"We found Hu Yan's notes. Year 2021. A secret underwater observation team disappeared through the same rift. We are trapped. Do not drink the water in the blue lake outside the pavilion. It is not water. It is ionized liquid mercury. We tried to follow the 'Blood Cleansing' procedure from the second-floor murals. The Captain died within three minutes. His heart exploded. This is not science. This is a biological massacre. If you are reading this, never enter that wooden vat."
Everyone in the room spontaneously turned toward the large wooden vat at the end of the room that Xinghe had touched earlier. The dried bloodstains there now appeared much more gruesome.
"So... that 2021 team tried to imitate these paintings?" Han Dong asked, his voice hoarse. "They tried to perform the 'Blood Cleansing' and they failed?"
"They were looking for a way out," Chu Xinghe said, his eyes fixed on the anatomical paintings on the wall. "They saw Hu Yan disappear, they saw this technology, and they tried to understand it with modern medical logic. But their Captain died. That means something was wrong with the way they read these instructions."
"Or these instructions are indeed a way to kill mortals like us," Yun Hai muttered.
Zhao Lin took a step back, bumping into a small wooden shelf. "I want to go down. I don't want to be here. These pictures, the records of dead people... this isn't right. We have to go back to that cauldron and find a button to return to Earth!"
"There is no return button, Zhao Lin," Xinghe replied coldly. "You saw for yourself that the cauldron is pulled by dragon corpses. Corpses don't need buttons. They move based on a mechanism we don't understand. We are trapped here, in this temporary stop, just like Hu Yan hundreds of years ago and that 2021 team."
Li Wei sat leaning against the wooden wall, his face haggard. "So we're going to die here? Eat rations from a Shanghai fridge until they're gone, and then freeze to death?"
Chu Xinghe did not answer. He walked toward a small window on the second floor of the pavilion. He opened the heavy window pane. Outside, the landscape of the dark blue planet stretched out in silence. The nine giant corpses still lay stiffly around the bronze furnace. However, something caught his eye.
In the distance, behind the rows of towering blue rocks, there was a small valley. In the middle of that valley, a blue glow appeared, much brighter than any other part of the ground. The light pulsed, as if the planet had a heart beating beneath its glass stone layer.
"There's something in that valley," Xinghe muttered.
"Whatever it is, I don't want to know," Zhao Lin replied from behind. "I'd rather stay here. At least there's a roof."
"You're forgetting one thing, Zhao Lin," Xinghe turned, looking at the wealthy youth with a gaze that made Zhao Lin fall silent. "The fridge downstairs only has a limited supply. And that 2021 record said their Captain died trying the 'Blood Cleansing.' That means they were desperate for strength because something was chasing them, or they couldn't survive in this planet's atmosphere any longer."
Xinghe looked back at the paintings on the wall. "Hu Yan didn't write that he died. He wrote that he found a way. If he could survive for some time here without modern technology, it means there are secrets on this planet we haven't seen yet."
"You want us to explore?" Han Dong asked, starting to check the remaining battery on his phone. "Our batteries won't last forever. Once these phones die, we'll be blind in the dark."
"We have the warm crystal stones from the fridge earlier," Xinghe said. "They glow. We can use them as torches."
Lin Mei stood up, hugging her arms. "I don't want to be left alone here. If Xinghe goes, I'm going too."
Fang Hua and Yun Hai nodded in agreement. They realized that in a foreign place like this, separating from the person who was the calmest and knew the most was a death sentence. Xin Yan had been standing by Xinghe's side since the beginning.
"Alright," Han Dong let out a long sigh. "We take the remaining food and water from downstairs. We take those crystal stones. We find out what's in that valley before our oxygen or our sanity runs out."
They went back down to the first floor. The process of packing supplies was done in silence. Chu Xinghe took several bamboo scrolls from the shelves, slipping them into his large jacket pocket. He didn't know if he could read them later, but his historical instinct forbade him from leaving valuable information behind. Li Wei evenly distributed the vacuum water pouches into a small backpack he found near the fridge.
It was a bag belonging to the 2021 team that had begun to grow mold. Zhao Lin took the most rations, but no one protested. They exited the black wooden pavilion. The cold air of the blue planet greeted them again. Chu Xinghe led the group, walking away from the crystal pillars and the giant bronze furnace. Their footsteps crunched on the hard blue stone surface.
Every few meters, they had to stop to catch their breath because of the thin atmosphere. As they began to descend the slope toward the valley, the blue glow became clearer. It turned out it wasn't just glowing rocks. At the bottom of the valley, there was a large pool filled with a thick blue liquid emitting cold steam. The liquid moved slowly, swirling to create small vortexes.
"Is that water?" Li Wei asked, preparing to open his empty water bottle.
"Stop!" Xinghe snapped. "Remember the note in the pavilion. That's not water. It's ionized liquid mercury. Don't touch it."
They stopped at the edge of the pond. Surrounding the pool were hundreds of small skeletons scattered about. The skeletons were not human. The bones were thin, with wings that had dried and crumbled, resembling the skeletons of giant insects or strange small birds.
"What are these?" Xin Yan whispered, pointing to one of the intact skeletons.
Chu Xinghe knelt, observing the skeleton. "This looks like a... butterfly. But it's the size of a human hand. They all died around this pool."
"Maybe they tried to drink," Yun Hai suggested. "Just like us, they were looking for life in this dead place."
"Or maybe they are the remains of a failed process," Xinghe muttered. He stared into the middle of the pool. There, a giant crystal stone protruded from the surface of the blue liquid. The stone had a shape very familiar to Xinghe. It resembled a lotus bud that had not yet bloomed.
"That... that's the same as the painting on the second floor," Han Dong said, his voice trembling. "A lotus bud. Is there something in the pool that might have spat that stone out from stomachs like the ones in the lotus drawings?"
"I don't know," Chu Xinghe answered honestly. He squinted, trying to see the bottom of the crystal submerged in the thick liquid. "But if the 2021 team's notes are correct, this place isn't just a natural landscape. It's like a deadly outdoor laboratory."
Chu Xinghe picked up a blue stone pebble from the ground. He threw it toward the pool. When the stone hit the surface of the blue liquid, there was no sound of clear splashing water. The sound was heavy, like a stone falling into thick oil or mud. The resulting ripple moved slowly, and then the pool surface returned to a calm, cold glow.
"Liquid mercury shouldn't glow like this," Xinghe muttered. He stood up, feeling his knees slightly stiff. "Grandpa once said that in ancient times, alchemy often used mercury to seek immortality. But it's poison. Many emperors died from drinking it."
Zhao Lin stood furthest from the edge of the pool, his face filled with disgust and fear. "If it's poison, why are we here? We should be looking for a way out, not looking at a mercury pool in the middle of nowhere!"
"Because only here are there signs similar to the pictures in the pavilion," Han Dong replied. He aimed his phone flashlight at the pile of butterfly skeletons. "Xinghe, look at this. These skeletons aren't rotting. They've just dried up. It's as if all the fluid in their bodies was sucked out."
Chu Xinghe walked around the edge of the pool. He observed the position of the skeletons. Almost all of them faced the lotus-bud-shaped crystal stone in the middle of the pool. He remembered the painting on the second floor of the pavilion, about the lotus flower depicted growing inside a human body.
"Maybe that crystal isn't just a decoration," Xinghe said. He pointed toward the stone pillars towering in the distance, where the bronze cauldron had landed. "That cauldron brought us here. The pavilion gave instructions. And this pool... this might be the execution site."
Suddenly, the pool surface churned. The previously calm blue liquid began to boil without hot steam. A large bubble emerged from below, then burst, emitting a heavy popping sound. A very sharp metallic scent stung their noses, causing Lin Mei and Fang Hua to cough.
"Back up!" Xinghe ordered. They all backed up several steps as the blue liquid began to creep up the surface of the crystal stone in the middle of the pool. The liquid seemed to have a will of its own, crawling over the crystal petals and into the cracks. The glow from the bud stone increased drastically, changing from a dim blue to a sharp purple.
THOOM! THOOM! THOOM!
A heavy sound echoed. The surface of the mercury pool split, and long shadows slowly rose from the depths of the thick liquid. Thick blue water dripped from their bodies, revealing very bizarre forms. Their height reached one spear-length, about three meters or more. Their skin was deathly pale, with bright blue blood vessels clearly visible pulsing beneath the thin skin.
Their faces had no eyes or noses, and only a mouth that was stitched shut as if from their own flesh. Dozens of them rose simultaneously, then increased to hundreds until they crawled out from the edge of the pool toward the rocky bank.
"Run!" Han Dong shouted with all his might.
Total panic broke out instantly.
Zhao Lin had already turned around first, running frantically up the blue rocky slope, leaving his phone flashlight falling and rolling away. Li Wei screamed hysterically; his feet tripped over sharp rocks, but he immediately crawled up due to fear paralyzing his mind.
The slope was very dark. The light from the pool was left far below. Lin Mei ran beside Chu Xinghe. The girl's breath came in ragged gasps, sounding like a broken whistle. She handed her still-shining phone to Xinghe with trembling hands.
"Take this! Put it in your jacket hood!" Lin Mei shouted amidst the sound of chaotic footsteps. "So we can see which way you're running! Don't let us get separated in this dark place!"
Xinghe did not argue. He grabbed the phone and slipped it into the hood of his jacket behind his neck. The flashlight beam shone straight up and reflected backward, providing a bright reference point for his friends running behind him.
"Toward the pavilion! There's a pile of wood next to it!" Xinghe called out while trying to maintain his running rhythm so as not to run out of air.
The sound of heavy, wet footsteps could be heard chasing from the slope below. The tall creatures did not run like normal humans; their movements were stiff but very fast. Their footsteps hit the blue stones with a terrifying thudding sound. This rocky slope was very slippery and uneven.
Yun Hai, running behind Xin Yan, lost her balance. Her shoe heel got caught in a sharp crack in the crystal stone. The girl fell hard, her knees and elbows hitting the rocks until they bled. "Aaaah! My leg!" Yun Hai screamed in pain.
Before Xin Yan could turn back to help, an incredibly long and wet pale hand grabbed Yun Hai's ankle. One of the spear-tall creatures was right behind her. The creature pulled Yun Hai's leg with brute force, dragging the girl down the slope toward the mercury pool.
"Help me! Xinghe! Dong!" Yun Hai cried hysterically. Her hands clawed at the blue stones, trying to hold her body until her fingernails broke and bled.
Han Dong, who was not far away, immediately turned around; he quickly jumped back down toward the creature. He delivered a solid kick with his heel right toward the creature's eyeless face. A loud impact was heard, but the creature's head only turned slightly. Its grip on Yun Hai's leg did not loosen at all.
Chu Xinghe arrived the next second. He did not use bare fists. He spun his body and kicked the creature's elbow from the side. The sound of bones snapping softly could be heard. The pale arm bent in the wrong direction. The creature released its grip, its body staggering back.
"Get on my back, now!" Chu Xinghe ordered Yun Hai. He immediately crouched down with his back to the girl.
Yun Hai did not think twice or care about her pain. She jumped onto Xinghe's back, wrapping her arms tightly around the youth's neck. Chu Xinghe stood up immediately. Yun Hai's body weight added drastic pressure to his knees on the uphill terrain. "Keep running, Dong!" Xinghe shouted, leading the group back.
Han Dong nodded and ran ahead again. A strange moaning sound, a combination of a snake's hiss and grinding metal, came from the direction of the hundreds of creatures continuing to push up from the mercury valley. They finally reached the flat area near the black wooden pavilion. The eight people's breath roared loudly, exhausting the thin oxygen on the planet.
On the right side of the old building, Chu Xinghe saw a pile of giant wooden pillars lying messily on the ground. They were remnants possibly from the pavilion, leaving narrow gaps between them. Xinghe ordered quickly, "Hide in the gaps between those pillars!"