Volume 5 Chapter 2: Suicide

After two days of traveling, we finally arrived at the glacier valley of the Little Holy Snow Mountain. Everyone was covered in snow and exhausted, but as the sun set, we climbed up to look out and were greatly intoxicated by the scenery around us.

However, at this time, the behavior of the Mian You bottle took us by surprise. We didn’t know why he knelt down in front of the snow-capped mountain and performed a very respectful salute. It seemed that he had a special feeling for this mountain.

After the bowing, he resumed his expression of not caring about anything, just sleeping. I couldn’t help but be curious again. I really couldn’t see through him. What was hidden in his dark eyes?

Everyone had known about him along the way, especially us, so no one asked him what was going on. I didn’t expect him to answer, but from the looks in Chen Pi’s eyes, it was clear that he was also very puzzled. Only Shunzi didn’t think it was a big deal, probably because he thought that the boring oil bottle was also Korean.

Everyone had their own thoughts, and while we were taking a break and looking at the scenery, after a while, our physical strength had recovered. The fat guy lit a smokeless stove, and we gathered around to make tea and warm ourselves. At the same time, Shunzi also started doing his homework. After drinking a few sips of hot wine to warm up, he pointed to the surrounding snow-capped mountains and explained their origin to us.

This is his duty as a tour guide, and this kid is very dedicated.

He said that according to the legend of Changbai Mountain, the Xiaosheng Snow Peak, Dasheng Snow Peak and the mysterious Sansheng Mountain were all one snow mountain in the primeval era. When Yu the Great was controlling the floods, he passed by here and used a magic blade to split the mountain into three.

Before liberation, this area was not open to the public. He heard from his grandfather that after climbing these three snow mountains, the scenery around them was completely different. For example, from the top of the Little Holy Snow Peak, you can see the Three Holy Peaks and the Great Holy Peak, but from the Great Holy Peak, you can only see the Three Holy Peaks, not the Little Holy Peak, which is very strange. The most peculiar thing is still on the Three Holy Peaks. In addition to being able to see the two peaks on both sides, you can also see behind the Three Holy Peaks, far away from it, there is a snow-capped mountain that is even more majestic than the Three Holy Peaks, called the Heavenly Ladder Peak. That mountain is shrouded in clouds and mist all year round, and its true appearance is not visible. Legend has it that there is a heavenly ladder on the mountain that can lead directly to the heavenly palace, a passage between the mortal world and the realm of the immortals. If the sky is clear and the air is fresh, you can see a rainbow-like glow between the Heavenly Ladder Peak and the two peaks of the Three Saints, as if painted by an immortal brush, beautiful and magnificent, and extremely strange.

The fat man listened and said to us, “This legend must be wrong. The Heavenly Palace is clearly on the Three Saints Mountain, so how could it have gone to the Heavenly Ladder Peak? The person who passed down this legend must have had a problem with his eyesight.”

The monk Hua thought for a moment and shook his head, explaining, “No, I studied this legend before I came. I guess it may be a mirage formed by the refraction of the snow on the Tian Ti Peak and the surrounding snow-capped mountains when the Palace of the Clouds was built. Because the Tian Ti Peak is covered in fog all year round, the fog becomes a reflective curtain, and the image of the Palace of the Clouds is printed in the fog, as if the palace is really in the sky.”

Mirages are mostly found in desert lakes, and are very rare in snow-capped mountains. I’m afraid it’s not just a coincidence. It may be because this is the source of the dragon vein. This phenomenon is called “shadow palace” in feng shui. I’ve only seen it once in an ancient book, and I don’t know what the specific rules are.

We spoke in dialect. I used Hangzhou dialect, and Hua and the others used Changsha dialect. Shunzi didn’t understand the meaning, and didn’t pay attention to listening. After talking about the scenery, he stood up and said to us, “Bosses, you should take a break, eat something, and then do whatever you want, but you have to hurry. It’s getting dark, and there’s no way to set up a tent here. When it gets dark, the road will be difficult to travel on, and we’ll have to find a relatively flat place overnight. It may also be windy at night.” He poured tea and handed it to us, and then he stood far away and rested.

I looked at my watch. There was still more than an hour before the sun set. The time was neither long nor short. We had rested enough, and it seemed like it was time to get down to business.

However, the surroundings were covered in snow, and there was no trace of anything special. If there were any tombs here, they would definitely be buried in the snow, and the entrance should be in the layer of snow beneath our feet. The environment of the snow-capped mountains was so different from the ground that we had no experience and didn’t know how to get started.

We all stood up and gathered around Chen Pi A-si to discuss what to do next.

Chen Pi A Si had not recovered after such an intense trek, so Lang Feng handed him a gourd of wine and let him take a couple of sips. Hua Monk rubbed his back to promote blood flow, and his face gradually relaxed, but he still looked very listless. When we asked him, he only glanced at the surrounding mountains and said to us, “The location of the treasure cave is right under our feet. I don’t have a good way to do it. I’ll just dig a few shovels to see what’s under the snow and then make plans.”

Everyone nodded. In fact, I also knew that there was no better way. Digging a hole and digging a hole, the same thing no matter what, after finding the dragon and pointing the acupoints, it is to explore the location of the acupoints. The only difference between the different dynasties is the tools used to explore the acupoints. The process is almost the same. Therefore, if there is no excitement at the moment of opening the coffin, tomb robbing is actually a boring job.

The snow was much softer than mud, and the shovel was very smooth. Hua and the others were very fast, and soon there were more than a dozen holes in the snow. However, almost all of the shovels could not be knocked in more than five or six meters into the snow slope. The fat man thought that Ye Cheng was as weak as a skinny monkey and ran to help. He used brute force, but still only managed to knock in a little. Every time he pulled it out, he saw that the shovel had brought nothing up.

Hua looked at the shovel head and saw a little bit of ice crystals stuck on the tip of the shovel. He knew what was going on. The ground below was a frozen surface of ice and soil, as hard as concrete. The shovel could not penetrate it, and it could not bring anything up.

“It has been snowing here for thousands of years. When the snow piles up, it becomes ice. Do you think the tombs are buried in the ice below?” asked the fat man.

We all nodded, it was very possible, but the Luoyang shovel couldn’t penetrate the ice, even if we knew that something was down there, we couldn’t find it.

Pan Zi said to us, “The main thing is that the snow is too much of a hindrance, and we don’t have explosives. When I was in the army, I heard a few of my brothers say that when they were in the Greater Khingan Mountains, the production brigade there regularly went up the snowy slopes to clear the snow. As long as there was a gun hole, they could blow all the snow down, which was very convenient. Once the snow is blown away, the situation under the snow will be clear at a glance, and it will be much easier for us to find it again, and we will also save the trouble of digging a hole.

I know the situation he is talking about. Every time it snows, a layer of snow is formed. There are gaps in the middle, and as long as there is a small explosion, the entire mountain will shake, and the entire layer of snow will slide down, forming a chain reaction, with the last layer collapsing down layer by layer.

There are several small snow mountains in the Daxinganling forest area. To prevent avalanches from damaging the forest area due to too much snow, the local engineering corps often has to manually clear the snow after heavy snowfall. At that time, the conditions were primitive, and the personnel had to go up and set off the blasting holes themselves, which was dangerous. Now they just use mortars to blast.

Hua Shengzi pinched the snow, “I have explosives, but look at our heads. Will it be suicide to set off the explosives here?”

We looked up and saw towering snow cliffs. It stretches back and forth, connecting the entire Snow Dragon-like Hengshan Mountain Range. We are like a few ants underneath, so small that if a little snow falls, we will be buried here forever.

Pan Zi looked a little dizzy, but insisted, “Changbai Mountain is a tourist attraction, and snow is cleared here every day. If you don’t clear the snow away, then we’ll go back as soon as possible. You want to dig in the snow in the snow-capped mountains, it’s the same as looking for a needle in a haystack. I’ll tell you that this is what they do in the snow-capped mountains of Tibet to find a lost mountaineering team. There’s no other good way. The old man woke up, and even if you fix the acupuncture points, you still have to use explosives, otherwise you can’t dig the tunnel at all. This time, you’re going to set it off.

I thought it over and disagreed, saying, “The risk is too great. I’d rather spend some time digging with a shovel.”

Pan Zi said, “Little Master San, we’re using explosives because we don’t have time. If we had time, we’d wait until summer and come back. We have to try anyway. Master San is waiting for us.”

Hua Monk waved his hand to stop us and pointed to Lang Feng, saying, “You don’t need to argue. What we say doesn’t count. Listen to the opinion of a professional.”

I was stunned. All the way here, I didn’t know what role Lang Feng played among the group. I was a little surprised to hear Hua Monk say that. Could it be that he was an expert in this field? Everyone looked at Lang Feng to see how he would react.

Lang Feng looked at us and was a little uncomfortable. He said to us, “I think Pan’s idea should work. In fact, I expected this situation before I came. I was prepared for it. And this is my specialty. I can control the power of the explosives, and the sound won’t be too loud. In fact, as long as there is a small vibration under the snow, the goal can be achieved. Sometimes just one firecracker is enough.”

“Are you sure?” The fat man asked, “This is not a tomb-blowing. We are now equivalent to putting firecrackers in tofu, letting you blow a hole in the tofu, but it can’t be seen on the surface. This is a delicate job.”

Lang Feng nodded: “When I was a miner, I put in no less than 10,000 blasting holes. This is not difficult.”

Huashan looked at us and pointed at Langfeng: “Don’t let his quiet demeanor fool you. This guy is a 20-year veteran miner. He started drilling holes when he was 14 and has blown up no less than 20 mountains. He’s only been in the business for a year, but he’s already been called the ‘God of Dynamite.’ No one knows more about explosives than he does.”

“You’re the God of Dynamite?” Pan Zi, who was standing nearby, opened his eyes wide. He had obviously heard of this nickname.

Lang Feng scratched his head a little embarrassed, a change from the coldness of the previous few days: “It’s all the colleagues who gave it to me, just a nickname.”

Hua Monk said to him: “You don’t have to be humble, you have to use your expertise in this situation.” Then he turned to us and said: “Lang Feng has not missed a shot so far. He said that if he blows something up, it will be blown up into pieces. I absolutely believe him. Since he said so, I think we can try it. Do you have any opinions?”

The fat guy looked at me. He had experience in snow expeditions and had heard a lot about avalanches. Obviously, he also felt a bit strange, but he was on my side. He looked at me and wanted me to make a decision.

I thought about it. Chen Pi and A Si were truly professional organized tomb robbers, unlike Uncle San, who was more traditional and liked to use old methods to enter ancient tombs. These people’s dependence on explosives was unimaginable, and since Hua Monk had said so, Lang Feng should be quite capable.

So I decided to take a chance and nodded to the fat guy. Let’s do it. At this point, there was no turning back. I couldn’t be sure if they would really listen to me if I didn’t blow them up.

After we agreed, Lang Feng and Ye Cheng took out a special Luoyang shovel and began to screw on a special shovel head, making a few exploratory holes in the snow.

Then Lang Feng mixed several powders to make an explosive, buried several low-power detonators inside, and I knew that this explosive was originally specially formulated, with a power of about ten firecrackers. It was used to drill holes to destroy the sealing stones of ancient tombs. After Lang Feng re-formulated the formula, the power would definitely be even smaller.

Modern tomb robbers mostly have considerable knowledge of engineering. With just a few low-power detonators, they can blast a hole anywhere that can accommodate a person. I knew this long ago, but it was the first time I had seen it with my own eyes.

Shunzi was drinking tea on the side and went crazy when he saw this scene. He had seen pilgrims sticking flags in the ground, poachers sneaking out at night, and illegal immigrants crossing the border, but this was definitely the first time he had seen someone come up here with a detonator to blow up the mountain. He ran over and stopped Hua, shouting, “What are you doing? Boss, you’re crazy!”

Before he could finish, Lang Feng hit him with a pickaxe and knocked him unconscious. Shunzi fell to the ground in the snow and was dragged aside.

I felt a headache in the back of my head as I watched, thinking that it was tough enough to be our tour guide, not to mention the long walk, but also to have to endure this. But there was really nothing we could do about it. Shunzi could tolerate everything, but he definitely wouldn’t tolerate us blowing up the mountain. After all, he still had to make a living here. We couldn’t continue our work without knocking him out.

The fat guy asked Hua: “What are we going to do with this kid?”

Hua said, “Let’s not worry about him for now. We still need him to get back. We’ll just take him to the underground palace and leave him there. When the time comes, we’ll just give him some money. What else can he do?”

Lang Feng’s performance was extremely professional, and he almost let us do nothing. He worked alone, arranging the detonators according to a model of a stress structure. He waved for everyone to climb onto the bare rock, in case the chain reaction would engulf us later.

I thought the detonator would make a loud noise, at least a snow wave, but when Lang Feng pressed the detonator, I didn’t hear any noise at all. I saw the flat snow surface suddenly crack, and then large pieces of snow began to fall like a waterfall down the slope. The slope suddenly became steeper, and we were suddenly standing on nothing.

However, the avalanche didn’t last long. The snowflakes stopped rolling down, and a large area of muddy, bumpy white ice-snow mixture appeared at the bottom of the slope. This is what textbooks call the surface of a four-thousand-year-old glacier.

Fatty was standing next to me with his eyes closed, and he thought there had been no explosion. I shook him awake, and he opened his eyes and said in surprise, “Wow, there was really no sound. It’s amazing.” Then he looked up at the sky nervously.

I don’t know if it was luck or Langfeng’s excellent technique, but apart from a little bit of snow above us that had lost its support and started to slide down, there didn’t seem to be any problems. After a while, there was no sign of any major loosening, and we gradually began to relax.

I gave Langfeng a thumbs-up, and Pan Zi also patted him on the back, making a gesture that said “You’re amazing.”

Langfeng laughed embarrassedly, but before his mouth could open wide enough, a piece of snow suddenly hit him on the head.

Everyone’s faces changed. The fat guy waved his hand at us and whispered, “Shh!”

We all fell silent. Then we looked up again and saw that about 100 meters above us, on the snow slope, an inconspicuous but chilling black crack was slowly bursting, and countless tiny cracks were spreading across the snow layer. As the crack spread, tiny snowflakes rolled down and hit us all around.

I suddenly felt cold all over, knowing what had happened.

It seems that Lang Feng’s “God of Cannons” title is coming to an end today.