Chapter 161: Master Liang Falls From The Sky
As soon as Wu Xie stepped outside the cave entrance, he saw the circle surrounding the cave entrance that parted and closed again with the big rat’s advance, blocking them exactly two meters away from the big rat.
Although the big rat was present now and those Chi Gu didn’t dare to act rashly, the two still couldn’t help but break out in goosebumps at the eerie masks covering the rock wall tightly from all directions.
Wu Xie’s body shuddered, and he subconsciously touched the back of his neck. This extreme eerie feeling made the back of his neck feel numb. Lao Yang was so shocked that he started to stutter: “Th-this, how, how are there so many? We won’t, won’t have entered—a Chi Gu nest, right?”
Wu Xie shook his head: “I don’t know either! How… how do we go?”
He cautiously stepped forward, but those Chi Gu stayed in place without moving and didn’t swarm toward them as imagined, so he breathed a sigh of relief inwardly. He turned back to call to Lao Yang: “It’s okay, we can go. Could it be that we happened to rest in a place that attracts them, so this many came?”
Lao Yang watched Wu Xie step into the tiny gaps in the middle of the Chi Gu with every step, barely able to walk steadily, feeling somewhat terrified: “You, be careful, don’t fall down!”
Now clinging to the rock wall, Wu Xie had no energy to turn back. Just finding footholds was already very difficult. The Chi Gu had covered almost all of the rock wall, leaving very few places for him to step. Although the Chi Gu swarm showed no movement now, it wasn’t impossible that startling one might trigger a group reaction, so he still had to be careful.
That big rat seemed to see their predicament. After tilting its head and watching them struggle to approach it, it squeaked twice, ran to their side, causing the surrounding Chi Gu to swarm back. Although they still encircled them one or two meters away, it was much better than the previous intimate contact distance.
He didn’t know where this big rat got its energy from. They had never seen it eat anything, yet it was still leaping up and down.
After completely moving away from that cave, Wu Xie looked back at the tree trunk submerged in darkness, wondering how Master Liang was doing—whether he had climbed straight up or followed the light over.
Finally, he shone his flashlight toward the tree but saw nothing besides the original branches—not even a mountain monkey.
Wu Xie shook his head and thought no more about it. Maybe this was fate. Although he didn’t know why he felt a sense of empathy. What he didn’t expect, however, was that the occasion of seeing Master Liang again would be so… eerie.
And very soon.
The guiding big rat walked beside them. Unlike them having to sidle along to cling precariously to the rock wall, it moved about as freely as on flat ground, as if the nearly 90-degree cliff posed no hindrance at all. He didn’t know what breed it really was.
Lao Yang, who had been following behind Wu Xie, suddenly noticed something off: “Wu Xie!”
“What’s wrong?”
“Do you, do you feel anything on your, your neck?”
“What feeling?”
Wu Xie stopped, freed a hand to touch his neck, but felt a dry, rough sensation all over his hand. What was on his neck? He pressed harder—it hurt a bit and felt numb, like being pricked by something. Or maybe pricked more than once?
He touched it with his hand—it seemed like a connected scar, not sure when it happened, but now the scab was almost fully formed. He didn’t dare touch it more, afraid of pressing too hard and reopening the wound. It wouldn’t be worth getting injured again for that. But the shape of this wound… like a circle? Or oval?
He couldn’t feel it clearly himself and had Lao Yang come closer to check: “Lao Yang, help me look. When did I get this injury? How come I didn’t know? If you hadn’t reminded me, I wouldn’t feel anything at all.”
After seeing it, Lao Yang sucked in a cold breath: “You, you really feel nothing? Such a big wound, doesn’t it hurt?”
Hearing this, Wu Xie suddenly remembered that he had only fully sobered up when exiting the cave entrance, and even then the back of his neck felt numb. He had always thought it was from being scared by the Chi Gu, but unexpectedly… his nape really was injured?
But why didn’t it hurt much? He moved his neck up, down, left, and right, somewhat puzzled. Lao Yang said the wound was big but it didn’t hurt much—could it just look serious but only be surface-level? Or had someone given him local anesthesia, and the numbing effect hadn’t worn off yet?
Lao Yang looked at the wound, wanting to speak but hesitating, his eyes secretly glancing at the big rat beside them. Its tilted little head had two black-bean-like big eyes staring blankly at them.
This… Although Lao Yang thought his guess was still reliable, what if it wasn’t? This rat could understand human speech, right? What if it refused to lead them to Lin Yan later?
“Lao Yang, what’s wrong?”
When Lao Yang didn’t speak for a long time, Wu Xie felt something was off. He turned back and saw Lao Yang staring down the big rat like they were in a staring contest, which made him somewhat amused: “Lao Yang, what are you doing? Fallen for this big rat? If you really like it, talk nicely to Lin Yan later—maybe he’ll give it to you.”
Realizing Wu Xie was joking, Lao Yang irritably glanced at him and stopped looking at the big rat. To be honest, if the wound on Wu Xie’s nape was really from this big rat, then could its ability to make Chi Gu and mountain monkeys retreat also be related to Wu Xie? If so, wouldn’t that add more variables to his plan?
However, once the arrow is shot, there’s no turning back. They had already come this far, so they could only continue onward.
No turning back, and his time was already running short.
No, Lao Yang suddenly remembered that when the big rat had driven back those mountain monkeys and Chi Gu before, it hadn’t bitten Wu Xie either! So this was an innate ability of the big rat—sucking blood was just eating when hungry, randomly picking between him and Wu Xie? That meant… Wu Xie was still fine?
That was good! Thinking of this, Lao Yang also breathed a sigh of relief.
Wu Xie, unaware of Lao Yang’s rich inner thoughts, found the origin of the wound on his nape strange, but clearly following the big rat to find Lin Yan was more important now. If it really was some strange thing that did it, he could always find the little white zombie if needed! That thing was the nemesis of all kinds of strange and eerie stuff—it could counter anything. Based on its performance so far underground, it was simply invincible!
It took great effort to climb to where the boardwalk was, nearly half an hour passing. Even for two young men like Wu Xie and Lao Yang, their hands and feet felt somewhat sore and weak.
Finally getting both feet firmly on the boardwalk, Lao Yang immediately leaned back against the rock wall and sat down: “Damn it, I’m exhausted!”
Wu Xie was also panting heavily and disdainfully eyed Lao Yang’s limp state, casually saying: “Haven’t you been here before? How are you still this tired?”
Lao Yang said unconvinced: “If it was me back then, what would this count for? It was those, those few years in… there that ruined me—my body’s all wasted!”
True, Lao Yang had been in prison for several years. Although he didn’t know the conditions there, they surely weren’t as active as their mountain trekking, so it was reasonable for his body to be wasted. But even wasted, he seemed stronger than himself?
Watching Lao Yang stand up and ready to continue upward after just a few minutes, then looking at himself…
Wu Xie moved his legs—these past few days’ exertion was too much; they ached with just a twitch. He looked up at the boardwalk winding off to who-knows-where… a wave of despair surged in his heart. Sigh, why were all his tomb-raiding experiences so miserable? Couldn’t he get an easy one? Of course, easy with lots of loot would be even better… the kid needed money!
With time to observe the boardwalk, Wu Xie realized it wasn’t like the simple ones for workers they had imagined—it seemed specially built for people to walk on, constructed extra sturdily. But for some reason, the auxiliary supports below hadn’t been removed.
Wu Xie climbed up, avoided the vines wrapped around it, and touched the supporting wood… it was oil bamboo cane. Wrapped around the outside of the boardwalk, it served both as auxiliary support and corrosion resistance, lasting centuries without rotting. Judging by the degree of corrosion and weathering, it was also a few hundred years old.
This was strange. This tomb was like a big mishmash: the bronze tree was the oldest, from the Shang-Zhou era; outside there was a Qing dynasty Thousand Coffin Formation; this repaired boardwalk was at least a few hundred years old too—maybe Ming or Qing dynasty. Had this tomb really spanned several dynasties, with people excavating it in each?
Wu Xie thought about it and felt it was possible. Not to mention anything else, the mine they entered was also several hundred or thousand years old, not from the same dynasty as here. Though mine development often spans dynasties, who could say this mine deep inside was really a mine and not dug under the guise of mining to uncover the bronze tree’s secrets?
Although the thing with the most secrets might not even be this bronze tree.
Wu Xie looked at the boardwalk along the cliff wall gradually moving away from the bronze tree and fell into contemplation. This bronze tree was just a sacrificial vessel, which meant there was still a place inside. Could this boardwalk lead all the way to the main tomb chamber?
Before, below Lu King’s Palace, the main tomb chamber was in the Nine-headed Serpent Cypress. This time it was reversed—the main tomb chamber was deeper inside. But thinking carefully, this was reasonable. Except for that madman Lu Shang Wang who took over another’s nest, who would build their tomb on top of someone else’s? If not, the area near Seven Star Suspect Mounds should have been the main tomb chamber, which would fit the typical tomb layout.
This bronze sacrificial vessel was already this big—would the main tomb chamber inside be even more magnificent? Thinking of the gorgeous palace he saw in the underwater tomb, Wu Xie felt a bit of anticipation for the place they were about to reach.
Taking a deep breath, he stood up and stretched his limbs: “Let’s go!”
Sure enough, the big rat understood again. Seeing no Chi Gu following from behind, it ran ahead of them once more.
The big rat was nimble, leaping up and down with ease—it was Wu Xie and Lao Yang who suffered.
After hundreds or thousands of years of changes, the boardwalk had long been entwined with tree roots. Wu Xie could tell at a glance that these roots probably all came from one tree.
“One tree? How, how is that possible!”
Lao Yang was stunned. These roots entwining all the boardwalk wood along the way—how could they be from one tree? He could believe dozens!
Wu Xie gave him a measured look, enjoying the intellectual’s pleasure: “Didn’t know, huh? It’s banyan tree. We’re probably close to the surface here, just dozens of meters away. Banyan roots can intertwine to form false stems—meaning in a banyan grove, there might be only one main body, with all the others big and small being its clones! These hanging ones are its aerial roots; if given enough time, it could hollow out an entire mountain!”
“Th-then that means we’re now under that Goldfish Mountain?”
Lao Yang recalled that nearby, only Goldfish Mountain had such dense forest visible. Though too far to see if they were banyans, directionally it should be about right?
Wu Xie thought about their direction of travel. If they had followed Jia Zi Gou, they should have been on the side of Goldfish Mountain, but they detoured into the mine midway—positionally, they really were inside Goldfish Mountain! So if they could exit upward, the exit might be the cave he had planned to overnight in before?
This… He scratched the back of his head, but thinking about it now was useless! They had entered three people, and one was still missing!
After walking half a circle around the cliff wall, unbeknownst to them, they had already passed the bronze tree’s range. The towering bronze pillar behind had completely vanished from sight at some point.
At that moment, they heard a strange sound. Wu Xie reflexively stopped, grabbed Lao Yang, and vigilantly looked around front and back: “Did you hear any sound?”
Last time there was this kind of sound, mountain monkeys and Chi Gu had swarmed them—surely the Chi Gu swarm behind hadn’t caught up again? Wu Xie looked back but saw nothing.
Pulled by Wu Xie, Lao Yang felt puzzled. He listened carefully but heard nothing but the rustling of vines: “Are you, are you too nervous? Where’s the strange sound? Isn’t it just the vines in the wind? What’s to fear about that? You really are—”
Before he finished, he shut his mouth, his face changing. Both knew what was wrong.
There was no damn wind here!
So where was the sound from? Just then, the sound grew closer—the source was… above? Their faces changed as they shone their flashlights upward, seeing a figure tumble onto the boardwalk beside them. The entire section shook.
Seeing the person about to roll off, they hurriedly pulled him back. Wu Xie immediately recognized the familiar face and was somewhat incredulous: “Master Liang? How is it you? Where did you come from?”
