Chapter 140: Cooperate Or… Fight To The Death?
“Killed? What do you mean ‘killed’?”
Hearing the doubt in Wu Xie’s tone, Lin Yan suddenly remembered that although the word “GG” existed, it hadn’t become widespread at this time. He could only explain it to him: “It’s the English letters GG, an abbreviation for ‘good game’. It roughly means when a game is almost over, you send this to the opponent, signifying you’re strong and I’m giving up. In this situation now, it probably means they are… gone?”
Wu Xie generally just passed when it came to language classes in school, so he was a bit confused, but he understood the meaning: “They… died?”
Lin Yan stretched his neck to look at the water pool, where there was no movement other than the sound of the waterfall, estimated the time, and nodded at Wu Xie: “There’s been no movement for over ten minutes. They don’t look like they brought any diving equipment. Wouldn’t a normal person be gone by now?”
Wu Xie couldn’t help but mourn for the loss of a few lives for a second, but then he remembered that these people had just shot at him earlier, and he immediately threw that sentiment to the dogs.
After changing clothes, he moved to the side of the bonfire to warm himself. Lao Yang was still inventorying the wet and dry equipment in his backpack, seeing what needed to be discarded. Wu Xie had a little idea: “You said, if they’re gone, their equipment is still down there, right? Should we grab some supplies?”
Lao Yang looked back at him, and before Lin Yan could answer, he chimed in: “I think, yes! My flashlight is almost dead. If I don’t get a spare, I’ll really be blind by then! And these flares, they’re wet too!”
Lin Yan thought for a moment: “Yours are all wet. If their equipment has been soaking down there for so long, wouldn’t it be wet too?”
Lao Yang’s expression faltered, but he still insisted stubbornly: “Wh-what if!” Seeing that Lin Yan didn’t want to go into the water, he rolled his eyes and turned to instigate Wu Xie to go down and retrieve their backpacks. What if they happened to find something they hadn’t brought? Nothing else was important, but if they could retrieve their guns, it would be much safer in the tomb!
“You don’t need to worry about our guns, little brother. However, I see there’s some extra food here? I wonder if you could share some with us?” A steady voice came from the side. Lin Yan turned his head and noticed two people walking out of the darkness.
Both of them were soaking wet. The person at the front was Uncle Tai, who had pointed a gun at Wu Xie. Behind him followed a panting, and as expected, Master Liang.
At this point, Master Liang’s expression of having the situation under control was gone, replaced by lingering fear. However, towards them, he displayed a hint of arrogance, a kind of condescension that stemmed from his perceived status.
Lao Yang saw the two people suddenly appear and quickly pulled out the handgun from behind him, pointing it back at Master Liang. Uncle Tai was surprised that they still had guns on them, and his advancing steps stopped. The two sides were in a stalemate.
Seeing this scene, Master Liang’s face changed. The sense of security that came with having a gun disappeared, and his expression became somewhat dejected. He seemed to be someone accustomed to a life of ease. Now, having been burned and jumped into water, and then being pointed at by a gun, his inner fear couldn’t be hidden and was evident on his face. He quickly hid behind Uncle Tai.
Uncle Tai also stepped in front of him, appearing as if he were protecting him. But Lin Yan knew that an old fox like Uncle Tai would only protect Master Liang because Master Liang was still useful. If he became useless, Uncle Tai would be the first to abandon him, without them even having to act.
Wu Xie, however, didn’t move. He didn’t dare to gamble on his chances of being faster than bullets. Judging by the current situation, neither side was in good condition. Even if they both suffered heavy losses, the remaining party would not have the confidence to get out of this tomb—perhaps Master Liang knew the route or mechanisms, but a tomb this large, full of dangers, was definitely not something an old hand could navigate with a weak, ordinary person.
Therefore, he was about eighty percent sure that Uncle Tai just wanted to negotiate terms and didn’t actually intend to fight them to the death.
At this moment, it was a test of who would break first.
Wu Xie glanced at Lao Yang. Seeing him staring intently at Uncle Tai, he turned to look at Lin Yan. But Lin Yan was staring intently at Master Liang. For some reason, Wu Xie felt something very strange about Master Liang, but he couldn’t pinpoint why.
Wu Xie didn’t dare to speak rashly, fearing he might accidentally provoke Uncle Tai and cause him to accidentally fire. But Lin Yan wasn’t making eye contact with him, so they couldn’t communicate. Now, they could only see who among them would break first. Whichever side broke would be in a weaker negotiating position.
Regardless, the most threatening figure, the scar-faced strongman Er Mazi, was gone. Master Liang was negligible, leaving only Uncle Tai as a combatant on the other side. On their side, there were three people, so they still had a chance, provided they didn’t provoke him into a fight to the death.
Just as he was about to impatiently speak at the risk of danger, Master Liang from behind them spoke: “Th-there’s no need for such hostility, is there? We could cooperate?”
Uncle Tai seemed not to hear his words, his hand still steadily holding the gun and pointing at Wu Xie. Lao Yang’s hand began to tremble slightly, and a cold sweat broke out on his forehead.
Lin Yan looked around. One was afraid to speak, and the other was too exhausted to speak. The matter of negotiation had fallen to him?
Seeing that Uncle Tai didn’t look like he was going to speak, he said to Master Liang: “Cooperate? What do you have to cooperate with us? My friend has been here once before, and can be considered a living map of this place. What about you?”
Lao Yang listened to these words and panicked inwardly, secretly lamenting: when could he be considered a living map? He had only come down once by chance, and hadn’t even figured out the route properly yet! Lin Yan thought too highly of him!
Master Liang cautiously poked his head out from behind Uncle Tai, and seeing Lao Yang’s gun barrel, he retreated. He organized his words: “My, my ancestors drew a map of the entire tomb! Even if your friend has been here before, they couldn’t have been to every place inside the tomb. I can take you! And Uncle Tai, he’s experienced. If we encounter any unrecorded mechanisms, we’ll still have to rely on him!”
Lin Yan listened to the first half of what he said and turned to look at Wu Xie, giving him a meaningful glance: so they really had a map! Wu Xie, don’t you have some insight into mechanisms? If that Uncle Tai tries to trap us with a mechanism later, can you trap him back?
Wu Xie felt a bit doubtful when Lin Yan asked him this. Although he had plenty of theoretical experience, in practice he had only dealt with one underground palace and one sunken ship tomb, and he wasn’t entirely confident. However, he thought that after experiencing so much, he would still be able to spot any tricks Uncle Tai might pull. If nothing else, it wouldn’t be difficult for the three of them to keep an eye on one Uncle Tai, right? Master Liang clearly looked timid, lacking even the thought of making any small moves.
So he gave Lin Yan an affirmative look and nodded slightly.
Uncle Tai saw their eye contact and narrowed his eyes slightly, but made no move, only tightening his finger on the trigger.
Lin Yan turned back to Master Liang and Uncle Tai: “Cooperation is possible, but it’s best not to let us discover you two making any small moves. We all have guns, and it’ll be a fight to the death if necessary. We’ll undoubtedly suffer casualties, but you won’t be able to get out of this underground palace if we fight!”
Master Liang nodded repeatedly: “Of course, of course!” Then, he busied himself patting Uncle Tai’s shoulder. Only then did the old hand calmly put his gun away, completely unconcerned that Lao Yang was still pointing his gun at him.
Lao Yang saw him put his gun away and then slowly lowered his own, belatedly feeling a dry mouth and parched throat. After recovering his senses, he realized he was covered in a cold sweat.
Wu Xie also finally breathed a sigh of relief and sat by the bonfire, calming his emotions.
When Uncle Tai put his gun away, from Lin Yan’s angle, he could see that he had another gun tucked behind him! One could only say, he truly lived up to his reputation as an old hand, always having a backup plan!
However, Lin Yan had a question: Uncle Tai must have known that Master Liang was a coward, so why did he let him do the communicating instead of doing it himself? Even if Master Liang had invited him, it didn’t make sense!
While he was still pondering this question, Uncle Tai had already walked over and sat down beside him: “Young man, what is that on your shoulder?”
Lin Yan instinctively shielded Xiao Bai Jiang and took it off his shoulder: “That’s none of your business, is it?”
Uncle Tai was unfazed and continued to probe: “This looks like a living thing? I’ve traveled far and wide for many years, and I’ve never seen anything like this underground. Could you give us some insight, young man? After all, cooperation requires sincerity, and we just want to ensure our own safety.”
He looked at this small thing with a wary eye, not forgetting that it was because this little thing bit Er Mazi that Er Mazi ended up like that.
Safety? Security? What nonsense were they talking about? Lin Yan looked at Uncle Tai strangely, a person with two guns in his hands worried about safety? They should be the ones worried about safety!
The corner of his mouth curved into a perfunctory smile: “It’s nothing, just a little pet.”
“A little pet?” Uncle Tai watched Xiao Bai Jiang expertly rub into Lin Yan’s arms, but he couldn’t probe any further. What if he accidentally provoked this little thing and it bit him too.
Thinking of Er Mazi’s fate, he shivered subtly without drawing attention to himself.
At that time, after Er Mazi was bitten by Xiao Bai Jiang, he was drenched by the water jet and immediately let out a scream. He wanted to pull Er Mazi back, but he found that Er Mazi seemed a little off.
Er Mazi lowered his head, covering his face, and stumbled towards them. Master Liang was still shouting, “What is this thing? Should we go down too? What if we can’t go down later? Those two people are already gone!”
It was incredibly noisy, he could only make a decisive move: “Let’s go down too!” With that, he led the way into the water.
Looking at Er Mazi, whose lower legs were in the water and for some reason not moving, he didn’t have time to pull him and could only call out for him to follow. He only realized after stepping in that the water was probably hotter than the hot spring, and it even stung a little when he stepped in. He looked at the spring eye that was still gushing water and white steam, understanding that if they didn’t swim down further, they would either be scalded to death or miss this opportunity.
Master Liang almost got scalded back to the shore as soon as he came down. It was a middle-aged man who had been silent the whole time who pulled him down again. After coming down, Master Liang kept shouting, “It’s scalding, it’s scalding!” For some reason, Er Mazi just stood there motionless, completely unresponsive.
As he passed by, the middle-aged man kindly tugged at him, causing him to stumble and fall directly into the water!
“What’s going on?” Uncle Tai was pulling Master Liang forward, enduring the increasingly high water temperature. Although Er Mazi was just his subordinate, he had been with him for several years, was absolutely loyal, and was a very useful tool. If possible, he still didn’t want to give up on this subordinate.
Seeing that he had caused trouble, the middle-aged man quickly helped Er Mazi up from the water, but as soon as his hand touched him, he knew something was wrong: “Uncle Tai, something’s wrong, his body is stiff!”
“Shut up!” Those in this line of work had many taboos; things like zombies were forbidden words, and they could at most be called “zongzi”. Uncle Tai’s heart sank when he heard him say that, sensing something was off. He remembered that Er Mazi was simple-minded and would usually make a fuss for a long time, but now he was silent.
Could that little white thing be to blame? Had Er Mazi already died?
He didn’t dare to approach for a moment, slowly drawing his gun in preparation, and told the middle-aged man to help Er Mazi up to check. The middle-aged man dared not disobey Uncle Tai’s orders and nervously helped Er Mazi out of the water.
Er Mazi’s whole body was stiff; it was more like he was being carried out than helped up. As soon as he was out, the middle-aged man knew something was wrong. His hand instinctively loosened, and he looked at Uncle Tai in panic: “His eyes are turning red!”
It was indeed wrong! Uncle Tai’s expression changed: “Throw him back in quickly, and let’s go!”
Master Liang was already in pain from the heat and quickly agreed: “Exactly, I’m about to be scalded to death!”
The middle-aged man nodded quickly. Just as he was about to throw Er Mazi back, Er Mazi’s hand moved! He abruptly grabbed the middle-aged man’s arm and opened his mouth, revealing a mouth full of white teeth!
The middle-aged man was terrified. He fell back into the water, no longer caring about the scalding temperature, and retreated repeatedly: “Er Mazi, what are you doing? Don’t come near me, don’t come near me! Uncle Tai, save me! Uncle Tai!”
He looked at Uncle Tai, who quickly shot Er Mazi. The shot hit Er Mazi precisely in the back of the head, splattering blood all over the middle-aged man’s face and mouth, but Er Mazi’s actions continued!
Under the disbelieving eyes of Uncle Tai and Master Liang, and the terrified gaze of the middle-aged man, he bit into his throat!
There was no saving him! Amidst the middle-aged man’s loud screams and incoherent pleas, Uncle Tai put away his gun, abandoned them, and pulled Master Liang to prepare to head downstream along the river. Seeing Uncle Tai do this, the last spark of hope in the middle-aged man’s eyes dimmed. With his own strength, he couldn’t push Er Mazi away at all, and he knew he would probably die here.
What a shame!
But less than a second later, Uncle Tai returned. He remembered that if Er Mazi had become like this because of that little thing, would this condition be contagious? If the middle-aged man also became like this, would they face a situation where they had to swim while being chased? Right now, it seemed this thing was interested in living people. He couldn’t just abandon Master Liang, could he? Then this trip would have been in vain, wouldn’t it?
So he turned back and, just as the middle-aged man was about to die, dragged them, along with Er Mazi, towards the spring eye with the highest water temperature! However, the weight of two adult men was too much for him to drag alone, so he had to call Master Liang: “Quick, throw them in there, otherwise, if he changes too, we’ll all die!”
Master Liang, already terrified, scrambled over and grabbed Er Mazi’s feet to throw him in. In the face of death, even someone as weak as Master Liang could muster the strength to throw a person.
Looking at the person blocking the spring eye, whose body was turning red from the high temperature and gradually shifting to a reddish-white color, Uncle Tai felt he couldn’t stay a moment longer. Seizing the opportunity while the hot water was blocked, he grabbed Master Liang and stumbled away!
Not long after, due to the continuously rising water temperature and pressure, the two bodies behind them, like bodies steamed in a pressure cooker, gradually separated bone from flesh, becoming skeletons wrapped in rotten flesh and clothes! Consequently, the spring eye could no longer be blocked, and a large amount of hot water, carrying the two bodies, rushed downstream, leading to the large cloud of white steam that Wu Xie and the others had seen before!
