I looked at Zhang Hua for a long time before giving him a thumbs-up: "It's a pity you didn't enter the martial world. With this ruthlessness alone, you could achieve great things."

Zhang Hua laughed, "Hall Master Li, can we talk now?"

I put down my machete: "Speak!"

Zhang Hua said, "I have no other requests. I only need Hall Master Li to open Erlin Town and send me in. I can handle the rest myself."

I couldn't help but look at Zhang Hua: "It's that simple?"

"Hall Master Li, don't underestimate this deal!" Zhang Hua said seriously, "Jie Sanbao has sent no less than a hundred people here, and not one of them has been able to enter Erlin Town."

"Although there are no术士 (shushi, Taoist masters) among those people, more than half of them are highly skilled experts."

Hearing this, my eyes flashed. Zhang Hua doesn't know our real purpose?

If he knew that Jie Sanbao wanted to bring Jie Yueling back from Erlin Town, he probably wouldn't have set the exchange conditions so low.

Regardless of whether Jie Yueling is the true master of Erlin Town, taking a ghost deity away from there will affect the structure of Erlin Town, and Zhang Hua's purpose may not be achieved.

I said calmly, "You mean, the conditions for opening Erlin Town are very harsh?"

"Yes!" Zhang Hua said, "Over the years, I have constantly collected local legends and deduced them repeatedly. Finally, I discovered the secret of Hat Mountain."

"The secret of Hat Mountain is not in the mountain, nor in the feng shui. If you blindly search the mountain using術道 (shudao, esoteric Taoist arts) methods, you won't find any clues even if you dig three feet into the ground. The real secret is hidden in Jiufengou (Nine Graves Gulch) behind Hat Mountain."

"The terrain of Jiufengou is relatively open, and you won't find it if you don't look carefully. It's no different from ordinary mountainous land! However, it is the gateway to Erlin Town."

Zhang Hua took a towel from the car and wiped the blood from his neck as he said, "This matter has to be traced back to the late Qing Dynasty."

"During the late Qing Dynasty, a first-rank official named Na Rongxuan emerged here. The rise of the Na family was not legendary. The family was a genuine Old Eight Banner family. They had never held high office, but they had plenty of business dealings. It is said that they held a high position within the Eight Banners, and many banner people had to be careful around them."

"Na Rongxuan's education, imperial examinations, and official career were all natural and logical. No one suspected anything was amiss."

"However, if you look closely, you will find that Na Rongxuan was a prodigal son when he was young. It was not until the third year after his father passed away that he began to rise, and he rose unstoppably."

"Later, it was rumored that the Na family's ancestral grave was located in a place with excellent feng shui, which allowed Na Rongxuan to rise. Some people began to secretly observe the Na family's feng shui, and finally discovered the secret of the red hat."

Hearing this, I couldn't help but ask, "Isn't the feng shui arrangement at Hat Mountain one of alternating good and bad fortune?"

"Yes!" Zhang Hua nodded, "But ordinary feng shui masters can't see this arrangement. Even if they do, what can they do?"

"In that era of serving the emperor like serving a tiger, if you chose to float in the officialdom, you had to be prepared for the day when the court would execute your entire clan. The feng shui of a small Hat Mountain not only corresponded to the world but also corresponded to people's hearts."

Zhang Hua continued, "When the Qing Dynasty was still around, the entire Hat Mountain was the Na family's private territory, and no one dared to go up the mountain. When the Qing Dynasty fell, some people began to covet Hat Mountain."

"After the Qing Dynasty fell, the Na family also declined, and many people buried their ancestors on Hat Mountain."

"The families who buried their dead hoped to produce a first-rank official like the Na family, but unexpectedly, every family produced bandits. Government troops came to suppress the bandits, and the bandits also fought among themselves."

"Two-thirds of the four villages on the left and right sides of Hat Mountain were massacred. If you count the number of deaths, it's no different from executing an entire clan!"

"However, no one thought that the problem lay with Hat Mountain."

"Later, another notorious bandit emerged in this generation, nicknamed 'A Gust of Wind'. A Gust of Wind was different from other bandits. His purpose in becoming a bandit was to become an official."

"A Gust of Wind was single-mindedly waiting to be recruited. However, at that time, warlords were fighting each other, and the world was in chaos. Who would recruit a bandit? A Gust of Wind somehow got the news that the Na family was able to become a first-rank official because they occupied the feng shui of Hat Mountain, but Hat Mountain could only bury one person."

"Meaning: Only one person can wear a hat at a time. If there are too many people, it won't work. Otherwise, why was only Na Rongxuan's father buried on Hat Mountain, while others had separate ancestral graves?"

"A Gust of Wind felt that this made sense, so he brought people to dig up the graves on Hat Mountain."

"He overturned all the graves, large and small, on Hat Mountain, and even dug up the old Na family's ancestral grave."

"A Gust of Wind thought that the old Na family's ancestral grave must contain a lot of good things, so he personally supervised his men to open the coffin."

"The old man's coffin was as if it had been welded shut. The bandits bent their iron bars, but they couldn't open the coffin. At that time, someone advised A Gust of Wind: 'There's a spirit in the coffin; the person inside is pulling on the coffin lid, not letting you open it!'"