Daomu Biji Novel – Book 7 Summary

Table of Contents | Daomu Biji Universe

Book 7: 阴山古楼
Ancient Mansion Down Under

Men You Ping was treated in the hospital and recovered fragments of his memories. Wu Xie decided to help Men You Ping trace back his past, not forgetting to drag Pangzi along on the trip.

They first tried to find out where Men You Ping came from. With the help of a bald man surnamed Chu who claimed to know about Men You Ping’s origin, Wu Xie learnt that the first person in the tomb robbing community to have met Men You Ping was Chen Pi A Si. Around 5 or 6 years ago, while following a group on their expedition, Chen Pi A Si found that they used a half-conscious young man as bait to lure the mummies out. However, the mummies all ended up being killed by that young man – who was no other than Men You Ping himself. Seeing that Men You Ping was incredibly courageous and had great skills, Chen Pi A Si took him under his wings. The bald man then handed Wu Xie a photo of a room with an old-style divider in the middle. Behind the divider was a black figure of a person with a straight neck yet sunken shoulders, looking as though he was hanged on the neck. The bald guy said this photo was obtained from Men You Ping’s house in a village near Banai, Guangxi. Thus, Wu Xie, Men You Ping and Pangzi immediately headed for the village to investigate further.

Arriving at Banai, the three acquainted a local guide named A-Gui. They were brought to his house and introduced to his daughter Yun Cai. In the house, they found a photo of A-Gui’s father standing next to Chen Wenjin. A-Gui then recalled the encounter and told them that more than 20 years ago, Chen Wenjin led an archaeologist team to come to this village. They wanted to check out a lake deep inside the mountains. Hearing that, Wu Xie decided to go to the lake and asked A-Gui to show the way. At this point, A-Gui mentioned that it would be better if they engaged the help of Pan Ma, an old man who was very knowledgeable about the ways around the mountains. Albeit being already in his old days, Pan Ma was known to be the best hunter in the village, also, he was the person that led Chen Wenjin’s team to the lake back then.

While in A-Gui’s garden, Wu Xie coincidentally looked at a window and saw a shadow of a man with sunken shoulders like the one in the photo. Wu Xie asked A-Gui at once and was told that the room belonged to A-Gui’s son, a reclusive young man who rarely ever left his room.

While waiting for A-Gui to bring them to Pan Ma, the group went to Men You Ping’s old house to explore. In the house, there were indeed many photos on the table. The one that the bald man showed Wu Xie was definitely taken from here too. Suddenly, Men You Ping’s memory was triggered and he dug up the ground under the bed, from where they found a wooden chest. Inside the chest was a strange iron block. Pangzi wanted to force it open but Men You Ping stopped him, saying it was dangerous. As they were thinking to put it back into the chest, a thief appeared out of the blue and wanted to snatch the iron block from them. The three chased after the thief, thus making a big commotion and calling the attention of the surrounding villagers. Afraid that the thief would come back again, Pangzi took the iron block back to A-Gui’s house.

The next day, they went back to Men You Ping’s house at noon. Unbeknownst to them, someone had set the place on fire. Men You Ping rushed into the burning house to save whatever he could but it was too late. Eventually, everything burnt down, including all the photos on the table. 

When the group finally managed to go to Pan Ma’s house, the old man had gone to the mountains. As they were waiting for him to come back, someone came running, saying that he found Pan Ma’s clothes covered in blood in the mountains. Wu Xie, Men You Ping and Pangzi followed the village people into the mountains to search for Pan Ma. At the spot where his clothes were found, there were many broken pieces of what seemed like a wooden coffin. They followed the trace and locate a small tomb nearby, but still no signs of Pan Ma were found.

During the search, the three befriended his son. They learnt from him that many years ago, Pan Ma found an iron block that looked exactly like the one found in the chest at Men You Ping’s house. For some reason, Pan Ma was very paranoid about the block; he feared that the son would throw it away so he hid it deep in the mountains, and every few days, he would leave the house to check on the block.  

As the big group was looking around the mountains, they were attacked by a herd of wild cats. Unexpectedly, Pan Ma jumped out to help them fight the cats. He could move around very quickly despite his old age, and the most surprising thing was that he had a Kylin tattoo on his upper body just like Men You Ping. Pan Ma told them that when his father rescued a Miao tribesman, the man repaid the father’s kindness by tattooing this Kylin onto Pan Ma. This tattoo was made with a special ink that could be used to measure body temperature: when a child had a fever or his temperature rose, the tattoo would show. Having this tattoo would also allow him to walk around freely in a Miao village.  

Before leaving, Pan Ma told Wu Xie to come find him alone later. He also warned that he could smell death from Men You Ping, and that Wu Xie would meet with his death soon if he continued to hang around Men You Ping.

Wu Xie, having learnt that Pan Ma was not a simple person, decided to pretend to be a dangerous figure to uncover the secrets that Pan Ma was hiding and the reason why he kept the iron block. 

In the past, when Pan Ma led the archaeologist team into the mountains, he was ordered to make trips at intervals from the village to the lake to provide food. Once, he brought a few cousins along. These cousins attempted to steal from the archaeologist team, and unfortunately, they were caught red-handed by a member of the team. In a heated moment, they accidentally killed this member. Fearing that they would be punished for his death, Pan Ma and the cousins decided to kill everyone else in the archaeologist team and dumped their bodies in the lake. A few days later, Pan Ma sneaked back to the lake and made a frightening discovery: the entire team was still alive. They were about to leave the lake, carrying lots of iron chests. The chests emitted a pungent smell, like one that came from rotting corpses. After they left, Pan Ma found an iron block that carried the same smell of death and brought it home. That was also the exact smell that he could sniff from Men You Ping.

Pan Ma refused to lead them to the lake, so A-Gui volunteered himself after Wu Xie offered an attractive monetary reward. They also brought Yun Cai along, whom Pangzi developed a crush on later.

The group set up a camp site by the lake and took turns to dive into the water. Shockingly, the three discovered a whole ancient village submerged underwater. Even A-Gui was not aware that there was such a place down there. They picked up a lot of iron blocks from the bottom of the lake, as well as a large amount of military goods which apparently belonged to the archaeologist team. After a few days, the three found that they needed to figure out a way to stay underwater long enough to explore the submerged village. They decided to send Wu Xie to go back to purchase more diving equipment, meanwhile, Men You Ping and Pangzi would continue to search for whatever they could find.

Wu Xie had Pan Zi help him purchase the tools, then he rushed back the village. Upon his return, A-Gui, who was supposed to pick him up, did not turn up. It was raining heavily in the mountains at the time, so Wu Xie could guess that A-Gui was unable to cross the mountains. Facing the risk of getting lost if he went to the lake by himself, Wu Xie went to threaten Pan Ma and demanded him to lead the way. The moment they reached the lake, Pan Ma attacked Wu Xie, likely planning to kill him off and dumping his body into the lake. In the middle of the the fight, the two found themselves suddenly surrounded by a large group of unidentifiable humans. Upon a closer look, Wu Xie realised they were skeletons clad in military uniforms – so these had to be the archaeologist team that Pan Ma and his cousins murdered!

Escaping from Pan Ma, Wu Xie ran to the camp site to find only A-Gui stationed ashore. A-Gui said that after Wu Xie left, Pangzi and Men You Ping found many corpses down the lake. The strangest thing was that all of the corpses did not have a right hand. Some time later, Pangzi picked up a diving helmet and used it to dive to the lake bottom, but after a while, only the helmet surfaced while Pangzi disappeared under the water. Seeing that, Men You Ping put on the helmet and jumped into the water, then disappeared just like Pangzi. As Wu Xie listened, he knew he had to go down to save the other two.

Wu Xie had diving equipment with him so he could stay underwater for a lengthened period. In the middle of the submerged village, there was a building that carried the Han architecture. The sign at the gate read “Zhang Family Mansion”. While he was studying the building, an iguana passed by, carrying a flashlight on its back. Knowing the flashlight had to come from Pangzi and Men You Ping, Wu Xie followed the iguana and entered the mansion. He discovered that the location in the photo shown by the bald man was this building. The figure with sunken shoulders was in fact an iron statue. Behind the iron statue was a tunnel that led straight down underground, at the end of which Wu Xie found an ancient well.

Wu Xie then saw Pangzi’s message, which asked him to follow the incurrent siphon. Letting himself float along the siphon, Wu Xie fell into the same place as Pangzi and Men You Ping. This was a closed space with no points of entry or exit, trapping three of them inside. This was precisely why Pangzi and Men You Ping disappeared underwater. 

The place was a cave with all sides magnificently covered in jade. The three had no idea how they actually ended up here. They deduced that the Zhang Family Mansion was built here so that the Zhangs could mine the jade, which explained why there was a tunnel leading into this cave from within the house. In this jade cave, there was lots of mining equipment. They also found records of the mining progress carved on the ground, which, oddly, mentioned some dark shadows lurking around the cave. At that point, Wu Xie looked up to discover, to his horror, that there were indeed huge shadows on the walls. These dark shadows slowly moved along the walls, heading directly to Wu Xie, Men You Ping and Pangzi.

Pangzi quickly used a hammer to create a crack beside the nearest shadow, then poured burning charcoal into the crack. The black shadow screamed, which triggered the others to increase their moving speed. In a blink, they crawled out of the walls and attacked the three directly. Pangzi and Men You Ping put Wu Xie behind and fought heads on with the shadows. The two managed to defeat the shadows but were seriously injured, to the point that Men You Ping told Wu Xie to find a way to escape himself and just leave them behind. Wu Xie assembled the mining equipment into a raft and put both Men You Ping and Pangzi on top, then dragged them along the path where the shadows had come out from. After many hours had passed, Wu Xie finally reached the exit, where he met with Second Uncle and Pan Zi who were frantically looking for them. 

At this juncture, Second Uncle confessed to Wu Xie that he actually knew everything. He was aware that Xie Lianhuan had been assuming Third Uncle’s identity all this while. Later, he heard from Pan Zi that Wu Xie was at Banai and immediately rushed here. Second Uncle warned Wu Xie to stay put and to not take things into his own hands anymore, then promised that when he had completed his investigation of the matter, he would tell Wu Xie everything.

Men You Ping and Pangzi were brought to the hospital and Yun Cai came to help Wu Xie take care of them. They woke up a few days later. Wu Xie made a drawing of the underwater village based on his memory and showed it to the others. Upon seeing the drawing, Yun Cai exclaimed that the underwater village was an exact replication of her village on land. The place where Zhang Family Mansion stood coincided with Men You Ping’s house. They could conclude that Men You Ping held a certain connection with the mansion down the lake.

After Pangzi and Men You Ping fully recovered from their injuries, the group returned to the lake to investigate further. On their arrival, they found Qiu Dekao’s team preparing to dive into the lake. Men You Ping wanted to stop them, so they stole their oxygen tanks and hid them away. Qiu Dekao’s team ended up being unable to proceed further. 

Thereafter, Wu Xie returned to Hangzhou to find more information about the archaeologist team that went to the lake with Chen Wenjin, while Pangzi and Men You Ping headed to Beijing to prepare logistics for their expedition into the Zhang Family Mansion.

[End of Book 7]