In that moment of realization, I initially thought it was my own shadow. I moved slightly, only to find that the shadow didn’t move with me. The three of us felt as if we had fallen into an ice cave, unable to stand as we gazed at the figure in the jade vein.

“What is that thing?” I whispered.

“Who knows?” the fat man replied in the same tone, pausing for a moment. “It seems… it seems like a person?”

“How could it be a person? If it were a person, how did they get into this rock wall?” I said.

The fat man looked at me and asked, trembling, “Have you ever heard of the legend of the fish in stone?”

As soon as he finished speaking, a series of goosebumps erupted on my skin. The fish in stone is a common story in strange tales, where a solid rock, when opened, is found to be hollow, filled with water, and inside there is a live fish. No one knows how the fish got into the stone, nor how it survives, as there is no food inside the stone. This phenomenon is often regarded as a miracle; since the fish didn’t enter from the outside, it must have been produced by the stone itself. It is said that eating this stone fish grants immortality, but others claim that consuming it leads to immediate death.

The legend of the fish in stone is widespread, seemingly not fabricated. Now that the fat man suddenly brought it up, I certainly understood what he meant, but knowing it didn’t make it any easier to believe that such a tale could apply here.

“Impossible,” I said.

“If there can be fish in stone, why can’t there be people?”

I took a deep breath, looking at the shadow in the stone, still shaking my head. “Impossible. It must just look like a human shadow.”

“Is that so? We’ll find out if we keep splashing,” the fat man said. “What’s written on the ground indicates there’s more than one of these things.”

We immediately used the same trick again, quickly splashing water all over the walls.

As all the rocks became wet, I was horrified to discover that the nearby rocks were indeed filled with human-shaped shadows, each in various poses. The interior of the cave wall seemed to be entirely embedded with people.

I counted and found it was exactly the same as what was recorded on the ground.

“This is truly ghostly!” The fat man sat down again, “No wonder they needed Secretary Lei to handle this. What on earth is going on?”

“Could it be the Kunlun womb?” I recalled hearing about the concept of the essence of heaven and earth. Could this be a treasure cave where jade has been transformed into human forms by some mysterious power?

The fat man shook his head. “The Kunlun womb is just a legend, and it’s said to be associated with very large mountains. These shadow shapes are strange; I don’t think they’re good things, and…” He glanced at the side where the iron figurines lay. “I might have misjudged earlier. Look at the movements of these shadows; don’t they resemble those iron figurines very closely?”

I was too astonished to speak. The fat man continued, his face pale, “I know this is quite terrifying, but looking at these tools, all made of cast iron, I suddenly thought of this possibility.”

I looked at those human figures. “Are you saying that these iron figurines are not transportation tools, but are used to seal these shadows that they dug out?”

“I’m afraid it’s not that simple,” the fat man corrected. “These iron figures are probably things they’ve processed. They might have drilled holes in the rock wall, then poured iron slurry inside to freeze the people inside, and finally smashed it out.”

I recalled the countless iron figures I had seen in the basement of the ancient building, and I felt a chill run down my spine. If that’s the case, how many of these things have been excavated here? I forced a smile and said, “That’s just our speculation.”

The fat man’s face remained pale; he clearly found his own thoughts terrifying. He continued, “Actually, there’s a way to find out: we could smash this stone and see what that shadow really is.” He pointed to a nearby stone mason’s hammer.

I touched the rock wall in front of me; it was very solid and not easy to break. Suddenly, I remembered the legends of demon suppression from the past. Didn’t the ancients always say that the heavens would suppress demons, often burying them beneath the mountains?

Oh no! Could these shadows be demons?

If that’s the case, releasing them would be tantamount to seeking death!

A strong curiosity surged within me, accompanied by a sense of dread, and I shook my head. “The craftsmen of old used such laborious methods to handle this; clearly, the true forms of these shadows are very frightening and ominous, even extremely dangerous. It’s better not to disturb them.”

Upon hearing this, the fat man turned his head towards the dull oil bottle, seemingly seeking his opinion.

The dull oil bottle stared intently at those shadows without answering him, and instead said to us, “We are actually the same as them…”