run farther ahead than me, still running forward; I called them back. They came charging back to pull me, but I grabbed them and told them to take cover first, then to look at the distant stone carving.

Finding that the stone carving hadn't come after us, they were quite surprised; we gasped for breath and watched a while longer—the distant stone carving remained completely motionless.

Only then did we relax. Fatty was panting like a bellows, and said with effort: "What's going on? Little Wu, it's not moving—could this be some kind of trap?"

"We didn't even touch the thing, how could it be a trap? And a mechanism couldn't achieve that level."

There was absolutely no way this was a mechanism. The stone carving was carved from a single piece, and it was wedged between two huge trees—if it turned its head, it would create a huge commotion, possibly even snapping the trees. So even if there were a mechanism, it couldn't turn; that was beyond doubt. But no matter how I thought about it, it had clearly turned—this was just too bizarre.

I actually had mental preparations for what I might encounter in the Queen Mother of the West's kingdom, but something like this still exceeded my imagination.

At that moment, Panzi took out binoculars from his gear and looked in the direction of the statue. I hurriedly asked: "What's it like? What exactly is that thing?" Then I saw Panzi show a very surprised expression and say: "Holy shit! It's gone!"

"What?" I immediately snatched the binoculars and looked over there. Sure enough, the back of the stone carving was facing us, but the ferocious face had actually vanished.

Before I could lower the binoculars, Fatty snatched them away. My mind was in chaos—could it be that what we saw just now was an illusion? Impossible—all three of us were so scared we almost pissed our pants. So what was going on? What about the face we saw? Was it a ghost?

"Damn it, is someone playing tricks on us?" Fatty stood up.

Afraid he'd act rashly, we immediately pulled him back down to sit. The rocks here were unstable, and Fatty stumbled and slid; we quickly reached out to steady him. Inadvertently, we saw on a huge rock about ten meters behind us a massive human-face relief, identical to the one we just saw, also staring blankly ahead with a face like a corpse.

Just now, while running madly, we hadn't paid attention to the surrounding ruins, so we didn't know whether this relief had been there originally.

When Fatty and Panzi saw it, they immediately felt something was wrong and both stopped. Fatty said: "Damn, this one can't be alive."

"There's more than one!" Panzi said, pointing to one side. We looked and saw that on the surrounding boulders, there were human-face reliefs scattered here and there, large and small. But most were hidden by vines; without looking closely, they weren't distinct. When we seriously examined them, we found the scale was astonishing—they were almost everywhere. Less than ten meters from where we were lying was a huge human face. Strangely, all the reliefs here were only faces, without bird-body patterns.

Seeing so many dull stone eyes staring at him, Fatty panicked and raised Panzi's gun. I immediately held him back, telling him not to act rashly. I already felt something strange around us—these didn't seem to be reliefs.

But before I could figure out what these things really were, suddenly one of the reliefs cracked open, and then I saw an amazing sight—the shattered stones actually floated up into the air.

I stared dumbfounded, thinking: Have I finally gone crazy? Am I starting to hallucinate in broad daylight? Then I heard Panzi yell: "Damn it, it's moths!"

It suddenly dawned on me. Looking closely, indeed, the floating stones were all black moths. These human faces were formed by the moths arranged together—no wonder they appeared and disappeared suddenly. Then I saw all the surrounding human-face reliefs begin to warp and crack, with large numbers flying into the air and scattering in all directions.

These moths were obviously resting on the ruins here. After we disturbed them, for some reason they had arranged themselves into human faces. Soon the sky was almost filled with black fragments. We didn't know if these moths were poisonous, so we subconsciously covered our mouths and noses with our clothes. But generally, creatures using protective coloration are non-toxic. Watching the moths gradually scatter like black petals in the sky was quite a sight.

Fatty tried to catch a few to examine them closely, not knowing what species they were, but he couldn't catch any. Our hearts gradually relaxed; this was a false alarm. Still, it wasn't our fault—the situation had been truly terrifying.

We stayed where we were, not daring to act rashly for a while. The moths gradually flew away, leaving only a few scattered ones. At that moment, we saw that the ruins had changed. In the areas the moths had just covered, large patches of white were exposed. Looking closely, we saw clumps of white snake slough tangled in the plant vines, looking like some animal's white intestines.

Fatty jumped down, saw the vines, and flicked one up while cursing. Most of the snake slough had rotted into a mess of holes, extremely disgusting, with many vines threading through and tangling among them. Looking around, snake slough was everywhere—in the cracks of the ruins, between the tree roots—hundreds of them. The moths earlier had all been resting on the snake slough, probably attracted by the fishy smell. This place might be where the snakes shed their skin.

We felt chills all over at the sight. This ruin was enormous—how many snakes must have lived here to shed this many skins? Fatty climbed back up and showed us the snake skin he had picked up. The head part of the skin was swollen, showing a cockscomb shape, indeed shed from that kind of venomous snake. This piece of skin was as thick as a calf, thicker than any snake we had seen before. It seemed the size of the snakes here was beyond our estimation.

Fatty was clearly disgusted, frowning and not even wanting to look.

Snake slough is a very valuable Chinese medicine, selling for over a hundred yuan per jin. The scale here, at least several tons, would be astonishingly valuable. If Fatty knew that, he probably wouldn't find it so disgusting. But even though I knew, I still got goosebumps all over.

Panzi touched the snake skin and said: "This skin is still quite tough, looks like it was shed not long ago. This is where they molt. Snakes usually molt in places they consider safe. If we run into one or two here, they'll think their territory has been severely violated and will definitely attack us. I think we shouldn't stay long."

I looked back. To go back, we'd have to pass through these snake slough areas, which would be extremely unpleasant. But Panzi's concern was right. There might be those venomous snakes hiding in the concealment here.

We set off immediately, urgently leaving this area. I thought we'd at least encounter one or two snakes, but the process was surprisingly smooth—we found nothing. Thinking back, it seemed we rarely saw snakes during the day. These snakes must be nocturnal, which also meant the forest at night would definitely be very lively. As I went deeper, I smelled a nauseating fishy odor, a very strange smell. By the time we left the ruins and followed the terrain back into the forest, the contents of my stomach were already at the back of my throat.

After that, we re-entered the rainforest, and the feeling of being under a canopy came rushing back. But after the previous experience, the air in the rainforest felt like a treat; the moist air with swampy smell was much better than the snake stench. Soon, my urge to vomit disappeared.

Having been delayed in the ruins for a while, Panzi walked especially fast, but our stamina had reached its limit, and we stopped talking. Walking like this for four or five hours, we clearly felt the terrain descending, and the water in the swamp became fast-flowing. All around we could hear the sounds of waterfalls and rap

Panzi took out some dry provisions. We ate as we continued forward. Before long, we finally encountered a waterfall—a fault where the terrain suddenly dropped. We had no idea what ancient ruins it was.

Along the way, I was almost certain that this valley had a concave-bottomed terrain, with the central part of the valley being the lowest, so all the water would flow there. I felt that the Queen Mother's Palace should be there, but at this point it no longer mattered at all.

After we passed the waterfall, we were completely drenched. Below the waterfall was another hidden world; the water seemed to seep into the ground. The vegetation was even denser, with almost no gaps to pass through, and down below we couldn't see the sky at all. We squeezed forward for a distance and then lost our sense of direction.

Third Uncle and his group's smoke thinned out quickly. Even though we had adjusted our compass, we worried we might stray too far. Panzi had to stop and climb a tree to identify the direction.

By this time I was completely disoriented. As soon as Panzi climbed up, Fatty and I leaned against the tree to catch our breath. But before long, Panzi pointed out the direction, saying they were close to Third Uncle and the others, and urged us on as if our lives depended on it.

I checked my watch; we had been marching non-stop for a whole day. I had never experienced such strenuous trekking in this kind of environment before. Surprisingly, I was still on my feet, which showed that my physique had indeed toughened up a lot. But now I was past my physical limits; I felt that if I sat down, I would fall asleep immediately.

After Fatty and Panzi discussed it, the march resumed. Seeing my pale face, Fatty knew I was exhausted, but under the circumstances, there was nothing he could do to help me. He could only keep talking to me to distract my attention.

The scenery around us was monotonous, leaving little to talk about. Gazing at the things in the water, Fatty asked me, "Xiao Wu, do you think there are still any burial goods in these dilapidated, waterlogged houses?"

I said, "Based on the excavation experience of the ancient Loulan city, there should naturally be some things. But since this ancient city is submerged by water, you can forget about silk and bamboo slips. Perhaps some pots, bowls, and utensils might be left. What are you thinking? Are your hands itching again?"

Fatty quickly said, "No itching, no itching. How can you look at your Lord Fatty with such an undeveloped perspective? This time our goal is to hit a big haul. Once I get my hands on the goods, I'll retire. What's a few bottles and jars worth? At the very least, we should grab something that can be auctioned off at the Beijing Hotel."

I sighed deeply, thinking to myself, with so many annoying matters at hand, you still have the nerve to think about this.

We walked and talked. At first, it helped a bit, but then I increasingly felt my vision blurring. Distant things grew unclear, and the trees became hazy. I thought to myself, am I going to faint? That would be really embarrassing. But then I heard Fatty say, "Damn, where did this fog come from?"

I forced myself to focus, rubbed my eyes, and looked around. Sure enough, it was fog, not my vision blurring. I had no idea when the fog had risen. A grayish haze surrounded us; the forest in the distance was completely invisible, and the trees a few meters ahead turned into grotesque shadows. A chill, eerie atmosphere began to envelop the woods.

Whether from extreme fatigue or the drop in temperature, I started to feel an intensely unsettling palpitation, like a nightmare clinging tightly and pressing down on my chest.

Last night we were outside the sea of trees. We didn't know if fog formed inside the sea of trees, nor did we know if the fog was toxic. But we couldn't afford to care about that; we hadn't brought gas masks in.

We tore off some cloth, wet it, and covered our mouths and noses. After walking a bit further without feeling any discomfort, we lowered them. However, by then we realized the fog had become so thick that we couldn't see anything.