Chapter 108: Bold Hypothesis, Careful Verification

I was scared out of my wits. I didn't take in a single word Boss Wang said. I had to close my eyes and take a deep breath before I could think again. Boss Wang asked again. Only then did I snap back to reality and said hoarsely, "I'm not even sure what I saw. It's impossible."

That corpse's face had been trapped in the corpse cocoon for over a thousand years. Although it was isolated from the outside air, the internal moisture had still evaporated outward, so the entire face had shrunk slightly inward, sticking to the skull, looking a bit ferocious. But overall, it was relatively well-preserved. That was exactly why I immediately noticed that this face looked exactly like Old Itch! The eyes, the nose—every feature was extremely similar. The most bizarre thing was that the mole on his face and the scars from childhood fights were still there. This corpse seemed like Old Itch enlarged and curled up inside an amber corpse cocoon. It made my scalp tingle and cold sweat break out all over, yet I didn't know what I was afraid of.

I rubbed my eyes, slapped myself a few times to wake up, then leaned in for another look. I immediately closed my eyes and backed away, gritting my teeth and cursing. Yes, it was his face. There was no way I could be mistaken.

I groaned inwardly. What the hell was going on in this place? This kind of thing only happened in cheap supernatural novels. In the real world, no matter how you explained it, it didn't make sense.

Boss Wang saw how awful my expression was and handed me a cigarette, saying, "This... we've really run into a ghost. Could your friend be a descendant of these giants? Maybe their race is very small in number, so all their faces look alike."

I shook my head. "No, that's not the issue. I grew up with him, and I work with antiques, so I'm very sensitive to details. This corpse is too similar to him—the position of the mole, the scars—those things aren't hereditary. This corpse is practically a replica of him. There's definitely something wrong here, and it's man-made. Boss Wang, I feel like we're being set up. This corpse cocoon must be fake. I'm going to break it open and see!"

Boss Wang quickly waved his hands and said, "Young man, calm down. I thought the same thing just now, but look around us. If someone was trying to set us up, this setup is way too elaborate. I, Fatty, might have some wealth, but I don't think I'm worthy of being toyed with like this. This matter probably isn't that simple."

I looked around and knew he was right—I had been too flustered just now. I had to nod. Then I remembered the time in the Lu King's Palace when I fell under the spell of the green-eyed fox corpse; that illusion had also been extremely realistic, almost indistinguishable. I wondered if I had been tricked again. I hastily asked him, "Boss Wang, you're also in this business. Have you ever encountered anything like this before? Or could there be some kind of corpse cocoon with demonic properties that can cause hallucinations?" Boss Wang shook his head. "Corpse cocoons are indeed yin and evil things, but they're still dead objects, and not extremely rare. Since I started trading, I've never encountered anything so outrageous. And if you're saying it's an illusion, I've only met your friend a few times. I doubt I could have imagined such a precise likeness."

That was true. I nodded in agreement. After all, I was the only one here who knew the details of Old Itch's face. Hallucinations work by using the data in a person's brain. What Boss Wang had in mind was very different from mine. Logically, even if we both fell under the spell, we should have seen completely different scenes.

No, wait. Could it be that even Boss Wang was an illusion created by the hallucination?

It couldn't be, I thought with a jolt.

But come to think of it, I always felt he looked a bit like Fatty. Could the hallucination be using my memory of Fatty to create Boss Wang's image? The more I thought about it, the more it seemed off. Baldy Zhang spoke Cantonese and was also a bit fat. Combined, wouldn't they be Boss Wang? His temper, his tone—they really were a bit similar.

I turned my head and stared fixedly at him for a while. Suddenly, I noticed something else wrong. The cigarette he gave me was from an unknown brand, probably a local Cantonese cigarette. I had never smoked this kind before, so even if I wanted to imagine it, I couldn't. Hallucinations cannot conjure something that doesn't exist in the brain.

That meant Boss Wang was a real person after all. I breathed a sigh of relief.

Boss Wang saw that I wasn't saying anything, unaware that I had just deduced he was "not human" and then corrected myself. He took out a tape measure and, while measuring the size of the amber, said to me, "Young man, since this has happened, there must be an explanation. Let's think from the beginning and see if there's anything in what we each know that the other doesn't."

Boss Wang was a seasoned player of the underworld, practical, and did everything in his own order. At that moment, he wasn't panicking. I thought he was right, so I nodded and told him everything, one by one—how I met Old Itch and how I came here.

Boss Wang nodded thoughtfully and said, "From what you say, your friend is no pushover either."

I said I couldn't figure him out either—you never know what's in a person's heart. Then I asked Boss Wang, "What were you people here for in the first place?"

Boss Wang sat down, lit my cigarette for me, then took out one for himself and said, "The process was similar to yours. We were entrusted by someone, but we had a smooth journey all the way until we ran into you. That's when things started going wrong. I think your friend definitely has something off about him."

I saw that after he got me to spill the beans, he wanted to skip talking about his own side. I was a bit annoyed, but at this point I had to follow his lead and asked, "What do you mean?"

Boss Wang thought for a moment and said, "Let's take it in order. Let's sort out a few strange things first and then think it over slowly. See if what I say makes sense."

I nodded.

He said, "First, why are there such huge fish in the mine shaft? The food structure and water temperature here are completely unsuitable for this kind of fish to survive. How did they grow so big? Second, why is there an intermittent geyser in the underground river? We're inside a mountain. Even if there were hot springs, the temperature shouldn't be this high. And this isn't a volcanic area.

"Third, given how dangerous our journey has been, how did your friend get out back then? This tree is so tall—could he have climbed it alone? Why didn't he encounter any Gu insects when he climbed up, but you did? Fourth, and most outrageous, the corpse in the amber used by ethnic minorities for alchemy a thousand years ago actually looks exactly like a tomb raider from a thousand years later. Isn't that a ghost in the flesh?"

I nodded again in agreement. For the first few questions, I could still force an explanation using common sense, but the

Boss Wang looked up and said, "There's another strange thing. From what you've described, it seems you came for treasure. But your friend came up once and knew there was nothing here. That amber corpse cocoon is so big—the two of you couldn't carry it away. So why did he go to all the trouble of leading you here? What is he really after?" I had been wondering the same thing myself. Hearing him say it made me think of something else, so I asked, "Forget that for now, Boss Wang. What's your purpose in coming here? From the looks of it, you don't seem to know what's up there either."

Boss Wang's expression shifted. "Yes, Li Pipa never said. He only told us that if we came here, we could have whatever we wanted. He likes playing the mystic; he often fobs us off like that."

"Wait, what did he say?" Hearing this, a sudden flash of insight hit me. I seemed to think of something.

Boss Wang was taken aback and repeated, "He said that as long as we came here, whatever we wanted, we would have."

Suddenly it all clicked. I slapped my thigh and yelled, "I get it!!!"

Boss Wang was startled and looked at me in bewilderment.

I excitedly scratched my head, my mind racing. Li Pipa said "come here"—that phrase is ambiguous; they all misunderstood him. The key is the word "come". In other words, the point is not what you can take, but that you first go to that place. Once you get there, there is a power that naturally lets you have whatever you want!!

I took a deep breath to calm myself, then slapped my face and continued reasoning. The place he mentioned—there's only this bronze tree. So does that mean this ancient bronze tree possesses some power that makes people have whatever they want?

I remembered how Old Yang wouldn't let me touch the bronze rod of that tree, how he gave me rubber gloves before climbing, how he said that touching the bronze tree would turn you into a Yin person. Suddenly the view before me opened up.

So that's how it is. No wonder. If this is true, it truly deserves to be called the greatest benefit imaginable. No benefit in the world is worth even one ten-millionth of this.

I never dreamed that the answer to this matter would be so simple. Li Pipa had already summed it up in one sentence. In psychological terms, the meaning of Li Pipa's words is—as long as you reach this place, your subconscious can influence the surrounding environment, turning the imaginings in your subconscious into real objects. That means everything we are seeing now is created by ourselves. This bronze tree was not originally like this; this cave was not originally like this; the corpses here were not originally like this.

This is the only reasonable explanation now. Taking this as the premise, everything makes sense.

All along the way, I had been on guard against Old Yang, always thinking he was scheming against me. So in my subconscious, Old Yang was the final boss, the mastermind behind the whole affair. So when I saw the mummy's face in the amber, I unconsciously superimposed Old Yang's image onto it. That face was my inner fear—the fear of Old Yang's betrayal, which my subconscious had materialized.

But when did I actually touch this bronze tree? Wasn't I wearing gloves the whole time? I raised my hands and looked at the inside of the gloves. I couldn't help but cry out in surprise—my gloves had been worn through by a branch of the bronze tree, leaving a hole. I had no idea when they had torn.

Li Pipa's ancestor must have already noticed that touching the Bronze Tree could grant a 'materialization' power like a god, and he must have wanted to obtain that power himself, which is why he incited these people to come here.

Old Yang had also been here once, and he knew about the existence of this power. That means he still had that ability on him now. Last time he got out, he must have relied on this power to escape. At the same time, it also explained why there were such large carnivorous fish in the mine. When Old Yang saw water in the mine, his subconscious must have thought there would be monsters in the water that attacked people. He feared them, and his power materialized his fear. As a result, he almost got bitten to death by the damn fish.

And when I tried to go back the same way, another fish immediately appeared in the water, scaring me back. That certainly wasn't a coincidence.

If my analysis is correct, then this place is now a world where subconscious and reality intertwine. In reality, what was the original shape of the Bronze Tree? And what was the scene like here?

I shared my thoughts with Boss Wang. After listening, he seemed to suddenly remember something and said, "According to what you said, just now, when we fell down from above, the moment I landed, afraid you might attack me, I immediately ran toward the center of the mist. At that time, I also saw these bronze chains, but when I passed through them, I didn't fall; the ground was solid. But the second time I ambushed you, I stepped into empty space. There was a hole underneath. I thought I had misseen it in the mist, so I didn't pay attention at the time. Now that I think about it, it's like the hole appeared out of thin air."

I nodded. At that time, I did think there should be a coffin pit below. Maybe that's why the coffin pit materialized.

All of us who climbed up had touched the Bronze Tree. Many things—like the monkeys wearing chi-gu masks, the hollows in the rock walls—might have been materialized by us. By now, it's impossible to tell which things truly exist and which are materializations of our own.

At first glance, this power seems wonderful, but upon careful thought, I felt an inexplicable terror. Human thoughts are uncontrollable. For example, if you had such power and watched a horror movie, you might find that the corpse from the movie was hanging from the ceiling fan behind you, dripping blood. Or if you walked past a graveyard, you might...

No, I can't think about these things anymore. I pinched my hand hard, or something might go wrong.

Perhaps someone trained in psychology could control this power to some extent. Wait, no—what subject did Old Yang major in at junior college? The hexagonal bell earrings he showed me during the meal... Could it be? Suddenly I thought of something and turned my head sharply to stare at Boss Wang.