Chapter 175

Now I understood why Poker-Face was looking for the second route here. But he eventually returned to the calling spring or chose to enter Thunder City from the calling spring.

This cliff was almost completely vertical and looked like the gods had cut it with a sword. When I looked down from the edge, I knew that our ropes definitely weren’t long enough to drop down. Moreover, there were colorful fungi everywhere on the cliff and other places were full of moss. The fog in the forest below moved slowly, and we could see some places above the cliff where the mist flowed down like a waterfall. The poisonous spores in the forest where we were at fell into the forest at the bottom of the cliff every day. The fog below was probably thousands of times more toxic than the fog above.

“Is Thunder City down there?” Kan Jian asked.

I figured it was pretty close. But there wasn’t enough light in this small valley within a valley, so it was hard to see any clues on the satellite map we had. If there were any buildings below, they were hidden by the trees’ shade.

“Do you think something’s off?” Liu Sang asked after listening to our surroundings. “The stream where we washed our bodies just now came from here. I thought there would be a waterfall on a high slope or cliff at the end of this forest, but it turned out to be a cliff. Where did the stream come from? Is there a waterfall in the valley below that flows upward? That would really be a fantastic sight.”

The stream must’ve come from an underground river, I said to myself. The water pressure probably causes it to gush out from the rock. This underground river had to be connected to the calling spring. We were taking the surface route, while Poker-Face and Fatty took the underground route. There had to be a water system in the forest below, which was connected to the calling spring’s exit. The water system itself was safe, so I figured we had made a narrow escape by taking this land route.

Liu Sang looked at me. Rationally, we knew that we had gone all this way for nothing and just wasted time since the path stopped here, but neither of us was willing to accept the reality.

“Climb down or go back.”

Those were our two choices. The dusk was already very heavy and there was no sound in the entire valley. It was almost as if everything was on mute. Based on my original temperament, it was absolutely impossible to take risks.

I picked up my binoculars and looked down into the valley, but I couldn’t see anything. I could only make an assumption that there was a water system below based on the different directions of some of the tree canopies. The stream below was also covered by the tree canopies, and the sunlight couldn’t shine through all year round. I cursed in my heart. This place should’ve been developed into a tourist attraction long ago. Why didn’t anyone care about it? Among all the wonderful things I had seen before, this was quite special. If it were me, I could sell rafting tickets for three hundred yuan a piece.

“Climb down,” I said faintly. “Tomorrow morning. We’ll prepare well tonight.” I took a picture of the valley bottom with my cell phone.

We walked back to the snakeskin tree and entered the space below, which was full of various things wrapped in oil paper. They were probably artillery pieces, but they weren’t assembled. I counted them and found that there were about three artillery pieces and hundreds of shells. They were probably used for subversive activities and could be taken out to town before being assembled. They were all rusty now even with the oil paper, but based on my understanding of American artillery at that time, they could probably still be used once they were assembled. I was kind of hoping that the artillery king from before would hit us again tonight so that we could reciprocate, but he was probably dead.

After Liu Sang inspected the shells, however, he found that they were all empty. They seemed to be filled with other things and weren’t used for blasting.

There were a lot of white sacks of powder below these shells that seemed to be lime. I thought there might be dead people inside, so I didn’t go down to investigate.

In the evening, we discussed our plan for the next day and drew lots. Baishe and Kan Jian would stay here to meet the others while Liu Sang and I would go down. Baishe breathed a sigh of relief, while Kan Jian seemed a little puzzled. I told him that the rope wasn’t long enough, so we needed to use it twice. If we wanted to go back the same way we came, we’d need someone on the cliff. Kan Jian would take a fishing line and shoot it down so that we could tie our rope to it and have him pull it up. Then, Baishe would take the rope down to the middle part of the cliff and tie it. We’d climb up to the middle and then have Kan Jian shoot his fishing line down again so that we could climb the second section. This was the only way that we could go back the same way we came.

As a result, we needed two people to help us.

The next day, the four of us set off and returned to the edge of the cliff. I had made two sets of sealed clothes overnight with the oil paper that had been wrapped around the artillery shells. I was ready to start the first round of our descent, but before I could tie the rope, Liu Sang frowned and said to me, “Wait, there’s something nearby.” Before he had even finished speaking, there was the sudden sound of something flying through the air, and Liu Sang instantly blocked my chest with his hand. A crossbow bolt shot through his palm and pierced my chest.

I immediately looked in the direction the arrow had come from, but sharp-eyed Baishe pushed us all behind some tree branches to hide. I could vaguely make out a man leaning against a tree in the distance, smoking a cigarette and leisurely setting up a second bolt.

Liu Sang was shouting in pain as Baishe whispered to us, “Fuck, it’s Jiang Zi Suan.” My clothes were smeared with the blood that was pouring out of my chest, so I glanced down at my heart. It took two or three seconds before all my hair stood on end. I frantically tore open my clothes and saw that the arrow was finger-deep in my chest and appeared to be stuck on my ribs. Liu Sang’s hand had slowed the arrow down; otherwise, my heart would’ve definitely been pierced.

I pulled the arrow out and Kan Jian looked at my chest while asking me, “Boss, should we kill him?”

I thought of Bai Haotian and shook my head. Kan Jian poked his head out from our hiding spot to take a look, but the second bolt immediately came flying over. He shrank back right as the bolt stabbed the tree behind him. Kan Jian pulled out a red rubber band from his belt, slowly buckled it on the slingshot, and then pulled out more than a dozen irregular mud balls. “Then I’ll blind him.” With that said, he suddenly stretched to the side and flicked the rubber band with his fingers like he was playing the piano. Those dozen mud balls were all shot out in an instant.

As they circled through the air and turned in a perfect short arc, there immediately came a series of dodging sounds. Kan Jian drew his crossbow slingshot from his waist and tore off the bolt that had been shot into the tree just now. But just as he pulled it all the way back and was ready to shoot, he stuck his head out to take a look and was suddenly hit by something. The arrow shot out crookedly and fell into the valley below. Then, Jiang Zi Suan jumped out from behind the tree and kicked Kan Jian towards the cliff.

He had apparently rushed over directly after his sniper attack, not intending on a sniper battle at all. He was definitely a master who was willing to take risks.

Kan Jian grabbed a branch on the side to prevent himself from falling. Jiang Zi Suan was holding his crossbow in one hand and wanted to fire a bolt into Kan Jian’s throat, but I immediately kicked the crossbow. The bolt shot past Kan Jian’s neck. Kan Jian rolled away and moved to grab him by the balls, but missed. Jiang Zi Suan grabbed me directly and the two of us tumbled into the bushes under the tree.

<Chapter 174><Table of Contents><Chapter 176>

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We were robbed in the drama I tell you! Robbed! First it was Xiao Hua being all calculating in the tulou and now it’s sweet Kan Jian being badass. o(TヘT)o

On another note, my sister has requested my presence at the lake this weekend (and I need to steal some ground beef from my parents lol), so there probably won’t be another update til Monday. I feel the teeniest, tiniest bit bad leaving you on such a cliffhanger so I might try to do the next chapter later, might not. Depends on how things go. Til next time~