Chapter 235: Young Master Gan

I watched the workers moving in and out with the explosives. Following my instructions, they stacked the charges in three rows. This first blast was essentially testing the waters for everyone, as no one knew how heavy or thick this Thousand-Jin Stone really was. Based on my intuition, it was nearly impossible for three rows of explosives to blast through a solid Thousand-Jin Stone, but for the safety of those trapped inside, I still decided to start with a small charge.

Once all the explosives were in place, we all retreated to the edge of the door. At Tan Qiu’s command, a massive boom echoed out, and another overwhelming wave of wind and sand surged from the stone portal. Yellow sand coated our heads. I shook my head to clear the grit, grabbed a flashlight, and took two quick steps to the center of the stone door. The beam cut through the dust lingering in the air; the Thousand-Jin Stone stood there completely unscathed, exactly as it had been when I first saw it.

“Increase the load!” I cursed under my breath and waved for the workers to keep moving explosives. “Double it!”

The workers immediately turned back to fetch more. Liu Wan walked over to my side with a worried look. “Adding that much at once… are you sure it won’t collapse?”

I scanned the tomb passage, pulled out the Dragon Burial Scripture He Yu had given me from my pocket, and replied, “I once learned a little Qimen Dunjia from Qian Deli. I don’t know much, but it’s enough for now. Old Qian said there are eight gates in Qimen Dunjia: Open, Rest, Life, Injury, Limit, View, Death, and Fear. Among them, the Gate of Death sits in the southwest, the Kun Palace. If we take the North Star as coordinates and cast a divination based on our current position and the time you entered the tomb, this hexagram is Earth-Fire Mingyi^[1]. It should have been an auspicious sign, signifying a flourishing household, but the moment you broke ground, good turned to ill. It manifested as a sinister omen, a sign of lethal change.”

I put away my compass and watched as Tan Qiu prepared for the second blast. “So what’s inside is a Gate of Death. There will definitely be casualties. Right now, we’re snatching people from the hands of the King of Hell. The sooner we blast this stone open, the better the chance of survival for those inside.”

The words had barely left my mouth when another loud boom shook the air. This blast reached farther than the last; even after the explosion, the ground kept trembling slightly. Without waiting for the dust to settle, everyone rushed forward to check. At a single glance, everyone’s heart sank. The Thousand-Jin Stone remained unmoved. Several workers went up to check the structural support of the passage walls before running back over to Liu Wan and me.

“We can’t blast anymore, Boss Yu,” one said. “Cracks have appeared in the ceiling. Another blast might bring the whole passage down.”

I stepped forward and touched the area where the explosives had gone off. After thinking for a moment, I instructed the workers who were still stacking charges: “Blast it again. It’s about to break. Use the same amount as the first time.”

Seeing this, Tan Qiu took two steps forward and grabbed me roughly. “Kid! Didn’t you hear what he just said?! If you blast again, this passage might collapse, and we’ll all be buried here!”

I looked him in the eye and repeated firmly, “The internal structure of the stone has already been mostly shattered. If you’re scared, feel free to take your people and get out.”

Whenever it concerned Fourth Brother, I was always the first to rush forward. Right now, Tan Qiu’s intimidation meant nothing to me. I shook off his hand, squatted down, and began helping the Gan Clan workers set up the explosives.

He Yu squeezed through from behind and squatted beside me. He had ridden off earlier to settle Chen Canghai and the others, and having just rushed back, he took the fuse from my hand and helped me bind the charges.

In the end, Tan Qiu didn’t pull his men out. Once all the explosives were set, we retreated to the door, everyone holding their breath. The moment the explosives detonated, a ferocious heat wave surged forth, tumbling shattered rock from the opening. The moment I looked up, I saw workers emerging in twos and threes from the newly blasted hole.

“It’s blasted open! It’s blasted open!” I didn’t know who shouted first.

He Yu and I rushed forward to meet them. He went to help our family’s workers out, while I searched through the smoke and dust for Fourth Brother. A moment later, I spotted him. He was carrying Xiao Wu on his back, his clothes riddled with burnt holes.

My heart leaped with joy, and I was just about to run over when a terrifying creaking sound echoed from the tomb passage above, jolting me with sudden panic.

“Fourth Brother, watch out! The passage is going to collapse!” I yelled, sprinting toward him at the same time.

Just as I spoke, a stone block the length of a forearm plummeted from the ceiling. Seeing it about to smash directly into Fourth Brother’s face, I instinctively drew the Horse-Head Blade from my waist and hurled it at the falling rock. The blade spun rapidly through the air, slicing the massive stone clean in half mid-flight. I lunged forward, tackling Fourth Brother and Xiao Wu against the wall, narrowly avoiding the fatal blow.

Fourth Brother stumbled from my impact. Realizing it was me, he quickly hauled me up from the ground, and the two of us bolted for the exit. That blade was truly uncanny; after cutting the stone above us, I don’t know how it kept spinning, but as we ran out, it happened to arc right through the air in front of me. I caught it almost instantly, and a split second before the passage caved in, Fourth Brother and I dove onto the ground outside the stone door.

After this incident, the workers from the other factions treated me noticeably better. Liu Wan settled me in Old Qian’s tent. I hadn’t sustained any major injuries; after the team medic disinfected the scrapes on my hands, he went off to tend to the burn victims.

According to Fourth Brother, shortly after the Thousand-Jin Stone descended, the skins of the female corpses in the tomb chamber began shaking out a constant red mist. It was likely a corrosive gas; anyone touched by it would be burned until not even bone fragments remained. It was fortunate that I had moved quickly, blasting repeatedly with heavy charges to punch a hole through the center of the stone in three tries. However, despite my quick reaction, the casualties were still heavy. To protect Fourth Brother, Xiao Wu had been inside the red mist for half a minute. By the time Fourth Brother carried him out, half of his body had been burned away. The emergency treatment lasted until dawn.

I waited for news in the tent. Finally, He Yu came in to change the dressing on Old Qian’s wound. When I saw the way his eyes avoided mine as he entered, I didn’t need to be told the answer; I understood instantly. For a long, long time, I couldn’t recover from the shock. I knew I was grieving, but I realized with a pang that I couldn’t even remember the last time I saw Xiao Wu, what he had said to me, or what I had replied.

“Where’s my Fourth Brother?” I asked He Yu.

He Yu tossed aside the blood-soaked bandages he had just changed. “Your Fourth Brother took some injuries too, but Xiao Wu protected him well. Compared to the others, his are relatively light. But he didn’t look to be in good spirits. When I passed by the center tent, I played the sneak for your sake and eavesdropped a bit. Tan Qiu and the rest don’t plan on letting him take part in the upcoming operations.”

My grief hadn’t even passed before a shudder ran through me at this. If Fourth Brother wasn’t involved in commanding, yet the Gan Clan’s workers still had to go with the group for the upcoming operation, even if Liu Wan had a special relationship with him, she wouldn’t be able to show favoritism on her own in a multi-party collaboration like this. Did this mean that when the time came, all the dangerous front-line work would fall on the Gan Clan’s men?

I wiped the Horse-Head Blade clean with a cloth and sheathed it at my waist before standing up and heading out of the tent.

He Yu glanced at me but didn’t stop me. He simply turned back to continue changing the dressings for Old Qian and Kuba.

I bypassed the Gan Clan’s tents and walked over to the Liu Family’s area. Several Liu Family workers speaking Cantonese came over to stop me, muttering a whole lot that I couldn’t understand. I cut straight to the point and said, “I have important news to discuss with Boss Yu. Take me to see her.”

The men hesitated upon hearing this, then quickly sent someone inside the tent to report.

I only waited a moment before the man returned to lead the way. When we reached the main tent, I pulled back the flap and stepped straight inside.

Liu Wan was alone in the tent, sitting at a table with her hair down, drinking tea. Judging by her appearance, she would have already been resting if not for my sudden visit. When she saw me, she looked as though she were facing someone thoroughly troublesome, pinching the bridge of her nose wearily. “If you’re here to play lobbyist, hoping Chen Si can continue with the operation, you might as well go back. He’s at rock bottom right now and in no condition to be making decisions. Besides, this project isn’t mine alone to decide.”

I walked over to her side, unhurriedly poured myself a cup of water from the kettle, took a sip, and then said, “I’m not here to lobby for anyone. I’m just here to make my stance clear.”

“Young Master Gan, what do you mean by that?” Liu Wan sat up straight.

I chuckled and countered, “Did your meeting reach any conclusions? Out of the Forty-Eight False Tombs, you’ve ruled out one. As for the remaining forty-seven, do you plan to dig up this entire grassland, or do you intend to drag this out and spend the next six months to a year fumbling around out here?”