Iron Bull taucht wieder auf

Kapitel 125

Guan Baoling stamped her foot in confusion, then explained with a wry smile, "I know this sounds funny, which is why I didn't tell you everything. Although I'm not an expert in ancient Chinese culture, I know that such a thing couldn't possibly appear on a Buddhist pagoda in Japan, especially not some 'sea god plaque'—after she disappeared, I've always wanted to go out and find out what happened, but my diving skills are terrible, and I don't have the courage..."

I laughed for a while, then stopped to conserve my energy. After several dives without any necessary calorie replenishment, I could feel my energy levels rapidly declining.

"Between the fourth and fifth dives, she rested for only a short time, probably no more than three minutes, because she looked very excited, her cheeks were flushed, and her eyes were shining, as if she had discovered a treasure that could turn the world upside down. I didn't understand what the 'Sea God's Plaque' was, I just wanted to know when we could return to Fengge Temple. She didn't say anything more and hurriedly returned to the water, and then she was never seen again."

After calmly recounting the incident, Guan Baoling smiled somewhat embarrassedly: "That's all about the 'Sea God's Nameplate.' I was wondering, since she wasn't in the water, could she have discovered something and entered through some secret passage... entered..." She didn't finish her sentence, apparently unaware that even if a secret passage was discovered in the vast, boundless deep sea, it wouldn't lead to the surface.

Guan Baoling is very clever; if Reese hadn't mysteriously disappeared, she wouldn't have said those things to make me laugh. Telling such a story to anyone would probably only elicit laughter.

"It's actually very simple. I just need to swim out and circle the tower once to see if there are any signs. Don't worry, if I find a way out, I won't abandon you, never!" I wanted to hug her tightly, even though she mentioned the tycoon again and again, intentionally or unintentionally hurting my heart. I couldn't let go of this deep and unforgettable love.

"Sigh—Feng, there are some things I want to tell you, but I don't want you to misunderstand. Perhaps we should wait until we get out of this predicament..."

She started rambling again, stamping her feet lightly and staring at the dozen or so palm-sized fluorescent crabs burrowing in the sand at her feet, looking preoccupied.

I don't want to hear anything more about her and the tycoon. If it's repeated a few more times, it might really drive me crazy and kill me.

"Miss Guan, let me make one last effort. After I come back, we can talk slowly about everything, okay?" Before she could answer, I had already walked towards the tower gate.

"Okay!" she said as I stepped into the sea.

Without directions, angles, or oxygen equipment, finding a sign on a seven-story tower is no easy task. But I understand that since Reese has exited the tower several times through this door on the first floor, it must be very close to the sign and no higher than the door on the second floor.

I strode slowly through the water. In the distant depths, many bioluminescent aquatic creatures drifted by, some moving as fast as fleeting shooting stars, others like headlights flashing in opposite directions, swimming straight toward me; some moved in straight lines, while others danced irregularly like fireflies… As I prepared to move upwards from the original position of the gate, I suddenly noticed a recess about one meter long and fifty centimeters high, just forty centimeters above the entrance. I gestured with my hand; the recess was at least ten centimeters deep.

"This seems to be the place. If there really was a plaque embedded in the tower, it should logically be here. Where did the plaque go? Did it get taken with Resica when she disappeared?"

Back in the tower, I felt all my joints aching, especially my shoulders and hips. These were the areas that exerted the most effort while constantly paddling underwater, and therefore I was the first to feel the danger of exhaustion.

If only there were a bottle of strong liquor or a campfire, at least it would ward off the cold, but now there's nothing, not even food or water. There's nothing we can do but endure it.

I checked my watch; another twenty-four hours had passed. In this dim light, it was impossible to distinguish between night and day.

"I need to sleep for a while, I'm too tired. After I wake up, I will continue to look for the whereabouts of that sign. Perhaps the key to all our escape lies on the sign..." I must have a fever, because I keep feeling cold and my whole body is trembling.

Since leaving Italy, I haven't been sick and have long forgotten the taste of pills. When I collapsed on the cold stone steps, I tried to curl up as much as possible, hoping to forget the cold, regain my strength as quickly as possible, and go back to the sea to search—the decline in physical strength was only part of the threat; the most deadly panic came when we began to feel hungry and unbearably thirsty.

I was really sick. Besides feeling cold, my body was trembling uncontrollably, and I was burning up with fever. In my hazy state, I felt Guan Baoling lie down next to me, holding me tightly, absorbing my feverish body heat with her own body, and her arms were wrapped around my neck, her face pressed against my forehead.

I don't know how much time passed, but I woke up from my coma several times. I knew Guan Baoling was vigorously rubbing my forehead, using the most traditional Chinese scraping therapy to treat my illness. My mind was a complete mess. One moment I saw the mysterious stars in the "Well of Spirits," the next I saw Tengjia, clad in golden armor, lying peacefully in a coffin, and then I saw the self-immolating Dragon Monk, the self-immolating Bingjian, and the self-immolating Master Bumenlu—"Sulun, Sulun, Sulun..." I heard my own heart calling out. At this moment, what I needed most was Sulun by my side, not to go to that damned Epang Palace.

The Epang Palace was burned to ruins by Xiang Yu, that much is certain. So many historians and tomb raiders have verified this, so why bother digging into the details aimlessly?

The sound of bubbles seemed to echo in my ears again, rolling up from the deep seabed, carrying with it an incomparably mysterious and enlightening sound.

"Brother! Brother! Where are you?" I will never forget the important reason I came to Hokkaido, never. I remember I once intended to search through all the books in Xunfuyuan Study, and to make a separate list of those related to the mysterious prophecies of "The Centuries." Besides "The Book of the Underworld," "The Centuries" is also the key to unraveling the mystery of my brother's disappearance.

"What did my elder brother discover in 'The Centuries'? He spent his life robbing ancient tombs, and it wasn't just for money, fame, or the treasures of the dead. He had a much greater pursuit, I'm sure of that. Otherwise, he wouldn't have continued to wander the world and search for something even after achieving fame and success."

My head was throbbing terribly, as if it were about to explode. I was desperately trying to regulate my breathing, hoping to use internal energy circulation to dispel the cold and wind that had invaded my body. I held onto an unwavering belief: one day, I would make the arrogant tycoon bow down before me. To truly win Guan Baoling's heart, I had to defeat the tycoon, surpassing him in every way—money, power, influence, and ability.

"I need to find a way to break the black magic, help the tycoon get rid of the strange illness as soon as possible, and then be a fair competitor!" In a daze, I kept turning over on the cold steps, and I could almost always feel Guan Baoling's cool palm on my forehead.

"She's mine, she belongs to me! She must be mine!" When I thought of Guan Baoling, I subconsciously clenched my fists, as if that would keep her forever, forever in my palm.

The coma and the bizarre dream kept playing out in my mind—I saw a dozen gray military submarines flying over the glass box, but they couldn't see us at all, hidden under the seaweed. The bright underwater searchlights pointed straight ahead, completely unaware that such a large and strange building was hidden right under their noses.

I wanted to scream, but my throat felt like it was stuffed with cotton, both choking and painful, and I couldn't make a sound. I couldn't even speak or breathe, like a fish thrown onto the beach, barely alive, waiting to die.

"How can I... get back to the surface? If I could come in by accident, could I also leave by accident? What is the Sea God's Plaque? Why is it written in ancient Chinese characters and embedded in this strange building? Where is Reese? Where did she go? Where did that plaque go?"

I woke up, my head still throbbing, but at least my mind was gradually clearing. Actually, I was woken up by a noise, because Guan Baoling kept shouting in a hoarse voice, "Feng, get up! Look what's happening, I'm so scared! I'm scared... Get up..."

She was so frightened that she screamed and cried, shaking my arm violently.

With my head feeling as big as a bucket, I forced my eyes open and found myself lying diagonally on the steps, with Guan Baoling's black fox fur coat underneath me.

She knelt in the center of the glass floor, her arms raised and flailing limply in the air.

"What... happened? What's wrong?" I propped myself up, feeling utterly weak and exhausted. A wave of dizziness washed over me, and I almost lost control and fell back down. I don't think I've ever had a fever this high before. Although I didn't have a thermometer, I roughly estimated it to be over 40 degrees Celsius. My joints ached, and my stomach felt like it had drunk too much strong liquor, burning intensely, accompanied by waves of dry heaving.

“There’s a mysterious hole beneath our feet! Look, it’s a… hole, a hole with a glass lid… What is that? Is it the palace of the sea god or the eighteen levels of hell of the devil? Come and see…” Guan Baoling’s voice trembled so much that the syllables broke, and she couldn’t utter a complete sentence. She couldn’t express herself at all.

I took a deep breath, forcefully gathering my inner strength, allowing the heat stored in my dantian to slowly circulate through my meridians. In this severe illness, it was really not suitable to risk using the "Disintegration Technique," so I could only proceed slowly, gradually propping myself up, forcefully twisting my neck, and looking down at Guan Baoling's feet.

My serious illness and physical exhaustion caused my eyes to glaze over and my vision to blur. After a dozen seconds of adjustment, I was able to see that strange changes were taking place beneath the glass floor.

It was as if a powerful blower was frantically blowing against the sand bed, swirling up large swaths of off-white sand, driving away all the seaweed, pebbles, and sandworms along with the swirling sand. In the area where the sand was moving most violently, a pit more than a meter in diameter and deep had formed, from which a strange red light was being projected, as if a powerful searchlight covered with a red cloth was working below.

The red light shone through the glass floor and struck the roof of the first floor, forming a red spot of light with a diameter of nearly one meter.

I was six meters away from the sandpit, my view was obstructed, and I couldn't see what was below, but I could sense that the source of the red light was very strange—although it was called "light," its composition was completely different from that of light on Earth, because it was not actually a simple, empty ray of light, but rather like a thick "light fog" with actual mass.

If we had a high-powered optical magnifying glass, I think we could definitely analyze it and see that it is a "light fog" carrying countless particles. But how could fog enter this space through the glass? Did it break through the glass?

"Get up! Wind—my legs are weak, I can't stand up at all, help me..." Guan Baoling was kneeling on the side of the sandpit. This was in the mysterious deep seabed, separated only by a layer of glass. The vivid sense of terror was something that a weak girl could hardly bear.

Everywhere, sand was swirling and turning, but the working blowers were nowhere to be seen. The sandpit continued to expand, gradually extending to her feet, and then red light quickly enveloped her.

"This luminous mist looks really strange. Could it be some kind of intense corrosive ray..." I dared not waste any more time. My inner strength suddenly surged, and I jumped up, staggering forward. My normally standard and beautiful fish-like leap was badly distorted by my illness. My foot slipped, and I involuntarily crashed headfirst into the floor.

Taking advantage of the momentum, I reached out and grabbed Guan Baoling's arm, pulling her away from the misty light.

Guan Baoling screamed and we both crashed into the corner of the wall.

I craned my neck, looking down at the swirling sand beneath me. Countless grains of sand tumbled outwards in a pattern resembling blooming flowers, suggesting the wind originated from the seabed. The deepest part of the sandpit reached two meters, and the red light seemed to be growing stronger. When it shone on the roof, I even worried that the entire building would be penetrated and destroyed by the red light.

"Feng, what is this? Tell me what this is... what? What?" Guan Baoling hugged my neck, her cold face pressed close to mine, her teeth chattering like a frightened kitten.

I put my arm around her shoulder and gently shushed her, signaling her not to speak. The strange phenomenon before us could perhaps be explained as the buoyancy clearance process of a submarine about to surface, which would then slowly raise the hull's spine to the surface, with cables and markers being released in sequence, and signal lights activating.

As I thought this, a smile suddenly appeared on my face, and I said to Guan Baoling in my arms with a self-deprecating tone, "It's okay, maybe it's just a submarine. Such monsters are uninvited guests in the ocean. It is said that there are more than 6,700 of them lurking in the Pacific Ocean, belonging to twelve countries around the world."

I'm not making this up; the figure of over 6,700 ships comes from a secret Pentagon report.

The super hacker Xiaoyan would occasionally send top-secret information to my email, such as nude photos of a certain country's president's mistress, the latest account password of a certain country's head of state in a Swiss bank, and more often, reports from the Pentagon's dark channels that the Americans considered to be top secret.

He enjoys probing all the secrets of the Pentagon, claiming he wants to use the "red flag" on his finger to liberate that evil capitalist society.

All of this made me both laugh and cry, because those things meant absolutely nothing to me. My hobbies are tomb raiding and antiques, and that kind of information usually doesn't appear in Pentagon reports.

If what we're standing on is just a submarine, it would actually be something to celebrate for Guan Baoling and me. No matter which country it comes from, it belongs to humanity. Even if it captures us and takes us away as research subjects, it's better than being imprisoned in this strange glass box forever.

Feeling greatly invigorated, I suddenly felt a surge of strength. Leaning against the stone wall, I sat cross-legged, trying my best to channel the Qi from my dantian into the eight extraordinary meridians of my body, dispelling the cold, dampness, and toxins. Even if I were to become someone else's prisoner, I couldn't be too pathetic; I had to maintain some semblance of dignity.

"Just a submarine? But... but how could it be buried in the mud and sand on the seabed? Although I've never been on a submarine, I filmed a movie about naval warfare last year, and it's obvious that it can't work in the sand. Wind, tell me the truth, I'm really... scared to death—" Guan Baoling reached out and rubbed her chest, her face pale, and her big eyes radiating a cold light of despair.

She curled up tightly, her eyes fixed on the ever-expanding area illuminated by the red light, while she sobbed pitifully.

I let out an "Ah!" and choked. The excessive fever must have really messed up my thinking.

Submarines are not sand dredgers and certainly cannot operate under sand beds; otherwise, their circulation and propulsion systems would be completely destroyed by the ubiquitous sand. The maximum extent to which their hull can penetrate the sand worms is no more than one-third of its length. However, it is quite clear that the object emitting the red light is completely buried in the sand, at a depth of at least eight to ten meters; otherwise, we wouldn't have remained completely unaware for so long.

"Sorry, I'm a little confused—" I slapped my Baihui acupoint hard, using the internal force to vibrate in my skull to clear my head.

Guan Baoling was just trembling, her left hand with its ten sharp fingers constantly making the sign of the cross on her chest.

As the red light gradually enveloped the entire glass floor, I mustered all my strength to pull Guan Baoling up and run towards the stairs.

The properties of this "light fog" are unverifiable, but I suspect it may contain radiation of unknown origin—I have seen the green smoke emitted after a chlorine bomb breaks in many science documentaries; it is highly corrosive and can turn a burly man into blood.

Guan Baoling was panting heavily and almost collapsed on top of me.

The sealed glass box must have blocked out the sound as well; otherwise, the powerful airflow system would have deafened people with its noise from the airflow, water flow, and sand swirling.

The Sixth Sea God Plaque

— Chapter 2 — The Mysterious Cave on the Sandbed —

After about an hour, all the sea sand under the glass floor had been cleared away, revealing a vertical cave ten meters deep. We sat at the corner of the stairs, our view slightly obstructed, and could only see a smooth surface at the bottom of the cave, from which the red light was shining.

"It looks like a giant glass searchlight, doesn't it?" I muttered to myself. Anyone can make common-sense mistakes, like when I just thought there was a submarine buried underneath. Guan Baoling has worked with powerful Hollywood directors on more than four war films in the past two years, so she has some knowledge of military installations since World War II and wouldn't blindly believe what I said.

Guan Baoling trembled even more violently. It seemed that the glass box we were in might fall into the cave and be buried by the endless sand.

The crimson mist had filled the first floor of the space, and it was even spreading upwards along the stairs, like swarms of red ants climbing the stone steps. I helped Guan Baoling stumble and staggered all the way to the top floor, hoping to find temporary refuge.

"Look, look—" Guan Baoling fell from my arms, pointing upwards with all her might, her expression one of extreme fear, her pearly white teeth chattering faster and faster.

Not only was she terrified, but I was no exception, because at that moment the seawater outside the glass roof was already a deep red from the red light, especially the seaweed nearby, which was as red as the finest red coral.

"Don't worry, don't worry, it'll be alright..." I couldn't think of any more fitting words to comfort Guan Baoling; the outcome of this situation was completely unpredictable. My gaze followed a panicked crab trying to escape from the red mist. At least it was luckier than us, not having to sit helplessly waiting to die in this predetermined glass box. Perhaps, when the red light from downstairs reached our feet, it would all be over.

I looked at my watch again. The hour, minute, and second hands were all still, as if deliberately defying me, completely motionless.

"Looks like I should switch to a different watch brand!" I laughed self-deprecatingly. Red light, deep cave, the burial of sea sand that follows, the complete end of life—many people come to Hokkaido to search for the "underwater tomb of the gods." Are most of them not the ones who have found the legendary "tomb of the gods," but have instead set up a "sea tomb" to bury their entire lives?

"What is down there? An underwater military base? An alien nest? The birthplace of UFOs? Or the mythical palace of the sea god, the deep sea hell..." Imagination can stretch to the far reaches of the horizon, but the red light has already climbed completely to the third level. At this rate of ascent, the glass box will soon be occupied by the red mist.

"Feng, there are some things I must tell you. This is the last chance." Guan Baoling cleared her throat forcefully, stood up straight, and looked serious.

I felt the situation wasn't as bad as she made it out to be, and I was certain I wouldn't die quietly here. So I raised my hand to stop her: "No need to say anything more, I don't want to hear it. We still have a chance. Resica has already escaped from the glass box, and we can too, we definitely can!" This wasn't just blind optimism; I believed I was more than ten times more agile and powerful than Resica. If she could escape, so could I.

Forget about the deep-sea pressure and the ferocious fish on the ocean floor for now; with an inexplicable fear of the red fog, let's focus on the immediate situation.

I walked toward the tower gate, taking deep breaths all the way, hoping to expel the germs and toxins from my lungs so as not to affect my diving time.

"What are you doing? Wind, don't leave me, don't abandon me—" Guan Baoling cried out, her voice filled with sorrow and anguish. She used all her strength to shout these words, but her hoarse voice suddenly went silent, her mouth opened, and she couldn't utter any more words.

I stepped over, grabbed her waist, and steadied her as she was about to fall.

I read the words "No...don't..." from her lips, and then she trembled violently, her long hair shook a few times, and she suddenly fainted.

"I will never abandon you, never. Even if we are all destined to die, we will die together." I laid her flat on the ground and plunged into the sea without hesitation.

The seawater had turned completely red, as if a large amount of dye had just been poured into a water tank. However, the view was now clear, allowing for quick swimming to search for the possible presence of Resica and the so-called "Sea God's Plaque".

Imagine that before Resica left the tower for the last time, she told Guan Baoling that she had made a major discovery and was very excited. This is enough to prove that the plaque was very useful and could provide her with a lot of interesting information, which is why she rushed out again despite her exhaustion.

"Where's the plaque? It wasn't embedded above the tower door on the first floor, so Resica must have gotten it. She didn't take the plaque back into the tower to carefully decipher it, but its whereabouts are unknown. Could this plaque have the power to transport people through time and space, instantly sending her away?"

Using some special object to travel through time isn't too far-fetched in the 21st century; I can easily accept this theory. However, I also want to swim to the bottom of the glass box, hoping to observe the cave that emits red light from the outside. If I have to die anyway, wouldn't it be better to see more new things?

Only when you have a mindset that disregards life and death can you truly relax your body and mind to the extreme, and the resistance of your arms paddling in the water becomes much lighter.

The underwater world was completely illuminated by red light. When I swam to the entrance of the third floor of the tower, I discovered that the ten-meter-deep cave had an extremely large opening, exceeding the size of the glass box. It looked like an ancient tomb excavation pit dug into flat ground, with the surrounding sand beds turned outward at a forty-five-degree angle, and red light permeated everywhere.

"In this situation, the glass box should have fallen to the bottom of the cave, right? What reason would there be for it to be floating in mid-air without any support?"

When the box first fell to the seabed, it was able to stay still thanks to the support of the sand bed, but now the sand bed has been completely swept away, and the cave is filled with seawater with limited buoyancy, so the box will definitely fall freely.

I lay flat on the ground, channeling my inner energy to the top of my head, and focused my gaze into the cave. The core of the red light was too dazzling to see clearly, but I could sense that the source was coming from a point in the infinite distance. To its side were many enormous supports of indistinguishable colors. Next to the supports were countless, neatly divided square boxes, densely packed together, surrounding the supports.

If my deduction is correct, the cave surface currently on display is only part of a structure—"A structure? A mysterious underwater structure, could it be the legendary 'underwater tomb'?" My emotions immediately turned tense and excited. I gulped down several mouthfuls of cold water and then spat out a long string of red bubbles.

I need a telescope, even a civilian-grade one, so I can at least see how the supports are constructed or what's inside the divided boxes. When viewing anything in red light, the visual distortion is misleading, introducing personal illusions. Unfortunately, I have nothing and can only observe with my naked eye, and even then, in poor visibility.

I suddenly thought of the checkerboard-structured tombs in the Pyramid of Tsarist Russia. Those flat structures, divided into 361 rooms, would they have the same visual effect if viewed from above?