Wuchang's memories might have been scrambled, but some basic facts had stayed with him — above all his master, the Chan master named Qili. He had spent seven years studying Chan at the master's side, and his knowledge of Buddhist teachings was extensive.
So when Wuchang saw this outlandish box beneath the ground of Huang'e today, his first feeling was that of meeting an old friend in a foreign land. Tears streaming down his face, he ignored the danger entirely and desperately tried to climb down the cliff to fetch that metal box.
"Are you out of your mind? There's a lava river down there — do you have a death wish?" Pike cursed him roundly. He truly wanted to wash his hands of the man, but Wuchang had just saved his life. Whatever else happened, he couldn't abandon him now.
Wuchang tossed his pack, rainbow crystals and all, to Gopher Pike. "You carry this for me. I'm going to take a look at that strange box." Then he drove three sturdy mining spikes into the rock face and lashed the climbing rope down tight.
The metal box was only a dozen-odd meters from the opening where Wuchang stood. It wasn't large; judging by its edges, it was a cube about half a meter on a side, with roughly two-thirds of it still hidden inside the rock wall.
Wuchang couldn't work out how the box had gotten into the rock wall, but from the way box and stone had fused together, he guessed it had been dumped into the lava, that the lava had eventually cooled into rock, and that the box had been sealed inside it.
Today's earthquake had not only split the mountain open and carved out this lava river — it had also brought this bizarre box to light.
"Careful, be careful. Your left foot — move your left foot another half inch. Yes, yes, that's it..." Gopher Pike lay flat on his belly with his head poking out over the rock lip, calling directions to Wuchang.
Within moments Wuchang was very close to the box, but this spot was also very close to the lava. The rocks he kicked loose tumbled into the rolling lava river, and the splashing magma nearly scalded him.
A good stretch of the hanging climbing rope had already caught fire. If Wuchang hadn't been so quick with his feet and stamped the flames out in time, the fire racing upward would surely have reached his body.
"Slower. A little slower." Pike's heart was in his throat. He was beyond words — faced with this madman, he admitted total defeat.
Wuchang wasn't having an easy time of it either. The heat pouring off the lava had him drenched in sweat; his breathing mask was full of steam and his goggles had fogged over a blank white. He ripped the mask off, and just as he tried to take a proper breath, a blast of searing hot air choked him. Caught off guard, his hand slipped, and his whole body plummeted.
"Fuck... watch out..." Pike was so frightened he didn't dare open his eyes.
Pike had badly underestimated Wuchang's ability. In the instant he fell, Wuchang threw all his strength into his hands and clamped down on the climbing rope for dear life, smearing more than a meter of it red with blood before he finally checked the fall.
By now Wuchang was right up against the metal box, and at arm's reach the exquisite reliefs on its surface were sharply legible. Only then did he realize that besides the Four Heavenly Kings, there were reliefs of scenes at the corners of the box too — scenes that looked like stories from the Buddhist sutras.
Wuchang had no time to make out the pictures. He reached out to touch the box and feel it with his own hand, his mind still churning over how to haul this big thing up. But the instant his fingers met the box, the whole rift valley began to shake violently.
"Aftershock — this is a fucking aftershock! Get up here, you little bastard..." Watching rocks rain down from overhead, Pike wanted to run for it early, but somehow he couldn't bring himself to do it.
Just then the metal box blazed with light — a white radiance like something solid wrapped itself around Wuchang's entire body. In that blinding white, Wuchang saw to his astonishment that the half-meter cube had burst apart, and from the middle of the box drifted a black sphere the size of a pigeon's egg.
The ink-black sphere shifted through every kind of shape, and dozens of silvery-white threads wrapped it tight on the outside.
Wuchang was dumbstruck. He never would have imagined that such a big box held only this tiny black ball — and that the ball should move as though it were alive.
What came next was even harder to imagine. The black ball seemed to notice Wuchang's presence; it suddenly flew to his face, and a dozen or so of the silver threads split off and stabbed straight into the top of his skull, too fast to dodge.
There was no pain, no discomfort — only a cold sensation. Wuchang watched helplessly as the silver threads pierced the top of his head. In half a second they drew back out and wove themselves in midair into a slender silver cord, which wound itself tight around his neck.
In an instant a strange necklace had appeared: the silver cord looped around Wuchang's neck, and the eerie black ball had now become like a black diamond, hanging quietly below his throat.
There was no time left for Wuchang to think. The shaking was violent now; the exquisite metal box had already plunged into the lava and vanished, and the three anchor spikes were working loose.
At the crisis point Wuchang's arms surged with power. He used the secret breath method of Dragon-Tiger Rush and in a few moves hauled himself up. Before he had even found his footing he grabbed Pike and ducked into the mine tunnel they had just come through.
"Go, go now, the farther from here the better." Wuchang explained nothing to Pike; he just dragged him along at a dead run.
Oddly enough, the aftershock seemed concentrated inside that rift. The farther out the two of them ran, the weaker the shaking became, and after a few hundred meters it couldn't be felt at all.
Pike stared at Wuchang and demanded, "What was that thing just now? How come after one flash of white light I couldn't see a thing?"
"You're asking me? Then who do I ask? I touched the box and the earthquake hit, and the perfectly good box split apart and fell into the lava."
Wuchang didn't explain the details to Pike. A secret like this was better left rotting in his gut — and as for the necklace, it was hidden under his clothes anyway, so ordinary eyes wouldn't see it.
The planned route was out of the question now. The two of them took a full hour's detour before they reached a tunnel Pike knew reasonably well. Only when sturdy alloy supports began appearing one after another before their eyes did they know they weren't lost.
The tunnels were very quiet after the earthquake — nobody dared go down the mine now — and in the underground maze only the two of them walked on alone. They walked another three full hours before they saw the light of an opening ahead and the volcanic ash drifting through it.
"We're here. We're safe now, the two of us. But I'm telling you, we took a long way around — this exit isn't the B1313 pit, it's the B1314 pit next door..."
"Coyote Seven's territory?" Wuchang was instantly on guard.
"Don't get jumpy. All the tunnels between the mining zones connect; detouring through another zone is perfectly normal. As long as we don't stir up trouble, they won't give us a hard time. And anyway, with black snow falling, Blood Rose isn't going to be wandering the pits for no reason..."
Pike's words put Wuchang a little more at ease, but once the two of them stepped out of the tunnel and into the black snow, they discovered that reality was not so simple.
"Isn't that the annoying one?" Wuchang had barely shown his head when a voice came from nearby. He looked up and his brow knotted in frustration. Fuck, isn't that the pair of twin fatso enforcers?
That was right: up on the pit's raised platform, the twin enforcers Big Fatty and Little Fatty were overseeing the miners packing up the equipment below, and from their commanding height they spotted Wuchang and Pike at a glance.
"Gopher Pike? And the annoying one?" The two enforcers' eyes lit up at once. The kid next to Gopher Pike — isn't that the annoying one the boss lady keeps going on about? The one who accused us of being the boss lady's sons and made us lose face in front of everyone.
The two of them jumped down off the platform and, with a crowd of enforcers at their backs, squeezed Wuchang and Pike into a corner.
"Oh, come on now, you two big brothers, there was an earthquake, we had no choice but to come around this way. We're all miners here, you can understand..." Pike fawned, bowing and scraping to Big Fatty and Little Fatty.
"Get lost." Big Fatty slapped Pike out of the way and jabbed a finger at Wuchang. "Kid, you made our boss lady unhappy, so be a good boy and let the two of us hit you three times. Three punches and we'll let you go, naturally." Then the two fatties cracked their knuckles, pop pop pop.
Gopher Pike's head swam at the sight of those four fists like earthenware pots, and he hurriedly squeezed forward to talk them down. "Big brothers — the two of you big brothers — this guy just clawed his way back from the gates of hell, he's weak as anything right now. You two are so mighty, three punches and would there be anything left of him? For my sake — I'll stand everyone drinks — everybody spare his life..."
Pike's flattery landed just right. Big Fatty and Little Fatty nodded. "Since you're standing us drinks, of course I'll let him off. But the three punches can't be avoided — I'll just use a bit less force, that's all."
Pike wanted to keep pleading, but Wuchang stopped him. He shoved his miner's pack into Pike's arms and announced loudly, "You two bosses, I spoke out of turn and I deserve punishment. I only beg everyone to go easy on me and spare my life, and afterward I'll treat you all to drinks."
That said, Wuchang clasped his hands over his head, crouched down in the corner, and left the rest to fate.
Pike was shoved off to one side by the enforcers and couldn't help in the slightest. He could more or less follow Wuchang's thinking: there was no way today's business would end without letting Big Fatty and Little Fatty vent their anger, and with more than twenty enforcers ringed around them, there was no running even if they tried. All the more since the pack held that precious crystal — that thing absolutely could not be shown.
Pike's reasoning was sound, but not complete. What Wuchang feared most right now was blowing things up into a scene, because once it got big and drew other people's attention, it would be hard to manage — especially since he had no identity at all, and Coyote Seven and Blood Rose would be sure to use that against him.
As for these two fatties, Wuchang had seen at a glance that they were a pair of halfwits, children whose minds had never grown up. With that sort you simply went along with them, and once they'd had their fun they'd let you go. All he had to do was get safely back to the B1313 Ration Center, and he'd be safe.
The fists came down like rain. Maybe Wuchang's submission had done its work, because not one of them struck to kill — especially the two fatties, who really did throw just three punches before stepping aside to watch their men have at it.
"Hit him! Come on, come on, hit him!" The two fatties whooped and cheered as if they were watching a farce.
Curled in the corner, Wuchang shielded his weak spots as best he could, offering up his thick, tough back and his backside for the enforcers to vent on, and along the way he spread Dragon-Tiger strength through his whole body, which made for excellent padding besides. All in all, he came out of the beating not much the worse.
But to outside eyes it looked nothing like that; they only saw Wuchang beaten so badly he couldn't hit back, curled on the ground and shivering. Every miner shrank back in fright, and Gopher Pike wept until his face was a blotchy mess.