“I wrote about aliens robbing graves from our planet.” Ling Yun said, “I’m already at eight hundred thousand words, and there’s quite a bit of following actually.”
“Hah, so that was written by you.” Another researcher said, “when I first read it, I thought the author had such a wild imagination, I’ve only heard of relics being sold overseas, yours is inter-planet, goodness.”
“Young chap, you better not be thinking of going down this route, it’s illegal to sell national relics! Much less sell it to another planet.” One of the soldiers remarked jokingly.
Xuan Mo on the other hand was unhappy about this. Why would aliens rob blue planet graves? Their culture was completely different, people from the galaxy won’t find it appealing to collect their cultural relics either, why would they steal it? Even if they were to sell it within the blue planet, they would be getting blue planet currency in exchange, not galactic currency, unless they intended to spend the rest of their lives in blue planet?
“Are you guys still gonna listen?” Zhao Jing Lei was riled up.
“Continue continue!” The rest of them encouraged him.
“According to the entry in 1988, there was an exploration team sent into this cave. It had been an archeological study in the beginning; this cave was first dug out by our ancestors. The people in the past were generally much more superstitious, but it’s not completely impossible for them to dig up a cave filled with corpses. Even though it was venue where an ancient battle took place, the actual place of the battle that had occurred was really too deep down, and held no particular significance. Though there were many speculations about this ancient battle place, it didn’t elicit widespread attention.”
“Until this stone appeared. From our auction reports from overseas, we traced the evidence all the way back into our country, and dug out this organisation… they told us they found it in this cave.”
“And so we sent a team over. Unfortunately…” Zhao Jing Lei gave a bitter smile. “There were sixteen of them. No one made it back.”
“Ah!?” Ling Yun gave a low gasp, “I didn’t know this?! They had one more in the first team compared to us, if that’s the case then isn’t this an incredibly dangerous place, why are you… Xuan Mo, did you know this?”
“Yes.” This was indicated on the document, but she knew about this long before that.
“Ah! All of y’all know this!”
Everyone’s headlights gathered on him. Beneath the lights were the pitying expression from the other team mates, indicative of the fact that everyone knew this before them came along. After which, the lights gathered on Xuan Mo as the masses expressed their disdain, about how she didn’t dare to tell this poor guy and scammed him into joining this mission.
Ling Yun was speechless, and so he could only rub his nose helplessly while mumbling to himself.
The bunch of them became silent again.
Zhao Jing Lei asked: “D’you still want to listen to what happened next? Enough though most of you would already know…”
“Go on, we gotta lighten the atmosphere.”
“Even though none of the sixteen returned, we still managed to find out some basic information about this place. Unfortunately, we don’t know why or how they disappeared… we’re here this time to search for clues. Don’t get all rough, it won’t work in our favour.” Zhao Jing Lei added, “the first sixteen were armed, they probably slammed their way through with firepower, and maybe they disturbed something inside here.”
The last sentence successfully dampened the mood that had previosuly finally been warming up.
“How many routes are there here?” Xuan Mo suddenly asked.
“Huashan Mountain route, only one.” Zhao Jing Lei’s pearly whites glinted.
“Enh, very good.” Xuan Mo and Ai Er Ge exchanged a look, expressing their helplessness with the situation. There were two routes but three forces. Force A was faster than them, B was around their pace, and C was behind A.
“Let’s hurry up.” Xuan Mo’s voice was very sudden.
Everyone paused for a moment before they sped up. The route ahead became more and more narrow. The members in the team had to bend down and walk with their backs hunched in order to keep going. The pitch black cave seemed to have sucked away all forms of light. When their headlights shone forward, it seemed to shine into nothing, save for an abyss of endless, clawing darkness.
The members in the team weren’t afraid of the dark. As they continued, slowing footsteps and heavy pants could be heard. Half an hour after, the two researchers couldn’t take it and called for a break.
Zhao Jing Lei was hesitant: “Yi Fei, you know, the space will widen up ahead, it’s very narrow here, you can’t stand or sit properly…”
“I know it’s much more spacious in front, but I really can’t stand the surrounding, lemme take a break while I’m still in a good mood, so that I won’t faint later on if I accidentally see something disgusting…”
“What’s in front?” Someone asked.
“The picture was very blurry, but if we didn’t guess wrongly, it should be a mass burial.”
Silence shrouded the group of people. Everyone was imagining a pile of bones. The more they thought about it, the worse everyone’s mood got.
“Make sure to take deep breaths, we’re several dozen metres underground, make sure you get enough oxygen.” Even though he was almost half-dead, Zhao Jing Lei didn’t forget to remind everyone.
“Are you done resting.” Xuan Mo was a little annoyed, “is this a learning journey for y’all?”
“Alright, let’s get going.” Yi Fei was anxious as well. Even the weaker researchers were ready to keep moving, the rest got up and decided to continue on as well.
Xuan Mo took the lead this time. While the headlight she had on was bright, she didn’t need the light to keep walking. Day and night was pretty similar at the Scorpio Planet she was from; the brightest time of the day was limited to the three times when a comet zipped past their skies every day, leaving a trail of light in its wake. That brightness was enough to blind many creatures, but Scorpions would only find the light slightly uncomfortable. In summary, she hailed from a place with rather treacherous living conditions, so the darkness in the cave was really nothing much to her.
“Xuan Mo, slow down, be careful of the ground!” Someone cautioned her.
When the headlights swept past the insides, one could already start to make out the bones stuck within the walls of the caves. Some were yellowing, some were blackening, some were missing many chinks, some were broken off completely… as they made their way in, the sighting of such bones increased in frequency and density. Even the most courageous member among the team was getting more and more tense at the sight.
Suddenly, Xuan Mo stopped and said lowly: “We’re here.”
The people behind her stopped, before Zhao Jing Lei carefully pushed his way through the bunch of people. When his headlights shone ahead, he inhaled sharply…
Everyone held their breath as they waited carefully. They thought they’d see their captain screaming at the bones-filled cave, but they were instead greeted with a low question: “I can’t see anything…”
“Look at the two sides.”
Comments