Volume 9 Chapter 13 The End

The light from the miner’s lamp clearly illuminated the bottom of the water waist-deep. I originally thought that I was still stepping on the same small stones, but I didn’t know when it had changed. Among the gravel at our feet, there were some strangely shaped flakes of stone. I reached down and touched one, and found that it was actually a fragment of the kind of pottery jar we saw on the ancient sunken ship we dug up in the Devil’s City.

These pottery fragments were buried in the gravel and only a small part was exposed. They had to be looked at carefully to be separated from the fine gravel. It was clear that traces of ancient human activity had appeared here. But judging by the number, it seemed that there were quite a few, all hidden under the gravel.

Everyone began to use their feet to push aside the broken stones, and soon more fragments were revealed. The fat man held up the miner’s lamp and shone it around the area where we were standing, allowing us to see the situation under the water more clearly.

Under the gravel here, there are a large number of fragments of pottery jars mixed in, not buried very deeply, extending from where we are standing all the way to the far end of the lake bottom, with no end in sight. The more we dig in the direction of the mark left by the oil bottle, the more dense the number of these pottery fragments becomes. I can see that this was washed over from there by some force.

The fat man dug deeper and found that there were still many more under the gravel. At this scale, it is impossible to count how many jars were originally buried here. The fragments of these pottery jars in the water are sharp and pointed, like blades. Among the fragments are also mixed with human skulls, which have decayed and are full of holes.

This scene looks a lot like the scene I saw near Xisha, where the sea was full of porcelain. But the porcelain was buried in white sand, which made it look ancient and mysterious. These ugly pots were in the gravel, and with the human bones and hair inside, they just made people feel sick.

Looking at those skulls, we all got goose bumps. “What the hell are these things?” the fat guy said in amazement.

I told them what happened after the shipwreck was excavated in Yadan Devil City, but they didn’t know the details, so I explained to them that these were the pottery jars that were found at the time. According to Wu Laosi’s description and the relief, this should be a sacrifice to the snake.

“Could it be that there is a shipwreck behind this?” The fat man said while moving the miner’s lamp.

I shook my head, and I don’t think it could be a ship. First, it’s impossible for a ship to sink so deep underground, unless there is a waterway in this lake that leads to the outside world. Second, these jars belonged to the sacrifices of the snakes, and they should have been placed in a place related to sacrificial activities. I think this must be related to the religion of the Queen Mother of the West. There are so many of them, and it seems that these jars were not rare at the time.

I still agree with Wu Laosi’s theory that these are sacrificial offerings, but knowing this is of no use. I remembered Wu Laosi’s screams at the time, and I couldn’t help feeling a needle-like pain in the soles of my feet.

I still feel a little scared when I think of my experience in the Devil City, but nothing should happen here. Judging from the degree of damage to these jars, the insects inside must be gone, and the human bones are all rotten and crumbly. These things have been soaked in water for thousands of years, and it’s already good that they haven’t turned to dust. Moreover, clay pots absorb water. If there were sealed clay pots buried in the water for so long, the water would have seeped in little by little, and the inside would definitely be filled with water. The insects should have drowned.

“With so many offerings, could it be that the tomb of the Queen Mother of the West is behind this?” asked one of Uncle San’s men.

I thought about it, and I can’t say that it’s impossible, but it’s also completely unfounded speculation. I thought it would be best not to.

The fat man said, “No matter what it is, we have to be careful not to step on the pottery shards. I don’t know if these bones are poisonous. Xiao Wu, you’d better wash quickly and be careful of infection. It would be terrible if you had to have an amputation later. And since these are offerings to the snake, there may be a kind of pheasant neck here. We must be careful.”

“Thank you for your concern.” I glared at him angrily. He didn’t care at all, and he said, ”It’s strange. When it comes to snakes, it seems that I haven’t seen any since I got here. Where did all the sausages go?”

I don’t know if it was the skull fragments that punctured my foot, or if it was the broken pottery that I stepped on, but either way, it wasn’t good.

At this time, Black Blindness sneaked into the water and dug out half a skull from inside. The back of the skull was gone, and the gray gelatinous tissue inside the brain cavity, like a honeycomb-like tissue, could be seen. This should be the work of the corpse turtle king. Why there is a corpse turtle king in this skull is completely unproven, but judging from this, it seems that these clay pots and mud seals are used to raise this kind of terrifying bug, which is a bit like modern people raising bees. If Wu Lao Si’s theory is correct, this behavior may have originated from some secretive customs during the time of the Queen Mother of the West.

We continued forward in the debris, paying special attention to the water to avoid being scratched by the pottery shards. The situation became clearer and clearer, and the more we went in, the more pottery shards we found under our feet. After walking like this for less than a kilometer, we found ourselves on a shallow beach made entirely of pottery shards.

The whole area was covered with fragments of pottery, large and small, mostly dark red and terracotta yellow in color. Beneath the fragments of pottery, we could see many seemingly intact ghost-head jars buried, as if there were several layers of them under the water.

We don’t know how many layers of this stuff are buried under the fragments, but the scene is creepy enough. Afraid of stepping on the ghost head jars, we didn’t dare to advance recklessly, so we stopped to find a way.

The fat man wasn’t interested in the debris, and Uncle San’s men didn’t dare touch it either. They were all drinking shochu to keep warm. Black Blind was very interested, diving down again and again to take a closer look at the ghost jars. The fat man was impatient and said, “Four Eyes, haven’t you seen enough dead people? Why are you looking for that stuff?”

After looking around, I realized that this was the case everywhere. This area was very large. To get through, I had to either return to the original route and try to get around it from the side, or I had to pluck up my courage and step over the sharp bones and pottery shards.

I was hesitating when I saw Wenjin looking at her feet thoughtfully, so I asked her what she was thinking about. She suddenly said, “Could it be that we’ve already arrived?”

“Arrived? What do you mean?” I was surprised, but then I understood. ”You mean, this is our destination?”

She nodded: “It seems that we have arrived at a place where sacrifices were offered. This kind of place is usually a place of worship. We have walked for quite a while. Do you think it is possible that this place is our destination?”

I looked at the ground and around me, and I didn’t think it was possible. At least I couldn’t accept it in my heart. What kind of place is this? There’s nothing here except these ghostly jars. What are we doing here after all this trouble? I’ve seen these jars carefully in the Devil City.

Looking at the oil bottle, he still didn’t say anything. Wen Jin took out a fluorescent stick, broke a few of them to make them light up, and threw them into the water around them to illuminate the surroundings. The others looked at it and began to imitate it, throwing the fluorescent sticks out. Soon, the underwater area around them was lit up with a faint green fluorescent light.

We began to look for anything suspicious on the bottom of the water. The water surface under the green light was eerie. This time we looked very carefully, but there was still nothing unusual that we wanted to find, except for pottery shards.

We were a little frustrated. I looked at the bottom of the water and thought to myself, if this place is the destination, then the only possibility is that something is buried under these pottery jars. But this should be impossible. So many people have been here. If something is under here, it would have been dug up. Obviously this is not the end, we still have to continue searching.

The worst thing was that we had no idea what our destination looked like, and the oil bottle couldn’t remember anything.

I kicked a few times to dispel my cold and nervousness. At this moment, I suddenly saw my reflection distorted into a strange shape by the water waves. Then I saw my face and my lower body overlapping, suddenly realized something, looked up and saw that we were much higher than before, and it looked dark.

I shone the miner’s lamp up, and the light shone into the darkness, unable to see the top. The weak light of the miner’s lamp had a range of nearly 40 meters, but the ceiling of the cave here was even further away. I adjusted the miner’s lamp to the high-power setting, and the miner’s lamp suddenly emitted a white light.

Everyone around me was attracted by the sudden brightening of the miner’s lamp. I ignored them and pointed the miner’s lamp at the ceiling, illuminating our heads.

I froze for a moment. I saw that in the rock above our heads, there was a huge, indescribable object embedded.

This object was enormous, and the part that protruded from the ceiling was spherical, making it impossible to estimate its diameter. It almost covered our entire field of vision. It seemed to be made of rock, but its color was completely different from the surrounding pillars and ceiling. Strangely, the surface of this rock was covered with holes the size of a tar barrel, thousands of them, densely packed, looking incredibly ugly, like a lotus root that had been eaten away.

The others also looked up at the sky with my light, and suddenly no one spoke. Everyone was frozen, and the atmosphere was as if it had solidified.

“What the hell is that?” the fat guy muttered.

Wen Jin muttered, “Oh my god, this… this is a heavenly stone.”