Hearing Tan Ping'er’s shriek, my nerves twitched, thinking she had encountered trouble again. Who knew that when I turned around, I saw Tan Ping’er standing with her legs apart, pointing upwards and exclaiming in surprise, “Ying Ying, sunlight!” I looked up and indeed saw strands of white light filtering down from the darkness above. I was a bit puzzled, “Ping’er, are you sure that’s sunlight?”

“Of course,” Tan Ping’er’s voice held infinite surprise.

“That is indeed sunlight,” Ji Ye confirmed the source of those few wisps of white light.

I grew even more confused. Does this mean we have already exited the Underground Imperial City? Where have we arrived? Also, since we left the Underground Imperial City unintentionally, have we missed the true hiding place of the Tusi King, Tan Cheng?

When I posed this question, Ji Ye shook his head firmly, “No, we are very close to Tan Cheng.”

“How can you be so certain?”

“Have you forgotten the lyric again!”

“Ah? You mean Tan Cheng is buried where the sun rises, which is directly above our heads?”

“I believe so.”

“Then let’s figure out a way up quickly; we don’t know how many more ‘Plum Blossoms’ we have to pass through!” I felt a surge of excitement, sensing victory was near, but recalling that the black plum blossoms on the embroidered shoe soles represented increasingly perilous checkpoints, my chest tightened with anxiety, worried that the closer we got to Tusi King Tan Cheng, the more danger our lives would be in.

Ji Ye said calmly, “If my guess is correct, nature has done us a great favor.”

“What do you mean?” I was utterly bewildered.

“After I left you, I continued wandering around in here. Of course, I’ve been here before, so this path we just walked, I’m traversing it for the second time. I noticed that some places seem to have been buried by landslides a long time ago… Do you understand what I mean?”

A light dawned in my heart, “You mean some of the ‘Plum Blossoms’ no longer exist?”

“Yes.”

“Impossible. Logically, when our ancestors built the Underground Imperial City, they should have considered issues like mudslides or collapses and made corresponding arrangements. How could they just vanish?”

Ji Ye sighed deeply, “Our ancestors thought of everything, except that later generations would destroy nature. Back in the day, our Xi Du was covered in dense forests. Although the mountains were steep and the roads rugged, the vegetation was incredibly rich, preserving the soil and water, so there was naturally no need to worry about mudslides or collapses. But now? Although the forest coverage here is still high, it is vastly inferior to that isolated environment of the past.”

Although I didn’t entirely agree with Ji Ye’s speculation, I couldn’t find a solid reason to refute it. However, this was perhaps for the best; if some areas were buried by landslides or collapses, then the corresponding dangers must also be deeply buried underground, which should make us feel fortunate.

Both the partial unraveling of the mystery and the prospect of victory greatly lifted my spirits. I kicked the sleeping Man Niao Niao, who was snoring and drooling, awake, “Get up, we’re moving!” Man Niao Niao groggily opened his eyes, and the first thing he said was, “Is there anything to eat? I’m starving to a photograph!” Without waiting for me, he walked over to Ji Ye, fumbled out a few sweet potatoes from him, hastily wiped off the mud on his clothes, and began crunching them into his mouth.

Seeing his ravenous eating, I scolded with a laugh, “If there’s a bowl of rice, eat it; next time you’ll be gnawing on a pot lid. Can’t you save some…” Man Niao Niao chuckled, handed one each to me and Tan Ping’er, “I confiscated the rest!”

I was in a good mood and didn't argue with him much. After finishing my sweet potato, I walked to the edge of the large stone, looked up, and saw a pure white, disc-shaped object hanging about two hundred meters above us, nestled against a conical hill. I knew that disc must be the sun, but this gorge was too narrow, and the sunlight filtering down was pitifully scarce, leaving the valley still quite dim. Moreover, as time passed, those few miserable rays of light vanished, and the lovely disc overhead disappeared too. The valley grew even darker; the faint ambient light rendered everything in the gorge hazy and indistinct, and my eyes could only make out large blobs of black and white.

I cursed inwardly. Damn it, when there was no ambient light at all, although my eyes could only see in black and white, I could clearly make out the contours of everything. Why is my vision so much worse now that there is faint daylight? Then, it struck me: I must be completely exhausted from continuous travel, coupled with dizziness from hunger, that led to this situation.

It seemed the priority now was to seek Ji Ye’s help to heal these black-and-white eyes of mine first.

So, I walked over to Ji Ye and explained the condition of my eyes, hoping he could find a way to let me see the colorful world again. Unexpectedly, Ji Ye said cruelly, “Healing your eyes isn't difficult, but now is not the time. We need to find that place, and it's very possible we still need you to have these black-and-white eyes. Just bear with it for now!” Although I was furious enough to blow smoke from all seven orifices, I was helpless. Thinking it over, even if Ji Ye cured my eyes now, without glasses, my nearsightedness would be worse than being blind.

“Damn dog, what are all those eggs on that cliff face opposite?” Man Niao Niao suddenly asked, shading his eyes with his hand.

Startled by such an irrelevant remark from Man Niao Niao, I didn't react immediately and angrily snapped at him, “Are you hallucinating from hunger, you brute? Where would there be eggs in such a desolate place? Did your own two balls fly over to the other side?”

As I grumbled, Tan Ping’er bounced over, pointing at the opposite cliff face, “It really is eggs, look, such big eggs… Huh? That’s strange, why do those eggs look like they are being born from the rock?” Hearing Tan Ping’er mention eggs too, I realized the situation might not be as simple as I thought. I quickly looked back and indeed saw, amidst the tangle of wild trees and weeds, some vaguely egg-shaped objects. Looking closer, most of those enormous egg-shaped things were half-embedded in the rock face, and nearby were some egg-shaped hollows and depressions in the rock, looking as if the egg-shaped objects had detached from the stone.

I roughly estimated the distance between those hollows and realized I could use them to climb up. My heart leaped with joy. I spotted a large fir tree slanted slightly below the large stone we were standing on; the height of the fir tree looked sufficient to create a makeshift bridge, making the jump from this cliff face to the other side seem manageable.

For some reason, I suddenly found courage. I tightly secured the Ba Wang Sword to my waist with a vine, then leaped, aiming for the fir tree with its bushy branches. As I neared the treetop, I frantically grabbed the branches, enduring the sharp, dull, and stinging pains throughout my body, and slid down to the base of the trunk. First, I used a vine to securely tie myself to a thicket of nearby bushes, then drew the Ba Wang Sword and began hacking madly at the fir tree as if wielding a cleaver.

The Ba Wang Sword was exceedingly sharp. With the sweet potato bolstering my energy, my strength had recovered considerably. The fir tree was soon cut nearly to the point of falling. Then I stopped, pushed hard, and the fir tree crashed down towards the opposite cliff face, landing at just the right distance. I had initially planned to cut off the branches, but then I realized having them there offered significantly more security, at least psychologically. I instructed Tan Ping'er to carry Hua’er and bravely jump to my location. Tan Ping’er complied without asking questions. Man Niao Niao and Ji Ye, both men native to this rugged land, paid little attention to such a maneuver; they leaped and sprang swiftly to my side.

Once everyone had gathered, I gave a few brief instructions, strapped the Ba Wang Sword onto my back, let Hua’er perch on my shoulder, and cautiously began to climb across the opposite cliff face using the fir tree branches. It didn't feel like much when I was at the base of the fir tree, but when I reached the middle, waves of cold, damp mist surged up from the bottom of the gorge, spreading wantonly among the pine needles. Soon, my vision became blurred. Fortunately, I held tightly onto the thicker branches, daring not to look to either side of the fir tree, much less down. I concentrated entirely on moving my hands and feet. After about four or five minutes, amid the slight groans of the fir tree, I finally reached the opposite cliff face.

At the end of the fir tree, coincidentally, there was a cradle-shaped, oval rock hollow. Above it were several other similar hollows, varying in size, arranged irregularly. Above, below, and on all sides of the hollows were protuberances and indentations. Looking closely, one could see that the protruding parts were some larger, very white, egg-shaped stones, some only slightly attached to the cliff, while others looked as if they were just emerging from a hen’s vent, like fresh eggs.