The PLA squad leader stated, "Did you hear that? The expert said this is a menace. Don't mistake everything you find for the river god next time. We won't pursue this matter, but be more scientific in the future."

Hearing the reprimand from the PLA comrade, the old men nodded repeatedly, perhaps still quite shaken by the recent events.

Just then, the man named Liu San came running, shouting, "Squad Leader, it's bad! The water is rising again over there."

The PLA squad leader let out a 'tsk' upon hearing this. He said, "Everyone, move over and dig a channel, quickly! There's no time to spare."

After giving the order, everyone followed him. A large group labored hard all day and finally managed to break through the channel, successfully diverting the floodwaters into the mountain gully.

That evening, the entire village gathered for a delicious communal stew. The PLA squad leader announced they had to leave that very night, as other disaster areas needed their assistance.

After the meal, since Liu Dashao and Fan Debiao had nothing else to do, they sat listening to the village elders chat. The elders recounted that there used to be no river here. Back in the Song Dynasty, a high-ranking official came here for a tour. Not long after returning, he brought many people and dug a channel down from the Jialing River. When he left, he took several large boatloads of items, though no one ever knew exactly what they were.

Fan Debiao listened and immediately declared that the Song Dynasty official must have been a tomb robber. No wonder there were so few funerary objects in Zhang Jiao's tomb—that scoundrel must have cleared them out.

The four of them rested in the village for the night. When they left the next morning, the villagers offered them peaches, eggs, and, of course, heartfelt gratitude.

On the road, Jackson, the charming fellow whose Chinese name was Wu Sangui, departed. Being a traveler from afar, he naturally had to return to his homeland. This left everyone with a faint melancholy as they waved goodbye. Liu Dashao, however, felt an inexplicable, strange sensation. He couldn't be sure if everything he had experienced was real or illusory. Yet, he was certain he shared some inexplicable connection with the Great Sage.

Images from the tomb flooded his mind: the fate of Daoist Ge remained unknown, and the 'Human Volume' of the Taiping Jing had been tossed into the vortex to escape the pursuit of the Zhang Jiao mummy. Furthermore, there was a coffin in the unfinished ancient tomb, and he had even dreamt of the corpse inside. Could there be a link between these two tombs? Yinglong—yes, Yinglong must be the main clue. However, the entire tomb had collapsed now, making it impossible to uncover the truth.

Thinking of this gave him a headache. Suddenly, Liu Dashao felt something hard in his pocket. He pulled it out to see it was that bead.

Seeing the bead now still gave Liu Dashao a sense of ineffable familiarity, but he could not recall anything about it no matter how hard he tried.

Liu Dashao’s mind suddenly sparked. He remembered Da Guoguo’s parting words about the secret about to be unveiled. What did that mean? Could it be related to that bronze coffin?

If Yinglong hadn't led them to the cliff, they surely would have found that bronze coffin, and perhaps that was the true secret of the Taiping Jing.

Sighing at the thought, he mused that Daoist Ge knew the most secrets; now he might have returned to his origins, and the secrets were buried along with him.

He smiled faintly and glanced back at Mount Pusa. A layer of mist enveloped him, shrouding the mountain in an ethereal haze.

The 'Human Volume' of the Taiping Qingling Shu was entirely imprinted in his mind. He didn't possess eidetic memory, but the fact was abrupt, utterly inconceivable.

However, although the Taiping Qingling Shu was now etched into his consciousness, Liu Dashao had never managed to read it.

This Taiping Qingling Shu, in his mind, manifested like a physical book, three-dimensional, slowly opening its first page.

The first page offered a simple introduction to the concept of Qimen Dunjia, much like a standard synopsis.

But just as Liu Dashao was about to turn the page, he abruptly noticed that if he were to read it in the current manner—horizontally—the first few characters clearly read: 'Liu Dashao.'

He was terrified. How could the Taiping Qingling Shu, a work written a thousand years ago, possibly contain his name?

Unable to make sense of it, he eventually gave up trying to figure it out.

Returning to the construction site, the others were curious when the four of them appeared. They flocked over, asking, "Hey Fan Debiao, what happened to Hu Beikang to make him look like that?"

"Hu Beikang sacrificed himself for our revolutionary cause. This is another comrade, one of ours," Fan Debiao gasped, having run all the way back from Mount Pusa, utterly exhausted. "Someone with good cooking skills, hurry up and whip up some food for me!"

"Hu Beikang sacrificed himself?" everyone was confused.

"I'll explain later. Just get me something to eat quickly; I’m starving." Fan Debiao sat down heavily on a straw mat, refusing to move.

"But Boss, it only took you an hour round trip, and Hu Beikang died just like that? And you're this hungry? Didn't you have dry rations when you left? Did you eat them all in an hour?" one of the workers asked curiously.

"Damn your mother's ass! You were only gone an hour? I was gone for half a month and nearly pooped myself out from exhaustion! Stop spouting nonsense and scram! Get me some food, my stomach is practically glued to my spine!" Fan Debiao cursed angrily.

The workers didn't dare talk back and dispersed.

However, Liu Dashao was still curious about the matter because the fellow workers had no reason to lie to him. He walked over to one of them and asked quietly, "Did we really only go for an hour?"

"Of course. Why would I lie to you? Just one hour, and one person died. Ah, this life is getting harder and harder to live!" After saying that, the man went off to cook.

Seeing this, Liu Dashao’s mind raced, trying to process what was happening.

Finally, he seemed to grasp it: perhaps that tomb, with its mysterious layout that defied modern science, did possess the ability to warp time. A few days inside might equal only an hour outside. Realizing this, he felt a sense of release. Although Ge Qingzhi died saving him, perhaps he had achieved eternal life in that swirling vortex?

For the moment, Liu Dashao could not fathom any further explanation, so he had to let it go.

After gorging themselves, everyone was finally full and collapsed onto their bunks, drifting into a deep sleep.

Waking the next day, after a period of calming their nerves, they finally felt they had completely escaped the day's misfortune.

"Fan Debiao, I wonder if there's a phone nearby? I need to call my brothers and escape from here," Da Guoguo mumbled into Fan Debiao's ear early in the morning.

Fan Debiao groggily replied, "Alright. After daybreak, I’ll take you to a nearby village to make a call."

"No, you don't understand. My face is quite famous; it's flagged at the police station. If we go during the day, we'll definitely be spotted. We should go now, while everything is hazy, and the person answering the phone won't look too closely at us either; they'll be half-asleep too."

Liu Dashao was awakened by their voices and vaguely understood the situation. He told Fan Debiao, "Fan Debiao, you should go with Da Guoguo. If you really get caught, you might have a lot to answer for yourself. Fine."

Fan Debiao sighed helplessly and said, "Alright then, let's go. Master Liu, how about you come along too? After all, we have to pass over a mountain to get there, and that mountain happens to be Mount Pusa. If anything happens, you can help us out of a jam. I’ll give you the day off today, how about that?"

The mention of a legitimate day off immediately energized Liu Dashao, dispelling his drowsiness. He quickly got dressed and followed Fan Debiao and the others toward Mount Pusa.

Their destination was the small village nestled at the foot of Mount Pusa. That location housed the only public telephone within a ten-li radius.