Chapter 73: Thanks For The Equipment From The Sea Monkey!
No way, is Xiaoge this fierce? Lin Yan, who only dared to peek out after hearing no more movement, saw Zhang Qiling unscathed solve the sea monkey. Fatty and Wu Xie both changed the way they looked at him, especially Fatty who hid behind observing the whole time.
“Holy shit. Zhang Xiaoge, you’re this!” Fatty rushed over ecstatically, giving Zhang Qiling two thumbs up, then squatted down to carefully observe the sea monkey that had gone still. “So, this is the sea monkey? Is this thing turned from a human or a monkey? Why does it look so much like a human?”
Lin Yan heard no more movement outside, and saw Fatty come over, so he knew the sea monkey had been dealt with. He leisurely walked out from behind the pillar: “I really don’t know about this, but earlier when I came, I asked the ship captain. He said he’d encountered this kind of thing before, and it took several people dying to solve it. Almost invulnerable to blades and spears, super fast, with sharp nails. Getting scratched once probably means you’re done for. If Zhang Qiling wasn’t here, we’d be lucky to escape at all.”
Upon hearing “invulnerable to blades and spears,” Fatty’s eyes lit up, ignoring the latter half completely—anyway, this sea monkey was dead now, right? “Invulnerable to blades and spears? Then these scales on it… valuable?”
He held the dagger, eager to move, looking ready to take action if they said it was valuable. Lin Yan saw this and silently glanced at the two packs still on his back, cruelly dispelling his idea: “Don’t even think about it, no space to carry them.” He patted the backpack to show the remaining space, gestured the size of a small bottle, then estimated the sea monkey’s scales.
“If you really want to pack them, you could probably fit five or six pieces.” Facing Lin Yan’s sincere gaze, Fatty was silent for a moment, showing a surprised expression: “So, you can still pack some?” Talking while his hands didn’t stop, the dagger cut along the seams of the sea monkey’s scales: “Even if it doesn’t sell for money, with this hardness, it can make armor or something, for saving one’s life!”
At these words, Lin Yan also felt moved, squatted down and joined Fatty’s happy team of prying off scales: “Makes sense, save some for me too!” How hadn’t he thought of this? This underground place was so dangerous and he was so weak—how could he do without something for saving one’s life? He glanced at Wu Xie beside him, still immersed in shock at Zhang Qiling instantly taking out the sea monkey. Sigh, this kid was so pitiful, getting smashed by him every day—might as well bring some for him too.
But shouldn’t he test it first? He pried off a rough scale resembling fish scales, half a palm big, that faintly reflected rainbow colors under the light source, placed it on the ground, and tentatively poked it.
“Sizzle—” After an unpleasant friction sound, the scale seemed elastic, causing the dagger to slide off it. Lin Yan’s eyes lit up—this could deflect force! Then he took a deep breath, raised his right hand sharply, and tried stabbing down with his current maximum strength!
After a “ding” collision sound, the scale actually cracked in the middle, and Lin Yan’s dagger plunged straight into the ground unimpeded.
Wu Xie and Zhang Qiling turned at the sound, seeing Lin Yan squatting on the ground with a dumbfounded expression: “Huh? Why can’t I pull out my dagger?”
Zhang Qiling looked at him, narrowed his eyes, then said: “That dagger’s ruined, toss it.”
Huh? Couldn’t he still use it if he pulled it out? Lin Yan looked at Zhang Qiling in confusion. Beside him, Wu Xie sighed, walked over and patted his shoulder, pointing beside them: “Look, the dagger’s tip has chipped off. Even if you pull it out, it’s useless. But after that tomb-robbing hole incident, don’t you have any idea about your own strength?”
Lin Yan’s gaze followed his finger to the small piece of blade embedded far into the golden silk nanmu pillar on the right, and he fell silent. He knew his strength was great now, but he hadn’t expected it to be this great! Grabbing a person and carrying them off was already outrageous enough; using force that could chip a dagger was even more outrageous!
No, force is mutual, so doesn’t that mean… Lin Yan looked at the sea monkey with gleaming green eyes, like staring at a treasure trove. He decided: no space? Fine, at least pack as many as possible. Back home, ask Wu Xie’s family for help forging some protective gear for vital spots—wouldn’t that be great? No one could stop him from saving his life!
Meanwhile, Lin Yan asked Wu Xie for his dagger, and he and Fatty enthusiastically set to work around the sea monkey corpse, corpse water flowing and rotten flesh flying everywhere underground for a moment. Wu Xie really couldn’t stand the scene and smell, felt deep sympathy for the sea monkey, and walked aside to start observing the heavenly palace model.
Zhang Qiling glanced at them, frowned, thought for a moment, then walked back to the tomb-robbing hole they came from, found the stone slab that had originally covered the cave entrance beside it. After a brief thought, he figured out where the sea monkey had hidden before. The slab probably wasn’t knocked open by Fatty—it was moved by the sea monkey, and Fatty just happened to bump into it. Then the sea monkey hid behind the slab until everyone turned their backs, seizing the opportunity to attack Wu Xie.
He forcefully moved the stone slab, putting it back over the cave entrance.
Sure enough, not long after, the stone slab vibrated slightly, with muffled growling sounds from inside, and black hair trying to drill out.
Wu Xie heard the movement and quickly called Lin Yan and Fatty: “Come quick, there’s movement here—maybe the Forbidden Woman caught up!”
Fatty and Lin Yan saw Zhang Qiling squatting by the stone slab pressing down hard, with some black hair already emerging beside it, long strands even entangling Zhang Qiling’s ankle. They hurried over to help press the stone slab. Seeing help arrive, Zhang Qiling stood up, swiftly slashed, and cut off all the emerging Forbidden Woman hair.
Once the Forbidden Woman’s hair was attacked, it seemed enraged, the stone slab trembling even more violently. Fatty felt like he could barely hold it down. Lin Yan saw this, pressed down hard with both arms, causing outer stone chips to fall rustlingly. He actually pressed the slab bit by bit into the tomb-robbing hole. The black hair drilling from the gaps seemed to feel pain—some persisted in emerging, while others quickly retracted. The Forbidden Woman’s pained hissing could be heard from inside.
Gradually, the Forbidden Woman’s sounds grew quieter, as if exhausted. After a few more minutes of no movement, they dared to remove their hands from the stone slab. A thin layer of black hair had fallen around them. Wu Xie disdainfully brushed the wet black hair off his legs and shoes. Though not germaphobic, seeing this Forbidden Woman hair now gave him a bit of trypophobia.
Seeing it solved, Fatty and Lin Yan went back to prepare to continue, while Zhang Qiling walked to one of the bronze mirrors in the room, observed it carefully, then gently moved it aside.
Seeing Zhang Qiling get to work, Wu Xie hurried to the other side of the bronze mirror to help: “This is the passage you entered from back then?” Zhang Qiling said nothing, just after moving the bronze mirror aside, stared at the pitch-black large hole, then silently went to Lin Yan to grab a flashlight.
“Time’s running out.”
Leaving these words, he took the lead into the cave. Wu Xie wanted to follow but was worried about Lin Yan and Fatty, torn for a moment. But a few seconds later, seeing Zhang Qiling’s shadow nearly gone, he gritted his teeth and said to Lin Yan and them: “I’ll go in first to check with him—you guys hurry and catch up once ready!” Then he turned on the searchlight and followed Zhang Qiling in.
Lin Yan was immersed in the joy of removing scales and couldn’t extricate himself. Only when Wu Xie shouted did he notice the two were gone, so he poked Fatty: “Where are they?”
Fatty looked around, pointed at the hole behind the bronze mirror: “They went in, right? Didn’t he just say we’d regroup once we’re ready?”
Lin Yan wanted to keep prying scales, but thought better of it—not safe without following Wu Xie and them. Especially without Zhang Qiling’s figure, he felt the grand hall eerie, like something was about to lunge out. He decisively said to Fatty: “I think we have enough—should we chase up sooner? What if some mechanism separates us again, and we’re trapped here, that’d be trouble.”
Fatty thought about it—yeah, what if another sea monkey comes? Without Zhang Qiling, they’d be easy prey. He stopped too, looked at the pile of scales on the ground, then at Lin Yan’s bulging pack, winked at him: “Then here’s the problem—these… how to pack?”
