"Brother Hu, are you here looking for the Great Liao Empress Dowager's Tomb too?"
With a hunting rifle slung over her back, Yingzi asked in surprise.
Along the way, she had listened to the three men's conversations. Fatty Wang in particular had such a big mouth that he blurted out anything and everything, so Yingzi soon figured out what they had come for.
Hu Bayi looked a little embarrassed.
He didn't know how to answer.
After all, tomb robbing was hardly respectable work.
Gu Cheng, however, caught the key point in her question. "Other people have come looking for the Liao Empress Dowager's Tomb?"
Yingzi nodded. "That's right."
"Stories about the Liao Empress Dowager's Tomb have been passed down around here for hundreds of years. Almost every year, someone comes looking for it. Even the authorities sent archaeological teams to search, but none of them found it."
"Half a month ago, a group came with a lot of equipment. They were looking for the Liao Empress Dowager's Tomb too."
"My dad took them into the mountains."
Gu Cheng frowned. "What happened to them? Did they find the empress dowager's tomb? Or did they leave?"
Yingzi shook her head. "I don't know. After my dad took them to a hollow in the mountains, they told him to go home."
Gu Cheng, Hu Bayi, and Fatty Wang exchanged glances.
Their expressions grew solemn.
"Are there only three of you looking for the empress dowager's tomb?"
Yingzi asked another curious question.
"Whenever I've seen people come looking for tombs, they've always come in big groups."
Gu Cheng smiled. "Quality matters more than numbers."
"Having more people doesn't mean you'll find it. Otherwise, those people would've found it long ago."
"There may only be three of us, but we're all elite. That's enough."
After a pause, he added, "Besides, we've got you too, haven't we?"
"I reckon they didn't find the Liao Empress Dowager's Tomb because they didn't ask you to guide them."
"Pretty girls have good luck in everything they do. You're our goddess of luck now, so we're bound to find the empress dowager's tomb."
"Hmph, smooth talker!"
Yingzi gave a cold snort.
Keeping a stern face, she strode ahead to scout the way.
Holding back a laugh, Fatty Wang leaned over and nudged Gu Cheng with his elbow. "Young Master Gu, you're no good at this."
Gu Cheng gave him a casual glance. "You don't know a damn thing!"
Fatty Wang immediately bristled. "Hey, Young Master Gu, what do you mean I don't know a thing?"
Gu Cheng ignored him.
Hu Bayi patted his shoulder and sighed. "Fatty, you really don't know a damn thing. Couldn't you tell Young Master Gu said all that on purpose to distract her? Otherwise, she'd have kept asking about us going into the tomb."
Fatty Wang finally understood.
"And look at Yingzi's steps."
Fatty Wang watched her from behind.
He noticed that her steps were much lighter than before.
The way someone walked could reveal their mood.
Although he couldn't see Yingzi's expression,
Fatty Wang could still guess that she was feeling pretty good right now.
So I was the one who didn't get it?!
They trekked over mountains and across streams.
They walked for an entire day.
At last, they arrived before a mountain's waterfalls.
The whole mountain resembled an ox's heart. Nine waterfalls like ribbons of white silk cascaded down its slopes, forming a magnificent sight.
Gu Cheng and Fatty Wang stared in amazement.
Hu Bayi beamed with delight. "That's right. This is it-the Nine Dragons Enclosing the Jade Lotus."
"Look at those nine waterfalls on the mountain. One more or one fewer, or even a lower volume of water, and it wouldn't qualify as the Nine Dragons Enclosing the Jade Lotus formation."
"Nine is the highest single-digit number and signifies supremacy."
"And if the waterfalls had less water, they wouldn't be dragons. They'd be snakes."
"This feng shui formation is extremely rare. There must be a great tomb here."
Fatty Wang exclaimed in ecstasy, "We've found the Liao Empress Dowager's Tomb?!"
Hu Bayi shook his head. "Not yet. We've only established that there's a tomb here."
"Next, we'll need to use Gold-Fixing and Acupoint-Determining, locating the tomb through the positions of the stars above and the contours of the mountains and rivers below."
He glanced at the compass in his hand, then suddenly pointed to a nearby valley. "Yingzi, what place is that?"
Yingzi frowned slightly. "That's called Lama Valley. They say there are wildmen in there, and it's haunted at night."
With a thousand-year-old tomb almost within reach, Fatty Wang was riding high.
Besides, he was naturally a reckless sort who feared nothing and no one.
So as soon as he heard Yingzi's words, he waved a broad hand. "There's no such thing as ghosts. It's all stuff people make up to fool others. Yingzi, it's the twenty-first century now. Forget all that old-fashioned superstition. You've got to believe in science!"
Although Hu Bayi had heard his grandfather tell strange stories about ghosts in tombs, he had never seen one himself.
He had also spent ten years in the army and received scientific education throughout that time.
Deep down, he didn't believe in so-called ghosts and gods either.
Gu Cheng alone was different.
He knew better than anyone that ghosts, gods, and evil entities really existed.
Especially in those thousand-year-old tombs, where zombies, spirits, monsters, and strange insects appeared one after another.
Right now, there was only one thing he couldn't figure out.
How had they actually managed to find the Liao Empress Dowager's Tomb?!
In the original story,
Hu Bayi and Fatty Wang had indeed come looking for the Liao Empress Dowager's Tomb.
But after arriving, they learned that an earthquake had split Oxheart Mountain open.
The villagers had then discovered a palace-like tomb inside the mountain, filled with all kinds of rare treasures. They carried off plenty of valuable things. Later, the authorities caught wind of it, sent in an archaeological team, and confiscated all the valuables the villagers had taken.
In the end, Hu Bayi and Fatty Wang had no choice but to go to Wildman Valley in search of the Kwantung Army Fortress.
Then they found the Jin General's Tomb.
So...
Why had the plot changed?!