Everyone came to a halt, quickly raising their firearms toward the places where the red dots had appeared. Fortunately, the tiger pack that Jia Yuanzhang had mentioned didn’t seem eager to attack immediately, but instead slowly approached the group.
Gradually, the red dots stopped not far from where the group stood. Looking closer, they indeed saw a pack of tigers—larger than average, with teeth extending down to their chins. Right now, the tigers stared at the group with blood-red eyes, baring their sharp white fangs, greedily eyeing their potential prey.
Just as everyone wondered why the tigers hadn’t attacked yet, Fan Debiao suddenly shouted, “Bad! We’re surrounded! There’s another pack behind us!” At that moment, the group understood why the tigers in front hadn’t attacked—they were waiting for their companions to complete the encirclement.
Jia Yuanzhang muttered a curse under his breath, “Damn beasts! They’ve been tracking and observing us all along—they’ve plotted this!”
Liu Dashao suddenly spoke up, “These tigers probably can no longer be called tigers. Has anyone noticed a strange smell?” Everyone took a sniff and indeed detected a faint, decaying odor wafting from all around them—very subtle, almost imperceptible unless one inhaled deeply.
Liu Dashao continued, “How could these tigers survive for hundreds or even thousands of years deep underground? How have they grown so large? Their means of survival might shock us all.”
Jia Yuanzhang’s face darkened, looking strangely at Liu Dashao, as if wanting to say something but holding back. Liu waved him off and said, “Let’s not dwell on this now. Our immediate priority is dealing with these tigers.” By now, the group had formed a circle, surrounded on all sides by the tiger pack. Judging by appearances, there were likely over a hundred of them.
Cai Qingchong asked Liu Dashao and Jia Yuanzhang, “Should we open fire first and strike first?”
Liu Dashao shook his head. “Looking at their current behavior, they haven’t decided to attack us yet. But if we strike first, they’ll likely swarm us immediately. Let’s wait and see—perhaps the situation will change.”
Just then, a deep, long tiger roar suddenly echoed from a nearby hilltop. Instinctively, Liu Dashao shone his flashlight toward the slope—good heavens! Standing atop the hill near the palace was a gigantic snow-white tiger, howling with its head raised high.
Its roar seemed to be a signal. Instantly, the tigers surrounding the group let out piercing howls in unison, responding to the white tiger.
A chill ran down everyone’s spines. It seemed the pack was about to attack. At that moment, Jia Yuanzhang suddenly said to Yang Weidong, “Give me your gun!”
Before Yang could react, Jia had already grabbed the weapon. Everyone was stunned as Jia aimed at a large rock among the nearby stone pillars in front of the group and fired. The gunshot shattered the rock into several pieces. To everyone’s shock, a human-shaped figure tumbled out from behind the rock and collapsed.
At that moment, one of the nearby tigers lowered its head, picked up the figure, and dashed toward the white tiger atop the hill.
As it rushed past the group and leaped up the slope, dropping the figure at the white tiger’s feet, everyone stood in confusion. Jia Yuanzhang, however, fixed his gaze on the white tiger atop the hill, his expression grave.
The white tiger suddenly ceased its howling, lowering its head to stare at the human-shaped figure at its feet. Then it raised its blood-red eyes and stared at the group.
Jia Yuanzhang slowly raised his gun again, aimed at another large rock at the foot of the hill near the white tiger, and fired. Again, the rock shattered into pieces, revealing another human-shaped figure that tumbled out.
Just like before, a tiger picked up the figure, leaped up the hill, and placed it at the white tiger’s feet.
The white tiger remained motionless, its blood-red eyes locked on the group. Time ticked by. The other tigers also stopped howling, silently surrounding the group, seemingly awaiting the tiger king’s next command.
Suddenly, the white tiger raised its head and let out a short, sharp howl. At once, the tigers behind and on both sides of the group all crouched low to the ground. The tigers in front of the group moved aside, creating a path, and then also crouched down.
As the group stood bewildered and unsure of what to do, Jia Yuanzhang urgently said, “Follow me forward. Don’t look around, and definitely don’t look back—just keep moving straight ahead.”
With that, he stepped forward into the path cleared by the tigers. The others, still confused, followed behind him.
They followed Jia Yuanzhang slowly up the hill. The white tiger and two others stared coldly at them with blood-red eyes. Suddenly, the two tigers stepped forward, blocking the group’s path.
At this moment, Liu Dashao, leading the group, made a strange hand gesture toward the white tiger king. The tiger’s pupils flickered slightly, then it let out a low growl at Liu Dashao. Strangely, it turned and, with the two tigers, walked past the group and down the hill without another glance.
Seeing this, Jia Yuanzhang, standing behind Liu Dashao, heard him exhale deeply before urgently saying, “We can’t stay here. We must hurry into the palace ahead. If the tiger pack changes its mind and pursues us, we’re all finished.”
Hearing this, everyone quickly followed behind Jia Yuanzhang and Liu Dashao, rushing toward the massive blue palace ahead.
The path from the hill to the blue palace wasn’t very long, but every step felt tense. Everyone feared that the creatures that had survived for countless years in the dark depths below might suddenly attack again.
Only when they safely reached the dark, eerie corridor of the massive palace did they finally catch their breath.
After an unknown amount of time, the wind grew stronger, comparable to the force of wind when opening a train window. They guessed there must be a wind tunnel ahead—perhaps just a few more steps and they would reach the palace. Overjoyed, they quickened their pace, gripping their rifles tightly for courage.
The wind howled through the canyon, twisting and echoing eerily, like the wails of ghosts and wolves. This deep, dark tunnel felt like the Yellow Spring Road leading to the underworld, making everyone’s hearts pound with unease.
After walking about a hundred steps, the path suddenly opened up ahead. A stone bridge appeared before them. In front of the bridge stood a stone tablet. Wiping off the dust and shining their lights, they saw three large, striking characters: Nai He Bridge (the Bridge of Helplessness).
The sight of these three characters deeply stirred Liu Dashao’s nerves. Having grown up listening to historical tales, he was very familiar with the legend of Nai He Bridge. When his grandfather was alive, he had told him the story: “There is a road called the Yellow Spring Road. There is a river called the Wangchuan River. On it stands the Nai He Bridge. Beyond the bridge lies the Wangxiang Platform. Beside the platform lives an old woman serving Meng Po Soup. On the riverbank lies the Sansheng Stone, recording one’s past and present lives. After crossing the Nai He Bridge and gazing at the human world for the last time from the Wangxiang Platform, one drinks the water of Wangchuan. ‘Fate without fulfillment’—why force it? The bridge connects gods, immortals, and heaven, but also ghosts, the underworld, and hell. In Chinese folk beliefs, ‘ghosts’ are negative supernatural beings born from death. In many ghost stories across China, bridges are often places where ghosts, especially those who drowned, haunt. The ghosts of those who died by drowning or falling into the water from a bridge often linger around the bridge, seeking replacements to escape the underworld and be reborn. In this sense, bridges are both places where the dead leave the underworld and enter the human world, and places where new deaths depart from the human world to the afterlife. Life and death alternate and transform through the bridge as a medium. Some kind-hearted water ghosts who refuse to drag others into death as replacements may not immediately be reborn as humans in ghost tales, but often rise in rank in the underworld or eventually move the King of Hell to grant them rebirth…”
These thoughts swirled in Liu Dashao’s mind. Gazing at the Nai He Bridge, he felt an inexplicable sense of transcendence, as if his entire body had suddenly lightened. Could it be that he had already… died? Glancing at Jia Yuanzhang and the others, their expressions weren’t much different from his. Taking a deep breath to steady himself, Liu Dashao noticed an inscription on the side of the stone tablet: “Accumulate virtue and practice good deeds, and the Nai He Bridge is easy to cross. Greed and sin make the sharp knife mountain hard to escape. Three steps across the Nai He Bridge reveal whether you are good or evil. Walk straight through the golden road, and blessings and fortune shall be yours.”
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