Chapter 3: The Underground River Maze

The inscriptions emerged from the stone, the seal script carved deep and weeping with moisture. Lin Wan crouched down, her fingertips hovering just above the first line, not yet touching.

"Ghost Gate," she whispered, her voice barely audible.

Chen Ye was still half-submerged in the water. He wrung out his sleeve and looked over her shoulder at the stone surface. The text was incomplete; the top half had been hacked away by some blunt instrument, leaving only the latter portion: "...Ghost Gate opens, the waters flow. Those with fate shall claim it; those without shall drown." A surname was carved at the bottom as a signature, but it was half-hidden by moss and illegible.

Lin Wan stood up and took a half-step back, her expression grim.

"A Ghost Gate was once unearthed here," she said. "According to the cross-references from the fragmented steles in the other caves, the Ghost Gate was a secret sluice used by the old Cao Gang to transport corpses. It leads directly to the Yin River. It was sealed later, but there's no record of where the seal was placed."

Chen Ye didn't answer. He stared at the mark at the end of the inscription. It had been added later; the strokes were clumsy and crude, clearly not from the same era as the rest. "This year the waters rise, the gate appears."

He reached out and touched the line. The stone powder was slick, leaving a smudge of grayish-white on his fingertip. Lin Wan saw it too, her frown deepening. "Someone added that later. Recently."

"How recently?"

"A few years, at most."

Chen Ye remained silent for a moment, wiping the dust from his finger. He looked back toward the dense cluster of red lights shimmering in the darkness. The compass still lay on the shore, its needle trembling slightly, pointing toward the center of the river, slightly northeast. Red light seeped from the rock walls on either side, pulsing like a slow breath, while that single point of blue light remained faintly suspended in the center.

"The stele says the gate appears." Chen Ye picked up the compass and strapped it to his wrist. "It's appeared. Now, where is it?"

Lin Wan didn't answer immediately. She took out a short candle, lit it, and held it high. The flame flickered in the damp, cold air. She walked slowly around the inscription, finally stopping at the back of the stone. She crouched and pressed her palm against a plain, unadorned section of the rock. The color of the stone there was slightly lighter than the surrounding area, as if it had been eroded by some liquid over a long period.

"Here," she said. "Water is seeping through the pores. It's a live current."

Chen Ye stepped closer and crouched. She moved aside, and he drew the dagger from his waist, tapping the stone surface twice with the back of the blade. The sound was hollow, the echo muffled. He shifted his angle and tapped again; a faint vibration shuddered through the stone, as if something were flowing on the other side.

"It's hollow," he said, sheathing the dagger and standing up to look at the rock face. "Can we chisel through?"

Lin Wan shook her head. "If we chisel it open and the water floods in, we'll be trapped inside. We have to find the upstream opening first."

Chen Ye didn't argue. He looked back at the compass; the blue light was still positioned northeast in the center of the river. Thinking of the phrase "the waters flow" from the stele, he asked, "You mentioned cross-referencing the other caves—what else did they record?"

Lin Wan thought for a moment. "One thing. It said the Ghost Gate was a forbidden zone of the Cao Gang. Only corpses were allowed through; no living soul could pass. If you cross, you don't come back."

"Then we won't cross," Chen Ye said, his gaze fixed on the stone. "We'll just drill a hole and take a look."

Lin Wan stared at him for a few seconds, then stopped objecting. She pulled a short-handled iron chisel and a hammer from her pack and handed them to him. Chen Ye took them, found the thinnest part of the stone, and struck twice. The outer layer peeled away, revealing a blue-gray hard shell beneath. The texture was dense, looking like man-made rammed earth.

He struck a few more times, and a crack split the blue shell. A gust of cold wind surged out of the gap, carrying a faint scent of damp decay. Chen Ye tilted his head to avoid it. Once the airflow stabilized, he brought the candle close to the crack; the flame was sucked inward, nearly flattening against the opening.

"The wind is pulling in," he said. "There's a space inside. The air is moving."

He widened the crack until a fist-sized hole formed. Peering inside, it was pitch black, save for the faint reflection of water. He withdrew his dagger and poked the compass into the gap. The needle swung violently before finally pointing deeper inside, and the blue light flashed brilliantly for a split second.

Beside him, Lin Wan gasped.

"There's a gate," Chen Ye said flatly. "Right below us."

Lin Wan was silent for a moment before saying, "If this is the Ghost Gate from the stele, there are likely corpses inside. The Cao Gang didn't transport bodies for the sake of the trip."

Chen Ye pulled the compass back and wiped the water from its edge. "Then let's see."

They decided to go in. Chen Ye led the way with Lin Wan following close behind, keeping a distance of no more than two steps. The groundwater remained ice-cold, with undercurrents swirling between the rock walls, occasionally tugging at their ankles. With the dagger in one hand, Chen Ye felt his way along the wall, his fingertips brushing over the slimy green moss. The red lights from the walls gradually converged, like two streaks of blood closing in as they ventured deeper.

After about fifteen minutes, the river channel narrowed and the ceiling dropped, forcing them to hunch over. The sound of rushing water grew louder ahead, sounding like something deep below was inhaling and exhaling. Chen Ye stopped, listened for a moment, and asked Lin Wan, "Do you hear that?"

"It sounds like breathing," she said.

Chen Ye didn't respond and kept moving. After rounding a bend, the space suddenly opened up into a semi-circular grotto. The water's surface was as still as a mirror, without a single ripple. Stalactites hung from the ceiling, dripping water. In the center of the cave, a stone gate rose from the depths, half-exposed above the waterline. Two large characters were carved into the lintel.

"Ghost Gate," Chen Ye read.

The doors were tightly shut, the stone heavy and imposing. Thin streams of water seeped from the seams, dripping rhythmically into the pool. Above and below the door, two circular holes had been bored—each the size of a fist, black and bottomless. Lin Wan stepped closer, staring at the holes for a moment. "These are 'Soul-Locking Eyes.' The Cao Gang used them to seal the gate."

"How do you open it?"

Lin Wan shook her head. "I don't know. The fragments didn't say."

Chen Ye walked a full circle around the gate. There were no gaps behind it, no signs of mechanisms; it looked as if it had been carved from a single massive block of stone. He crouched to examine the base and found a faint ring of carvings where the stone met the water. They were talismanic runes, but they were heavily worn and incomplete. He reached out to touch them; they were freezing. As his fingertips brushed the runes, he felt the compass on his wrist vibrate gently.

He looked down. The red light had vanished, and the blue light was no longer faint—it was glowing steadily, pointing directly at the center of the door.

Chen Ye stood up, looking at the gate. "If the door is sealed shut, then what does 'the gate appears' on the stele mean? It appeared just so we could look at it?"

Lin Wan didn't answer.

She stared at the characters for "Ghost Gate" on the lintel and suddenly said, "Look at the calligraphy."

Chen Ye looked up. The two seal characters were bold and powerful, but the final stroke of the character for "Ghost" was dragged exceptionally long, stretching almost to the bottom of the door as if the carver had done it intentionally. The end of that stroke didn't stop at the seam; it disappeared into the water.

Chen Ye remained silent for a moment, then drew his dagger and sliced along the line of that stroke. The moment the blade touched the stone, a low, muffled thud echoed from the seam, like the beating of a muted drum. Ripples spread across the water's surface in concentric circles.

He stopped, watching the gap.

From within the seam, something was slowly pushing its way open.