Chen Pi Ah Si felt increasingly alarmed as he thought about it, but the person was already nearly fifty or sixty years old at that time, and his experience and courage were naturally beyond my comparison. After feeling scared, he steadied his mind and thought to himself, “What are you staring at, you damn donkey?” He swiftly pulled out a few iron pellets, braced himself with his feet, and fired two shots directly at the white-faced Luohan statue that was facing the sky.

As mentioned earlier, Chen Pi Ah Si’s philosophy of life was to strike first. This is a lesson my grandfather had told me more than once; it’s the simplest yet most practical principle for those who roam the rivers and lakes. The two iron pellets were fired without holding back, producing two dull thuds as they struck the Luohan statue’s eyes, causing both eye sockets of the statue to crack open. The iron pellets flew out and fell to the bottom of the Mirror Palace.

If it were a person, they would have been seriously blinded, which shows how ruthless this action was. Although the Luohan statue was made of clay, it couldn’t withstand such a blow. At this moment, the eyes of the statue turned into two deep pits, looking very hollow and strange, but compared to the feeling just before, it was already much better.

Chen Pi Ah Si let out a breath, feeling a cold sneer in his heart, thinking to himself, “These damn monks, talking about the four emptiness, yet they are still here using tricks to scare people?” He then took out a gecko’s claw from his pocket, one end hooked onto the curved wooden ceiling, while the other was tied to his ankle with a single strand of walrus skin rope. When he released it, the elastic walrus skin rope stretched downward. Using walrus skin rope was a conclusion drawn from Chen Pi Ah Si’s years of tomb raiding experience; its strength was second only to steel rope, but it could stretch. Plus, with Chen Pi Ah Si’s short and slender build, wrapping it around his waist for just a dozen turns made it invisible under his clothes, allowing him to deal with depths of about ten meters.

However, the “Mirror Palace” was over ten meters deep, and Chen Pi Ah Si let the rope down to its limit, but there was still a long way to the bottom of the palace.

From this perspective, he could already see the outline of things below. The base of the palace at the bottom seemed to be made of white marble, and due to years of earthquakes and natural erosion, there were many unknown fragments scattered about. In the center of the palace’s base stood a miniature white pagoda, which was either jade or ivory, covered with a semi-transparent gauze “treasure canopy,” making it appear hazy.

Throughout his life, Chen Pi Ah Si had limited knowledge of Buddhist pagodas, which was also related to the illiteracy of the generation before the liberation. There is an old saying among the local scholars in Changsha: “Ten thousand noble houses cannot compare to a pagoda.” This means that the treasures found in a pagoda’s underground chamber are often more luxurious than those in the tombs of ten thousand noble houses. Although Chen Pi Ah Si had heard this saying, he didn’t fully grasp its meaning. If it were me, I would have already known what was beneath at that moment.

Beneath the miniature pagoda should be the eight-layered treasure box for holding Buddha’s bones or relics, which consists of eight nested boxes. This item is specifically used in Buddhism, and with the relics inside, it represents the three thousand worlds and the six paths of reincarnation. Regardless of whether the bones pressed below were real Buddha bones or jade-like shadow bones, that eight-layered treasure box alone was something whose value was beyond calculation.

Hearing this, I felt a bit confused. If Chen Pi Ah Si really stole the Eight Treasures Box from the underground palace, then how could these things appear in the newspaper? Did he abandon the treasure when it was within his grasp for some reason? Given his character, that seems highly unlikely.

Old Hai didn’t notice that I was lost in thought and continued to speak passionately. However, his narration was rather verbose, and I couldn’t interject, so I had to listen as he continued to ramble on.

After seeing the pagoda, although Chen Pi Ah Si didn’t yet know what was below, he was certain it wouldn’t be anything bad. Now, if he could just get down there, he would naturally be able to return with a full load, but how could he get down?

Unfortunately, he hadn’t brought enough ropes. Had he known this would happen, he would have turned back earlier and prepared properly before returning, avoiding this difficult situation.

He shone his flashlight to the side, hoping to swing over to the edge of the underground palace and then climb down along the statues of the Arhats. He carefully examined the height with his flashlight, estimating how far down it went. Suddenly, around the pagoda, he saw some strange things that looked like a pile of yellow earth scattered on the white jade floor of the underground palace. He couldn’t tell if it was accidentally dropped when sealing the palace or if it was from when he had just pried open the top with a line.

Upon closer inspection, he felt a sudden jolt in his heart and couldn’t help but curse under his breath.

It turned out that what was at the bottom of the palace wasn’t yellow earth, but a large mound of earth that was clearly a hornet’s nest. Following the direction of the mound, he could see a half-person-high stone door at the edge of the underground palace, which was very well concealed; the mound had “grown” in from there.

It seemed that there were additional underground structures surrounding this “Mirror Palace,” and it was very likely that they hadn’t been completely sealed off, resulting in these insects treating it as a summer resort with warm winters and cool summers. From this vantage point, the scale of the nest didn’t appear too large, but the part inside the low door was likely very terrifying. No wonder this hornet’s nest was so huge; in an underground man-made structure, it was sheltered from the elements, truly a “good location”—even the old insects would be aware of feng shui.

The piece of curved wood that he had just sawed off was stuck between several Arhat statues in the lower layer, and if it had fallen onto the nest, he would have been hanging here like a sausage, unable to escape quickly, and if the hornets stung him to death, it would surely leave a thousand-year joke for future generations.

However, this created a problem. Once his feet touched the ground, even if he moved like smoke, it would be impossible to move such a small tower in such a confined space without disturbing these ground hornets.

Chen Pi Ah Si realized that it was impossible to go down; the only way to get the things up was through one method.

At this point, it’s necessary to mention the background of Chen Pi Ah Si. He grew up in a fishing village along the coast of Zhejiang. He fled to Changsha when the Japanese invaded, so his Changsha dialect was not very “authentic.” However, he was exceptionally clever; historically, local craftsmen rarely passed on their skills to outsiders, making him a rare case.

When Chen Pi Ah Si was in Haiyan, he had already developed a unique skill, which was catching crabs on the tidal flats. Of course, he didn’t catch them by hand; he used a tool called the “Nine-Claw Hook” to catch crabs.

This thing is similar to the flying tiger claws from martial arts films, or the three-pronged claws used by special forces for rock climbing. However, this claw has nine hooks arranged in a dense circular formation. When catching crabs, you tie a rope to the tail of the hooks, and when you see a crab pop up on the mudflat, you fling it out, and one hook catches one crab. Then, with a tug, the crab flies back and falls into the basket.

According to my grandfather’s notes, this technique is so precise that from twenty meters away, you can hook a raw egg with a flick of your hand without breaking it—it’s simply a divine skill. If it’s farther away, you have to use a stick to fling it, but it’s still very accurate.

At this moment, Chen Pi Ah Si was at a loss and had no other choice but to grit his teeth and use his signature skill. He first swung to one side and climbed down layer by layer along the Arhat statue. When he was close enough, he took out the nine-claw hook, took a deep breath, and with a very small arc, the claws snagged onto the treasure canopy. Fortunately, this thing wasn’t made of the common blue stone; it was quite light. Chen Pi Ah Si lifted it and tossed it onto the head of the nearby Arhat statue. With a change of force in his hand, the hook came loose and returned to him.

Next, he needed to remove the jade or the pagoda, but no matter what material it was, he couldn’t lift it with the nine-claw hook. Chen Pi Ah Si flung out the nine-claw hook and snagged the miniature pagoda spire, but after tugging a few times, it didn’t budge.

It weighed at least five hundred pounds, if not half a ton, Chen Pi Ah Si cursed inwardly.

He swept his flashlight over the tower and saw four petite columns at the base. This tower must have been constructed in proportion to the one that collapsed on top, so the structure should be similar. These four columns supported all the weight of the tower, and the treasure box was right in the middle of the columns. However, the angle was off; otherwise, he should have been able to hook it up if he focused carefully.

At this point, Chen Pi Ah Si was feeling a bit anxious. He estimated that he had been down for about four hours. He had vaguely heard a few whistle signals earlier, and it was possible that the Miao people were already nearby. He didn’t have time to hesitate or think of a solution.

He pressed down on his anxiety, his mind heated, and a malicious thought arose. He flicked his wrist and shot out two iron pellets. The pellets struck the small columns at the base of the tower, shattering them. Then he leaped, landing on one side of the tower, and with a burst of strength, he used his momentum to tilt the tower to one side. The other two columns, already under uneven pressure, broke instantly, causing the tower to sink, and the tower body cracked apart from the base.

Chen Pi Ah Si crouched on the tower, controlling the force as the tower tilted slowly under its own weight. When he saw the corner of the treasure box appear beneath the tower, he flicked the nine-claw hook and snagged it from under the tower. Then he reeled in the hook and flung it out again, hooking onto the side of the Arhat statue, stabilizing himself like pulling on a rope.

This entire series of actions took only three seconds, but he didn’t expect that the Arhat statue wouldn’t be able to support the weight of the tower and himself. With one pull, the Arhat statue first wobbled and then actually fell off the wall.

The area below was almost like a beehive; if he fell down like this, it would be like dropping directly into the beehive, which would mean certain death.

In a flash, Chen Pi A Si exerted all his strength to pull the Luohan statue towards himself, while tossing the Ba Chong Bao Han into the air. In this lightning-fast exchange, he caught the Luohan statue securely in his hands, but inevitably, the top of the pagoda crashed heavily against the wall of the underground palace, causing more Luohan statues to be knocked down from the tilted pagoda.

This time, Chen Pi A Si found himself at a loss. He watched helplessly as a row of Luohan statues fell into the yellow jacket nest, kicking up a cloud of dust, and the nest was nearly crushed and cracked open.

In the chaos, he had no choice but to drop the Luohan statue in his hands and catch the treasure box instead, instinctively shining his flashlight at the wasp nest. He thought to himself, it’s over; I’m done for. Not dying on the battlefield, but here in the underground palace, just as my ancestors warned.

As the flashlight beam illuminated the area, he was surprised to find that the cracks did not unleash a swarm of wasps as he had imagined. Instead, he saw that the crevices of the nest were dry and devoid of moisture, resembling an abandoned wasp nest.

However, what sent chills down his spine was the sight of a dark mass wedged in one of the cracks. It looked like something that had been wrapped up during the nest-building process—he couldn’t tell if it was a corpse or the remains of an animal.

He jumped down to take a closer look and pried it open, revealing a Luohan statue identical to the ones around him, but shattered into several pieces. It seemed that it had fallen before the nest was fully formed and had ended up encased within it.

Chen Pi A Si looked up. Although he hadn’t paid attention when he came down, he felt certain that he hadn’t noticed any missing Luohan statues. Where had this one fallen from?