In the waist-deep water, the miner’s lamp clearly illuminated the bottom, and I originally thought I was still stepping on those small stones. However, at some point, things changed. Among the gravel beneath our feet, some oddly shaped flat stone fragments appeared. I reached down to touch one and discovered that it was a piece of pottery, the same kind we had seen on the ancient sunken ship we excavated in the Devil City.

These pottery shards were partially buried in the gravel, only a small part of them exposed, and one had to look closely to distinguish them from the small stones. Clearly, we had come across traces of ancient human activity here. Judging by their quantity, there seemed to be quite a few hidden beneath the gravel.

Everyone began to use their feet to push aside the small stones, and soon more fragments were revealed. The fat guy raised the miner’s lamp high and illuminated the area around us, allowing us to see the situation at the bottom of the water more clearly.

Beneath the gravel here, mixed in with a large number of pottery shards, they were not buried very deep, extending from where we stood all the way to the far depths of the lake, with no end in sight. Moreover, the further we went in the direction indicated by the marks left by the oil bottle, the denser the pottery shards became. I could tell that some force had washed them over from that direction.

The fat guy dug deeper and found quite a few more fragments beneath the gravel. With such a scale, it was impossible to count how many jars were originally buried here. The edges of these pottery shards were sharp and pointed, like blades. Mixed among the fragments were human bones, already decayed and full of holes, mostly incomplete, with some even still attached to strands of hair, making one shudder.

This scene looked very much like what I had seen near the Xisha Islands, where the seabed was covered in porcelain. At that time, the entire seabed was filled with pottery. However, the porcelain was buried in white sea sand, appearing ancient and mysterious, while these ugly jars were amidst gravel, combined with the human bones and hair, only evoking a sense of disgust.

Looking at those skulls, we all felt a bit of a chill. “What the hell are these things?” the fat guy exclaimed.

I had told them about what happened after we excavated the sunken ship in the Yadan Devil City, but they were not clear on the details, so I explained that these were the pottery jars we had discovered at that time. According to Old Wu’s account and the carvings, they were supposed to be offerings for snakes.

“Could there be another sunken ship behind this?” the fat guy asked while moving the miner’s lamp.

I shook my head, estimating that it was unlikely to be a ship. First, it was impossible for a ship to have sunk this deep underground unless there was a waterway leading out of the lake. Second, these jars belonged to the offerings for those snakes and should have been placed in a location related to sacrificial activities. I thought there must be a connection to the religion of the Queen Mother of the West, and with so many of them, it seemed that such jars were not rare at that time.

I was somewhat inclined to agree with Old Wu’s assertion that these were offerings, but knowing this didn’t hold much significance. The memory of Old Wu’s screams suddenly came to mind, and I couldn’t help but feel a prickling sensation at the soles of my feet.

Thinking back to my experience in the Devil’s City, I still feel a bit apprehensive, but this place should be safe. Judging by the extent of the damage to these jars, the insects inside must be long gone, and the human bones have likely decayed; they crumble at the slightest touch. These items have been submerged in water for over a thousand years, and it’s already impressive that they haven’t turned to dust. Moreover, clay jars are porous; if there were sealed jars buried in the water for so long, water would have seeped in bit by bit, and they would surely be filled with water, causing any insects inside to drown.

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

I thought for a moment; I couldn’t say there wasn’t a possibility, but it was also a completely baseless guess. I figured it was best not to entertain that thought.

The fat guy said, “Who cares what it is? We need to be careful and avoid stepping on those shards of pottery. We don’t know if those bones are toxic. Xiao Wu, you should wash up quickly to avoid infection in your wound; it would be terrible if you needed an amputation later. And since these are offerings to a snake, there might be those wild chicken necks around here; we must be cautious.”

“Thanks for your concern,” I shot him a glare, not in the mood. He didn’t mind at all and curiously said, “It’s strange; ever since we entered here, we haven’t seen any snakes. Where did those hanging sausages go?”

I wasn’t sure whether it was the fragments of skulls that had pierced my foot or if I had stepped on some broken pottery; either way, neither option was good.

At that moment, the black bear dove into the water and brought up a piece of a skull. The back of the head was missing, revealing a gray, gelatinous substance inside the cranial cavity, resembling a honeycomb structure. This must be the work of those corpse beetles. Why there would be a corpse beetle king in this skull is completely beyond comprehension, but judging by the context, it seems these clay jars were sealed with human heads to cultivate such terrifying insects, which is somewhat akin to how modern people keep bees. If Wu Laosi’s deduction is correct, this practice might have originated from some mysterious customs during the time of the Queen Mother of the West. I wonder where they caught these insects that nest in human brains.

We continued moving forward among the fragments, being particularly careful of the underwater shards to avoid cuts. The situation became increasingly clear; the further we went, the more pottery shards we encountered underfoot. After walking less than a kilometer on this path, we found ourselves on a shallow area entirely composed of pottery shards.

The entire region was covered with fragments of jars, varying in size, mostly dark red and earthen yellow. Beneath these shards, we could see several seemingly intact ghost head jars, and it looked like there were multiple layers stacked beneath the water.

We couldn’t tell how many layers of these things were buried under the fragments, but the scene was already chilling enough. Fearing we might break a ghost head jar, we dared not proceed recklessly and stopped to find a way.

The fat guy was uninterested in the wreckage, and my uncle’s companions didn’t dare touch anything; they were drinking liquor to keep warm. However, the black bear was very interested, diving repeatedly to examine the ghost head jars closely. The fat guy grew impatient and said, “Si Yan, haven’t you seen enough dead people? Why bother fishing that stuff out?”

I looked around and found that everything was the same. This area was vast, and to get through, we either had to turn back the way we came, find a way to go around the sides, or bravely step over the sharp bones and shards of pottery. Just as I was hesitating, I noticed Wen Jin looking thoughtfully at her feet, so I asked her what she was thinking. She suddenly said, “Could it be that we’ve already arrived?”

“Arrived? What do you mean?” I asked, puzzled, and then I understood, “Are you saying this is our destination?”

She nodded, “It seems we’ve reached a place where offerings are piled up. Such places are usually sites for rituals. We’ve come quite a distance; do you think it’s possible this is our destination?”

I looked at the ground and the surroundings, feeling it was unlikely. At least, I couldn’t accept it in my heart. What kind of place is this? There was nothing here except these ghostly jars. Why had we come through so much hardship just to see these jars? I had already examined them thoroughly in Devil City.

I glanced at the silent oil bottle, who still hadn’t spoken. Wen Jin took out a glow stick, broke a few to make them light up, and tossed them into the water around us, illuminating the area. The others saw this and began to imitate her, throwing their glow sticks into the water. Soon, the bottom of the water glowed with an eerie green light.

We started searching for any suspicious spots on the bottom, but the surface of the water under the green glow looked ghostly and strange. We examined it very carefully but still found no anomalies other than shards of pottery.

We felt somewhat frustrated. Looking at the bottom of the water, I thought that if this place was indeed our destination, the only possibility was that something was buried beneath these jars. But that should be impossible. So many people had been here; if something were buried, it would have already been dug up. Clearly, this was not the end point, and we had to keep searching.

What was most frustrating was that we had no idea what our destination looked like, and the silent oil bottle couldn’t remember anything. I kicked the water a few times to dispel my cold and anxiety. Just then, I suddenly saw my reflection distorted by the rippling water, and then I noticed my face and lower body overlapping in a strange way. Suddenly realizing something, I looked up and found that, for some time now, we had been much higher up, and it appeared pitch black above us.

I shone my mining lamp upwards, and the light pierced into the darkness, but I couldn’t see the ceiling. The weak light of the lamp could shine nearly forty meters, yet the ceiling here exceeded that distance. I adjusted the lamp to full brightness, and a beam of incandescent light shot out.

Everyone around me was drawn to the suddenly bright mining lamp. I ignored them and directed the light towards the ceiling, revealing what was above us.

In that moment, I was stunned. I saw that embedded in the rock of the ceiling above us was a massive, indescribable object.

This object is incredibly massive, with a spherical protrusion at the top of the cave that is impossible to gauge in diameter, nearly covering our entire field of vision. The geology appears to be rock, but its color is completely different from the surrounding area and the cave ceiling. Strangely, the surface of this stone is covered in holes the size of oil drums, thousands upon thousands of them, densely packed together, looking exceedingly grotesque, almost like a hollowed-out lotus root.

The others also looked up at the ceiling following the direction of my light, and suddenly no one spoke; everyone was frozen in place, the atmosphere felt as if it had solidified.

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

Wen Jin murmured, “Heavens, this… this is a heavenly stone.”