Ghost Blows Out the Light Fanfiction Fragments of the Hidden Scriptures - Saving San Francisco

Chapter 18

I stared at all of this in astonishment, then turned to Shirley Yang and asked, "What is this?"

Before I could finish speaking, a sharp pain suddenly shot through my buttocks. I cried out and jumped up, feeling like I was about to faint from the pain.

Turning around, Shirley Yang suddenly flicked her hand, and a lively, colorful stone appeared on the ground.

I endured the pain and opened my eyes to see that the colorful stone had wings and fins, its body was covered with bumps, and there was a row of sharp thorns in the middle of its back. From a distance, it looked like a colorful reef on the seabed.

This thing was hopping and jumping on the ground; it was clearly a strange fish that had grown into a stone. There was even a piece of cloth stuck in the crack in the stone where the fish's head was, still dripping with blood.

Upon seeing this, I couldn't help but clutch my buttocks and groan in pain.

After examining it carefully, Shirley Yang kicked it down the slope into the sea and said casually, "It turns out to be a stonefish."

"What stonefish?" I was about to ask when Shirley Yang shouted, "Run!" A large group of colorful stonefish then climbed up the slope and viciously lunged at us.

Ignoring the pain, I swung my knife and broke a piece of the stone fish in half, then followed Shirley Yang and ran for my life.

As Shirley Yang turned right into a wide marble passageway, I quickly followed. Just as we rounded the corner, a deafening crash echoed, and Shirley Yang and I screamed in unison as we tumbled into a deep hole below.

Damn it, I've fallen into a pit again. I grabbed Shirley Yang's arm as she fell beside me, cursing inwardly.

Volume 1, Chapter 41: The Ancient Tomb at the Cape - The Return of an Old Friend (1)

Shirley Yang and I fell rapidly. I suddenly crashed into something and passed out.

When I woke up, I was horrified to find myself lying next to the sleeping fat man in the dim light. When I turned my head, I saw that Shirley Yang, who had also passed out, was lying next to me.

Does this mean we're all doomed and will have to go to the underworld side by side to report our arrival?

As soon as I moved, the wound on my buttocks burned with pain. I rubbed my eyes and looked back. It was indeed Fatty, with a fat head and big ears, and a wicked look on his face, but he was still fast asleep.

I shook him and pinched him hard, but the fat guy didn't react at all.

Shirley Yang beside me groaned; she had woken up. I turned to her and asked with concern if she was alright, if she was hurt.

Shirley Yang sat up with a sigh, composed herself, reached out and picked up the wolf-eye flashlight that had rolled two steps away, shone it around, and got up.

Under the light of the wolf-eye flashlight, one could see an iron plate covering the ceiling, more than ten feet high, and the walls all around were wet and dripping with water. This was clearly a very deep water dungeon.

Shirley Yang looked down; the water was just above her ankles. We were on a pile of dry, thick seaweed at the bottom of the cave. She exclaimed, looked down at me, and couldn't resist kicking me in the shin, yelling, "Are you still lying here waiting to get up? Are you going to carry her?"

I was in so much pain that I was clutching my calf and groaning. I asked, for no apparent reason, "Who am I clutching, Fatty?"

I reached out and pressed my hand to the ground to stand up, only to touch a soft, smooth piece of flesh that exuded a cool, fragrant aroma. I was horrified. Looking down, I saw myself sitting on a pale yellow ball of light, the very same naked, singing and dancing Water Maiden.

With a cry of "Oh my god!", I darted out like a rabbit and hid behind Shirley Yang.

It turned out that when I fell down the tunnel, I had landed right on top of this elusive fish-woman at the bottom of the cave. The woman was unconscious, completely naked, with smooth, supple skin and a slender waist. Unfortunately, from the waist down, she was clearly a gigantic fish, her lower body covered in dense, fine golden scales that gave her a pale yellow glow. Her fan-shaped tail was the size of a baby bathtub, also a golden-red color.

Shirley Yang ordered me to turn around. I heard her walk over by, stepping on the water, and take something out of her bag, circling around the unconscious fish-man.

When she stood up, I noticed that the fishman had been covered in old clothes by Shirley Yang and bound up with climbing ropes. Seeing me staring at the fishman, Shirley Yang coughed angrily. I looked up and saw her glaring at me fiercely, as if she wanted to devour me.

Shirley Yang was jealous. I awkwardly took two steps back, smiled, and said, "She's just a merfolk. Saving Fatty is the priority."

Unfortunately, no matter how much Shirley Yang and I patted him, Fatty Wang still didn't wake up. I checked his eyelids; his pulse was steady, his breathing was smooth, and his body was intact, so he should be fine.

"That's strange," I muttered to myself, glancing at Shirley Yang.

A soft moan came from behind, and the merman woke up. She slowly opened her delicate eyebrows and eyes, and when she saw that she was bound, a trace of panic flashed in her eyes. Suddenly, she smiled sweetly, opened her small mouth, and began to sing a melodious song.

Upon hearing the singing, I immediately became confused, my mind went blank, and I swayed, even trying to go forward to untie her.

Seeing things were going badly, Shirley Yang tore off a piece of cloth and stuffed it into the fish's mouth, abruptly ending the singing. My mind went blank for a moment, and before I could even process what was happening, Shirley Yang turned around and slapped me hard across the face, snapping me back to reality.

My face was burning with pain. Knowing I was in the wrong, I sheepishly covered my face and ran to the fat man.

Shirley Yang Xing's eyes widened in fury as she stood before the fish-man, brandishing her long sword at him.

Seeing that things were going badly, the fish-woman immediately changed to a coquettish posture, her eyes brimming with tears, looking pitiful and weak with a shy charm, quite comparable to Lin Daiyu, the lotus fairy in "Dream of the Red Chamber".

Before Shirley Yang could speak, two large tears welled up in the merman's eyes, instantly sliding down his cheeks and transforming into two bright pearls that fell into the seaweed. Shirley Yang bent down and picked them up; they were clearly two soft pearls.

I suddenly realized something, ran forward, and opened the small box containing the two luminous pearls—the teardrops of the King of Dolphins—from Shirley Yang's backpack. Instantly, it sparkled brightly, as bright as day.

This fish-tailed woman is clearly a legendary deep-sea merman, commonly known as a mermaid, who sings sweetly and can weep pearls. Throughout history, there have been many legends about them in various places, both in China and abroad. It is said that they live deep in the ocean far from the mainland, and whenever they see a merchant ship passing by, they surface, singing and dancing enticing male sailors to jump overboard and die with them, causing considerable harm.

However, in ancient times, they were coveted treasures by tomb builders. Their oil, extracted from them, was used to create eternal lamps in the tomb, capable of burning for millennia and serving as a guiding light for the deceased's ascension to immortality. In modern times, these creatures have become increasingly rare, and few have ever seen one. The only one preserved in the world, in the British Museum, is merely a fragmented skeleton.

Unexpectedly, we've gotten quite a feast for the eyes here today.

The exquisite mermaid gazed sadly at Shirley Yang, and when she saw her pick up the two soft tear pearls, she tried her best to gesture to the sleeping fat man.

Shirley Yang and I pondered for a while, then picked up the tear pearl that the fishman had shed and demonstrated how to feed it to the fat man. It nodded repeatedly with great effort.

It seems this mermaid is going to help us wake up the fat man and make amends for her actions.

I fed both teardrops into Fatty's mouth and patted them down his throat. After a while, Fatty actually opened his eyes, hesitated for a moment, and then excitedly grabbed my shoulder and exclaimed, "Old Hu, Shirley Yang, I've finally found you!"

Before we could speak, we heard a loud crash above us as the iron plate on top of the water dungeon door split open, and a vine rope was thrown down. Then, a white-headed creature appeared at the entrance, chuckling and gesturing wildly—it was the white ape monster that had just run away.

I tugged on the rope; it was still sturdy. I couldn't help but smile and say, "We can go out now."

Suddenly, the white ape spotted the mermaid on the ground and slid down the vines from the cave ceiling. It rushed up to the mermaid, yelling and baring its teeth at us in a show of force, forcing the three of us to back away. The fat man even stepped into the water and almost fell.

Seeing us retreat, the white ape frantically tore at the ropes binding the mermaid, quickly untied them, threw them aside, and then hugged the mermaid, sobbing.

We were all stunned. Holy crap, could it be that this white ape and the mermaid have some kind of intimate relationship?!

Look at the mermaid nestled in the white ape's arms, gently stroking its fur, looking so affectionate and tender. Fatty paused for a moment, then turned and climbed up the drooping vines. Shirley Yang and I glanced back, picked up the climbing ropes from the ground, and followed Fatty out of the water dungeon.

Looking back down, I saw the white ape and the mermaid still snuggling together intimately.

We couldn't wait any longer and turned to leave. The fat man seemed to be alright, though he'd lost weight and looked furious. I asked him several times how he ended up in the water dungeon, but he pretended not to hear. I turned around and saw Shirley Yang also ignoring me, her expression indifferent. Knowing she was still jealous, I had no choice but to walk away, feeling rather awkward.

The three of us stood at the crossroads, unsure which way to go. After a moment of silence, I noticed Shirley Yang looking at me and quickly said, trying to appease her, "Judging from the layout of these passages, it seems we're on the outskirts of Spartacus's main tomb. The tomb's layout is likely a grid pattern; if we don't stray into a dead end, we could reach the outside of the tomb walls by following any of the passages."

The fat man suddenly pointed into the distance and asked, "What's that?"

We turned our heads and saw a group of strange stonefish leaping and chasing after us under the light of the luminous pearl, the "Tears of the King of Dolphins."

I cried out in alarm and was about to run when I suddenly remembered the white ape beneath the water dungeon. I peered out and called out again, only to see the white ape about to turn and climb back up. At the same time, a wave surged at the bottom of the dungeon, and the mermaid's golden tail flicked, disappearing into the depths. It seemed there must be a secret passage beneath the dungeon leading to the sea, and the mermaid might have used it to return to the ocean depths.

The white ape scrambled out of the water prison in a few quick movements, then lingered, looking back longingly at the bottom of the prison.

I yanked it hard and yelled, "Run!" The fat guy next to me had already loosened his muscles and was excitedly waving the long knife that Shirley Yang had handed him, slashing at the stone fish that were leaping high from the ground one by one, killing them with all his might.

The white ape turned its head, chuckled, picked up the broken stone fish from the ground, stuffed it into its pocket, and led the way down a passage to the left. I quickly called for Shirley Yang and Fatty to follow, since this white ape had lived here all along and should be familiar with the layout of the tomb and its hidden mechanisms.

The white ape leaped and bounded, navigating several bends. Each time it reached a radial fork in the road, it would unhesitatingly run into the left-hand fork. We followed closely, noticing the numerous forks along the way, appearing almost every few dozen meters, making it impossible for a stranger to turn out.

The white ape flashed by a few times ahead and then suddenly disappeared. We arrived, panting, and turned the corner to find ourselves at another fork in the road, but the white ape had vanished again.

"What are we going to do?" the fat man asked me angrily. "What is that guy? Is he reliable? Or is he just messing with us?"

I glanced at Shirley Yang and could only briefly recount how I encountered the white ape.

The fat man didn't say anything more, after all, it was the white ape who had helped us escape the water prison trap.

There were three forks in the road ahead; which way to go was the question. The faint sound of stonefish leaping could be heard behind them; they were catching up again.

I gritted my teeth and said to Shirley Yang and Fatty, "Let's take the path on the left."

We ran into the left-hand passageway, turning left and right, and after more than ten minutes, we came to a three-way intersection. Without time to look closely, we chose the left-hand passageway and ran in again. Before we were even halfway there, the fat guy in front of us suddenly stopped, causing Shirley Yang and me to lose our footing and crash into him, tumbling over each other like a human pyramid.

I was about to yell at him when I looked up and saw a large, fat stonefish suddenly turn around and leap right in front of me. I grabbed it, and the fish's wide mouth snapped shut, revealing sharp stone teeth. Its spines stood up, its ventral fins thrashed about, and it struggled desperately to get closer to my face.

I quickly grabbed it with both hands. Luckily, its skin was as rough as stone. If it were a regular fish with slippery scales that I couldn't hold, it would have bitten off my cool, high nose bridge.

Shirley Yang on my back quickly jumped up and rushed to the front to fend off the swarm of stonefish that had come after hearing the commotion.

I forcefully flung the strange fish out of my hand, rolling it off the fat man who was screaming under me. I quickly got up and kicked and punched to fend off the stone fish.

When the fat man stood up, brandishing his long sword, the three of us let out a whoosh and ran backwards. Shirley Yang and I each held a luminous pearl to light our way. I was still wondering why the fish had somehow gotten ahead of us.

A little while later, we came to another three-way intersection. Why are all these three-way intersections the same? Damn it, before I could even catch my breath, I followed Fatty and Shirley Yang down the left-hand side of the road.

Unfortunately, less than ten minutes later, Shirley Yang was horrified to find another group of stonefish jumping and crawling in front of her in the passageway.

She cried out that something was wrong and turned back to run away. Now the front group was behind the back, and I led the race with the luminous pearl in my hand. Finally, we reached a three-way intersection, and I realized something was amiss, so I cried out to stop. This road looked strangely familiar. Could we have been going in circles the whole time? Otherwise, why were we always behind the stonefish the last two times, while the stonefish chasing us were jumping in front of us?

The more I thought about it, the more uneasy I felt, so I voiced my doubts to Shirley Yang and Fatty.

Upon hearing this, the fat man bent down and turned at the three-way intersection. Suddenly, he looked down and exclaimed, "It's true! Damn it, there's still some phlegm I spat out at the first three-way intersection after losing track of the white ape!"

When I looked, it really was! It disgusted me. What a huge, thick mass of filth!

I turned back, covering my nose, and said, "What do we do now?" It seems that all that walking around just now, we were just leading those stonefish in three circles in this passageway.

Volume 1, Chapter 42: The Return of an Old Friend from the Ancient Tomb at the Cape (2)

As the group of stonefish came rushing towards us from the opposite side with their gaping teeth, I was about to ask Shirley Yang and Fatty for their opinions on whether to run through the right passage when suddenly a strange laugh came from the white ape. It playfully lowered its head from the top of the passage and made faces at us.

It turns out there was an inconspicuous hidden doorway at the top of the passageway beside us. We were so caught up in the chaos that we ran around three times without noticing it.

We were overjoyed. I jumped up first and saw that it really was a hidden cave. I quickly turned around and pulled Shirley Yang and Fatty up as well. Fatty was a little slower to come up and was pulled up by a big stonefish that leaped high into the air and bit the sole of his boot.

The stone fish below jumped up like marbles, gathering at the bottom of the hole and refusing to leave. Unfortunately, their jumping height was less than half the height of the wall, so we couldn't be bothered with them.

We climbed down the passageway into the cave behind the wall and found it to be a large enough room that seemed to have been inhabited for a long time. In one corner of the room were stacks of tall wooden wine barrels. The fat man went over and shook them, shaking them until he reached the twentieth or so barrel before exclaiming with delight, "There's still wine!" He opened a barrel, and sure enough, a rich, aged aroma of wine wafted out, so strong it made us feel slightly tipsy.

After running around for half a day, the aroma of the wine immediately made us feel incredibly hungry and thirsty.

We searched everywhere but found nothing to eat. Aside from that, we had everything we needed: a hearth, pine blocks, stone tables and chairs, cupboards, and dishes. Shirley Yang opened a hidden door in the wall and discovered two stone beds and several sets of black pirate cloaks embroidered with skull and crossbones in gold thread in a small room behind it.

We were at our wits' end, and the thought of having no food only made us more unbearably hungry. The fat man rubbed his rumbling stomach, cursing fiercely, and then tilted his head back to gulp down several mouthfuls of wine. Immediately, his face turned red and his neck bulged as he spun around, striking a slightly drunken pose as if to say, "I'm drunk and want to sleep, you may leave."

The white ape chuckled to itself, circled the fat man twice, took out half a stone fish from its pocket, waved it in front of the fat man's nose, and then took a big bite of the bright red fish meat and ate it heartily.

Shirley Yang and I were immediately intrigued. We lit the fire pit and lit some pine wood, then killed the stonefish that was stuck in Fatty's boot. We washed it with wine, skewered it on the fire skewer, and started grilling it. Fatty turned around, threw an empty wine barrel down into the tunnel, caught two more stonefish that had bitten into the barrel wall, killed them, washed them, and grilled them over the fire pit.

During this break, Shirley Yang told us that the stonefish is a unique fish that lives on the bottom of rocky reefs in the sea, where algae grow in environments with temperatures between 18 and 25 degrees Celsius. The famous Chinese pharmacopoeia, *Compendium of Materia Medica*, written by Li Shizhen during the Ming Dynasty, states that this fish has delicious flesh, can treat muscle and bone pain, and has warming and tonifying effects.

There are different versions of the story about the stonefish. The most famous one is that the stonefish is a colorful spiritual stone left behind on the shore of the East China Sea when Nuwa mended the sky in ancient times. Because it absorbed the essence of the sun and moon for a long time, it was endowed with extraordinary qualities and transformed into a deep-sea spirit—a colorful stonefish.

Another legend says that in ancient times, the Baiyi tribe and the Yanhuang tribe fought a fierce battle, using water and earth to attack each other, causing the river to overflow and the people to suffer. The Jade Emperor of the upper realm was furious when he heard about this, and sent the Thunder God to blast open the river channel. The broken rocks from the mountains along the banks poured into the river and transformed into fish, solving the problem of food and clothing for the people on both sides. These fish are called stone fish.

Soon, the aroma of grilled meat filled the air. We saved a grilled fish for the white ape and eagerly began to devour it. The fish was incredibly tender and delicious, and the three of us and the ape finished it off in no time. The white ape and Fatty had very good appetites, so we grilled a few more stonefish and ate until everyone was completely satisfied.

Shirley Yang turned and went into the inner room to change into a pirate cloak. She came out carrying a thick ledger. After flipping through a few pages, she exclaimed, "I understand!"

Fatty and I hurriedly asked what was wrong.

She looked at the book and read a few words in broken Tibetan, then began to explain it to us page by page.

It turns out that this book is a diary written in Old Italian by generations of tomb keepers, which details their personal stories from that era and the origins of the white ape, including the cause and effect of its connection with the deep-sea mermaid.

On that day, the pirate king Cyricy Cyricy was the leader of a massive pirate fleet that roamed the high seas of Europe. Because he broke his oath and betrayed Spartacus by failing to provide him with the necessary ships for crossing the sea, Spartacus's rebellion was completely exposed, and most of his army was annihilated on the spot, beyond any hope of recovery. Seeing that all was lost, Spartacus sent a lookalike to guard the position while he secretly led his main force to retreat back to their base. From there, they sailed to a small island in the vast Pacific Ocean, where they established their own small kingdom.