Iron Bull taucht wieder auf

Kapitel 122

My nose suddenly felt a little itchy, so I covered my mouth tightly, turned my face away, and sneezed softly.

She was startled awake, suddenly raised her head, and with a flick of her black hair, it all went back behind her.

“Miss Guan, it’s me, Feng.” I smiled apologetically at her, but I saw endless confusion and bewilderment in her eyes.

"I'm so glad you're back!" This is the truth. Guan Baoling's reappearance can quell all the tycoon's accusations, the Divine Gun Society and Fengge Temple will be safe and sound, and a huge weight has finally been lifted from my heart.

"Is it another hallucination?" She reached out, her cold fingers pressing against my forehead, sliding and groping gently, like a severe sleepwalker.

I squatted quietly, letting her hands slide over my head, face, and shoulders. Her face was pale and haggard, her chin was sharply pointed, and her already thin shoulders trembled incessantly.

"Is this not a hallucination? Is it really you?" Her lips trembled. This image was no longer that of the glamorous and admired leading Chinese actress under the spotlight, but rather that of a pitiful little girl, lonely and helpless in hardship.

"It's me." Perhaps I should open my arms and give her a warm hug, because she looks tired and cold right now and really needs someone to warm her up.

Guan Baoling withdrew her hand, then suddenly lunged forward and bumped into my arms. Her body trembled, and she wrapped her arms tightly around my waist.

I held her in my arms, a wave of happiness washing over me. At that moment, I truly held Guan Baoling, the "tycoon's woman" who had once haunted my dreams. Her body was so light and soft, reminding me of the little pigeons and kittens I used to hold as a child, carefully cradling them, afraid they would be startled and run away.

"Thank you. I was really scared. This place is so cold and quiet, it's probably hell on earth... I don't know what I did to deserve this punishment." She murmured against my chest, her tears soaking my clothes.

I patted her shoulder gently: "It's okay, it's okay, it's all over now. You're back, just like last time at Xunfuyuan Villa, didn't you come back safe and sound?"

These were just ordinary words of comfort, but she suddenly sat up, released my waist, and blinked repeatedly as she looked around. All she could see were stone steps and walls emitting a faint white light; there shouldn't have been anything particularly strange.

“Come back? No, no, we’re still here, how could we ‘come back’? Don’t you think these stone walls and steps are strange? And, and… there’s something even stranger down there…” She pointed downwards, the fiery red nail polish on her fingertips gleaming brightly.

My mind was still reeling. Perhaps that tender embrace had sent my thoughts and soul soaring to the heavens? I couldn't understand what she was saying at all.

"Down there? I know that Tengjia and Master Shenbi are on the first floor. Let's go down! They'll be so happy to know you're out of danger!" I was still hesitating whether to tell her that Daheng had been to Fengge Temple, afraid that she would abandon me immediately after hearing about Daheng.

Once caught in an emotional vortex, everyone's thoughts become chaotic, whether as poor as a beggar or as noble as royalty, the principle applies to everyone. Under normal circumstances, I would have realized the strangeness of the situation long ago—the infinitely growing staircase, the bizarre glowing stone steps and walls, Guan Baoling's terror… "Shall we go?" I took her arm and slowly helped her up.

"Go? Down or up? Where is the exit?" She smiled bitterly, and two crystal tears suddenly streamed down her cheeks.

“Of course, downstairs. You need to get a good night’s rest. When you wake up tomorrow, everything will be back to normal, don’t worry.” I helped her down the stairs. Her body was trembling violently, and she kept sighing and crying.

After descending one more flight of stairs, if I'm not mistaken, this is the thirteenth floor from the top of the tower.

A white light appeared below; perhaps Master Shenbi brought some kind of lighting tool?

I exclaimed excitedly, "Miss Fujika, Master Shenbi! Look who I've found!"

No one answered; the area below was deathly silent, not even the sound of water could be heard.

Guan Baoling gave a bitter smile, pressed her hand against the wall, and refused to go any further: "I'm so tired, I don't want to go any further. You go down first, I'll rest for a bit and then come back." Her long eyelashes fluttered painfully, and tears rolled down her cheeks incessantly.

I thought for a moment and said hesitantly, "I can't leave you here alone... Shall I carry you down?" Because I didn't want to fail again, and I didn't want any more changes to occur, I had to bring her out of the "Tower of the Dead" myself.

"You...don't you think this place is strange? Why do we have to go down? I'm scared..." Her words were incoherent.

I bent down, picked her up, and strode down the stairs, my heart brimming with the exhilarating feeling of rescuing a damsel in distress. Compared to Wang Jiangnan, my luck was thousands of times better. Guan Baoling had disappeared from his side, but I had personally found her, which was enough to prove that Wang Jiangnan's abilities were only suitable for leading the Divine Gun Society in fighting and killing; he was completely incapable of taking care of her.

At least mentally, I have completely defeated Wang Jiangnan. In a minute, I will become the hero of Fengge Temple, just like when I rescued Tengjia from the deep well in the pyramid last time.

"sky--"

When I finally stood on the first level of the pagoda, my thoughts suddenly became extremely chaotic, filled with fear and horror—the ground was transparent, as if we were standing on a transparent glass floor. There was only one pagoda door, but it was pitch black, and I couldn't see anything outside.

I held Guan Baoling in my arms and turned around to look in all directions. This was definitely not the original first floor of the pagoda, so of course I couldn't find Tengjia or Master Shenbi.

"Where...are we?" My teeth started chattering uncontrollably. Just outside the floor, a slender, supple eel swam by nonchalantly, its red spots emitting a faint glow. Fish can't swim in the air; I could see that it was all water outside.

"I don't know." Guan Baoling lowered her eyes helplessly, her long eyelashes trembling.

Another fish swam by, its body flattened, its colorful dorsal fin resembling a long, flowing ribbon. Like the eel from before, they were both marine fish, which perhaps confirms that we were in seawater.

Looking down at my feet, through the transparent ground, I saw a large group of plump salmon, wriggling their grayish bodies among the clumps of seaweed. Everywhere, tiny specks of bioluminescence flickered—a scene exactly like what I had seen during my deep-sea diving trips in Europe.

"It's all a dream!" I laughed and released the bell. Her black, diamond-studded high heels were right next to the tower door on the right. I strode over, bent down to pick them up, and suddenly thought of stepping through the door. Since it's a dream, I won't get hurt no matter where I go; at worst, I'll just wake up in a panic.

I lifted my foot, and Guan Baoling suddenly screamed, "No! No! It's all water outside, you'll die..."

My feet stopped in mid-air. I hesitated for a moment, then slowly reached forward and passed through the dark tower door. Sure enough, my fingertips touched the cold water first, then my fingers, palms, and wrists. It really was water outside, and it was three-dimensional water. My hand was inserted into the water from the side, as if I had entered a giant block of jelly.

"Hiss—" I heard myself hissing and gasping for air, slowly pulling my hand back. A strong smell of the sea filled my nostrils. My hand was wet, proof that it had indeed been in the water.

"Outside...water?" I jumped back a step, shaking my hands violently as if they were covered in something ominous.

How could I have ended up in such an absurd place—a glass house surrounded by water—when I was clearly going down the stairs?

Guan Baoling put on her shoes and smiled bitterly with helplessness: "Now you understand, right? We're trapped, and trapped at the bottom of the sea. Outside the door, I saw some deep-sea electric eels swimming around. Those creatures only appear at depths of 800 meters or less, so we're currently at least 800 meters underwater."

I crouched down and stared at the transparent ground. The dark green seaweed swayed like the long hair of a monster, and schools of unidentified fish darted in and out among it.

Eight hundred meters below the surface of the sea, it should be pitch black, but the faint white light emanating from the house illuminated the nearby scenery. It felt like exploring the underwater world in a makeshift submarine at an ocean amusement park.

I suddenly thought of a question: "Miss Guan, have you noticed that we can't see the foundation at all? Without a foundation, where are we? Won't this pagoda just keep sinking into the water indefinitely...?" Even if those strange pagoda doors can block the seawater from entering, what about the exposed top of the pagoda? What kind of security does it offer?

Guan Baoling sat exhausted on the steps: "Don't ask me, I'm so tired, I just want a soft bed to sleep for a while."

The ground is hard and cold; sitting on it must be quite uncomfortable.

I braced myself. If she got too tired to walk, I would carry her, but this time I would go straight up to see if I could get back to the top of the tower. My light-footed skills were more than enough to carry someone down the tower unharmed. In short, I couldn't just wait to die here.

“Miss Guan, I’ll carry you to the top of the tower. We’ll be alright.” I walked over and reached out to lift her up.

With her eyes closed, she answered weakly, "Okay, I need to sleep for a while, I'm so tired..."

I ascended six floors from the transparent room. If nothing unexpected happened, this should have been the first floor of the pagoda. But to my surprise, the stairs were gone, and the top of this floor had also become transparent glass. Not only glass, but also wriggling deep-sea purple crabs, baring their fangs and claws, were entrenched beside a cluster of swimming sea anemones, ready to hunt their prey.

Visibility is limited to within ten meters: small fish, seaweed, some fluorescent snails, and slithering sea worms. Beyond ten meters, the landscape is a terrifying dark gray, the original color of the deep sea.

Within an hour, I ran through every floor of the pagoda, but I never dared to step out of the doorway. Every doorway was pitch black, and outside, without exception, was the icy seawater.

Guan Baoling was still in my arms, fast asleep.

This is a strange place. There is water everywhere, but people do not feel suffocated. Moreover, the light emanating from the stone walls is enough to illuminate the surrounding space, so that we are not left in complete darkness.

I took out my phone, but there was no signal at all, so I couldn't contact anyone.

I hugged Guan Baoling tightly, slowly clearing my thoughts—"At the top of the tower, I saw the 'Tide of Gods' appear, and then I went down the tower. From the top to the first floor, everything went very smoothly. I should have landed on the first floor and met Tengjia and Master Shenbi, but I unintentionally entered this place. This should be the mysterious space that Gu Ye mentioned. Is this space connected to the tower? Otherwise, how could I have rushed down the stairs inside the tower?"

"How did I get in? Can I get out? If... like those who disappeared into the 'Tower of the Dead' before, never to see the light of day again, then dying with Guan Baoling would be a kind of happiness, wouldn't it?"

Guan Baoling stirred in my arms, snuggling even closer. Looking at her smooth forehead and trembling eyelashes, my fear was replaced by boundless joy. I had to admit that I had fallen for her long ago, from the very first time I saw her at the Xunfuyuan Villa.

Wang Jiangnan fell in love with her at first sight, and so did I.

She was "the tycoon's woman"—I began to try to remove that label from her. She was a girl loved by everyone, and it was her freedom to accept whomever she wanted and be with whomever she wanted. Whether or not I could rescue her, I would never let her go again. Even if it meant openly competing with the tycoon, even if it meant dying for her, I would never give up without fighting spirit again.

"Suren? What should I do about Suren? Didn't the scalpel mean I have to take care of her for the rest of my life?" When Suren's image jumped into my mind again, I suddenly felt torn.

We are sitting in the lowest level room right now, with a transparent underwater world below us.

As I gazed down at my feet, I noticed the swaying seaweed was slowly enlarging. At first, it looked like thin ribbons, but now each one appeared as wide as a human hand. The fish swimming past my feet had also changed; deep-sea grouper, aurora krill, and translucent king crabs, creatures found only at depths of 1,500 meters, had appeared.

In top European seafood restaurants, I've enjoyed these three deep-sea delicacies more than once, paired with purple fish sauce, Finnish foie gras, and Mexican herbs—the flavors were so exquisite they were unforgettable. However, seeing these familiar things now only fills me with a sense of panic as I feel myself sinking deeper and deeper into the abyss—the space is sinking, the seaweed isn't expanding, but rather the space itself is getting closer and closer to it.

I stared intently at the seaweed directly below, which grew larger and larger in my vision. I felt the house sinking faster and faster; soon, we would be sinking into the boundless depths of the sea.

This strange result was completely beyond anyone's imagination. I looked again at the pitch-black tower gate. If I swam out from there, I wondered what I would find?

Time was ticking away, and looking at my watch, it was already 11 p.m.

Recalling how I rushed down from the top of the tower, I didn't encounter Fujika. Would she have discovered my disappearance? Would she try to rescue me? After recovering from the initial shock and horror, I knew that in this dire situation, neither self-rescue nor being rescued was possible. At this depth, the only way to escape this predicament was for an underwater submarine to arrive and rescue me.

"Sigh, by the time the submarine arrives, Guan Baoling and I will have already starved to death or been trapped here!" I smiled bitterly to myself, and flicked my finger twice on the glass floor. There, a deep-sea flounder was dancing gracefully, its body covered in colorful ribbons, whether it was courting a mate or attracting prey, I didn't know.

At our current descent speed, we should be able to come into close contact with the algae in about an hour. After that, we'll be at the mercy of fate, or we might disappear completely from the human world like everyone else who has entered this space before.

I thought of a tycoon, whose power extends across the globe and who can hardly stump anyone—"Can he find a way to save Guan Baoling? In this boundless deep sea, any power or wealth will be meaningless and ineffective."

When the tycoon's men stormed into Maple Leaf Temple, they could have wiped out the Divine Gun Society members and razed the temple to the ground in an instant, but they couldn't enter and rescue Guan Baoling. Therefore, human power always has its limitations; even the President of the United States is powerless in the face of nature.

Guan Baoling shifted her body again, letting out a low snore. Her hands remained tightly clasped around my waist, as if afraid I would escape while she was asleep.

I will not leave. Even if there is a chance to escape from here, I will only take her with me. I will never think only of myself.

"How can I get out?" My gaze fell on the tower gate again. Swimming out from there might not be the best way, but it was the only path. No oxygen system, no flippers, no communication equipment or navigation devices. Even if I managed to escape, what then? Wouldn't I still die in the sea?

“Or we could break the glass at the top of the tower—” I silently shook my head, rejecting these unrealistic ideas. In this deep sea, it was best to remain calm and avoid further accidents. Besides, I had Guan Baoling in my arms who needed my care; her safety had to be my first priority. If this space exploded and we were swept into the sea, I might be able to struggle to save myself, but what about her? She would only die here… The thought of death made me instinctively hug her tighter, as if it were a matter of life and death.

I am not someone who falls in love easily. Before I met Suren in Cairo, I had dated several beautiful Italian girls, but I felt very indifferent to each of them, and I can't even remember their names now.

For Suren, we had gone through gunfire together in the Egyptian desert and experienced all sorts of unpredictable events in the mysterious Pyramid of Tsarist Khaganate. We built a deep bond in the midst of war—the scalpel died, I was hers, and she was my only family. It was this feeling of mutual dependence that made our relationship grow closer day by day.

Before I knew it, the clock struck two in the morning. Guan Baoling was fast asleep, lying motionless in my arms.

I closed my eyes and dozed off, half asleep and half awake. In this eerie environment, I couldn't sleep soundly at all. Moreover, I was worried about the ever-changing pressure in the deep water. Would there be a problem with the glass floor? If the glass broke, we would be swept away by the underwater currents and disappear without a trace.

Death is the easiest thing to do. Human life is actually incredibly fragile. We are afraid of fire, water, sharp weapons, and suffocation.

I don't want to die. Although I'm not afraid of death, I can't just die like this before I fulfill my wish to find my older brother Yang Tian.

The fifth film, Sea Horror

— Chapter 9 — Sinking to the Bottom of the Sea —

In this space, time had become unimportant. When I was startled awake by Guan Baoling's squirming, the clock showed six in the morning. She was nestled close to me, her eyes closed, but her trembling long eyelashes indicated that she was awake.

“Miss Guan, perhaps we should try to find a way out; we can’t wait—” He quickly shut his mouth, swallowing the word “death.” Chinese people don’t like to say unlucky words.

The seaweed was right beneath our feet, dark green, and over a meter wide, like a dense primeval forest. We were still descending, but the speed had slowed considerably. I understood that this descent would continue until we reached the seabed sediment. Driven by the undersea currents, the constantly moving sediment would soon surge in, covering the space, layer upon layer, until it became part of the underwater dunes.

We should find a way to save ourselves, but that hope seems very slim.

Guan Baoling lazily opened her eyes, looked around, then closed them again and curled up in my arms.

As I was captivated by her docile, kitten-like sleeping expression, the phrase "the tycoon's woman" flashed through my mind like lightning, making my arms tremble. It was a tycoon of immense wealth who, with money and tenderness, had cultivated her into a superstar admired by millions. In her life, perhaps the only man who should have appeared, and could only have appeared, was a unique man like the tycoon, but definitely not me.

Who am I? An unknown tomb raider, a nobody whose future success is uncertain—I am not worthy of her, and I absolutely cannot take advantage of her vulnerability, doing anything to harm her when she needs help and care the most. With this thought in mind, I instinctively released her arm. She suddenly opened her eyes again, her long eyelashes fluttering: "What's wrong?"

I had no answer; my mind was in turmoil.

Guan Baoling left my embrace, got up to straighten her clothes, and hummed a slow tune, seemingly unconcerned about her current predicament.

“Miss Guan, we’d better talk. For example, could you tell us how you got here? What was your purpose in visiting the ‘Tower of the Dead’ and the ‘Well of Spirits’? What are your plans to acquire Xunfu Garden? In this situation, only by being open and honest can we all have a chance to survive, right?”

I firmly believe that she would never have acquired the Xunfuyuan villa without a reason, considering she knows absolutely nothing about business operations. Even though she's currently a hot commodity in the film and music industries, it's all managed by her shrewd and capable agent; she's practically an ethereal, otherworldly girl.

She glided lightly across the glass floor, spinning gracefully like a dazzling queen of the dance floor, leaving me mesmerized.

It's a pity there was no music; otherwise, sitting on the steps and watching her dance would have been the most pleasant thing. Moreover, not everyone has the honor of seeing Guan Baoling dance. Perhaps the name "The Tycoon"—"The Tycoon again! The Tycoon again!" has become a dead knot in my mind. Whenever I think about this, I get stuck.

"I came to Hokkaido from the Tokyo film set out of reverence for the 'Well of Spirits.' There was a man suffering from a very strange illness who had heard of the unparalleled wisdom of the two great monks of Fuuki-ji Temple, so he decided to seek their guidance. However, Masters Kamekawa and Bumonri simply did not receive ordinary people, and to make matters worse, a mysterious person in a vegetative state came to the temple. The first few times, I returned empty-handed, until one evening, as I was about to leave Fuuki-ji Temple, I heard a divine message from heaven—"

She stopped, crossed her legs, and performed a "swan ballet" pose. Her large eyes blinked, and with a serious expression, she repeated in an emphatical tone, "A divine decree!"