Chapter 75: The Shadowy Figure Inexplicably Appearing Deep In The Corridor
The four of them looked at each other in silence for a good while until Fatty couldn’t hold back and spoke up: “How about this—we send two people into the cave first to check it out, keep in touch every one or two minutes, notify if anything is discovered, so we can provide backup from behind. If it’s a dead end inside, we immediately retreat and dig a tomb-robbing hole. How’s that?”
Had to admit, the method Fatty proposed was probably the most suitable right now. So aside from Zhang Qiling who had to go in, who would be most suitable to go with him? Wu Xie, driven by curiosity, naturally wanted to go in, and Fatty really wanted to go too—his magical sixth sense told him there might be some treasure inside.
Thus, the scene inexplicably turned into a battlefield between Wu Xie and Fatty, leaving Zhang Qiling and Lin Yan bored, staring at each other with big eyes. After a few minutes, Lin Yan saw they were really arguing without resolution and stood up somewhat impatiently: “Alright, it’s not like we won’t see it from behind. If there’s no danger ahead, just call us over then, right?”
Zhang Qiling also stood up, settling the matter: “You have good hearing, bring up the rear. Fatty and I will go first.”
“Huh? You’ve already decided?” Wu Xie was still immersed in competing with Fatty and completely did not expect to be arranged in just a few words. Turning his head, he met Zhang Qiling’s gaze directly.
Got any objections?
No no no, you’re strong, do as you please.
Although Zhang Qiling was just looking at him with calm eyes, Wu Xie inexplicably chickened out and obediently stood beside Lin Yan, becoming part of the backup team.
Meanwhile, Zhang Qiling and the elated Fatty had already headed deeper into the cave. Wu Xie saw they weren’t paying attention and quietly asked Lin Yan: “Did you foresee what happens after we go in? Has my Third Uncle already gotten out?”
By now Wu Xie had gradually realized that Wu Sansheng had probably deliberately led him down into this tomb. During this time in the tomb, he hadn’t discovered anything related to his Third Uncle at all—the mechanisms in the corridor hadn’t been triggered and could still be explained by his Third Uncle’s expertise in mechanisms, but there weren’t even any clues in the side chambers they’d been to, and the tomb-robbing holes they’d passed looked like they were dug decades ago.
The only one who could dig a tomb-robbing hole was Xie Lianhuan, who like them had been trapped at a dead end twenty years ago.
All the signs indicated that his Third Uncle’s disappearance was carefully planned—Wu Sansheng might not have come down into this tomb at all!
Wu Xie speculated that only two groups could have done all this: the mastermind from twenty years ago, and A Ning’s company. There was also a possibility that these two had collaborated, otherwise there wouldn’t be such a seamless reason and evidence to lure him all the way here!
So what did these two want from this tomb? Wu Xie’s intuition told him this matter was inseparable from the snake-browed bronze fish!
From the limited clues, among the people who entered the tomb twenty years ago, both Wu Sansheng and Zhang Qiling had lost memories of entering the tomb. Wu Sansheng’s body was still normal, but Zhang Qiling’s body had a problem—he hadn’t aged at all in those twenty years! Xie Lianhuan was dead, the others… currently unknown. The thing Wu Sansheng used to deceive A Ning’s company into starting this project—was it another snake-browed bronze fish? Or did Wu Sansheng know A Ning’s company was looking for the snake-browed bronze fish and used that to lure them here? If so, then twenty years ago, was it also A Ning’s company behind this series of events?
Lin Yan saw Wu Xie’s furrowed brows and knew subconsciously he still didn’t want to believe the fact that Wu Sansheng might be the mastermind, only hoping his Third Uncle had already gotten out safely, and couldn’t help giving him a sympathetic glance: “I’m not a know-it-all, asking me doesn’t mean you’ll get an answer. These things are random, you get that, right? Your Third Uncle might already be safe.”
If he remembered the plot he would say, but he didn’t remember—how would he know what’s inside? It should be safe though, right? He listened carefully and heard no movement behind, so he put his heart at ease.
Wu Xie smiled bitterly and shook his head. Some things he still planned to investigate himself and hadn’t thought of involving Lin Yan and the others. In Lin Yan and their view, not finding him was good news, meaning his Third Uncle was probably safe, but to him, no news was real danger. If his speculation wasn’t wrong, his Third Uncle might not have come down at all! Thinking of that ghost ship that seemed to deliberately deliver the notebook to him, he faintly felt like he had been drawn into some conspiracy.
However, with mist everywhere and too few clues now obtained, he could only go with the flow in the direction they hoped he would advance—this feeling of being out of control… honestly, it was really uncomfortable.
At this time, Fatty up ahead shouted: “Come on over quick, we’ve only walked a few minutes and it’s the end—no danger!” The two perked up and quickly headed deeper into the corridor.
After walking just a few minutes, they saw the end of the corridor.
It was a huge White Coral tree, branching into twelve forks, with some small shiny golden bells hanging on it. Though the golden gleam on the bells was still dazzling under the flashlight’s reflection, looking closely one could see the copper rust inside the bells—they must have been plated with brass back then.
As soon as Wu Xie saw these bells, a familiar thing came to mind. He turned to Zhang Qiling, who was staring blankly at the coral, and asked: “This is… the bell on the Corpse Beetle King?”
Corpse Beetle King? Lin Yan was shocked—if he remembered right, the Corpse Beetle King below Lu King’s Palace didn’t have a bell? Could he have remembered wrong? Had his memory been tampered with too? By whom? Zhang Qiling? “It”?
Zhang Qiling nodded.
Seeing this, Wu Xie became even more convinced of the answer in his heart. His Third Uncle said the snake-browed bronze fish was a coincidence, but the same bells couldn’t be coincidence, right? This underwater tomb definitely had a connection to Lu King’s Palace! But this tomb looked like it was built around the Ming Dynasty, and might even be Wang Canghai’s tomb—the time difference was one or two thousand years; what relation could there be? Could it be that Wang Canghai discovered something while researching and went to Lu King’s Palace?
He thought about it and felt it didn’t add up—if Wang Canghai had been to Lu King’s Palace, why was the snake-browed bronze fish still left behind? He didn’t believe it was because Wang Canghai couldn’t open the treasure box!
Lin Yan thought it over and felt something was off, so he decided to ask Wu Xie: “Is the Corpse Beetle King the one below Lu King’s Palace, the one that chased us all over at the end? How come I remember there was no bell on it? Could my memory be wrong too?”
Huh? Wu Xie snapped out of his thoughts and saw Lin Yan’s somewhat panicked expression, suddenly realizing they weren’t talking about the same Corpse Beetle King: “No, the Corpse Beetle King we’re talking about is the one we encountered in the Corpse Accumulation Cave before we met you. It was a palm-sized corpse beetle with a bronze bell attached to its tail—” he pointed to the bell hanging on the coral, “something like this one, with a big centipede symbiotic inside it. When hungry, it would eat stuff inside the corpse beetle.”
Lin Yan listened and gradually showed a disgusted expression—this meant the corpse beetle ate people, and the centipede ate the corpse beetle? That was bizarre even before the corpse beetle died!
“What you’re saying is, someone took a bronze bell from here to Lu King’s Palace to raise a corpse beetle?”
Wu Xie couldn’t help laughing: “How could—” Suddenly, his smile froze. Why not? If Lu King’s Palace was connected to here, why couldn’t someone take something from here to Lu King’s Palace to make a symbiotic corpse beetle? Symbiotic system, symbiotic blood corpse… Wang Canghai… and his Third Uncle, even the Xie family—what exactly were these people doing?
Fatty on the side obediently raised his hand and carefully interrupted the frozen atmosphere: “Um, this coral isn’t the most valuable thing…”
Wu Xie nodded absentmindedly: “Right, these bells are the valuable ones…”
“What?” Fatty jolted with joy, “These bells are valuable? I saw so many hanging and thought they weren’t—wait, off topic!” He had just reached out to grab a bell when he remembered the main point!
He stepped aside, gesturing for Wu Xie and Lin Yan to look behind him: “Look, what big treasure did we find?”
Lin Yan and Wu Xie looked at that hazy figure and drew in a sharp breath, exchanging a glance before blurting out in unison: “A Ning!” “How is she here?!”
