The mountain-moving Taoist, (Zhegushao), had initially intended to raid the tomb of the ancient King of Yelang near the Qian border, but finding nothing there had left him feeling restless. Now, faced with the magnificent spectacle of the Pingshan ancient tomb, appearing like an immortal realm bottled up, he couldn't help but wonder what secret treasures of past dynasties lay within. His eagerness piqued, his skills itching to be used, he was immediately ready to venture alone into the underground palace ahead.

The entire horde of Xie Ling bandits, along with Old Foreigner, Hua Ling, and the others, seeing him about to strike the first blow, quickly gathered their own tools, intending to follow him into the tomb raiding business. But the moment they lifted their feet, they noticed a faint, ominous black mist lingering around the palaces and towers ahead. Between the pillars supporting the eaves of the main hall, it looked as if streams of dark water were flowing swiftly. Everyone present froze, unsure of the strangeness within the hall. Those with sharper eyes saw clearly and cried out in alarm: there were countless centipedes inside the palace!

knew that carrying the Nuqing Rooster was sufficient to suppress the tomb's poisonous creatures, but this protection only extended for a few hundred paces. If these dozen or so people went in together, he would be fighting a lone battle and might fail to look after everyone adequately. The day was late, the precise time when mountain centipedes expel their poison. If those venomous insects found any opportunity, lives would surely be lost. This palace within Pingshan was simply too vast; to plunder its treasures, they would first have to wait for Old Man Chen to bring the main force to completely eradicate the tomb’s vermin.

Raiding the Pingshan tomb differed from ’s previous tomb expeditions for two reasons. First, the Mountain Movers and Xie Ling had formed an alliance; moving ahead without waiting for the leader of Changshou Mountain would be a betrayal of that pact and a loss of honor. Second, he now had more than a dozen brothers accompanying him, unlike his previous solitary ventures; he could not risk their lives due to his own momentary impulsiveness.

With these thoughts in mind, managed to suppress his impatience, carefully surveying the terrain and architectural structure within the mountainside. He then led Hong Gu Niang and the others out of the passage, leaving some men behind to widen the tunnel previously excavated by the Pangolin Drill, preparing the way for the main contingent.

The surrounding terrain of Pingshan was treacherous and fractured. Two members of the raiding party were dispatched to contact Old Man Chen on the mountain. This relay process could not be completed in a mere instant. consequently found a dry, level spot at the foot of the mountain, lay down, and fell into a deep sleep to recharge his spirit. Once rested, he engaged in lively discussions with the bandits, whose spirits soared as they each recounted their proudest moments from past tomb raids.

recalled an expedition years ago when he raided the Tang Dynasty’s Sitian Mausoleum in Shaanxi. During that time, he had befriended two young goatherds from Shaanxi. As Old Man Chen happened to have business in both Shaanxi and Shanxi provinces then, had entrusted the two shepherd brothers to him. Thinking of them now, he inquired of the bandits about the current status of those two brothers.

Mentioning them drew utter disdain from the Xie Ling bandits. Those two lads, Old Sheepskin and Sheep Second Egg, were timid and petty. Although they had joined Changshou Mountain by lighting incense sticks under the banner, they were only fit to run errands for trivial tasks. During the last raid, those two wretches had wet their pants from fear. Hearing that they were coming to excavate the Corpse King of Western Hunan this time, their legs had gone soft again, and they hadn't been allowed to come at all. They genuinely wondered how the leader had ever taken them in.

found the story amusing upon hearing it. Those two goatherds came from honest families; they didn't commit illegal acts or engage in villainy. Yet, they had ended up joining the ranks of outlaws midway up the mountain, engaging in tomb raiding, rebellion, murder, and arson—activities surely beyond their capabilities. He thought that if things didn't improve, he would speak to Old Man Chen later, suggesting they relinquish their status, wash their hands clean, and be given some funds to pursue a legitimate trade.

Waiting patiently for a long time, Old Man Chen finally led his men to the shady side of the mountain. He reported to that they had spent an entire day blasting atop the ridge without achieving any breakthrough. Since the tunnel through the mountain’s base was now open, they could lead the troops inside to raid the tomb. Together, they entered the passage to view the palace within the mountain.

Old Man Chen, Luo Laowai, and others were also seeing such a magnificent palace for the first time. They all clicked their tongues in wonder, unable to contain their surging ecstasy. In the mortal world, only emperors, called the true Sons of Heaven, were permitted to reside in palaces. Besides them, only the deities of Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism were allowed palaces, mostly constructed in the blessed lands of the immortals and Buddhas. Though Pingshan was a tiny spot, the inner palace hidden within the mountain surpassed even the famed Taoist and Buddhist palaces on great mountains and rivers. Truly worthy of the description, "Reflection of the mortal dust, illusory realm of the void," its treasures must be inexhaustible.

Luo Laowai adjusted the brim of his hat with the muzzle of his gun. In his excitement, his mouth felt parched. He exclaimed happily, "Boss Chen, what are we waiting for? Let your brother go in!"

Old Man Chen, having narrowly escaped death from the guarding ghost army in the barbican last time, had learned a lesson. Seeing the sheer size of the underground palace, he judged it unlikely to be a false tomb or decoy, but he still dared not act rashly. He couldn't risk being impatient and courting further danger; what if there were hidden traps like venomous dragons or fire mechanisms set up? Wouldn't they fall prey to the tomb owner’s devices again?

He immediately gave orders: first, send a hundred sappers from the engineering battalion, along with poultry, to blast open the heavy gates of the successive halls. If there were no incidents, the main force would then enter to collect treasures. Furthermore, he assigned two hundred more engineers to set up bamboo bridges across the accumulated water and mud at the mountain's base and to widen the tunnel, preparing for the transportation of spoils out of the tomb.

As for Luo Laowai, having lost an eye and not fully recovered from his injury, Old Man Chen ordered him to lead a heavy guard, setting up machine guns outside the mountain to secure the routes, lest the raiding troops mutiny midway. A mountain path would also need to be cleared for mules and horses to haul goods. Luo Laowai desperately wanted to participate in removing the artifacts himself, but upon reflection, although the troops entering the mountain this time were mostly his trusted men, there were still many greedy opportunists among them whom he had to guard against. Thus, following the leader's instructions, he left to mobilize forces at the rear of the mountain.

Old Man Chen and watched as the first hundred or so sappers, driving flocks of roosters, systematically smashed open the doors of the mountain halls. The commotion startled the centipedes, sending them scattering everywhere. Amidst the chaos and noise, no traps appeared to be triggered.

Old Man Chen secretly rejoiced; it seemed victory was assured this time. He took the lead, wrapping black gauze over his face, covering his mouth and nose. The custom of covering the face with black gauze during tomb raiding originated with brigands committing arson and murder to conceal their identities from government forces seeking their arrest. During tomb raiding, it was done out of fear that the resentful spirits within the tomb might spy upon them; as long as their faces were hidden, they wouldn't worry about being haunted after returning home.

The bandits covered their faces with black gauze, tied vermilion silk sashes to their arms, lit their lanterns, and shouldered their Centipede Climbing Ladders. At the leader’s signal, several hundred men shouted in unison and, driving countless fowl ahead of them, swarmed inside.

In the preceding days, Luo Laowai's troops had been requisitioning everywhere, stripping the surrounding ten li radius clean of poultry, and then purchasing a large batch from Xiangyin. Most of the birds were roosters, ranging from old birds to young ones, even half-grown chicks were brought along. But with so many chickens, some inevitably got mixed up, and an unknown number of hens found their way in. Once released into the underground palace, many aggressive roosters immediately began fighting over the hens, pecking at each other until blood flowed. However, upon encountering the centipedes in the hall, their attention shifted; they fixed their eyes on the prey and chased after them, pinning down the centipedes, large and small, and pecking them to death on the spot.

Old Man Chen and the Xie Ling bandits were awestruck by the efficacy of the Mountain Mover's technique, praising it highly. Although this method did not strictly adhere to the principles of the Five Elements, it ingeniously utilized the generative and restrictive relationships between earthly things. Driving the poultry to eradicate the centipedes eliminated this major threat, making the path to the tomb's treasures truly smooth sailing.

Suddenly, the silent underground palace echoed with the crowing of roosters everywhere, chasing down and killing centipedes. In an instant, thousands of centipedes perished violently. The mutual antagonism between species in the world is a creation of Heaven, hence the term "natural enemy."

Ordinary centipede venom is black, but the Pingshan ancient tomb was situated in a medicinal mountain, meaning the venom of the centipedes, large and small, residing within was iridescent. Some of the older centipedes even had shifting, multicolored glows on their bodies. Driven by the fowl to desperation, even when facing their natural enemies, though unable to spit venom, they fought to the death. In the continuous vicious battles, dozens of old, weak, or sick chickens, lacking sufficient ferocity, were bitten and killed by centipedes. Their feathers fell off, their bodies lay still, turning black and slowly dissolving into a pool of bloody liquid.

Although the Pingshan underground palace was brilliantly lit, it had been cut off from sunlight for years, resulting in extremely dense Yin energy, which nourished the centipedes, making them exceptionally large. They fed on other types of poisonous insects, making their venom particularly potent. Moreover, there were simply too many centipedes in the hall. Initially, they fled in all directions when chased by their natural enemies, but as the flocks of chickens pressed them tightly, they fought back like cornered beasts, crawling out from the crevices between the pillars. Three or four centipedes would gang up on a single rooster. Between the several large halls, the ground was carpeted with the corpses of dead chickens and centipedes, while the survivors continued to fight ferociously with bloodshot eyes.

The bandits were all hardened criminals known for mass slaughter, and many of the engineers were battle-scarred veterans. Yet, all the bloodshed they had witnessed in their lives seemed meager compared to the ferocious battle unfolding between the masses of chickens and the Pingshan centipedes. It wasn't one or two, nor ten or twenty; it was thousands of centipedes and thousands of roosters locked in a bloody brawl. The surging killing intent caused the flames of the lanterns and torches to dim intermittently.

Those roosters were naturally pugnacious; perhaps they, too, felt their crests rise upon seeing their mortal foe, resolved to kill or be killed. The centipedes, having been relentlessly pursued, could find no respite even hiding in rock crevices upon hearing a chicken's crow, so they risked their lives to fight their natural enemies to the death. In the intense struggle under the flickering lights, neither side retreated even half a step; it was a deadlock.

Some of the more timid bandits turned pale witnessing the scene. Old Man Chen felt a surge of dread; looking at the momentum, it was unclear whether the centipedes or the chickens would win. He regretted not bringing even more roosters up the mountain.

had also been observing, keeping the Nuqing Rooster he carried in his bamboo cage, unwilling to release it. That scarlet-crested, golden-clawed rooster was the phoenix among chickens. He would not let it enter the fray unless the nearly spirit-transformed Six-Winged Old Centipede revealed itself, keeping its rage bottled up inside the cage.

The Nuqing Rooster, sensing the fierce battle between the roosters and centipedes outside, was indeed eager to join in, wishing to peck them thoroughly. However, being confined by the cage, it frantically smashed against the bars, posturing to break free.

But at this moment, saw that the large flocks of fowl were failing to gain the upper hand, and increasingly more were being bitten and poisoned to death by the centipedes. He slammed his hand hard onto the bamboo cage behind him. The Nuqing Rooster, which had been seething with impatience, immediately flapped its wings and let out a furious cry. Its high-pitched crow echoed powerfully through the hall. The centipedes locked in their desperate struggle trembled violently upon hearing this crow, as if they had instantly lost their souls. They began to succumb, their legs and claws going numb. Those clinging to pillars and rock walls plummeted down, only to be quickly pecked to death by the nearby roosters.

Old Man Chen watched as the balance of power instantly reversed, and his heart swelled with joy. He praised , "The art of the Mountain Movers is truly worthy of its reputation; the great task is accomplished!" With that, he beckoned to the several hundred men behind him, shouting, "If you want wealth, follow your master and charge forward!"

Nearly a thousand raiders and engineers followed the leader, raising their torches and splitting into several paths, resembling flowing ribbons of fire. They stepped across the stone steps and bridges before the main hall and surged into the first great chamber. Most of the centipedes here had been eliminated. The flocks of chickens, driven forward by the incoming raiders, rushed into the halls behind to continue chasing the remaining venomous insects.

The bandits pulled out their firearms, shooting any centipede that hadn't been completely killed, or smashing them flat with their shovels. The cacophony of footsteps and gunfire echoed through the mountain interior as they pushed forward hall after hall. The Dan Palace within Pingshan was where the alchemists burned elixirs for successive emperors. The halls and pavilions, built along the sloping mountain terrain, gradually ascended. Some areas featured a hall within a cavern, and a cavern within a hall, cleverly utilizing the natural topography.

Old Man Chen, , and the others, holding their weapons, entered the outermost hall. Inside, Eight-Treasure Glazed Lamps still hung, with about half still lit. Under the combined illumination of torches and lamps, the hall was a play of shimmering light and shadow. This hall contained only a single vermilion-lacquered pillar supporting eighteen beams—an extremely rare "one pillar, eighteen beams" structure in ancient palace architecture. The main hall of the Dan Palace, however, was supposed to have pillars but no beams, signifying the Taoist concept of "limitlessness."

In this ante-hall of "one pillar, eighteen beams," the walls were adorned with colorful paintings of immortals, inlaid with numerous decorative jewels and jade stones that, reflecting the firelight, shimmered with dazzling brilliance, captivating the bandits' eyes. Old Man Chen declared, "The world is in chaos now; there are no legitimate businesses left! For the sake of dividing the spoils and upholding brotherhood, anything can be done. This is what they call: Heroes rise from all four directions, those with guns are the mountain kings. This is the time for our Changshou Mountain to prosper. What we do is plunder ancient tombs for artifacts. Since we are here, there is no need for hesitation. Dig out anything valuable; leave nothing behind."

The Xie Ling bandits were not like the Grave Robbers of the Dark School, who only took one or two items from a tomb and were mindful of retreat. Changshou Mountain had over a hundred thousand brothers; if they took too few artifacts, it wouldn't be enough to satisfy them. Since the leader had spoken, the bandits had no reason to hold back. They immediately assigned men to use their shovels to scrape the jewels and jade from the walls.

In truth, the most valuable treasures in this hall had already been plundered by the Yuan troops long ago. What remained was considered insignificant at the time. But as time passed, by the Republic era, these antiques from centuries ago were treasures in themselves. Everything that could be dismantled—including the crane-shaped bronze censers used for burning incense and the gilded decorations embedded in the pillars—was pried loose and taken by the bandits. The Eight-Treasure Glazed Lamps were left for lighting, intended to be taken upon their withdrawal.

Several leaders among the bandits, trusted subordinates of the main chief and veteran tomb raiders, directed their men to move the gold and jade. Though dealing with diverse items, the operation was surprisingly orderly and systematic.

As for the two great leaders, Old Man Chen and , they were naturally not distracted by the contents of the mere ante-hall. They didn't linger long but led the main force, with shouts and cries, through the halls towards the rear complex of chambers. Along the way, they saw piles of dead centipedes. Even dead, their sheer numbers, likely exceeding ten thousand, made everyone feel a creeping chill.

But numbers provided immense courage, and they pressed forward. After passing through several halls, they arrived at the Wuliang Hall, the highest point. This hall was situated within a cavern. In front of the hall was a wide platform, surrounded by carved white marble railings. Behind it, the dark blue rock of the mountain sealed off the rear chamber beyond the main Wuliang Palace hall. Based on the palace's structure, that rear chamber was likely the location where Old Man Chen had first entered Pingshan through a mountain fissure.

They found no coffins of the tomb owner in any of these halls, surmising that the burial chamber must be located within the Wuliang Hall, which they presumed served as the 'Dragon Book Study'—a place for the master of the Dan Palace. The bandits recalled the rumors of the Corpse King of Western Hunan and felt a natural apprehension, slowing their steps as they cautiously clustered around Old Man Chen and onto the platform before the hall.

On the platform, hundreds of blood-soaked roosters were surrounding and fighting the remaining scant hundred or so centipedes. Nearby was an arched bridge, beneath which lay a bottomless pool. There should have been a fountain pouring water that flowed through pavilions and corridors, creating a landscape of mountains and streams leading outside the mountain, adding a naturalistic charm to the Dan Palace. But the spring had long since dried up, leaving only an empty, dark abyss sunken into the mountainside before the hall.

Just as the bandits were about to step forward to finish off the remaining centipedes, suddenly sensed something amiss. He swiftly performed a divination from his sleeve, realizing a fatal danger lay ahead. Looking up, he saw several raiders stepping onto the bridgehead and quickly shouted, "Fall back!"