We all looked at each other, a sense of fate washing over us. It turned out that we were only a few minutes away from the so-called exit of the canyon, yet we had chosen to stop. If we had insisted on moving forward at that moment, the outcome might have been completely different.

After taking a few more steps, we reached the edge of the swamp. From here, the view of the swamp was limited; it was not as vast as what we had seen from the top of the canyon. If we weren’t walking along the mountain wall, we wouldn’t even realize we had exited the canyon. Ahead was still a dense forest, feeling like just an extension of the canyon. Of course, there were differences; the further we walked, the more something felt off. The water was getting deeper, and the mud beneath our feet was becoming increasingly unstable.

Fortunately, in the shallow part of the swamp, there was a large, flat stone that jutted out prominently, not submerged by the water. We were curious about how such a large stone could be here. Carefully wading through the water, we climbed up and discovered that the giant stone was carved with intricate decorative patterns. Moreover, beneath the water was an enormous shadow, seemingly part of several large statues lined up side by side.

This was an entrance to the City of the Queen Mother of the West. The Queen Mother of the West was the king of the western regions and had long been the absolute spiritual leader of that area. Therefore, the entrance to the City of the Queen Mother of the West would naturally not be shabby. Perhaps this was a stone sculpture from that time or a statue from the city’s defensive architecture, meant to intimidate visiting envoys. Of course, after so many years, such statues could not have been preserved under the erosion of rain.

At first glance, the ancient patterns on the stone reminded me of those at Angkor Wat. Upon closer inspection, I realized they were not Khmer Buddhist patterns. Instead, the stone had darkened and grayed due to wind and rain, giving it an especially ancient and mysterious appearance.

I was pondering whether there might be a collapsed statue here and if there were other relics beneath the swamp when I heard the fat guy calling us to look over at his side.

We turned to see that in the sunlight, a deeper part of the black swamp revealed a dense mass of huge black shadows, seemingly submerged in something. It looked like stone, with some completely underwater. When I used binoculars with the silent oil bottle, I was astonished to find that the shadows beneath the swamp appeared to be remnants of walls and ruins, stretching all the way to the center of the swamp.

The ruins of the ancient city of the Queen Mother of the West were actually buried beneath this swamp.

“There should have been a very prosperous ancient city in this valley. After the fall of the Kingdom of the Queen Mother of the West, the ancient city was abandoned, the drainage system collapsed, and groundwater surged. Coupled with the rainwater carrying mud and silt for thousands of years, the entire city was submerged underwater. It seems that the scale of the City of the Queen Mother of the West was quite large; what we are seeing now is just the tip of the iceberg,” the silent oil bottle said lightly.

I was also somewhat shocked. It is relatively common for ancient cities to be submerged by water, and this swamp is not particularly large. The fact that the ancient city had developed to the edge of this basin indicates that the civilization had reached its peak at that time. However, if that’s the case, isn’t the palace of the Queen Mother also buried in the muddy water? How are we supposed to enter?

“However, thinking of Wen Jin’s notes, this swamp has formed for more than a year or two. In the 1990s, in her team, Huo Ling entered the West Queen Mother Palace after heavy rain, so there must be a way to get in; we just haven’t reached that situation yet.”