Chapter 425: Stone Shadow: The Successful One

We packed up our things and stumbled back into the stone chamber, immediately seeing the changes.

On the stone walls of the chamber, I saw strange changes in the hollows that held the ancient books. In some hollows, the relief stones had been pushed out, while others remained empty.

The entire stone wall had turned into a very strange puzzle, with some pieces fitted in and others still missing, leaving holes.

"Is this the correct answer?" I murmured to myself.

Xiao Hua sat down on the ground, unscrewed a bottle of wine, and took a few gulps. "After all the trouble we went through, the answer turns out to be surprisingly simple."

"What does this mean?" I leaned in to look.

He remained silent. I wanted to keep thinking, but found I was completely exhausted—my brain couldn't spin anymore.

After a long silence, he rubbed his temples and said, "There's no use thinking further. At this point, it's actually none of our business. This should be the only result that can be derived from the hints in Guangxi. Let's review the process again and see if there are any mistakes. If not, we should hand off the baton."

I understood what he meant. We had obtained the "hints," but the place to execute them was a thousand miles away, not here. No matter how much we thought about it, it was useless.

So I sat down too, and the two of us slowly went through the entire process in our minds. Finally, we both confirmed that there were no major issues.

"If it still turns out wrong even like this, then they're just unlucky," Xiao Hua said as he took out his camera and began photographing every detail of the entire stone chamber.

I was on the sidelines, and I suddenly relaxed my guard. It felt easier than any of my previous trips. Like this, our work could come to an end.

"Why do you think those descendants of the Zhang family made things so complicated?" Xiao Hua asked.

"It's not complicated at all. If you think about it, you'll find it's the only way. Imagine if this were ancient times—we'd be completely helpless. You'd have to draw all this down, then ride a fast horse from Sichuan to Guangxi. Back then, both places were deep in the mountains with no roads. Do you know how long the round trip would take?" I said. "It would take at least a year. And on top of that, tigers, bandits, robbers—hell, Guangxi was basically a no-man's land, a place for exiling southern barbarians, and here we have the Black Tiger Qiang Fan tribes. So in reality, in those times, entering the Zhang family building was impossible. Not to mention, don't forget, this tomb is mobile."

"Then weren't the descendants of the Zhang family themselves in great danger too? Maybe several of their precious offspring would die along the way. Why did they insist on burying all their ancestors together? And then keep moving the tomb?"

"I think it was an unavoidable act," I sighed.

The photos were transferred to a computer, and from a nearby town we used a public telephone line to dial-up and upload them to Banai, Guangxi. Then the guys there quickly delivered them to the old woman.

I don't know what they felt seeing those photos, but it must have been similar to how we felt when we first saw the photos they sent us. And then came a long wait.

We had nothing to do. I sat in mid-air, looking at the four snow-capped mountains in the distance, the clouds at dusk like a mirage, carrying an immortal aura and moist wind, and chatted with Xiao Hua.

Xiao Hua had clearly accepted me more than before. We talked about a lot of things—childhood memories, what happened after we parted, learning opera—sometimes laughing heartily, sometimes filled with emotion. Because our backgrounds were too similar, even our personalities were alike. The only difference was that my grandfather was determined to erase his past, while he, because of his family situation, had to inherit his clan.

"Heaven is fair. Everyone thought the Xie family was an unshakeable house, but who would have guessed—as if cursed—that after Xie Lianhuan died, my father soon passed away, then several of my uncles died of illness one after another, and finally my grandfather left. In an instant, the whole family was left with only me. The womenfolk fought over the property and remarried. What fell into my hands was actually a mess." Xiao Hua leaned against the cliff, drinking. "You said you grew up always being outside these matters, so you lack experience. That's actually your family's blessing. After my grandfather died, there was no more talk of erasing the past. The Xie family had nothing left. My mother struggled to maintain the family's face to the outside world, so I had to come out as the young master. I was only eight then." He paused. "You don't have those experiences, but you must believe me: those experiences are really, really unpleasant."

"Once the Xie family fell, it was like a tree falling and the monkeys scattering. Countless people came to cause us trouble. Fortunately, my grandfather was very careful and had made preparations before he died. He arranged for me to learn opera from Second Master, which was a sign that an elder was taking in a junior. The Xie family still has its current properties, allowing me to endure from age eight to twenty-six, all thanks to my grandfather's plans and Second Master's protection." He said, "You don't know, but I should warn you: if you've already left this circle, don't come back. The people here are not good people."

"So are you a good person or a bad person?" I asked.

"What do you think?" He looked at me and sighed. "Do you think a good person would ignore the fate of a childhood playmate and first finish his own business?"

"I thought that was a kind of discipline. Besides, we weren't that close."

He smiled bitterly. "Yes, that's the rule my grandfather set. He was too smart—he could calculate everything. I dare not think he was wrong. Do you know how many times I've done this before? Many times, I've thought: if I hadn't listened to my grandfather and had gone back immediately, would those people still be alive?" He laughed to himself. "Once you have that thought, you can't have friends, because you know you can't go back to save them. If you become friends with someone and something happens, you'll be heartbroken. To avoid heartbreak, to be able to abandon others with a clear conscience, I can't be friends with anyone. Sounds pretentious, doesn't it?"

I didn't know how to respond, so I just gave a dry laugh.

He said, "But that was my thinking when I was young. Now that I'm older, I've figured out many things." He sighed, raised the bottle to toast me. "So, Third Young Master, when you're with me, you have to take care of yourself."

I returned the gesture, feeling that he wasn't too bitter about it. Indeed, I often felt the same way—occasionally sighing, but there was little left that could be changed. What must be, must be.

So we kept chatting, talking about this and that. Five days passed before feedback came from Guangxi.

We saw even more photos than we had sent. I immediately saw how they operated.

On their stone wall, Poker-face and the others had done the same as we did: scraped off the entire surface of the relief. It turned out the outer layer of the relief was carved onto something that looked like stone. On the back of one photo, someone had written that it was made of a mixture of egg white and horse dung, stuck onto a flat boulder, and then the patterns were carved in relief.

This explained why the relief was so crude—because this material couldn't be carved too much.

After the relief was scraped away, only a few places were actually carved into the boulder itself. Those parts couldn't be scraped off. Comparing them, we found they matched the positions of the holes on our wall.

Moreover, those fragments truly carved into the boulder seemed to be buttons that could be pressed into the interior of the boulder. According to the photos we sent, they pressed those corresponding fragments into the boulder one by one. Then I saw a photo of Fatty bare-chested, giving a thumbs up, standing in front of the split boulder. The boulder had cracked open, revealing a gap for passage. Written on the back of the photo: "Good job."

Xiao Hua and I high-fived in celebration, but we immediately noticed there were other photos after these—another stone wall.

The note on the back was even more concise: "400 meters after the first stone wall, a second stone wall appears. Keep up the good work."

The photos showed many, many relief patterns again.

Xiao Hua and I smiled bitterly, but this time we had no doubts. No matter what the photos showed, we didn't have to solve it. We just had to go down, reach the second corridor of mechanisms, and do it all over again.

If this were a novel, something might happen in between, but this time it was really much easier than I imagined. Our second preparation was more thorough. We got the arrangement hints for the second set of reliefs the next day, and three days later they opened the third stone wall. Nothing else happened in between.

After we opened the third stone wall, we got their feedback. Based on the number of these mechanisms, I knew this was the last level. Once they entered, they would be facing Zhang Family Tower. We packed up in the stone chamber, and finally looked at those reliefs, almost unable to believe that everything was really over.

I had never been so relaxed, nor had I ever felt such a sense of accomplishment. From childhood to adulthood, everyone thought I couldn't handle big things. This time I proved that I could, and that sense of accomplishment was really comfortable. I finally understood why some people are so obsessed with pursuing success.

Xiao Hua was also happy. With the big weight off his mind, now we just had to wait for news from their side.

We confirmed that we no longer needed to stay here, so we went down to the bottom of the cliff. If there was good news, we would go back to the village, or simply head straight to Guangxi and wait for the celebration in Banai.

I thought about what the old lady had promised me, but I wasn't in a hurry to cash in. On one hand, I was covered in injuries and didn't have the energy to think about it; on the other hand, I didn't want to seem too utilitarian. I still wanted Xiao Hua to bring it up and tell me himself.

But that was obviously impossible. On the second day of rest, Xiao Hua showed no intention of saying anything. In the end, I couldn't hold back and asked him first.

He was leaning against the cave wall playing with his phone. When he heard me suddenly ask, he showed a somewhat apologetic expression: "Sorry, I forgot about that. I personally don't care much about it."

I said, "I can see that. For the sake of me saving your life, just give it to me straight."

"Of course, of course." Xiao Hua put his phone back in his pocket. "But why are you so eager to know the truth about this? In my opinion, sometimes it's better not to know the truth."

I didn't want to explain too much and cursed, "Just tell me what the hell is going on. After I hear it, I'll tell you all about my situation."

"Alright." Xiao Hua laughed bitterly. "Xiuxiu should have told you about that seemingly earth-shattering thing our grandfathers did here, right?" I nodded, and Xiao Hua said, "Then that saves me a lot of trouble. Let me think about where to start." He scratched his head. "Actually, the whole thing should start with Zhang Dafoye. You should know that, right?"

Zhang Dafoye was the head of the Old Nine Gates. I had heard some anecdotes about him, but I didn't know if they were what Xiao Hua wanted to tell me, so I simply shook my head.

Xiao Hua said, "Then I'll give you a rough idea. You—" He paused. "Don't be shocked by what you hear; it's all basically true."

Zhang Dafoye of the Zhang family came from the north and was a representative of the northern methods spreading south. But before this family came south, their background in the north was very mysterious. Some said they came from a large mountain clan in the Jilin area, but when northerners talked about this clan, they knew little about it.

Even Zhang Dafoye himself was confused when talking about his own origins. He said that in the north, the family's ancestral teachings were very low-key. He only knew that the background of their family was not glorious; their branch seemed to have been driven out by another large Zhang family several hundred years ago.

This story was told by Zhang Dafoye himself at a drinking table. It sounds very cliché now, and he himself seemed to tell it as a legend.

Perhaps several hundred years ago, in the Jilin area, there was a very mysterious tomb-raiding family living in seclusion deep in the mountains, living a life detached from worldly affairs. They enforced strict intermarriage within the family. Except for the chosen managers, everyone else lived in the mountain settlement and had no contact with outsiders.

Later, one of their descendants fell in love with a hunter's daughter and got her pregnant. The family, with its immense power, wanted to kill the child in the daughter's womb. The descendant refused, and eventually chose to leave the family. He was subjected to cruel punishment, stripped of the family's unique features, and then driven out.

This descendant and the hunter's daughter left the area and went to the city of Jilin. Fortunately, the man was clever and patient. Gradually, they relied on his tomb-raiding skills and the girl to build a family and prosper.

For fear of the family's surveillance, they lived a very low-key life for the rest of their lives. This later became a family motto. This branch of the family, after several generations, gradually became a very large hidden force in Manchuria.

It is said that the second generation of that descendant once returned to the place where their parents had been driven out, hoping to find their grandparents, only to discover that their ancestral clan had become a ruin, gone without a trace. However, in those ruins, they discovered the secret of why their ancestral clan had isolated themselves from the world.

According to legend, they found a huge cellar underground in the ruins, built by that family, containing countless iron-sealed coffins—the coffins of the family's successive ancestors.

That cellar was terrifying. And in the lowest level of the cellar, the oldest coffins had been moved away. Obviously, the family had relocated, perhaps to escape something. And the remaining coffins all showed a strange state.

To cover up this secret, they burned the cellar, but the secret became a family legend.

Decades ago, during the most turbulent time in China, Zhang Dafoye, as the head of the largest local power in Changsha, participated in the revolution back then. As a martial artist with superb skills and great influence, he quickly gained a foothold. Like him, other martial artists, even some foreign forces, joined the turmoil.

Among them were undercover agents from the organization called "It." Whether this organization came from abroad was unclear, but I thought it very likely. By chance, one of its members learned this secret from him.

At the time, they might have been telling it as an interesting anecdote during a break, but this person took it seriously and developed a strong curiosity about the secret.

Later, Zhang Dafoye left this force and sided with the more advanced and righteous power. He lost contact with the people from the old forces.

After the revolution was completed, everyone grew old year by year. Zhang Dafoye also retired to the countryside, thinking that was how he would live out his life. But suddenly one year, Zhang Dafoye saw that person again. That person had changed his identity and become a foreigner.

At the time, this foreigner stated that his boss still had a strong interest in what Zhang had said back then. He also used the evidence of the Old Nine Gates' crimes as a threat: if they didn't comply, the entire foundation of the Old Nine Gates would be exposed. In that era, such exposure would mean total annihilation.

Thus, Zhang Dafoye had no choice but to investigate his own family's information. Through his privileges, he searched many county records and finally found some clues. We don't know the specific process, but he discovered leads in the Four Girls Mountain area of Sichuan, leading to the "largest tomb robbery in history." The Old Nine Gates suffered enormous casualties. Even the survivors were gravely weakened and left the trade.

I recalled the photos I had seen from Second Uncle. The person in the photos was said to have died long ago in folk legend, but it seemed to be a fake death. He had become a foreign national and was working for foreigners, which was unexpected.

"In the subsequent turmoil, the Old Nine Gates all went into hiding. At the same time, many old-timers passed away one after another. You could say it was the end of the golden age of the Changsha tomb raiders. After that, it was calm for a long time, and everyone thought the matter was over. Including Old Mrs. Huo and Old Master Xie, they consciously began to clean up their backgrounds, trying to shake off the shadow of this matter. At the same time, to take care of business, the large families began to intermarry and cooperate based on regional divisions," Xiao Hua said. "But they didn't expect that this matter was far from over. This organization, while approaching the first generation, had already begun infiltrating the second and third generations."

"It seems like around the mid-1970s, when Huo Ling, your Third Uncle, and their generation were less than twenty years old, they had already completed a preliminary survey and selection. I believe your father, your Second Uncle, and your Third Uncle all knew about it. Through money, connections, and various means, It forced the new generation to start operating."

Xiao Hua called this Force A. This Force A did not give up exploring that secret. Moreover, during that time, their goal had shifted from Sichuan to Zhang Family Tower. The relationship between Yangshi Lei and Zhang Family Tower was also discovered.

Force A believed that after Zhang Dafoye's ancestors left Jilin, they likely brought those ancestors' coffins to Guangxi and built an ancient tower in the mountains, hiding the "secret" inside this Zhang Family Tower. So Force A used Huo Ling, Chen Wenjin, and other emerging forces to form an archaeological team to investigate Guangxi.

"That's what we deduced before we met you," Xiao Hua said. "We had always thought that archaeological project dealt Huo Ling a huge blow, making her seem possessed. Perhaps to resolve the knot in her heart, she went to Xisha, and then some huge change happened. No matter how much Old Lady Huo investigated, she couldn't find out. At first, she thought her daughter had died at the bottom of the sea. By the late 1980s, she had given up and accepted it. She was tired of all this and wanted to leave China and emigrate to Canada. But then, suddenly, someone sent her a few videotapes."

I had heard this from Xiuxiu, but I didn't want to expose her, so I kept silent and listened again: "The videotapes had images of Huo Ling. They seemed to be imprisoned somewhere. Old Lady Huo always thought it was a threatening image—that her daughter was being held somewhere, threatening her not to leave the country and to continue searching for that Zhang Family Ancient Tower. You know, for a mother, that's extremely heartbreaking."

"So, the old lady said openly that she wanted to know why her daughter disappeared, but in fact, she was threatened in this way to continue looking for that ancient tower? That's why she offered a high price to buy the Yangshi Lei blueprints?"

"Yes!" Xiao Hua said. "But your appearance upset everything because you brought an earth-shattering piece of news."

Suppose that sending the videotape was Force A. Then it's possible that even Force A itself didn't know that the archaeological team they controlled had actually been replaced.

"What you uncovered about events by the demon lake in Guangxi tells us that within the whole affair there is an even more deeply hidden force—one that only you, so far, have found—Force B."

This Force B is very mysterious, but their method was ruthless. They showed up once and used a very vicious tactic, killing the entire archaeological team, and then substituted their own people for that team. The whole process happened in a remote mountain area, extremely quickly.

Obviously, Force B knew Force A's situation very well, so they prepared early. The replacements were so good that even the people close to them didn't immediately notice anything wrong. And Force A didn't know that their team had been replaced by Force B.

Xiao Hua said, "After hearing this news, Old Mrs. Huo dropped her reservations. You know her character—she must get revenge. One force killed her daughter, and another has been playing her for so many years. Now it's time for her to strike back. So she plans to find that Zhang family building first, get the items inside, and then force the people behind the scenes to show themselves."

"That's a very dangerous thing to do."

"Yes, that's why while we're heading here, the rest of the Huo family has already left the country. This old lady is serious this time," Xiao Hua said. "Sorry, but now you know why she chose you few as helpers—she can't use her own family."

When it came to this, I wasn't particularly scared, because it was all still rather vague. I asked, "So, what do you guess—who is Force B?"

"Force B must be secretly opposed to Force A while cooperating on the surface. Otherwise, why be so secretive? From what you've told me about Xisha, Xisha must have been the ultimate battleground for various powers, which is why it was so complicated. Your Third Uncle might actually have been kept in the dark to some extent," Xiao Hua said. "Only if all the parties involved come clean will you understand what really happened there. But unfortunately, none of them are really around anymore."

I lay down on the ground and thought, well, true. Damned if I know what the situation is. Third Uncle and Xie Lianhuan represented the rogue factions of Jude Kao and the Old Nine Gates respectively. Were the others Force B disguised as Force A? And back then, what side did Poker-face represent? Xiao Hua stood up. "Anyway, the best is yet to come." He looked at the holes in the wall and shone his flashlight around boredly. "Once they get the stuff out, that's when the real fun begins."

I nodded. I was just about to curse some more when I saw Xiao Hua seemed to have found something in one of the holes. He frowned and leaned in to look closely at a hole.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

He frowned and bit his lower lip, then reached his hand into the hole and fiddled with something. A series of clattering sounds came from inside, and another piece of relief sculpture pushed out.

Xiao Hua took out a broken stone and showed it to me. "Damn, this one got stuck?"

I walked over, my heart already pounding. I thought, damn it, what's going on?

"We've opened and closed it too many times. A piece of rock broke off and got stuck in the crack, so this one didn't push out," Xiao Hua said.

Damn. I immediately sucked in a cold breath.

I stepped back to look at the stone wall. Originally there were four buttons, but now there were five. Hell, that meant on the other side, they originally needed to press five buttons, but now they had only pressed four.