In this life, every move we make is often beyond our control; fortune and disaster, safety and peril, are all determined by fate. How can joy and sorrow, parting and reunion, be truly free? Irley Yang and I were entrusted by Professor Chen to assemble a salvage team to dive into the sunken wreck at Coral Spiral to retrieve the national treasure, the "Qin Wang Zhao Gu Jing" (Qin Emperor's Bone-Reflecting Mirror). With the aid of the Pearl Egg gatherers of the South China Sea, we managed to escape certain death and, after all, successfully brought back the ancient mirror, fulfilling our duty.

Unexpectedly, most of the Egg gatherers were struck by a deadly curse magic planted in the shipwreck—truly, "A quarter of breath remains, a thousand uses abound; once impermanence strikes, all efforts cease." Seeing that rescue was nearly impossible, we were fortunately guided by someone who explained that the corpse jiang dissipates the living qi in the body. Only the "Neijia Rou Dan" (Inner-Family Flesh Elixir) from the ancient tomb could save them. However, the Inner Elixir is a golden core formed by an enlightened individual who refines their form through the subtle absorption of heaven and earth's spiritual energy. Since ancient times, many have sought immortality and the Tao, but those who actually mastered the method to refine an Inner Elixir were rarer than phoenix feathers and unicorn horns, certainly not something easily found.

Professor Chen knew a little about the existence of the "Inner Elixir hidden in an ancient tomb somewhere in Hunan." Perhaps the Elixir could be found in Hunan. However, he was uncertain if that ancient tomb had already been looted. His mention jolted my memory of the fortune-teller who vanished in Beijing. That blind man had once been the leader of the Xieling tomb raiders in his early years, having dug into tombs in Western Hunan. He would surely know the full story; perhaps the purple-gold Inner Elixir formed within the body of that famed Yuan Dynasty zombie known as the "Corpse King of Western Hunan" had long since fallen into the blind man's hands. Now, in order to save those people, we had no choice but to follow this faint, ethereal clue and return to Beijing. We would have to turn the city upside down to find that fortune-teller and, at the very least, ascertain the whereabouts of the Inner Elixir.

During the Republic of China era, the warlords of Western Hunan, in collusion with bandits, engaged in extensive looting of ancient tombs, giving rise to many terrifying myths and strange tales. Among these, the ancient corpse of the Yuan Dynasty general in Western Hunan remains the most famous, with many rumors circulating about it even today. When I was doing business in Panjiayuan, numerous clients traveling between Hunan and Guizhou to trade antiques would invariably speak of this matter.

Those rumors all claimed that the main burial chamber in the tomb looted in the Western Hunan mountains before the Liberation—its immense structure, bizarre layout, treacherous mechanisms, abundance of treasures, and the startling corpse transformation... along with the varied methods the tomb robbers employed to breach the chamber—could still be considered "unprecedented and unrepeatable" even now. This left behind so much material that it became known throughout the land.

However, most of these accounts were little more than "street gossip and unsubstantiated news." Regarding this terrifying business of grave robbing, everyone spoke from hearsay, with each person’s version differing slightly. After all, so much time had passed; without having seen it firsthand, one couldn't necessarily take it as absolute truth. Only the fortune-teller, Old Chen, who had originally led the raid on the ancient tomb in Western Hunan, had personally laid eyes on that Yuan Dynasty general's ancient corpse.

Regarding this situation, Irley Yang was quite optimistic. She said to me, "Whether Duoling’s life can be saved rests entirely on the Inner Elixir of that ancient corpse. Coincidentally, we know Old Master Chen, who robbed the Inner Elixir in Western Hunan. If this isn't proof that God exists, then I truly don't know what is."

I remain reserved on the question of God’s existence. Before his death, Duoling’s master, Ruan Hei, entrusted me to find Duoling’s long-lost French father. While investigating on Coral Temple Island, we learned that the Frenchman was the wealthy merchant who trafficked in ancient artifacts—the same man who perished with the Mariy Saint-No at the bottom of the sea. It seems I won't be able to fulfill this task, but no matter the difficulty, I will exert every effort to find a way to preserve Duoling’s life.

After the group divided the "fresh goods" (qingtou), Uncle Ming took Gu Cai and Duoling ahead to Hong Kong for immediate treatment in a well-equipped hospital, maintaining her life in a vegetative state. The rest of us returned to Beijing to find Old Chen. Da Jinya, worried about his elderly father in the United States whose health was failing, felt uneasy staying behind in the country. After returning from Coral Temple Island, he also rushed abroad, serving as the vanguard for our group of "foreign-trained specialists," setting up their business in America as a matter of course.

But finding Old Chen’s whereabouts in Beijing was not easy. His movements were erratic, and we couldn't even confirm if he was still within the city limits. We had to be patient and inquire meticulously. Fortunately, I have many acquaintances in Panjiayuan. The antique market is a melting pot, with all sorts of people coming and going—an excellent channel for circulating information. Any faint stirrings of news are bound to spread through Panjiayuan.

Fatty and I had another crucial task besides searching for Old Chen: selling the "fresh haul" we pulled from Coral Temple Island at a good price. It was a way to handle two things at once. We set up a stall in the antique market again—one part to negotiate business, the other to gather intelligence.