Though no one has ever been able to explain it, what met my eyes made me vaguely sense that the Bronze Dragon Talisman was the chief of the four trigram charms, a bronze antique forged in the Southern Sea Dragon Fire, regarded by the ancients as a feng shui mystical artifact, and the lightning and thunder that materialized out of thin air were most likely connected to this object.

The early Yuan Cult believers who worshipped Huang Daxian believed the eyeless Dragon Talisman was brought up from the sea by a sea turtle, because marine mirages often appeared in the turtle’s slumber, and sea turtles have a migratory habit, their scutes being a spiritual object like dragon bone; the sea qi stored in the dragon veins was locked within the turtle shell, capable of lasting a thousand years without dissipating.

But our recent investigation revealed that although the Dragon Talisman is a secret treasure of the Southern Sea, it should not have been discovered inside an empty turtle shell; it was an mingqi (a burial object) intended for the tomb of King Mu of Zhou, and the legend of its discovery in the turtle’s slumber was likely fabricated by the Yuan Cult.

However, this object is indeed a feng shui mystical artifact, and burying it underground is harmless, but once it is exposed to the air near a corpse, it is highly likely to incite lightning and thunder fire due to the clash of yin and yang energies. Between the cliffs at both ends of the Black Wood Beam, there are many ancient corpses dragged out of cliff coffins, and the valley air is heavy with yin energy; under no circumstances should the Guixu Dragon Talisman and the Trigram Mirror be used here.

The moment this thought flashed through my mind, several fireballs rained down from the air—all were Golden-Feathered Swifts struck by lightning fire. At this moment, if even one bolt of lightning struck the wooden beam, none of us would survive. I dared not delay any longer, hastily stuffing the bronze mirror and the talisman into a sealed bag, and beckoned to the others: “We shouldn't linger here, let’s get out fast.”

Professor Sun seemed unaware of the gravity of the situation, asking repeatedly what was wrong. I couldn't stop to answer, just pushed him and moved. Pressed by the crackling lightning, everyone acted swiftly, immediately gripping the crevices of the nearby cliff coffin tombs and inching along the rock face. In an instant, we had moved away from the wooden beam.

Suddenly, a flash lit up the pitch-black valley. I looked back and saw several fireballs rolling and striking the Black Wood Beam—I couldn’t tell if they were swifts killed by lightning fire or bolts that had struck down from the sky. The beam was immediately engulfed in a massive pillar of fire, roaring with a pāpā sound, its fierce flames illuminating the surroundings.

Since I had already secured the Dragon Talisman in the sealed bag, the thunder in the dark clouds rumbled dully for a while and then vanished. But the fire consuming the wooden beam was immense. Clinging to the nearby cliff face, I felt the heat was unbearable, and I worried the fierce fire might ignite the ancient vines and coffins on the rock face as well. I urgently told everyone not to stop, then continued to retreat further using the tomb openings and rock fissures on the cliff.

The cliff coffin tombs were densely scattered along this stretch of rock face. Although the sheer mountain ascent was steep, there were footholds everywhere. Moving along by climbing and clinging to the rock, we finally reached a somewhat wider horizontal crevice. Seeing that we were far from the burning Black Wood Beam, I told the group to climb into the rock fissure tomb to catch our breath for a moment.

In the horizontally split rock crevice lay four coffins side-by-side, all similarly looted. The ancient corpses lay askew in the tombs. One of them had white hair and a youthful face, its flesh so pale it seemed ready to drip water, and an exotic fragrance filled the air, making it appear quite uncanny.

As we squeezed into the tomb, we had to stoop and shuffle past this ancient corpse one by one. Professor Sun, who had worked in grave pits for years, had seen plenty of dead bodies and crawling into a cliff coffin tomb was nothing to him. Fatty, Shirley Yang, and I were all "Grave Robber Lieutenants" (Mojin Xiaowei), so we paid no mind to such common chores. What puzzled me, however, was that the young woman, Yaomei’er, barely in her twenties, showed no fear, and by her appearance, she seemed preoccupied with some private worry.

I couldn’t help but ask her: “Sister, you have great courage. An ordinary girl seeing coffins and old corpses would probably lose her soul on the spot, fainting dead away. Being scared enough to scream is already rare, yet you don’t even blink?”

Yaomei’er told me that when she was twelve or thirteen, while her parents were still alive, they accepted a bride price from the bald-headed man who ran a small restaurant and arranged her marriage to that chef. Even now, arranged marriages are prevalent in the mountains, and this year, the boss, the bald man, was pressuring her to marry him. She had been weeping every day, but fortunately, her adoptive grandfather, the old proprietor, was well-connected and entrusted us to bring her out of the mountains. This time, she wouldn't turn back even if it meant walking through mountains of blades and seas of fire; those zombies looked far better than the bald man, anyway.

Even the usually stern Master Sun Jiu was amused by Yaomei’er’s words, shaking his head with a bitter smile: “This is the terror of arranged marriage. The ancients asked, ‘What is more poisonous than the oppressions of the government?’ But arranged marriage is more terrifying than ancient tomb zombies. Alas… I deeply understand this. Back when I was in my hometown, my family arranged a match for me. Only after I married my wife did I realize she was a full eight years older than me. How could such a marriage be happy? I still wonder how I endured those years…”

Fatty, hearing Master Sun Jiu start his complaining again, felt his ears were growing calloused and mocked him: “Why didn’t you join the revolution then? If you had taken real action to resist the wicked old society back then, you wouldn't even have been qualified to be mistaken for a revolutionary traitor later on.”

Worried that Fatty’s careless words might strike another sore spot for Master Sun Jiu, I started to interject to change the subject. As soon as I turned around, I saw a furry face poking out from the tomb crevice—its appearance ugly, like a mountain ghost, it was the Bashan Ape-Monkey that had previously pushed Fatty off the “Shadowless Immortal Bridge.”

I didn't know what the mischievous ape intended, but it certainly meant us harm, intending to kill us. I immediately pulled out my entrenching tool, ready to bring it down on its head, but in my haste, I forgot where I was—inside the narrow crevice—and slammed my head against the rock ceiling above. I hadn't put on my climbing helmet yet, and the impact was hard, causing me to gasp in pain as I instinctively rubbed my forehead.

This alerted the other four people to the Bashan Ape-Monkey hidden in the tomb. Fatty hated the creature to the bone and immediately cursed: “This time, I’m definitely sending you to heaven!” With an angry roar, he raised his ‘Repeating Rapid Crossbow’ and fired.

Professor Sun turned pale with alarm and blocked the crossbow bolt: “Don’t shoot, that Bashan Ape-Monkey recognizes me.” He then pushed away Fatty’s quiver, turned toward the ape, and worried that the flashlight beam was too strong and might scare it away again. He turned off his ‘Wolf Eye’ light and crouched down, slowly walking forward.

Because of its fierce and hideous appearance, the Bashan Ape-Monkey has always been called a ‘Mountain Ghost’ in folklore. Legend has it that ‘the Mountain Ghost knows what will happen in a year,’ meaning it can predict events within the coming year. Of course, this is just baseless myth, but it does indirectly prove that the Bashan Ape-Monkey is highly intelligent.