Upon returning to Beijing, I recounted the situation with my fellow disciple, Zhang Yingchuan, to the others. According to his calculations, merely taking the Mu Chen Pearl westwards would naturally resolve some of the outstanding issues. "Encountering water leads to the middle way," meaning progress could only be made where there was water. The first place that came to my mind was the Lake of the Fairies, suspended high in the sky. Regarding the Demon Kingdom, there is no historical record; the only information lies within the "Ballad of the Victorious King of Artifacts," sung by the bards of the Tibetan region. Once all preparations were complete, I planned to head to Tibet first, to the shore of Lake Latso Lhamo to find my Lama uncle. If the Lama was still alive, he would certainly be able to help find a divinely appointed bard.

Shirley Yang showed me a list of necessary supplies and equipment for the trip to Tibet, asking if there was anything else I needed to add. Some of these items had to be shipped from America, while the more traditional tools would be procured by Da Jinya. Anything he couldn't buy, he was responsible for commissioning. It would take at least ten days to gather everything completely.

I told Shirley Yang, "With you handling the logistics, there's nothing for me to worry about; you think of things I wouldn't! However, you must prepare a massive quantity of ginger—aim for at least six to seven hundred catties. Regarding ginger, we should treat it like Han Xin’s army—the more, the merrier. We need to press it all into ginger juice and take it to Tibet. To excavate the Nine-Story Demon Tower beneath the snow mountains, we simply cannot operate without ginger juice."

Both she and Fatty looked puzzled. Fatty asked, "Are you planning to boil ginger soup with this much juice? I think we should bring more strong liquor instead; that's what you need for the cold on the snowy mountains."

I explained to him, "You haven't been to the Tibetan snow mountains, so you don't know. Our unit once worked inside an ancient glacier in the Kunlun Mountains. The millennia-old black ice there was harder than you can imagine. Hitting it with a pickaxe only leaves a white mark; ordinary tools can't even scratch it. But everything in this world has its countermeasure—every property has its subjugation. Just as rice vinegar can erode rammed earth, coating the ice-cutting tools with ginger juice allows them to slice through with less resistance—though certainly not as smoothly as cutting tofu, it saves a great deal of strength. We don't know how deep the Nine-Story Demon Tower is buried beneath the ice, so we must prepare as much ginger juice as possible."

Within a few days, Da Jinya had finished forging the Faqiu Seal. Seeing the time was right, I told him, "Master Jin, you are now the head of the Sino-British Hong Kong Liaison Group. It’s time to invite Uncle Ming out to discuss terms!" Da Jinya immediately sent word to Uncle Ming, who replied that Uncle Ming was waiting for us as eagerly as a serf awaiting the Red Army. He invited everyone to his residence that very evening for detailed discussions.

Our entire contingent, four people in total, arrived at Uncle Ming's quiet and antique courtyard house. Uncle Ming said he was fully prepared to depart for Tibet at any time, but he still lacked an item to suppress corpses.

I told him, "Although the ancient mirror of the Legalist ancestor is gone, fortunately, I found a bronze seal belonging to the Faqiu Tianguan. Even the Corpse King of Western Hunan, suppressed by the eight characters on this seal—'Tianguan Bestows Fortune, All Taboos Are Broken'—will never stir again. This bronze seal not only restrains corpse transformation but also wards off malevolent forces and divine assaults; the evil gods within the Nine-Story Demon Tower are no exception."

Uncle Ming said, "That is excellent! My ancestors were corpse carriers for generations, and having sailed in Nanyang for so many years, local customs have made me very superstitious about these things. With this object, regardless of whether it’s actually needed, my courage is bolstered. Otherwise, I truly wouldn't dare touch the Glacial Crystal Corpse."

Uncle Ming took the Faqiu Seal out of its box to examine it closely. Fearing he might spot the flaw, I quickly gave Da Jinya a look. Da Jinya immediately launched into an elaborate, obfuscating monologue about the seal’s origins. With Fatty and me chiming in to support him, we managed to fool Uncle Ming for the time being. After all, this seal was an antique, and the aging techniques at the Fanggu Zhai were unparalleled. Though Uncle Ming was steeped in this world, he was completely unfamiliar with the Faqiu Seal, so he was momentarily convinced.

Uncle Ming said, "Brother Hu, if I understand correctly, only three of you Mojin Xiaowei are going this time—besides Fatty Jin, it will be you leading, along with this beautiful lady and that heavy-set fellow. Since you are willing to help, we will surely succeed in digging out the Glacial Crystal Corpse from the snowy mountain! I lay down the terms in advance: half of the funerary objects from the Nine-Story Demon Tower go to you, the Glacial Crystal Corpse is mine, and as compensation, you can pick anything you like from the antiques in this room. If this massive deal goes through, it will be enough for us to live comfortably for several lifetimes. We can retire afterward!"

I thought to myself that the Nine-Story Demon Tower in Tibet mostly contained bone artifacts, with little gold or jade; whether we got those items didn't matter much to us. The most important thing was to rely on Uncle Ming’s intelligence to locate a well-preserved tomb of the Demon Kingdom, which would certainly contain clues to help us find the temple dedicated to the eyeball totem.

Eager to know the details of the Nine-Story Demon Tower, I said to Uncle Ming, "As long as the equipment and supplies are fully prepared, we can start action within five or six days. Can you share the detailed intelligence resources now so we can analyze them and develop a few plans for discussion?"

Uncle Ming looked troubled. He explained that the clue provided by the museum was merely a sutra stolen and sold from Tibet before the Liberation. This book recorded legends of the Guge Kingdom, including the fact that the "Guge Silver Eye" was a distribution map of the successive mausoleums of the Demon Kingdom. The Nine-Story Demon Tower where the evil god was buried, and the great gate sealed by the Victorious King of Artifacts where demons were imprisoned—clues to all of these could be found in the "Guge Silver Eye." If we wanted to find that demonic tower, we first had to go to the Guge ruins in Ali to find enlightenment.

I served five years in the army near the border of Qinghai and Tibet and had never heard of any Guge Kingdom ruins in Tibet. Fatty and Da Jinya knew even less; they just stared at each other, speechless.

Shirley Yang seemed to know something: "The royal city of the Guge Kingdom was discovered by the Italian explorer Professor Tucci in the early 1930s. He asserted that it was one of the most mysterious regions in the world, which shocked the globe. Many American media outlets ran detailed reports on it. Among the mysteriously vanished cities and kingdoms, the Guge ruins are the closest to our current era, yet their air of mystery is scarcely less than that of Jingjue or Loulan." (Note: While the Guge Kingdom ruins were discovered in the 1930s, China's official, thorough investigation of the Guge ruins only began around 1985.)

The Ali region of Tibet is an almost unknown "secret land"; even those who live in Tibet year-round know nothing about the mysterious "Ali." That region is bordered by the Himalayas to the south and the main peak of the Gangdese mountain range, "Gang Rinpoche," to the north. That sacred mountain is the holy mountain for Hindus, Jains, Bonpos, and Tibetan Buddhists alike—the most sacred "place of reverence" in the hearts of believers.

Beneath this peak, which converges all manner of mysterious elements, lies an area isolated from the world—the region where the Guge Kingdom ruins are located. The Guge Kingdom was a kingdom established by descendants of the Tubo, lasting over five centuries and possessing a glorious Buddhist civilization. But how it was destroyed overnight is unrecorded in history. It even preserves the scene of decapitation and massacre, the "Cave of the Headless." The legends surrounding it may never be fully told; too many secrets await explorers and archaeological teams to unravel.

This was all Shirley Yang knew about the Guge ruins; she had never heard of the "Guge Silver Eye." But the mention of an "eye" stirred something in my heart—it seemed I was another step closer to the gloomy truth of that bottomless ghost hole. All current clues were pointing toward the Tibetan region.

Uncle Ming explained that the "Guge Silver Eye" was a complex, large-scale bas-relief sculpture, its centerpiece being a colossal eyeball. The meaning of this mural, recorded in Tibetan Buddhist scriptures, might be an account of Master Padmasambhava and the Victorious King of Artifacts eradicating the Demon Kingdom. The Demon Kingdom was a nation that worshipped reincarnation and evil gods. Although the "Guge Silver Eye" resembles a giant eye, in the eyes of those versed in Esoteric Feng Shui, it is actually a coordinate map. The scroll Uncle Ming held contained a map of the Demon Kingdom’s territory, including the Demon Kingdom’s evil mountains and ghost lakes, as well as the demonic tower that entombed the Glacial Crystal Corpse—all this information could be located within the Silver Eye.

Uncle Ming stated he had already collected materials on Esoteric Feng Shui. Esoteric Feng Shui is far less complex than the Central Plains' Qingwu Feng Shui. All that was needed was a Mojin Xiaowei who understood the Dragon-Seeking Art, carrying the sutras to the temples among the Guge ruins to cross-reference the "Guge Silver Eye," and it would be easy to pinpoint the desired location.

After hearing Uncle Ming’s explanation, I thought this Hong Kong fellow truly had a deep reserve of cunning. He shared the clue with us, but as long as the sutra remained in his hands, there was no way for us to act without him. It seemed we had no choice but to first help him excavate the demonic tower and unearth that ancient corpse.

I tried to persuade Uncle Ming again: "Tibet has a high altitude and low oxygen; many places make even ghosts hesitate. At your age, you don't necessarily need to go in person."

Uncle Ming remained stubborn: "For such a huge undertaking, if I don't watch it closely, others will take the money. This isn't about distrusting you; it's about wanting to oversee it myself. Only by earning it with my own sweat can I taste the sweetness. I used to sail for over twenty years; though I’m in my fifties, my physical condition is absolutely no problem."

Seeing that no amount of persuasion would work, I conceded. If he wanted to go, let him go, but if anything went wrong, he would have to accept the consequences. Counting this up, there would be four of us going to Tibet, plus a guide and some porters.

Uncle Ming corrected me, "How could there only be four? I need to bring some trusted associates. Besides myself, I need my bodyguard, Peter Huang, and my wife in the mainland, Han Shuna, who is an expert in antique appraisal. I also need my goddaughter, Ah Xiang, who is my most capable assistant. Tallying that up—one, two, three... not counting the guide and porters—our team totals seven people. We depart in five days, heading first to the Guge ruins beneath Mount Gang Rinpoche."