King of Tomb Raiders

Chapter 187

Xiao Yan quickly reviewed the footage on the digital camera's LCD screen and made a significant discovery: "Feng, each lotus flower has 361 sets of four-digit numbers, each set starting with either 'zero' or 'one,' and the third digit follows the same pattern, either 'zero' or 'one.' What does this mean?" He shook his head vigorously, muttering incoherently and rolling his eyes repeatedly.

Xiao Keleng seemed to remember something and whispered in my ear, "There's been no movement from Daheng's side."

It contains only eight characters, but it contains a lot of hidden meaning. That is to say, the existence of the "Nine Palaces Eight Trigrams Sparrow Killing Formation" is of no help in breaking the "black magic". The so-called divine oracle in the "Well of Spirits" has become a piece of paper, or a terrible joke played by heaven on Guan Baoling.

I nodded. This outcome was pretty much expected. If the Japanese could effectively break the curse of "black magic," then the Guatemalan wizards would have all lost their jobs and starved to death long ago, and thousands of tourists wouldn't die in South America every year.

"The same goes for tooth pupae; the miracle we were hoping for didn't happen."

Xiao Keleng added, "If we also take into account the failed tracking of Xiao Yan and the disappearance of 1.5 billion US dollars, all our actions yesterday resulted in a complete and utter failure."

"Sister, give me a cigarette." Xiao Yan held out her slender fingers, stained brown with cigarette smoke, and wore an unnatural smile.

I stared at his face, noticing his breathing was slowly becoming heavy, and his cheeks were flushed with a strange red, like a consumptive patient who had been bedridden for a long time. That was the standard "appearance" of a drug addict, and his body was unusually thin—"Xiao Yan, are you doing drugs?" This really surprised me.

"Top-grade heroin can increase the intensity of brain cell activity seventy times. For a hacker whose brain must operate at high speed, drug use is almost a required course before entering the field. What's so surprising about that?" Xiao Yan pretended to be nonchalant.

Xiao Keleng took out a cigarette case and placed it in Xiao Yan's hand without saying a word.

Actually, I really wanted to stop her. Compared to life, which is more important, the empty title of "number one in the world"? Anyone with a brain can tell.

Xiao Yan whistled nonchalantly, got up and walked into a dark corner, flicking open her lighter and lighting a cigarette.

"Mr. Feng, please forgive me. Xiao Yan is suffering from a terminal illness. From the early stages of embryonic development, he needs to be injected with strong stimulating drugs regularly to maintain the activity level of his brain tissue. Without the drugs, he could become a vegetative state with zero brain tissue activity at any time. Therefore, at present, we can only treat him with high-purity heroin. This is the difficult situation we have to do even though we know it."

Xiao Ke's expression was one of painful numbness. If she hadn't said it herself, who would have thought that the seemingly glamorous "number one hacker" had such a heartbreaking chronic illness behind her?

"I'm sorry, I'm the one who should apologize." I stood up, looking at the flickering cigarette butt in the darkness, my heart growing heavier and heavier.

"Ah—fire! No, it's red light! Red light!" Xiao Keleng jumped up and shouted. Almost everyone's gaze turned to due north, including the beam of light from the searchlight. Right in the direction of the "Tower of the Dead," a red beam of light with a diameter of more than ten meters shot straight into the sky, its momentum unstoppable, giving people an immediate sense of shock that "it will shatter the sky."

The intensity of the red light was at least greater than the combined intensity of four searchlights, and it showed no signs of spreading within a height range of at least 300 meters.

"What is that?" Xiao Keleng murmured to himself.

I can at least keep smiling: "That light is coming from the underwater structure, it must be emitted by 'The Wrath of the Sun'." Thinking back to the glass skylight that was revealed when the sea sand was blown open by the hurricane, does it foreshadow another sudden change brewing on the seabed?

"My God! Such light will likely shock Asian countries once again, sparking a new wave of searches for the 'Wrath of the Sun'!"

Suddenly, Xiao Keleng's voice faded into the distance, and I heard the sounds of bubbles, keys turning, and mechanisms opening in my ears. At this moment, my eyes were wide open, but it was as if I was facing a screen before a movie started, unable to see any images, only the strange sounds echoing in my ears.

"Xiao Xiao, Xiao Xiao, Xiao Xiao..." I called out loudly, but no one answered. The only response was a long series of "glug glug glug" sounds, rising from the deep underground to my side, then flying past and floating to an infinitely high and distant place.

Where am I? Am I underwater? Am I in front of those two doors? They're open, yes, the doors are open, what's behind them? My older brother Yang Tian is inside—a dizzying sensation hits me, and I reach out to the side, grabbing Xiao Keleng's shoulder.

"Mr. Feng, what's wrong?" Xiao Ke's cold voice rang out again, and everything before them returned to normal. The red light had disappeared, and the workers, now back to normal, had filled in the deep pit and were turning on the electric vibrator to compact the soil again.

"What's wrong with me? I feel those two doors open. If possible, I must go inside and see what's going on." The feeling of going deep into the sea was incredibly real, like diving into the ocean depths again in Shao Hei's "remote sensing." Is there any way to reach the seabed? I have to try, no matter what.

At 5:30 a.m., as the first rays of dawn appeared in the eastern sky, the foundation of the main building was restored to its original state, and reconstruction work could begin after daybreak. This dismantling project, after all, yielded the compass and the lotus flower from the "Book of Purgatory," so it wasn't entirely in vain.

After smoking, Xiao Yan regained her energy and quickly listed the four-digit numbers on the paper.

Xiao Keleng let out a long yawn. She hadn't slept a wink last night in order to keep an eye on Xiao Yan, and she must be exhausted by now.

"Mr. Feng, do you think Gu Ye can defeat Feng Lin Huo Shan?" She stood up, turned her neck, and two deep dark circles appeared under her eyes.

The sun rose, and the deadline that Tanino had mentioned was drawing ever closer.

I was skeptical of Gu Ye's words, after all, defeating Fenglin Huoshan was no easy task, so I could only shake my head with a smile: "Perhaps. The person who can possess the 'Soul of Genghis Khan' must be at least one of the top ten martial arts masters in the entire Asian martial arts world. It is said that the special function of that sword, 'Shadow Slash Kills,' will automatically choose its master. If the wielder's power is insufficient, he will suffer a backlash. Of course, I hope he can succeed, and the curse on Miss Guan will be lifted smoothly."

"What if he can't? What if he's killed by the wind, forest, fire, and mountain?" Xiao Yan looked up from the thick stack of white paper and shook the pencil in her hand.

“That’s possible, but this time it’s him who got taken down—” With Gu Ye’s cold laugh, a white cloth bundle dripping with blood flew straight at Xiao Yan. Xiao Yan spun and kicked in mid-air, the bundle crashing into a pillar of the water pavilion and landing with a thud, then scattering to reveal a hideous head.

Gu Ye landed lightly, followed by the silent female ninja in black, carrying the "Soul of Genghis Khan" on her back.

His kimono seemed to have countless crimson cherry blossom petals, whether from the enemy's blood or his own, it was hard to tell.

"This is the head of the Wind Forest Fire Mountain? How can you prove it?" Xiao Yan sneered, and casually kicked it, sending the head rolling to my feet.

Gu Ye raised his right hand: "This was his treasure that he never parted with. Now that his head has been cut off, it belongs to me."

It was a black plastic box about half a foot square, less than an inch thick, with colorful buttons covering all six sides.

Xiao Yan chuckled, "A remote control? That's his treasure?"

However, after taking a step forward, his sneer vanished instantly, replaced by an exclamation: "What is this? A submarine remote control?" When he reached Gu Ye, took the remote control, and examined it closely, he couldn't help but marvel repeatedly. Completely astonished, he immediately took out his phone, dialed a number, and shouted, "Check the remote control icon for the 'Tengu Archaeopteryx' submarine! Is it 110 black square buttons, 50 yellow round buttons, 50 blue triangle buttons, 11 green navigation buttons, and 9 red trapezoidal buttons? Also, check the model without an LCD screen—"

A minute later, his eyes suddenly lit up, staring at Tanino's face in disbelief: "This thing belongs to Kaze, Rin, Kazan, and so what about the 'Tengu Archaeopteryx'? Was it also under his control? Good heavens, good heavens, good heavens... On the eve of the surrender ceremony sixty years ago, he really... really stole the American super submarine?"

His words concerned a top-secret old story in the Pentagon's classified documents. I only knew the details roughly and had also heard the name "Archaeopteryx".

Tani laughed freely, as if someone who had been drowning in the deep sea for a long time had seen the long-awaited sunshine: "The reason I dared to accept his challenge was to seize the 'Tengu Archaeopteryx'. Why don't you all come with me—we'll find that submarine and then discuss it slowly?"

At this moment, I am probably the most confused and excited. Hidden in the water beneath the secret dome of the meditation hall are submarines and the shrines of the Ten Saints of the Yagami School. I think that is the American submarine that Xiaoyan mentioned.

Tani turned and ran towards the direction of Fengge Temple. Xiaoyan hesitated for a moment, then gripped the remote control tightly and followed.

"Mr. Feng, what should we do?" I don't know when it started, but whenever things changed, Xiao Keleng would subconsciously ask me this question.

"A submarine belonging to the Wind, Forest, Fire, Mountain faction? Is it possible to penetrate deep into the dome and reach those two doors? Is this the best opportunity? Is it worth the risk?"

I hesitated for at least two minutes before finally making a decision: "Let's go and see what new changes might occur at Fengge Temple—"

We temporarily abandoned the construction site of Xunfuyuan. The compass was left in Xiao Keleng's car. Everything else became unimportant. I hoped to find the final answer here in Gu Ye.

When we arrived at the "Well of Spirits," the sun had already risen fully, and the crimson dawn spread across the sky, illuminating the small well with unparalleled brilliance. Xiao Yan held the remote control tightly in his hand, standing by the well's edge, his fingers trembling like leaves in the wind.

"Right here? The 'Tengu Archaeopteryx' is underwater?" He stared at the crystal-clear well water, opened his mouth, and took a deep breath, but still couldn't completely calm his mind.

Gu Ye's slender figure seemed shrouded in a layer of cold mist as he silently nodded.

Xiao Yan took another breath, tapped the green button on the remote control four times, and sighed as she raised her pale face: "Actually, this upgraded version of the remote control has added an LCD screen, which makes it much easier to operate visually than simply relying on the 'Bat Ecological Intelligent Wave Control'."

No one answered; all five men stared intently at the water's surface. After a burst of rapidly rising bubbles, a colossal, dark blue object, almost the same size as the well opening, slowly rose from the depths of their vision.

Xiao Ke bit her lip and gripped my arm tightly, extremely nervous.

The water in the well quickly overflowed, and the enormous object rose to a position twenty centimeters above the well's rim within three minutes, then stopped moving. It looked like a square iron box, but its exact length was unknown.

Xiao Yan quickly circled around it, pressed a set of yellow buttons, and with a "click," the lid of the iron box opened automatically, revealing a narrow gangway that led down into the bottomless interior.

"Friends, welcome to the USS Archaeopteryx, the first-generation nuclear submarine developed by our American friends during World War II. Its fate was extremely bad. Before it was even officially launched, it was stolen by the famous Japanese ninja and super spy, Kazan Kaze. And the strangest thing is that it was stolen from the USS Missouri, the ship that accepted the surrender, in the early morning of September 2, 1945."

Xiao Yan excitedly led the way onto the gangway, but Xiao Keleng immediately stopped him: "Wait a minute, this is Japanese territory, are you out of your mind?" A row of milky white indicator lights lit up on the side of the gangway, and then, about ten meters deep, more lights and signal lights all lit up.

She's right. Just because Tanino killed Fuurin Kazan doesn't mean he's our friend.

Gu Ye, who had been deep in thought with his arms crossed, suddenly smiled at me: "Feng, it's understandable that the Chinese have deep-seated prejudices against the Yamato people, but this time please believe me, we are only collaborating on an underwater exploration from the perspective of academic exchange. I killed Feng Lin, Shan Huo, and the curse of the tooth pupa in Miss Guan's body has been lifted. If that still doesn't prove my sincerity, please see—" He suddenly loosened the obi of his kimono, and the hem of his robe opened in the wind, revealing the bloody, white bones on his sides.

"The martial arts of Fenglin Huoshan are well-known and need no further explanation. They kill a thousand enemies but inflict eight hundred casualties on themselves. My injuries are severe, though I'm slightly luckier than him; my heart wasn't damaged. All three of you are masters of the martial world; surely you wouldn't care about someone half-crippled? Even if I had malicious intentions, I could easily return to the Meditation Hall to heal and wait for the right opportunity. At least in a top-tier situation, I'd be confident of defeating any one of you. Right now, I only want to board this submarine and go underwater to unravel the mystery that Fenglin Huoshan has been unable to solve. Just before I beheaded him, I promised his corpse that I would clear his mind and see what lies behind those two doors..."

His left rib wound was more severe, and with each heartbeat, the tangled flesh trembled.

Xiao Ke frowned: "Alright, I'll believe you for now, but I need to call Miss Guan to verify."

The Truth of the Sixth Tomb of the Gods

— Chapter 9 - The Undersea Tomb —

Before she could even dial, my phone rang. It was from the Water Mist Villa, and Guan Baoling's joyful and surprised voice rang out: "Feng, all the teeth marks on my neck have disappeared, not a single one left! That's wonderful, wonderful... Where are you? Come back soon, Mr. Ye and I are waiting for you..."

A huge weight lifted from my heart, and I replied in a low voice, "We're at Fengge Temple, we'll be back soon."

After hanging up, I extended my hand to Tanino and said, "Thank you, Mr. Tanino."

Gu Ye gave a wry smile and sighed, "No need to thank me, I'm doing this for myself. Now, are you comfortable coming underwater with me? Believe me, I really mean no harm."

Xiao Keleng completely dispelled her suspicions about Gu Ye. Looking back at the previous media reports about Gu Ye Shenxiu, most of them were positive news. He had spent a lot of money to build schools, refugee camps and hospitals in poor African countries. Although he used the ill-gotten gains from tomb raiding around the world, he was still considered a generous and righteous person.

I was the last one to step off the gangway. Xiao Yan whistled a long, cheerful whistle from the bottom, and the hatch immediately slammed shut, the sealing wheel tightening instantly.

Descending five meters down the gangway, one enters a circular platform space filled with control panels. Various flashing indicator lights are everywhere – overhead, underfoot, and within reach. Xiao Yan sits in a transparent cabin five meters further down. Before her is a massive pane of glass, offering a panoramic view of the dark green underwater world.

"Everyone, take your seats, we're ready to go!" Xiao Yan shouted excitedly. Then, a slight tremor ran under her feet, and a super-bright searchlight lit up on the bow of the submarine, shining straight into the distance.

Tani sat next to me the whole time, emanating a strong smell of blood.

"Are you alright?" I felt bad for my previous coldness towards him, after all, it was because of his efforts that the curse on Guan Baoling was lifted and the submarine's remote control was obtained, allowing us to explore underwater. If those two doors could be opened, I should be able to see my older brother, Yang Tian.

Tanino stared blankly in the direction the searchlight was shining, and after a long while shook his head: "It's alright, Feng. You must know that Fenglinshan is a once-in-a-century genius among Japanese ninjas. He took me underwater several times, asking me to exhaust all my wisdom in an attempt to open the two doors on the cliff. In the end, in extreme despair, he even prepared enough TNT explosives—if you hadn't suddenly appeared at Fengji Temple and caused a series of changes, perhaps the explosion would have already occurred by now."

I pointed to Xiao Keleng and said, "I know about those two underwater doors, and the other blue lotus key is in Miss Xiao's possession. With the two keys together, you should be able to open the doors."

Xiao Keleng reached out and handed me the key. The bronze lotus flower shimmered with a soft and pleasing luster, reflected in Gu Ye's slightly brown pupils.

He suddenly gave a bitter laugh: "No, no, Feng, you might not know, but regarding this key, when everyone was still clueless about its function, Feng Lin Huo Shan discovered it and personally stole it back, repeatedly testing it underwater. The key was useless. According to Feng Lin Huo Shan, those two doors were sealed with a peculiar seal. He has been working tirelessly to break the seal, traveling thousands of miles to Tibet and Xinjiang in China, to Nepal on the southern slopes of the Himalayas, and even to Thailand and India… As everyone knows, when it comes to mystical seals, Asian countries have a significant advantage." Chang Mingxian realized that if a solution couldn't be found in Asia, it was practically hopeless. However, he eventually obtained some clues from an old monk who served the Nepalese royal family. The monk said the seal seemed to belong to another world, carrying mysterious energy from beyond. Even on his deathbed, he remained obsessed with the secrets within the gate, still coveting the wondrous 'Wrath of the Sun God.' This time, perhaps we will again 'find the door but not enter.' I think this is the last time I'll go in. Since it's an unsolvable vicious cycle, I don't want to make any more futile efforts.”

I answered with absolute certainty, "Mr. Tanino, believe me, I will definitely be able to open those two doors."

He raised his eyebrows, gently closed his eyes, pulled the seatbelt from the back of the chair, and fastened it around his waist with a snap. The female ninja stood respectfully behind him, motionless, and showed no intention of talking to us.

I winked at Xiao Keleng, and we walked towards Xiao Yan together. The submarine's descent speed increased, and the "Well of Spirits" seemed to be a tunnel specifically for submarines to enter and exit. No wonder the moss on the walls was so sparse; it must have been scraped off by the submarine.

Outside the glass, the beam of light had a range of at least two hundred meters. Without any reference points, the submarine seemed to be stationary. But Xiao Yan waved the remote control in her hand and concluded with certainty: "The speed is consistently maintained at fifteen kilometers per hour. It is truly admirable that the Americans were able to develop such a high-speed small submarine at the end of World War II."

Xiao Ke and I sat down, fastened our seatbelts, and, as if riding an underwater sightseeing boat in an ocean park, were able to temporarily relax from the chaotic environment of Xunfuyuan. The interior of this submarine was very simple, even somewhat rudimentary, and was probably the smallest and most simplified submarine I had ever seen.

"Feng, are you sure we can enter some kind of space—the underwater tomb?" Xiao Yan's expression was unusually relaxed. Having never experienced the horrors inside the glass box, he probably always viewed underwater exploration as a comfortable and pleasant sightseeing trip. No wonder he could only be considered a half-江湖人 (jianghu person, a term referring to the martial arts world), spending his days locked in his small room, dealing with computer components and programming text, completely unaware of the ups and downs of the jianghu world.

"Perhaps! You'd better pray that this submarine doesn't shatter into pieces under the weight of the seawater—Xiao Yan, I'll repeat myself, this operation is very dangerous, you must take it seriously, understand?" I always felt that putting five lives in the hands of a greenhorn like Xiao Yan was a ridiculous thing.

Xiao Yan indeed became serious, raised her thumb, and answered solemnly, "Feng, let me tell you, the origin of this submarine is very peculiar. Its design and construction were all done by top designers and top-notch construction materials from NASA, and the construction process was kept 100% secret until the Americans suffered a defeat in the Vietnam War, when their information was inadvertently leaked. It shouldn't have been on the USS Missouri, the ship that received the surrender. It was an extremely secretive temporary transfer plan. Therefore, many secret sources revealed that the Americans brought it into the Sea of Japan to seize the 'Wrath of the Sun God' which was in the 'Underwater Tomb'."

In terms of compiling information from various sources, I must admit that I am no match for Xiao Yan. He can freely access the military and political databases of various countries as if they were his own backyard.

"As a result, it disappeared and fell into the hands of Kaze, Rin, and Kazan, who were leading the 'Sunrise' operation at the time. It was because of this accident that Kaze, Rin, and Kazan deserted their post, and the surrender ship escaped a catastrophic attack from the Ninja Alliance. Its name was even personally inscribed by then-US President Roosevelt. Asians have always believed in the legend of 'the Heavenly Dog swallowing the sun,' so he named the submarine 'Tengu,' the meaning of which is clear: to use it to seize the 'wrath of the sun god'..."

Suddenly, the view opened up, revealing that they had already exited the tunnel of the "Well of Spirits".

Xiao Yan tapped the remote control a few times, and the submarine swayed sideways, turning about thirty degrees to the right and continuing forward. Five minutes later, the dark underwater rock wall appeared in the searchlight's field of vision.

Before we knew it, Gu Ye was standing behind us, holding a folder. He opened it with both hands and said to Xiao Yan, "The location of the two doors is where it's marked on the blueprint—"

Xiao Yan waved her hand dismissively: "Don't bother, I know where it is. I know just as much about the electronic equipment used in this submarine as the original designers did." He was a hacking genius; he could instantly master anything related to electronic controls without any formal instruction.

I took the folder. On a blank sheet of paper was a huge three-way intersection—or so I thought. A straight, narrow path represented the "Well of Spirits" we had just passed through. The submarine was now in the center of the intersection, preparing to turn around and ascend into another wide, irregular passage. The remaining fork in the road was extremely wide, resembling more the contrast between a thick tree trunk and two forked branches compared to the previous two.

A red dotted arrow starts from the "Well of Spirits," extends forward, turns into the irregular passage, and points to a red circle on the right edge.

“That’s our destination, two doors.” Gu Ye stared at the empty underwater world outside the glass, growing increasingly calm and indifferent. He seemed to have forgotten his injuries, focusing intently on looking ahead, as if trying to pierce through everything in the distance with his gaze.

Two doors came into view, exactly the same as the ones I had seen in Shao Hei's "remote sensing" hallucination. I knew that behind the doors lay a passageway and stone walls inscribed with the words "Yang Tian, the King of Tomb Raiders, Has Arrived Here."

Xiao Yan skillfully maneuvered the submarine close to the rock wall, squinting her eyes and laughing: "American industrial technology is truly too advanced, at least thirty years ahead of other countries. If Stalin had understood this back then, he wouldn't have allowed the Americans to station troops in Japan and neglected Northern Europe. Russian media keeps boasting about the strength of their naval vessels, but at most they're only equivalent to the Americans' level thirty years ago. What's there to brag about?"

The submarine immediately stabilized upon contact with the rock wall, presumably due to suction cups extending from its hull and firmly adhering to the stone. With a "whoosh," the stainless steel wall on the side of the submarine suddenly opened, revealing two strange metal doors carved into the rock wall.