Mysterious Country 1: Mist-Shrouded Champa,Volume 5: Chapter 9: Tunnel of Death

Qian Baoshan said he never believed in evil, but his experiences in Savage Mountain truly made him touch the breath of the devil.

After the supply company fled into the tunnel, they lost their path. By chance, they stumbled into a magical and magnificent cave. These ancient caves formed hundreds of millions of years ago were everywhere piled with hill like elephant bones and ivory. The interlocking limestone cave network and underground corridors, although wide and flat like tunnels, some places even larger than several soccer fields combined, were also a complex labyrinth. Many areas were sealed by dense fog. The reconnaissance teams scouting ahead never returned.

The Burmese Mu Kan told the company commander that this was probably the Mammoth Cave in Savage Mountain. He claimed to be familiar with wild elephant habits and had confidence in finding the Elephant Gate exit. So he led the way. Guiding the convoy through layers of limestone curtains, they drove to a low cave. Here the vertical height was only a dozen or so meters, but the surroundings were extremely open. Shaped like the inside of a seashell, the ground was covered with dense wrinkles, rugged and difficult to walk. Moreover, the cave bottom was not rock layer, but seemed to be some kind of plant. Halfway through, many vehicles’ tires began to sink.

The commander realized something was wrong. He urgently ordered the supply company to abandon the vehicles and retreat on foot along the original path. Who knew that the cave bottom, pressed by the heavy trucks, actually cracked open a great fissure. Deep in the fissure, dense fog was弥漫. Before the supply company understood what was happening, the entire convoy had all fallen into the fog.

The Dodge truck where Qian Baoshan and Mu Kan were happened to fall onto an ancient tree submerged underground. The people in the vehicle were thrown until their faces were covered with blood. They heard people in other vehicles shouting for help. But in an instant, the sounds disappeared. No one knew what danger had occurred. They hurriedly jumped down from the vehicle, wanting to go over and assist. Unexpectedly, the American ten wheeler crushed a section of tree root. Beneath the ancient tree was a deep channel of accumulated water. Qian Baoshan couldn’t distinguish direction in the fog. He stepped into empty air. His body immediately sank downward. Mu Kan behind him wanted to grab him. But he was also pulled into the pit by Qian Baoshan. Both rolled along the tree roots into the cold underground cave. They nearly drowned from the water. When they struggled to climb out and used the flashlights on their bodies to illuminate, climbing back up to high ground again, they discovered that the place where they had fallen was already blocked by the sunken truck wheels.

Sima Hui and the others, hearing the other party speak to this point, finally knew that the American ten wheelers appearing in the underground jungle had indeed fallen from above. No wonder the vehicle bodies all showed obvious signs of impact. That giant Udumbara fruit formed an umbrella shaped cocoon covering the ancient city. In the center of this cocoon was a hollow shell without dense fog. The Sixth Independent Engineering Combat Regiment supply company, to escape Japanese pursuit, mistakenly entered it from the labyrinth like Mammoth Cave. The result was that the entire convoy fell into the earth’s depths. And all personnel were swallowed by the dense fog. Only Qian Baoshan and Mu Kan survived. But what did they encounter afterward? How could they survive for decades in this isolated place, neither human nor ghost? Was that Burmese Mu Kan alive or dead now?

Qian Baoshan continued speaking of what happened later: He and Mu Kan fell into a dark and damp cave. The surroundings were deathly still. Not half a human shadow was seen. Calling to heaven, heaven didn’t respond. Begging from earth, earth was unresponsive. Summoning wind, wind didn’t arrive. Calling for rain, rain didn’t come. Their spirits nearly collapsed. They didn’t know how long they groped in the tunnel. By chance, they drilled into a very deep cave. Inside, jade steps were high built. Green grass was flat spread. Many underground fungi and berries grew there. Thick and juicy, the taste was bitter but edible.

The two were frightened in their hearts. They randomly ate some to fill their stomachs. Walking further ahead was this wide tunnel containing the underground river. The deeper they went, the more gloomy and森森 black air弥漫, making people’s hearts cold and their thighs tremble, stopping and not daring to proceed.

Qian Baoshan then deliberately wanted to turn back. But at this moment, Mu Kan revealed some very extraordinary matters. He said that as early as over a thousand years ago, the Savage Mountain great rift valley was once the divine palace of the prominent and powerful Cham dynasty, worshipping the Vedic heavens. It was equivalent to the national temple. After the Cham people conquered the entire kingdom, they concentrated the captured slaves and large numbers of skilled craftsmen here to build pagodas. For two hundred years, they carried out massive construction. They actually built thirteen thousand stone pagodas of various forms, large and small. And they buried the Cham treasures everywhere beneath the pagodas. At that time, palaces surrounded the mountain peak. Pagodas stood like a forest. Randomly climbing any one of them, pointing casually, the direction of the finger would necessarily have a high pagoda standing. Whenever the sunset shone, the afterglow of the sun and the sunset clouds filling the sky would gild the pagoda forest into golden color. Then it would slowly sink into the layered mountains. All who had witnessed this spectacle couldn’t help but sigh that its brilliance and majesty were unbearable to behold.

But although Savage Mountain had uniquely marvelous terrain, it was a sandy plate mountain. Beneath the rock layers inside the mountain body were all hollow. The bottom of the jungle covered temple was a vast underground lake. Finally, the water veins sank. The mountain body collapsed and destroyed. Countless ancient pagodas along with the nearby jungle plants all sank into the bottomless abyss. From this, the Savage Mountain great rift valley was formed.

Saying the inside of the Savage Mountain rift valley was a bottomless abyss was not an exaggeration at all. Originally, the underground lake water veins had dried up and vanished. But the lake bottom retained an boundless great mud basin. The collapsed ancient city and jungle were both supported by unfathomably deep mud and marsh gas, floating above the vast mud. At any time, they could continue sinking downward.

This sudden great catastrophe caused the Cham dynasty to panic greatly. They sent people deep into the valley. Seeing that the City of Four Million Pagodas was severely damaged, they believed that heaven and earth were being destroyed, the anger of gods and buddhas, an ominous sign of national destruction.

The ruler at that time was King Anu Jaya. For the sake of future plans, he ordered people to smelt gold, casting the magnificent scene of the four million pagodas onto the city walls. Gold bricks layered and pressed upon each other, forming a strange spider shaped building. So these gold bricks were also called the City of Four Million Pagodas, to be preserved for future national restoration.

But no one knew why the Cham people at that time had so much gold. There were legends that the ancients were skilled at raising “gold gathering ants.” The city was not built from pure gold. Others said the gold bricks were actually gold foil. Inside were all stone bricks. Because this kind of thing was common in Myanmar. Rangoon had several great pagodas reaching into the clouds. The outside was covered with gold foil. From afar, they looked like several large golden gourds, connecting to heaven and touching earth, magnificent and grand. Just the gold and gems embedded on their surfaces were also difficult to estimate in quantity.

After the water veins in the rift valley disappeared, the ancient strange plant Udumbara grew inside the mountain body. Gradually, it tightly wrapped the Golden Spider City that had sunk into the earth’s depths. Dense fog from then on shrouded everything. The Cham people also thoroughly destroyed the remaining buildings on the surface. And left vicious curses. Pythons and ancient pagodas guarded King Anu Jaya’s secret. Whoever dared to peek at the Cham dynasty’s treasure, the wing of death would descend upon their head.

Afterward, the Cham dynasty indeed gradually walked toward extinction. But this ancient people still possessed certain power in northern Vietnam and Laos. One could even say that for several hundred years, the entire history of Vietnam was a war history between the Vietnamese and the Cham. But by the present day, the remaining Cham descendants. Having long forgotten their roots due to the passage of time, could no longer comprehend the secret signs left by their predecessors. Only some confusing and bizarre legends circulated to this day, saying: “That ancient city sank into the earth’s depths. The dense fog through which flying snakes pass shrouded the rift valley.”

No one could explain whether this was prophecy or hint.

The dense fog in the Savage Mountain great rift valley came from subterranean plants. Legend said that this Udumbara’s mist like flower crown feared water. But the Savage Mountain rift valley terrain was special. Without violent winds and rain triggering mountain floods, it was difficult to disperse the dense fog. And the Cham people carved several snake belly shaped caves at the bottom of the city ruins. In the jungle remains, they also arranged many sand seeping vertical wells. The cave bottom accumulated water into channels. Those stone statues lining both sides of the underground river all had open mouths and hollow bellies. And were connected to the mud and sand beneath the ancient city. They could serve to regulate water levels. Areas with accumulated water would not have fog appear. So these tunnels were the only safe places in the Savage Mountain rift valley.

Mu Kan was not a Cham descendant remaining in northern Myanmar. The reason he knew these hidden circumstances was that during the British colonial rule period, he was a Burmese British soldier. He had specifically helped British explorers collect intelligence everywhere. But before the British were prepared to excavate King Anu Jaya’s treasure, the Japanese had already occupied Myanmar.

Later, the Allies counterattacked. Recovering large areas of lost territory. Mu Kan was conscripted as a military interpreter. Unexpectedly, this time following the supply company on a mission, he actually broke into the Savage Mountain great rift valley that many explorers dreamed of entering. This was also unforeseen. But looking at the situation, the others had probably all perished by now. There was no path to walk in the tunnel. Outside was covered by dense fog. And they had lost contact. The other Allied troops fundamentally didn’t know the supply company had entered the Mammoth Cave. So don’t expect any rescue.

Mu Kan told Qian Baoshan that actually, the City of Four Million Pagodas was not a city at all. Inside it, there was only a single path. Apart from this, no other space existed. In reality, the entire ancient city was a passage. All of King Anu Jaya’s secrets were behind the black wall at the end of the passage. But what exactly was inside, he didn’t know.

Mu Kan believed that the only way now was to try to go to the deepest part to see what was there. Perhaps they could find an exit. Because the Cham people only entered the very bottom of the rift valley to build the ancient city after the ground collapse. This place was truly too deep. It was impossible to come down directly. There must be other exits hidden underground. Although this was only logical deduction, it couldn’t be confirmed. He also said: “Legend says anyone who dares to peek at King Anu Jaya’s secret will die an unnatural death. The present situation is completely unclear. If there are truly evil spirits inside, one would have to stake one’s life. It’s better to first let one person go in. Once an accident is encountered, the entire army won’t be wiped out.”

So Mu Kan let Qian Baoshan wait outside. He himself took a gun and went deep into the tunnel to search for a path. But he went and didn’t return, like a clay ox entering the sea or a silver needle falling into a well. From then on, there was no trace. No matter how Qian Baoshan shouted himself hoarse outside, there was not the slightest response from inside.

Qian Baoshan was certain Mu Kan had encountered an evil spirit. Most likely he had been swallowed alive. Although he was a soldier, he was timid by nature. He never had any opinions of his own. Now he became frightened. He no longer dared to approach the tunnel where Mu Kan had disappeared. Driven by the human instinct for survival, he actually supported himself and endured bitterly for thirty years in the underground tunnel, relying only on eating the underground fungi growing in the cave. Qian Baoshan had to talk to himself every day. Otherwise, he would even forget human language. And having been in the darkness for so long, the living aura on his body gradually dissipated. He himself didn’t know whether he was human or ghost. He had long given up hope of survival. He only waited for his lifespan to end, then he would drop dead and that would be that. But today he suddenly heard from above as if heaven and earth were collapsing. The accumulated water in the tunnel also immediately surged. He thought it was mountain floods pouring in. So he risked his life climbing out to see what was happening. He had lived in the darkness too long. His eyes had adapted to this environment. He happened to see Sima Hui and the others resting hidden in a tree hollow. He didn’t know who the newcomers were. If they were thieves who came to search for King Anu Jaya’s treasure, he would inevitably be killed to silence him. So he only spied secretly from the darkness, not daring to approach.

Qian Baoshan observed for a long time. He felt Sima Hui and the others didn’t look like bandits. Until those withered and dissipated Udumbara revived again. The dense fog also immediately appeared. The four survivors lost their direction in the dense plant remains. Only then did he use the signal lamp to lead them into the snake belly tunnel.

After Qian Baoshan finished speaking of the course, he cautiously asked Sima Hui and the others how they came here. Sima Hui only said they were all guerrilla troops. They fundamentally didn’t know that King Anu Jaya’s Golden Spider City was buried in Savage Mountain. Because they were struck by the tropical storm system on the way, they were forced to flee into the rift valley to escape. Then they encountered ground collapse and mistakenly entered this place. As for how the world situation changed after the Allies counterattacked Myanmar, and their entering the mountains to search for the Mosquito special transport plane, detonating the earthquake bomb, and other important matters, he didn’t mention a single word.

Qian Baoshan didn’t pursue this deeply. He only said that heaven pitied him, allowing him to meet compatriots after surviving a hundred deaths. He had wandered in this tunnel for decades. He knew the terrain here like the back of his hand. He discovered that beneath the tunnel was a bottomless great mud marsh. There was indeed no exit. Moreover, the previous shock caused multiple collapses in the caves beneath the ruins. Now only the main tunnel inside the ancient city was still safe. And the surrounding areas were completely blocked. The remaining oxygen probably couldn’t sustain for much longer. Fortunately, with many people and great strength, having mutual care, they could steel their courage to go in and get to the bottom of things. That was still better than continuing to be trapped underground waiting to die. At this time, the two sides were separated by the underground river. There were fierce crocodiles in the water. They could only crouch on the stone platforms on both sides of the tunnel to speak. They couldn’t join together for the moment.

Sima Hui, since living in the black house in his early years, had deeply known that the world was evil. He had to guard against others everywhere. The more he thought, the more he felt something was wrong. He thought: “This self proclaimed Allied missing person Qian Baoshan, making up a pack of lies like Robinson Crusoe, thinks he can fool me? If there are no evil spirits in the tunnel, that’s that. But if there truly are evil spirits, it is absolutely you, this fifth survivor.”

Sima Hui had carefully read Xu Ping’an’s notes. There were many records about the Sixth Independent Engineering Combat Regiment building roads in Savage Mountain. He detected that Qian Baoshan’s words should be half true and half false. There were certain real elements inside. Such as the legends of the Cham dynasty King Anu Jaya, and the American transport convoy that fell into the underground jungle, were relatively believable. But regarding Qian Baoshan’s identity and experiences, they might not be true. Very likely he was an impostor.

This suspicion made Sima Hui feel extremely uneasy. The deepest part of the Savage Mountain rift valley was originally a completely enclosed space. Beneath the ancient city was a great mud basin filled with marsh gas. If not for the chemical defoliant causing the Udumbara to wither, causing large amounts of accumulated mud and water on the cocoon to fall into the earth’s depths, the air in the caves and tunnels would fundamentally not allow normal people to survive for long. Apart from the Udumbara, this special plant not constrained by environment, no underground fungi should appear in the caves. Most suspicious was that the other party didn’t carry a radio station. Even as a communication soldier, carrying a WWII era SCR individual radio, after experiencing such a long time underground, it should have long been scrapped and unusable.

From these circumstances, one could conclude that this self proclaimed veteran Qian Baoshan was certainly trying to conceal something. And he never dared to show his face, his behavior was extremely ghostly and secretive. Who knew what kind of face was hidden beneath that M1 steel helmet?

(End of Volume 5)