After Meng Qiqi finished speaking, she ignored the bickering between Sun Fatty and Zhang Zhiyan and went straight into the cave entrance. The rest of us exchanged glances. Po Jun and Hao Wenming followed behind Meng Qiqi, then Huang Ran entered as well. I and Sun Fatty trailed after him, and Zhang Zhiyan was the last to go in.
We walked forward inside the cave for a while. The passage was shaped like a gourd, widening as we proceeded deeper. At first, we maintained the formation we had when entering, but as the space ahead grew larger, the formation soon broke apart. Most of us from the Bureau grouped with Ruan Liulang, while Huang Ran and Zhang Zhiyan lagged behind.
Along the way, exposed crystals still appeared everywhere on the walls and ceiling. After a while, no one paid much attention to these crystalline formations anymore. But a new problem arose: though initially the temperature seemed fine, as we kept walking it grew noticeably hotter. On the surface, the weather had been cold — all of us were wearing several layers of clothing and still felt it wasn't enough. Now we began to regret that. None of us dared to take off our coats, not knowing what conditions lay ahead. If, after passing the hot spring Huang Ran mentioned, the temperature dropped again, we'd be stuck without warm clothes. So we just unbuttoned our coats and wore them open. After about ten more minutes, sweat was streaming down all of us.
Sun Fatty was the first to give up. He had already taken off his coat, rolled it into a bundle, and slung it behind his back. His inner clothes were also open, and the front of his shirt was soaked with sweat over a large patch. Wiping the sweat off his face, Sun Fatty said, "Old Huang, don't move on yet. Take out Ruan Liulang's notes and see if it was this hot all along."
Huang Ran, who was almost as thin as Sun Fatty, was also drenched in sweat along his nose and temples. He gasped and said, "Ruan Liulang went into the Tomb of the Arcanobeast during the hottest time of August. The temperature difference inside and outside the Tomb isn't very large. Let's keep going. We'll leave our thick clothes near the hot spring, and if the temperature changes again ahead, we can always come back for them."
Ruan Liulang's notes were in Huang Ran's hands, so we had no choice but to follow his lead. But this tunnel seemed endless. After walking almost another half hour, we still hadn't seen the hot spring Huang Ran mentioned. Every time we asked him how much farther it was, Huang Ran always replied, "Not far, just ahead." That "not far" seemed endless.
The humidity in the air grew heavier as we went forward, combined with oppressive heat making it harder to breathe. At this point, it wasn't just Sun Fatty and Huang Ran suffering — even the thin Hao Wenming was soaked through. We all followed Sun Fatty's example and took off our coats to hang behind us. Sun Fatty had stripped down to his underwear, revealing his pale flesh from being overheated, causing Meng Qiqi to blush deeply and avoid looking back.
Sun Fatty was starting to wilt from the heat, but he still jabbered on: "Old Huang, if we go any further, are we going to reach Urumqi? You're leading us through the Tianshan Mountains here — I'm not…" Before he finished, Meng Qiqi at the front sharply interrupted him: "Shut up!" She glanced back at Sun Fatty and made a shushing gesture. After quieting down, a faint sound of running water could be heard.
Hearing the water, Huang Ran visibly brightened and pointed ahead: "The hot spring is just up ahead! Almost there." No need to say more — we all guessed it. Our group quickened the pace. Soon, faint mist appeared inside the tunnel — or more accurately, steam.
"Light ahead! We can get out!" Meng Qiqi shouted from the front. We didn't even need her words; we could see a small bluish glow up ahead. The sound of running water grew louder, but there was something off about it — though we couldn't quite say what. Seeing the exit so close, we stopped worrying about danger and nearly formed a line as we hurried forward.
The bluish glow grew bigger and the visibility inside the tunnel improved. Huang Ran and the others even turned off their xenon flashlights. After a few minutes, we finally reached the tunnel's mouth. Looking out from here, the view was wide open. In front of us lay an area roughly the size of a basketball court — this was beyond the crystal mining area. Though the mist was still thick, everything we saw was clearer.
Through the mist, a large hot spring glowing with blue fluorescence came into view. The blue light we had seen was the spring's glow. This hot spring covered nearly the entire ground here, though the water level was shallow. On the far side of the spring was an opening about a person's height — presumably the passage into the actual Tomb of the Arcanobeast Huang Ran had mentioned.
At the center of the hot spring was a small spring vent, about the size of a well opening. From it, large splashes of blue water periodically surged upward. After a moment, the water level in the spring suddenly dropped, as if the vent was drawing water down. Then another surge of water splashes came up. This cycle repeated over and over, like the breathing of a living creature.
Scattered on the ground around the hot spring were the bleached bones of some unknown animals. These pale bones appeared corroded, full of pockmarks like honeycombs. In this condition, even a biological lab probably wouldn't be able to identify the species.
After seeing the scene before us, all eyes turned to Huang Ran. Sun Fatty was the first to speak up: "Old Huang, you call this a hot spring? Do you really believe this hot water hasn't been exposed to nuclear radiation? Damn, we're so close, no one's getting away now. I'm starting to feel it—nausea… I wanna throw up." After clutching the black cat and crouching down to gag a few times, he looked up at Huang Ran and said, "Quick, take out Ruan Liulang's account. What exactly is this water? Do we have any chance of survival?"
"Throwing up? Sounds like morning sickness to me. Look at your belly, it's almost time," Meng Qiqi sneered at Sun Fatty. "No bleeding or ulcers, and you're talking nuclear radiation?" After she finished, Huang Ran gave a small smile and added, "There's something off about this hot spring, but it definitely hasn't been irradiated. As long as you don't physically touch the water, there's no danger."
Hao Wenming remained silent, his eyes fixed on the blue hot spring. After Huang Ran spoke, he returned to the passageway, picked off several crystal stones from the wall, then came back to the edge of the passage and exchanged a glance with Huang Ran. Neither said a word. Hao Wenming threw one of the crystal stones near the spring's vent, and the moment the stone hit the water, it instantly melted into a thin layer of pale, oil-like substance floating on the surface.
Hao Wenming's action surprised Huang Ran, whose expression turned strange for a moment before quickly returning to normal. Huang Ran signaled to Meng Qiqi, who nodded in understanding and looked down at her watch.
After contacting the oily layer, the hot spring instantly became agitated. The previously rhythmic breathing-like rise and fall of the water level was disrupted, and the spring's water level fluctuated up and down like an asthmatic patient struggling for breath. After two or three minutes of this, the surface suddenly calmed, becoming mirror-like without a single ripple.
Just when I thought the hot spring's anomaly had ended, the vent emitted a strange sound. Simultaneously, the water level rapidly dropped; within two or three minutes, almost all of the glowing hot spring water was sucked back into the vent, leaving the area pitch black except for a few low spots where residual hot spring water still glowed faintly.
Seeing the spring water retreat, Hao Wenming turned to Huang Ran and said, "Ying Spring meets crystal stone, the water returns by itself. Isn't that how Ruan Liulang's account described it? I guess that's how he got through." Huang Ran's smile stiffened slightly but quickly resumed, still cheerful as he replied, "More or less, more or less. Director Hao, I don't think the Bureau's archives have anything on Ying Spring. How do you know this...?"
Hao Wenming's expression mirrored Huang Ran's exactly. The two, one fat and one thin, suddenly wore the same smile, though Hao Wenming's was a bit more awkward because he usually kept a straight face. The director smiled and said, "Huang Ran, there's a lot you don't know about the Bureau. How about coming back to learn a few more years with me?"
Huang Ran smiled but said nothing. At that moment, Meng Qiqi looked at her watch and shouted, "One minute!"
The moment Meng Qiqi's voice fell, Hao Wenming and Huang Ran turned and shouted in unison, "Fall back!" Huang Ran added, "Back into the passage!" Though we had no idea what was happening, the two's expressions clearly showed something serious was about to occur. Meng Qiqi and Zhang Zhiyan immediately started rushing back into the passageway. Without hesitation, the rest of us followed.
After running more than a hundred meters inside the passage, we stopped when we saw Meng Qiqi and Zhang Zhiyan halt. Huang Ran and Hao Wenming followed closely behind, neither speaking, both glancing back toward the hot spring as if expecting something to happen there.
After about five minutes of silence, Sun Fatty was the first to lose patience. He asked me and Po Jun about the Ying Spring, but as Huang Ran said, the Bureau's archives contained no information on it. Getting no answers, Sun Fatty looked at Hao Wenming and Huang Ran, finally resting his gaze on Huang Ran's face. "Old Huang, what's really going on out there? Tell us so we can learn something."
Huang Ran glanced at Hao Wenming, smiling and saying, "You're with Director Hao, why ask me? How can I show off in front of him?" Hao Wenming sneered, about to respond when suddenly a sharp whistle pierced the air — like a flattened whistle being blown.
At the sound, Huang Ran and Hao Wenming both turned toward the hot spring. The piercing whistle lasted nearly a minute before gradually fading. Just as I thought it was ending, a loud boom like a cannon blast erupted — boom! — followed by a torrent of water crashing down. The area fifty meters around the passage edge was splattered with patches of pale blue water stains. However, when these stains touched the dense crystals lining the passage, they dissolved together into sticky, oil-like patches.
When the water stopped splashing in, Huang Ran turned to Meng Qiqi and asked, "How long?"
Meng Qiqi replied, "Seven minutes and fifty-five seconds—from when the water was drawn out to when it erupted again, seven minutes fifty-five seconds total."
"Seven minutes and fifty-five seconds…" Huang Ran repeated. Then he looked at Hao Wenming and said, "Less than three hundred meters. Even if you're scared, you could crawl through, right?"
Hao Wenming looked at him and asked, "How did Ruan Liulang describe this part of his journey? How long did it take him?"
Huang Ran smiled helplessly and said, "The time of one tea session. Try converting that to modern time."
"One tea session?" Hao Wenming frowned. "What kind of tea was he drinking?"
Huang Ran laughed and ignored him. He turned to the wall, broke off a small piece of crystal stone, tossed it in his hand a few times, then said, "Alright, time to move on. Be careful with your steps ahead, and try not to touch any remaining hot spring water. Each of you prepare some crystal stones. If your skin touches the spring water, immediately rub the spot with the stones to avoid any danger."
Following Huang Ran's instructions, including Zhang Zhiyan and Meng Qiqi, we each prepared a dozen or so crystal stones as backup. Once everyone was ready, Huang Ran stepped to the passage edge and threw a crystal stone into the hot spring, mimicking Hao Wenming's earlier action. After a brief "struggle," the vent again emitted that strange sound and the water level rapidly dropped until the huge pool of hot spring water was sucked away.
Huang Ran was the first to step out of the passage and followed the path exposed at the bottom of the hot spring toward the cave on the opposite side leading into the true Tomb of a Transcendent Beast.
When we reached halfway across the hot spring, a sharp whistle suddenly sounded from the vent…
Startled by the whistle, we all froze, then almost simultaneously broke into a sprint toward the cave entrance. The whistle, which had sounded minutes earlier, seemed like an alarm signaling the hot spring's imminent eruption. The previous whistle had stopped barely moments ago, and the spring water began to spray again.
Wasn't there supposed to be seven minutes and fifty-five seconds? How come it alarmed in less than a minute? There was no time to ponder — with about 150 meters left to the cave entrance, as long as we made it before the whistle stopped, we'd be safe.
The cave entrance drew closer and closer. When only thirty or forty meters remained, the piercing whistle abruptly ceased. Unlike before, this time no sign of an eruption followed.
I hadn't even caught my breath when a sigh came from behind us: "Sigh…"