If the legends of the Upper Three Gates are mostly tales of heroism, good reputation, or street gossip, then the legends of the Lower Three Gates are mostly tales of infamy.

Especially Arthur Brooks, who can be said to have the worst reputation of all. If Half Thompson is a big thug, then Arthur Brooks is the aircraft carrier among thugs.

Almost everyone knows that this man is capable of anything. His most notorious deed is killing his own disciples. His apprentices would often become rich overnight, only to lose their lives just as quickly.

Arthur Brooks was different from others. He was extremely generous, had almost no family property, and would squander anything he got immediately. So, when his disciples struck it rich, it happened overnight. The skills he taught his disciples were always practical. Before he would raid a tomb, he would study it carefully until he was absolutely sure of success. Then he would find people he deemed suitable, teach them a few things, and go down into the tomb. If it worked out, great; if not, so be it. He would never take responsibility for these people. So, every time they went underground, usually only he would make it out alive. Even if he could save you, he wouldn’t lift a finger just in case. Let alone when he himself was in danger—he’d use others as scapegoats without hesitation.

So, working with Arthur Brooks was a gamble. You never knew when you’d be betrayed, or when you’d strike it rich.

However, Arthur Brooks had one redeeming quality: he always kept his word. He would always make the risks clear to you, and after a successful job, he would never cheat you out of your share. Because of his skill and boldness, many desperate experts would attach themselves to him. This group of people were all risk-takers with exceptional skills. At the height of Arthur Brooks’s power, aside from Half Thompson’s men, the other two of the Upper Three Gates all avoided them.

The most earth-shattering thing they ever did was so vicious and unbelievable that no one would believe it if you told them. At the time, they were camped in a village and noticed the terrain was very peculiar. They asked around and heard that the snow in this village melted earlier than elsewhere.

If the geology beneath a village is unusual, it can cause the ground temperature to be slightly higher, making the snow melt earlier. Arthur Brooks suspected there might be something under the village.

But as for the exact location, there were too many buildings above to make a judgment. They could only search house by house. But working in a village was not like working in the wild—too many prying eyes, so their progress was very slow.

At first, they wanted to buy the key house, but too many people lived in that big courtyard, making it very troublesome. Arthur Brooks made up his mind, gave a gesture: kill them.

That night, they entered the village and, using towels and hooked machetes, killed everyone in the courtyard. Then they piled the bodies in the inner room, covered them with lime, and brazenly moved into the courtyard, searching underground every night.

However, after searching for a long time, they found nothing beneath that house—it wasn’t the right place.

Arthur Brooks then set his sights on the neighboring house. The next day, they snuck in and killed everyone there as well, repeating the same method, but again, it wasn’t the right place.

This went on and on, with more and more people dying. The bodies from the first house were already rotting. Arthur Brooks’s people were like night demons, killing people every night like weasels stealing chickens. In the end, which house to kill in next was decided by casting dice.

There were fewer and fewer people in the village. After half a month, when they left, more than half the villagers had been killed, only to discover they had been wrong all along—there was no ancient tomb.

Afterward, Arthur Brooks was disheartened and left in disappointment. Before leaving, he set fire to the village, leaving behind more than forty corpses, not sparing even children or pregnant women.

This became a major case. Later, one of the disciples got drunk and spilled the story, and all of them were caught and executed, leaving only Arthur Brooks to escape to Guangxi.

After that, Arthur Brooks became much more restrained, and it was in Guangxi’s Wofo Ridge that the story of the Hanging Mirror Palace took place.

We can’t imagine just how vicious Arthur Brooks was before Guangxi, but what we do know is that after Guangxi, he changed a lot. That major case did change something in him.

Old Harris Mr. Walker

Old Harris is my grandfather, the first generation of the Changsha Wu family, a legitimate grave robber from a tomb-raiding village. My grandfather’s nose was ruined in the early days after the liberation. His story is so well known that there’s no need to elaborate. I’ll just mention it briefly.

My grandfather, like Arthur Brooks, also went through a major case, and an even bigger one at that—the Warring States Silk Manuscript case. This case caused a huge sensation at the time, but because it involved so many people, I can’t say much about it. In short, that case almost led to a complete reshuffling of the Changsha grave robbers. After my grandfather was tricked by Edward Benson, he came to Hangzhou, which led to the current situation. From then on, the Old Nine Gates declined and never recovered. This is also why Mr. Walker is so famous. But this fame is not all good—after all, during that upheaval, so many people went to prison, so many lost their heads, and only my grandfather survived. Naturally, there are all kinds of rumors.