Book 3: Chapter 34: Monster Stone Lantern

Book 3: Chapter 34: Monster Stone Lantern

I watched as Fatty stuck practically his whole head inside the monsters mouth. The fact that we had been possessed for a few days and weren't able to eat or drink anything during that time was probably why Fattys chin was slightly smaller. Otherwise, his head definitely wouldnt have been able to fit.

When he kept urging me to stick my head in, I became angry. "Although I have a small face, Im not a finger! Do you think youre picking a nose or something? Come out first!"

Fatty came out and rubbed his face. His hair was all messed up and his face was flushed as he said, "Well, I was trying to make out with you. Just hurry up and come over here."

I looked at the hole and wondered if he was messing with me. But when I thought about the atmosphere of the past few days, I felt that Fatty wouldnt go that far. If he was messing with me right now, then he definitely had to be possessed.

At that moment, I suddenly felt my body break out in a cold sweat. I looked at Fatty carefully, worried that something was controlling him. Maybe this thing had come here to make me do something dangerous, such as sticking my head inside a thousand-year-old stone monsters mouth.

Fatty looked at me as I walked over to him. "Give me a quick answer: which of your feet has athlete's foot?"

Fatty looked at my expression. We had been together for so long that it only took him a few seconds to understand my intentions. "I only have athlete's foot when I wear Martin boots, but I don't usually have it. Mr. Nave, answer quickly: what do you eat to make you fart easily?"

There was no such thing since my whole family had good stomachs and intestines. He laughed at the indignant noise I made and then we both glanced at Poker-Face. We had never dared to involve him in this kind of game before, so after thinking about it, we decided to just forget about it. If Poker-Face was possessed, then there were only two outcomes: one would be like what happened with the "heavenly gift" and he would just leave silently; the other was that he would lure us into doing something, which we would discover immediately as soon he spoke more than two sentences.

I put my head into the stone monsters mouth and found that the whole thing was actually hollow. It appeared to be the top of a particularly long pillar, and when I stuck my head further in, I could see that the area underground was pitch black.

"Fatty, when you say you know why this place is called the Sea of Black Lights, is it because it's pitch-black inside?" I asked angrily.

"Your eyes arent good. Come here." With that said, he pulled me out, grabbed a glow stick, and stuck it into my mouth. Then he put my head back inside the stone monster's mouth and I saw a bronze lamp at the bottom of this pipe, which was at least twenty meters below ground.

I'll describe it again. The exposed part of the monster stone lantern was just a lamp holder, the rest of the stone lantern that was stuck into the soil was hollow, this hollow pipe went at least twenty meters into the soil, and at the bottom of this hollow pipe was a bronze lamp.

The sheer depth alone was amazing. I knew that it was impossible to see the bottom of this narrow, twenty-meter-long passage with just a glow stick, but I could see that the walls of this stone pipe had a few particularly smooth surfaces that had been skillfully polished. I could tell just by the light of my glow stick that these surfaces seemed to reflect off of each other like mirrors.

But even so, the light was obviously very weak, so I could only see an unlit lamp deep underground.

"This lamp was placed twenty meters underground, which doesn't make any sense. First of all, what would this lamp illuminate? Even if the light could penetrate from deep underground, it would be extremely weak. It wouldnt be able to illuminate anything at all. Moreover, itll automatically extinguish as soon as carbon dioxide accumulates," I said as I pulled my head out of the stone monsters mouth.

"If its twenty meters below ground, its obviously used to illuminate the underground area. Or maybe its a feng shui practice? Is that underground lamp meant to warm the earth?" Fatty asked.

This place was called the Sea of Black Lights, so in other words, all the lights were there, they just illuminated an underground area. So, even if there was a sea of lights, the night here would still be pitch black.

After that, I put the glow stick in my mouth and stuck my head back into the stone monsters mouth again. But I got distracted and ended up dropping the glow stick. I watched as it fell all the way down to the bottom of the stone pipe and hit the bronze lamp.

I pulled my head out and rubbed my cheeks. Its fine, I said to myself. Now I can take a closer look.

I stuck my head back in, wanting to take a closer look at what was going on below and see if I could figure out how the structure dealt with the carbon dioxide. But as soon as I stuck my head in, I found that the glow stick was gone and the underground area was completely dark.

I felt my heart tense up and immediately knew that something was wrong. This kind of thing won't go out so quickly. Why is it suddenly gone?

I pulled my head out once more and looked at Fatty, who said, "Try again."

I took another glow stick, gripped it in my teeth, and moved my head towards the stone monsters mouth again. But as soon as I straightened my head, I saw a black face in the pipe in front of me. It was a palms width away and seemed to have come up from the depths of the pipe.

This pipe was twenty meters high, so it was impossible for a human body to get in it. How did this face come up?! Did it have a twenty-meter-long neck?! And where on earth did it come from?!

That face had an extremely cold expression as it looked at me.

I was so scared that I shouted and immediately tried to pull my head out, but unfortunately, it got stuck.

At this time, that dark face was almost pressed up against my face.

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TN Notes:

(1) Huangtu means loess (the yellow sandy soil typical of north China) and dian means inn/shop/store.

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If you all couldn't tell, after reading this chapter, I decided to change all the "Black Sea of Lights" references to "Sea of Black Lights". It just seems to make more sense.