Iron Bull taucht wieder auf

Kapitel 189

My left hand locked all his vital points from his left shoulder to his waist, while my right hand controlled the key meridians from his crown to his heart. Yet, he still had the leisure to joke: "I only have one weakness, but you will never find it. Even if you do, no peerless sword can sever it. That is my root, the root of my life, forever planted in the vast fertile fields of Hokkaido. Look, the luminous pearl is about to be extinguished. In this formation, your thoughts cannot escape. This is the arrangement of fate, isn't it?"

The light from the luminous pearl was rapidly diminishing, and the stone chamber was gradually filled with red light.

"Is my life really going to end here?" I felt the strength in my arms rapidly dissipating, unable to hold him back at all. Deep in my mind, a faint spark suddenly ignited, as if my elder brother, in a very distant place, was also in such a predicament. He was trying to hold onto a "person," but the other was struggling desperately. His strength was rapidly disappearing in the tug-of-war, and the other would soon escape.

"If we fail, the Earth will be in danger. I have to persevere, even if it's just to delay for one more second." I don't know if these words came from my brother's heart or from my own inner monologue.

"Come, be reborn in my mind, be reborn..." Gu Ye's words sounded like the babbling of demons and monsters. His figure landed on the opposite stone wall, growing taller and taller as the red light intensified.

Suddenly, the figure on the stone wall leaped out. Amid Xiao Yan and Xiao Keleng's exclamations, he swiftly moved and entered the body of the black-clad female ninja. He then pulled out the "Soul of Genghis Khan" from his back and slashed at Gu Ye's shadow.

It was indeed a treasured sword. A bright flash of lightning streaked through the stone chamber, shattering the air and producing a strange "whoosh" sound.

Gu Ye had broken free of my restraints, and his arms reached up behind me, pressing against my temples. He held his internal energy firmly in place, but each surge of his inner strength made me dizzy.

“Surrender, come on, come on—ah…” he suddenly cried out, bending down to look at his waist. A large amount of blood splattered, forming a circular fountain around his waist.

"What? What's going on? What happened to me..." He scooped up two handfuls of blood and brought them close to his face. Under the strong red light, the blood turned black.

He turned to look at the female ninja, then suddenly raised his voice and shouted three times, "Who are you? Who are you? Who are you?"

The female ninja had followed them all the way without uttering a word, but this time, a hoarse, aged male voice spoke: "Who am I? My name is no longer important. Six crossings to the East, and a thousand years of slumber here, only now do I understand that I am merely a pawn in the workings of heaven and earth, destined to strike this blow here today. I don't know you, and you don't know me. If we must determine this, then let it be an eternal destiny..."

Gu Ye looked down at his body again, let out a sharp howl, and charged forward, his palms suddenly piercing the female ninja's body, passing right through her heart.

"I can't... I can't... This isn't the ending I want. I can't die. The Emperor's decree, the future of the Great Japanese Empire, rests on my shoulders. I will not die. I am ordained by Heaven, yet I defy Heaven. I am Heaven, Heaven and I are one—" He shouted incoherently, but he couldn't stop the blood gushing from his waist. I could even hear the terrifying hissing sound as the blood spurted out.

“He’s gone mad,” Xiao Ke sighed.

"He's been insane for a long time." Once the truth was revealed, I realized just how immense Tanino Shinshu's power was. Given his status, he was merely a member of the Azure Dragon Society. This showed that the Azure Dragon Society, which was elusive and difficult to navigate, was the most terrifying force in the world.

In fact, Taniguchi Shinshu almost succeeded in controlling the thoughts of me, Xiao Yan, Xiao Keleng, and even more outstanding talents around the world, turning them all into his "cocoons" to be driven by him. On that day, I don't believe anyone can truly stop his ambition.

Xiao Yan and Xiao Keleng leaped to my side, simultaneously exclaiming in horror, "Shadow Slash Kills! The real Shadow Slash Kills—"

That slash really only grazed Gu Ye's shadow, but his body was already cut in two. It turned out that after the "Soul of Genghis Khan" was swung, he had been severed. Only through superhuman willpower was he able to continue speaking and killing until he finally perished together with the female ninja.

“I really… am going to die… am going to die, but that’s not the ending I planned, not the result I wanted… Wind, save me, save me, we could have been allies who joined forces to fight and slaughter the world… Please save me…” He stretched out his bloody hand to me, his five fingers spread open, struggling in his death throes.

In an instant, his eyes shot out a strange five-colored light, which intertwined into a brilliant net.

"Hmm?" Xiao Keleng and Xiao Yan responded at the same time and took half a step forward together.

The light in Gu Ye's eyes suddenly intensified, carrying an endless allure, but all I saw was a murderous intent gradually taking shape.

"Even a centipede with a hundred legs does not fall down when dead; its final strike is earth-shattering." The book "All Rivers Flow into the Sea" describes the scene of ninjas on the verge of death. The reason why this unique group is named with the word "nin" is that they can suppress all their anger, displeasure, hatred, and resentment in their hearts, just like snakes and scorpions lurking in the dark crevices of rocks. The moment before death is the moment when their deadly poison explodes.

Xiao Keleng and Xiao Yan were seduced by him, and with each step they took, they were one step closer to death.

"Help me..." Gu Ye let out a beast-like howl as he stumbled forward.

I swung my arms and suddenly unleashed a palm strike that struck the blade at Gu Ye's waist. His upper body was instantly thrown aside, like a bamboo stalk cut in two by a sharp blade, the cut clean and neat.

He hadn't yet become a god, a ghost, an immortal, or a demon; he was still a mortal. So, after his body was severed in two, the only outcome was death. However, for such a person, his death was absolutely a blessing for the Japanese people; otherwise, countless innocent lives would have been lost because of him.

The giant's shadow slowly retreated back onto the wall, continuing to hunch over, curl up, and finally disappeared.

"Wait, wait a minute—" Xiao Yan shouted as she rushed to the stone wall, reaching out to touch the gradually blurring shadow. But a shadow is just a shadow; when the light disappeared, the shadow disappeared as well, and the stone wall returned to its original state, as if the incident of the female ninja entering her body and drawing her sword to kill Tanino Shinshu had never happened.

"It's really... amazing..." Xiao Yan pressed her body against the stone wall, tilted her ear to listen, and her face showed a strange expression that was a mixture of envy, longing and confusion.

Xiao Keleng frowned deeply: "Mr. Feng, who exactly is that shadowy figure?"

Even with her exceptionally intelligent thinking ability, she probably couldn't understand the phenomenon of "soul imprisonment."

“I suspect that it is the soul of Master Jianzhen from a very long time ago, which is neither reincarnated nor destroyed and remains here, existing only to resolve a crisis a thousand years later, like a computer program controlled by the flow of time. When time runs to that moment, he will automatically appear, complete the ‘drawing the sword and killing’ action, and then automatically disappear.”

My explanation wasn't perfect; Xiao Yan's rapid blinking clearly revealed her skepticism.

Xiao Keli stared at the pool of blood on Tanino Shinshu, still feeling lingering fear: "The cunning of Japanese ninjas is simply unfathomable. The series of unexpected changes at Fengge Temple were all orchestrated by him alone. Mr. Feng, if it weren't for Master Jianzhen, we might have left this world forever."

Suddenly, I was also infected by her, and felt that a world with sunshine, wind, day and night, and the changing of seasons was the most perfect world.

Xiao Yan unceremoniously snatched the brown sword and hugged it tightly to her chest: "It already belongs to me. If you two want to find souvenirs, pick anything else, but don't try to take this sword from me."

No one was going to take his things from me. I went back to the crystal window and felt the intense red light emanating from under the scaffolding.

"Big brother, are you in there? I swear, I will find you and we will unite our strength to sweep away all evil spirits." I knew that the gem that emitted the red light was in the deep hole in the middle of the scaffolding. And at this moment, looking up at an angle, the red light was shining straight out from the skylight. It must be a replay of the scene that Guan Baoling and I saw in the glass box.

Who designed this mysterious underwater structure?

As I once again leaned over that crystal window, gazing at the towering scaffolding, I longed to step into this eerie underwater structure before me.

Where did my older brother go? Is he inside? What is he searching for, what is he holding onto?

In fact, the further I went and the more I learned, the more confused and bewildered I became.

The two doors were closed again. After removing the blue lotus key, Xiao Yan suddenly asked, "Feng, is this secret only for the three of us to share?"

Xiao Keleng and I nodded at the same time, and Xiao Yan let out an extremely happy cheer: "That's great—with this submarine, I will own the entire underwater world and treat Fengge Temple as my own private paradise..."

Despite being the world's most famous hacker, he was still just a child, unaware of the danger of others coveting his treasure.

As the submarine slid back into the square passage of the "Well of Spirits," Xiao Keleng and I shook our heads simultaneously, remained silent, and exchanged knowing smiles.

Volume Four: The Divine Trapped in the Epang Palace

Part One: The Mysterious Borderlands - Chapter One

"In this deep, ancient forest, the Longge Witch was the sole ruler, and no one dared to offend her. Eleven years ago, in winter, a group of fierce mountain travelers passed through here. That night, they gathered around the fireplace, drinking and boasting, and somehow the topic of the Longge Witch's appearance came up. Being江湖 (jianghu, a term referring to the world of martial arts and outlaws) people who lived on the edge of a knife, their conversation was naturally filled with blatant fabrications and vulgarities. One of them, emboldened by lust, actually said he wanted to take the Longge Witch as his concubine and spend every night with her. At that moment, he was holding his wine bowl, stroking his beard with smug satisfaction, when suddenly, he spat out a mouthful of blood, which shot directly onto the fireplace—"

Jiang Guang was also drinking, holding a gray earthenware bowl made by the local Tujia people. He would say a few words and then take a big gulp, looking very enthusiastic.

"The blood was actually turquoise. As soon as it was sprayed onto the charcoal fire, it hissed and produced a cloud of green smoke, which made the faces of the nine people around them turn green. Everyone started spitting blood, one mouthful after another, until finally the charcoal fire was extinguished by the blood, and the thatched hut they were staying in was plunged into darkness."

A charcoal fire was burning in the middle of the room. The spring chill was still in the air, and it was the most difficult time of the year when the weather was unpredictable and the temperature was fluctuating.

There were only four people present: myself, the Jiang brothers, and Li Kang's father, Li Zun'er. Apart from me, the other three had their faces flushed from the strong liquor brewed by the Tujia people in the mountains.

Jiang Ming continued, echoing his brother's words: "After dawn, only one person survived, scrambling back. He was the only one who hadn't spoken that night; several days of fever and loss of voice saved him. Half a month later, the first thing he uttered was, 'The Longge Witch isn't human; she's a murderous shadow.' Heh heh, everyone in the martial world knows that treasures are buried deep in the mountains. Like mosquitoes drawn to blood, they risk their lives to travel thousands of miles to bite, only to find that most die at the hands of the Longge Witch, becoming nameless ghosts in the valleys and ravines. This time, I hope Miss Suren—"

Li Zun'er, whose temples were graying, reached out and patted Jiang Ming's knee: "Second brother, let's drink, let's not talk nonsense about other things."

Jiang Guang chimed in, "Yes, yes, drinking is the way to go. In this kind of weather, liquor is the best way to warm up. After getting a little tipsy, you can go back inside and lie down. It's more comfortable than being an immortal."

This is a group of江湖人 (jianghu people) who are content with whatever they have, as long as they have wine and meat. I felt very out of place sitting among them.

Li Zun'er sighed, "Over the years, no one has been able to clearly see what the Longge Witch looks like. The most reliable account was last year when a group of herb gatherers from the Northeast reported back that she seemed to be a woman wearing a golden mask. Alas, who knows? No one can say for sure what happens in the mountains. Even the caravan that claims to 'traverse three mountains and seven streams, and reign supreme in the Southwest' doesn't dare to get involved in these matters. Therefore, everyone who goes into the mountains understands that neither the Longge Witch nor the Southwest caravan can be offended..."

I've heard the same argument dozens of times. When it comes to the term "Southwest Caravan," I have hundreds of times more information than these two old farmers from the countryside.

I lost patience and slowly got up, nodding politely to the two brothers: "I'm feeling a bit stuffy, I'm going out for some fresh air."

Pulling open the creaking wooden door, a spring breeze carrying a biting chill rushed in, sweeping away the heat on my face and instantly clearing my mind. I realized that I was carrying a heavy burden on my shoulders: Suren was missing, Schiller was in a coma, and this team searching for the "second Epang Palace" had encountered unexpected and bizarre events.

The 30th parallel north is one of the most mysterious lifelines traversing the Earth. Here, you'll find both Mount Everest, the highest mountain on Earth, and the Mariana Trench, the deepest ocean. Several of the world's most famous rivers—the Nile in Egypt, the Euphrates in Iraq, the Yangtze in China, and the Mississippi in the United States—flow into the sea along this latitude.

The 30th parallel is also home to many of the world's most famous natural and cultural mysteries: the ancient Egyptian pyramids, the Sphinx, the "Fire God and Fire Seed" murals in the Sahara Desert of North Africa, the Dead Sea, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, the terrifying Bermuda Triangle, the ancient Mayan civilization ruins... and of course, the unforgettable Atlantis, which sank into the ocean in a single day and night 12,000 years ago.

Now, I am standing on this mysterious 30th parallel north, but my location is in a small village called Feizidian, deep in the mountains and forests on the border of Sichuan and Tibet in mainland China.

"Sulen is missing, Schiller is unconscious, please come quickly, Mr. Feng." These three short sentences have echoed in my mind thousands of times. At least from the time I flew from Hokkaido to Xi'an, and then finally arrived at the earthen bed where Schiller was lying, it kept ringing, and the sound got louder and louder, making me dizzy.

I've never understood why Suren was so insistent on believing in the existence of a "second Epang Palace" and led an expedition deep into these remote and mysterious mountains. Just now, I met the American biologist Schiller, whom I'd met once before. He was lying flat on the earthen bed, silently unconscious, his face expressionless, eyes closed, mouth slightly open—a classic example of a vegetative state.

Beyond the rugged stone wall, all sorts of ancient trees and strange vines came into view, brewing the promise of spring and turning green again. Further away, there were barren mountain areas, where even the most resilient and tenacious wild grasses could not thrive, leaving only sparse grass roots that could not form a continuous patch to cover the yellow soil and gravel.

My mood was extremely gloomy, just like the weather this afternoon—dark, cold, and utterly hopeless.

"Neigh-neigh..." The sounds of bellowing came from the livestock shed behind the house, and more than a dozen native mules were making restless noises.

This is the expedition team's camp, located in the southwesternmost part of this small town called Feizidian. Standing at the entrance of the stone house and looking south, several rugged paths meander towards the misty distance, with no end in sight.

The air was filled with the strange smell of herbs, and occasionally the smoky scent of paper money and incense, all mixed together and seeping into my nostrils. The north wind howled, giving my eardrums no peace, and my thick down jacket seemed to turn into a sheet of white paper.

Li Kang came out of the west room, holding a large bowl of brown medicine. He glanced at me timidly, and before I could ask anything, he stammered, "This is Mr. Schiller's medicine."

I nodded, and he quietly pushed open the wooden door of the north room, stepped over the half-meter-high wooden threshold, and went inside.

Just a week ago, Suren confidently told me on the phone that she had packed all her gear and was ready to head to "Lan Valley" as soon as the weather improved. But then things took a sudden turn for the worse. I received an urgent overseas call from Li Kang: "Suren is missing, Schiller is seriously injured and unconscious. Please come to the Concubine's Palace immediately."

This is why I left behind all the trivial matters in Hokkaido and rushed to the Sichuan-Tibet border.

"Mr. Feng, I have something to say, but I don't know if I should?" By the door of the east room, Li Zun, dressed in a blue cloth robe, tilted his thin, sallow face up and humbly bowed to me. The north wind blew his shoulder-length white hair, making him look like a character straight out of a late Qing Dynasty drama.

He was Li Kang's father, a private primary school teacher who had taught in the countryside for half his life, gentle yet ridiculously pedantic.

I let out a long sigh of relief, and clasped my hands in a fist and palm salute, but in the way a martial arts practitioner would say: "Old Man Li, please speak."

Li Zun cleared his throat, stepped over the threshold, walked to the stone table next to me, and politely gestured, "Mr. Feng, may we sit down and talk?"

These excessive formalities made me a little impatient, but he was an indispensable figure in Suren's expedition, so I had to give him some face.

We sat together on the stone pier. He shook his long sleeves and did the habitual gesture a storyteller makes before starting a tale, except he didn't have a gavel to strike it hard.

I raised my hand to remind him: "Old Li, just say what you have to say, get straight to the point." Su Lun's disappearance is a big deal. Yesterday at noon, after a long and tiring journey, I arrived at the Concubine's Palace. I wished I could step into Lan Valley that very night to start the search operation. I have been regretting why I was so stubborn as to stay in Hokkaido instead of following her wishes and staying by her side.

Such is often the case with relationships between men and women: only when they lose each other do they remember all the good times they had together, which only brings more regret and sorrow.

"Mr. Feng, what I mean is that I have always opposed Miss Suren's expedition. Since the ancients built their palace in such a desolate and barren place, they certainly did not want it to be discovered by later generations. If we rashly forge ahead, we will not only face hardships and difficulties, but we are also afraid that when we arrive at the door of the ancients, we will be politely refused entry. What should we do?" He sighed seriously, as if a large group of happy ancient people lived in the legendary "second Epang Palace," existing in their own world.

He wore a pair of yellowed reading glasses on his nose, the lenses of which were badly broken. One of his legs was covered in wounds and wrapped in layers of white plasters, a testament to the hardship of his life.

“Old Li, do you believe that there is an Epang Palace somewhere? I believe you are a well-read and cultured man. Don’t you remember Du Mu’s ‘Epang Palace Rhapsody’ which says, ‘The Chu people set it on fire, leaving only pitiful scorched earth’?” What I really mean is that even if there is an underground palace in the jungle, it will not be the “Epang Palace”, but rather the palace of some ancient Sichuan emperor or even an underground tomb.

Li Zun pondered, this was his fixed habit, he liked to keep his mouth shut and thought things through carefully before speaking.

Beyond the east wall was another courtyard of the same kind, where the rest of the expedition team lived. I heard someone humming a popular Hong Kong and Taiwan song off-key, someone reciting Tang poems aloud, and several people playing chess together, constantly bursting into laughter.

This is a mindless rabble; I don't believe Suren can uncover any real secrets of the jungle with these people. At the very least, she should recruit some skilled individuals from her friends or old associates. Only seasoned tomb raiders are the true pioneers of Earth's exploration.

The expedition team consisted of thirteen people, with Su Lun, Schiller, the Li family father and son, the old farmer Jiang Guang, and Jiang Ming as the core members, along with four local hunters and three logistics personnel.

The Jiang brothers, Jiang Guang and Jiang Ming, were the two who discovered the Epang Palace during their escape. They are both over sixty years old this year. If it weren't for the high reward, they wouldn't have risked their lives to come out with the expedition team. I talked to them last night. They know nothing about astronomy or geography and can only lead Su Lun by feeling. They can't even tell me the details of road signs and landmarks.

It's already quite an achievement that this group of people managed to reach the Concubine's Palace safely. Now that the expedition team has suffered such a major accident, no one seems to have any sense of crisis. They're not in a hurry to call for help or the police, and they're just killing time. It makes me think that Su Lun is really being ridiculous and playing with his own life.

Li Zun'er finally spoke: "Mr. Feng, I am indeed well-read, otherwise I wouldn't have been able to immediately identify the Epang Palace upon seeing the descriptions brought back by the Jiang brothers. I was fortunate enough to meet a wandering Tibetan lama at the end of the Republic of China era. We had a very pleasant conversation, and after a hearty meal and drinks, he showed me a scroll depicting the four most mysterious ancient palaces in the world, with the Epang Palace listed first. I naturally raised your question with him, and he laughed and said, 'Who is Du Mu? He's the son of Qin Shi Huang or the grandson of Xiang Yu and Liu Bang. How could he understand what the Epang Palace is all about? It's all just hearsay. The real Epang Palace cannot be burned down, demolished, or moved by anyone. It's not even from this earth, so it will forever remain buried underground.'"

He spoke while gesturing, begging me not to interrupt him.

In such isolated places, charlatans who spread rumors and mystification often succeed. In any case, no one in the martial arts world had ever heard of his so-called "Four Mysterious Ancient Temples."

Not from Earth? Is that still the Epang Palace? Let's just call it the Alien Palace! I only refuted him in my heart, while still putting on a smile on my face.

During my trip to Hokkaido, caught between several powerful factions, I found myself struggling to stay afloat. My impulsive personality has changed a lot, and I've gradually come to understand that everyone's knowledge is very limited. There's nothing "impossible" under the sun. If I can't understand what others are saying, it only proves my own ignorance and stubbornness.

I have become accustomed to humbly accepting everything and then verifying it scientifically, never drawing conclusions based on subjective assumptions.