King of Tomb Raiders

Chapter 201

"Is it about to appear?" she asked anxiously.

"Two more minutes," I replied in a low voice.

The village was truly quiet. Without sound or smoke, each wooden house resembled two lifeless wooden chests stacked together. In ancient times, poor families in the southwestern border regions would keep several wooden chests. While alive, they used them to store clothes and food; when someone died, unable to afford a coffin, they were simply placed inside the chest and buried on the spot. Over time, black lacquered wooden chests replaced coffins, becoming a customary practice in the southwestern border regions. Many wealthy families would have a new wooden chest made in advance for each new addition to the household, storing it in their own storeroom—a practice known as "not asking about the living, but first looking at the dead."

Each building houses a woman and a child, just enough to fill two suitcases.

Suddenly, I felt a chill in the north wind, and a coldness crept over me without my noticing. He Jishang was a traitor to the Five Poisons Sect, and these strangely expressionless women under her command must have been her former followers. Only children were visible, no men—how bizarre! Where were the men? Had they all abandoned their wives and children and left unfaithfully?

My watch was about to complete its final lap at 4:50, which was the first time I looked up at the wooden building.

Suddenly, the second hand started spinning wildly, like a mad rabbit, which then caused the minute and hour hands to spin incessantly, increasing their speed by at least ten times.

I hummed in agreement, because this situation had never occurred before.

He Jishang was also wearing a wristwatch. When I looked up, I saw that the hands of the small Swiss gold watch on her left wrist were also spinning wildly.

"Miss He, look at your watch—" Both watches went crazy at the same time. It shouldn't be a mechanical malfunction, but rather a strange change in the magnetic field of our environment.

"Huh? What's going on?" She only glanced at it before instinctively reaching out to pat the watch cover.

With a difference of just one second, when I looked up again, the man in the leopard-skin coat had already appeared in the window of the wooden building.

"The King of Tomb Raiders... Yang... Tian!" I noticed my teeth chattering and my tongue stiffening. I quickly raised my binoculars and looked at the man's face. Just like yesterday, he was engrossed in reading, flipping through the pages of "The Centuries." I took six deep breaths to calm my racing blood pressure, trying my best to stay clear-headed, and whispered, "Miss He, look out the window. Is that him? Is that him?"

I kept adjusting the focus, but I just couldn't make out his face hidden in the shadows.

The interval between sunset and dusk is very short. As soon as the evening glow fades, the light on the second floor dims, which is why he stopped reading and went to the window.

"What? I can't see anything, where is it?" He Jishang asked urgently, squeezing the plastic focus adjustment wheel with his fingers until it clicked loudly.

"The window, the second-floor window—" I suddenly realized that since Liang Wei couldn't see the person in the window, He Jishang certainly couldn't either.

"Give me the binoculars!" She reached out, snatched my binoculars, and shoved the other one into my hand.

All telescopes function the same way. She cried out in despair, "I can't see him... I can't see him. God, don't punish me so cruelly..."

In a moment of haste, I struck her on the top of her head with my right palm, giving her a helping hand in a "spiritual awakening." The "mind-transfer technique" I inherited from Shao Hei wasn't always reliable; in this crucial moment, I had no choice but to give it my all.

"Ah—ah..." He Jishang's mouth gaped open, and her face turned ashen white in an instant.

The man was walking toward the window. Although his features were not clearly visible, someone like He Jishang, who had been in contact with him for a long time, could definitely tell his identity from his walking posture and movements.

"Brother Tian, Brother Tian..." she murmured, stretching out a hand in a daze, groping forward.

"Who is he? Is he Yang Tian, the 'King of Tomb Raiders'?" I was making a final verification.

"Yes, it's him, Yang Tian, the universally acknowledged king of tomb raiding. He's there, just like many years ago when we first met. He always liked to read by the window, wearing the coat I sewed stitch by stitch. There is no man in the world as majestic as a mountain and as gentle as water as him, so... so... don't go..." She cried out again, and as dusk deepened, everything in the second-floor window became blurred.

I released my hand from her head and slowly adjusted my breathing. The "Mind Transmission Technique" was extremely taxing on my internal energy, and it only lasted for three minutes, but I felt more exhausted than after a series of fierce battles.

"Only you can see him?" He Jishang turned her face, two bright, clear tears falling into her eyes.

I nodded and sat cross-legged on the grass, my limbs feeling weak and almost numb.

"Tell me, is it all an illusion? Tell me how I can see him every day, I'm willing to pay any price." After all, she was a master of the martial arts world, and her agitated emotions quickly calmed down.

I could only shake my head: "I don't know yet. If it's verified that this image keeps appearing, I'll tell you how to see it." I looked down at my watch. The hands had stopped moving, but the calendar had skipped twenty-five days, which meant that nearly a month of my life had slipped away in just a few seconds.

He Jishang pondered for a while, then pressed both hands to her temples, her face showing an expression of extreme pain, and sat down like me.

The village was completely silent, not a single light was on, and the wooden buildings loomed in the distance, resembling a huge tomb of varying heights.

An hour passed in silence before I felt my strength returning. The only reason my watch malfunctioned was due to a sudden burst of strong magnetic interference, which matched what Red Kid had said on the phone. I raised my binoculars and looked south; dark clouds piled up like mountains, heavily covering the jungle—it was definitely rain or snow, coming in an instant.

He Jishang stared blankly at the wooden building, lost in thought: "It's a pity I don't know the martial art of 'Transcendent Blade.' If I could reach the speed of light, see him, and leap over him, perhaps I could meet him. He is a reproduction of light and shadow; if I could also reach the speed of light and shadow, wouldn't we be in the same operating environment? What do you think?"

I smiled silently. If people could travel at the speed of light, they could simply travel back in time and go back to the past. Why would they need to use the roundabout method she suggested?

Many martial arts masters have righteously and sternly refuted the "distance-surpassing" theory, clearly pointing out that if "distance-surpassing" were possible, guns, rocket launchers, and cannons would become unnecessary. In a battle between two armies, the side capable of "distance-surpassing" could strike and win without waiting for the enemy's bullets to reach them, which fundamentally violates the physical laws of nature and is an absolutely absurd and misleading argument. Of course, they also acknowledge that "speed" is limitless; the speed of each strike, from Bruce Lee's seven kicks per second, can be increased to ten or fourteen kicks, but it cannot be accelerated indefinitely because the explosive power of human joints is inherently limited. Unless one leaves Earth or alters the genes of Earthlings, it is impossible to create a martial art that allows for "distance-surpassing."

My stomach was rumbling. I hadn't eaten for three meals and had drunk several cups of snake gall tea. I really needed to replenish my energy.

"Is that him? Is it?" He Jishang murmured to herself, looking up blankly at the gloomy sky. The clouds were gathering from the south, and the humidity in the air was rapidly increasing.

Actually, there are two other details that prove what I just saw was just an illusion. First, I folded up five pages in the middle of the book, so the other person would definitely see the folds if they turned the page. Second, the leopard-skin coat that He Jishang took out was put back into the bundle, and it had obvious signs of being folded over the years, while the one he was wearing was in very good condition and looked very comfortable.

The books and coats represent our current era, but the people in the images, what they see and wear, are these same two things from over a decade ago. Time has changed everything, but the only thing that hasn't changed is He Jishang's heart.

“It’s a pity…it’s a pity I don’t know how to reach the ‘Transcendence’ realm. Although the Five Poisons Sect ran rampant in the southern border and was invincible, it relied only on the tricks of driving away insects and snakes. He was indeed right back then. Let’s go back—” She stood up dejectedly and put the binoculars back in her pocket.

"'Overcoming Distance' is just a legend in the martial arts world. Have you ever seen the great hero Yang Tian actually master the 'Overcoming Distance Palm' or the 'Overcoming Distance Blade'?"

“Yes! The Blade of Overreach!” He Jishang nodded emphatically with great certainty.

Part Two: A Smile That Captivates a City

— Chapter 3 — The King of Tomb Raiders Once Lived Here —

We walked together toward the wooden building. The night was hazy, like walking through a strange, shadowy graveyard. All the doors and windows of the wooden building were pitch black, opening eerily.

"Will everyone never wake up again tonight?" In the martial arts world, people only know about three or four out of ten of the hundreds of evil techniques of the Five Poisons Sect. Many of them have never even heard of the names, let alone understood their uses.

“Yes, they’ll sleep until sunrise tomorrow.” He Jishang silently climbed the stone steps and entered her own wooden house. This method of deepening sleep reminded me of the “corpse-driving technique” of the Jiangxi “Zombie Gate”. If an outsider were to wander into the village right now and see the ground covered with unconscious, living dead, it would surely become explosive news that newspapers and magazines would be eager to reprint.

Standing in front of the building, I suddenly felt a chill on my face, and sparse snowflakes began to fall from the sky.

He Jishang went into the kitchen and busied herself briskly at the stove, the pots and pans clanging and clattering. I sat down in front of the building entrance, looking down at the entire village. Years ago, perhaps my elder brother, on a dark, snowy night, also sat here, lost in thought for a long time?

I miss him terribly. On this vast earth, among over four billion people, he is the only one with whom I share a blood bond thicker than water; no one can replace him. I remember after Scalpel's death, Suren sat silently on the stone steps of Villa No. 13 in Cairo all night, wanting to silently imprint all of Scalpel's voice, appearance, and smiles in her mind, to cherish them for life. The feeling of losing someone so close and dear is a traumatic pain that cannot be expressed in any human language.

"Brother, where are you?" I straightened my chest, feeling the heavy burden pressing down on my shoulders relentlessly. My brother and Suren, these two relatives who were so closely connected to me, were perhaps imprisoned deep in the mountains ahead. I must find them and use my own strength to reverse the disaster that nature had imposed upon me.

I let out a long sigh of relief. As I breathed in the fresh air, I smelled the aroma of stewed meat and the pungent smell of strong liquor.

“I suddenly have a urge to confide in you. I wonder if you would be willing to listen?” He Jishang came out carrying a black tray with a steaming casserole, a bottle of wine, and two cups on it. After tying on her apron, she became more gentle and virtuous, like a hostess, concealing the eccentric and aloof nature of a wandering swordsman.

"Of course, good food and wine, along with a good story to accompany the drink, is the most enjoyable thing to do on a snowy night." My stomach kept rumbling, but the snow outside the eaves was slowly becoming thicker and thicker without me noticing.

She smiled, placed the tray on the ground, and sat down on the steps herself.

“You’re a little like him, casual and carefree, and everything you say sounds wonderful to listen to—” She poured the first glass of wine, a short, stout black ceramic cup that held about an ounce. The bottle was also made of black ceramic, shaped like a deformed, bloated gourd.

"Please." She raised her glass, tilted her head back and drank it all, then showed me the bottom of the glass.

This is the Chinese drinking custom: first, drink the bottom of your lungs as a sign of respect. In this mountainous environment, drinking strong liquor and eating wild game is the most delightful thing to do. I also downed a glass; the hot liquor went straight down my throat and burned all the way to my chest, instantly warming my whole body. The casserole was stewing plump snake meat, wafting an indescribable aroma.

"These herb snakes are gentle in nature and feed on grass roots and small insects. They are very helpful for martial artists to recover their internal energy. You can eat more of them." She temporarily shed her disguise as a martial artist. Although we had only known each other for a day, we became close friends through the darkness, the light snow, the delicious food, and the strong liquor.

"Before meeting him, I didn't believe that the martial art 'Overcoming Distance with the Blade' really existed in the world. That year, I had just turned sixteen, which was also the time when the old leader had just ordered me to be appointed as the Holy Princess of the Five Poisons Sect. It was also the dead of winter. In order to officially ascend to the throne of the Holy Princess, I had to do something earth-shattering for the sect in order to win over the people. So I chose to go into the deep mountains of the southwest to find the legendary 'snake with wings on its ribs' and bring it back to cultivate, so as to strengthen the Five Poisons Sect's continued dominance in the martial arts world."

I listened patiently. A thin layer of snowflakes covered the steps, like a white carpet in the night. The snowfall basically extended to the village and then ended there, so I knew that Liang Wei, who was going back to meet the expedition team, wouldn't be bothered by the snow and would definitely be back tomorrow.

Tonight, I should try to relax as much as possible and listen to He Jishang finish telling her story with her older brother.

"At that time, there were no villages here, only an empty little thatched house. I went five kilometers south but didn't find any special snakes, only common grass-flying snakes, cinnabar wind snakes, and moon-dying snakes. These snakes had long been domesticated by the Five Poisons Sect and were of no value whatsoever."

"During a brief rest at dusk, I suddenly discovered a litter of three mountain leopards, probably just a month old. At sixteen, still young at heart, I wove a large basket from branches and vines, intending to take them home as an unexpected bonus. Of course, I knew that leopards nursing their young wouldn't stray far from their cubs, but back in Yunnan, I often led my men on hunting expeditions, shooting leopards and wild boars many times. I was completely unconcerned about these animals that outsiders considered fierce and terrifying."

"I hadn't gone more than 500 meters from the leopard's den when the old leopard caught up with me. To my surprise, in addition to the two old leopards, a male and a female, there was also an extremely robust adult male leopard. I shot it with a poisoned arrow, but it didn't kill it immediately and kept lunging at me. Just then, a gleaming blade flashed out and severed the male leopard's head in one stroke—that person was none other than 'King of Tomb Raiders' Yang Tian."

It's a cliché "hero saves the beauty" story, but I really wanted to hear her continue, because as she narrated, the image of the elder brother became more and more vivid and powerful in my mind, until he became a living person, not just a flat archetype that was constantly being circulated among martial arts practitioners.

A beautiful woman is in trouble, a hero comes to her aid, and then the hero repays her with his life, becoming a perfect couple. This should be the most enviable development process.

"I fell in love with him the moment I saw him, but at the same time I understood that the faint sadness in his eyes represented the deepest loneliness buried in his heart. When I was young, I didn't understand that a man's loneliness was because of another woman he could never have, and that no matter how much he devoted himself to him, he could never replace that woman in his heart."

"He struck again, or rather, he struck a second time with all his might. He was supporting my arm beside me, but as soon as the blade flashed, he was between the two leopards, their heads falling to the ground, blood staining the grass. 'You are the first and the last to see me unleash a strike that transcends distance.' — These were the first words he ever spoke to me, a nonchalant smile on his lips, as if his violent attack was merely a casual stroll followed by plucking a small flower from the fence."

"The meeting of two people may have originated from the smallest, most pointless decision. If I hadn't moved that litter of leopard cubs and had headed straight for Lan Valley, we would never have met. Or if he had appeared a moment later, I would have died under the claws of the mountain leopard, and I wouldn't have suffered half a lifetime of longing."

I poured her a drink. Cao Mengde said, "What can dispel sorrow? Only wine," and indeed, alcohol can make people forget their pain.

"He built this wooden building because I pretended to be scared out of my wits by the mountain leopard, forced myself to have a fever every day by practicing my internal energy, and took some harmless herbs, which caused my arms to be covered with terrifying red spots. I wanted to keep him here and then use my tenderness to change him, so I used all the childish tricks that a sixteen-year-old girl could come up with."

"I sang by the window of the thatched hut, watching him cut wood bit by bit to build the house, and my heart was filled with the warmth of the sun. On the night the wooden house was completed, it was snowing lightly. He stewed a whole pot of snake meat and a whole jar of strong liquor that he bought from the mountain people. We stood in front of the steps of our new house, just like tonight, without any barriers between us, even though we were just friends who had only known each other for a week."

"He saw through my disguise but never called me out on it. That night, we drank a lot. He had a huge capacity for alcohol; no matter how much he drank, his cheeks only turned slightly flushed. In the Miao world, there are almost no barriers between men and women, and none of the reserve that Han women have. When they see a man they like, they will speak their mind without any hesitation. On a night like that, many romantic stories should have happened, but he just drank. In the end, he showed me a photograph—"

Even now, when she talks about things from many years ago, she still feels a deep longing for them, clearly showing that her feelings for her elder brother are too profound to be erased by the passage of time.

She drank another glass, took out a two-inch crystal-framed pair of glasses from her pocket, and gave a bleak smile: "It's her, Shui Lan."

I took the frame and examined the girl in the photo with extreme curiosity. She had American-style blonde hair that cascaded down to her waist, and large, bright eyes, but with pure Asian black pupils. Even her nose, lips, and skin were characteristic of Asians.

"An Asian girl with blonde hair? Or her hair is dyed—" She was wearing a silver spacesuit, her helmet tucked under her left arm, and carrying a silver briefcase in her right hand. The background of the photo was a huge gray spacecraft, and further back, one could see grasslands, rivers, and distant mountains dotted with white snow.

"Is this the girl that Master Yang Tian likes? An astronaut?" I could only tentatively guess at her identity in response to this sudden appearance. Of course, I couldn't be sure she was an astronaut; many girls like to take photos in the costumes provided by the staff when visiting space bases.

"Perhaps so. He never mentioned her identity or nationality, only telling me that in his heart, there was only Shui Lan. I almost went crazy after being hit like that. His purpose in coming here was to go through Lan Valley to the Heavenly Ladder to find something, but the venom of the flying snakes on the way was too potent, making it impossible to move an inch, so he turned back to find a way, and that's when he encountered me being attacked by the mountain leopard."

He Jishang's words were somewhat unexpected. Since Shui Lan was a part of my brother's life, why was the scalpel never mentioned, not even in those folk tales?

I could roughly guess what happened next: "So, in order to help him, or rather, to please him, you went back to the Five Poisons Sect's Yunnan headquarters to steal the 'Azure Blood Night-Shining Toad' in order to help him drive away the flying snakes?"

"Yes, but when I told him, he flatly refused, unwilling to accept my kindness. I didn't listen to him, and a few days later I secretly slipped away, rushing back to Yunnan overnight, and alone entered the location of the main altar's treasure, the 'Seventy-Two Linked Caves' of Xingyue Mountain in Yunnan. Unfortunately, my scheme was exposed, I was tortured and expelled from the sect, but he rescued me and brought me back to this wooden building. His skills in finding and robbing tombs were unparalleled; within a few days, he brought back hundreds of exquisite jade artifacts from nearby Tang Dynasty tombs, smashed them into powder, and used them to polish the scars on my face. It was then that I discovered there was an infant in swaddling clothes beside him—"

I almost cried out, but I forced myself to.

The baby next to my older brother could only be me. No wonder this place always gives me a "homecoming" feeling; it turns out I was here many years ago.

"Hehe, a very small baby, do you know what I was thinking at the time?" The glass was empty, and she poured herself another glass.

We didn't touch the snake meat in the casserole; her story had captivated me from the start. Anyone in that situation would have suspected the baby was the eldest brother's and Shui Lan's child, without considering anything else.

“My heart was broken. I thought he was a married man, and that girl named Shui Lan was nearby. The baby was chubby and very cute. Although he couldn’t speak yet, his eyes were very bright and lively. When he stared at me, it was as if he could see through my hatred for him.”

I suddenly shivered, not because of the cold of the winter night—the Five Poisons Sect, if they hate someone, they usually poison them to make them mute, deaf, cut off their hands and feet, then cut open their flesh and put in poisonous insects that can live for a hundred years, so that the person will suffer for the rest of their life.

"What did you do to that baby?" At least I am healthy now, without the slightest sign of illness.

He Jishang held the empty cup tremblingly, turned to stare at me, and the air suddenly seemed to freeze coldly. We both jumped back to reality from that distant story.

What would I do to him? What do you think?

We stared at each other for a good half minute. She exhaled a breath of stale air, poured herself another glass, and gulped it down.

“The Five Poisons Sect is vengeful; when all five poisons are unleashed, the Yellow Springs will arrive soon. The way you look at me is so much like his, and so much like that baby from back then—” she murmured to herself.

I smiled calmly: "You're overthinking it. I'm just a passerby in this world. Even tigers don't eat their cubs. You love someone so much, how could you possibly hurt their family?"

She suddenly raised her right hand, and a gust of wind whistled past. A strange rustling sound came from the roof of the wooden building, as if something huge and heavy was being slowly dragged. A strong smell of blood filled the air, and the thing was on the eaves, seemingly about to fall.

"Guardian God, go on, this is none of your business." She wearily wiped her face and forcefully waved her right palm upward.

I slowly grasped the bottle and easily filled my glass, without the slightest fear. The guardian spirit was nothing more than a giant python. In the underground palace beneath the Turkic Khan Pyramid, I faced thousands of ferocious Bengal golden-lined vipers without fear, so why would I be afraid here?

The rustling sound receded to the south, accompanied by heavy, muffled panting.