Mysterious Country 1: Mist-Shrouded Champa,Volume 5: Chapter 2: Black Hole Radio Waves

Sima Hui and the others listened to Yu Feiyan speak of the legend of King Anu Jaya of the Cham kingdom building the Golden Spider City. They all felt extremely surprised. What surprised them was that since Pangu opened up the universe, they had never heard of such a strange thing in the world. What was strange was how there could be so much gold in ancient times, and the cast bricks with reliefs fitted together so tightly inside that they couldn’t be pried loose. Having sunk from the mountain into the earth’s depths, they still hadn’t collapsed. Let alone over a thousand years ago, even modern people might not have this god like or ghost like casting craftsmanship.

Although everyone was secretly astonished, they had no mind to explore further. At this moment they were in an extremely evil place. Finding a path to escape the mountains was the top priority. So they only discussed a few sentences verbally. But who knew before Yu Feiyan’s words were finished, they heard strange creaking and groaning sounds from above.

At first everyone thought their eardrums had been damaged during the shock bomb explosion, causing illusions. But they immediately realized something was wrong. Tinnitus was absolutely not this kind of sound. They also detected that the sound of withered trees moving came from overhead. They raised their searchlights wanting to see clearly what abnormality was happening. But at the bottom of the abyss, affected by the environment, batteries were consumed extremely fast. The light beam shooting upward had no effect. Everywhere was pitch black. Nothing could be seen.

Everyone heard the sounds becoming increasingly dense, as if many thousand year old ancient trees were struggling to break through the soil. The sounds were noisy and piercing, making the skin on the back of their heads tingle like electricity, wave after wave of numbness.

Sima Hui remembered when the Black Snake II transport plane was attacked in the fog, this kind of sound was emitted. Wilson of the British expedition team had left information before his death, saying there was a great and terrifying lifeform existing in the dense fog. But the mist in the Savage Mountain rift valley had all been suppressed by the heavy rain. The expedition team hadn’t encountered any special situations in the underground marsh. At that time they inferred that the source of the fog was very likely produced by the vegetation that sealed the underground space. Until finally using the chemical defoliant loaded in the earthquake bomb to thoroughly destroy the spore plants, they thought they should no longer be threatened by the murderous fog. How could this sound appear again? Could fog be rising again in the depths of the rift valley?

Although Sima Hui had brief contact with the residual fog inside the cabin when he found the Mosquito special transport plane, he himself couldn’t say what was in that fog. Only one point could be asserted: anyone who entered the fog would never return.

The flare gun in Sima Hui’s backpack had already been lost. Using the searchlight and chemical signal sticks at hand, they couldn’t see distant situations. But just from hearing the sounds, they knew the coming presence was not good. It must be the murderous fog of Savage Mountain appearing again. If they climbed up from the city wall or the root veins of the underground plants, it absolutely wouldn’t be possible to return to the collapsed marsh in a short time. If they were wrapped in dense fog halfway, it would be terrible. Moreover, the appearance of the fog also indicated that the violent winds and rain brought by the tropical storm system were beginning to weaken. Before long, there would be no safe areas in the entire rift valley.

Sima Hui knew nothing about those ancient dynasties filled with mysterious religious colors. Even the names of King Anu Jaya and the Golden Spider City were things he heard for the first time. Those were places beyond everyone’s knowledge. There was simply no way to speculate about their true appearances. Moreover, the current situation was critical. They had to first find a way to escape.

Luo Big Tongue became anxious. He complained: “This year has been inauspicious from the start. From the beginning of spring, the spring offensive failed. Next came big battles big defeats, small battles small defeats, battles without defeats. The few of us barely saved our lives, escaping to this Savage Mountain like dogs panting and rabbits crawling. But the result is again big misfortunes big falls, small misfortunes small falls, misfortunes without falls. How come all the bad luck in this world has been encountered by us?”

Sima Hui thought Luo Big Sea’s heart was going weak. He said: “Luo Big Tongue, rest assured. The characters for ‘good fortune’ are carved on your buttocks. Even if everyone dies, you won’t die.”

Luo Big Tongue hurriedly argued: “I was also someone with a troop back then. What am I afraid of?”

He paused, then said, “But putting it that way, as the saying goes: ‘Great rises and great falls are ordinary matters, being able to bend and stretch makes a true hero.’ In this situation where the circumstances are extremely unfavorable, if we don’t run, are we staying here waiting to be struck by lightning?”

A Cui suggested: “We should escape, but this Savage Mountain rift valley is truly too deep. Going down is easy, going up is hard. Once the underground dense fog appears, this place will become a ‘chimney.’ There are no paths around. I think hitting a snake requires hitting its seven inch mark. Only by first finding the source that produces the fog and thoroughly destroying it can we ensure safety.”

Sima Hui shook his head and said, this vast fog seemed able to swallow everything. It was not like the Cambodian man eating leeches that had substance and form. Moreover, they had already lost the initiative. The situation was extremely passive. As the fog appeared, their range of movement would become increasingly smaller. Only starting to pierce ears when approaching the bridal sedan was definitely too late.

Yu Feiyan saw they were trapped in a desperate situation, yet Sima Hui and the others still appeared calm and composed, their thoughts clear. She thought, “These guys are truly fugitives. It seems the resilience tempered in the war environment of flying blood and fire is indeed not comparable to ordinary people. I also shouldn’t show a panicked appearance, lest they look down on me.”

Thinking to this point, she said: “Limited by the underground darkness blocking vision, there is truly no way. But to try to avoid the dense fog above, we should abandon the idea of returning from high places. Instead, first explore the surrounding situation, searching for a path to escape at the very bottom of the rift valley.”

Sima Hui knew Yu Feiyan was a tomb robbing bandit. People of her kind were most skilled at burrowing through mountains and drilling through earth. Because doing this trade, one must have “eyes.” It was said that “Dao eyes are superior, Dharma eyes are secondary.” So called “Dao eyes” could directly observe the forms of mountains and rivers through the skill of vision. While “Dharma eyes” required using celestial stars, river maps, purple star divination, and other methods to judge the auspiciousness or inauspiciousness of geography. Sometimes inside underground caves, they could display their strengths even better than in deep mountains and dense forests. But this northern Myanmar region was mostly where earth veins tangled together. Even if the Golden Dot founding master of that time were alive, coming to Savage Mountain and looking around would also be confused. The so called fierce mountains and evil waters, chaotic forms without pattern, had no rules to follow. The local custom was that after people died, they couldn’t be directly buried. Instead, they had to first expose the corpse for several months, waiting until the flesh and skin completely rotted away, leaving only dry bones, before putting them in jars and burying them underground. This was to prevent the dead from connecting with earth qi and becoming zombies. So Yu Feiyan’s skills might not be able to be displayed in the Savage Mountain rift valley. But limited by the situation, the plan she just proposed was also the only wise choice under desperate circumstances.

So everyone adjusted their action plan. They would first approach the rock wall on the inner side of the rift valley. They judged the approximate direction, inferring that their current position was closest to the southern end of the cave. They turned around from the Golden Spider City and headed back, groping their way south in the dark. Although the structure of the deepest part of the Savage Mountain giant rift valley was not complex, those spore plants were all extraordinarily large. At high places they formed vegetation approximating a cocoon. If viewed from a cross section, it might be an H shaped structure. The part growing horizontally in the middle was the “cocoon.” On both sides were roots deeply planted inside the mountain body, hanging into the earth’s depths, covering the entire ancient city cast with the four million pagoda reliefs. They were connected as one body. Moving one hair would affect the whole body. So after the earthquake bomb exploded, the chemical defoliant destroyed the mushroom rock shaped cocoon, thereby causing large areas of plants in the rift valley to rapidly die. Now this decayed and dark primeval forest, intertwined with withered plant root veins, and when the marsh collapsed, large amounts of mud and accumulated water poured into the earth’s depths. So everywhere were obstacles, making it difficult to move quickly.

Those thousand year old ancient trees were all coiling root and intertwining branch candle shaped old trees with extraordinarily thick canopies. Layer upon layer, they covered the water surface. The remains of lifeless vine plants, like black pythons, hung down into the mud and accumulated water, forming countless heavy curtains. Everything looked strange. Although it was still dark green and deep, in reality it had completely decayed. Not the slightest trace of life could be felt. The atmosphere was quiet yet oppressive.

In such a harsh environment, everyone barely traveled a stretch. In the darkness they stepped deep and shallow, not knowing the distance. They only used the compass to identify direction. Just as their hearts were uneasy and uncertain, the yin and rotten atmosphere accumulated in the marsh also gradually diffused in the underground. Moreover, the humidity here was extremely high. Thin mist drifted between the withered trees. The fog was also rain, the rain was also fog. It burrowed into the nose, choking until the brain hurt. The gas masks carried by the expedition team had all been lost long ago. Fortunately, the Burmese Communist People’s Army issued a scarf woven from shrub bark. The cloth was cool and flexible, able to avoid miasma and pestilence. In local dialect it was called a water cloth. According to different methods of use, it could have many auxiliary uses. It was an essential item for marching and fighting in the jungle. Normally it was tied around the neck. When entering the jungle, it was tied around the neck to prevent mosquitoes from burrowing into clothes. Naturally it came in useful at this moment. Sima Hui and the other two both took them out to cover their mouths and noses.

Yu Feiyan also wanted to follow suit, but she didn’t have a water cloth nearby. She could only find a scarf to cover her face. But she still found it hard to endure. She frowned and looked at the dial on her wrist. The accurate reading of the air meter showed: carbon monoxide content at 0.5, methane concentration below 1 percent. Only then did she slightly relax. But she immediately discovered the index was fluctuating high and low, having malfunctioned at some unknown time.

Yu Feiyan hurriedly looked at the compass again and discovered the same situation. Legend said there was a great magnetic mountain underground, so all floating iron in the world would naturally point south. In ancient times, the Yellow Emperor relied on this principle to create the south pointing chariot, thereby defeating Chiyou in dense fog. The expedition team used a north pointing compass. Its needle pointed to “North” or “N” for magnetic north direction. There was an error angle with true north direction. One could calculate the numerical difference of magnetic declination for more accurate orientation. But in this Savage Mountain rift valley, there seemed to exist some kind of strong magnetic field. The compass must have been interfered with, causing it to lose function. She stopped walking and said to everyone: “This underground rift valley is pitch black, and the fog is getting heavier. If the needle is lost and the rudder is lost, without reference objects for guidance, we would truly become blind people with open eyes.”

The radio station Yu Feiyan carried had never been lost. To determine whether magnetic interference existed, she had A Cui open the tactical radio. They only heard in a burst of crackling buzzing noise, there were actually intermittent human voices. The sound was extremely fuzzy, and they couldn’t hear what was being said. A Cui was startled, nearly throwing the walkie talkie on the ground: “Ghosts are haunting, how can we receive radio wave communication here?”

Everyone looked at each other in horror, all unconsciously going on guard. A Cui steadied her mind, searching and adjusting frequencies again. The sound in the radio gradually became clearer. She listened for a while and said in a low voice: “What the other party seems to be saying is a coordinate position!”

Apart from her family inherited medical skills, she also had extraordinary language talent. Shortly after arriving in Myanmar, she was transferred to the special duty company of the Burmese Communist Northeast Military Region, receiving specialized cipher training. She was familiar with all kinds of AM, FM radio semiconductor transceivers. She also knew how to read military maps. This kind of simple coordinate was naturally no problem. She hurriedly memorized it secretly. Then she heard from that tactical radio station, faintly coming a segment of speech: “I am… inside the snake…”

It could be confirmed as plain code calling, and was being repeated and sent over and over.

Sima Hui nodded to A Cui, signaling her to respond and ask the other party’s identity. A Cui did as instructed. But that segment of radio wave immediately fell into silence. Then it replied with a segment of incomprehensible fresh code: “A… A… D.”

Translation Notes:

South pointing chariot (指南车): An ancient Chinese mechanical device invented by the Yellow Emperor, using differential gears to maintain a fixed directional pointer regardless of the vehicle’s movement, used to navigate through fog and defeat the rebel Chiyou.

Chiyou (蚩尤): A mythical warrior and rebel in Chinese mythology, often associated with fog and war. The Yellow Emperor used the south pointing chariot to defeat him when he created thick fog on the battlefield.