Chapter 510: Summary

The story should now be completely over. I am clear in my mind about all the mysteries I could know, and I have let go of everything I cannot know. However, it is still worth bringing up some things to organize, which will benefit the completeness of the entire story.

By now I can basically confirm that the Zhang family members indeed originated from east of the Pass, living in areas inhabited by ethnic minorities outside the Pass—of course, at that time, it wasn't exactly a minority. It is generally known that after the Mongols entered the Central Plains, during the Yuan Dynasty in China, the Zhang family was least active. They almost entirely went into hiding, only reemerging to act during the Ming Dynasty.

Within the Zhang family, there were extremely strict clan rules. The name Zhang Qiling could not be used by just anyone; it could only be given to the successor chosen as the clan leader.

That was why the Zhang Qiling Project existed back then—they wanted to use this method to find the current clan leader of the Zhang family.

Moreover, I speculate that the strange blood of the Zhang family was not possessed by all Zhang family members. It should have been a recessive genetic trait, almost like a disease. Among the Zhang clan, only a minority had this strange blood, and those with the strongest blood effect could become the clan leader. The clan leader's wife also had to be a woman from the same clan with the same blood, ensuring that this ability could be passed on. This was the so-called intrafamilial marriage, but it also led to the long-term inheritance of another genetic disorder: amnesia.

From the middle of the Republic of China period onward, no one ever entered the ancient building again, indicating that the Zhang family began to decline rapidly then. The reason was that they encountered the end of Chinese feudal society. Several revolutions were complete ideological revolutions. No matter how much wealth and power the Zhang family had, under the impact of these new trends of thought, they began to disintegrate from within.

It was at this time that the small branch headed by Zhang Dafoye broke away from the Zhang family's control. At that time, it should have been Zhang Dafoye's father's generation. When they left, they did not take any family information with them. They still operated in the Northeast but abandoned all previous ancestral teachings of the Zhang family, began extensive trade, and gradually became merchants. Later, when the Japanese invaded the Northeast, the older generation of Zhang Dafoye's family died almost entirely in local resistance against Japan. As a result, Zhang Dafoye led his clan to flee to Changsha. It should also have been because the main base of grave robbing inside the Pass was in Changsha that Zhang Dafoye went there.

After arriving in Changsha, Zhang Dafoye rapidly expanded his influence, actively resisting Japan on one hand and developing relationships with local heroes on the other. This was the most chaotic and legendary period in Chinese history, with heroes and outstanding figures emerging in large numbers. Gradually, the Old Nine Gates formed. Among them, the three upper gates slowly gravitated toward the military sphere due to Zhang Dafoye's anti-Japanese connections. After the victory in the Anti-Japanese War, Zhang Dafoye was coerced by "It" to uncover the secret of the Zhang family's longevity.

Although Zhang Dafoye knew nothing about his main branch of the Zhang family, there were always some impressions in his father's generation's memories. Coupled with some records scattered in Zhang family books, he learned that all the secrets of his ancestors lay within the Zhang Family Ancient Building—the clan's collective burial tomb.

He needed to find the Zhang Family Ancient Building.

First, he initiated the Zhang Qiling Project to search for the Zhang clan leader, who had completely disappeared in the chaos of war.

A large number of people with the same name as Zhang Qiling were found, but the real one was never located. At that time, the entire Old Nine Gates were under Zhang Dafoye's surveillance—partly for protection, partly for monitoring. Finally, in the 1960s, they found Zhang Qiling. Under his leadership, the Old Nine Gates conducted the largest joint grave-robbing operation in history, but the losses were severe.

That operation led to two consequences.

First, Zhang Qiling's authority was greatly questioned. The Nine Gates split into two factions. One faction, saved by Zhang Qiling—the smartest among the Old Nine Gates, like Old Mrs. Huo—strongly supported Zhang Qiling, worshipping him like a god. This made Zhang Dafoye's family's control very awkward. The other faction placed all the blame for the operation's failure on Zhang Qiling.

My grandfather developed a strong desire to withdraw. He no longer wanted to see people die for meaningless purposes, to see these former heroes die in vain following Zhang Dafoye. So he consistently sided with Zhang Qiling. Zhang Qiling was severely injured during that operation and lost all memory when he woke up.

My grandfather made arrangements for his three sons. He knew that the next generation would inevitably be caught up, but the wise grandfather saw an opportunity in the development of events. He hoped that in my generation, he could completely lead the Wu family out of this vicious cycle. Thus, he designed separate life paths for my father, my second uncle, and my third uncle.

Grandfather's design was very clever, entirely based on the different personalities of the three brothers. He chose my second uncle, the most calculating, as his successor, and hoped that my father and my most uncontrollable third uncle would completely break free from the organization's control.

However, what he least expected was that his third uncle's rebelliousness was beyond his control. Third uncle not only became the best among the three brothers at grave robbing and the most rough-and-tumble, but also became one of the most promising talents in the "It" organization.

As a result, my second uncle became a dispensable role instead.

In the second generation of the Old Nine Gates, the representative of the Wu family became Wu Sansheng. At the time, Third Uncle did not know that this was not an honor. Of course, the "It" organization also did not know that Third Uncle was not someone to be trifled with.

Meanwhile, the other families all had their own plans. The Huo family, due to their marriage ties with the higher-ups, had been maneuvering and balancing on behalf of Zhang Qiling.

As for the Xie family, Xie Jiuye was truly the one who saw through the entire game most clearly. He knew that avoidance like my grandfather's or maneuvering like Fairy Zhai's could not solve the problem at all.

After understanding this, Xie Jiuye began to set in motion a very, very ruthless chess game. He found his son and placed the first piece.

The counterattack of the Old Nine Gates began with Xie Jiuye's cunning scheme.

The follow-up archaeological work on the Zhang Family Ancient Building marked the first gathering of the second generation of the Old Nine Gates. They did not know how dangerous this expedition was. Except for a few core members, the others did not realize that this operation at the time was not actually an archaeological dig but a funeral procession. The archaeological research on the Zhang Family Ancient Building had already been completed in 1970, thanks to the vast amount of data obtained from the largest archaeological operation in history back then (most of this data was the result of Jin Wantang, known as Big Gold Tooth).

This was a force that had never appeared before. Led by the then-influential Zhang Dafoye family, this team completed all the archaeological surveys. But after entering the Zhang Family Ancient Building, the entire team was wiped out.

For this reason, the "It" organization deployed the now-clearly-visible second generation. This team was sabotaged by Pan Ma, and only a few people who were underground at the time survived. But when they returned to the surface, Xie Jiuye's team had already taken over everything.

This team did not carry out any of their tasks. They burned the coffin that was to be buried, sealed the corpse with molten iron, destroyed all the data, and began to flee with the corpse. Afterwards, the betrayed "It" organization discovered this and started hunting them all over the country.

When they fled to Hangzhou, they encountered the most extensive pursuit. Forced into a corner, they had to seek help from my grandfather. At that time, my third uncle was exploring a hidden imperial tomb beneath Hangzhou under the guise of building a shop. My grandfather used a clever decoy tactic and hid the corpse inside the imperial tomb. Meanwhile, Xie Jiuye's people scattered and infiltrated the "It" organization, systematically destroying relevant data, killing or replacing key personnel. It was around then that Old Mrs. Huo noticed something off about her daughter.

At the same time, another goal of Xie Jiuye's was to rescue Zhang Qiling. At that time, only the sanatorium in Golmud was untouchable by anyone; all core data and personnel were inside.

The research continued. The fake archaeological team received orders for an archaeological expedition in the Xisha Islands and set out. While the team was organizing equipment in Xisha, the real Huo Ling and Wenjin used fake orders to dispatch the fake Huo Ling and fake Wenjin to the Changbai Mountains, while they themselves infiltrated the fake archaeological team. To gain assistance, Wenjin contacted Third Uncle. Meanwhile, Xie Jiuye's insider finally succeeded in getting Zhang Qiling out of the sanatorium at that time.

During this period, Xie Lianhuan contacted Jude Kao to gain greater support. Jude Kao's internal connections helped Xie Lianhuan obtain first-hand information about the Xisha underwater tomb.

This was the first time Third Uncle had been involved in this matter. By then, Xie Jiuye had already passed away. Xie Lianhuan sensed that something was wrong within the team, but he couldn't immediately realize that the swapped personnel had been swapped back again. The subtlety of this matter was very puzzling. Unlike Xie Jiuye, Xie Lianhuan was not as ruthless; he could not sacrifice everything for the ultimate goal. He was very puzzled by Wu Sansheng's appearance, so he also sneaked into the team.

At that time, Xie Lianhuan's plan, following Xie Jiuye's train of thought, was to find someone to replace Wu Sansheng. So he had prepared a boat ahead of time, following the archaeological team's boat from a distance. On board was a person he had prepared to replace Wu Sansheng—someone Xie Jiuye had probably prepared long ago.

Wu Sansheng was completely uncontrollable. Then the events Third Uncle had previously narrated occurred. The story about Xie Lianhuan and Third Uncle in the underwater tomb was fabricated by Third Uncle, because that was the first time they had been alone together in a situation where no one could possibly be monitoring them.

They had a fierce conflict inside the tomb. At that time, Third Uncle was at the peak of his abilities—his skills, alertness, boldness, and brutality compensated for his condition. The person in the darkness was killed the moment he attacked Third Uncle.

It should have been under Third Uncle's interrogation, or driven by some opportunity, that Xie Lianhuan revealed the entire plan. So, inside the burial chamber of the underwater tomb, the two conspired together. Xie Jiuye had already made the whole organization quite dysfunctional, and Third Uncle's participation changed the plan that Xie Lianhuan had inherited from Xie Jiuye.

Third Uncle's decisiveness and boldness exactly made up for Xie Lianhuan's shortcomings, and combined with his own caution, they began a rapid, even more audacious plan to completely destroy the "It" organization.

The core of this was that they had to find the sanatorium. So Xie Lianhuan put on Third Uncle's mask and performed a duet. In the underwater tomb, Third Uncle used ghostly incense to knock everyone out, then used the Xie family's boat to transport them to shore and return them to the "It" organization.

This ghostly incense was extremely unusual, causing a very long period of mental confusion. Xie Lianhuan pretended to be the first to wake up, fabricated a story, and had them transported to the sanatorium. After that, Xie Lianhuan and Third Uncle worked together in a coordinated strategy, cutting off the connection between the sanatorium and the "It" organization.

At the same time, another team that had been tricked into going to Changbai Mountain, as expected, ran into trouble at Cloud Summit Palace. The dried corpses we saw in the time loop were the bodies of these people. Based on the number of corpses and combined with Shunzi's account, not everyone who went in that year perished. I think those who could impersonate Wenjin and Huo Ling must have had some skills, and I wonder if the two of them were the ones who escaped.

But the situation changed here. At this point, all the teams had split into three groups: one was Chen Wenjin and her people after they escaped, one was Third Uncle and Xie Lianhuan, and one was Poker-face.

The real Third Uncle had been searching for Chen Wenjin's group all along. In the process of escaping the sanatorium, Chen Wenjin and her people discovered they couldn't trust anyone anymore. Clearly, Xie Lianhuan and Wu Sansheng were untrustworthy—they would sacrifice them to achieve their goals—and the "It" organization was even more untrustworthy. To evade pursuit and seek the truth, they began the Golmud expedition, established the videotape mechanism, and started warning the third generation.

Thinking about this, I felt a wave of warmth. In the entire situation, everyone was utilitarian and bloodthirsty. Only the team led by these two women, when facing such immense hardship, still thought about protection and exploration.

Meanwhile, Third Uncle and Xie Lianhuan had been holed up in Hangzhou, searching everywhere for traces of the others. I believe Third Uncle's persistence was indeed due to his feelings for Chen Wenjin, but undeniably, it was also possible that Xie Lianhuan wanted to eliminate them to prevent future trouble. That was also why Wenjin warned me when we met that Third Uncle was a fake.

At this point, the secret hunt for Xie Lianhuan had reached an unprecedented level of tension. Xie Lianhuan eventually came to Hangzhou, hiding under Third Uncle's shop, guarding that coffin, waiting for the appointed date. After that, the Third Uncle I saw was actually two people, but because I never imagined that such a perfect technique as human-skin masks existed in the world, and since these two were indeed very similar in many respects, it was truly hard to distinguish them.

During this time, I felt that Third Uncle was appearing and disappearing mysteriously, which was actually because there were two Third Uncles. Both were very familiar with everything, only differing slightly in personality. They were doing things simultaneously, each with their own methods and clues, and all the clues interwoven made the situation complex and bizarre.

I couldn't tell when I was facing Wu Sansheng and when I was facing Xie Lianhuan, but I clearly remembered that more than once I felt Third Uncle's personality had changed. But it didn't matter; they were like twins, continuously striving for the same goal.

On the other side, by this time Wenjin and Huo Ling, with their people, had concluded their investigation of Golmud. Their bodies had undergone many changes due to accidentally ingesting the elixir. Huo Ling's changes were especially rapid; she had begun to lose her wits and memory. They used the abandoned sanatorium as a resting place to monitor Huo Ling.

As for Poker-face, he had his own purpose and returned to the Zhang Family Ancient Building. Unfortunately, the hereditary amnesia of the Zhang family that he was born with struck him. Later, he was used as bait, thrown into an ancient tomb to lure out corpses, rescued by Chenpi A'si, and re-entered everyone's sight. But by then, the "It" organization was nothing like it had been in the past; it had become vague and indistinct, lacking that much control.

At the time, Third Uncle and Xie Lianhuan found the matter very clear. They retrieved a trophy from the Zhang Family Ancient Building—the black-gold ancient knife—from the tomb beneath Third Uncle's shop and used it to test Poker-face. At the same time, Jude Kao began to fully intervene in the matter, unwilling to remain merely an investor and someone who was deceived. That was why Jin Wantang, who had obtained various materials from Jude Kao, came to my shop looking for me.

After seeing the Warring States silk manuscript at that time, Third Uncle realized that Jude Kao had become a major threat and needed to be controlled. So he organized the first expedition to the Lu King's Palace, never expecting that things would spiral out of control from there.

(End of "Grand Finale, Part 2")