Chapter Five: Slaughter in the Dark Night

Of all the things the Shadow had said, what caught Ding Jun's attention the most was the mention of the one hundred million dollars. It was a striking coincidence; before setting out from Hong Kong for Tibet, Ding Jun had met with an underworld tycoon who had flatly stated that he was willing to pay one hundred million dollars to anyone who could find the Sacred Infant's Heart gemstone.

"Qinglong," Ding Jun said, cutting straight to the chase and naming the tycoon. Since the man could commission him to find the gem, he could certainly invite others to do the same. After all, one hundred million dollars was a staggering sum, and countless figures in the underworld would gladly scour Tibet for such a fortune.

"Are you calling for me?" the Shadow asked with a grin.

Ding Jun shook his head. "Of course not. What I mean is, if you came here to search for the Sacred Infant's Heart on behalf of Qinglong, you've taken a wrong turn. We are gathered here to deal with a major crisis, one that has little to do with treasure. If you have nothing else to do, you had best leave quickly."

The Shadow laughed aloud. "I couldn't care less about your affairs. If this little fellow hadn't rashly summoned his Fire God Gu to threaten me, I wouldn't have dared show myself at all. Fine, let's leave it at that. It's time for me to go."

"Just like that?" Fang Qing asked with a cold sneer.

The Shadow squinted at her and shot back, "How else should I leave? Are you planning to serve me dinner?"

His sheer recalcitrance left Fang Qing unable to vent her anger, and her beautiful eyebrows knitted together in frustration.

"You young people nowadays simply don't respect your elders. You don't even know who I am, yet you dare shout and clamor in front of me. When I first started roaming the martial world, you kids were still nursing in your mothers' arms! Alright, alright, I'm leaving. No need to see me out..." The Shadow flipped toward the doorway, hooked the latch with his toe, and flicked the door open.

"Senior, please wait. I have a question." Ding Jun glided forward swiftly, reaching the door in an instant, and grabbed the fabric of the man's back. However, he only managed to catch the clothes. The Shadow twisted his body, slipping out of his coat like an eel, and with a single bound, he was already ten paces away.

"I didn't see anyone come out. That is the answer you wanted—" The end of the Shadow's parting words drifted back, already faint and muffled, from nearly fifty meters away.

"Even the Master Thief, Ruan Feng, has shown up. That shows just how grave the situation at Tholing Monastery is," Fang Qing sighed.

Thievery was an ancient profession, and anyone dubbed a "master thief" was bound to possess supernatural skills. Rumors in the underworld had it that Ruan Feng's mastery of disguise, body contortion, and lock-picking was peerless. No security system in the world could keep him out—not even the Pentagon's top-secret databases.

Ruan Feng was mercurial in his actions, walking the line between good and evil, which earned him the nickname "Madman Ruan."

"Indeed. The phoenix only alights where treasure lies; he must have caught the scent of treasure," Ding Jun agreed, nodding.

Tholing Monastery was located in a remote area, devoid of the kind of treasure underworld figures usually sought. The only things preserved and guarded here were Buddhist scriptures and ancient halls. The only real draw had to be the Treasure of the Heavenly Kingdom that Master Zhu and the others had just mentioned.

"Did you hear what he said? Madame Ge never came out of the small door. This is far too bizarre," Fang Qing remarked, her sharp mind immediately picking up on Ruan Feng's parting words.

Ding Jun looked back at the small door, utterly unable to fathom how a living, breathing person could vanish into thin air inside a cellar.

"Should we go down, or wait for the others to come up? The air in the cellar is stuffy and rather unpleasant," Fang Qing said.

While Ding Jun hesitated, the young man chimed in, "We wait here, of course. What's the fun in crowding around a corpse?"

Fang Qing smiled. "Great minds think alike."

The young man grinned and nodded at them. "You two are the only interesting ones in this crowd. How about we get to know each other?"

Ding Jun gave a wry smile. "Certainly, but could you put your Gu insect away first?"

Members of the Five Poisons Sect were venomous through and through, as were the creatures and pets they raised. Even the well-traveled Ruan Feng had been terrified of them, and Ding Jun had no wish to take any chances.

The young man whistled, and the miniature gecko obediently crawled back into his palm.

"Gu insects aren't as terrifying as you think. The ancestral teachings of our Five Poisons Sect have always emphasized that the truly fearsome thing is the human heart, not the insect's venom," he said, slipping the creature back into a bullet casing. "That man's lightness skill was decent, but killing him would have been child's play. Within two hundred paces, all it takes is a pull of my trigger, and he's a dead man."

Ding Jun shook his head. "Why kill him? Master Thief Ruan Feng isn't a bad man."

According to media reports, Ruan Feng had made massive donations to global natural disaster relief efforts over the past decade, totaling over ten million dollars. Whether he did it out of genuine compassion or for fame, the money had reached the victims in need. In that sense, he was a truly benevolent man.

"Why shouldn't I kill him? He was hiding here eavesdropping, so he definitely had bad intentions," the young man argued.

Fang Qing opened her mouth to argue, but Ding Jun quickly gestured under the table to stop her from debating the youth. Debates on good and evil never reached a conclusion, as there was no universal standard for either. Ruan Feng's appearance had made him realize the gravity of the situation; there was no need to waste breath on idle arguments.

"I am Ding Jun, and this is Miss Fang Qing. Consider us introduced," he said.

"I'm Huoshen," the young man grinned again. "When you have time, tell me about the battlefields of Afghanistan. I like those stories."

Just then, Master Zhu led the way out of the small door, with the others trailing behind him.

"Where is Madame Ge?" Master Zhu asked.

Ding Jun and Fang Qing shook their heads in unison. "She never came out at all."

Bringing up the rear, Miracle Hand Shi asked with a complex expression, "But the door is open. Did she go outside?"

After Ruan Feng escaped, Ding Jun had not closed the door, letting the chilly Tibetan night wind sweep in to clear the stuffy air in the room.

Ding Jun replied, "It wasn't Madame Ge who opened the door, but the Master Thief Ruan Feng, who had been lurking in the room. He escaped, and no one could stop him. However, it is certain that Madame Ge never showed her face. She should still be down there."

Miracle Hand Shi's face fell instantly, and he stamped his foot. "But... but we searched everywhere down there, short of digging three feet into the ground! It's impossible, impossible..."

Master Zhu scratched his head. "I have no idea what that old hag is playing at. And why on earth did Madman Ruan show up here? Dammit, we haven't even started on our main business, yet we're plagued by all these distractions!"

His gaze flickered between the faces of Ding Jun, Fang Qing, and Huoshen. He clearly did not believe a word they said. If this concerned the whereabouts of the treasure, the fewer people who knew, the better.

"Uncle Li, Mr. Qin, go search outside. I refuse to believe a grown person could just vanish into thin air," Master Zhu ordered loudly.

He was clearly the undisputed leader among the first four to arrive; at his command, Uncle Li and Mr. Qin immediately headed out.

Huoshen sneered loudly. "Don't believe us? Fine, fine. We aren't wild boars; we didn't eat her alive and leave no bones behind. Go ahead and search outside, just try not to get yourselves lost too."

Lacking Ding Jun's restraint, he cared nothing for Master Zhu's pride and spoke his mind without hesitation.

Reaching the door, Uncle Li drew a pistol from his sleeve, flicked off the safety with a sharp click, and stepped over the threshold as if facing a formidable enemy.

Outside, the night was deep and shrouded in a hazy mist, bringing with it the biting chill of the Tibetan plateau. Within seconds, the silhouettes of Uncle Li and Mr. Qin dissolved into the darkness.

Ding Jun had no intention of stopping the two. He could see Master Zhu's ambition; since the man desired to control the situation, he might as well let him have his way. Besides, danger lurked everywhere, and staying indoors was not necessarily any safer than going outside.

"Little Ding, help me think. If Madame Ge isn't downstairs, and she isn't here, where on earth did she go?" Miracle Hand Shi asked.

Ding Jun shook his head, having no answer.

"I have a way," He Wuqiu answered with a grin on Ding Jun's behalf. "No matter where Madame Ge is hiding, a little trick will guarantee she comes out on her own."

Miracle Hand Shi pressed immediately, "Mr. He, what kind of trick?"

He Wuqiu pointed toward the small door. "Send a Gu insect down to flush her out. The reason the Five Poisons Sect refines and controls Gu is that these creatures can accomplish things far beyond human capability."

He spoke lightly, but anyone who understood his meaning knew how ruthless this plan was. The implication was that once the Gu insect entered, if Madame Ge were hiding in some corner using a concealment technique and refused to come out, she would die under the insect's venomous sting. Reveal herself or become a corpse—those were her only two options.

Master Zhu flew into a rage. "What do you mean by that? Are you implying Madame Ge hid herself on purpose just to make trouble for Old Shi?"

He Wuqiu remained smiling. "Those are your words, not mine."

Miracle Hand Shi turned to Master Zhu. "Master Zhu, Madame Ge came here with you. Now that she's vanished, you have to do something about it."

Master Zhu pointed outside the door. "She must have gone out. She couldn't have vanished into thin air. I don't believe anyone's words; I only believe what I see with my own eyes!"

"Ah—!" A blood-curdling scream echoed from outside.

"Uncle Li?" Master Zhu reacted instantly and rushed toward the door. But just as he reached the threshold, someone bolted inside, and the two collided with a heavy thud.

In a split second, Master Zhu twisted his body, executing a shoulder throw from Northwestern wrestling styles. He sent the man spinning through the air and crashing onto the table.

With a loud crash, the man hit the table. Ignoring the pain, he scrambled to his feet, flailing his arms wildly and screaming hoarsely, "Ghosts! There are ghosts! A ghost..."

"Hey! What on earth happened?" Master Zhu roared.

The screaming man was indeed Uncle Li. His gun was gone, and his head, face, and chest were drenched in blood.

"Mr. Qin is dead! Torn to pieces by a ghost!" Uncle Li cried out, regaining a shred of composure.

Master Zhu shouted out into the night, "Old Qin! Old Qin, are you there?"

Uncle Li let out a tragic laugh. "Don't bother shouting, Master Zhu. The man is dead. How could he answer you?"

Suddenly, Fang Qing leaned close to Ding Jun. With her finger, she quickly traced a few words in his palm: *Don't go out. Watch them.*

Ding Jun did indeed feel the urge to leap out and investigate. Back in Delta Force, his instructors had always emphasized courage and responsibility in group operations. In the face of danger, if everyone summoned several times their usual courage, the entire combat squad could unleash extraordinary fighting power and turn the tide. However, this was not a military operation but a gathering of the underworld. If he leaped out, the others would not back him up; instead, they were opportunists ready to drag him down or exploit the situation at any moment.

He smiled at Fang Qing, silently thanking her for the warning.

A man had to assess the situation wisely to remain undefeated. Because of this, his understanding of Fang Qing deepened, and his trust in her grew.

"There are no ghosts in this world," Master Zhu muttered.

"Mr. Qin was walking along, and suddenly his body fell into several pieces... You didn't see it—his head was sliced cleanly into three parts, and his eyes, his eyes... they were split right down the middle, two eyeballs turned into four pieces... And his arms! Both arms were cut into six segments..." Uncle Li shrieked, his voice already raspy and hoarse from the strain.