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When we rushed over, it was already too late; Panzi had disappeared without a trace. The flashlight couldn’t illuminate the very bottom of the hole, and we had no idea if he was alive or dead. In a moment of impulsiveness, I thought about jumping down, but the fat guy was quicker than me. He grabbed the rope around his foot, pulled out his military knife, and jumped into the hole, disappearing in an instant. I wanted to jump as well, but Huasheng grabbed me, saying the diameter was too small. If you jumped down, there would be no way to fight back from below. If it were useful, the fat guy could save him alone; if it wasn’t, jumping down would just mean death.

I coughed, leaned over to look into the hole, but saw nothing, only hearing the sound of the fat guy continuously sliding down. The rope above was quickly pulled into the hole, making me feel anxious and restless. After a minute, the rope suddenly stopped, and then I felt a tremor from the other end of the rope. Suddenly, the fat guy shouted from deep below, “Pull the rope!”

We quickly tugged on the rope, pulling with all our might. Soon, the fat guy appeared, dragging Panzi, who was still kicking his legs, clearly not having loosened his grip on the corpse fetus. Chen Pi A Si told us to step aside, furrowing his brow. He pulled out a handful of iron pellets and aimed one at Panzi’s ankle, hitting the head of the corpse fetus hard. It let out a sharp scream and finally loosened its grip, but immediately tried to charge up again.

Chen Pi A Si didn’t give it a chance and fired another iron pellet, knocking it over. It flipped and charged again, and with another shot, this time it rolled down. Taking advantage of the moment, we pulled both of them out of the hole, and several of us quickly moved away from the opening. Huasheng swung a shovel, waiting to strike. Sure enough, within a few seconds, the creature lunged back up, and with a loud ‘thud,’ Huasheng slammed it back down. We heard a shriek as it quickly fell into the depths of the stone cave.

The fat guy’s face was pale, and while gasping for breath, he said to Panzi, “Did you see that? It seems your wife likes you a bit more after all.” Panzi looked terrified and waved his hand, saying, “No more talking, we’re even now.” He then asked Huasheng, “What the hell is this hole? Is it the nest of the corpse fetus? If so, I’ll blow it up and let it reincarnate sooner.”

Huasheng waved his hand, “No, the corpse fetus isn’t an animal; where would it have a nest? This hole is indeed strange. When you fell in just now, did you see anything inside?” The fat guy replied, “We didn’t bring a flashlight, so we couldn’t see anything, but I touched several stone slabs. This hole must have been man-made.”

Man-made? Huasheng seemed a bit interested, and I redirected my gaze to the large hole. The entrance looked somewhat like a well and, damn, it had some depth. I thought it was an abandoned pile hole well, but it wasn’t. The diameter of this well was a bit large; such a pile hole well couldn’t be drilled to this extent. The edges of the well had signs of being carved, not like a naturally formed volcanic lava hole. I shone the light down, but the corpse fetus was already gone. It seemed to have fallen inside, and I didn’t know if it had been killed by Huasheng. This thing, while looking terrifying, didn’t seem very powerful.

The walls of the well initially had some stone slabs embedded in them, but later there were none, and they were very uneven, somewhat resembling the inner wall of a human duodenum. A breeze blew in from the well, carrying a hint of dampness. Peering inside for a few meters, it was pitch black. I had no idea where it led.

The fat man looked at it curiously and said, “It’s a bit like a cellar entrance in Northeast China, right? Could it be that when they built this spirit palace, the craftsmen used it to pickle cabbage?”

The monk Hua ignored him and felt the entrance with his hand. “The wind is blowing out from here. This well isn’t solid; it definitely leads somewhere.”

The fat man asked, “Could it be a backdoor to the heavenly palace or the underworld, the secret passage between the three-headed dragon you mentioned?”

I whispered, “The three-headed dragon has already been proven to be fake. Even if it were real, the secret passage should be inside the tomb; how could it open up here?”

The fat man replied, “You don’t understand. This is called misdirection. Haven’t you heard Chairman Mao say that the most dangerous place is the safest place? Maybe this is the strategy of ‘barking dogs’.”

He couldn’t remember Wang Zanghai’s name for a moment, so he casually gave him a nickname, which almost made me laugh. I said with annoyance, “Please show some respect. Wang Zanghai is a master of this school. You should at least call him ‘ancestor’ when you see him. And that saying isn’t from Chairman Mao; it’s from Chu Liuxiang.”

The fat man said, “Stop trying to trace your ancestry. What ancestor? If he acknowledges me, I wouldn’t acknowledge him. Let’s not get into that. What should we do about this hole? Should we go in and take a look? Maybe I’m right; that corpse could be a future threat. If it nests in this hole, it might harm people. We should go down and deal with it.”

Hua shook his head and said it was impossible: “Since the Qunlong Seat is fake, there’s no need to dig through the three mountains. That makes sense; they simply don’t have the manpower or energy to undertake such a massive project. Building a Cloud-top Heavenly Palace would probably be challenging enough. This hole being here likely has significant implications.”

I noticed his eyes were shining with interest, clearly having some ideas, so I encouraged him to share so we could discuss it.

Hua said, “I just have a preliminary idea; you might not believe it when I say it.”

The fat man said, “It’s fine; just say it first. If there are mistakes, the comrades will help you correct them.”

Hua chuckled and nodded, “Okay, then I’ll talk about it. Without discussing anything else, let’s just focus on the fact that this hole opens up beneath this spirit hall, which is quite intriguing. Think about it: opening a hole here must be for the sake of concealment. With the wind blowing out, it indicates that this hole is a passage to somewhere. Furthermore, the traces of the wall show all signs of being excavated in reverse, meaning this hole was opened from the inside, not drilled in from here. Based on these three points and our experience, we can infer that this might be a drainage passage, possibly left as an escape route by the tomb builders. If the ancient tomb were sealed, they could escape from here.”

I asked in surprise, “A drainage passage? No way! So, does that mean there’s still an underground palace below? Although this isn’t the three-headed dragon, could there still be a burial tomb built here?”

The monk Hua shook his head and said, “The likelihood is low. We didn’t find the entrance to the underground palace beneath the tombstone. If there were an entrance, it would definitely be there; without an entrance, there can be no underground palace. This is an unchanging truth. Building the entrance outside the feng shui position would be very unfavorable for the master.”

The fat man said, “That person who barks like a dog may be eccentric in his actions; perhaps he built the entrance somewhere else.”

Hua monk waved his hand, “Don’t overthink it. Wang Canghai is still limited by the era he lived in. If he doesn’t even follow the burial scriptures and acts recklessly, we would die a thousand times over and still not be enough.”

I also thought that if he didn’t follow the burial scriptures, then there would be no need to consider feng shui. It would be like Genghis Khan, casually digging a pit to bury someone, and after countless horses trample over it, no one would find it even now. I asked him, “Then since there’s no underground palace below, what do you think this passage leads to?”

Hua monk said, “Using the process of elimination, first, if this passage is built beneath this false accompanying tomb, it must be related to the craftsmen of the Yunding Tiangong; second, what nearby place could possibly have such a passage? Undoubtedly, it can only be the underground palace of Yunding Tiangong! So my conclusion is—this passage is most likely dug all the way from the underground palace beneath the Three Saints Mountain.”

I immediately exclaimed, “How is that possible? That’s too far! If they really wanted to dig a passage for an escape route, they wouldn’t need to dig it all the way here; they could have directly dug it to the top of the Three Saints Mountain. That would save a lot of effort! Moreover, digging such a long passage in the mountains would take how much time? At least twenty to thirty years, right? Is such a project even doable by humans?”

Hua monk explained, “A grand project like Yunding Tiangong would definitely take sixty to seventy years, or even several generations, to build in ancient times. I think the craftsmen inside, knowing they would ultimately die, might secretly dig a passage; it’s not impossible. As for why they would open the exit of the tunnel on such a distant mountain, they must have their own unavoidable reasons. Let’s go down and take a look; we will surely find out.”

Ye Cheng, who had been listening, asked, “Monk, do you have any confidence in your idea?”

Hua monk paused for a moment and said, “To be honest, I can’t say for sure, but I think it’s worth trying. It’s better than going out and making another trip. All signs indicate that this is a passage. If I’m wrong and it leads to somewhere else, entering isn’t a bad thing either. We’ve encountered such passages before, and there shouldn’t be any danger; no one would set traps on their escape route.”

I pondered over it; Hua monk’s reasoning was indeed very compelling. First, the discussions about feng shui here were too chaotic, and I had lost track of what Chen Pi, A Si, and the others were saying about whether the feng shui here was good or bad; I wasn’t interested anymore. Second, I had no idea how A Ning and the others were progressing on the other side. We had already wasted a lot of time, and we still didn’t know the purpose of Uncle Three’s arrangement for this ‘descent.’ If this back and forth resulted in a total loss, I would really feel sorry for him.

Another consideration is that Shunzi probably knows what we are doing by now. He is silently standing aside without saying a word, but this person is not foolish. I have been watching him, and his hand has never moved more than two feet away from his knife, which indicates that he is already on guard against us. Once he returns to the village, who knows what he might do? He could very well sell us out immediately. Chen Pi A Si must have considered this. If we have to go back to the mountain, the first thing we must do before entering the village is definitely to kill him to silence him or to buy him off with a large sum of money. At that point, finding a guide might not be guaranteed. If you go to the snow mountain once and return without the guide, who else would be willing to take us back in? Moreover, there probably aren’t many people in the village who can lead others up the snow mountain.

A few people discussed it, weighing the pros and cons, but opinions were not unified. Ye Cheng was firmly against going down because of the corpse fetus, and Panzi also found it eerie. The fat guy and I thought it was worth a try. The monk Hua went to consult Chen Pi A Si, suggesting, “Old man, should we make a move?”

Chen Pi A Si had been sitting there with his eyes closed, listening to us talk. Hua asked several times, but for some reason, he showed no reaction at all, as if he were asleep.

The fat guy couldn’t hold back any longer and went to pat him, saying, “Old man, say something, don’t just act cool here.” After a shove, Chen Pi A Si swayed slightly but still didn’t open his eyes.

Seeing this, Hua’s expression changed. He rushed over and grabbed the old man’s hand, and his face suddenly turned pale. The fat guy also ran over and felt the old man’s neck, and immediately changed color, exclaiming, “Damn it, he’s dead!”

Everyone was stunned, “What? Dead? How could that be? Wasn’t he fine just a few minutes ago?”

But seeing the fat guy’s expression, the sweat on Hua’s forehead, and the unresponsive Chen Pi A Si, we all realized something was wrong and quickly gathered around.

The old man sat there with his eyes closed, completely still, like an ice sculpture. I touched Chen Pi A Si’s wrist but couldn’t find a pulse anywhere; his skin felt dry and rough, and alarmingly cold. It seemed that the flesh inside had stiffened.

Could it really be that he was dead? I was horrified at the thought. While we were there examining that pit, Chen Pi A Si had been sitting here, his heart gradually stopping?

Although this aligns with the way people die from hypothermia, hypothermia requires at least twenty minutes in low temperatures before one truly dies. We had only been sitting for less than five minutes; how could he suddenly die? This didn’t make sense.

I still held a glimmer of hope; the fat guy was not reliable when he spoke. He had only touched Chen Pi A Si’s neck, and his judgment of death seemed too hasty. It was possible that he had just fainted; after all, how could a ninety-year-old man withstand running too fast?

However, Hua frowned, pried open the old man’s eyes, and shone a flashlight in. His face grew increasingly grim, and finally, he turned to look at Ye Cheng and shook his head.

Hua had some medical knowledge, and seeing him shake his head made us all gasp, knowing it was serious—he was really dead.

Panzi quietly asked, “What happened? How did he die?”

Hua He-shang sighed. Whether he didn’t want to speak or simply didn’t know what to say, he suddenly slumped down on the ground with a gloomy face. The fat man tugged at Panzi and said, “At this age, dying is just fine.”

I couldn’t help but sigh as well; indeed, for a man in his nineties, coming here was quite a strain. It was not surprising that such an incident occurred, and it could be considered an accident. Chen Pi A Si probably never imagined he would die like this. It could be seen as his retribution.

My grandfather also passed away suddenly like that. I was eating at the time; one minute he was asking me to fetch him some wine, and the next minute he was gone. My father said that many tomb raiders suffer heart damage due to exposure to tomb gas in their early years, which is why most of them die like that when they grow old. Well, at least it’s a comfortable way to die.

We were all a bit at a loss. On one hand, Chen Pi A Si was their leader, and now that he was dead, it didn’t make sense for Ye Cheng and Hua He-shang to stay here. On the other hand, we had benefited greatly by reaching this place smoothly, but with Chen Pi A Si dead and the “Dull Oil Bottle” not around, relying on just the fat man and Panzi to lead us would probably be quite difficult.

Just as I was quickly pondering this, Chen Pi A Si suddenly trembled. I was startled, thinking it was a reflexive corpse movement, but then with a “pop,” he tightly grasped my neck. At the same time, he sat up abruptly, his eyes wide open.

We all jumped in shock; Ye Cheng slipped and fell down five or six meters, while the fat man and Panzi hurriedly retreated. The fat man shouted, “It’s a zombie!”

I quickly tried to pry his hand off, but I didn’t expect the old man’s withered, branch-like hand to have such great strength; it was like a tiger’s claw, and I couldn’t move at all. I hurriedly coughed and shouted, “Get… the hoofs, hurry!”

Before I could finish my sentence, Chen Pi A Si suddenly released my neck, pushed me away, and scolded, “What nonsense are you talking about?”

My mind was already in a haze, and I quickly retreated behind the fat man, but I got stuck and couldn’t get past him. At that moment, it suddenly occurred to me: wait, can a zombie still talk? Looking at Chen Pi A Si again, it was clear that his spirit had returned, and his breathing had stabilized.

We exchanged puzzled glances at Chen Pi A Si, unsure of what had just happened. The fat man stared at him, clearly confused. However, Chen Pi A Si seemed to have returned to normal, showing no signs that his pulse had stopped just moments before. It was as if what we had just witnessed was an illusion.

Hua He-shang was stunned for a moment before reacting, asking, “Old man, are you alright? What just happened?”

Chen Pi A Si seemed completely unaware that he had died once; he looked at him with a puzzled expression, lit a cigarette, and said, “What?”

Hua He-shang looked at Chen Pi A Si’s expression, feeling a bit dizzy and unsure of what to say.

Chen Pi A Si coldly glanced at him and said, “Don’t worry, I’m not that easy to kill.”

Looking at Chen Pi A Si’s demeanor and tone, he seemed no different from before, as if he hadn’t borrowed a corpse for a resurrection. I suddenly wondered if he had just played a trick on us. But why would he want to pull such a stunt at his age?

Chen Pi A Si suddenly “revived,” catching everyone off guard. However, looking at his condition, we couldn’t just pin him down and dissect him to see what was going on. I gradually started to doubt whether the monk Hua and the fat guy had made a mistake earlier; after all, it’s quite difficult to feel the pulse of elderly people, and the two barefoot doctors might not have even checked the right spot. Moreover, Chen Pi A Si was indeed quite old, and it was normal for him to be momentarily dazed.

Everyone had a puzzled expression, but no one could express it. Although the monk Hua found it strange, once he saw that Chen Pi A Si was fine, he felt relieved. He then reiterated what we had discussed earlier. After pondering for a moment while looking at the ice cave, Chen Pi A Si said, “There’s some truth to that; it seems worth a try.”