Daomu Biji: The Mystic Nine

Indeed, in the twilight, there were nine mountains stacked on top of each other. Zhang Qishan quirked his brow, smiled, and remained silent, so Qi Tiezui continued: "Although it was my family member who reported the news, everyone’s dead. The Qi family has done their part. Although your Zhang family is also sparse, it’s better than a bachelor like me. I can't do it. Before I get married, I must follow the ancestral teachings."

Zhang Qishan looked around, but didn’t force him. Instead, he said, "Look at this place, Old Ba. Why do you think your senior was involved in transporting these ancient coffins by train? If he was truly a member of the Qi family, shouldn’t he also follow the principle of cherishing his life?"

"Could it be that different people have different backbones?" Even though Lieutenant was mocking him, Qi Tiezui wasn’t angry. He did his calculations and said, "This is a gathering place of the Miao and Tu people. Even if some of them know about feng shui, it’s not as well-developed as the Central Plains. Most of them are witch doctors, so if my ancestor came here, he was either living in seclusion or traveled here. Or he was invited by someone."

That someone Qi Tiezui mentioned was the Japanese. If they wanted to break ground here, they had to take over the mine as cover. It was possible that there was something in the mine that the Japanese couldn’t solve, so they brought in a talented master from another place.

Based on the oracle bone fragments found in the corpses’ stomachs, this master did think of some methods, but these people were still born to die in the end.

If the Japanese involved were dead, then that meant someone hadn't removed the cover that hid the forked tracks extending from the mine after the train had gotten onto the main railway. Otherwise, the team that had gone on ahead would have already found them.

So, the Japanese were nearby. If this relay station had been created by them, then they had definitely placed some people here, which meant there were Japanese around them.

As Zhang Qishan looked around silently, Lieutenant got the message and made a few gestures. He and several others got up and left to go check people's feet. Old Man Zhang knocked his cigarette ash off and looked at Qi Tiezui as he whispered some more news to Zhang Qishan.

Half a cup of tea later, the bat whistle sounded nearby, indicating that Lieutenant had some news. He had found some strange-looking feet that must have been a result of someone wearing clogs. Zhang Qishan also had a bat whistle and blew it: start at midnight.

By the time midnight came, the long line of lights became sparse and Qi Tiezui was sleeping like the dead. Zhang Qishan turned over, got up, and met Lieutenant’s eyes. They all crouched down and quickly moved forward. Their group found a gap, climbed down the cliff, and clung to the cliff wall below the station as they followed Zhang Qishan’s shadow. They soon approached the people they were eyeing, and Lieutenant made three gestures to indicate the positions of their sleeping targets. There was a total of three of them. Zhang Qishan held up his fingers and made a countdown of three, two, one.

At the moment when Zhang Qishan's final finger fell, he, Lieutenant, and Old Man Zhang jumped up fiercely. They stepped on the people sleeping in the station as they rushed towards their three targets. The three men had quickly opened their eyes when everyone else was jolted awake, but it was too late. Even if they had been extremely alert, they couldn’t follow Zhang Qishan’s movements. In a quarter of a second, he had already grabbed a person's neck, bear hugged him, and jumped off the railing.

The man became fully awake as they fell through the air and was just about to scream, but Zhang Qishan covered his mouth. At almost the same time, the soldier that had been lying in wait on the horizontal column below the station reached out and grabbed Zhang Qishan's foot.

On the other side, Old Man Zhang and Lieutenant were in the exact same position. With their legs held by the soldiers above, the three men hung upside down over the abyss like bats.

The area above had descended into utter chaos, but even when the lights were turned on and everyone looked around, no one had noticed that three people were missing. The captured men below looked at the abyss beneath their heads and didn’t dare put up a struggle. Zhang Qishan whispered coldly to the man he held, "I ask, you answer. As long as I’m not satisfied, I’ll throw you down. First question. Where’s the hidden section of railroad track here?"

When he loosened fingers a bit from the man's mouth, the man took a deep breath. He was trembling in fear, but he closed his eyes and remained silent. Zhang Qishan was just about to ask again, when the man suddenly slammed his head back and started struggling hard. His flailing caused the soldier’s hands above to slip, and he almost dropped the both of them. The struggling man was about to shout, but Zhang Qishan broke his neck with a muffled crack before any sound could escape. The body was then dropped into the abyss.

When the person above managed to pull him up, Zhang Qishan rolled over and grabbed one side of the rock wall. He then looked at the other two people. One of them was basically petrified and didn’t dare move at all, while the other one in Lieutenant's hand was scared half to death and wanted to struggle. Lieutenant held him tightly to constrain his movements. They were moving so much that the people above couldn’t support them, and those who had just grabbed Zhang Qishan went over to help hold Lieutenant's other foot.

Zhang Qishan whispered, "One is enough. Throw them down if they’re not willing to cooperate."

Lieutenant Zhang replied, "Fo Ye, this one is a woman."

Zhang Qishan lit a match and leaned forward to get a look at the face of the person Lieutenant was holding onto. It really was a woman. He said coldly, "So what?"

"Didn't Ba Ye say he doesn't have a wife yet?" Lieutenant whispered. "Besides, I found something wrong with her." With that said, Lieutenant lifted the woman's chin and showed Zhang Qishan her neck. There were many tiny holes in the woman's neck, as if she had been eaten by insects. It was exactly the same as the bodies on the train.