bad seeds - Chapter 8
"Na Duo, why are you standing still? You..."
She could only finish her sentence before she was completely speechless. When she found herself in this "cave of the gods," she was immediately stunned by what she saw.
The cave is not large, but its four walls are polished to an exceptionally smooth finish, extending upwards to form a dome.
Most of the space inside the cave is occupied by a large, oval-shaped object with a mottled surface. It is not a regular ellipse; the rear half is larger than the front half and clings to the cave wall, while its lower half is still buried in the sand.
It appeared to be metallic, yet emitted a soft, pale blue light that illuminated the entire cave. In front of it, on all four sides, were metal cables, each about the thickness of a bowl, inserted into the rock walls. I thought of the "sea urchin-shaped" objects carved on the walls of the Krug Lake ruins—this was precisely the "Temple of the Six Gods" before me. Ye Tong couldn't help but step forward and touch the mottled dents on its surface. Compared to it, the design of the still-planned National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing could only be considered a clumsy imitation.
"A miracle!" Ye Tong seemed completely mesmerized by it.
I began to understand why Ye Tong's ancestors possessed technology that was ahead of its time.
“Visitors from outer space!” I exclaimed. “This is the true face of you ‘Six Glorious Gods of Demilch’.”
However, the "mission to vanquish demons" that has been passed down for thousands of years remains a mystery—if the "Six Great Gods" really exist, then what kind of terrifying thing would the "demon" be?
At that moment, my mind became a battlefield where fear and curiosity clashed. For thousands of years, no warrior who had "slain the demon" had ever returned, and the secrets of the "Holy Chamber" remained buried deep underground, unknown to anyone. Although Ye Tong and I had both experienced some unusual things, I had no confidence whatsoever that we could return alive. Yet, I was unwilling to give up on this great secret concerning extraterrestrials.
Suddenly, a circular gap appeared in the very center of the "temple," and the pale blue light began to dim and flicker before finally going out completely, leaving only the dim yellow light from the two flashlights in my and Ye Tong's hands in the cave.
"Ye Tong, how are you?" I ran towards the direction of the flashlight beam.
"I'm fine."
"What happened? What did you do?"
"Do you remember the spider on the third sheepskin?" Ye Tong shone his flashlight on the "temple," revealing a picture of a fat spider bathed in the beam of light.
Strangely, the spider had five legs on its right side. Ye Tong compared them with his hand, and the five legs and the fat spider's body were exactly the shape of a human hand.
“I just put my hand here,” she said.
The recessed circular hole next to it appears to be the entrance to the "sanctuary".
Ye Tong and I exchanged a glance. She grabbed my wrist, and we entered the "Holy Chamber" together.
The “sanctuary” was spacious and empty. We looked around by the light of our flashlights. The entire circular space was divided by a transparent, glass-like material, and the sections were not connected. Looking through the glass, each chamber had its own entrance. It seemed that descending from the entrances on the other five hills would lead to the corresponding five chambers.
The main chamber, which is the "sacred chamber" we entered, was empty except for a square pillar in the center of the chamber. Upon closer inspection, there was a spider-shaped pattern in the center of the pillar.
Ye Tong suddenly put her hand on my shoulder and said, "Na Duo, I feel a little dizzy."
At the same time, I also felt that, without realizing it, my breathing began to become rapid.
Oxygen deficiency!
I immediately pulled Ye Tong out of the "temple," as the outside wasn't much better than the inside.
"There's not enough oxygen here, we need to get out of here quickly."
When we finally climbed the steep path with all our might, we found that the small hill pressing down on us couldn't be opened at all.
"Come here! Come here!..." Ye Tong's cries were becoming hysterical.
I grabbed her shoulders and shook her violently:
"Calm down! Ye Tong, calm down! Control your breathing!"
Ye Tong finally quieted down, and after a long while, she said with a hint of resentment:
"What 'demon-slaying'? It's all a lie. We're going to die here, so what?"
"No, it won't happen," I said firmly.
The threat of death actually calmed me down.
This road is blocked; we must find another way out.
I immediately grabbed Ye Tong and slid down the tunnel as fast as I could.
The cave was all sandy, and Ye Tong and I only hurt our bottoms from the fall. I immediately jumped up and rushed into the "sacred chamber" without even having time to brush off the dust.
“Do you remember where we took shelter?” I shone my flashlight on the second cell from the left. “All five cells connect to the top. If we can break this glass, we can.”
I kicked the "glass," and a huge, crisp echo reverberated throughout the entire "sanctuary." Ye Tong covered her ears, while I kept kicking the deadly "glass," but it didn't budge.
A few minutes later, I sat down on the ground, panting, and said dejectedly, "No, we're all wearing rubber-soled sneakers."
Ye Tong seemed to snap out of a daze, took a small all-steel shovel from her backpack, handed it to me, and said:
"Try this."
I took three steps back, got into position, and threw the shovel at the "glass" with all my might.
A crack finally appeared on the "glass".
Joy spread across our faces. Ye Tong ignored the deafening echo and kicked the "glass" separating the two compartments with all her might. The cracks gradually spread, and finally, a few seconds later, with a very penetrating sound, a large hole appeared in the "glass".
A dozen minutes later, we were back on the ground.
It was completely dark, with a bright moon in the sky and countless stars.
Ye Tong and I faced the dry and swift wind of the Gobi Desert, breathing greedily. At that moment, life became incredibly wonderful within us.
When I came to my senses, I realized that the seemingly "glass" outer shell should have been strong enough to support the spaceship's space travel and even pass through Earth's atmosphere. The fact that we could smash it open with a steel shovel was astounding. Even though the spaceship had been buried underground for thousands of years and its outer shell might have been corroded, the potential that humans unleash in a crisis is truly immense. Looking at the steel shovel in my hand, I saw that the blade was bent beyond recognition.
That night, Ye Tong and I returned to Delingha. Along the way, our joy at escaping death gradually turned into frustration.