King of Tomb Raiders

Chapter 41

Tina stomped her foot angrily: "I was just too hasty! I rarely use such vulgar language!" She slammed her notebook heavily on the hood of the car, almost bursting with embarrassment and anger.

The searchlights at the camp were already on, and the huge beams of light shining across the empty desert somehow reminded me of the flying saucers depicted in many science fiction magazines. Almost everyone who has witnessed a flying saucer mentions in their accounts that there are more than a dozen huge beams of light on the bottom of the saucer, and that the direction of the beams can be adjusted at will.

In retrospect, those beams of light were simply searchlights used by the owner of the flying saucer for illumination.

Thinking about all this, I suddenly realized that Earthlings' rumors about UFOs could all be considered "facts," rather than vague and unfounded fantasies. Right now, if someone were to appear in our location through a time tunnel, they would certainly mistake the commotion at the camp for a UFO hovering there.

I couldn't help but chuckle softly, a self-deprecating laugh, laughing at the absurdity of the world and at my own naivety.

Tina stared intently at me, then suddenly sighed softly, "Are you laughing at me? Am I ridiculous?"

When she showed her sorrowful side, her expression turned somber, her arrogance vanished, and she lowered her head meekly, like a lady from a prestigious European family—this appearance seemed to move me more.

I sighed, deciding to stop arguing with her, and pointed to the notebook: "May I take a look?"

She nodded silently and then pushed the notebook toward me.

The notebook screen displayed a yellowed, tattered scroll, entirely covered in handwritten hieroglyphics. Beside the screen was a line of English annotation—the very words Tina had just murmured to herself. The annotation ended with "transported to," which was why Tina had stopped talking.

"General Tina, what's the next page of the scripture? I want to know, where was the flesh and blood of those thugs taken after it was absorbed?"

In Hollywood horror movies, vampires only drink human blood, and demons and monsters devour blood, flesh, and bones; there's never been an example of a human being being directly transformed into a skeleton. Assuming it's true, as the scriptures say, that after the gods absorbed the blood and flesh of the six grey-clad men, where did they send them? Did they give them to some other strange deity?

"That's it, there's nothing more below—that's all the ancient texts say about the 'Blade of Salvation.' Mr. Feng, I know that the 'Scripture of the Underworld' has a dedicated section about the wonders of the Turkic Pyramid, but unfortunately I haven't had a chance to borrow it from the Japanese..."

The tiger died, but I felt no grief because I knew: "He wouldn't have died so easily! Otherwise, he wouldn't have been a tiger, but just a mouse!"

In the known legends surrounding him, there were eleven times when he was trapped in ancient tombs with traps, with no way to escape and no supplies; nine times when he was severely injured by traps in ancient tombs on the border of Tibet and Nepal, leaving him on the verge of death; and twice when he was surrounded by schools of strange piranhas on a shipwreck in Spanish waters...

After so many near-death experiences, he still roamed the martial world with boundless energy, eating large chunks of meat and drinking heartily, living a carefree and lively life.

“Actually, Mr. Feng, I can tell you a secret—all the information in my notebook, including the Crocodile God and the Crystal Coffin that I discussed with you before, as well as this tattered scripture, were copied piecemeal from the ‘Blue Heaven and Yellow Springs Scripture’ by the high priests of Egypt hundreds of years ago.”

This is an interesting question, but it's understandable. Just as all water in the world is from one family, Buddhist monks and church scriptures are all copied from each other, making them one family globally. It's just that various errors in the process of textual interpretation have led to ambiguities in the doctrines of different sects.

"It is an undeniable fact that the earliest ancient scriptures did indeed exist in ancient China. Our Egyptian monks had the opportunity to borrow the ancient scriptures when they paid homage to the Chinese emperor, and thus recorded all the words related to the Egyptian pyramids. Unfortunately, the scriptures were scattered and lost on the way back to China, and to this day they have become this incomplete 'heavenly book'."

Tina looked very helpless, presumably because she had been ruthlessly rejected when she asked Gu Ye to borrow the scriptures.

It's a pity there are no pictures, otherwise I could have verified whether what I received was indeed the "Savior's Blade" of the gods.

I don't want to say much to Tina. We are all on different sides, each serving our own interests, and there will be many conflicts of interest, making it impossible to share information.

Tina put away her electronic notebook and added a meaningful remark: "Mr. Feng, if you need more information, we can discuss it at length tonight..."

I smiled and shook my head, then walked up to Suren, who was returning from the other side of the pyramid, and asked in a low voice, "Did you find anything?"

Suren shook his head, looking dejected.

Since those six people were hiding in the yellow sand, a careful search should at least reveal their hiding place, right?

A day passed by in a flash.

Back at camp, Tina arranged for others to collect the remains. Under the beams of searchlight, the rows of tents and military vehicles conveyed a nameless panic before the great battle.

“I will order the soldiers to be on high alert, so you two can sleep soundly tonight—” Tina emphasized the phrase “sleep soundly,” as if there was some shady business going on between me and Suren.

Back in the tent, I took off my clothes, revealing the golden sword.

Suren had already heard the conversation about the "Blade of Salvation," but she didn't believe Tina's explanation that "there was nothing more to it."

“Brother Feng, the only way to gain the upper hand in terms of information is to quickly obtain the ‘Blue Heaven and Yellow Springs Scripture’. Tiger is in trouble, and I hope we can take extreme measures to find the whereabouts of the scripture.”

She couldn't hide her worry and anxiety about going down the well tomorrow.

I stroked the winding patterns on the sword, smiling helplessly: "Su Lun, don't you understand? The one who stole the scriptures was a tiger. Now that the tiger is dead, who will get the scriptures? It will definitely be the Tang Clan of Shu—Tang Xin and Song Jiu. We can't afford to offend Tang Xin, whether openly or secretly..."

As Suren took out her phone to dial, she interrupted me: "How about appealing to their emotions and enticing them with benefits?"

The call connected, and she rattled off another long string of Arabic numerals before hanging up.

Tang Xin needs the "Millennial Corpse Worm," and Su Lun's intention is to exchange this thing for the scriptures that Tang Xin might obtain.

Part 4: The Battle Between Heaven and Man

— Chapter 7 — The Death of the Tiger —

I glanced at her phone and smiled knowingly. Everyone has the right to privacy, and the two of us are no exception.

"Should we go see the tiger's carcass?" Suren put away his phone and wiped his face. The sandstorms in the desert were fierce; after going out, his face was covered in dust.

In fact, Tina asked the same question on the way back to camp.

I casually declined, explaining, "I need to rest properly tomorrow before going down the well." Intuitively, I felt Tiger wouldn't die; his disguise skills could easily allow him to impersonate someone else while he himself escaped. This kind of feint is a common escape tactic used by江湖 (jianghu, the martial arts world).

"Is this necessary, Suren? I have something more important to discuss with you—"

What I want to say is something that suddenly occurred to me: "According to previous attempts by various tomb raiding experts to drill into the Pyramid of Giza, all of them returned empty-handed. The reason was that there was some kind of flexible material hidden in the hard stone wall, which contained the rapidly spinning drill bit, causing the drill to spin at high speed and burn out the drill bit countless times. But, have you thought of this? In this drilling process, the first time, the obvious thickness of the stone wall did not match the X-ray results; the second time, the drill bit passed through smoothly, without any obstruction from those 'flexible materials'? Suren, I'm wondering, is such a smooth breakthrough of the outer wall of the pyramid a coincidence or an inevitability?"

The world of tomb raiding is full of experts, and the tomb raiding machinery they use ranges from the oldest pickaxe to the most advanced four-way drilling machine. Driven by the mysterious treasure, they use all kinds of methods and go to great lengths.

Those who had previously encountered setbacks in Tu Liehan were not much less skilled than Dr. Tang and his colleagues.

Now that Dr. Tang has become the first drilling expert to break through the pyramid, is it because some mysterious force is deliberately "letting things slide"?

Faced with harsh reality, I have to become more suspicious and ask "why" about everything.

At the same time, I placed my hands on the table, spread my fingers wide, and stared at the crisscrossing lines on my palms. In that strange tomb, Bawan, Oulu, and Dr. Tang had all been "weathered" into powder that crumbled at the slightest touch, but I was completely unharmed. Why? What kind of quality did my body possess that made me immune to that evil and mysterious power?

Suren frowned deeply: "No one knows anything about the Pyramid of Tulku. That's why I've repeatedly reminded you to be very careful. Life is the most precious thing; everyone only has one."

I touched my chin, which was already covered with fine stubble, and chuckled to myself at her stubbornness.

As someone who is hopelessly in love with the "tomb raiding" profession, every time I open the door of a tomb to enter, I have already disregarded life and death. What attracts tomb raiders is not just the legendary glittering treasures, but more so, the deep-seated yearning for the mysterious world in my nature.

People who cherish life too much cannot become tomb raiders.

"When Heaven is about to place a great responsibility on a person, it first tests their strength and resilience..."

Tang Xin's voice came from outside the tent, reciting Mencius's famous saying on entrepreneurship.

Su Lun and I both fell silent. Tang Xin's arrival at this moment was definitely not without a reason.

"Mr. Feng, your old friend is dead. Aren't you even a little sad?" Tang Xin's voice was as cold as ice through the curtain. The words from Master Meng just now were clearly meant to encourage me to dedicate myself to the noble ideals of tomb raiders. But I'm not a three-year-old; I won't be swayed by a few words from others.

After hiding the golden sword, I slowly lifted the curtain and saw Song Jiu, his face extremely gloomy, his sinister eyes staring straight at my face. I couldn't be bothered with him; we didn't like each other anyway.

Tang Xin still held her fox fur coat tightly, her eyes and brows carrying a chilling aura that kept people at a distance.

"I'm very sad, but I want to know, how did he die? Who instructed him to..." The answer is obvious: Tiger risked everything to steal the scriptures in order to please Tang Xin. And I have reason to believe that the scriptures have already fallen into Tang Xin's hands.

"We have nothing to say about this. We're just here to say goodbye," Tang Xin said, raising her eyebrows and succinctly interrupting me.

Before the "Millennium Corpse Worm" appeared, I didn't believe Tang Xin would leave the camp. But ten minutes later, the scalpel that appeared in the center of the camp confirmed her words. Natura also sent Lu Jiacan to drive them back to Cairo, and from there they would take a plane back to mainland China.

Below the watchtower, a makeshift military stretcher lay, with a person lying on it, covered from head to toe by a white sheet. The wind was so strong that the soldiers had tightly tied the four corners of the sheet to the stretcher handles to prevent sand and dust from settling on the body.

Without a doubt, it was the carcass of a tiger.

Tano stood timidly at the back of the crowd seeing them off.

"Tiger died from being hit by the Japanese ninja's Seven Star Dart. The spikes of the Seven Star Dart were soaked in the deadly venom of the Red-Striped Snake. So, after leaving the camp through the tunnel, Tiger only managed to go about seventy meters before collapsing. Feng, he is your good friend. I am so sorry that such a terrible thing happened to you on Egyptian soil."

The surgeon was sincere and his expression was somber; I couldn't see anything abnormal about him.

Tang Xin stood by the car door, bowing slowly to those seeing her off, and smiled gently and generously: "Thank you all for your kindness. If you have time to visit Yunnan, Guizhou, and Sichuan in the future, our Tang Clan of Sichuan will certainly treat you with the utmost courtesy and make you feel at home." These words clearly conveyed the meaning of "I can represent the Tang Clan of Sichuan."

As far as I know, in the history of the Tang Clan in Sichuan, there have been three young leaders. Each of them publicly took charge of the Tang Clan's affairs before the age of twenty, becoming an unprecedented master in the martial arts world. However, the more a master achieves success at a young age, the more likely they are to meet a tragic end, often "envied by heaven," and rarely have a good death.

What about Tang Xin? Could she become the first "young girl" sect leader in the history of the Tang Sect?

The thought of her body covered in poisonous insects sent chills down my spine, and goosebumps rose all over my arms and legs.

Lu Jiacan humbly opened the door for Tang Xin, invited her to get in the car, then got into the driver's seat and started the engine.

Tang Xin's sudden departure was completely unexpected. As the car slowly started moving, I could feel her gaze piercing through the tinted bulletproof glass, casting a meaningful, faint smile at me.

"In that case, wouldn't Tang Xin have gone home empty-handed?" I was very puzzled.

The scalpel gave a cold laugh: "Who is Lu Jiacan? The reason we sent him as the driver is that he'll inevitably make discoveries along the way. Natura has already given orders that if any trace of the scriptures is found, act immediately: kill, blow up the car, and destroy the evidence. Now we can—"

He walked to the stretcher, slowly untied the four knots, and pulled the sheet all the way off.

It was indeed a tiger, but its Adam's apple was swollen high, and there were seven alarming black spots on its skin, constantly gushing out black fluid.

A seven-star dart was embedded vertically in the center of his forehead, two-thirds of it already deeply embedded in his forehead bone. Near the wound, a palm-sized area was pitch black, staining his forehead, eyes, nose, and lips black.

The Seven-Star Dart is one of the traditional concealed weapons of Japanese ninjas, and its release is extremely ruthless. Especially in modern times, Japanese masters who roamed the martial arts world would coat the tip of the dart with a highly poisonous substance, aiming to kill their enemies with a single blow.

"What kind of poison? How could the venom of a simple red-banded snake be so potent?" I crouched down and smelled a faint fishy odor emanating from the tiger. The more potent the poison, the fishier and sweeter its smell. It seems that the Gu Ye school is quite skilled in poisoning.

Tanino had already retreated with the crowd, and the scalpel answered my question in his place: "Besides the venom of the Crimson Serpent, it was also mixed with deep-sea poisonous eels from Kyushu, Japan! It is said that these eels can easily kill an adult shark when enraged. The automatic firing mechanism of the Seven Star Darts was installed inside the safe under Tanino's bed. It seems that the tiger forcibly unlocked it, triggering the mechanism and causing this situation..."

The Kyushu deep-sea venomous eel is also documented in my database; killing a shark is just a small part of its capabilities.

"Wind, High Priest Natura and General Tina request that you examine the body to confirm the tiger's identity—is that alright?"

The scalpel was very polite, but this polite yet unreasonable request was something I absolutely had to do.

Tina appeared silently beside the body, looking slightly tired. She held an open folder in her hand and announced fluently, "Mr. Feng, we have found fifty-five distinct features on the body that match Tiger's previous complete personal information. If you can also provide new evidence to prove this, the case can basically be closed."

I stared at the tiger's still wide-open eyes, then glanced at Tina with disgust: "Of course, you can close the case whenever you want, but I want to know what will happen to the tiger's body?"

I don't want to discuss the authenticity of this body any further. Respect for the dead is paramount; allowing a corpse to remain exposed in this place for an extended period, regardless of the reason, is the most inhumane act.

Throughout the farewell, Suren remained silent. Only after returning to her tent did she slowly ask, "Brother Feng... the scriptures... they're just gone like that?"

I smiled insincerely: "As for the scriptures, this is all we can do for now. You see, even Natura, Gu Ye, and Tina think they've suffered a strange and inexplicable loss, so what can we say?"

Suren reached out to tidy up a stack of printed papers on the table, then suddenly remembered something: "Do you think something might happen to that car in the desert?"

Her words likely had two meanings: "If Lu Jiacan and Tang Xin were to fight, who would emerge victorious? Would Tang Xin strike first, kill someone, and flee?"

I shook my head. Both sides were incredibly powerful and well-established. One was the future leader of a super sect in Asia, and the other was the favorite general of the most powerful Egyptian president in Africa. If they really fought to the death, they would both be severely injured. However, I could be certain that no matter who struck first, Lu Jiacan would be the first to die. Because I believed that Tang Xin would definitely not have only brought Tiger and Song Jiu deep into the African desert; there must be other forces from the Tang Clan of Shu in some unseen places.

It was late at night. Suren curled up in her sleeping bag, burying her face deep inside, with only her dark hair showing, as if only in this way could she give herself enough security.

Before me lay a cross-sectional diagram of the X-ray diffraction results of the Turks' Pyramid, and I sat alone under a solitary lamp. Tomorrow's main event would be my sole task, so I needed to get a clear picture of what was to come.

At the camp, the scalpel had already prepared a complete set of tomb raiding tools for me, a total of seventy tools, from the finest tweezers, chisels, and ring awls to heavy claw hammers, high-hardness rock chisels, and reinforced crowbars... As for communication tools, there were high-capacity walkie-talkies, high-definition camera equipment, multi-channel audio acquisition systems, and of course, a meticulous individual combat system.

The most important things right now are protection against bacteria, insects, and radiation. I don't want to die mysteriously like Berenlang and Dr. Tang.

I've entrusted Suren with the safekeeping of the "Sand of Resurrection" that Yelan solemnly entrusted to me, and the golden sword I just received. To be honest, I'm not entirely without fear of the deep well, but an even stronger curiosity has overwhelmed all other emotions.

Who exactly is calling me?

"Could it be that my hearing system has some superhuman ability?"