Fearing that Timur would stop him, Zhuang Rui had already taken off his shirt and pants while speaking, revealing his well-built but not exaggerated muscles.
"Hey...hey!" Timur was about to stop him when Zhuang Rui had already walked into the lake along the shore.
Seeing the worried expressions on Batel and Timur's faces, Peng Fei couldn't help but laugh and say, "It's alright, Brother Zhuang is a really good swimmer..."
Zhuang Rui no longer cared what they were saying. The opening at a depth of about ten meters underwater was like a magnet, full of powerful attraction, beckoning him to enter.
Chapter 1167 Disappearance (Part 2)
"He should be alright, right? Brother Zhuang has a huge lung capacity; his diving record is several minutes higher than the world record. He should be fine..."
After Zhuang Rui returned home from Pirate Island, he showed off in the manor's swimming pool, which is why Peng Fei knew about it.
However, looking at the calm lake surface, Peng Fei was also feeling uneasy. After all, this was not a diving competition, and there was no need to hold his breath so hard. It wouldn't delay anything if he surfaced to catch his breath and then went back down.
"Then let's wait a little longer..."
Dr. Ren said with a worried expression, no longer caring about the old turtle whose shell had already been peeled off. He stood by the lake with Timur and the others, waiting for Zhuang Rui to emerge from the water.
Ten minutes passed, and apart from the occasional fish leaping out of the water, the lake remained silent.
"I hope nothing's happened to Zhuang Rui. It's been over ten minutes..."
Dr. Ren's voice rang out again, sounding so jarring in this quiet place.
"Nothing will happen, nothing will happen..."
Peng Fei seemed to be answering Dr. Ren's question, or rather, he was muttering to himself, his face a little pale.
Twenty minutes passed, and everyone on the shore had changed their expressions. Peng Fei had already taken off his clothes and was preparing to go into the water, but he was stopped by Batel, Dr. Ren, and others.
"Old Ba, I promised my godmother I'd protect Brother Zhuang. If he dies here, I'll have no face to go back..."
Peng Fei, who was being hugged around the waist by Battul, appeared very excited. If he weren't weaker than Battul, Peng Fei would have already knocked Battul to the ground.
"Feizi, calm down. Zhuang Rui is also our good brother, and he's Timur's sworn brother. How can we not worry?"
Batel's thunderous voice rang in Peng Fei's ears. Seeing that Peng Fei's struggling movements had eased a little, Batel continued, "It's not that I won't let you go into the water, but you have to tie a rope with you..."
No one knows what the underwater situation is like, but since Zhuang Rui has gone and never returned, everyone considers this lake to be an extremely dangerous place. Batel knows the relationship between Peng Fei and Zhuang Rui, but he can't just watch Peng Fei go to his death, can he?
Peng Fei took a deep breath, nodded, and said, "Okay, bring the rope..."
"Qiqige, bring the rope..."
Seeing that Peng Fei had calmed down, Batel was overjoyed. The rope was readily available, and it even had a slipknot already tied. He could simply tie the rope around Peng Fei's waist and tighten it.
"Feizi, don't be reckless. If you see anything wrong down there, pull the rope right away..."
Although Batel wanted to go down with Peng Fei, people who live on the grasslands are not very good swimmers, and he knew that if he went down, he would probably become a burden to Peng Fei.
"Peng Fei, if you find Zhuang Rui, you must bring him up quickly..."
Dr. Ren, who was standing to the side, was also very inept at practical rescue skills. He watched Peng Fei with pleading eyes and said that he could only hope that Peng Fei could find Zhuang Rui underwater, because if the drowning time was short, there was still a good chance of saving him.
"I know..."
Peng Fei nodded, then flipped his wrist, and a three-inch-long crescent-shaped knife appeared in his palm. After biting the knife in his mouth, Peng Fei jumped into the lake.
This Swan Lake was formed by tectonic shifts. Unlike ordinary lakes that gradually deepen, this one is waist-deep as soon as you step in. After taking two more steps, Peng Fei immediately felt his feet slip and the lake water had already submerged his head.
The lake water was very clear, and Peng Fei could clearly see what was happening within a dozen meters around him once he entered the water. After surfacing and taking a deep breath, Peng Fei swam to the spot where Zhuang Rui had last surfaced.
"It's not very deep here..."
Peng Fei discovered that the area was only a little over two meters deep. After a thorough search, Peng Fei breathed a sigh of relief because he did not find Zhuang Rui's "body." Peng Fei's diving ability was far inferior to Zhuang Rui's. Every three or four minutes, he had to surface to breathe. After nearly an hour of this, Peng Fei had searched the surrounding waters for thirty or forty meters, but still could not find any trace of Zhuang Rui.
Seeing Peng Fei sprawled on the grass like a dead dog, Batel said, "Fei, take a rest. Or, I'll go down later..."
Peng Fei waved his hand weakly and said, "Old Ba, you can't do it. The current at the bottom of this lake is a bit too strong. You won't be able to stay steady if you go down. Besides, there are a lot of weeds at the bottom. You'll easily get tangled up..."
Peng Fei was telling the truth, because at that moment, his body, which was only wearing underwear, was covered with green seaweed, and even his hair was topped with a tuft of seaweed, making him look like a legendary water ghost.
Unlike Zhuang Rui, who used brute force to pull and break the water plants, Peng Fei used his incredibly sharp knife to cut the water plants off the moment they wrapped around his body.
If it were Batel, who was weaker than Zhuang Rui and less agile than Peng Fei, he might have been left at the bottom of the lake as a wronged soul by the water plants.
"There's no Zhuang Ge underwater. He doesn't seem to be tangled in the weeds. I just noticed a hole on one side of the underwater surface. I'll rest for a bit and then go check the direction of the current..."
After searching the bottom of the lake without finding Zhuang Rui, Peng Fei felt a little relieved. The lake bottom, covered with aquatic plants, was clearly visible under the midday sun, and there was no trace of Zhuang Rui, thus ruling out the possibility that Zhuang Rui had died from being entangled in the aquatic plants.
Although the current at the bottom of this lake was somewhat rapid, even Peng Fei was able to break free, let alone Zhuang Rui, whose swimming skills were several levels better than Peng Fei's.
Therefore, there is only one possibility: Zhuang Rui has entered the underwater cave that Peng Fei saw earlier. Although his fate is still unknown, it is much better than finding Zhuang Rui's body at the bottom of the lake.
If Zhuang Rui had been found dead at the bottom of the lake, Peng Fei truly didn't know how he would face himself. He didn't know how he could ever return to Beijing to face Zhuang Rui's family.
In the current situation, using professional exploration terminology, it can only be classified as missing, and cannot yet be determined as death.
Peng Fei, panting heavily, took the dried meat that Batel handed him and began to eat. He needed to replenish his strength before he could approach the entrance to the lakebed cave to explore.
"Haha, no need to waste words now. Just drag Brother Ren in later, and he'll definitely believe that there's an imperial tomb buried here..."
At this moment, Zhuang Rui was happily laughing in the underground river of the cave more than 30 meters below Batel and the others. Behind him was a small pool of water, with water splashing up from time to time. That was the entrance and exit connecting to the lake outside.
Zhuang Rui, like Peng Fei outside, was covered in green seaweed, but he didn't care at all. After entering the underground river, he found that it was even better than he had imagined.
Putting everything else aside, the mere fact that there is air down here makes Zhuang Rui incredibly happy, something he had been very worried about before.
After all, the underground river is hidden deep underground and has no outlet exposed to the surface. If it were to appear as a vacuum, it would pose a significant challenge to the subsequent excavation work.
The second thing that pleased Zhuang Rui was that he had originally thought the underground river would be pitch black, but when he entered, he found that on the damp rock walls on both sides of the river, there were stones that emitted a faint glow and were covered with moss.
Although the light emitted by this stone was very limited, it was enough to meet the visual needs of an average person. With the help of this faint light, Zhuang Rui observed the situation at the entrance of the underground river directly with his eyes, not with his spiritual energy.
This observation brought Zhuang Rui even greater joy, because he discovered something he hadn't noticed before: there were obvious signs of human excavation on the rock wall at the entrance and exit of the underground river.
This means that those who dug the secret passage connecting the underground river to Genghis Khan's mausoleum were not just digging in a panic, but rather after careful surveying.
While using spiritual energy to survey the area outside, Zhuang Rui focused his attention on the exit of the underground river. However, when he first entered, in order to avoid some unknown dangers, he carefully observed the area around the exit.
This led Zhuang Rui to discover many valuable things. However, the discoveries mentioned above were not the most important. The reason Zhuang Rui forgot about the situation outside and Peng Fei and the others' worries was because he found an iron box four or five meters underground from the pool.
The iron box wasn't buried very deep, only about 20 or 30 centimeters. Due to the dampness of the underground air, the outer skin of the iron box had long since rotted and would crumble at the slightest touch, but the contents inside were perfectly preserved.
This is a box of gold, not the kind of gold bricks, but flattened gold cakes, more than thirty in total, each about the size of a palm, with the words "Borjigin" clearly printed on them. Obviously... this was reserved for the exclusive use of the Mongol royal family.
With these gold ingots and the traces of human intervention at the exit, Zhuang Rui believed that Dr. Ren would no longer ask him to return to Beijing. Compared to any Mongolian imperial tomb, the influence of the Dunhuang documents was negligible.
"These gold ingots must have been left behind by the craftsmen who dug the secret passages. These people weren't greedy; they didn't intend to plunder Genghis Khan's treasure. They only took this little bit of gold..."
Zhuang Rui easily guessed the origin of these gold cakes.
Gold cakes are easier to carry than gold bars, and gold cakes are thinner and more likely to melt when taken out. These skilled craftsmen wouldn't be foolish enough to take gold with the words "Boerjijin" on it out to spend.
Chapter 1168 Water Ghost?
In fact, Zhuang Rui's guess was not entirely correct. Gold ingots were easier to carry, but that was only one reason. More importantly, in that kind of environment, life was not even guaranteed, so how could those craftsmen have focused their minds on wealth?
It's important to know that more than a thousand years ago, as the completion date of the tomb approached, these craftsmen and designers also knew that their end was not far away.
In such a state of constant fear, it was already a stroke of luck to escape with one's life. Why would the craftsmen even think about snatching food from the emperor's mouth?
As it turned out, even with such a chest of gold ingots, they were not fortunate enough to enjoy them, but ultimately gave Zhuang Rui, more than 1,000 years later, a reason to prove that he had discovered the tomb.
"Damn it, more than an hour has passed..."
Just as Zhuang Rui was excited about his discovery, his eyes inadvertently drifted over the waterproof world-famous watch that Qin Xuanbing had given him.
Upon closer inspection, Zhuang Rui realized that an hour and a half had passed since he entered the underground river. He immediately jumped up in alarm. If the space inside the underground river hadn't been high enough, Zhuang Rui would probably have been smashed in and bleeding profusely.
Reaching out, Zhuang Rui picked up a gold ingot bearing the inscription "Boerjijin" and walked towards the pool. He knew that Peng Fei would complain to him to death when he came out.
As for Dr. Ren, Zhuang Rui believed that he would be immersed in the shock of discovering the tomb, and probably wouldn't have a chance to blame himself then.
"Whoosh..."
Just as Zhuang Rui was about to jump into the pool, the water suddenly churned, and with a splash, a dark shadow appeared in the pool.
"Holy crap? A water monster?"
Even though Zhuang Rui was quite bold, he was startled by this sudden turn of events. Movies like "Anaconda" immediately flashed through his mind. Swan Lake covers hundreds of hectares, so who knows what kind of monster might actually appear inside?
Zhuang Rui's mind was racing, and his hands were busy too. He didn't even bother to use his spiritual energy to check what the other party was, and casually threw the gold ingot into the shadow in the pool.
"Ouch..."
"Peng Fei?"
The sound of pain from being hit by the gold cake allowed Zhuang Rui to identify the other party's origin.
"Zhuang... Brother Zhuang?"
Peng Fei was panting heavily as he spoke. Unlike Zhuang Rui, he didn't have the ability to hold his breath. After swimming twenty or thirty meters in the waterway connecting the underground river and Swan Lake, Peng Fei almost suffocated. He was desperately panting and couldn't even feel the pain in his head.
"Hurry up and get on here, I said... what are you doing here, kid?"
Zhuang Rui felt guilty and tried to be the one to accuse others first.
Reaching the edge of the pool, Zhuang Rui pulled Peng Fei up. He then silently used his spiritual energy to see that Peng Fei's forehead was swollen and red. He secretly rejoiced that the gold ingot hadn't hit Peng Fei on the sharp edge.
"Damn it...you, you still have the nerve to say that? We've been missing for half a day, we were worried sick outside, and you..."
Peng Fei was already struggling to breathe, and Zhuang Rui's words nearly made him faint with anger.
Zhuang Rui knew he was in the wrong, and coughed a few times, then chuckled awkwardly, saying, "Ahem, I've just made a discovery, you know. By the way, Peng Fei, let me tell you, what I've discovered here could very well be the greatest miracle in human history..."
"Alright, Brother Zhuang, let's not talk about this greatest miracle yet. If we don't get out soon, we'll become a miracle to be remembered by outsiders..."
Peng Fei, having caught his breath, impatiently interrupted Zhuang Rui. He had never been interested in archaeological exploration, and seeing that Zhuang Rui was safe and sound, he was relieved.
"Yes, yes, let's go out first, let's go out first..."
Zhuang Rui nodded repeatedly. If they didn't get out soon, the people outside might include Peng Fei on the list of victims as well.
After Peng Fei rested for a while, he went out of the pool with Zhuang Rui following behind.
When they entered, the cave entrance had a suction force, so they only needed to watch out for the water plants. However, swimming out was much more difficult. They had to push aside the water plants that were tangling around them. Most importantly, the resistance of the water made every step they took extremely difficult.
Zhuang Rui didn't care. Even if it was difficult, he could swim for a minute or two in a distance of twenty or thirty meters. However, Peng Fei, who was swimming in front, was having a hard time. He had already used up a lot of energy when he went in, and now that he was in front, it was very tiring for him.