Conjuring Curse/Content

## Story

### In 1946

In 1946, in the Gobi desert in Mongolia, a man desperately searches through an underground palace trying to find Wu Laogou and Li Guanzhen. He stumbles over a step and falls down, finding engravings in the floor. Scared he looks around himself and finds stone figurines of laughing children decorating the room. His fear increases when his flashlight stops functioning properly and he hears the figurines start to sing a children's song. Suddenly, a glowing orb appears in the center of the room and a gleaming light is directed at him, making the man stumble upon the stone statues. Instead of being wounded or hurt, the light disappears as suddenly as it came. Wondering what happened he tries to get up and puts on a light stick when he suddenly hears a figurine moving, and he realizes he is moving the same as the figurine. The statue continues moving its head around, breaking the man's neck.

### A letter from an old friend

In present times, Wang Pangzi is trying to open an old antique by picking its lock in front of curious onlookers, when he triggers a mechanism. Zhang Qiling who had watched from the sides, pulls Wang Pangzi and the onlookers into safety while the mechanism shoots sharp needles at them. Once safe, the antique finally unlocks, and Wang Pangzi thanks his friend for the safe. When checking the unlocked drawer, Wang Pangzi only finds stones lying in it.

A delivery man brings a package to Wushanju and Wu Xie goes to pick it up. When checking its content he finds out it is from his grandfather Wu Laogou's old friend, Li Guanzhen, who was just released from prison. Deeper in the package, he finds a smiling stone figurine and a cut off dried finger.

When Zhang Qiling and Wang Pangzi return, the later complaining about the useless stones, Wu Xie immediately asks them to leave. Wang Pangzi reminds him they wanted to retire but Wu Xie tells him they will have to delay their retirement for a few days.

In the car, on the way to Li Guanzhen's address, Wu Xie informs them of the content of the letter. Li Guanzhen reminds Wu Laogou that the time has come now, in a strange riddle. When Wang Pangzi asks about the meaning, Wu Xie explains it is a message for his grandfather, who has died years ago. Considering Li Guanzhen was in prison for over 20 years, they reason he did not know. Wu Xie shares about his grandfather's experiences in an underground tomb in Mongolia with Li Guanzhen, which could only be found with Halley's comet.

Wu Xie, remembering his grandfather's message to follow any message left by Li Guanzhen, is determined to find out what the message is about. They arrive at Li Guanzhen's house but encounter no one. Zhang Qiling is about to break in over the roof but Wu Xie decides against it. Wang Pangzi pretends he smells a gas leak with Wu Xie supporting his act.

Inside the house, they find chaos with the house seemingly abandoned. Wu Xie remembers his grandfather and how he entrusted his debts to his third uncle who did nothing to clear the debts. They continue exploring and find strange markings and drawings on the walls. After going upstairs, Wu Xie finds an old photo with his grandfather on it, and Wang Pangzi comments, they look alike.

Wang Pangzi finds an old cassette and plays it, telling them more about the comet and its phenomena. Wu Xie finds more drawings on the wall, this time of the small stone figurines looking at something coming towards them. They find a message reading "Die at nine o'clock". Just then Li Guanzhen breaks out from under a fabric and breaks down after calling out strange things. They call the ambulance and Wu Xie notices the dried finger belongs to Li Guanzhen.

While Wu Xie and Wang Pangzi stay in the car and think about the notes left by Wu Laogou and Li Guanzhen, Zhang Qiling further explores the house and finds an old map on the walls.

Wu Xie concludes that something was wrong with the underground palace his grandfather went to and that there might be something about "rules", which Li Guanzhen mentioned.

### To the desert

The trio make their way to the Gobi desert in the public bus and they meet Wu Llanghai and his group there. Wu Llanghai shares a story about his grandfather with them about how the grandfather is in the hospital after a stroke and his roommate mentioned something about the comet and the underground palace. Wang Pangzi, guessing they are in the same antique business as them, and that the roommate is Li Guanzhen who woke up in the hospital, tests it and his suspicions are confirmed.

When leaving the bus to continue the path on foot, they confront each other. Wu Llanghai informs them he is not there to kill anyone but also will do so if they do not comply and if they stand in their way. After calling Wu Xie by name, it becomes clear they know who they are, making the Iron Triangle's situation more dire. The group suggests working together, and Wu Xie accepts under the condition of splitting the rewards 3:7, with the majority towards his group. When Wu Llanghai asks for a reason, Wu Xie asks them if they know Zhang Qiling. With Zhang Qiling's presence looming over them, they are disturbed by the sudden appearance of the comet, urging them to start walking.

With them being in a hurry, the groups decide to work together. Wu Xie and Wang Pangzi are waiting for a chance to call the police on the group while the grave robbers decide on a truce for the moment to find the entrance together. They hurry along and Wang Pangzi and Wu Xie realize there satellite phone has no reception.

They run through the desert, desperate to find the entrance, finally arriving at stone formations among sand. Looking at the astrolabe, the reasearcher and strategist of the group, Su, declares they found the entrance. The group starts digging with Wu Xie and the others looking on, when one of the diggers, Ba Tu, finds a skeleton arm with a ring on it. He takes the ring which looks expensive and starts teasing Wang Pangzi with the bone.

Wang Pangzi and Ba Tu confront each other angrily when suddenly the wind starts shifting. A giant sandstorm develops and comes after them, with the ground beneath them breaking down.

### Underground

After falling down the ground, the survivors gather back together and Wu Xie realizes they los all their heavy equipment including shovels which they could use to get back above ground. Realizing they have no other choice, they decide to move onward and find a giant stone wall with writing on it, saying: "The Great Desolation, Death"

Wu Xie figures it means a countdown and referring to 9 a.m. He warns everyone that they need to leave the palace before 9 a.m. or they are facing certain death. At the same time, he figures they will have to enter the palace to find shovels, with Wu Xie reasoning his grandfather came with a full team. If they died in the palace they should still have their shovels. Wu Llanghai seems delighted to know that Wu Xie's grandfather did actually come to the palace but when Wu Xie asks who sent them, he does not receive an answer.

Su identifies a method to open the stone wall and one of the men starts freeing the bricks in the wall carefully. They then remove stone by stone to get through. Wang Pangzi reasons they look like they are doing this professionally. Wu Xie and Wang Pangzi debate about the secrets of the palace and Wu Xie is positive their is a second entrance or exit which his grandfather and Li Guanzhen escaped through and which they can use to leave.

Just then, Ba Tu removes a stone from the wall that releases more stones, making the wall almost break down. Zhang Qiling spots the problem and stops the stones with his sword and body, giving everyone enough time to go through the hole in the wall before he himself jumps through. Behind them the wall breaks down.

Only able to move forward now, they enter a mysterious room full of the little stone figurines and they explore further. They find various writings on the stone walls and floors, warning them of dangers. While some of the group seems to care for the treasure only, Wu Xie and the others worry about the dangers hidden in the palace and what might have caused the previous team to fail.

Wu Xie and his friends decide to go to the left side chamber as this is where Wu Laogou would have started. Just before leaving, Wang Pangzi tells them he already called the police on them, so they should be careful about what they take and leave. Wu Llanghai does not care and tells his men to take everything. Three of the men stay behind to clean the stone figurines and take them with them.

Wang Pangzi reveals to Wu Xie and Zhang Qiling that he still has no reception but that he was bluffing to scare them.

### The rules of the palace

One of the men staying behind, cuts himself with one of the figurines but does not care any further. He starts cleaning the figurines but suddenly feels pain in his eye. He starts convulsing and the other men get worried, before they see his eye is gone. He spits out his eye and it moves to a figurine missing an eye on its own.

In the other chambers, Wu Xie and Wu Llanghai's groups hear the screaming and start running back. Zhang Qiling stops Wu Xie and Wang Pangzi, and warns them to return to the side chamber. Wu Llanghai's group hears the stones shifting and they start running back as well. The walls start closing behind each group and try to figure out what just happened.

Wu Xie remembers a warning written on a stone wall before, informing them of the "Do not backtrack" rule. After checking his grandfather's notes, he concludes that the palace has underground rules, one of them being they are not allowed to backtrack. Not knowing what is going on, Wu Llanghai's group is blaming Wu Xie, but realize that Wu Xie and the others are not at fault. Su asks Wu Xie to share his insight and they inform the others of the rule.

Su and Wu Llanghai decide to test the theory. They send parts of their group in each direction, with Ba Tu tasked with going back to the previous chamber, especially because Ba Tu doubts Wu Xie's words. Du Lan confronts Wu Llanghai about this test, and he claims if he wants to be successful he needs to sacrifice useless people. Du Lan reasons that she should be the most useless of them all but he refutes her.

One of the men encounters a quiet room with more stone figurines but no apparent danger, while Mu Ren enters a room with writing saying "No danger, safe" to the delight of Mu Ren. He then finds the remains of a former explorer and a shovel. He communicates as such to Wu Llanghai but they use another language so Wu Xie and the others do not understand them.

When Ba Tu goes back he encounters the spirit of a stone figurine following and scaring him, making him run back but the palace's trap triggers and the walls start closing. Before being able to arrive at Wu Llanghai's chamber, he is trapped by the walls, with only his arm sticking out of the gate.

Hearing Ba Tu scream, Wu Xie's group realizes the others tested the backtracking theory, and they continue on their way wary of the other group. Zhang Qiling feels the vibrations of the walls and how the walls return to their original form after killing Ba Tu.

Su discovers a pond of tung oil and a boat full of gems in his rooms, catching Wu Llanghai's attention. While Wu Llanghai is on the way to him, Wu Xie reminds them to stick to the rules as they will otherwise endanger them all. Su finds a rule saying to "take them all away" and he figures that the figurine heads in the oil pond are supposed to be taken out to be safe. Wu Llanghai tells Su to get to work and get him the gems.

### Mirrors

Wu Xie and his friends arrive in another chamber full of stone figurines and the remains of a man with a broken spine. They realize he was from his grandfather's team. They explore the room and find mirrors located everywhere, as well as the carving of a crossed out moon on the floor. Just then, a light fixture comes out from the center pillar and throws a beam of light through the room, using the mirrors to travel.

Zhang Qiling recognizes the danger and uses his sword to make Wang Pangzi stumble out of danger, while taking Wu Xie by his arm to stop him from being caught by the light. Zhang Qiling tries to stop the light fixture but it is too fast to take it out from far away. He then starts breaking the mirrors. Wu Xie and Wang Pangzi continue escaping the danger while also trying to figure out how to break the mirrors.

Wu Xie gets his water bottle stuck in the wall and spills its water when he frees himself. Wang Pangzi takes of his jacket to hide the mirrors from the light. Wu Xie sees the spilled water from his bottle on the ground in the sand and advices his friends to use the water on the mirrors to disperse the light. Wang Pangzi uses water and the dirt from the ground to make the mirrors unusable. Just then, the light beam crosses his face.

Zhang Qiling kicks stones towards the light fixture, blocking it from rotating any further and keeping them from the danger of the light for now. While initially thinking he is safe, Wang Pangzi and the others suddenly hear the figurines singing and Wang Pangzi is unable to move. When his neck starts turning against his will, Zhang Qiling uses his strength to keep his enck halfway steady while Wu Xie finds the turning stone figurine. He turnes the neck back to normal until Wang Pangzi is finally free. Wang Pangzi takes the figurine with him just to be safe.

Just when they want to leave, the light fixture starts turning again and uses mirrors on the ceiling to throw its lights throughout the whole room. They are entrapped by the light but Zhang Qiling destroys it, as he is closer now and the light beam is going towards the ceiling. He breaks the fixture and the room starts breaking down. He tells his friends to leave immediately but is trapped by the falling rocks. They are separated but safe. They decide to meet up through another way and continue on, trying to find shovels and other tools first.

### Tricked and trapped

After giving the gems to Wu Llanghai, Su starts removing the black stone heads from the oil pond, following the rule on the bottom, but Du Lan realizes there are sparks coming from them. She tries to warn him but the heads and Su catch fire. Wu Llanghai and Du Lan work together to take out the fire and Su explains that he misunderstood. "Take them all away" was meant towards the heads and the tung oil together, as the heads will catch fire on its own once its exposed to air. To be safe, Wu Llanghai takes one of the heads and the oil together in his jar full of gems. Su reasons with Wu Llanghai that he should not leave him behind as he knows a lot about this job and the myths behind it and they won't make it out alive on their own.

Wu Llanghai hands him his backbag to follow him and starts walking. With him gone for a moment, Su uses the chance to hand Du Lan some gems in secret, telling her it will be enough for her to escape Wu Llanghai as he will not share any of his money with her and she should have her freedom.

At the same time, Mu Ren is waiting for them in the other room, when suddenly a stone rolls over the floor to him. He looks closer and realizes it to be a gem stone. He pockets it and finds more in front of him. He follows it when he realizes he is at the edge of the room about to leave. Hesitating for a moment, his greed gets the better of him and he leaves the room crawling after the stones. Having left the safety of the room, he finds his death outside.

Wu Llanghai and the others finally arrive at his room but find him and the shovel missing, wondering why he left. Du Lan finds an old notebook and a note saying "Flying Night Ghost", an old myth.

The other man, alarmed by Mu Ren's screams, left his room and went on in the hallway, only to be followed by a mysterious being in the form of a stone figurine. It almost kills the man, when Zhang Qiling shows up and saves him, injuring the being and forcing it to flee.

### Sacrifices and myths

Meanwhile, Wu Xie and Wang Pangzi enter a new room, which has a pool of red water on the side. They realize that they have to cross the water and climb the wall to move forward but find themselves confronted by a monster standing in the water. They ponder how to go around it when they see two of Wu Llanghai's men lying in front of the monster. They decide to try and save them. At their side they find one of the men that with the other still alive. Once awake, they manage to inform the man to be quiet to not alarm the monster. They continye on their climb up the wall but the man triggers one of the secret traps, hurting Wu Xie's hand and alarming the monster in the process.

The man deactivates the trap but just when he wants to continue climbing the trap triggers automatically again. Realizing the mechanism of the trap is broken, the man decides to sacrifice himself for the others, as he is already hurt and stays in place to deactive the trap. Wu Xie and Wang Pangzi continue on, trying to climb faster than the monster but Wu Xie loses his grip and almost falls towards the monster when suddenly Zhang Qiling shows up and pulls him to safety.

The friends rejoin together and find Wu Llanghai trailing behind, as they accompanied Zhang Qiling to be safe. Wu Xie explains the structure of the underground palace to everyone, basing it off a drawing he saw in the red room where he recognized the writing of his grandfather, thus knowing the painting to be true.

When checking the time, they realize it is already 7:34 a.m. forcing them to hurry up. On the way, Wu Xie and Su share their knowledge on ancient sorcerers who were proficient in making people believe their illusions and were killed by the imperial court. The few who survived built this underground palace. After Wu Xie shares his insight, Su faces Wu Llanghai's rage for apparently not being as knowledgable as Wu Xie. Su shares the myth on the Flying Night Ghost: During the Jin dynasty, a sorcerer by the name of Du Jiuyou, created a illusion technique with which one could create the Flying Night Ghost, a dangerous creature. Later on the technique was banned by the imperial court as it was deemed as too dangerous.

### Seven violations

They are interrupted when Zhang Qiling finds the main chamber, distracting Wu Llanghai from his rage. The chamber includes more stone figurines, as well as a giant coffin in the middle of the chamber on a narrow pathway. Walking closer, the Iron Triangle finds a new rule written on it, saying they should not open the coffin. Not wanting to break another rule, they decide to keep away from it. Zhang Qiling goes down beside the narrow path to explore possible exits to the palace, while Wu Xie and Wang Pangzi investigate the res tof the chamber.

Wang Pangzi realizes that there are no further rules except the coffin one in the chamber. Wu Xie remarks that except for his grandfather and Li Guanzhen no one might have lived this far. Just then, they see Wu Llanghai trying to open the coffin. They try to stop him but he confronts them with his gun. They manage to get the gun away from him but the man, who Zhang Qiling saved, defends Wu Llanghai with his automatic gun. Wu Llanghai does not give up and opens the coffin nonetheless.

The coffin breaks open revealing an old moving mechanism and golden sand. While Wu Llanghai gets caught up in the golden sand, Wu Xie remembers the myths and stories behind the palace. He realizes that the sand is a remnant of the comet and that it causes unbreakable illusions. Considering they were in the palace for hours and have been exposed to the san, they are already caught in the illusion, with their only escape being exiting the palace. Wondering how they could escape, Du Lan suddenly remarks that there was an additional rule in the first chamber but as she could not read it, she did not mention it so far.

When she writes it down for them, they notice it being a warning that if they break the rules seven or more times, something will come for them. Wondering what might come for them, Wu Xie asks Wang Pangzi how often they violated the rules but in the last moment remembers he forgot to count his own violation of the rules, making it seven violations all together.

### Fight for escape

Right then, a giant monster with multiple faces comes up from below and starts attacking them. It kills Wu Llanghai's man. Wang Pangzi tries to hurt it with the automatic gun but is thrown off the platform, together with Wu Llanghai, hanging onto an iron chain before almost falling down into the depths of the palace. Wu Xie is attacked by the monster with Zhang Qiling saving him and throwing the monster of the platform as well. Wu Llanghai manages to climb back up the rocks while Zhang Qiling informs his friends that there is no exit down below.

Wu Xie and the others figure there must be a clue to an exit and Zhang Qiling goes to distract the monster while they try to find a way. While supporting Zhang Qiling, Wang Pangzi is thrown back against the coffin and Wu Xie is hurt. Du Lan saves them by throwing the glass jar full of the black stone heads onto the monster, setting it on fire. Seeing its reaction, Wu Xie advises Zhang Qiling to use fire. Zhang Qiling manages to throw the monster of the platform again.

With the monster gone for a moment, Wu Xie suddenly notices sand continuously flowing out through the coffin. When examining his surroundings, he manages to look through the illusion and figures out that the sand is coming from two giant stone statues on the cave walls which are spitting the sand towards the coffin in the middle. The mechanism in the coffin works as a sand filter. He explains to the others that their exit are the source of the sand, the eyes of the stone statues.

The monster returns and Wang Pangzi remarks that the stone eyes seem to be closing, as they have to reach it before 9 a.m.. Zhang Qiling sends them all to go first and they start climbing up while he fights the monster. He wedges the monster into the coffin and pushes his sword through its head, successfully killing it.

While climbing, Du Lan loses her grip and is caught by Wang Pangzi's arm in the last minute, with Su supporting her with his shoulder from below. Wanting to save her and knowing he is seriously hurt from the fire, Su helps her get forward at the cost of his life, falling to his death right after pushing her. While they continue climbing, Wu Llanghai, still entranced by the golden sand, is buried by the falling rocks of the chamber.

### Safety

Arriving at the stone eyes, Wu Xie gets lost in an illusion and sees his uncle but is woken up by Wang Pangzi and Zhang Qiling.

The four survivors escape from the underground palace just before it is buried in sand, disappearing for another 70 years. They make their walk through the desert back to the city, getting back to work in their antique business.

Wu Xie informs his friends that he thinks his grandfather was the one removing vital pages from the Grave Robbers notebook, after he had children and grandchildren, not wanting future generations to go towards that danger. Going through his grandfather's belongings, he finds a package of the sand, as well as figuring out that the sorcerers and Li Guanzhen were probably caught in their own illusions after encountering the sand, having been driven insane by it.

With a sudden rain shower coming down on them, the friends enter the car and drive away.

### Mid-credits

On the way to Rain Village, Wu Xie receives a call from Xie Yuchen, asking him to help an old friend from the Mystic Nine in his stead, as he himself and Hei Yanjing are busy. Wu Xie is about to decline but is convinced by Wang Pangzi to ask further and they inquire how much of their debt they can offset if they take the offer. After offering 1%, Wu Xie agrees reluctantly. When asking who the friend is, Xie Yuchen gives a rough answer, telling them the friend will find them in his own way.