Chapter 100: An Unexpected Speculation
Looking at the Ship Captain’s already unfocused eyes, Wu Xie bit his lip, feeling somewhat guilty. After all, the Ship Captain had once saved his life, yet he hadn’t even been able to see the Ship Captain’s final moments, and even brushed past the murderer, not even a few minutes before and after.
After spending some time composing themselves, they looked downwards, and sure enough, under the Ship Captain’s body they discovered the figures of other crew members, as well as the Expedition Team Member they had traveled with but hadn’t seen many times.
They hadn’t seen A Ning’s figure on the way here either. If her stamina wasn’t enough to let her cross the entire ocean, then this Expedition Team led by A Ning had truly been completely wiped out.
Fatty looked at this Pile of Corpses with some horror: “Do you think this guy wanted to throw everyone who wanted to enter the Underwater Tomb down there? At a rough glance, there aren’t a hundred corpse bones at the bottom but there are eighty! This person—no, this organization—isn’t afraid of getting into trouble from killing people? Ordinary folks like that would be one thing—”
He pointed at the Ship Captain and his group, then pointed at the Expedition Team Members under them: “Where wouldn’t these people be treasured? The ones who can operate computers, the ones who can interpret documents, and doctors—this fake foreign devil looks professional just at a glance. If someone nets them all at once, wouldn’t their Company come knocking? When the time comes and a whole Company shows up looking for them, what can they do?”
Lin Yan laughed: “Fatty, aren’t you forgetting what we analyzed before? They hold such a big Isolated Island in their hands—would they be afraid of a few small Fishing Boats that need resupply? Besides, we’ve already cleaned out that Underwater Tomb—what are they guarding? Wouldn’t it be nice for him to just stay On the island and eat comfortably?”
Fatty touched his chin: “Makes sense, young comrade. High education really is different—talking in such structured sets.”
Wu Xie and Zhang Qiling had no time to pay attention to their banter. Wu Xie was now certain that this hollowed-out mountain on the Isolated Island was probably the prototype for the Underwater Tomb! In simple terms, Wang Canghai wanted to build an Underwater Tomb, so he had to make a model first! This tomb entirely carved from Stone was his “model”!
But there were still some issues he hadn’t figured out.
As a professional architecture student, Wu Xie recalled the Layout of the Underwater Tomb. He realized that, in terms of layout, it was completely impossible to replicate such an Underground secret room in the Underwater Tomb. The Underwater Tomb was essentially a Sunken Ship Tomb at its core—if strictly following this layout, the Sacrificial Pit would already be beyond the scope of a sunken ship, almost piercing into the seabed.
Also, why was there a huge White Coral Tree and Bronze Bell in the upper secret room of the Underwater Tomb, while here it was Wang Canghai’s Statue? What was the difference between these two?
After Wu Xie raised this doubt, the first to offer constructive opinion was surprisingly Lin Yan: “Wu Xie, have you thought that maybe this Statue was originally here, but this Sacrificial Pit could have been built later?”
Wu Xie thought for a moment before understanding his meaning: “You mean originally this was just Wang Canghai’s experiment for the Sunken Ship Tomb, and this Sacrificial Pit was built by his descendants to worship him? Then that explains why the pattern on that Key is the same as on the Bronze Bell—presumably that Bell was very important to Wang Canghai, so his descendants made a replica? But that descendant must be crazy—why dig a pit and bury so many people?”
Fatty laughed upon hearing this: “Hey, don’t say it—it’s really not impossible. Think about it: if you were this Wang Family descendant, and someone came to dig up your ancestor’s tomb, what would you do?”
“I would…” Wu Xie trailed off into silence, mumbling embarrassedly: “Naturally break their legs.”
Fatty patted his shoulder: “See, you’re the same. He just killed people while you didn’t—though don’t say it. This guy really is impressive—no, probably a group of people. I don’t believe the Wang Family Inheritance has lasted to now with just one or two people. But, young comrade, if you want to let the Ship Captain and them return to their roots, that’s going to be pretty difficult.”
Wu Xie looked at the position of the Ship Captain and them. Just thinking about having to move the corpses out for cremation later, and looking at the more than ten corpses present and that massive Pile of Corpses—Wu Xie felt numb all over.
He looked at the Torch on the wall: “How about we just do it directly?”
Lin Yan and Fatty exchanged a glance, then secretly laughed at Wu Xie’s somewhat awkward expression of being in a bind: “Yeah, at least it saves some effort!” Wu Xie rolled his eyes at them alone.
“No.”
Zhang Qiling, who had been hidden with his Flashlight for a long time, suddenly spoke: “It might not be the Wang Family who did it. If it was the Wang Family, they could have just netted us all when we came out—why let us go.”
Lin Yan thought of the perils in the Underwater Tomb and cracked a grin: “You think they let us go? What if they just thought it wasn’t necessary?”
Wu Xie had initially been scared into a serious expression, thinking some force he hadn’t considered was involved, but hearing Lin Yan’s words, he relaxed: “Right, that Underwater Tomb isn’t something normal people can walk out of. If not for borrowing the light of that dry Corpse, we might have suffocated Downwards! Also, if not for knowing the Forbidden Woman’s Weakness, even if we found a way out, it would be hard to escape from the tomb!”
Before he finished speaking, he saw Lin Yan hesitating to speak, and irritably rolled his eyes at him: “I mean normal people—yours truly who defies science is the exception. You could even bash the Forbidden Woman’s head askew!” Lin Yan nodded appreciatively upon hearing this.
Zhang Qiling nodded, then shook his head: “Two groups of people.”
Wu Xie was puzzled: “How are you so sure it wasn’t the Wang Family?”
Zhang Qiling pointed upwards with his Finger: “When we came in, I noticed this place hasn’t seen people for thirty or fifty years—maybe even the Wang Family abandoned it. Look, the corpse bones under that Corpse pile—except for these recent ones, the others have all turned to white bones! Given the Conditions here, it’s probably been at least ten years!”
Zhang Qiling’s words served as a lead-in, and Wu Xie immediately got it: “You mean someone else discovered this place?”
Zhang Qiling nodded.
Hearing him say that, a terrifying Thought emerged in Lin Yan’s mind: the ones reusing this Wang Family place wouldn’t be Wu Sansheng and them, would they! But if it was Wu Sansheng and them, why would Zhang Qiling point it out? That wouldn’t be asking for trouble for himself! What if Wu Xie analyzed something, making it harder to pit him next time?
Meanwhile, Wu Xie’s just-relaxed expression suddenly turned serious again because of Zhang Qiling’s words—not linking it to Wu Sansheng as Lin Yan thought, but proposing another idea: “You mean there’s another Force. They watched us go down, then killed everyone on the boat and hauled them away, deliberately skewed the GPS just to lure us here to see Wang Canghai’s this test site?”
Damn, Wu Xie putting it that way made it sound reasonable too! It’s not just Wu Sansheng and the Wang Family watching Wu Xie— all the various Forces that appeared in the original work, big and small, are staring at him openly and covertly! What if it was those Forces? After all, damaging the GPS to guide his nephew to clues about himself might seem like something an old fox would do, but an old fox wouldn’t be so careless, leaving so many details linking back to him!
So who’s watching Wu Xie and capable of this… which side? Lin Yan was completely lost. The relationships in the original work were already complicated enough, and now this… could he apply to quit and have the transmigration god take him back while there’s still time?
