Book 3: Chapter 21: Ghost Satellite


    We all continued to look at each other. It was just like watching thest scene of a movie at the cinema. Youre all tensed up, your nails are digging into your thighs, and then suddenly, the movie screen gets lifted up.


    At this time, our souls were still beside the octagonal coffin but only the wind on the grasnd was left in our ears.


    After a long time, I slowly cursed, "Fuck.


    "You should have given some guidance just now. This girl was too detailed. Now where are we at? What was the point? Shit, its worse than reading a novel." Fattyined to me while frantically scratching his hair. Then he looked at Jin Wantang, "Were leaving today. Will we be able to get the satellite signal tomorrow?"


    I rubbed my face, "Basically, just dont eat indiscriminately when you go in." We definitely couldnt wait any longer. Shen Qianjue''s details worked just fine for me. After all, I was the type of person who thought about problems from the details. The information she had provided was very precious to me. Even though we hadnt finished talking, we still had more than ten days to go after we set off. We could just continue tomunicate at this time tomorrow. I believed that someone with her character would definitely keep their phone close tomorrow if they didnt finish speaking the first time.


    "Do I look like the kind of person who licks peoples moles? That''s too unhygienic," Fatty said angrily.


    "Look at these corpses. They ate these moles until their stomachs were filled. There must be a reason why this thing is called a delicacy. You may end up bewitched, and afterwards, you might even eat something more disgusting than moles."


    Fatty touched his chin and looked at the pile of Shigong''s moles on the lounge chair. I didnt know why, but now they looked extremely repulsive. Although everyone had something like moles on their bodies, they seemed like some kind of very evil spirit now that we had heard this story. Fatty picked one up, held it up to his cheek, and put on a charming expression, "Master,e and kiss your humble servants mole."


    My whole body broke out in goosebumps. I immediately turned my head, threw a backpack to him, and told him to pack everything up quickly.


    Our lounge chairs were made of threaded steel pipes, so we dismantled them and packed them back up. Each person had a re gun and six res and the dry food was still in the Hundred Treasures Bag (1) we had brought. Since we hade out more often, we would reform the types of dry food we brought every time. Now the food wasnt as monotonous as it used to be.


    Then there were ropes, miner''smps, and two types of shlightsone with high power and one with low power. We also had a bunch of cold fireworks, glow sticks, and even special buttons I had bought that could shine for three hours when I pressed them. The miner''smps required you to hand-crank them to generate electricity.


    When it came to weapons, I had my Kukri while Fatty and Poker-Face both had those threaded steel pipes. In terms of tools, we had folding shovels, Luoyang shovel heads, binocrs, and a satellite phone. Now we were bringing along Shigongs moles and a piece of that ceramic figurine.


    After inspecting everything, we filled up three waterskins and distributed all of the materials across six horses. Then, each of us mounted a horse, took the lead reins of the remaining three horses, and hit the road, heading towards the coordinates Shen Qianjue had given us.


    It was a journey that relied almost entirely on GPS navigation. There werent anyndmarks along the wayonly endless grasndsbut the scenery was particrly beautiful. Poker-Face was in the front, I was in the middle, and Fatty was at the end. The three of us still had a few conversations in the beginning, but the wind soon got stronger and we got tired of talking, so we started walking silently. I began to think carefully about the n.


    Xiao Hua and the others definitely didn''t enter the ce that Shen Qianjue had mentioned. Shen Qianjue and the others had escaped unscathed, which indicated that there wasnt much danger in that ce so there wasnt a need to warn Poker-Face. Moreover, Xiao Hua didn''t know that Poker-Face would be here. When they first set off, Jin Wantang hadnte to us yet, so Xiao Hua must have known the overall situation on the grasnd and knew that Poker-Face might appear in this situation. That was why he issued that warning.


    This showed that Xiao Hua was already aware that the situation on the grasnd was abnormal. So, all of his actions would be geared towards seeking advantages and avoiding disadvantages.


    I felt a little relieved, but I was afraid wed need more clues to infer where they had gone, where we were going, and what the connection between them was. The only thing we could do now was go to the coordinates Shen Qianjue had given us.


    There was nothing to say the whole way, and we camped that night. After being buffeted by the wind all day, my face felt a little hot and painful. I was also a little exhausted physically, so I didnt want to talk.


    Poker-Face, as always, didnt talk but his expression seemed to be a little more serious than usual. I figured he was thinking about something. I no longer insisted on people telling me everything, but I was still worried when I saw his expression.


    He hadn''t had this kind of expression for a long time: he knew something, but he couldn''t figure out what was going on.


    He was on guard duty all night so that we could rest seriously, but it just gave me an ominous feeling. <em>What will happen tonight?</em> He was silently grooming his horse, but his attention was always on the darkness around us.


    "What kind of ce is Shigong Mountain?" Fatty suddenly asked me.


    I wasnt familiar with Mongolias mountains, so I shook my head and told him that I didn''t know. "I just thought about it, Fatty said. Shigong Mountain is a big mountain, but its very white and covered in ck spots. These ck spots are all Shigongs moles. They have a strange fragrance when theyre dug up, which makes people want to eat them."


    I looked at Fatty and sneered, "Its also possible that Shigong is a type of person who has this kind of mole on his body. Maybe they seize this type of person, tie them up, and let people rub their moles every day until theyre big, dark, and hard. Then they cut them off and eat them." I was just in an anxious mood, so if he wanted to say disgusting things, then I definitely wouldnt lose.


    "So youre saying that theres only one mole in these people''s stomachs, and when its eaten, the mole will infect them and cause others to grow in the stomach?" Fatty countered.


    I thought for a while, eventuallying up with an idea that was enough to make me shudder. But I didnt say it in the end. Fatty continued, "Why is this kind of mountain mole called Shigongs mole instead of mountain mole? I think there has to be a reason for it that we just don''t know about."


    I sighed. <em>Mountain mole? Are we going to the Grand Line?</em>(2)


    After telling Fatty to stop chattering away and go to bed early, something in the backpack at my feet suddenly made a "beep" sound.


    The sound was so short that it startled me.


    Fatty and I exchanged a nce. I quickly grabbed the bag and unzipped it, only to find that it was the satellite phone.


    I immediately felt nervous. <em>It''s over. Did it just short-circuit and burn the speaker?</em>


    Just as I was thinking this, the satellite phone suddenly made another noise and a sound came out. This string of sounds was very long and rhythmic.


    I stared at it nkly for a moment. Scientifically speaking, this satellite phone would never ring at this time unless we were in a thunderstorm.


    Fatty also found it very strange. After he picked it up and adjusted the frequency, I suddenly heard a Chinese sentencee from the satellite phone. There was a lot of white noise, but that sentence had probably been: It''s so dark, it''s so dark here.


    The voice was very cold, hoarse, and quiet, as if the speaker was in an extremely weak condition.


    "Who is this?" Fatty immediately asked.


    The other party seemed unable to hear him and continued, "It''s too dark to see."


    Fatty wanted to ask again, but Poker-Facewho was cating the horses on the sideimmediately waved his hand and told Fatty not to speak.


    I understood this gesture and immediately broke out in a cold sweat. This action wasnt to tell Fatty not to make any noise so that he could hear clearly; it was to tell Fatty not to expose himself.


    ****


    TN Notes:


    (1) A pocket/bag used by ancient warriors to hold various necessary utensils for work.


    (2) The Grand Line is an ocean current in the manga/anime One Piece where the majority of the plot takes ce. Info here.