Siheyuan: tomb robbing? I am serious about hunting.

Chapter 883 1

The rain forest in the early morning was like a boiling pot, the steam condensed into water droplets on the tent fabric, dripping down the canvas lines onto Jack's shoulders. He woke up suddenly, his hand instinctively grasped the shotgun beside his pillow, his pupils contracted in the darkness - the rustling sound he heard while on guard last night was still lingering in his ears, and now the morning light penetrated the tent, and he could see that it was just a fern swaying in the wind. "I should have gotten used to this kind of false alarm." Jack wiped his face with self-mockery. Outside the canvas tent came the sound of Carlos cleaning the camp with a machete, the "huffing" rhythm mixed with the crisp sound of branches breaking. Ava was already squatting by the campfire making coffee, and in the rising steam of the military aluminum kettle, a few pieces of crushed coffee beans floated, which was her grandfather's favorite way of grinding. "According to the satellite map, today's journey will pass through three tributaries." Ava unfolded the waterproof map and slid her fingertips along the yellowed parchment markings. The overlapping parts of the two maps suddenly showed a certain geometric pattern. "If the star signs on the parchment correspond to the real terrain, the clue we are looking for should be in..." Her voice stopped abruptly, and her eyes were fixed on a blank area on the map - there should be a river confluence, but it was covered by a strange shadow. Carlos suddenly stopped chopping, and the blade trembled slightly when it was stuck on the tree trunk: "Do you smell it?" In the humid air, a sweet and greasy fragrance floated vaguely, like a rotten orchid mixed with the smell of metal rust. Jack twitched his nose, and his memory suddenly surged - three years ago in the jungle of Southeast Asia, this fragrance appeared above the swamp full of corpses. When the midday sun tore through the clouds, the sound of gurgling water came through the layers of vegetation. Jack pushed aside the last bunch of thorny vines, and suddenly the view was clear: a river a hundred meters wide stretched out in front of him. The water was as calm as a mirror, but it shone with iridescence like mother-of-pearl under the reflection of sunlight. The pebbles on the riverbed shone with a faint blue luster, and the scales of the swimming fish were translucent purple, and the fish tails dragged phosphorescent light trails when they paddled. "This water..." Carlos knelt on one knee, dipped his dry branch-like fingers into the river water, and fine golden lines immediately appeared on his palm, "It feels like a living thing licking it." He scooped up a handful of water and put it to his nose. His cloudy eyeballs suddenly trembled violently, "It smells like sulfur, and... something that doesn't belong to this world." Before he finished speaking, Ava suddenly grabbed his wrist - under his skin soaked in river water, totem patterns similar to those on the parchment vaguely emerged. Walking along the river bank, the purple vegetation became more and more dense. The trunks of centuries-old trees were covered with honeycomb-like holes, oozing sticky silver sap; the edges of the leaves of ferns grew tiny suction cups that would silently cling to the fabrics passing by. Jack's hiking boots suddenly sank into the mud. When he pulled them out, a flesh-pink substance stuck to the soles of the boots, which kept wriggling and splitting in the sun, emitting a scream like a baby crying. "Stop!" Ava suddenly pressed the holster on her waist. Some low-frequency vibration came from the soles of her feet, like an ancient war drum roaring deep in the earth. Carlos's machete fell to the ground with a clang. The face of this usually calm guide was pale at this moment: "It's... the heartbeat of a giant." The three held their breath, and even the chirping of insects around them disappeared in an instant. Only the regular tremor became clearer and clearer, and each beat caused fine ripples on the river. Going around the moss-covered rocks, the scene in the middle of the river made their pupils shrink suddenly. A circular building with a diameter of 100 meters was suspended on the water. It was made of some kind of black material with a cold glow, and its surface was engraved with constantly flowing fluorescent symbols. Those symbols were not fixed on the surface of the building, but swam on the wall like living things. Whenever a symbol sank into the water, it would stir up corresponding ripples on the river surface. Three bronze spires stood on the top of the building, opening and closing rhythmically with the heartbeat, spewing out lavender smoke. "This is not formed naturally." Jack's Adam's apple rolled. Through the military telescope, he saw a huge skeleton wrapped around the base of the building. The size of those vertebrae was enough to be compared to that of a whale. Ava's fingers gestured wildly on the map: "The arrangement of these symbols is consistent with the 'galaxy code' recorded in my grandfather's diary! If you can decipher it..." The bridge built of vines swayed twenty meters away, and the rotten vines were covered with spider-web-like cracks. Carlos poured kerosene on the handle of the knife and lit it. When the flame illuminated the bridge, they gasped at the same time - the bridge was densely covered with translucent leeches, each the size of a human thumb, and they were slowly crawling towards the flames. "Use the fire to clear the way." Jack tore open the first aid kit, wrapped the bandage around the blade and lit it. The three of them formed a triangle formation and moved forward slowly. The burning bandages crackled and the leeches screamed like babies when they met the fire. When they reached the middle of the bridge, Ava suddenly froze - the vines under her feet were shrinking strangely, and scale-like protrusions appeared on the surface. "Hurry!" Before Carlos' roar fell, a towering water column suddenly exploded on the river surface. A giant beast as tall as two stories broke out of the water. It had a long neck like a plesiosaur, but its skin was covered with patterns similar to mechanical gears, and its eye sockets burned with green phosphorescent fire. In the monster's open mouth, glowing mucus hung between its sharp teeth. The mucus dripped onto the bridge, instantly corroding holes that emitted white smoke. Jack's bullets hit the monster's scales, splashing sparks, while Ava aimed at the phosphorescent light in its left eye and shot. The monster launched a sonic attack, causing the three people's eardrums to bleed, and the bridge began to disintegrate in the sound waves. Carlos suddenly stuffed the burning handle of the knife into the monster's nostrils, and the flames ignited the flammable mucus in its nasal cavity. The violent explosion caused the monster to shake its head in pain. Jack took the opportunity to grab the broken vines and swing to the other side. Ava threw her backpack to Jack at the last moment, and she was almost swept into the river by the monster's tail. Sitting on the rocks on the other side, the three looked at the monster still wandering on the river. Its wounds were healing at a speed visible to the naked eye, and a metallic luster was faintly visible under its scales. Ava trembled as she took out the parchment and found that the symbols on it matched the scales of the beast perfectly. It turned out that the clue they had been looking for had already appeared when they stepped into the river. "That building..." Jack pointed to the circular ruins in the distance that were still emitting a faint light, "It's waiting for us." As the sun set, the beast sank into the water, but the symbols floating on the river surface became brighter, as if guiding them to the truth. Behind them, the river water stirred by the beast began to boil, and countless glowing creatures floated from the bottom of the river, forming a star map exactly the same as the one on the parchment.