Corpse Retriever.

Chapter 423

"Xiao Yuan, this..."

"Brother Liangliang, it's okay."

In the flashlight beam, "self" and "Xue Liangliang" are becoming transparent at a visible speed, with the light gradually penetrating "their" bodies.

The previous power outage was not an accident, but rather a start-up.

The reason I failed to discover the traces of arrangement here beforehand was that all the key nodes had been deliberately left blank, and all the gaps were filled in when the power went out.

Only the camp organizers can do this.

This isn't directed at myself, nor at anyone else in the camp; it's directed at those who shouldn't belong to the camp but have infiltrated it.

It's as if they're holding a "demon-revealing mirror," framing the entire camp and then re-presenting it within the mirror.

In this way, the heretics who possess and manipulate people within the camp can be discovered through this comparison.

Therefore, what looks frightening is actually a very sophisticated security screening measure.

The undead knights beneath the Goguryeo tombs, and the escapees—anyone who managed to infiltrate them—will now be forced to reveal their tracks.

Just now in Elder Zhai's tent, the sudden expansion of the shadow was not to help him, but to create an isolated area to cover the shadow itself.

Strictly speaking, the Emperor's shadow was also an external attachment to Elder Zhai.

"Brother Liangliang, let's sit down and rest for a while."

Li Zhuiyuan turned off the flashlight, and apart from the distant lights, the surroundings became pitch black.

"okay."

Xue Liangliang trusted Li Zhuiyuan completely. He sat down with the boy, took out a piece of chocolate from his pocket, tore off the wrapper, broke it in half, and handed one half to Li Zhuiyuan.

"Once this project is finished, I'll go back to Nantong immediately. She's waiting for me at home..."

"Brother Liangliang."

"Okay, okay, I understand, let's not say such unlucky things anymore."

……

Inside a tent in the central area of ​​the camp, an elderly man in a Taoist robe, his hands covered in blood, was constantly smearing blood on the mirror in front of him, watching the blurry scenes reflected in it.

He searched every corner of the camp, but in the end he had no choice but to give up.

Well, before giving up, he followed the procedure and used the mirror to look at himself to see if he was possessed by evil spirits.

After everything was over, he slapped the mirror hard with his palm. The mirror trembled, and all the blurred scenes inside disappeared.

The old man in the Taoist robe picked up a towel and wiped the bloodstains from his hands. Then he picked up a pen and paper and began to write his observation record.

Today's topic is the re-site surveys of various project teams. He is also conducting surveys, but he is surveying the people in the project teams.

"That's strange. Why is everything so calm this time? From daytime until now, not a single incident or unexpected event has happened. It's completely different from the last time and the recent disappearance. It's like..."

The old man in the Taoist robe paused slightly as he wrote his report, then continued to mutter to himself:
"It's like the owner of this place isn't home."

……

Like a mirage, it appears suddenly and disappears just as quickly.

Once the surroundings returned to normal, Li Zhuiyuan turned on his flashlight again and led Xue Liangliang toward his tent.

"Brother Liangliang, it's alright now."

"Xiao Yuan, did our own people make this?"

You can think of it as going through another security check.

"I understand."

As I walked to my tent, the young girl stood outside the tent across the hall.

Her gaze swept over Li Zhuiyuan and Xue Liangliang before she spoke:

"The weather is nice tonight, but it seems to have picked up a bit just now."

Although she and Wen Xinhe were older than her, they were probably not yet lit up and were still in the training stage by their families and sects.

Li Zhuiyuan had no interest in playing guessing games with her to find out her identity. He simply smiled politely at her, then lifted the curtain and entered the tent.

Runsheng was fast asleep.

Tan Wenbin sat on the bed, while Lin Shuyou stood at the door.

They had both noticed something was wrong earlier.

"Brother Xiaoyuan..."

"Brother Xiaoyuan, just now..."

"It's alright, go and rest. You have to work tomorrow."

Upon hearing this, the two immediately felt relieved and lay down to rest.

Tan Wenbin and Lin Shuyou both possess "spirits," but these spirits reside within them and are entirely controlled by them.

Even if the person who set up the plan possessed a level of skill that Li Zhuiyuan acknowledged, it would be impossible to uncover everyone's deepest secrets in one fell swoop, let alone the fact that his partner's special characteristics had been carefully concealed by Li Zhuiyuan's design.

Runsheng, still asleep, turned to face the tent flap, gently wiped his mouth, and opened his eyes.

He was troubled because the group of people living across the hall had a strong aura of death about them. Although they weren't actually dead, it was as if they had been anointed with his favorite perfume.

This made me dream about eating even when I was sleeping.

When I woke up and realized it was just a dream, a sense of loss welled up inside me.

The next morning, the people in the camp took turns riding in trucks to the construction site again.

The work content was almost the same as yesterday.

During the group's survey, Li Zhuiyuan encountered that "young master" again.

Wen Xinhe was exceptionally well-behaved and sensible today, meticulously completing what he felt was a waste of his talents yesterday.

Only occasionally, when moving or changing positions, would his lips twitch involuntarily, and he would gasp for breath.

The bruises from yesterday's whipping still tormented and reminded him of his injuries.

Today, the entire construction site remains calm.

As night fell, a scene similar to the one from the previous night played out again.

The girl in the tent across the hall also made another attempt to test the waters.

She was still sitting at the entrance of the tent soaking her feet, asking Runsheng where he was from.

Runsheng didn't answer, he just swallowed.

The girl turned her head to the side, her face showing anger.

She thought Runsheng was a lecherous man who lusted after her body.

For several days in a row, the on-site surveys of each project team have been completed. New camps are being built next door, more new people are moving in, and some elderly people are being rotated out for rest.

The final solution was reached.

A professional construction team arrived with their machinery.

This large construction site finally looked like what a large construction site should look like.

On this day, Li Zhuiyuan stood beside Xue Liangliang, watching the conversation taking place not far away via walkie-talkie, as the countdown began...

"boom!"

The blast was successful.

The water was successfully diverted and flowed along the canal into a nearby reservoir that had been abandoned and never used due to the changes that occurred there years ago.

The first batch of water that came out was colorful.

The above statement indicates that this area contains various minerals.

But Li Zhuiyuan thought of the water ripples in the prison in Ye Dui's account.

The fact that even this thing was pulled out means that the true core area of ​​the ancient burial site was not only touched, but also punctured.

The calm during this period was probably not solely due to the fact that he had left "The Book Without Words" at the military retirement home.

If it wanted to, it could easily do something secretly, just like it did at the Five Immortals Temple last time, taking advantage of being "separated" from itself.

Considering that the Great Emperor did not choose to resist the flooding of his own Fengdu Dojo, one can guess "its" state of mind.

The higher-ups are very determined.

If another uncontrollable accident occurs during this reopened investigation, then the team coming here next time won't be just an investigation team.

However, even as someone who has experienced it firsthand, it feels unreal that this project could be implemented so quickly in such a short time and under such stringent safety standards.

Construction and development are still ongoing.

Within both the old and new camps, the number of people possessing characteristics of江湖人士 (jianghu figures, figures from the martial arts world) is increasing. They are no longer the young masters like Wen Xinhe and the woman living in the tent opposite theirs at the beginning; the newcomers clearly carry the menacing aura of seasoned江湖人 (jianghu figures).

In addition, while construction continued in the core area of ​​the construction site, construction on the periphery of the site never stopped. Li Zhuiyuan had already figured it out; they were setting up a large formation.

However, this grand formation is very interesting. It has planned the office area, living area and even the subsequent factory buildings in advance, and planned the buildings that would have been needed to be included in the grand formation.

In this way, the scale of the formation is ensured while also saving costs and avoiding waste.

In fact, many places have similar architectural complexes, such as those Bagua villages and Bagua towns.

It can not only suppress the enemy, but also provide a place for people to live, work, and live. Furthermore, the latter can spontaneously maintain and repair the living environment, allowing the great formation to be continuously repaired.

This was a path Li Zhuiyuan had never imagined before. Every array master had a deep obsession with large-scale arrays, but in ancient times, limited by the productivity of the time, it was extremely difficult to organize such a massive project. Many outstanding array masters could only realize their lifelong dream by building mausoleums for feudal emperors.

From today's perspective, a large-scale natural engineering project inherently possesses features such as regulating water flow, providing energy for power generation, and turning natural barriers into smooth roads. In ancient times, which of these would not have been an earth-shattering feat?
If he could participate in the design and construction, and integrate what he had learned and mastered into it, not to mention the distant future, just the dams and bridges erected on these great rivers could all be a world-shaking formation that Li Zhuiyuan personally laid out.

As he pondered this, Li Zhuiyuan's fingertips began to tremble slightly.

Now, he began to understand the light that shone in Xue Liangliang's eyes when he was still a student and gave a speech by the campfire at the river engineering institute that night.

"Brother Liangliang."

"Well, what happened?"

"I've realized that I really didn't make the wrong choice in choosing this major."

Xue Liangliang smiled and patted Li Zhuiyuan's arm, saying, "You've worked so hard these past few days. Take advantage of this break to go back and get some rest and a breather."

"Ah."

Although things have been relatively calm so far, Xue Liangliang's heart is feeling increasingly heavy and depressed.

He was good at figuring out the patterns; the less the rain came, the more it meant that Xiao Yuan would eventually get wet.

The truck's tarpaulin was lifted a crack by the bumps, and Lin Shuyou, who was sitting on the outermost side, happened to see a familiar figure driving a tractor in the opposite direction on the road outside: Three Eyes.
It's Zhao Yi.

Zhao, the former young master, has become a tractor driver through his own hard work and study, transporting building materials back and forth with the convoy.

He also saw Lin Shuyou sitting in the green truck.

He knew that the investigation camp over there had recently begun a rotation, which meant that the Li family and their group would have to retreat to the rear to rest.

Zhao Yi didn't stop to greet them, firstly because there wasn't much to talk about, and secondly because the construction site ahead was waiting for the batch of materials in his truck.

With both hands gripping the tractor handlebars, the cigarette butt trembled in Zhao Yi's mouth.

Previously, the crack between his eyebrows was the point of life and death, but the one who truly kept opening his third eye was that person surnamed Li.

"What kind of river crossing is this? All you have to do is take your equipment there, measure things, write down the data and make a report, and someone will provide you with security, logistics, and construction services. They'll even set up this massive formation for you."

Moreover, during the journey, they were even able to take a break midway and go back to rest.

Is this still considered river crossing? What kind of river are we crossing?!

The tractor arrived at the construction site.

Zhao Yi first parked his car, then took the form to count the tractors behind him, and then went to make the handover with the receiving party.

"Comrade Zhao Yi, do a good job."

The relevant leaders value Zhao Yi's performance highly. He not only does his job well, but also helps with command and dispatch. The higher-ups are studying and preparing to promote Zhao Yi to the captain of this transportation team.

After finishing, Zhao Yi greeted his colleagues and mentors, shared cigarettes with them, and then found a corner to rest.

Looking at the bustling construction scene ahead, Zhao Yi couldn't help but recall a detail that was repeatedly mentioned in the "Code of Conduct for Traveling Along the River".

"Is this the meaning behind hugging the signboard at the entrance of the police station?"

……

Once the construction site is surrounded by barriers to serve as an early warning system, the security measures at the rear naturally decrease.

Although they still live in the military retirement home and cannot actively contact the outside world, as long as they report it, their activity range can be as wide as the entire Ji'an urban area.

Engineer Luo treated the surveying team to barbecue.

In a place resembling a farmhouse inn, with mountains and a river in front, the owner even specially dug several "winding streams" that flow past the dining tables inside.

Beer and drinks are put into baskets and placed there to chill.

There was no speech or summary; Engineer Luo simply said, "Everyone has worked hard lately. Eat and drink well."

After eating and drinking their fill, everyone returned to the military retirement home. Having slept in sleeping bags on the floor for so long, they really missed the feeling of a soft bed.

Li Zhuiyuan returned to his room, took a shower, and lay on the bed. He reached into his backpack and took out the "Wordless Book," which he hadn't seen for some time.

Without it by my side, I found a rare sense of ease.

But when you see it now, you have to act extremely eager.

Turning to the first page, looking at the woman kneeling obediently in the cell, Li Zhuiyuan said softly:
"It'll be ready over there soon, I'll be able to go in soon, very soon!"

A new passage appeared on the cell wall, still in Ye Dui's voice:

"I can feel it's about to wake up..."

It's in a hurry.

The performance movements began to distort.

That final step, he just couldn't bring himself to take it.

However, this also means that its patience has reached its limit. If it doesn't enter the ancient burial site soon, no matter how forced it is, it will inevitably take action.

This also proves from another perspective that, as the owner of the Goguryeo tomb, it no longer cares about the tomb itself; what it cares about is itself.

This tomb may never have been intended to be protected or preserved; it may even have wanted it to be broken open and uncovered more than outsiders.

Considering that it was the last person to live in the tomb, can't this tomb be seen as the cage that imprisons it?
They only get two days off per week.

Soon, everyone was rescheduled to set off again.

This time, Engineer Luo also went with the team.

The next phase of construction and exploration has also begun.

Security regulations have been further relaxed, allowing people to bring their personal belongings into the camp. However, the checkpoints between the camp and the construction site have been retained.

Old Zhai has disappeared again.

He didn't leave, but went to another project team.

As the excavation and exploration went deeper, various architectural remains and burial objects from the Goguryeo period were discovered. As a researcher in this field, Professor Zhai was seconded to another location to participate in the research. Although he was still in the camp, that camp was far away from his own.

The reasoning was sound, but Li Zhuiyuan still believed that this was his "master's" consistent and stable performance.

Lin Shuyou did try to find Zhao Yi, but the tractor driver there told him that Captain Zhao had already led his team to the reservoir on the other side of the mountain.

Starting this afternoon, the weather outside gradually changed.

Dark clouds gradually gathered here and continued to thicken.

This prediction was not included in the weather forecast.

In many separate tents, groups of people began to use compasses, coins, tortoise shells, and other tools to perform divination.

The square-faced man looked up at the dark, heavy clouds overhead.

The old man in the Taoist robe came out, also looked up at the sky, and sighed:
"I thought things would be peaceful from now on, but I never expected..."

The big man said, "What's meant to come will come eventually."

"Yes, we should be content. Things are already much, much better than we initially expected."

Big Man: "Should we suggest stopping construction?"

The old man in the Taoist robe shook his head and said, "We righteous people have never believed in avoiding evil spirits. No matter what kind of 'deity' it is, I don't believe it can really withstand this mighty force!"

The big man said, "It can't stop this trend, but it can stop us. It can easily bury us all."

The old man in the Taoist robe: "What, are you scared?"

The burly man waved his hand and said, "Since someone has to pay the price, I don't care. It's just a matter of one after another, until the very end."

“I’ve never seen you with such high awareness before. Before setting off, I didn’t even expect to meet you here.”

I'm here to see him.

Back on the river, he defeated me but spared my life. I've always wanted to find an opportunity to fight him again.

I came out because I heard he would also help with these things, hoping to run into him again.

As if playing a joke on me, I got out, but he didn't come out for over a year.

Upon hearing this, the elderly man in the Taoist robe sighed and said:

"Back in the day, the Qin family was never short of people at such events."

The old man stroked his beard and continued to mock himself:
"Alas, if the Liu family were here, why would I, a humble Taoist priest, need to stand here and show off my limited skills?"

(End of this chapter)