Mysterious Country 1: Mist-Shrouded Champa, Volume 3 Chapter 4:The Storm Approaches

Mysterious Country 1: Mist-Shrouded Champa, Volume 3 Chapter 4:The Storm Approaches

Sima Hui knew his life was hanging by a thread, and had no time for lengthy explanations. He picked up a python egg and held it before him, passing it briefly before the noses of Luo Dahai, A Cui, Yu Feiyan, and the others. Everyone immediately felt a pure and fragrant aroma penetrate their hearts and spleens, indescribably comfortable and pleasant. They could not help but feel even more curious: “How could python eggs from Myanmar possess such a marvelous scent?”

Before anyone could understand what was happening, Sima Hui had already broken all three python eggs one by one, spilling them across the ground. Immediately, a rich and strange fragrance spread through the air, making people want to kneel down and lick it from the ground. Fortunately, Sima Hui knew how dangerous this was. He was a man who had cultivated his inner energy, possessing extraordinary mental discipline. He forcibly stopped everyone nearby, preventing anyone from approaching the broken eggs.

After about half a minute, everyone felt something foreign in their throats, wriggling and squirming, an unbearable itch. The Russian White Bear and the emaciated, sallow, zombie-like Cao Shangfei were the first who could not endure it. They simultaneously vomited with a “wah,” each spitting out a parasitic leech nearly twenty centimeters long. The creatures were covered in red and variegated patterns, thick as a child’s arm, their entire bodies covered in bloody suckers. They fell into the sticky liquid, their bodies curling and sweeping, and had already absorbed half the python eggs from the ground.

The others also successively vomited out the man-eating leeches attached inside their bodies. They watched as those queen leeches sucked the python eggs from the ground clean, then soon became stiff and motionless, dissolving into pools of thick blood. When everyone smelled the remaining broken eggshells, even from a slight distance, they felt a foul stench assaulting their brains, their chests filled with unbearable disgust and revulsion, completely unlike the previous sensation of pure sweetness and cool refreshment.

Having survived the catastrophe, everyone was pale as ghosts. They gasped for breath for a long time before gradually beginning to recover. The more they thought about it, the more terrified they became. They had believed this time they were certainly doomed. Fortunately, Sima Hui had acted with quick wit, devising this extraordinary strategy, and had managed to save their lives. Otherwise, if they had delayed a moment longer, allowing the leeches inside their bodies to mature, it would have been utterly impossible to recover.

Sima Hui had previously had no confidence at all in this method. Now seeing that this life-saving strategy truly worked, he also felt it was a stroke of luck. He still wanted to save that group of Burmese men who had previously escaped, so he took Karaweik and pursued them from behind. Following the valley for only several li, he discovered that the dozen or so Burmese armed men had been bewitched by the atmosphere of the jungle and had not escaped far. They too had taken python eggs from nearby tree holes and rock caves, and after swallowing them, the man-eating leeches inside their bodies grew even faster. Before long, they had sucked out their brain marrow and all the essence and blood from their bodies.

Sima Hui saw the manner of those Burmese men’s deaths, and truly felt his heart tremble with horror. Wild Man Mountain was filled with dangers on all sides. Although he himself had escaped this calamity, he did not know how many more evils lay ahead. Worried about becoming separated from the other survivors of the expedition team, he had no time to concern himself further with those corpses. He turned back to find A Cui and Luo Dahai and the others, briefly telling Yu Feiyan about the fate of that group of Burmese men.

Yu Feiyan had already concluded that after those Burmese men were struck by the leech gu, it was impossible for them to escape Wild Man Mountain alive. She was not surprised by this. However, she was exceptionally fixated on the calculus of success and failure, and had extremely high self-regard, unable to bear the shame of failure. Since she had accepted this “contract job,” no matter how great the risk, she still harbored delusions of continuing deeper into the giant rift valley of Wild Man Mountain.

Yu Feiyan remembered that in the depths of the valley, thin mist drifted ethereally, and from time to time one could see the skeletal remains of wild elephants. As long as they followed these markers to find the “Mammoth Cavern,” it would mean they were approaching the area where the British military transport plane had gone missing. Since they had already neutralized the threat of the Cambodian man-eating leech, how could they give up halfway?

But Yu Feiyan saw that although her subordinate “Cao Shangfei” had preserved his life, he was now a ruined man. The expedition team at present, besides herself as the leader, only had that Russian White Bear remaining. But this Russian was cold and cruel, fickle and unreliable. Having witnessed Sima Hui’s methods, Yu Feiyan felt this person truly possessed extraordinary abilities. If he could truly be made to serve her purposes, the “cargo” in the Mosquito transport plane would be as good as grasped in her palm. Thinking of this, she said to Sima Hui: “For the grace of saving my life, I dare not speak of thanks…”

Sima Hui quickly said: “A train runs fast depending entirely on its locomotive. You are the one leading us. I saved you as a matter of course. There is no need for thanks. Even if you were willing to offer yourself to me, I would not dare to accept you.”

Yu Feiyan had barely opened her mouth before Sima Hui cut her off with this barrage, and she could not help but feel both shame and anger. She raged: “How do you want to die!”

But then she thought: “This scoundrel speaks in this rascal tone to everyone. I am currently in need of capable people. I might as well endure it for now.”

So she suppressed her fury and asked in a low voice: “Since you acknowledge me as your leader, does our previous agreement still count?”

Sima Hui heard these words and already knew Yu Feiyan had not given up, still wanting to find that missing “Mosquito Special Transport Plane.” He thought: “I thought I was a desperate fugitive. I never imagined you were even more reckless than me. This contract job is too dangerous. It would be better to acknowledge our bad luck and call it quits.”

But Sima Hui considered their present situation and realized there was truly no path of retreat. Compelled by circumstances, he had no choice but to face death with equanimity. He only hoped Yu Feiyan could take Karaweik out of Myanmar. Regardless of whether she advanced or retreated, he was willing to risk his life to accompany her. But he indicated he still needed to discuss with Luo Dahai and the others before deciding.

After Sima Hui finished speaking, he went to check on Luo Dahai and A Cui’s condition. Those two, like himself, were not seriously harmed, but had lost vital energy and blood, feeling listless and lacking strength in their bodies.

Luo Dahai saw Sima Hui approaching and sighed: “Yesterday I was still craving that tomato scrambled eggs from our Six Nations Hotel. But now even thinking about it makes me nauseous. I never plan to touch that kind of thing again in this lifetime.”

Sima Hui comforted him: “Actually, eggs are not particularly beneficial either. They are nothing more than things that hens miscarry. I never eat them myself.”

At this moment, A Cui also said with lingering fear that this time they truly owed everything to Sima Hui. She remembered a medical text stating: “Eating raw flesh and drinking blood was the custom of ancient times. But people today have grown accustomed to cooking with fire and water. Otherwise, worms will inevitably grow in the abdomen, lightly causing damage to vital energy and blood consumption, heavily causing loss of life.” Two years ago, when she was following special operations in Mandalay, she had once treated a local boy of about ten or twelve years. That boy was extremely thin in body, but his head and belly were bizarrely large. He walked a bit too hurriedly before her, and his head actually rolled off his own neck. Strangely, there was not much bleeding. She later examined the corpse and found his chest cavity filled with leeches, even more in his belly and brain. At the time she did not know what had happened. Later, upon inquiry, she learned that he often ate river snails, but they were not cooked thoroughly enough. So the leech eggs parasitizing in the snails had all attached themselves inside his body. If at the beginning he had desperately consumed a small amount of poison, perhaps he could have been saved. But once leeches entered the brain or matured in the abdomen, even if Hua Tuo and Bian Que were reborn, they could not save him.

Sima Hui did not mention that he had used his family’s ancestral “observing objects” art. He only said these were all crude “folk remedies” not presentable on any proper table. The various sorceries spread throughout Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, and other places, although transmitted as particularly bizarre and terrifying, as long as one saw through their root causes and identified methods to restrain and counter them, there was nothing particularly mysterious about them.

A Cui listened and still felt immensely impressed. She understood the parasitic habits of blood-sucking leeches and told Sima Hui that people who had been parasitized by queen leeches in their bodies would certainly have weakened vital energy and blood. But precisely because of this, as long as the “Cambodian Man-Eating Leech” attached inside the body was removed, there would be no need to worry about leeches growing again in the abdomen for the next several days. The accumulated water in these jungles now posed no threat to them. But the tropical storm “Pagoda” could enter Wild Man Mountain at any time. Staying here would sooner or later mean being submerged by mountain floods. What to do next must be decided quickly.

Sima Hui nodded and said that neutralizing the “Cambodian Man-Eating Leech” was merely temporarily overcoming one of the countless hidden dangers in “Wild Man Mountain.” This alone had caused the expedition team to lose over eighty percent of its members. If they went to search for that British transport plane that had crashed in the depths of the giant rift valley, they would certainly have to pay an even heavier price. But now the weather had turned severe, and the environment would become increasingly complex. Going back offered no certainty either. They had no choice but to place themselves in a position of certain death and then seek to survive.

A Cui wanted to secure an opportunity for Karaweik to escape Myanmar. She indicated she was willing to risk her life to follow the expedition team, continuing to walk toward the deep mountain rift valley.

Luo Dahai also said: “In all these years in Myanmar, we only did things like killing and arson. We never truly helped anyone. Now that there is a rare opportunity, this old Luo naturally has nothing else to say.”

The three having reached their decision, Sima Hui told Yu Feiyan: “We four have nothing else to concern ourselves with besides our own bodies. We might as well follow you down this path to the very end.”

Yu Feiyan expressed her thanks: “I am deeply grateful that you do not abandon us. Your kindness is sincerely appreciated. Only let our words be settled, with no further changes. From now on, we should watch out for each other and rescue each other in times of hardship.”

Seeing how dangerous this path was, she no longer dared to be careless. She immediately ordered everyone to organize their remaining equipment. When the expedition team had entered the mountains, they had carried a large amount of supplies. But during the previous chaotic dispersal, many had been lost. The radio had also been burned by the flamethrower. Now reorganizing, without Burmese men to serve as porters, they had to travel as light as possible, discarding everything they could leave behind.

The Russian White Bear stuffed his own large backpack full of “detonating cord, blasting caps, explosives, and pneumatic drills.” Sima Hui felt that since the rift valley was deep underground, with fog obscuring vision, lighting equipment was absolutely essential. So he gathered more searchlights and focused-beam flashlights, along with batteries, signal flares, illumination rounds, and similar items to put in his pack. The others each carried necessary weapons and compressed dry rations.

Yu Feiyan wanted Luo Dahai to carry the remaining flamethrower for safety. Luo Dahai refused to the death, saying that this old man had “three times attacked Lashio, four times descended on Laiklang, broken through the Irrawaddy, counter-encircled at Pegu, and blood-washed Mandalay.” What grand battles had he not seen? If there was danger in the jungle, relying solely on his own skills and the knives and guns in his hands would be sufficient to handle it. He had absolutely no need for a flamethrower. Besides, if this damned thing exploded, his Luo Big Tongue would be in catastrophic trouble. Look at those few who were burned alive into charcoal just now. They did not even have recognizable faces anymore. Even when they reached the underworld, the King of Hell himself probably could not identify who they were. If you insist on making me carry it, you might as well just shoot me dead right now. Taking a few bullets would at most add a few holes to my body. At least I would die more cleanly that way. Yu Feiyan had not expected to provoke such a torrent of words from him, and had no choice but to abandon this idea.

At this moment, Cao Shangfei, lying on the ground, recovered some of his consciousness. Learning the situation, he knew that being abandoned in this deep mountain forest meant certain death. He carefully begged his leader, straining to squeeze out a few words from between his teeth: “Leader, please have mercy and leave me my life…”

A Cui could not bear to simply abandon “Cao Shangfei” to his fate. Without waiting for Yu Feiyan to make a decision, she had already used her knife to cut two sections of vine. Using a rain poncho and rope, she quickly fashioned a simple stretcher. Together with Karaweik, the two of them lifted the precariously hanging “Cao Shangfei,” and only then were they willing to set out.

The group continued to search for a path forward through the maze-like valley. Since ancient times, countless Myanmar wild elephants had passed through this region, entering the burial caverns where their ancestors through generations had laid their bones to rest. Among them, many had collapsed and died prematurely along the way due to advanced age and physical decline, or from being preyed upon by other creatures. These fossilized remains and skeletal fragments became the intermittent markers pointing toward the location of the Mammoth Cavern.

Sima Hui and the others followed the traces of the elephant remains, walking deeper for a long time. Suddenly, gusts of cold mountain wind blew toward them. Yu Feiyan murmured to herself: “The tropical storm has arrived…”

They saw the thin mountain mist half dispersing, the field of vision becoming slightly more open. The group stopped to look around and saw that within the mountain body there were many interconnected caverns. The caves were filled with elephant remains, piled layer upon layer, already accumulated into the shapes of hills, with bones and tusks standing and interlocking.

In the deepest part of the caverns lay hidden stone gate passages, polished as smooth as marble. Almost all had relief decorations. Judging from the traces of vines and tree roots eroding into the wall cracks, they were at least thousand-year-old ancient ruins. But for some unknown reason, all the reliefs had been deliberately destroyed, leaving no decipherable information for future generations. These intentionally damaged and ruined sections seemed like an impenetrable, indelible thick barrier, concealing the infinite and endless “secrets” of Wild Man Mountain. The passage led outside the mountain, ending at a half-collapsed stone gate. Outside grew lush vegetation, with massive fig trees as thick as armfuls, their canopies drooping to the ground. The surrounding fog was extremely dense, visibility limited to within ten paces. They truly did not know where they were. Hearing the rumbling and rolling of thunderclaps in the sky, the vanguard of the tropical storm “Pagoda” had already struck. The layers of heavy mist enveloping “Wild Man Mountain” were all scattered by the fierce winds. The surroundings immediately plunged into an apocalyptic darkness. Although the undulating mountains had temporarily lifted their veil of white mystery, they were now covered by a thick black curtain.

The group had no choice but to grope their way toward higher ground. Just as they were about to gain a commanding view to locate the position of the Wild Man Mountain giant rift valley, unexpectedly, as soon as they climbed a slope, a brilliant flash suddenly “swooshed” before their eyes. A lightning bolt, proud and dragon-like, appeared in the sky.

Everyone was awed by that lightning bolt and instinctively looked up. They saw that in the low sky, a Mosquito transport plane was actually passing overhead. There was not a single light inside the cabin. The propellers on the wings were also stationary. The entire aircraft was like a silent “black shadow,” gliding swiftly through the winds beneath the clouds, flying at an altitude so low it could not possibly be lower.

This was simply an inconceivable scene. In such severe weather conditions, it was absolutely impossible for anyone to dare to fly an aircraft. Furthermore, this plane had no lights whatsoever inside or out. Even its engines were shut down. It was pitch black and completely silent, as if there were no living people inside the cabin at all.

In this fleeting instant like a spark from flint, in the ghastly white brilliance of the lightning flash, they faintly saw a black snake marking on the fuselage. The lightning passing through the sky lasted only the blink of an eye. When they wanted to examine it more carefully, the surroundings had already plunged into darkness once again. That ghost-like aircraft shadow also vanished into the boundless gloom.

Everyone had witnessed this suddenly and was so shocked they could not close their mouths. After half a day they finally recovered their senses, simultaneously rubbing their eyes hard, thinking they had been seeing things. The “Mosquito Special Transport Plane” that had just passed overhead had a strangely shaped black snake painted on its fuselage, clearly completely identical to the target photograph. If one used common sense to imagine, the British Royal Air Force’s “Black Snake Transport Plane” had gone missing in “Wild Man Mountain” as early as 1948 or thereabouts. After more than twenty years, how could it possibly still be circling in the low sky of the mountain region?

The nearby area was mostly “low rolling hills” covered by jungle. Based on that aircraft’s flying altitude, it was almost scraping the mountain peaks and earth as it flew. It would inevitably crash into the jungle moments later. But they stared for a long time, and the area ahead remained completely dark and silent. There was no explosion fireball or tremendous sound of an aircraft crash. It seemed as if it had never truly existed at all. In the darkness, there was only a thunderclap that shook the heavens, resounding through the mountains and wilderness.