The skin on the back of my hand was only itchy, not painful. When Jie forced his fingers to pinch and pull at it, I nearly tumbled headfirst off the platform. I hastily twisted the searchlight on my helmet around. Near my wrist, two or three small, dark green fleshy nodules had sprouted. They only caused a slight itch when left alone, but touching them felt like ripping flesh upwards against the grain, the pain reverberating through the marrow of my entire arm. I quickly checked the rest of my body; everything else was normal.

At this point, Inley Yang, Fatty, and the others also turned on their light sources. I asked them to check themselves for anything unusual, but apart from me, Inley Yang, Uncle Ming, and Fatty were all fine.

This was truly bizarre. The group hadn't separated a single step since arriving at the Black Tiger Altar. Why was I the only one exhibiting an abnormality? If we didn't figure something out, I feared I would sprout the "Blood Lure Red Flower" too.

While trying to process this, I noticed Ah Xiang collapsed beside me, unconscious. Blood was dripping from her nose. The side of her face stained with blood was covered in the same green fleshy nodules. She also had some on her hand. Ah Xiang sometimes bled from the nose when she saw things she didn't want to see. Earlier, in the outer cave, she had just seen the "Blood Lure Red Flower," and her nose immediately began to bleed—a phenomenon that had occurred before and hadn't alarmed us.

Only now did we understand: the "Blood Lure," a plant that spreads death, scatters invisible pollen in the air. Once it contacts fresh blood on the skin, it takes root and grows. From the moment Ah Xiang saw it, she had been infected with the blood toxin.

Just moments ago, while everyone was leaning over the stone platform observing the activity below, Ah Xiang, suddenly realizing her nose wouldn't stop bleeding, grabbed my wrist to tell me, smearing blood onto the back of my hand before she collapsed. I had assumed she saw something alarming below; I never suspected this accident.

Inley Yang moved to staunch Ah Xiang's bleeding, but I quickly warned him not to touch the blood. I told him he could stop the nasal hemorrhage by pressing on the upper part of Ah Xiang's ear cartilage—pressure on the right ear to stop bleeding from the left nostril, and vice versa. But under no circumstances should he touch her blood.

In the dynamics of Yin-Yang Feng Shui, the "Blood Lure" is explained as a place where Sheng Qi (vital life energy) is excessively abundant, causing corpses to remain uncorrupted and their vital energy to persist. Over years and decades, not only do the bodies slowly begin to swell and enlarge, but fleshy flowers also bloom every twelve hours. While this is unfortunate for the dead, for a living person to grow these things means facing only two options: First, flee far away, leaving the place of excessive Sheng Qi; the Blood Lure would then naturally recede without treatment. However, this region was the Abyss of the First Emperor, and relying solely on the opening of No. 11, escape was impossible in a short time. The second option was to remain here until the Blood Lure, known as the "Fruit of the Living," flowered and bore fruit. In that case, the living person would transform into a bloated corpse.

Uncle Ming saw his goddaughter's spirit barely clinging on, her life hanging by a thread, and cried out mournfully, "Are you serious? This time, it’s really all over. The thugs and bodyguards are gone, my wife is gone, the glacial crystal corpse is gone, and now my goddaughter is going to die too..."

I told Uncle Ming, "Stop wailing yet. I have Blood Lure growing on my hand too. If you can't bear to lose your goddaughter, I can't bear to lose myself. Right now, we need to quickly find a solution. Haven't the Tibetan locals always said this proverb—'Tears shed that fill a shoreline are less useful than an idea the size of a button'?"

Hearing there was still hope, Uncle Ming quickly asked, "You have a solution? As expected, Brother Hu is composed and resourceful in a crisis. What is your plan? Please enlighten this old fool. If you can truly save Ah Xiang, I'll willingly marry my goddaughter to you; we’ll be family in the future..."

I didn't answer, scoffing inwardly. The old man from Hong Kong was terrified I would abandon him in this danger and wanted to seal a marriage alliance. He truly underestimated me. That kind of stunt might fool Fatty, but not me. Surprisingly, Fatty wasn't fooled either. He interjected, "Uncle Ming, if you truly cared for Ah Xiang, would you have dared bring her to Tibet with such a huge risk? Why aren't your two beloved sons here to help? Being stepchildren certainly makes a difference."

Fatty, unlike me, spoke without restraint. Those few sentences clearly hit Uncle Ming's sore spot. Uncle Ming had no argument; his face shifted between pale and red, making him terribly awkward.

I elbowed Fatty, telling him to shut up. In truth, Uncle Ming treated Ah Xiang quite well. Of course, if she were his biological daughter, he certainly wouldn't have dared bring her to a region with such harsh conditions as the Kunlun Mountains. People are not saints; everyone has selfish motives. It wasn't entirely his fault.

Inley Yang saw us arguing, seemingly ignoring Ah Xiang’s plight on the stone platform. While pressing down on Ah Xiang's ear cartilage to stop the bleeding, he addressed us: "Stop arguing! Everything in the world has its counter and its complement. Within five steps of a venomous snake, there must be an antidote herb. That small green creature below feeds on the Blood Lure; its body must contain something capable of neutralizing the Blood Lure toxin, or perhaps it eats other things in this cave..."

I nodded. "If one takes three steps, one can accomplish three things; if one squats still, one will only starve to death. Fatty, you and I are going down to catch that little creature with the green fur." With that, I threw two emergency flares down from the platform. The dog-like creature below was still feeding on the last few fruits from a corpse. If we didn't act now, it would likely burrow back into a crevice in the cave floor after finishing its meal.

Fatty used the flare light to get a clear view of the situation below. Trying to take the easy way out, he pulled out his pistol to shoot. Fatty’s motions—drawing the gun, releasing the safety, loading, aiming, and firing—happened almost simultaneously. It was too late for me to stop him. In a flurry, I lifted his arm, and Fatty's shot went wide, hitting the cave wall instead.

The bullet chipped stone, sending debris flying. The vibration was considerable, and the seemingly blind and clumsy little creature was startled, turning to crawl back. I told Fatty, "Don't kill it; catch it alive first." As I spoke, I jumped off the platform, landing on the male corpse below, blocking the creature's retreat.

The stone platform wasn't very high. Fatty turned around and climbed down after me. We flanked the little green-furred dog, both drawing our entrenching tools. The thing looked clumsy and stupid, only knowing how to incessantly eat the "Fruit of the Living," but its limbs looked thick and powerful. Feeling cornered front and back, it began spinning in place, its snake-like face sporting a wide mouth that opened and closed in a foul, putrid stench.

This small beast was covered in fleshy folds and dense green, stiff fur. We had never heard of such an animal. Fatty and I, operating on initial assumptions, thought it might be a form of Jiangshi (a hopping corpse), but it differed too much from a human. Perhaps it was a Jiangshi formed from a dead wild beast. Since its body was black-green and foul-smelling, it was certainly poisonous. However, its size was only that of a small dog, suggesting capturing it alive shouldn't be too difficult.

The little beast spun twice, then charged headlong at Fatty, snapping its jaws wildly. Fatty swung his entrenching tool down, striking its head. Although the creature's hide and flesh were thick, the blow from the shovel enraged it. It lunged and tackled Fatty to the ground. Fatty shoved a dried black donkey's hoof forward, forcing it into the creature's mouth.

The dog-like animal had clearly never tasted a black donkey's hoof and must have found it unpleasant, shaking its head violently, trying to spit it out. Fatty used his head to pin its mouth shut and grabbed its forelegs with both hands, resulting in a stalemate of straining force.

I caught up from behind, wrapping the little monster's snout with duct tape over a dozen times, then binding its legs and feet with rope.

I pulled Fatty up from the ground. Fatty said, "This thing was easier to handle than I expected. Maybe all it does all day is eat and sleep, nothing else. But what exactly is this thing? It doesn't look like a dog to me."

Uncle Ming and Inley Yang saw we succeeded and immediately brought Ah Xiang down from the stone platform. I looked at the Blood Lure nodules on the back of my hand; in this short time, they had doubled in size. Ah Xiang’s condition was far more serious than mine. If she wasn't treated quickly, her life might not be saved.

Fatty kicked the captured animal: "Can this thing be the antidote? Look how ugly it is; its flesh and blood might also be poisonous. Is it a case of using poison to fight poison?"

Inley Yang said, "I’m not sure what this animal is, but there are only two possibilities: either something it secretes can neutralize the blood properties, or the environment it lives in or the other food it consumes can neutralize the toxicity. We should search around this cave area; we might find something."

We didn't dare delay and split up to examine the cave floor. I walked toward the massive iceberg crystal stone, covered in numerous Esoteric symbols. Before I could even take in what the carvings depicted, I spotted something strange beneath the stone. From above, it had looked like a red wooden coffin pressing down, but what was actually there, underneath the giant crystal, was an empty turtle shell with a red base and black markings, seemingly crushed for a very long time. The great turtle must have died and decomposed long ago.

Uncle Ming also saw the empty shell. A turtle carapace with red base and black patterns was extremely rare. Legend says that among the "Phoenix, Qilin, Dragon, and Tortoise"—the Four Mythical Beasts—the Tortoise specifically refers to ancient turtles whose shells have turned dark red over a thousand years. Uncle Ming suddenly looked thoughtful, then glanced back at the animal Fatty had captured. He rushed over to me, saying, "This time we’ve struck it rich... That thing isn't a dog's Jiangshi; it's a Molting Turtle! Ah Xiang can be saved."

Seeing Uncle Ming overly agitated and incoherent, I asked him to calm down and explain clearly: What did he mean by striking it rich and that she could be saved?

Uncle Ming couldn't wait. He first used his shovel to cut off a piece of the turtle shell, mashed it with water, and smeared it onto the areas where the Blood Lure had grown on me and Ah Xiang. A bone-chilling coolness spread, and the itching and pain on our skin immediately subsided significantly.

Only after seeing Ah Xiang out of danger did Uncle Ming tell us the story. When Peter Huang was a pirate, he intercepted a passenger ship, but strangely, everyone aboard was dead. Many corpses in the hold were covered in mushroom-like blood algae. The pirates killed a small water lizard on board, but many others who touched the blood on the corpses were near death. The pirate boss, familiar with maritime matters, suspected something was hidden on the ship. He ordered a thorough search and indeed found a turtle shell trapped between cargo containers in the hold. A turtle old enough to molt must have consumed special things in the water, transforming into a spirit that killed everyone on the ship. Wherever it crawled, the deceased developed fleshy flowers and grass, and after being consumed, the essence and blood were lost, turning them into mummies. Down in the abyss beneath the Dragon’s head, Sheng Qi was likely so abundant that one corpse could repeatedly grow the Blood Lure.

Its shell is a treasure that can cure all toxic syndromes; it is virtually priceless in the world. This entire shell wouldn't just be called expensive; it was invaluable. At that time, the pirates killed each other fighting over this item, and Peter Huang nearly lost his life. It was then that Uncle Ming saved Peter Huang at sea, learning about the Molting Turtle from him. When they returned to find the ship again, the pirate vessel had already exploded and sunk, forcing them to return empty-handed.

Later, as time passed, the incident faded from memory. Now, seeing the empty turtle shell pressed beneath the crystal stone, its texture and color beyond comparison, he finally recalled it. It seemed one must accumulate good karma; the small effort of saving Peter Huang's life back then had now saved his goddaughter. Saving a life is better than building a seven-story pagoda; doing good deeds brings good rewards.

Hearing how valuable the item was, Fatty immediately began trying to dig out the entire shell from underneath. I thought Uncle Ming, in his concluding remarks, was subtly cornering me again. Perhaps in Hong Kong and Nanyang, there was a lack of genuine sincerity between people, but constantly saying things like that genuinely annoyed me. I decided I would find a chance to scare him half to death again later. For now, I placated Uncle Ming: "If you don't search the mountain, you won't understand; you must ask the elders. Very few people know everything; even fewer know nothing. It is you, the old sea dog, who is experienced and knowledgeable; we are ignorant and have never heard such strange tales..."

My mind was distracted talking to Uncle Ming, but my eyes were fixed on the huge square iceberg crystal stone. After just a few glances, the carvings on the stone gripped my vision completely. Could the "Xian King" of Yunnan have visited this place?