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墨書 Inktalez
Zhong Kui's Diary
With a "whoosh," the lake across from us was suddenly enveloped in white mist.
"Is this boiling water?" I asked Kong Xuan.
"No, the lake has frozen over!" Kong Xuan replied solemnly.
I was greatly astonished. Once the mist dissipated enough, I focused my gaze and indeed saw that the lake had turned into a massive sheet of ice, with a dark hole at its center. From a distance, it was hard to tell how deep it was, but one thing I could confirm was that there were stairs winding down into the hole.
So this was the entrance mechanism; it was incredibly advanced.
"Let's go!" Lin Tao commanded again. He couldn't wait for dawn any longer. Thinking about it, the Land of Slumber appeared only once every three hundred years, and there were only three opportunities each time. If I were in his shoes, I wouldn't be able to wait either.
"That wild boar won't suddenly appear, will it?" I quietly asked Kong Xuan along the way. Without the protection of the Big Pine Tree, recalling the giant boar's glare when it left made me feel uneasy.
"Shut up and close your crow's mouth!" Kong Xuan shivered and snapped at me.
Feeling anxious, I kept looking around, fearing that the wild boar might suddenly pop out and bite my head off. We reached the lakeshore without encountering the boar, and I finally breathed a sigh of relief as I began to examine the lake.
This lake could no longer be called a lake; it was merely a gigantic block of ice. However, what was strange was that this large block of ice seemed to be completely warm; standing next to it, I felt no chill at all. This made no sense—wasn't water supposed to freeze only below zero degrees? I bent down to touch the ice; indeed, it felt warm—at least twenty degrees.
Lin Tao whispered something to Dark Green, who nodded and took out a knife. He slashed diagonally into the ice block; the blade, about a foot long, sank completely into it. With a twist of his wrist, he drew a circle and carved out a conical piece of ice. After examining it, he turned back and said, "The ice shavings above and below are consistent. It seems that all the water in this lake has frozen solid."
Lin Tao grunted in acknowledgment and signaled for us to head toward the entrance in the center of the lake.
The entrance was about thirty meters from the lakeshore. As we walked about ten meters onto the Ice Surface, Aijia Yu suddenly changed color and shouted, "Stop! Something's not right!"
We halted as we faintly heard thumping sounds beneath our feet—loud and rhythmic, growing closer by the moment.
"Look!" Dark Green suddenly let out a strange cry, pointing toward the lakeshore; his voice even sounded distorted.
Looking around, I saw a wave rolling in the bushes by the lake, a straight line of movement rushing toward the shore, as if a giant creature was rapidly approaching.
A wild boar! That giant wild boar!
I believe everyone guessed it; sure enough, as the bushes parted, the giant wild boar charged toward us, its blood-red eyes fixed on me.
Damn it, how could this beast be so cunning? It didn’t attack us on the mountain because it knew there were plenty of trees to climb for cover. But now, with the vast lake frozen over, there was no shelter at all; it could rampage through us without restraint.
Everyone shouted and scattered.
The wild boar seemed to have locked onto me, charging straight at me. What else could I do? Run!
As I ran, I kept looking back and saw the boar getting closer and closer. My scalp tingled; how could two legs possibly outrun four? This is so unfair. If you’re brave, stand up and run with me!
The sound of the boar grunting was already clear. I could feel its hot breath even without looking back. Brother Pig, we should resolve our grievances rather than escalate them. When will this cycle of revenge end? Why must we be so stubborn?
I might actually get killed by a wild boar; this was a way of dying I had never considered before.
Just when I thought I would meet my end here, a dark entrance appeared before me. Driven by instinct, I shouted and dashed inside along the stairs.
The wild boar followed me in without hesitation.
The passage ahead was quite spacious, nearly tall enough for two people. I had no idea what was inside; the entire corridor emitted a soft glow like that of the moon.
Fortunately, this damn wild boar had never been taught how to climb stairs. As soon as it entered the passage, it stumbled and rolled down the stairs. Even so, its rolling speed wasn’t much slower than my running speed. The two of us tumbled and crawled down for over thirty meters until the stairs became level ground.
After running another ten meters or so, I found myself in a circular hall surrounded by six or seven branching paths. Great, a maze! The sharp tusks of the wild boar seemed to be poking into my rear; I couldn’t care less about that and turned my body to dash into one of the passages.
The wild boar seemed unable to stop in time and charged straight into the central passage. Its massive inertia propelled it forward several meters before it managed to backtrack. Meanwhile, I just kept running forward desperately, completely ignoring what traps might be inside. Damn it, nothing here is scarier than that wild boar behind me! Just imagining its huge mouth clamping down on me made me want to cry.
This underground passage seemed endless, but every few hundred meters there would be a round hall with several branching paths. After randomly darting through a few passages, I finally lost track of the wild boar behind me.
He stopped, bent over, and supported himself on his knees, breathing heavily. His lungs felt like they were on fire; every breath felt like flames were burning inside. Damn it, he had finally escaped the wild boar's pursuit.
After resting for a while and calming his breath, he pulled out a cigarette from his pocket, lit it, and began to carefully assess his surroundings.
The passage before him was made of ice blocks. Surprisingly, these ice blocks were seamless, with no signs of being cut or chiseled, as if they had been poured from a massive and complex mold. A white glow emanated from within the ice, suggesting that countless Night Pearls were hidden deep inside.
Moreover, the lake outside appeared to be only the size of a football field, but he had no idea how many forks in the road he had passed through. This didn't make sense. Suddenly, an idea struck him: could this large ice block also be a Mustard Seed Space like Kong Xuan's Guo'er?
After taking a few puffs of his cigarette and tossing the butt aside, he decided to head back. The wild boar probably wouldn't think to retreat. In his mind, the forks in this passage were all one-way; if he retraced his steps, there would be no forks. A simple example: at a 'Y' intersection, if you walk up from below, you face two choices above; however, if you go down from either of those two roads above, you only encounter one road.
There could be special cases, such as if this three-way intersection was perfectly divided into thirds; then it would be normal not to find a way back. But that was just a special case; he didn't believe he was that unlucky.
Unfortunately, he was indeed that unlucky. When he reached the Circular Hall, he couldn't help but curse. Motherfucker! This fork in the road had been shaped into a '米' character with eighteen paths radiating out from the intersection in an extremely orderly manner. If there were tools available, he was sure that each angle between the paths was 45 degrees.
Feeling irritated as he looked at the forks ahead, he took another cigarette to calm down. Right! He should call Kong Xuan and ask where they were. He took out his phone but couldn't help cursing again—there wasn't a single signal.
He wanted to smoke again but realized that his Cigarette Case was empty. Reaching into his Spatial Bag for a random search, he unexpectedly found a handful of bullets and suddenly remembered that he still had a gun in his Spatial Bag. How could he have forgotten about it? If only he had thought of it earlier; otherwise, he could have shot that wild boar. Whether this caliber of gun could take down such a large wild boar wasn't even on his radar.
He pulled out the gun and disengaged the safety. With the gun in hand, his courage grew significantly as he randomly chose one of the forks and walked in.
As before, every few hundred meters led to another '米' shaped fork. Initially, he tried to analyze the paths—walking straight, turning left, or zigzagging—but soon realized that this maze seemed endless. Two hours passed and he was still wandering through it.
Checking the time revealed it was already six in the morning. A flicker of worry crossed his mind: this Land of Eternal Sleep only appeared three times; what would happen after three? If it suddenly turned into water, wouldn't he drown? Even if it didn't turn into water, how would he get out? Wouldn't he starve?
Uh-oh; perhaps he was overthinking it. Although the Land of Eternal Sleep appeared three times, he hadn't even entered it yet—not even seen the Gate of Slumber.
Motherfucker! It was all because of that wild boar—why did it keep chasing him? Was it just because he'd eaten some roast pig? Thinking about roast pig made his stomach growl; after walking all night long, how could he not be hungry?
In the middle of one '米' shaped fork, he sat down and looked around dejectedly. He should have packed some chocolate in his Spatial Bag; who knew if this ice could be eaten? Honestly, this twenty-degree ice was something he'd never encountered before.
Whatever; aiming at the wall opposite him, he fired a shot. The sound echoed softly as if equipped with a silencer. Huh? His gun didn't have a silencer! What was going on? Could it be that this maze had sound-dampening features?
I couldn't contain my curiosity and cupped my hands around my mouth like a trumpet, shouting loudly, "5—8—same—city!"
Sure enough, my voice sounded extremely weak, as if it were coming from underwater.
What is going on?!
Shaking my head, I decided not to think about things I couldn't understand for now. The most important thing was to solve the problem of my hunger. I got up and walked towards the place where I had just shot with my gun. A large chunk of ice had broken off, and I picked up one of the pieces, looking around hesitantly, contemplating whether to take a bite.
After thinking it over, I ultimately decided against eating such a strange piece of ice. Ice that doesn't melt even at over twenty degrees might not dissolve in my stomach either, and eating it could very well puncture my insides.
I tossed the ice aside and continued walking forward.
I lost track of how many paths I had taken; I felt extremely fatigued—not because I was physically exhausted, but because I was mentally drained. This endless maze seemed to have no end.
Suddenly, I heard a thud; it seemed I had kicked something. Looking down, a wave of helplessness washed over me. The thing I had kicked was the piece of ice I had knocked down earlier. Looking up, the large gap in the wall where the ice had broken off resembled a wide-open mouth, cruelly mocking me.
After wandering for so long, I had somehow returned to where I started.
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