Chapter 77: Sorting Things Out

Xiao Wu was one of Fourth Brother’s people, so I couldn’t count on him anymore. Lu A’yao’s phone had been unreachable the entire time. That guy was like a ghost—always vanishing, full of secrets. I didn’t plan on asking him for help either. At this point, the only person I could rely on was He Yu.

I went downstairs and packed two servings of stewed noodles for him, then dragged a small stool over to the table in the living room. I leaned over it and spent a full two hours recounting everything that had happened to me over the past six months in painstaking detail.

He Yu ate happily, and when I finally finished talking, he didn’t have much of a reaction. I slapped him and snapped, “Were you even listening?”

He Yu sucked in a breath from the pain. “I was, I was! Why are you so worked up? I was just… digesting your words—no, not in my stomach, in my heart! You went on and on, but really, you were just trying to say two things, right? First, the matter with the box. Second, your Fourth Brother. Am I wrong?”

He hit the nail on the head. For some reason, it gave me the strange feeling that he’d known me for years.

After He Yu finished slurping down both bowls of noodles, we sat and talked through a lot of the details. We came up with several possible explanations. But back then, I was still young and didn’t think things through very well. Now, years later, I can’t remember all the finer points, but I’ll jot down everything I can recall.

First, at least three teams entered the cave: my team with Hou Jinshan, Liu Wan’s team, and my Fourth Brother’s team. Lu A’yao could be considered a separate team as well. Then there was that mysterious expedition group that came out of the deep mountains and knocked Xiao Wu unconscious—they could count as another team too.

Based on what we knew at the time, the biggest question was whether Lu A’yao was part of that expedition group. If they were the same team, why were they using radio frequencies to communicate, yet had camps set up in completely different locations?

That expedition group felt completely out of place in the whole affair. If Xiao Wu hadn’t told me about them, I never would’ve guessed there was another team involved. It’s possible they had been exploring the ruins since before we even entered the cave, and we just never crossed paths or realized they were there.

I drew a rough map based on the areas I had explored, then dug through diagrams of ancient ruins. I realized that, structurally, the area I had entered was likely the lowest level of the entire ruin—a drainage system.

That meant there had to be an upper level, probably a hollowed-out space directly above the massive bronze pillar. That area was too high up; I never got anywhere near it.

Fourth Brother, on the other hand, had approached the bronze pillar from above, through the caves. The upper section must be just as significant as the lower drainage area. Judging by that, their team must have entered the ruins much earlier than we did.

Then there was the incident where Xiao Wu and I fell into the water and were rescued by Lu A’yao. After he brought Xiao Wu to the surface, something must have happened down below—and it involved me. When He Yu and I discussed this part, he clearly leaned toward believing Liu Wan’s version of events.

Liu Wan said that when they found me, I was downstream. But that directly contradicted Xiao Wu’s claim that Lu A’yao had rescued us upstream and brought us up to the River Channel. One said upstream, the other said downstream. That wasn’t just a minor discrepancy—it was nearly 80 percent of the River Channel’s length.

So either one of them was lying, or… both were telling the truth.

As strange as it sounded, it wasn’t impossible. After arguing back and forth, we landed on a chilling possibility.

Maybe, after Lu A’yao brought Xiao Wu to the surface, he went back into the cave to find me. But by then, I had mysteriously vanished from the River Channel. So he followed the water downstream searching for me, and along the way, happened to fish out Hou Jinshan. The two of them then continued forward together and eventually reached the area near the bronze pillar.

As for how he managed to get to the bronze pillar—if the Liu family members could do it, I figured Lu A’yao could too.

But how was that even possible? I had nearly drowned, had a gunshot wound, and was in a deep coma. How could I have ended up downstream on my own?

“Maybe a ghost carried you there,” He Yu said with a grin.

“Screw you! You’re the one who got carried off by a ghost!” I nearly slapped him across the face. After venting, I started thinking again. “If it wasn’t a ghost, then was it a person? Could there have been someone else in the ruins besides our teams?”

He Yu cut me off immediately, telling me not to overthink it. “Come on, we already had five teams in there. Any more and we could’ve thrown a banquet.”

He also said maybe Lu A’yao didn’t secure me properly when he rescued me, and I slipped back into the water and drifted downstream on my own.

“I really don’t get you bookish types. Always overanalyzing everything. What’s the point? In the end, you just drive yourselves crazy. And that box—come on, it was pitch black that night. You took one quick look and decided the dead person was the one in that photo?”

He Yu grumbled as he cleaned up the takeout containers.

I didn’t respond. I didn’t argue either. But that didn’t mean I was going to dismiss what I believed just because of a few words from him. Fourth Brother once said I never listened to advice, that stubbornness was in my bones and wouldn’t change even in a hundred years. On that point, I had to admit he was right.

“What about that close-up shot of the diagram?” He Yu asked after washing his hands and coming back over.

I snapped out of my thoughts, pulled out my phone, and opened the photo album to show him the image. The phone camera hadn’t done a great job—under the dim firelight, only about three out of ten photos were even remotely clear.

Still, He Yu stared at the phone for a long time. He looked unusually serious, like he was really trying to find something in the image. Seeing that, I leaned in and asked, “What is it? Did you find something?”

He Yu pursed his lips and rubbed his chin. “This is definitely the Nieyao Ghost Market Map, but just like your Fourth Brother said, the drawing is crude. It’s not the original. Still, the content is remarkably similar to the legends, so in terms of what it depicts, it should be reliable.”

“I’ve never heard the version of the legend Hou Jinshan told you, but from the way he described it, it sounds like very few people even know about it anymore. It’s half-truth, half-fiction. From what he said, I don’t see anything that directly connects to this mural.”

“To me, the Nieyao Ghost Market Map has always been just another name for the Market of a Hundred Ghosts. But if we really have to link it to something, this mural actually reminds me of something we saw back in the Gansu Corridor.”

Hearing that, I asked, “What kind of connection?”

He Yu pointed at the image on the phone and said, “The Nine-Bend Corridor Ruins. Don’t you remember? The ruins were interpreted as a kind of market, right? That’s basically the same concept as the Ghost Market. If my interpretation is correct, then the Nieyao Ghost Market Map is actually a depiction of the Nine-Bend Corridor Ruins.”

He set my phone down, pursed his lips, and after thinking for a while, suddenly exclaimed, “So that’s what it was!”

I didn’t get it at all and quickly urged him to explain. He Yu cleared his throat and, putting on a serious face, asked, “Do you remember the mural we saw last time in Gansu, the one in the corridor?”

I thought for a moment, then nodded. “Stop teasing and just say it!”

He Yu said, “Think about it. One of the murals we saw showed a giant centipede hanging upside down from the sky, right? It was using a bronze pillar to support itself. Do you remember that? Doesn’t it look exactly like the one you guys climbed?”

His words sent a chill down my spine. I suddenly remembered the massive pools Liu Wan had pulled me through before we reached the bronze pillar area. One of the Gansu murals had a similar giant pool, and it took up a huge portion of the painting.

So does that mean the mural was actually depicting the ruins beneath Shennongjia in Hubei? But Liu Wan once told me that those ruins were just a prototype, a model at best, offering only a glimpse of what the real Ghost Market might look like.

If that wasn’t the real Ghost Market Map, then those ruins couldn’t possibly be the true Nine-Bend Corridor Ruins. And to think the tomb owner in Gansu treated that thing like some priceless treasure.

“Don’t bother thinking about it,” He Yu said. “Your Fourth Brother and the others are definitely going after the legendary Ghost Market. This time, they even brought the Nine-Ring Jade Casket with them. The Water System Map on that casket is definitely connected to the Ghost Market. If they manage to decipher all the Royal Tombs marked on it, they might just find the real thing!”

“But there are thousands of black dots on that map, maybe even ten thousand. How long would it take to go through all of them?” I asked.

He Yu closed the phone and handed it back to me. He tapped the table. “You’ve seen the map. I’ve told you everything I should—and shouldn’t—say. Now tell me, what exactly are you planning?”

I looked up at him and gave a fawning smile.

“You’re creeping me out,” He Yu muttered. “Don’t tell me… you’re thinking of going with them?”

I nodded hard, then grinned and grabbed his arm. He immediately tried to pull away. “No way, absolutely not. Taking an amateur like you along is against the rules. No way. Don’t even try to act cute. I’m telling you, it’s not happening. Let go of my hand!”

“Don’t you want to see what the Ghost Market really looks like? I’ve been digging into this for so long. Even the prototype was that stunning—imagine how amazing the real one must be. And you love documenting things, right? If you manage to record all of this, just that alone would make you famous even after you’re dead!”

Seeing He Yu hesitate and his resistance weaken, I kept pushing.

“You’ve got the connections. Just help me ask around. If you can’t find Fourth Brother, then ask about Tian Yuqing. If we get caught, I’ll say I forced you into it. It won’t have anything to do with you. How about it?”

End of Volume Two: Nieyao Ghost Market Map

# Nu River – Tower of Ten Thousand Infants