Chapter 14 Enter the Shaft

We had been standing at the mouth of the hole for a long time, discussing its purpose, when Chen Pi Ah Si suddenly died and then miraculously came back to life. We were all completely baffled, but it seemed like Chen Pi Ah Si didn’t want to talk about it, so we had no other choice but to turn our attention back to the strange hole.

We gathered around the edge of the hole again and started to discuss the specific issues of going down. Even though we all had experience with cave exploration, that was in the plains and low mountains, which was very different from what we were seeing here. So, we needed to ensure that we took everything into account.

The hole initially went down at a forty-degree-angle and was very deep, so it wouldn’t be easy to walk. When Fatty and Pan Zi were down there just now, it could have been very dangerous—if they couldn’t control the position of their bodies, they might have rolled end over end to the bottom and cracked their skulls open.

Pan Zi threw a glow stick down and watched as the yellow light quickly rolled down, bounced a few times in the distance, and then disappeared.

If Monk Hua’s theory was correct and I was remembering the trend between our two mountains right, then this shaft must be shaped like a “V”— it went all the way down and then back up. Since the two mountains belonged to the same mountain range, the valley between the two peaks was also at a high altitude, and the distance of this “V” route should be no more than five kilometers.

Of course, there was nothing we could do if the craftsmen at that time liked to dig their tunnels in a “Z” shape, but it seemed so unreasonable that it wasn’t worth considering.

The shaft was man-made, so there was no need to worry about any problems with the air. After discussing it, we decided to let Pan Zi go in first to check out the situation. This time, he had his weapon at the ready so if the corpse fetus was still inside, he could kill it on the spot.

He was feeling very embarrassed after getting dragged into the hole by the corpse fetus, so he wanted to redeem himself. He pulled out a climbing rope and tied one end around Fatty’s waist before dropping the other end into the hole. Then, he spat on his hands and climbed down. After about five minutes, we heard him give the all-clear.

We took turns climbing into the hole. The tunnel itself was very rough, with rocks sticking out here and there that hurt my butt as I slid down. As I slowly descended, I examined the rocks on the side and found that they were basalts that had gushed out during a volcanic eruption. I could see a lot of air bubbles on their surface, but I knew that the density of these rocks was usually very unstable anyways—some were as hard as iron, while others were as soft as tofu. I couldn’t help but wonder what it was like when the craftsmen first started excavating here.

We went down one by one, with Fatty bringing up the rear. Now there was suddenly a group of people crowded at the bottom of the rocky slope, panting heavily. We could see a lot of black liquid on the ground, which must have come from the corpse fetus, but there was no sign of it anywhere so I assumed it went deeper into the tunnel.

This narrow tunnel under the ice slanted downward until it reached the turning point below, and then it sloped upward and became long and narrow. As we continued moving deeper, the height of the tunnel seemed to increase, and the space suddenly seemed much larger, but the darkness was too thick for the flashlights to pierce through it.

At first, I thought it was because the craftsmen deliberately created a wider tunnel when they were digging. After all, this was also something grave robbers did when digging tunnels. It was usually called a “pigeonhole”, and it was used to store air and soil that had been dug out. Of course, it was difficult to dig a pigeonhole because you had to dig a space large enough for two people to turn around in without making it noticeable to those on the surface. It was a very clever trick that required some skill to pull off.

But as soon as we swept our flashlights around the space, we were all shocked to find that this tunnel had come to an end. Up ahead, the tunnel rapidly narrowed until there was only a small gap wide enough for one person to enter sideways, as if a sword had pierced deep into the rock, leaving a mark.

“Didn’t you say this is the craftsmen’s secret escape route?” Pan Zi asked. “Did they turn into Miao Renfeng or something?⁽¹⁾ Can we even fit through there?”

Monk Hua thought for a while, and then suddenly seemed to have an epiphany, “I think this shaft may have been made using a natural volcanic cave. Such caves are very common in volcanic rock formations, and extend out in all directions to form a kind of network. The longest can reach thousands of kilometers, and they are densely spread out underground like a spider web. Maybe this gap leads to the Three Sacred Mountains and that’s why they could dig such a long secret tunnel—they were able to use a tunnel that had already been created naturally.

“Then do we also need to enter this gap?” Fatty asked. “You guys will be fine, but I’ll struggle because of my size.” Fatty had talked about losing weight back in the undersea tomb, but he apparently hadn’t been successful so far. Looking at his figure, I knew he’d definitely have a hard time.

“I don’t think there’s anything to worry about,” Monk Hua said. “These volcanic caves all have branch-like structures, which means these tunnels should all lead to larger crevices. In geology, it’s called an underground corridor. Some underground corridors are very large in scale and even form their own unique ecosystems. I believe that the gap will widen soon after we enter, because this kind of geological destruction starts from the inside.”

Although Monk Hua spoke convincingly, I didn’t really believe him, but there was no reason to refute him at this time. Everyone took a short break, reorganized their equipment, and then Fatty led us into the gap.

It was pitch black inside, but the flashlights were useless because that kind of darkness was all-encompassing. In Europe, people believed that such crevices were passages to hell, and even the Tibetans believed that caves were the territory of demons and never entered them. Although I had a lot of experience with such things, the moment I entered the gap, my heart still beat uneasily.

One by one, we sucked in our stomachs and entered the gap, walking sideways like crabs. We could hardly turn our heads, so we had no other choice but to stare at the wall in front of us. There were no excavation marks on the walls here, but we could see traces of glazed rocks everywhere, along with a large number of multi-colored karst drip formations. They were all covered in a layer of transparent ice crystals, and arranged evenly like condensed water columns.

I studied a bit of geology when I was an architecture student, so I could vaguely remember some of the material I had learned—what I was seeing in front of me should be the rock formed as a result of a volcanic eruption, just like the fissure we had taken refuge in during the snowstorm. The formation of this type of landform was different from common volcanic caves since it was formed at the moment a volcano erupted, and then a pyroclastic flow⁽²⁾ would rush through it at a very high speed. One of the characteristic features of these crevices was that they were extremely long, but unlike the labyrinthine network of volcanic caves, they only had a single tunnel.

The beginning of the gap was so narrow that we had to move like we were break dancing, and within fifteen minutes, I was already tired and sore all over. I thought of those craftsmen who fled back then and knew that it must have been difficult for them to get out of here. But as we kept moving forward, the gap really did widen as Monk Hua said, and we were finally able to turn and face forward again.

It was dark inside the gap, but the surrounding glazed rock and melted mica reflected the beams of our flashlights, producing a magical lighting effect. Coupled with the lava spikes that had formed from the pyroclastic flow debris, the rope-like surface of the solidified lava, and the lava stalactites, it all formed a dazzlingly beautiful scene.

As we walked, we gradually found some signs of human activity, such as abandoned rusty tools and very old traces of campfires.

Thankfully, we didn’t encounter anything strange along the way. The inside of the gap was very clean, and after walking for nearly six hours, we finally reached a part of the tunnel that was so wide, it fit Monk Hua’s earlier description of an underground corridor.

There were a lot of signs of construction here—many crude steps had been carved out of the wall on one side, leading all the way up. (Although I called them steps, they were actually just some stones that were sticking out of the wall. If my feet were as big as Fatty’s, I knew that I’d be dizzy from fright after taking a few steps.)

When we stopped to rest, I calculated the distance we had traveled and the angle of the slope we descended, and found that the altitude we were currently at was below the snow line. In fact, we might have even been at the bottom of the valley between the two peaks. If we had been on the surface when walking between these two peaks, it would have taken us eight hours at the very least, even if we were walking in a straight line. There was no doubt that we had saved a lot of time by walking underground. I knew the border guards above would definitely be surprised if they knew that there was an underground corridor here.

If we continued to walk to the end of this gap, I figured we may end up at the center of the earth. But these crude steps seemed to indicate that we had entered the second stage of the V-shaped tunnel. When we reached the top, we may find ourselves in the mysterious underground palace of the Heavenly Palace on the Clouds.

After a short rest, we couldn’t wait any longer, so we set off again. But this time, the road wasn’t so smooth.

We tied ourselves together with our climbing rope, and then tried to walk up the “stone steps”, sticking close to the wall as we walked up little by little. It was fine at first, but after reaching a certain height, it felt more like we were rock climbing. None of us had any experience with such a thing, so we obviously felt a little anxious.

Fatty, with his big feet, was walking on these steps like he was trying to balance on stilts. As a result, his legs soon began to tremble and I thought I heard him chanting, “Amitabha” over and over again.

Fortunately, we walked carefully the whole way, being as attentive as a woman doing needlework. We continued to climb up bit by bit until there was nothing but a dark abyss below us. It was impossible to estimate how high up we were, and I knew that I’d only feel dizzy if I looked down, so I focused on looking ahead. If we hadn’t come up from below, I would have thought that the bottom really did lead to hell.

Over the next few hours, we walked higher and higher until we couldn’t tell where we were or how much time had passed. Everyone had entered a kind of dazed state, but no one suggested taking a rest—I didn’t know if it was because of the natural greed of grave robbers or because the environment here really made it impossible to rest. Granted, it was hard to think about rest when you had one foot stepping on a palm-sized rock and the other hanging in the air, all while a steep cliff was right below you.

As we continued walking, we suddenly heard the sound of water coming from all around us. We took a look with our flashlights and found that there were several pools and waterfalls flowing down the side of the cliff, all of varying sizes. Based on the amount of steam above, it looked like they all came from hot springs. I didn’t know where the water in the hot springs was coming from, but the sound was very loud, as if an underground water vein was nearby.

The nearest pool was only about an arm’s length away from Fatty, so he proposed that we climb over and wash our faces. In fact, most of us wanted to since we were already exhausted from the journey and we remembered how comfortable it was when we had rested by the hot spring last time, but Shunzi shook his head and said, “No!” Then he pointed to the rocks by the edge of the pool. We didn’t see anything at first, but after looking closely, we immediately shuddered.

There were a lot of very strange lines on the rocks by the pool. At first, I thought they were lines that had formed when the volcanic rock solidified, but when I took a closer look, my hair stood on end—these lines weren’t volcanic rock, but more of those house centipedes! They were as thick as an arm and lying everywhere, but their color was exactly the same as the glazed volcanic rock on the side, so it was impossible to notice them if you weren’t looking closely.

We looked around, only to find that the rocks here were practically covered in these things. They were all lying there motionless, as if they were dead.

We all remained quiet for a while before Fatty whispered, “What’s going on? Did we climb into their nest?”

“Creatures in the snow-capped mountains usually gather around hot springs,” Shunzi answered softly. “That’s why, if you come across any hot springs, you shouldn’t think about soaking in them as soon as you see them. Some are even full of leeches. Now that the weather is still cold, these things are hibernating here. They won’t wake up unless there’s a particularly strong stimulus. Let’s hurry up and go. We’ll be fine after we leave this area.”

Everyone started moving again. Fatty, who was tiptoeing up the steps, suddenly asked, “What do you mean by ‘particularly strong stimulus’?”

But before the words had even left his mouth, Shunzi suddenly motioned for everyone to stop moving.

We didn’t know what happened, but we immediately froze and stood there like wooden statues. Everyone was staring at Shunzi, but he was looking at the dark abyss below.

After a moment’s silence, we gradually heard a hair-raising rustling sound, as if countless feet were rubbing against the rocks on the cliff and moving right towards us.

“Turn off the flashlights,” Shunzi whispered.

We immediately turned them off and looked around—shit, almost the whole cliff around us was covered in faint green spots as far as the eye could see. There were so many of them in so many different sizes that it was just like looking at a vast sea of stars. These millions upon millions of lights in the darkness were so magical that it felt like we were standing in a vast galaxy of stars. The sight was so spectacular that words couldn’t do it justice.

But when I looked down, I suddenly found that the scene around me was really nothing in comparison to the green galaxy meandering away in the empty darkness at the bottom of the abyss. It was just like a bunch of gorgeous emerald tassels on a dark black curtain, passing through the boundless darkness, from one end of the sky to the other.

I felt my mouth fall open, unable to believe what I was seeing—there were probably millions upon millions of house centipedes here.

Just as we were feeling shocked by this spectacular scenery that could only be described as a type of fairyland, a few big red lights suddenly flashed among the green lights below. Those red lights twisted and moved among the sea of stars before disappearing into the darkness. Obviously, some of the centipedes below were quite large…

<Chapter 13><Table of Contents><Chapter 15>

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TN Notes:

(1) A character in “Flying Fox of Snowy Mountain”, a wuxia novel by Jin Yong (Louis Cha). Miao Renfeng is a powerful martial artist nicknamed “Golden Faced Buddha”. I wasn’t finding anything, but according to the Russian DMBJ translation, he was tall and super thin.

(2) A pyroclastic flow is a fast-moving current of hot gas and volcanic matter (aka tephra) that flows along the ground away from a volcano at average speeds of 100 km/h (30 m/s) but is capable of reaching speeds up to 700 km/h (190 m/s). The gases and tephra can reach temperatures of about 1,000 °C (1,800 °F).