Volume 9 Chapter 19: Water Jug

I looked at him and thought that the thing looked like a small human head, but it had no facial features. It was covered in black mud and was surrounded by something like fine whiskers.

“What the hell is that?” I asked.

The fat man threw it over, and I caught it in mid-air. I found that it wasn’t very big, and after washing it with water, the black mud on the outside was quickly washed away, revealing the green rusty surface on the inside.

I shook it and said, “Damn, it’s a military canteen.”

“A water bottle?”

“Old style, something from decades ago. I knew it was an old-fashioned kettle just by looking at it. I have another one at home. Look, there’s even writing on it.” I turned the kettle over.

There was indeed a series of characters stamped on the bottom of the kettle, but they were not very deep, and now they were even more illegible. It could be the place of production.

We looked at each other, wondering what had happened. How did this kettle end up in this hole? The space under the water should be the riverbed, made up of gravel and pottery shards. Although we don’t know what it looked like thousands of years ago, it must have looked like this in the last few hundred years. How could there be a kettle there?

The fat man said, “Could it be that it was also the property of the reactionaries who fled here?”

“It’s possible,” I said. ”But the question is not that. How did this thing end up here?”

“Maybe a reactionary came here and fell to his death in the cave by accident.”

I shook my head and said, “No, this kind of balanced structure can only exist once. If it had collapsed before, it would either be a hole or filled in by later sediment, and there would be no pit covered by later pottery shards.”

The fat man said, “How do you know?”

“Boss, it’s common sense,” I said.

“It could have drifted down from somewhere else. The area underneath is completely hollow,” said the fat man.

“In theory, it’s possible, but in reality, it’s difficult. The kettle would float up and get stuck on the hollow dome. It’s not easy to move.”

Before he could finish his sentence, I suddenly felt my feet move. I immediately opened my arms to maintain my balance and said to the fat man, “Be careful, it’s going to collapse again.”

But the fat guy cursed, “Your common sense is wrong.”

I looked down and saw a huge mass of something rapidly rising from the black pit, reflecting a series of scintillating scales, followed by a yellow eye the size of a basketball.

I froze. What was that?

The fat man pushed me and yelled, “Run, run, run, run!” Before I could react, he had already pulled me out. The fat man was like a madman, and he was pulling me so hard that I had no strength left. I saw that he was really running for his life, so I grabbed the gas bottle and ran out. It was actually impossible to run in the water. The resistance was too great, it was very slow, and there were sharp porcelain pieces under my feet. I only ran a few steps before I stepped on a sharp edge and fell into the water. I flailed about, and my feet were in agony.

Then the fat guy and the bottle fell over. The fat guy’s backpack broke, but he didn’t even look at it when he got up. He yelled, “Don’t stop!” and used all his strength to continue forward, stumbling and falling. I heard a huge sound of water behind us. When I looked back, it was a huge python that had emerged from the water, like a green dragon emerging from the water.

I looked at the size of the snake and immediately remembered.

Oh my god! Isn’t that the snake mother?

How could this be? The giant snake on the relief actually exists, and it is still alive!

I thought to myself, “This is it,” and I gritted my teeth and kept running, listening to the sound of the water behind me, which was like a raging storm. What could I do? I could only run a few steps at a time. I almost fell while running, and I don’t know how many times I fell. I sprained my ankle and was covered in wounds.

Many people have the experience that when they are in danger and are running away, they only rely on the initial strength. Before the strength is used up, even if they are cut twice, they won’t feel any pain. So I ran all the way, fell and climbed, climbed and fell, and my feet were all rotten. I didn’t know how many cuts I had. In the panic, I had no sense of distance and didn’t know how far I had run. Finally, I suddenly felt my feet fall and stepped on a sudden depression, and I rolled down. It was a deep pit, and I was instantly swept into the water.

I was quick to react and immediately stabilized my body, but it was too sudden, and I still drank a few mouthfuls of water. I couldn’t step on it no matter how hard I tried.

The fat guy was still paying attention to me. He ran out more than ten meters, but then rushed back to try to pull me up. But before I could grab his hand, a flash of light suddenly appeared, and an incredibly overbearing force came with the water pressure, pushing him and the bottle down into the water.

This was fatal. The three of us flailed about, and the huge python, like a train, coiled around us in the water. The fat guy pulled out a dagger, but after looking at the size difference, the dagger was no better than a toothpick, so he gave up.

The huge python’s head poked into the water and appeared in front of us. The scales were like a mirror. It was so big that it was like seeing a clawless blue dragon.

How did the kettle get down there? Someone must have eaten it and it was taken underground by the python. The three of us weren’t enough to serve as an appetizer for it.

We floundered in the water, trying to swim out of the python’s embrace, but we couldn’t control ourselves. Whenever the giant snake moved, the water would surge, creating a huge water pressure that disrupted the direction.

The fat man refused to accept his fate and took out his gun, aiming at the snake’s eyes and firing two shots. The snake’s head moved twice, but it didn’t react at all, so the fat man had to throw the gun away.

I told him not to waste his energy, because we both knew that the gun would have no effect. He was willing to fight a giant two-scaled python, but this thing was too big. It was useless.

The fat man cried out, “No! Elephants don’t eat ants. We’re too small. It’s not easy for it to eat us.” Before he finished, the snake’s head suddenly retracted and it bit him with a ferocity that was indescribable. I was thrown out by the wave.

I got up and yelled at Fatso, but saw that he had also been swept away, dragging the oil bottle. The giant snake was so angry that it twisted its body, creating a huge wave. The huge scales were like countless mirrors, reflecting the light of the miner’s lamp in my hand into a magical world.

Fatty yelled at me, “Hide!”

I immediately swam to the side of the stone pillar and climbed up. When I looked back, I was shocked to see the head of the python, which looked like a dinosaur, quietly reaching out in front of me, staring at me straight.

There was no way to hide. The python was too big. I swam half to death, and it reached out in one go. I was afraid that everything within two or three meters was within its direct attack range. Looking at it up close, I found that the python was even bigger, and I couldn’t help but kneel down with my legs shaking. The python turned its head and looked at me with its huge snake eyes. It didn’t attack immediately, and the snake head turned from time to time.

I thought to myself that I was dead, and that its attack on the surface of the water would definitely be more accurate than in the water. But after waiting for a few seconds, I still didn’t see the snake attack me. I stared at the snake’s head and found that the snake seemed to be unsure of what to do.

I thought about it for a moment, and then suddenly I saw the miner’s lamp shining directly on the snake, and I understood at once. The miner’s lamp was very bright, and the snake was here. It probably hadn’t seen any light for hundreds of years. Now it was blinded by this thing.

I thought of a way to get rid of it. I slowly put the miner’s lamp on the stone pillar next to me, hoping to slip away while its attention was drawn to it. However, it was almost impossible to put anything on the stone pillar. I was sweating all over, and it didn’t work after several attempts. I kept telling myself to stay calm while I tried to think of a way out. I really admired myself for being able to think clearly at this time. If it had been before, I would have been completely scared to death.

Suddenly I saw the fat man on the side gesturing to me behind the python’s head, as if he wanted me to throw the miner’s lamp to him. I immediately understood his intention, took a deep breath, and threw the miner’s lamp hard, sending it flying past the snake’s head. A ray of light flew towards the fat man, and the python, attracted by the light, immediately turned its head. At this moment, I suddenly dived into the water.

The python on the other side immediately moved, and I swam away as hard as I could, not coming up for air until I was exhausted. I realized that I hadn’t swum too far, and the python was right behind me, with its huge body lying around. But it moved quickly and soon disappeared, as if it had burrowed into the sand.

Soon, I saw Fatso break through the water from that side, carrying a gas bottle. I asked him what happened, and he said, “I sank the miner’s lamp into a hole, and it chased after it. Hurry up, if it comes up again, we’ll be dead.”