King of Tomb Raiders

Chapter 240

"What?" He Jishang leaned against the wall, suddenly startled.

“I think we should sit down and talk about the next steps. Since the caravan’s attack is so fierce, should we relocate and take refuge for a while? They like this village, so let’s give it to them.” I raised my voice to attract the eavesdropper’s attention, and helped Feiyue up.

"Huh? What do you mean? Giving the village to the caravan, what kind of terrible idea is that? No way, absolutely not!" He Jishang decisively rejected my haphazard suggestion, raised her right hand, and pressed it against a scar on a piece of log on the wall, which should be the mechanism to open the secret room.

With a "click," the mechanism locking the door to the secret room popped open, and two very realistically disguised sliding doors slid open to the left and right.

Feiyue exclaimed "Eh!" She hadn't expected such a mechanism to be hidden in the wooden house in the mountains. She waved her right arm and laughed childishly, "I never imagined there was such a hidden world over there?"

"Bang, bang, bang, bang," her gun fired four times in quick succession, all after she waved her hand; her smile and words were merely a pretext to cover up her shooting. The bullets flew towards the northeast corner of the roof on the second floor. Almost at the same moment Feiyue fired, someone swung down upside down like a "pearl curtain rolling upside down," the submachine gun in her hand spitting out a brilliant burst of flame, a series of light "rat-a-tat-tat" sounds filling the air.

"Watch out, I—" She was originally standing to my side, but suddenly turned sideways, completely blocking my way, using her chest to shield me from a long string of bullets fired by the enemy.

In close-quarters combat, the submachine gun, with its high rate of fire, low recoil, and near-zero failure rate, is a natural killer that dominates everything. Feiyue's back was pressed against my chest, and I could clearly feel the suffocating impact of the bullets as they entered her body.

With a "click," the firing pin of a submachine gun went empty. The other person nimbly flipped over and jumped in, his left hand pressing and waving to change the second magazine. He then raised the gun with one hand, pointing it directly at me and Feiyue.

His bald head shone brighter than the moonlight, and the lewd and cunning expression on his face was no less than that of a venomous snake in a five-pointed star array.

"The game is over. Miss He, Mr. Feng, and the renowned Miss Feiyue, I have obtained the peerless sword, and I believe the precious Azure Blood Night-Shining Toad is in the secret chamber. There is no need to trouble Miss He with the next step. Therefore, I have to step forward and announce to everyone that it is time to take my final bow."

That was the androgynous Rouge. This time, he changed into a cream-colored tracksuit, and two bright red gemstone pendants dangled from his ears, bouncing freely as he shook his head.

I ignored him. Feiyue collapsed into my arms, her face deathly pale, blood gushing from her chest like a mountain spring after rain.

"I'm going to die... Promise me, wake my brother, wake him up, this is my last wish..." In a few seconds, her face quickly turned sallow, then grayish-white, and the life force in her body was rapidly draining away.

Such a severe gunshot wound would be too much to save even if the patient were rushed to a top-tier hospital in a major city within a minute, let alone in the remote mountains far from any human habitation.

I became speechless, not even having the courage to say a lie to coax her, and just stared blankly as more than a dozen streams of blood raged over her body.

“Mr. Wind…no, no, I want to call your name…Wind, kiss me once, let me die happily. I’ve always…forgot to tell you, I fell in love with you uncontrollably the first time we met. Two months ago, when my brother agreed to go into the mountains with Miss Suren…a fortune teller warned me that this time I would meet my…true love, but he is…a peach blossom in February, withered by frost…”

Her throat tightened, and countless clots of blood gushed from the corner of her lips.

"Kiss me, whether the peach blossoms bloom or wither... whether they burst into full bloom or fade away, at least I saw you, and then I died in your arms under the moonlight. This is... the day I die, and I am willing to die like this—"

Feiyue's life ended abruptly after she said "I'm willing," and never continued. From beginning to end, I didn't say a word, because I couldn't find any words in my mind to comfort her. I just watched helplessly as she spent the last second of her life in a pool of blood.

The atmosphere upstairs was extremely tense. Rouge sensed it too, her body pressed tightly against the railing, her right thumb gripping the trigger tightly, her mind on high alert. He Jishang and I are the main enemies of the caravan, so his tight security was perfectly justified, (Qi*Shu*Wang - Organized*Provided*), but he still made a small mistake, not giving us a chance to catch our breath.

I gently kissed Feiyue's forehead. I had faced death many times, but Feiyue's death gave me the most profound shock.

"I promise you, I will save Flying Eagle, I will do it." Her young body was gradually cooling in my arms, which made me saddened once again by the fragility of life.

"Hey, don't you understand what I'm saying? Hand over the treasure, and then—" Yan Zhi, lacking confidence, shook the submachine gun vigorously. Moonlight shone on his forehead, and beads of sweat seeped out one by one, then slowly slid down his cheeks.

He Jishang suddenly smiled: "Alright, the treasure is yours, but you have to promise not to shoot anyone again." That mocking smile was extremely cold, clearly a prelude to someone who had been slowly provoked about to strike and kill their enemy.

Rouge realized that the situation was getting out of control, but he had already killed Feiyue as soon as he jumped out, and he was now in a difficult position.

"I can guarantee that as long as you don't play any tricks, you'll be fine. You should know that this mountain is the territory of the caravans. Anyone who wants to establish themselves must follow the rules of the caravans." His expression was definitely not that of a confident and powerful person. The muscles on his cheekbones were trembling violently and becoming increasingly stiff.

I only glanced at him out of the corner of my eye. For this kind of monstrous creature that is neither human nor demon, killing ten thousand of them would not be a pity.

"Heh heh, what are you looking at me for? Believe me or not, I can snap my index finger and send you to your doom too!" Rouge curled her carefully applied lipstick and snorted coldly. This was our second meeting, and my restraint had emboldened his arrogance.

Feiyue is dead. Perhaps she once loved me but was too shy to express it, and I was completely unaware, my heart filled with thoughts of Sulun. Because of this, I will never have the chance to make amends for the deep regret in my heart.

“Kill Rouge? Even if you added a hundred more of his worthless lives, how could they compare to Feiyue’s young life?” My gaze swept over the strange round hole in the floor. “What’s hidden in there? Could it be the ‘peerless treasure sword’ that Rouge mentioned earlier?”

He Jishang pressed the switch, and the hidden door slid open silently, releasing an elegant and delicate fragrance that mingled with the bloody smell on Feiyue's body.

"Please come in with me. Baochan is in the hidden compartment under the desk." She stepped gently into the secret room.

Rouge hesitated for a moment, then stepped forward sideways, her gun still pointed at me. He had misjudged the situation, thinking that a single gun could control it; he clearly didn't understand He Jishang's capabilities. Underestimating the Five Poisons Sect was tantamount to putting one foot in the grave.

He Jishang walked to the desk, groping along the side of it, her back to Rouge who had walked to the door.

"Wait a minute, don't move, stand to the side!" Rouge snapped out of her daze and loudly ordered He Jishang. At this moment, both his feet were outside the secret chamber door, his body pressed against the wall, his eyes darting back and forth, watching the two of us.

"Okay, the switch for the hidden compartment is right there. I'll cooperate fully, don't worry." He Jishang obediently withdrew her hand, slowly retreated to the left, and left the desk.

"Ring-a-ling—" The satellite phone in my pocket suddenly rang. Rouge was startled because the whole village was dead silent, and the ringing sounded particularly abrupt. His gun barrel trembled involuntarily. In the blink of an eye, the knife that I flicked out from my left hand was already at his Adam's apple.

There's no need to use a sledgehammer to crack a nut; a mere rouge item wouldn't even require me to use my Desert Eagle—one slash would suffice. The reason I've been hesitant is to observe He Jishang's methods of killing.

Rouge's back pressed against the wall as she reached for the hilt of the knife, her body convulsing strangely. "You... this is the 'Autumn Wind Sweeping Fallen Leaves' technique of the scalpel, indeed... good..." The knife pierced his Adam's apple, extinguishing all resistance within his body. If I had struck first, perhaps Feiyue wouldn't have died.

"A fine knife, a fine knife." He Jishang clapped his hands as he walked out, reached out and pulled the knife by the hilt. Rouge fell limply against the wall, blood gushing from her throat.

"In the world of martial arts, being too soft-hearted is the worst thing you can do, isn't it?" She took out a clean white silk handkerchief from her pocket and wiped the blood off the blade.

I released Feiyue, my mood sinking into utter despair. In truth, I had realized there was someone on the roof even before she did, but my failure to decisively engage them led to Feiyue's death.

“In this ancient mountain forest, ‘stopping killing with killing’ is the most worthy principle to follow. Feng, remember my words: good people don’t join caravans, and there are no good people in caravans either. Killing him is the kindest way to save the world.”

He Jishang put the knife back in my hand, stared at Feiyue's corpse, and sighed with deep regret.

I walked towards Rouge, stretched out my toes and turned his body over. To my horror, I discovered a bloody hole about the thickness of a thumb at the Yuzhen acupoint on the back of his head.

"Marine Corps' ultra-micro sniper rounds?" I swayed and rushed to He Jishang's side, put my arm around her waist, and quickly retreated into the shadows. At the same time, I drew my Desert Eagle and pointed it at the bushes thirty degrees east of south.

"What? There are still enemies outside?" He Jishang whispered, her breath carrying the fragrance of orchids.

The bushes swayed gently in the night breeze, like a vast expanse of silver waves. Based on the location and angle of the bullet wound on Rouge's body, the bullet must have come from that direction. The characteristic of that type of bullet was its ability to precisely control the degree of damage inflicted on the target, a stark contrast to the uncontrollable outcome of ordinary bullets after leaving the barrel.

Now, I can't tell whether it was myself or the other party who killed Rouge, or whether two deadly attacks were launched and hit at the same time. But I know that there is definitely a highly skilled sniper hiding in the shadows.

This stalemate lasted for three minutes, with the other side remaining completely still.

He Jishang took out binoculars from the corner and cautiously peered in that direction, finally shaking his head in disappointment: "There's no one there. They probably quietly withdrew after the sniper shot was successful."

The Sixth Part: The Mystery of the Heavenly Ladder

— Chapter 2 — The Blade of Transcendence —

Five minutes later, after confirming that there were no dangerous people near the bushes, I walked back to Rouge's side and squatted down. I reached into his clothes and immediately felt a cold iron rod, about the thickness of a pen and more than a foot long. I took it out, puzzled.

Actually, it was a sword that looked like an iron rod, with a handle about three inches long. The blade was inserted into a round iron tube, dark and inconspicuous. I remember that such strange swords appeared among the ambush and assassination weapons of the Japanese Iga school of ninjas, but they had long since disappeared with the global popularity of samurai swords.

"What is this? Could it be the legendary 'Blade of Transcendence'?" He Jishang asked with a wry smile, puzzled.

I gripped the hilt and sheath of the sword, and slowly drew it. With a clang, a chilling aura instantly stung my eyes. Once the blade was completely out of the sheath, the cold intensified. Countless stars of varying sizes were engraved on both sides of the seven-inch-long, straight blade, flashing incessantly.

Without a doubt, this is a fine sword capable of cutting through iron like mud, its material somewhere between high-quality steel and modern stainless steel. Seeing such a fine sword immediately reminded me of the Japanese swordsmith's dragon-slaying sword. If he saw such a sword, he would surely stay up all night admiring and discussing it endlessly.

"Miss He, haven't you seen Hero Yang Tian's 'Overcoming Distance Blade'?" I asked, somewhat puzzled, because she had previously told me that she had witnessed her brother instantly draw his blade and kill the mountain leopard.

He Jishang shook his head again: "I have never seen a knife, only the glint of a blade. He said that the Over-the-Distance Knife is a deadly weapon that should be kept hidden rather than exposed. Looking at it too much is not beneficial and will damage the blood and energy of ordinary people. Therefore, I cannot be sure what the Over-the-Distance Knife is like."

The knife is a good knife, but that doesn't prove that the person wielding it has the ability to kill across spatial distances in an instant.

I sheathed the knife again and tried to insert it into the small hole in the floor. It fit perfectly, except that the coin-sized object was missing from covering the opening. I searched Rouge several times but found nothing, which was extremely strange.

"What could that thing be?" He Jishang and I frowned and pondered deeply.

Her mood was extremely low because she was certain that her elder brother had hidden the knife here, but had not left a single word about it, perhaps because he had always treated her as an outsider and was wary of her.

"What is Brother Tian really thinking? He left without a word, but hid a precious sword in the small building. What am I? I have been waiting and watching for so many years, and what have I gotten in return?" She stared at me, her eyes filled with sorrow, and she exuded a heartbreakingly beautiful aura.

"Perhaps we shouldn't have met, and even if we did, we shouldn't have gotten to know each other. This life has been a huge and outrageous mistake..." she muttered to herself, then, like a madwoman, she looked up at the sky and walked towards the stairs, leaving without looking back.

Matters between men and women are best understood by those involved. I'm not his elder brother, so I certainly can't know the hidden sorrows in his heart. But I can imagine that, wandering alone in the martial world, traversing countless mountains, even if he appears glorious and lofty in the eyes of others, he must have moments of loneliness. If he didn't have someone else in his heart, why would he reject the young and beautiful He Jishang?

I recall the prophecy from "The Centuries" that he recorded in his notebook. What was he looking for?

Now it seems he has left his footprints at least in the Egyptian desert, at the foot of the Fuki-ji Temple in Hokkaido, and in this mountain range before us. I have reason to believe that the Heavenly Ladder behind the snake maze and the mysterious palace beneath it also bear his traces. To find the answer, the only way is to hurry and quickly pass through the crevices in the rocks.

The phone rang again. I stared at the long string of Arabic numerals on the screen for a moment before I realized it was a long-distance call from Hokkaido.

"Wind?" It was Xiao Yan's quirky and strange voice. The background music in the receiver was monotonous Japanese folk music. Hearing this strange sound at the highest point of the village sent chills down one's spine.

Since Little Red Ghost arrived at the camp, I haven't needed Little Swallow's help and have almost forgotten about his existence.

"It's me, Xiaoyan. So interested in listening to traditional Japanese music?" I stood cautiously in the shadows, not daring to expose myself to the railing even though I was certain there were no enemies. Japanese ancient music was nothing more than a branch of Chinese "Tang music," something I'd never been interested in. And Xiaoyan, a super hacker who was tone-deaf, shouldn't seem to like this kind of thing either.

"Hehe, I'm watching 'Journey to the West.' The Tang Dynasty story paired with 'Tang music' is a perfect match, isn't it?" Xiao Yan laughed insincerely, her voice weak, clearly showing that she was exhausted to the limit after overexerting herself.

I didn't understand what he meant and was slightly taken aback.

On the main road below the stone steps, the giant python's corpse still lay there, and every small building was in absolute silence.

The puppeteer and Rouge are both dead, and the caravan has suffered a heavy blow. When will the next attack begin? I am worried about He Jishang's future. Ever since I learned that she was my elder brother's woman, this concern has grown heavier and heavier, and I cannot let go of it.

"Perhaps we could invite her to go to the tunnel? Disband the tribe and evacuate the ancient village—" If my elder brother is on the other side of the Heavenly Ladder, and He Jishang goes with him, at least we'll have one more caring and like-minded helper.

"Feng, do you think there really were people with three heads and six arms in history? Like Nezha and Sun Wukong after his transformation? How did Wu Cheng'en create such details? Could there be some real-life prototype?"

Xiao Yan yawned repeatedly and brought up two nonsensical topics.

My first thought had nothing to do with the legendary novel; instead, it flashed into my mind the six-armed monsters in Guan Baoling's narratives. They didn't have "three heads," only "six arms," and they only appeared in murals and the electronic notebook of the Egyptian female general Tina.

"What are you trying to say? Xiao Yan, can't you just be direct? Why beat around the bush?"

I didn't want to waste time, and I certainly wasn't going to give Xiaoyan a chance to spread rumors. Hackers don't read fantasy novels; they spend all their time online and sleeping, and wasting even a second is a shameful crime. Since Xiaoyan mentioned "three heads and six arms," something strange must have already happened.

Xiao Yan coughed, the music stopped, and a rapid, clattering sound of keyboard typing filled the air before his lazy voice could be heard again: "I found some information about 'spirit writing' carved on the inner walls of ancient stone coffins. The meaning is extremely obscure, and one can only decipher its meaning by recognizing the images. You know, the history of stone coffin carvings can be traced back to before the time recorded in Japanese history. Using Chinese history as a reference, it is roughly between the Qin Dynasty and the Western Han Dynasty."

I didn't interrupt and let him continue his rambling.

The practice of "carving inscriptions on stone coffins" first appeared in the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods of Chinese history. The carving ceremony was presided over by the chief priest of a state, who held a high position, and it was a very solemn religious activity. He carved some inexplicable and mysterious information on the coffin, intending for the deceased to carry these unsolved mysteries through the underworld and use the power of another world to solve the puzzles.

The Japanese learned from this, and modern archaeologists have unearthed a large number of stone coffins with inscriptions around Mount Fuji. These coffins are of great research value and are still locked in the research institute of the University of Tokyo, unknown to outsiders.

"To put it simply, the information I have indicates that during a certain historical period in the Japanese islands, there appeared strange beings with six arms. They were tall, with white, transparent heads, and their heads were more than twice the size of an average person's head. They first appeared in Hokkaido—the area around the wind. The information contains many clearly drawn line drawings; you probably wouldn't be able to guess what they actually looked like. It's truly amazing!"

Xiao Yan kept me in suspense, but I immediately pointed out the key point: "They should be dressed like astronauts doing spacewalks, right? I guess that white, transparent head is actually an astronaut's space helmet."

Based on all the information, I can conclude that: "The six-armed monster is definitely not a native of Earth, but comes from some mysterious planet. Just like the Earth God who is forever sunk underground comes from Mercury, the Illusion Demon also comes from outer space, only with more advanced science and technology, which is incomparable to our Earth."

Xiao Yan was silent for half a minute, then chuckled for a while, and replied simply with a few words: "Yes, I admire you, I admire you."

"What happened next? What else did you discover?"

I want the truth, not flattery. If it weren't for Su Lun's sudden disappearance, I would definitely have been able to find a way into that underwater structure and see where the older brother who left the message behind the tunnel went. Xiao Yan is quite intelligent; I hope he can find something first.

"I discovered that their landing path to Earth was quite bizarre. The spacecraft crashed directly onto the summit of Mount Kiwanzune, the powerful impact affecting the entire Hokkaido region. Furthermore, the spacecraft itself descended several thousand meters into the mountainside, creating a vertical tunnel that connected to the seabed. At that time, the indigenous inhabitants of the Japanese islands had extremely low productivity, roughly equivalent to the primitive era of eating raw meat and drinking blood. They were completely defenseless against these strange people and could only be slaughtered at their mercy, until one day—" His tone suddenly shifted, "Feng, do you know why Xunfuyuan is called such an extremely rustic name?"

"Why?" I asked casually, captivated by the information he was presenting.

"'Fu' refers to Xu Fu, the great alchemist who was sent by Qin Shi Huang to the East Sea with 5,000 boys and girls to search for the elixir of immortality. Before the great hero Yang Tian built Xunfu Garden, there was already an abandoned mansion on the original site, also named Xunfu Garden. Don't underestimate these three words; perhaps the truly valuable clues lie on the ruins of that old mansion!"

Xiao Yan was speaking haltingly tonight, which was completely different from his usual behavior.

"Xiao Yan, what exactly are you trying to say?" I couldn't make sense of it all. Fei Yue's death still made my heart tremble with pain. If she had taken a step back then, perhaps the bullet would have hit me instead.

"What I want to say is that some extremely mysterious data was stored in that mysterious submarine, and the encoding method was something that had never appeared on Earth before. Fortunately, I went to great lengths to completely decipher it, including some of the messages on the metal plaque you brought back from the deep sea. So, I discovered a wonderful world, a world that no one but myself understands."