The ancient tomb guardian of the Wuyang King, imprisoned by the Guanshan Taibao, once divined the heavenly secrets for the Earth Immortal Master Feng, and the prophecy proved eerily accurate: that coffin mountain was uprooted by a flood from underground, forced into the gorge, and now loomed over the roaring, surging river. Countless Corpse Immortals fled from within the mountain, perfectly matching the "Mountain Breaking, Killing Emerges" phenomenon described in the heavenly omen.

Trapped and with no escape along the sheer cliffs of the gorge, we grasped at straws in our despair. Perhaps the Gui Xu bronze artifacts could turn the tide. Those bronze axe mirrors were legendary Feng Shui secret tools; beyond divination and geomancy, the sea-air essence contained within the bronze itself was surely extraordinary.

Back then, Old Sheepskin died suddenly in his Mongolian yurt on the grassland. Before his death, he secretly swallowed a hexagram token, which lured the Yellow Weasel spirits to the burial ground to steal the corpse. By a twist of fate, we exhumed him from the earth, only for him to be struck by a thunderclap. Both Old Sheepskin’s body and the weasels that came to retrieve the token were hit by the lightning and fire, reduced to a pile of scorched charcoal.

But the past is gone, and I will never know Old Sheepskin’s true intention. Years later, I heard bits and pieces from Chen Xiazi and Sun Jiuye, leading me to surmise that Old Sheepskin had harbored ambitions beyond his station. In his youth, he had heard that the eyeless dragon talisman was a profound Feng Shui weapon and wished to possess it after death to bestow fortune upon his descendants. That was why he orchestrated the bizarre incident of the inverted burial of the nude corpse. He failed to realize that such an action was most likely to invite celestial retribution, ultimately leading to the failure of his cunning scheme.

Before finding Commander Feng’s remains in Coffin Gorge this time, I had spotted the incorruptible body of a hermit among the cliffside hanging coffins. That corpse retained its vigor in the beard and brows, exuding an air of immortal grace, not at all like a thousand-year-old corpse. It must also have been an ancient form of Jiangshi. I was just preparing to use the bronze talismans and mirrors near the hanging coffin to deduce the location of the Earth Immortal’s tomb when it triggered a sudden thunderstorm nearby, frightening everyone.

These two encounters made me vaguely feel that the bronze dragon talisman still held many secrets; perhaps it was a "Thunder Talisman." In fact, when Jiangshi animate, their bodies are often suffused with extremely Yin miasma. When this meets Yang energy in the outside world, it causes a violent clash between Yin and Yang, further agitated by the mysterious, nebulous chaos within the Gui Xu bronze, which could generate in-cloud electrical discharge at low altitudes, resulting in lightning strikes in a very short span of time.

Although I had entertained this idea, I couldn't be certain how it would play out. Now, having reached a dead end with no other options, I could only rely on my intuition. Believing that heaven never seals off all routes of escape, I stopped caring whether the plan would work or not, and immediately hurled the bronze dragon talisman toward the Pangu Corpse Moss. It landed perfectly inside the cavity of Master Feng’s severed torso.

Who would have known that the swirling corpse fog within the Coffin Mountain was too dense? In the study of Feng Shui, this is known as "Mountain Breaking, Vents Pierced, Dragons Stirred"—an extremely ominous sign. It instantly triggered lightning and thunder between the sheer cliffs of the deep gorge. These thunderbolts did not originate from the clouds above, but rather sprung from the black mist hovering near the water level at the bottom of the ravine.

As the saying goes, "Swift thunder surpasses the ear’s opening." The lightning in the gorge came without warning. Following the initial claps of distant thunder, the surroundings turned as black as the bottom of a pot. But as a single, immensely long, branching bolt of lightning slashed across the gorge, resembling a startled dragon emerging, the blinding flash instantly illuminated the cliffs as brightly as frosted silver.

The narrow bird path rock shelter where we were hiding was extremely tight and steep, most sections barely a foot wide. As the lightning zipped past my side, before I could even duck, the brief, ghastly illumination revealed the sheer cliffs covered in Pangu Corpse Immortals. Most of the skeletal remains of the deceased from the Earth Immortal Village were split open, revealing large patches of black, writhing corpse moss clinging bloodily to the rock face, crowding as they crawled upward. The lightning bolt, like a startled dragon crossing the sky, vanished in an instant, and Coffin Gorge plunged back into the pervasive black fog. The gorge flickered from dark to light, then back into darkness, all within a heartbeat. My eyes were momentarily dazzled by the electrical glare, and before I could blink, I heard a tremendous thunderous explosion. Before the sound of the reverberating thunder had even faded, countless fireballs suddenly erupted from the pitch-black valley floor. All the Pangu Corpse Immortals were struck by the lightning fire, and it seemed even the thick corpse fog around them ignited, setting the very air ablaze.

The lightning fire spread between the two cliffs near Coffin Mountain, as if caught in a scorching yet chillingly icy hurricane. I never dreamed there would be such a massive upheaval. Seeing all the large and small patches of moss and flesh engulfed in fireballs, writhing and struggling on the sheer walls, I immediately threw myself down to take cover. At that moment, perhaps my ears were damaged by the thunder, but I distinctly heard what sounded like a chorus of extremely mournful shrieks and wails echoing through the gorge.

In the conventional theory of Qing Wu Feng Shui, it is generally stated that besides mysterious ghost fire, the fire in the world has three other types: human fire, dragon fire, and heavenly fire. Dragon fire can burn submerged in water; human fire is the mundane fire that burns essence and marrow; while heavenly fire, or lightning fire, is called the fire of worldly resentment. If the virtues of the world decline and decay, or if phenomena arise from aging objects turning monstrous, they easily invite the clash of lightning fire. Folk wisdom says this is the Thunder Duke opening his eyes to punish the wicked and perverse, but in reality, it is an imbalance caused by a deviation in "Qi"—one of the four disciplines of Feng Shui: Form, Momentum, Principle, and Qi—leading to a clash between the heavens and the earth, manifesting as alternating clouds and lightning.

The air was thick with the acrid smell of scorched ozone and the foul stench of burning flesh and bone, choking us to the point of asphyxiation, our vision turning black. The four of us quickly pulled on our gas masks and lay flat on the ground, daring not to move. Fortunately, our clothing was made of fire-resistant and waterproof material, and the masks blocked our living breath, allowing us to survive. Otherwise, in less than a moment, we would all have been burned to death in Coffin Gorge by the lightning fire.

After an agonizingly long period of trepidation, I peered out through my gas mask. The corpse fog engulfed in the lightning fire had dissipated. Daylight had returned to the deep, sheer gorge, and countless black ashes danced in the air, some still retaining embers. It seemed the great calamity had passed. I finally tore off my gas mask. A breath of cool mountain air washed over me. Although the heavy smell of charring had not completely vanished, the oppressive nausea in my chest immediately eased.

The group looked around from the cliff face. The scene before us was truly shocking; surviving by a hair’s breadth only made the reality more poignant. Coffin Mountain and the Earth Immortal Village, struck by the lightning fire, saw Master Feng’s scheme of "Mountain Breaking, Killing Emerges" vanish like melting ice, reduced to dust in an instant. The sliver of daylight above the gorge reappeared. Aside from scorched marks covering the sheer cliffs, not a single bone remained. Only the dark, pulverized ash formed from the burning of the corpses by the lightning fire drifted everywhere on the mountain wind, making it seem as if a torrential black snowstorm had descended upon the gorge.

Within Coffin Mountain, which slanted precariously between the two cliffs, the surrounding rock walls had begun to crumble. The Pangu veins and the Earth Immortal Village were entirely consumed by water and fire. The mud was strewn only with broken bricks and tiles; the jade and spirit-star rocks inside had disintegrated, devoid of any vitality, as small stones and shards continued to fall into the river below.

The most unexpected thing was that the Earth Immortal Village had indeed fulfilled the omen of "Mountain Breaking, Killing Emerges." What was destined to happen in the heavens had finally occurred. This was the true result derived by the Wuyang King’s tomb guardians for Master Feng of the Earth Immortal Village through ancient divination, yet this heavenly revelation was deeply embedded with a malicious curse from the guardians.

Even a marvel like the Earth Immortal Master Feng, possessing profound esoteric arts, failed to perceive the hidden mystery (unclear). The guardians, having suffered the cruel tortures of the Guanshan Taibao, had presented only the "Mountain Breaking, Killing Emerges" as the final sign of the heavenly phenomenon, deliberately concealing the subsequent result, which caused Master Feng’s meticulously planned ancient tomb to be destroyed by lightning fire.

After all this, we were compelled to believe that there truly is a predetermined destiny woven by fate. In fact, the ancient sages and saints had made the principle clear long ago: "Subtle and profound are the mechanisms of Heaven; shifting and changing are the principles of Creation. To interpret Heavenly Principles to guide humanity is acceptable; but to leak Heavenly Secrets to delude people, Heaven will surely punish."

The principles of celestial change can be used to guide people so that life flows endlessly, broad and tolerant. However, the mechanisms of Heaven are subtle and profound, and ordinary mortals should not pry into their secrets, lest they invite disaster and bring harm to themselves and others. Perhaps the arts of alchemy and immortal cultivation are real, possibly ancient, secret techniques, but they must be practiced with a serene, desireless mind. After prolonged practice amidst the gold-water elixir fire, one can strengthen bones and prolong life. But Master Feng, an unparalleled genius, was obsessed with the method of achieving immortality to save and guide the world. Harboring illicit ambition, he forced the displaced descendants of the shamans to divine the heavenly oracle, intending to refine Corpse Immortals, yet he was ultimately deceived, drawing the fire upon himself, resulting in a fate where not even his remains survived.

The weather in Coffin Gorge changed rapidly. Just as the sky cleared, clouds gathered overhead again, and within moments, rain poured down like a deluge, washing away all the flying ash in mid-air. Soaked to the bone, every muscle and sinew felt weak, and every one of the thirty-six thousand pores on our bodies ached. We had no choice but to remain resting in the rock shelter housing the cliffside hanging coffins.

Though exhausted, everyone felt a sense of relief at having survived the catastrophe and seeing daylight again, especially since all the native Pangu Corpse Immortals from the Earth Immortal Village on Coffin Mountain were annihilated.

I vented to Fatty that being tricked by Sun Jiuye into raiding Coffin Mountain this time was a huge blunder; we had clearly been used as pawns. Although there might have been ancient elixirs in the Pangu corpse veins, they weren't the inner core we needed to save Duo Ling—the two were entirely different things. Moreover, Sun Jiuye had vanished by the end, making it difficult to find him to settle the score. Still, emerging with all our limbs intact was a sign that our lineage in tomb raiding was blessed by the ancestors.

Fatty and I cursed Sun Jiuye with such venom that venomous words flew freely. Seeing that the Earth Immortal Village was gone, if Sun Jiuye were standing before us, we would have torn him limb from limb.

Yao Mei’er, unaware of the pearl-diving incident in Hainan or why we were so enraged, felt that surviving a trip through Master Feng’s tomb was already a stroke of luck, and she asked for an explanation.

Fatty immediately began listing Sun Jiuye’s ten major sins on his fingers, even including past moral failings, though those were based on hearsay. Apparently, when Sun Jiuye first returned from re-education at the farm, he seized an opportunity during a field archaeology trip to secretly hook up with a local landlady. He was caught red-handed by the villagers. This was a serious matter at the time, and he was beaten severely with sticks. If his colleagues hadn't vouched for him extensively, the villagers would have turned him over to the authorities.

Afterward, the organization required Sun Jiuye to write a self-criticism, but he stubbornly argued that it wasn't a moral issue with the village woman at all. The situation was very peculiar: because the fleas and lice in rural adobe houses were terrible, covering them completely, he and the landlady were merely picking bugs off each other late at night, and nothing else happened. Sun Jiuye remained utterly unyielding about the incident, refusing to admit the truth or confess to the act.

Fatty claimed that Old Sun was precisely this kind of person, someone who exploited the loopholes of the Reform and Opening Up to amass a false professorship. He believed Sun Jiuye had countless unexposed reactionary crimes under the surface and deserved to be shot ten times over. Fatty had always despised Professor Sun and, letting slip his true feelings, wildly invented every conceivable crime to heap upon him.

Fatty’s claims were so outlandish that Shirley Yang and Yao Mei’er both shook their heads in disbelief. Shirley Yang said, "Professor Sun is definitely not an American CIA spy, but he is a descendant of the Guanshan Feng family, not just an ordinary archaeologist. He must have used his identity as an expert in deciphering the Dragon Bone inscriptions as a disguise. What he has always wanted to do in life is likely just to enter the Earth Immortal Village to find Master Feng. His tenacious and cold character is almost twisted; it’s simply beyond what a normal person can endure, probably stemming from his experiences. Now that things have come to this, hating him won't do any good. Listen to my advice: forgive and let go where you can."

I mulled over Shirley Yang’s words: "Forgive and let go where you can, but Sun Jiuye... is he even human? He has marks of biting by corpse worms, and he seemed unaffected when pierced by the Nine Deaths Shocking Tomb Armor on his shoulder. The Pangu Corpse Immortals couldn't sense his presence at all. What exactly is this shadow-like, ephemeral thing?"

While bandaging our wounds, we whispered about the unbelievable signs surrounding Sun Jiuye, but we could never grasp the essence of the mystery surrounding the last descendant of the Guanshan Feng family. As we spoke, a huge, dark shadow suddenly darted across the cliff face nearby, startling us. In that fleeting glimpse, we saw that this thing was extraordinarily large, cloaked in black robes, scaling the sheer rock as if on flat ground. Its figure, moving swiftly through the clouds and mist across the cliff face, was so rapid it was almost unimaginable.