Tomb Raider: The man is in the Nine Gates, but the system insists it's the Primordial Era.

"Here, this is a elixir to restore your energy and strength. Don't get sick. There are still many things you need to help me with."

Su Mu took out a medicine bottle and handed the pills to Scarface.

Looking at the medicine bottle that Su Mu handed him, Scarface, knowing full well how expensive the pills inside were, once again couldn't hold back his emotions and burst into tears.

"Thank you, sir. I'll send the money for the pills to Senior Partridge Whistle when I get back."

"Look at what you're saying. We're all brothers, aren't we? Even if I sell a single talisman for 100,000 silver dollars, you can take it for free anytime you want. This is an employee benefit I'm giving to the people who stayed behind."

"Alright, what haven't we old folks been through? Why are you shedding tears?"

"..."

Su Mu continued watching the procession of corpses passing by ahead, making casual remarks as he went.

The procession carrying the corpse slowly disappeared into the night.

Just as Su Mu was about to get back into the carriage and head back, a fine horse galloped up from behind.

The guard dismounted and handed the reins to Su Mu: "Manager Su, Eighth Master and his adjutant request that you accompany the corpse-escorting team."

Su Mu took the reins with a puzzled look.

Su Mu asked, "You're not going?"

The guard nodded: "Without a horse, I can't catch up with the group. I'll wait until everything is settled, so I won't go. Neither the Buddha nor the adjutant said anything."

The guard scratched his head, unsure whether the order given by his adjutant, Zhang Rishan, was accurate.

Relying on his superior strength, Su Mu mounted his horse: "Before you two go home, remember to wash your faces and hands with water that has been soaked in willow branches. Giddy up!"

Both the guards and Scarface nodded.

After following Zhang Qishan, Zhang's personal guards encountered many such strange and superstitious things. They also knew that doing such things would inevitably taint them with some evil spirits, so they used willow branches and warm spring water to cleanse themselves.

Although Scarface didn't understand at all, he was afraid that from then on, even if Su Mu gave him an order to jump off a cliff, he would do it without hesitation.

He hadn't read many books and didn't understand any principles.

But from then on, the employer's words became his rule.

Having never ridden a horse before, Su Mu only began to learn how to control the reins and make the horse obey his commands to run in the direction he wanted after he drove the steed away from the city gate.

The horse glanced sideways at the novice rider on its back with its eyes on either side of its cheeks, then quickly looked back at the twinkling lights of the fire in the night sky.

If any other beginner were to ride on its back, it would have already flipped them over.

The pain from the frequent, unintentional tugging on the reins and the hook inside the horse's nose was simply unbearable for the horse.

But the person on his back this time is different.

This guy was incredibly strong. His slender body weighed down the horse as he mounted it, and he inexplicably exuded a ferocious aura similar to that of a mountain tiger.

"...That remote mountain village is a bit strange. I remember I sent people to wipe it out last time, but when Lao Ba and I went there this time, we could still see some blurry figures..."

Zhang Qishan, who was still chatting with his adjutant and Qi Tiezui about the origins of the dead train, suddenly stopped talking when someone arrived behind him.

They left the city.

Zhang Qishan didn't have as many concerns.

In any case, these low-level evil creatures cannot get close to the three of them. As long as they don't delve into the details about the corpses' origins, there shouldn't be any major accidents.

The other Zhang family guards who accompanied him were not as capable as the three men on horseback or donkeys; they remained silent, their faces filled with a solemn and murderous expression.

"The young shopkeeper has arrived as well."

Qi Tiezu grinned and happily pulled the donkey to Su Mu's side.

Qi Tiezui has never been particularly interested in business matters or matters of power and influence.

As long as the other party isn't operating their business at his expense, he doesn't really feel anything.

Zhang Qishan, Zhang Rishan, and even the Zhang family's personal guards all exuded a strong aura of bloodlust from having killed people, which he found very distasteful.

On the contrary, he felt closer to the young man Su Mu, who was surrounded by what Taoists called spiritual energy.

"Why did you call me here?"

Su Mu, riding on horseback, looked puzzled.

Zhang Rishan also slowed down his horse: "Everyone has met before, Master. This is Su Mu, the shopkeeper of the Zhenxian Temple."

"Manager Su, this is Master Fo, the garrison commander of Changsha City, and also the legendary head of the Nine Gates."

"..."

silence.

Still, silence.

Remain silent.

After introducing themselves,

Zhang Rishan didn't hear Zhang Qishan and Su Mu utter a single word, nor did they even glance at each other in their strange manner.

"Master Buddha, this young manager Su is highly praised by Fifth Master, Sixth Master, and Ninth Master. He must be truly capable. The brothers mentioned it before..."

Zhang Rishan gripped the horse's waist tightly and caught up with Zhang Qishan.

Qi Tiezui, however, seemed unfazed and chuckled, "That's just how the Buddha is, Brother Dao, don't mind him. We invited you here today in case something unexpected happens on the way to escort the corpse, and we also have another matter we'd like to ask for your help with."

When Qi Tiezui mentioned this matter, the smile on his face disappeared, and his eyes were full of a sense of vicissitude and reminiscence.

Because this matter is related to the incident where he was almost killed years ago.

The Qi family of the Nine Gates is not very powerful and has few people, but he is still the Eighth Master of the Nine Gates. Most people will give the Nine Gates face and will not easily touch Qi Tiezui.

But it's different for people outside.

During one of his travels outside the city, Qi Tiezui was almost subjected to a ritual by villagers who poured black mud mixed with cinnabar all over his body, creating a golden statue of a living dead.

Upon learning of this, Zhang Qishan abandoned his work and rushed out of the city alone.

After sustaining some injuries, he rescued Qi Tiezui from the evil villagers.

Still finding the matter rather strange, Zhang Qishan found an excuse and slaughtered the entire village that worshipped the evil spirits.

This happened at least five or six years ago.

Strangely, in the past few days, when Zhang Qishan and Qi Tiezui followed the clues left by the dead train and secretly made their way to a certain place in the Huo family's mine, they saw figures reappear in that strange village that should have long since fallen into ruin.

Thinking back on his past dangerous experiences, Qi Tiezui dared not enter that eerie village again.

When Zhang Qishan led a few men in, they found that all the figures had vanished in an instant, and the village was still the same deserted village that he had already wiped out.

However, the black Buddha statue standing in the middle of that existence was exceptionally clean and bright.

It seems as if people are still worshipping and making offerings recently, with incense burning continuously.

As Qi Tiezui recounted his story, Su Mu slowly rummaged through his memories.

He knew that there was a statue of a deity called Tianzun Laomu in the passageway of the ancient tomb in the mine, and this was also mentioned in the original work.

But he couldn't quite remember that there was a black female Buddha statue in that deserted village.

He still remembered the deserted village, because the original story said that the village was massacred because the Japanese soldiers who had been hiding under the mine conducting human experiments were afraid that their research would be discovered.

However, it seems that some of the inside stories differ from Su Mu's memory.

For example, the matter of "cultivating immortality" has never been mentioned in either the original novel or the TV series.

"Could it be that Uncle San was worried that more things would be exposed and detrimental to him, so he glossed over everything?"

"Anyway, as soon as the news of the bronze sacred tree unearthed at Sanxingdui broke, that old guy, cough cough, went on an overseas 'trip'."

"..."