King of Tomb Raiders

Chapter 200

It was a beautiful, clear, sunny day. I took several deep breaths and stretched my arms out. Every time I felt I had grasped a clue about Su Lun's disappearance, I would feel invigorated and refreshed.

He Jishang let out a long whistle, and immediately, a small commotion arose in the peaceful village. Women and children pushed and shoved the team members out of the village, where they awkwardly gathered on the main road in the middle of the village. The little girl with mental disabilities stood beside Feiyue, clutching a snow-white steamed bun in her hand, staring blankly at the sun.

"Feng, I think she—"

Before He Jishang could finish speaking, I suddenly had an idea and shouted to Feiyue, "Feiyue, look at what's in that child's hair!" From a distance of twenty paces, I noticed that the little girl's pigtail was too large and the way it was tied was extremely clumsy, as if the child had tied it herself.

Feiyue obediently raised her hand and untied the little girl's red hair tie, her hair falling loosely and messily.

"Hmm? A little wooden doll?" Feiyue tapped the little girl's head with her fingers, picked up a small, half-inch-long object, and held it high in her hand.

He Jishang suddenly gasped and whispered four words, but by then I was already in mid-air, swiftly rushing to Feiyue's side. It was a half-inch-long wooden figure, with detailed facial features, a thin silver needle piercing through its chest, and the character "镇" (zhen, meaning to suppress) written in cinnabar on its back.

"Be careful, that's the Dragon Witch's 'Silver Needle Soul Suppression Spell,' don't touch that needle!" He Jishang shouted.

Flying Eagle and Liang Wei staggered and quickly surrounded me. I reached out and took the wooden figure in my hand, examining it repeatedly.

Piercing a dummy with a needle has always been a classic technique in witchcraft. However, in the 18th century when witchcraft was rampant, northern witches preferred to use paper dummy for their rituals, while southern witches used exquisitely crafted straw dummy. Both methods achieved the same goal: piercing the dummy's vital parts with a silver needle and then writing extremely vicious curses on it.

A highly skilled sorcerer could use such a small figure to track down a cursed person across vast distances and cause their mysterious death. However, the use of wooden figures for rituals is rarely heard of in the martial arts world.

The little girl burst into tears. Flying Eagle frowned in disgust, slapped her hard on the shoulder, and threatened her fiercely, "Don't cry, or I'll throw you into the ravine to feed the wolves!"

"I want to go home, I want to go home..." the little girl pouted, crying pitifully, and threw away the steamed bun in her hand. After the wooden figure was removed from her hair, she was able to speak again, and her movements and expressions returned to normal.

Feiyue looked at me with a face full of joy, saying nothing, her respect evident. She led the little girl aside and whispered to coax her.

“I found the donkey that Su Lun rode. According to He Jishang, it came here on its own. Based on my judgment, Su Lun should be located south of the village, deep in the jungle. Therefore, we should act immediately and chase after him.”

Liang Wei looked up at the sky and readily nodded: "Alright, I'll take a few brothers and lead the way."

Sunny days always lift one's spirits, and at his command, six agile young men immediately stepped forward. If my judgment is correct, this operation should not stop at the entrance of Lan Valley, but should continue the pursuit until Suren's whereabouts are discovered.

Just to be on the safe side, I need to know the weather conditions ahead. In these remote jungles, the air is humid and the humidity varies greatly, often resulting in strange weather conditions that can change drastically every ten miles.

When Hong Xiaogui answered the phone, he was still half asleep: "Mr. Feng... Ah, the weather? About forty kilometers south of the Concubine's Palace, there's a strong collision of warm and cold air masses, with a more than 90% chance of producing frontal rain or blizzard within five hours. If no strong cold northerly winds appear, the rain and snow will last for at least ten days..." He yawned deeply, ending the report.

Every hacker's image is always accompanied by yawns and drowsiness, as if these people are born "insomniacs" who need to catch up on sleep at any time, and this level of fatigue is absolutely proportional to the hacker's fame.

"Thank you." I was just about to hang up when Red Devil added anxiously, "Mr. Feng, there have been frequent abnormal geomagnetic phenomena in the Lan Valley area recently, especially all the way south to the end of the valley, around the center of 30 degrees north latitude, where an extremely rare geomagnetic storm has formed. Data from the Yinxing-4 meteorological satellite shows that the ground magnetic field is extremely chaotic. If interpreted in the usual way, it is like a strange change caused by the rapid collapse of a huge magnetite ore, but no one knows the truth. Be careful."

I was inwardly horrified, but I kept a straight face: "How many times stronger has the Earth's magnetic field been?"

The sound of Red Devil typing on a keyboard came through the microphone, and then he replied: "The highest peak is 40,000 times, and the lowest is 2,500 times. Currently, it is in a continuous process of fluctuation. No one can reasonably explain this phenomenon. At least, after the same graphic data was transmitted to the five major observation institutions in North America, South America, Northern Europe, India, and South Africa, all the observers and analysts were completely baffled and could not draw any conclusions."

"I understand, thank you." I exclaimed inwardly, then hung up.

Such a strong magnetic field disorder can not only attract any iron object, but may also cause fatal damage to human brain activity, which is incurable.

My eyes suddenly lit up. Liang Wei once said that Schiller's coma was different from Fei Yue's soul-capturing phenomenon. Could it be that during his and Su Lun's adventure, he was suddenly surrounded by a strong magnetic field, which caused brain damage?

"Feng, I'm ready. Shall we go?" Liang Wei and his six team members had finished packing up and checking their weapons and ammunition, and were ready to depart.

I suddenly changed my mind: "The weather ahead will change drastically in a few hours, with rain or blizzard. So, your mission this time is to search along the way you came. One is to meet up with the people coming from the Concubine's Palace. I have already called them to come here immediately. The other is that Li Kang reported that there was blood in the stream. I suspect that something happened to Xiao Guan and the others."

Flying Eagle immediately shook his head and retorted: "Impossible! Xiao Guan's martial arts and marksmanship are both excellent, and he's also very shrewd. How could he possibly have mastered it in just one night—besides, the weather won't be a problem. Rain is possible, but a blizzard would be a complete joke!"

He was clearly in a bad mood after Liang Wei and I took a share of the leadership of the team, so his tone was very rude and blunt.

Liang Wei lowered his head and thought for a moment, somewhat hesitant.

A team should ideally have only one leader; I understand this, and I have no intention of vying for power with Flying Eagle. If it weren't for the need to deliberately reduce the visibility of the expedition, I could have easily abandoned Flying Eagle and deployed another team into the mountains.

"I'll go." I could tell that Liang Wei had some doubts, but he still obeyed my orders.

"Keep in touch by phone at any time, and be careful." I admire Liang Wei's composure more than Xiao Guan's flamboyant and unrestrained nature.

Flying Eagle snorted and scratched his head angrily, but hesitated to retaliate immediately out of consideration for my feelings.

After Liang Wei and his men left, Flying Eagle also disappeared into the wooden building on the side and did not show himself again.

"I'll have to bother you for another night." I looked up at He Jishang at the window and smiled apologetically. The blizzard would close the mountain, and we would definitely not be staying here for just one night, but at least a week or more.

"Heaven has kept us here; how could we possibly fail to appreciate its kindness?" He Jishang said lightly. Such a beautiful woman, yet for so many years she has presented such an ugly mask to outsiders—it is truly a cruel thing. Her gaze remained fixed on me, sweeping over me from head to toe.

The little girl stopped crying and just kept calling for home, but when Feiyue asked her where her home was, she could only shake her head.

"Mr. Feng, what should we do?" Fei Yue helplessly spread her hands. Putting aside whether it would be a burden or not, taking the little girl on the road would be tantamount to losing her life if danger occurred, and the sin would be enormous.

“Take good care of her. The Longge witch wouldn’t kidnap an ordinary mountain villager’s child to play ‘silver needle soul suppression’. If I’m not mistaken, the little girl must have a remarkable background. There’s no need to worry about that at all, since there are so many children in the village. They will soon become the best playmates.”

Time flies. It seems like I only turned a few pages by the window before the sun passed overhead and began to set in the west. There are over forty English versions of *Les Prophecies*, and I've read them all, including this one in front of me. The text itself is nothing new; what I'm really looking at is the passage left by my elder brother, Yang Tian.

If, as He Jishang said, this is a "sword manual," then these few sentences are "sword techniques."

The most famous martial arts masters in history once said something like this: "Of all the martial arts techniques in the world, none can be broken, except for speed."

After mastering weapons and techniques to an extreme level, one enters a "vicious cycle" of attacking, countering, attacking again, and countering again. As a result, more than a dozen classic duels between masters in the last hundred years have become contests of endurance and physical strength. First, there was the battle between the leaders of Shaolin and Emei, which lasted three days and three nights and nearly a thousand moves. Then there was the seven-day and seven-night non-stop battle with ten thousand moves and blood spurting, in which the leaders of Kunlun and Tianshan both died on the summit of a snow-capped mountain.

Martial arts have entered a stage of "brute force struggle" where the two sides are evenly matched. They have lost the extraordinary realm of winning by surprise or killing with a single sword. They are no different from street brawls of hooligans.

Part Two: A Smile That Captivates a City

— Chapter 2 — Sword Manuals in Prophecies —

Therefore, many visionary masters strived to improve themselves and devoted themselves to researching shortcuts to maximize the "speed" of martial arts. Among them, the most famous is Bruce Lee, a martial arts master from San Francisco, USA. Using the "electric shock training" method, he could kick seven times in a second like a whirlwind, making him invincible in the United States. He rose from an unknown junior in the martial arts world to become the founder of Jeet Kune Do.

Scalpel rarely mentioned his elder brother's martial arts skills, but every time he mentioned the masters of the major sects in the martial arts world, his extremely contemptuous tone was tantamount to saying that he did not take these people seriously at all, let alone compare them with "King of Tomb Raiders" Yang Tian.

The meaning of "the blade that can reach beyond distance" is easy to understand. Wherever your eyes look, the blade will be there. It's like holding a powerful flashlight in your hand. Within a distance of tens of meters, the moment you press the button, your opponent will have nowhere to hide.

"How difficult is it to train a person's movements to approach the speed of light?" Every time I finish reading this passage, I silently ask myself this question.

When I visited the Bruce Lee Museum in San Francisco, I sparred with one of his third-generation disciples. He could kick five times in a second, his explosive power capable of shattering wooden boards in mid-air. He had clearly mastered Bruce Lee's techniques. However, his so-called "fast kicks" weren't fast enough. I managed to accurately strike his right knee pressure point during his second round of kicks, using speed to counter speed. It's a pity I didn't live to see Bruce Lee in his prime; I can only witness his impressive series of kicks on videotapes.

What is the significance of the "sword manual" left by the eldest brother? Martial arts masters all understand the principle of "still as a virgin, swift as a rabbit," but how many can truly achieve this? Could the eldest brother have reached the level of "transcending distance"?

I put down my book, walked to the window, and gazed at the jungle across the way. In another hour and a half, it would be the same time I saw my older brother appear yesterday afternoon, so I decided to go across the way to see if the same image would appear again.

"Excuse me, wind." He Jishang appeared gracefully at the top of the stairs.

I turned around with a smile, knowing in a second what her purpose was, but I wasn't in a hurry to speak.

"Can you swear you really saw that yesterday?" She held up a huge bundle in her hand. I could smell the faint, fishy smell of fur clothing mixed with the strange fragrance of mothballs.

"Swear? Is that necessary?" I retorted. Before I got the information I needed, what happened yesterday was my only bargaining chip. She could remain silent about her brother Yang Tian's past and be wary of me, and I could also keep my mouth shut for the time being and retreat to advance.

“Of course—if you’d like to hear about the past of the great hero Yang Tian, perhaps we can make a trade.” She untied the package, revealing a fluffy and luxurious leopard-skin coat.

At first glance, I could price this coat, made entirely of leopard skin, at fifty thousand US dollars. With the widespread ban on hunting in the United States, top-quality raw materials for fur are becoming increasingly scarce in the global market. Fifty thousand US dollars should be its minimum price; at an international trade show, the price could potentially multiply several times over.

I took a deep breath: "This is... the coat I saw yesterday... the one the man wore, it's absolutely true." Even after struggling to suppress my shock, I still couldn't finish the sentence. Judging from the leopard tail scarf hanging from the collar, the size and shape were exactly the same as the one I saw yesterday. The tip of the leopard tail hung precisely at the bottom button of the coat, giving the person from yesterday an air of unparalleled dominance.

“Yes, this is what he wore, but when he left, he just threw it away like trash. If I ever see him again, the first thing I’ll ask him is, why did you leave this garment behind when you were so determined to leave, making me think of you every night?” She stroked the carefully mended stab wound under the left armpit of the garment, her expression somber.

Suddenly, I felt that He Jishang, the once-renowned Holy Princess of the Five Poisons Sect, was truly pitiful. A great hero like my elder brother would never be so heartless; there must be some misunderstanding between them. In an instant, my heart softened, and I refused to use any conditions to coerce her into revealing her past. For me, my elder brother Yang Tian's past was a series of fascinating legends; for He Jishang, perhaps every scene would bring tears to her eyes.

“Miss He, I’m going to the other side in a little while. If I’m lucky, I might see the same scene as yesterday again. Do you want to come with me? You’re better qualified than anyone to say whether that person is the legendary ‘King of Tomb Raiders’ Yang Tian.”

He Jishang was overjoyed: "Really?"

I nodded, suddenly remembering the words the scalpel had once used to criticize me: "A soft heart makes it hard to achieve great things. Which master in the martial world didn't grind their teeth and suck blood, kill without hesitation, and fight their way through a forest of knives and guns? Feng, this will become your fatal flaw on the road of life. If you can't be diligent and restrained, you'll probably regret it the most."

He's right. I know my own limitations, but when I'm with He Jishang and this little village in the jungle, I can't help but feel like I'm "home." I treat her like family, and I'm even grateful for the weather forecast from Red Devil, which allows me to linger a little longer.

"Thank you." He Jishang quickly went downstairs, and within seconds, she came running back up again, carrying a wooden chair in her left hand and a long desk in her right.

"These were all made by his own hands back then, and they've always been displayed by the window. I hope... if the ancient trees could know, they could... they could call him back..."

Seeing a woman like her so devoted to my brother brings me comfort. If one day I were to leave this world, who would care for me? Su Lun? Or Guan Baoling?

He Jishang deftly arranged the table and chairs, then carefully wiped the tabletop with her sleeve. The wood used to make the table and chairs was from extremely precious silver fir trees; judging from its grain, the trees were at least several hundred years old, something only found in such deep mountain forests. The table and chairs had a square and imposing design, with no signs of polishing on the surface, suggesting they were cut with an extremely sharp knife.

"Shall we go?" He Jishang raised her hand and took off her mask, revealing a blushing face, like a lovestruck young girl setting out tables and chairs and waiting for her lover, instantly looking twenty years younger.

Actually, I understand very well: First, those images may not reappear; second, even if my brother reappears at the window, it will only be a fleeting illusion, and I will not see her face, much less talk to her.

"A scholar will die for one who understands him, and a woman will adorn herself for one who appreciates her." I'm truly afraid that what I'll bring her next will only be deeper disappointment. To me at this moment, hurting the woman who deeply loves my elder brother Yang Tian is more unforgivable than hurting Su Lun or Guan Baoling.

Once outside the wooden building, the village was quiet, without a single person in sight.

“I ordered everyone to burn ‘Red Serpent Benzoin,’ which will allow your men to enter the ‘Turtle Sleep’ state in a 100% relaxed state, doubling their mental relaxation,” she explained to me in a light tone, her cheeks flushed and radiant.

“Miss He, you are really…so beautiful…” I couldn’t help but sigh. With such captivating charm, if she were to enter the glamorous world of film and television outside the mountains, given time, within a few years, her fame would certainly be no less than that of the top Asian actresses.

He Jishang's face suddenly darkened: "He said the same thing back then, but unfortunately, even if I were ten times prettier, I still couldn't compare to Shui Lan."

This was the first time I had heard the name "Shui Lan," and I couldn't help but ask, "Who is Shui Lan?" The scalpel's narration never mentioned this name; it only praised the two sisters, Lan Yao and Lan Ji.

By this time, we had already left the village gate and were heading north along the path.

As the sun was about to set, the sky was filled with crimson clouds, and the mountains and fields were completely silent.

“I don’t know.” He Jishang shook his head in confusion, then took out two small, exquisite gold-plated binoculars from his pocket and handed one to me.

This answer was quite unexpected, and I was slightly taken aback.

The handle of the telescope bears the logo of the German Anchev Optical Instrument Factory. This was a professional telescope manufacturer established during the Age of Exploration, whose products were especially prized by European pirates, and were considered one of the four iconic items of pirates, along with single-shot muskets, rapiers, and skull necklaces. In the 18th century, a pirate captain who didn't own an Anchev telescope would certainly be ridiculed by his peers.

Next to the sights of both telescopes was a miniature fox made of gold.

"Rommel's treasure?" I asked casually.

“Yes—” He Jishang sighed.

Rommel, who routed the Allied forces in the desert, is considered one of the greatest military strategists of World War II. Hitler once issued a decree that all of Rommel's personal belongings should be adorned with a pure gold fox as a reward for his contributions to the Reich.

Those familiar with the history of World War II know that Rommel's telescopes were made with the finest optical materials from the Anchev factory, and each lens was coated with a secret formula, allowing him to see everything in any harsh weather conditions without being affected by water vapor or condensation.

In the early stages of Germany's defeat, Rommel moved a large amount of treasure he had collected from Berlin to a secret cave deep in the Swiss Alps, including these two telescopes.

With his elder brother Yang Tian around, it's perfectly understandable that He Jishang would have any antiques or treasures around him. As the saying goes, among tens of thousands of tomb raiding masters, perhaps only one will become a true king. Since he has distinguished himself in the global tomb raiding world and is universally revered as the "King of Tomb Raiders," it's because everything he does surpasses the limits of what others can achieve. Not only is surpassing him out of the question, but even catching up with him has become an impossible dream.

We entered the area diagonally opposite the wooden building, and He Jishang's mood clearly darkened; she didn't speak again.

I glanced at my watch. In five minutes, it would be the exact time I saw my elder brother appear at the window yesterday. Right now, there was no sound from inside the wooden building. The wind blew in through the window, stirring the copy of "The Centuries" on the table.

Red Devil's weather forecast seemed inaccurate. Looking south through the binoculars, there were dark clouds lingering over the jungle within five kilometers, but no signs of rain or snow.

I wonder how Suren is doing now? Does she have somewhere to shelter from the rain and snow? After losing the donkey, is she still getting food supplies? As a disciple of Master Guan Nan Wulang, I believe she has excellent survival skills in the wild. As long as no unforeseen accident occurs, she will surely escape safely.

Su Lun and Guan Baoling gave me completely different impressions. Sometimes, her calmness, composure, and resourcefulness in the face of unexpected events impressed even me. Master Guan Nan Wulang is the greatest Japanese martial artist of the last fifty years. Although I have never had the opportunity to visit him in person, I can glimpse his true strength through Su Lun.

"She'll be alright!" I took a deep breath and prayed silently.

He Jishang impatiently raised his binoculars, pointed them directly at the second-floor window, and kept letting out long sighs.

I can understand her feelings. After a long wait, in the fleeting years, if she could have a chance to see her older brother, anyone would be impatient to wait even a minute longer.