We kept sinking down into the mud and had to keep moving our feet in order to stay on top of the mudflat. We were covered in sea cockroaches and many of them had climbed into our clothes. I kept shaking them off and slapping them away, but I didn’t have time to worry about them. Fortunately, they didn’t hurt people even though they looked disgusting.

Fatty grabbed Liu Sang and forcefully threw him into the mud. "What do you mean you heard someone talking?” He asked him. “Make it clear!"

Liu Sang took a breath, but still couldn't say it. The three of us stared at him until he finally cracked, "There’s someone talking under the mudflat." He paused, and then said more seriously, "No, it’s not one person. It’s countless people. Countless people are talking."

As we glanced at each other, he inhaled sharply and clenched his teeth. "It sounds really lively, but they’re saying something I can't understand. There are definitely a lot of people, though."

"Under this mudflat?" I asked.

Liu Sang nodded, and Fatty asked, "Can those listening devices pick up evil spirits? I've heard a lot of magnetic instruments can hear the sounds of ancient markets from long ago. Or maybe it’s just the sound of these bugs moving in the mud. Don’t fucking talk nonsense."

"I didn't hear it at first,” Liu Sang said, “but it started to gradually appear once we started setting off the detonators." He looked off into the darkness on one side and suddenly lowered his voice before saying, "There’s something under this mudflat. And we woke it up."

The flares on both sides fell, and the light gradually dimmed until only our flashlights were left. At this time, I clearly felt that the sea breeze had stopped.

As soon as it stopped, the dry cold on the mudflat immediately turned into a damp cold. I broke out in a cold sweat and started shivering. I glanced at Poker-Face and saw him looking in the same direction as Liu Sang."What's the matter?" I asked him. He didn't answer me, but suddenly started heading back.

We quickly followed him. As we ran through the mud, I saw Liu Sang and Poker-Face glance towards that same dark direction from time to time. Fatty lit a cigarette and then pulled a gun out of his backpack before throwing it to me. I loaded it and then put my Kukri on my waist. Fatty’s gun could hold seventeen rounds and I couldn’t believe he ran red lights in the city when carrying such a thing.

But there was no need to worry about that now.

Our flashlights quickly found the listening devices still stuck in the mud that we had been in too much of a hurry to grab before. Liu Sang took a few steps closer, but didn’t dare approach them to listen. "It’s getting closer," he said.

"What is?"

"I didn't hear it this clearly before. You can listen for yourself," Liu Sang said. I went up to the closest listening device and listened very carefully. My ears weren’t as sensitive as Liu Sang's, but I could vaguely hear the voices he had mentioned before. I originally thought it would be something that sounded like talking, but could be explained away as wind or water. But when I heard it myself, I found that I was wrong.

This kind of noise sounded more like what you would hear in a huge market. Some people were shouting while others were talking, and it sounded like there were a lot of people.

After thinking about it, I suddenly realized that I had read about this phenomenon before in some ancient books. In some of the old seaside county records, there was a legend about a "sea market". It was said that countless voices would occasionally appear on the night sea, just like a huge market. If you followed these voices, you would eventually encounter the sea market. And Rakshasa were among those walking through the market.

This legend was later adapted in many novels about strange tales (2).

Were all these sounds coming from beneath the mudflat? Was it a natural phenomenon or something unexplainable?Liu Sang was trembling all over and completely petrified by the current situation. He kept mumbling, "Everyone said something would happen if you worked with Little Master Three. I thought it was just a rumor, a way for you to draw people in. I didn't expect it to be so accurate."

Fatty moved to smack him, "What did you say, you little bastard? You have no manners!"

Liu Sang used his elbow to block Fatty’s strike, while simultaneously tripping him. As Fatty fell forward, Liu Sang pushed him into the mud. Fatty was livid as he got up and swatted the sea cockroaches away. I moved to stop them, but saw that Liu Sang had suddenly calmed down. He glanced at Little Brother, who glanced back at him.

Liu Sang pointed to a certain direction in the dark, "Guys, something’s coming."

Fatty picked up his gun and pulled out the signal flare, waiting as Liu Sang listened for a few seconds, "Two and a half kilometers, a little to the east." Fatty fired the signal flare in that direction. As it shot into the sky and illuminated the area, we only took a single look before we all turned around and started running for our lives.

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TN Notes:

(1) It’s a short story by Pu Songling that was first published in “Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio”. Told in two parts, the story follows the adventures of scholar-merchant Ma Ji. More info here. For those curious, the characters for the chapter title are: 羅剎海市. Luó​chà (羅剎)= demon in Buddhism that likes to eat flesh, or a poltergeist in temples that plays tricks on monks and has a taste for their food. It translates as Rakshasa for some reason. Hǎi​shì (海市)= mirage (or if you break the characters up, they can mean Sea Market/City/Town).

(2) Per Tiffany: Novels about strange tales, or Zhiguai xiaoshuo (Chinese: 志怪小說), is also translated as "tales of the miraculous", "tales of the strange", or "records of anomalies". It's a type of Chinese literature which appeared in the Han dynasty. Wiki link here.

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