Chapter 81: An Earth-Shattering Secret

Soon, several beams of flashlight illuminated the surroundings—it was Old Ghost and Gu Sanniang’s people. Black Sunglasses was right by my side, still wearing an expression of indifference. I switched on my flashlight, grabbed him by the collar, and demanded, “Where did you go just now?”

He brushed my hand away, took the flashlight from me, and switched it off again. In a low voice, he said, “It’s a long story. Don’t suspect me. All you need to know is that I mean you no harm.” He paused, then added, “Now is not the time to talk.”

I followed his gaze and saw the other beams of light from across the way. Suppressing my doubts for the moment, I realized that the real danger was only just beginning. Besides, Old Ghost and his crew had no time for us right now; they were busy scanning the area with their flashlights. I looked around as their lights swept by, and what I saw made my heart leap into my throat.

We were standing on a sheer cliff. Not far ahead of us yawned an underground precipice, so deep that its bottom was lost in darkness and so wide that it seemed impassable. In the center of this chasm, there appeared to be a path of some kind—whether a bridge or something else, I couldn’t tell. At the far end of this path, on the opposite side of the abyss, something loomed in the darkness, its shape indistinct.

Glancing back, I saw that the entrance we’d come through was now blocked by rubble, cutting off any retreat—there was no going back, nor could anyone come in. For the moment, though, escape was the least of our concerns.

Old Ghost’s group was not far away, but Black Sunglasses and I were half-hidden behind a massive stone pillar. The darkness and their preoccupation meant they weren’t likely to notice us for now. The wind here was fierce, and I had the odd sensation that it was rising from deep within the chasm below—a strange phenomenon, as wind rarely blows upward. Within its howl was a sound difficult to describe, a chill that brought to mind the phrase “phantom wind.”

I crouched down and whispered, “You need to tell me what’s going on. Otherwise, I can’t trust you—and if I can’t trust you, there’s no way we can keep working together.”

He was silent for a moment, glancing toward Old Ghost’s group, then replied softly, “It’s a long story…”

“Then make it short,” I pressed.

He looked somewhat resigned. “You’re always in such a hurry. You know what they say—haste makes waste, right?”

He must have noticed my impatience, for he finally began to explain. According to him, after we entered the pitch-black passage, he noticed something odd about me. He spoke to me, but I didn’t respond. When he reached out to touch me, I suddenly bolted off at incredible speed, leaving him behind. When he stopped, I was gone.

At first, he thought I’d fallen under some spell. Like me, he tried to retrace his steps, but unlike my experience, he found himself in a place he’d never seen before. He glossed over what happened next, saying only that he wandered about until he finally arrived at the place where we met Old Ghost and Gu Sanniang, when they were working on the code. He’d hidden himself and saw me there, rescuing me at a critical moment.

I was skeptical. Frankly, the “me” he described was certainly not me—I remembered everything clearly and was sure I hadn’t been bewitched. That left another possibility: that Black Sunglasses himself had been affected. Then again, perhaps there was a third possibility: he’d snuck off for his own reasons and was now spinning a story to cover his tracks. But for the time being, I chose not to dwell on it. As long as he wasn’t acting against me, I’d trust him—for now, he was the only one I could even remotely count on.

After surveying the area, Black Sunglasses whispered again, “This should be the real tomb of King Loufan.”

I was puzzled. “You mean this is the burial chamber? But who builds a tomb like this? And where’s the coffin?”

He scoffed, “Come on, be a bit more professional. You should say ‘sarcophagus’—that way you sound like you know what you’re talking about.” Pointing across the chasm, he continued, “See over there? That’s probably where King Loufan rests. But getting there won’t be easy. Everything here is set up so strangely, and with all the bizarre things we’ve experienced, how could we expect to uncover the secrets of King Loufan so easily?”

I asked him what the secret was, what Old Ghost and his crew were really after. There seemed to be a massive puzzle at the heart of this place. Black Sunglasses hesitated, then replied, “Honestly, there are things you shouldn’t know. Too much knowledge could be dangerous. But I can see you’re determined to find out, and if I don’t tell you, you’ll only dig deeper yourself. Truth is, I don’t know much—just a sliver. But even that will shock you.”

Then, as Old Ghost and the others continued their search and had yet to notice us, Black Sunglasses leaned in and told me: Old Ghost and Gu Sanniang both belong to ancient tomb-raiding families in China, or rather, to a secretive sect that has always operated in the shadows, never gaining any recognition in history. Their world is ruled by countless rules and taboos. During the Republic era, their trade caused a great upheaval.

At that time, a grave robber stumbled across an astonishing secret while looting an ancient tomb. He found records of the ancient Li Kingdom—a minor state, barely a ripple in the long river of history. From its founding to its demise, it had passed almost unnoticed by the world.