As I lay on the sand, having just closed my eyes, I heard a cry of alarm.
The person who made the sound was none other than Fatty.
Fatty, not far from me, was struggling in a pile of white sand, his entire body slowly sinking.
I quickly stood up and rushed towards him. Before I could reach him, Fu Kui and A Yuan also sank, followed by Jin Qiaoyue.
How could there be quicksand by the lake?
Why was there no problem when we came earlier?
Before I could ponder further, I felt my feet begin to sink slowly into the sand. Soon, the sand submerged my ankles.
I had just pulled one foot out of the sand when the other foot sank even faster!
I had heard that when encountering quicksand, one should never struggle or move rashly. So, I calmed myself down and looked at my backpack not far away. I lunged forward, grabbing the backpack. However, my movements were too large. I had grabbed the backpack, but the sand had already reached my waist!
When I came to my senses and looked at Fatty, I saw that everyone else had disappeared.
And the others were not faring any better, all of them slowly vanishing into the ground!
Soon, the white sand reached my neck. I took a deep breath and let myself sink.
Without even time to think, I closed my eyes.
I only felt myself sinking in the sand, and at that moment, my heart sank halfway.
Was I going to die like this?
Just as this thought arose, my feet suddenly found no ground. A feeling of weightlessness sent me flying out, and then I landed heavily on the ground.
When I opened my eyes, everything was dark. I took out my flashlight from my backpack.
The moment I turned on the flashlight, I was stunned by everything before me!
I was in a huge space, and I couldn't say what kind of place it was.
In front of me was a wall with many holes. Sand poured out from these holes like water, falling into a deep trench beside the wall.
The sand in the trenches also flowed like water in one direction.
I didn't know where the sand would eventually flow, but I was certain that our activities above had triggered the sand to flow from the holes, bringing us here.
"Xiang Ye! Xiang Ye!"
Fatty's voice came from behind me. I turned to see him brushing sand off himself as he walked towards me.
Before I could speak to him, a dark figure flew down from above and landed heavily on the ground.
I heard a cry of "Ouch."
I shone my flashlight at Jin Qiaoyue, her head covered in white sand. She looked at me with confusion and asked, "What is this place?"
Soon, the others also fell.
The last to fall was A Yuan, who surprisingly clutched three backpacks as he came down.
Our backpacks were all large capacity ones, each weighing at least ten pounds.
Fu Kui was quite shaken by the fall and only got up after a long while.
Ignoring them, I used my flashlight to examine the surroundings.
It was a long and narrow space, with high walls on both sides, the height of which I couldn't estimate.
There were many small holes in the walls. Apart from the holes we fell through, no sand was falling from the other holes.
The walls were very smooth and bare.
I didn't know if this large passage was man-made or natural.
Whichever it was, it was not simple.
Think about it, if it was man-made, who would have the ability to build this at the bottom of the sand?
But if it was natural, this passage was too incredible.
Unable to figure it out, I asked Fatty for his opinion.
He said, "Could it be made by aliens? I watched a program recently about a farmer who met aliens, and they took him around the world."
I rolled my eyes at him and said, "Can you give me a more constructive answer?"
Fatty stroked his chin and said, "In my opinion, there's one possibility... this place wasn't originally at the bottom of the sand, but it was buried by sand."
"That answer is more plausible," I nodded. "But if that's the case, what about the lake? Didn't the sand bury the lake?"
Fatty said, "Xiang Ye, you're such a smart person, why do you get confused at critical moments? Sand is heavier than water, so when it falls into water, it naturally sinks. Of course, it wouldn't bury the lake."
"That makes some sense, but I still think this place is not simple. What if this is the sleeping palace of the King of Taohuai Country?"
"I don't know about that, but how much effort would it take to build such a large place?" Fatty said.
After we all rested for a while in our original spot, we began to discuss whether to go forward or backward.
After all, we were likely in the middle section of this passage, and no one knew what lay ahead or behind.
The final decision was to go forward first, and if it turned out to be a dead end, we would come back.
After finally finding the lake, I had been thinking of taking a bath. But instead of a bath, I got covered in sand.
When I was washed down by the sand earlier, my ears and nose were full of sand, let alone the rest of my body. It was like taking a sand bath.
After cleaning off most of the sand, we distributed the existing equipment from our backpacks. Although a few backpacks were missing, the remaining equipment was sufficient. Basic equipment like flashlights and climbing ropes were all there.
After the distribution, we proceeded forward along the passage.
After walking for a while, about ten minutes, we saw a stone tower.
The stone tower was entirely white and about eight stories high, approximately twenty meters tall.
When the flashlight beam shone on it, the white color of the stone tower was particularly dazzling.
I was momentarily stunned by this stone tower. The stone tower had a total of seven floors. The bottom floor had no doors or windows, and it was surrounded by white sand.
The floors above had densely packed small holes, like a honeycomb. The higher it went, the larger the holes became.
"This is..."
Old Man Qu walked over, stared at the stone tower for a while, and then suddenly said, "It's the Tower of Thanatos!"
"What?" I didn't quite understand.
"Thanatos is Greek for death. Translated, it means Tower of Death. Old Man Qu said, "I've come across a sheepskin scroll before, written entirely in Greek, and it had a drawing of this tower... Legend has it that the Tower of Death is the dwelling place of Thanatos, the god of death in Greek mythology."
"God of death?"
I looked at the white tower before me faintly, sensing that something was not quite right...