Chapter 102: Qilin Blood

I was still in shock when he asked me, my mind blank. I shook my head and said, "That big? I don't think I've ever eaten anything like that. What do you mean, Master Liang? What are you thinking?"

Master Liang dabbed a bit of my blood, smelled it, and said to me, "From what you just described, it reminds me of something. A long time ago, an old gentleman told me about a kind of rare Chinese medicine that, once ingested, makes your blood ward off evil and keeps demonic insects at bay. Think—have you ever eaten anything like that?"

I let out an "Ah!" Black, scale-shaped? Chinese medicine? That really stumped me. Too much had happened recently; most of the time I ate in a hurry, and I hadn't been sick. I never really paid attention to what I ate. Now suddenly asked, I couldn't recall a thing.

Old Yang mocked me, saying, "I've only heard of black dog blood and rooster blood warding off evil. Who'd have thought our Old Wu had this skill too? Don't go telling people, or everyone will come borrowing your blood, and you'll be squeezed dry in a few days." He burst out laughing.

I cursed, "Can you show some decency? Dog and chicken! I'm telling you, human blood has always been the most powerful thing for warding off evil, especially the blood of death-row prisoners. At execution grounds, people even ask the coroner to dip a white cloth in it and hang it on the door beam. If you don't know, don't talk nonsense."

Old Yang saw I was getting worked up and laughed triumphantly. After a couple of laughs, he suddenly let out an "Ouch!" and touched his back, wincing. He must have injured it earlier, and the laughter had pulled at the wound.

I thought, serves you right, and ignored him. I said to Master Liang, "Can you be more specific? Just 'black, scale-shaped'—there are too many things that fit. Does it have any distinctive features?"

Master Liang thought for a moment and said apologetically, "I've never seen it myself, only heard it described. It was quite some time ago, and when I try to remember specifically, I really can't recall."

I felt disappointed and sighed.

Master Liang smiled and said, "Little brother, don't take it too seriously. It's not a bad thing. If it weren't for you just now, we'd be done for. I think it's fate, something preordained. Think about it—from now on, when you go tomb-raiding with this ability, no tomb will be a problem."

I felt a bit uncomfortable hearing that. The way this journey had gone showed my luck was bad. If I kept tomb-raiding, I'd probably be asking for death. I looked up and said to them, "But speaking of which, we haven't had it tested yet. We don't know if it's really my blood that's working. If it's not, we're in trouble. Taking this chance, we'd better climb up quickly and get past this section."

Master Liang wanted to rest a bit more, but seeing the lurking gu insects ready to strike, he agreed with my idea. We started climbing again a few steps, when Old Yang suddenly grabbed my hand and stopped me, saying hoarsely, "Wait... wait a second!"

I turned back and saw his face was pale, cold sweat on his forehead, and his expression was greatly wrong. My heart skipped a beat, and I asked him what was wrong.

Old Yang grabbed the rock with one hand and touched his back with the other, grimacing. "I don't know what's wrong. When I laughed just now, my back hurt like hell. Maybe when the rope broke, I got hit and strained something. Take a look for me. It hurts so badly I can't even use my strength."

The impact when the rope broke was indeed heavy. I had been feeling sore all over, but with the crisis just now, there was no time to think about it. Now that the tension eased, the injuries started acting up. Old Yang was at the lowest end of the rope, so he took a much harder hit. Could he have fractured something?

I told him not to move and lifted his shirt. I saw a patch of bruising on his back at the third rib, and it was slightly sunken. I pressed it casually, and he suddenly screamed like a stuck pig, arching his back so hard he almost knocked me off.

I thought, this is bad. The injury doesn't look simple. If it hurts that much from a touch, could it really be a fracture?

Old Yang's face twisted. He turned back with difficulty and asked me how it looked. I frowned, not knowing how to tell him, and had to say, "I can't tell just by looking, but if it hurts this much, we can't climb anymore. If the bone is broken and we do strenuous exercise, it's no joke. We need to find a flat place to check it out thoroughly."

Old Yang was eager to get to the top and struggled to his feet, gritting his teeth. "Skip the thorough check. Our torches and flashlights won't last much longer. We can't stop here. We'll deal with it when we get up there."

Master Liang looked at his back, shook his head, and said, "No, Brother Yang, Little Brother Wu is right. Your back is deformed. We have to take a look. If it's really fractured, we need to treat it immediately, or the bone could pierce into your chest cavity, and then we're done for. I know a bit about this. We're not far from the top now; it's not a big deal to delay a little."

Old Yang wanted to argue, but the pain was too much, and his words turned into groans. I saw those small rock caves nearby, which looked relatively flat. I exchanged a glance with Master Liang, and without discussion, we hoisted him up and helped him into the best-looking cave nearby. I took back the torch and stuck it in the cave entrance to keep the gu insects out. The cave was about seven or eight meters deep and less than a meter high. Since it hadn't seen sunlight for years and the air was very damp, the rock walls were covered with mold spots and signs of human activity, though not obvious. About five or six meters in, we reached the bottom—a rough rock face. Nothing else.

I checked for danger and put my gun away. Master Liang made a fixed support out of a slapstick and tied it to Old Yang's back. Old Yang's expression eased a bit. I thought, being a master advisor is different; he knows everything. Next time we go tomb-raiding, we should recruit someone like him.

After Master Liang finished, I asked him how it was. He lowered his voice and said to me, "The bone shouldn't be broken, but it's definitely cracked. I've temporarily stabilized it. It shouldn't hurt as much now. But Little Brother Wu, you'd better persuade your friend. In his condition, there's no way he can climb up anymore."

I glanced at Master Liang, knowing he had ulterior motives—probably suggesting we go down. He had hinted at it more than once along the way. To be honest, this adventure was really too much for him. I could see he had wanted to retreat for a while, but out of respect for Old Yang's persistence, he couldn't bring it up. Now that he had an excuse, he naturally used it.

But then, regarding Old Yang's injury, I wasn't sure whether to trust his words.

Seeing my doubt, Master Liang quickly added, "Little Brother Wu, even though I'm not traveling with you guys, we're all in the same underworld circles. I won't gloss over things. You know it yourself. Honestly, look at us now. If we insist on going up, we might really die here this time."

I glanced at Old Yang, who was enduring the pain and not paying attention to us. I patted Master Liang on the shoulder and said softly, "Let's see how things go. You go rest too. Now's not the time to discuss this. Even if we want to go down, we need to rest enough first."

Master Liang muttered something, leaned against the side, and rubbed his thigh, falling silent. I checked the remaining supplies and sat down as well, rubbing my temples, starting to consider what Master Liang had said.

Originally, I hadn't been very interested in what Li Pipa had mentioned. If I had been asked to give up earlier, I wouldn't have objected. But now that we had climbed all this way with great difficulty, giving up at this point felt a bit reluctant, like retreating before battle. Still, I knew Master Liang was right. One of us was injured, another was in unstable condition, and I myself was at my physical limit. Climbing recklessly would be unwise.

But then, getting past Old Yang's insistence would be tough. After all, Old Yang and I were on the same side. If I sided with an outsider against him, the friendship might end. And Master Liang seemed pathetic, but he was an old hand in the game. This could just be a trick to split us up. If I followed his line of thinking, I might fall into his trap. It was a real dilemma.

I thought and thought but couldn't come to any conclusion, so I decided not to think anymore and take it one step at a time.

When I turned to look at them, Master Liang had already fallen asleep. He was exhausted; now he was snoring. Old Yang had also dozed off, but not deeply, probably because of his back wound. This little cave was damp and cold, but much more comfortable than hanging outside. Seeing them sleeping so soundly, an endless wave of fatigue hit me. Although I forced myself not to sleep, I unknowingly drifted off.

I slept extremely soundly. When I woke up, my whole body was limp, and a comfortable, tingling pain spread through me. The torch was very weak, meaning I had slept for quite a while. I poked my head out and saw that the gu insects outside were gone, only a few scattered ones still lying there.

I breathed a sigh of relief, turned on my flashlight, and shone it upward. From here, it looked like we were only three to four hours from the top of the bronze tree. What was up there was almost within reach. Going down now would really be a pity.

Old Yang hadn't woken up yet, but his expression was peaceful, as if he was much better. I turned to look at Master Liang, intending to wake him and discuss what to do next, but I saw that the spot where he had been lying was empty. He wasn't there.

"Huh?" I was taken aback instinctively, shining my flashlight deeper into the cave, but I couldn't see him either. I wondered where the hell he had gone. Just then, I suddenly noticed that the splint I had used to fix Lao Yang's wound was missing. I broke out in a cold sweat, and a sense of foreboding washed over me. I felt my waist and sure enough, my gun was gone too! "Bastard!" I cursed loudly. I never expected that a man who seemed so spineless would actually steal my gun and run off while I was sleeping! But why didn't he take the flashlight as well? Without any lighting tool, how could he move? At that moment, I was burning with anger and didn't think carefully. I grabbed a torch and wanted to go after him. This guy is slow on his feet; if he hadn't been gone long, I could definitely catch up.

Just as I stepped out of the cave, before I could even tell whether he had gone up or down, a black shadow suddenly swung down from above and kicked me in the chest. I felt my breath knocked out and was thrown solidly back into the cave. After I hit the ground, I gritted my teeth and tried to stand up, but I took another blow to the jaw—a very harsh one that nearly knocked me unconscious. In my daze, I saw a fat man with a cigarette dangling from his mouth crouching into the cave, holding a gun in his hand, and Liang Shiye following behind him with a grim look on his face.

I only took one glance and recognized the fat man as one of the two Guangdong bosses, the one named Wang. He pointed his gun at me, told me to move aside, then turned to Liang Shiye and said, "Liang, which one of these young fellas has eaten the qilin blood?"

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