In the darkness, Shunzi’s voice came through: “These centipedes are worshiped as gods here because they can live for a long time. Moreover, when one dies, its corpse attracts many of its kind. So we need to be especially careful when we leave; we mustn’t step on them.” As he spoke, he turned on the flashlight, and as soon as the light was on, the surrounding green starry sea instantly vanished, replaced by an endless expanse of darkness.

The camouflage of these centipedes is so effective that if we hadn’t turned off the flashlight, we wouldn’t have noticed them at all. I couldn’t help but feel a surge of fear; if I had accidentally stepped on one while climbing earlier, it would have been disgusting, and who knows, I could have ended up dead here.

We focused our minds and continued to climb slowly up the stone steps, carefully passing through this section near the hot spring. The number of stone-patterned centipedes gradually decreased until we could no longer see them. Clearly, as Shunzi said, the ecological connection of the snow mountain revolves around the hot spring.

However, the scene we had just witnessed was truly spectacular. If given the chance, I really wanted to take a few more looks. It was hard to imagine that such an ugly creature could create such a beautiful sight; this world is indeed very strange.

With the stone-patterned centipedes gone, our speed picked up somewhat, but the darkness above seemed endless. We had no idea when we would be able to exit the crevice and reach another exit of this natural drainage path.

While climbing, the Fatty asked, “By the way, old man, I want to ask you something. Back at the station, you told us about the Nine Dragons Carrying the Corpse. What’s that all about? I’ve been listening, but you never mentioned it again.”

Chen Pi Ah Si paused to glance at him and then at the monk Hua, indicating that he should speak. Monk Hua explained, “We don’t know either; all our information comes from that dragon fish. The Nine Dragons Carrying the Corpse might be a lost funeral custom. The ancient texts seem to say that the coffin of Emperor Wannu was carried by nine dragons, and nine dragons guarded his body, preventing anyone from getting close. However, the Jurchen language is nearly lost, and what I translated might not even convey the original meaning.”

Then he recited the original text for us. The pronunciation in Jurchen was so unfamiliar that I didn’t understand anything at all.

“Wow, if the characters on that fish are real, then we’d have to learn how to fight the Dragon King, the Third Prince, just to open the coffin of Emperor Wannu, right?” Ye Cheng joked.

“Then you don’t need to worry about it. I think the Nine Dragons Carrying the Corpse is probably just a coffin with nine dragons carved underneath it, just a symbolic gesture,” Fatty said. “If there really are dragons, then we’d strike it rich. We could catch one and take it back to the Forbidden City; it would definitely attract crowds, and we’d make tens of thousands just from ticket sales.”

I replied, “With your limited ambition, you’re only thinking about money. If you really caught a dragon, you’d be like Sun Wukong. I’ve never seen a Sun Wukong with a body like yours.”

Fatty was furious upon hearing this and shouted, “So what if I’m fat? I can soar to the heavens and dive to the earth, relying on this body of mine. Just a shake and the winds and clouds change; a tremor and the earth shakes—ah!”

The fat man’s words were not finished when suddenly a gust of wind blew from the edge of the cliff, nearly knocking him off balance. I quickly grabbed him and pulled him back against the cliff. Turning my head, I realized that the gap ahead had come to an end; the staircase had reached the end of the crevice. Beyond it seemed to be a vast space, but it was pitch black, and nothing could be seen clearly.

We made it! I suddenly felt a rush of excitement inside. A few people stopped talking and huddled closer to the edge, where there was a protruding rock. We climbed up. The monk Hua lit a cold firework, illuminating the surroundings. Except for the cliff where we stood, nothing could be seen ahead.

Then he threw the cold firework down the cliff. It plummeted straight down, quickly becoming a small dot. We watched it shrink until it was almost invisible when it hit the ground.

We couldn’t help but gasp. What exactly was in front of us? It seemed like a gigantic basin surrounded by cliffs. “Illumination flare,” said Chen Pi Ah Si.

With a bang, a meteor-like illumination flare shot through the darkness in a long arc, piercing the blackness ahead for about 160 to 170 meters before descending. Then, a dazzling white fireball exploded, instantly illuminating the entire darkness in front of us.

I wanted to raise my binoculars to look ahead, but halfway up, I froze. Suddenly, I couldn’t hear any sounds; time seemed to stand still.

Under the white light, an enormous volcanic crater, at least 3 kilometers in diameter, appeared before us—a massive basin formed of giant gray basalt, resembling a gigantic stone bowl. We stood on the rim of this bowl, feeling as small as ants.

“I didn’t expect we would directly end up in a volcano,” a voice said nearby, but I could no longer tell who it was; my mind was consumed by the spectacular sight before me.

If the Hydra Cypress and the Bronze Ancient Tree had given me a sense of wonder, then this buried volcanic basin was truly a mark of the divine.

The basin was covered with a large number of dead trees, clearly indicating that this crater had once been exposed to the atmosphere. It must have originally been an “underground forest,” and due to volcanic eruptions or sudden volcanic activity, the trees had been sulfurized and died, with their remains still standing in the basin.

“Look over there,” someone called out; I could no longer tell who it was. Then two signal flares were shot off, flying towards the top of the volcano.

Under the enhanced light, we saw a magnificent cluster of buildings emerging deep within the volcanic basin’s underground forest—a dark, massive black stone city, its full form obscured.

Could that be our destination, the tomb of Emperor Wannu, the eternal ruler? The underground palace of the Cloud-Top Heavenly Palace was actually located within the volcanic crater?