Ding Yudie hadn’t been able to contact Yi Sa, assuming she had gone somewhere without signal coverage again. He remained calm about it though – he’d learned from experience that when calls wouldn’t connect, he just needed to try again after a few days. Her location was always shifting around, and eventually, the signal would return.

Sure enough, half a month later, they finally connected. Due to the time difference, it was already dark where he was, while it was still dusk at her location, with red sunlight scattered across the ground.

From the video feed, Yi Sa appeared somewhat disheveled – poetically speaking, she had paid no attention to her appearance. She sat cross-legged on a hammock, swaying gently, holding half a watermelon in her lap.

Without looking up, she scooped out some melon with a spoon: “Just say what you need to say.”

Ding Yudie asked, “Where are you?”

Yi Sa stuffed a large piece of melon into her mouth and picked up her phone, turning it around to show him the surroundings. Speaking with her mouth full, she explained, “Remember how I invested in fishing nets for those Laotian fishermen to catch giant catfish? I came to collect rent, but yesterday there was a huge storm that washed away the boats, so we’re all stranded on this island.”

It sounded serious, so Ding Yudie asked, “What are you going to do?”

Yi Sa snorted through her nose, turned the phone back to herself, and continued broadcasting her melon-eating: “It’s nothing. In a couple of days, the water will recede, and we’ll head out. What did you want to talk about?”

Ding Yudie said, “It’s about the Drifting Underground Palace.”

Yi Sa’s spoon stopped mid-scoop into the melon.

To some extent, matters concerning the Drifting Underground Palace were equivalent to matters concerning Ding Panling. It seemed somewhat inappropriate to be eating watermelon during such a serious discussion.

She placed the melon with the spoon onto a tree branch above her head: “Go ahead.”

Ding Yudie recounted his meeting with Ding Haijin, similar to what he’d told Zong Hang, though the “21 grams” theory had become his interpretation. He elaborated: “Actually, there’s still no definitive explanation for how human consciousness originates, how it’s produced, or which part of the brain stores it. Uncle speculates that for those who consumed Taisui, their ‘souls’ are drawn in after death and stored in the ancestor tablets, persisting indefinitely. If there wasn’t this ‘consuming Taisui’ restriction, then everyone’s ‘souls’ would go to the ancestor tablets after death – wouldn’t that make the Drifting Underground Palace essentially what ancient people called the netherworld?”

Yi Sa listened with furrowed brows, maintaining silence throughout. After a long pause, she finally said, “Uncle has quite the imagination… and so do you.”

For Ding Yudie, this was second-hand information, and he’d lost interest in discussing it: “I just wanted to keep you updated on the situation here. That’s all for now – I’ll contact you if there are any developments.”

Yi Sa stopped him from hanging up: “Wait a moment.”

She seemed to want to say something but hadn’t quite organized her thoughts. Ding Yudie was used to this and waited patiently. During the pause, he even made a quick trip to the bathroom. When he returned, he happened to see some large flying insects dive into the melon.

Yi Sa was lost in thought and hadn’t noticed. Ding Yudie, amused by her predicament, didn’t mention it.

After a while, she asked Ding Yudie, “So what’s your plan?”

Ding Yudie found her question strange: “This is just a possibility, a speculation – we just need to be aware of it. I’ll continue searching for the Drifting Underground Palace and monitoring the Old Master Temple.”

Indeed, developing a successor wasn’t something that could be accomplished overnight or even in a year or two. Yi Sa gritted her teeth: “Wrong! When you’ve identified a possible direction, you can’t just discuss it with us and be done with it. You need to think further – think about the risks, think about defense!”

On the screen, Ding Yudie’s face showed complete bewilderment.

Yi Sa had no choice but to break it down for him piece by piece.

“If what Uncle said is true, then Uncle Panling is going to lose, understand? Lose! Even a fierce tiger can’t fight a pack of wolves – how many people would he have to fight? And those people who could consume Taisui in ancient times were either wealthy or noble, none of them simple-minded. No matter how capable Uncle Panling is, no matter how strong his willpower is, he can’t overcome so many opponents single-handedly. This means that a year ago, he only managed temporary interference, buying us time to escape, nothing more.”

Ding Yudie stammered: “Then later… what happened to Uncle Panling?”

Yi Sa steeled herself: “Use your brain to think about it. We escaped, he was at a disadvantage, he could no longer control the breathing soil – what would the breathing soil do?”

Ding Yudie’s expression gradually changed.

The breathing soil was known to attack people, like sharp-tipped vines. The penetrating wound scar on his leg was evidence of their capability.

If Ding Panling was defeated and the breathing soil had no other targets, of course, it would turn and attack him…

His throat went dry, and he swallowed hard: “So he’s… dead?”

Yi Sa was silent for a moment: “Not necessarily. It could be even worse – think about Ding Changsheng.”

Ding Yudie’s temples throbbed: That’s right, even if Ding Panling died, his body wouldn’t just be discarded. In the Drifting Underground Palace, corpses could be “reused” – meaning Ding Panling might have already “changed.”

He harbored some hope: “But we haven’t found the Drifting Underground Palace for a year now. It hasn’t ‘opened its doors.’ Even if Uncle Panling changed, he should be trapped inside like Jiang Jun.”

If not for the screen between them, Yi Sa would have given him a good knock on the head: “Ding Yudie, your position is different now, and so are your responsibilities. Any potential danger, no matter how small, should be examined under a magnifying glass, and you should build extensive defenses against it, not desperately looking for excuses to prove it doesn’t exist!”

Ding Yudie knew she had a point and remained silent for a while.

Yi Sa caught her breath before continuing: “You know about submarines, right? They operate underwater but still need to surface regularly for compressed air and supplies.”

Ding Yudie made an affirmative sound: “Just like fish coming up for air.”

As a water ghost, spending lots of time in water, he was familiar with various fish behaviors: generally, when dissolved oxygen levels are low in the water, fish surface to breathe, similar to submarines surfacing.

Yi Sa said: “Don’t you think the Drifting Underground Palace is similar? It’s just a submarine or fish operating underground, and it needs to open its doors periodically for oxygen. The spiral pattern we previously identified is its usual operating route – but submarines change course when attacked, and fish change their behavioral patterns when startled. After our disturbance in the Drifting Underground Palace last time, it will become more secretive. It won’t let you easily track its trajectory anymore. Its doors can open quietly, without much commotion, and in places, people can’t reach or detect, but as long as it ‘opens its doors,’ Uncle Panling won’t stay confined.”

Ding Yudie felt chills down his spine: “Uncle Panling will be released?”

Yi Sa gave a cold laugh: “Why not? What’s the point of keeping people inside the Drifting Underground Palace? They only serve a purpose when released. In ’96 when the Yi family incident happened, Ding Changsheng went to help – did he find those people in the cave?”

Ding Yudie froze for a good while: Of course not, those people were all found on the surface – those who had “changed” could only fulfill their purpose when released to mingle among the crowds.

He instinctively looked behind him, his voice dropping to barely above a whisper: “You mean Uncle Panling might have already been released?”

Yi Sa countered: “If he has been released, how would you handle it?”

Ding Yudie drew in a sharp breath, feeling this question was more nerve-wracking than the water ghost trials.

He couldn’t help muttering: “The Ding and Yi ancestor tablets, I need to guard them well. Need to strengthen security, and have the three families stay alert – even actively search for Uncle Panling. Yes, strike first, we need to take the initiative…”

Yi Sa reminded him: “Within the three families, how many people know this secret now?”

Ding Yudie’s mind was in chaos: “Not many left. Most who knew were lost last time. The new ones sent to search for the Drifting Underground Palace only know to search, they don’t understand the inside story. Those who know the whole secret, it’s just us few now.”

Yi Sa said: “In other words, if we’re gone, this entire secret would be completely buried?”

After these words, both sides of the screen fell into a few seconds of silent staring. Ding Yudie felt the air grow several degrees colder.

It was true – the secret was enormous, and very few knew the full story. If one day, these people all happened to die mysteriously and simultaneously, the secret would indeed be buried.

Ding Yudie’s voice dropped even lower: “You mean… it might kill us to silence us? That can’t be right, why didn’t it kill us earlier?”

Yi Sa found this amusing: “What makes you think it hasn’t been tried before?”

“Under Lake Poyang, didn’t Jiang Jun want to kill us? But it was one against three, he wasn’t confident, and we eventually subdued him. He could only plant some interfering information in my brain.”

“That time at Hukou, unfortunately, there wasn’t a Jiang Jun it could control inside. It was too far away, and its influence through the ancestor tablets on you was limited. It could only make you draw two pictures – otherwise, wouldn’t it have made you take up a knife?”

“At the Three Rivers Source, everyone was dragged underground – wasn’t the intention to take everyone out at once obvious? They even sent up a Ding Changsheng at the end, but by chance, he was tackled by Ding Xi.”

Ding Yudie’s lips quivered for a moment before suddenly realizing: “Damn, you’ve scared me so much I’m sweating, but all of this has one major premise – that Uncle’s theory is the truth, right?”

Yi Sa giggled: “Right, I’m training the successor on Uncle Panling’s behalf. Did you think theories were just random guesses that you could forget about after making them?”

Ding Yudie was annoyed, pulling at his collar to fan away the sweat, and grumbled: “Well, I hope Uncle’s whole theory is nonsense. I’d rather die than face off against Uncle Panling.”

After hanging up, Ding Yudie continued fanning his collar. As he fanned, he felt a coolness on his back.

Looking back, he saw that one of the windows behind him was open, and the wind was coming in from there.

He had opened it himself, purely to stay cool in the summer, and hadn’t closed it at night.

Ding Yudie sat watching it for a while, then suddenly jumped up and pushed the window shut with a clang, even locking it.

From now on, he’d better sleep with the windows closed.