Chapter 16

 Chapter 16: Phoenix's Blood [5]

Translator: Xah

Zhang YuShui saw Zhang Qiu and was stunned. “How come you guys are here?”

“I want to ask you this too!” Zhang Qiu saw Zhang YuShui was back to the first time they met, as if Pixian Hui Wang had no influence on him. After thinking about it, he decided not to tell him, whether the one he saw at the airport gate was Pixian Hui Wang or not.

Zhang YuShui glanced at Li Shu and paused. He pulled a piece of paper from the jacket pocket and pushed it across the table to Zhang Qiu.

Zhang Qiu opened the paper with only one sentence printed on it.

[You and Pixian Hui Wang.] The last row of words on paper read the current address.

“Second brother, do you still think about Pixian Hui Wang?” Zhang Qiu looked a bit complicated. He turned the paper over and over, there was nothing special about it except the typesetting, “Who gave you this paper?”

Zhang YuShui shook his head. “Someone led me over.” He looked pale, unwilling to waste much time on the subject, he stepped aside and asked, “How did you get here?”

Zhang Qiu first looked at Li Shu, Li Shu nodded, and Zhang Qiu said that they had encountered them.

“It should be this place,” Li Shu said.

The trio was in a state of thought at the moment. Did the man who sent the paper to Zhang YuShui and the boss behind Jin LaoDa actually the same? What was the purpose? Zhang Qiu did not understand. Li Shu looked at the frowning Zhang Qiu, he said, “Nothing, there is me.”

Knock.

Someone knocked at the door and Zhang YuShui opened it without inviting anyone in. Standing at the door, Zhang Qiu heard a familiar voice; Jin LaoDa.

“Mr. Zhang is here! It’s just the right time. I’ll inform Mr. Zhang about the plan tomorrow. This trouble Mr. Zhang to do this.”

Zhang Yu Shui faintly sent Jin LaoDa away and closed the door. Zhang Qiu whispered, “It was the boss behind Jin LaoDa who sent the letter to second brother.” Now he was getting more and more confused. “What does the boss behind this want?”

“We’ll know tomorrow.” Li Shu said.

Downstairs, the little grandson called them to dinner. This time, counting Zhang YuShui, they were thirteen people. Seven of them were under the boss behind the scene. Only two of them were Jin LaoDa’s; the two men who tied him up. The rest were Zhang Qiu, Li Shu and his second brother.

As one could see from the table, seven of the boss’s men were all in black, sitting at a big table on the far side of the table. Jin LaoDa took a place at a long table near the door, and when they came down, he stood up and smiled to greet them. “Mr. Li Shu is sitting here.”

Lao Fei looked at them and sneered loudly, without knowing what was said, the occupants of the big table burst into laughter.

Zhang Qiu couldn’t hear what Lao Fei said, but it was definitely wasn’t a good word at all. He was a little angry at the moment, but he also knew that this group of people should not be provoked, saved trouble for Li Shu.

Apart from the occasional annoying laughter at the big table inside, the whole dinner was delicious; featuring stir-fried wild vegetable with bacon from the farm, greasy porridge and yellow mantou of a man’s fist-sized, steaming hot pot, accompanied by the old grandpa’s own made pickles. Zhang Qiu appetite could swallow his tongue. He could not help but take one, and finally ended up eating too much, until he could not walk.

It was getting dark early in the mountains, and the sultry feeling of the day would be relieved. Some cool breeze was blowing. Zhang Qiu held the table and stood up. After eating too much today, he always felt his belly was a little round.

Li Shu looked at the round belly of Zhang Qiu with a hint of tenderness that he himself had never noticed.

Zhang Qiu rubbed his stomach and moaned, “After sitting for half a day and even get a bursting stomach, feel uncomfortable.” After mentioning, it was a bit pathetic.

“Go out for a walk.”

Li Shu accompanied Zhang Qiu to go out. The old grandpa who cleared the table was anxious to see where they were going. He stopped them eagerly in the local language. Little grandson ran out and listened to his grandfather’s words and translated to them, “You can’t go to the mountains over there. There’s a Witch God.”

Zhang Qiu looked at the direction which the little grandson pointed at; the mountain in the southwest. This mountain was shorter than the mountain in the front, but the trees were dense.

“We aren’t going up the mountain; we just want to walk around.” Zhang Qiu said it well; the anxious mood that the old man had just stopped them was not faked.

The old grandpa said it again and told them. At the side, the little grandson translated it. Only then did Zhang Qiu knew that the old grandpa’s son had been missing in the southwest mountain when he went there a year ago. It was said that in the past few years, people in the village had randomly died in that mountain.

Because of this, Zhang Qiu didn’t want to go out. He and Li Shu returned to the room. After two laps in the room, he threw himself into bed.

Li Shu’s line of sight swept Zhang Qiu’s sleek butt. Maintaining his composure, he said “If you’re sleepy, then take a bath and sleep.”

Zhang Qiu lazily got up from the bed. He didn’t want to move, but he didn’t want Li Shu to think that he was dirty. He went out to the water room, rushed to take a cold shower and went back in a cold chill.

“LaoDa, what is the background of this behind the scene boss?”

“What do you do care so much? There’s money to take is enough. Remember to take the box, the price is a hundred times.”

The voice of Jin LaoDa went down, as if he heard the footsteps outside, he urged: “Go to sleep, go to sleep.” The lights in the room went out.

Zhang Qiu slowed down and walked back, thinking that the box that Jin LaoDa said must be very important. At least it was important to the boss behind the scene.

When he went back, he told Li Shu what Jin LaoDa had just said. Li Shu looked like he had already known it. Zhang Qiu couldn’t help but wondered, “Do you know what box they are looking for?”

“You have seen it.”

Zhang Qiu recalled the box he saw, he uttered ah, “is it the spirit bead’s box?”

Li Shu nodded. “It contained part of the map.”

The boss behind the scene was looking for a map, and Li Shu was also for the map. Where is the final destination of the map?

Zhang Qiu’s mind was stuffed full of problems and when he climbed on the bed, he fell asleep. The next morning, they had breakfast. Jin LaoDa had already found a local guide. Zhang Qiu knew they were going to the southwest mountain where the Witch God was, which the old grandpa anxiously reminded them yesterday. The guide was hard to find because of the idea of sacrificing his life to the Witch God, and eventually it was Jin LaoDa who paid him a lot of money.

The guide was a short, thin, middle-aged man named Na Wu, with flexible legs and feet, easy movement, leading the way.

Zhang Qiu carried a shoulder bag with only canned noodles and compressed biscuits. Li Shu held heavy things like water tools. If he hadn’t objected, Li Shu would have taken them all alone.

Li Shu grabbed only part of the map from the Pixian Hui Wang, didn’t know how they were going to determine the southwest mountain of Xiangxi, because after thousands of years of changes, the exact location of the mountain had been blurred. It happened that Zhang YuShui was a master of feng shui positioning. After walking all morning, Zhang YuShui soon found a place.

He pointed to one place, “there.”

Na Wu’s face suddenly changed and shook his head violently, in stiff Chinese he said, “No, no, there’s no going there, there’s a Witch God, there’s going to be death.” When he said death, his face was solemn and dignified, and his eyes were full of fear.

Zhang Qiu was influenced by Na Wu’s fear. Looking at Zhang YuShui’s pointing at a bare stone wall halfway down the hillside, the more he saw, the more it seemed wrong. There was a lot of vegetation here, but only the stone wall with white flowers was exposed outside and the grass was bare.

Lao Fei of the black clothes team came out impatiently and said, “Lead the way!”

“No, No.” Na Wu shook his head violently.

Lao Fei quickly grabbed Na Wu’s collar and picked him up straight. Na Wu, whose neck collar was grabbed which cut off his air, turned red. Lao Fei’s eyes were malicious, “No more lead and Lao Zi will kill you now. Let you meet your Witch God.”

Na Wu gasped and nodded, Lao Fei slackened his hands. Na Wu was thrown to the ground and coughed. Lao Fei kicked impatiently, “Get up quick.”

As the procession went on, Zhang Qiu followed Li Shu with Zhang YuShui at the end. The black men were in the front. Lao Fei followed Na Wu with an occasional shout. Zhang Qiu pouted and whispered, “That Lao Fei is a nuisance.”

Li Shu hummed.

Because Na Wu avoided a lot of detours, by noon they had climbed the southwest mountain and reached the foot of the mountain, and the stone wall mountain was in front of them.

Jin LaoDa flashed the flashlight and went inside; could not see his head at all in the dark. They stood outside braving the mountain breeze which whimpered like ghosts crying, and the eerie forest scratches sound like bones grinding gave them a headache, but Zhang Qiu felt refreshed.

“Come on!”

Lao Fei grabbed Na Wu’s collar and walked along. Na Wu’s legs were flabby with fright, gesticulating with hands and feet somewhat in madness, “Don’t- don’t go, there’s a witch God in it. Say- say it was only mountain climbing.”

It turned out that Jin LaoDa told Na Wu that he wanted to see how to climb down the southwestern mountain without telling the truth. It was never possible to tell Na Wu that they were Earth Masters and tomb raiders.

LaoFei was so impatient that he pulled out a gun from his waist.

“Hey!” Zhang Qiu subconsciously shouted. Originally, Jin LaoDa and they cheated Na Wu, now if taking out a gun, the person life could not bear.

Lao Fei shifted the black hole of the gun towards Zhang Qiu, and Li Shu blocked in front, his eyes looking coldly at each other, “Put it down.”

Jin LaoDa saw that the atmosphere was not right. Lao Fei was stared at like this by Li Shu. Not long after his forehead was covered with cold sweats, he put down his gun unconsciously and felt like sweeping his face. He was just about to attack, Jin LaoDa broke in laughter and finally persuaded Na Wu to go on.

Na Wu also saw that the force was coming. The man had a gun in his hand and he had to push his head forward.

–

After a few minutes of walking, the ground was getting damper and wetter, and the pitted bones of some animals smelled fishy. Zhang Qiu quickly took the mask out of his bag and sent it to Li Shu and Zhang YuShui; he felt nauseating.

As he walked in, the water in the passage reached between his calf and stomach, and all around the mountain walls were blackness; Zhang Qiu slipped off without stepping on anything. His flashlight shone on the mountain wall, and Na Wu suddenly screamed in horror, “Ghost! Ghost!” The sound echoed back and forth in the mountain road, it sounded particularly sad.

Zhang Qiu nearly fell to the ground, scared by Na Wu’s scream. Fortunately, Li Shu took his arm. Lao Fei’s patience with Na Wu was at its limit. He slapped back. “What the hell are you talking about? What ghosts are there in this world!”

Na Wu was already crying, pointing with trembling fingers at Zhang Qiu’s flashlight, which had just hit the top of the stone wall. “You- you see.”

All their flashlights shone in the direction of Na Wu’s finger. The dark stone walls were covered with holes. Zhang Qiu took a quick breath of cold air. All these black holes were stuffed with coffins. He didn’t know if his eyesight was wrong, but just now he saw a skeleton with black holes in its eyes and smiled at them.

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