Volume Two: The General’s Tomb Chapter Fifty: The Strange Incident

After Kun Li finished speaking, he sprang to his feet and looked toward another passage. I nodded and said nothing more, for there was no time left for idle talk. If we did not hurry, once the chamber fully collapsed and was destroyed, it would be far too late.

I led the way, with Kun Li close behind, and we ran straight into the passage.

This corridor was only a little over two meters wide, yet it rose more than three meters high, very different from the ones we had passed through earlier. It was not straight, but curved, and the stone walls on both sides were already covered with dense cracks. It was clear we had to quicken our pace; before long, this passage too would give way.

We had run for about five minutes when Kun Li and I saw that the road ahead was no longer made of stone. On both sides, the walls were built of piled rock, and the passage had widened considerably. Beneath our feet was a layer of packed earth, and across the ground were many marks left by a serpent’s tail dragging along the surface.

Seeing that the place had become something entirely different, Kun Li turned and, panting hard, asked me, "Lao Liu, are we safe now?"

I said, "We should be inside a great mountain now. Look." As I spoke, I raised my flashlight and shone it ahead.

What lay before us no longer seemed like a passage, but rather the mouth of a cave. The sides were both formed from stacked mountain rock, and the cave was damp and heavy with moisture. Not far ahead was a smaller cavern, about five meters across. It seemed this place might well have been the dwelling of that three-eyed serpent-man.

Kun Li and I went forward and entered the main cavern directly. I swept the flashlight around to both sides, but aside from a few animal skeletons, there was nothing else.

By the time we reached here, we had finally let our guard down. It seemed we had escaped disaster for the moment. The only question was whether there were any other things or creatures inside. If another three-eyed serpent-man appeared, Kun Li and I would certainly not be able to withstand it.

I drew a long breath, then turned to Kun Li beside me and said, "Old Li, stay alert. Don’t come out of one tomb only to meet a tiger in the next." As I spoke, I reached into my coat and drew out the short blade, gripping it tightly in my hand.

Kun Li nodded and took down the rifle slung across him. Though it had no bullets, the Type 87 would still serve well as a bludgeon, or for self-defense.

Just then, Kun Li and I heard a tremendous roaring rumble rising all around us. Inside the cave, it felt as though we were still buried in the tomb; the echoes battered us until our heads swam.

Hearing that the tomb might already have collapsed completely, we realized we could very well be caught in it. We could only try to leave this place as quickly as possible.

At that thought, I hurriedly grabbed Kun Li and, passing through the stone chamber, ran straight out into the cave ahead.

We had not gone far before we saw the stone path begin to slope upward. Seeing that, I could no longer hold back my relief and said to Kun Li beside me, "Old Li, the exit must be above us. Let’s make haste. Once we reach the surface, we can rest." And so the two of us ran up the slanted passage together.

After about five minutes, we saw that a huge boulder had sealed the opening ahead. But on the left side of the entrance there was still an exit, a little over a meter wide. Standing there, we could feel cool wind blowing in from outside.

A little more than a meter in front of that opening stood a large tree, blocking the already narrow exit so completely that, if seen from outside, no one would ever guess another opening was hidden there.

When we saw that the exit was right before us, Kun Li and I could not help breaking into smiles. At last we were truly safe. We had finally escaped that cursed place.

We quickly squeezed out through the opening. Just as I stepped outside, I was about to take a stride forward when I suddenly realized the ground below was not level at all. The place where we stood was actually atop a huge rock.

My foot had already gone out, and there was no time to pull back. Just as I was about to fall, Kun Li reached from behind and yanked me back.

"Old Liu, are you all right?" he asked.

I shook my head. "I’m fine. I was probably too eager to get out and nearly fell."

As we looked down, we saw that the ground beneath us was four or five meters below, surrounded by enormous rocks, with a high mountain behind us.

I looked around and finally understood why this exit had been built here. Few people would ever come to such terrain. We were standing between two great mountains, in the narrow cleft where they nearly met.

Below us was a deep ravine, perhaps more than ten meters down. It was fortunate that Kun Li had grabbed me just now; otherwise, if I had fallen, I would either be dead or crippled.

I took out my phone and checked the time. It was already exactly four o’clock. Then I looked around again and saw that on our left was a steep downward slope. The incline was so sharp that climbing up by hand would have been impossible; only that three-eyed serpent-man could probably have scaled it with ease.

Kun Li and I were already exhausted to the point of collapse, wanting nothing more than to find a place to lie down and rest. I turned to him and said, "Old Li, let’s go down first and then take a break."

Kun Li no longer had even the strength to speak. He simply nodded at me, panting heavily, and raised a hand to wipe the sweat beading across his forehead.

Kun Li went first, sliding down ahead of me. I shone my flashlight down the slope behind him, and when he reached the bottom, I slowly slid down as well.

Once we hit the ground, neither of us cared about anything anymore. We dropped straight onto the earth, then lay flat on our backs, gasping for breath.

As I lay there, I thought to myself that we had only survived because of sheer luck. If it had not been for the giant flower’s warning within the tomb, and if that three-eyed serpent-man had also been there, Kun Li and I would never have made it out of the general’s tomb alive.

It seemed that when we helped those two child spirits separate from the general’s tomb, they must have been the ones giving us the warning.

Thinking of that, I felt deeply grateful to the two little ones. Once I got back, I would certainly burn incense for them and make offerings.

Kun Li sighed beside me and said, "What a pity... those treasures I found in the tomb, and that long sword too. If only I hadn’t put them all in my backpack. I should have kept a couple on me, at least. Now look at us: we went into the tomb, nearly died in there, came out exhausted, and in the end didn’t bring a single thing back. All that work for nothing."

I nodded as soon as I heard him. He was right. When we fled just now, I had still been holding the short blade in my hand, but now I had nothing. I had no idea where I had lost it when I saved Kun Li. The only thing I had left was gone as well. What a waste of that exceptionally sharp blade, with its miraculous power to heal my wounds.

Thinking of this, I sighed again. I remembered that the Daoist of the Ghost Lantern and that fox immortal had said that if we came out of this journey, we would obtain one thing, and that thing would save my life in the future. It had to have been that short blade. But...

At that thought, I let out another sigh. Kun Li saw how grim I looked and asked, "Old Liu, are you heartbroken over those treasures too?"

I shook my head and said with a sigh, "I’m not heartbroken over the treasures. I’m heartbroken over my short blade. Sigh..."

As soon as I finished, Kun Li’s eyes widened. "What? You lost that short blade in there too?"

With that, he lay back down again, slapping the ground hard with both hands, sighing and pounding the earth at the same time.

I was lying flat and turned my head to look at him, but at that very moment I suddenly felt something hard pressing against my waist from inside the clothes at my side. The pain made me cry out before I could stop myself.

Kun Li turned toward me. "Old Liu, what’s wrong?"

I shifted my body slightly, and immediately felt as though something on my side was poking into the thick cotton of my coat.

Confused, I reached out and felt around. In that instant, I froze. My right hand had touched something all too familiar. I suddenly lifted my head and looked at Kun Li. "Old Li, quick—see what’s on my back."

After hearing me, Kun Li sat up and looked toward my back. Then he said in surprise, "There’s nothing there."

He reached out to feel my back, and that single motion stunned him. He saw that there was a palm-sized tear in the cotton coat on my back, with tufts of stuffing spilling out, but he also felt a long object inside the coat.

Kun Li quickly thrust both hands into my coat, and then said to me, his face full of shock, "Old Liu, th-this isn’t your short blade? Didn’t you lose it? Why is it inside your clothes?"

The moment he finished speaking, I twisted around and looked, only to see that Kun Li was indeed holding a short blade of less than half a meter in his hand.

At the sight of it, my face was equally filled with astonishment. I had clearly lost that blade—so what on earth had happened? How had it ended up inside my clothes? And after running all that way, I had not noticed a thing.