After finishing up with Governor Daren, Wu Heng returned to the temple site.
Beneath the Goddess's mass of flesh, the chassis of three truck trailers had already been put in place. Since they could only dig out a section at a time before stopping to add supports, excavation could proceed from no more than two directions.
Although there were enough workers, digging from several directions at once might cause a collapse.
So progress had slowed considerably. It would take another twenty hours before they could even try to tow the mass of flesh away.
Wu Heng watched the work from inside a tent, keeping an eye out for accidents. At the same time, he picked up a brand-new classified file and compared it with the scraps of information they had found on the few thugs earlier.
Embrace of the Goddess of Prosperity said that a thousand years ago, after Hastur stole her gold, the Goddess of Prosperity was heartbroken by the conflict between her many divine children and Hastur.
So she scattered her remaining wealth along both banks of the Ganges, distributing food and seeds equally among everyone. Then she left behind a prophecy:
"I can satisfy the needs of the world, but not its greed. Desire will drown the human realm."
After speaking, the Goddess of Prosperity opened her arms and embraced the boundless earth. Her body grew hazy, then vanished completely from the world.
Five hundred years later, for reasons unknown, the gods also gradually fell into slumber in the depths of the Ganges.
Another classified file recorded a mysterious creature incident in the waters of the Ganges near Uttarkangotri in 1917.
While patrolling the river in military vessels, local armed forces spotted a creature with a serpent's head, a human torso, and spider legs. It attacked one of their ships first.
It was agile and made moaning sounds that could mesmerize people. Its limbs could easily pierce through a ship's hull.
They lost two ships and 47 crewmen. Only after firing all their shells did they manage to blast the monster to death.
Its blood turned the river green. The captain ordered its body retrieved, intending to sell it to a British Empire research institute to recoup their losses.
But the corpse had been in the freezer for less than half a day when it began to give off an unbearably foul, rotting stench that filled the entire hold.
When the captain opened the freezer, he found nothing but a puddle of green liquid. It was evaporating rapidly, just like gasoline.
By the time they returned to port, nothing remained in the freezer.
The reason this incident had been recorded in a classified file
was that, within two days of returning to port, every crewman who had breathed in the stench began to turn green and rot.
After examining them, doctors found that all their bodily functions were normal. Yet all 92 crewmen rotted to death in less than three days.
Unable to explain what had happened, they recorded the incident because the men's accounts before they died were entirely consistent, detailed, and vivid.
It was said that after learning what had happened, local followers of the Goddess of Prosperity smashed the homes of all the crewmen's families and prayed for three whole months. More than three hundred followers starved themselves to death.
They claimed the men had angered the incarnation of the divine child Managadu and that they had to beg the gods for forgiveness.
The file also recorded that, over the past century or so, many people had reported seeing strange creatures in the Ganges. There had also been numerous reports of ships damaged by mysterious creatures, with their crews disappearing.
After comparing the two accounts, Wu Heng formed a theory.
Now the bait was ready, and everything was in place. All that remained was to wait for the right moment.
At the temple site, the engineers were hard at work. A soldier quietly asked the man beside him,
"Hey, did you see all those tanks outside? Do you think this really is a biological experiment?"
Another soldier was rubbing flour on something. Hearing the question, he glanced around and whispered back,
"Shh. To be honest, everyone must've heard the howling from inside that thing."
"They're just pretending they don't know. Think about where we are—a temple!"
A soldier nearby who was helping with measurements also whispered,
"Exactly. There's got to be a demon sealed beneath the temple. The commander's going to play exorcist."
"We'd better be careful. If something goes wrong, I reckon those tanks will open fire. Keep your wits about you when that happens."
After whispering among themselves for a few moments, the men hurried back to work, as if they had a guilty conscience. They moved even more gingerly than before, and an eerie tension hung over the entire ruin.
For those twenty hours, Wu Heng was either in the command tent refining the plan or at the site himself, lending a hand and giving directions to keep everyone calm.
During that time, Governor Daren also visited Hastur Temple to look around. He still didn't trust Wu Heng, but after seeing the enormous ball of flesh with his own eyes, he said nothing and left.
"Report. The biological test subject has been fully transferred onto the chassis. The giant mining trucks are in position. Shall we begin the relocation attempt?"
"Begin."
With permission granted, Noel began directing the operation.
Dozens of steel cables were attached to two giant mining trucks, each sixteen meters long and seven meters wide. The vehicles moved forward slowly, their tires crushing half-meter-deep ruts into the road.
The cables gradually drew taut, giving off dull cracks like firecrackers.
Behind the test subject, four bulldozers with their front ends modified into barriers pushed it along slowly, preventing it from slipping off.
Under the watchful eyes of 2,356 soldiers from the engineer regiment and tank brigade, the test subject was slowly dragged out of the sinkhole and onto level ground.
Raindrops struck the covering over the test subject, then slid off the edges.
"We did it!"
"Yeah!"
"Mission accomplished!"
A wave of cheers and applause swept through the entire camp. The soldiers shouted in delight.
That bizarre ball of flesh, surrounded by tanks ready to open fire at any moment, had weighed on everyone for an entire day. Now that the plan had succeeded, they could finally breathe easy.
"Commander, what now?"
Noel asked with a grin.
"Wait!"
"Set up camp here. We'll take action in three days."
Wu Heng considered it for a moment. In the end, he decided to wait until the seventh day before making an attempt. By then, the survival mission would be nearing completion, and they'd have the safety net of being able to return.
*
*
Three days later, 30 kilometers west of Tumbbad Village, on the banks of the Ganges, 3:46 p.m.
Wu Heng sat in a helicopter, circling above the Ganges as he surveyed the terrain.
Over the past three days, he had looked through a large number of classified files. The ones concerning India mostly dealt with faith and prayer. None of that was any use to Wu Heng. He only believed in himself.
"What are all those people gathered along the river for?"
Wu Heng frowned. He had ordered all the residents along the route to be cleared out yesterday and given them compensation for their lost work.
"We paid them, and they left. But then they came back with even more relatives and neighbors to claim compensation."
"On your orders, all the nearby jails have been temporarily filled. These people are shamelessly lying on the ground. We throw them out, and they come right back."
The staff officer sounded helpless.
"Greed! Never mind. It doesn't matter."
"Soon, the shelling will satisfy their greed!"
After confirming that everything had been arranged, Wu Heng had the pilot land. Then he issued an order.
*
*
Before you continue