Mysterious Country 1: Mist-Shrouded Champa,Volume 4: Chapter 7: The Cocoon

The heavy earthquake bomb loaded in the Mosquito special transport plane finally exploded. The energy formed by the expansion of high pressure gas truly shook heaven and moved earth, overturned seas and rivers. The thunderous sound resounded through the abyss like rift valley. The violent air currents and shock waves transmitted from the explosion’s epicenter were like a storm, swiftly sweeping across and covering the underground marsh.

Sima Hui, Luo Big Sea, Yu Feiyan, and A Cui, the four survivors who had narrowly escaped death, had not fled far when they were already caught in it. Because the explosion occurred too fast, swift as thunder with no time to cover one’s ears, where was there time to find a place to hide? Their bodies were as if suddenly struck by an extremely thick cement wall moving at high speed. Like kites with cut strings, they were all violently thrown into the mud.

Before Sima Hui’s eyes, now red, now black, his ears were deafened by the blast, buzzing incessantly. His brain was left with only a haze, and he immediately lost all consciousness.

He didn’t know how much time passed. Bone chilling cold rain beat against his face. Sima Hui gradually woke. He only felt his head splitting with pain, his vision dim and dark. Not the slightest bit of light was visible. In his heart he still vaguely remembered that the shock bomb had exploded. Thinking about that British made earthquake bomb, although it belonged to the category of conventional weapons, not comparable to a nuclear bomb, it truly possessed mountain leveling and sea draining destructive power.

Sima Hui had once heard Myanmar locals say that during the counterattack on Myanmar, the fighting was extremely fierce. As long as it was daytime, you could look up and see Allied planes in the sky, flock after flock, like swallows. The bombs they dropped were bigger than houses. One bomb and a whole mountain peak would be gone. This type of earthquake bomb had a massive body and was extremely heavy. If it was “Grand Slam” level, it generally had to be deployed by Lancaster heavy bombers. Its streamlined body, when falling from the air, would generate high speed rotation. After landing it could drill through thick underground fortifications, forming devastating crushing attacks on strategic targets.

But looking at the entire history of World War II, the British Royal Air Force dropped fewer than a hundred Grand Slam bombs, and the vast majority were used on the European theater. When fighting the Japanese in Myanmar, the shock bombs used by the British, though slightly smaller in volume, contained even more advanced high explosives inside their bodies. Compared to the Grand Slam, they were similarly astonishingly powerful, and one could even say they exceeded it.

The earthquake bomb at the bottom of the Savage Mountain rift valley was loaded inside the cabin of a Mosquito special transport plane. It had not been dropped from high altitude to generate high speed impact force. Once detonated on the spot, although it wouldn’t explode too deep, it could still form a crater with a diameter approaching a hundred meters. And the coverage range of the destructive kinetic shock waves would be even broader. The environment in this underground marsh was harsh. Relying only on two legs, how fast could one run? So Sima Hui was certain that his group of people, in the limited time available, fundamentally had no time to escape to a safe area. He thought they were certainly doomed. At this moment, he was slightly more clear headed, his mind wandering. He felt he had probably been blown to pieces. But suddenly his throat felt sweet. He vomited a mouthful of black blood. Then his four limbs and hundred bones ached together. Only then did he realize he was actually still alive.

Sima Hui had twice experienced being between life and death, yet he felt not the slightest bit of relief. Instead he felt deeply puzzled. Even if one had tremendous fortune and great destiny, one was after all made of flesh and blood. Even if not blown to pieces on the spot, one would probably have one’s internal organs shattered by the shock waves and die. How could he still be alive now?

The various strange phenomena occurring in the Savage Mountain rift valley were mostly difficult to explain. Sima Hui had been shaken by the explosion shock waves until his blood and qi churned. His left ear was deaf, his right ear muffled. Cold wind blew at the back of his neck. His sight and hearing were completely ruined. It seemed only his soul had not yet left its shell. He lay on the ground, puzzled beyond solution. He didn’t know whether the other three partners were alive or dead. His heart was both despairing and anxious, yet he was painfully unable to move.

Sima Hui was alternately clear and hazy. In this intermittent manner, he spent a long time in the darkness. The churning tide of blood and qi in his chest gradually calmed. His hands and feet could move freely. He took a deep breath, struggling to climb up from the mud and chaotic grass. Fortunately, when he had fled for his life from inside the Mosquito transport plane earlier, the backpack filled with illumination equipment had not been lost. He felt out a signal candle and struck it alight. He saw Luo Big Sea and the others lying in the sawtooth grass not far from him. They too had been knocked unconscious by the explosion. Their ears, noses, and throats had some congested blood, but they hadn’t suffered any external injuries.

Sima Hui went forward and shook the three awake one by one. After surviving the disaster, their bodies and faces were covered with both blood and mud. They each examined their wounds. Their internal organs seemed to have no serious damage. But they were still hard pressed to calm their terror. Their eardrums had all been shaken. Only after a long while could they hear some sounds.

A Cui’s injury at the back of her head was relatively severe. After changing the bandage, blood still continuously seeped out. But she was worried about Karaweik’s whereabouts and urgently asked Sima Hui what had happened.

Sima Hui didn’t conceal anything. He briefly narrated the entire course of events. Karaweik and that Russian White Bear’s corpses, one with body and head separated, the other long since blown to pieces. After the shock bomb exploded, there was nowhere to collect the remains.

A Cui and Luo Big Sea, hearing the bad news, both showed dark expressions, speechless for a long while. Yu Feiyan was also silently dejected. Whether active or passive, they had now followed Green Tomb’s instructions and detonated the earthquake bomb. Sima Hui and his two companions had long planned to cross the border and return to their country. Naturally they would have no further involvement with the expedition team. But Savage Mountain was incomparably vicious. The tropical storm system “Pagoda” had not yet subsided. Now, if they wanted to escape alive from this fire pit, they still had to rely on each other.

The four were utterly exhausted at this moment. Although they clearly knew the underground marsh was fraught with dangers on all sides, they were unable to withdraw quickly. They could only pick a relatively dry spot nearby to temporarily rest and recover.

Yu Feiyan tried her utmost to calm her panicked mind. She looked around and increasingly felt uneasy. From personally seeing the cargo in the Mosquito special transport plane, to the appearance of Green Tomb secretly observing the expedition team’s movements, to finally detonating the heavy bomb, everything had happened too fast, leaving no time for thought. Now thinking carefully, there were truly too many strange aspects in this entire matter.

She had thought Green Tomb wanted to use the earthquake bomb to destroy the earth veins within the Savage Mountain rift valley and suppress the dense fog. But this subterranean cave interior was vast and magnificent. Relying on just one old model heavy bomb, it fundamentally couldn’t play a decisive role. And the four survivors who remained had not escaped the coverage range of the explosion shock waves. Why could they still preserve their lives? Additionally, the underground marsh contained numerous crocodiles and pythons. Just now the four had been unconscious for a long time. How had they not suffered any attacks?

Just as Yu Feiyan was puzzled beyond comprehension, Sima Hui suddenly made a discovery. He faintly smelled in the dark and damp underground air a peculiar odor, somewhat like camphor, somewhat like some chemical liquid undergoing a violent reaction. Looking at the lush sawtooth grass beside him, it had actually all withered and died without anyone noticing.

Sima Hui also felt a faint burning sensation on his skin. His heart was suddenly struck with alarm. He told Yu Feiyan: “You don’t need to guess randomly. The reason we weren’t blown to pieces by this shock bomb is absolutely not some miracle. The cargo in the Mosquito special transport plane was long ago modified by someone. It was very likely a liquid nuclear bomb.”

Yu Feiyan had never heard the four words “liquid nuclear bomb.” She thought this was Sima Hui being sensationalistic again. She frowned and said: “What time is it now, and you still have the mind to talk nonsense. How could there be an atomic bomb in Savage Mountain?”

Luo Big Sea and A Cui, back then, were both comrades who had gone south to Myanmar with Sima Hui. They were very clear about the terror of liquid nuclear weapons. Hearing this, they couldn’t help but say in shock: “Liquid nuclear weapons? You mean this earthquake bomb contained ‘chemical defoliant’?”

It turned out that several years ago, Sima Hui and the others had followed Xia Tiedong to Vietnam to participate in the war. They traveled all the way south, arriving in North Vietnam. Because air raids were continuous at that time, they had to take small paths. Along the way, they often saw many bare mountain ridges, with not an inch of grass growing on the surface. Large swathes of vegetation had all withered and died. None of them had ever seen such strange phenomena before. They all felt uneasy in their hearts.

Among their group, Xia Tiedong had the most abundant military knowledge. He told everyone that the Vietnamese mountains were deep and the forests dense. Most areas were covered with tropical evergreen forests and subtropical deciduous forests. The plants provided a natural barrier for ground troop movements. To make hidden North Vietnamese military targets nowhere to hide and to cut off the secret supply lines of the Ho Chi Minh Trail, the American Air Force sent planes to drop large quantities of chemical defoliants made from industrial synthetic toxins in the rear areas of the Vietnamese army and in strategic depth zones.

This chemical weapon could cause all plants to wither and die in just one night. Any plant on Earth, once it contacted defoliant, no matter the species, could hardly escape. Chemical defoliants were specifically used to destroy natural plants and ecological balance. In places like Vietnam, the populace suffered deeply from them. They often called it the liquid atomic bomb, notorious throughout history.

At that time, Sima Hui and the others had their first experience of the cruelty and terror of modern warfare. Later, when they arrived in Myanmar, they also heard that this chemical weapon was originally invented by the German Nazis. Later, the American and British Allies also developed it, and secretly developed a batch of defoliant bombs for use against the Japanese in the Pacific theater. But the chemical toxins in defoliants could not only kill plants but could also kill humans. However, the victims showed no abnormalities at the time. Only years later would lesions develop. The direct and indirect harms were infinite and endless. Plus, at that time, the Japanese defeat was already a foregone conclusion. So it was not used on a large scale.

Sima Hui noticed that after the earthquake bomb exploded, the plants in the marsh wetland began showing abnormalities. The nearby crocodiles and grass lizards had all fled. Only then did he suddenly remember the chemical defoliant he had heard of but never seen. The earthquake bomb in the Mosquito special transport plane was almost certainly modified. Its body contained large quantities of chemically synthesized highly toxic substances. Its purpose was not to destroy the earth veins within the Savage Mountain giant rift valley, but to thoroughly destroy the plants at the bottom of this cave.

Yu Feiyan was also a person with a sharp and clear mind. Hearing Sima Hui point out the secret of the earthquake bomb, her heart immediately skipped a beat. The Savage Mountain giant rift valley was sealed from sunlight all year round, yet its bottom was covered with dense vegetation. Thinking about it, this was absolutely not ordinary underground plant life. Additionally, large quantities of mist surged from underground. These were probably all connected. The earthquake bomb in the Mosquito special transport plane must contain some extremely special chemical defoliant that could specifically destroy these subterranean plants. So Green Tomb had repeatedly sent people risking their lives to penetrate deep into the rift valley to detonate this bomb. But what meaning did such actions have?

Sima Hui, Luo Big Sea, and A Cui, these three people, had long since stopped caring about their own life and death. After discovering the chemical defoliant in the earthquake bomb, at first they inevitably felt some panic. But thinking carefully, they felt it didn’t matter. Although chemical weapons left infinite disasters behind, if one was at the explosion site, even with a gas mask, without wearing special chemical protection suits, one would probably still be unable to guarantee complete safety. But it wouldn’t take effect immediately. The incubation period might be three to five years, or seven to eight years, or even longer. No one could say clearly. At this moment, Karaweik was already dead. Everyone’s hearts were depressed. They no longer wanted to have any involvement with the matters of Savage Mountain. They only waited for the violent winds and rain to subside, then would seek a path to leave.

A Cui saw Yu Feiyan appeared distracted and thought she was afraid of the aftereffects from the chemical defoliant. She said to her: “This kind of thing is indeed difficult for people to accept. None of us are feeling good. But since it has already happened, thinking too much is useless.”

Luo Big Sea was in a foul mood. Seeing Yu Feiyan’s frowning appearance, he said with schadenfreude: “Encountering this kind of misfortune, for you it’s like going to hell, but for us it’s everyday fare.”

A Cui pushed Luo Big Tongue aside and consoled Yu Feiyan again: “Since the expedition team entered the mountains, the journey has been filled with deaths and injuries. Escaping heaven’s net, only to enter earth’s trap. The viciousness in this Savage Mountain is infinite and endless. I’m afraid it’s a bottomless pit that traps people. Turn your head and there’s no sentiment, turn back and there’s a plan. Come escape the mountains with us.”

Actually, when Yu Feiyan’s subordinates like Drill Mountain Jia encountered accidents, she had also considered withdrawing and stopping. But this was like the mentality in gambling. Since she had already sunk in a lot of capital, if she gave up halfway, wouldn’t it be a total loss? In the end, she could only sink deeper and deeper, losing more and more. By the time she truly wanted to stand aside, it was already too late.

Now hearing A Cui’s words, it was like a bucket of cold water poured over her head, bringing sudden clarity. She thought, that’s right. After the earthquake bomb exploded, who knew what kind of disasters would occur in Savage Mountain. She was about to agree, then together with the three survivors of the guerrilla team, find a way to escape Savage Mountain.

But who knew that at this moment, the ground beneath their feet suddenly collapsed. The group was caught off guard. They all thought it was the earthquake waves from the explosion that had not yet subsided. They hurriedly struggled to stand up, retreating backward one after another. When they stepped on solid ground, they used the searchlight to shine around. They saw the entire marsh before them was silently and rapidly sinking downward. Although the searchlight’s range was difficult to reach far, they estimated that this ground subsidence was spreading outward from the explosion’s epicenter.

In the subsiding area, first bubbles continuously emerged from the water surface. Then a whirlpool appeared. The mud and accumulated water in the wetland were almost without pause sucked into it. Finally, it revealed an abyss. Looking down, it was pitch black and bottomless. It turned out that beneath the marsh in the Savage Mountain giant rift valley, there existed an even more unfathomably deep region.

Yu Feiyan saw this matter coming so strangely. She couldn’t help but recall that previously, when she saw the stratum at the bottom of the Savage Mountain rift valley, it was all liver colored rock forming material, appearing quite extraordinary. At that time, the Russian White Bear had pointed out that this material was stored between the earth’s crust and mantle, only appearing in caves with vertical depths reaching ten thousand meters. But the depth of the Savage Mountain rift valley should be around two thousand meters. It was fundamentally impossible to contact the Mohorovičić interface.

Now looking at it, the facts were not so. That Russian had mostly been mistaken. The special substance beneath the marsh should be some kind of spore plant living underground. It had formed a thick “cocoon” at the bottom of the rift valley. Over years and years, deep mud marsh had accumulated on the cocoon. At this moment, this cocoon had been destroyed by the chemical defoliant in the earthquake bomb and was rapidly withering and dying.

Everyone sucked in a breath of cold air. If the entire bottom of the rift valley was like this, it was truly impossible to imagine how enormous this umbrella shaped spore plant could grow. They saw that the bottomless abyss originally sealed by the cocoon for millions of years was suddenly torn open. What appeared before everyone was like a tunnel leading to the center of the earth. It was gorgeous and strange, vast and mysterious, extending infinitely and endlessly toward the depths of the earth. It gave people a gloomy and terrifying feeling. Because it was filled with unknown darkness, a darkness that human eyes and hearts could never penetrate. And the end point of the darkness was even more unknown within the unknown.

Translation Notes:

Drill Mountain Jia (钻山甲): A nickname for one of Yu Feiyan’s subordinates, using the pangolin (an animal that drills through mountains) as a metaphor for a skilled mountain operative.

Liquid atomic bomb (液体原子弹): The Vietnamese civilian term for chemical defoliant, emphasizing its devastating ecological impact by comparing it to nuclear weapons.

Ho Chi Minh Trail (胡志明小道): The supply route used by North Vietnam to transport personnel and supplies through Laos and Cambodia to South Vietnam during the Vietnam War.