Burial of the Dragon

One photo, four bones In March 2018, after a rare spring snowstorm at the southern foothills of Changbai Mountain in Jilin Province, a geological survey team discovered a cave-in outside an abandoned military restricted area. The collapse revealed a hole about two meters in diameter and bottomless. Chen, the leader of the exploration team, looked down with a flashlight and vaguely saw what seemed to be a stone structure below. "It doesn't look like a natural cave." Lao Chen reported to the headquarters using a walkie-talkie. After approval, Lao Chen and two team members descended with climbing ropes. The cave is about fifteen meters deep, with a manually dug stone chamber at the bottom, about twenty square meters, and there are obvious gouge marks on the walls. There is a stone table in the center of the stone room, and on the table is a notebook wrapped in oilcloth. Next to the notebook, four skeletons were sitting in a circle. Their clothes had long since rotted, but judging from the residue, they were dressed in the 1950s and 1960s. The strangest thing is that these four skeletons are all facing the stone table, with their hand bones resting on the edge of the table, as if they are waiting for something. Lao Chen put on his gloves and carefully opened the notebook. The first page reads in traditional Chinese: "In the winter of 1958, we found a way to enter the 'Land of the Dragon's Rest'. But we made a mistake - we were not the first batch, nor the last batch. If you see this note, do not go down. The bottom is not a tomb, it is alive." There is a black and white photo sandwiched in the middle of the notebook. In the photo, seven young people stand in front of a huge stone monument with unreadable words engraved on it. Written in pen on the back of the photo: "The Seven Stars of the Northern Sect, the dragon is buried here. Autumn 1961."