My rifle was raised a half-beat too late; the big man had already been seized by the giant hand from beneath the water, and his body obscured my line of fire. It was only thanks to the speed of the Lama that he grabbed the big man's webbing strap with one hand and brought his iron rod down upon the water with the other. The Iron Rod Lama was the equivalent of a Dharmapala warrior monk in the inner temples; this rod was not only etched with Vajrayana mantras but was also immensely heavy. The blow made the monstrous hand recoil, instantly yanking the big man, whose torso was half-submerged, back to safety.

Seeing the big man pulled back by the Lama, I immediately shouldered my rifle and fired several shots into the pool. Then, I pulled the pins on two grenades and tossed them in. The resulting water spout was over waist-high; I had no idea what, if anything, I had managed to hit.

The Lama and I dragged the big man backward. He seemed gravely wounded, crying out in agony. I cursed, "You overgrown idiot, why are you howling like a woman? You’re a six-foot-three man, and you sound like this over a little foul water?"

But as soon as I spoke, I realized something was wrong. The sewage had stained his military greatcoat pitch black, and half his body seemed to have deflated like a punctured balloon, completely sunken in. He had been shouting moments before, but now he was in such pain he couldn't make a sound; only sweat beads the size of soybeans dripped steadily from his forehead. Seeing this, the Lama quickly pulled a porcelain bottle from his robes, tore open the big man’s uniform, and dusted the wound with a red powdered medicine.

I saw that half of the big man's arm had completely withered and shrunk, turning the color of dry bark, like a desiccated mummy. My mind went blank; I didn't know what to do. I wondered if the Lama's powder would work. If rescue was too slow, the big man would surely die. We needed to find Military Doctor Gema immediately. This thought suddenly reminded me that in the chaos just moments ago, I had heard the fire of Type 56 semi-automatic rifles coming from the northwest. The Company Commander's group must have run into trouble too. Why had the firing stopped in that direction?

I wanted to rush over and see what was happening, but the big man was severely injured, and I didn't know what exactly was lurking in that pool—or if the grenades had killed it. Until we were sure, leaving the Lama to guard the wounded might not be safe. I decided to stay put, hold the position, and wait for relief, hoping the Company Commander and his men had heard the commotion here and would quickly move to converge with us.

Dragging the big man, I retreated behind a broken wall, only to realize that the fourth member of our group—the bespectacled Official Xu—was missing. Assuming he had met with an accident, I started to go look for him, but the Lama informed me that as soon as the activity began in the water, that big soldier had turned tail and fled. By now, he had likely bolted right out of the temple gates.

I exploded in fury, cursing, "That son of a bitch! He always talked the most revolutionary talk, but he deserted at the critical moment. How could he run off without even a sound? If I make it back alive, I swear I will expose the hypocritical face of that revisionist old pedant who always masked himself as an activist."

I cautiously peered out from behind the crumbling wall. The two grenades had blasted away much of the sewage in the pool; there wasn't much water left, and seemingly nothing in it. But what had dragged the big man under? I asked the Lama if it was a Shuigui (Water Ghost).

The Lama shook his head. "No. A temple is the most sacred place in the world. Even if it is desolate now, there will be no ghosts here. Those who die here achieve complete liberation."

I thought to myself, first he says it’s cursed, now he calls it sacred—isn’t that contradictory? I pressed him, "The situation is critical now, so we can speak privately. If it wasn't the work of spirits, then it must be some mountain sprite or water monster, right?"

The Lama ignored my question and began reciting the Eightfold Vajrayana Mantra for the Revival of Life: "Om! Red man, red horse, King Thath, grasping the crimson-tasseled spear, clad in a great red satin cloak, whose retinue is equally marvelous, offered sacrifice of myriad desires with burning smoke. Black man, black horse, Demon King, clad in a great black satin cloak, grasping the black-tasseled spear, whose retinue is equally marvelous, offered sacrifice of myriad desires with burning smoke. Blue man, blue horse, Dragon King of the Sea..."

Seeing him chant continuously, seemingly detached and deaf to the outside world, I gave up questioning him. The moonlight was cold, and the wind bit to the bone, but I was burning with anxiety. Our group had a deserter and one severely wounded man, while the other group’s whereabouts were unknown. After that volley of gunfire, there had been silence.

After waiting about two more minutes with no sign of the Company Commander’s men, I grew impatient. I loaded the big man's semi-automatic rifle and placed it beside the Lama, then leaped out from behind the broken wall, preparing to search for the five men in the Company Commander's party. If they were safe, I would hurry back with Gema to treat the big man. As soon as I moved, I spotted something shiny on the ground near the pool's edge. I walked over and picked it up—a small, oddly shaped box that resembled a camera, though I’d never seen one so small. Then I realized: I had seen these in anti-spy films. Official Xu was a spy! He must have been here to gather intelligence on our unit’s secret construction site in the Kunlun Mountains, only to be accidentally drawn into this rescue mission. Seeing how dangerous it was, he decided it wasn't worth risking his life for irrelevant matters and bolted. Unfortunately, he revealed his true colors. I’d settle accounts with him when we got back.

I slipped the spy camera into my pocket. Thinking of my comrade, the poor big man, I knew that even if he lived, he would be crippled forever. Grief overwhelmed me, amplified by the desolate wilderness, the withered grass, and the crumbling ruins. Tears instantly blurred my vision. I didn't see the stone concealed in the tall grass and tripped hard, gasping in pain. Rubbing my knee, I looked down at the clump of grass where the stone lay.

It was a stone figure lying horizontally in the earth, half-buried beneath the mud and grass. The exposed part didn't look entirely like stone. A sudden wave of foul odor confirmed my suspicion: about seventy percent of the statue seemed to be flesh and blood, covered in green mold, emitting a stench so rotten it made it hard to keep my eyes open.

Was it a corpse or a statue? This patch of grass was saturated with silt, suggesting it had once been part of the pond before the water dried up. I prodded it twice with my rifle, and suddenly, a massive hand shot out from the mud, clawing toward my legs along the ground. I knew instantly this was the thing that had dragged the big man into the water. Corpse or not, no living or dead thing should possess a hand that large. If I were caught and dragged into the water, I would surely be sucked into a dried husk too.

Weighing down my heavy military coat and dozens of pounds of gear, I couldn't dodge. Just as I was about to use my rifle to fend it off, someone burst in from the side, crashing right into the prone stone figure. Immediately, the green object emerging from the mud and grass ensnared him tight.

In the moonlight, I could see clearly now: the newcomer was the runner, Chen Xing. As soon as he hit the ground, he was dragged up to his knees into the mud. For some reason, Chen Xing didn't cry out or shout, only struggling silently with all his might.

I scrambled out of the grass, intending to rush over and help him, when another figure ran up. In the moonlight, I clearly saw it was our Company Commander, a man from Sichuan. The Company Commander, his face grim, stood beside me holding his pistol. He glanced at me, said nothing, raised his gun, and fired three rapid shots, killing Chen Xing, who was still struggling. Then, he raised the pistol to his own temple and pulled the trigger.

The four sharp reports echoed unnervingly in the moonlit ruins of the ancient temple grounds, but the scene unfolding in the grass was ten times more bizarre.

My mouth hung open, unable to close for a long time. Why would the Company Commander shoot Chen Xing? Was Chen Xing a spy? Why did he then commit suicide? A chilling thought occurred to me: perhaps one of them was possessed by a spirit. Remembering the earlier exchange of gunfire, I instantly worried about Military Doctor Gema and dared not look at the faces of the deceased Company Commander and Chen Xing. I forgot about the strange reclining stone figure on the ground and immediately got up, dragging my rifle, and sprinted forward.

Judging by the long-damaged stone figures and beasts lining the path from either side, this must be the Spirit Path leading to the ancient tomb. A tomb differs from a grave in that one is backfilled with original soil, the other is a sealed space. The large mound ahead, blocked by ritual stones, had collapsed. The rammed earth of the mound had cracked open wide enough for a person to enter, revealing absolute blackness within. Thinking only of finding Military Doctor Gema, I switched on my flashlight and plunged inside.

The Lama had said the tomb was empty, the coffins and bodies long burned. What I saw inside confirmed this: stone met earth immediately, a chaotic mess, but nothing foreign remained.

Seeing that Ga Hong, the cook, and the geologist were not inside, I had no choice but to run back outside. Although the elevation here was low, it was still the plateau, and the continuous, intense exertion made my heart pound like a war drum. I gasped for breath. The moon that night was unusually full, and a strange, whimpering cry echoed in the night sky—I couldn't tell if it was a ghost’s wail, the wind, or hungry wolves howling at the moon. If the wolf packs had indeed been driven up the mountain, they wouldn't be easy to handle. I wished that son of a bitch Xu had run right into them.

Opposite the ancient tomb rose steep mountains—there was no path forward. I wandered around the tomb mound, unable to believe those living men could have vanished into thin air. As I pondered this, I spotted a soldier lying near the dry lake at the base of the slope. I rushed over and saw it was Military Doctor Gema, somehow unconscious. Beside her was a very deep pit; in the darkness, its depth was impossible to gauge.

I quickly helped Gema up and revived her by pinching her philtrum, asking what had happened. Gema recounted the events haltingly: Their group, led by the Company Commander, had searched the tomb without finding any clues, so they continued investigating nearby. Geologist Lu Weiguo discovered a sinkhole at the base of the slope. Judging by the fault lines, it seemed to have cracked open only a few days ago during an earthquake, and the space inside showed clear signs of artificial construction. The Company Commander told Gema to stay topside while he took the others down. As soon as they descended, gunfire erupted. Gema thought there was trouble below and rushed down with her pistol to provide support. It turned out to be a false alarm: the men below had found an ancient corpse laid out on a stone platform shaped like a crouching wolf. The cook, lacking field experience, lost patience and mistakenly thought it was an enemy, firing several shots into the ancient body.

Hearing this, I realized these must have been the few shots I had heard earlier. I asked Military Doctor Gema what happened next, and about Lu Weiguo and the cook. "Are they still alive?"

Gema shook her head, unsure. The Company Commander had severely reprimanded the cook for shooting the ancient corpse. The cook had fired three shots in total, and suddenly, from every bullet hole in the ancient body, a Dapu flame-worm emerged. The first one drilled into the cook’s ear. Gema said she would never forget the cook’s tragic scream. Her grandfather was a bard of the wilderness, and she had heard in the long poems that the World-Conquering Jewel King’s great enemy, the ruler of the Demon Kingdom, commanded several kinds of Dapu (Tibetan: demonic insects) that tormented countless living beings until they were finally eradicated by Master Padma when the holy lake's waters were spilled backward.

Gema tried to tell the cook, no matter how strange the sensations inside his body, he must not open his mouth or make a sound, because the moment he did, the Dapu would ignite him. If he endured it silently, he might live a little longer. But it was too late; Old Sun, the cook, was instantly reduced to ash. The others immediately turned to flee outside. In the chaos, Chen Xing knocked Gema down, and she knew nothing of what happened afterward.

I felt a chill run through me. This was indeed the tomb of a noble of the Demon Kingdom. It seemed to be a parent-child tomb structure; the Ghost Mother’s grave had been destroyed, and this nearby one had only recently been exposed. However, I wondered if the Dapu they mentioned were the same as the fire-demon-like ladybugs I had encountered. They sounded similar but also somewhat distinct. The Company Commander, the runner, and the cook were all dead. Lu Weiguo was still missing. Perhaps he hadn't climbed out of the crypt yet. I shouted a few times into the hole, but there was no reply.

Ultimately, I couldn't abandon him. Gema and I were discussing how we might devise a way to bypass these Dapu fire-worms and go down to find Lu Weiguo, when Gema suddenly pushed me. I heard two soft thwip sounds—the sound of bullets passing through my quilted coat. Gema clutched her chest and collapsed.

My heart turned completely cold. She had given her life to save mine, but before I could grieve, an icy gun muzzle pressed against the back of my head. A familiar voice said, "Huh? There's a hole here. Damn it, the wolves were closing in just now. You go in first and clear the way; we’ll hide in there."

I heard clearly: the voice belonged to that enemy agent, Official Xu, who had fled earlier. He must have run back after encountering the gathering wolf pack on the road. Realizing he had lost something while running, he intended to kill us all to cover his tracks. He had just killed someone when he spotted this extremely deep, unknown pit. Unsure of the danger inside, he spared my life, intending to use me as a mine sweeper.

Before I could react, the gun barrel poked the back of my head again. Xu said from behind me, "Hurry up and get in! The wolves are coming soon. Don't test my patience, or I won't be polite. Don't underestimate the lethality of this silenced pistol. A .22 caliber bullet might not pierce your skull, but it will stay inside your cranium and slowly torture you to death."

Helpless, I hardened my resolve and squeezed into the pit. In the center of the dark tomb chamber before me, a small blue flame was flickering to life.