Mysterious Country 1: Mist-Shrouded Champa,Volume 6: Chapter 3: The King of Cham

Everyone felt their hearts in their throats. Their feet seemed filled with lead, unable to move. They watched with staring eyes as Green Tomb, or rather that Cham king who had died a thousand years ago, slipped through the stone door before them and disappeared into the depths of the darkness.

Luo Big Tongue rubbed his eyes hard: “Did I see wrong? Did you see it? Just now, that ancient person from the mural crawled out…”

Sima Hui was also speechless with shock: “How could Green Tomb look exactly like the painted image of King Anu Jaya?”

All people under heaven, though they all have two arms and two legs, only their faces are most different. Because each is born of different parents, bloodline origins number not just a thousand branches and ten thousand clans. How could they be completely identical? Even if faces are extremely similar, careful observation would still reveal slight differences. Let alone people from different eras, completely unrelated, with such peculiar appearances. How could they be so alike?

The intense fire and smoke produced by the white phosphorus grenades gradually weakened. Darkness continuously eroded the remaining light in the tunnel. Sima Hui saw that camping lamp could at most last another hour or two. If they showed any fear at this moment, they would be trapped to death in the pitch black underground. He thought: “Anyway, it’s just one life, whether alive or dead. Today I’ll risk it all. Even if there really is a vengeful ghost borrowing a corpse to return to life, I must see it through to the end.”

He immediately beckoned to his three friends. Carrying his gun, he took the lead in pursuit.

Luo Big Tongue saw A Cui’s face had turned blue with fear. He bolstered her courage: “You don’t need to be afraid. The weapons in our hands aren’t just fire sticks. This British elephant hunting gun is truly formidable. Not only is the caliber large and the killing power strong, but the shotgun shell coverage is also very wide. If one shot were fired, even a rhinoceros couldn’t withstand it. If not for not having cleared the line of fire just now, worried about accidentally injuring you, I would have blasted it to pieces long ago…”

As he spoke, he crawled into the stone door with A Cui, one in front and one behind.

Yu Feiyan, seeing the behavior of those three fugitives, thought they were truly mad. She hesitated slightly. Fearing she would be left alone in the dark tunnel, she had no choice but to grit her teeth and follow Sima Hui in action.

Everyone knew that danger must lie ahead. So their nerves were all taut. They held their breath and silenced their voices. Just after squeezing through the stone door, they took the stone wall as support. Each raised their guns on guard. They prepared for a desperate fight to the death. But the darkness was strangely quiet. In the distance, faint sounds of water flowing could be heard. Like the existence of a spring. Otherwise, there was no other movement. And Green Tomb, who had previously hidden inside, did not appear. The camping lamp couldn’t illuminate five or six meters. It was fundamentally impossible to judge where they were.

Sima Hui worried that the crocodiles in the tunnel would follow in. After the other three gathered, he pushed the stone door closed from the inside. At the same time, he discovered there were also reliefs on the back of the stone door. They depicted a white python floating out from the turbulent sea surface. The Cham king lay reclining on the python’s back. Beside his feet knelt two slaves holding giant candles. Opposite was a nine tiered ancient pagoda.

Sima Hui only casually swept his eyes over the wall relief. For the moment, it was difficult to understand its meaning. Then using the weak and dim light of the camping lamp, he examined the surrounding terrain. He saw the stone walls were森森. The walls were all built from densely packed human faced stone bricks. Those countless cold and rigid faces even more highlighted the mystery and terror of royal power. Scattered on the ground were many rare treasures. From gold cast divine statues to skulls polished with various gems. Illuminated by the camping lamp, they emitted strange light.

Everyone had personally seen Green Tomb hide inside. But tracking in, they came up empty. They only felt that this place seemed extremely deep and spacious. Sima Hui was just exploring slowly with the camping lamp. The light emitting diode in the lamp body suddenly went out. No matter how he struck it, it wouldn’t light up. He didn’t know what malfunction had occurred. The surroundings immediately fell into complete darkness. The shadow of despair also immediately enveloped their hearts. He secretly cried out in bitterness. Why did the lamp break at this critical moment? It was truly like a boat encountering wind and waves breaking its oars and rudder, a horse reaching a cliff breaking its reins.

Luo Big Tongue still had one white phosphorus grenade on him. If they used the incendiary agent inside for illumination, it might last about ten minutes. But no one would be willing to use it until the final moment. The four people fell into darkness, unable to see anything. They had no choice but to desperately stop by the wall. First, to catch their breath and discuss countermeasures. Second, that camping lamp went out abruptly. It didn’t seem like the battery was exhausted. It was very likely just poor contact in the wiring inside the lamp body. The camping lamps equipped by the expedition team were extremely durable. They rarely broke easily. If similar malfunctions occurred, disassembling and reinstalling them might restore illumination. Sima Hui had A Cui fumble in the dark to disassemble the lampshade and check. See if it could be made to light up again.

Sima Hui held his gun in one hand to guard against unexpected events that might occur in the darkness. He recalled the previous encounters. He had originally planned to go with the flow, finding an opportunity in the tunnel to turn from guest to host, solving the fatal threat that had been hidden beside him. Otherwise, the situation of being controlled by others could never be reversed. Who knew that that ghost like Green Tomb, after being hit by the automatic pistol, still moved as normal. Even more shocking was that this person looked exactly like the Cham king who had died a thousand years ago, as if carved from the same mold. These inconceivable changes once again plunged the four survivors into complete passivity.

Sima Hui couldn’t help grinding his teeth: “Could it be that we encountered a living corpse? Snow flying everywhere in June, the nine bend Yellow River flowing westward. What kind of strange things don’t exist in this Savage Mountain?”

Luo Big Tongue sighed: “We’ve already reached the end of our rope. Stop being sour. But I also can’t figure it out… How did that person in the mural suddenly come alive? This matter is too uncanny. Truly fucking enough to make one’s hair stand on end. Two years ago, when I first heard the news of the crash at Undur Khan, I didn’t feel it was this uncanny. I can’t not believe it.”

Only then did Sima Hui remember that he hadn’t yet had time to inform the other three about discovering that Qian Baoshan was disguised as Green Tomb. So he briefly explained the course. He said this Green Tomb was very familiar with the situation of the missing supply company transport convoy. He also understood many secrets of the Savage Mountain great rift valley. Although in the past there had been ventriloquism arts that could change voices, that native local tone was not something outsiders could easily imitate. So this person had at least three related backgrounds: First, he might have been military personnel during the Allied war against Japan in Myanmar, his native place should be in Yunnan. Second, he was the mastermind Green Tomb who hired the expedition team and planned operations. The third background was most confusing and obscure. But it certainly had countless connections with the Cham dynasty.

The other three didn’t understand why Sima Hui had suddenly fired just now. Only now did they suddenly realize. But everyone still found it extremely difficult to understand that Green Tomb looked so much like King Anu Jaya. They feared this was absolutely not simply a matter of two people having naturally similar appearances. First, that Green Tomb understood the secrets buried by the Cham dynasty in Savage Mountain. If not for him guiding them with light communications, no one could have found this snake belly tunnel. Second, he could hide invisibly before everyone’s eyes in the cabin of the Mosquito special transport plane. Third, judging from various signs on his body, he completely didn’t resemble a living person. These circumstances could only explain that Green Tomb was not a descendant of the Cham king, nor was it a case of a modern person’s face matching an ancient person’s. Very likely Green Tomb himself was the Cham king. As for whether he was a monster that had lived for a thousand years, or whether some corpse transformation occurred after death and he escaped from the ancient tomb coffin, it was completely impossible to judge. But the City of Four Million Pagodas sunk to the deepest part of the rift valley should be what attracted him back to Savage Mountain.

Sima Hui’s heart was full of confusion: “The Golden Spider City secretly built by the Cham king, its exterior was covered with infinite reliefs depicting the universe and its people, plants and insects, sword trees and knife mountains, gods and buddhas and demons. But inside, apart from a tunnel built with large numbers of human faced stone bricks, there was only this chamber scattered with gold, pearls, and jade objects. Could this ancient city be an underground mausoleum?”

But then Sima Hui thought again that something was wrong: “If this ancient city were truly a mausoleum underground palace, then the Cham king’s corpse should be in the coffin in the burial chamber. It couldn’t have followed the expedition team in from outside.”

He couldn’t figure it out after thinking a hundred times. So he asked Yu Feiyan what else she knew about Green Tomb and the Cham king. Was this place an ancient tomb underground palace or not?

Yu Feiyan said distractedly: “I already told you before. This is definitely not an underground mausoleum. If my eyes are wrong, I’m willing to dig out these eyes myself and give them to you. As for Green Tomb, I only know he is the head of a tycoon organization. Everything else is unknown. But indeed, no one has ever seen his true face. Since we accidentally discovered this secret, even if we can escape Savage Mountain, we will be killed by him to silence us. I’m afraid we can’t avoid it even if we hide to the ends of the earth…”

A thought suddenly popped into her heart: If she could somehow solve Green Tomb and still preserve her life to escape from this fire pit, wouldn’t all the treasures buried by the Cham king in Savage Mountain become hers? But then she worried: Having fallen into such circumstances, being able to survive the disaster was already lucky. If she still vainly coveted heavy treasures, heaven would naturally not protect her. Repeatedly scheming and calculating, in the end it would harm herself.

Sima Hui heard some clues. He nodded and said: “So Green Tomb went to such lengths to conceal his face because he worried others would know his identity. If not for seeing it with our own eyes, who could have imagined this person was actually the Cham king who had already died a thousand years ago. It seems that apart from finding a way to escape, we must even more quickly find Green Tomb. Otherwise, there will still be endless trouble.”

A Cui said somewhat worriedly: “This is easier said than done. That Green Tomb is a thousand year old corpse. Even if we find him, what can we do to him? Can we kill a person who is already dead, one more time?”

Hearing A Cui’s words, Sima Hui’s heart suddenly moved. He realized that the direction of his thinking just now was completely wrong. He asked Yu Feiyan again: “Do you know what happened after the Cham king died? Or did he actually die or not die at that time? Are there clear records of these matters?”

Yu Feiyan said in a low voice: “King Anu Jaya of course died. Looking through ancient and modern times, when has there ever been an immortal person? Even with a strange appearance, approximating a heavenly being, but after all, he was still flesh and blood. He ultimately couldn’t escape the summons of death. Legend says that during King Anu Jaya’s reign, his killings were too heavy. In the end, he died suddenly without illness. His death appearance was extremely terrifying. The burial mausoleum was in the mountain region at the border between Vietnam and Laos. In modern times, it suffered multiple lootings. The tomb site was also destroyed by military disasters. Now it has long left no trace.”

Sima Hui knew this was the crucial point. He continued pressing: “Did anyone discover King Anu Jaya’s skeleton in the ancient tomb?”

Yu Feiyan recalled: “According to my knowledge, the golden coffin that once held King Anu Jaya’s corpse was looted out and auctioned on a cruise ship on the high seas. Later, it was redeemed by believers and secretly transported to Vietnam. It was stored in the palace of the last dynasty of Vietnam, the Nguyen dynasty, which is the ancient capital of Hue. Until the Vietnam War broke out. In 1968, the Viet Cong launched the Tet Offensive. They assembled seven divisions of regular troops and fought fiercely with the US Marine Corps in Hue. Both sides fought with great ferocity. Sustained heavy bombing and cruel bloody street fighting beat this ancient city full of holes. At that time, the golden coffin stored in the city, along with the Cham king’s skeleton inside, from then on disappeared without knowing where.”

Sima Hui, Luo Big Sea, and A Cui, the three of them, had all heard of this famous Battle of Hue. The Viet Cong regular troops had tens of thousands of casualties. The US military only lost about one hundred forty. Behind the悬殊 numerical ratio, it benefited from the powerful firepower provided by the US Air Force and artillery units. In that chaotic situation at that time, artillery shells fell as if hail were dropping from the sky. Any kind of accident happening wouldn’t be strange. Perhaps in the fierce fighting, that coffin was shattered by artillery shells. And the “corpse transformation” of King Anu Jaya inside escaped. But why did he want to return to this ancient city buried underground?

Translation Notes:

Undur Khan (温都尔汗): A location in Mongolia where Lin Biao’s plane crashed in 1971. Luo Big Tongue compares that shocking political event to the current supernatural horror.