The ticks are incredibly bloodthirsty, and they must have been attracted here by the snake’s blood. The number of ticks in this forest is terrifying, and they are clearly starving, all gathering around here.

I lowered the torch and burned the ticks on the surrounding bushes. I got bitten several times on my feet, but there was no time to deal with it; I had to let it be and find a way to break through. The fat guy temporarily made a torch using a malfunctioning gun, and we used the fire to drive them away, lifting Panzi up. Upon inspection, we found that Panzi’s back was completely covered in blood blisters; he must have been bitten earlier, but we didn’t notice because his back was pressed against the grass.

The fat guy immediately used the torch to burn them off, and a large patch fell away. Then we quickly grabbed Panzi’s backpack and left in a hurry. Fortunately, Panzi’s bleeding had stopped, and we didn’t attract more ticks. When I looked back, I saw that the corpse of the giant python was completely covered in black spots; soon, it would be reduced to just a layer of skin, like the skeleton of the snake we saw in the canyon.

“It’s really unfair that this thing wasn’t included in the list of four pests,” the fat guy said, astonished.

We carried Panzi and arrived at the edge of a swamp. To avoid attracting more ticks with our blood, we washed off all the blood from ourselves and Panzi’s backpack. As we were washing, the sky began to brighten; dawn had finally arrived. I looked at the white light breaking through the sky, feeling like crying without tears. This was the second night I had spent here, and if possible, I truly did not want a third.

The fat guy asked me where we should go next. I took out a compass, climbed up a tree, hoping to learn from Panzi’s method.

The morning light was dim, barely illuminating the surroundings. As I climbed the tree, I suddenly caught a whiff of an extremely fresh scent in the air, which invigorated me. If there was anything good to say about this cursed place, the morning was probably the only thing that could lift my spirits, likely because the nights here were too terrifying.

I took a deep breath, just as I was about to look around, I was suddenly stunned. I realized that the area in front of me was vast; only about fifty or sixty meters away stood a massive black ruin resembling a giant temple.

I didn’t know how to describe my feelings. I had expected to see a vast canopy of trees, like what I had seen before, but this sudden appearance of such a colossal structure left me momentarily speechless. After a long while, I finally realized: if I hadn’t climbed this tree, I might have walked right past this temple without noticing it.

Unlike the ruins I had seen before, this temple was a complete structure, a massive and intact multi-layered building. In the current light, I couldn’t see its full appearance, but it felt like its scale was far greater than what we could see, and judging by its outline, it was much better preserved than the ruins in the rainforest. In the area I could see, only a few spots had weeds and trees; I saw large dry boulders that I hadn’t seen in a long time. The ancient carvings on the temple’s columns and walls appeared like tiny patterns on the massive stones from this distance, giving an incredibly mysterious feeling.

I walked with the胖子 (Fatty) towards the site, and in less than two minutes, we emerged from the forest and entered the area of the ruins, where the trees gradually thinned out. From under the trees, the ruins were astonishingly large. At first glance, it really resembled Angkor Wat, with stone corridors everywhere and unknown square towers. Finally, we reached a high point and saw a massive temple behind the treetops. Fatty was so amazed that he was speechless. I looked around and exclaimed, “If this place were developed, it would be the ninth wonder of the world. Do you believe it?”

“I believe it.” Fatty suddenly noticed something and pointed in a direction, saying, “Damn it, even if it’s not one of the nine wonders of the world, it’s still a great miracle for us. Look over there.”

I followed his finger and saw a series of large tents spread out on the flat ground in front of the temple. It turned out to be a campsite. The tents were made of canvas, large and old, scattered in various sizes. Their stone-gray color made them hard to spot from a distance. Although these weren’t An Ning and the others’ tents, they weren’t old enough to have been set up here for over a decade. A glimmer of hope flashed through my mind. At that moment, Fatty had already shouted, “This is your third uncle’s tent; I recognize it!”

I was overjoyed and almost shouted out loud. It truly felt like a dead end had turned into a new path. It seemed that fate had played enough tricks on me and now wanted me to take a break. Fatty and I immediately rushed toward the campsite, not knowing where the strength came from, with my mind only focused on resting and sleeping.

We sprinted across the open area in front of the ruins, which was a square made of massive stones, with many large pools of water in between. The water was fresh and crystal clear, revealing corridors beneath the surface that led into darkness, indicating that these parts were once above water but had now been submerged. The magnificent temple we saw might just be the roof or the top level of the original structure; it was impossible to estimate how grand the building actually was.

Before we could get close to the campsite, Fatty started shouting. After calling for a while without any response, he noticed something was off about the campsite.

—The entire campsite was eerily quiet, with no one moving, no shadows, and no sounds of conversation or activity. It was dead silent, as if it had been abandoned.

We reached the edge of the campsite and stopped, utterly exhausted. The excitement from earlier had faded, and I realized that rest might still be far away. Fatty was panting, paused for a moment, and listened carefully. The campsite in the morning light was completely silent, as still as a rainforest, devoid of any signs of life.

Fatty murmured, “This is not good; we might have come at the wrong time.”