Chapter Thirty-One: Three Moons

Ding Jun listened in silence, deeply impressed by Miss Xue’s sixth sense. The sixth sense, technically known as extrasensory perception, is a capability that some believe exists, allowing for the reception of information through channels beyond the standard human senses. While a normal person relies on the five senses—sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch—the sixth sense refers to information currently unrecognized by modern science, bearing a resemblance to the supernatural powers studied in contemporary research.

"Hold my hand," Miss Xue said, immediately lowering her right hand.

Ding Jun obediently took her smooth, cool hand, instantly noticing that his own palm was already damp with sweat.

"Close your eyes, calm your mind, focus, and meditate... Extend your hearing infinitely. Follow the tunnels, turn, rise, and fall, straight to the exit. You see the pipes laid out deep beneath the hard earth. Someone designed that labyrinth with great care. The walls of the maze are reflective—perhaps they are mirrors... Yes, the walls are mirrors. Countless mirrors reflecting one another; mirrors within mirrors, and secondary mirrors within tertiary ones... They reflect and mirror each other, expanding into hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands, an infinite number of mirrors... The difficulty of navigating the path is pushed to the limit. Anyone who enters will be bedazzled, lost in a trance, unable to control themselves... Incredible, truly incredible!"

Miss Xue sighed three times in succession, then fell silent.

At first, Ding Jun only felt the coolness of her hand, but as he followed her words, the image of the labyrinth gradually took shape in his mind. Every section of the maze was a perfectly regular three-meter square, with walls that seemed to be lined with mirrors, reflecting light in every direction. Though he had not yet experienced it firsthand, the mere thought of a bizarre maze where one person becomes a thousand was enough to make him dizzy.

The person who designed this labyrinth possessed a depth of cunning as unfathomable and turbulent as a storm-tossed sea. Shi Miaoshou alone could never have achieved this. So, who could have gone to such lengths in the remote Zada County of Tibet to create this maze? And for what purpose?

Ding Jun’s mind grew more chaotic. He felt compelled to re-examine Shi Hai, Shi Miaoshou, Si Qin, the unborn child, and even Master Zhu and the He family of the Five Poisons Cult, trying to determine if his actions were a gesture of genuine help or an act of complicity. Yet, among all the people he had encountered, the only one he trusted without question was Fang Qing. This was perhaps the nature of human destiny; from their first meeting in the small courtyard behind the Toling Monastery, this bond of trust had been fated.

Miss Xue gave a light leap, landing gracefully, and withdrew her hand from Ding Jun’s.

"Well?" she asked.

Ding Jun had too many questions, but in the end, they only manifested as a bitter smile: "Nothing. Everything will be clear once we escape."

"Your mind is formidable. Even under the influence of my sixth sense, you were able to be distracted by other thoughts. You are far stronger than Old Jin and the others. Shi Miaoshou chose the right person to help you," Miss Xue remarked.

Now, the look in her eyes as she gazed at Ding Jun had changed, shifting from cold indifference to something softer. It was clear that only true strength could win the respect of others, including one's enemies.

"I didn't actually intend to get involved in the grievances between your faction and the Shi family," Ding Jun explained. "I only came here to deliver Shi Hai’s ashes—"

Suddenly, at the mention of Shi Hai, both of them instinctively took half a step back. The fragile bond of friendliness they had just established vanished instantly.

Shi Hai’s death had been the work of the Guge people, which was why he had suffered such a gruesome end.

"That's right." Their eyes met. Miss Xue read all the questioning in his gaze and nodded slowly.

"Why?" Ding Jun felt his throat tighten. If he hadn't been entrusted by Shi Hai that day with the task of delivering photos to Shi Miaoshou, and had instead led the search team into the cave himself, he would have ended up a corpse in the valley, killed in Afghanistan.

In a single moment, life and death had diverged; he had survived the ambush by sheer luck.

"It’s a long story," Miss Xue replied.

Ding Jun’s throat felt completely blocked, a mix of sorrow and desolation. Strangely, when faced with the enemy who had killed Shi Hai, the anger he should have felt was nowhere to be found.

"You are an outsider. The more you know, the greater the danger. Perhaps it's better..." Miss Xue sighed softly, "Better not to know. To stay out of it, to be free to come and go—how wonderful that would be... Not having to bear any responsibility, falling asleep to sweet dreams every night, and waking up to the scent of flowers every morning. Let this matter end here."

Ding Jun said nothing. He picked up the hand drill, pressed it against a spot he had measured earlier, and began to drill slowly. The drill bit he used was a custom piece from the Delta Force arsenal; it was incredibly hard and had been tested in hundreds of battles. Given the right conditions, it could even pierce the reinforced door of a bank vault.

As he drilled, Ding Jun carefully controlled the depth to about two centimeters, with a margin of error of less than two millimeters. The drill rod had a precise scale, ensuring accuracy. Before the copper plate had changed, he had estimated its thickness to be two centimeters at the edges and four centimeters in the center. By controlling the depth of every drill point, he ensured he would not alert the two people outside.

"I must get the jade tablet back," Miss Xue whispered suddenly after a long silence. "It belongs to us. Every war has its causes and consequences; it does not arise without reason. Some of those causal links can be traced back five years, ten years, a hundred, five hundred, or even longer—so long that it is impossible to verify, impossible to tell who is right and who is wrong."

Ding Jun drilled in silence. It took him five minutes to complete the first hole. At this rate, completing all sixteen holes would take nearly two hours.

He looked up, moved his feet, found the second spot, and continued his work.

In this predicament, he had no choice but to push forward in silence, not daring to slacken for a moment.

During his training in the Delta Force, his instructor had emphasized more than once: "The environment is the same, the tools are the same, the approach to solving the problem is the same, but the strong survive by breaking through the impasse, while the weak give up halfway and meet their end. Therefore, as a Delta Force soldier, I demand first and foremost that you possess the courage to never stop until you reach your goal. My unit only welcomes warriors; there is no room for cowards. Each of you must look to Ding Jun as an example, become a soldier worthy of the title 'King of Hunters,' and become the third or fourth 'Hunter King'..."

Those words seemed to ring in his ears. Ding Jun gritted his teeth, controlling the movement of his arm—neither rushing nor faltering.

Control, perseverance, self-discipline, and modesty—these were the life principles he had always upheld. In critical moments, there was no room for taking shortcuts; that would only harm others and himself.

In the modern consciousness, the idiom "luring someone into their own trap" represents a laughable state of self-inflicted embarrassment, but ordinary people rarely realize that the Gu-poison masters have combed through ancient texts, innovating and reviving these ancient arts of energy manipulation to achieve their nefarious ends.

The copper sphere was essentially a sealed jar. Without a clever means of escape, the two of them would surely perish inside, becoming the final prey for the Gu masters. Unfortunately, the architects of this trap had underestimated Ding Jun, for he was the "Hunter King"—the king of hunters—not just some prey to be caught by anyone.

"I know you cannot understand many things. That is why I advised you to stay an outsider," Miss Xue said again.

"I don't want to be involved, but I have no choice," Ding Jun replied.

"You can walk away—break out of this copper sphere, leave Zada County immediately, and forget everything related to the Guge," Miss Xue answered.

Ding Jun looked up and smiled silently. Only when two large beads of sweat rolled from his forehead, past the corners of his eyes, and onto his collar, did he speak again: "To do that would violate my principles."

Whatever he did, he sought to see it through to the end, to be accountable to himself and others, and to take responsibility.

"Then we are in trouble," Miss Xue said calmly.

From then on, they did not speak again. Ding Jun focused on drilling, and soon finished six holes, taking fifty minutes.

Just as he lowered his head to wipe his sweat, the inner wall of the copper sphere turned dark red again—clearly, the one-eyed man and the spearman were stoking the fire once more.

Miss Xue sighed, walked behind Ding Jun, and placed both palms against his back, releasing a chill to help him lower his body temperature. This unique form of cooperation was their only solution and the best way to deal with the crisis. No matter how many people were outside or how intelligent they were, they would never imagine that the captives were struggling to survive under the scorching heat instead of waiting to die.

*If it weren't for her, we would truly be dead by now!* Ding Jun couldn't help but think.

Fate had played a trick on them, forging such a strange bond between the two. The peculiar feelings in their hearts were like drinking water—only the one who drinks knows if it is cold or warm.

"At what time does the moon appear in the clear sky? I stop my cup to ask it today. Man cannot reach the bright moon, yet the moon follows man as he walks. Bright as a flying mirror descending upon the palace, its pure radiance shines when the green mist fades. I only see it rising from the sea at night; who knows where it hides when it sinks among the clouds at dawn? The white rabbit pounds medicine through autumn and spring; who is the neighbor of the lonely Chang'e? People of today cannot see the moon of ancient times, yet the moon of today once shone upon the ancients. The ancients and the people of today are like flowing water; all who watch the bright moon are the same. I only wish that when I sing and drink, the moonlight will always shine into my golden goblet..." Miss Xue suddenly began to recite a poem slowly. Her breath and scent carried the faint, ethereal fragrance of snow lotuses, which invigorated Ding Jun’s spirit, allowing him to completely ignore the encroaching heatwaves.

That was "Drinking Alone and Asking the Moon" by the Tang Dynasty poet Li Bai, expressing the poet's whimsical thought, after drinking, of asking the moon what it was like when it shone upon the ancients.

Miss Xue’s voice was already beautiful, but when she recited the rhyming poem, it sounded like pearls falling onto a jade plate, so pleasant that it left Ding Jun intoxicated. From this poem, he was also reminded of the strange markings on the blue bricks of the library.

"What is the Abyss of Mirror Illusions?" Ding Jun asked, feigning ease as he drilled the seventh hole.

"It is a place," Miss Xue replied.

"What kind of place? How could there be three moons?" Ding Jun pressed. He had heard these details from the man with small eyes.

Miss Xue was silent for a few seconds before asking in return: "Is there any meaning in knowing this?"

"I am always curious about things I have never heard of," Ding Jun replied calmly.

Miss Xue fell into a long silence. It wasn't until Ding Jun pointed the hand drill toward the tenth hole that she finally spoke: "There is only one moon in the world; there have never been three. However, in a certain place deep in the snowy mountains, the moon is reflected in the water, and on the cliff beside the water, there is a massive, sheer wall—flat, upright, and smooth as a mirror. It is called 'Still Shadows, Sunken Jade'—the moon in the water is reflected onto the stone wall, becoming a shadow of a shadow. That place is known as the Abyss of Mirror Illusions. One moon, two shadows; it is thus seen as three moons."

Ding Jun suddenly understood. He couldn't help but stop his work and turn to look at Miss Xue.