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An elderly woman with white hair stumbled into the room, clutching my hand and suddenly kneeling before me, tears streaming down her face as she choked out, "Master, please show mercy. Let me take his place!" I recognized her immediately as Tang Ben's grandmother and hurried to help her up, shaking my head. "Let him go; he will continue to harm others, and it won't just be a matter of taking his soul!" The old woman was taken aback but continued to plead, "Master, can't you spare him? I'll give you anything you want!"
I glanced at Old Master Dong.
Old Master Dong spoke up, "If he loses his soul, it will only diminish my own virtue. Child, please show some leniency!" Since Old Master Dong had spoken, I decided to grant a favor. "If you want your grandson to be reborn, you must do as I say!" The old woman attempted to kneel again, but I caught her in time. She nodded vigorously.
"I will collect your grandson's soul, and you must bury it in his grave. Every day for three years, recite the Rebirth Mantra three times. If the negative energy dissipates, he can be reborn. Do you understand?"
I placed Niuben into a bottle and handed it to the old woman. She expressed her gratitude profusely, nearly bowing down in thanks before tremblingly leaving. The onlookers were filled with sorrow.
The matter with the old man was now completely resolved. I stood up to leave when the Dong family insisted on giving me over a hundred thousand yuan as a token of appreciation. I couldn't refuse and accepted it. Li Gen asked for my phone number so we could keep in touch. I handed him a business card before driving away. On the way back to Rongcheng, Huang Mao seemed particularly cheerful and even treated me to dinner, solidifying our friendship. Huang Mao was essentially a good guy; having more friends means more opportunities.
By the time I returned to Rongcheng, it was already seven or eight o'clock. I recounted the day's events to the old man. He smiled broadly and said, "From the fifteen thousand given this morning, five thousand goes to the public fund; the rest is for you and Huang Mao to split. The fifteen thousand from catching ghosts is all yours!" I cursed inwardly at how this old fox seemed to have an eye for money! I took out the cash and handed five thousand to him while splitting the remaining ten thousand with Huang Mao—five thousand each. For the ghost-catching fee of fifteen thousand, I gave Huang Mao two thousand since he had contributed significantly by setting up the formation. Huang Mao took the money with glee, practically bouncing with joy.
Later that night, Big Mouth Lee arrived. Soon after, a jeep drove into the courtyard with bright headlights blaring and honking incessantly.
A tall man in his thirties with a shaved head and muscular build jumped out of the car wearing sunglasses. He had a goofy grin on his face and rushed over to Big Mouth Lee for a big bear hug. Watching them chat animatedly made me feel uneasy; they seemed like an odd pair.
This bald man clearly wasn't someone to take lightly!
After whispering together for a while, they finally approached me for introductions.
The bald man introduced himself as Qi Qiang, known as Bald Qiang! He was a retired special forces soldier who had genuinely worked in grave robbing and had connections in both legal and illegal circles. Big Mouth Lee inexplicably praised me highly in front of him! He claimed that my family had been professionals in archaeology for three generations and that there was nothing about five thousand years of history that I didn't know. Big Mouth Lee also mentioned that Bald Qiang had a Master Copper Seal just like mine; I merely nodded and noted it mentally. I felt unworthy of such praise; upon hearing that I also possessed a Master Copper Seal, Bald Qiang shook my hand tightly, trembling with excitement.
Bald Qiang smiled at me; his ancestors studied under Lai Buyi and were skilled in feng shui and dragon searching. He joined the armed police's golden unit responsible for exploring gold mines and had dealt with numerous strange incidents. As for tomb raiding, I lacked practical experience; all my knowledge about dragon searching was theoretical. Bald Qiang thought highly of me; seeing my modesty only made him more impressed as he gave me a thumbs-up saying, "Descendant of Old Man Xia—there's nothing simple about you!"
Lai Buyi was known as Bu Yizi. It is said that he wrote the famous work Azure Crow Sequence which was taken by White Ape from Nanhua Emperor's envoy shortly after its completion and passed down over a hundred years later to Liu Bowen who assisted Zhu Yuanzhang in establishing his empire using it. It is also rumored that Sun Yat-sen's ancestral tomb was determined by Lai Buyi's expertise; cities like Hong Kong, Guangzhou, and Yingde were also said to have been chosen by him.
After introducing himself, Bald Qiang headed straight into the courtyard to catch up with the old man. Not long after that, he ran over to Zhengyang's room as if they were quite familiar with each other.
The next morning at dawn, my phone rang—it was Li Gen’s voice on the other end. "Hello! Master!" I was momentarily confused about who it was and asked, "Who is this?"
"Li Gen!" Suddenly everything clicked into place for me. "Oh! It's you! What do you need?"
"Listen, are you going to Xinjiang's Desert Eye?"
"Yes! How do you know?"
"That's not something you need to ask!"
"Wait at Old Man Li's house; my sister will arrive this afternoon!"
After three or four hours passed, a Maserati pulled into the courtyard. A beautiful woman in her twenties stepped out of the car with her long hair tied up neatly and dressed in tight-fitting summer clothes that accentuated her figure—she looked quite imposing and stunningly beautiful at first glance. However, she was not easy to approach; she had a gun on her waist and carried a sword on her back while strutting towards me in high heels.
As I took a closer look, that woman was none other than Dong Tong. Compared to her outfit from yesterday, she seemed like a completely different person. She raised a finger, pointed at me, and coldly smiled, "Don't recognize me?" I quickly nodded, "Sister Dong!"
"Come on! From now on, I'll protect you!" Bald Qiang, Big Mouth Lee, and Huang Mao all stared in astonishment. "The expenses for this operation will be entirely covered by me!" I was stunned by her words, unable to regain my composure for a while, thinking to myself, "How domineering!"
Big Mouth Lee grinned as he welcomed Dong Tong into the hall, and the old man came downstairs as well. These two must have heard that the expenses were taken care of; they were as sweet-tongued as if they had smeared honey on their lips, calling her Sister Dong with every breath.
During our conversation, I learned that the Dong Family also had a Master Copper Seal. The ancestors of the Dong Family had also been involved in feng shui, but by the time of Old Dong, the family teachings had nearly been lost, with only one manual circulating internally. Dong Tong had undergone martial arts training and was an exceptional marksman. If it weren't for my grandfather's body being possessed, she would have dared to shoot at an Evil Spirit. I thought to myself, "No wonder she has such great courage!"
"Sister Dong, our operation this time is very dangerous; I hope you won't participate."
"What? Do you look down on me?"
"No, no… This time we need to go deep into the desert; someone like you..."
Before I could finish my sentence, two gunshots rang out. We saw two sparrows fall from a distance. Huang Mao rode off on his bike at full speed and picked up the sparrows, shouting, "What incredible marksmanship! I've only seen this in war movies!" Upon closer inspection, we noticed that both sparrows had their wings grazed; those two shots hit the same spot on each bird. It's worth noting that hitting moving birds is already quite difficult; to hit two birds taking off simultaneously in just one or two seconds at the same spot is an extraordinary feat!
Dominant!
Cool!
Impressive!
"This time I'll cover all the expenses!"
"Sister Dong, how can you do that? Let's split it fifty-fifty!"
"No need! I'm not doing this for fun; to be honest with you all. This is also my grandfather's dying wish. My great-grandfather had a son who was adopted out and is known as Li Gedan; he went missing in the desert in 1968. My grandfather always remembered this and wanted us descendants to go find him—even if we could just recover his remains to give him peace! Just yesterday, when my grandfather's spirit was about to leave us again, he brought up this request..."
Listening to her heartfelt words truly moved me.
Upon careful consideration, the name Li Gedan sounded familiar. Could he be the Li Gedan from Old Man Li's story? The time and place matched perfectly, and I estimated there was a high chance of it being true. However, she didn't bring it up, and we didn't ask further, burying our doubts deep within.
"I'll cover all the expenses, but you all must follow my lead on this trip!"
"Alright! No problem!" The old man and Big Mouth Lee readily agreed.
Hearing this, I felt speechless. "These two old foxes, as soon as they heard someone was footing the bill, they didn’t even question the route and just jumped at the chance!" But they were genuinely trying to help me; I couldn't afford to pay for this trip. Besides, with this corpse transport, I was making a fortune—enough to cover a year's salary!
We planned to set off on May 27th, intending to take two vehicles. We needed to carry a lot of weapons and some supplies, so we naturally couldn't take the train. If we did, I would probably be detained before even entering the station and end up in jail.
Our route was planned to go from Gansu along the Silk Road into Xinjiang, west through Yang Pass, passing Hami, entering Ruoqiang and Qiemu, reaching Karakorum Ancient City and Spir Castle in the Taklamakan Desert, and finally arriving at our destination Lop Nur, the so-called Eye of God, which we referred to as the Desert Eye.
With ample funds available, we prepared a list for Dong Tong. It included waterproof mining lamps, threaded steel pipes, archaeology trowels, multi-purpose military knives, folding shovels, short-handled hammers, bandages, nylon ropes, simple first aid kits, and more. Just these items alone cost around twenty thousand.
Each of us—Zhengyang, Dong Tong, and I—carried a precious sword that left Big Mouth Lee wide-eyed. Big Mouth Lee and Bald Qiang only had exquisite steel knives and no other weapons. Bald Qiang had connections and managed to acquire several firearms. For instance, a 76 caliber AK-47 and an 81 rifle along with an 85 sniper rifle and a 54 model 76mm pistol. He also brought detonators and various liquid explosives.
The team for this operation consisted of me, Big Mouth Lee, Bald Qiang, Dong Tong, Zhengyang, among others. The old man was too old for this; he feared being reminded of past events and chose not to join us. Lu Jianguo had matters at home that required his immediate attention and also did not accompany us this time. However, I still brought Bai Ze along!
As the departure date approached closer and closer, my heart was filled with anxiety.
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