Twin female zombies come to the door: My lord, please have mercy!

"Far away, yet right before my eyes."

When Master Lei uttered those eight words, his tone was filled with an unwavering certainty.

Dazhuang and Haozi were both stunned, and they looked at each other in bewilderment.

The mute man also raised his head, looking at his boss with a face full of confusion.

Lei Erye turned off the flashlight beam, plunging the room back into complete darkness.

"This evening in the lobby on the first floor, when that young man put his tactical backpack on a chair, I heard a dull metallic clang."

Lei Erye's voice sounded particularly deep in the darkness.

"I, Lei Lao Er, have spent most of my life underground. I can hear the clanging of bronze artifacts even with my ears closed."

"That's not ordinary brass; it's the sound that only ancient Western Zhou bronze mixed with extremely cold iron could produce."

He clenched his fist, his knuckles cracking.

"They went into the mountains, heading straight for Laoya Ridge, and they were carrying a bronze box. What a coincidence!"

"What's in that box is definitely the Zhou Emperor's Year-Suppressing Key we're looking for."

Upon hearing this, Da Zhuang's bull-like eyes suddenly bulged with two ferocious blood vessels.

He stood up from the bench, grabbed the gleaming double-barreled firearm, and snapped the hammer open with a "click".

"Second Master, now that the goods are in their hands, what are we waiting for? We four brothers have been in the underworld for so many years, what storms haven't we weathered?"

"Under the cover of darkness, sneak into their house, fire a few shotgun blasts, and turn them into a swarm of bees, no matter how skilled they are. Grab the loot, and we'll head into the mountains tonight!"

Da Zhuang's proposal was full of the ruthlessness of a desperate criminal.

Murder and robbery in the deep mountains and forests were commonplace for these bandits.

Thick fog blocked the mountains, leaving the desolate wilderness. Several outsiders died, and there was no one to even collect their bodies.

"Rob?"

In the darkness, Master Lei stood up and slapped Da Zhuang hard on the back of the head with his backhand.

The blow was extremely powerful, causing Da Zhuang's massive body to stagger, and the homemade gun in his hand almost slipped from his grasp and fell to the ground.

"Snapped!"

The crisp sound of the slap was particularly loud in the quiet room.

"Is that a chamber pot you're carrying around your neck?!"

Lei Erye spoke in a low voice, his tone revealing uncontrollable rage and extreme fear.

"Steal his things? Do you even know what kind of person lives next door?!"

Dazhuang covered the back of his head, standing there aggrievedly, not daring to talk back.

Lei Erye sat back on the edge of the bed, his chest heaving violently.

He still feels lingering fear when he recalls the unseen confrontation he experienced in the lobby on the first floor that evening.

Cold sweat broke out on my back again, completely soaking my shirt.

"In the evening in the hall, the woman in black didn't even turn her head; she simply flicked the rim of the rough porcelain teacup with one finger."

Lei Erye's voice began to tremble.

"In that instant, the teacup cracked open, and a blast of cold air swept across the ground."

"That's not the kind of internal energy a living person should have. My ancestors also practiced the outer techniques of the Lushan Sect. The meager true energy in my dantian froze instantly in the face of that cold energy, leaving me no room to resist."

He turned his head, his single eye staring intently at Dazhuang in the dim moonlight.

"That woman has absolutely no life of her own. You're going to shoot her with this broken homemade gun? It won't even scratch her defenses!"

The three henchmen inside the room were completely dumbfounded after hearing these words.

The mouse even forgot to howl; its mouth was wide open and its body was stiff.

Master Lei took a breath and continued:

"And that young man, you think he's some weak rich kid? He's sitting there, his blood is boiling hot."

"And if I'm not mistaken, the long, rectangular canvas bag he was carrying on his back didn't contain any foreign guns or cannons."

"That was a Taoist magic sword that had been blessed. Lightning flashed on the blade, and it exuded a menacing aura."

Master Lei closed his eyes, as if making a final, desperate judgment.

"If those two make a move, the four of us, along with this wooden stilt house, will be chopped into a pile of charred remains by that magical sword within three seconds."

"If you want to die, don't drag your brothers down with you."

Dazhuang was completely scared now.

He obediently locked the safety of the homemade gun, tucked the barrel back into his waistband, and slumped onto the bench like a deflated balloon.

"Second Master, we can't beat them in a fight, and we don't dare to rob them."

"So what do we do? Just watch the mouse die?"

Lei Erye stood up and walked to the old wooden lattice window.

Outside the window, the night fog over the Western Hills was so thick it resembled an impenetrable white city wall.

The wind howled like a ghost's wail, echoing back and forth through the valley.

He reached out and touched the half-sheet of sheepskin depicting water features in his pocket, and a deep, unsettling glint of calculation returned to his single eye.

"Business in this world doesn't necessarily have to be about robbery; the exchange of benefits is the long-term way to survive."

Master Lei turned around, looked at his three subordinates in the darkness, and spoke in a calm and confident tone.

"Their trip must also be aimed at the Immortal Bone in the deepest part of the Ten Thousand Gu Demon Cave."

"With the Key to Suppress the Year in hand, they can indeed avoid the poisonous miasma on the outside. The terrain of the Ten Thousand Gu Demon Cave is extremely complex, with a swamp thirty meters deep covering tens of thousands of people on the outside."

He stretched out his finger and tapped his chest.

"This swamp of ten thousand people was formed by rainwater mixed with the mud from mass graves over two thousand years."

"Countless bones and poisonous water floated on it, with no solid footholds."

"Even if a great immortal were to get there, without our Mud and Water People's Water-Parting and Mud-Avoiding Needles, they wouldn't be able to cross that mud pit, no matter how powerful they are."

Da Zhuang's eyes lit up instantly.

"Second Master means...we should use our mud-digging skills to trade with them?"

Master Lei sneered.

"Tomorrow morning, we'll pack our bags and follow their car at a distance that's neither too close nor too far."

"When they enter the mountains and are completely blocked by that vast swamp of ten thousand people, at a loss, we will reappear and reveal our trump card."

He picked up the pipe again and fiddled with it in his hand.

"Providing timely help is far more practical than adding to someone's success. We used the skills of the mud workers to pave a mud path leading to the underground palace for them."

"In exchange, they must take us into the core area to obtain the heart's blood of that poisonous insect to cure the rats. Everyone gets what they need, and this is our only way to survive."

The atmosphere in the room instantly relaxed.

Having found a glimmer of hope in their desperate situation, the four tomb raiders rekindled their desire to survive.

The mouse leaned against the wall and let out a long breath.

"I'll follow Second Master's arrangements."

Master Lei walked to the table and blew out the half-burnt oil lamp that was on the coffee table in one breath.

The entire room 204 was instantly plunged into complete darkness.

Outside the window, the mountain wind, carrying the mournful hooting of owls, lingered over Laoya Ridge for a long time.

Several rumbles of thunder echoed faintly behind the distant mountain ridgeline.