Episode 2 · The Buried Tree Devil

The Buried Tree Devil

Wu Xie just wants a quiet stretch back home in Hangzhou. Then his phone rings. A childhood friend he hasn't heard from in three years, Lao Yang, is on the other end, and he's got a story: a tomb in the Qinling Mountains, a six sided bronze bell he grabbed before the whole thing went sideways, and a stretch in prison for grave robbing he swears he didn't commit. Wu Xie has seen a bell like that before, which is exactly the problem. So the two of them head into the mountains, and the mountains do not play nice. A salmon the size of a boat drifts through the water. An underground river pours off a cliff into nothing. Somewhere past all that stands an ancient tree that has no business still being alive, and it isn't done with them yet. Lao Yang never cracked what the tomb was hiding, and he's betting Wu Xie can. What he doesn't know is that someone else is already down there in the dark, quietly pulling strings. Why would Zhang Qiling follow them into a place like this and never once show his face?