Chapter 287: Diving
In the escort vehicle, An Fang’s deputy turned back to glance through the guardrail gap at Fang Mu sitting in the back seat with closed eyes and bowed head, remaining silent, then turned back to An Fang in the passenger seat and asked: “Captain An, do you believe what he said?”
An Fang shook her head and said: “Not entirely, but I tend to think he’s telling the truth. It’s just that he himself doesn’t fully understand some things. The content he told us is merely what he believes to be the ‘fact’.”
The deputy pulled out a stack of documents from the leather bag placed behind him, drew out a portion of them. He had read them repeatedly many times, but each reading still made him feel incredulous. He sighed and said: “It’s really unimaginable. This person is actually Soldier Fang Peng’s son. From Soldier Fang Peng’s glorious deeds, he and his son really don’t resemble each other at all, except for their faces.”
“Don’t you think the father and son look too alike?” An Fang suddenly said coldly.
Hearing this, the deputy looked at the old photograph clipped in the middle of the information, which showed “Fang Peng” in military uniform. He frowned slightly and said matter-of-factly: “Isn’t that natural? After all, they are father and son.”
“Look more carefully.” An Fang’s eyes turned, glancing sideways at her deputy in the back seat.
The deputy felt that An Fang must have noticed some detail he had overlooked, so he quickly flipped through all the photos in the information that featured “Fang Peng,” comparing them with Fang Mu’s appearance while looking back.
As he compared and compared, a chilling dread spread in the deputy’s heart. His body trembled uncontrollably. He looked at An Fang in shock: “He… they… could it be that they…”
“Mm.” An Fang nodded meaningfully, her eyes full of intent. “Since even you can discover it, it means I didn’t see wrong.
I admit that there are strangers in this world who look very similar, but I don’t believe there are two people who are identical even in body posture, habits, and details of appearance.
Yet, the action habits they unconsciously reveal when speaking, the posture when silent in deep thought, the black mole on the left cheek… are astonishingly consistent.
You know, even a clone produced by cloning technology couldn’t look exactly the same as the original.
So I guess this Fang Peng, and now Fang Sen, are actually the same person.”
“But! But… how is that possible, getting younger the longer he lives?” The deputy’s voice rose unconsciously, but he quickly noticed his volume was off and immediately lowered it, saying incredulously.
“I don’t know, but what can be determined is that it’s related to the anomaly on them. Didn’t he say he was cursed by an abnormal god? Let’s assume that’s the case for now.” An Fang looked at the scenery outside the window. The shallow riverbank they were about to reach was their destination.
The deputy quickly put away the information with a serious expression and said gravely: “Captain An, things are probably more complicated than imagined. We need to be careful.”
An Fang nodded slightly. After the car stopped steadily, she got out, glancing obliquely at Fang Mu coming down from the escort vehicle carriage.
“This is the place you mentioned, right?” An Fang said when Fang Mu walked beside her. She actually had one special discovery she hadn’t explained to her deputy, which was the way Fang Mu looked at her.
Perhaps it was a talent honed through experience, she was extremely sensitive to gazes. At the first meeting with Fang Mu, a complex emotion like a glance of a thousand years was revealed in his eyes. The continuously changing gaze flashed with surprise, guilt, helplessness, and regret, all indicating that the other party seemed to know her, which surprised her greatly.
Fang Mu looked at this small river, recalling the scene of him crawling out from the river, nodded, and said to An Fang: “Yes, this is it, but I can’t confirm now if the nail hammer I mentioned is still down there.”
“Dive.” After hearing Fang Mu out, An Fang immediately ordered her team members.
All members of An Fang’s team obeyed immediately without hesitation, stripped off their clothes, and stepped into the cold river water, diving headfirst once they reached the depths.
“Not sending me?” Fang Mu was somewhat surprised.
An Fang glanced at him. “Do you think we’d feel at ease letting you act alone?”
Fang Mu smiled: “I won’t run.”
After a few minutes, the diving Mysterious Group members resurfaced, gasping for breath while clearing water from their heads, reporting that they found nothing.
Everyone looked at An Fang, waiting for her command, but soon noticed her expression turning gloomy and ugly.
“One person is missing!” An Fang said through gritted teeth. “Xiao Liuzi is gone!”
Hearing this, everyone’s hearts skipped a beat. They looked around to search, and sure enough, one teammate was missing.
“This… how is this possible? I saw him diving right beside me earlier!” a Mysterious Group member who had been near the missing teammate said in some terror.
“Maybe taken away.” Fang Mu was not too certain. He glanced at An Fang again. “Let me go down and look. Maybe I can find him.”
He recalled his previous life, in the instant he was submerged by the flood, in the blink of an eye he was taken by the Toad God to the mysterious ancient palace where It resided. He thought the missing team member had likely encountered the same thing as him, probably in grave danger.
An Fang gazed at Fang Mu, didn’t immediately agree, but said to the team members standing on the water surface: “Dive once more. Find Xiao Liuzi and the nail hammer!”
“Yes!” The Mysterious Group members looked solemn. This time they mustered twelve times the spirit and dove into the water again.
A few minutes later, when the diving Mysterious Group members resurfaced, they counted numbers, and sure enough, more were missing—this time three more!
Everyone realized the severity of the situation. An Fang’s deputy was enraged, immediately grabbed Fang Mu’s collar, lifted him up, and angrily said: “What the hell did you do!?”
Fang Mu barely tiptoed like a ballerina, breathing somewhat uncomfortably, and said: “Weren’t you watching me the whole time? And I reminded you at the start that diving is dangerous. Better let me do it.”
“Tell me, what’s under the water!?” The deputy ignored what Fang Mu was saying and sternly pressed on.
Fang Mu: “Can’t be certain, but I think they have entered another realm, the dwelling place of the Toad Frog God.”
Abnormal God realm?!
The deputy gritted his teeth in hatred, wanting to punch Fang Mu right away, but was stopped by An Fang. She only said: “Chen Ping, Zhao Qiao, you two stay. Everyone else, withdraw from the river. Fang Sen, you dive.”
Fang Mu immediately said “Good” and agreed.
The deputy turned back and said: “Captain An, I’ll go down too. I’m not at ease.”
An Fang looked at her deputy for a few seconds, saw his resolute expression, and finally nodded, showing the utmost care to her subordinate. “Be careful.”
The deputy vigilantly glanced at Fang Mu, removed Fang Mu’s shackles, then both changed into diving gear on site, walked together into the cold river water, met up with the other two on the riverbank, and dove in together.
Fang Mu adjusted to the discomfort of underwater vision. Perhaps stimulated by the river water, his eye ability activated unconsciously again. He saw the several missing team members, pale-skinned, swimming in the river water before, heading toward somewhere. Suppressing his uneasy heartbeat, he followed the “afterimage” only he could see.
The deputy kept watch on Fang Mu’s movements and immediately caught up when he saw Fang Mu purposefully swimming away.
