In the darkness, Red Sister's voice reached me: "Cloud Peak, where are you? I'm right here."

My face turned pale, and I dared not respond.

I crouched down on the spot, clutching the amulet tightly in my hand, burying my head between my knees.

The ground was damp, the mist thick, and I felt more than just the cold and fear.

I felt loneliness.

Our gang had dwindled to just me, alone. I regretted not heeding the warnings of Yao Yumen and the others.

Sitting on the grass, consumed by loneliness and fear, shivering with hunger and cold, my thoughts, unbidden, turned to Li Jing.

I mocked myself inwardly: "If I were to vanish suddenly, if I were to die here, would Li Jing remember me years from now? Would she recall the name Cloud Peak?"

With these thoughts, dawn began to break.

A breeze, from somewhere, dispersed the dense fog.

And then,

I saw her—Red Sister—lying on the grass some two to three hundred meters away, stretching languidly as if just awoken from sleep.

"Red Sister!"

I ran towards her, stumbling and falling in my haste.

She heard me and looked up.

"You're alive! Thank goodness!"

Red Sister, with a joyful yet speechless expression, said, "Last night, the fog was so thick you couldn't see your hand in front of your face. I could only guess your general location. I didn't dare to wander off, afraid I'd lose you, Cloud Peak."

It was a relief to see her safe.

I exhaled deeply and asked, "Red Sister, did you hear me calling you last night? Did you respond?"

She looked at me, a surprised expression on her face, "No, I didn't hear anything, nor did I speak. What's wrong?"

Red Sister had no reason to lie to me. If she said she didn't respond, then she didn't.

Whose voice had I heard in the fog last night?

The more I thought about it, the more frightened I became, my hands trembling.

"Why do you look so pale?" Red Sister asked, frowning.

"It's nothing..." I deflected.

Changing the subject, I asked, "Did you find anything to eat?"

Red Sister shook her head, a hint of disappointment in her gesture, "No, there's just grass and trees nearby, nothing to eat."

"It's okay, Red Sister. As long as we're okay, we won't starve in a day or two."

"Yeah, we'll just have to hold on."

Regaining some strength and recalling the events of the previous night, my distaste for this place grew; it felt ominous. We decided to leave quickly.

We continued uphill.

I hung the Crow Box Amulet around my neck, attaching new importance to it.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

In the face of the unknown, one instinctively seeks a talisman, a source of protection. The amulet given to me by Yao Yumen played that role.

After half a day's journey, Red Sister and I finally reached the end.

Above us was the entrance to a cave.

From this elevated vantage point, the view was picturesque, like a hidden sanctuary.

Around the cave's stone walls were remnants of carvings, one of which, despite its damage, could still be discerned. The theme of the carving was a group of spirited horses.

Red Sister pointed to the fresco and told me that it was likely King Mu's Eight Steeds. Legend has it that the eight horses depicted in the painting each had their own names, just as the Six Steeds of Zhao Mausoleum in the tomb of Li Shiming did. However, time has eroded their stories; the Zuo Tradition of Spring and Autumn mentioned King Mu's Eight Steeds, but the names of these illustrious horses have not been passed down to the present day, lost to obscurity.

The fresco, recessed into the stone wall, measured nearly two meters in length and roughly a meter and a half in width. Red Sister lamented that it was such a pity we couldn't take it with us; it would fetch an astronomical price on the black market if we could.

"Red Sister, but look, it's damaged," I pointed out, indicating the broken heads of two horses. "Can a stone sculpture really be that valuable when it's like this?"

Red Sister shook her head. "Cloud Peak, you're new to this line of work. There are things you don't yet understand. These artifacts, especially those with special significance, are still highly coveted even if shattered into a hundred pieces. Once restored, there will be plenty of people vying for them, particularly the red-haired, big-nosed foreigners who are fascinated by our ancient stone relics."

"You know about the Six Steeds of Zhao Mausoleum, right?"

I nodded. "I'm aware that during the 1940s, Fist Hair Dun and Dashing Dew Purple were stolen by Lu Qinzhai and sold to the 'big noses.' We still have four of them in our country: Shefachi, Green Zebra, Telebiao, and White Hoofed Crow."

Red Sister seemed impressed that I could recite the names accurately, and she commended me, "Not bad, you got it right. It was indeed Lu Qinzhai who stole those two. Now, let me ask you, do you know how much they were sold to the Americans for?"

I didn't know, so I hazarded a guess. "Eight thousand?"

In the 1940s, that sum was astronomical, more money than several generations of ordinary people could save—it was in foreign currency, no less. I thought I had guessed high.

"Not eight thousand," Red Sister corrected. "The two pieces were sold, one to Fei City and the other to Bin City, for a total of one hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars."

"That much!" I exclaimed, startled.

Considering the cost of living back then, a whole Siheyuan (courtyard house) within the second ring of Beijing was only a few hundred dollars. One hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars! The enormity of that figure was staggering. If we assumed a Siheyuan cost eight hundred dollars, that amount of money could buy one hundred and fifty-three Siheyuan!

Red Sister continued to speak to me, "That's just one part of it. There was also Yue Bin from the Beijing Glazed Factory. He stole a massive stone carving depicting the Emperor and Empress Paying Homage to Buddha from the Longmen Grottoes. To smuggle it out, Yue Bin shattered the carving into over sixty pieces, packed them into nine crates, and later found someone to reassemble it. He eventually sold it for sixty thousand dollars to a foreigner named Universal Love Lun."

Her words once again broadened my horizons. I had always thought that bronze ware and ancient jade were the most valuable, never imagining that stone carvings could be worth so much.

Red Sister added, "In these times, tomb raiders are universally condemned, yet compared to the People of Lu Yue, they are but novices in the presence of masters."

At that moment, as I gazed upon the stone carving of King Mu's Eight Steeds in the cave, it seemed to take on an even greater significance.

I swallowed hard and asked, "Red Sister, we can't possibly take this with us, can we?"

"Forget it. This would require professional tools to break apart before it could be transported. Moreover, once it appeared on the market, the likelihood of the authorities tracing it back to us would increase exponentially. What's more important to you, money or your life?"

I sighed with regret. To take this artifact would require several conditions we simply did not meet. Yet I had also witnessed what is referred to as 'Open Eyes' in Buddhism.

"Hold on, that's not right, Red Sister. This is the Eight Steeds of King Mu of Zhou. How did it end up in the tomb of a Southern Princely King? What's going on here?"

"Don't ask me, I'm just as puzzled."

Red Sister looked around the cave and frowned. "With the presence of a ceremonial axe and now this stone carving, this Mustard Marquis clearly had a status far above that of the Princely Kings."

"The mountain opened to form a tomb, hollowing out Moth Mountain, extensively using bluestone from the north for consecration, the Yellow Intestine Assemblage, live human sacrifices, a vast and precious botanical garden, and a separate, isolated sacrificial pit."

She sighed deeply.

"This is the most terrifying underground tomb cluster I've encountered since I started in this line of work."

"The tomb owner may not be a Zhou Emperor."

"But his stature is certainly no less than that of a Zhou Emperor." (To be continued)

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