We had no choice but to stop and look around; this was an intersection, and the Arabic stone pile was right in the middle, though we had no idea what it meant.

I turned back and saw the suffocating “buzzing” sound in the distance, along with a chaotic noise that resembled a cold sneer—whether it was their calls or something else, I couldn’t tell. I still felt a chill run down my spine.

While gasping for breath, almost out of air, An Ning asked me what was going on. She clearly understood the severity of the situation but had not fully processed it yet.

I recounted what had happened and mentioned the toxicity of the toad king. When she heard that Old Wu had already been affected, her face turned pale.

Just after I finished speaking, I noticed the “buzzing” sound had gotten much closer. Looking up, I saw the toad kings in the distance scattering, and many had already taken flight. A vast swarm of red, mist-like insects appeared in the sky, resembling a group of wasps taking off, all heading straight toward us.

Seeing this, I thought to myself, “Damn it, there’s no time to think!” I grabbed An Ning and started running.

At that moment, I ran for my life. I had never thought I could run so fast. I didn’t care about the Arabic stone pile anymore and dashed out, covering over a thousand meters, weaving through the rocky terrain. Only when I could no longer run did I slow down.

Looking back, I saw the air filled with insects; that red, mist-like swarm was following us, overwhelming and moving at an incredible speed, pressing down right behind us.

“Damn it!” I cursed loudly, struggling to suppress my dizziness and continue running. An Ning, having better stamina than I did, was now running faster than me. She shouted, “Don’t just run, find a place to hide!”

As soon as she finished speaking, a gentle slope appeared in front of us. I wasn’t prepared and kicked something, stumbling and rolling down.

I rolled all the way to the bottom, and An Ning helped me up. I was already dizzy, and she dragged me to keep running. We dashed out for several hundred meters, but suddenly a large section of rock, like a city wall, blocked our path. We quickly turned and ran along the rock, trying to find a way around, but when we reached a point, we saw that the other side of the rock was closed off. We were trapped in a semi-circular dead end.

Seeing this scene, I cursed again and looked back. The red mist was swirling toward us, directly descending from the top of the rock, overwhelming everything.

I realized it was over; there was no escape. The behavior of these toad kings seemed like they were hunting us!

But I didn’t want to just sit and wait for death. I looked around for a place to hide. However, this area was just stones; there was nowhere to conceal ourselves.

Just as I was feeling despondent, An Ning suddenly shouted, “Over here!”

I turned back to see that there was a depression in the rock face. It was too small for a person to hide in, but it was the only place to take cover. We had to rely on luck.

We rushed over and crouched into that depression, and I took off my T-shirt to cover our front.

Then, through the fabric, I saw a large mass of insects descending. Suddenly, a wave of buzzing filled the air, and a sharp, spicy smell filled my nostrils. Soon, countless red trails surrounded us. Many insects collided with the rocky edges of the depression, making squeaking sounds as if bullets were firing at us.

I felt a wave of suffocation, and I involuntarily retreated into the small hollow. However, there was only so much space in the hollow, and no matter how much I tried to retreat, I couldn’t fully shrink my body inside. I almost closed my eyes and waited for death. With so many insects around, if just one happened to collide with me, the consequences would be unimaginable. Deep down, I didn’t believe we would be that lucky; I was almost waiting for that moment to arrive.

To my surprise, under that tension, I felt no fear at all; my mind was almost blank. However, what I didn’t expect was that slowly, the sounds from outside began to diminish, little by little. The noise of the insects crashing against the rocks also became sparse, and soon, the outside returned to calm.

I gritted my teeth for a long time, and it wasn’t until Aning tapped me that I came to my senses. I peeked out and saw that the swarm of toad kings had actually flown away. A few scattered toad kings outside were dazed from the collisions, and as I watched, they also began to take off.

Aning and I exchanged glances, unsure of what had happened, but we both breathed a sigh of relief. I leaned back against the stone behind me and started to laugh. This was just too thrilling; my nerves couldn’t take it. After laughing a few times, I covered Aning’s mouth and whispered, “It seems they weren’t chasing us; they might have wanted to fly out. We just happened to be going in the same direction. Don’t get too complacent; we might attract them back.”

I thought about it and nodded. Aning then released her hand, and I stopped talking, staying in the hollow for a while longer before cautiously peeking outside. The Devil’s City outside was completely silent, as if the previous thrilling events had never happened, just like our imaginations.

I took a few deep breaths to finally calm down. At that moment, the fatigue from the frantic running hit me; my legs cramped up, and I stumbled a few times before managing to stand straight.

Limping, we found a few stones, checked for insects, and then sat down. I touched the pouch at my waist, wanting to drink some water, but when I felt around, I realized I hadn’t brought anything with me. I suddenly remembered that when the incident occurred, I had just gotten up and hadn’t even taken my outer clothing. Thankfully, it was daytime; otherwise, I might have frozen to death at night.

Looking back at Aning, I found that she was even worse off than I was. She was wearing only a short tank top, had just come out of her sleeping bag, and her hair was a mess. Upon closer inspection, it seemed she wasn’t even wearing a bra.

I felt a bit embarrassed, thinking that I had pulled her away in such a hurry during the escape, so I had to shift my gaze.

“What kind of insects are those? How much do you know about them?” Aning asked me.

I thought to myself, how could I explain this to you? While I had heard about them many times, this was only the second time I had actually seen them. The first time was in the King Lu’s palace, where a single insect crawled out of a bloody corpse, almost leading to our demise. But today, seeing so many of them appear all at once was a first for me as well.

I shared what I knew with Aning, but she clearly found it hard to understand; everything had happened too suddenly. She seemed half-convinced by my words.

I find it a bit hard to accept this myself and don’t have the heart to explain it to her in detail. I feel that this should be related to the ancient kingdom of Xiwangmu we are looking for; perhaps these human skull jars were used as containers for cultivating the toads. My third uncle also mentioned that he had seen such human skulls in an underwater tomb; it seems that these toads must breed in human cranial cavities and can maintain their vitality for a considerable amount of time, which is extremely terrifying. I wonder what the ancient kingdom of Xiwangmu needed such a horrifying creature for? As a weapon, perhaps?

If the ancient kingdom of Xiwangmu really could wield such a terrifying biological weapon, then the reason this barbaric and backward kingdom was able to dominate the Western Regions for so long might lie here.

As I pondered, I looked around to see where we had escaped to. After taking a look, I realized that the area within these enclosed city walls was completely unfamiliar to me; I had no impression of it at all. I didn’t even notice how many turns we had taken while running earlier, and we had completely lost our way.

We had been running in a direction slightly northeast. According to Zaxi, this area spans over eighty square kilometers. I have no idea where we are now, but we are certainly not in the outskirts of the Devil’s City; the vast Gobi Desert is still not in sight ahead.

The “streets” in the Devil’s City, which consist of wind-eroded rock formations, are very wide. Although these rock formations have various shapes, as soon as the angle changes, what you see becomes completely different. I couldn’t memorize all of this in such a short time, and coupled with the broad field of vision, the depth perception was very disorienting. I believe it would be unlikely to walk back; we could only choose a direction to head towards the Gobi Desert and then make a loop around the edge of the Devil’s City to return to the place where our vehicle broke down, to regroup with An Youping and the others.

I’m not sure how resilient those bugs are. The sky is filled with dense clouds, and it’s overcast with no sun. If they were to fly out onto the road, the consequences would be unimaginable. However, we are quite far from the main road and there’s no water source, so I think that as long as the sun comes out, these bugs shouldn’t survive for long.

After sharing my plan, An Ning also thought it was feasible. We have nothing on us now and must reach our destination before dark. Thankfully, it is only noon, so we still have plenty of time, and the lack of sunlight is a stroke of luck for us.

After confirming our route, we took a short break and then set off. I looked around and memorized the shapes of several rock formations nearby, which resembled castle turrets. If we were unfortunate enough to retrace our steps, we would be able to recognize this place.

At that moment, I thought it would only take a bit of effort. No one expected that this journey would be so painful, almost as if we were walking into the underworld.

We were lost.

As we navigated through the Devil’s City, we did not let our guard down. We had no idea where those poisonous insects had flown off to; if we encountered them again, our previous escape would just be a joke.

So, while moving forward, we remained alert to the sounds around us. I didn’t know when it happened, but the wind picked up again, and various eerie noises began to emerge from the Devil’s City. Fortunately, the wind wasn’t very strong; it was gentle and faint, not enough to disturb our nerves.

I had little to say to Anning, and since her clothes were disheveled, I couldn’t help but glance at her while walking side by side. So, I decided to walk ahead instead. We both remained silent, occasionally stopping to exchange a few words. She didn’t show much expression either; clearly, she was exhausted and had no energy to think about anything else.

To be honest, if we were on a vacation, walking through this bizarre Devil’s City with a beautiful woman, admiring the mysterious wind-eroded rock formations and listening to the howls of the devils, it wouldn’t be a reliable situation, but it could still be considered a beautiful experience. Yet, the world was so strange; seeing the two of us walking here simply reminded me that just moments ago, we had escaped from death. Under such circumstances, even if I had the leisure, I wouldn’t find this scene beautiful.

As we continued walking, the first three and a half hours did feel a bit like a trip. I sometimes had the illusion of wanting to grab my camera while looking at the oddly shaped rocks. However, after half an hour, thirst began to torment us. The moisture was lost through sweat, and both our lips became dry and swollen. I had drunk a cup of butter tea that morning, while Anning hadn’t had anything to drink, but we both felt the same.

This thirst was incredibly uncomfortable. We licked our lips and tried hard not to think about it so we could keep moving forward. Luckily, there was no sun; otherwise, I might have suffered from heatstroke by now.

After walking for another hour or so, I initially thought we should have reached the edge of Devil’s City by now. We stopped to catch our breath, but looking around, the scenery remained unchanged, with towering wind-eroded rock formations and no sign of the Gobi Desert.

I felt a bit uneasy; this distance seemed too long. Assuming Anning and I could only walk five kilometers an hour, that would mean we had covered fifteen kilometers by now, and this Devil’s City couldn’t possibly be that long. Clearly, we were taking a detour.

However, I had been carefully memorizing many distinct rock formations along the way to avoid retracing our steps, yet I hadn’t seen any of them. It was evident that we were indeed moving forward and not going in circles.

This gave me some reassurance. I comforted myself, thinking maybe our pace had unconsciously slowed down, or perhaps the route was more winding than we realized. As long as we kept heading in one direction, we would eventually find our way out.

At this point, we couldn’t afford to rest because the sky was getting darker. I estimated that although we weren’t in the Gobi, we couldn’t be far from it either, and we should be able to get out soon. After that, we would still need some time to return to the campsite outside Devil’s City, which would also take quite a while.

So, we continued on, even speeding up our pace. However, the further we walked, the more I sensed something was off. Hours passed, yet the scenery remained the same, as if Devil’s City was following us.

I pressed on stubbornly until it was dark, yet there was still no sign of the Gobi. I had realized the seriousness of the situation; this couldn’t simply be explained by a slow pace. At this rate, even if it were eighty square kilometers, or even double that, we should have reached the edge by now.

A chill crept up my spine; it seemed that the situation in this Devil’s City was far more complex than I had imagined. It wasn’t just about the many rocky mountains; we were thoroughly lost. As the sky gradually darkened and night approached, I began to feel the same sense of disorientation that the Caucasians and the other two victims must have felt when they were here. Just as I was pondering what to do, An Ning called out to me from behind.

As soon as we stopped, both of us were exhausted and unable to move any further. The temperature in the air suddenly dropped, and our sweat began to feel cold; the temperature difference between day and night here was too great.

“We can’t go any further,” An Ning said as she sat down on the ground. “There’s no way we’ll make it out before dark. We don’t have a flashlight, and it’s all rocks here; we can’t start a fire either. We have to find a place to spend the night before it gets completely dark. There won’t even be a moon tonight; it’ll be pitch black here.”

I slumped down beside her and looked up at the sky. I saw dark clouds overhead, pressing down lower. The golden rays of the setting sun pierced through the gaps in the clouds like a sword, forming a massive golden cross, which was quite spectacular. With such thick clouds, they wouldn’t be blown away unless the wind picked up.

That night, we built a stone shelter and huddled inside for the night. An Ning and I were only wearing thin clothes, and I felt a bit shy, but she directly nestled into my arms, and we held each other to keep warm. In the darkness of the Devil’s City, there was not a single source of light; it was unimaginable how terrifying it was. You couldn’t see anything in the entire space; you could only hear various sounds coming from all around, and some sounds even seemed to pass right by you, as if something was moving through the Devil’s City.

In such circumstances, it was nearly impossible to sleep, so we had to chat to pass the time. During our conversation, we discussed why we couldn’t find our way out and considered many possibilities, including the idea that the information Tashi gave us was wrong, and that the Devil’s City might be far larger than eighty square kilometers. An Ning suggested that if we still couldn’t find our way out tomorrow, we should look for a higher cliff to climb up and get a better view.

It’s strange to think that An Ning and I weren’t very familiar with each other. If it were any other time, such an intimate gesture might have made me feel quite awkward. However, at that moment, it felt completely natural.

This could be considered a moment of warmth and tenderness, but I had no particular thoughts about it. Suddenly, I thought of Liu Xia Hui and understood him better. He had once embraced a woman on a cold night without any impropriety, and I found myself in a similar situation. I thought about it: if a man walked all day in the desert and then, in the middle of the night, embraced a woman in near-freezing temperatures, even if she were an absolute beauty, there would likely be no inappropriate actions, simply because he would be too exhausted.

I hardly slept at all that night; I only dozed off a few times, waking up after just ten minutes each time. I spent the entire night lost in a jumble of thoughts, mostly about sleeping bags and tents. I recalled the snoring of the people in the tent and how I couldn’t sleep then, even complaining that sleeping in a tent was bad for my cervical spine. Now, it was clear that just thinking about that sleeping bag made me long for it with all my being.

In the early morning, as the sky began to dimly brighten, we crawled out of bed. I felt terrible; I had never been this exhausted before. It felt like all the muscles in my body were out of control, and everything I saw was a blur. I was especially thirsty, to the point of near unbearable discomfort, and I had even run out of saliva in my mouth.

I was aware of my own condition and felt a bit anxious, so I started rubbing my arms and set off with An Ning.

We continued walking, with An Ning leading the way this time, as she had managed to get a bit of sleep the night before and was more energetic than I was. We followed the same route as yesterday, trudging along. Soon, three hours passed in the seemingly endless Devil’s City, which was even more despairing than the boundless Gobi Desert. I looked at the distant, towering dark silhouettes of the rock mountains and couldn’t make sense of it all. It felt like we were trapped in a giant sandpit, like ants being toyed with by an inexplicable force.

Hour after hour went by, and before long, it was noon. Only then did I start to feel hungry, but compared to my thirst, it was negligible. My throat felt like it was on fire, and I thought that if I coughed, it might crack open.

As we continued, we could no longer bear it. An Ning started scouting for a rock mountain. However, all the mountains we encountered were difficult to climb. Eventually, we found a relatively tall mound of earth. Gritting our teeth, we climbed to the top and looked around.

But it was of no use; the rock mountains here were all about the same height. As far as we could see, there were hills of various sizes, and we couldn’t see the end. Beyond that, visibility was lost, but one thing was certain: we were definitely not at the edge of the Devil’s City.

An Ning and I stood there, bewildered, wondering what was going on. Why did it feel like no matter which way we walked, we were always in the center of this Devil’s City? Was there some force preventing us from leaving this place?

We climbed back down the hill and found a cool spot to rest. An Ning and I discussed what to do; it seemed we had reached a dead end. We couldn’t get out, there was no food or water around us, and soon we would have no strength left to walk. We might die here.

I pondered this, a chill creeping over me, and started to consider how many days a person could survive without water. In a cool and comfortable environment, it’s said one could last three days, but we had already been walking for a full day and night, and the depletion of bodily fluids was significant. I estimated that lasting three days would be a stretch; I had heard that drinking urine could extend survival by a day, but damn it, where would I get urine from?

In despair, I realized that even if I stayed still, I could only live for two more days at most. If no one came to rescue us and we couldn’t find a way out, we would die.

An Ning was clearly thinking along the same lines; she had her head down.

What to do next was a simple choice. We could continue walking, perhaps finding a way out, but if we failed, tomorrow could be our last day; we would die of dehydration here. Or we could wait for rescue, but the hope was slim, and we would only last two more days before dying anyway.

An Ning was a strong-willed person. Although I had thoughts of giving up, I wasn’t confused in this life-and-death situation. In the end, we decided together to keep walking—until we dropped dead.

However, at this moment, An Ning was calmer than I was. She began to make some marks on the stones and took off the copper coins from her bracelet. She had a bracelet made of copper coins, which she pressed under the stone marks. She said that if someone was looking for us, this would be a sign of hope; at the very least, they might find our bodies.

These copper coins were quite valuable, and using them as a marker here was like placing a gold brick in this spot. I thought this might be the most expensive marker in the world, but unfortunately, it pointed to our burial place.

For the next two days, we continued to wander through this devil city. I didn’t even know how I got through that time. After three days and nights without a drop of water, I had lost even my willpower, like a walking corpse.

Starting from the night of the second day, all my senses became dulled. The only things I saw were the gravelly desert and the towering rock mountains around me. Sometimes, these scenes even seemed to spin. I couldn’t tell if I was spinning or if the world was spinning; I had lost the ability to distinguish between what was possible and what was impossible. Sometimes I felt like I was already dead, floating, and then in the next moment, I saw An Ning staggering in front of me, and the torment continued.

At this point, I still hoped to suddenly see the vast expanse of the desert, or that once we passed the rock mountains, we would see the desert. However, it was still just rock mountains, as if we could never reach the end.

Finally, An Ning collapsed first. I saw her disappear from my sight in an instant. In that moment, I felt a fleeting clarity, and then I tripped over something and fell to the ground.

I didn’t know what I had tripped over, nor did I know if I had fallen on stones or sand. In that instant, I looked up at the sky. It wasn’t blue; it was dark, heavy clouds.

I bitterly smiled to myself. If it weren’t for the absence of the sun, I thought I would have started to rot by now. But even if I were given a few more hours to live, time was up.

Looking at the dark clouds, I wanted to stand up, but there was nowhere to exert my strength. My eyelids grew heavier, and at the moment they fully closed, I suddenly saw a flash in the sky, like lightning. Then, everything fell silent, and everything faded away. I slowly sank into the abyss.