Chapter 4: The Burial Pit

After some time, I finally began to feel some sensation returning to my body. I tried to move my limbs. My clothes were completely soaked through, so I took some spare clothes from my travel bag, but unfortunately, I had no extra jacket. It was unbearably cold here.

I shone my flashlight around to examine my surroundings. This place didn’t look man-made at all; instead, it resembled a natural underground river. The water flowed very slowly, crystal clear, but so cold it cut to the bone.

Fortunately, there were piles of rocks along both banks of the river, enough to make walking possible. I had no idea which way to go, so I simply picked a direction and forced myself onward.

Luckily, my travel bag was waterproof, so nothing inside was wet, but without a spare coat, I was still shivering with cold. Perhaps it was the effect of the liquor I’d just drunk, my mind felt a little dizzy, but I was oddly calm—maybe the alcohol was working its magic.

I kept quickening my pace to get my blood circulating, hoping to lessen the chill. Occasionally, I took a swig of strong spirits. After a while, my body gradually stopped feeling numb.

As I was walking, I suddenly heard a faint rustling behind me—a sound all too familiar. Damn it, those red snakes had followed me here. I hadn’t provoked them, so why wouldn’t they leave me alone?

At this thought, I hurriedly slung my backpack over my shoulder and sped up, running forward as fast as I could. The rocks here were very smooth, and I nearly slipped several times. After running for a while, the sound behind me faded a little, so I slowed down to steady my breath.

Just as I began to ease my pace, I discovered the path ahead was blocked. Alarmed, I rushed forward, only to realize it wasn’t a dead end—the passage just narrowed considerably, with slow-moving water flowing beneath. To get through, I would have to swim across the icy underground river.

My body had only just recovered, and now I had to plunge into that freezing water again. I hesitated, but the rustling sounds behind me were growing louder. Gritting my teeth, I quickly stripped off my clothes and stuffed them into my backpack—if they got wet, I’d have nothing left to wear, and I’d surely freeze to death.

Taking a deep breath to steady myself, I gulped another mouthful of liquor, then dove in. The cold stabbed instantly to my core, making my whole body seize up. Forcing myself to move, I swam quickly forward.

In the pitch-black river, I seemed to bump into something—a stone slab of some kind. Instinctively, I reached out and felt what seemed to be a stone stele. But the cold was unbearable and left me no interest in exploring further. I hurried on, passing through a stone wall that resembled a sluice gate. Kicking hard with my legs, I broke through the surface, half my body out of the water, and struggled toward the shore.

Clambering onto a large rock, I hurriedly dressed and tried to restore some feeling to my numb body. After a while, I finally felt myself again. I picked up my flashlight and shone it around, only to be shocked by what I saw—there were bones everywhere.

“Could this be a burial pit?”

The thought suddenly crossed my mind. Although I wasn't an expert in history or archaeology, my mother worked in the field—she was an associate professor at Qinghua University—so I knew a little.

The scene here did resemble the legendary sacrificial pits. Could this actually be an ancient tomb? The idea left me reeling. Could this be the very tomb that my ancestors had guarded for generations?

With that in mind, I started to move cautiously closer to the bones. Though I had trained in martial arts since childhood and considered myself brave and skilled, that was when facing the living. Seeing so many human skeletons made my skin crawl. Still, I gradually adapted—after all, they were only bones.

Examining the clothing on the skeletons, most had dried out and turned black or yellow, though some were relatively well preserved, perhaps due to the environment. I couldn’t identify the era these garments belonged to, but they were certainly ancient.

After scrutinizing the scene for some time without learning much, I decided to move on. For some reason, perhaps curiosity, I no longer felt an urgent need to escape; I was even tempted to explore further.

With my flashlight in hand, I advanced slowly. This pit-like chamber was massive and packed with bones—by a rough estimate, there were at least ten thousand. I walked for half an hour without reaching the end.

Soon, I noticed the stone walls growing smoother, with strange patterns in some places—symbols resembling talismans. I guessed these might be charms to ward off evil, set here to suppress restless spirits in such a vast burial pit.

I examined the talismans closely, about to touch one when I sensed something nearby. Instinctively, I swung my flashlight around. The silence was profound, broken only by the countless skeletons surrounding me.

The sheer quiet filled me with a nameless dread. Just as I was about to leave, a sudden motion caught my eye—a shadow flitted past. It was unmistakably a human figure. Swallowing my fear, I resolved to confront whatever it was, man or ghost.

In a flash, I drew my hunting knife and charged forward. Planting my foot on a skull, I vaulted, spinning in midair, my blade slashing with a flourish toward the moving shadow. The figure dodged with an eerie agility, twisting in ways no ordinary person could match.

I hesitated for a moment, struck by the familiarity of those movements. In that instant, the shadow spun and lashed out at me—a silver flash nearly slashing my clothes.

We clashed for several rounds. If it came to a direct fight, I was confident I could win, but his strange footwork left me unable to land a solid blow—as if I were striking at air. After ten or so exchanges, he suddenly spoke.

“Who taught you your martial arts?”

“Uh?” I blurted, momentarily stunned. Before I could answer, he took advantage of my distraction and struck my shoulder with a palm strike. My vision went black. I cursed inwardly, “So much for street smarts! I’ve fallen for it this time.”

A moment later, my body went limp, completely drained of strength. Some scent seemed to enter my nose, and all I wanted was to sleep.

I don’t know how long I was out. When I came to, my head felt heavy and muddled. In the haze, I heard voices. I slowly opened my eyes and saw three people nearby, deep in discussion.

Seeing me awake, one of them said, “Don’t move. You’ve just inhaled Cloud’s Scent. Rest a moment.”

Cloud’s Scent? Was that the strange fragrance I’d smelled earlier? Then a burly middle-aged man asked, “Where are you from?”

Realizing I was powerless against the three of them, and they didn’t seem hostile, I replied, “The capital.”

The three exchanged glances, then after a pause, one said, “We won’t ask how you entered the Shadow Gate for now. We’ll take you somewhere. Don’t resist—we mean you no harm.”

I nodded, resting a while longer, then began to take in my surroundings. It seemed to be a cave, with fresh air circulating, though I had no idea how I’d been brought here.

Once I’d fully regained my senses, I asked the man carrying me to set me down, and inquired, “Who are you people?”

“We? Well… someone will explain soon enough.”

I followed them as we journeyed onward. By now, dusk was falling. We moved through a dense forest, along what seemed to be a deliberately chosen path. They warned me not to fall behind, lest I get lost.

It was then I noticed something unusual—the trees here appeared to be arranged in a specific pattern, forming a maze-like landscape, rather than growing at random.

“How much farther?” I asked, and the man behind me patted my shoulder, telling me it would be a while yet. He added that they usually spent the night outside, but today was special, so they’d returned early.

Along the way, the leader—the young-looking man I’d fought earlier—told me that if he hadn’t intervened, I would have been doomed. The road ahead was perilous without a guide, no matter how skilled I was.

I asked, puzzled, why that was. He smiled and said, “Sometimes, your abilities have nothing to do with your fate. Some things simply can’t be explained.”

His words mystified me, but I recalled my mother often telling me that many events in ancient tombs defied scientific explanation.

These people seemed as if they wanted to tell me something, or perhaps ask me questions, but whenever they were about to speak, they held back, making them seem even more mysterious. Suddenly, a thought struck me, and I blurted out:

“Are you the guardians of this place?”