In this moment of despair, a sudden avalanche shook the ground violently, causing a large crack to open up on the steep slope in front of us.
A fierce snowstorm swept in from the sky, leaving no time for anyone to think. We rushed into the gap in the rocks. The crack was steep, and we didn’t expect such a big drop below. The five of us tumbled down together, rolling several times before landing at the bottom of a large hole.
Just then, a massive slab of snow rolled down behind us, sealing the gap tightly and sending up a cloud of snow that made us cough violently. The rumbling above continued for a long time before it finally quieted down. We could only imagine how many tons of snow had piled up above us.
In the darkness, we couldn’t see anything. After what felt like an eternity, someone finally broke the silence. It was the big guy, his thick Northeast accent clear as he called out, “If you can still breathe, make a sound! Lao Hu, Ga Wa, Engineer Liu, Engineer Luo, are you all there?”
I felt like my body was falling apart from the fall, and the pain made it hard to speak. I could only grunt a couple of times to let them know I was still alive.
Ga Wa responded with a sound and pulled out a flashlight to look around. Luo Ning sat on the ground with a dazed expression, seemingly unhurt. Engineer Liu lay next to her, unconscious with his eyes closed. His left leg was broken, and a piece of white bone was exposed.
The crack we had fallen into was narrow and deep. Beyond the beam of the flashlight, everything was pitch black, and we had no idea what the terrain was like further away.
The big guy checked Engineer Liu’s breath and shook his head, saying, “He’s gone.”
I crawled over to feel Engineer Liu’s carotid artery and confirmed that his heart had stopped. Sighing, I said to the big guy, “We should bury him.”
I took out my entrenching tool to dig a hole, but Ga Wa stopped me and pointed to the ground, saying, “Worms, fire.”
Ga Wa’s reminder made me recall the terrifying beetle. Our small team of fourteen had lost ten members in those few heart-stopping minutes. It was clear that the ground here was not safe to dig; who knew what other horrors lay beneath?
We couldn’t just leave our comrade’s body exposed, so we had to find a compromise. I used the flashlight to illuminate the area while Ga Wa and the big guy gathered some stones to cover Engineer Liu’s body, creating a makeshift stone grave for him.
Throughout this process, Luo Ning sat still on the ground, quietly watching Engineer Liu’s stone grave. Eventually, she could no longer hold back and burst into tears. The sorrow that had been bottled up inside her flowed out like a tidal wave.
I wanted to comfort her, but I didn’t know what to say. Her cries touched me deeply, making my nose sting and my heart ache. I remembered just last night when our team had gathered around the campfire, singing military songs together. The sound of those strong voices still echoed in my ears, but today, most of our comrades would forever rest beneath the icy glaciers of Kunlun Mountain.
I helped Luo Ning to her feet, and together we paid our respects to Engineer Liu and our other fallen comrades.
After a long time, we managed to calm down from our pain and tended to our wounds. Fortunately, they were all minor injuries and didn’t hinder our movement. We quickly ate a few bites of our compressed biscuits and gathered together to discuss our next steps. It was impossible to exit through the valley blocked by the snow slab; I suspected the entire valley might have been filled in by the avalanche. We had to find another way out.
Ga Wa patted his empty bullet pouch, indicating that we were low on ammunition. When we entered the mountains, we had to carry a lot of gear, so our ammo supply was minimal—each of us had only three rifle magazines since this wasn’t a combat mission and there were no bandits in the area. During the avalanche, we had also discarded some ammunition, leaving us with about twenty rounds each, plus two grenades in total. There shouldn’t be any wild beasts down here, so having extra bullets wouldn’t help much; we just needed enough for self-defense.
We had run out of food; we had eaten everything we could find earlier. We needed to find a way out within two days, or we would starve to death down here. Fortunately, Luo Ning had a compass on her.
The depth of the crack was beyond our imagination. After walking south for a while, we reached a dead end. The ground’s fissure turned north, and it felt like we had walked beneath the great glacier.
We walked in the darkness for over ten hours, and the terrain kept getting lower while the underground space expanded. Luo Ning used a barometer to measure the air pressure, and when we converted the data to altitude, it turned out to be only about four hundred meters—similar to Sichuan, far below the average altitude of over four thousand meters of the Tibetan Plateau. If we kept going down like this, we might end up at the center of the Earth.
Finally, the ground leveled out, and we heard the rushing sound of water, suggesting there was a large underground river nearby. Since there was no more downhill path, I used the flashlight to look around for any way to go up. Suddenly, I noticed that the light from the flashlight created many faint reflections on the rock walls, as if shining on countless shards of mirrors.
Luo Ning exclaimed, “It’s mica!”
The other three didn’t know what mica was, but hearing her tone of alarm made them think something was wrong. They quickly moved to shield Luo Ning and hastily pulled out their semi-automatic rifles, racking the bolts in preparation to shoot.
Luo Ning was puzzled and asked, “What are you doing?”
I held my gun at the ready and asked her, “What do you mean by mica? Where is it?”
Luo Ning replied, “It’s not an animal! I mean there are crystals all around. Mica and quartz usually grow in the same geological layer. Ah, and there are indeed quartz crystals here!”
Luo Ning was captivated by the rare large mica around us, examining one piece after another. I picked up a small piece to look at it, but I couldn’t see anything particularly special about it.
Suddenly, I heard the big guy shout at Ga Wa, “Ga Wa, what are you doing? Get up!”
I shone the flashlight over and saw Ga Wa on the ground, bowing in the Tibetan manner, his whole body pressed against the earth. What was he doing? Who was he bowing to? I shone the light in front of him and gasped in shock.
Before us stood a massive wooden tower made of thousands of giant logs, shaped like a “A” character. The tower was dotted with countless red glimmers. With the faint light, I could see that the base of the tower was nearly two hundred meters wide, constructed from rammed earth and stones. The tower itself was built from ancient cypress wood and was divided into nine levels, each filled with the desiccated remains of people dressed in strange ancient clothing—men, women, and children alike. Every large log was covered in secret Tibetan inscriptions. Was this a tomb? Who had built such a massive structure underground?
Luo Ning, still focused on the mica, heard our discussion and came over to take a closer look.
I gestured to the big guy to be quiet and continued to ask Ga Wa, “What is this tower? Do you recognize the writing on it?”
Ga Wa shook his head vigorously.
I said, “What are you bowing for if you don’t even know? Are you scared silly seeing all these bones?”
Ga Wa’s face was filled with panic as he spoke in broken Mandarin, “Fxxk, it’s nine, nine… Nine-Tiered demon tower.”
I didn’t catch the first part of what he said, but I clearly heard the last four words: “Nine-Tiered Demon Tower.” What was that for? Wasn’t it just a place to bury the dead?
Before Ga Wa could say more, Luo Ning stealthily ran back from the tower, signaling us to be quiet. She pointed at the tower and whispered, “Don’t make a sound; we mustn’t disturb them.”
Seeing her serious expression, I realized we might be in trouble, but I didn’t know what she was referring to. I lowered my voice and asked, “Disturb what? The dead in the tower?”
Luo Ning replied, extremely tense, “No, it’s those fire bettles. They’re all sleeping on the corpses, and there are countless of them.”
After hearing Luo Ning’s words, I finally noticed that the dense red glimmers on the wooden tower were indeed coming from those transparent bettles.
Although I had a bit of the fearless spirit of a revolutionary soldier, the thought of those strange bettles filled me with panic. These creatures, defying common sense, were too difficult to deal with, and the horrific scene in the valley had left a strong sense of fear in me.
I signaled for the four of us to quietly retreat. We hadn’t gone far when Ga Wa suddenly stepped into a hidden ditch and fell in.
The ditch was well-concealed and ran parallel to our path, so we hadn’t noticed it on our way in. Although it was only about a meter deep, Ga Wa still let out a muffled groan from the fall. I quickly jumped down to help him, only to see him clutching his foot, his face twisted in pain.
At that moment, Luo Ning and the big guy also jumped into the ditch. With the flashlight, they discovered that Ga Wa’s foot had been pierced by a sharp white bone, with a clear hole through his shoe and blood gushing out. The bottom of the ditch was littered with layers of various animal bones, far too many to count. It seemed this ditch was a burial pit for animals like cows, horses, sheep, and dogs.
To avoid disturbing the bettles in the nearby tower, the big guy covered Ga Wa’s mouth to keep him quiet. I quickly pulled out the bone that had pierced his foot, while Luo Ning sprinkled some Yunnan Baiyao(The well-known traditional Chinese medicine used for stopping bleeding and promoting wound healing) from her first aid kit on the wound and wrapped it with a white bandage to stop the bleeding.
My hands were covered in Ga Wa’s blood, and I wiped them on my military uniform. Suddenly, a thought flashed through my mind: this animal burial pit was oddly shaped—not square or round, but long and narrow, leading directly to the wooden tower where the bodies were placed. This shape resembled a layout mentioned in “Feng Shui Secrets” called “She(means deterrence).” If that were the case, there should be another burial ditch of similar scale parallel to this one.
The two burial ditches flanked the wooden tower, forming a structure reminiscent of the “Two Dragons Absorbing Pearls” formation. Based on this, the ditch next to us likely contained items used by the owner of the tomb in life. However, it was unclear whether these burial ditches were man-made or naturally formed; the latter seemed more likely.
The sound of rushing water nearby was quite loud, and judging by the flow, there was an underground river to the northwest, behind the Nine-Tiered Demon Tower, because dragons are always associated with water.
If my assumptions were correct, then I already had a mental map of this underground world; I just needed to find the other burial ditch to confirm my theory.
The big guy nudged my shoulder, saying, “Hey, Lao Hu, what are you thinking about?”
I snapped back to reality after his push and asked Luo Ning, “Engineer Luo, can you estimate our current position? Where do you think we are on the map?”
Luo Ning used the compass to reference the map and calculated for a moment before saying, “We’ve been moving north underground for over ten hours. Based on our speed, we must have already passed the glacier above us and should be close to exiting Kunlun Mountain.”
I shared my earlier thoughts. If we turned back now, we would only return to the snow-covered crack. If I was right, following the underground river should lead us out. However, this meant we would have to risk passing beneath the Nine-Tiered Demon Tower, a desperate plan to seek survival.
After discussing it, the four of us agreed that while this plan was fraught with danger, it was worth a try. I decided to first find the other burial ditch to confirm my suspicions.
Before we set off, I asked Ga Wa, “What exactly is the Nine-Tiered Demon Tower?”
Ga Wa struggled to express himself in Mandarin, but after a long explanation, I finally understood some of it. In his hometown of Xuewei, there was a ruin identical to the Nine-Tiered Demon Tower. It was said that this “Nine-Tiered Demon Tower” was an ancient burial form for the kings of a demon kingdom. When that kingdom fell, the tomb was destroyed by the hero King Gesar, leaving only a pile of rotten wooden frames and the epic poems passed down by the herders, which celebrated King Gesar’s unparalleled feats like the sun.
Tibetan herders would pay their respects and chant the epic as they passed these ruins. This was not out of fear of the tomb of the demon kingdom’s kings, but rather to express their respect for King Gesar. Ga Wa mentioned some religious aspects, but I couldn’t grasp them fully. Whether those fire-like bugs were the resting spirits of the dead in the tomb remained a mystery.
I left Luo Ning and the other three behind and crawled forward. About a hundred meters away from the animal burial ditch, I indeed found another burial ditch filled with ancient leather boots, wooden pieces inscribed in ancient Tibetan, Mongolian wooden tablets, painted wooden pieces, gold ornaments, wooden tablets, wooden wings, wooden birds and beasts, bronze vessels, grains, and a large amount of silk as burial goods.
It seemed my deductions were correct; the underground river behind the Nine-Tiered Demon Tower must connect to the outside world. I returned to the animal burial ditch to signal the others to move.
I led the way, with the big guy holding his gun behind me, followed by Ga Wa, who was still in pain from his foot injury, and Luo Ning supporting him from behind.
The Nine-Tiered Demon Tower was massive, and the underground cavity was originally very spacious. However, the tower and the large areas of mica on both sides nearly blocked the path northward, leaving only a narrow passage that we could barely squeeze through.
We cautiously passed beneath the wooden tower, and the sight of those bettles flickering with a fiery glow made my heart race. The two hundred meters beneath the tower felt like an eternity with every step we took.