Mysterious Country 1: Mist-Shrouded Champa,Volume 5: Chapter 4: A Once in a Thousand Years Moment

Luo Big Sea scratched his head and said: “Strange. The light just now appeared near here. Could there still be survivors? But there’s not even a ghost shadow around. Where did these American ten wheelers drive in from?”

Sima Hui said: “Don’t fucking worry about that so much. First check if there’s food in the trucks. If there are canned goods, maybe they haven’t spoiled yet. Take everything we can carry.”

While the two were speaking, they had already climbed up one of the trucks hand over foot. Lifting the canvas, they discovered there was no food inside at all. Only two mortars with mounts and chassis. The rest were ammunition boxes, plus a small number of anti personnel mines and incendiary bombs.

For many years in the northern Myanmar region, warfare had been continuous. Weapons and ammunition of different models and origins were almost everywhere, visible everywhere. For example, people living in remote mountain areas might never have seen ordinary daily necessities like soap and toothpaste in their entire lives. But if you asked about various landmines, what anti personnel, what tank destroying, American made, Japanese made, they could all explain them to you in orderly detail.

Yu Feiyan was not familiar with these antiquated weapons. She saw the mortar barrel was frighteningly thick. She had never seen it before. So she asked Sima Hui and the others: “What kind of cannon is this?”

Sima Hui saw the landmines in the truck. He immediately remembered his comrades whose legs had been blown off. Suddenly hearing Yu Feiyan ask, he answered absentmindedly: “This is the old American 107mm chemical mortar. It can fire high explosive shells, smoke shells, white phosphorus shells. Especially that white phosphorus incendiary shell. Once it burns, it’s a large area. When it catches fire, it crackles with sound. Once I nearly got burned to death by this thing.”

After speaking, he jumped down from the truck. He crawled into the driver’s compartment through the broken window in front. Inside was covered with dust and cobwebs. There was nothing at all. Not even an extra scrap of paper.

Everyone successively examined several military transport trucks. None could be started. Looking at the scattered supplies inside, they were mostly similar. Mostly military supplies. But there were no guns. They also didn’t discover any driver’s bones scattered nearby. It was as if the entire convoy had dropped from the sky out of thin air.

The four looked at each other. The same thought emerged simultaneously in their minds: “Is this the endpoint of Ghost Highway 206 Tunnel?”

The American Sixth Independent Engineering Combat Regiment, using the tunnel ruins left from the first Anglo Burmese War, when they built Ghost Highway B line near the Savage Mountain great rift valley, dense fog surged from the collapsed tunnel, causing many personnel to go missing. Therefore they were forced to abandon it. When retreating, they also blew up the tunnel. How could a transport convoy have entered the deepest part of this rift valley? Additionally, the markings on those American ten wheelers were blurred, making it difficult to assert they were a military convoy.

Even if everyone broke their heads thinking, they couldn’t figure out why this American ten wheeler transport convoy appeared in the underground jungle of the Savage Mountain great rift valley. What exactly did this missing unit encounter at that time? Could it be that in the dark unknown, Death truly had opened its embrace?

Luo Big Tongue randomly guessed: “If the signal we saw earlier was really sent by these missing personnel, then this place is ‘haunted.'”

Yu Feiyan was very taboo about “talking of ghosts.” She scolded: “You country bumpkin only knows about hauntings. If it truly were a haunting, things would be much simpler. As the folk saying goes, ‘Ghosts fear gunpowder. Place a gun and shoot, then both form and shadow are destroyed.’ We’re all carrying guns. How could we encounter ghosts? The so called ‘beyond the six directions, preserve but do not discuss.’ In my view, possibilities such as abnormal gravity, visual hallucinations, magnetic field effects, four dimensional interlacing, dark matter, flying saucer effects, weightlessness phenomena all exist.”

Luo Big Tongue was about to retort when he heard Sima Hui say to Yu Feiyan: “Actually what you said is also words without见识. Those chaotic and disorderly mysterious phenomena you mentioned, to this day not a single one can be explained or proven by the world. What’s the difference from ghostly mischief?”

At this moment, A Cui called to them: “Stop arguing. Come look at what’s going on.”

It turned out that near those American ten wheelers, several buildings constructed from piled stone stood. The bricks and stones were unusually large. Their exterior was all a dim dark blue color. There were also stone human figures and stone beasts. It seemed to be a temple palace that had sunk into the earth’s depths a thousand years ago. Tree vines covered the temple walls and corridors, faintly visible. Although they couldn’t see into the distance in the darkness, just from those exquisitely carved remnants, they could fully feel the vast scale and mystery of these city ruins.

A Cui raised the searchlight, having everyone carefully examine those walls. They didn’t know from when, but a thin layer of downy藜 like plant had seeped between the brick and stone crevices. In the utterly lifeless remains of the underground jungle, signs of life actually appeared. They couldn’t help but open their mouths wide in shock, not closing them for a long time.

The palace and temple that had slept underground for a thousand years, although long ago made ancient by time’s caresses, and embraced and entwined by threads of downy Chenopodium album like plants, causing mottled cracks to peel between the brick and stone crevices, still remained serene and peaceful, ancient and harmonious. Silently and wordlessly, they narrated glory that had already collapsed. But the infinite information they conveyed was like a thick and strange ancient book. Sima Hui and the others had only accidentally and shallowly flipped through incomplete and broken title pages. How could they possibly penetrate the great mysteries contained within?

Sima Hui’s heart pounded. He carefully looked around nearby and discovered that in the surrounding withered vine remains, a layer of downy藜 had also grown. In primeval forests, there were often cases where thousand year old trees died, then their trunks came back to life, again producing flowers and trees. But in the deepest part of the Savage Mountain rift valley, this underground abyss that never saw daylight all year round, large quantities of this situation appearing was truly abnormal.

The downy Chenopodium album like plants grew at astonishing speed. Just like what was seen beneath that M1 steel helmet earlier, before their eyes they formed mound shapes, as large as sea bowls, wrapped with dense tentacles inside, appearing strange and seductive. They were almost like living creatures with blood and flesh.

Sima Hui looked especially carefully. He tentatively touched one with his hand. Between his fingers, threads of white mist flowed. However he looked at it, it didn’t resemble subterranean fungi or spores. He immediately tore off the water cloth covering his face, leaned close to sniff the odor. The astonishment in his heart was difficult to express in words: “Could it be that time around us has frozen solid and unmoving?”

The other three saw that Sima Hui seemed to recognize these special plants. They asked him to explain the situation.

Sima Hui carefully observed the plants growing and spreading nearby. He felt it was very necessary to explain clearly to the masses who didn’t understand the truth: “These plants with forms resembling downy Chenopodium album are extremely extraordinary. Although their roots and stems are flesh like, they don’t resemble ordinary fungi that appear underground. From far away, they are colorless and odorless. If close at hand, one would feel them turbid and unbearable. The leaves and tentacles growing from them crumble at a touch, as if having form but no substance. Their shape is almost like misty dandelions. According to the theory of Xiang Wu, this thing has roots like fungi, leaves like cattails, sprouting and growing furiously. It is no different from immortal trees and spiritual roots. The deepest part of the Savage Mountain great rift valley is heavy with deathly air, utterly devoid of life. Yet such special plants appear here. Is this not abnormal?”

Yu Feiyan said: “The primeval jungle in the Myanmar mountain regions has hundreds of millions of years of evolutionary history. The plants here are strange and varied in a thousand ways. Currently what humans know and recognize is no more than one or two tenths. Even if there are some special species in this underground area, what’s so special about it?”

Sima Hui said: “It’s not that simple. According to my knowledge, only the Udumbara that grows in the deep mountain caves of ancient Ceylon possesses these characteristics. It is a very ancient plant.”

Yu Feiyan was quite shocked upon hearing this. Ceylon was the oldest name for Sri Lanka, the Lion Country. Did Udumbara grow there? Buddhist scriptures in the “Namo Myoho Renge Kyo Sutra” did record the Udumbara that blooms once every three thousand years. The idiom “a flash in the pan” comes from this. Legend says the Udumbara appears once every thousand years, withering in an instant. Could such an inconceivable plant truly exist in the world?

Sima Hui said: “I don’t know exactly where Ceylon is. The Udumbara recorded in Buddhist scriptures is also merely a metaphor. Whether it exists or not, to this day opinions vary, with no conclusion. But the plant closest to its true form is perhaps the ‘Shi Rou’ that grows underground in ancient Western Regions. Later generations also called it Udumbara. This thing can survive attached to withered wood and brick stone. Mostly formed from the accumulation of decayed and dark air over a thousand years. It approximates a fungus formed from countless tiny insects gathering together. Its life is extremely brief. In the blink of an eye, it disappears without trace.”

Although Sima Hui’s knowledge was limited to this, observing its form and knowing its nature, he guessed that nine times out of ten, the subterranean plants growing in the Savage Mountain rift valley were the Udumbara recorded in ancient texts. What was seen before their eyes was perhaps a brief moment that only appeared once every several thousand years.

Luo Big Tongue listened curiously from the side and interjected: “A person’s life. They only hurriedly live a few decades. But these subterranean plants only appear once every thousand years. How did we happen to encounter this? Does this mean we’re too lucky? Could it be that we’ve done too many good deeds, moving heaven and earth, even making the Bodhisattva open his eyes?”

Sima Hui didn’t agree: “Luo Big Tongue, stop dreaming. As the saying goes well: ‘Though heaven and earth are vast, they never grow rootless grass. Though the Buddhist gate is wide, it also doesn’t save people without goodness.’ We few people are not exactly good men and faithful women. What basis do we have to expect the Bodhisattva to open his eyes? Encountering this once in a thousand years Udumbara in the underground abyss is probably not a good omen. Because the birth and death of Udumbara usually lasts only an instant. It is fundamentally impossible for it to survive this long. Is this a scene that living mortals of flesh and blood can see? I’m afraid there’s something strange within it. I estimate we will soon face even greater trouble.”

Luo Big Tongue nodded and said: “So that’s how it is. I said the Bodhisattva couldn’t be so full as to have nothing better to do. But hearing you say this, I actually feel much more solid. I wasn’t favored since childhood. Occasionally having a stroke of luck, I really feel somewhat unaccustomed.”

Sima Hui didn’t have time to say more to Luo Big Tongue. He analyzed the current situation they faced for everyone. Since confirming the existence of Udumbara, they could also infer part of the situation of this underground cave. Although the Udumbara only appeared for a brief moment every several hundred or even several thousand years, the Udumbara in the Savage Mountain rift valley was enormous in size, far exceeding the scope people could imagine. And it grew and spread without rest or end. Its root veins could reach a thousand仞, covering the entire abyss like cave. It was practically a monster.

Translation Notes:

Udumbara (忧昙婆罗 / 昙花): A legendary Buddhist flower said to bloom once every 3,000 years, symbolizing the rarity of encountering a Buddha or enlightened teaching. The Chinese idiom “a flash in the pan” (昙花一现) derives from this flower’s brief blooming period..