Chapter 3 Entering the Thieves' Cave

  I looked at Zhao Feiyu's somewhat strange gaze, and casually threw the dagger in my hand to the ground. I lifted up my clothes to take a look at my chest, it was just a small wound, it would be fine in two days.

  I put down my clothes and walked to the entrance of the cave to take a look. Zhao Feiyu stood behind me and asked, "Do you want to go down?"

  "Since they've already found this place, it's no use trying to keep it safe anymore. Forget it. Let's go settle the matter of the facial makeup." I stood up and didn't want to deal with the treasure cave anymore, heading towards the ancestral hall.

  When I arrived at the ancestral hall, the police had already been there. After the police took away the three bodies, they also put the mask in a transparent plastic bag and took it away. When I saw the mask, I always felt that the mask smiled at me.

  "Hey, what's wrong?" Zhao Feiyu saw me staring at the face and was afraid I had something on my mind, so he nudged me with his hand.

  I shook my head and didn't say a word, continuing to walk silently. When I reached the wellhead, I saw two iron chains. I turned around and asked Zhao Feiyu: "Did you bring my meteorite?"

  Zhao Feiyu nodded and said: On the bus.

  "You go help me get it, I'll collect our luggage." I nodded and said to Zhao Feiyu.

  "Are you leaving?" Zhao Feiyu was very surprised.

  "I came here to protect the things here, now they're all gone, I've completed my task. Since I couldn't get it, Huang Shi Bo shouldn't want it either. Use the meteoric iron to cut off these two iron chains, best do it at night, one slash will do!" I pointed at the iron chain and said.

  After finishing speaking, I turned around and left.

  "What a 180-degree turn in this dead man's temperament!" I heard Zhao Feiyu's discontented voice as I walked on the road.

  I didn't care about all that, I just went back to where I lived, packed my things as quickly as possible, wrote a letter of resignation and took it to Uncle Qiang's house.

  When Uncle Qiang received the resignation letter, his face looked a bit ugly. He looked at me and asked: Xiao Lin, is it because the village is too poor? You're not used to it... Ah, never mind. You're a city kid, going back to the city for development is much better. Now that so many things have happened in the village, I won't make it difficult for you either. When are you leaving?

  "Tomorrow morning, my friend will come pick me up." I said with a polite smile to Uncle Qiang.

  Qiang Shu nodded, just wanting to say something, when a group of people suddenly ran out from the courtyard, seeing me and Qiang Shu shouting: Xiao Lin! Village! Something's happened again!! Chen Er Dan didn't listen to our advice, he went down that hole! He let out a blood-curdling scream as soon as he fell in! Now we don't even know if he's dead or alive!

  Upon hearing the villager's words, my eyebrows furrowed habitually! Can't these people just calm down for a bit? Due to my identity, I had no choice but to follow Strong Uncle towards the big tamarisk tree. When we were halfway there, I saw from afar that Zhao Feiyu was helping me move things. However, upon seeing our large group of people, he also realized something was amiss.

  After arriving at the foot of the big locust tree, I saw several young people like Chen Er Dan who were anxiously circling around the entrance of the cave and didn't dare to go down. I stood at the entrance of the cave and asked loudly: What's going on?!

  "He didn't listen to our advice, saying that this must be an ancient tomb and insisting on going down to take something back up. And...and...he went down for a short while, I heard his miserable cry! We didn't dare go down to look..." one of the young men said with some fear."

  Upon hearing this, my eyebrows naturally furrowed. I walked to the front of everyone and said: Fellow villagers, don't be fooled, my friend happens to know some small tricks, let me and my friend handle it here. Also, after you all go home later, don't go out again. No matter what happens outside or what you hear, no one is allowed to leave their homes today! After going back, everyone remembers to drink a few more cups of water, sleep well, and when you wake up, everything will be fine!

  The villagers responded to my words in unison. The three men who died in the ancestral hall today were also the ones who guarded the ancestral hall yesterday. Something like this happened, and now who dares to go out? After I finished saying these words, Zhao Feiyu also rushed over.

  The villagers saw Zhao Feiyu, and Uncle Qiang immediately stepped forward to shake hands with him, saying: Little comrade! It's all up to you now!

  Zhao Feiyu didn't know what had happened, but he still said with a serious face: Everyone can rest assured!

  "Let's disperse." I waved my hand, signaling everyone to leave quickly.

  Zhao Feiyu carried a mountaineering bag and after seeing the villagers leave, he asked me: What did you tell them?

  "Let them drink more well water, it will be convenient for us to act. There is anesthetic in the well water, drinking it will just make them sleep for a day, by the time they wake up tomorrow, our matter will be almost done." I said after seeing the villagers walking far away.

  "Go ahead." Zhao Feiyu said as he reached into his backpack and pulled out a short sword, handing it to me.

  I took up the short sword, which was the fallen iron short sword I used to use. I held the sword in my hand and swung it randomly a few times, but I felt that the action was a bit unfamiliar.

  I looked at Zhao Feiyu who was looking at me with some embarrassment, and I asked: "What's wrong?"

  Zhao Feiyu took out something from his mountaineering backpack again. When I saw it, my face changed greatly!

  Purple face!

  I snatched the face chart from Zhao Feiyu's hand and threw it to the ground, stomping on it in anger! I kept trampling the face chart like a madman, and Zhao Feiyu didn't stop me, just standing aside and watching quietly.

  "Mu Rong Xing! Haven't you harmed me enough?!" I roared in anger after trampling the face into a mess.

  Zhao Feiyu put his hand on my shoulder and said: Xiao Lin, calm down...

  "Mu Rong, come out! Don't hide your face anymore! If you want to come and kill me, then come out and do it! You've turned me into a walking corpse, what else do you want to take from me? Come out!" I stood alone in the empty space, shouting furiously, Zhao Feiyu was also unable to calm my emotions.

  At that time, I just felt like the whole world was my enemy! I hated this world thoroughly!

  No one answered me, but just that incomplete face I had trampled on.

  "Kobayashi!" Zhao Feiyu called out to me and pointed at the face chart.

  I lowered my head and saw that at the place where the eyes of the mask were, two lines of blood tears had flowed out, wetting that part of the mask.

  "Is this your answer to me, Mujin?!" I picked up the mask, my tone full of mockery. "I don't need your sympathy!"

  After finishing speaking, I threw that mask out with a bang!

  Zhao Feiyu took out two cigarettes from his pocket and handed one to me. He then took out his lighter and lit them for both of us. I simply held the cigarette in my hand, without making any move. Even when the ash fell onto my hand after burning, I still didn't react.

  After Zhao Feiyu finished smoking a cigarette and threw the butt to the ground, he stepped on it to extinguish it, then walked to the entrance of the cave and said to me: Let's go, it's time to head down.

  I simply stood up, throwing away the cigarette butt. Zhao Feiyu rummaged through his backpack and pulled out a long rope, tying one end to the base of the large Chinese parasol tree, then pulled out a smooth stone, tied it to the other end, and threw it down from the entrance of the cave.

  "You're a Taoist, when did you learn this inverted fighting technique?" I said in a hoarse voice as I stood by and watched.

  "You're an Onmyodo practitioner, so why are you familiar with some Buddhist things?" Zhao Feiyu said with a light smile, but soon, Zhao Feiyu couldn't smile anymore.

  "There's no sound." Zhao Feiyu furrowed his brow and said with some surprise.

  "The rope is not long enough." I said casually.

  "This is called throwing stones to ask the way. That stone of mine has spiritual nature, if it's a clear and crisp sound, then it means everything is fine below. If the sound is heavy, it means there's a lot of yin energy. But this time, there was no sound... what does it mean?" Zhao Feiyu crouched on one side, somewhat puzzled.

  "I'll go first, you follow me." I didn't want to wait any longer, so I inserted the meteorite sword into my waist and took out a flashlight from Zhao Feiyu's backpack. Grabbing the rope, I started moving slowly downwards.

  The cave is very deep. All I can do is move slowly down along the rope. I put the flashlight in my mouth, shining it downwards to see how much further I have to go.

  "How is it?" Zhao Feiyu shouted loudly from the entrance of the cave.

  "It's nothing." I replied vaguely.

  "Then I'll come down." Zhao Feiyu heard my words and also started preparing to go down the cave.

  Just as I finished speaking, I felt like something was pulling on my foot. I thought it was something wrapped around me, but I felt a chill from my foot. I realized that something was wrong and wanted to draw out the meteorite sword, but then I felt something yank hard on my leg! I slid down a short distance with great force!

  Right after that, I felt something stuck to my calf, and the movable area of this hole was very small. I couldn't make any big moves! Helpless, I wanted to take a risk.

  That force pulled me down again, and I also let go of the rope in my hand. In an instant, I felt like I was falling down!

  When I landed, it was as if I had crashed into something. Fortunately, the flashlight in my mouth didn't have any impact on me. In short, I wasn't killed. I took out the flashlight and looked down, only to find a pile of human corpses.

  These corpses have already begun to show signs of livor mortis, but they are wearing modern clothes. I took a closer look at them and it seemed like they were the same people from Huang Shibo's place yesterday.

  I am in a place with an area of about ten square meters, which is an enclosed indoor space. I don't quite understand what this place is, as it's surrounded by walls on all sides and there are no exits.

  There were five corpses, all dressed similarly. However, the one on top was Chen Er Dan's.

  I thought there was something under their bodies. Just as I was about to take a closer look, Zhao Feiyu's voice suddenly rang out.

  "I'm going! Something is pulling Grandpa's leg!"

  "Let go, it's nothing." I raised my head and shouted at Zhao Feiyu, then I sensibly left the corpse.

  With a loud "boom", I saw Zhao Feiyu fall onto the corpse. He groaned for a few moments before crawling out from under the corpse. When he found that there were several corpses below, Zhao Feiyu was somewhat surprised.

  "I knew throwing stones to ask for directions wouldn't work, it turns out there's no road here at all!" Zhao Feiyu stood up and couldn't help but complain. "These people died miserably, it's impossible to die from falling with such a short distance. And they won't become scapegoats either."

  "They're not stopping at dragging our pants legs, aren't they trying to make us scapegoats? Their souls are freed, but they've got the wrong people." I kicked their corpses, saying somewhat discontentedly.

  "Don't be like that." Zhao Feiyu saw my movement and immediately came over to hold me back. "I know your personality is different from before, but it's still better to show some respect for the dead."

  "Do you respect him? Does he respect you?" I tilted my head and asked Zhao Feiyu.

  Zhao Feiyu heard what I said and furrowed his brow involuntarily. He was about to say something, but his face suddenly turned very unsightly.

  I turned around, wanting to see what it was that made Zhao Feiyu's face look so terrible.

  But when I saw that thing, my first reaction was to draw out the meteorite iron at my waist!