Chapter 53: Li Wanchou’s Revenge

From Xiao Wu’s brief description, I gathered that the bottom of the pool still had a stone-paved shore, though it was directly beneath us, completely hidden by the overhanging rocks.

But beyond the stone shore, Xiao Wu also said that at the far end of the pool, beneath the waterfall, there seemed to be something else.

Once Xiao Wu finished his brief description, Hou Jinshan’s eyes gleamed with greed. He frantically rummaged through his bag, pulled out a large coil of rope, and shoved it into my hands, urging me, “Quick, quick, quick! Lower me down too!”

Human greed for money knows no bounds. Their eyes were almost entirely fixed on the bottom of the cliff now. If they had been cowering and afraid to take a step a moment ago, now they were scrambling over one another, terrified that going down late would mean missing out on their share.

I tied the rope around Hou Jinshan and lowered him down just like before, followed by Lai Qi and his two lackeys. In the end, only Li Wanchou and I were left.

There was no way I was going down before Li Wanchou. For one thing, we had nearly come to blows just moments ago, and I didn’t know if he was the vengeful type. I wasn’t going to screw with him, but I was afraid he might be ruthless enough to mess with me.

On the other hand, the last person down would need to unfasten the rope tied to the tree root by himself. I had already accounted for this and planned to make a simple delay mechanism, but it was quite difficult to execute, and Li Wanchou definitely wouldn’t get the timing right.

Li Wanchou gave me a cold sneer and slowly climbed down the cliff. I ignored him and picked up a plastic bag Hou Jinshan had left behind, filled it with sand and soil, and tied it shut.

Then I took off the short piece of safety rope at my waist, looked up, and picked a sturdy branch at a suitable height to loop it over. This spot was too close to the waterfall, so the spray splashed all over my face. I wiped my face and tied the bag of sand to one end of the safety rope.

Next, I pulled a dagger from my backpack, found a few heavy stone slabs, and bound them tightly to the other end of the rope with the blade pointing upward. I let go and checked the distance; it looked about right. I intentionally weighted down the dagger end extra heavy so I would have plenty of time to reach the first foothold.

Only then did I pick up the forty-meter rope lying on the ground.

The rope was knotted around the tree root, sitting right above the dagger. With everything ready, I was about to fasten the rope to myself when I noticed an inconspicuous tear about two meters down. And every few meters after that, there was another cut.

I exploded with rage instantly.

This wasn’t caused by rubbing against rocks. The rope I bought was professional-grade; normal wear from rocks and thorns could never leave such clean cuts. Damn it, these were cuts made intentionally with a knife!

It had to be Li Wanchou. That was when it hit me: the man wasn’t just talk, he genuinely wanted me dead. With this many cuts, if I hadn’t checked the rope before going down, it would have snapped and I would have died without ever knowing what hit me.

Maybe I’d been up top too long, because Xiao Wu’s voice came through the walkie-talkie: “Young Master, are you still there? Did something happen up top? That Li guy is pushing us.”

I took a deep breath to compose myself and replied, “I’m fine. Just securing some gear. Give me ten more minutes.”

Anger was useless; it wouldn’t solve a thing right now. I looked around, but there wasn’t a secondary safety rope I could swap it with. If I wanted to head down, I had no choice but to use this one.

Staring at the rope with at least a dozen cuts in it, I wiped my face and rolled up my sleeves, folding the rope in half to double it. That cut the length right down the middle, and I had no idea if it could even hold my weight.

After securing the rope, I drew the mountain-cleaving machete at my waist and sliced a small hole in the plastic bag. The moment the sand started pouring out, I kicked off against the rock and began my descent down the cliff.

I hadn’t descended ten meters before the terrible scraping sound of friction filled my ears. The rocks under my feet were covered in moss, making every step slick. I gritted my teeth, refused to look at the drop beneath me, and hurried down as fast as I could.

When I reached about twenty meters down, I found a boulder with relatively little moss and landed on it.

I had my reasons for stopping there. A short distance from the boulder, another rope hung from a tree branch. Long and discreetly hidden, its color suggested Xiao Wu had left it behind. The others likely wouldn’t have noticed it, and if my own rope hadn’t been too short, I wouldn’t have landed here either.

Estimating the time, I gave my rope a tug, and it snapped right away, falling down. I sliced the rope bound to my waist with my mountain-cleaving machete and leaned aside to dodge as it plummeted toward the cliff bottom, taking my carabiner with it.

I gave Xiao Wu’s rope a test pull. It was long enough and skillfully tied, so I harnessed myself to it and slid slowly down toward the bottom of the cliff.

A group of people was standing at the cliff base. Xiao Wu came over to steady me, but the moment he saw the rope around me, he froze.

I didn’t have time to explain to him. I hurriedly unfastened the rope, ready to pick a fight in a fit of rage, only to spot Li Wanchou crouching by the water covered in blood, with Lai Qi frantically attending to his head wound.

“What happened?” I abruptly changed direction and walked over to Hou Jinshan.

Hou Jinshan leaned in, his face red as he strained to suppress a laugh, making an expression worse than crying. “Guess what? We were sitting here waiting for you when that Li bastard stood up and got hit dead-on by a falling carabiner! Talk about swift karma, serves him right for lording it over me!”

Before he even finished, Li Wanchou glared at Hou Jinshan while clutching his head and barked, “What are you standing there for? Get me some gauze!”

“Ah! Boss Li! What a mess! Who has so little public decency, dropping things down from up high? Coming, coming! What price tier of gauze were you looking for again, sir?” Hou Jinshan’s face flipped in an instant as he trotted right over.

All the rage inside me vanished in a flash. I turned away and burst out laughing.

Xiao Wu crouched down to examine the bloodstained rope I had thrown down earlier. He walked over and said to me, “All the cuts are from blades, Young Master. This trip might be more dangerous than we thought. And we aren’t even that deep in yet. Should we turn back?”

I waved him off. If I had wanted to turn back, I wouldn’t have used that rope to come down in the first place.

The pool beneath the waterfall was wide, its depths impossible to see. Carrying my pack, I went to the water’s edge to wash my hands. Xiao Wu crouched beside me.

I glanced over at Li Wanchou in the distance and asked, “I didn’t think he’d go that far. Just a few harsh words and he really wanted me dead. Have you run into people like that before?”

“We have. There are plenty like him. That’s why, just to be safe, I stashed a spare rope for you. Didn’t expect it would actually come in handy.” Xiao Wu seemed a little shaken too; if he hadn’t left that rope for me, I might not have made it down.

“I haven’t gone to many places with the Boss,” Xiao Wu said. “But the ones I did go to were all remote, kind of like this. When people end up in places where no one else is around, their true nature tends to come out. Young Master, have you thought about what it would cost if you got hurt out here in the wild?”

I knew what he meant. We were already officially approaching the core area of Shennongjia. Our emergency supplies were decent, but we weren’t professionals.

If an accident happened, like a broken arm or leg, taking the fastest route out of these woods would take at least a full day. By the time we reached a hospital, it would be too late to save anyone.

But when it came to this casket, I knew I had to keep going.

Seeing me stay silent, Xiao Wu asked, “Young Master, is this really that important? Are you sure those two deaths weren’t just accidents?”

I nodded. “When I was in Gansu, I found out that nearly the entire Five Masters are investigating this Jade Casket. You saw it too; Yujingzi brought a whole team in. There are too many people involved. I can’t see the full picture yet, and now we’ve lost contact with Fourth Brother. If I don’t try to get involved, sooner or later more people are going to die.”

Xiao Wu blinked at me. I could tell he hadn’t fully grasped it, and I was just about to stand up when he tugged at me again and asked quietly, “Young Master, it’s just the two of us, so isn’t that a bit unsafe? Should we try contacting the Lu Clan or the Tian Family? Even if adding us and the Lu Clan together isn’t many people, we could at least team up first, right?”

I sighed. Was it really that I didn’t want help? Did he actually think I wasn’t scared at all, setting out with a pack of old foxes?

“That was my mistake. I forgot to get a phone number, so now it’s just the two of us relying on each other.” I patted his shoulder.

Just then, Xiao Wu slowly pulled a slip of paper from his pocket. The paper was filthy, its color showing clear signs of having been soaked and then dried in the sun, with a phone number written in ballpoint pen resting on it.

“Lu Ayao left this before he left,” Xiao Wu said. “He told me to call him if anything came up. As time went on, I completely forgot about it. My clothes got wet earlier, and when I was hanging them up to dry, I remembered.”

“…”

I stared at him. My expression must have been pretty grim, because Xiao Wu actually flinched under my gaze, and even the way he addressed me changed.

“You can’t blame me entirely, right? Y-you didn’t ask either…”