Then I heard Yang Xiao's voice again: "Nothing's going to happen. After all, Director Wu is inside. Besides, Sun Dasheng, what do you think this place is? You just walk in and out as you please? Once someone enters behind, even the mastermind setting the trap can't control what happens inside. If I go back again, it might not be the same path I took just now."
At that moment, Wu Rendi and I had already walked out of the exit, one after another. Everyone outside had gathered and, seeing us come out, they quickly surrounded us. Even Shao Yiyi came over and glanced at Wu Rendi a few times.
Sun Fatty said, "Lazi, what were you doing in there so long? I almost went in to find you." Beside him, Xiong Wanyi chimed in, "Yeah, yeah, I was worried too. If you didn't come out soon, I was going to drag Sun Fatty in."
I glanced at Xiong Wanyi and Sun Fatty and said, "Thanks for your concern. Next time if you get stuck somewhere, I'll have Old Yang go find you."
Xiong Wanyi's face instantly turned red, and he gave me a few sheepish laughs. Sun Fatty also chuckled a bit and said, "We're brothers, no need to be so formal. Lazi, tell us, why were you and Director Wu in there so long?"
I forced a smile and glanced at Wu Rendi. He was whispering quietly with Yang Xiao on the side, clearly not paying any attention to us. Then Ximen Lian and Mi Rongheng came over, and the four of them started asking me all sorts of questions. I finally explained it was because the incense Yang Xiao gave us ran out, so Wu Rendi and I got held up inside a bit. I told them everything unimportant, but naturally I didn't mention the Q&A game between Wu Rendi and me or the matter with Lin Sihan.
I secretly glanced at Shao Yiyi. That little girl seemed frightened; her face was pale as death, but she still kept staring at Wu Rendi. Her attitude toward Director Wu had shifted—no longer cold and indifferent. There was a subtle, indescribable feeling in her eyes and around her brows. My heart skipped a beat. No way, could it be she's fallen for him out of hatred? Don't let her get such ideas.
While I was lost in these thoughts, Wu Rendi and Yang Xiao reached a conclusion. Yang Xiao took charge again and said bluntly, "Everyone's here, let's keep moving forward."
Moving forward? It just hit me that we'd been surrounded by Sun Fatty and the others once we came out. I had no clue what the situation around us was like. That was unacceptable—after all, I'm special forces.
Luckily, my Heavenly Eye had reopened. Though it was pitch black all around, it didn't affect me. I scanned the surroundings roughly. This was the junction of the four previously split paths. Ahead was a place resembling a warehouse, but the contents seemed to have been moved, leaving only dozens of scattered empty wooden crates in the corners.
As I was looking, Sun Fatty suddenly leaned over and whispered, "Lazi, I'm just saying, it's so pitch black, what exactly are you looking at?"
Sun Fatty noticed? I was startled. Wu Rendi had warned me not to reveal that my Heavenly Eye was reopened yet. I could only reply casually, "The Heavenly Eye is gone; what can I see? Who knows when something might jump out from anywhere? Stay alert so we don't panic if something happens."
"Oh!" Sun Fatty acknowledged but said no more. I could tell from his tone he was still skeptical.
The formation was the same as on the way in: Yang Xiao leading, Mi Rongheng at the rear, and Wu Rendi in the middle.
Without saying a word, Yang Xiao headed straight to the back of the warehouse, stopping only when he reached the base of the wall. Like before, he started feeling along the wall. This time I finally saw clearly—a jade-green human face appeared in the center of the wall.
Watching Yang Xiao open the wall, there was no way I could believe he had nothing to do with this place. As the wall opened, we all stepped back a few paces, trying to find cover.
As the wall slowly descended, the scene inside appeared.
Unlike the pitch darkness outside, the other side of the wall was brightly lit. I could clearly see it was an altar, similar to the Dian Kingdom altar in the Yunnan Water Curtain Cave, with a human head tower standing at the center.
I glanced at Yang Xiao; he showed no surprise, as if what he saw was completely expected.
There was no way to call Yang Xiao merely bold and skilled; he was downright reckless. As he stepped into the altar, he began shouting, "Whoever inside, Zhao or Tao, come out!"
"Old Yang's crazy!" Sun Fatty pulled out his pistol. I thought he might rush in, but instead he turned to me and said, "Lazi, aren't you going in?"
I rolled my eyes and said, "Dasheng, if you can't handle it, don't put on airs."
Before I could move, Mi Rongheng had already drawn his baton and followed Yang Xiao. After all, they had been classmates for a few days and were closer than Xiong Wanyi and the others.
Then, surprisingly, Wu Rendi helped Shao Yiyi into the altar as well. Seeing Director Wu enter, Sun Fatty, Xiong Wanyi, Ximen Lian, and I didn't hesitate either—we all went inside the altar.
Once we entered, there was a feeling as if we had returned to the altar in the Water Curtain Cave. The two altars—whether in layout or detail—were exactly the same, the only difference being that the Yunnan altar lacked those few mummified corpses.
"Lazi, is this really the Ghost Path Sect, or some kind of Yunnan altar?" Sun Fatty asked me.
I wasn't sure either. How could a place like this exist beneath the girls' school? Judging by the scale and setup, there's no way it was built in recent years. When the girls' school was constructed, surely no one would have missed such a huge underground structure during the foundation work. I sensed a conspiracy brewing here.
Sun Fatty wasn't satisfied. "Lazi, you gotta give me some explanation. You do know a bit about the Ghost Path Sect, right? Tell me something."
I glanced back at him and said, "Yang Xiao knows more about this than I do. You should ask him."
Sun Fatty sneered. "That's just you passing the buck. Have you seen what Yang Xiao's doing? He's practically yelling at the top of his lungs."
At that moment, Yang Xiao was indeed shouting, repeatedly demanding that two people with the surnames Zhao and Tao come out. From what he said, it seemed everything here was deeply connected to those two. But I couldn't quite read Wu Ren'di's reaction. He didn't stop Yang Xiao; instead, he stood with his hands behind his back, staring ahead. The direction he looked was exactly toward where a secret room would be in the Water Curtain Cave (if one existed here).
After Yang Xiao finished shouting once more, the door to the secret chamber ahead suddenly opened, and a man stepped out. He looked to be in his twenties, maybe not yet thirty, with a weary expression. He looked familiar — wasn't he the boyfriend of our math teacher?
"Just knew the Ghost Path Sect's petty tricks wouldn't faze you." After he came out, the man did something unbelievable—he actually knelt down and kowtowed to Yang Xiao, saying, "Tao Xiangkong, unworthy fourteenth-generation disciple of the Ghost Path Sect, pays respects to the founding Patriarch."
Founding Patriarch? So the Ghost Path Sect was founded by Yang Xiao himself? But recalling what he said at the 15-story building in Qilin City—he's lived such a long time. Given Yang Xiao's character, it wouldn't be impossible if he had once been the leader of some cult. However, Wu Ren'di once mentioned that Yang Xiao was in conflict with this place. Now it seemed more confusing.
Thinking of Wu Ren'di, I glanced at him. The director didn't look surprised. He just stepped back a few paces to avoid Tao Xiangkong's kowtowing and showed a trace of disgust on his face. That expression was familiar—it was exactly what Wu Ren'di had when we first saw the mummified corpses in the Water Curtain Cave.
Looking down at Tao Xiangkong, he was still kowtowing without end. And these were "long kowtows," where each prostration meant laying one's whole body flat on the ground. After five or six kowtows, his clothes were all dirty and disheveled. Now, he had even drawn blood on his forehead, which trickled down his cheek.
Yang Xiao stood there carelessly, accepting Tao Xiangkong's kowtows with complete ease. Only after the man had kowtowed twenty or thirty times did Yang Xiao say, "Enough for now. The rest can wait." He paused, then stared hard at Tao Xiangkong. "Where are the others?"
"Gone." Tao Xiangkong wiped the blood from his forehead, still keeping his head low.
"Gone?" Yang Xiao's gaze hardened. "In the first year of Xuantong, when I left, the Tao and Zhao clans still had nearly a thousand followers. Two hundred years later, only you remain?"
Tao Xiangkong didn't dare look up. He replied timidly, "When I was young, I heard my father and several uncles say that at the end of the Qing and early Republic, our Ghost Path Sect still held some strength. But we were suppressed several times by the then Religious Affairs Commission of the Republic. The last suppression dealt a fatal blow. The founding Patriarchs Zhao and Tao, who established the sect with you, both died for the faith. After that, our strength was greatly reduced and we barely survived. After Liberation, several political campaigns nearly wiped out our remaining members. After my father and uncles passed away, I was the only one left."
Yang Xiao's face took on a melancholy expression. He stared blankly at the ground. Suddenly, Wu Ren'di coughed behind him, pulling Yang Xiao back to reality.
Yang Xiao glanced at Wu Ren'di, then turned back to Tao Xiangkong. "What about the girls' school above? And who built this place?" Finally, he asked the key questions.
Tao Xiangkong answered the second question first. "This underground palace was built during the Republican era. It was originally intended as a refuge from the Religious Affairs Commission. In its early construction, it was designed by Patriarch Zhao Dejun based on your layouts when you were at the main altar, though he added some of his own ideas in the details."
"Ideas? And all targeted at me?" Yang Xiao sneered, interrupting Tao Xiangkong. "But he didn't realize I was also guarding against him." Tao Xiangkong looked a bit awkward; Yang Xiao snorted. "Go on."
"As for the girls' school above," Tao Xiangkong sighed, hesitated, then said, "We didn't want it this way, but the arrow was already on the bowstring. Earlier, I said my father and uncles passed away one after another—that wasn't quite accurate. You can see for yourself." Tao Xiangkong walked over to the front wall and pressed some hidden mechanism. Slowly, the walls of the secret chamber retracted underground, revealing its interior.
Inside the chamber were tiered compartments, each containing a hundred or so mummified corpses. Exactly the same as the ones we encountered in the Water Curtain Cave in Yunnan.
Sun Fatty and I exchanged glances. After the Water Curtain Cave incident, both of us had nightmares almost every night for a while. We thought we were finally done with that—turns out it's starting again here.
Yang Xiao's shock at seeing the corpses was not much less than ours. The moment the mummies appeared, his face turned deathly pale. He quickly stepped back a few paces, nearly bumping into Mi Rongheng standing behind him.
Composing himself, Yang Xiao shouted at Tao Xiangkong, "What's the story with these corpses?"
Tao Xiangkong said, "In the early 1950s, when the political campaigns began, the Ghost Path Sect still had more than a hundred followers scattered nationwide. My father and uncles wanted to rebuild the sect, so they contacted believers across the country. But few still had ambitions for the sect. Helpless, my father thought the key to restoration was to call the founding Patriarch to return. According to the sect's records, my father and uncles went to your hometown in Yunnan to find you. Although they didn't find you, they brought back an immortal formula."
"They used that formula and ended up like this?" Yang Xiao's eye twitched. His disgust for these mummies was no less than Wu Ren'di's.
"Yes," Tao Xiangkong said. "My father gathered all the followers here, hoping to achieve immortality together, but in the end, all turned into this."
"What about you?" Yang Xiao asked Tao Xiangkong. "They all used the formula; why didn't you?"
Tao Xiangkong explained, "I was seriously ill and had just recovered. My father worried my weak body couldn't handle the formula's effects, so he told me to rest first before using it. I guess my illness saved me."
They exchanged questions and answers, and none of us stepped forward to interrupt.