I looked at the expression on Chen Pi A Si’s face and instantly felt that something was wrong. This old guy had been silent all the way here, only speaking a few words at critical moments, never showing any signs of anger. But now, it was clear that he was truly furious.

Huashang also noticed this and became tense, asking, “Old man, what’s going on?”

Chen Pi A Si’s face was very grim as he said to us, “The dragon vein here has been tampered with; this three-headed dragon is fake, and the direction of the dragon heads is wrong.”

I felt a jolt in my heart and quickly took out my compass to check. Sure enough, no matter how I turned it, the needle pointed at that black stone turtle, indicating that this strange object had a strong magnetic field.

I immediately understood what Chen Pi A Si meant: when examining the feng shui and dragon veins, the orientation is extremely important. All the way here, Chen Pi A Si had been using this compass in conjunction with his memorized layout to determine the direction and orientation of the dragon vein. However, with such a large magnetic object buried here, when we approached this mountain, the north-south direction on the compass would definitely be affected. So, the basis he used to judge the direction of the dragon vein was completely wrong!

The configuration of this three-headed dragon must have been determined based on this erroneous premise; therefore, it was certainly fake! In other words, this place was not the dragon’s head at all. Terms like “Kunlun胎” and the massive ice dome had no theoretical basis for existence. It was all an illusion! A psychological suggestion designed to lead us into this trap!

Wang Cang Hai must have anticipated that anyone who could find this place would have considerable feng shui knowledge, so he had long been prepared. Before we even entered the tomb and raised our guard, we had already walked into his trap.

I suddenly felt a sense of powerlessness. “Kunlun胎,” the ice dome—such a clever design, and it was all just for a trap! Wang Cang Hai truly had a profound understanding of tomb raiding. I had always mocked those architects who firmly believed in feng shui; feng shui had brought no blessings to the tomb owner, but instead became a directionless guide for tomb robbers. Yet, we had made the same mistake, setting a trap for an ancient person.

Now we were in a game against someone who had been dead for hundreds of years, and before the first round even began, we had already been checkmated. Truly, our expedition was off to a bad start.

Fatty and Panzi still didn’t understand. I explained the situation to them, but Fatty was still skeptical, saying, “No way, how could there be such a large magnet back then?”

I sighed. “This stone turtle must have been carved from a magnetic meteorite. Its value is extraordinary, but Wang Cang Hai used it to suppress the tomb. It seems he went to great lengths to protect the Yunding Tiangong.”

“What the hell, that’s impossible,” Fatty still refused to believe, saying, “This place is constructed so properly…”

Halfway through his sentence, he realized that while the construction of this spirit palace was indeed formal, there was not a single essential item for a spirit palace inside. In fact, we had long discovered the flaw; it was just that no one expected the entire spirit palace to be a trap. It was precisely because its construction was too formal.

Chen Pi A Si’s face was ashen, and he didn’t say a word, just staring intently at that stone turtle with a very frightening expression.

I was discussing with the monk Hua and the others, and it suddenly felt like everything was ruined. Our food definitely wouldn’t be enough to head to San Sheng Mountain; this time, we might have to return to the mountain village to resupply first. So this round trip would be completely wasted, and all of us were pretty injured. I estimated that we would need some time to rest after getting back to the village, and we couldn’t afford to lose that time. Even if A-Ning and the others walked slowly, they would still arrive.

We still didn’t know the purpose of the arrangements made by Uncle San, but from any perspective, we were already at a disadvantage. Thinking of this made me a bit irritated. In fact, no one was at fault in this situation, but when people encounter setbacks, it’s often beneficial for someone to take the blame; otherwise, if there’s no outlet for the frustration, one can only feel depressed. The expressions on the others’ faces were also not good, but there was nothing we could do now.

The fat guy saw that we were a bit disheartened and said, “Forget it, let’s head back quickly. We just took a wrong turn. We can come back later; A-Ning and his few people can’t possibly carry everything out. If we move quickly, we can still pick up some foreign goods!”

When I heard him only thinking about the foreign goods, an unnamed anger surged within me. I coldly shook my head and said, “What do you know? Uncle San almost sacrificed his business to slow down A-Ning and their progress, but we still missed the timing. If we go back and then return, who knows how much we will fall behind. Uncle San might be in serious trouble. You only care about foreign goods and don’t care about anything else; stop making noise here.”

The fat guy was also unhappy after hearing this and was about to retort, but Ye Cheng held him back, saying, “Alright, alright, this isn’t the time to argue.”

The atmosphere became awkward all of a sudden. The fat guy shrugged off Ye Cheng, swore, and walked to the side to smoke. Monk Hua waved his hand and said, “We’ve made a wasted trip, and no one feels good about it. Right now, we mainly need to find a way to remedy the situation. Let’s stay calm and think about what to do.”

The fat guy replied, “What remedy? I think it doesn’t matter. With such a large magnetic stone sitting here, anyone who comes will be unlucky. Do you dare to say A-Ning and his group haven’t been affected? Maybe their positions are all wrong too; they’ve probably been hit hard by the border guards already. We should search this area, take whatever we can, and then return as fast as possible. We can regroup at the foot of the mountain and come back. We can’t waste time; since we’ve already been affected, how can we avoid reality?”

I knew the fat guy was actually right; in the end, we might have to go back the way he suggested. But his current attitude was not welcome here.

Panzi immediately shook his head, “It’s easy to say. If you want to go back the same way now, are you confident you can make it? Even if you know the way, we’ve been walking for a day. You may be tough and not feel tired, but we can’t handle it. Even if we have to go back, it will definitely be tomorrow morning. Little Third Master’s concerns are valid; delaying like this means all of Third Master’s arrangements will be in vain.”

As soon as the fat guy heard this, he immediately went wild: “Third Master, Third Master, go to hell with Third Master! You guys don’t even know what that old fool is thinking, and you’re talking nonsense. Why the hell should I get involved in your family matters? I’m here to find foreign goods. To hell with it; I’ll finish my own business and leave. You guys can go die with that old ghost who’s neither here nor there!”

As he spoke, the fat man grabbed his bag, turned on his flashlight, and headed back down the corridor. However, after just a couple of steps, the mumbler blocked his way, preventing him from moving forward.

The fat man had some reservations about the mumbler and didn’t want to confront him directly, but he also didn’t want to lose face, so he asked, “What the hell are you doing? Don’t block me from making my fortune.”

The mumbler replied, “Don’t you find it strange? Since we arrived here, it seems like everyone’s emotions have been quite tense, even Wu Xie has gotten angry.”

Upon hearing this, the fat man froze for a moment. He immediately turned to look at me, and everyone else’s expression changed. I felt a jolt in my heart.

Indeed, the sudden surge of unnamed rage earlier was completely uncalled for; I didn’t know why, but out of nowhere, a feeling of restlessness had spread from my heart. The fat man had always been that way—I’ve heard him say some pretty unreliable things before—but why did I explode like that? That’s not my character!

With my usual way of doing things, even if someone said something unpleasant, I wouldn’t retaliate in such a situation. Besides, the fat man’s reaction was too extreme.

Could it really be the influence of the surrounding environment? I turned to look around; it was pitch black everywhere. When I shone my flashlight, the only light in the dark space came from our few flashlights, while the surrounding darkness enveloped us like a black mist, creating a very oppressive atmosphere. But despite the pressure, I felt that this wasn’t the source of the inexplicable restlessness.

“What’s going on? It really felt a bit eerie just now; I suddenly got angry,” the fat man also realized and asked the mumbler.

The mumbler said to us, “I’m not sure, but I think this place is more than just a simple magnet. We need to stay calm; your argument earlier was useless. Since this is a trap…” He paused, “Wang Canghai has put in so much effort to set this up. Since he was able to let us in, I don’t think we can get out easily.”

The restlessness in my heart surged again upon hearing the mumbler’s words. I forced down my anger and asked, “So what do we do now?”

The mumbler remained silent, just glancing at Chen Pi A Si, who returned the look. He said, “Since we’ve already fallen into the trap, we can only take it one step at a time. It’s too early to conclude whether we can get out. But regardless, we must destroy this turtle and search the area to make sure there are no other similar things; otherwise, we’ll keep facing the same situation.”

Everyone glared at the turtle, clearly hating this creature more than ever before.

Breaking the large magnet would only turn it into a smaller one, still affecting the compass. To completely eliminate its magnetism, we would need to burn it.

We took out the fuel for the smokeless stove and poured it over the turtle. Then the fat man lit a cigarette, took a deep drag, and tossed it inside, igniting the fire. The heat from the smokeless stove’s fuel was immense, and immediately we felt a wave of scorching heat rush toward us.

Hua He Shang took out the compass and watched the needle spin.

Soon, the turtle was burning bright red, and even the surrounding bricks turned red. We all took the opportunity to huddle by the brick pit to warm ourselves.

There was no wood available for burning here, and the high-purity fuel burned out quickly, leaving only hot bricks and a glowing turtle after about half a cigarette’s worth of time.

“How is it?” I asked Master Hua, leaning closer to take a look. The compass needle was no longer pointing at the turtle; its magnetism had disappeared. He walked a few more circles with the compass to confirm there were no other magnets underground before nodding and saying it was done.

This place was not suitable for lingering. Since it was a trap, we had no attachment to it. A few of us tidied up, and I recalled what the bottle said: being allowed in doesn’t guarantee we could get out. A sense of foreboding began to creep in. Had something changed outside since we entered this inner hall? Was some unknown calamity waiting for us?

Several unsettling images flashed through my mind, but I quickly dismissed them. It was just speculation; there was no need to scare myself. We would take it one step at a time.

However, my premonitions were often surprisingly accurate during unfortunate times. Just as we were preparing to re-enter the corridor, suddenly, a series of ‘crackling’ sounds came from an unknown corner of the inner hall.

The ‘crackling’ sounds were sharp and piercing, and we all heard them. We immediately halted, turning our heads to look.

The sound didn’t stop; it continued. After listening for a while, I realized it was coming from the brick pit where we had burned the turtle.

Curious about the source of the sound, we cautiously walked back. Peering into the pit, we saw that the turtle at the bottom had actually cracked open, with numerous fissures spreading across its shell. At the same time, we noticed a strange black gas rising rapidly from the cracks, quickly expanding and ascending into the air, resembling a massive soft-bodied creature squeezing out from the turtle’s body.

Then, the black gas connected with the darkness above, writhing continuously. Upon closer inspection, it bore a striking resemblance to the black totem we had seen earlier in the main hall.

“This is… Changsheng Tian!” the fat man exclaimed, his face pale.

“Don’t scare people,” Master Hua said. “Maybe the turtle is hollow; thermal expansion caused it to crack, and whatever was inside got burned.”

The fat man’s expression changed. “Hollow? Could that black smoke be toxic?”

“It shouldn’t be; there’s no—” Master Hua began, but before he could finish, the bottle suddenly made a gesture for silence, signaling us not to speak.

His action sent a chill down my spine, and I quickly covered my mouth. Everyone held their breath, looking around, eager to know what was happening.

I turned my head in all directions, hearing my heart pounding like a drum, while the surroundings felt eerily still. In this extreme quiet of the inner hall, besides the sound of the stone turtle cracking, there was an extremely faint ‘sparse’ sound coming from an unknown corner.

I listened for a long time but couldn’t identify the sound, nor could I discern its direction; it felt as if the sound was directly entering my brain.

As I was talking, I instinctively turned my head to take a look. At that moment, the jade gate of the Spirit Palace had closed on its own, and a thick darkness enveloped us from behind. I shone my flashlight, and the only sources of light in the entire dark space were our few flashlights; the surrounding darkness was like a black mist, completely encircling us.

This darkness felt extremely oppressive, and I couldn’t tell if it was just a psychological effect or something else. Just as I was about to say, “We shouldn’t stay here for long! We should get out quickly!” suddenly, the muffled oil bottle made a gesture for silence, signaling us all to stop talking.

His action made me break out in a cold sweat, and I hurriedly covered my mouth, while everyone held their breath. I could hear my heart pounding like a drum, but at the same time, in this extreme silence, I heard a very faint “scattered” sound coming from somewhere.

I listened for a long time but couldn’t identify what the sound was, nor could I determine its direction. It felt as if the sound was directly entering my brain. This Spirit Palace was inside an icy dome, so it couldn’t be the wind. This sound definitely wasn’t the sound of wind.

The black smoke above grew thicker, and the scattered sound became denser. Soon, this sound echoed from all directions, making everyone feel itchy all over. The expression on the muffled oil bottle’s face grew increasingly grim as he kept turning his head, looking at the black mist gathering above us, muttering to himself, “There’s something in the smoke!”

Hua the monk listened to the “scattered” sound and glanced at the stone turtle, seemingly realizing something. His expression suddenly changed. “Is this smoke from the insect-scented jade? There are insect-scented jades inside the turtle! Wang Canghai wants us dead.”

“What is insect-scented jade?” I asked. No one answered me, but I knew I would find out soon. The muffled oil bottle pointed at Shun Zi, who was lying on the coffin bed, signaling Lang Feng to carry him, and then pointed down the corridor ahead. “Run, don’t look back! No matter what falls on you, don’t stop until we’re out. Hurry!”