After hitting the bodyguard, Mr. Lam immediately revealed a smiling face—the kind of shift that was faster than a Sichuan opera face change.
"Mr. Tang, it's true that it was wrong of me to follow you, but I only did it to protect you. I was afraid something might happen to you. If you were gone, something might happen to that Dai family's little girl as well. I can't just watch you young people fall in this remote mountain like this!" Mr. Lam spoke with such emotion I almost cried.
Ugh… suddenly I felt so nauseated. Hearing those words come out of his mouth, I bet even he got goosebumps.
"Mr. Lam, can't we just be real? You're halfway into the coffin already, why be so hypocritical?" I said with a raised eyebrow and a tone of disdain.
"You—"
Seeing me talk about Mr. Lam like that, the people behind him started to step forward again, but they were all stopped by Mr. Lam. I could tell he wouldn't dare do anything to me—as long as I was still useful to him, I could say whatever I wanted. Nuwa's Forsaken Shade, on the other hand, covered her mouth and laughed, causing Mr. Lam to shoot her a sharp look. Only then did she settle down.
"Okay, let's be honest then." Mr. Lam leaned on his hiking crutch, then came over and sat down close beside me, wanting to talk slowly. But I acted impatient, just wanting to go out and find Philip and the others as soon as the fog cleared. I was worried about what might have happened to them.
"Mr. Tang, leaving everything else aside, don't you think this Mount Zhongnan is dangerous?" Mr. Lam asked me.
I nodded, even though I didn't know what he was up to. The mountain was certainly dangerous. We already had our hands full with Philip in tow, and we hadn't even encountered many demons or ghosts yet.
Mr. Lam clapped his hands at this. "Exactly! This mountain is so dangerous. Never mind looking for the Dai family's little girl—I'm afraid when the time comes, you might not even be able to protect yourselves. What I mean is, why don't we cooperate? Only by joining forces can we be safe. Survival comes first—everything else can be reconsidered later. Don't you think so?"
This Mr. Lam is worthy of being called a cunning old man. His meaning is obvious—just like before when he approached me, he wants me to cooperate with him. But the way he says it leaves you no room to refute, because it's true: only cooperation is most beneficial. He's surrounded by masters, bodyguards, and guns. Being together wouldn't exactly be a loss for us.
This mountain is very dangerous. Safety should be the first priority. If you lose your life, nothing else matters.
Seeing that I was动摇, Mr. Lam went on to say, "I promise—if you find Daphne, you can leave if you want to. I won't stop you, unless you volunteer to come up to the mountaintop with me."
With that assurance, I think it's feasible. Of course, with Mr. Lam, I'd be lucky to believe half of what he says. But I have my own plans. He's cunning, but I'm not naive.
There seems to be something scary in that fog, and it's slow to recede. I don't know what will happen next. Since I'm working with Mr. Lam now, at least I'll have someone to protect me until I find Philip and the others.
It's a deal that doesn't really cost me anything. Once I gather my own people, I can always talk it over again. After I find Philip, I can ditch Mr. Lam anytime I want.
"Okay, I'll work with you!" I clapped him on the shoulder in return.
"Haha, Mr. Tang, you're finally seeing reason." Mr. Lam laughed happily, though his eyes held a trace of cunning, while the corners of my mouth curled into a sly grin.
The human mind works in such a way—it's either me using you or you using me, especially in a place where people can get killed at any moment!
After reaching a consensus, we started discussing when to get out of here. We originally planned to wait for the fog to pass, but it still wouldn't lift. It stayed like that until evening, when something strange happened again—the white fog completely faded, leaving only the red fog. It drifted around like blood, making it impossible to see anything once you stepped outside.
Mr. Lam began to worry. After all, we aren't the only ones on Mount Zhongnan. Unlike me, he's here to find the secret of immortality. If he's one step behind the others, he'll probably regret it for the rest of his life.
I wasn't in a hurry, but Mr. Lam was. He called over the two occult profiteers under him and Nuwa's Forsaken Shade to discuss the situation with us. Mr. Lam said he didn't want to wait any longer; he wanted to push through the red mist. He believed that once we got past this section, the mist should clear—the red fog was only covering part of the mountain.
Then, he introduced me to the two occult profiteers. The big beard is named Didier, though I still prefer to call him Big Beard. He's from the Eight Trigram School, and his Yin-related magic is Yin-related Bagua. Subduing demons and cursing evil are no problem for him. The Eight Trigram Sword on his back has killed one hundred and eighteen ghosts and thirty-five demons. He's a very powerful occult profiteer, and Mr. Lam hired him for eight hundred thousand a year.
The other is called Makaay. He is a Demon Hunter; the compass in his hand is used to sense demonic aura. He's highly skilled at capturing demons and is even ranked among occult profiteers. He's familiar with all kinds of evil spirits.
As for Nuwa's Forsaken Shade, I've known her for a long time and have seen her skills. Let's just say I'm no match for her, so Mr. Lam didn't bother introducing us.
Of course I've seen her—not only seen her, I've slept with her!
But still, when it comes to Nuwa's Forsaken Shade, I feel a bit too weak to look her in the eye.
But she wasn't shy at all—so shameless, in fact, that she reached behind me and groped my bum.
"Ah…"
I suddenly screamed subconsciously, and that's when everyone looked at me. Mr. Lam even asked what was wrong.
I scrambled to explain that it was nothing—just that the names of these two occult profiteers struck me like thunderbolts. Out of respect, out of respect!
Big Beard and Makaay immediately held their heads high, looking quite proud of themselves. In truth, I had no idea who they were and had never even heard of them.
Thankfully, I was quick-witted enough to ease the awkwardness in time. Then I glared up at Nuwa's Forsaken Shade, but she showed no remorse whatsoever and even raised an eyebrow at me with a sly wink.
At this point, Makaay took out his compass and said to us, "When I was in the fog earlier, my compass was spinning wildly. That means there's a demon hiding in the fog—or rather, that fog was created by the demon. It's a demonic fog. And since there were two layers of mist, that means there are two demons."
"Two demons? White Mist and Red Mist… but the White Mist retreated. Does that mean the Red Mist won?" Big Beard analyzed.
Makaay nodded. "Highly likely. Can't rule out the possibility that two demons were fighting over food. Whoever wins… gets to eat."
"Food? What food?" I asked.
"Us! And everyone else in the fog—or around it," Makaay said.
In that case, if we don't get rid of this demon, we still can't get through. We'll never reach the summit. And if we wait for it to disperse, who knows how long that will take.
"What kind of demon is this? Do you know?" Mr. Lam asked Makaay.
Makaay shook his head and said he didn't know yet—the demon hadn't shown itself. If he wanted to find out what kind of demon it was, he'd have to go out and test it a couple of times.