Chapter 13 Southern Grave Robbers

I turned my head to look at the sleeping Poker-Face but found that his eyes were already open.

He got up, walked over to me, and also took a look. He then pointed to Fatty on the other side, so I went over to wake Fatty and Jin Wantang up. They had both just fallen asleep and woke up in a daze. Jin Wantang was having a breakdown after not sleeping well for several days. “Guys, what’s wrong?”

I handed him the binoculars and asked if he recognized those people. He nodded. “Hey, they’re the twenty-first and thirty-second groups. They’re the first and second most skilled among the southern grave robbers. I heard that they don’t get along with each other so why are they traveling together now?”

They were walking with their lights on and one of them was still smoking a pipe, so they at least had to be living people. But there was definitely something off about them, because we clearly had a bonfire over here so they should have come over to check it out. But not only did they not see us, they were also headed directly for the grove. Were they bewitched?

I quickly got on my horse. Poker-Face went to the left, I went to the right, and Fatty grabbed Jin Wantang and went to the middle. We all turned on our flashlights and waved them around. Now that we had met an acquaintance, Jin Wantang’s role should be brought into full play and he should persuade them to quit and leave.

I was also worried that the other party would shoot first, so I asked Jin Wantang to yell at them. Since the leader’s name was Ding Jingen, Jin Wantang shouted: “Jingen, Jingen! It’s Old Jin! Don’t shoot! We’re on the same side!”

As it turned out, the other party didn’t even have the intention of raising their guns. It didn’t take us long to approach and surround them like bandits. When Ding Jingen and his group finally stopped, they all looked at us coldly but weren’t nervous.

I felt relieved when I looked into their eyes and saw that they were really living people. We finally stopped a team. Jin Wantang said to them, “Ding Jingen, it’s canceled. This operation has been canceled. There’s something wrong with the intelligence. The world’s second most valuable tomb isn’t here. I’ll compensate you for any losses you incurred.”

When Ding Jingen turned to look at Old Jin, I found that he was really a model of the phrase “nothing special to look at”. I sighed in my heart, if I looked like this, I wouldn’t be able to retain my fame no matter how legendary I am.

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” Ding Jingen said. “Old Jin, is it fun to bring this up now? We’ve all gone down and now you say that the tomb isn’t here? Then what did we enter?”

“Did you find it?” Jin Wantang was happy, but after seeing my expression, he immediately became serious again.

“Of course we found it.” Several of them looked at each other and smiled meaningfully.

Ding Jingen’s expression was the strangest. It suddenly blanked out, as if he was recalling his previous experience, and then he said, “Old Jin, that place is amazing. I’ll give you your share. You guys”—he looked at Poker-Face—“don’t worry so much.”

I rode forward, pointed to the porcelain at his waist, and didn’t bother being polite as I looked at their sacks. “It’s not like the southern grave robbers to enter such a big tomb and only bring up so many small things,” I said directly.

Ding Jingen subconsciously put his hand on the porcelain at his waist and said to me, “Uncle, you don’t know anything.”

“And what do you plan on doing when you reach that grove?” I asked coldly. I started to recall what he had just said. Uncle? Are you calling me an uncle?

I looked at his old, dark face and said to myself, I’m not willing to let you call me Uncle.

Ding Jingen stopped talking and showed an extremely strange expression. After looking at the people next to him, he said to me, “Go away.”

I obviously wasn’t going to leave and gripped my Kukri’s hilt in my hand. “You know, the woods are full of dead people who are all holding the same porcelain you’ve brought with you. What have you all encountered?”

Ding Jingen laughed a very ugly laugh and looked at me—or at something behind my head—and suddenly said, “Why are you pretending? Didn’t you also go down there?”

“What?” I was taken aback for a moment.

He stared at the back of my head. “You’ve been down there so you should know everything.” He looked at Jin Wantang again and said, “Old Jin, your friend has been lying to you.”

I immediately broke out in a cold sweat, because the place he had been staring at was almost exactly the same as where I had seen those fins on the corpses.

I immediately touched the back of my head with my hand, thinking that I had fins there, but I didn’t feel anything.

“What do you see?” I asked angrily. “What’s behind my head?”

It appeared that Ding Jingen was too lazy to deal with me, for he rode forward and kept heading directly to the grove. I took a deep breath to calm myself down and said to Fatty, “Take them all.”

We’d just tie them up first and slowly torture them to figure out what was going on.

Fatty roared and immediately rushed forward, throwing himself at Ding Jingen, and pushing the other man off his horse. I also rushed over to the person behind him. The man wasn’t afraid at all and simply steered his horse to the side to avoid me. I jumped to his horse directly, grabbed the back of his neck, and the two of us fell off the horse together.

The horse was startled by our movements and stomped its hooves right next to us, so I hugged my head and tried to avoid them. The man got up and moved to hit me, but I caught his fist and twisted his arm back with one hand, kicking the back of his joint until it dislocated.

He screamed, but I quickly lifted my foot again and kicked his carotid sinus so that he passed out.

On the other side, Fatty had knocked Ding Jingen out by headbutting him and Poker-Face had used his whip to directly pull the two people on his side under their horses. He then circled around, suddenly moved closer, and bent slightly upwards to raise his whip, giving each of them a fierce whipping to the triangular area near their chins. Saliva exploded from their mouths and they immediately fainted.

But Jin Wantang didn’t do anything, so one of them took advantage of the opportunity and urged their horse to speed up. They bypassed Jin Wantang and rushed to the small forest.

Fatty tied the men up while Poker-Face and I mounted our horses, took out our whips, and started chasing the man who had escaped. Our speed was very fast, and as the two of us quickly began to approach—one from the left and one from the right—I stood up in my stirrups. Soon, all three horses were close to the grove.

The other party’s horse was obviously tired and didn’t run as fast as ours, so Poker-Face and I were able to catch up on his left and right flanks. At this time, we obviously felt the light dim. I looked up and found that the dark clouds were covering the moon and the sky was gone in an instant. I lit the lantern hanging on my saddle so that there would at least be a diffused light source. Soon, it was dark all around us.

The lantern illuminated an area that was about six or seven meters wide, but visibility was still very poor. At this time, the person in front of us suddenly stopped his horse. He also had a light on his body, so when the light stopped moving, Poker-Face and I both slowed down. Then, the man’s light in front of us suddenly went out and he and the horse disappeared into the darkness.

I moved my horse closer to Poker-Face, two people and two horses standing in the huge, dark area. The only light source left was the lantern on my saddle. I glanced out of the corner of my eye at the darkness all around me and suddenly felt that this complete darkness was very unlucky. So, I raised my hand and shot a flare out.

The green light was very bleak but illuminated a large area. We immediately noticed that there were several strange, pale things right outside the area my lantern illuminated and they were very, very close to us.

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