Volume 8 Chapter 16: Dawn: Bloody Disaster

The grasshoppers are bloodthirsty and must have been attracted by the snake blood here. The number of grasshoppers in the forest is terrifying, and they are obviously starving and have gathered here.

I lowered the torch and burned the grasshoppers on the surrounding shrubs. I was bitten several times on my feet. There was no time to deal with it at this time, so I just let it go and tried to break through.

Fatty made a makeshift torch from a gun that had gone off. We used the fire to drive them away, and then lifted Pan Zi up. When we looked, Pan Zi’s back was covered in blood blisters. He must have been bitten earlier, but we didn’t notice because his back was pressed against the grass.

Fatty immediately used the torch to burn them off. When a large area fell off, we dragged Pan Zi’s backpack and left in a hurry.

Fortunately, Pan’s blood had stopped, and it had not attracted more ticks. When we looked back, we saw that the python’s body had been completely covered in black spots. Soon, it would be sucked down to a layer of skin, just like the snake skeleton we saw in the canyon.

“When we were evaluating the four pests, we didn’t include this one, which is really unfair to it,” said the fat man, looking at it in amazement.

We carried Pan Zi all the way to a swamp, afraid that the blood on our bodies would attract the ticks again, so we washed the blood off our bodies and Pan Zi’s backpack with water. As we washed, it gradually became light, and dawn finally came. I looked at the white light coming through the sky, and I wanted to cry but had no tears. This was the second night I had spent here, and if possible, I really didn’t want a third.

The fat guy asked me where it was better to go. I took out my compass and climbed up a tree to follow Pan Zi’s example.

The light of the morning sun was dim and not bright enough. After I climbed up the tree, I suddenly smelled a very refreshing air, which made me feel refreshed. If there is anything good to say about this ghostly place, the morning should be the only thing that can make me feel good. This is probably because the nights here are really terrible.

I took a deep breath and was about to look around when suddenly I was stunned. I suddenly realized that the area in front of me was incredibly vast. In front of me, just 50 to 60 meters away, was a huge black temple-like ruin.

I didn’t know how to describe my feelings. I thought I would see a large canopy of trees, just like I had seen before, but this sudden appearance of this huge structure made me unable to think. It took me a long time to realize that if I hadn’t climbed the tree at this place, I might have kept going and passed by this temple so close.

Unlike the ruins I had seen before, this temple was completely intact, a huge and complete multi-story building. In the light of the current situation, I couldn’t see the whole picture, but I felt that the scale might be much larger than what we saw. Only a small part of the ruins I could see were covered in weeds and trees, and I saw the long-lost large dry boulders. The ancient reliefs of the Western Regions on the temple columns and walls looked like small patterns on the boulders from this distance, giving people a sense of mystery.

I took Fatso there, and in less than two minutes we had walked through the forest and into the ruins, where the trees gradually thinned out.

From the trees, the ruins are even more astonishing. At first glance, it really looks like Angkor Wat, with stone corridors everywhere and unknown square towers. Finally, we came to a high place and saw the huge temple behind the tree canopy. The fat guy was stunned. I looked at it and said to him in admiration, “If this place is developed, it will be the ninth wonder of the world. Do you believe it?”

“I believe it.” Suddenly, the fat guy saw something and pointed in a direction, “It’s not the ninth wonder of the world, but it’s a big miracle for us. Look over there.”

I looked in the direction of his finger and saw that on the flat ground in front of the temple, there were more than a dozen large tents in a row, and it was actually a field camp.

The tents were canvas, very large, very old, and scattered in all sizes. The color was gray like stone, so I didn’t notice it from a distance. This wasn’t the tent of A-ning and the others, but it wasn’t old enough to have been here for more than a decade. A hope flashed through my mind, and at this time, the fat man had already called out, “This is your third uncle’s tent. I recognize it!”

I was ecstatic, and almost shouted out, “This is your uncle’s tent!

I don’t know where the strength came from, but I just wanted to rest and sleep.

We ran through the open area in front of the ruins. It was a square made of huge rocks, with many huge pools of water. The water was fresh and very clear. We could see a corridor under the pool, and it was dark in the depths of the corridor. We didn’t know where it led to. Obviously, these parts were originally above and below the water surface, but now they were flooded. The huge temple we saw might just be the roof or top floor of the temple at the time. It was impossible to estimate how magnificent the building was.

Before we even got close to the camp, Fatty started yelling. After yelling for a long time without any response, we ran and discovered that something was wrong with the camp.

The entire camp was so quiet that it was creepy. There was no one walking around, no shadows, no sounds of conversation or activity, and it was completely silent, as if it had been abandoned.

We ran to the edge of the camp and stopped. We were exhausted. The excitement we had just felt was gone. I realized that rest was still far away. Fat Boy panted, calmed down, listened carefully, and heard not a sound in the camp in the morning light.

The camp was as silent as a rainforest, and there was no sign of life. Fat Boy muttered, “This is not good. We may have come at the wrong time.”