Chapter 136: Chess Game

I saw the expression on Chenpi A'si's face and immediately felt something was wrong. This old guy had been quietly silent the whole way, only speaking a few words at critical moments, never showing any anger, but now he was clearly truly furious.

Monk Hua also noticed this and tensed up, asking, "Elder, what's the matter?"

Chenpi A'si's face was extremely grim, and he said to us, "The dragon vein here has been tampered with. This three-headed old dragon is fake—the direction of the head is wrong!"

My heart skipped a beat. I quickly pulled out my own compass to check, and sure enough, no matter how I turned it, the needle pointed straight at the black stone tortoise. Obviously, this weird thing had an extremely strong magnetic pull.

I immediately understood what Chenpi A'si meant: when reading the Feng Shui vein lines, orientation is extremely important. The whole way here, Chenpi A'si had been relying on this compass along with the compass points he had memorized to determine the direction and course of the dragon vein. But with a gigantic magnet-carved object buried here, as we neared this mountain, the north-south orientation in the compass would definitely be affected. The basis he used to judge the dragon vein's course was completely wrong!

The pattern of the three-headed dragon was determined under that false premise, so it must also be fake! That means this isn't the dragon head at all. The Kunlun fetus, the huge ice dome outside—none of that has any theoretical basis. They're all illusions! Psychological hints to lure us into this trap! Wang Zanghai must have figured that anyone who could find this place in the future would have considerable Feng Shui skill, so he prepared well in advance. Before we even entered the tomb, before we let our guard down, we were already caught in his snare.

I suddenly felt a sense of helplessness. The Kunlun fetus, the ice dome—such an ingenious design, yet only serving as a trap! Wang Zanghai clearly had a deep understanding of grave robbing. I had always laughed at those architects who rigidly followed Feng Shui, thinking that Feng Shui brought no blessings to the tomb owner but instead gave grave robbers an invisible direction. Yet we made the same mistake and got outwitted by an ancient man.

Now we were playing a game with someone who had been dead for hundreds of years, and we were already checkmated before the first move even began. What a terrible start.

Fatty and Panzi still didn't understand. I explained the situation to them. Fatty wasn't convinced and said, "Impossible! How could they have such a huge magnet back then?"

I sighed, "This stone tortoise must be carved from magnetic meteorite. Its value is extraordinary, yet Wang Zanghai used it to weigh down the tomb. It seems he went all out to protect Cloud Summit Palace."

"Damn, no way." Fatty still refused to believe it. "This place is built so formally…"

Halfway through his sentence, he realized it. The architectural style of this spirit palace was indeed formal, but it lacked all the essentials of a spirit palace. Actually, we had already noticed the flaws, but none of us thought the entire palace could be a trap—just because its style was too orthodox.

Chenpi A'si's face was livid. He didn't speak, just stared fiercely at the tortoise, his gaze terrifying.

Monk Hua and I conferred. We were completely doomed now. Our food definitely wouldn't last for another detour to the Three Sacred Mountains. We'd probably have to go back to the mountain village first for supplies. That round trip would be a total waste, and several of us were badly battered. We'd need time to rest in the village. We couldn't afford the lost time; even if A Ning and her group were moving slowly, they would have arrived by now.

We still didn't know the purpose of Third Uncle's arrangements, but no matter how we looked at it, we were at a disadvantage.

Thinking about this, I couldn't help feeling a bit irritable. Actually, no one was to blame for this, but when people hit a setback, having a scapegoat helps—otherwise there's no one to vent your anger on, and you just stew in frustration. The others didn't look happy either, but there was nothing we could do.

Seeing we were all a bit deflated, Fatty said, "Forget it, let's head back quick. We just took the wrong path. We'll come back after we get out. Those guys A Ning only have a few people. They can't possibly haul everything out. If we move fast, we can still grab some leftovers!"

Hearing him talk only about leftovers, I suddenly felt a wave of inexplicable rage. I shook my head with a cold smile and said, "What do you know? Third Uncle basically sacrificed his own business to slow down A Ning's progress, and we still came up short. If we go back and come again, we don't know how far behind they'll be. Third Uncle might be in grave danger. All you care about is grave goods, you don't care about anything else. Shut up and stop yapping."

Fatty got pissed too and was about to snap back at me, but Ye Cheng held him down. "Alright, alright. This isn't the time to argue."

The atmosphere turned very awkward. Fatty shook off Ye Cheng, swore, and walked off to smoke. Monk Hua waved his hand and said, "A wasted trip—everyone feels terrible. The main thing now is to figure out a remedy. Let's stay calm and think about what to do."

Fatty said, "What remedy? I say it doesn't matter. With such a big magnet stuck here, anyone who comes will get screwed. Are you sure those guys from A Ning's group didn't get tricked? Maybe their bearings are all wrong too, and they've already been shot into a sieve by the border patrol. We should search this place, take everything we can, then turn back as fast as possible, re-equip at the foot of the mountain, and come again. Don't waste time. Since we've already fallen into the trap, we have to face reality."

I knew Fatty actually had a point. In the end, we might have to go back the way he said and come again. But his kind of talk was unpopular here right now.

Panzi immediately shook his head: "Easy for you to say. If you had to go back the way we came, could you guarantee you'd make it? Even if you know the way, we've been walking all day. You're thick-skinned and tough—you might not feel tired, but we can't handle it. Even if we have to go back, it'll have to be tomorrow morning. What Third Young Master worries about makes sense. If we delay like this, all of Third Master's preparations will be wasted."

Fatty immediately lost it. "Third Master, Third Master—screw your Third Master! You don't even know what that old bastard is thinking, and you're still rambling on. Why the hell do I have to get involved in your family affairs? I came here to grab antiques. Screw it, I'll take what I want and go on my own. You all go die with that creepy old geezer!"

With that, Fatty grabbed his pack, turned on his flashlight, and headed back down the corridor. But he'd only taken two steps when Poker-face blocked his path, preventing him from going further.

Fatty was a bit wary of Poker-face and couldn't lash out at him, but he couldn't lose face either, so he asked, "What's up? Don't get in the way of my fortune, damn it."

Poker-face said, "Don't you find it strange? Ever since we got here, it seems everyone's been irritable. Even Wu Xie lost his temper."

Once Poker-face said that, Fatty was taken aback. He immediately turned to look at me. Everyone's expression changed, and my heart skipped a beat too.

Yeah, that inexplicable anger came out of nowhere for no reason. I didn't know why, but suddenly a wave of irritation welled up inside me. Fatty had always been like that—I'd heard him say even more outrageous things before. Why did I blow up like that? It wasn't like me. Given my usual way of handling things, even if someone said something unpleasant, I wouldn't snap at them in such a situation. And Fatty's reaction just now was way over the top.

Could it really be the surrounding environment affecting us? I looked around. Everything was pitch black. Under the flashlight beams, the only points of light were our flashlights. The darkness around us was like black fog, pressing in from all sides, very oppressive. But oppressive as it was, I didn't feel it was the source of that inexplicable agitation.

"What's going on? Seems like something really eerie just now—suddenly getting mad for no reason." Fatty also came to his senses and asked Poker-face. Poker-face said to us, "I'm not sure either, but I think there's more to this place than just a magnet. We must stay calm now. Arguing just now was useless. Since this is a trap…" He paused. "Wang Zanghai went to so much trouble setting this up. If he let us in, I don't think we can necessarily get out."

That irritation surged up in me again, but recalling Poker-face's words, I forced down my anger and asked, "Then what do we do now?"

Poker-face didn't speak. He just glanced at Chenpi A'si, who looked back at him and said, "Since we're already caught in the trap, we can only take one step at a time. It's too early to conclude whether we can get out. But no matter what, we have to destroy this tortoise and search this place to make sure there aren't any more like it. Otherwise, no matter how many times we come, it'll be the same."

Everyone glared angrily at the tortoise. Clearly, none of us had ever hated this animal more than now.

Even if we shattered the big magnet, it would just become smaller magnets, still affecting the compass. To completely eliminate the magnetism, we'd have to use fire.

We took out fuel from the smokeless stove and poured it on the tortoise. Then Fatty lit a cigarette, took a deep drag, and tossed it in. The fire caught. The heat from the smokeless stove fuel was immense, and in no time we felt a wave of scorching air blast over us.

Monk Hua took out a compass and watched the needle spin.

Soon the tortoise was glowing red hot, and even the surrounding bricks turned red. We all took the chance to move near the brick pit to warm ourselves.

There was no wood to burn here, so we used high-purity fuel, which burned quickly. In about half a cigarette's time, only the scorching bricks and red-hot tortoise remained.

"How is it?" I asked Monk Hua, leaning in to look. The needle was no longer pointing at the tortoise—the magnetism was gone. He walked around with the compass a few more times to confirm there was no other magnet underground, then nodded and said, "Done."

This place is not suitable for staying long. Since it's a trap, we have no more attachment. We packed up a bit, and I thought about what Poker-face said: they could let us in, but not necessarily let us out. I already had a feeling of foreboding. Could it be that after we entered this rear hall, something had changed outside? Was some unknown accident waiting for us? A few unpleasant images flashed through my mind, but I immediately dismissed them. It was just speculation now, no need to scare myself. Just take it one step at a time.

However, my premonitions were always surprisingly accurate in times of trouble. Just as we were about to re-enter the corridor, suddenly, from some corner of the rear hall, there came a series of "kala kala" sounds.

The "kala kala" sound was very sharp and piercing. We all heard it, and immediately we stopped in our tracks and turned to look.

The sound did not stop but continued on. After listening for a while, I discovered that it was actually coming from the brick pit we had burned.

We wondered what the sound was, and carefully went back to look. Peering down, we saw that the turtle at the bottom of the pit had actually split open, with large cracks spreading across its shell. At the same time, we saw a strange black gas drifting out from the cracks. It was very fast, instantly expanding and rising into the air, like a huge soft-bodied creature squeezing out from inside the turtle.

Then, the black gas connected with the darkness above, writhing continuously. Its shape actually resembled the black totem we had seen in the outer hall earlier.

"This is... Eternal Heaven!" Fatty shouted, his face pale.

"Don't scare people," said Monk Hua. "Maybe this turtle is hollow, and expanded with heat and contracted with cold, so it cracked. Something inside got burnt and charred."

Fatty's face changed: "Hollow? Then could this black smoke be poisonous?"

"It shouldn't be, there's no precedent—" said Monk Hua, but before he finished, Poker-face suddenly made a silencing gesture, telling us not to speak.

His gesture made me break out in a cold sweat. I quickly covered my mouth, and everyone held their breath, looking around to see what was happening now.

I turned my head around, hearing my heart pounding like a drum. There was nothing unusual around, but I heard, in this extremely quiet rear hall, besides the cracking sound of the stone turtle, a very, very faint "rustling" sound coming from some unknown corner.

I listened for a long time but couldn't make out what that sound was, nor could I sense its direction. It was as if the sound was directly entering my brain. This spirit palace was inside an ice dome, so it couldn't be blown by the wind. That sound definitely wasn't the wind.

The black smoke above grew thicker, and that rustling sound also became denser. Soon, this sound came from all directions, making people's whole bodies itch.

Poker-face's expression grew uglier and uglier. He kept turning around, looking at the black gas gathering overhead, and muttered to himself: "There's something in the smoke!"

Monk Hua listened to that rustling sound, then looked at the stone turtle, seeming to realize something. His face suddenly changed. "This smoke is Insect Xiangyu? There's Insect Xiangyu in the turtle! Wang Zanghai wants us dead."

"What is Insect Xiangyu?" I asked.

No one answered me, but I knew I would find out soon. Poker-face pointed at Shunzi lying on the coffin bed nearby, gestured for Lang Feng to carry him on his back, then pointed at the corridor ahead: "Run, don't look back! No matter what falls on you, don't stop. Keep going until we get out. Hurry!"