Daomu Biji: Restart

Book 4: Chapter 2: Ghost Satellite 2

I tried to find protrusions on the rock wall with my feet, but the black spot seemed to have seeped out from the natural rock wall, which caused the rocks surface to be smooth. There were still many cracks in the rock despite this, so I was able to stabilize my feet and reluctantly squat there. Fortunately, my hands were sticky from sweating so much, so I was able to use the palm of my free hand to make a suction cup on the smooth rock wall to maintain my balance.

At this time, all of the flares finally fell to the ground and plunged our surroundings into darkness once more.

In the dark, I could tell that the gap my foot was in was only about a centimeter wide, so Id probably slip down again if I so much as hiccupped. And the main thing keeping me stable right now was my dislocated wrist that was stuck in the big gap.

At this time, I heard the sound of someone muttering coming from inside the rock wall. In fact, many strange voices had started to filter in through my ears when I first saw this black spot, but I couldnt hear anything even if I listened very carefully. It was almost like the voices were coming from inside my head.

But what I was hearing now was definitely different from those earlier voices because it was a precise human voice. I put my ear up to the black spot and heard someone talking inside. It took me a second before I realized that it was a voice I was familiar with.

This was Xiao Hua's external broadcast that he had sent via satellite phone. But why was it coming from inside the black spot?

This kind of external broadcast was a special function that was only available on very expensive satellite equipment. It not only had a long battery life, but it could continuously broadcast three bands of satellite voice and radio to the outside world. It was a distress module that could be used during wilderness exploration.

But I couldnt get to it at this time, so I looked down below. It was pitch black; Fatty's flame had been completely extinguished. Crap, I said to myself. Were they overwhelmed by that tide?

If thats the case, then Ill just have to cut off my hand and go down to die with them. At least that way, well start on the path to the underworld at the same time.

But just as I was thinking this, another flare suddenly shot up right next to me.

As I flinched back from that hot wave of air, I saw that my surroundings were illuminated once more. I glanced down and saw that both Fatty and Poker-Face had already started climbing up the rock wall. That dark tide seemed unable to get close to the black spot, so it gathered below, trying to stack itself up in order to reach Fatty and Poker-Face.

In addition to a lot of black corpses, I noticed that there were countless strange things inside. I didnt know what they were, but Fatty and Poker-Face had climbed high enough that they shouldnt be able to catch them.

As I breathed a sigh of relief, I suddenly felt the pain in my wrist again. I hissed through clenched teeth before shouting, "Whats the situation?"

"What's your situation?! You were supposed to fucking keep watch! A fucking donkey can do better than you!" Fatty yelled back. I noticed that he had a gun on his back, and I wondered if he had found it on one of the bodies below.

"I was led here by this black spot, I immediately explained. Do you really fucking think Im so unreliable?"

"The older you fucking get, the more you start acting like Wu Sanxing! I think your family has character problems; ones that flare up as you age! Im so goddamn pissed right now! Fuck your uncle! Youre such a fucking bastard, Mr. Nave! I'll be a two-headed bird if I'm ever stupid enough to let you keep watch in the future!"

I immediately became hungry when he said that, but the rock wall was so steep and the black spot so smooth that they couldn't climb up. There was a brief moment where Fatty was almost caught by that surging wave of things, but he quickly shot them back down.

I secretly cursed in my heart, it looks like I'm going to be stuck up here for a while. Luckily, this black spot isnt that scary when looking at it from this position.

As I took a few deep breaths to try and fight off the pain in my wrist, I heard Xiao Hua's voice come from inside the rock wall again.

I tried to look into the black spot and thought I saw a huge piece of amber for a brief momentmaybe Xiao Hua and the others were sealed insidebut it really was just a slab of stone in the end.

I knocked on it and then pressed my ear up against it to listen. I was certain that it was the message Xiao Huas satellite equipment had broadcast when we were on the grassland. Xiao Hua had originally planned to give me a set for my birthday next year (my return gift had been three hundred sheets of calligraphy) but now I didnt even know if Id live to see my next birthday.

At this time, an extreme sense of insecurity emerged in my heart as I wondered if the black spot ate corpses. Was it possible that Xiao Hua and the others were alreadydid Xiao Hua turn on the equipment when he was at deaths door? But we were inside a cave, so it should be impossible for satellite signals to transmit. What was the point of turning the equipment on?

No, no. Theyre tough. Im sure theyre fine, I said to myself. At this time, I suddenly heard Fatty call out from below, "Mr. Nave, look!"

I looked down and saw Fatty pointing to the top of the stone temple where I had originally jumped from. When I looked up at it, I saw that a huge black iron-clad cow horn sarcophagus had appeared up there at some point. It must have been pushed up from the bottom of the stone temple by a mechanism.