Chapter 112: Reinforcements from the Heavens

I wondered if he was being a bit dramatic. Lu Ayao had only exchanged a few words with Tian Yuqing, so how did they end up being labeled as thick as thieves? Besides, even if he really was in league with Tian Yuqing, the man was still Tian Xiaoqi’s cousin. She couldn’t possibly fly into a murderous rage just because she couldn’t get the answers she wanted, right?

“This is a bit much, isn’t it?” I forced a chuckle.

Guangtou waved a hand dismissively. “Don’t be so sure. She really is capable of it. Didn’t you see her trying to kill that guy Lu back in the stone passage? That wasn’t an act.”

I recalled those unpleasant experiences, and a chill ran down my spine. Before we could say anything more, Qiao Sangui asked me to continue leading the way.

He Yu walked beside me, shoulder to shoulder, as I silently counted my steps.

After walking about twenty meters, I noticed He Yu was dying to say something, but since I was still counting, he had to swallow his words. After another twenty meters, I couldn’t take it anymore. I hit him and told him to spit it out already and stop looking at me with those longing, unrequited eyes.

He Yu acted as if he had been granted a royal pardon, playing the role of a palace eunuch in front of me. “Your Majesty, your servant has a report.”

“Speak,” I said, switching to counting the bricks on the wall.

“I think what Guangtou said sounded somewhat true. We need to take it to heart,” He Yu said, tapping me with his knuckles. “I’m giving you a heads-up now. Before, you kept making excuses for her because she’s a girl, and look where that got us. We all got played. If you ask me, we should have dislocated her limbs back then.”

I didn’t respond, as I couldn’t really argue with him this time. Once I reached the required number of steps, I stopped. Before us was a wall identical to the previous one, with nearly the same statues. I called the others over to help move them.

As the stone wall opened with a rumble, He Yu started nagging in my ear again:

“Besides, Tian Xiaoqi is a doctor. She knows every inch of human anatomy inside out. It’s hard to kill someone outright, but it’s incredibly easy to torture them. If Lu Ayao falls into that woman’s hands, the consequences will be unthinkable. You need to think about Old Lu.”

I gave him a slight nod. As I glanced back out of the corner of my eye, I suddenly caught sight of a very familiar figure among Qiao Sangui’s men. This person was thinner than everyone else, and he was trailing at the very end of the group. Surprisingly, no one had noticed him.

Qiao Sangui saw that the wall was open but I was still standing there motionless, so he came over. “What’s wrong, Young Master Gan? Is there a problem?”

I caught on immediately, waving my hands repeatedly. “No problem, no problem. Let’s keep moving.”

Once we entered the new stone passage, He Yu leaned in and asked curiously what I had been looking at.

I glanced at him, waiting until we had put some distance between us and Qiao Sangui’s group before whispering, “Chen Canghai snuck into the group somehow.”

He Yu was startled and instinctively started to turn around, but I quickly yanked him back and scolded him, “What are you doing? Looking for him now is practically begging Qiao Sangui to catch him! Chen Canghai is even younger than me, so who knows what he’s thinking sneaking in here?”

He Yu let out an “aiya,” unable to conceal his glee. “What else? He’s not close with Qiao Sangui, so he’s definitely here to help us. But he probably doesn’t know how to make a move yet. This crowd is wild and they’re all packing guns—it’s gonna be tough to slip away.”

Qiao Sangui suddenly walked over, so I pinched He Yu to hush him. The guy named Qiao glanced at me. “You two stop muttering up front and focus on leading the way. We’re moving too slowly. If someone else gets to the treasure first, I’ll take your little lives.”

I quickly nodded in agreement. Facing the quiet, eerie stone passage, I saw that the area behind the newly opened wall was becoming increasingly ornate and exquisite. Sculpted beast heads occasionally protruded from the walls, and even the nooks and crannies were lined with jars and pots.

Just then, I noticed a massive Taotie head protruding from the wall, its tongue sticking out and claws bared ferociously. It held a jade bead in its mouth, whereas the beast head directly opposite it had none. This asymmetrical design struck me as strange.

I wanted to step up to inspect it, but doing so out of nowhere would look too deliberate. He Yu picked up on my hesitation, fixed his gaze on a white porcelain vase on the floor, and squatted down.

“Hey! Look at this glaze—not bad! Third Master, why don’t you come take a look and give me your expert opinion? We went through all this trouble and got beat up all over, we can’t go back empty-handed!” Clutching the porcelain vase, He Yu headed toward the back to banter with Qiao Sangui.

I hurriedly stepped forward a couple of paces and leaned against the wall, pretending to wait impatiently. In reality, I used the cover to fiddle with the jade bead in the Taotie head’s mouth. The bead was loose and could be removed completely, but I quickly felt that something was attached to its underside.

It was likely a cleverly constructed hidden trap. The moment the jade bead was removed from the head, whatever was attached beneath it would be pulled out with it, triggering the mechanism. What kind of trap it was, however, I had no idea.

Under normal circumstances, I would never touch a trap, but given our current situation, it might just offer a way out. I needed to signal Chen Canghai, hiding back in the group, and get him to trigger it.

Once He Yu finished talking his way around Qiao Sangui, he walked over clutching the vase. I stood up straight, rested a hand on the beast head, and shouted at him, “Told you so! This damn bottle ain’t worth a cent, but you wouldn’t listen. You just had to bother Third Master with it. Happy now?”

As I spoke, I naturally patted the beast head twice to signal him. My heart pounded nervously afterward, wondering if Chen Canghai could pick up on my intent. Under such precarious circumstances, this was the best I could do.

We pretended to argue for a few more rounds as we kept walking. Eventually, we reached the first right-angle turn in the passage. I stopped before the corner and mentally recited the map I had memorized.

Just then, someone at the back of the group suddenly let out a howl. “Fuck, something just bit me!”

That shout caused Qiao Sangui, whose attention had been on me, to turn around. He Yu and I turned to look as well. Several flashlights from the team swung directly toward the space behind us.

It was a terrifying sight. The man who had yelled was jumping around frantically on the spot. Behind him, a massive swarm of fiery red ants had appeared out of nowhere, sweeping forward like a wave and crawling into his clothes. The sight sent the entire group recoiling back a few paces.

“Move! Red fire ants!!” Qiao Sangui shouted.

I turned back, my ears catching a sharp rustling noise coming from the saltpeter-filled cracks in the stone walls. Within twenty seconds, red fire ants began pouring without pause out of the crevices we had thought were sealed shut, flooding into the passage like water.

“Holy shit! They’re getting in my clothes!”

“Smack ’em off! Smack ’em off!”

Guangtou didn’t say a word. He pulled a makeshift shotgun from his waist and fired wildly at the swarm on the ground, sending the entire stone passage into complete chaos.

Someone ran quickly out of the group toward us. He swiftly pulled off his hat and shoved us forward. He Yu immediately bolted around the corner, and I ran right behind him without looking back, hearing Tian Xiaoqi shout from the passage behind us:

“They’re escaping in the chaos!!”

Damn it, I really hated that bitch!

The three of us ran through the stone passage at top speed, our three flashlights casting blurred arcs of light. Rows of beast heads began appearing on both sides again. As I ran, I yanked the beads out of their mouths, sending them clattering all over the floor as more and more red fire ants rained down behind us.

He Yu glanced back and cursed, “Fuck! How much damn money did Qiao Sangui give this bitch for her to chase us all the way here? Is she out of her fucking mind?!”

Hearing this, Chen Canghai skidded to a halt, ducked low, and swung a fist backward. I could actually hear the wind whistle from his punch; it was clear he had no intention of holding back. Tian Xiaoqi was no pushover either, reacting instantly by tilting her head aside to dodge.

To her surprise, Chen Canghai didn’t give her a moment to breathe. His strikes were clean and heavy, landing with solid thuds. After a dozen exchanges, Tian Xiaoqi was barely able to keep up her defense.

Chen Canghai leaped onto the wall for leverage, taking a few steps up before launching a spinning kick that sent Tian Xiaoqi flying several meters. He even managed to snatch a Tu Haozi^[1] from her waist during the scuffle.

On my end, I was desperately trying to hold He Yu back. Once he started running, he was like a runaway horse that couldn’t be stopped no matter how much I shouted. We happened to pull up right in front of a hidden stone door. This secret entrance blended almost completely into the wall, making it nearly invisible in the darkness. If I hadn’t memorized the map, I never would have found it.

With the red fire ants growing thicker in the stone corridor by the second, I had already been bitten several times on my lower legs.

I shouted, “Quick! Help me push this stone door open!”

As soon as the words left my mouth, He Yu slammed his shoulder against it. I rushed over and put every ounce of strength I had into pushing. We were both drenched in sweat as we strained against the small double doors. Finally, after two minutes of effort, we managed to force open a narrow crack.

I shoved He Yu inside, turned around to yell for Chen Canghai, and then frantically started squeezing myself into the doorway as well.

Chen Canghai stood in the corridor, gun in hand, watching Tian Xiaoqi warily. Clutching her arm, she got back up from the ground with a look of resentment. Her eyes swept over me, but she was still intimidated by Chen Canghai, so she quickly turned around to go back for Qiao Sangui.

Only after watching her run off did Chen Canghai slip through the stone door after us. The three of us wedged the stone door shut again and used our discarded jackets to seal every last crack. Once we saw that the red fire ants outside could no longer get in, we collapsed onto the floor to rest for a moment.

“These little bastards are eating me alive. Got any medicine? Give me some to rub on.” He Yu rolled up his pant legs, revealing four or five new welts.

Chen Canghai unslung his backpack and handed it to me. I thanked him, pulled out a tube of anti-inflammatory ointment, and tossed it to He Yu. “Our supplies are limited, so this will have to do for now. The master of this underground palace is certainly crude and direct. If I’d known the trap was just releasing bugs to bite us, I wouldn’t have done it this way.”

“Hey, count our blessings that it was just bugs,” He Yu said as he applied the ointment. “Otherwise, in a tiny place like this, we wouldn’t have escaped so smoothly.”

He grinned at Chen Canghai. “Thanks to you, brother. I had no idea you were such a good fighter!”

Two chapters today.