Chapter 1

After escaping the snowstorm, we set off again and found A Ning’s group encamped on a slope. At the same time, we also found that the mysterious snowy mountain, which had been on the mural in the undersea tomb, had suddenly appeared in the distance. But when we asked our guide, Shunzi, how to get there, he shook his head and said that we could never go there.

“Why?” I asked him, while thinking to myself, didn’t you say that you could climb all four hundred kilometers of these snow-capped mountains? Why can’t we go to this one?

“That mountain is called the Three Sacred Mountains [note: this is a pseudonym],” Shunzi explained. “Only a very small part of that mountain is on our side. The other side—along with everything above the snow line—is all in Korea. We can’t go there.”

Fatty had a stunned look on his face as he asked, “The Three Sacred Mountains? Is this the first mountain where the Volunteer Army’s logistics troops set up the postwar lifeline to send supplies when Commander Peng aided Korea in resisting U.S. aggression?”

Shunzi nodded, “Yes, that’s the mountain. It’s more than 2,400 meters above sea level. If you climb over this mountain, you’ll be in North Korean territory.”

As soon as I heard this, I felt like my heart was going to break.

Anyone who had been a soldier or was interested in modern Chinese history knew that there were three highly guarded borders in the world: one was between India and Pakistan, the second was between Israel and Lebanon, and the third was this fourteen-kilometer border on the Three Sacred Mountains.

In fact, China and North Korea had always been on friendly terms. Anyone who was familiar with the situation would know that it was very easy to cross the border on Changbai Mountain’s western slope, and there weren’t many checkpoints. Around 1996, when Changbai Mountain’s forested region on the Chinese side was suffering an economic depression, many people often crossed the border to dig up a Chinese medicine herb called “alpine roseroot” to make money. Even though the North Korean soldiers caught them, the Chinese managed to escape and used guerrilla tactics to fight them off. Many people who came to secretly dig herbs also brought alcohol and tobacco with them, so if they were caught, they could exchange the alcohol and tobacco for their freedom. As time passed, the borborderline the western slope became something that existed in name only.

The section of the border on the Three Sacred Mountains, however, was still tightly guarded. No one knew the reason, but it was said that this border was the old border between China and North Korea. Since the North Korean border was above the snow line, in order to quickly transport strategic materials to them during the Korean War, many temporary strategic passages and underground fortifications were built on the mountain. Both sides could quickly send troops through these passages, so strict precautions had to be taken.

At present, our food provisions wouldn’t allow us to take the long route around those high-altitude border areas. As such, the only way we could make up for lost time was to head straight for the Three Sacred Mountains Pass, directly cross the border, and climb towards that snowy peak.

It seemed that instead of worrying about hidden mysteries, strange tricks, or zombies, we’d have to watch out for the very real bullets of Type-81 automatic rifles fired by a company of regular troops.

The others more or less knew about the situation regarding the Three Sacred Mountains, and all had worried expressions on their faces. We exchanged glances, trying to figure out what to do next.

“Don’t worry, you guys,” Pan Zi comforted us. “There must be a way to sneak across the border. Shunzi here was a soldier in the area, so he must know of a way. We can persuade him to take us there and just give him more money.”

He then went to talk to Shunzi, but to our surprise, Shunzi firmly shook his head and said, “No, it’s impossible. There are only a few roads up the mountain over there, and they all have tall guard posts with searchlights set up every ten meters. Everything from the foot of the mountain and up is all military-restricted areas. Although there aren’t many people, there are a lot of guard posts built close to each other. It’s impossible to get close to the border guards on our side, let alone cross the border. When I was serving, the order I received was to fire a warning shot in the sky if I ever saw a stranger come into view. If they didn’t retreat, the second shot would hit them directly in the leg. We didn’t need any other justification to shoot.”

“Then let’s buy some fruit, take it with us, and pretend to be ordinary people coming to express our appreciation for their hard work,” Fatty said.

Shunzi smiled, “Boss, you’re too good at telling jokes. Of course that won’t work. First, this isn’t a place for relaxation. Second, where would we find fruit in a cold, snowy place like this? If we carry fruit above the snow line, we’d look even more suspicious than if we showed up empty-handed.”

Fatty clicked his tongue and asked, “Then what should we do? Are you saying we’ll be shot to death if we try to break through the border? I don’t believe it. Even the Macedonian defense line was breached. How can the border guards here be stronger than that? Or do you think we’re not offering you enough fucking money? Just say it, how much do you need?”

Shunzi scratched his head in embarrassment, “Oh, this isn’t about the money. If there really was a way, do you think I’d refuse your money? If you guys had told me earlier that you wanted to go to North Korea, I wouldn’t have taken you this way. Now that we’re here, we really don’t have any other options.”

We were all a little surprised that Shunzi said there was no room for negotiation. But this area wasn’t rich, and crossing the border wasn’t considered a serious crime, so if there really was a way, Shunzi definitely wouldn’t have kept it from us.

Monk Hua and the others weren’t the type to decide things on their own, so they walked over to Chen Pi Ah Si and asked the old man what he thought.

In fact, it all boiled down to whether we wanted to keep going or turn around and go back. If we kept going, we’d have to do as Shunzi said and detour around the border areas, which may double our travel time. Plus, we’d have to spend those last few days climbing the mountain hungry. If we chose to stop here and turn around, we could go back and rest before trying again. But that essentially meant that all the climbing we did over the past few days was in vain, and all our hard work was for nothing.

I was more inclined to keep going. I didn’t know why Uncle Three had deployed us for such an urgent operation, but A Ning and her team were certainly making me feel pressured—I really hoped to see Uncle Three soon. Of course, the only reason I could think of continuing forward at the time was because I didn’t know the pain of climbing a snow-covered mountain while hungry.

Chen Pi Ah Si sighed, obviously not expecting this matter to be so troublesome. This old Changsha grave robber was willing to do anything to cover up his misdeeds, including murder and arson, but as soon as government officials got involved, he immediately backed down. It was just like that old saying: the poor couldn’t fight the rich, and the rich couldn’t fight the officials. He thought for a long time without saying a word, his frown becoming deeper and deeper.

I was feeling a little anxious and glanced at Poker-Face to see if he had an opinion on the matter, but he wasn’t participating in our discussion at all. Instead, he was staring at the snow-capped mountains in the distance, as if all of this had nothing to do with him.

The conversation kept going in circles, but no one could come up with a viable solution. Just as we were starting to feel at a total loss, however, Ye Cheng suddenly called out to us.

We all stopped talking and looked towards the slope, only to find that A Ning’s team had started to move again. Judging by the direction they were headed, their goal was undoubtedly the Three Sacred Mountains.

A lot of their supplies were unloaded from the horses and randomly discarded in the snow—probably to lighten their load and increase their speed—causing the whole slope to look like a cluttered mess.

“That’s odd,” Ye Cheng said. “Don’t these guys know that the area up ahead is the border? What’s wrong with their guide? Surely he told them the same thing Shunzi told us. But carrying so many weapons with them…aren’t they basically begging the border guards to treat them as target practice?”

I shook my head, telling myself that it was impossible. I knew their company’s habits quite well, so there definitely had to be a local guide, and probably more than one at that. Such a professional private investigation company was skilled when it came to research and public relations, so they definitely knew the terrain here better than we did. They must have set a fixed route before coming and wouldn’t change it so easily.

Fatty, doubting Shunzi’s business capabilities, suddenly asked him to explain it—was it possible that there was a route others knew about but he didn’t?

Shunzi squinted at the departing group and said, “Based on the direction they’re headed, there’s only one possibility—they’re going to take the mountain pass in front of us to go around the other mountains, cross the border on that side, and then head back towards the Three Sacred Mountains from the North Korean side. Although it’s a big risk, it’s much better than trying to break through the border defense here. Their team is bigger than ours, so if they have enough food, or if they’ve bought people on the North Korean side who can get them through, then they’ll be able to make the long journey.”

“Then what should we do? Should we keep following them?” Ye Cheng turned to Chen Pi Ah Si and asked.

Chen Pi Ah Si shook his head and remained silent, but then he suddenly pointed to the other side, where we could see a small snowy peak next to the Three Sacred Mountains. “What mountain is that?” He asked Shunzi.

Shunzi picked up the binoculars and looked at it before saying, “That’s the Little Sacred Mountain, and it’s on our side of the border. The Three Sacred Mountains and Little Sacred Mountain, together with the Great Sacred Mountain on the North Korean side, are collectively called the Five Sacred Mountains.”

“From here, can we reach the Little Sacred Mountain?” Chen Pi Ah Si asked.

As soon as he said that, we all froze in shock, not knowing what the old man wanted to do. Shunzi also found the question a little odd, but still responded, “There’s no problem. We can reach it within a day. It’s also far from the guard posts and the scenery is good, but the route is a little difficult to walk.”

Chen Pi Ah Si brushed the snow off his pants, stood up, and said to Shunzi, “Alright, take us there.”

Everyone was puzzled by this decision, and Monk Hua immediately spoke up, “But why? Boss, it’s a waste of time to go there. Our food will only last so long—”

Chen Pi Ah Si waved his hand, pointed to the seemingly endless mountain range stretching out on either side, and said, “The mountain range here covers a long distance and is covered in snow all year round. If you look at the three sides, you’ll find that it’s a rare Three-Headed Dragon. According to the concept of large feng shui, this is the so-called ‘Sitting Group of Dragons’. These three mountains are dragon heads, which makes them very suitable for a group burial. If the heavenly palace is on the slopes of the Three Sacred Mountains in the middle, then the two small dragon heads on either side should contain the tombs of the empress or the emperor’s deputies.”

The Three-Headed Dragon array was very peculiar in that the three heads had to be connected. Otherwise, the three dragons would fly off in any direction. If that were to happen, a huge mess would be created and the descendants of the tomb owner would end up killing each other. Therefore, if a tomb was really built there, it should have a secret passage underneath that connected it to the main tomb in the center, where the heavenly palace was located.

Throughout history, many ancient tombs have been built in Three-Headed Dragon arrays. For example, in 1987, three interconnected tombs from the Warring States period were excavated at Mount Mang in Henan. In other words, there were three related ancient tombs arranged on three peaks in the same mountain range. The two ancient tombs on both sides originally had tunnels that were about half a meter wide leading to the main tomb in the middle. Unfortunately, the tunnels collapsed during the excavation, so the archaeological team didn’t know whether these tunnels were really connected or if they were just a symbolic decoration.

We looked to where Chen Pi Ah Si was pointing and saw three snow-capped mountains far off on the horizon, surrounded by other snow-capped mountains.

I couldn’t see any difference between them, so I didn’t know what Chen Pi Ah Si was basing his judgment on.

After he finished speaking, Chen Pi Ah Si glanced at Poker-Face and asked, “Young man, am I right?”

For the first time, Poker-Face actually reacted to another person’s question—he looked back at Chen Pi Ah Si but didn’t say a word before turning back around and continuing to look at the snow-capped mountains in the distance.

None of us understood the concept of large feng shui, so we all felt confused even after hearing Chen Pi Ah Si’s explanation. In my opinion, it all sounded a bit mysterious, but since the old man said so—and Poker-Face seemed to agree—I decided it was best not to voice my doubts.

We made our way down the mountain to the place where A Ning and her team had camped. A bunch of equipment was scattered in the snow, but most of it had been picked through before it was discarded, which meant that no food had been left behind. We obviously went through it just in case, but all we found were either useless items or duplicates.

Fatty even found several guns, but all the bullets had been removed from them, leaving only the empty barrels. He still wanted to take one with him, but Shunzi stopped him, saying that it would be difficult to make a deal if we ran into the border guards here while carrying a gun. If we didn’t have a gun, it’d be easier to lie to them. Fatty put the gun back down, saying that it was a pity he couldn’t take it with him.

Behind the flat slope where A Ning and her team had been encamped was a mountain valley, where we could see a long line of footprints leading deeper into it.

We took some time to get ourselves organized and then followed Shunzi in the other direction, headed straight for the Little Sacred Mountain. Soon, we found ourselves walking into a world of white, where everything in front of us was nothing but endless snow, with the occasional bare rock and icicle to break the monotony.

Changbai Mountain was probably the only snow-covered mountain in the world that you could climb up relatively easily. And compared with the glaciers in the Kunlun Mountains, the environment here was much better—there was no huge ice sheet full of cracks, so you didn’t have to worry about the ground breaking beneath your feet. However, the glaciers in Changbai Mountain were also typical ancient glaciers, with various landforms interrupting the mountain terrain, such as glacial landforms, crater holes, giant cirques, and bottomless ice wells. In any case, I wasn’t very familiar with the various landforms that could be found on snowy mountains, so I won’t say much about them here. All I know is that there were many times throughout the journey when the path in front of us disappeared, so we had to go around these strange landforms or crawl up them. It definitely made the journey extremely thrilling.

There’s nothing to say about the rest of the journey. When we were on the slope before, the route to the mountain seemed like a straight shot that would only take a few hours, but we actually ended up walking almost the whole day. When we finally arrived at the valley at the base of Little Sacred Mountain, it was already evening.

We dug a snow cave on the slope about five or six hundred meters above the valley, set up camp, and ate something hot. At such a high altitude, the stars in the sky were extremely bright and clear. Chen Pi Ah Si used a compass and his knowledge of astronomy to roughly determine our route for the next day.

We were all exhausted after walking all day, but it was still too early to go to bed. Fatty started pestering Shunzi, asking if there were any hot springs nearby.

Shunzi was also thinking about hot springs, but he said that we were too high up and he didn’t come here often, so it would be difficult to find any. If we were bored, we could walk around and look for them. Or, we could visit the place where some ancient people were buried in the ice. It was a little more than one kilometer away from our camp.

Corpses always had a way of grabbing a grave robber’s attention, and it wasn’t like we had anything else to do at the moment. So, when we heard that there were corpses nearby, we all immediately became curious.

Chen Pi Ah Si was exhausted so Monk Hua stayed behind to take care of him while the rest of us followed Shunzi out of the camp.

We headed in a leftward direction, which took us to a valley. After walking for less than half an hour, we eventually arrived at a cliff. There was a glacier valley below, but it was so dark that I couldn’t see anything.

Shunzi found a good place to stop, lit a cold firework, and threw it down.

In the layer of ice at the bottom of the valley, I saw a lot of black shadows curled up into balls. They were densely packed together, but I could still make out some human silhouettes among the many small black specks. There were even some traces of sacrificial offerings around the glacier valley.

Shunzi said that in ancient times, ice burials were popular among the mountain villagers. Even in the early days of liberation, there were still people who chose to be buried here, so some old people still came here to pay their respects. The glacier here was thickening year by year, which meant that the bodies in the innermost layers of ice—those little specks that were barely visible—were likely thousands of years old. On the other hand, the ones in the outermost layers were likely decades old.

I roughly counted the black specks I could see and found that there were thousands upon thousands of them. Obviously, it was impossible to get an accurate count since so many corpses had been accumulating in this frozen cemetery for thousands of years. But Little Sacred Mountain should have other glacier valleys like this, which meant that it was essentially just an extra-large burial mound.

“Among these corpses, do you think there are any Eastern Xia slaves who helped build the heavenly palace?” Fatty suddenly asked.

“It’s possible,” Poker-Face said while looking at the depths of the glacier valley in the gradually fading light. I didn’t know what he was thinking about.

The bodies were buried in the ice, so it was impossible to dig them out. We looked around for a bit but found nothing of interest, so we went to look for some hot springs. We managed to find one, but it was so small that we could only wash our feet and faces instead of taking a full dip. We quickly returned to the camp feeling warm all over and told the other two what we had found, which made Monk Hua envious.

I found it kind of strange how on the snow-capped mountains, you could feel sleepy whether you were warm or freezing to death.

We ate dried noodles for dinner, and then the drowsiness hit us again. The wind picked up outside, so we all climbed into our sleeping bags and went to bed early, except for Shunzi who was going to keep watch first. There were so many of us that we didn’t need everyone to take a shift in one night, so Shunzi, Lang Feng, and Pan Zi were the three who would keep watch first.

I was very tired and fell asleep quickly, hoping to have a restful night’s sleep. But within an hour, Monk Hua, Fatty, Lang Feng, and Pan Zi began to snore at the same time. The sounds came one after another like a symphony, which caused me to have a nightmare and wake up.

I couldn’t fall back asleep, but it was too uncomfortable to just lay there, so I climbed out of the tent and told Shunzi that he should go and get some sleep; I would take his shift tonight.

Shunzi was smoking a cigarette and dazedly staring at the huge black mountain under the moonlight. When he heard that I wanted to change shifts, he shook his head and said, “No, I took your money. It would be bad if I couldn’t even do this much.”

As you wish, I thought to myself as I took out a cigarette and asked him for a light. Then, I added some fuel to the stove and started chatting with him.

Talking with a guide was a great way to gain some knowledge. I told him a lot about ancient tombs, which seemed to interest him a lot, while he told me about the local customs and interesting stories about the mountains and forests. While chatting with him, I didn’t feel sleepy at all—in fact, the more we talked, the more energetic we became.

Later, we talked about our current expedition. Shunzi told me that he was a border guard for seven years, but he had been in the reserves for four years. He used to be an herb picker before he joined the army, so that was why he was familiar with the mountains. His comrades even used to call him ‘Alangcai’, which meant ‘son of the mountain’, so we could definitely count on him. After all, there weren’t many people who could bring others into the snowy mountains here, but he was definitely one of them.

I still felt skeptical, then why did you faint before we really entered the mountains? He was definitely trying to show off, but seeing how serious he was, I knew there was no point in trying to tear him down, so I just continued listening to him.

We talked for a long time and covered a wide range of topics until we gradually became more comfortable with each other. At this time, Shunzi suddenly asked me, “Boss Wu…why are you guys really here in the mountains? Can you tell me?”

I was taken aback when I heard this and didn’t know how to answer for a while, which caused a sudden silence to fill the air.

How should I explain it? If I told him that our purpose was to find the Heavenly Palace on the Clouds, would he even believe it? It was impossible to tell him that we were here to rob a tomb, but it was also obvious that we weren’t tourists. I thought about it for a long time before I eventually sighed and asked, “Why do you need to know? I can’t tell you.”

Shunzi seemed to expect this answer because he just smiled and said, “That’s fine. I was just curious.”

I felt uncomfortable because I didn’t want to lie to him, so I changed the subject and started talking about something else. I asked him why he became a mountain guide since he used to gather herbs.

Picking herbs in Changbai Mountain was not only very profitable but also much easier than being a thankless guide. This was the main reason why there were so few mountain guides.

Shunzi looked at me and suddenly said something that almost made me vomit blood.

“I’m not a professional guide. I’ve actually been picking herbs since I left the army. I’d occasionally take people up the mountain, but we never went that far—I’d usually turn back at Maiden Lake. This is the first time I’ve brought a group this far in.”

I smiled at him, “Stop joking.”

“Really, Mr. Wu, I’m telling the truth. No professional guide will take you into the mountains this time of year. If I didn’t do it, you guys would have come here by yourselves.” He smiled at me. “It’s too dangerous. In fact, if not for the Buddha’s blessing, we would have already died. It’s a miracle that we could make it this far without losing anyone. But you don’t have to worry. Although I haven’t brought anyone in this deep before, I’ve been here many times and am very familiar with the area. Nothing will happen.”

His expression was very serious as he spoke, making it obvious that he wasn’t joking. I cursed to myself and then asked in a surprised tone, “If it’s so dangerous, then why did you bring us here? Are you short of money?”

Shunzi gave me a meaningful look and said, “Money is also a factor, but there’s another reason… It’s because my father, he…he disappeared ten years ago. At that time, he also brought a group of people into the mountains, taking a route much similar to the one you guys want to take. But in the end, their whole group disappeared somewhere in the mountains. I vaguely remember that the tourists who came looking for him at that time were dressed very similarly to you guys, and they also wanted to climb the mountain during wintertime. So, when I saw you guys, I suddenly felt that I had to follow you. First, I didn’t want you guys to die like my father did. Second, I had a naïve thought that maybe your reason for entering the mountains was the same as that group of people ten years ago, so maybe I could finally figure out what happened to my father. Of course, this is all just wishful thinking.” He smiled self-deprecatingly. “My father may have simply been caught up in an avalanche and is buried somewhere on this snowy mountain.”

“So that’s why you asked me why we really wanted to enter the mountains…?” I said knowingly.

Shunzi nodded a little sheepishly, “You wouldn’t understand the feeling of knowing that your father is buried on this mountain, but you don’t know where.”

I didn’t expect Shunzi to be so sensitive. I used to think that he was just an ordinary tour guide with a smooth tongue, but now I suddenly had a whole new level of respect for him.

But those similarly-dressed tourists who had disappeared in the mountains ten years ago…were they also looking for the Heavenly Palace on the Clouds? I felt my heart thump, but then I quickly dismissed the idea—no, that was impossible. There were too many places in Changbai Mountain where a person could disappear, so surely such a coincidence was impossible. His father and the others may have encountered some sort of accident and died in the mountains.

Seeing that I didn’t speak, Shunzi thought that he had said too much and quickly tried to downplay it, “Boss Wu, I think you’re different from the others, so that’s why I told you these things. But I hope you won’t tell them; I’m afraid they’ll have misgivings.”

I’ll definitely never tell them that this is your first time bringing people here, I thought to myself. I may not know what Chen Pi Ah Si will do to you, but Fatty will definitely beat you to death.

So, I nodded in agreement. At this time, a yawning Lang Feng came out of the tent to take over Shunzi’s shift and stopped in surprise when he saw the two of us chatting. Shunzi packed up his things, peed in the snow, and then went into the tent to get some sleep. I had nothing to say to Lang Feng, so I wished him a good night and then went back to sleep.

Amidst the deafening snores, I lay there in a half-awake, half-asleep state, dreaming of Shunzi’s father from ten years ago. He looked like an older, bearded version of Shunzi, and he was leading a group of people up the mountain. Strangely enough, in my dream, I kept feeling like I had seen those people somewhere before. I tossed and turned, my sleep becoming very restless.

The next day, we got up before dawn and continued our journey, following the trend of the mountain range.

Judging from Shunzi’s question last night, he must have already realized that we weren’t ordinary climbers. We obviously weren’t good at pretending considering how no tourist would be rushing up the mountain so frantically like this, but we weren’t that worried about it. In any case, as a Changbai Mountain tour guide, he had long been aware that there were all kinds of mysterious groups coming here, from poachers to illegal herb pickers to Korean pilgrims. Every year, there were between eight hundred and a thousand of them, all with their own secrets. So, it was fine to let him guess what we were here to do.

It was even more difficult to walk on the mountainside—the slope in many places became steep, and there were lofty peaks covered in snow above our heads, which were prone to collapsing and causing avalanches. It was because of this that we couldn’t speak too loudly. Moreover, the snow that had been accumulating for thousands of years was so thick that we couldn’t see the craters that were sometimes hidden beneath it. Occasionally, some of us would fall into them up to our chests, unable to get out without the help of the others. In the end, all we could do was probe the path ahead with long icicles bit by bit, as if we were walking through a minefield.

Fatty was the fastest—probably due to his previous experience in snow expeditions—so he walked up front the whole time. Our tongues started to tingle and go numb due to altitude sickness, and with the exception of Chen Pi Ah Si’s occasional adjustments to our direction, there was only the sound of panting in the air. In fact, our surroundings were so quiet that it felt as if the whole world was devoid of life.

After crossing the snowy field on the mountainside, we walked into a frozen valley with huge snow-covered slopes on either side. This was a place where the sun didn’t reach all year round, so the snow was completely frozen. The mountain slope became steeper and steeper, and the temperature was extremely low. Inside the valley, we finally saw the location of the dragon head treasure well that Chen Pi Ah Si had mentioned before. It was a steep, snow-covered cliff set at an almost sixty-degree angle to the mountain.

We stretched out in a long line and continued to climb up one by one, using icicles and ice hammers to climb up the steep slope.

Small Sacred Mountain wasn’t one of Changbai Mountain’s sixteen peaks so we didn’t pay much attention to it when we first started this journey, but it wasn’t some nameless small peak, either. This mountain and the distant Great Sacred Mountain on the opposite side formed a valley in the middle, and with the way they were placed in front of the Three Sacred Mountains, they looked just like two gatekeepers. This kind of landscape was called “The Heavenly Soldiers Guard the Immortal Gate”.

According to the concept of small feng shui, the immortal gate and two mountains formed a coiling dragon and crouching tiger, which absorbed a lot of energy. If it weren’t for the border between China and South Korea and the constant disputes, this place would have been full of tombs belonging to imperials and nobles alike. Even at my level, I could see the strange trend of the mountains here. But with such a strong dragon spirit, we were now more confident in our assumption that there was a tomb on this mountain.

Climbing the steep slope was different from walking in that it consumed more energy. This was especially true for Chen Pi Ah Si, whose strength reached its limit after he had climbed for a while. With the old man unable to keep climbing, Lang Feng ended up having to carry him on his back, which slowed our progress even more.

After about three hours, we finally climbed to the top of the snowy slope. By this time, I had stopped thinking completely and was following Fatty almost reflexively.

The first one to reach the top actually turned out to be Fatty. After stepping on the snow above, his strength had finally reached its limit and he was clearly a little delirious—he made a big show of taking a big step, opened his arms wide, and said to us, “This is one small step for me, but one fucking leap for mojin.” Then he fell down in the snow and didn’t move.

My own legs suddenly began to feel weak and I almost collapsed. Pan Zi tried to pull me up when I started to slide down the slope, but he lost this strength after several attempts and ended up falling to the ground himself.

I slammed my ice axe into the snow hard to stop myself from sliding and then watched as the others fell to the ground one by one, gasping for breath and looking around.

The top of this slope was a huge snow field with almost no end in sight. If we didn’t have Chen Pi Ah Si to guide the way, we wouldn’t have thought that there was anything special about it. The snow-covered surface was very smooth, with only a few black rocks sticking out of it. The Three Sacred Mountains were to our left at this time and appeared much closer than they did yesterday. The top of the sacred mountain was covered in white snow and towered over us like a giant monster, its white-topped black rock appearing to be much steeper than the other surrounding peaks. In the light of the setting sun, a strange pale blue mist seemed to envelop the whole mountain. That mystical-like fog filling the air made for an amazing sight.

Ye Cheng was gasping for breath but still managed to sigh with emotion, “It’s so beautiful. No wonder they say Changbai far surpasses Penglai. It was worth the long climb.”

Although our group was full of nothing but coarse people, we were all intoxicated by the beauty of the scenery set against the backdrop of the setting sun. This was especially true for the snow-capped peaks—the feeling of standing under that zenith was even more awe-inspiring.

I thought about pulling out my camera and taking a picture of the scenery in front of me, but Fatty suddenly poked me and directed my attention to the side.

I looked to where he was pointing and saw that Poker-Face had knelt down in the snow, his head bowed respectfully toward the Three Sacred Mountains in the distance. On his usually expressionless face was a very faint, mournful expression.

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