Chapter 9

Given that anomalous satellite imagery, someone had to go back. This time Wei Yuan would lead the team himself.
“Dr. Wei, with all due respect—if something happens to you…” Wei Yuan was clearly the institute’s key figure. His superiors were not in favour of him taking the risk.
“If the spread of this black ring is real, it may mean none of us are safe.”
Wei Yuan’s gaze was grim.
Only by uncovering the truth of what had happened at the cave hotel and on that mountain could they hope to stop the spread.
He had already submitted his request. He was going, no matter what.
Xiao Xu hesitated. “But how will you get there? No plane will fly over that area now.”
Even commercial flights were rerouting. Every jurisdiction had issued no-fly orders.
“Not by plane.” Wei Yuan shook his head and said slowly, “By car.”
By—by car? Xiao Xu was dumbstruck. “Doctor, that place is on the border with India…” He spoke clearly in case Wei Yuan hadn’t heard. By car? How long would that take?
Wei Yuan was serious. The only reason his superiors had agreed to let him lead was the report he had submitted. A very persuasive report.
One week earlier.
“This is everything we have on the cave hotel from public sources.” Wei Yuan faced the experts in the conference room, displaying the slides.
The hotel’s layout and furnishings were visible—a medieval-style retreat, everything antique, clearly catering to modern tastes for the exotic.
Before the incident, the cave hotel had been fully booked for months.
“What are you trying to show us?” Someone finally asked.
A virtual tour? At a time like this?
Wei Yuan switched slides. “These are the only images the drones sent back. The current state of the hotel interior.”
They had lost more than a dozen drones for those images. Three years of budget, gone.
The cave hotel lobby was clearly visible. But the scene was a world away from the exotic cave in the brochures.
The interior was pitch black. It looked like a real cave.
The drones had captured night-vision footage. The front-desk table was covered in cobwebs and a layer of black substance—unknown—wrapping everything. On the table were heaps of things that had lost their shape. Only when Wei Yuan placed before-and-after photos side by side could they barely make them out.
A computer for checkout, a surveillance camera, and a phone.
… And a half-open notepad, a fallen pen—as if the front-desk clerk had just been writing something.
Then the frame cut to the floor: several piles of black dust, unidentifiable. It brought to mind something like ashes.