Xiao Heshang ran over and gave the Bearded Man a tight hug, smiling through tears: "Sanda, it's been thirty years, and there's been no news from you. I thought..."
The Bearded Man, Xiao Sanda, laughed heartily, "I'm not dead yet." The two old brothers laughed and cried together, their emotions stirring deeply.
I walked around the stone cave. On the walls hung dozens of ropes, each densely strung with dried fish. Without sunlight and with the dampness inside, most of the fish had rotted, filling the cave with a pungent, fishy stench. Besides these dried fish, there was nothing else to eat. It seemed that Xiao Sanda had survived these thirty-plus years on these "fish dries."
At that moment, the Wealth Rat in Sun Fatty's pocket began to stir, wriggled out, and scampered across the floor toward the cave wall. Reaching the wall, it scratched at it with its two front paws.
"Heh, this little fellow's got some skills — a Wealth Rat is a Wealth Rat," Xiao Sanda chuckled as he noticed its behavior. He walked over and felt around the wall but saw no sign of a mechanism being triggered. Then came a series of cracking sounds as three stone walls inside the cave simultaneously rose. The dozens of ropes previously nailed to the wall lost their anchor points and fell, scattering dried fish all over the floor.
No one cared about the few rotten fish now. As the walls rose, they revealed dense stacks of gold ingots hidden inside. The space within the walls extended for hundreds of meters — this stone cave was essentially a treasury.
"Sanda, you've been guarding these gold ingots for thirty years?" Over the past few days, I'd noticed Xiao Heshang was quite fond of money, but his tone was filled with surprise this time.
"Do you think I wanted to?" Xiao Sanda sighed, then quickly changed the subject. "What about these little friends you brought? Introduce them, won't you?"
Xiao Heshang smiled and nodded. When Chief Xiong briefly mentioned that Sun Fatty and I were from the Bureau of Paranormal Investigation, Xiao Sanda wasn't very surprised. He even smiled and said, "I'm kind of a senior predecessor to you guys. By the way, your director is Gao Liang? That old guy's still alive, right?"
I copied his tone and smiled slightly. "He should be — looks like he's doing pretty well." Sun Fatty chimed in, "Easygoing and plump, eats and sleeps well — even fatter than me." Xiao Sanda laughed but didn't ask further about Gao Liang or the Bureau.
When it came to introducing Yang Xiao, Xiao Heshang hesitated because he didn't know who Yang Xiao really was. Yang Xiao spoke up himself: "Yang Xiao — just a runner, serving a few leaders." Xiao Sanda looked at him deeply but said nothing. He turned back to Xiao Heshang and said, "Monk, I originally thought I'd spend the rest of my days here. Since you came personally, I'll give you this face — I'll go up with you. Let's go, get some sun."
With that, Xiao Sanda lifted his leg and started to walk out. Unexpectedly, Yang Xiao blocked his way with a cold glance. "Don't be in such a hurry to leave. I don't have the skill to break the Prohibition Formation here. You've been trapped for thirty years — you should understand better than I do."
Prohibition Formation! My mind raced. I'd seen these two words in the archive — a formation used for imprisonment. But from what I remembered, a Prohibition Formation wasn't all that extraordinary; with some Taoist skill, it shouldn't be difficult to break. Yet hearing Yang Xiao say he couldn't break it, I was a bit confused.
The muscles around Xiao Sanda's eyes twitched a few times. "What's your name again?"
"Yang Xiao."
Originally excited, Xiao Heshang was now stunned. "Prohibition Formation… Sanda, is it… a Single-Person Formation?"
The smile on Xiao Sanda's face vanished without a trace. He ignored Xiao Heshang and coldly stared at Yang Xiao. "The one opposing me up there… is you?"
Yang Xiao sneered a few times and said, "I don't know if you underestimated me or if I overestimated you. Those little tricks—no challenge at all." His arrogant tone carried a certain Wu Rendi-like spirit.
While they spoke, Xiao Heshang bit his left index finger and flicked a few drops of fresh blood toward the cave entrance. Just as the blood droplets were about to fly out, they suddenly changed direction mysteriously. It was as if the ground's gravity intensified instantly, causing the droplets to fall back onto the ground in front of the cave.
"A real Single-Person Formation!" Xiao Heshang's voice cracked with emotion.
The Single-Person Formation is a variant of the Prohibition Formation. It originated as a formation within ancient imperial tombs. When an emperor passed and was buried, a Taoist priest or monk would be stationed inside the tomb to guide the emperor's soul to the Purple Star—essentially serving as a spirit escort. To prevent this Taoist or monk from escaping or damaging the tomb's funerary objects, a Prohibition Formation was set within their activity range. This formation specifically targets Taoists and monks; no matter how powerful their magic, escape is impossible because only one person is confined—hence the name "Single-Person Formation."
The Bureau of Paranormal Investigation's archives actually contain records of this formation. I had seen the notes stating the method of breaking it—none.
Suddenly, I raised a question. "Wait, this doesn't seem like a typical Single-Person Formation. It can only trap one person, yet we all entered. How does that work?"
Yang Xiao let out a cold laugh and nodded toward Xiao Sanda. "It's definitely a Single-Person Formation, but he added a twist inside." Yang Xiao paused, then continued, "He's got some skill. He changed the formation's 'no entry, no exit' rule into: as long as one person serves as the formation's core, others can come and go freely. Looks like we're the first group to enter in all these years."
Sun Fatty, who had come over by then, his pockets stuffed with gold ingots, clearly understood Yang Xiao's meaning. "So we got in, but who did Xiao Sanda make the core?"
Yang Xiao pointed at his nose. "Me."
Xiao Sanda was a bit careless, mistaking Yang Xiao for just a runner. Secretly, he had placed the formation core's restriction on Yang Xiao. Others couldn't sense it, but Yang Xiao immediately felt the seal on himself and, being sharp, instantly understood the situation.
"There's some misunderstanding here, right, Sanda?" Xiao Heshang came forward to smooth things over.
Xiao Sanda still coldly stared at Yang Xiao without speaking. Inwardly, he sighed. Years ago, while working at the Special Cases Office, he learned that before the Jin Dynasty was destroyed by the Mongols, the last Jin emperor, Wanyan Chenglin, foreseeing the kingdom's doom, ordered all the gold and silver in the treasury hidden in a secret location. The map to this treasure was drawn on a silk cloth, kept by the crown prince for the eventual restoration of the Jin Dynasty. Unfortunately, the Jin capital fell, and both the emperor and crown prince died in the chaos, and the silk map was lost.
That treasure had obsessed Xiao Sanda. Later, after falling out with Xiao Heshang and Gao Liang, he left the Special Cases Office in frustration. He planned to leave the mainland, head to Hong Kong or Southeast Asia, confident his skills would earn him a decent living anywhere.
When he boarded a boat to smuggle himself out, he relaxed his guard, feeling the colorful world was just ahead. A man on the same ship took out a piece of silk cloth, examining it with a smile. Xiao Sanda glanced over and recognized it immediately—a map, with place names written in Jin Dynasty script from eight hundred years ago. In the lower left corner was a red seal, clearly the imperial jade seal of the Jin emperor.
A premonition rose in his throat. Using magic, Xiao Sanda knocked the man unconscious and grabbed the map. Sure enough, it was the Jin treasure map from centuries ago.
Ecstatic, he demanded the smuggler turn the ship around. When refused, Xiao Sanda didn't hesitate—he killed all sixty-three people on the boat using magic, throwing their bodies to the sharks, sparing only the captain and sending him back to the mainland. The first thing he did after landing was silence the captain forever.
Following the map, Xiao Sanda came to the bank of my hometown's Daqing River. The Jin buried the treasure underground and redirected the upstream river flow above it, creating what is now the Daqing River.
Xiao Sanda was truly skilled. Equipped with tools, he dived deep into the river, reaching the bottom of a large pit. Following the silk map's records, he found a mechanism and smoothly entered the second level below. Emerging from the "life gate," he saw an inner chamber filled with gold and silver. Proud and careless, he entered without inspecting further. The moment he stepped inside, the Single-Person Formation activated, and no matter what he tried, he couldn't escape.
After five months of fasting to the limit, starving and desperate, Xiao Sanda prepared for a long siege. Though trapped, he used ghost-controlling magic and modified some of the Jin's mechanisms and formations. He reversed water flow through the mechanisms and controlled the evil spirits inside the "death gate" to catch fish to ease his hunger.
That's how Xiao Sanda survived underwater for thirty years. A few years ago, he accidentally found a small flaw in the Single-Person Formation. Though breaking it was impossible, he could modify it to allow outsiders in, replacing himself as the formation's core. The formation only recognizes one core person, whoever that may be.
Unfortunately, he couldn't execute this plan initially. While summoning ghosts inside the death gate, he inadvertently summoned a Frozen Colossus. The Frozen Colossus troubled him, but they mutually feared each other and coexisted without interfering.
A few days ago, sensing crowds on the riverbank, Xiao Sanda decided the time had come. He sent hundreds of ghosts to the shore to cause trouble, unaware that his old friend Xiao Heshang was also there.
Then, people started dying one after another during the opera. Honestly, the deaths of three people had nothing to do with Xiao Sanda — the jealous evil spirits instigated the trouble themselves. But with Xiao Heshang's instigation, the ghost drama was set in motion.
Xiao Sanda seized the opportunity, using ghosts to throw a large amount of gold and silver onto a boat to tempt greed. As planned, the dam gates closed, and people rushed onto the riverbed to gather treasure. He led them to the edge of the pit, triggered mechanisms, and drained the water. Once the black mist in the pit dispersed, Xiao Sanda used his soul to spy on them and unexpectedly came face-to-face with Xiao Heshang. Shocked, Xiao Heshang lost control, thinking Xiao Sanda was dead and his soul had come to inform him.
When six men from a neighboring village entered the pit, the Frozen Colossus somehow smelled the living and emerged, killing all six recklessly chasing money. Xiao Sanda was furious. Later, only the four of us entered the pit. Xiao Sanda recognized Xiao Heshang and suppressed the Frozen Colossus fiercely, which was why it behaved initially. Sadly, the Frozen Colossus eventually went berserk again but was driven underground by a short dagger I wielded.
Xiao Heshang and Chief Xiong were also saved at the death gate thanks to Xiao Sanda's ghost control. Almost everything he did went according to plan, except the last step was disrupted by Yang Xiao.
After thirty years trapped in the Single-Person Formation, Xiao Sanda was at his limit. Just as he was about to break free, someone blocked his way. Naturally gloomy and expressionless, he inwardly wished to tear Yang Xiao apart but showed no emotion.
Xiao Sanda didn't know Yang Xiao's true strength, but Yang Xiao's instant recognition that the formation had been tampered with made Xiao Sanda wary.
After a cold silence, Xiao Sanda finally spoke first. Looking at Yang Xiao, he said, "You say I made you the core. Then try to leave. If you get out, it means you misjudged me. Whatever you want to say, we can talk upstairs."