Not everyone was lucky enough to emerge unscathed from the chaotic battle: two were severely injured, and everyone else had varying degrees of wounds. Even Ding Yudi’s injury was considered minor in comparison.
With the situation still unclear and cries of pain all around, there wasn’t time for detailed discussions. Zong Hang quickly unfastened the first aid kit, which Yi Sa took over, working with Yi Yunqiao to bandage the injured one by one.
The other bag was a water ghost pack, filled with tools and equipment, including several bundles of rope.
Ding Panling took the full tank of the flame thrower from Zong Hang, keeping the nozzle aimed at the still-burning Taisui to guard against any movement. After learning about the “half-hour pull-back” agreement from above, he urgently checked the time and immediately ordered people to fashion the ropes into a net: preparing to send the two severely injured people up first when the time came.
Ding Changsheng was among the severely injured. Having long worked in management, dispatching others but rarely acting himself, his movements were the slowest, and he had been stabbed in the abdomen, bleeding terrifyingly. Yi Sa couldn’t bear to look as she gritted her teeth while bandaging him. Ding Changsheng seemed to sense something, asking her: “Sasa, am I beyond saving? Am I going to die?”
This usually composed and dignified man now had an ashen face, chattering teeth, and could barely speak clearly.
Yi Sa said: “Not necessarily, Uncle Ding, don’t frighten yourself.”
Just then, Yi Yunqiao nearby suddenly pointed at the rock wall and cried out: “Water! Water’s flowing down!”
Ding Panling looked up and indeed saw countless fine streams of water trickling down the rock face. After a moment’s thought, he understood: it was filling with water!
When Yi Sa had returned from the Drifting Cave last time, she had mentioned this: the Taisui and breathing earth were initially in water, then it was as if someone had pulled a plug, and most of the water had drained away.
It was the same this time. Ding Panling thought: the Drifting Cave was like a huge bathtub, with water inlets and outlets. The Taisui had been soaking in this “bathtub” for several days as if completing a metabolism cycle. When the “earth opens its doors,” it expels waste gases, exchanges them for fresh air, drains the old water, and fills up with new water.
But the current filling with water was likely disadvantageous to them: both the breathing earth and Taisui were water-friendly. If the cavern filled with water again, these two things might revive, and besides, how could they use the flame thrower underwater?
Understanding this, Ding Panling felt a chill down his spine, and time suddenly became pressing – each second falling like a guillotine blade. He shouted: “It’s not completely dead yet!”
Just as he raised the nozzle to give it another dose, large balls of fire suddenly rolled down from the Taisui’s body.
Zong Hang was startled and pulled Ding Panling back quickly: he remembered Ding Xi’s description of the flames – under each flame was fuel, and if it hit them, it would be no joke.
The fireballs kept rolling down, some splashing into the water, sending sparks and water flying, the water hissing and steaming. More terrifying was that as the fireballs fell, the fire on the Taisui’s body gradually diminished.
Yi Sa, now free, watched for a moment before being the first to realize, shouting: “It seems to be severing its limbs, then growing them back!”
Ding Panling’s chest heaved violently.
He understood now. This Taisui was several stories tall, its body incredibly thick and massive. Although the flame thrower had “ignited” it, it could simply “cut away” its flesh and the fuel sprayed on it would fall away with it – essentially wasting the effort – while it quickly regenerated. Viewed this way, it had hardly been damaged at all.
The flame thrower had only temporarily knocked back the breathing earth.
Ding Panling’s calves trembled slightly. The situation was changing drastically: one second they were overjoyed at Zong Hang arriving with this powerful weapon, the next second their advantage was lost, and water was still filling up – they absolutely couldn’t let it fill. That would be like instantly returning to square one, with everyone still doomed to die here, plus Zong Hang would be lost too.
He muttered almost neurotically: “Think of something quick, hurry, we need to kill it.”
Yi Sa suddenly blurted out: “Why is it in such a hurry to regrow?”
Ding Panling didn’t understand, turning to look at her: “What?”
Yi Sa spoke rapidly: “This Taisui, is it just a mass of flesh through and through? Sometimes, soft outer shells like skin, flesh, and fat are there to protect something inside. It’s cutting off parts and rushing to regrow – could there be something inside it’s trying to protect?”
Right – if it was just flesh all the way through, why fear burning? Even if only a palm-sized piece remained, it could regrow. Why such urgency, frantically severing and regenerating?
This panic revealed that it was hiding something.
After a brief consideration, Ding Panling immediately instructed Zong Hang: “Don’t waste fuel. We’ll focus our fire on one point now, see whether it can grow faster than we can burn. Wait for my signal – when my fuel runs out, you take over immediately.”
Zong Hang nodded, stepping sideways, readying his nozzle, just waiting for the command to pull the trigger.
Ding Panling’s nozzle wavered up and down before settling on the lower part of the Taisui’s body.
He remembered that earlier, when the breathing earth was still there, it had wrapped around the Taisui like a partially exposed brain, and the heads of those dozen or so corpses had been sucked into the breathing earth covering the Taisui’s bottom. So if they had to choose, they should target the lower area – this was most likely where “something” would be.
Decision made, Ding Panling hesitated no longer and pulled the trigger, and clusters of flames surged forth again.
The water had reached their upper thighs now. Sweat beaded on Ding Panling’s forehead as he stepped forward. Just as he saw the flame’s tip beginning to drill into the Taisui’s body like an auger, he heard an unusual sound overhead. Behind him, Yi Yunqiao shouted: “It’s falling! Get away quick!”
Ding Panling had anticipated this – since it could sever limbs, it would probably resort to dropping them in desperation. In this situation, being closer was safer, so instead of retreating, he advanced, taking several quick steps right up to the Taisui.
Behind him came a boom as huge chunks of Taisui flesh crashed down. Yi Sa and Zong Hang hurriedly dodged backward. After one wave came another, but given Ding Panling’s position, he could hardly be hit. Zong Hang grew frustrated, shouting: “Are you stupid? Why drop things that can’t hit?”
Ding Panling concentrated, ignoring the chaos. His flame thrower was full, with plenty of fuel, and had already burned a path directly into the Taisui’s body. The assault was fierce, penetrating seven or eight meters in…
The next instant, it seemed to break through to something. Ding Panling’s heart jolted, and he instinctively removed his finger from the trigger. Almost simultaneously, this previously writhing mountain of flesh suddenly went quiet.
Before, although the Taisui made no calls or cries, its massive bulk created an impressive movement, like a giant generator, declaring its existence with an indescribable tone. But now, as if its power had been cut, all sound suddenly ceased.
The burned channel didn’t heal over, and the bright flames still burning inside revealed some details.
Ding Panling saw that at the end of the channel was another space, or rather, inside the Taisui’s body was a hollow cavity. It was filled with chaotic web-like structures, and above these webs were dense, inch-long, filament-like stalks swaying about, their tips rounded and bulbous, somewhat like matchheads.
This was…
Ding Panling’s body stiffened.
Was it pregnant?
No, not pregnancy – reproduction. When researching the Taisui earlier, there had been mentions that it was essentially a slime mold, reproducing through spores.
Water splashed behind him as Yi Sa cautiously waded over, taking just a quick peek before pulling back: “Uncle Panling, what is this?”
Ding Panling said: “They are.”
“Huh?”
Ding Panling suddenly became excited, his voice shaking as he spoke incoherently: “It’s ‘they’ – this Taisui is actually about to die. No, that’s not quite right – its death isn’t like ours. It doesn’t die completely; it leaves seeds, spores, that can live again.”
As he spoke, except for those who couldn’t move, everyone who could walk carefully approached, even Ding Yudi limping over.
Ding Panling’s mind was racing, perhaps too excited: “Some plants, to survive, use various methods to spread their seeds…”
Ding Yudi thought for a moment: “Like dandelions letting the wind blow them away?”
Ding Panling nodded: “This is the source of the Three Rivers, the origin of countless waters. It must be planning to use the water to transport these.”
Zong Hang remained vigilant, keeping his nozzle aimed at the channel: “But what about the corpses? Why did it need so many corpses in the Golden Essence Cave?”
Yi Sa’s mind jolted: “Because it can’t survive. The reason it’s trapped here is that it can’t leave this water, environment, or climate. If it went out directly, it would die, so it needed to find a way, at least some kind of shell that could adapt to the external environment to protect itself.”
She suddenly remembered the breathing nest at the bottom of Poyang Lake: “Back then in the breathing nest, when we were fleeing from Jiang Jun’s pursuit, I once lay in a nest chamber. I discovered that above where the head lay, there was a tiny hole, only as thick as a pen shaft – too small even for a pinky finger. I didn’t know what it was for then, but if these things were to pass through…”
She gestured toward those stalks at the end of the channel: “Could it be them, distributed like an assembly line, one by one, through those tiny tubes into the holes, then entering through people’s mouths, nostrils…”
Ding Yudi got goosebumps listening to her.
Yi Yunqiao nodded: “It’s possible. Those corpses just now, carried by the water current, had their heads sucked in. The Taisui might have been planning to do something to them, like in ’96, modifying them to use against us. But this young man…”
She wasn’t familiar with Zong Hang and didn’t know how to address him: “Came quite quickly, sweeping with the flame thrower, burning those people.”
Though not everyone present fully understood the situation, they had been somewhat briefed. Someone muttered: “It’s been preparing for thousands of years? That’s too patient…”
Ding Panling shook his head: “No, for something like this, something so rare and bizarre, you can’t tell if it’s a cycle of thousands or tens of thousands of years. If for it, the time for reproduction hasn’t come yet, then it’s not waiting, but preparing.”
It was like many ancient Chinese emperors who began building their mausoleums while still alive. Since death was inevitable, and barring accidents or illness, they roughly knew when they would die, so they prepared early.
The Taisui, perhaps far more ancient than humans, dwelling in these underground depths, had gone through several cycles of death and rebirth. Maybe during some earth-opening, it had captured wolves or snow leopards, using their eyes to see everything above ground, but found it as boring as below, with no creatures more intelligent or advanced than itself. Since the distant world held no attraction, there was no need to pursue it.
Then one day, by chance, it suddenly discovered that the world above had changed – humans had taken the stage, reproducing extensively, constantly migrating outward.
It felt its opportunity had come.
Before the Three Families’ ancestors, who knows if it had tried with other humans – perhaps it had because any perfect plan requires repeated failures and modifications.
The Golden Essence Cave was the crossing point it had prepared for its cycle. It methodically improved things, generation after generation. The water ghosts of the Golden Essence Lock were its eyes and overseers, letting it see everything gradually taking shape, just waiting for the moment to mature.
…
The water had nearly reached their waists when Yi Yunqiao suddenly remembered: “It’s almost time for the agreement. Let’s send the severely injured up first, and… what about these things?”
Ding Panling was silent for a moment, slowly raising his nozzle.