Chapter 65: Sudden Change

After I finished speaking, Yu Jingzi didn’t respond right away. She straightened up, thought for a moment, then gauged the distance between us and the owl-faced relief sculpture. Finally, she nodded. “Seems like this is our only option now.”

Then she turned and shouted to the team behind us, “Old Yang! Bring the gear! We’ll slide across on ropes!”

Yu Jingzi clearly held a commanding position within her clan. No one questioned or opposed her decision. Later, I came to understand just how hard it was to earn that kind of authority, especially in this line of work, where a woman leading a team was already an impressive feat.

They pulled out three main support ropes, and each person was equipped with three safety ropes for backup. Once the last flare was fired up to the cave ceiling, the middle-aged man called Old Yang swung a rope in wide circles with both hands, then hurled it forcefully in the direction of the relief.

The relief sculpture wasn’t far. Carried by momentum, the rope landed right on one of the owl figure’s ears. The claw hook automatically tightened, biting deep into the stone and anchoring itself firmly. I had heard this type of claw was custom-made by Liu Sanshui, the founder of Yu Jingzi’s lineage, specifically for use in fast-flowing river channels. It was exceptionally strong and reliable.

Yu Jingzi helped me secure my safety ropes, then ordered a few crew members to cross first. After that, she turned to me. “Follow right behind them. I’ll bring up the rear. Whatever you do, don’t look down.”

I nodded to her, and she moved to the very end of the line.

The Liu Family members were all agile and experienced. Before I could even mentally prepare myself, the others had already disappeared into the dark ahead of me. I had no choice but to grit my teeth, kneel down, clip myself onto the rope, and slowly climb on. Once I adjusted my position, I began inching forward at a snail’s pace.

Keeping my head facing upward with my body hanging from the rope helped me avoid looking directly at the pool far below. It also eased my fear of heights a bit. As I gradually got used to the motion, I picked up speed. Before long, I reached the midpoint of the rope.

But just then, I looked up and couldn’t see the flashlights of the people ahead. I paused and glanced back toward our starting point. The distance was too great, and the flare above had already burned out. I couldn’t see Yu Jingzi or anything else behind me.

Shaking my head, I decided not to overthink it and kept moving forward. When I finally reached the end of the rope, I called out twice, but no one answered or came to help. I had to awkwardly shift my position and scramble up onto the relief sculpture’s ear on my own.

The height was terrifying. I knelt on the ear, unhooked my safety line, then clumsily scooted toward the edge of the bronze pillar. Only after the pool below was completely out of sight did I stand up and brush the dust off my clothes.

Taking a deep breath, I turned on my flashlight and swept it around. I expected to see the Liu Family crew, but the area was completely empty. The silence was unnerving.

“Hey! Anyone there?” I called toward the bronze pillar, but no one responded. I was getting annoyed. Where the hell had everyone gone? Yu Jingzi had clearly told them to wait on the other side, but now they were nowhere to be seen.

As I swept my flashlight across the area, I caught a glimpse of a figure darting across the ravine to the right of the bronze pillar. But it vanished in an instant. I immediately turned the light in that direction and jumped onto the three-meter-wide ledge.

“Who’s there? Why aren’t you saying anything?”

The figure didn’t respond. I strode along the ledge, circling around to the side of the bronze pillar. The spot where I’d seen the shadow was now completely empty. Refusing to believe it, I shone my flashlight around again, but there was truly nowhere to hide, except for a shrine niche embedded in the pillar.

I leaned in for a closer look. I couldn’t tell what deity was enshrined there. There was no name, and the statue’s head had been severed. An incense burner sat in front of the shrine, and upon closer inspection, I saw four spots where incense sticks had been placed. According to the customs of my hometown, three sticks are for gods, four for ghosts.

Was this shrine dedicated to a ghost?

And that shadow I saw just now, could it have been a ghost too? One that liked playing hide-and-seek?

The more I thought about it, the more absurd it seemed. After confirming with my flashlight that no one was around, I returned to the spot near the relief sculpture, still full of questions. I had no idea where the others had gone. I figured I’d wait for Yu Jingzi to arrive and tell her everything.

But the moment I stepped onto the relief sculpture again, I sensed something was wrong.

What the hell! Where was the rope?!

Could I have climbed up the wrong ear? Alarmed, I scrambled over to the sculpture’s other ear to look for the claw hook. These hooks were incredibly sturdy and shouldn’t come loose easily, even with outside interference. But after searching up and down twice, I found nothing: no hook, no rope, not even a hole where it might have been anchored.

How was that possible?

I tried to jump back onto the ledge of the bronze pillar to check the other side. Maybe there was a second, identical relief sculpture back there. But before I could turn around, I felt the cold barrel of a gun press against the back of my head.

“Well, if it isn’t Young Master Gan. What a small world, huh?” Lai Qi’s voice rang out behind me. I had no idea how he’d managed to sneak up on me without a sound.

Why wasn’t he the one embedded in the stone? The thought popped into my head and startled me. I would never have thought that way before. But this time, I genuinely didn’t want to see Lai Qi again. I’d rather run into Hou Jinshan than him.

Lai Qi jabbed the gun against my head, then pulled the knife from my waist. I heard him weighing it in his hand. When I turned to face him, he gave me a sinister smile. One of Lai Qi’s eyes was gone, the bandage soaked in blood. He also seemed to be limping.

He kicked me hard in the leg. “You little bastard. You really screwed me over good!”

He kicked me hard, but I gritted my teeth and managed to stay on my feet. That only made Lai Qi even angrier. He immediately started cursing and kicking me again, shouting, “You son of a bitch! Still putting on that holier-than-thou act? I can’t stand that smug face of yours!”

The more he talked, the more worked up he got. His right hand loaded his flintlock, and he was about to fire at me. In a panic, I lunged at his injured leg. He lost his balance and toppled off the relief sculpture with me.

Using the momentum, I kicked his hand hard. He grimaced in pain, and the flintlock went flying. I pinned his arm down, trying to grab the knife from his hand. The two of us tumbled down the relief sculpture, grappling and sliding the whole way.

We were about to slide past the edge of the relief sculpture when I shouted, “Are you fucking trying to get us killed?! Give me the knife!”

“If I die, I’m taking you with me!” Lai Qi snarled, his face twisted with hatred.

He was completely unhinged now. Without a second thought, I lunged forward and bit down on his wrist, hard. I wasn’t holding back. I was ready to tear through his artery if I had to. In my head, I cursed, You might have a death wish, but I sure as hell want to live!

Lai Qi cried out in pain and dropped the knife from his right hand. I snatched it up and, using every ounce of strength I had, stabbed the blade into the relief sculpture to slow our fall. We didn’t slide too far. With my weight alone, we might have stopped, but Lai Qi was still clinging to me, and our combined weight made it almost impossible to halt completely.

Just as we were about to slide off the relief sculpture’s earlobe, I caught sight of a small crevice out of the corner of my eye. I twisted the knife sideways, and it jammed into place, halting us in midair. Lai Qi dangled from my leg, suspended over the abyss below where the spiny back of a ghost-head fish loomed.

“Young Master Gan, how much longer can you hold on?” Lai Qi grinned at me, a mad glint in his eyes. The man had completely lost it.

My upper body strength was weak to begin with, and now I was hanging by a knife while holding up two people. My arms started to burn with pain. Less than a minute later, one hand gave out and slipped, leaving the other barely hanging on.

Then, out of nowhere, a sharp gust of wind sliced past my face. A muffled thud followed, the sound of a bullet hitting flesh. I turned my head just in time to see blood spray from a bullet hole in Lai Qi’s forehead, splattering across half my face.

His laughter stopped abruptly. His grip loosened, and he fell straight down from a hundred meters up, hitting the water below with a loud splash.

I couldn’t hold on any longer either. The knife was slipping from my hand when, suddenly, a pair of hands reached down from above and grabbed me like iron clamps. At the same time, someone seized my collar and yanked me up like a drowning goose being hauled out by the neck.

I collapsed onto the ground, too weak to move. My legs were jelly, my flashlight had fallen somewhere, and my head was spinning. The moment I got pulled up, the blinding light nearly seared my eyes. I raised a hand to shield them, and someone quickly stopped whoever was shining the flashlight in my face.

Then I vaguely heard Hou Jinshan’s voice calling out, “Young Master Gan? Young Master Gan?”

I didn’t respond. I just lay there, dazed, my eyes struggling to adjust to the harsh light. My mind was still stuck on the image of Lai Qi’s face right before he fell, the bullet hole in his forehead.

“Whoa, Granny Yin, this is bad. I told you not to shoot, didn’t I? Scared the kid’s soul right out of him! Lucky for you, I happen to know a thing or two about summoning lost souls^[1]. Step aside and let me do my thing…”

“Can you shut up?”

“Alright, alright, I’m shutting up.”

My vision blurred in and out. Sounds came in fragments. Then I saw Lu A’yao crouch down in front of me. His mouth moved, but I couldn’t hear a word. What the hell? Am I hallucinating before I die? But even for a hallucination, this was way too vivid.

What kind of messed-up hallucination is this?

That was my last thought before my eyes shut and I passed out completely, slipping into darkness.