Before the sound coming from under the sand disappeared, I suddenly heard countless rumblings from the darkness in the distance, as if something had fallen from the top of the cave and into the quicksand. The sound was very dense like rain, as if a considerable number of things were falling.
Fatty was rolling hard, but after hearing the sound, he stopped immediately and said to himself, “I think I just heard the sound of bad luck.” He immediately sat up. Since we didn’t have anything to protect ourselves with, he took out the iron picks.
I also knew that something must’ve happened, but after looking around, I could only see quicksand. Moreover, the sound had come from a certain distance away. Although the “Wolf-Eye” flashlight could illuminate far into the distance, it was hard to see the details clearly in the yellow sand, and downright impossible to see what was falling down.
I was uneasy since I knew we didn’t have any defense at all now. Once the chassis we were lying on was damaged, we’d sink into the quicksand. Although it wasn’t deep enough to trap us, we’d essentially become turtles in a jar. To put it bluntly, if we were trapped in the quicksand, even a few patient mosquitoes could kill us here. I said to Fatty, “Your stupid toothpicks won’t do much good either. Keep crawling. How far can you crawl? Maybe we can stick to the side.”
Fatty looked at the iron picks in his hand and immediately nodded, “Ok, let’s go.” We lay down again and immediately began to roll and crawl. Fatty had obviously sped up, proving that fear was the primary motivation of mankind.
We had only been going for a while when something suddenly fell beside us. Fatty shined his flashlight at it and we saw that it was a bone. He then proceeded to move the light to the roof of the cave again. With a single glance, we saw a bunch of corpses sticking to the ceiling as if they had been flattened and glued there. At the same time, we found that the roof was shaking, and the bodies stuck on it were crumbling as debris fell from time to time.
The falling objects continued to sound like rain, and this time, I heard very clearly that the sound seemed to be moving and approaching us quickly. Fatty shined his flashlight in that direction, and we could vaguely see that the bodies were being knocked down by something. A huge shadow hung upside down on the ceiling, looming under the flashlight’s glow.
Now I was certain that this seemed to be a feeding ground. All the animals that entered the ventilation and light shafts would eventually be brought here and disposed of by whatever was here. But we just didn’t know what it was.
Fucking hell, why didn’t Ghost tell us more about this? If I knew that there was such a fucking mechanism here, I at least wouldn’t have been so quick to fall into such a simple trap. If we had been more careful, we might’ve entered the ancient building by now.
As I scolded in my heart, I suddenly felt very desperate. Based on the situation around us and the size of this thing, it was impossible to run. Even on a level road, we wouldn’t be able to outrun it. Were we also going to be flattened by this thing on the ceiling? In this state, it seemed impossible to have a more dignified death.
Previous experience told us that we had to hold on until the last moment, no matter what. Fatty handed me the iron picks, which used to be used by emperors in the Qing Dynasty. At most, the iron picks could be used to prod a widow to death or prod some unlucky rich men that were roused from their sleep at midnight. Although this stuff wasn’t easy to sell, it was still an antique and I wanted to take it back for a souvenir. I just didn’t think that it would be necessary to use such a thing to fight now. Luckily, it was very sharp, so the other party wouldn’t be too happy when they were met with this.
Fatty didn’t have much ammo for his gun, so we stepped on the half-bent skeleton chassis and waited for that thing to approach. In doing so, we could at least choose whether to jump out and try to escape or take the opportunity to fight back when it first attacked.
We pulled the sled for half a day before the thing stopped a certain distance from us. Damn it, I said to myself. This thing is so big yet still quite cautious. What is it? Is it a living creature or a dead body? As I looked at the huge shadow on the cave ceiling in the distance, the sweat on my hands squeezed out from between my fingers. How could a living creature appear in such a place? I had never seen such a wild animal before, and a dead creature wouldn’t act so cautiously.
At this time, the sand in front of us suddenly moved, and a ripple appeared. I shined my flashlight on the surface of the quicksand and saw a sudden change come over the bone that had just fallen. It appeared to be alive and was crawling on the sand.
The bone was twisting in the sand, and the cotton wool still stuck on it was shrinking and expanding. Several black tentacles could be seen sticking out from underneath.
If we looked at the roof of the cave again, we’d be even more stunned. All of the bones stuck on the ceiling moved, and a large number of black tentacles as thick as toothpicks stretched out.
These tentacles quivered as if the whole roof of the cave suddenly sprouted thorns. Soon, many black insects the size of fingernails fell and crawled directly into the quicksand before disappearing. Fatty reacted quickly and immediately picked up the other chassis to act as an umbrella to block our heads so that we weren’t covered in bugs.
I knew immediately what it was. It was a kind of stone silkworm, which was a common aquatic pest. But I didn’t know why it could survive here on land. This kind of worm used the liquid it secreted to glue many stones and bones into a cocoon, which it hid in. This thing’s bite was very painful, but its mobility wasn’t strong. It usually escaped from its cocoon only when it was invaded.
Fatty’s hand holding up our makeshift umbrella was bitten several times and soon swelled up. I asked him to hold the umbrella with the iron picks instead of his hands and calmed him down at the same time, “This insect isn’t aggressive.”
“I disagree,” Fatty said. “If we sink into the quicksand, we’ll become the best food for these bugs. They’ll definitely eat us clean.”
Most of the silkworms had soon fallen from the roof of the cave into the quicksand, so Fatty quickly put down the umbrella. I suddenly realized that the bones probably weren’t flattened as we thought, but were transported there by the worms one by one and glued together. Fatty used the umbrella as a shovel to move some of the sand aside and found that almost all of the silkworms were under the surface.
He started cursing, “Fuck me, I’m not afraid we’ll starve to death anymore. The protein content of these things must be too high. Eating them will be cleaner and more nutritious than anything in the city.”
I looked at the shadow crouching in the distance and thought that this thing was probably thinking along the same lines as us: I don’t have to be afraid of starvation anymore. These two things look very nutritious.
“If you want to eat it,” I said to Fatty, “the better nutrition just means that you’ll be more delicious when others eat you. While that big guy is still pretending to be a literary art piece, let’s continue to withdraw. He didn’t respond to all this noise so maybe he didn’t even notice us.”
Fatty said, “Impossible. It’s in the direction we’re going and we have to pass under it. Shit, I don’t have this kind of hobby.”
“What do you want to do?” I asked him. “Wait for it to suddenly change its mind and destroy us both, or wait for it to die of boredom?”
“It’s going to attack us and there’s nothing we can do about it. It’s no use thinking about it.” Fatty kept changing the chassis and moving while looking around. “The best way is to find a place to hide. This place is too big, so we’ll use a flashlight as bait.”
“Is it attracted by light?” I was doubtful. “The deer that fell here didn’t bring a flashlight. I think it’s probably smell and sound.”
“Which is it?”
“Smell is more likely,” I replied. Fatty immediately pulled a bottle of something from his pocket.
“What the hell is that?”
“Huoxiang Zhengqi Shui (1). Quick, help me.” Fatty took off his socks, put the bottle inside, and then swung it like a meteor hammer (2), throwing it out as fast as possible. The bottle flew in an arc, hit the post on one side, and broke with a small crash.
“This liquid has a very strong odor. If that thing is attracted by the smell, it might be drawn away.”
The shadow didn’t respond.
“Maybe your socks are too smelly and are masking the smell of the Huoxiang Zhengqi Shui,” I said.
Was it sound? Too many things had fallen from above just now, so did the shadow stop in order to wait for the sounds to subside?
There was still the sound of insects falling down, but it was getting lighter and lighter. I felt uneasy and looked at the black shadow before suddenly giving a loud shout.
Sure enough, the shadow moved. Fatty immediately covered my mouth and asked me softly what I was doing.
“This thing seems to be determining our position by sound,” I said. “But its ability to distinguish between sounds isn’t particularly good. If there’s some interference, it can’t locate us. We have to be prepared. After it’s completely quiet, we mustn’t make any noise.”
Fatty was excited after hearing this, “This approach is too passive. If that’s the case, we should take this opportunity to kill it.”
Even if we can touch it, it’s too difficult to reach the ceiling in our current situation, I thought to myself. When Fatty spoke, the shadow suddenly shrank back.
We were startled as we saw it slowly retreating into the darkness.
<Chapter 43> <Table of Contents><Chapter 45>
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TN Notes:
(1) Liquid Chinese medicine
(2) Kung fu weapon which basically consists of two weights connected by a rope or chain
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Updated 3/27/2021
MereBear's Translation 