It seemed to be the very tomb robber’s tunnel they’d fallen through. Could Old Liu, Sister Xun, and their ilk have been tossed down as well?
Gu Xianwang’s mind raced. She spun around, seized Little Bro by the collar, and yanked him into the water. “Come on, to the entrance.”
Clinic Brother’s limbs went limp. She nearly flipped him head over heels into the murky water. He barely steadied himself by clutching a pile of bones, shivering as he stood firm. “If you want to go… go look for yourselves! What business is it of mine? I… I’ll just stay right here. Can’t I wait here to die on my own?”
“How come you weren’t so aggrieved when you had the gun in your hand?” Gu Xianwang snorted with laughter, paying no heed to his protests. Her fingers clamped his right wrist like an iron vise. The three of them shuffled out of the Main Coffin Chamber toward the Tomb Passageway entrance. “Staying put proves there’s no other way out. The entrance is the only exit. You want to die? Makes no difference if it’s in here or out there. I’ll give you this stretch of road to mull it over. I don’t like repeating myself. The deal’s on the table: say yes and live; say no, and before I go, I’ll send you off personally.”
“Think it over!”
The three pressed forward, wading through the water. Gu Xianwang put Ye Chan out front. No matter if what had dropped from the tomb robber’s tunnel was man or beast, splitting up now was a terrible idea. This man had popped up out of nowhere in the ancient tomb’s Main Coffin Chamber—no explanation, however reasonable, would convince her otherwise. After that shape-shifting ghost at the Yelang Altar, she wasn’t about to trust any face at face value.
They hadn’t gone ten steps from the Main Coffin Chamber before Clinic Brother flagged, gasping for breath. “Fine, fine… you got me. Hung me up half-dead… Heh… Ming Dynasty tomb, huh? We didn’t build that place. This spot—before we migrated here, Huima Ridge already… had tales of a Ming Dynasty general.”
“And… what do we need all those… all those drums for? What year is it… market economy! That general’s tomb… it’s just bait for outsiders. A hook, nothing more.”
Holy crap? Ye Chan whipped her head around, laughing in sheer fury. If she hadn’t lived through it herself not an hour ago, she might’ve bought this bullshit. “Like hell it is! You say that like it’s no big deal? News flash—it’s been less than an hour since you assholes fired at us right in our faces!”
Gu Xianwang paused during this exchange, straining to listen at the exit once more. Seeing him wilt and play possum, she glanced back. “Go on.”
“You… just got lucky with the timing. Thunderstorm Night Hanging Coffin Ritual, offerings to the Earth Immortal—it’s… always been our tradition.”
Gu Xianwang sneered coldly. “Tradition? Guess that makes us the ones disrespecting your culture. From the stalk to the surround-and-kill, you pulled it off like pros—no hesitation about murder. You’ve clearly done this a hundred times. And yet you just keep running your tourist town like nothing happened, even eyeing that wild hot spring development. That kind of guts and cool head? Not something your average backwoods mountain folk possess.”
She dragged him onward. “Market economy, you say? So before tourism took over, your village got by robbing the robbers?”
Little Bro scowled. “Robbing robbers? They’re thieves; we’re the guards. They come armed to the teeth? They should expect to get killed. It’s only right. What’s wrong with that?”
“You’re educated in the modern world, and you’re asking me?”
“Sure, but our teacher… told us long ago: protect our land. Against irregular enemies, use irregular methods. Where… do we go wrong?”
Gu Xianwang’s face stayed stone-cold, silent. Just ahead loomed the tomb robber’s tunnel mouth, a faint band of daylight shimmering in the pooled water. Fine rain threads hung in the midair—it looked like the downpour had eased. The Tomb Passageway held no sign of people or Mountain Demons. Ye Chan hugged the dirt wall, sidled forward a couple steps, squatted, and peered up. Nothing clung to the walls. She traded a puzzled look with Gu Xianwang, then scooped a handful of water and flung it toward the base of the opening.
A splash echoed. The three ducked aside to watch. Moments later, voices drifted down from the tunnel above—indistinct, but unmistakably a man calling, “You two girls still alive down there?”
That accent—sounded just like Old Liu.
Hiss—what the hell?
He and Sister Xun had turned on each other. Was he angling for an alliance now? If so, these grave robbers might not have much going for them, but they sure had thick hides.
Flip the perspective, though: both sides weaponless, up against the same brutal foe. Old Liu solo up top? Dead. Them hunkered down here alone? Same fate. Better to use each other till they busted out of this tomb. Once free, she could always handle one like him.
The problem was, was he really just one person?
Gu Xianwang’s eyes shifted slightly as she handed the rib bone strip to Ye Chan and whispered, “Keep a close eye on him. If anything seems off, stab his wound.”
With that, she waded alone toward the base of the tomb robber’s tunnel. The water at the end of this passageway was nearly two meters deep, forcing her soon to tread water just to stay afloat. No wonder no one could climb up solo—there was no leverage underwater for a jump. If she’d tried using Ye Chan as a stepping stone, she would’ve crushed the poor girl.
Steering clear of any angles where bullets might reach, she tilted her head back and shouted, “Still alive!”
A yelp echoed from above, then nothing. For a long moment, there were only faint rustling sounds. Gu Xianwang was starting to grow suspicious when something thudded down—a long rope weighted with a stone, dropping straight toward her. The voice from above boomed louder: “Hurry and climb up while those damn monkeys are asleep!”
A rope? Gu Xianwang frowned and gripped it, testing the soaked fibers. It felt like ordinary hemp rope. Where had Old Liu gotten this? Did he have more gear stashed away? A knife, maybe? How many people were watching the exit?
The mountain demons sleeping—that was good news. The mountain demon pack must not be far from their “fridge,” and it sounded like no one from Golden Hook Town would come poking around tonight.
Gu Xianwang fished two handy bone shards from her pocket—the ones she’d palmed in the water earlier—and slipped one into each sleeve cuff. Ye Chan couldn’t go first; the risk was too great. But what if that guy up top was playing possum too?
She beckoned the pair over. “I’ll go first. Ye Duoduo, you’re second. As for you—you can tread water, right?”
…
Gu Xianwang’s plan was simple: truss Little Bro securely at the bottom. She’d climb the rope first, Ye Chan right behind. Once they were both safely topside, they’d haul him up. He’d live.
She scrambled up the hemp rope into the tomb robber’s tunnel and saw it had likely been excavated by the mountain demon pack themselves—claw marks scarred the earth and stone. It wasn’t quite as wide as Ye Chan had guessed. With a good leap, a person could brace with hands and feet to inch upward. But they didn’t have time for that. Risks had to be taken. Peering up at the pitch-black ceiling, she passed the midpoint. With about a meter and a half to go, she paused and suddenly asked, “Why are you saving us?”
From here, she could make the jump. Gu Xianwang eyed the tunnel mouth warily, left hand clamped on the rope, right hand’s three fingers curled around her bone knife. Any sign of trouble—
A face poked into view: bald pate, wrinkled skin, bushy white brows. The God Stick gawked down at her. “Why you yappin’ so much? You tryin’ to get yourself killed or somethin’?”
Gu Xianwang: …Huh?
She’d never dreamed the one pulling them out would be God Stick Xiao Sanxiao. Made sense, though—both men had thick Sichuan accents, hard to tell apart on first listen. Old Liu might be suspicious, but Xiao Sanxiao showing up here? He’d already proven some trustworthiness by jawing one-on-one with Long Li earlier. No more stalling. Gu Xianwang kicked off and vaulted up in three quick bounds.
Once Ye Chan crested the lip too, they all heaved the apparently unconscious Little Bro out of the hole. The two women still couldn’t fathom how the guy had tailed them this far, but the mountain demon pack was dangerously close. They posted night sentries as a rule, but tonight was different. Every critter around seemed terrified of the thunder. After snaring their prey, the whole pack had retreated to huddle in their cave lairs, leaving the open “fridge” unattended.
Better for them. Time to bolt.
Don’t let the old man’s scrawny, dried-up look fool you. His loose greatcoat flapped like a sail, but his strength was prodigious. He slung Little Bro over his shoulder and ran without a stumble. The underbrush in this mountain hollow was thick, the muddy ground treacherously soft. Even Gu Xianwang, in boots, picked her steps carefully. But this old coot, in his worn cloth shoes, loped along like it was pavement. In just ten or twenty minutes, he’d covered a full li.
It was likely three or four a.m. by now. Amid the utter stillness, only a fine misting rain slanted down. Rounding a jutting rock outcrop, the old man suddenly ducked inward, vanishing in an instant.
Gu Xianwang’s pace slowed on instinct. Before she could scout ahead, the old man grumbled impatiently from the shadows, “Quit your dawdlin’. Get in here already.”
Pushing aside the curtain of leaves, they found a triangular stone cave recessed into the back of the rocky outcrop. It was a natural formation, fairly spacious widthwise but low-ceilinged—one couldn’t stand upright, only squat. Squatting would do, though; it kept the rain off and offered decent cover. Ye Chan stepped inside and dropped straight onto her backside, feeling like she couldn’t manage another step. She kicked off her shoes and dumped them out—two buckets’ worth of water, easy.
Gu Xianwang didn’t dare sit. She stayed crouched in a vigilant posture, listening intently for a moment to confirm nothing lurked nearby. Only then did she speak. “What is all this? How did you know where we were?”
Realizing how blunt that sounded, she added, “I saw you having a hushed talk with our friend in that alley earlier. You went out of your way to hide who you were back then—why risk your neck for us now?”
“In the alley?” Xiao Sanxiao arched a brow. “Oh? Where’d you see that from?”
Gu Xianwang was bone-tired. She had no desire to pick a fight with her rescuer right off the bat, but she lacked the stamina for evasive chit-chat either. With a sigh, she cut straight to it. “Let’s be real. You knew right where we were, so you must’ve been tailing us since Golden Hook Town. You kept out of sight the whole way. Whatever your angle, thanks for pulling us out of that cave—but don’t pretend your motives are pure. No need to beat around the bush.”
“How much of the Heavenly Book did you make out? What’d you overhear that woman saying about The Seabed? What do you want from us? Spit it out.”
Xiao Sanxiao shot her a glance, dug deep in his nostril for a good long while, then wiped his finger on the soggy leaves by his feet. “You think I’m some kinda wizard? All them characters—you expect me to read ’em with one peek? You and that Yang kid were huddled at the same table, so figure you’re Yang family too, huh? I got no funny business with you two. Me and your friend just had unfinished talk, and she bolted. I wanna track her down, is all.”
He hadn’t recognized it? Hadn’t caught what they said? Then why’d Long Li take off like that? Something didn’t add up.
Either he was holding back, or flat-out lying. Gu Xianwang fixed him with a steady stare and said nothing.
Xiao Sanxiao smacked his lips. “What’re you gawkin’ at? What do I want from you? I told you not to head to that death-trap Long Family joint. Where’s the crime in that? You two almost bit it back there. I shut my eyes and look the other way—what then? Young blood like you, hearts all twisted up, always assumin’ the worst.”
Gu Xianwang pressed her lips thin. “What exactly did you two talk about?”
“About her!”
Ye Chan jabbed a finger at herself, dumbfounded. “Me? What about me?”
“I asked her where y’all dug up this Heavenly Book. Ain’t your run-of-the-mill ancient script—it’s from a special tribe, their own lingo. And her.” Xiao Sanxiao pointed at Ye Chan’s eyes. “How’s a whopper Gu worm like that flyin’ under your radar?”
Ye Chan clapped a hand over her eyes, recalling how the God Eye might’ve been triggered by the pepper spray earlier. She rushed to explain. “We know about the Gu worm. It’s harmless to the body—for now, anyway.”
Xiao Sanxiao stared. “…Fool kid.”
“Huh?”
“Name me one Gu worm that’s harmless to folks. Go on.” He scratched his bald pate and let out a heavy sigh before laying it out plain. “That Heavenly Book? Witch Clan script, through and through. Nationwide, legit digs have turned up maybe a dozen scraps total. You got two full pages? Means you been somewhere you shouldn’t.”
“And that bug in your eye—straight talk: it’s medicine. Brewed special to keep down somethin’ a sight deadlier. Poison fights poison, capisce? But it packs a punch itself.”
Ye Chan blinked rapidly. “Keep down… what?”
Xiao Sanxiao waved it off. “Call it sickness, call it a curse—take your pick. Thing’s nasty as they come. That’s why I tell you, tell everybody: steer clear. Don’t touch Long Family goods. Fatal, every one. You know my age—what, you think I’m after your lunch money?”
Gu Xianwang’s heart lurched. A wild guess bubbled up. “You mean the Forbidden Witch Bone?”
Ye Chan blinked in confusion. “Huh?”
Xiao Sanxiao’s eyes bugged out. “You know it? And you still came pokin’ around? Long Family hauled that out. Touch it, you’re done. Gu worm’s the only counter—specially tuned. But neither flies solo in a body. No dice.”
Gu Xianwang went rigid. Her mind rang like a gong. Impossible. The God Eye… a cure for the Forbidden Witch Bone?
So the Mountain-Seeking Traveler had told the truth?
She’d come that close to what she’d been hunting?
Only for Ye Chan to swallow it by dumb luck?
No… too many holes in this. But if it was real…
Absurd. Utterly absurd.
She worked her lips, but no smile came.
“Sister Gu? You… are you alright?”
Gu Xianwang averted her gaze, letting it settle on Ye Chan’s face. She drew a deep breath, forcing her racing thoughts to steady as she admonished herself to remain calm—absolutely calm. If the God Eye was truly a remedy designed to suppress the Forbidden Witch Bone, then her earlier theory about the Three Corpses Brain Divine Pill was wrong. The God Eye was not merely a tool of control through poison; it was also a life-saving medicine—which meant the Yelang people were infected with the Forbidden Witch Bone as well?
If that was the case, then the final piece of the puzzle truly fell into place.
Sister—the title the Cave Lord had cried out while cowering behind her—fit perfectly into this line of reasoning. The Cave Lord must have been one of the two Witch Clan witch maidens who ventured into the Sinkhole. She was the younger sister, while the elder sister called the shots. For reasons unknown, the younger sister contracted the Forbidden Witch Bone first and suffered an outbreak ahead of her sibling. In desperation, the elder sister ordered the construction of that underground palace as a prison.
Yet clearly, the younger sister never made it inside the underground palace in the end. Perhaps she had a fleeting moment of clarity at the time?
Regardless, the outcome suggested that both sisters ultimately entered the white cocoons atop the altar. If those white cocoons were the Nüwa Cocoons, this new clue changed everything: the witch maidens hadn’t become Forbidden Witches because they entered the Nüwa Cocoon. More likely, they had entered it precisely to stop themselves from turning into one.
It was only after the sisters entered the Nüwa Cocoon that the Yelang people rebelled. Their ancestors somehow forced their way into the altar and pierced the younger sister’s white cocoon with the Bronze Sword, dragging her out.
In doing so, however, the Yelang clansmen became infected with the Forbidden Witch Bone from her body. Gripped by terror, the Yelang people severed her head and cast it aside in the karst cave.
Millennia passed. In their fear, they concocted this elaborate charade for themselves, using the mysteriously acquired God Eye to perpetuate their endless worship of the Witch Clan’s long-decayed altar.
That was why the Yelang people, generation after generation, could never leave this mountain. Because… the medicine was here.
