"Corpse Corner Immortal," a term I had never heard before, struck fear into my heart even more.

"Granny, can you cure me? I can pay you; I'm not ready to die," I said in fear.

Granny Liu shook her head and replied, "Tell me the truth, what do you do for a living? If you're not willing to talk, then you might as well leave."

"I..."

Torn inside, I knew that revealing my identity could potentially bring trouble not just to myself but also to my head and the Sun Family Brothers.

It was my head who had stopped me from jumping off the bridge. He was willing to keep a little kid like me by his side and nurture me, providing me with sustenance. Although I never expressed it, I was deeply grateful to him.

Betraying them was something I couldn't bring myself to do.

Moreover, if word got out, and Li Jing learned of my identity as a criminal, she would definitely not want to be friends with me anymore.

After weighing my options, I took a deep breath and said, "Granny, although I want to be cured, there are some things I just can't reveal."

Granny Liu looked at me with surprise for a long while before shaking her head and saying, "Alright, I understand. Come with me."

"Granny, to do what?" I asked her.

"To cure you, of course. What, did you want to die?"

"But you just said..."

Granny Liu tucked the blanket around her old partner on the bed, then turned to me with a smile and said, "In the Martial Arts World, some qualities are truly precious."

That night, Granny Liu led me to the eastern room, where many large black jars were placed on the ground, resembling those used for pickling vegetables.

Granny Liu instructed me to turn away and not look.

I only heard the sound of a jar lid being opened behind me, followed by the rhythmic pounding of a pestle.

Later, Granny Liu came with gauze, smearing a thick layer of black medicinal paste onto my swollen fingers, a paste that emitted a pungent, fishy odor.

To be honest, I still don't know what was in those black jars; I've guessed it might have been something like scorpions or geckos.

After applying the medicine Granny Liu had prepared, my finger stopped hurting that very night. I stayed over at Li Jing's home, and by the next morning, after unwrapping the gauze, the swelling had subsided. It was quite miraculous.

Granny Liu had saved my life, and so had Li Jing . I wanted to repay their kindness.

I secretly called Li Jing out and said to her, "Thank you, Li Jing . I, Xiang Yunfeng, will help you. I'll help you and your mother pay off that fifty thousand yuan with my own money."

Li Jing burst into laughter at that.

"Xiang Yunfeng, are you talking nonsense? Fifty thousand yuan, your own money? You couldn't earn that much in ten years."

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She didn't believe me, and I didn't blame her. Instead, I quietly took note of the matter. Later on, I inquired about her father's situation, asking what kind of business he was in and how he had managed to lose so much money.

At my questioning, Li Jing's expression immediately soured. Only after my persistent probing did Li Jing reveal the truth.

Her father, Li Mingquan, was once the manager of a brick kiln in Shunde. In recent years, Shunde had initiated a government project to build a large number of public toilets and garbage transfer stations around the city's moat. This was to prevent people from littering or relieving themselves in the river.

Li Mingquan was a shrewd man who spotted a business opportunity. He became the raw material supplier for the project through means of bribery.

One might underestimate the potential of a public toilet, but with the right management, the profits could rival those of more ostentatious ventures—especially when it involved several toilets and garbage stations.

Through his involvement in the project, Li Quanming made a tidy sum, grossing nearly a hundred thousand.

For the Li family, this should have been a cause for celebration. However, Li Quanming had a penchant for antiquities, and unfortunately, he was the type who feigned knowledge and expertise in matters he hardly understood.

At that time, the domestic antique market was booming, with prices escalating yearly.

Li Quanming's newfound wealth was common knowledge, particularly his fondness for antiques. This prompted three individuals to conspire against him.

How would they swindle a significant amount from Li Quanming?

In two words: a setup.

These three were vendors from the nearby antique market. They began by hiring someone to dig a large pit on Hook Mountain to the north. They then created a tomb passage within the pit themselves, filling it with a plethora of counterfeit antiques—gold, jade, porcelain, stone carvings, wood sculptures, and so on.

Of course, the 'gold' was merely brass, the 'jade' was stone powder pressed on a lathe, and the porcelain and stone carvings were all newly made fakes.

To make the tomb appear more authentic, they dug ditches on the mountain whenever it rained, channeling a deluge of water into the faux tomb.

Soaked by the rain, the tomb was muddied throughout, and all the fake antiquities were buried in the mire.

After months of meticulous planning, they felt the time was ripe and approached Li Quanming.

Li Quanming wasn't particularly discerning, but he understood one thing well: fine antiques could fetch a handsome price.

The trio led Li Quanming into the Fake Tomb. Glimpsing the glittering gold artifacts protruding from the burial clay, Li Quanming's eyes nearly popped out of his head.

These people were bold enough to name their price. They said to Li Quanming, "Boss Li, if you're interested, everything in this tomb can be yours for a flat rate of 500,000!"

Eventually, after some haggling, Li Quanming managed to get the price down to 160,000.

To acquire these items, he exhausted his family's savings and still fell short, forcing him to borrow tens of thousands more.

Once the items were extracted, the three sellers vanished without a trace.

Li Quanming thought to try selling a few pieces first, but as one might expect, no one was interested in his goods.

Nearly a hundred burial artifacts from the tomb were all fakes, collectively worth no more than a thousand yuan.

Unable to sell the items meant no money coming in, yet the borrowed money had to be repaid—with interest. In less than six months, the principal and interest had ballooned to 50,000 yuan.

The creditors came knocking daily, and with his back against the wall, he eventually abandoned Li Jing and her mother and disappeared, his whereabouts now unknown.

With him gone, Li Jing and her mother naturally became the primary targets for the debt collectors—after all, the monk may run, but the temple can't hide.

That's why I witnessed that harrowing scene of debt collection the day before yesterday.

Having recounted her father's tale, Li Jing lowered her head and said, "Xiang Yunfeng, I'm planning to drop out after high school graduation. I'm going to work in the electronics factory. I know a sister there who says you can earn six hundred yuan a month."

Heavy-hearted, I returned to the Inn, still preoccupied with Li Jing's situation, pondering how I could help her repay her debts as soon as possible.

King Leader and Third Elder Sun were at the Inn, but there was no sign of Second Elder Sun and A Mole—I had no idea where they had gone.

Noticing King Leader's grim expression, I inquired if something was wrong, whether they had found the Main Tomb Chamber.

Third Elder Sun and King Leader, both smoking, had an ominous look that was frightening.

Third Elder Sun tossed his cigarette aside and, with clenched fists, declared, "Second Brother has disappeared. He... vanished last night in the pit." (To be continued)

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I have also posted the following more chapters [All free]: https://www.readgates.com/article/7b136c