Chapter 142: Drainage Tunnel

We charged over as fast as we could, but it was too late—Panzi had already fallen out of sight. The cave had a bend, and the flashlight couldn't reach the bottom, so we had no idea if he was dead or alive.

My head went hot, and I wanted to jump down, but Fatty was faster. He grabbed the rope tied around his own foot, pulled out his military knife, and leaped into the hole. He slid out of sight in an instant. I was about to jump again, but Monk Hua held me back, saying the diameter was too small. If I jumped too, there'd be no room to fight below. If Fatty could save the man on his own, he would; if not, I'd just be throwing my life away.

I coughed and peered into the cave, but I couldn't see a thing. I only heard the sound of Fatty sliding down. The rope above was quickly being pulled into the hole, and I was burning with anxiety.

A full minute passed, then suddenly the rope stopped. A vibration came from the other end, and then Fatty shouted from deep below: "Pull the rope!"

We hauled on the rope with all our might, pulling it up desperately. Soon Fatty emerged, dragging Panzi with him. Panzi was still kicking wildly, clearly the fetal corpse had not let go.

Chenpi A'si told us to move aside. Frowning, he pulled out a pair of iron pellets. With a sharp throw, one pellet hit Panzi's ankle square on the big head of the fetal corpse. The fetal corpse screeched and let go, but immediately after releasing, it tried to lunge upward.

Chenpi A'si didn't give it a chance. Another iron pellet knocked it head over heels. It flipped over and charged again, and he hit it once more, this time sending it tumbling down.

We took the chance to drag both of them out of the cave, then quickly moved away from the hole. Monk Hua swung his entrenching shovel and waited by the side. Sure enough, in just a few seconds, the thing shot up again. Monk Hua brought the shovel down with a "clang," smacking it right back down, and we heard a scream as it rapidly fell into the depths of the stone cave.

Fatty, pale-faced, panted and said to Panzi, "See? Looks like your lady still likes you a bit more."

Panzi was badly shaken and waved his hand. "Enough said, we're even." Then he asked Monk Hua, "Damn it, is this cave a fetal corpse nest? If so, I'll blow it up and send it to reincarnation early."

Monk Hua waved his hand. "No, fetal corpses aren't animals, so they don't have nests. This cave is indeed strange. When you two fell down just now, what did you see inside?"

Fatty said, "No flashlight, so we couldn't see anything. But I felt several stone slabs—this cave was artificially built."

Artificially built? Monk Hua looked concerned. I also turned my attention back to the large hole.

The mouth of the cave looked somewhat like a well—and a pretty deep one at that. I thought it might be an abandoned pile-drilling well, but then I reconsidered. The opening was too wide; no pile-drilling well from that era could have reached this scale. The rim showed clear carving marks, so it wasn't a natural volcanic lava tube. I shone the light inside; the fetal corpse was gone, apparently fallen deeper in. I wondered if Monk Hua had smacked it to death. Aside from being horrifying to look at, the thing wasn't all that tough.

The inner wall of the cave had some stone slabs inlaid near the top, but none further down, and it was very uneven—a bit like someone's duodenal lining. Wind blew in from the cave, carrying a hint of dampness. When I leaned in a few meters, everything was pitch-black. No telling where it led.

Fatty looked at it and said, puzzled, "It looks a bit like a cellar entrance in the northeast. Could it be that when they built this spirit palace, the workers used it to pickle cabbage?"

Monk Hua ignored him and felt the mouth of the cave with his hand. "The wind is blowing out from here. This well isn't solid—it must lead somewhere."

Fatty asked, "Could it be the back door leading to the Celestial Palace or the Underground Palace? The secret passage between the three dragon heads you mentioned?"

I said quietly, "The three-headed dragon layout has already been proven false. And even if it were real, the secret passage would have to be inside the Underground Palace. How could it open out here?"

Fatty said, "You don't get it. That's called a feint to the east and strike to the west. Didn't you hear Chairman Mao say: the most dangerous place is the safest place. Maybe this is that 'Wang Wang's' strategy."

Fatty couldn't remember Wang Zanghai's name at the moment, so he just gave him a nickname offhand. I almost laughed at that and said, exasperated, "Please show a little respect. Wang Zanghai was a master of this school. You'd have to call him a founding ancestor if you met him. And that line wasn't from Chairman Mao at all—it was from Chu Liuxiang."

Fatty said, "Don't go claiming ancestors for me. What founding ancestor? Even if he acknowledged me, I wouldn't acknowledge him. Let's drop that. What do we do with this cave? Should we go in and take a look? Maybe I'm right after all. That fetal corpse is a menace here. If it's made a nest in this cave, it might harm more people. Let's go down and finish it off."

Monk Hua shook his head and said it was impossible. "Since the dragon group layout is fake, there was no need to dig through three mountains. That actually makes sense—they simply didn't have the manpower or energy for such a massive project. Just building the Cloud Summit Palace must have been hard enough. This cave here—there's probably a lot more to it."

I could see a glint in his eyes; he clearly had an idea, so I asked him to share it so we could discuss it.

Monk Hua said, "This is just a preliminary thought. You might not believe me when I say it."

Fatty said, "No problem, just say it. If you're wrong, the comrades will help you correct it."

Monk Hua chuckled and nodded. "Alright, then let me speak. Setting everything else aside, the fact that this opening is located right below the spirit palace is very intriguing. Think about it: putting the opening here must have been for concealment. And since wind is blowing out, it means this cave is a passage to somewhere. Now look at the carving marks on the walls—they are all reversed chisel marks, meaning the cave was dug from the inside out, not from here in. Three key points: based on our experience, we can deduce that this might be an escape tunnel, a back way left by the tomb builders for themselves. If the ancient tomb were sealed, they could flee from here."

I said, puzzled, "An escape tunnel? No way. So that means there is still an Underground Palace down there? Even though it's not the three-headed dragon layout, they still built a sacrificial burial mound?"

Monk Hua shook his head again. "Unlikely. We found no entrance to the Underground Palace beneath the sealing stone. If there were an Underground Palace, the entrance would have to be there. If there's no entrance, then there's definitely no Underground Palace—that's an eternal truth. Placing the entrance outside the feng shui water position would bring major misfortune to the owner."

Fatty said, "This 'Wang Wang' guy was pretty eccentric. Maybe he did put the entrance somewhere else."

Monk Hua waved his hand. "Don't overthink it. Wang Zanghai was still limited by his era. If he didn't even follow the burial classics and just did whatever he wanted, we'd die ten thousand times over."

I thought about it: if he didn't follow the burial classics, then there was no need to check feng shui. Just dig a pit and bury him somewhere random, like Genghis Khan—horses trample it flat, and no one finds it to this day. I asked him, "So if there's no Underground Palace down there, where do you think this escape tunnel leads?"

Monk Hua said, "By process of elimination: first, this escape tunnel was built beneath this fake sacrificial tomb, so it must be related to the workers of the Cloud Summit Palace. Second, where nearby would such an escape tunnel be built? Without a doubt, only the Underground Palace of the Cloud Summit Palace! So my conclusion—odds are nine out of ten that the escape tunnel was dug all the way from the Underground Palace beneath the Three Sacred Mountains."

I immediately exclaimed, "How is that possible? That's way too far. If they really wanted to dig an escape tunnel as a back route, they didn't need to open the mouth all the way over here. They could have just opened it on the Three Sacred Mountains and saved a lot of effort. And digging such a long tunnel through the mountains—how long would that take? At least twenty or thirty years, right? Is such a project even humanly possible?"

Monk Hua explained, "A grand project like the Cloud Summit Palace would have taken sixty or seventy years in ancient times, even several generations to complete. I think it's not impossible that the workers, knowing they would eventually die, secretly dug an escape tunnel. As for why they opened the mouth so far away on another mountain, they must have had an unavoidable reason. If we go down and take a look, we're sure to find out."

Ye Cheng, who had been listening all along, asked, "Monk, this idea of yours—are you confident in it yourself?" Monk Hua paused and said, "Honestly, I can't say for sure, but I think it's worth a try. It's better than going out and then having to make another trip. All the signs right now point to this being an escape tunnel. If I'm wrong and it leads somewhere else, it's not a bad thing to go in either. We've seen this kind of escape tunnel before; it shouldn't be dangerous. No one sets traps on their own escape route."

I mulled it over. Monk Hua's proposal was really tempting. For one thing, the feng shui talk here was too confusing—I couldn't keep up with what Chenpi A'si and the others were saying anymore. I didn't care whether the feng shui was good or bad. For another, I had no idea how A Ning's group was progressing on the other side, and we'd already wasted a lot of time. We still didn't even know the purpose of Third Uncle's arrangement for this "descent." If the whole plan fell apart because of this round trip, I'd really have let him down.

Another consideration was that Shunzi had probably figured out what we were doing by now. He stood off to one side, silent, but he wasn't stupid. I kept watching him, and his hand never strayed more than two feet from his knife, meaning he was already on guard against us. Once this guy got back to the village, who knew what he might do—he might sell us out immediately. Chenpi A'si must have considered that. If we had no choice but to go back to the mountain and start over, the first thing before re-entering the village would be to either silence him or bribe him heavily. By then, finding another guide might not be possible. If you go up to the snow mountain and come back without your guide, who would dare lead us in again? And besides, there probably weren't many people in the village who could take someone up the snow mountain anymore.

A few of us discussed it, weighing the pros and cons, but opinions were divided. Ye Cheng was afraid of the fetal corpse and firmly opposed going down. Panzi also thought it was too risky. Fatty and I felt we could give it a try. Monk Hua went to consult Chenpi A'si, saying, "Old master, how about we take a shot at it?" Chenpi A'si had been sitting there with his eyes closed, listening to us talk. No matter how many times Monk Hua asked, for some reason, he didn't react at all, as if he had fallen asleep.

Fatty couldn't hold back anymore and went over to pat him, saying, "Old master, say something, don't just play cool here." With a shove, Chenpi A'si swayed but still didn't open his eyes.

Monk Hua took one look and his face changed. He rushed over and grabbed the old man's hand, and instantly his face went pale. Fatty saw this and also rushed over, feeling the old man's neck. His expression shifted as he exclaimed, "Damn, he's dead!"

Everyone was stunned. What? Dead? How could that be? Wasn't he perfectly fine just a few minutes ago?

But seeing Fatty's face, the sweat on Monk Hua's forehead, and Chenpi A'si's complete lack of response, we all sensed something was wrong. Everyone immediately crowded around.

The old man sat stiff as a board, eyes closed, motionless, like a carved ice statue.

I felt Chenpi A'si's wrist but couldn't find a pulse. His skin felt dry and rough, and was terribly cold. The flesh underneath seemed to have gone rigid.

Could he really be dead? I was horrified. While we were studying the hole, Chenpi A'si had been sitting here, and his heart slowly stopped? Though this fit the pattern of death from hypothermia, hypothermia would take at least twenty minutes in low temperatures to actually kill you. We had only been sitting for less than five minutes. How could he have died so suddenly? That didn't make sense.

I still clung to a glimmer of hope. Fatty was unreliable—he had only felt Chenpi A'si's neck, and judging death so hastily was arbitrary. It could just be shock. We had been running too fast just now. How could a ninety-year-old man take that? But Monk Hua frowned, pried open the old man's eyes, and shone a flashlight into them. His expression grew worse and worse. Finally, he looked back at Ye Cheng and shook his head.

Monk Hua had some medical knowledge. Seeing him shake his head, we all gasped. We knew it couldn't be wrong—he really was dead.

Panzi asked softly, "What happened? How did he die?"

Monk Hua sighed, whether because he didn't know or didn't want to talk, and slumped to the ground with a dark face. Fatty tugged Panzi and said, "At his age, he could die any way."

I couldn't help but sigh. Indeed, it was too much for a man in his nineties to come here. This kind of accident, though unexpected, was understandable. Chenpi A'si probably never imagined he would die like this. It was his karma.

My grandfather had also passed away suddenly like that. I was eating at the time; one minute he was asking me to get him some wine, the next he was gone. My father said many tomb raiders, due to early exposure to large amounts of tomb gas, suffer damage to their hearts, so most of them die this way when they get old. It's a good death, the most comfortable way to go.

We were all a bit at a loss. First, Chenpi A'si was their leader. Now that he was dead, Ye Cheng and Monk Hua had no reason to stay here. Second, we had gotten a big advantage by arriving here smoothly, but with Chenpi A'si dead and Poker-face missing, relying on Fatty and Panzi to lead us was hardly enough.

Just as I was thinking quickly, Chenpi A'si suddenly twitched. I was startled, thinking it was a reflexive corpse spasm. But then, with a "smack," he grabbed my neck tightly. At the same time, he sat up straight and opened his eyes.

We were all terrified. Ye Cheng slipped and slid five or six meters down. Fatty and Panzi also jumped back. Fatty yelled, "Corpse rising!"

I tried to pry his hand off, but the old man's grip, like withered branches, was incredibly strong, like a vise. I couldn't move it at all. Coughing, I shouted, "Get… the hoof… quick, hurry!"

Before I could finish, Chenpi A'si suddenly released my neck and shoved me away, cursing, "What nonsense are you babbling?"

My mind was in a fog. I quickly retreated behind Fatty, but he blocked me. Then it hit me: wait, would a corpse that rises talk? I looked at Chenpi A'si again. His spirits clearly had returned, and his breathing was back.

We all stared at Chenpi A'si with confusion, not knowing what had just happened. Fatty kept glancing at Chenpi A'si, utterly baffled. But in that instant, Chenpi A'si seemed to have returned to normal, showing no sign that his pulse had stopped. It was as if what we had just seen was an illusion.

Monk Hua was stunned for a moment before reacting. He asked, "Old master, are you alright? Just now you…"

Chenpi A'si seemed completely unaware that he had just died. He looked at him blankly, lit a cigarette, and said, "What?"

Monk Hua saw the expression on Chenpi A'si's face and felt dazed, not knowing what to say.

Chenpi A'si gave him a cold glance and said, "Don't worry, this old man isn't so easy to kill."

I looked at Chenpi A'si's demeanor and tone—unchanged from before, not like he had been possessed by a ghost. I suddenly wondered if he had been playing a trick on us. But why would he pull such a stunt at his age?

Chenpi A'si's sudden "resurrection" left everyone momentarily stunned. But seeing him like that, we couldn't exactly hold him down and dissect him to see what was going on. I gradually began to suspect that Monk Hua and Fatty had been mistaken. Old people's pulses are hard to find, and those two quack doctors might not have checked properly. Besides, Chenpi A'si was old; spacing out occasionally was normal.

Everyone looked puzzled, but none dared to show it.

Though Monk Hua found it strange, seeing that Chenpi A'si was fine, he relaxed. He then relayed what we had been discussing earlier. Chenpi A'si looked at the cave entrance, pondered for a moment, and said, "That makes some sense. Seems worth a try."