Chapter 8

Chapter 8

I supported Wei Zhang as we climbed to the summit of Dongling Peak.

The moment we reached the top, the thickening mist began to slowly dissipate.

For a split second, I dizzily thought I saw countless massive boulders scattered all around us. But as the fog cleared, we couldn’t see a single intact rock.

The summit of Dongling Peak was nearly flat, covered in gravel and debris. Aside from a sparse patch of woods, you could see from one end to the other in a single glance.

Wei Zhang looked despairing. “I’ve been here several times. There really is nothing here.”

I crouched down and examined the gravel on the ground. It suddenly looked familiar. I had a friend whose family owned a stone quarry; I’d once gone to watch them blast a mountain, and the shattered rocks covering the ground there looked exactly like these on the summit of Dongling Peak.

“Has this mountain ever been blasted?” I asked.

Wei Zhang thought about it. As a local, he was more familiar with the area than I was.

“I think I heard the elders mention it before. This mountain was cordoned off for a period of time several decades ago. The local villagers could hear booming sounds every night. Then, one day, they suddenly realized that the summit of Dongling Peak had been leveled off by a significant amount.”

If that was true, it meant there really might have been many large boulders on top of Dongling Peak at one point.

If they had been blasted away, where would the one from Wei Zhang’s dream be?

I looked around. There were paths leading up to the summit from three sides; only the northwest face was a sheer, steep cliff.

I found a sturdy-looking tree, secured a safety rope, and walked toward the precipice.

The terrain was even higher here, and the ground beneath my feet was hard rock. People didn’t easily come this way because it was difficult to find a foothold.

Wei Zhang couldn’t make it over, so he could only shout at me anxiously, “Be careful, Brother Long!”

I crawled toward the edge of the cliff step by step. This was the highest point of Dongling Peak, and gusts of mountain wind buffeted me.

I crouched down and peered over the edge. Sure enough, about two meters below the cliff edge, there was a ledge.

The ledge recessed inward, making it difficult to see from either above or below. Against the mountain wall, there were even several sets of scaffolding, though the frames were rusted and looked ready to collapse.

I backed away and told Wei Zhang there was something down there and that I needed to take my tools down to investigate.

Wei Zhang wasn’t comfortable with that, so he insisted on crawling to the cliff edge with me. He couldn’t go down, but at the very least, he could keep watch for me.

I hammered a piton into the rock wall, secured the safety rope, and began to climb down the cliff.

The ledge wasn’t far; I should have reached it in just a few steps.

But I didn’t expect that just as I reached the midpoint, the safety rope above suddenly went slack!

The ledge below was recessed and narrow. If I fell straight down, I wouldn’t land on it at all. Dongling Peak was a mountain, after all; if I fell, I’d likely end up as a pile of broken bones.

The moment the rope went slack, Wei Zhang saw it.

He lunged forward-and it was a good thing he had a beer belly. He grabbed my safety rope with both hands and was dragged horizontally toward the cliff edge until his stomach got wedged against a crack in the rock.

Using that split second of hesitation in my descent, I reached out and grabbed the scaffolding on the cliff wall.

I didn’t care if the frame was sturdy or not; I threw my whole weight onto it.

My fall stopped. Wei Zhang had nearly been pulled over the edge by me. In that critical moment, he didn’t have time for fear or pain. He scrambled up on all fours and re-secured my safety rope.

Using the rickety scaffolding for support, I finally landed on the ledge.

On the side of the ledge facing the mountain wall, there was a pitch-black tunnel entrance.

The area around the entrance was covered in the marks of axes and chisels; this hole had been man-made. On the right side of the entrance, several blurred traditional characters were carved vertically: Dongling Peak Jade Mine.

There was actually a jade mine inside this mountain. I had never heard of such a thing before.