Daomu Biji: Restart

I didn’t know how long I had been walking before Fatty asked me softly, "Mr. Naïve, how do you feel?"

Numbed by the darkness, I said to him, "I feel like we’re walking in a black hole. How do you feel?"

"I feel like a sperm that’s heading towards a deep and mysterious destination," Fatty said.

I found it a bit funny. This metaphor wasn’t considered obscene in today's society, but Fatty's tone definitely made it sound obscene.

While talking, we arrived at the place where Jin Wantang had been crushed by the rocks. We found his backpack there, which contained a lot of food, so Fatty took all of it and patted Old Jin on the shoulder to express his gratitude. I felt a twinge of sadness in my heart when I thought of Old Jin lying here before. He must have been quite desperate since the possibility of being rescued was very low, but at least he was saved in the end.

Even though things had turned out like this.

Poker-Face was very careful as we stopped to reorganize our equipment, making sure that the little monster wasn’t nearby before moving on.

I was already well aware of the fact that our food wasn’t enough to survive here and that the journey would be extremely difficult, but we would surely die if we tried to go back now. I knew I had to think of a way to replenish our food stores before they ran out. I at least didn’t have to worry about water, but there probably wouldn’t be any food here at all.

By this time, the light that had been shining from the place where the young man had been sitting was extinguished and the only light sources were our flashlights. Even though they were illuminating the path in front of us, it was still extremely dark all around.

After walking for a while, we finally arrived in front of the building I had vaguely seen just now. It was a rough-hewn stone wall that had a doorway carved out of it.

This wall was so tall that it almost blocked the gap. I couldn’t even see the top of it so I couldn’t tell if it was sealed or not. I had no idea who might have built this thing, but there wasn’t a door in the doorway, so the area behind it was just a gaping black hole.

"Is this the gate to hell?" Fatty asked.

I used my peripheral vision to look inside the door and felt as if the darkness inside was denser than the darkness surrounding us. Fatty was sweaty and exhausted after carrying Jin Wantang’s corpse on his back the whole time, so we put our things down at the door and observed.

The young man was no longer here, but the gaps in the surrounding stones were very small and felt safer, so I was a little relieved.

After resting for a while, the three of us walked through the doorway. I could tell right away that the bronze piece’s energy had obviously diminished since the surrounding darkness seemed to be hovering right over my skin. I felt like we were similar to those very affectionate elementary school girls who would always cling together.

The darkness inside the doorway was so deep that our flashlights couldn’t seem to penetrate it. We couldn’t see any details no matter where we shined them and all we saw was nothingness. I felt like I was floating all alone in this place, as if I were floating in the deep sea. I wouldn't be surprised if a huge fish eye suddenly opened somewhere in the darkness around us.

It was a very strange feeling because it was like there was a strong sense of magic in the air, but also a huge fear similar to a fear of the deep sea. I could feel my whole body breaking out in goose bumps as I asked myself, what will happen next? What’s at the end of this road? Is that little thing dead? What's Xiao Hua and the others’ current situation like now?

We moved forward very carefully in this dense darkness, starting a blind journey through the extreme night. I waited for any new accidents, sneak attacks, monsters, or strange events every day, but after passing through that door, everything was calm and nothing happened.

We had less and less food as the days went by, the weight in our backpacks almost reduced by half after about two weeks. The thing I gradually came to fear the most was that such a journey would never end.

Jin Wantang soon started to smell strongly, but Fatty didn't want to leave him so we wrapped him tightly in the sleeping bags and tarps from our equipment. But I soon discovered that Jin Wantang's body had quickly stopped decaying.