Volume 2: The Ancient Country of Lando Chapter 42: The Shocking War Horn

  A terrifying thought flashed through my mind - could Zhou Xing be the devil in Wu Wang's prophecy? Was he going to blow the golden horn and revive the Ya Shen tribe?

  At this thought I couldn't help but get anxious, just as I was about to stand up and stop him, someone suddenly tapped me on the head.

  "Peeking is a bad habit!" said Whip Girl.

  She seemed to have found out that I was awake. Afraid that she would come and press my temples, I quickly sat up. At this time, two big men suddenly pressed me down.

  "Easy!" The big man said in my ear, but didn't loosen his grip on me at all.

  I saw that they didn't intend to knock me out, so I quickly turned around and said to the whip girl: "Little girl, what are you doing? Stop him quickly!"

  I pointed at Zhou Xing.

  The whip-wielding girl gave me a white eye, but didn't take it to heart and said: "What's with the 'little girl' this and that? I have a name, Kiwi. Next time you call me that blindly, I'll cut your tongue off."

  I was about to speak when a loud "whooshing" sound came from ahead, and Zhou Xing had already blown the golden horn.

  At that time, I thought a lot and even thought of various ways to die in front of me. Later, I felt that it was ridiculous for me to have such an idea at the time, but at that time, I really felt that we would die here.

  Zhou Xing was like an opening act on stage, standing under the spotlight of everyone's attention, tilting his head back and blowing a trumpet with abandon. The golden trumpet reflected the golden light, looking very beautiful, but at that time my mind was preoccupied with thoughts of how I would die next, without any leisurely elegance to appreciate it.

  All that could be heard was the sound of the golden horn blowing "mooooo", and the sound it made was no different from an ordinary horn, nothing special about it.

  But in the next moment, everything felt different.

  First, the horn sounded louder and louder, and it seemed that this sound wave was amplified. Then, a rumbling sound started, getting louder and louder, and it was unclear where the vibration came from, or perhaps even worse, a collapse.

  Soon, the cave we were in also began to shake slightly.

  The sound kept getting louder and the vibration more intense, with some sand and rocks already falling from the top. I was afraid that the horn would collapse this place, so I quickly stood up and shouted loudly to Zhou Xing: "Stop it! Are you crazy? This place will collapse!"

  A big man behind me saw this and wanted to come up and knock me out, I turned around and kicked him back. The other big men saw the situation and were about to take action together.

  “holdon！”

  The speaker was an old man in a Tang suit. He scowled at me and said in Chinese, "Youngster, I can responsibly tell you that this place won't collapse. If you continue to be so reckless, I don't mind letting you pass out again."

  I'm worried that he'll knock me out again, and thinking of this place collapsing, they won't be able to escape either, so I calm down and stare at Zhou Xing tensely.

  The python crawled up beside me, its head coiled around my shoulder, and it poked out its tongue to touch my cheek.

  The python seemed to sense my anxiety, and it was as if it was telling me to calm down. I felt the warmth of its body, slowly relaxed, patted the python's head and said I'm fine now.

  The shaking continued, with increasing amplitude, strangely, the rock layer structure was very solid, without any sign of collapse.

  About two minutes later, Zhou Xing finally stopped blowing the horn, and the lingering sound of the Jin Horn slowly disappeared, and the vibration also stopped.

  After Zhou Xing took off the golden mask from his mouth, he didn't turn back and just stood there quietly. I looked at his back and suddenly felt that he was no longer the Zhou Xing I knew. He had become so strange, just like a person who had nothing to do with me.

  At this time, everyone stood up and started walking forward. At this time, someone gently patted my shoulder, I turned around to see that it was Su Qin, behind her were Liu Dapao, and... Youzi.

  The thought that Youzi might be the mastermind behind the whole incident sent shivers down my spine, and I didn't even know if I should expose him on the spot. So, I avoided eye contact with Youzi, trying to maintain a natural demeanor, and turned to Su Qing and Liu Dapao, "Are you guys okay?"

  Su Qin was calmer than I had imagined, shook her head and said: "I'm fine, what should we do now?"

  I didn't know how to answer her because I was also at a loss. Liu Dapao said something more reliable - "We can only take it one step at a time."

  Indeed, this is currently the most reliable option.

  I turned around and looked ahead, discovering that except for Jack who was guarding us, everyone else had moved forward.

  There was no road ahead, only a stone wall. However, at the bottom of the stone wall, there was a huge stone gate. The stone gate was extremely high and large, and it seemed to be very thick and heavy as well. Without the help of a massive mechanism, it would have been impossible to open it with human strength alone.

  However, this seemed to be no obstacle for them, or rather, it was no obstacle for Zhou Xing. He walked into a corner and did something there, following which a strange noise was heard, and the stone gate slowly opened.

  I thought there would be another mountain space behind the door, but unexpectedly, what appeared first was a pile of snow.

  The snow piled up in the space behind the door and kept pouring out from inside the door, with no end in sight.

  Su Qin thought it was strange and asked me: "You said how there would be snow here? Is there an open space behind the door?"

  "It's the only possibility left." I nodded and said.

  At this time, Oil suddenly said: "How are you still thinking about these things? Our current situation is not good. Those people who left our lives must want us to be their scouts. Damn it, I didn't expect Zhou Xing to hide so deeply!"

  I sneered in my heart: You really have the nerve to say that. I think if we're talking about hiding deeply, probably no one is more formidable than you.

  Of course, I didn't say anything out loud because I still don't know how to face Oil with a normal attitude. First, it was Zhou Xing's betrayal, and then I discovered Oil's suspiciousness, and the people around me became untrustworthy one after another, making me feel very powerless.

  At this time, only a cold hum was heard, and Jack behind him said: "That can only be blamed on your incompetence. Anyway, you can't escape now, so just listen to the old man's command."

  Youzi was somewhat angry and wanted to talk back, but was stopped by Liu Dapao.

  For the next two days, "Black Button" was digging at the snow behind the door, seemingly trying to dig through it and escape from here. During this time, I kept thinking of finding an opportunity to secretly tell the other two about Oil's suspicious behavior, but Oil was always by my side, as well as Jack of "Black Button", so I never found a chance.

  These two days I have been paying attention to a person, that is Zhou Xing.

  Zhou Xing didn't follow the team to shovel snow, but instead sat alone in a corner, staring blankly. During this time, he didn't even glance at us once, giving me countless opportunities to observe him slowly (I now strongly dislike making eye contact with this person).

  Zhou Xing is still very lonely, even after he returned to his father's team, there was no change.

  His greatest interest is daydreaming, all kinds of daydreaming, standing and daydreaming, sitting down and daydreaming, even learning to lie down and daydream in a way I've never seen before.

  I stared at him for two days, he was stunned for two days.

  On the third day at noon, the snow finally thaws through, but they still haven't set off. Instead, they take turns sending someone out of the stone gate, doing something unknown outside.

  In short, by the time we set off, it was already the fourth morning. Behind the door was a passage of over 20 meters, during which we all walked very quickly, perhaps because everyone was eager to get out of this place as soon as possible.

  As I stepped out of the passageway, I almost got blinded by the sunlight - we had indeed reached the outside of the mountain.

  This is a very deep valley, our location is on the middle of the mountain, the air is very fresh, it's intoxicating.

  I hadn't taken a close look at this place when Su Qin suddenly pulled me and pointed to the top, telling me to take a quick look. I lifted my head to look up and saw that on the summit of the snowy peak, a magnificent building appeared quite abruptly.

  This is a palace, I never thought that there would be a palace on the top of Snow Peak, and I was stunned at once. Without a doubt, this is the Lan Palace built by the Ya Shen tribe back then, and it's also the final destination of our Snow Mountain trip this time. Previously, I never thought that we could find the Lan Palace so quickly, after all, just a few minutes ago, we were still in the dark space of the mountain body.

  What I didn't expect was that the Orchid Palace was actually on top of Snow Peak. I thought the Orchid Palace depicted in the murals was just fictional, and what they called the Orchid Palace might just be a space inside the mountain body.

  This raises a question: the Lan Palace was built on the surface of the mountain, so why has no one discovered it for thousands of years? It's understandable in ancient times, but now that we have man-made satellites, how is it possible that it hasn't been discovered?

  Su Qin also thought of this and asked me for my opinion. I asked Liu Dapao what he thought, and after a moment's hesitation, he said: "Young master, you see that the Lan Palace is at such a high altitude, but there is no snow around it, which doesn't make sense. So, this palace must have been buried under thick snow for thousands of years, and we can only see it now because a massive avalanche occurred before, sweeping all the snow into the valley below, allowing it to reappear."

  I nodded and said, "I think so too. This avalanche should be the one triggered by Zhou Xing blowing the golden horn a few days ago. It seems they already knew the location of Lan Palace."

  Oil Zhang's mouth seemed to want to scold again, but it seemed like he was too tired from scolding, and after hesitating for half a day, he couldn't scold anymore. Finally, he let out a deep sigh, raised his head, looked at Lan Palace, and said: "I really didn't expect Lan Palace to be built here, it's really fucking magnificent! I'm afraid we'll also die here, damn it, heaven has indeed arranged a good place for us!"

  I didn't know how much of what he was saying was true or false, so I just ignored him. Soon, the team began to climb the mountain.

  This climb was very smooth, as safety ropes were hung all the way. It seems that when digging through the snow, the team did not set off immediately, but instead sent people out first to prepare these things.

  Tang suit old man climbing the mountain is actually Zhou Xing's back, it's hard to imagine that Zhou Xing would have such great strength, apparently no matter how powerful he is, we always underestimate him.

  Due to the hasty preparation, there were not many safety ropes, so we divided into two groups, one group had to wait for the other to go up first, otherwise the mountain rope would be overwhelmed by the weight, and in this situation, falling down the mountain was not just a simple fall to death, but rather being buried alive in the tens of meters deep snow at the bottom of the valley.

  We were the second group to go up the mountain, Whip Girl and Golden Fingers were with us, of course their purpose was to escort us. I had thought about finding an opportunity to ambush them during the climb, but thinking that these two people's martial arts skills were unfathomable, I was afraid that if we ambushed them, it would not succeed and we would end up getting ourselves into trouble, so I gave up on this idea.

  After more than two hours, our second batch of people climbed to the top of Lan Palace. When I got closer, I realized that the scale of Lan Palace was much larger than I had imagined. I really don't know how the Ya Shen tribe built it back then. It's probably a misunderstanding of the legend or we misinterpreted the murals. The Ya Shen tribe definitely didn't start building Lan Palace after they knew they would be destroyed by the Great Flood, because building such a palace on Snow Mountain without 30 to 40 years is simply nonsense.

  That's not the point, the point is that when we climbed up to Lan Palace, we found that the first batch of people who came up were hanging their heads and sitting on the ground to rest, and there was a person covered in blood lying on one side, looking like he had already died.

  The corpse was that of a "Black Button" member, with an extremely gruesome death, both eyes were gone, and there were deep scratches all over the body. The blood on the ground had not yet dried, seemingly having died not long ago.

  Apart from this person, another "Black Button" member was also injured, with thick gauze wrapped around his shoulder, and it is estimated that there were also scratch marks under the gauze like those on the corpse.

  Liu Dapao was somewhat surprised and said to me, "Young master, this time it's quite precarious. I didn't expect the Lan Palace to be so formidable. Our team just arrived at its gate and something happened."

  The whip girl came up with us, she saw the corpse and was stunned, rushed to the front of the old man in Tang suit and said: "Uncle, are you okay? What's going on? How did another big brother die?"

  I heard her utter a word "again", and hastily looked around, only to realize that they had lost quite a few people along the way. Apart from the five main members - Tang suit old man, Zhou Xing, Whip girl, Golden finger and Jack - there were only three subordinates left. Among them, one was injured.

  The old man in Tang suit shook his head and said to the whip girl: "I'm fine, I just got a bit careless and didn't expect those things to be here."