Histoires de fantômes

Chapitre 204

He Jishang sneered: "That's right."

Liang Wei bowed respectfully and said, "Thank you." Then he turned and went downstairs. His words were undoubtedly an attempt to dispel Flying Eagle's suspicions about the Five Poisons Sect.

Eagle raised his left hand and stroked his rough cheek, the spot where his severed finger had been was starkly bare.

“Feng, perhaps we should leave here. What do you think?” he mused.

I remained silent. Cooperating with He Jishang and using the village as a base would greatly benefit our expedition. We didn't know how long the road ahead was, and we needed a base to resupply our essential supplies.

Outside the window, Feiyue appeared on the main road, holding the little girl's hand. Before we knew it, all three of us were focused on the little girl. Her hair had been washed and carefully braided by Feiyue into two braids that hung down her shoulders, with two bright red ribbons tied to the ends of the braids.

Flying Eagle suddenly coughed, his face flushed red, and his eyebrows furrowed in anger: "Feng, that little girl is very strange!"

He Jishang suddenly turned around and stared coldly at Feiying, as if trying to see right through his internal organs.

Flying Eagle's hand unconsciously reached for the gun handle again, and his body slowly stiffened and straightened, like an eagle encountering a formidable foe.

"The Five Poisons Sect once had a method of refining Gu poison called 'Forcing the God to Pierce the Heart Technique.' If you suspect someone is controlled by Gu poison, you can put them over a pot of boiling sesame oil and roast them. Usually, the Gu worms will crawl out of a person's seven orifices and fall into the oil pot when they smell the tempting aroma of the sesame oil. Do you want to try it on her too? There is firewood, a pot, and sesame oil in the kitchen, so you can do it anytime."

He Jishang's words carried a hint of sarcasm. Although they were not much different in age, she was much more senior than Feiying in the martial arts world. When it came to poisoning and using Gu, Feiying was at a disadvantage.

"You think I wouldn't dare? Three people have already died, what difference does a few more make!" Flying Eagle laughed, his fingers constantly rubbing the gun handle.

“A few more? Yes, but I’m afraid you don’t have the guts—” He Jishang put his left hand to his lips and made a strange whistle, which was completely different from the usual whistle. It was not a “squeak” sound, but a sound similar to the “chatter” sound of country people herding pigs and sheep.

Before Flying Eagle's laughter had completely subsided, the back window was flung open with a "whoosh," and Jiang Guang, who was closest to the window, was instantly propelled into the air and shot out of the back window. With a "thud," the back window fell back down.

"What?" Eagle's gun was drawn instantly.

I knew what had happened, but I didn't want to say a word. I slowly walked to the east window and watched Feiyue standing in the sunlight with the little girl in her hand. Feiyue had changed into a gray homespun outfit, with the cuffs and trouser legs tightly tied up. The brim of her baseball cap was pulled back, covering her hair, making her look even younger and more carefree.

“Young girls look good in anything,” He Jishang sighed softly.

She was once beautiful, like a blooming flower, but withered away while waiting for her elder brother. I believe that if she could see him again, she would regain her youth and beauty.

“Miss He, I know that the Miao people have the custom of ‘insect burial’ after death, but could you please respect the Han people’s custom and preserve Old Man Li’s body?”

The reason Jiang Guang's body disappeared was entirely due to the village guardian spirit's mischief. The enormous carnivorous python requires a terrifying amount of food each day. When the back window sprang open a second time, Flying Eagle realized what was happening and carefully retreated to avoid being accidentally injured by the guardian spirit. Throughout, I never saw its true face, but with He Jishang nearby, it wouldn't suddenly become ferocious and indiscriminately harm anyone.

Part Two: A Smile That Captivates a City

— Chapter 6 - Ancient Cave Column —

Li Zun'er and Li Kang are honest people, and I don't want to hurt their precious feelings, thus creating an irreconcilable conflict between Li Kang and the Five Poisons Sect.

"The Miao people's 'insect burial' and the Tibetan people's 'sky burial' are both the most sacred ways for humankind to achieve liberation, and they are purer than your Han people's cremation and burial. Good people go to heaven, and bad people go to hell. I believe their souls will be able to enter the cycle of reincarnation more quickly under the protection of the village's guardian deity. Isn't that good?"

She is Miao, and could never fully understand certain customs of Han people.

"Give me some face and spare Old Man Li's health. I'll thank you on behalf of Li Kang." I didn't want to waste any more words on this matter.

He Jishang looked at my face and suddenly sighed, "Well, you really are... just like him. Many times, the bodies of bad people are not allowed to be eaten by the village guardian spirits. Why is that? The ways of you Han people are really strange."

She whistled that strange tune again, believing that the village guardian spirit would not appear again.

Flying Eagle felt neglected, but out of consideration for my feelings, he couldn't retaliate and just stood there dumbfounded.

"The God-Piercing Heart Technique" is a common tactic used by Gu practitioners among the Miao people in their duels. However, those subjected to this technique will either die or be maimed, becoming casualties in the battle. Unless that little girl exhibits particularly strange behavior, I do not wish to resort to such an inhumane method.

“She wasn’t poisoned by the Gu, or rather, she wasn’t poisoned by the Miao people.” He Jishang looked out the window thoughtfully.

Neither Flying Eagle nor I refuted her. As the former Holy Princess of the Five Poisons Sect, her words were absolute truth.

"In fact, besides the Miao Gu techniques that are widely known in the martial arts world, there are many other secret sects that can manipulate human souls through strange arts. It's just that the scope of their influence is very small, so no one pays attention to them. In Sichuan, Guizhou, Yunnan, and Tibet, the Tang Clan of Sichuan is always active, and their methods of soul manipulation are extremely ingenious and admirable. In particular, there are at least ten young masters in this generation who are not well-known, but their methods are incredibly sophisticated."

She spoke these words in a calm tone, with a serious expression. I could sense that she had always been deeply wary of the "Tang Clan of Sichuan".

"This is the border between Sichuan and Tibet. Could the power of the Tang Clan extend this far?" Flying Eagle was skeptical.

"Why not?" He Jishang retorted, raising her hand to smooth her hair. She was so proud that she disdained anyone who dared to question her. Although she wore coarse cloth clothes and had no makeup on, she still carried the majesty of the former Holy Princess of the Five Poisons Sect.

I can also give a couple of reasons why it "cannot" be done—

As early as the end of the Tang Dynasty, the "Shuzhong Tang Clan," which had been established for less than a hundred years, used poison to commit cruelty and excessive killing. This led to a joint curse from thirty supernatural sects in the martial arts world at the top of "Guanri Peak" on Mount Tai: "The clan will be scattered and will not continue for a thousand years; for every good person killed in the martial arts world, the sect will lose a woman; for every ten good people killed, the sect will lose a man."

At the moment of sunrise on Mount Tai, thirty drops of blood from the hearts of thirty people gathered in the martial arts treasure "Qiankun Life and Death Pot," allowing the curse to last for a thousand years. From that day on, the Tang Clan's population rapidly declined, with not a single male heir being born for several generations. This led to the Tang Clan's power being inherited by girls, who would then marry men into the family, and the children born would take the surname "Tang."

The Tang Clan's ambition, methods, and opportunities had reached the point where they could unify the world. Unfortunately, due to this ancient curse, the more renowned a young master was in the martial arts world, the more likely they were to die prematurely, causing the sect's grand plan to unify the martial arts world to fail more than a dozen times. It was precisely because of this that the Tang Clan was forced to firmly occupy Sichuan and dare not disperse its limited forces to expand into other provinces.

Flying Eagle didn't argue anymore and turned to go downstairs.

"Has he given up?" He Jishang asked calmly.

I nodded. Flying Eagle was a sensible man; he knew how to bow to reality. He couldn't afford to offend either the Five Poisons Sect or the Tang Clan of Sichuan, so he simply let go for the time being and ignored them. He was powerless to deal with Su Lun's disappearance, which was why he intentionally or unintentionally pushed the heavy responsibility onto my shoulders.

"Yang Tian's power is indeed enough to contend with the Dragon Witch. That person was right." Her eyes suddenly lit up with a touching light when she mentioned her elder brother.

I laughed. My brother's past in the underworld had become a legend in everyone's hearts, radiant and miraculous, like the god of war in Greek mythology, invincible and unrivaled. After leaving Egypt, the more I experienced, the more mature I became, and I gradually understood that my brother was unsurpassable. A simple title of "King of Tomb Raiders" was simply insufficient to summarize his glorious life.

"So, now that Hero Yang Tian is gone, we won't just sit here and let ourselves be slaughtered, right?" I picked up the three pieces of the dead snake. I believe He Jishang also sensed the thing's presence, otherwise she wouldn't have sent the snake to protect the top of my head. If I'm not mistaken, that thing wanted to enter my brain through my temples, but it was blocked by the green snake, which became my substitute.

He Jishang suddenly looked down, staring sullenly at the wire snake on her wrist: "Hey, weren't you looking for your friend? Are you sure she's already in Lan Valley?"

She kept sneering as the Jiang brothers recounted their story, and I felt there must be something going on, so I just quietly watched her face.

"Actually, the so-called Orchid Valley doesn't exist. It's just a rumor spread by someone that there's a valley to the south filled with flying snakes. There's no valley there, only a cave, and inside are stone pillars everywhere..."

I suppressed my astonishment and asked calmly, "A cave? A stone pillar?"

"Yes." She frowned and nodded vigorously.

This unheard-of story puzzled me, but I remained convinced of one thing: "After my elder brother left, He Jishang must have spent a long time searching, scouring all the nearby mountains and forests. Therefore, she must be the most familiar with this area, and whatever she says is based on her own observations and is 100% true."

"Please continue, Ms. He." I remained calm, and even if she said something outrageous, I would listen patiently.

“It was a huge cave, or rather… a tunnel, with very obvious signs of being carved out by man. The entrance was about three meters square, and it got wider as you went in. At the very limit I could reach, it was probably forty meters square. I couldn’t measure its depth because it was filled with towering stone pillars of varying diameters, forming a pattern where the wider the space, the thicker the pillars.” She paused and looked at my face.

Perhaps I acted too calmly, which made her feel a little uncomfortable.

"Please continue," I said with a smile. Whatever lies ahead, if reaching the Heavenly Ladder requires advancing south, nothing can stop me, not even flying serpents or stone pillars.

“It’s a maze-like formation. I’ve tried it hundreds of times, and I always get lost every time I go in. After so many attempts, I can only reach a square section of about forty meters. If I continue to go in, I feel that the tunnel will become higher and wider, making it even more difficult to move forward. Hmm, I’ve drawn a diagram of the tunnel and the pillars on the computer. Please come in and take a look.” She opened the hidden door to the study and went in first.

The computer screen displayed a standard cross-sectional diagram of a tunnel. Anyone with a modicum of common sense would realize that this couldn't be a naturally formed cave, but rather a standard man-made creation, like the tunnels commonly seen on railway lines traversing mountains. However, this location has neither a highway nor a railway line cutting through the mountains. Who would dig a tunnel here? And where does it lead?

He Jishang was not a hermit completely detached from reality; her architectural drawings were remarkably precise. When she turned the pages and showed me the stone pillars of varying sizes, I could no longer contain my astonishment. Each pillar was a perfect cylinder, as if they were finished products transported off an assembly line.

"The tunnel is filled with perfectly formed, standard stone pillars, which stand firmly between the top floor and the ground?"

He Jishang nodded, then scrolled through several pictures, all of them of the same kind of stone pillar.

“By measuring their circumferences, I came to a strange conclusion: in the process of measuring one hundred stone pillars, no two of them had the same diameter. The difference in diameter was a strange percentage value of 361, without exception, instead of the tenfold jumps of millimeters, centimeters, decimeters, and meters that are most common on Earth. Why is that?” She was puzzled. These pictures should have been there for many years, and it seemed that she still hadn’t figured it out.

The number 361 has been a recurring theme in my explorations over the past few months. Based on my experience with the legendary Earth God Tu Liehan, it represents a base-361 system, a calculation method that will never be accepted or used by Earthlings.

Of course, before there are any signs that link the tunnel to extraterrestrial visitors, I will not hastily give myself preconceived notions, nor will I use them to confuse He Jishang's thinking.

"Feng, the Lan Valley and the Heavenly Ladder marked on the map don't exist at all. I've searched all the latitude and longitude coordinates represented by those two locations, and there's only rocky terrain everywhere, not even the slightest clue worth investigating—"

I blurted out, "You mean, Lan Valley and the Heavenly Ladder are actually under the mountain, deep inside the tunnel?"

He Jishang's narrative is definitely trying to express this meaning. I neither agree nor disagree. I only believe the facts I have seen with my own eyes and will not rush to conclusions.

If you want to know what's in this jungle, she's been the most comprehensive guide in every respect for the past fifteen years.

"You believe me?" She released the mouse and tapped her finger on the computer screen.

"I believe you, no matter what you say." Based on her deep affection for her elder brother over the past fifteen years, I believe she is a trustworthy person.

"Thank you, it's been a long time since anyone said that to me." Her joy was tinged with a hint of dejection.

For centuries, the Han people have never trusted the Miao people. Even during the Song, Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties, the emperors' investiture ceremonies of bestowing titles upon various Miao kings and cave chiefs were merely a means to consolidate their rule. They used the Miao to control the Miao, treating Miao nobles as tools, abusing Miao girls as playthings, and selling them at will, never considering them as "human beings."

I consider her a friend, partly based on my older brother's judgment of her. If my older brother can treat her as a friend, then I can too.

"Tomorrow, I want to take some people and head south. No matter what the tunnel is like, only when we get there will we figure out a solution—"

She interrupted me: "You're not going to use explosives to remove those stone pillars, are you? The stone pillars are used to support the top of the tunnel. Every time you blow one up, it will cause a local collapse. If your goal is to get through the stone circle, you absolutely cannot use this method. That would be digging your own grave."

I laughed: "I know all the taboos about using explosives inside the mountain. Don't worry, I won't act recklessly. As long as it's a Qimen formation, there must be a way to break it."

While listening to He Jishang recount the strange events in the tunnel, I kept a close eye on the activity outside. Jiang Guang's dying words were not a lie; the Southwest Caravan could appear at any moment and unleash a devastating massacre.

The southwestern caravans have been entrenched in the jungles for nearly a century. The highest leader of this generation is said to be a notorious bandit who was once wanted by Interpol, an old man with only his right arm. Among the skilled men under his command, the most trusted and relied-upon is a young man nicknamed "Rouge."

The law of survival in the jungle is the most primitive "survival of the fittest," leaving no room for compromise or negotiation. Ever since Su Lun began her exploration of the Epang Palace, I have obtained all the information and photos of "Rouge" from Xiao Yan. He may become our formidable enemy, and the possibility of him becoming a friend is absolutely less than one percent, because Rouge has no friends. At twenty-five years old, he enjoys killing all year round, and the more powerful the enemy, the happier and more frenzied he becomes when he strikes.

Literally speaking, a man who can be named "Rouge" must be at least a little bit perverted.

"Don't worry, the caravan has always given me face and wouldn't dare to trespass into the village. Jiang Guang's words are not credible." He Jishang was confident of this. All she relied on were poisonous snakes and the village's guardian spirit, but the green snake was easily killed, which proved from one perspective that poison and Gu were gradually becoming outdated.

In this era of jungles, it was a time when "no one is a hero without ruthlessness," and personal relationships and face were worth less than a loaf of bread. However, I couldn't refuse He Jishang's request, and of course, I hoped to avoid conflict with the caravan for the time being.

"Feng, do you have any way to save that video? I've tried many different cameras, but any device that records magnetically always disappears after five minutes without exception. Can you think of a way?" On the side of her desk were three of the latest camera models: Sony, Samsung, and Canon.

With such a strong magnetic field, the magnetic recording equipment would definitely be rendered useless. I suddenly thought of Guan Baoling. If she were here, she could quickly depict the image of my brother's appearance, which might be a better solution. Thinking of her, I couldn't help but smile sweetly. A brief separation can fill lovers' hearts with a sense of novelty, and they will miss each other whenever they have free time.

"There's no perfect solution, but I always feel that the great hero Yang Tian is still alive. If we can travel south to the very end, we might find some clues about him. The Earth is vast, but if we put all our effort into finding a famous person and persevere, we will definitely find him, believe me." Actually, I really hoped that He Jishang would join the expedition team. Regardless of whether the flying serpent exists or not, with her "Azure Blood Night-Shining Toad" to help, the chances of success would definitely increase.

"Hehe, Feng, you're too young. In a few years, after you turn thirty, you definitely won't be spouting such empty rhetoric anymore. I can bet you on that." She smiled amicably.

I really hope she can take off that mask and show her true self, as beautiful as a flower. It would be so tragic if she were to spend the rest of her life hiding behind an ugly mask just for her older brother.

"What are you thinking about?" The setting sun slanted across the jungle rooftops, casting a pleasing golden glow.

I smiled and replied, "If I had a sister as beautiful as you, I would definitely buy her the most expensive cosmetics and jewelry, so she would look radiant every day and live a happy life." She's my brother's woman, and theoretically, she should be my sister-in-law. I hope she can become happy and confidently join me in searching for my brother. More people mean more strength; a renowned expert like her can be worth ten people, and her role might even be greater than Su Lun's.

He Jishang suddenly sighed, "Although we haven't done anything, and he never made any promises to me, I know that from the moment I saw him behead the leopard, my body and soul belonged entirely to him. According to Miao custom, once a girl has a lover, she will remain chaste for him, covering her face so that no other man can peek at her. Some even say that if any part of their body is touched by a strange man, they will immediately cut it off without hesitation. However, that's all in the past. In this era, Han girls are as open as an empty city, and Miao girls, once they enter the bustling city, naturally pick up those bad habits and become the scum of the Miao people..."

I smiled and ended the conversation: "Ms. He, is there anything else you'd like to add about that tunnel? Like the handwriting, the plaques, or something similar?"

Throughout history, people of every era have been ambitious and eager to achieve great things, habitually erecting monuments to commemorate their accomplishments. If there were inscriptions on these monuments, the origins of this tunnel could be readily determined.

He Jishang moved the mouse lightly and flipped to another sketch of a seven-stringed zither: "This one is carved on the left and right sides of the tunnel, two identical ones. The two seal characters 'Jujiu' are engraved on the zither, but there is nothing else found."

Black and white sketches are of no help in studying the origins of the guqin. Without profound professional knowledge of the guqin, all guqins appear the same to one's eyes, hence the ancient idiom "playing the lute to a cow." However, I know two siblings whose research on the guqin has reached its pinnacle; they can absolutely be described as "living encyclopedias of the guqin": Gu Zhijin and Gu Qingcheng.

The outside of the tunnel is carved with a guqin (a seven-stringed zither). Could it be that this strange passage was carved out by someone who loves the guqin, and then left their name by marking it with the guqin?

On another enlarged sketch, I saw a small seal in seal script, which indeed contained the two characters "雎鸠" (jujiu).

If Gu Qingcheng were here, she would definitely notice something. Her calm and wisdom left a very deep impression on me. In some ways, her approach to things is even more perfect than Su Lun's, like a precise computer program, meticulously executing a predetermined plan, and no one can stop her.

The time displayed on the computer screen was approaching the moment when my brother's image would appear again. I stood up, pointed at the three cameras, and asked, "Should we try it one more time?"

He Jishang shook his head: "It won't work. We've tried hundreds of times in this area, and even after eliminating all human factors, we still can't save the image."

I gently tapped my forehead, confident that if the signal recording media used locally were sent to a specialized laboratory for testing, they would definitely reveal anomalies in the magnetic field lines. If a huge magnetite deposit were indeed discovered beneath the mountain, this desolate mountain would be transformed into an inexhaustible gold mine.