Chapter 298: Heavenly Stone

Heavenly stone was an ancient term for meteorites; the ancients called them heavenly stones because they fell from the sky. There are many kinds of heavenly stones, often used as carving material, with the most precious being called Heaven's Heart Stone. This could only be a meteorite, otherwise there was no way to explain what we saw—human strength could never have embedded such a huge round stone into the rock layer. But this meteorite was too large; how much of it was still embedded inside the rock? It was almost unimaginable.

The others gradually came to their senses and turned on their mining lamps, shining them around the cave ceiling to try to find the edge where the meteorite met the rock roof. They discovered that its diameter was a full five to six hundred meters, and considering the portion inside the rock, it might have a diameter of nearly a kilometer.

Those holes made the meteorite look hideously ugly, like a rotted giant beehive. For some reason, I always felt it resembled the kind of pills we'd seen. The holes were pitch-black inside; even with a light shining in, you couldn't see what was in them, and there was no telling how they had formed. Staring at the countless dark openings above my head, like tiny eyes, I suddenly felt a strong sense of being watched—it made my whole body uncomfortable.

Wenjin said, "This must be our destination. This must be the ultimate secret of the Queen Mother of the West. What Wang Zanghai was looking for might be this thing…"

"What would he want it for? What use is this meteorite?" I couldn't understand.

Wenjin also shook her head. "I'm not sure yet. Maybe it has something to do with these holes. Why are there so many?"

Looking at those cavities, a chill ran down my spine. "Could they have been dug by hand? Damn, is there something inside this meteorite?"

Black Blind suddenly said, "No, this should be natural. Many meteorites are honeycombed, but these holes are just uglier than usual."

His sudden seriousness surprised me. One of Third Uncle's men said, "Have any of you heard an unverified theory? The Qaidam Basin and the Tarim Basin were both formed by the impact of a fragmented asteroid. This thing might be a fragment of that meteorite. The Tamutuo oasis is the impact crater. The Queen Mother's people built the Queen Mother's City in this crater, and while constructing the underground reservoir, they discovered this meteorite that went deep into the ground. I suspect this object was the symbol of the Queen Mother of the West's divine power."

That was the second time this guy had spoken. I'd never really noticed him before. I glanced over, couldn't remember his name, and was about to ask him more about the theory when Fatty caught my attention.

Fatty, being undisciplined as always, had somehow wandered very far away with Poker-face, about four or five hundred meters from us. From where they were shining their lights, we couldn't see what it was, but there seemed to be something there. He called us over. We waded through the water and reached their spot, and only then saw the junction between the meteorite and the cave roof. The scene was almost like hell—a huge mass of stone pillars hung down from above, forming a bizarre, giant stone waterfall. The slope was gentle enough to walk up, and it was absurdly large, practically a small mountain.

This wasn't a karst cave formation. The stone waterfall had a vicious, hideous shape, like the fused tentacles of countless enormous monsters. It was probably a wonder created by the high temperatures that melted the rock during the meteorite impact. I could hardly describe it in words.

On the widest and largest of the stone waterfalls, we saw crude stone steps. Bronze lamp holders stood on both sides of the steps. At the very top of the steps, the part where the stone waterfall connected to the cave roof had broken off, and the break had been trimmed into a stone platform. I looked around and realized that must be a sacrificial altar. From that platform, you could get infinitely close to the meteorite while also having a panoramic view of the ritual.

The most crucial thing was that on that sacrificial platform, we could see a stone throne with several corners—too blurry to see clearly, but it was extremely large. And on the throne, we could see a person sitting.

I sucked in a cold breath. Who could that be? Was it the Queen Mother of the West? Had she been here all this time, guarding her sanctuary?