The "Gui Xu Gua Mirror" was originally kept in my embrace. In their panic, the three of them thought it was in Fatty's backpack. Fatty quickly patted down his entire person: "Where did I put it?"

At the same moment, I remembered it was on me. I felt the "Du Xian's" cool, slick tongue wrap around my neck from behind, slowly tightening. I secretly groaned, and while my arms could still move, I quickly reached into my robes, yanked out the sealed bag containing the ancient mirror and divination charms, and shoved it at Fatty’s feet.

Fatty fumbled to tear open the bag, pulled out the bronze divination mirror, and was about to aim it at the "Du Xian" behind me. The surface of the "Gui Xu Ancient Mirror" had long been worn smooth; aiming it only produced a vague shadow. With this shot, a cold light shot out from the mirror, heading straight for the "Du Xian."

A sharp shriek echoed from the "Du Xian's" belly. I felt the pressure on my neck suddenly ease. Her blood-red tongue, over three feet long, retracted, darting toward Fatty like a striking viper.

Fatty quickly raised the ancient mirror to block, but he saw the "Du Xian's" mouth tear open. From its mouth crawled an old man as thin as a starving ghost. He was no larger than a mole, dressed in archaic robes, revealing a mouth full of fangs; his face was truly a thousand kinds of loathsome and ten thousand kinds of terrifying. The "Gui Xu Gua Mirror" shone upon the old man’s face, instantly making the demon-like old man’s eyes gleam fiercely. He crouched on the fat noblewoman’s tongue tip, hissing furiously at the mirror. The bronze ancient mirror seemed unable to withstand this piercing scream; a faint sound of tearing silk emanated from within the mirror body.

Professor Sun’s face turned deathly pale with shock. He cried out from the side: "Wang Fatty, you’re holding the ancient mirror backward! Quick, turn it around, or none of us will make it out alive!"

After speaking, Grand-Uncle Sun felt Fatty was too slow to react. He reached out and snatched the "Gui Xu Gua Mirror" away. In the mere instant from when I threw the mirror to Fatty, to Fatty raising it to aim at the ghost, until Grand-Uncle Sun called out the instruction to flip the mirror, time had barely passed.

Before Fatty could understand what was happening, Grand-Uncle Sun already held the mirror, flipped it over, and held the back of the "Gui Xu Gua Mirror" facing outward. He roared, "Close your eyes quickly!" while pressing the back of the mirror toward the "Du Xian" behind me.

My entire body ached from being entangled by the fierce ghost’s long tongue. Seeing the dazzling light within the ancient mirror, I quickly obeyed and closed my eyes. But just as I closed them, I suddenly caught a faint, elusive fragrance. I’ve had a heavy smoking habit since I was young, and I frequently drink, so my sense of smell isn't very sharp, but even I detected the pervasive, exotic scent in the tomb passage.

The smell was like burning incense. My heart suddenly tightened, and I felt the "Porcelain Screen" I was clutching being snatched away. I quickly opened my eyes to see that Grand-Uncle Sun now held both the "Gui Xu Ancient Mirror" and the map-adorned "Porcelain Screen" in his own hands.

The realization dawned on me with a jolt: "Damn it, this Sun Jiu Ye really knows sorcery! We’ve all fallen for his wicked spell. That Du Xian fierce ghost must be an illusion. But I didn't see him burning incense or lighting candles—does he have another method? What exactly does he want?"

Fatty’s physical reflexes were much faster than his brain’s processing. Seeing Professor Sun snatch the bronze mirror and the porcelain screen and turn to flee, he was unwilling to let him get away so easily. He reached forward to grab, intending to seize the collar of Professor Sun's coat and slam his head back into his body with one sweep.

Unexpectedly, Grand-Uncle Sun reacted with incredible speed. A man of sixty-something moved with the vigor of one in his prime, and he seemed to have anticipated Fatty’s move to intercept him. Mid-stride, he suddenly swerved, bypassed Fatty, and bolted toward the tomb entrance in a flash.

I looked back. Beneath me there was no "Du Xian," only a "paper effigy" tied together with yellowed old paper. I cursed, "Sun Lao Jiu, you demon! Damn your ancestors!" I exerted force in my waist, springing up from the ground. Fatty and I each swung our entrenching shovels and hotly pursued him from behind.

Professor Sun fled quickly, but age was catching up; his legs weren't as nimble as mine and Fatty’s. Just as it seemed we were close enough to grab him, several pieces of wooden coffin lid suddenly appeared around a bend in the passage. Grand-Uncle Sun seemed to have known in advance; he raised his leg and stepped over them. However, Fatty and I were completely unprepared and both tripped.

Fatty cursed: "Who the hell tripped me?" I heard a sinister, strange cackle echoing in the passage. The sound was terribly familiar; it was the "Ba Shan Ape Monkey" that Commander Feng used to keep. I looked up and saw the flickering ghost-fire ahead. The female corpse in plain clothes and red shoes had burned into a pile, almost reduced to ash. The Ba Shan Ape Monkey was squatting beside the remains. It turned out it was the creature that had lit the Fan Xiang incense hidden within the skeletal remains for Grand-Uncle Sun.

Grand-Uncle Sun heard us fall behind and turned back when he reached the burning remains to glance over. At this moment, he made a move that astonished me even more. He pulled out the gleaming "Guan Shan Waist Plaque" from his pocket, hung it on his own waist, gave a cold laugh, and then fled toward the tomb entrance along with the "Ba Shan Ape Monkey."

I was so terrified by Grand-Uncle Sun’s actions that I remained sprawled on the ground, forgetting the pain. Seeing his retreating back filled me with a terror greater than when facing the "Du Xian." It was completely unexpected. "Could Grand-Uncle Sun be possessed by Commander Feng’s spirit? Or did the real Grand-Uncle Sun already die, and the one who led us into the ancient tomb is Commander Feng himself, impersonating him after years of absence?" My mind whirled into chaos. The more I thought, the more dread crept in. Amidst the horror, I actually dared not pursue them further.

Fatty had fallen hard and was grimacing in pain, endlessly cursing Grand-Uncle Sun and loudly calling out to Sister Yao and Shirley Yang waiting outside the tomb door to stop Sun Lao Jiu, the traitor.

Yet, another twist occurred. Professor Sun did not escape past the tomb door sealed by the "Thousand-Catty Sluice Gate." Instead, the "Ba Shan Ape Monkey" carried him on its back, scrambling up the sheer cliff face riddled with holes, and vanished into one of the caves.

Shirley Yang and Sister Yao, who had been waiting outside the tomb door for a long time, rushed in anxiously to see what had happened upon hearing Fatty’s shouts. As soon as they entered the passage, they heard a deafening roar—Rumble!—the huge sluice gate crashed down, sealing the exit of the corridor tightly.

Shirley Yang ignored the situation behind her and rushed straight to me, helping me up from the ground: "Are you hurt? What on earth happened? Where is Professor Sun?"

Fatty, quick-tongued, briefly recounted what had just happened. As he spoke, he tried to chase into the cave, but found a massive boulder had rolled out, completely blocking the path. Fatty gnashed his teeth in fury, helpless with anxiety.

Shirley Yang and Sister Yao were utterly perplexed by the story. Shirley Yang asked me, "How could Professor Sun do such a thing? Is he... is he still the Professor Sun we knew?"

Fatty also asked me, "Old Hu, what's wrong with you? You look like you took quite a hit! Why have you gone silent? I understand you're heartbroken; that old scoundrel tricked us for now, but mountains shift and rivers change. I don't believe we can't catch him. When we catch that old bastard, this Grandpa will squeeze him to death!"

My thoughts were a complicated tangle, and I was somewhat spaced out. When asked by everyone, I finally shook my head and said, "I'm not hit too hard, I’ve just been thinking about what Sun Xuewu really wants to do. I saw something was fishy about his actions long ago, but I never found direct proof, so just now I used a counter-plan—it’s like having a venomous snake hidden beside us; nobody knows where it is, but it could strike at any moment. Instead of living in constant fear, unable to defend ourselves against everything, it’s better to find an opportunity to lure the snake out of its hole, even if it means taking some risks, just to expose it first. But looking at it now... this matter is definitely not as simple as I imagined."

Fatty said, "Old Hu, stop trying to save face and forcing yourself. We have no outsiders here, what’s so embarrassing? Now Sun Lao Jiu has snatched the Gui Xu Ancient Mirror and the map-adorned porcelain screen. What good is your counter-plan now? We’ve lost the wife and the soldiers..."

I told Fatty, "Since we started keeping records, we've known the importance of class struggle—fighting Heaven, fighting Earth, fighting Man—it’s endlessly joyful. Although Sun Jiu Ye is old and cunning, can he fight against the struggle doctrine extracted from the Little Red Book? If I could be manipulated so easily, then I’ve wasted reading Chairman Mao’s four volumes of brilliant writing over a thousand times."

Shirley Yang said, "Old Hu, don't keep secrets. When did you first suspect Professor Sun was up to something? Actually... I had my suspicions earlier too, but his expression didn't look feigned at all. What exactly happened to him?"

I led the group back to the area with the numerous small coffins and recounted my suspicion of Grand-Uncle Sun. It started when he called Fatty to search for the lacquered coffins in the mass burial cave. There shouldn't have been any coffins or ritual objects in that mass burial cave; this practice didn't align with burial rites. But I didn't expose him immediately; instead, I pretended to believe him. As for the person named "Sun Xuewu," his brilliance lies in the fact that even when spinning a massive lie, his demeanor remained unchanged, keeping all secrets hidden, thus deceiving everyone. I don't know if he employs some kind of sorcery.

Although I was never certain that Grand-Uncle Sun was an impostor, I found many details suggesting he might have entered this "Wuyang King Ancient Tomb" before, and that he was completely familiar with the fragmented verses of the "Guanshan Finger Maze Inscription." It's just that his true self was hidden so deeply that we had no tangible evidence against him.

Shirley Yang was very reluctant to believe human hearts could be so malicious, but the evidence was overwhelming. Now that things had reached this point, she had to believe it. She sighed, "Actually, ever since I accidentally picked up his notebook at the Tianjin Natural History Museum, I felt something was strange. He might have been exploiting our eagerness to find the elixir cauldron in the tomb. If this is truly a conspiracy, the seeds were likely sown with that notebook."

I said, "Who is Sun Jiu Ye? Why would he have corpse worms and strange marks on his body? What is his true intention? And why does he know those long-lost sorceries? We can’t even guess if he’s human or a ghost. But he definitely has a deeply buried secret behind him. Just thinking about it fills me with dread. I felt that if we didn't find an opportunity to expose him soon, we might face extreme danger. A large part of why I felt terrified was because I didn't know what kind of trick he was planning. Once we know his objective, what does it matter if he’s some ghost?"

Fatty said, "So you played along? You even handed over our ancient mirror and map! Now we’re all trapped in this sunless place. Chairman Mao taught us to first preserve ourselves, then seek an opportunity to eliminate the enemy..."

I told everyone, "You can't catch a wolf without throwing away the bait. If the Gui Xu Gua Mirror hadn't been brought out just now, we wouldn't have known how useful it was to him. Since that bronze ancient mirror was bait, we were bound to reel in the line eventually. In fact, I hadn't figured out a plan when we entered this passage, but when I saw this place that is half corridor, half tunnel, although it is indeed threaded by dark springs and underground rivers, we can see from various tomb chambers that the Feng Shui here is broken; the dragon's energy is faint or nonexistent. Even if there were real mechanisms or hidden traps, they couldn't be triggered. Therefore, the mechanism of the Wuhou Hidden Soldier Map is likely false. Furthermore, although the Earth Immortal Master Gu called himself an immortal, he must have been merely a local magnate when he was entombed; he wasn't a king or a marquis, and he might not have had the capacity to build large-scale mechanical traps."

Judging by Professor Sun's actions, the "Wuyang King Ancient Tomb" must conceal a scroll map. The surface content is related to the "Earth Immortal Village," but with his skills, he couldn't decipher the mystery of the final section of the "Guanshan Finger Maze Inscription." There were no mechanisms in these small coffins; the real map was hidden by the "Guanshan Taibao" and scattered among them, making them hard to distinguish.

To test if Professor Sun had an ulterior motive, I deliberately showed a weakness and opened a "coffin" containing a fake map. That old bastard fell for it. At this time, the real maps were still safely nestled in the coffins, untouched. The so-called Eight Gates are "Rest, Life, Injury, Obstruction, View, Death, Shock, Open." The "Gate of Life" in the I Ching has both Yin and Yang aspects—beginning with "Zhen" and ending with "Gen." Only the two stone coffins marked with "Zhen" and "Gen" hold the true charts of the "Earth Immortal Village." With this in hand, I was sure that old ghost would return to deliver himself to our net.

Fatty gave me a thumbs-up and praised: "Our Commander Hu is indeed far-sighted. What do they call that again? Oh, right—baiting a golden carp with incense! That old bastard thought he was clever, but he was foolish enough to take the fake map as real. He must be regretting it immensely right now."

Shirley Yang, however, frowned slightly and said, "Old Hu, your mind works fast, but at the time, you weren't certain if the mechanism from the Wuhou Hidden Soldier Map buried here was real or fake, right? But you still risked taking the fake map. You're gambling with your life!"

I knew I had overreached. Events unfolded entirely beyond my anticipation. The first step I took meant there was no turning back. The fact that the four of us were merely trapped in the passage was extremely fortunate, but I still put on a brave face and told Shirley Yang, "Opportunities are fleeting, and we can't predict if there will be another chance. When it’s time to risk my life, I absolutely cannot hesitate. If I hadn't risked everything on this gamble, we still wouldn't know the truth now."

Shirley didn't say anything more, only instructing, "If something like this happens again in the future... think it over before acting. Don't make me worry about you every single moment."

I was deeply touched; Shirley was the one who cared about me the most. I was just about to tell her, "From now on, aside from what Big-Back-Hair says, I’ll only listen to you," when Fatty interrupted. He hated Professor Sun so much his teeth itched, urging me to quickly find the real charts in the stone coffins and then sweep the "Earth Immortal Village" clean, leaving not a single artifact for that old thing.

I had no choice but to lead everyone to find the "Zhen" and "Gen" stone coffins. We pried open their lids and found only two porcelain shards inside, exactly like the previous Porcelain Screen. When pieced together, the painted patterns on the screen were almost identical, but the ancient verse was replaced by a scene of intricate and bizarre designs.

The images depicted on this porcelain screen, apart from a village hidden deep in the mountains, included two other sections: one was a human head, and the other was a "coffin." The coffin had no lid, viewed at a 45-degree downward angle, allowing a view of a headless corpse inside. The corpse's position corresponded to the lone, suspended head, suggesting they belonged to the same deceased, having been "separated head from body."

The rest of the drawings on the porcelain screen were mostly landscapes and villages, resembling ordinary Ming and Qing scroll paintings, not looking like a map. But what did the coffin and the human head in the middle represent?

What I saw was extremely unexpected, and I pondered its meaning. After a preliminary attempt to grasp the essence, I wondered if the phrase in the "Guanshan Finger Maze Inscription"—"What a king, having a body but no head"—referred to the coffin and the head in this picture? Where was the "Earth Immortal Village Ancient Tomb" hidden? It truly required a great deal of thought to decipher its meaning.

Just then, a series of heavy, muffled thunder-like sounds echoed from the end of the passage. We hurried over and saw the thousand-catty stone sluice gate that had sealed the exit slowly rising. Professor Sun stood motionless at the tomb passage entrance, his face grim. The "Ba Shan Ape Monkey" that had carried him away was nowhere in sight.

I inwardly sneered. Just as I expected, Sun Jiu Ye had taken the fake map and would certainly have to return to find us. But I hadn't expected him to walk right into our trap. So, I secretly heightened my vigilance and alertness, but maintained an unhurried demeanor on the surface. I led the group out of the passage and greeted him first: "Grand-Uncle Sun, I didn't expect such a quick reunion. Why were you in such a rush earlier? We thought your house was on fire."

Professor Sun showed no reaction to my cold sarcasm. Fatty became even more annoyed seeing this and immediately walked up to him, binding him without a word. He said resentfully, "You should be well aware of our policy. I estimate you’re planning to resist to the end and sever yourself from the people, so I won't waste words with you. Today, this Grandpa will give you a quick one... I’ll tickle the soles of your feet until you stop breathing." Saying this, he reached to pull off Professor Sun’s shoe.

I stopped Fatty, asking him to temporarily withhold the people’s democratic dictatorship, and then said to Professor Sun, "Since you've returned, you must understand the consequences. If you still plan to spout those hollow lies, I advise you to save your breath."

Professor Sun showed no panic; instead, there was an indescribable sense of desolate sorrow. He said softly, "If you believe I deliberately deceived you, then don't ask me anything. Otherwise, if I tell you the absolute truth, I fear you might never be able to accept it."

Shirley Yang found his words odd and asked Professor Sun, "Why don't you tell us what happened? Is there really an Earth Immortal Village Ancient Tomb in Coffin Gorge?"

Professor Sun sighed softly, speaking in a low, heavy tone: "The truth is, you all died the moment you entered this Wuyang King Ancient Tomb; you just haven't realized it yet."