At 12:30 a.m., the moon was hazy and the Milky Way was dazzling.
I stood at the spot where the tomb raiding gang had discovered the hole in the mountaintop, looking at a large hole about forty centimeters in diameter on the ground, my face grave.
This place is a bit strange.
The location I am in is the lowest of the five surrounding mountain peaks.
The Records of the Grand Historian, in its chapter on celestial offices, states that there are five planets in the heavens and five elements on earth.
The five stars, also known as the five elements, correspond to the five planets. The five stars we refer to today, namely Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn, are named according to the five elements.
Standing here, using a compass to determine the feng shui, the surrounding mountains are low and don't look like there's a large tomb at all.
Of the four methods, the Duan family's "Mountain-Climbing Mirror" and the Qu family's "Earth-Entering Eye" are similar in principle, but the Duan family's method is mainly used inside the tomb. If you really want to assess the feng shui, the Qu family's "Earth-Entering Eye" is superior.
I use a compass to observe the qi and locate tombs, but this is only to grasp a certain degree of direction. Then, I combine it with my own feng shui theory to calculate the location of the tomb. What I see are all fixed situations. But feng shui is a natural and dynamic situation. The mysteries within it are ever-changing. If you misjudge it by one step, you will be completely off track.
"Looking out from the north hill towards the south mountains and waters, the peaks are steep and beautiful. If you encounter this situation, you should only climb to the top and not choose the low."
I muttered the incantation from the Judge's Record, and stretched out my thumb to observe the surrounding mountains. The mountain we were standing on was the shortest of the five peaks.
No matter how you look at it, this mountain doesn't seem like a suitable burial site, yet the tomb raiders' holes both on and off the mountain have all yielded blue clay.
Just as I was observing the terrain, Jiang Man came to my side: "Xue Dong has brought people over to provide support and has taken control of the tomb raiding gang below. The search and rescue dogs from Jintu Mining have also arrived. Based on the items left in the vehicle, they had the search dogs search for the suspects and found rope and food scraps about a kilometer away. It can now be confirmed that Monkey and the others have indeed been kidnapped."
I pulled myself back to reality and asked, "Can you find the exact location?"
"No."
Jiang Man frowned and said, "Those guys are too cautious. The search dogs lost their target by a small river, and the dog trainer also found isoniazid by the river. It's a drug used to treat tuberculosis, but it's a nightmare for dogs. If they accidentally ingest it, they're basically doomed. Even just smelling it can cause damage. It seems they anticipated that we would use this method to search. However, judging from the traces along the way, Monkey and the others should be out of danger. This confirms your guess. It seems that Monkey was indeed forced to dig the tomb."
I lit a cigarette and looked at the surrounding mountains, my mind filled with confusion: "This is too strange. Those people were able to find this mountain and dig a tunnel, which means there must be a feng shui master in their group. So why didn't they kill or imprison the monkey after they caught him, but instead made him dig a tunnel?"
"Is it possible that this team is similar in structure to the team down the mountain? As far as I know, most tomb raiding gangs in China are structured like a pyramid, with the boss taking the most money and the lower-level members receiving very little. Sometimes, even if they dig up treasures worth tens of millions, the lower-level members can only get tens of thousands of yuan."
Jiang Man paused for a moment: "These kinds of teams are generally very strict in their registration, with each person holding a specific position. The boss would never allow his subordinates to work independently. If the team that kidnapped Monkey and his group happened to encounter something that caused problems with their earthmoving work, and Monkey discovered this and volunteered to replace that person, do you think this explanation is reasonable?"
"Any reasonable speculation in this world is just empty talk if it is not verified."
I ended the conversation by asking, "Have the surrounding routes been secured?"
"Don't worry, we have professionals for this kind of thing."
Jiang Man responded, "Xue Dong has already sent people to guard both sides of the valley. They will notify us immediately if there is any disturbance."
I nodded: "Send a few men to bring the tomb raiders from the mountainside and have them come with me."
After giving me my orders over the walkie-talkie, Jiang Man asked me, "Are you planning to dig tunnels in other directions on this mountain?"
"I'm going to check out the surrounding mountains."
I pointed to the tomb-raiding hole at my feet and said, "In my understanding, the possibility of an ancient tomb on this mountain is very small, but the blue clay we dug out shows that I was wrong. I need to confirm my guess."
Jiang Man asked instinctively, "What guess?"
“I think this mountain is a suspected tomb! Only in this way can we explain why such an ordinary terrain could yield such a fine clay.”
I threw the cigarette butt into the hole at my feet: "If we don't find it in the surrounding mountains, then the terrain here is beyond my comprehension."
Seeing how seriously I said that, Jiang Man asked, "Can I take it as if if you didn't find it in the surrounding mountains, then it means that the tomb on this mountain is real?"
I pursed my lips: "That's how it is in principle, but psychologically speaking, I just can't believe that the Miao Jiang Immortal Palace is in this little-known mountain right under our feet."
"You once said that Qu Ruilin's feng shui skills are superior to yours. If you really can't understand the feng shui of this place, have you considered cooperating with him?"
Jiang Man paused for a moment: "I know about the relationship between the two of you, and I myself am quite disgusted with them, but we have to come up with a way to break this deadlock."
I remained silent for two seconds, unable to come up with an answer myself: "Let's investigate the situation in this area first."
With Xue Dong's arrival to provide support, we had enough manpower to control the entire valley. We left them here to keep watch for any other teams that might appear at any time, while I, accompanied by Jiang Man and six bodyguards, took two tomb raiders and headed to the highest peak in the surrounding area.
I stood on the mountaintop, holding a compass to determine a location, drew a cross with my toes, and said to the two earthworkers I had brought, "Drill a exploratory hole here, using a heavy shovel!"
"Okay!"
Surrounded by burly bodyguards, the two earthworkers dared not try anything funny. They quickly assembled the Luoyang shovel and began drilling exploratory holes in the same spot.
The two men were very rough with their work. The first man only dug a six-meter-deep test hole before it was ruined because he dug it at an angle. I then chose a spot for the two of them to work together.
Forty or fifty minutes later, one of them lifted the Luoyang shovel out of the probe hole, crushed the soil sample, and then exclaimed with delight, "Boss, I've found something here!"
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