Iron Bull taucht wieder auf

Kapitel 186

The flashlight beam fell on the lotus pattern, but unfortunately, I felt nothing special about them at the moment, and I couldn't even discern the numbers within the petals with the naked eye. Undoubtedly, we needed a high-powered magnifying glass, or perhaps we should just bring Xiaoyan over and explain everything to him.

“Mr. Feng, I feel so scared. Standing in the ‘Sparrow Killing Formation,’ I always feel like someone is coldly watching me.” She hunched her shoulders, her voice low and muffled.

Besides the inherent traps and ambushes, the Five Elements Formation's most important feature is its ability to utilize all favorable timing and location to influence a person's psychological state, causing those who enter the formation to experience a hypnotic state and do inexplicable things. Xiao Keleng's right hand remained gripping the gun, his index finger trembling incessantly on the trigger.

I turned the flashlight around and shone it into her eyes. Under the intense light, her black pupils shrank rapidly until they became thin lines, like two strange cat eyes.

She groaned and raised her hand to shield her eyes. Just then, the searchlights suddenly blazed on again, and four beams of light cleaved through the darkness, falling into the deep pit.

Xiao Keleng straightened her back and jumped away, rubbing her eyes vigorously with her left hand.

"What were you thinking about just now? Xiao Xiao, where are the spying people? Tell me." Everyone's feelings and reactions are completely different when they go deep into the formation, and I hope she can express her feelings.

Xiao Ke shook her head, wiping the cold sweat from her forehead: "No, it's just an occasional feeling—"

The sudden ringing of the phone interrupted our conversation. Xiao Yan's exasperated and dejected voice came through the receiver: "Feng, what bad luck! I've lost track of my target! It's so embarrassing! The other party was so meticulous, blocking electricity, landlines, wireless transmission, and all other usable communication methods. As a result, the money vanished within two minutes. The bank's strict rule is to clear records 30 seconds after a transaction, and yet, this huge sum of 1.5 billion just disappeared right before my eyes—I can only say I'm such a failure! I'm such an idiot..."

As Xiaoyan spoke, she frantically pounded on the keyboard and mouse, making loud "bang bang bang" noises.

Xiao Keleng was taken aback, her face turning pale. She asked in a low voice, "Xiao Yan, does this mean that the tycoon has lost 1.5 billion for nothing? And the fact that the extortionists took such a premeditated action to block communications shows that they were well prepared for our tracking measures. Perhaps they are not planning to lift the curse of the Fang Demon in Miss Guan's body?"

This is a long chain reaction. All extortion cases are a battle of wits between the kidnappers and the rescuers. The losing side, having made a single miscalculation, is essentially powerless to retaliate and can only watch helplessly as the other side triumphs. Now, our side has lost.

Xiao Yan was still muttering curses. 1.5 billion was no small sum for him, but he was more concerned about his severely damaged self-esteem. As the top hacker on the global hacker leaderboard, he always held himself to extremely high standards, striving to maintain an undefeated record. However, this was an extremely demanding task, and losing confidence could have a devastating impact on his hacking career.

Xiao Ke hung up dejectedly, then asked for my opinion: "Shall we go back right away?"

I am currently standing in the "upper middle" position of the nine-square grid, the most vulnerable to enemy attacks and the most dangerous spot in the grid. Looking back to the south, the Sparrow Killing Formation is fully visible, and all the killing intent of the formation is concentrated on the point beneath my feet.

"Xiao Xiao, you go up first. I want to stand alone for a while, half an hour or longer." I always felt that I should get some inspiration from the "Nine Palaces Eight Trigrams Sparrow Killing Formation" that my elder brother had set up long ago. Every step he took was meaningful. He would not set up the formation carelessly, much less carve the "Book of Purgatory" here.

Xiao Ke sighed and walked around the well towards the wooden ladder. She refused to retreat from the sparrow's back, naturally because of the strange feeling she had when passing through the center of the formation.

I was the only one left in the Sparrow Killing Formation. Four pale beams of light crisscrossed and pointed at me. Of course, behind the beams of light, through the sniper scope, there were countless strange eyes staring at me, wondering what I could get from this deep pit.

I sat on the edge of the well, my right hand submerged in the water, stirring it gently. The nine-meter-deep shaft was easily accessible to me; I could easily dive in by hand, search it thoroughly, and then surface, but that wouldn't make much sense. The divers had already searched it carefully; given the Japanese's meticulous work ethic, they would have searched every nook and cranny, leaving no blind spots.

When my gaze fell on the compass again, I suddenly remembered that it should have been hanging on the beam in the study. How could it be here? Once the main building was completed, it would be placed underneath, but in my hallucination, I clearly saw my elder brother looking up at it in the study. Could it be two identical compasses? I suddenly stood up, strode over the sparrow's back, and returned to the compass.

I really can't be sure if it's the same compass as the one in my hallucination. Last time, I was so shocked by my older brother's sudden appearance that I forgot to carefully observe the size and shape of the compass.

How can we get it out? We can't damage the Vermilion Bird's body, that would destroy the entire formation and make all of my brother's hard work go to waste.

The sound of bubbles disappeared completely. I felt as if the sound had been some kind of guiding force, prompting me to approach the clues my older brother had left behind. Unfortunately, I hadn't considered this before, and had been wandering around aimlessly, doing a lot of useless work.

After lingering for half an hour, I still couldn't grasp the essence of the Sparrow Killing Formation, so I had no choice but to return to the ground for the time being.

Xiao Keleng had prepared a car in advance. As soon as I got into the car, exhausted, he started the engine and drove towards the Water Mist Villa.

"I have had the workers set up tents on the spot to rest, and I have left the crane, excavator and X-ray detection vehicle here. They will leave after everything is settled tomorrow."

Xiao Keleng's arrangement was exactly what I wanted; the bright headlights pierced through the darkness and shone far into the distance.

I know that Xiao Yan over there must have a lot to say to me, and Da Heng and Guan Baoling are also looking forward to our return. But I feel very tired and don't even have the appetite to eat.

"Xiao Xiao, I want to close the door and rest when we get back. You can explain the situation here to them. I don't want to say a word more. I'm exhausted, both physically and mentally. I just want to go to bed and sleep." As soon as the back of my head touched the back of the seat, my mind became hazy and I was drowsy.

Xiao Keleng agreed and floored the accelerator, arriving at the Water Mist Villa within minutes. In the center of the villa stood a standard two-story Japanese-style building, simple and unpretentious, but also rather unremarkable.

As I expected, Xiao Yan was waiting for me, her face flushed, looking ashamed and resentful, as if she had suffered a great humiliation. Da Heng, with a gloomy face, paced back and forth in the courtyard. Before I even saw Guan Baoling, I gestured to decline Xiao Yan's wish to talk to Da Heng, and quickly went into the Japanese-style guest room on the side of the main building, collapsing onto the tatami mat.

Sleepiness washed over me like a tide, and I didn't even have the strength to take off my shoes, socks, and clothes. I closed my eyes and fell asleep immediately.

The initial dream was completely dark, what the ancients called a "dark and sweet dreamland," without sound, images, fragments, or memories; all that could be perceived was an extremely deep darkness.

"The Tao gives birth to One, One gives birth to Two, Two gives birth to Three, Three gives birth to all things..."

"Those who attained oneness in the past: Heaven attained oneness and became clear, Earth attained oneness and became tranquil, Spirit attained oneness and became divine, Valleys attained oneness and produced life, and Lords attained oneness and became the rulers of the world..."

Someone was clearly reciting sentences from the Tao Te Ching, their voice growing louder and louder as they approached from afar.

"These are scriptures that can be found anywhere in the market, but unfortunately the translation of the 'Blue Heaven and Yellow Springs Sutra' has turned to ashes. Otherwise, why would you still be wandering around aimlessly without any clue? Tiger, Tiger, where did you take those scriptures?" I felt extremely frustrated. After all, the translation was once within reach, but it was lost in just a few seconds.

Lights appeared in my line of sight, along with a large hand holding a handful of matches.

"Who?" I asked, struggling to sit up.

In the dim light, the hand suddenly loosened its grip, and with a "whoosh," matches scattered all over the floor.

"The unexpected and the expected are mutually reinforcing, and the expected and the unexpected are mutually harmonious. In fact, the five elements formations in the world are neither expected nor unexpected, neither auspicious nor inauspicious, neither life nor death. The ancients said that fortune is the harbinger of misfortune, and misfortune is the harbinger of fortune. Therefore, the 'nine-headed bird struggling for fate' is only its appearance. When the nine forces appear, as long as they are arranged properly, and the differences are abandoned in order to seek the common ground, the nine forces can be united and defeat can be turned into victory."

The light was dim, and the hand was quickly separating and flicking the matches, arranging them into a nine-square grid in a few seconds, and then superimposing a clear and simple Bagua diagram on the grid.

"The 'Nine Palaces Eight Trigrams Sparrow Killing Formation' in ancient divination manuals has a fixed formation method where the 'Life Gate' of the Eight Trigrams is aligned with the center and top of the 'Nine Palaces,' which will always give the enemy an opportunity to shoot and kill. Therefore, the 'One Arrow Through the Heart Formation' is the natural nemesis of this formation."

The hand moved two matches on the Bagua diagram, and the 'Gate of Life' immediately disappeared. However, this was no longer a complete Sparrow Killing Formation; it had become a bizarre and incongruous mess.

"A 'four-not-like' creature, right? Actually, the directional deductions of the Bagua formation are endless. Even if all the world's wisest minds gathered together and devoted their entire lives to deducing its changes, they would never arrive at a final result, just like using a supercomputer to deduce the human genome. Humanity is like a cyclical gear, repeating the past round and round, appearing, evolving, reflecting, and developing on this sphere, simultaneously exploring new worlds and tracing back to its own past. When the exploration and tracing back reach a certain point—or perhaps the end of a certain stage—those who explore will enter a new world, break through barriers, and reach the land of light; a few intelligent individuals who traverse back will attain eternal liberation and return to their original starting point..."

"Repetition is the biggest human flaw. When you ask a question a second time, do you know that it will cause double the waste of resources? This planet is so heavily loaded because billions of people are doing the same work every moment, causing thousands or hundreds of millions of times more waste. It's like our matches. Why waste hundreds of matches when a formation can be set up with just one?"

He kept talking to himself, and with a gentle sweep of his hand, all the matches were pulled out of the light and shadow, leaving only one lonely match.

"The unity of all under heaven is the true and righteous path for humanity. The principles are all in the classics, repeatedly copied and passed down. Some people even go to great lengths to transport them from one place to another, carrying them on horseback and shoulder. But they don't know that true wisdom is hidden in a single sentence, a single word, or even a single gesture..."

"Remember Archimedes? That comical clown who tried to lift the Earth with a lever. He didn't know that the purpose of this sphere was not to be lifted by someone, much less to revolve around the great fireball of the sun day after day."

I know that Archimedes is one of the most famous physicists in human history, and his theory of "lifting the earth" is regarded as a supreme maxim by many physics enthusiasts.

“One, you see, we only talk about this ‘one.’ When humanity awakens again, it only knows ‘one,’ even if there are ten dinosaurs, a hundred…”

"Humans use countless 'ones' to represent large quantities, yet they don't realize that the existence of 'one' is the beginning of this sphere; everything originates from it. If we understand 'one,' we will understand all changes. In fact, many words already exist in the air, as radio waves, such as this sentence—" A large hand grasped at the air, as if squeezing something, and immediately continued, "Things are not things, but rather are not things themselves. As long as you constantly step out and negate yourself, question the existence of the world, and strive to efficiently seek answers, transcending and counter-transcending through reflection, you will break through the constraints of the three-dimensional world and reach the place where you should be, which is 'one.'"

I blurted out, "Big brother? Big brother—you're Yang Tian, the 'King of Tomb Raiders'?"

The feeling I got from that large hand was just like the one I had in a hallucination when I was an infant—warm and stable, giving me the strongest sense of security. No one else could give me that feeling.

I leaped up, trying to pounce on that hand and then hug the person in the lamplight, but I instantly crashed into a soft wall, my body sinking into a warm, sponge-like embrace.

"Could it be another hallucination like the one I had in the Xunfuyuan study last time?" I felt a lump in my throat. My only family member was so close, yet I couldn't touch him. A salty taste welled up in my mouth, but the tears in my eyes flowed back and were swallowed back down.

"What is the meaning of our existence? In fact, one day humanity will finally discover that the way each of us exists is 'one'. The individual is the whole, the individual is the complete world. And the countless individuals on this planet, as insignificant as nebulae, are just superfluous carbohydrates repeatedly generated in the overlapping of light and shadow. They are not 'one,' but something else, just like the air they need to breathe—they only need oxygen, but what about the hundreds of millions of other substances that are constantly present in the air? Therefore, besides 'one,' there are many dispensable impurities outside of us. When you become 'one,' this sphere is unimportant; you can let it drift in the universe, or destroy it at any time. Compared to this, what is the Five Elements Formation? It's just this match in my hand."

"A single match can be used to set up an array, the most complex 'Sumeru Vast Sea Starry Sky Array' from ancient texts. Guiguzi, who first discovered this information, thought it was a flash of inspiration that led to such a wondrous idea. In reality, these ideas had long existed floating in the air, coexisting with sound, light, electricity, and shadow; it was just a matter of when and where someone would obtain them. One is ten thousand, a hundred million, and all changes arise from this..."

"One can be as small as a mustard seed or as large as Mount Sumeru; in whose heart it resides, that person is its sole master—"

My mind was suddenly shaken, as if a beam of light pierced my skull and shot straight into my brain. I understood; that light had given me the transformations of all geometric shapes in the world, from points, lines, and planes to solid figures with any number of sides and faces. All formations and strategies in the world are contained within it.

With a "sizzle," the match ignited, and for a moment it seemed to illuminate a mature, confident, wise, and resolute face.

"Big brother, where are you?" I couldn't help but call out.

No one answered, only his deep soliloquy: "The evolution of life requires each person to slowly comprehend it. Between evolution and anti-evolution, fallacy and anti-fallacy, negation and anti-negation, one may either soar rapidly from the critical point into the fourth dimension, or accelerate back to the beginning of a certain life. Searching is merely a necessary stop in the evolutionary process. When someone becomes the true 'one,' opening up all the answers in their heart, this process will end."

This conversation could easily leave one dizzy, but I still understood what he meant. I opened my mouth to call him again, but the dim light suddenly disappeared, and I was still on the soft tatami mat.

The wind picked up outside the window, sweeping up fallen leaves and sending them flying in a flurry.

"To become 'one' means to transcend the mundane world and evolve into a 'higher' human—" That was the whole meaning of what the older brother was saying to himself just now.

Darwin's theory of evolution states that only through continuous human evolution can society and productivity develop. Conversely, environmental improvements lead to mutations in the human body, ultimately reaching a state of perfection. This theory has been taken to extremes by some curious biologists, resulting in the emergence of "super-brain humans"—humans with only a brain and no other body organs. These "super-brain humans" can perform any action with their thoughts, rendering their hands, feet, and bodies irrelevant and replaced entirely by robotic arms.

The "one" that the elder brother mentioned far surpasses the realm of "super-brain humans," representing a mysterious area that Darwin could not explain. However, all evolution does not happen overnight; it requires the gradual efforts of everyone to propel the massive gears of human society forward in an orderly fashion.

The Truth of the Sixth Tomb of the Gods

— Chapter 8 - The Mysterious Submarine —

A long sigh came from the courtyard outside the door, filled with endless regret and remorse. It was Xiao Yan's voice. Regardless of what kind of agreement he had made with the tycoon, losing 1.5 billion was an indelible stain on his hacking career, one he could not bear.

I opened the door and saw Xiao Keleng and Xiao Yan sitting side by side on the steps, both of them resting their chins on their hands, lost in thought.

"I suddenly realized that my previous ranking on the hacker list was as fleeting as clouds. Feng, from now on, I'll just follow you around and make my way in the world, just like Xiao Lai. Will you take me in or not?" Xiao Yan's expression was extremely dejected. Her hair was wet and dripping, and she looked disheveled. Her fingers were twisted tightly together.

Xiao Ke smiled bitterly and helplessly: "Xiao Yan tried to drown himself, but luckily I found him and pulled him out of the pool. Sister Yan Xun and Sister Su Lun asked me to take care of him and you. If anything happens to either of them, I won't be able to explain myself. Please, give me some face and don't let anything happen to you in Hokkaido, otherwise, I'll have no way to explain myself..."

A hacker who loses confidence is like a killer who starts to fear bloodshed; he's reached the end of his career.

"Come with me? To roam the world? This operation failed and has nothing to do with you. It was the tycoon who failed to ensure the physical lines were working properly, not a technical error on the part of the hacker. What responsibility is it to you?" I wanted to sit down and carefully counsel him, but a strange premonition suddenly came to my mind, and I looked westward toward the direction of Xunfu Garden.

I understood the "one" that my elder brother demonstrated with a single match, and I also understood the principle of "responding to all changes with constancy" in breaking the formation. Now I can strongly feel that the spiritual energy of the Sparrow Killing Formation is leaking out. We need to go back immediately and restore the main building. Otherwise, the restraining technique left by my elder brother will fail, causing the momentum of the "One Arrow Through the Heart Formation" to surge and continue to penetrate the spatial and temporal distance across the sea, endangering the largest and most prosperous city in eastern China.

I grabbed their shoulders and sprinted toward the car, ordering Xiao Keleng, "Start the car and get back to Xunfuyuan as fast as you can!"

Xiao Yan struggled in dissatisfaction, but I pinched his acupoint on the back of his neck hard, and half of his body immediately went limp, rendering him unable to move. I forcefully threw him onto the back seat. He sprang up, trying to escape through another window, but was immediately stunned by my words: "Xiao Yan, come with me. We need to crack the code inside those two lotus flowers. We only have a few minutes. Are you going or not? We're friends. If you back down at the last minute, we're no longer friends!"

Xiao Ke obediently started the car and, without waiting for Xiao Yan's response, sped out the door, heading west.

Xiao Yan quieted down, rolled her eyes at me, and said, "Feng, what exactly are you trying to do? You've already demolished Xunfuyuan like that, what else do you want to do?"

I pressed the electric button, the car window rolled down, and the cold night wind rushed in. The night was so quiet; the Muwanzhou area was in a drowsy, still night.

Xiao Yan shrank her neck, pulled out two tissues, and vigorously wiped the water stains off her hair.

With a serious expression, I gave the orders: "Xiao Yan, get to the Sparrow Killing Formation in a bit. You're in charge of deciphering the secret on that lotus flower. According to the Plague, it's the real 'Book of Purgatory.' Xiao Xiao, gather all the workers immediately. We'll prepare to hoist the iron plates again in twenty minutes to cover up the Sparrow Killing Formation."

Xiao Ke gave a curt reply: "Yes."

I couldn't explain what had happened to them in a short time, but I knew that the purpose of the "Nine Palaces Eight Trigrams Sparrow Killing Formation" set up by my elder brother was not simply to restrain the "One Arrow Through the Heart Formation," but must have a deeper meaning. What he was dealing with was some kind of mysterious power under the "Tower of the Dead," otherwise he wouldn't have gone to the trouble of burying the Sparrow Killing Formation so deep underground.

Xiao Yan rolled her eyes and muttered something. Xiao Keleng immediately said sternly in a low voice, "Xiao Yan, shut up. Do as Mr. Feng says."

From Water Mist to Xunfu Garden, from leaving the house to entering, it only took eleven minutes. Before the car had even come to a complete stop, I had already opened the door and jumped out, heading straight for the pit under the main building.

"Mr. Feng, what about the compass? Should we send someone with a hammer to chisel it over?" Xiao Keleng leaned out of the car window, shouting loudly into the wind. A beam of searchlight swept over, making her short hair look like it was covered in a layer of silvery snow. At this crucial moment, she didn't waste a single word, always closely following my train of thought.

I waved my hand, and without even climbing the wooden ladder, I jumped down. My toes barely touched the edge of the well, and when I bounced back up, I was already next to the compass. Xiao Yan followed behind me, exclaiming loudly in Arabic slang, uttering a string of profanities. I only understood the last sentence in standard Mandarin—"It's fucking amazing!"

The once calm water was now covered in wisps of mist, with tiny bubbles rising to the surface in strings, like the bubbles in fish eyes before boiling water. I didn't feel any chill; on the contrary, the mist carried an increasingly intense warmth. As a swallow swam past me, it slapped the water's surface like a skimming motion, then abruptly withdrew, exclaiming in surprise, "It's fucking hot! What's going on?"

I placed both palms flat on the compass, one in the due east direction and the other in the due west direction. At that moment, I understood the meaning of the compass's existence. It could emit a power similar to the "yin-yang divine power" of the cloth shoes, influencing the rotation of the bronze warrior statue. Therefore, to obtain it, one must also use the "yin-yang divine power".

What happens when two forces with diametrically opposed directions of rotation act on an object simultaneously?

As I channeled my energy with all my might, the compass suddenly made two "click, click" sounds, as if some mechanism had been triggered. I raised my palms, and it automatically sprang up and landed in my hands, leaving a smooth groove on its tail, but there was no trace of any mechanism.

"Feng, I've seen the password. You have thirty seconds to leave—"

The flashes went off one after another as Xiao Yan frantically snapped photos of the two lotus flowers with her camera, racing against time. My heart, which had been pounding, slowly calmed down. Then I heard the sound of the crane starting up, the chaotic footsteps of the workers being woken from their sleep, and the beam of the searchlights once again locked onto the large pit.

I was extremely pleased with Xiao Keleng and Xiao Yan's work efficiency. The iron plate was re-covered on the canal of the Sparrow Killing Formation, and the workers worked with the excavator to quickly fill the soil and bury the deep pit.

From beginning to end, neither of them asked me a single question; they simply carried out their tasks silently and unconditionally. It was three in the morning, and the three of us sat side by side in the pavilion, watching the workers busily and methodically at work.

"Xiao Xiao, gather a new construction team today to restore Xunfu Garden to its original state. Simply rotate the beams of the rooms on both sides ninety degrees, from horizontal to vertical. The sinister evil of the 'Nine-Headed Bird Fighting for Fate' will then be neutralized."

Xiao Keleng raised an eyebrow in surprise, but then sighed, "Okay, no problem."