Chapter 160 Prepared in Advance

Why does this old man always assume the worst of me? Could it be that he still hasn't forgotten how, when I first went to look for him, I stood by and watched while a fat woman cursed him out without stepping in to help?

Regardless of whatever the old man is thinking, I asked, "Is that character 'Gen' supposed to mean dugong?"

The moment my words left my mouth, Old Man Ma's expression shifted abruptly. Stunned, his eyes widening in sheer disbelief, he stared straight at me, speechless for a moment.

I met his gaze quietly, as if feeling the eerie calm before the tempest.

"You brat, are you really my apprentice?" Old Man Ma said, his face a mask of astonishment, his eyes bulging so wide they almost popped out of his head.

Before I could even react, he reached his own conclusion: "How could I end up with an apprentice like you? Truly, it is a misfortune to our lineage and a disgrace to our grandmaster!"

"Master, let's talk civilly, there's no need for all this," I said.

Old Man Ma's shocked countenance morphed into towering rage as he let loose a furious tirade, spitting venom straight at me: "Talk civilly? You're telling me to talk civilly! Huh? You brat, how do I usually teach you? Where on earth did you put what I taught you? When you destroyed the formation core earlier, I figured you were just doing whatever it took to survive, but I never expected you to actually be this stupid! Do you even know the Eight Trigrams? Do you know Qian, Zhen, Kan, Gen, Kun, Xun, Li, and Dui? Do you know Gen represents the mountain? Dugong! I've got to hand it to you, only a mind like yours could dream that up! You're going to be the death of me! Anyone in this line of work knows damn well that the character 'Gen' can only possibly refer to the Gen trigram in the Eight Trigrams! Did your brain get flooded with water, or have you been eating too much fish, to come up with a damn dugong on me?!"

Oh, so it really was just me overthinking it; that character "Gen" had nothing to do with a dugong. I figured as much—how could such a bizarre coincidence exist? That being said, the name "Tu E" probably didn't carry any profound hidden meaning either.

Turns out that character "Gen" referred to the Gen trigram of the Eight Trigrams.

"Are you even listening to me, you little punk! You're really going to drive me to an early grave! I told you long ago to stay away from that kid. Look how long it's been, and your head, which used to be sharp enough, has turned into a block of wood! Huh? Did everything I usually teach you go straight into a donkey's belly? You motherf—*&%#@*%#..." Seeing that I had little reaction, Old Man Ma's fury only intensified as he continued to curse me out without stopping.

I said, "Calm your anger, Master. We still have important business to attend to, don't we?"

Old Man Ma glared at me with blazing eyes, looking as though he were just waiting to settle accounts with me once we got back.

He jerked his chin toward the tunnel opening and snapped, "Get up!"

I smiled and obediently climbed up into the passageway, heading outward. The old man was currently in the thick of his temper, so it was best to humor him and avoid getting assigned a one-million-word reflection essay.

This exit had been worn smooth by constant treading, making it less convenient to traverse than the previous time. I steadied myself against the pitted, uneven wall, cautiously leading the way while Old Man Ma followed closely behind.

"Why build a passageway right here? Could it be to make it convenient for that three-headed snake to crawl in and out?" I asked.

I had wanted to ask this last time. When Old Man Ma first laid eyes on this opening, he had worn an expression of complete understanding, clearly knowing what was going on.

His anger still unappeased, Old Man Ma retorted ungraciously, "You could say that. This opening was indeed dug to give that three-headed snake some 'fresh air'."

"So considerate?" I said.

"Stop playing the fool with me, damn it! Do you think that snake slithers up to the surface every night just out of boredom and to wander around aimlessly? The spiritual energy in these mountains is potent; this tunnel was dug to draw that spiritual energy in, as well as to make it easy for the creature to go out and absorb it! Why do you think I make you train in the mountains every morning? That spiritual energy is immensely beneficial! The reason those people chose this exact spot to refine that snake was most likely because they had their eyes on the spiritual energy gathered right here!"

So that was how it was. Those people hadn't chosen this place by mere coincidence from the very beginning.

The entire passageway had been worn thoroughly smooth underfoot. After making the arduous climb back to the surface, we still didn't catch sight of those human corpses, which indicated that they had all indeed departed.

Emerging from the tunnel, we saw that a large patch of brushwood not far away had been trampled flat—those corpses had left in that direction.

Old Man Ma made a move to walk over.

"Aren't we going to tell the others?" This exit was quite a distance from the pit. At the very least, we should let the villagers know so they wouldn't remain in the dark and worry needlessly.

"We only just managed to shake off that brat Tu E; if we go back now, wouldn't that just let him know?!" Old Man Ma declared without the slightest bit of concealment. He had been guarding against Tu E from the very start.

Since he put it that way, the villagers would simply have to be left to worry blindly.

I followed Old Man Ma along the direction of the trampled tracks. Given the massive number of human corpses, they had literally trampled out a distinct pathway. The trail looked quite fresh, which made sense since the corpses had only left within the past couple of days.

As we walked further, the surrounding trees transitioned from dense to sparse, and we had already stepped out of the thickest part of the forest.

A ringtone suddenly pierced the air—it was the mobile phone we had borrowed earlier for lighting. I answered it on reflex. It was the village chief calling, asking anxiously why we hadn't come out yet, whether something had happened, and if he needed to send people down to help.

"We've already come out and are currently handling some other matters..." Right as I was speaking, Old Man Ma ahead of me suddenly came to a halt.

I hurriedly muttered a few perfunctory words, hung up the phone, and walked over to Old Man Ma's side.

"What is it?" I asked. Following Old Man Ma's gaze forward, I saw a paved highway right in front of us! We had already walked all the way out of the mountains!

The trampled tracks still continued forward, extending straight toward the highway.

"The perpetrators came prepared!" Old Man Ma said with a dark, cold face.

Given the circumstances, whoever had taken the corpses not only knew the terrain intimately, but had also made meticulous preparations. Transporting such a vast number of corpses couldn't be done on a whim! It would require at least several large vehicles, and with so many trucks moving back and forth, it was absolutely impossible for no one to have noticed!

Unless it happened during a special window of time when nobody could possibly notice!

New Year's Eve night!

On that night, firecrackers blazed incessantly while the villagers all gathered together to eat the New Year's Eve dinner. Coming through at that exact hour, it was entirely possible to go completely undetected!

Wait! New Year's Eve night! Could it really be a coincidence?

"Could this be related to the affair of the Five Ghosts Carrying a Coffin?!" I blurted out.

Old Man Ma frowned; clearly, he had already made the connection.

Tu E and I had also encountered the Five Ghosts Carrying a Coffin on that very same night. The coffin had contained a yin corpse, and it was likewise a matter of manipulating corpses—the timing was just too coincidental! Yet, if these human corpses were connected to the Five Ghosts Carrying a Coffin, it could essentially be ruled out that Tu E had anything to do with it; surely he wouldn't plot to harm himself. Of course, I hadn't suspected from the beginning that these intertwined events involved him anyway.

Instead of answering, Old Man Ma said, "Let's go back and question those people. I hope we aren't harboring ungrateful wolves in our midst!"

Regardless of the specifics, anyone capable of navigating from the exit straight to the highway had to be exceptionally familiar with the terrain, making it highly probable that they were locals from the village. Even though the vast majority of people seemed completely oblivious, one could never rule out the possibility of one or two individuals who valued money over their own lives—just like the person who had tipped off Yang Guangyu previously.