Chapter 58 Something Under the Mountain

We walked around the edge of the valley, practically climbing the rock in order to get close to the base of that huge black mountain with the exposed rock.

The mountain was very large, and from a distance, we could see a huge crack running through it. When the mountain was covered in snow, the crack was probably covered by ice and snow, but as soon as we got closer, we could feel a rush of hot air coming from it. This geothermal heat caused such a huge difference in temperature that we’d soon have to take all our clothes off.

The snow closer to the side of the mountain had melted and there were waterfalls everywhere. We passed through a cold and hot intersection with a lot of ice and finally climbed up the bare, black mountain rock.

As we climbed by hand, the mountain’s temperature made us keep our heads down. The rocks on this mountain actually turned out to be warm, almost as if they had been sprayed by a flamethrower.

“Have we reached a volcano?” Fatty asked.

“If that’s not the case, then it’s definitely a mountain with extremely rich geothermal energy. There must be a lava pool under here, and a sudden geological change heated the whole mountain.”

Those strange black rocks were randomly scattered around as we went up the mountainside, but it actually made it easier for us to climb. After walking for a while, we saw countless small hot spring pools that contained boiling hot water.

There was also the strong smell of sulfur in the air. We climbed sideways for at least two hours and finally came to the edge of the crack just as the sky was starting to get dark.

There was a large platform sunken into the rock, upon which we could see countless bones lying there.

“These people are all dressed. They must have been trapped here and died. They’re probably the villagers from Kangbaluo,” Zhang Haixing said. “It seems that this heavenly tribe has finally lost God’s blessing.”

“Why are you being so melodramatic? They were refugees who fled during the avalanche. The snow melted and they were probably killed when the poisonous gas started spewing out here.”

We put on gas masks and Fatty was the first to climb into the crack. It was as wide as three or four people and the darkness went all the way down to the ground.

“God cut a hole in this mountain with a pirated CD,” Fatty said.

After we climbed in one by one, Fatty asked, “Leader, do we climb forward or go down?”

“Why go in?” Zhang Haixing asked Fatty. “Is there anything under this mountain?”

Fatty turned on a flashlight and took a look below before saying, “Mr. Naïve, do you think this place looks familiar?”

I looked down and saw that the gap in the mountain below gradually widened, and there were countless bronze chains running all the way to the depths of the mountain.

“Changbai Mountain,” I said.

“What?” Zhang Haixing asked.

I turned my head and looked at the surrounding mountains before saying, “Girl, from now on, I have the final say when it comes to anything that happens here. I’ll show you what your Zhang family calls ‘the Ultimate’.”

We returned to the platform to rest for an hour. It was completely dark by this point, and even the sky over the plateau was dark so I figured it was at least close to nine o’clock.

We distributed the ammo, food, and equipment amongst ourselves. Fatty found several very good quality Tibetan knives among the remains of the bodies and started sharpening them on the rocks. The knives were badly oxidized since there were a lot of corrosive gases here, but they were as sharp as before when Fatty was done with them.

I chose the lightest one, and after seeing the one Zhang Haixing chose, I realized that I might not be as strong as her. But I wouldn’t belittle myself, damn it. Heaven knows I had plenty of experience.

Finally prepared, we slept all night on the warm rocks. When we woke up in the morning, we put on our gas masks, entered the gap, and started moving down.

It took us five days before we saw the bottom of the gap.

The farther in we went, the wider the gap became. It had been as wide as three or four people at the top of the mountain, but by the end of our descent, there was at least the length of a bridge between the mountain walls. Numerous iron chains ran through the space, making the whole gap look like a spider’s web.

There were countless fallen jagged rocks of various sizes at the bottom. They must have been the rocks that were crushed when this gap was formed. In the process of falling, some long, crushed rocks got stuck between the two huge rock walls, forming a rock arch bridge.

We sat on the gravel-strewn ground for a long time before we had the strength to stand back up. It felt so good being down-to-earth. After that, we walked along the rocky ground, and soon, Zhang Haixing let out an exclamation.

I looked up and saw that we had reached the end of the gap. A huge bronze door had appeared from behind the rocks, looking almost exactly the same as the one I had seen in Changbai Mountain. Since it appeared at the end of my line of sight, the flashlight couldn’t illuminate the whole thing, but I could see all kinds of intricate patterns on the door. The details were so rich that it was to the point of being ridiculous.

We walked up to the huge bronze door, no one saying a word. Feng smacked his thighs and sat down on the sharp rocks.

How long?

I didn’t remember what I felt the last time I saw this huge door, just that I had collapsed and felt that everything in the world was unreliable. But now, although my heart beat faster, what I was feeling was completely different.

We meet again, I said to myself. I never imagined I would see such a huge door again in my lifetime.

Changbai Mountain and the Himalayas…the bottoms of these huge mountains actually had such huge doors. Who built them and for what purpose?

Fatty was the first to speak, “We don’t have a ghost seal and we don’t know the mechanism. Will this door open?”

I shook my head, stepped forward, walked all the way up to the front of the giant door, and put my hand on it.

Ice-cold. In this extremely hot gap, the giant door was ice-cold.

I touched the patterns on it. The lines were too intricate. I didn’t know if modern technology could even make such lines for such a huge door.

As I was thinking about it, I subconsciously gave the giant door a hard push.

I imagined that it would slowly be pushed open by the movement of my hand, but it didn’t turn out as I had hoped—the door remained motionless.

Sure enough, I wasn’t destined to open it.

I stepped back and sat down on the rocks in front of the door as Zhang Haixing asked me, “You said that ‘the Ultimate’ that our Zhang family has talked about is behind this huge bronze door, correct?”

“I didn’t say it. Your patriarch said it.”

“Are there any more clues?” She asked.

“Ask your patriarch,” I said while looking at that huge door. From this distance, the door was my whole world.

Could it be Anywhere Door?(1) If I opened this one, would I see Poker-face with scruffy hair and a beard gnawing on mushrooms?

I couldn’t even laugh at my own joke.

Zhang Haixing also went to the door and carefully looked at the decorative patterns on it, but it seemed a fruitless effort. Then, she leaped onto the bronze door and began climbing up it.

The patterns were so small that it was impossible to hold onto them in order to climb up, but I saw that Zhang Haixing was wearing something that looked like claws on her hand.

She was very agile and managed to climb all the way up to the top of the door, but it didn’t seem like she found anything because she quickly came back down.

“The top is also tightly sealed. So strange,” she said.

When Fatty and I looked at her, she said, “This kind of door is very heavy and is constantly pressed against the rock. After a long time, it’ll sink into the rock, which creates gaps, but this door isn’t like that.”

“What does that mean?” I asked her.

“Either the door isn’t as heavy as expected, or the foundation here has been specially treated,” she said.

“If the door isn’t as heavy as expected, then it may be hollow, right?” Fatty pulled the grenades from his bag. “Come on, let’s see if this door is really that strong.”

<Chapter 57><Table of Contents><Part II: Chapter 59>

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TN Notes:

(1) Tiffany says: Anywhere Door is a gadget from Doraemon. People can go to whatever location they desire by opening the door and walking through it

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And that’s the end of the published version! Hooray! Another book done! I’ve done 5 books in a little under 3 months so I’m a little proud of myself right now lol. And as always, THANK YOU you beautiful readers. I know it’s not the best translation but you all have been SO NICE and I really appreciate it. Maybe one day in the far, far distant future (i.e. never), a professional translator will pick this up and give us the translation we all deserve (and I’ll cry a little inside since I know I’ll have done all this for nothing).

Anywayyyysssss, from here on out it’s going to be Part 2 from online. Apparently they took the first 13 chapters from Part 2 and stuck it in Part 1’s published version (I guess to bulk up the page count) so that saves me from dealing with ~100 pages. Like I did with Vol 8, I’m just going to keep the chapter counts going so it’s easier to keep track of on Novel Updates.

Update 11/21/2021: There is an online-only version of Tibetan Sea Flower Part II’s Introduction that was on Wechat but not the dmbj.org website. If you’d like to read it, link is here.

Updated 1/7/2022

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