The PLA squad leader said, “Did you hear that? The experts said it’s just a disaster. Don’t go around catching anything and calling it the River God. This time we won’t pursue it, but next time, be more scientific.”
After being scolded by the PLA comrade, several old men nodded continuously, likely still quite frightened.
At this moment, a man named Liu San ran over shouting, “Squad Leader, it’s bad! The water level is rising again over there!”
The PLA squad leader clicked his tongue in frustration after hearing this and said, “Everyone, head over there and open the channel, quickly! We’re running out of time!”
After giving the orders, everyone followed him. A large group worked hard the entire day and finally dug through the channel, successfully diverting the floodwaters into the ravine.
That evening, the entire village gathered together for a delicious meal of large pot rice. The PLA squad leader said they had other disaster areas to attend to and left that very night.
After dinner, Liu Dashao and Fan Debiao had nothing to do, so they went to listen to the village elders chat and tell stories. They said that there had previously been no river here. During the Song Dynasty, a high-ranking official from the imperial court visited this area for leisure. Not long after returning, he brought many people back with him and constructed a channel from the Jialing River. When he left, he took away several large ships loaded with unknown items.
After listening, Fan Debiao immediately claimed that the Song Dynasty official must have been a tomb robber. No wonder there were so few burial artifacts in Zhang Jiao’s tomb—this person must have looted them all.
The four of them rested in the village for the night. The next morning, as they departed, villagers gave them peaches, plums, and eggs, and even pinned big red flowers on them.
On the way, Jackson, whose Chinese name was Wu San Gui, left. Being a stranger from afar, he naturally had to return to his own home. This caused a slight sense of melancholy among everyone after they waved him goodbye. Liu Dashao, however, felt an inexplicable sensation. He didn’t know whether everything he had experienced was real or just a dream. Still, he believed that he must somehow be mysteriously connected to the Great Sage.
At this moment, scenes from inside the tomb kept flashing through his mind: Ge Daoshi’s uncertain fate, the “Human Volume” of the Taiping Jing thrown into the whirlpool to escape the pursuing Zhang Jiao corpse, and the strange appearance of a coffin in an unfinished ancient tomb where he had even dreamed about the corpse inside. Could there be a connection between these two tombs? Yinglong—yes! Yinglong must be the key clue. However, now the entire tomb had collapsed, making it impossible to uncover the truth.
Thinking about this gave him a headache. Suddenly, Liu Dashao felt something hard in his pants pocket. He pulled it out and found it was the pearl.
Looking at the pearl now, Liu Dashao still felt an indescribable sense of familiarity, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t recall anything.
Suddenly, Liu Dashao had an idea. He remembered the words of Da Guozha before they set out: “The secret is about to be revealed.” What did it mean? Could it be related to the bronze coffin?
Thinking further, if it hadn’t been for Yinglong leading them to that cliff, they would have definitely found the bronze coffin instead. Perhaps that was where the true secret of the Taiping Jing lay.
Thinking of this, he couldn’t help but sigh. Ge Daoshi had known the most secrets, but now he might have returned to dust, taking the secrets along with him into oblivion.
He smiled faintly and looked back at Bosala Mountain. A thin layer of mist covered the mountain, shrouding him in its haze.
The “Human Volume” of the Taiping Qing Ling Shu was deeply imprinted in his mind. Although he didn’t have a photographic memory, the fact remained startling and inexplicable.
Although the Taiping Qing Ling Shu was now completely imprinted in his mind, Liu Dashao had never had the chance to read it.
In his mind, the Taiping Qing Ling Shu seemed like a real book, vivid and three-dimensional, slowly opening its first page.
The first page briefly introduced the concept of Qi Men Dun Jia, much like the preface of any book.
However, just as Liu Dashao was about to turn the page, he suddenly noticed something startling—if he read the text horizontally in this current way, the first few characters on the page clearly read “Liu Dashao.”
He was terrified. How could the Taiping Qing Ling Shu, a work written a thousand years ago, contain his name? He couldn’t make any sense of it and eventually gave up trying.
Back at the construction site, everyone was curious when they saw that four people had left and four had returned. They approached and asked, “Hey, Fan Debiao, why does Hu Beikang look like this now?”
“Comrade Hu Beikang sacrificed his life for our revolutionary cause. This is another comrade who is with us.”
Panting heavily, Fan Debiao, exhausted from running all the way back from Bosala Mountain, said, “Hey, who here is good at cooking? Hurry up and make me something to eat!”
“Comrade Hu sacrificed his life?” Everyone was puzzled.
“I’ll explain everything later. Just bring me some food quickly—I’m starving!”
Without further explanation, Fan Debiao sat down heavily on a straw mat and didn’t move.
“But boss, you were gone for only an hour. How could you already have completed a round trip, and Hu Beikang be dead? And you’re so hungry? Didn’t you have rations with you? Did you finish them all in an hour?” one of the workers asked curiously.
“You’re full of crap! You were only gone for an hour! We’ve been gone for over half a month! I’m practically starving to death! Get lost and bring me some food now, my stomach is sticking to my back!” Fan Debiao angrily cursed.
The workers, not daring to argue, quickly scattered.
Liu Dashao, however, remained curious about this. Since there was no reason for the workers to deceive him, he approached one of them and asked curiously, “So, really, we were only gone for an hour?”
“Of course! Why would I lie to you? Just one hour, and one person died. Sigh, life is really unbearable sometimes!” the man said and then went to prepare food.
Seeing this, Liu Dashao’s mind raced, trying to figure out what was going on.
Eventually, he finally understood. Perhaps that tomb, with its mysterious layout surpassing modern science, indeed had the effect of slowing down time. Days inside could equate to just an hour outside. Thinking of this, he felt relieved. Although Ge Qingzhi had died saving him, perhaps in the swirling vortex, he could finally attain eternal life.
At that moment, Liu Dashao couldn’t make sense of anything else and eventually gave up.
After a hearty meal, everyone finally felt full and content, collapsing onto their beds and falling into a deep sleep.
The next morning, after recovering their spirits, they finally managed to shake off the misfortune of the day before.
“Fan Debiao, I wonder if there’s a telephone nearby. I need to call my brothers and escape from here,” Da Guozha murmured early in the morning near Fan Debiao’s ear.
Fan Debiao sleepily replied, “Okay, after it gets light, I’ll take you to a nearby village to make the call.”
“No, you don’t understand,” Da Guozha said. “My face is well-known to the police. If we go during the day, we’ll definitely be discovered. We’d better go now, while it’s still dark and hazy. The person watching the phone booth won’t look at us carefully either—it’ll just be a blurry glimpse.”
At this time, Liu Dashao was awakened by their voices. Still half-asleep, he also learned what was going on and said to Fan Debiao, “Fan Debiao, you should just go with Da Guozha. If you really get caught, you’ll get into trouble too. Alright.”
Fan Debiao sighed helplessly and said, “Fine, let’s go then. Master Liu, would you like to come along with us? After all, we have to pass through a mountain, and that mountain is precisely Bosala Mountain. If anything happens, you could help us out. I’ll give you the day off today—how does that sound?”
At the mention of having a proper day off, Liu Dashao immediately became alert and lost his sleepiness. He quickly got dressed and joined Fan Debiao and the others, heading toward Bosala Mountain.
Their destination this time was a small village at the foot of Bosala Mountain.
That was the only telephone for miles around.
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