King of Tomb Raiders

Chapter 72

What rushed in was a scalpel, or rather, a human "scalpel" controlled by an illusion demon. As he raised the golden sword, his snow-white Egyptian robes billowed, and his entire being radiated an extremely malevolent light.

He threw his head back and laughed wildly, then suddenly opened his mouth and cried out rapidly in a monotonous, mysterious language, his voice extremely low, like the murmurs of wild beasts. I had heard guides from South American headhunting tribes converse with each other, and the language the scalpel was using now seemed to share many similarities with that tribe's language.

The sound waves on the screen jumped up again, their rhythm perfectly matching the syllables in the surgeon's words.

The scalpel's color gradually turned dark green, like the color of some deep-sea algae, or simply like the sea mud used by beauty companies. Its eyes slowly filled with blood, turning into an eerie blood red. The golden sword in its hand kept drawing circles in the air, and the open scales made a series of hissing sounds as they cut through the air.

I stood there like an innocent moviegoer, completely lost and unable to think of anyone to help. But I knew that besides Youlian and Sahan, there was another important and mysterious figure in this tomb: the legendary Tuli Khan, or perhaps the Crocodile God. This figure was the dominant force behind the Tuli Khan Pyramid.

Of course, whether he's from Saturn or some other planet, I don't care. I just hope someone can step in and subdue the wild scalpel. Yes, "subdue," not "kill." I hope the scalpel can regain his senses and still be my and Suren's brother.

Youlian groaned as she got up, her shoulders suddenly trembling. She spread her arms, threw her head back, and let out a sharp, high-pitched howl. She then spoke, responding to the scalpel's cry in the same monosyllabic language. The two argued urgently, and Youlian pressed closer, completely disregarding the scalpel's golden sword—

The fierce battle lasted only one round, and it was as short as lightning piercing the night sky. Youlian fell out again, rolling more than ten times on the hard stone floor, her body covered in shocking blood, unable to get up again.

Without the slightest hesitation, I took three quick steps to the side, blocking the scalpel. Many in the martial world are fearless and full of heroic spirit; perhaps I am no match for him, but I must do everything in my power to stop him.

The scales on the golden sword slowly slid down, and it returned to its original normal appearance.

The evil light in the scalpel's hand had diminished considerably, and it stared at my face: "Earthling, do you dare to overestimate yourself and try to be a hero? Haha, do you know who I am?"

He had indeed become a different person, an alien inhabiting the body of a scalpel. Suren's senses were far more acute than mine, which is why she saw through his disguise sooner.

"Who you are doesn't matter, you're definitely not one of us." There's no door in this secret room at all. If the scalpel is going on a rampage, I can only go along with it.

Youlian slowly sat up, bright red blood gushing from her mouth, just like an Earthling.

The scalpel looked at the golden sword in his hand, slowly wiping the blade with his left index finger. Suddenly, he looked up and shouted, "Where is he? Why aren't you coming out? Do you think you can hide underground like a turtle and be safe? Earth will surely perish, and we will be the only advanced intelligent beings in the universe who can survive forever..."

His eyes gleamed with an unpredictable, eerie light, and the muscles in his face trembled violently; he might transform into a three-headed, six-armed monster at any moment.

"You? Are you highly intelligent beings? Then why are you so determined to destroy this beautiful blue planet?"

The voice came from behind me; it was a deep, gentle middle-aged man's voice, speaking fluent English. A chair with a backrest that was at least four meters high slid out and silently stopped beside me.

This is a chair cast in gold, more than two meters wide, without any other colors or decorations, just a bright yellow that dazzles the eyes.

The chair has no wheels, yet it can glide freely on the ground; it's unimaginable how it manages to do that. Furthermore, the chair is so enormous that it must have required at least a ton of gold to cast. I bet even the emperors of ancient times, who ruled the world, never enjoyed such extreme luxury.

The chair back is semi-circular, and its texture and luster are somewhat similar to the golden cylinder tightly bound to Tengjia's body.

I can only vaguely call this thing a "chair," but to be more descriptive, it's more like a large display stand, because the front of the chair back is covered with glittering stars that keep flashing in a continuous loop.

The chair was nice, but the person sitting in it was hardly impressive—a "person" clad in golden armor. His hands rested on the wide back of the chair, his fingers no different from those of an Earthling. If you disregarded the area above the neck, he was simply a slightly taller Earthling.

I can only describe him as an "animal" with a crocodile head and a human body. Crocodiles are, in the eyes of earthlings, the second ugliest animal after venomous snakes. When a "person" has a crocodile head on his shoulder, just looking at him makes my stomach clench even more.

It's unbelievable that it has such a beautiful voice despite its ugly appearance.

This person was already very tall, and sitting on a chair two meters high, I had to look up to see him. He exuded an imposing aura of superiority.

"Ha, ha... You've finally shown up! Rather than hiding underground waiting to die, you might as well jump out and seek death. Today is the final moment of your fortress's destruction..." The scalpel smiled sinisterly, slowly extending its golden sword and pointing it at the person sitting in the golden chair.

“Very good, very good…” The person in the chair nodded slightly.

He was estimated to be around 2.2 meters tall, with extremely broad shoulders and a very robust and muscular build. He wore a suit of ancient warrior's golden armor, and his feet were adorned with matching golden boots. Of course, these were completely different from what Fujika was wearing.

Suddenly, I felt a cool breeze in the air, gently entering my body—it "entered" rather than "blew past." The breeze turned into air, and this air was rapidly expanding, spreading throughout my meridians, and its temperature was slowly rising, gradually giving me a feeling of "boiling blood."

"You've stopped me... no, we—six years. I must say, your defense barrier skills are indeed a million years ahead of Earthlings, but what good is that? The prophecy of the 'Great Seven' is an indelible conclusion. Can a heretic like you withstand it?"

The scalpel took a giant step forward, and a gurgling sound rose from the golden sword, like a pot of porridge about to boil violently. His expression, appearance, physique, and clothing were still those of a standard Earthling, still the tomb-raiding genius scalpel I knew, but what his thoughts had become, only heaven knows.

Youlian finally managed to stand up, walked to the left side of the chair, and placed her hands on the back of the golden-armored man's hands.

The armor on the golden-armored man suddenly lit up, as if the lotus had infused his body with new energy—at this moment, the swelling sensation within me was making me extremely uncomfortable, and the boundless power contained in my limbs would burst my body apart if I couldn't find a place to release it...

The scalpel suddenly lunged forward, like a light and shadow being moved rapidly by human hands; the golden sword's rapid slashing and thrusting emitted wave after wave of phantoms, like the raging waves of the sea, unstoppable.

My body involuntarily moved forward, a completely subconscious reaction. In an instant, what echoed in my mind was the martial arts I had been practicing since I could remember. More than a hundred kinds of martial arts techniques and methods, a total of more than 100,000 moves, were all imprinted in my mind.

As that energy rushed into my brain, I felt as if two scorching beams of light shot directly into my eyes, like two high-powered flashlights being switched on in the absolute darkness, suddenly illuminating the boundless darkness and cleaving away all the gloom—

In that instant, I saw all the movements of the scalpel.

"Seven thousand sword techniques? In less than a second, he has already conjured so many exquisite killing moves with his golden sword?" I absolutely couldn't believe that swordsmanship could be used so quickly. However, now that I've seen his attack, I naturally have a way to defend myself.

In this kind of combat, fists and feet become superfluous; there is no contact between the sword and the body at all, and the entire exchange enters the realm of mental combat.

Time has become unimportant, at least that's what I think.

An ordinary person using a sword to unleash seven thousand moves would take even the most renowned master of the "Death's Cross Sword" style nearly thirty minutes, and that's without considering physical exertion. But in the action of a scalpel, thirty minutes is reduced to half a second, like compressing that time using the fast-forward button on a video camera.

I don't know how I dealt with it. There was no sense of "disassembling and countering" in my mind. The time was too short. Thousands of moves seemed like just one move, or like a meaningless illusion in my eyes. It was as if no one drew their sword or countered the moves.

The scalpel was withdrawn, the sword still in his hand, and he and the golden-armored man almost simultaneously sighed: "You...you are not from Earth...you are really not from Earth..."

That's ridiculous. Am I not an Earthling? How can someone who was born on Earth, has Earthling bones and blood, grew up on Earth, eats Earthling food, holds the citizenship of the two superpowers, China and the United States, and has never left Earth, not be considered an Earthling?

I looked down at my hands, still immersed in the perilous battle I had just fought with the scalpel.

I wish there were a mirror right now, so I could show them all my "human" body parts. I am a typical human being; at least until today, no one has ever proposed such a shocking viewpoint.

Youlian released her hand, her face filled with immense grief. With utter despair, she asked, "Great God, has my energy completely vanished? Can I no longer help you?" She lowered her head, looking at the bloodstains all over her body.

Since she referred to the golden-armored man as a "great god," this crocodile-headed monster must be the "Great God Turkhan," who has been widely celebrated in Egyptian mythology and in reality.

The great god Tu Liehan spoke, uttering a sentence whose meaning I still don't understand: "Always...always...you are the incarnation of Earthlings...Alas, no matter how unique your mother was, no matter how advanced genetic technology is, you are at most still a species reborn on Earth..."

Youlian's reply was almost comical, or rather, almost like a Buddhist koan: "Yes, great god, no matter how you cultivate me, I am still a humble seed." Her tone was extremely sorrowful.

I don't understand the conflict between the Great God and the Illusion Demon, but knowing that Youlian is from Earth, I still feel a sense of kinship with her. As an Earthling, of course I should stand on their side to protect our planet.

"You're not from Earth... at least not in the full sense of the word..." the scalpel grinned maliciously. He had truly lost his nature—I don't know how I got to this space, was it the power of that "Eye of the Moon"?

“Even with his power, I still have the upper hand. You will all die together…” The scalpel held the golden sword in his arms and strode toward the golden chair of the Earth God, carrying an unparalleled domineering aura.

The golden-armored man laughed loudly: "Your master has already been imprisoned in the 'Crystal Coffin' by me—how dare you be so arrogant in my energy control room? You are at best just the shadow of the Illusion Demon, don't you know that?"

Suddenly, a multicolored sphere, a full meter in diameter, appeared in the open space between him and the scalpel, hovering more than fifty centimeters off the ground, spinning in mid-air. The sphere seemed to have countless facets, like a multifaceted diamond that had undergone countless precise cuts, radiating hundreds of brilliant rays of light.

The scalpel's advance was halted, and it tilted its head back with a cold laugh: "What? You've exposed the Saturn spacecraft's energy core cube, are you trying to take me down with you? That's perfect. When this tomb explodes, it will be the day my master sees the light again. This planet belongs neither to you nor to us, let it turn into tiny meteorites in the vast universe..."

At this moment, I am standing between the scalpel and the golden-armored man, with the Rubik's Cube just three steps to my left, within easy reach.

"Are you willing to do your utmost to protect the Earth?" A soft, delicate voice sounded in my ear; it must have been Youlian's voice. I turned my head and saw her gaze fixed on me, her lips moving slowly. This skill was several times more sophisticated than a tiger's "telepathic communication."

I nodded silently—no matter how tangled the mysteries are, I will never forget my identity as an Earthling.

"Place your hand on the Nuclear Cube, and it will grant you the power to destroy your enemies, but no one can accurately predict the consequences. Perhaps... perhaps you will be harmed... However, if this opportunity is missed, and the tomb is destroyed by the Illusion Demon, humanity and Earth will be doomed, reduced to dust in the universe..."

I wanted to ask, "How can I trust you?" Before I could even speak, she seemed to see right through me and said with a sigh, "You may not trust me, but I have no way to make you believe in the origin and course of everything."

The thing called the "Nuclear Cube" was spinning faster and faster, and the colorful light gradually turned into a hazy mist.

The golden-armored man's gentle voice joined in: "'King of Terror 1999' and 'The Great Seven' are Earthlings' nightmares. If we can't stop the Illusion Demon from breaking free of its coffin, then, even before 'The Great Seven' arrives, Earth will have already shattered into billions of fragments. You don't have much time to consider. Once the last bit of energy from the Nuclear Cube is exhausted, I will disappear completely—you may not believe me, but look..."

He didn't know what button he had pressed, but a huge image appeared on the left stone wall of the tomb chamber, ten meters long and five meters high. The image showed a global map unfolded into a flat sand table. In his memory, there was a similar sand table in the secret room beneath the Scalpel Villa, which belonged to Elder Sahan.

“You can look at the north-south axis of the Bering Strait. What’s on that ocean belt that divides Asia and America?”

Clearly, at a 45-degree angle south and west of the Bering Strait, there is a fist-sized star emitting a dark red glow. The sand table doesn't indicate latitude, longitude, or geographical features, but a rough estimate suggests it's near the Japanese archipelago.

I didn't understand the meaning, but the scalpel burst into maniacal laughter: "Your end has come! The 'Wrath of the Sun' has begun to shine; it will make the Pacific Ocean boil..." His laughter was so frenzied that all his hair stood on end, and his snow-white robe ripped open with a ripping sound—

The golden-armored man reluctantly echoed the scalpel's words: "Indeed, that was a harbinger of the 'Wrath of the Sun' beginning to stir. Your technology and energy are at least two million years ahead of Earth's, and a million years more advanced than Saturn's technology. But what reason is there to destroy Earth? Without the existence and reproduction of lower life forms on Earth, how could life in the Milky Way have begun to originate..."

This is the first time we've been called "lower organisms," because our textbooks have always referred to humans as "higher animals."

The conversation between the scalpel and the golden-armored man left me increasingly confused: "Should I listen to Youlian and the golden-armored man? Danger? What kind of danger could there be?"

Part Six: The Divine Appearance Revealed

— Chapter 13 - The Origin of the Mysterious Events —

The scalpel shook its head wildly, and with a flick of its hands, a golden sword transformed into ten identical objects with a "crackling" sound. Its hands seemed to possess the ability to perfectly replicate solid objects.

The golden-armored man sighed deeply: "Solid replication, thought replication—not a single scientist on our Saturn has even conceived of such a theory—in this respect, we concede defeat. But if a horrific catastrophe must occur, I will perish with Earth; that is my sole mission in traversing time and space..."

The scalpel looked at the sword in his hand and shook his head with a hint of regret: "It's a pity that you destroyed all the mirrors within a thousand kilometers of the tomb. Otherwise, not only could I replicate the Golden Sword, but I could also replicate myself without limit, just like my master. Even if there were a hundred thousand or a billion pyramids of Tulihan, we would have destroyed them all. Why bother using this Earthling's body in such a roundabout way?" He looked down at his arms and legs strangely—I could feel a chilling wind swirling around his head.

"Is this... the final moment of destruction? I still don't understand. Since so many of the prophecies in 'The Centuries' have already come true, how could they fail in the most significant upheaval? Has the prophecy lost its power, or has the accelerated rotation of the planet altered the nature of time's extension?" The golden-armored man's tone was extremely confused, showing that he had just as many questions as I did.

Who exactly are you?

"I originally thought you would be him... The genetic map is already 100% similar, but why aren't you him? Does the human genetic map change even after exhaustive calculations... Who exactly are you?"

This is the question that both Youlian and the golden-armored man asked me at the same time.

Who am I? I am the younger brother of Yang Tian, the "King of Tomb Raiders," a genuine Earthling, and definitely not an alien.

According to the latest data from the world's leading biological laboratories, no two people on Earth have 100% identical genetic profiles—I didn't understand their words and immediately asked, "Who is this 'him' you're talking about? Is it 'King of Tomb Raiders' Yang Tian? Is it?"

If there is anyone on Earth with similar physical characteristics to me, it can only be my older brother, Yang Tian.

They had no time to answer, because the scalpel's attack had already begun suddenly—

The ten swords flew across his arm and instantly multiplied into countless swords. In my eyes, a wall of golden swords suddenly rose up in front of his body, towering to the sky and filled the entire cross-section of the tomb chamber with countless sword tips, which continued to advance rapidly forward.

"It's over." Youlian smiled bitterly.

"Is it over? I don't understand. Before the 'Great Seven' arrived, the prophets never made any other branch of predictions—this kind of development is completely illogical..." The golden-armored man's words sounded too pedantic and dogmatic, even though the devastating blow from the scalpel had already begun.

Answer me! Answer me—

I ignored the wall of scalpels; I couldn't even see them, only the tips. In my dying moments, my greatest concern was for my elder brother's whereabouts, not my own life or death.

“I can’t be sure who that person is? But his physical elements are exactly the same as yours—do you know what exactly the same means? Completely identical! At least on the Saturnians’ analytical instruments, they appear exactly the same! Just as you Earthlings use 100% to refer to the similarity of two objects, we use 'a hundred-millionth of a hundred-millionth' to express it. You and that person are 'a hundred-millionth of a hundred-millionth' the same. If it weren’t for the body’s active energy indicator system, I would consider you to be the same person…”

He said so much, but I still didn't get the answer I wanted.

When the sword wall struck the nuclear cube sphere, the sphere's light suddenly dimmed as Youlian cried out in surprise.

I didn't have a chance to think any further. With a whoosh, I moved sideways behind the sphere and slapped it down with both palms at the same time.

The sphere was cool, like a raw crystal just unearthed from a deep mine, but larger and more perfectly rounded than any natural crystal on Earth. For a fleeting moment, I felt the light emanating from the sphere suddenly penetrate my body, like standing naked in the coldest weather, my body instantly frozen solid, my thoughts seemingly frozen as well—

"Perhaps I will disappear like...those people who have been weathered away, those who have been completely pierced through..."

"I'm going to die... I'm already dead..."

As I lay dying, only one person came to mind—Suren.

"If I die, who will take care of her? The scalpel will die too, perishing along with the entire tomb... Will Suren be depressed for the rest of her life? Sigh, don't talk about a lifetime. According to the calculations of the golden-armored man and the scalpel, the end of the world will come in the blink of an eye, or at most last until the 'Great Seven'..."

My feelings for Su Lun have evolved from "big brother and little sister" to a subtle, ambiguous romantic relationship. I haven't had a chance to express anything to her yet. Perhaps I should have made it clear a long time ago, so that I wouldn't have so many regrets now.

The search for Yang Tian is a dead end, fraught with obstacles. If he is truly still alive on Earth, where could he be? Which corner of the Earth do the photos of Gu Ye and Area 51 show...?