Chapter 38 Strange Ping Lian

It would be very difficult to understand my mood unless you were there at that time, because Jiang Siwang’s expression was hard to describe.

His tone was very light, but his words were very heavy. It had started out with me wanting to try and persuade them to leave this place, but somehow, it turned into them advising me to leave.

But in this case, one thing was for certain—like us, he thought that the road ahead was extremely dangerous. But he didn’t seem to want to leave, so this was a bit of a contradiction which made his words sound unconvincing.

“Can you tell me why we won’t have a chance to leave after the sun sets? And you asked us how many days we’ve been here. Does that mean that after a certain number of days have passed, you’ll find some special changes here?” I asked him. “Your relationship with my family isn’t good and you know that we came here to save people. If you don’t give me a convincing reason, I can hardly believe you.”

Jiang Siwang sighed but didn’t say anything else.

“If it’s so dangerous, why don’t you leave?” I continued asking him.

His expression suddenly became even more strange, and when he looked at me, I couldn’t help but think that he seemed kind of gloomy. But he soon turned his head to look at the sunlight outside the tent and said, “We have a special reason.”

I wanted to keep asking questions, but he shook his head and then turned to look at Poker-Face. When he saw that Poker-Face was looking back at him, Jiang Siwang removed a mirror from his belt and handed it to him.

After Poker-Face took it, Jiang Siwang turned to me again, “I can’t stop you from doing what you insist on doing, but let me tell you something. This is the wrong decision.”

“Some people we know have already left this place and gone out of the grassland,” I said. “How do you explain that?”

He looked at me without giving an answer, but there was a very strange smile on his face. This smile made me feel particularly uncomfortable and gave off the sense that something wasn’t quite right.

I didn’t think he had lied to me—he just told us what he knew of this grassland—but his expression also showed that he had a huge secret that he couldn’t tell.

The conversation couldn’t continue, so we left the tent. But after coming out, I couldn’t resist saying, “We’re trying to save people and you’re here to make a profit. There’s no conflict. If you meet any other teams, can you at least use your satellite phone to inform us of their positions? We have to go down into the underground palace because I have to know where the people we’re trying to save are going. I don’t think you’re willing to share this kind of information with us, so we’ll just do it ourselves. But if you meet us in the underground palace, please be courteous.”

I was worried that once we separated from him, it would become a competitive relationship where every minute counted. They had vehicles and a bunch of people, so they would definitely find the underground palace before us. And when that happened, they might start to destroy any clues, which would be very troublesome. Further ahead in front of this underground palace was the behemoth in the mountain, which was probably the world’s second most valuable tomb. Erasing any clues would at least ensure that no other teams could follow after them, but that also meant that we couldn’t get in either.

If we could come to an agreement or at least be on good terms, then maybe they’d at least be willing to help out a little bit. But Jiang Siwang’s face didn’t show any emotion as he ignored me and turned to enter the tent again.

The three of us left the camp under everyone’s watchful eyes. Fatty called Ping Lian over and then led us forward. “What do you think is wrong with Jiang Siwang?” I asked Fatty. “Something’s not right with him.”

Fatty looked back at the hillside, and I realized that his face was pale. He pulled us forward and said, “Go. Don’t talk. Let’s get away from them.”

I wanted to keep asking questions, but Fatty wouldn’t have any of it and kept pulling me forward. As we walked, he looked at Poker-Face’s waist and said to him, “Lose that mirror. Get rid of it quick.”

I had hardly ever seen Fatty so nervous, so I quietly followed behind him for a while. But when we got to a spot where I couldn’t see the camp on the hillside anymore, I grabbed him and told him to explain it clearly.

Fatty was still very nervous and kept looking back as he said, “Didn’t you notice? Those people don’t have shadows.”

I paused. Although I hadn’t really paid much attention earlier, I didn’t really notice anything strange like that. And when I tried to recall it now, I couldn’t really remember anything. But when Fatty suddenly mentioned it, it seemed kind of abrupt to me.

“You mean, they’re not real people?” I felt a little guilty asking, because at this stage, I didn’t know whether I should believe it or not.

“I don’t know if they’re ghosts or not, but they’re definitely not human. Little Brother, we shouldn’t keep that mirror. There must be something wrong with it. Quickly get rid of it.”

Poker-Face pulled out the bronze mirror, which was the best-looking one among all of the shaman’s bronze mirrors. It was said that this kind of mirror was used in massages and could inject divine power and dispel pain.

Ping Lian suddenly looked at this mirror nervously.

All three of us found that it had been completely destroyed by fire and there were numerous traces of ash on it. Poker-Face wiped it and found that there was some kind of special grease on it. I couldn’t remember if the mirror had been in this state when he received it just now.

Fatty motioned for Poker-Face to ditch it, but Poker-Face shook his head, tied the mirror to a rope, and hung it on my backpack. When that was done, he signaled for us to keep moving.

As I continued walking along, I couldn’t help but feel a little confused. If Jiang Siwang wasn’t human, then no matter what he was, he should know more about this place than us. He had asked us to go back, so should we listen? And why were there traces of a fire on that mirror? I suddenly thought of the circle of burnt corpses we had stumbled across when we first entered this place.

At this time, Ping Lian suddenly looked behind us. But when I turned my head and looked back, there was nothing there.

“Should we listen to him and get out of here?” I asked Poker-Face.

He looked in the mirror and said, “Maybe they need us to help them get out of here. Maybe they can’t leave on their own.”

I immediately understood and felt my whole back go cold.

Poker-Face also looked behind us, as if there was something there chasing after us.

“Then what danger were they referring to?”

“We’ll know tonight,” Fatty said. “Those two girls made it out, so we can’t be worse off than them.”

This was the only way to comfort ourselves now.

So, we continued hurrying along with Ping Lian following close behind. “Shitty dog, why are you suddenly so loyal now?” Fatty asked several times. Of course, Ping Lian couldn’t answer.

As the sun slowly set, a gloomy haze seemed to rise up from the ground. The temperature was particularly low, and the sky was getting darker and darker. None of us talked as we continued our serious march forward.

We should be able to reach the entrance to the underground palace tomorrow, but what will happen tonight?

As I was thinking this, Fatty suddenly looked at Ping Lian and called out to me, “There’s something wrong with this dog! Look!”

<Chapter 37><Table of Contents><Chapter 39>