Chapter 29: It Turned Out to Be Him

The sound was ethereal and slightly hoarse, faint as the hiss of a snake flicking its tongue. Yet, it came in groups of three, like a ghost from the underworld calling out a name.

Cheng Xiangru had been worried about being discovered all along. Hearing this sound, he felt his hair stand on end. Rigid with fear, he lifted his head and looked diagonally toward the top of the tomb gate, the source of the noise.

Directly above the gate was a protrusion shaped like a city wall. In a small gap, a tightly wrapped human head peered out—a chilling sight. Cheng Xiangru quickly regained his senses, realizing that the person hiding above was none other than Leng Ying, wearing her usual hood and mask. Only then did he manage to make out that she was calling out, "Blue Fatty."

Seeing that Cheng Xiangru was merely staring at her in a daze, Leng Ying grew impatient. She tossed a rope down and gestured for him to climb up quickly. This place was far from safe; there were at least two vicious thugs inside the tomb gate, if not more.

Not daring to hesitate, Cheng Xiangru grabbed the rope, hauled himself up with straining arms, and used the side of the gate for leverage. With Leng Ying’s help, he finally scrambled behind the wall-shaped protrusion. He had assumed the structure was purely decorative, but to his surprise, there was a small, double-leaf wooden door hidden behind it.

The wood was decaying, the paint long since faded and peeling. The door rings were heavily rusted, and a heavy brass lock, clogged with verdigris, hung from the latch. An aura of death seemed to emanate from the entire structure.

"Turn off your flashlight!" Leng Ying urged in a whisper.

Cheng Xiangru complied, his heart finally settling. For reasons he couldn't explain, Leng Ying’s presence brought him a sense of profound calm. It was embarrassing for a grown man to feel so comforted by a girl his own age, but he couldn't deny the relief.

"Why are you here?" he whispered into the dark.

"I came to hide for a while, but it seems I’ve had an unexpected harvest."

It was clear that the "harvest" was the wooden door behind them. After a moment of silence, Cheng Xiangru couldn't suppress his curiosity. "Is this the Qing Dynasty Dragon Vein?"

Leng Ying gave a disdainful "hmpf." "The Qing Dynasty Dragon Vein hasn't been found in hundreds of years—do you think it's that easy to locate? I suspect this is just another decoy tomb."

Cheng Xiangru was stunned. He had assumed decoy tombs were the underground chambers he had encountered before, never imagining they could be built on such a scale. If this were a decoy, what must the real Qing Dynasty Dragon Vein look like? It was simply unbelievable.

Sensing his skepticism, Leng Ying explained patiently, "When I first came down, I observed it carefully. That half-destroyed door wasn't blown open later; it was designed that way from the start."

"Oh?" Cheng Xiangru’s interest was piqued. "Why do you say that?"

"A tomb gate of this specification—even if you used explosives—would at most leave a hole. How could it shatter half the door completely without damaging the other half? Besides, I didn't see a single trace of burn marks among the debris. Aside from explosives, I can't imagine any other way to shatter a tomb gate like that."

Cheng Xiangru nodded thoughtfully. Her logic was sound, but he still had questions. "I don't understand. Why go through all the trouble of building such a massive gate just to destroy half of it? Isn't that redundant?"

"Of course not!" Leng Ying sneered. "The ancients who built these decoy tombs understood human nature perfectly. When you see a tomb gate of this scale, what’s the first thing you think?"

"Uh... that there are treasures inside?"

"Exactly. And once you have that thought, and then you see half the gate is already smashed to pieces, what do you think then?"

Cheng Xiangru understood in an instant. Grave robbers would struggle to find this place, and upon seeing such a grand gate, they would instinctively assume a massive underground palace lay beyond, filled with riches. Their greed would be impossible to contain. And when they saw the door already breached, they would assume someone had been there before them. Their conventional thinking would lead them to believe the area was "cleared" and safe. Driven by greed, they would rush inside to grab whatever scraps were left.

No one would ever suspect that there were no treasures behind the door—only endless peril and the cold grip of death.

As he thought this, a shrill, blood-curdling scream erupted from behind the gate, followed by a burst of gunfire that sent dust raining down on his head. He pressed himself lower, burying himself deeper into the darkness.

Soon after, a chaotic, hurried sound of footsteps echoed, followed by several beams of flashlight cutting through the dark below. Cheng Xiangru started to lift his head, but Leng Ying pushed him back down.

"Don't move!" she whispered, her voice so close that her breath tickled his ear.

Cheng Xiangru had never been this close to a girl other than his sister. His face flushed, and his ears burned. Fortunately, they were in total darkness, sparing him the embarrassment.

Judging by the footsteps, the men had stopped just outside the tomb gate, not daring to flee further. A voice like a cracked gong panted, "Damn it! Why is this place so cursed? We haven't even seen anything yet, and Old Seven is already gone!"

A hoarse voice asked with a tremor, "Did you guys see what that thing was?"

No one answered, only the sound of heavy, ragged breathing.

The "cracked gong" voice cursed, "Motherfucker! I shot that thing square on, but it did nothing! Could it be... a ghost?"

"Shut up! You can't say anything sensible, can you?"

"Then you tell me, if it wasn't a ghost, what was it?"

The silence that followed stretched on. It seemed that only the supernatural could explain what they had witnessed.

"You're all acting like cowards, running at the first sign of trouble," the "cracked gong" voice broke the silence, sounding agitated. "If we had all attacked together, we could have saved Old Seven. Ghost or not, we should have just taken it on."

Someone retorted with a cold laugh, "Didn't you, Big Head Yu, run the fastest? You were so scared you almost pissed your pants. What’s with the big talk now?"

"Are you looking for a beating..."

"Stop arguing!" someone barked, cutting them off. "Since we're here, there's no turning back. Big Head, you and Old Liu go out and drag that man surnamed Chen down here. He knows Feng Shui; he might have a way to deal with ghosts or whatever that thing is."

Hearing this, Cheng Xiangru was stunned. He recognized that voice. Ignoring Leng Ying’s restraint, he insisted on lifting his head to peek down.

Outside the tomb gate stood four men. He didn't recognize three of them, but the fourth was tall and muscular. He no longer looked like the honest, simple man Cheng Xiangru remembered; his face was twisted with malice.

Cheng Xiangru’s breath hitched. He couldn't believe his eyes. The man was none other than Gao Zhuang.