Iron Bull taucht wieder auf

Kapitel 192

I nodded and pointed to a huge red circle on the map: "Did Suren go into that ***?"

The red circle was filled with countless crosses, and next to the two triangles were the words "Lan Valley" and "Sky Ladder".

I've looked at the same map countless times, so I immediately determined that this place is about 60 kilometers from the entrance to Lan Valley, and a little over 100 kilometers from the so-called "Heavenly Ladder." If we march overnight, we can reach the entrance within 20 hours.

I didn't find any means of transportation at the Flying Eagles' camp, so I could only count the days on foot.

"Yes, that's her. She told me that all I had to do was escort her across Lan Valley, and she'd handle the rest of the way to the Heavenly Ladder. I met that arrogant young American; he thought he could conquer this jungle valley with just a map and a compass. How naive!"

Half an hour later, we were already on the path heading south. The forty members of Flying Eagle's team were divided into eight combat groups, arranged in a circular formation, and quickly advanced. Judging from their skills, they were all well-trained SWAT team members, and most of them moved in a style completely like that of American SWAT officers.

“These brothers all came from the Tibetan border. They have complicated backgrounds. At least thirty of them were Nepalese border guards who couldn’t stand the pressure, so they fled here. I gave them money and a place to stay, so they settled down,” Flying Eagle explained to me succinctly.

I made an "understandable" gesture, and then got to the point: "Flying Eagle, please tell me about the circumstances of Suren's disappearance. That's what I'm most concerned about."

According to Jiang Guang's explanation, they followed Suren and Schiller south from the Consort's Palace. After traveling about thirty kilometers, they encountered a stone wall covered with cursed scriptures. The four hunters were terrified and stopped, leaving only Suren and Schiller, who rode two donkeys with water and food. Five hours later, one of the donkeys returned carrying the unconscious Schiller, and Suren disappeared.

It sounds like a simple process, but when Jiang Guang mentioned the "cursed scriptures," the Bakun brothers turned pale again and remained tight-lipped when I pressed them for answers. No matter how much money I offered them, they wouldn't budge.

“We kept a distance of 600 meters from the expedition team, monitoring everything in Suren solely with high-powered binoculars. Our communication was via the ‘Bird of Paradise’ walkie-talkie, which the U.S. infantry had just been equipped with in early 2005, with a line-of-sight communication range of over 15 kilometers. Her walkie-talkie was always on, so after we reached the stone wall, I heard every word of their conversation.”

He took a piece of paper from the pocket of his down jacket, which was covered with various shorthand symbols.

"The curse is on the Thorn Ash Cult, which should be a branch of the ancient Miao witchcraft. Bakun said that the incantation on it is called the 'Entry-in Killing Curse'. No matter which ethnic sect a person belongs to, once they enter the stone wall, they will be controlled by the 'Yangban God' of the Thorn Ash Cult and become its slave for life, like snakes, beasts, insects and ants in the mountains, never able to leave, and at its mercy."

Feiyue, walking on my other side, interjected, "We took pictures of that stone wall, but the images on the digital camera keep disappearing and can't be transferred to the laptop—"

"What?" Flying Eagle suddenly turned his face to the right, snapped on his tactical flashlight, and a beam of white light shot towards the treetop ten meters away. The team members behind us instantly raised their guns, ready to fire.

The tree stood in an eerie posture, its withered branches twisting and reaching towards the sky like a furious, multi-armed giant. The top of the tree was bare, only swaying gently in the north wind.

“I feel like there’s something there, a feeling of being watched—” Eagle’s left hand rested on the gun handle at his waist. He was a natural left-hander, and his marksmanship, which was unparalleled, had earned him high praise from Scalpel.

"Inspect that tree," Feiyue commanded, the red agate on her wrist gleaming once more.

I stopped and took out a tissue to wipe my wet forehead.

The fog in the mountains and forests was very heavy. Fortunately, it was just non-toxic water vapor at this time. Once the third month of the Chinese lunar calendar is over and the wild peach blossoms bloom, the area will be filled with the poisonous "peach blossom miasma," and then it will be truly difficult to move around.

"Boss, there's nothing here." The team members turned around and reported. One of them nimbly climbed halfway up the tree and looked around warily in the beam of the flashlight.

Flying Eagle made a "keep going" gesture, looking somewhat dejected: "I'm sorry, Wind, I might be a little paranoid. It's mainly because Su Lun's disappearance this time is too mysterious—so, don't interrupt or ask any questions, just listen to me tell you everything I know in detail."

I nodded. This was exactly what I wanted: to understand everything he had seen, to corroborate what Jiang Guang had said, and to see what the final result would be.

"Surren and Schiller moved forward. The expedition members did not linger in front of the stone wall; perhaps the curse written on it was too vicious. So they retreated a kilometer and set up camp to wait. From their conversation, I learned that Surren had already told them that he would return within a week, and that he was indeed carrying a week's worth of water and food."

"I led my team to the stone wall and took a lot of pictures with a digital camera. It was a very wide wall, made of stacked bluestone slabs, about two meters high and one meter wide, extending to the ravine dozens of meters away on both sides. The middle of the wall was broken, like a natural gate, and the path extended into it through this gap."

"The incantation was reddish-brown, probably smeared with the blood of some kind of animal, and haphazardly covered the walls. I ignored it and led the team forward. Without the distractions of those fools in the expedition, we moved much faster, to the point that I worried I might have overtaken Suren and gotten ahead of them, so I kept looking around with my binoculars. The sun was shining brightly that day, visibility was excellent, and the binoculars could clearly see within three kilometers."

“Strangely, I couldn’t find them. About five kilometers past the stone wall, the donkey’s hoofprints completely disappeared from the ground. I have two men who were tracking experts in the Burmese border guards, and even they were at a loss. Suren and Schiller seemed to have vanished into thin air, along with the donkey, without a trace…”

The path was rugged and difficult to traverse, and I deliberately remained silent, especially regarding the last part of Eagle's account, which was full of suspicious points. Given the tracking skills of this group, they probably wouldn't let their target out of sight for more than three minutes, so how did Suren and his group disappear? Moreover, when they crossed the stone wall, they were still quite far from the Valley of Orchids, which was filled with "flying snakes"—

Suddenly, the walkie-talkie on Flying Eagle's waist crackled to life: "Boss, we're missing a brother on the right wing."

I had a feeling that Eagle's alertness just now wasn't just excessive tension. A seasoned veteran like him could keenly sense even the slightest disturbance, especially when it came to an impending crisis.

"Don't be nervous. Have everyone close in formation, provide cross-cover, and maintain communication." Flying Eagle remained calm, gave a few instructions, took out his cigarette case, lit one, and smiled thoughtfully at me. "I remember you don't smoke, right?"

I nodded and smiled, but my mood grew increasingly gloomy.

I was probably the one most devastated by Su Lun's disappearance, and I've been filled with intense self-blame ever since. After Scalpel died, we always felt a sense of mutual dependence, as if we were the only people in the world who were truly close to each other. If Guan Baoling hadn't appeared out of nowhere, I should be the one with her right now.

Feiyue was very curious about my unusual silence, constantly glancing at me out of the corner of her eye. Little girls are always interested in new things, and I could understand her feelings, but I had no intention of responding.

Volume Four: The Divine Trapped in the Epang Palace

Part 1: The Mysterious Borderlands - The Disappearance of Sulun

— Chapter 4 — The Perilous Mountains and Forests —

"Wind, maybe we have some friends coming," Flying Eagle sneered, rubbing the handle of his gun with his left hand.

I noticed that he only had four fingers left on his hand, with his little finger severed at the base, but when I saw him two years ago, his left hand was perfectly intact.

"What happened to your hand? Is there anyone in the southwest who could hurt you?" I asked casually.

He raised his hand and looked at it, a bitter smile suddenly appearing on his face: "Me? My friends in the underworld were too kind to me a few years ago, which is why the name 'Flying Eagle' became so well-known. Actually, in the end, I'm just a nobody in the underworld. In terms of martial arts, intelligence, marksmanship, and leadership, I'm mediocre at best. So, it's inevitable that I'll get minor injuries occasionally. Who knows, I might lose my life at any time. That's perfectly normal, isn't it?"

Feiyue chuckled, "Big brother, why have you been so down lately? Are you really thinking of retiring from the martial arts world?"

She had a short knife more than two feet long hanging from her waist, and her two trouser pockets were slightly bulging, presumably concealing two pistols. As she walked forward, she looked around warily.

Flying Eagle chuckled twice, but didn't respond to her comment.

The smell of smoke mingled in the air, and it was obvious that Eagle's spirits had improved, because the cigarette contained a slight amount of stimulant powder, which I could easily smell.

“Feng, there are indeed many suspicious points about Suren’s disappearance. The strangest thing is the final result—we searched for two hours and found nothing, so we temporarily withdrew from the stone wall and waited for her news on the walkie-talkie. At first, I did not realize the seriousness of the matter. I just thought that they might have lost their way and entered some blind spot where radio signals were blocked. It was not until after dark, when the donkey carrying Schiller appeared alone on the gap in the stone wall, that I realized that something terrible had happened.”

His narration was very concise, giving me the most intuitive understanding of the whole matter. However, the details could only be clearly seen by visiting the site in person.

A wide-open space suddenly appeared in front of them, about fifteen meters square, surrounded by low shrubs.

"The locals call this place 'Ghost Shaves' because it was struck by lightning a long time ago, which destroyed all the nutrients in the soil, so plants can't grow, and it's been barren for hundreds of years," Fei Yue explained quickly, then let out a sharp whistle, and all the team members immediately gathered in this direction.

"Rest here. Xiao Guan on the right wing, come over here." Fei Yue raised her arm, issuing the order briefly and forcefully. She was young, but already had a small reputation in the underworld. Everyone in the southwestern black market knew that Flying Eagle had a beautiful little sister who was ruthless and had a violent temper. The feeling she gave me was somewhat similar to Tina, who was far away in Egypt, only she had more wildness and fierceness than Tina.

All team members took off their backpacks and sat back-to-back in a circle, remaining vigilant even during their brief rest.

Xiao Guan, a dark-skinned and thin young man, jogged over to Flying Eagle and whispered, "Boss, just five minutes after you issued the warning signal, and as everyone was calming down from the initial shock, I discovered that the An Jing and An He brothers had disappeared. Not one person, but both of them vanished at the same time. I led a search party, but they weren't found in the trees or ditches within a 100-meter radius."

His face was streaked with dust and sweat, leaving more than a dozen lines, making him look extremely disheveled.

I stepped back a few paces to avoid interfering with Eagle's train of thought. Besides, gangsters like theirs all have their own privacy to some extent, and it's not appropriate for outsiders to overhear.

**Night* (Please delete this banned book)* (Please delete this banned book) The night was vast and boundless, the gloomy sky like a black pot lid with no end in sight, heavily covering our heads.

"Where could Suren have gone?" She had initially said that the most difficult part of the expedition would be in Lan Valley, or through the "Heavenly Ladder" beyond Lan Valley, so everyone's attention was focused on the entrance to Lan Valley, which was 60 kilometers away. However, now she had disappeared in the middle of the journey, completely unsuspecting, which was far from the planned route.

"Mr. Feng, what are you thinking about?" Fei Yue's clear and crisp voice came from behind her.

I turned around with a smile, revealing no trace of my worries: "I was wondering if it would rain tomorrow?"

She paused, shrugged, and chuckled softly: "What? Such a simple question?"

I nodded, wiping away the water droplets that had condensed on my hairline. I didn't want to have a deep conversation with Feiyue, lest it disrupt my train of thought.

Feiyue raised her hand and shook the black Motorola walkie-talkie: "This is—for contacting Suren, perhaps you'd be interested?"

I thought for a moment and politely shook my head: "No, since Suren didn't respond, the walkie-talkie is useless now, so why would I be interested?"

Flying Eagle kept talking quietly to Xiao Guan, and I felt a vague sense of anxiety: at the current speed, if we marched at full speed, we would reach the stone wall they mentioned before 10 a.m. tomorrow. Why delay any longer? There might be hundreds of reasons for their disappearance, but I always felt that as long as we got to the scene, we would definitely find clues.

From the moment I received the news of Suren's disappearance, my heart felt as if it were bound by the heaviest shackles. I didn't want to talk to anyone, and I couldn't laugh out loud.

“Mr. Feng, I have read your autobiography and heard some legendary stories about you in the martial arts world, so I was very curious about you before we met…”

I smiled, then covered my mouth and secretly yawned to show that I had no interest in the conversation.

Her frankness only made me laugh, and I could only keep smiling: "I'm just an ordinary person. Legends are just legends after all, and they contain very little truth."

The autobiography that Tina fabricated for me has had a very negative impact. I never imagined that it would even be translated into Chinese. I really should find it and read it properly when I have time.

"Could it be that only the 'King of Tomb Raiders,' Yang Tian, is a truly upright hero in this world?" Fei Yue sighed disappointedly and suddenly added this question.

I stared at her silently, raised my eyebrows slightly, and made a "surprised" expression: "What? You're still interested in such old stories from the martial arts world?"

If this were said by Scalpel or Flying Eagle, I wouldn't be surprised, since they were from the same era of martial arts world and had more or less come into contact with each other. But Flying Moon is younger than Xiao Keleng, not even twenty years old, and it's really puzzling that she would be so enamored with her elder brother Yang Tian.

"The great hero Yang Tian, accompanied by the celestial beauties Lan Yao and Lan Ji, roamed the martial world unchallenged, leaving behind hundreds of thrilling tomb-raiding tales. Any one of these could be adapted into a vivid and fantastical legendary novel, causing a sensation far and wide—"

Feiyue spoke softly, a glint of longing in her eyes.

The martial arts world is always like this, full of captivating legends. As far as I know, my elder brother is revered as the "King of Tomb Raiders," not a renowned martial arts leader. He would never "roam the martial arts world" as Fei Yue described, appearing in public in a dazzling display. Once a great figure is adorned with colorful halos, he naturally becomes an object of worship for little girls.

"However, ever since he mysteriously disappeared from the martial arts world, those two girls also vanished without a trace and have never appeared again, becoming a legend in the martial arts world." Flying Eagle walked over and interjected in a relaxed tone.

The names Lan Yao and Lan Ji were mentioned by Scalpel, but no one had ever seen what they looked like. They were only mentioned occasionally by the eldest brother, and remained a mysterious topic that Scalpel could never forget.

Eagle was carrying a dark, heavy pistol, the kind of weapon commonly found in the hands of terrorists in the Middle East. It was large-caliber, had a terrifying killing effect, and was undoubtedly a genuine product of an American military factory.

"Feng, here's a gun for you. You might find it useful. We've already lost two men for no apparent reason. The road ahead is long, so be careful tonight." Flying Eagle seemed worried. Perhaps because he had aged a few years, he had lost the ambitious and bold spirit of his past, and was now cautious and timid in everything he did.

I took the gun, nodded again, and expressed my gratitude.

"Actually, when faced with truly unbelievable and terrifying events, the firearms that humans have researched and manufactured are far too insignificant. They can only kill ordinary animals or our own kind, but for those—" Eagle suddenly stopped talking, realizing that he shouldn't say anything too discouraging in this environment.

From the distant bushes came the mournful, monotonous call of a bird, similar to an owl, sometimes near, sometimes far.

After a half-hour rest, the team continued forward, deliberately reducing the radius of their circular formation, with everyone remaining highly vigilant.

Flying Eagle appeared silent, striding forward, his left hand never leaving the gun handle.

Feiyue followed closely beside me, seemingly never knowing how to shut up. After walking five hundred meters, she whispered to me, "Mr. Feng, where do you think Suren went? Could he have been carried away by a giant beast, or fallen into some hidden cave?"

Flying Eagle turned and glared at her. Flying Moon stuck out her tongue and argued, "Walking helps broaden one's thinking. I hope we can come up with a reasonable explanation for the disappearance before we reach the stone wall, isn't that right?"

Indeed, the activity level of the brain is passively enhanced during walking, and the ability to think about problems can be improved accordingly.

Her question was the same one that had been lingering in my mind: "A beast? A beast wouldn't have carried away Suren but let Schiller go; if he fell into the burrow, how do you explain Schiller's unconsciousness?" Given the current situation, I would rather explain it as them being attacked by some kind of sudden attack, and being subdued before they could send a warning signal on the walkie-talkie.

Schiller had no wounds on his body. When I arrived at the concubine's palace, I examined his entire body, and his skin was completely unharmed. I believe that he fell unconscious because he inhaled some kind of special gas, like liquid ether that kidnappers often use, which instantly renders someone unconscious and leaves no trace afterward.

I took the satellite phone out of my pocket and waved it at Flying Eagle: "Can I make a call?"

Flying Eagle smiled wryly: "Of course, it would be best if you could invite a few helpers over, otherwise I'll be in a real mess soon."

Feiyue snorted in dissatisfaction: "Big brother, you always say discouraging things. What will the brothers think if they hear you?" She took out a pair of exquisite white earphones from her pocket, put them in her ears, and strode past Feiying in a huff, walking ahead of him.

Flying Eagle couldn't help but speak up again: "You can't listen to music in this kind of environment, be careful."

He was helpless against Feiyue's willfulness, just like every older brother in the world is helpless against his naughty and cute little sister.

My excessive silence aroused Flying Eagle's unease: "Feng, Suren is not an ordinary weak girl. As the last disciple of Master Guan Nan Wulang, you must know her skills. She will definitely be fine."

“I know.” I nodded with a smile and dialed a long number.

I am well aware of Su Lun's abilities; as long as there is a glimmer of hope, she can always turn danger into safety and escape from trouble.

A robotic voice on the other end of the phone asked curtly, "Please enter your password?"

I pressed a set of numbers on the keyboard, and the electronic machine immediately played a melodious welcome tune—surprisingly, it was a "wedding march"—before switching to another line. This process repeated three times, with the music changing from "Swan Lake" the second time to "Ode to Joy" the third time, before finally revealing a real human voice: "Isn't it a joy to have friends coming from afar?"

The voice is lazy, always giving the impression of someone who has just woken up.

"I am the wind, and I need weather forecasts for a radius of 200 kilometers south of the Imperial Concubine's Palace, requiring dynamic data every hour." I only stated my request, knowing that the other party could definitely do it.