Chapter 26: A Master in the Mountains
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The next day, Si Zhenghong went into town early to buy a chicken.
Before leaving, Fu Ningli slung a bag over his shoulder and brought Chi Mu to the foot of Ghost Mountain in Apricot Village.
Chi Mu carried a black travel bag as well. Her long hair was pinned up, and her clear, dark eyes carefully surveyed the mountain, which was not particularly high.
After a while, she said, “The air is fresh—a natural oxygen bar. This isn’t Ghost Mountain; it’s Immortal Mountain.”
Just as they were preparing to climb, a villager happened to pass by and kindly warned them, “You two are outsiders, aren’t you? You can’t enter this mountain. There are ghosts in there. They eat people!”
“Eat people? How?”
“Many years ago, someone went into the mountain and saw hundreds of ghosts parading through the daylight as if it were night. Someone else saw a woman in red with a long tongue come for his life. Luckily, he ran fast. Otherwise, he would have been eaten!”
“But he wasn’t eaten, was he?”
“Young lady, how can you miss the point? You must have heard that someone dug up a thousand-year-old ginseng in the mountain and came here seeking wealth and adventure. You want money more than you want to live!”
The villager shook his head and walked away.
Chi Mu raised an eyebrow and met Fu Ningli’s gaze. “Come on. Let’s go see the ghosts in the mountain that don’t eat people.”
They had gone more than halfway up the mountain.
Birdsong and flowers accompanied them along the way, while streams murmured and the air was pure and vibrant. There was no sign of any ghost.
The two sat down to rest.
Chi Mu took some compressed biscuits from her bag and was about to hand them to Fu Ningli when she saw him leisurely set down his own bag. From inside, he produced a box of strawberries, a box of pastries, a box of chocolates, four packets of potato chips, two bottles of fruit juice, and more.
She stared at him. “Did you come here for a picnic?”
“I was afraid I might die by accident, so I wanted to eat something good beforehand.”
Chi Mu: “…”
Fu Ningli placed the box of strawberries in her hands. “We should share our blessings.”
Chi Mu drew a deep breath and ate the strawberries.
Then she helped herself to his pastries, chocolates, chips, and fruit drinks.
While Chi Mu’s attention was occupied, Fu Ningli began studying the markers Geng Yu had left along the path.
Once Chi Mu had finished eating, he stretched, glanced around, and pointed east. “Let’s go take a look over there.”
“All right.”
Without making it obvious, Fu Ningli led the way ahead. At last, they found a strange red flower growing amid a stretch of green grass.
“Chi Mu, come quickly. What kind of flower is this?”
Chi Mu took one look, and delight lit up her face. “This is pear grass. It can be used to treat boils and carbuncles.”
“Is it valuable?”
“Very.”
Chi Mu took a bamboo basket from her bag and carefully placed the pear grass inside.
Then they continued east, gathering Xun grass, Kang wood, Dan wood, Seven-Star Begonia, and various other plants.
There were so many that Chi Mu began to question everything she thought she knew about life.
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Not far away, Geng Yu watched them continue farther and farther east, growing frantic. “This is bad. They’ve strayed from the route. Did you set the trail markers facing the wrong way?”
“Maybe the arrow was blown off course by the wind?”
“There’s heavy fog over there, and it’s dangerous. Quickly, imitate a bird and warn Master Ning!”
“All right.”
The man raised his hand to his lips and began calling like a bird.
“Cuckoo, cuckoo.”
Chi Mu suddenly stopped and whipped around.
Fu Ningli was startled by her reaction. “What is it?”
“Did you hear a bird?”
“Yes. A cuckoo.”
“No. Cuckoos don’t call in winter.”
“This is Ghost Mountain. Maybe the cuckoos here call in winter too?”
Fu Ningli was shamelessly making things up.
Suspicion arose in Chi Mu, and she grew wary. “The vegetation growing on this mountain ignores the seasons, and the birds and animals behave strangely. Now that I think about it, this place really is very odd. Be careful, and stay close to me.”
“Why don’t we turn back?”
“All right.”
The moment they were about to move, a thick fog suddenly surged up around them.
Chi Mu immediately seized Fu Ningli’s hand and swiftly fed him a small white pill. Her gaze sharpened as she looked around. “Miasma.”
Fu Ningli swallowed the pill. “What did you give me?”
“It won’t kill you.”
“…”
The miasma grew denser, and their figures vanished within it.
Geng Yu came running out with his men.
The two men at the front collapsed unconscious the instant they entered the miasma.
They were immediately dragged back.
There was a doctor in the group, who hurried over to treat them. “The miasma is poisonous, but fortunately, it hasn’t penetrated deeply.”
“What about Master Ning?”
“Miss Chi has miraculous healing skills. She should be able to keep Master Ning alive.”
“Are we just going to stand here and watch?”
“You can go in and breathe the poison yourself. Ideally, you’ll run into Master Ning, and Miss Chi can save you too.”
Geng Yu: “…”
…
Amid the increasingly dense miasma, Chi Mu held Fu Ningli’s hand and followed the compass, taking one step after another forward.
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Through the thick fog, Fu Ningli could make out only her blurred silhouette and the hand clasped tightly around his.
Her palm was slightly damp, and she never loosened her grip for even a second.
Five minutes later, the miasma dispersed.
Before them stretched another beautiful landscape of clear mountains and limpid streams, with lush grass and orioles darting through the air.
Chi Mu let out a sigh of relief. “We’re out.”
Fu Ningli lowered his gaze from their joined hands and looked toward the scenery ahead. His sharply angled brows drew tighter and tighter. “We’re not out. We’re trapped.”
Holding Chi Mu’s hand, he walked twice around the forest.
No matter which way they went, they always returned to the same place.
Chi Mu released Fu Ningli and told him to remain where he was. She walked the route twice more herself, and the deep furrow between her brows gradually eased.
“The miasma just now was a natural occurrence, but this ghostly maze is a man-made Eight Formation Diagram.”
There was an expert hidden somewhere in the mountain.
Fu Ningli looked at Chi Mu, surprise flickering through his eyes.
“I read about it in a book. The Eight Formation Diagram was created by Zhuge Liang during the Three Kingdoms period. It is formed by arranging rocks into a stone formation and dividing it according to the Eight Gates of the Dunjia system: Rest, Life, Harm, Obstruction, View, Death, Fright, and Opening. Its transformations are extraordinarily complex—enough to trap an army of one hundred thousand elite soldiers.”
“You understand formations?”
“No. I only read about it in a book. It also said that one must attack through the Life Gate in the due east, break out through the Rest Gate in the southwest, then attack again through the Opening Gate in the due north. That is how the formation can be broken.”
After speaking, Fu Ningli spread his hands. “That’s how it works in theory. As for how to attack our way in and fight our way out, I haven’t the slightest idea.”
Chi Mu smiled. Flecks of light fell into her eyes, scattering into a brilliant field of stars.
She spoke with spirited confidence. “Follow me step by step. I’ll lead you out of this Eight Formation Diagram!”
“All right.”
Fu Ningli smiled, his expression gentle.
After they escaped the Eight Formation Diagram, they encountered another hallucinogenic drug.
Chi Mu finally understood the ghost story the villager had told them. “They must have been affected by a hallucinogen. The parade of ghosts and the woman in red that they saw were all hallucinations. They weren’t life-threatening.”
“First an Eight Formation Diagram, then hallucinogenic drugs. Who exactly is pretending to be a ghost here?”
“The mountain sightings happened when you were a child, so this person has probably been living here for more than twenty years.”
As they were talking, a chicken suddenly came flying toward them!
A peasant woman’s voice rang out immediately afterward. “Always flying around! Let’s see where you run now! I’m chopping you up to feed the ducks today!”
Chi Mu leaned backward, narrowly avoiding the chicken’s pointed beak.
Fu Ningli turned sideways and watched the approaching peasant woman, his deep eyes narrowing slightly.
The woman had red lips and pearly teeth. When she saw the two of them, she did not appear surprised. Calmly plucking a chicken feather from her hair, she said with some embarrassment, “I’m sorry. My chicken is rather temperamental. I hope it didn’t frighten you.”