I rummaged through my backpack and first pulled out a flashlight. I kissed it lightly and turned it on; the bright light instantly dazzled my eyes. Under the strong illumination, the patterns on the surrounding stones and the dust on the armored corpses appeared pale. I rubbed my eyes, overwhelmed with joy and tears. Then I dug out a high-frequency whistle.
I looked up and blew the whistle while signaling with the flashlight. Above me was the Fatty. When the signal came back, I learned that he was afraid that after leaving the ground, he had already contacted Xiao Hua. The area outside was the same entrance I had first come through, and he rushed in to find me.
I breathed a sigh of relief and rummaged through my bag again, finding some compressed biscuits, which made me realize I was hungry. I opened them and took a few bites, also using the whistle and flashlight to communicate my situation to the Fatty.
He urged me to put on my pants quickly, or else the centipedes would crawl into my backside. I followed his advice and put them on, and I discovered half a pack of cigarettes in my bag. There were only two or three left, and while cursing the Fatty for being stingy, I lit one and took a puff.
In my extreme fatigue, I felt as if I had entered a fairyland, the chaotic feeling dissipating. The surrounding ghostly soldiers showed no reaction, but my cold sweat increased. As my senses returned, my sixth sense became sharper. Looking at their pale eyes, I had the constant feeling that they might move at any moment. These things were particularly sinister here, and I had to leave quickly.
Analyzing the situation, the Fatty said that my position might directly lead to the location of the bronze door, but I needed to be careful of the large centipedes and the human-faced birds. He would continue forward to the volcano’s mouth, where he would wait for Xiao Hua to meet up, then return the same way, bringing the ghost seal and meeting me at the door.
In terms of straight-line distance, I would definitely arrive before them, possibly having to wait in the dark for a while. I thought to myself that I had already been feeling my way in the dark, so this was nothing. Returning to the main path, I looked in the direction of the key. Just as I was about to start jogging forward, I noticed that under the flashlight’s beam, the bronze key looked a bit strange.
Zhang Qiling, what have you done? I thought to myself.
I looked at the surrounding ghostly soldiers; I was destined to awaken corpses wherever I went. Throughout this journey, with so many eerie armored corpses around, they hadn’t moved at all. This seemed rather unusual.
The Fatty was climbing above, progressing slowly along the protrusions of the rock face, and I quickly fell behind them. For the next 18 hours, I was single-minded, running through the gaps deep at the base of Changbai Mountain. I kept running until huge chains began to appear overhead.
The first time I saw it, the scene here was shocking, and now, seeing it again still sent chills down my spine. Chains spanned the valley, and countless human-faced birds perched on them, their heads curled up, in a state of dormancy. I had long since exited the formation of ghostly soldiers, holding my breath as I cautiously navigated through the bones and rubble on the ground. Eventually, my flashlight shone far ahead, seemingly illuminating a massive bronze wall.
I remembered that enormous bronze door, embedded in the rock face, though it was hard to distinguish clearly. The flashlight’s beam couldn’t reveal the full view over there; it seemed to really be there. Countless times I had dreamt about it, waking up always doubting whether I had hallucinated.
My heart was racing, almost bursting out of my chest. I collapsed to the ground, my legs trembling uncontrollably.
I really can’t imagine that in my lifetime, I would return here. The key in my hand pointed in that direction, but I didn’t rush over. I wanted to light a second cigarette, glanced at the shadow above me, and didn’t dare to light it.
In the distance, there was a stone platform, and my feet were already covered in wounds, but I climbed up anyway. I saw something lying on the stone.
As I approached and shook off the dust on top, I realized it was a set of clothes. I took a long time to recognize that these were the clothes of the Silent Oil Bottle. He had taken them off and left them here, neatly folded and covered with stones.
Had he changed into armor again? I moved the stones aside and tugged at the clothes; they were just outer garments, along with a pair of shoes. I sniffed them and only detected the smell of bird droppings.
I roughly brushed off the stains on the clothes, shook off the dust and dried feces, took off my diving suit, and put on the clothes and shoes. Before putting on the shoes, I ripped out the lining from the pockets of the clothes to use as socks to wrap around my feet.
The diving suit had thermal properties, but it was still not as warm as the clothes. I shook myself a bit; no matter how much I shook, dust still came out of the clothes. But the feeling of comfort began to return.
The little brother had no personal belongings; there was nothing in the pockets of the clothes. I sat on the stone, feeling a bit dazed.
I had arrived. To save battery, I turned off the flashlight. In the surrounding darkness, countless stars appeared, silent and serene. I sat in the darkness, as if I were among a sky full of stars.
The starlight before me began to move continuously, gathering into one constellation after another; some resembled my uncle’s face, while others looked like the little brother’s face.
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