Under the brilliant sunlight, clusters of pure white clouds hung serenely in the clear sky. Occasionally, dark silhouettes could be seen circling above the clouds—eagles soaring freely in the vast expanse.
Though the air was thin here, the scenery was enchanting. Looking far into the distance, one could see endless mountains, scattered snow-capped peaks, tranquil lakes, and boundless grasslands. Everywhere exuded the sacred beauty of nature in its purest form.
Shui Miao drove swiftly along the winding mountain roads. Along the way, he spotted some Tibetan locals dressed in traditional robes. Their faces bore simple, kind smiles, which opened one’s heart and made one forget the invisible constraints of the concrete jungle, allowing one to freely and peacefully enjoy the serenity nature offered.
After five consecutive days of driving, Shui Miao didn’t feel tired at all. On the contrary, he felt this was exactly what life should be—he should have come here much earlier.
Compared to the grasslands of Inner Mongolia, Shui Miao found this place far more interesting.
Yet, he couldn’t quite pinpoint what made it so fascinating.
People are like this—stress affects mood. Without pressure, one comes here relaxed to explore spiritual energy veins, and the mood naturally becomes light-hearted. Everything looks pleasant, and naturally, everything feels interesting.
Driving to a mountain pass, Shui Miao climbed to the top of a hundred-meter-high hill. The southern side of the mountain had a moderate temperature, while the northern side was blanketed in snow. Due to the lack of direct sunlight, the snow never melted, a phenomenon Shui Miao had long become accustomed to. Gazing into the distance, he noticed that the surrounding mountains were roughly the same height. There were a few taller ones, but their appearance was unremarkable, so he had no interest in searching for spiritual veins nearby.
As he descended the mountain, Shui Miao saw a tour bus speed past his car. On this remote, sparsely populated route, it was rare to encounter any vehicle.
After descending, Shui Miao hurriedly drove to catch up. Before long, he noticed the bus ahead had stopped, and many passengers were leaning against the windows, staring outside. Shui Miao pulled over and followed their gaze toward an open area to the south. There, he saw three men on motorcycles cutting at a naked man’s body with knives. Not far away, hundreds of vultures had gathered.
“Could this be a sky burial!?”
Shui Miao quickly parked his Hummer by the roadside and got out to observe. The man on the ground had a pale face—likely dead for several days. The three sky burial masters used knives to cut open the flesh, then casually sat on some rocks to smoke and chat, appearing completely relaxed. Occasionally, they even laughed, in stark contrast to the mournful atmosphere of funerals back in the interior regions. As for what they were saying, Shui Miao couldn’t understand a word.
Many vultures flew over, swarming around the corpse in a frenzy.
At this point, some of the more sensitive women on the tour bus couldn’t bear to watch and turned away, urging the driver to move on. However, some young men shouted excitedly, insisting they wanted to keep watching and not leave.
Soon, the flesh, eyeballs, and internal organs were nearly devoured.
The sky burial masters stood up, picking up the bloodied bones, dividing them into portions, and smashing them with axes. In particular, the moment they peeled the scalp from the head was so shocking that Shui Miao instinctively scratched his head and grimaced.
Then, the shattered bones were once again devoured by a swarm of vultures.
The three sky burial masters packed up their axes and the deceased’s clothes and casually drove off.
Just like that, a person’s body vanished entirely!
Witnessing the entire sky burial process, Shui Miao felt his scalp tingling and his heart shaken. He couldn’t help but ponder: in this life, is it really worth living?
At that moment, the female tour guide on the bus reminded everyone, “Don’t leave the group. If you disappear here, you won’t even get your body back.” Her words immediately frightened everyone, even the fearless young men.
The tourists, who had been carefree moments ago, now felt a heavy gloom settle over them.
Shui Miao got back into his car, driving while thinking: “Though this place is beautiful, it’s not very safe. If someone were kidnapped and their body dumped into the year-round snow, who would ever find them?”
Therefore, Shui Miao believed that no matter where one is, it’s better to maintain a sense of caution.
“Oh! Everyone look, someone’s been following us!”
“Really!”
“Oh no! Could he be a bad guy?”
“Mommy, I’m scared…”
Prompted by the guide’s warning, several overly sensitive female tourists became highly alert.
Seeing the situation getting out of hand, the tour guide quickly grabbed her megaphone and shouted, “Don’t make wild accusations! He’s driving a Hummer—clearly a rich second-generation heir, not some criminal. If he hears you, it’ll be embarrassing!”
“Miss, I think your voice is the loudest one here,” a young man with red-dyed hair and a dragon tattoo on his arm grinned mockingly.
The tour guide blushed, lowered the megaphone, and addressed the group again, “We’re here to enjoy ourselves, so please be careful. There’s nothing to worry about. We’re still far from Lhasa. Everyone, just rest.”
Shui Miao drove behind them in his Hummer, chuckling to himself. When did he become a rich second-generation heir?
He had originally wanted to travel with the group for mutual support.
But now, he had lost interest. He quickly shifted gears, pressed the accelerator, and the Hummer shot past the tour bus with a “whoosh!”
“Brat, showing off won’t help—don’t crash into a mountain!”
The red-haired young man with the dragon tattoo, seeing the Hummer overtake them, couldn’t help but curse out of jealousy and resentment.
“Slap!”
Suddenly, the young man felt a sharp slap across his face. He jumped up, shouting, “Who hit me?”
Everyone in the bus remained silent.
The young man was sitting alone across two seats. Everyone kept their distance, convinced he was just being annoying again.
“Slap!”
Another slap landed squarely on his face.
This time, the young man clearly saw—there was absolutely no one in front of him, yet the slap had landed hard, leaving his face burning.
“Could it be… a ghost!?”
The bus fell into a deathly silence. The young man was terrified. He swallowed hard, covering his face with both hands, too scared to utter another word.
“Idiot, a mere illusion has already scarred you for life. Let’s see how cocky you are now…”
Shui Miao coldly shook his head and continued driving.
※※※
Changdu County
At Youyi Hotel, Shui Miao ordered several local vegetarian specialties and a bowl of beef noodles, enjoying the fragrant meal.
He wasn’t used to the local flavors, so he specially asked the waiter to make the dishes lighter.
As he was finishing his meal, the tour bus also arrived at the hotel, and a crowd of tourists disembarked.
Shui Miao went to use the restroom. There were five stalls in a row, each with a pale yellow door. He randomly opened one and was surprised to find the three sky burial masters he had seen on the road standing inside.
The three were whispering together when Shui Miao entered. They immediately fell silent and stared at him.
Shui Miao looked back at them. They had a foul smell about them, their skin was dark, and their eyes carried a sinister aura, making him feel uneasy.
What was going on here?
Shui Miao was puzzled. Why were these sky burial masters acting so strangely?
After a brief stare-down, the three grew impatient. One of them suddenly pulled out an axe from his waist.
“What are you trying to do!?”
Shui Miao didn’t retreat. He furrowed his brow and pointed at the advancing man.
But the sky burial master showed no fear, swinging the axe straight toward Shui Miao’s forehead. Shui Miao tensed, focused his mind, and time seemed to slow down. He sidestepped, moved behind the attacker, and kicked his back leg. The man lost balance, his axe embedding in the wooden door, and his face slammed into the door handle, cutting his mouth and causing blood to flow.
The other two sky burial masters rushed forward with their axes.
Shui Miao sneered, dodging left and right. He repeated the same maneuver, knocking them all down. Then, recalling the method taught by the previous shrine maiden to Shizumi Mikako, he applied pressure to their acupoints, rendering them immobile. Then he urinated on them and left.
This time, he infused his acupoint strikes with full spiritual energy. As long as the energy remained, the three would never move again.
For these savage men, Shui Miao had no intention of letting them live.
As he walked out of the restroom, Shui Miao felt a sense of frustration. What kind of place was this? The scenery was beautiful, yet the people were so brutal. Was it really necessary to attack someone just for using the restroom?
He walked out in a huff, thinking to himself: “Thank goodness it was me. If it were an ordinary person, they’d have been chopped to pieces.”
Unconsciously, Shui Miao reached the hotel entrance, just as the group of tourists was entering for dinner.
Possibly due to being mistaken for a rich heir, many eyes turned toward him, including the tour guide, who smiled and nodded. Only the red-haired young man kept his distance.
Shui Miao glared at him and walked toward the parking lot.
At the parking lot, he noticed a Youyi Guesthouse nearby, so he drove over.
The guesthouse had five floors and was run by Han Chinese, with a modern urban style.
Shui Miao checked into Room 306. The room was simple and elegant, which he found satisfactory.
After several days of driving, he decided to take a shower and meditate to recover his energy.
About an hour later, noise came from outside.
While meditating, Shui Miao sensed with his spiritual awareness that the newcomers were the same tour group. They were all staying here, and Room 305 nearby belonged to the female tour guide. “What a coincidence,” he murmured softly. As he was about to continue meditating, he overheard some men passing by whispering…
“I’m sure of what I saw. It’s definitely those three sky burial masters we saw on the road. No mistake.”
“How strange. Why would they turn on each other? I saw one of them had an axe stuck in his head.”
“This is hard to explain. People have their grudges. Maybe they fought over something. Anyway, let’s not talk about those unlucky guys. It’s unsettling enough that we encountered this so soon after entering Tibet.”
“Right, right. This place is eerie. Let’s not talk about it anymore…”
These men were the male passengers from the tour bus.
After hearing their conversation, Shui Miao recalled the first sky burial master who had attacked him with an axe. The axe had gotten stuck in the door, and when it fell, it must have hit him on the back of the head.
“Serves him right. Death was what he deserved.” Shui Miao felt no guilt. After all, they had attacked him without reason. Who knew how many tourists they had harmed before?
Shui Miao cleared his mind and resumed meditating.
But due to the crowd, every room had a TV on, creating a lot of noise. Unable to continue meditating, Shui Miao washed his dirty clothes, changed into clean ones, refueled his car, and decided to explore the small town. Compared to coastal cities, this mountain county was no more lively than a small coastal town, with only one or two streets showing any activity, while the rest were eerily quiet.
Shui Miao entered a medium-sized shopping mall—considered a super mall by local standards.
At a Tibetan knife counter, he paused.
There were many types of Tibetan knives, but one immediately caught Shui Miao’s eye. It exuded a faint sinister aura. The blade was straight, about 38 cm long and 3 cm wide, entirely white like jade, not very new, with scales carved along its length and a lion’s head on the handle.
This knife was called the Dragon Scale Blade, priced at 100,000 yuan.
“This is the Dragon Scale Blade,” a voice suddenly spoke beside him. It was the female tour guide, Su Xue, smiling warmly. “Legend says it belonged to a female Tibetan hero. She used it to kill lions, to cut bones for vultures, and even to protect the 7th Dalai Lama. No one ever knew her name. One day, people found her blade and blood, assuming she had performed a sky burial on herself.”
“There’s also a legend that this knife has a special power. It feels icy cold to the touch, and wherever you go, if you draw it, within ten minutes, a flock of vultures will appear. Of course, these are just legends.”
Shui Miao smiled politely. “Thank you. I’m Shui Miao. You really know a lot.”
“No problem. I’m Su Xue. It’s my job as a tour guide. This is the most expensive knife, so I made sure to learn about it in case anyone asked,” she said, extending her hand. “Hehe, we’ve met a few times now. Seems like fate.”
“Indeed, I feel the same.”
Shui Miao politely shook her hand, despite her earlier rudeness in labeling him a rich heir.
Su Xue’s appearance was ordinary, but her smile was peaceful and warm.
After shaking hands, Shui Miao pointed at the Dragon Scale Blade. “It’s unique, and expensive, but I’m sure it can’t summon vultures.” He had already sensed the faint sinister aura on the blade—it was weak.
“Don’t let the Tibetans hear you say that. They wouldn’t like it,” Su Xue whispered, glancing around.
But the next moment, she noticed Shui Miao staring at her with narrowed eyes…
Su Xue blushed slightly, feeling uneasy.
Shui Miao smiled. “Su Xue, don’t misunderstand. I’m looking at you because I sense a faint sinister aura around you, very similar to the blade’s. I guess you must really like this knife. You’ve probably touched it many times, even though it’s in the display case?”
“Ahh! How did you know!?”
Su Xue was startled. Since her first day as a tour guide, she had seen this knife. After visiting a few times, the store owner, grateful for her bringing in customers, let her touch it. From that moment, she became even more obsessed. The owner had even promised to give her the knife if she brought 100 groups of tourists here and it remained unsold.
She became so attached to the knife that she even dreamed of it.
Su Xue traveled this Tibetan route twice a month, making about twenty trips a year excluding holidays. To date, she had brought tourists here ninety-nine times.
That meant, with just one more trip next month, the knife would finally be hers.
She had approached Shui Miao now out of fear that he might buy the knife.
“I’m a top feng shui master. I can sense these things.”
Shui Miao’s spiritual power was now extremely strong. With just a slight thought, he could perceive Su Xue’s innermost feelings.
“Crack!”
The shop owner was about to approach Su Xue when the glass door was suddenly pushed open by a tearful Tibetan woman. She placed a cloth-wrapped bundle on the counter and shouted at the shopkeeper, “I want to buy the Dragon Scale Blade. Here’s 100,000 yuan.” Without waiting for a response, she entered the counter, pushed the glass aside, and tightly gripped the Dragon Scale Blade.
“No! That’s mine!”
Su Xue cried out in shock.
But the Tibetan woman suddenly drew the Dragon Scale Blade, glared at Su Xue, and hissed in Mandarin, “Dare to compete with me? I’ll kill you!”
Tai Sui Yellow Amulet Paper FuLu Taoist Love Talisman Traditional Chinese Spiritual Charm Attracting Love Protecting Marriage