UCS Chapter 100

Gao Shi used his authority to apply to headquarters for access to information related to City A and the eastern human trafficking gangs. However, the news he received was not optimistic.

Because the eastern region was mountainous with treacherous terrain and few inhabitants.

To avoid alerting the enemy, police couldn’t deploy large support equipment and weapons, which undoubtedly increased the difficulty of exploration and search.

Even worse, these trafficking gangs had homemade firearms.

Moreover, the eastern mountain range stretched endlessly with complex terrain. It was said the feng shui here was good—large ancient tombs had been excavated from here before. Experts speculated there should be more ancient tombs in the mountains. But due to the treacherous terrain and lush trees, verifying this speculation was extremely difficult, and the number of tombs excavated over the years wasn’t many.

This also led to very limited understanding of the eastern mountain terrain.

And the traffickers had obviously lived here for a long time, knowing the terrain like the back of their hands, further increasing search difficulty.

However, the police were determined to catch them all in one net. During this period, they went all out and arrested over a hundred people. Yet alarmingly, these people weren’t the whole gang.

From their fragmentary words, it could be pieced together that above them were even more mysterious high-ranking members, and lower-level members far outnumbering them.

The hundred-plus people caught were, without exception, extremely tight-lipped. Even top interrogation experts couldn’t pry from them the location of their headquarters or who their leader was.

Now it seemed it wasn’t that they were tight-lipped, but that the True Immortal behind them had placed them under a silence seal. If they didn’t speak, at worst they’d spend life in prison—maybe the True Immortal would be moved by their loyalty and come rescue them. But once they spoke, only death awaited.

However, they were top experts after all. Though they couldn’t interrogate the location of headquarters or the top boss, they did extract some information about their plans.

For example, why they chose City A for human trafficking.

This was because their superiors set regulations for their “targets”—targets must be City A women, virgins aged 14 to 22. Non-virgins would be re-trafficked, sold deep into the mountains to become tools for old bachelors to bear children.

And their grouping was extremely disciplined. The trafficking team sent to City A consisted of ten squads. Each squad would immediately leave the city after capturing someone, while another standby squad would enter City A and continue searching for targets. This way, they maximally reduced the chance of being recognized.

This well-trained trafficking and strict “target” regulations made people suspect whether the mastermind might be some cult member or heretical practitioner conducting evil sacrifices, or an overseas organization infiltrating domestically for organized international human trafficking.

Fortunately, under police’s vigorous arrests, City A’s traffickers had indeed been caught to the point of disappearing.

Whether Gao Gusheng and his group were unlucky or fortunate was unclear. The gang of traffickers they encountered on the train was the very last batch. They were passing through City A by train, planning to meet with the last few members in City A and leave together.

Unexpectedly, seeing Qi Qiao sitting alone by the window, the gang couldn’t resist their greed and had the idea of doing one last job before quitting. They never expected to be trapped in City A, only able to sing prison blues. If nothing unexpected happened, they’d spend the rest of their lives inside.

Gao Shi had people prepare professional outdoor survival gear for four, mobilized a helicopter to park near the eastern region, and after several transfers, finally arrived in the mountain forest.

…

Mountains rose and fell, peaks layered upon peaks, green trees everywhere.

It must be said, setting aside the treacherous terrain, this was indeed a good tourist destination.

All four had good stamina. Even Gao Gusheng, who had the weakest stamina, had won multiple martial arts championships. Though the road was difficult, it wasn’t insurmountable.

Gao Gusheng was happiest. Here in this uninhabited wilderness, he didn’t need to wear a mask or constantly be vigilant, worrying about people plotting against him. With Gao Shi and Ying Bujie by his side, he finally got to be a carefree child and really play freely for once.

At the mountain’s base, Gao Shi asked locals about the mountain’s situation. There were still several villages in the mountains. Following this winding mountain road upward, they wouldn’t get lost in the mountains.

In the eyes of true explorers and travelers, these villages were good supply and lodging points. However, in the eyes of Gao Shi’s group of four, these were clues related to the shuang soul.

The more remote the villages and mountain areas, the more severe the phenomenon of favoring sons over daughters. Because in these remote areas, manpower was still the main productive force, and due to physiological differences between men and women, most men’s physical strength and power exceeded women’s.

Therefore, the more remote the area, the harsher the conditions for education, the more severe the phenomenon of favoring sons over daughters. In these areas, cases of bride exchange and selling daughters were more common, and the proportion of criminal behavior was greater.

Since Gao Shi’s group was following the trafficker clue, they needed to contact these villages.

The locals at the mountain’s base said the villages in the mountain forest were in very remote locations. They knew they were remote, but didn’t expect them to be this remote. After walking for three days, Gao Shi’s group finally saw the shadow of the first village.

During these three days, they hadn’t seen a single person.

Instead, Kongmiao, holding his compass, found a medium-sized tomb. Kongmiao used qi-viewing technique and said it probably buried a prince. Who knew how long this tomb had existed—there wasn’t a trace of yin energy, probably all dissipated.

This tomb’s location wasn’t remote, nor was it any feng shui treasure land. Whether terrain changes over time or the prince not being favored and hastily buried, in any case, this place looked no different from elsewhere. If not for Kongmiao holding a compass and using qi-viewing technique to search, they probably wouldn’t have discovered it.

Gao Shi made a marker here and reported the situation to the organization.

He’d heard before that there were many large tombs in the east, but didn’t expect to encounter one after only three days in the mountains. This made Gao Shi wonder—could Ying Bujie’s past life have been an emperor or prince? Could the so-called “opportunity” refer to Ying Bujie’s tomb?

“Huh? Dad, there’s a village ahead. Should we stay there tonight?”

Gao Gusheng asked.

The weather didn’t look good today. Though it had been sunny during the day, now dark clouds suddenly pressed down heavily, like a precursor to snowfall. They’d better find lodging in the village for the night.

Gao Gusheng craned his neck to look toward the village, “Dad, I think I see someone carrying a camera?”

Camera?

Gao Shi and the others were startled. Looking closely, they indeed saw a crew member carrying a camera walking past.

Kongmiao leaped upward, following the rock wall up over ten meters to land on a platform. From the high vantage point, he could see the village seemed divided in half—one half a quiet village, the other half crew members handling cameras and lighting equipment, people coming and going, looking like a film crew.

Gao Gusheng slapped his forehead, “I know! Didn’t Xiao Yusheng say before he was filming a public service movie? I saw behind-the-scenes footage they released. Looking at the terrain, they chose this very village.”

This was too much of a coincidence.

Gao Shi didn’t want his son to be seen by Xiao Yusheng. He was about to discuss with Ying Bujie and Kongmiao whether to walk further and find a cave to spend the night, when he suddenly felt something cool on his face. Snowflakes fell from the sky, and in the blink of an eye, snow was falling heavily.

The snowflakes grew denser, wind picked up, tiny ice particles hitting their cheeks painfully, as if urging them to quickly enter the village for shelter.

Visibility rapidly decreased. In this weather, they couldn’t continue traveling.

Kongmiao leaped down from the platform, “The film crew probably borrowed half the village’s houses, presumably to avoid plot leaks. I just looked—the two halves of the village are completely separate. Xiao Gao Shi, don’t worry. Stay here one night, and as long as we don’t go to the crew’s side, we won’t be discovered.”

Gao Shi nodded, “Lele, put on your mask and hat.”

“Okay.”

Gao Gusheng pulled out his hat and mask from his bag.

If possible, Gao Shi didn’t want his son wearing a mask all the time, but even without the neighboring film crew, he didn’t dare let Gao Gusheng show his face in the village.

With Gao Gusheng’s face, never mind men and women—even animals couldn’t help being attracted.

During their time in the mountain forest, quite a few dazed small animals had come up to them, and a silly rabbit had even run into Gao Gusheng’s calf and knocked itself out, becoming a real-life version of “waiting by a tree stump for rabbits.”

Not only that, there was also a little squirrel that, relying on its agile body, followed them leaping through the trees. Every time Gao Gusheng woke up, he’d find several pine cones on the grass beside him.

This red-furred little squirrel was quite intelligent. When Gao Gusheng held out his hand, the squirrel would jump into his palm. Right now it was still in Gao Gusheng’s pocket.

When Gao Gusheng was rummaging through his bag, the little squirrel also jumped out. It looked around, its little nose twitching, then jumped onto a big tree. By the time Gao Gusheng had completely covered his face, snow had already dyed the ground with a thin layer of white, and the little squirrel had returned to Gao Gusheng’s feet.

This time the squirrel brought back a small piece of wild lingzhi mushroom.

Along the way, the squirrel had brought Gao Gusheng many things. Following the squirrel’s trail, they saw on the shaded side of a piece of rotten wood not far away, two lingzhi mushrooms had grown.

The lingzhi mushrooms weren’t small.

“Xiao Gao Shi, the snow’s getting heavier. Let’s go quickly.” Kongmiao called out.

“Okay.” Gao Shi responded, looking back at the lingzhi one last time, a trace of doubt flashing through his mind.

Living off the mountains and waters—this lingzhi growing not far from the village should have been picked long ago.

***