sorcière

Chapitre 9

46. Falling into the Trap

Not long after, a series of soft, rustling sounds began to emanate from the bushes on either side of the canyon. We knew what this meant, and our hands, gripping our weapons, were already sweating profusely. Then we saw, one after another, bright green spots emerged from the bushes, like will-o'-the-wisps, sending chills down our spines. Needless to say, those were the eyes of the wolves.

At first, perhaps they were somewhat intimidated by the campfire and torches around us, remaining motionless in the bushes. Seeing no attack, we dared not fire rashly, but instead aimed our guns at the wolves closest to us. This standoff lasted for about ten minutes. Just as our hands, holding our weapons, began to ache, a long howl shattered the silence of the night. The wolf king, high on the cliff, had finally given the order to attack. Hearing this sound, each of us felt as if a rope had tightened around our necks, making it difficult to breathe.

As soon as the wolf king gave the command, the wolves that had been standing still reacted instantly. One by one, they emerged from the bushes, baring their teeth and opening their mouths, slowly approaching us. When they were less than a hundred meters away, they suddenly accelerated and charged at us all at once. Seeing the urgency of the situation, I fired a shot into the head of a one-eyed wolf that I had been aiming at. The one-eyed wolf fell to the ground and did not get up. Then, Dunzi and Abao also fired arrows and guns one after another, all hitting their targets perfectly. In a flash, four large wolves were killed by us.

Seeing the formidable weapons in our hands, the other wolves dared not attack rashly any longer, tucking their tails between their legs and darting back into the bushes. Dunzi was overjoyed at this sight, quickly reloading his ammunition while half-jokingly saying, "I was genuinely intimidated by the wolves' appearance at first, but I didn't expect them to be so much worse than the packs I encountered when I was in the army. They're all cowards. If I had known this, I wouldn't have been afraid of them at all." "That's worth it," Abao said with a smile, looking at the spoils of war.

I looked at the four wolf carcasses lying haphazardly on the ground, a strange feeling creeping into my heart. Something seemed off. Was this the true power of these wolves? Was this the true nature of these Mongolian wolves, known for their cunning, ferocity, and cruelty? And then there was the fear the mountain people of the surrounding area had for this wolf king, who had spread tales of it easily taking souls. Was this all it was really capable of?

As I pondered, I carefully examined the wolf carcasses before me again. "Oh no!" I shouted immediately. The others were startled by my shout and quickly asked what was wrong. I glanced at them, my face filled with panic, and said, "We've fallen into the wolf king's trap." "Trapped?" Dunzi asked, seemingly not understanding what I meant. "The wolf king didn't really intend to attack us this time; he just wanted to test our strength and see the power of our weapons," I explained further, seeing their confusion. "How do you know that?" Jenny asked, also looking puzzled. I pointed to the wolf carcasses on the ground and said, "Take a close look at these four wolf carcasses. The one I killed was a one-eyed old wolf. Dunzi's wolf only had three legs. The one Jenny killed seemed to have a pre-existing wound on its back. The one Abao killed was too far away to see clearly, but I'm certain it was a sick or crippled wolf."

After I explained, everyone looked closely and realized that what I said was indeed true. Dunzi then understood and said, "So, the wolf king deliberately sacrificed a few old, weak, and sick foes to gather intelligence on our forces so that it could formulate a feasible battle plan based on our actual situation?" I nodded and said, "That's very possible." My words made everyone's relaxed mood tense up again.

As we spoke, we heard another long wolf howl coming from the cliff. My heart skipped a beat; the real attack had only just begun. At that moment, Dunzi's crossbow fired a steel arrow. But this time, there was only a "clang," indicating that it had missed the wolf and struck a nearby rock instead.

Upon closer inspection, I discovered that the wolves had learned their lesson. Instead of charging straight at us, they were now leaping and dodgeing in a "Z" pattern as they charged. This evasive maneuvering made it extremely difficult for us to aim, resulting in many missed shots. The rest of us opened fire, but we only managed to kill one wolf and wound another. Our hit rate plummeted from 100% to less than 50%. This was the wolf king's battle plan, devised after thorough observation and analysis of our situation. And it seemed to have worked. I had always thought only humans were the most intelligent animals in the world. I never imagined the Mongolian wolf king possessed such a clever mind, understanding military strategy and the principle of knowing your enemy and yourself to win every battle. He even devised the idea of sacrificing some weakened units to probe the enemy's strength.

We quickly reloaded our ammunition while continuing to fire at the wolves charging towards us. The battle intensified rapidly. However, the wolves were simply too numerous, and we lacked a suitable weapon. Soon, they pushed the battle line to within twenty meters of us. Just then, the fastest wolf pounced on us. Without time to aim, Ah Bao grabbed a torch and smashed it hard against the wolf's head. The flames immediately singed the wolf's fur, and the wolf, in pain, tucked its tail between its legs and howled as it retreated.

We have reached the most dangerous moment. If we do not come up with a countermeasure soon, when all the wolves rush up, we will be outnumbered and suffer a great loss in terms of numbers. We will also be killed by the wolves.

In a moment of panic, I quickly looked around and surveyed the surrounding environment. Suddenly, I noticed a slope behind us, only about ten meters wide. The lower part of the slope connected to the valley floor, while the upper part leaned against a steep cliff. The top of the slope, like the canyon itself, was covered with giant rocks and strange stones that had fallen from the cliff over thousands of years.

Seeing this, I suddenly had an idea, so I shouted, "Everyone, pay attention! We'll retreat while firing, and follow me quickly!" Then I took the lead and jogged back up the slope. The others didn't have time to respond to my words; they just followed me, firing as they retreated up the slope.

As we retreated to the top of the slope, the pack of wolves had already followed us to the bottom and were still trying to charge back up. I fired a shot at one of the wolves, then threw my empty shotgun on the ground and shouted, "Today, let's learn from the Five Heroes of Langya Mountain!" With that, I bent down and pushed a large rock down the slope. The boulder rolled down the slope with a thunderous roar. The wolves, preoccupied with dodging our bullets, hadn't expected such a massive rock to suddenly roll down the slope. Several large wolves were knocked over and grazed by the rock along the way.

Seeing this, Dunzi and the others immediately understood my meaning. They abandoned their guns and crossbows and hurriedly pushed huge rocks down the slope. In an instant, boulders rolled down the slope, sending debris flying. The wolf pack was battered and bruised by the boulder array, howling in pain; a large number were killed or wounded in a short time. The wolf king on the cliff, caught off guard by our move, panicked and quickly retreated to the side. The wolf pack remained stubbornly at the bottom of the slope, and we dared not leave rashly. Thus, the stalemate continued for a long time. As dawn approached, perhaps realizing that continuing like this wouldn't yield much benefit, the wolf king howled a few times before the pack gradually retreated out of the canyon.

47. Skull Altar

After a night of fierce fighting, our clothes were soaked through, not a single patch dry. The mountain wind chilled us to the bone as it blew against our damp garments. Seeing that the wolves had retreated from the canyon and assuming they wouldn't return anytime soon, we gradually made our way down the slope back to the campfire. We rekindled the extinguished fire and dried our clothes in the sun.

While packing up their gear, Dunzi said with lingering fear, "I never imagined these wolves were not only fierce but also so cunning. If it weren't for that slope, we'd probably be in their bellies by now." Jenny, hearing this, seemed a little apologetic and said, "It's all because I'm so eager to solve this mystery that I made you all take so many risks with me. Thank you so much." I shook my head and said, "No, it's because we ourselves are also very eager to understand the secret. We were mentally prepared to take these risks from the beginning, so you don't need to worry about us." I smiled and replied. Dunzi nodded and said, "Yes, if we can really solve the legendary mystery of immortality, taking these risks is worthwhile." Afterwards, we all smiled knowingly at each other. We all understood that through these shared hardships, our hearts had become one, and an incredibly deep friendship had formed between us.

Fearing another attack from the wolves, we dared not rest. As soon as dawn broke, we packed our belongings and continued our journey. We followed the mountain stream northeastward, soon arriving at a vast forest. Perhaps this place held rich iron ore, for I discovered our compass had malfunctioned. We could only roughly determine our current direction based on the direction we had come from and the scattered sunlight filtering through the dense foliage. However, at this point, direction was of little significance to us. We were now within the treasure-hunting area between "Sishui" and "Wushan." The exact location of the treasure remained unknown; we could only continue searching this mountainous region, hoping to find other clues mentioned in the treasure poem. However, after walking for most of the day, we found not a single suspicious clue.

Having not slept well the night before, and having spent most of the day hiking through the almost impassable deep forest, everyone was quite exhausted by the afternoon. So we came to a large tree. Strangely enough, there was a ring of flat stones around the trunk, like natural stone benches. However, due to their age, the stones were weathered and broken, making it impossible to tell whether they were placed there by human hands or formed naturally. We took our backpacks off our shoulders and sat down on the stones against the tree for a short rest. Dunzi, having unloaded his burden, closed his eyes and collapsed into a patch of grass, muttering, "Oh, I really can't go on anymore, I'm so sleepy, I need to take a nap." Then he fell asleep. We knew Dunzi was a heavy sleeper, and we weren't in a hurry, so we didn't stop him, planning to let him sleep for twenty or thirty minutes before waking him when we needed to set off again.

Whether it was the weather or the dense forest, I felt a tightness in my chest, almost suffocating. So I stood up to get some fresh air. Just then, Jenny turned around and looked at the towering tree behind her, saying, "There are so many ancient trees in this forest. I wonder what kind of tree this is? It's so thick and strong; it must be hundreds of years old!" I looked closely at the tree and realized it was a locust tree. I said to Jenny, "It's a locust tree. Locust trees don't grow very fast; it would probably take over a thousand years to grow to this size." Jenny nodded, indicating she understood.

Seeing that we'd rested enough, I nudged Dunzi's leg to get him up. Dunzi stretched and yawned, but just as he was about to get up, he suddenly yelled, "Mommy!" and sprang to his feet like a spring. We were all baffled by his sudden reaction and quickly asked him what had happened.

Dunzi pointed to the grassy spot where he had been lying and stammered, "Skulls—skulls, so many skulls!" Hearing this, we cautiously approached and parted the weeds to take a look. Sure enough, there was a pile of skulls in the dense undergrowth. Due to their age, the skulls had turned dark brown and showed signs of petrification. Even stranger, none of the skulls were intact; the crown of each skull was missing.

Jenny looked at the skulls before her and said softly, "Strange, where did all these skulls come from? And the tops of these skulls look like they were deliberately sliced off with a sharp weapon; look how smooth the cuts are." Hearing this, I remembered something and said, "I've read some information before that mentions some Native American tribes in North America had the custom of cutting off the scalps of captives as trophies. These skulls with their tops cut off might also be the skulls of ancient prisoners of war." Jenny nodded and said, "Perhaps."

Just as Jenny and I were discussing the skulls, Ah Bao's voice came from behind us. "Look, there's a pile here. There's one over there. And that one too." It turned out that Ah Bao felt this place was rather eerie, so he went to check around. Upon looking, he discovered that there were a total of eight piles of skulls with their tops cut off around the old locust tree.

“Strange, how could this be?” I asked myself, puzzled. “What’s wrong?” Jenny asked from the side. I thought for a moment and said, “In ancient times, people liked to bury their remains under pine and cypress trees after death, hoping to bring blessings to their descendants and protect their lineage. However, a major taboo at the time was that remains should never be piled up or buried under a locust tree. This is because the Chinese character for locust tree (槐) contains the character for ghost (鬼), and people believed that this tree was an extremely yin tree. If someone died under a locust tree, they would be extremely susceptible to its yin energy and turn into a zombie or vengeful ghost that would harm the world.” I paused and continued, “But judging from the situation before us, these skulls not only did not avoid this old locust tree, but were deliberately placed here with this locust tree as the center, in some special layout.” “What was the purpose of doing this?” Jenny continued to ask.

"Could this have originally been an altar?" I said after carefully examining the surroundings and the arrangement of the skulls. "I just examined the arrangement of these skulls closely and found that it actually corresponds to the positions of the Eight Trigrams in the Book of Changes. Moreover, I can vaguely see the traces left by the fire at the base of the tree. It seems that these are the products left after some kind of sacrificial ritual."

At this moment, Jenny seemed to remember something and hurriedly said, "Yes, yes. Do you remember the pattern on the stone door at the exit of the underwater secret passage?" Jenny paused and said, "It says that after those two tomb raiders controlled this area with their magic, they carried out large-scale construction, building many spirit towers and altars. I think this is very likely one of the altars they set up and built back then." I nodded after hearing this; I thought this explanation was very reasonable.

Dunzi, having been frightened by the skulls the moment he opened his eyes, didn't like the place and kept urging us to leave this eerie and sinister place quickly. Seeing that this place had no connection to the clues mentioned in the treasure poem and probably wasn't worth investigating, we packed our bags and prepared to leave.

Forty-eight, strange vine

We were afraid that if we didn't go far, the pack of wolves would catch up with us, so we didn't dare stop. We planned to walk as far as possible before finding a place to camp. We don't know how far we walked, but it was gradually getting dark. Although our stomachs were rumbling with hunger, we didn't stop. Only when we felt we had walked far enough did we decide to find a place to eat something and rest.

As dusk settled, we spotted a large tree in the distance, seemingly a good campsite, so we headed over to rest there for the night. However, when we arrived, everything seemed strangely familiar. Upon closer inspection, we realized it was the very same skull altar we had visited that afternoon! The jagged, terrifying skulls scattered among the grass remained unchanged.

Upon seeing the skulls, Dunzi cried out in alarm, "Are we trapped in a ghost wall? Perhaps we accidentally disturbed these wandering spirits, and that's why they're making things difficult for us!" He then suddenly knelt down and began kowtowing to the skulls. Seeing that it was getting late, and fearing that if we stayed any longer, the wolf pack would catch up, I pulled Dunzi up and said, "Don't be so alarmed. We're just temporarily lost." Then I urged everyone to remain vigilant and hurry away.

But for some reason, we went back and forth three times, and each time we ended up back at the same spot. This convinced Dunzi even more that we were trapped in some kind of "ghost wall," and he worshipped the skull even more devoutly. Unfortunately, a compass was useless in this forest. During the day, we could use the sunlight filtering through the leaves to determine direction, but now it was night, and the sun had already set. Furthermore, the trees in the forest were so dense that the branches and leaves completely obscured the night sky, making it impossible to see even half a constellation. So, even though I had studied astrology and could usually determine direction by observing constellations, that method was now useless.

The howls of wolves could already be heard in the distance. If we didn't find the right way out quickly, the consequences would be unimaginable. I looked at the tall old locust tree and thought that this was the only thing I could try. So I told everyone that I wanted to climb up the tree; if I could see the night sky from the top, perhaps I could find the right path by following the constellations. They all agreed with me, but warned me to be careful.

I unloaded my backpack and started climbing the thick tree trunk with my bare hands. To be honest, apart from climbing trees when I was a child, I hadn't climbed trees for many years, so my movements were a bit rusty, and my climbing speed was very slow. It probably took me more than twenty minutes to finally stand on the top of the locust tree branch.

I looked up at the sky, and thankfully, the night sky was perfectly clear, without a single cloud. The Big Dipper in the northern sky was very clear, and Cassiopeia and Orion were also easily discernible. I easily determined my location. Just as I was about to go down, I suddenly noticed a tall, building-like object emerging from the dense canopy of the dark forest, standing silently deep within the woods. It was like a black, demonic tower appearing before me.

Suddenly, a thought struck me: the poem about the treasure contained the line, "Looking afar from Deer Terrace, the primordial chaos of Taiji." Legend has it that Deer Terrace was a towering altar built by craftsmen at the behest of King Zhou of Shang to please his favorite concubine, Daji. It was said that from there, one could invite Daoist immortals from the Three Mountains and Five Peaks to drink and make merry with King Zhou and Daji. Could this magnificent structure before me be the "Deer Terrace" mentioned in the poem?

Upon this discovery, I was naturally incredibly excited and couldn't wait to jump down the tree and tell everyone the good news. But as I bent down to climb down, I was stunned by what I saw. In the grass beneath the tree, the piles of skulls had begun to emit a red glow. The red light was as vibrant as blood, sending chills down my spine. Even more terrifying, from the piles of skulls, blood-red vine-like objects had begun to extend slowly towards Dunzi and the others. Looking down at Dunzi and the others, they were all craning their necks, watching my actions, completely unaware of the strange situation around them.

The situation was critical, so I shouted, "Watch out! There's something behind you!" Everyone was anxiously waiting for me to come down from the tree, but when they heard my shout, they immediately looked behind them. They were shocked to see the vine-like objects emerging from the pile of skeletons and hurriedly moved aside. But the vine-like objects seemed to be faster; before they could completely get away, they quickly wrapped themselves around them. Then, slowly, bit by bit, they dragged them into the pile of skeletons.

I realized things were going badly, but I wasn't armed and couldn't help them from the tree. So I quickly grabbed the trunk and half-crawled, half-slid down. But before I even landed, I saw Ah Bao struggle to pull his M9 tactical knife from his boot and slash twice, cutting off the strange vines that were binding him. From the cut ends, a thick, bright red liquid, like blood, oozed out, emitting a pungent odor. After being cut, the remaining parts quickly retreated into the pile of skeletons.

He then ran over and rescued Jenny and Dunzi. By the time I finally landed, covered in cuts and bruises, all three of them had escaped the strange vines. But we didn't dare rest. We quickly opened our backpacks, took out our weapons, and unleashed a barrage of fire at the eerie pile of skulls. Where the bullets landed, the glowing red skulls instantly turned into scattered bone fragments, and the terrifying red light vanished.

After waiting for a while and seeing no further movement, we went to examine the piles of skulls more closely. In the beam of our wolf-eye flashlight, we saw that beneath each of the distant skull piles was a hole about the size of a bowl, from which the vine-like things were emerging.

"What are these things? How did they get out from under the pile of skulls?" Dunzi asked, still a little shaken. Jenny and I looked at each other and shook our heads, indicating we didn't know either. Just then, we heard Ah Bao's voice from the side, "They look like tree roots." We turned to look and saw Ah Bao holding a piece of strange vine that he had cut off and that had fallen to the ground. As he looked at it, he said, "But these tree roots are very strange. They're like they're made of flesh, very soft."

When we heard Ah Bao say that, we all felt his words were strange. How could a tree root be made of flesh? So we went closer to examine the vine-like object in his hand. It was bright red, and its shape did indeed resemble an ordinary tree root, but its texture was incredibly soft and elastic, truly like flesh. Where did this strange tree root come from? As I thought this, I suddenly remembered the tall, thousand-year-old locust tree behind me. Thinking this, I immediately felt a sense of oppression coming from behind me. I turned around sharply and saw that the old locust tree behind me had changed its appearance at some point. The bark on the trunk had burst open, revealing blood-red, fleshy tissue inside. More vine-like objects stretched out from these tissues, swaying in the air.

49. The Thousand-Year-Old Locust Tree Demon

This sudden change startled me. I never imagined that the old locust tree I had climbed was actually a demon tree. It seems that the reason we kept going around in circles only to end up back here wasn't simply because we were lost. It's also highly likely that this demon tree emits some kind of bio-electrical wave, interfering with our brainwaves and causing us to involuntarily follow its waves back here.

Since that's the case, it seems we'll have a hard time getting rid of this menace and moving on to our next target without finding a way to eliminate it. Thinking this, I picked up my hunting rifle and fired a shot at the tree demon. Seeing me fire, the others followed suit, feeding their bullets into the tree demon's trunk. Several pieces of flesh and bright red sap splattered from where the bullets hit. However, this damage seemed insignificant to it; hundreds of vine-like tendrils shot out from the tree demon's body, trying to entangle us. We dodged left and right, reloading and continuing to fire at the tree demon. After about half an hour of fierce fighting, we were drenched in sweat. Although the tree demon had been hit by no less than a hundred bullets, its thick bark acted like a giant bulletproof vest, protecting its trunk and minimizing the damage. I had originally considered using some spells from the "Exorcism Technique" to deal with it, but since I was a beginner in the "Exorcism Technique," I hadn't yet mastered some of the more intricate and powerful spells, only learning the basics. Moreover, these basic spells were only effective in close combat and not in ranged battles, and I couldn't get close to this thousand-year-old tree monster at the moment, so I had to give up.

Dunzi shouted as he fired, "This won't do! I can't take this anymore!" Hearing Dunzi's shout, I felt anxious too, but I couldn't think of a solution right away. Just then, Abao said, "I think we should use explosives." Yes, explosives, that's a good idea, I thought to myself. So I told them to cover me, and I quickly pulled a bundle of explosives from my backpack, lit the fuse, and threw it towards the tree demon. I thought that should take care of it this time. But before I could even turn and run away, the explosives flying through the air were whipped back by the tree demon's vine-like branches and landed on the grass beside us.

In this emergency, I didn't have time to think. I lunged forward and extinguished the fuse of the explosives. What to do? It seemed this tree spirit wasn't to be underestimated; it knew the power of the explosives and would deflect them back before we could even throw them. Just when we were at our wits' end, Ah Bao ran to my side, threw his hunting rifle to the ground, took the explosives from me, and then turned and charged towards the thousand-year-old locust tree spirit.

Upon seeing this, we panicked and shouted in unison, "Leopard, come back! Danger!" But he seemed to ignore our cries, only caring about charging forward and disregarding the terrifying vines, making no attempt to dodge their entanglement. Sure enough, within seconds, he was entangled by two vines and gradually dragged towards the tree demon's torso. We desperately wanted to rush in to rescue him, but too many vines blocked our way, making it impossible to get through.

Then, the bark of the thousand-year-old locust tree split open even wider, revealing a gaping maw of blood-red flesh. It looked as if Ah Bao was about to be dragged into this monstrous mouth filled with tiny, sharp teeth. Just then, Ah Bao shouted, "Don't come near me!" and lit the fuse of the explosive with the lighter he had been holding. When he was dragged by the strange vines to within centimeters of the mouth, he suddenly exerted force, shoving the explosive into the mouth on the tree trunk. Then, he pulled an M9 tactical knife from his boot, slashed the vines binding him with two sharp "snap" sounds, rolled on the spot, and rolled back to our side.

Seeing all this, we understood what he was planning. So before he could even get up, we ran over and dragged him away. A few seconds later, we heard a deafening roar behind us. We were all thrown to the ground by the massive blast wave.

When we struggled to our feet, everything had returned to calm, save for the crackling sounds of flames from the explosion burning the surrounding vegetation and the remains of the tree spirit. A strong smell of sulfur and coke filled the air.

We slowly walked over to inspect the aftermath of the explosion. The once towering demon tree had collapsed, leaving a huge crater in the ground beneath it. Inside, countless headless skeletons were buried. Judging by the number, there were at least a hundred. Upon seeing this, Dunzi exclaimed, "Damn it, this demon tree is actually a mass grave!" Looking at the skeletal remains, I said softly, "It seems these skeletons belong to the owners of the skulls that were there before. This thousand-year-old locust tree absorbed the yin energy of a hundred wronged souls, and then someone performed some kind of witchcraft ritual, resulting in what we see here." "In that case, we can't just stand by and watch these skeletons lie exposed in the wilderness. Let's help bury them," Jenny said sadly, looking at the headless skeletons in the crater.

We all agreed and started burying the huge pit with our shovels. Just as we were about to begin, a wolf howled from nearby. Oh no, the wolves were catching up! We'd completely forgotten about the wolves behind us, distracted by the tree spirit. But why did those wolves suddenly appear right after we'd dealt with the ancient tree spirit? Looking back, perhaps they'd been afraid of the tree spirit and hadn't dared to enter the area before, but now that we'd killed it, they dared to continue the chase. We couldn't just stay there and wait to die. We quickly packed up our tools, grabbed our backpacks, and ran in another direction.

I don't know how long we ran, but we still hadn't distanced ourselves from the wolf pack. Because of the time constraint, I didn't have time to stop and check our escape route. Right now, my priority was simply to escape the wolves; determining the correct direction was secondary.

And so we ran aimlessly through the dense forest. After about half an hour, our legs felt like lead, almost too heavy to lift. Then, the sound of wolves approaching from behind meant they were very close. Just then, I suddenly heard Jenny shout, "Look! There seems to be a light ahead!" A light? In this wild, primeval forest, a light meant there might be people, and people meant more strength to fight the wolves. At that moment, like someone grasping at a straw, we mustered all our strength, quickened our pace, and ran towards the light.

50. The Witch King

As we got closer, we could see that the light was coming from a small wooden cabin. The cabin sat on a small hill, in a relatively open area, without the dense trees found elsewhere in the forest, making it easy to spot. Because it was dark all around, we couldn't make out the cabin's exact shape, only its general outline by the faint light. Overjoyed to be almost there, we ran towards it.

When we knocked on the door, a strangely dressed man came out. He had disheveled hair, wore animal skins, and wooden clogs; his slightly brown face held an eerie expression. My heart skipped a beat when I saw him. This was the very shaman we had met at Old Li's house earlier. Ever since I saw his terrifying expression during that ritual, I'd had a lingering, unsettling feeling about him. I always felt there was an evil aura about him, even though the mountain people in the area worshipped him like a god.

Seeing our disheveled and sweaty appearance, he coldly said, "Don't worry, the wolves won't dare come here." He then led us into the cabin. Although I was extremely reluctant, I couldn't find a reason not to go in. Since Jenny and the others had already gone inside, I had no choice but to follow them. At that moment, I was secretly amazed. This shaman was indeed powerful; he knew we had been chased here by wolves before we even spoke. If he were truly an evil shaman who wanted to harm us, I wasn't sure I could escape his attack.

Upon entering the house, I found the furnishings even more bizarre. In the center of the house was a hearth, burning a pile of dry firewood. An iron pot sat atop the fire, bubbling away and emitting a fragrant aroma. Several hides were spread on the ground around the hearth; judging from the dark brown spots on their fur, they appeared to be the pelts of a lynx or clouded leopard. Against the main wall stood a wooden table, on which seemed to be placed two statues. However, the statues were covered with yellow cloth, making it impossible to discern which deities they represented. I suspected they might be some kind of mountain god, "Bainacha." The walls were covered with animal hides, bones, and dried animal head specimens. Even stranger, the walls of the entire wooden house seemed to be densely covered with strange symbols, resembling both writing and patterns.

The shaman invited us to sit by the fire pit, then fell silent, creating an awkward atmosphere. To break the silence, Jenny spoke first. But just as she was about to introduce us, the shaman said, "No need for introductions, we've already met in the village." Jenny nodded and said, "Yes, your shamanic dance last time was very impressive." Unexpectedly, he glared at her fiercely. Then, with a hint of anger, he said, "The ritual of invoking the gods is a very sacred ceremony, requiring utmost piety. This isn't a song and dance performance; how can you describe it as impressive? You'll offend the gods by saying that." We quickly apologized, explaining that we were new to the area and had never seen such a ceremony before, unaware of its profound meaning, and asked him not to take offense. Seeing our sincere apology, the shaman's angry expression gradually disappeared.

At this moment, Dunzi seemed very interested in this mysterious shamanic magic, so he asked about it. The shaman ladled some meat soup from the pot and, while handing it to us, told us about the origins of this shamanic magic.

He said that long ago, two mysterious figures suddenly appeared in the mountains from outside. They accidentally discovered a magical technique in a dragon cave on Nianlong Mountain, and began to study it there, eventually succeeding. At that time, many wolves, tigers, and leopards threatened the lives of the mountain people. So, they used their magic to drive away these ferocious beasts. To express their gratitude, the mountain people worshipped them as gods. Later, they used the mountain people's trust to establish a mysterious sect. They became the shamans of this sect. Over the centuries, this mysterious sect has experienced periods of rise and fall, but it has been passed down and preserved from generation to generation. This sect is what we now call Shamanism. The magical powers of Shamanism, such as warding off evil and predicting the future, were all passed down from those two mysterious founders of Shamanism. The shaman explained that the power of this magical magic was even greater in the past, but due to the passage of time, shamanism gradually declined, and many powerful spells and shamanic rituals have been lost or incomplete. Therefore, today, the magical power of these shamanic spells is less than one-thousandth of what it once was. He also said that this mysterious magic was originally only mastered by the king of the sect's shamans. Ordinary people had no chance to even glimpse its secrets.

Hearing him say this, I felt a surge of excitement. Based on the information we currently have, the two founders of shamanism he mentioned are very likely the two "Tomb Raider Generals" we know. Since we can now preliminarily confirm that these witchcraft practices are indeed related to the Tomb Raider Generals, then the "Mount Wu" mentioned in the treasure poem very likely refers to this mountain. It seems my initial guess was indeed correct. I never imagined that being chased by that pack of wolves and running blindly would lead us to the place where the shamans lived, the place we wanted to understand—"Mount Wu."

Since he was the successor of the sect founded by the Tomb Raider General, did he also know something about this half-finished ancient scroll? Thinking this, I cast aside my initial doubts and concerns and eagerly asked him, "Have you ever heard that the two founders of shamanism possessed some kind of immortality?" Hearing my question, he immediately widened his eyes, staring blankly at me for a long time before finally answering, "You... how do you know that?" "Because she is a descendant of one of the two founders of shamanism," I said, pointing to Jenny beside me. The shaman nodded upon hearing this, saying, "No wonder. From the first time I saw you, I sensed something special about you, as if we shared some kind of connection."

After taking a sip of the broth, he continued, “I once heard from my master that there is a most mysterious and powerful ritual in shamanism—the Nine Revolutions Return to the Soul. It can gather the yin energy of millions of spirits to allow the person performing the ritual to escape the mortal body and achieve immortality. However, legend has it that no one except the two founders of shamanism has ever witnessed this ritual.” Dunzi immediately asked, “Do you know how to obtain that kind of magic? Are there any books or diagrams about it that have been passed down to later generations?” The shaman shook his head and said, “I’m not too sure about that. But I once heard my master say that the ancient mystery of that mysterious ritual is hidden deep within these vast mountains.”

Although we didn't get any more useful clues about the treasure's location from him after that, we were still very happy. At least we knew that this ancient scroll recorded a mysterious power called the Nine Revolutions Resurrection Technique, which could free people from birth, aging, sickness, and death. Furthermore, we confirmed that this scroll was hidden deep within these mountains.

Judging from this, the shaman before me didn't seem like an evil person, but why did I have this inexplicable feeling that he carried an evil aura? Was I misjudging him, or was there another reason? I couldn't explain it to myself for the time being. I just felt that there was definitely something wrong here.

51. Blue Enchantress

The next morning, we bid farewell to the shaman. Then, as planned, we headed towards the tall altar I had seen before. I walked and pondered. Based on the clues we had, the two tomb raiders seemed to be quite righteous. They were grateful and worshipped by the mountain people because they had helped and saved them. But if that was the case, why were we seeing so many evil things along the way? Pythons, red spiders, mummies, skeletons, tree spirits. What did all this have to do with the tomb raiders? For a moment, I was completely baffled.

After walking for most of the day, we finally emerged from the dense forest around noon, finding ourselves before a wide, open meadow. I estimated it to be about the size of seven or eight football fields. The meadow was covered in lush, verdant grass. Even more delightful was the sight of pale purple flowers blooming across the meadow—flowers we had never seen before. They emitted a captivating fragrance. Groups of beautiful blue-tailed swallowtail butterflies fluttered and played among the flowers. What a charming scene of wilderness!

Upon seeing the flowers and butterflies, Jenny immediately revealed her girlish nature, dropping her backpack and running quickly to the middle of the lawn, where she crouched down to pick the pale purple wildflowers. Ah Bao, indeed a responsible bodyguard, saw Jenny walk away and hurriedly followed, dropping his backpack to prevent any accidents from happening to her. Having walked for most of the day, everyone was quite tired, so Dunzi and I decided to sit down at the edge of the meadow and find a place to rest.

Dunzi took a sip of water, then looked up at the blue sky and sighed, "If only the journey could be like this all the way!" I laughed. I said, "You, why do you always think about the good things? Could you have gotten those artifacts from the Song Dynasty tomb without taking some risks?" Dunzi laughed too, proudly saying, "Now that you mention it, I really remembered. We sold that batch of goods last time. Guess how much we made this time?" I shook my head and said, "I can't guess." "This amount," he said, holding up one hand. "Fifty thousand?" I asked. "Five million, brother," he said, laughing smugly again. “We agreed beforehand to split the profits 50/50. I’ve already opened an account for you and deposited your 2.5 million. You can come to my shop to collect it later.” “Let’s talk about it after we get through this.” I said with a heavy heart, “The troubles we’ve encountered along the way are much more dangerous than last time. I’m worried that there might be more terrifying things to come. I just hope I don’t make money but not have the life to spend it.” After I said that, Dunzi’s proud expression disappeared, and he, like me, stared into thought as he looked at Jenny and Abao in the distance.

Just then, we suddenly saw Jenny and Leopard shouting loudly and running and jumping around on the lawn in the distance. Because of the distance, we couldn't hear what they were shouting. At first, we thought they were just playing around and didn't pay much attention. But then we realized something was unusual, so we stood up and looked closely through our binoculars. What we saw astonished us. More and more blue swallowtail butterflies were gradually gathering around them. It seemed they were being fiercely attacked by a swarm of blue swallowtail butterflies.

Unexpectedly, these usually docile and gentle blue-tailed swallowtail butterflies could suddenly become so fierce and irritable. Seeing this, Dunzi and I quickly ran to the edge of the dense forest, picked up two pieces of dry firewood, lit them, and rushed towards Jenny and the others. Strangely enough, when we were still sitting on the edge of the lawn, the blue-tailed swallowtail butterflies completely ignored us. But the moment we stepped onto the lawn, thousands upon thousands of blue-tailed swallowtail butterflies rapidly gathered around us, raising their stingers and relentlessly stabbing us. We waved torches as we rushed towards Jenny and the others. Along the way, our faces and hands were covered in welts from the swallowtail butterflies' stings. Countless blue-tailed swallowtail butterflies were burned to ashes by our torches. But even so, they still fearlessly swarmed towards us, one after another, seemingly relentless in their pursuit.

We finally reached Jenny and the others. Because Ah Bao had taken off his coat and covered Jenny's head, her injuries were relatively minor. However, Ah Bao's head and hands were already badly swollen and red. It took a lot of effort to get them both back to the edge of the lawn before the blue-tailed butterflies angrily flew away.

When we brought them back to where we had been resting, Ah Bao was already somewhat delirious and incoherent, perhaps due to the severity of the poisoning. Dunzi and I laid them both down on the ground and quickly took out some ointment for insect bites and stings, applying it to their injuries. We then gave them some antidote and anti-inflammatory medicine to help them recover as quickly as possible.

Dunzi and I were utterly astonished that such a peaceful atmosphere could harbor such lurking danger. How could these normally docile and gentle butterflies suddenly change their temperament and attack humans? Even stranger, they stopped attacking once we left the lawn. Could their sudden change in behavior be related to this lawn? Thinking this, I looked at the open lawn again. When I saw the vibrant pale purple flowers among the grass, I suddenly realized that these flowers resembled a poisonous flower called "Netherworld Enchantress" mentioned in the book "Exorcism Techniques." This flower releases a very strong neurotoxin that easily causes hallucinations, alters a person's temperament, and ultimately leads to death. It seems that these blue-tailed swallowtail butterflies may have been affected by the flower's poison after spending a long time in this flower patch, thus changing their habits. As soon as they saw someone intruding into their territory, they attacked with all their might.

Thinking of this, I told Dunzi about the situation. After listening, Dunzi said thoughtfully, "I really didn't expect that such a beautiful flower would be a poisonous one. It's true that you can only know a person's face and not their heart. There are so many things in this world that hide an ugly heart beneath a beautiful exterior."

Jenny had regained some consciousness by then, though her speech was still a little slurred because her mouth was still a bit swollen. She gestured and asked us what had happened. When I told her the truth, she finally understood. Then she looked at Ah Bao, who was still lying on the ground, with concern and asked how he was. "It's not good," I replied. "He took off his coat to protect you and put it on you, and he even used his own body to shield you from the blue-tailed swallowtail butterfly's attack, so he was severely stung himself." As I said this, I saw a tear well up in Jenny's eye. She seemed deeply moved by Ah Bao's actions. She said that since her grandfather passed away, Ah Bao had always been by her side, caring for and protecting her like an older brother. She didn't know how to thank Ah Bao for everything he had done for her.

Since we can't think of a good way to deal with these terrifying blue-tailed swallowtail butterflies, it seems our original plan to cross the lawn directly to the tall altar is not feasible. Furthermore, Ah Bao is still unconscious, so we can't continue our journey immediately. Therefore, we decided to find a place nearby to rest and camp. Until Ah Bao wakes up, Jenny will stay at the camp to take care of him, while Dunzi and I will search along the left and right sides of the lawn, hoping to find a path that bypasses the lawn and leads to the altar. We agreed that no matter what happens, we must return to the camp before dark. If we get lost, we will immediately fire a warning shot. Although Dunzi wasn't very willing to do this, it was the only option at the moment. After discussing it, Dunzi and I each set off with only gas masks, water bottles, knives, and firearms/ammunition.

52. Mine Pit

In order to find a way around the meadow to reach the altar, I returned to the dense forest I had been in before. I used the position of the sun to determine my direction. Around three or four in the afternoon, a not-too-steep cliff appeared before me, towering high and blocking my way.

I carefully examined the cliff in front of me. I estimated it to be three or four hundred meters high, its walls winding and twisting, its length impossible to discern. Going around it seemed unrealistic. At that moment, I truly wished I had wings to fly over that precipice. It appeared that finding a way around it was highly unlikely.