Anning was puzzled and asked, “Why?”

Zaxi replied to us, “My grandmother said that the Devil City in front of you is not a tourist attraction. This Yadan landform covers about eighty-seven square kilometers and is very vast. It remains in its most primitive state, with no signs whatsoever. If you travel inside at night and are not familiar with the environment, it’s very easy to get lost. Moreover, it’s said that there are many quicksand wells here. In 1997, a team of geological surveyors went missing inside, and despite many people being dispatched to search for them, they were never found. Later, in 1999, a strong wind blew, and several photographers discovered two mummified bodies in a sand pit while taking photos. The others are still missing to this day.”

Anning shook her head and said, “You don’t need to worry about that. We have GPS, and if, as you say, the terrain is so complicated, we need to go in even more. If we wait until dawn to search, they might have already encountered trouble.”

Saying this, she ignored Zaxi’s advice, called a few people, turned on her flashlight, and planned to continue deeper into the area.

I thought about what she said and found it reasonable. Zaxi had always played the role of a doomsayer, and Anning naturally wouldn’t believe everything he said. Moreover, the foreigners’ approach is people-oriented; abandoning those three would feel like they were killing them with their own hands, and these people couldn’t make such a decision.

Of course, I had to follow because those three had gone missing while I was with them. To some extent, I had to do my part; otherwise, if something really happened, I wouldn’t be at peace. Besides, it was impossible to sleep here.

Zaxi wanted to say more, but at that moment, Dingzhu Zhuoma spoke up. She shook her head and told Zaxi to stop talking, then quickly said a few sentences to him in Tibetan.

Zaxi immediately showed a look of confusion, but Dingzhu Zhuoma’s expression was very resolute. Zaxi protested a bit, but with a sharp reprimand from Dingzhu Zhuoma, he dared not continue speaking. He nodded to her, stepped back, and with a frustrated expression said to us, “You’re lucky; my grandmother asked me to take you in.” With that, he turned on his flashlight and went to his luggage to start preparing his gear.

I didn’t understand Tibetan and asked Anning what the old lady had said. Anning also shook her head, saying she couldn’t hear it clearly, but it was probably something like taking money to avert disaster.

I couldn’t help but chuckle and glanced at Dingzhu Zhuoma, who had already returned to the tent, appearing completely unconcerned about these matters.

Zaxi went through his gear, instructed us to leave behind unnecessary items, and to take enough water and dry food, as well as a signal gun. Then he woke up a driver and informed him of our plans, instructing him to stay outside and be ready to assist. If he saw us signaling with the flare gun inside, he shouldn’t come in but should instead signal us from the outside to guide us. If we still hadn’t come out by dawn, he was to let others come in to search for us, leaving markers along the way.

The driver groggily agreed, and the four of us tidied ourselves up. Zaxi, with a long face, took the lead and headed toward the entrance of the Devil City behind us.

We took shelter at the edge of the Devil’s City, behind a towering rock mountain where we set up camp. Beyond it was a steep slope that extended downward to a castle-like rock formation we had seen during the sandstorm; this was likely one of the taller rock formations in the Devil’s City. Zaxi built an Arab stone pile on the steep slope to mark the direction for those who might come after us. He said that every time we made a turn, he would stack a stone, and if we saw one of his piles while moving forward, we could no longer continue; advancing further would just lead us in circles. That was his bottom line.

We found this reasoning sound and agreed without hesitation.

Soon, we reached the entrance of the city and stepped into the Devil’s City. The surroundings began to take on an eerie quality. Under the moonlight, we saw the black rock mountains protruding from the Gobi gravel. Due to the lighting, the details were unclear, but when we shone our flashlights, the weathered grooves carved by the wind on the rock mountains became very apparent. In this darkness, the few areas illuminated by moonlight appeared especially stark and pale, reminiscent of walking on the surface of the moon.

As I walked, I imagined the geological mechanics I had learned long ago, having forgotten most of it. I only knew that the Yadan wind-eroded rock formations in this area were still relatively young, likely due to the lower terrain; the rock mountains and earth mounds had not been exposed to the elements for long and had not weathered significantly, so most of the rock mountains and mounds remained quite tall.

In this situation, we could only navigate between the rocky earth mounds; we couldn’t freely climb the mounds like in other devil cities. However, the valleys in this terrain were not flat; the higher areas jutted out above the gravel, while the lower areas were covered by the Gobi. In geology, these rock mountains are considered the peaks of underground mountain ranges. Although they were only a few meters high, there were massive rock bases kilometers deep beneath our feet, and these hidden mountains buried under gravel were all branches of the Kunlun Mountains. Theoretically, we were also walking on the Kunlun Mountains.

However, I had no time to ponder these academic questions. After walking for two or three kilometers, An Ning began to call out on the walkie-talkie, and we shouted loudly, hoping that the three people could hear us and respond.

In the silent Devil’s City, our voices echoed back in countless reverberations, overlapping and traveling far. From a distance, it sounded eerie, like ghostly voices from the underworld.

Thus, we shouted and walked for two or three hours, delving deeper into the Devil’s City. The flashlight swept across the surrounding rocks, my eyes grew weary, and my throat became hoarse from shouting. Yet, we found no trace of the Caucasians, and our calls yielded no response; the only replies were our own echoes and the faint sound of the wind’s whimper.

We stopped to rest, and An Ning asked Zaxi how, based on his experience, we might find our way back.

Zaxi shook his head and said, “Only you guys would think of this method. We’ve probably walked about seven kilometers now. In terms of straight-line distance, we’ve covered quite a bit, but in reality, we’ve unconsciously changed direction. Looking at the compass, it seems we’re almost walking back. People here are like ants; they can unknowingly take an S-shaped route. So, I can only guarantee to lead you out, but I can’t offer any suggestions on finding people… It’s fine if they aren’t moving, but if they are also looking for a way out, what do you think is the probability of two teams meeting in an eighty-square-kilometer maze?”

Anning was not satisfied with this answer and frowned, “Has anyone gotten lost before?”

Zaxi, stacking stones, shook his head without looking up and said, “We never come in here at night.”

After saying that, he sighed, leaving us unsure of what to make of it. Anning, seeing our expressions, encouraged us not to lose heart. However, it was evident that his words had little effect. We smoked several cigarettes to regain some spirit and then continued on.

Yet, things did not develop as we had hoped. We shouted while walking, but we had no idea how much time had passed. We rested four times along the way, and Zaxi stacked no fewer than thirty stone piles, but we still hadn’t seen a single person or received any response. The silence in the Devil’s City seemed to swallow any sound we made.

What truly terrified me was that we hadn’t seen any of Zaxi’s stone piles appear, indicating that we were still moving forward. The Devil’s City felt unfathomable, and we had no idea how much farther we had to go.

Continuing onward, we entered a canyon formed by rocks. Under a large boulder, we simply couldn’t move anymore and had to stop for the sixth time to rest. At this point, our throats were hoarse, and we could no longer shout. We drank water greedily, and everyone fell into a state of speechlessness, our minds feeling a bit blank.

After a period of silence, the team doctor suddenly said, “Could it be that there really are devils in this Devil’s City? Have they taken them away?”

His words were abrupt, and we all froze for a moment. Zaxi shot him a glare, telling him not to talk nonsense. The Tibetan people are quite traditional, and such talk is uncomfortable to hear.

“There are definitely no devils, and people are definitely here,” Zaxi said after a pause, holding a mouthful of water and slowly adding while moistening his throat, “It’s just that we don’t know what the situation is right now.”

A few of us fell silent again, each lost in our own thoughts. In fact, I knew that the hope in our hearts had dwindled significantly. When we first entered, I thought the probability of finding them was high; at least we might discover some traces. Now, that thought had completely vanished.

After resting for a while, Anning looked at his watch, stood up, and called for us to get ready to set off again. We all reflexively stood up, took a deep breath, and prepared to rally ourselves for another round of shouting.

At that moment, we all suddenly heard a loud human scream coming from Anning’s walkie-talkie. The static was loud and piercing, making it impossible to discern what was being said.

The surroundings were deathly quiet, and this sudden sound startled us half to death as we immediately looked at Anning’s walkie-talkie. Anning was also stunned, taking several seconds to process before hurriedly picking up the walkie-talkie to listen carefully.

The voice sounded again, the static was extremely piercing, but it was clear that someone was calling out.
“They’re nearby!” we exclaimed. Anning almost jumped up.
In a terrain like the Devil’s City, walkie-talkies are almost useless; they only work at very short distances. Anning had been adjusting the frequency in hopes of picking up a signal, but to no avail. Now that a signal suddenly came through, it was evident that the other party’s walkie-talkie was not far away.
We let out a sigh of relief, and Anning immediately began to fine-tune the frequency. The voice became clearer, but we still couldn’t make out what was being said. Then she shouted into the walkie-talkie, “I’m the team leader. We are searching for you. What is your location?”
The response was a series of indescribable sounds, heavily distorted, but the tone had changed; it was evident that the other party could hear us.
The earlier frustration vanished, and the team doctor shouted, “YES!” I also took out my walkie-talkie, tapped it, adjusted it a bit, to check if it was a machine issue, and soon I got a voice as well, though it was equally noisy.
Anning called out once more, and this time the voice was slightly clearer. We all strained to listen, hoping to understand what the other party was saying.
As I listened, I realized something was off. The person on the other end of the walkie-talkie didn’t seem to be speaking; the tone of their voice was very strange and hard to describe. Upon closer listening, it even sounded like someone was coldly sneering with resentment.