Chapter 398 - 386: The First Calamity of the Turbulent World — [White Calamity]

At the foot of Lu Mountain, a troop of men slowly approached.

The troop consisted of about seventy or eighty men, nearly all of them grunts dressed in gray military uniforms with rifles slung over their shoulders.

Six men in the procession carried a simple sedan chair. Curtains hung on all four sides, and through them, one could vaguely make out the figures of a man and a woman lounging lazily inside.

An officer on horseback led the way at the front of the column, with a shifty, rat-faced man jogging to keep up beside him.

"I'm practically a Jiujiang native myself, and this is the first I'm hearing about a treasure from the tomb of that damn Emperor of the former dynasty hidden under Lu Mountain..."

That bastard Wang Huaidi!

A treasure that big, and he thought he could hoard it all for himself?!..."

As the mounted officer spoke, he suddenly spat right in the face of the man beside his horse. It was unclear who he was cursing. "A greedy, treacherous, backstabbing dog like that deserves to be sliced into a thousand pieces!"

The man in black didn't even wipe the spit from his face. Instead, he flashed a sycophantic smile, bowing and scraping. "You're absolutely right."

That's why that bastard Wang is dead!

He was lucky to get off with just dying. A man like that had it coming!"

The officer shot him a cold glance, then chuckled. "Yellow Hide, you're a sharp one.

You knew to report this good news immediately.

If we open this tomb and get the treasure, I'll make sure you get the primary credit in front of Director Sun.

Wang Huaidi is dead, and the position of Xunyang County Magistrate can't stay empty forever, now can it..."

"I understand. I understand perfectly."

The man replied, glancing cautiously back at the sedan chair. He leaned closer and whispered, "I'll have to trouble you to put in a few good words for me with Director Sun, Deputy Liu..."

"Of course."

The officer gave a slight nod and turned his head, ignoring him.

Seeing the officer had lost interest in conversation, the man slowed his pace and fell back to walk beside the sedan chair in the middle of the column.

Inside the sedan chair was Director Sun of the Provincial Pacification Office.

Director Sun was formerly Grand Marshal Sun, one of the very men who used to set up blockades on government roads to extort taxes.

He later surrendered to the Xin Republic and became a "Director," but he kept the ways of an old Warlord. His subordinates were a motley crew of soldier-bandits; he hadn't even bothered to replace a single one.

In the dozen or so counties in this area, Director Sun alone called all the shots, big and small.

If it weren't for the matter of the Qianming treasure, ten men like Yellow Hide couldn't have hoped to get the attention of such a heavyweight.

Yellow Hide wasn't particularly interested in the treasure inside the Qianming Mausoleum, mainly because he knew he wouldn't get a share no matter how it was divided.

His mind was on something else. 'The former magistrate of Xunyang County, Wang Huaidi, is dead. That means the position of magistrate... can't stay empty forever, can it?'

Lost in his own schemes, he followed as the group slowly entered Lu Mountain, soon arriving at a wide, open valley.

A group of grunts was already waiting in the valley. The vast expanse was littered with mangled corpses, crows circled overhead, and the stench was absolutely overpowering.

Director Sun's sedan chair stopped halfway into the valley. From inside, the sound of a woman gagging in disgust could be heard.

Yellow Hide stood by the sedan chair, secretly listening as a soldier from the valley reported to Director Sun.

"...We found Wang Huaidi's body. With him were several leaders from the local Xunyang Salt Gang and some Horse Bandits.

Two of them were on our bureau's wanted list..."

"Hmph."

A cold sneer echoed from inside the sedan chair.

"Besides Wang Huaidi's party, many of the Manchus who came with them are also dead. It looks like the two groups..."

"What do I care how they died?"

The man in the sedan chair interrupted impatiently. "I just want to know one thing: Where is the tomb? Where is Emperor Qianming's treasure?"

The grunt stammered, "There's supposed to be an entrance at the bottom of the valley, but someone blew it up. It's blocked solid. It'll take more than a little while... I don't think we can dig it out."

"An imperial mausoleum this big, and there's only one way in?"

The man in the sedan chair cursed, "Besides, if you can't find the path in, why don't you look for the path out?

Have there been any other strange occurrences in these mountains over the past two days?"

At this, the grunt's spirits lifted. "Reporting to Grand... er, Director, there is!

Two things, actually.

First, a peak on Lu Mountain collapsed for no reason. When it fell, the sky filled with dark clouds and flashing lightning, and there were strange roars...

The mountain folk are all saying it was the Dragon deep underground. They say it was disturbed and is now enraged..."

The man in the sedan chair sat up, his interest piqued. "That makes sense. A former emperor's tomb would naturally be built on a dragon vein.

Once it's been breached, the earth's qi will leak out, and the dragon vein is bound to shift...

What's the second strange occurrence?"

"Three miles ahead, in Youhuang Valley, a thick white mist has been rising for seven days straight. Some people even saw a golden light dozens of feet high shining out from within it..."

"Then there's no doubt about it!"

The man in the sedan chair roared with laughter, clapping his hands and pulling the woman beside him close. "That has to be the treasure's aura leaking from the tomb!

Quickly! Take me there to see!"

"Yes, sir!"

Listening beside the sedan chair, Yellow Hide was filled with utter admiration.

'This is why he's a Grand Marshal, a Director! With just a few words, he's pinpointed the treasure's location!'

Without another word, the troop reformed and set off toward the target valley.

After winding through the mountains for less than a mile, the entire group was already drenched in sweat from the heat.

"Fucking hell, what's with this damn weather? It's not even June, and we're up in the mountains. How can it be this hot?!"

The deputy officer leading the way unbuttoned the collar of his uniform and fanned himself with his pistol, muttering curses the entire time.

Yellow Hide was also sweltering. He watched the six grunts carrying the sedan for Director Sun—for Grand Marshal Sun—panting like dogs, their tongues practically hanging out.

The weather was truly bizarre.

And it only grew more bizarre the deeper they went.

The air was frighteningly oppressive. The forest grew quieter the further they walked, feeling like the sweltering peak of summer in July or August.

Everyone's clothes were soaked through with sweat, sticking unpleasantly to their skin.

The grunts constantly raised the canteens at their waists to their lips, while the occupants of the sedan chair repeatedly called for water.

Yellow Hide hadn't brought any water and was parched, so he could only gulp down mouthfuls whenever they happened upon a mountain stream.

The three-mile mountain path felt as long as thirty.

After a while, the grass and trees in the forest began to wilt, and even the ground underfoot seemed to grow hot to the touch.

They saw no more streams. When they spotted a mountain spring, several men whose throats were burning with thirst scrambled toward it like tigers, only to find it had run dry.

An invisible, surging heat seemed to flow through the air. Mixed with the mountain's miasma and earthly vapors, it rose like steam, making everyone's head spin.

Everyone had almost forgotten what they were there to do in the first place.

It was impossible to say how long they'd been walking. Yellow Hide's lips were so dry they were starting to crack and peel, though it felt like he'd just had a drink not long ago... Finally, the group emerged from the woods.

For some reason, the sky was a blinding white.

It was just too hot!

Just then, a cry came from the front of the column: "A lake!"

Yellow Hide's flagging spirits instantly revived. He focused his gaze ahead, but all he saw was a valley with a dried-up waterfall, from which invisible waves of heat radiated endlessly.

'What lake?'

Several of the grunts, already hallucinating from the heat, sprinted ecstatically toward the "lake" they saw. A second later, their joyous shouts turned into terrified screams as they plunged into the deep ravine.

By now, the "heat" in the air had climbed to an unbearable level.

The scenery before everyone's eyes began to warp and distort, as if viewed through a thick pane of frosted glass.

The ground beneath their feet cracked and grew scorching hot. The sun and sky overhead merged into a single, vast, blazing-white expanse.

Nearly dehydrated, Yellow Hide saw in a daze a figure emerge from the mouth of the valley they had been searching for, seemingly walking on air.

He couldn't make out the person's features, only that they passed calmly and slowly right through the middle of their column.

Wherever this person passed, everything around them turned a distorted shade of "white."

It was the gray-white of dead grass and withered trees, the ghastly white of human and animal skeletons bleached by the sun for ages, the white of earth baked utterly dry and weathered by the wind.

Everything was scorched, distorted, and ignited in this "whiteness."

Yellow Hide felt as if his entire being was about to catch fire... And then, finally!

WHOOSH—!

He collapsed onto the ground. The figure and all the other illusions vanished from his sight.

The terrifying white light receded along with them.

All was quiet. All around him, grunts lay scattered on the ground, unconscious. Every one of them showed signs of extreme dehydration.

Yellow Hide remained stunned for a long moment. Then, as if remembering something, he scrambled to his feet and ran toward an overturned sedan chair in the distance.

Reaching the chair, he mustered his courage and carefully lifted its gauze curtain.

"Director Sun?..."

A moment later, at the mouth of the Mysterious Valley—a place that now looked as if it had been dried out by months, or even years, of drought—a heart-rending shriek suddenly tore through the air.

"Direc—Director Sun... he... he's been dried to death!!—"