If you keep digging down into the earth, what exactly will you dig up?
The answer was very obvious—you would only dig up water. A column of water thicker than a water vat shot skyward, with Liu Jinbao hanging at the very top of the water column, screaming but unable to escape.
The other several people were scattered around the large pit, crying out miserably. Wu She leaped onto a horse’s back, flung out a rope, wrapped it around Liu Jinbao and casually threw him out. Liu Jinbao rolled on the ground several times, his head and face covered in fresh blood.
“Leave quickly—the ground is collapsing!” Yun Ye threw Na Rimu onto a horse’s back and slapped the horse’s rump. The horse bolted away. Yun Ye had seen this kind of situation before—back in the Hundred Thousand Mountains, he had witnessed land subsidence. He hadn’t expected it would happen here too.
Everyone rode their horses desperately, galloping wildly toward the distance. Not only were they fleeing for their lives, the wild beasts on the wilderness were also fleeing for their lives. Under the horse king’s whistling calls, the horse herd began running desperately toward the mountains. Only one horse ran in the opposite direction.
Yun Ye whistled once, and Wang Cai cut diagonally through the thorn forest, following Yun Ye as he ran toward the mountain pass. Running in one breath to the mountain pass, only then did he rein in the bridle. Looking back, he couldn’t help but be greatly shocked.
A bright, glittering column of water shot skyward, appearing extremely eerie in the sunlight. In less than the time it takes to burn an incense stick, below the water column had already become a small black hole. The reason it was called a small black hole was because the surrounding land was still continuing to collapse. No matter how much earth collapsed down, it still couldn’t fill this black hole. At the very center of the dark opening was that column of water.
“My Lord, how much more land will that hole swallow? It won’t fail to stop, will it?” Liu Jinbao, whose face was covered in blood, asked his lord fearfully and trembling. They had merely dug a big pit—how did it lead to the sky collapsing and earth caving in?
Thinking of this, the look he gave Yun Ye became even more reverent.
“Of course it will stop. I estimate there’s a huge fissure there. We released its final kinetic energy, so subsidence occurred. When the cavity is filled, the subsidence will also end. I, your Marquis, encountered this in Nanzhao. It’s nothing major. A lake will appear here in the future—quite nice actually.”
Yuan Shoucheng stared at Yun Ye for a long time before saying, “This old man dreams of going to Kunlun to pay respects to the Queen Mother of the West, but this old man will absolutely not climb the mountain together with you. Being with you, this old man’s chances of having an accident would greatly increase. Put it this way—you’re the kind of naturally lucky person. When together with you, lightning would only strike me and not strike you. A huge loss.”
“Now you understand what this old man meant by a dead land, right? Young man, you always resist this old man’s words. Although I don’t know why you’re like this, even if your master had a semi-immortal body, so what? Surely you don’t think he would know everything. This old man, compared to your esteemed master, is only the light of a firefly. Would you deny that it’s not a flame just because of this firefly’s light?”
“Now the ground has collapsed—the ground has collapsed in broad daylight. Young man, this is Heaven warning you not to probe into matters beyond your capabilities. Remember this, remember this well.”
Everyone else listened with faces full of terror. Only Wu She remained silent, sitting on a rock with Yun Ye, watching as the black hole before them grew larger and larger. This was a rare spectacle that one might not see once in a lifetime.
Yun Ye felt very regretful that there was no volcanic eruption. If there had been a volcanic eruption, that would truly deserve to be called a spectacular sight on earth. That night they camped out at the mountain pass. Yun Ye slept extremely comfortably amid the rumbling of the earth. This result was good, truly very good. Sometimes, having no result was also an acceptable answer.
When the sky grew slightly bright, Yun Ye opened his eyes and discovered that the other people had all sat at the mountain pass through the night. The rumbling sound of the earth’s subsidence had disappeared, leaving only that bright white column of water still gushing endlessly.
Wu She looked at the large pit before them and said to Yun Ye, “All matters have answers. You can explain the sky collapsing and earth caving in, but how do you explain this thing? This old man didn’t sleep all night. What I thought about and considered was the White Jade Capital. This is what Liu Jinbao dug out from the pit. Do you still want to say that White Jade Capital has nothing to do with you?”
Yun Ye was very surprised that Wu She spoke this way, but seeing the jade tablet in Wu She’s hand, his brow furrowed. That half bottle of Erguotou was his own, but this thing couldn’t possibly be his. In his previous life, he had never had the opportunity to come into contact with such precious cultural relics.
Taotie pattern—what was the meaning of this? The other three jade tablets were with the main army. He would bring them back to look again and see exactly what secret they held. Yun Ye had not the slightest interest in this secret.
The sun came out, and the large pit was also thoroughly exposed in broad daylight. The bottom of the pit couldn’t be seen, but near the spring opening there was now a small mountain. The earth’s subsidence seemed to have no effect whatsoever on the spring opening. The former valley had disappeared without a trace. Yuan Shoucheng once again pulled out his compass to examine the earth energy and feng shui of this place, smiling bitterly at Yun Ye and saying, “Now the feng shui has become absolutely superb. Especially that fountain in the middle—it’s truly remarkable. Young man, do you plan to bury your family’s old madam here or not? If you don’t plan to bury her, I intend to be buried here after I die, to bless my disciples and grand-disciples with unending food and clothing.”
“I’ll let you have it. After my grandmother passes away, she should be buried in the ancestral tomb to reunite with the family. I wouldn’t want her buried alone here. If you like it, it’s yours. But let’s make this clear—the horse herd outside cannot be touched. If anyone moves the horse herd, don’t blame me for turning hostile.”
Yuan Shoucheng became thoroughly enraged, grabbing Yun Ye’s collar and raging, “You little bastard! The feng shui here has the Azure Dragon on the left and White Tiger on the right, the Colored Phoenix behind, and an open hall in front. There’s an unfathomably deep wealth-gathering water pool directly connected to the dragon vein, and there’s a pillar reaching to the sky that can reach the heavens and gather the world’s vital energy.”
“Such a good place, yet you deliberately want to bring thousands of troops to attack me, don’t you? You still have the face to say you don’t understand geomancy—you little bastard are actually the most sinister! The only bad thing about this place is that herd of wild horses. By not letting others touch the wild horse herd, what you’re really saying is you’re unwilling to let this old man rest in peace here.”
Wu She laughed and said, “If it’s truly useful, this old man can just be buried here after death. This old man is a military man who most loves battle and conquest. How wonderful this is—even after death I won’t be lonely.”
Yuan Shoucheng looked at Wu She with contempt and said, “You’re almost a zombie, and moreover a yin person. After death, shouldn’t you quickly find a sunny slope to be buried on to properly gather some yang energy? Could it be that in your next life you still want to be a eunuch?”
The pained expression on Wu She’s face appeared briefly then disappeared without a trace. Toward Yuan Shoucheng, he still didn’t dare to engage in verbal sparring. He didn’t dare, but Yun Ye didn’t care. Pointing at that red mountain, he said to Wu She, “There’s a huge copper mine there. After Old Yuan buries himself in the earth, we’ll go mine the copper. Compared to the empire’s destiny, the food and clothing of Old Yuan’s descendants don’t amount to anything.”
Wu She smiled mutely and made no sound, slowly walking back to sit on the rock, accepting the shoulder and leg massage diligently performed by Na Rimu and Xiao Miao. He closed his eyes and no longer looked at Yuan Shoucheng.
Yuan Shoucheng had misspoken in his earlier fury, but this extremely fine tomb site could not be lost. Catching his breath, he said to Yun Ye, “I’ll find the best grassland for your horse herd and relocate them. As long as you don’t mine the copper here, everything can be discussed.”
“Don’t even think about it. This piece of land is Wang Cai’s home. Even if a good tomb site appeared, it should belong to Wang Cai. The world is vast with all manner of wonders—there are plenty of good tomb sites. Aren’t we going to West Kunlun? At that time, we can bury you in the immortals’ garden—wouldn’t that be even better? Why compete with a horse?”
As Yun Ye spoke, he pulled Wang Cai’s long face over and said to Yuan Shoucheng, “This is his home. Through life and death, he should be here. Don’t think about it anymore. Let me tell you, when it comes to seizing things, no one can out-seize me, Yun Ye.”
Yuan Shoucheng looked at Wang Cai, who was foolishly licking the back of Yun Ye’s hand. He sighed deeply and said nothing more. Taking one last look at this extremely fine open hall, he whipped his horse beneath him and was the first to prepare to return to camp.
The spring water had become a fountain, the valley had become a large pit—these were the changes Yun Ye had brought to this valley. Holding the jade pendant up to the sun to look at it, he saw nothing. Perhaps the angle wasn’t quite right. He played with it twice then continued urging his horse forward.
Wang Cai stood at the top of the hillside and called out once, looked at the horse herd at the horizon’s edge, then quick-stepped twice to catch up behind Yun Ye, beginning to search for food in the saddlebag. For him, the mating season had passed, and life had returned to its original track.
The Five Barbarians Commander wrote everything about Yun Ye’s actions in the valley into a memorial and dispatched a trusted subordinate to rush it to Chang’an by night. His description of the valley’s transformation was extremely vivid: “On the third day of the month, Marquis Yun dug the spring. In an instant, a water dragon rose ten zhang high, the earth sank a thousand chi. There were ghostly souls beating drums, and divine beings manifested. When the sun rose, all became peaceful.”
Master Yuan said this was a peerless open hall and wished to be buried here. Marquis Yun said this was merely a horse tomb…
Li Er held the secret letter and read it three times over, then found the report from the Lanzhou local authorities, which stated that Jincheng County had a slight earth dragon turning over, the common people were briefly startled, then quickly settled.
“A horse tomb? How carefree indeed. This is also good. White Jade Capital was ultimately a flower in the mirror, moon in the water. Now completely destroyed—there’s nothing to regret. Only it’s a pity that a perfectly good open hall has become a horse tomb.”
Yun Ye arranged the four jade tablets according to the angle of sunlight, wanting to see if there would be any amazing changes. A jade tablet dug out from the bottom of the large pit? Who had placed it there?
Sunlight shone on the jade tablets. The first three jade tablets all showed shadows, but only the first jade tablet showed no change at all. How truly strange. Wu She refused to give up and adjusted the jade tablet’s angle once again, but still nothing appeared. Yun Ye tossed all the jade tablets to Wu She, saying, “Research them slowly. Just tell me if you find anything different. The main army is about to enter Shazhou. Affairs are complicated—I have no time to fiddle with these things.”
He clapped his hands and strode away, leaving Wu She alone, tremblingly wrapping the jade tablets in silk cloth and carefully tucking them into his bosom. Then he said to Xiao Miao, “Anyone who dares approach your master’s tent shall be killed without mercy!”
“Mount Jiang looks south toward the western ward, pavilions and halls still lock the courtyard walls. The Son of Heaven has never passed through the slender willows, yet the general has already been sent to guard Dunhuang. The tilted strange stones make the mountain colorless, the scattered round lotuses leave the water without fragrance. Whether general or scholar, all are lonely—before the gate, one grieves to death for Lord Yun in the clouds.”
Reciting poetry in his mouth, Yun Ye gazed at the pass walls not far away, feeling that Dunhuang was nothing more than this.