Chapter 129: You Call This A Little Snack?
Wu Xie was startled by what Lin Yan said and also remembered that soaked zombie that had relentlessly pursued them under the underwater tomb. Seems… reasonable! What if a Forbidden Woman comes out from here too? Besides, Lin Yan’s mouth…
He glared at Lin Yan: “Just shut up. What if you really jinx it? Let’s go, hurry up and go. Wouldn’t it be better to honestly look for the tomb? Why did we come down out of curiosity?”
Lin Yan innocently shrugged his shoulders. Wasn’t it just fear? Why blame him? Crow’s Mouth and such wasn’t Fatty’s exclusive trait, what did it have to do with him? If there was anything in this pool of stagnant water, it would have been startled out by them long ago. No need to wait until now, right?
He leisurely followed behind Wu Xie and Lao Yang, watching the two of them struggle through the water, unable to speed up even if they wanted to. When they walked too fast, they even stumbled, and he couldn’t help laughing out loud: “Alright, why are you panicking! If there was something in the water, wouldn’t it have come out already? In this narrow space only a few meters wide, what big thing could it possibly hide? During a storm, maybe some small animal falling from the sky is possible! Best if some fish come out, at least we can have a little snack!”
Wu Xie’s annoyed voice came from ahead. For some reason, everything Lin Yan said made him especially uneasy, always feeling like something would leap out from the water: “Shut up, Lin Yan! What if you really summon something? We’re less agile in the water than on shore. Isn’t this asking for trouble?”
Lin Yan shook his head and stopped talking, but inwardly he still disagreed: They hadn’t even reached inside the tomb yet, how could anything happen? If something happened, how would the plot continue? What was Wu Xie thinking!
Just as they were about to climb up from the water pool, Xiao Bai Jiang in Lin Yan’s arms suddenly stirred, wriggling as if wanting to burrow out. Lin Yan had let it out casually after exiting the stone door. Xiao Bai Jiang rubbed against his face and directly jumped onto his head, letting out the same sound it made when warning the monkey group toward the back: “Lur—”
“What’s going on?”
Wu Xie had just reached the middle of the pooled water and turned back upon hearing the unusual sound: “No way there’s really something, right? Why did Xiao Bai Bai suddenly cry out?”
Lin Yan shone the flashlight backward, but saw nothing except the constantly rippling water and waves: “Seems like nothing… Could there be water monkeys here? Do water monkeys count as monkeys?”
Wu Xie was stunned for a moment: “You hurry up and climb up too. Maybe something really happened to it? The longer we stay here, the less safe it is.”
He turned his head and saw that Lao Yang had already climbed up two or three meters, couldn’t help being astonished. That was too fast!
Suddenly, in the water surface between him and Lin Yan, a triangular dorsal fin appeared, shaped like a shark’s. Wu Xie was watching Lao Yang and didn’t notice, but Lin Yan saw it. It was already too late to warn: “Watch out behind! There’s something!”
Just as he said “watch out,” Wu Xie didn’t even have time to turn back to see what it was before that thing rammed him from the side, slamming him against the stone wall and bouncing him back toward Lin Yan. Xiao Bai Jiang’s cries from behind grew sharper, but it was no use.
Lin Yan quickly moved toward Wu Xie, seeing him unsteady after being slammed into the stone wall, sinking for a second before steadying himself and recovering. “You okay?”
Xiao Bai Jiang then stared at a spot and started crying again. Wu Xie drew his dagger with a reverse grip, looking where Xiao Bai Jiang’s two small eyes were fixed: “Lin Yan, get out of the way, it’s coming for you!”
“What?” Lin Yan glanced left and right, and sure enough, saw that familiar dorsal fin charging at him from the right! He barely had time to draw the dagger from his waist when he stepped aside, but that thing was already upon him!
“Holy shit, stab it!” Wu Xie shouted tensely while rushing over.
As he stepped back, Lin Yan felt he had mostly avoided the impact zone, but unexpectedly, the thing underwater was quite large and he didn’t fully dodge! He only felt an extremely strong force hit his right waist. Now he understood why Wu Xie had been launched from the middle of the pool straight to the wall!
This thing was really too strong. Even while shoving him, it swam over ten meters, slamming him back to the spot where they had hesitated for a long time earlier, unsure whether to proceed! Damn, now it was his turn to be smashed into the wall. He seemed to hear a splat, but ignoring whether Xiao Bai Jiang had also hit the wall and fallen, he first steadied his footing to avoid choking on water.
“Lin Yan!” Wu Xie called out worriedly. Luckily his position was at the passage entrance, not far from Lin Yan, so he stopped wading and simply swam over with a half-walking, half-flailing motion.
Lin Yan sensed the thing’s momentum slowing, probably planning to swim away and charge again. Ignoring the pain from the impact, he reached back with one hand to grab it while stabbing down with the dagger in the other!
The thing, in extreme pain, struggled violently. Even with Lin Yan’s strength, he almost couldn’t hold it! Just then Wu Xie arrived, felt for the thing’s position, and stabbed down with his dagger too!
During this, the thing turned to flee, but Lin Yan yanked it back with a reverse grip, not sure if he grabbed the side fin or the tail. The two of them were dragged forcefully into the stone path by it. The flashlights dropped, who knows where. In the darkness, they didn’t know how long they stabbed. Wu Xie’s hand grew tired from stabbing before the thing gradually quieted and stopped moving.
During the fight, both their flashlights had fallen into the water. Luckily, they bought waterproof ones this time; fishing them up should still make them usable. Wu Xie looked back along the path they came and saw a beam of flashlight light approaching, with a head floating on the water surface.
Lao Yang’s voice came from behind, somewhat trembling: “You, you guys okay?”
Wu Xie then remembered there was still that guy who stayed silent and ran first when they were in danger: “You fucking ask if we’re okay? Why’d you run so fast?”
From behind, Lao Yang saw the entire water passage filled with that thing’s fresh blood, looking extremely horrifying. If not for seeing the two of them still standing without issue, he would have wanted to call 120 directly.
He gave an awkward smile, feeling a bit guilty: “I, I didn’t… It happened too fast. I was up in two steps, no time… I saw when I looked down that you were already gra—grabbing and stabbing it. I thought it was fine, no need for me to come down.”
Wu Xie didn’t really plan to get mad at him. What he said was true. From the incident happening to them turning the tables and madly stabbing the thing with daggers, it was only dozens of seconds. Lao Yang was almost at the top then; jumping down and reaching here would already be fast. Couldn’t blame him.
After waiting another dozens of seconds to confirm the thing in Lin Yan’s hands was dead, Wu Xie had the strength to flip it over for a look: “What the hell is this? How is it so strong?”
Lin Yan held the thing’s side, letting Wu Xie feel from head to tail: “Holy shit, how is this thing so long?”
Wu Xie felt it over once. This unknown fish-like thing was at least two and a half meters long. Just as he wanted to check the head, Lao Yang came over from behind and handed them another flashlight: “These, these two flashlights, one got smashed. Only—one left usable.”
Lin Yan took it and looked. This flashlight also had a crack, probably not long for this world. Luckily, they had a spare in the backpack, so it should be fine.
By the flashlight light, Wu Xie struggled to pry the thing’s head upward but suddenly let go: “What is this?”
“What happened?” Lin Yan saw Wu Xie pull his hand out, stopping halfway to his mouth.
Wu Xie showed him his hand tearfully. There was a deep wound on his index finger almost to the bone, fresh blood still oozing out nonstop, dripping down and mixing with the blood in the water: “This thing has spines on its head!”
