The room was warm. At first it was mainly Old Liu who spoke, Qin Ming listening in silence; only at the end did the two study the matter together.
Qin Ming was full of expectation, his heart a little stirred. In such a dangerous world he yearned for a Third New Life, wanting no more of being chased to death by great beasts. Had he been strong, the people of Golden Ridge and the Three-Eyed Church would never have dared to pressure him, to treat him as a consumable to be sent underground for prospecting.
Old Liu drank some water and said, "Once we enter the mountains, we'll need to observe the terrain carefully and plan an escape route before we act."
"How is it I feel your confidence isn't all there, elder?" Qin Ming was suspicious. Don't let us down at the crucial moment, running into all sorts of problems.
Old Liu said, "Caution never hurts. Because we can't afford to lose — the place we're going holds rare spiritual substance and is very dangerous. If we fail, people will die."
Qin Ming turned cautious too. "Does Silver Elm Town have any of that crude blasting powder? Let's buy some!"
"If you put it that way, it genuinely opens my thinking. There are a few other places worth considering too." Old Liu, it turned out, had backup plans.
"Let's hear them."
"In the mountains, on that western gorge stretch, there's a lake, and a spirit-turtle mutated three times sleeps there. Everything about it is treasure; its blood is thick with spiritual substance, and right now it's hibernating. If we could somehow dig it out, while it sleeps in a daze, first toss the crude blasting powder into its burrow — I think there's a good chance it'll work!"
At this point Old Liu grew excited, ready to replace the first plan and go deal with that spirit-turtle instead.
Qin Ming brought him back to earth. "The turtle shell's defense is astonishing; crude blasting powder may not blast it apart. And what's more, the lake is so big — how will we find it? Are we to dig to the ends of the earth?"
"You're right too. A spiritual creature is sturdier than a same-rank aberrant anyway. A turtle mutated three times probably can't be blasted, especially this breed, which has long legs; once it goes mad, it's not slow at all."
Old Liu calmed down and rejected the idea himself. That spirit-turtle had already mutated three times twenty years ago; by now it should be stronger still.
The moment Qin Ming heard this, his face changed; it felt off. "Elder, these tidbits you're giving me — they're not all from twenty or so years ago, are they?"
"Relax, I'm not that unreliable." Old Liu shook his head in denial.
He brought up another backup plan: use crude blasting powder to bomb the monkeys. Let the enormous boom scare off the whole troop of long-armed gibbons, then go into their lair to take the spiritual substance.
Qin Ming gave him an odd look. These plans — just how quirky were they all?
Old Liu said, "From the bottom of my heart, I truly want to wipe out that nest of gibbons. Utterly infuriating!"
Qin Ming asked, "Elder, have you been bullied by the monkeys? They're twenty-odd li away — a long way from us."
Old Liu thumped the table. "Ridding the people of a scourge, understand? Around Emei Town, folk who enter the mountains are often robbed of their catches by long-armed gibbons; some have even been dragged off by them."
Hearing this, Qin Ming knew at once that Old Liu must have run afoul of the troop himself; he was still holding a grudge about it!
"I don't think it's reliable. What if we don't scare the long-armed gibbons off, but instead rouse their ferocity, and they chase us all over the mountainsides? That would be awful. Monkeys are the most vengeful creatures of all."
Old Liu said, "It isn't steady, but it is feasible. Thirty years ago someone made a great commotion, lured the tiger away from the mountain, and successfully emptied the Mountain Lord's tiger cave — a similar trick."
"So fierce? That really works!" Qin Ming could not help marveling. That Mountain Lord was more formidable than the old he-bear and the old ox of Wild Ox Ridge.
Old Liu shook his head. "The Mountain Lord is even more vengeful. Back then it wasn't yet as powerful as now, but it was ferocious indeed. Three months after the affair, it broke straight into Silver Elm Town one late night and tore those two men apart."
Qin Ming had just been impressed by those two, his thoughts stirring in turn; now he was forced to cool down. "I feel all your backup plans are unreliable, elder. The first one suits best. Let's go into the mountains!"
No sooner had the two stepped outside than they saw people from Golden Ridge enter the village. Using ground-chickens as mounts was far too conspicuous; they were the only band that did it.
"Golden Ridge still has people to spare? Why didn't they die clean off in the Great Rift Gorge?" Old Liu said in a low voice.
When those two arrived, all the villagers grew tense, for Golden Ridge's predecessors had been great brigands; even though they had been pardoned and taken in, their nature had not much changed.
"We're making a survey. How many New Lifers does your village have? Come register." A middle-aged man seated on a ground-chicken spoke up.
Everyone's heart sank. They weren't going to seek revenge, were they?
For everyone knew that this time, almost all of Golden Ridge's and the Three-Eyed Church's people sent into the Great Rift Gorge had been wiped out, whereas not a single one of the mountain folk had died — they had all escaped.
Given Golden Ridge's usual way of doing things, it was quite likely to vent its anger on the New Lifers of these villages who had fled back.
Xu Yueping said in a low voice, "Some of the larger villages have been under survey since yesterday."
Qin Ming said, "What has it to do with us that Golden Ridge's men didn't escape? They were in the stronger position, and yet they still didn't match the survival instincts of the downtrodden mountain folk. Who's to blame?"
Old Liu said, "They won't reason with you. That's the way of the world. If you're strong enough, merely for a marriage or a funeral the high aberrants of the mountains may come in person to the feast; if you're weak, even the monkeys will bully you just for going into the mountains. A man must stand on his own strength."
He added, "The old monsters deep in the mountains trade and converse with the upper echelons of Redcloud City. Don't doubt it — an old mountain patrolman I knew once told me so with his own mouth."
After the two men of Golden Ridge finished registering, they did not stay long and at once went off into the distance.
"I figure they're probably trying to replenish their manpower," Xu Yueping said.
Everyone found this plausible. This time Golden Ridge's losses had been crushing, and it urgently needed new New Lifers.
Old Liu said, "Trouble's coming. Besides manpower, they're sure to ask for valuables too. To recruit soldiers again, the outlay won't be small."
The people's hearts grew heavy. The great brigands of Golden Ridge had long pressed hard on the villages all around; this state of affairs never seemed able to change.
Qin Ming and Old Liu went into the mountains. On the way, both still felt aggrieved, and together they bad-mouthed the people of Golden Ridge, convinced they had been, from past to present, nothing but a band of bandits.
"I'd truly like to level Golden Ridge!" Qin Ming said.
"Talk no nonsense — if someone overhears, there'll be a great disaster." Old Liu stopped him.
"Oh, right. Elder, you said the high creatures deep in the mountains and the upper echelons of Redcloud City move in close company. True or false?"
Old Liu said, "At any rate someone has said so; how true it is I don't know."
"Then why was there the Great Rift Gorge massacre?" Qin Ming looked toward the silent stretch ahead. Three days ago many men and aberrants had died there; the gorge reeked of blood.
"I suspect the aberrants' siege of the Great Rift Gorge may not be without an understanding between the high-ups of both sides."
Qin Ming looked at him. "Why do you say that?"
Old Liu said, "The aberrants of the mountains grow ever more numerous, yet the territories aren't that many. Some need to be culled. And the great families of Redcloud City have grown fast in recent years. By the traveling merchants' accounts, each family holds its own monopoly industries. For the city lord to suppress them directly wouldn't be fitting. Now, with the Great Rift Gorge bloodshed occurring, it seems to make sense."
"Uncle Liu, you really do dare to think!" Qin Ming eyed him askance.
"This old man once traveled through Redcloud City, too. I know it well, seen the world. Had that celebrated beast of the mountains not torn up my foundation with one claw, how reduced would I have been?"
The two talked as they walked.
After going ten li deep into the mountains, Old Liu said, "No more of this. Once we're here, we cannot speak of those ancient monsters of the deep mountains."
They walked on a ways and appeared in a stretch of primeval forest, then came to the foot of a mountain.
"Within this mountain belly there's a fire spring." Old Liu said. Only he knew the mountains this thoroughly; anyone else would have no idea of this place's state.
What was more, Old Liu had already scouted the way, knowing that this fire spring, disturbed by the mountain's wandering magnetic fields, had grown dimmer — one of the reasons he chose to act here.
In the mountain body was a nest of silver-headed ants, utterly dependent on the fire spring; without it, in the severe cold their activity would plummet and they would not care to stir.
From the blood snake to the spirit-turtle, then the long-armed gibbons, and now the silver-headed ants here — the targets Old Liu chose were all rather out of the ordinary.
But Qin Ming had to admit this was truly the best choice at present.
The silver-headed ants were fierce, and a single nest held a terrifyingly large number. Winter was the best time to deal with them.
There was another key reason: an entire nest could hold only one queen ant. Though there was spare spiritual substance that could let other silver-headed ants mutate a third time, the queen would not allow it.
Old Liu said, "Going forward we must get some steel plates to protect our bodies. Simply wearing armor isn't steady. Bitten by a silver-headed ant, you won't be poisoned to death, but half your body will go numb for a long while. If they swarm over you, you'll be bitten to death."
These silver-headed ants were far mightier than the black ants Xu Yueping used to brew his tea; they ranged from the size of an infant's fist up to that of an egg, and were savagely fierce.
Their heads bore silver markings, which was how they got their name.
What astonished people most about them was that they brewed a honeyed wine. Gathering all manner of pollen and wild fruit from the mountains, even venturing out to seize grain, and then, borrowing the spirituality of the fire spring, they could brew a liquid that was at once like wine and like honey.
Again and again they could extract the essence from the honeyed wine, letting that essence ferment anew, purifying it repeatedly, fermenting it many times, until finally a special spiritual substance emerged — a pale golden liquid.
In the great cities, the honeyed wine brewed by silver-headed ants fetched astonishing prices; let alone the spiritual substance fermented from the essence refined again and again.
Qin Ming and Old Liu crept along the mountain's crevices to peer inside, and his scalp went numb. By the dim fire spring were ants everywhere; anyone with a fear of dense clusters would not last a moment here. Their silver markings rippled with cold sheen, and at the moment they did not move at all.
The two slipped out in silence and began observing the nearby terrain, planning an escape route.
Over the following two days, they went in and out of the mountains ceaselessly, carrying the supplies they needed deep in.
"This is make-or-break!" In the frozen, snowbound waste, white mist at both nose and mouth, they prepared to act.
Qin Ming's mind was unsettled — not from tension or fear. His thoughts surged. If he succeeded here, after the Third New Life, when those shattered memories of long ago surfaced again, what would he see this time?