King of Tomb Raiders

Chapter 250

He heard a surging, turbulent sound coming from the receiver; he must have been at the seaside, hearing the sound of waves crashing against the rocks.

"It's me, Xiaoyan. We've found something strange deep in the mountains here. I'm sure you'll be interested. Would you like me to take some pictures and send them to you?" I glanced at the workbench in the stone house out of the corner of my eye. The golden light was fading, and the light emitted by the golden egg was also slowly disappearing.

"Ha, no need," Xiao Yan refused me sarcastically. Given his personality, he was most interested in the bizarre and unbelievable; for example, when they excavated the huge pool beneath the Xunfuyuan villa, his excitement surpassed that of a cocaine addict.

"What? Did you make an even more interesting discovery at Fengge Temple?" My keen sixth sense told me that Xiao Yan was hiding a secret, and a huge one at that.

Xiao Yan coughed, and amidst another deafening crash of waves, she spoke: "I saw everything you went through..."

Volume Five: The Millennium Labyrinth

Part 1: Deep Underground

— Chapter 2 — A World Without Time —

I gave a casual "Oh," without showing much surprise. Xiao Yan always speaks in a surprising way, and I've gotten used to it after knowing her for a while.

"Wind, there are some things you won't believe unless you see them with your own eyes. I'll be waiting for you in Hokkaido, hoping you'll return safely. In all the world, you're the only one whose wisdom matches mine, haha, but this time, I believe you'll be shocked, absolutely—"

Xiao Yan laughed, sometimes loud and sometimes soft, and for some reason, a chill suddenly ran down my spine.

"Xiao Yan—" I called out urgently, but I didn't know how to continue. Inviting him to help in Hokkaido was my idea, and if something strange happened and he was put in danger, I would feel guilty for the rest of my life.

"Xiao Yan, the 'Well of Spirits' is shrouded in mystery. Don't do anything rash on your own and cause trouble. Talk to Xiao Xiao more often. Also, I'll return to Fengge Temple as soon as I find Su Lun. Wait for me to come back." Being so far away, all I could do was give her countless instructions, even though I knew Xiao Yan would never be a well-behaved child.

"Haha." Xiao Yan chuckled briefly, her tone shifting to one of arrogant arrogance. "Feng, I am a hacker, unstoppable throughout the world. Before me, all barriers are but a thin layer of paper. Now, beneath my ten fingers lies the entire solar system, even the entire universe… You absolutely cannot believe that I have the power to control the universe…"

At that moment, I felt that the person on the other end of the phone was no longer the super hacker I knew, but a domineering and ambitious dictator.

If it weren't for Su Lun's sudden disappearance, I should be with Xiao Yan and Xiao Keleng right now, exploring the secrets of the underwater tomb together. After all, the words my elder brother left in the underwater tunnel clearly indicate that he had been there, perhaps in the center of the tomb.

A moment of confusion struck me: "What exactly does Xiao Yan know?"

The two phrases that rulers throughout history were most proud of popped into my mind—"Drunk, he lay on a beauty's lap; awake, he wielded a murderous sword." Only a great figure who could make everything in the world vanish in the blink of an eye would utter the words Xiao Yan just spoke.

"Xiao Yan, don't be too impulsive. Wait for me to come back." I calmly suppressed my turbulent thoughts and soothed him with the most concise words. Xiao Keleng had the ability to safeguard the foundation and stand alone, but he was not enough to subdue the unruly Xiao Yan. A person like him, who was used to being unconventional, would never take other people's advice seriously.

"Ha, of course I'll wait for you to come back. Only you are worthy to witness my glorious moment of soaring to the sky. Feng, I'm waiting for you."

The last three words that Xiaoyan spat out through clenched teeth sent a chill down my spine.

The little red devil stared intently at my face, his chest heaving rapidly, his eyes like two pine torches in the dark night, carrying the energy to burn everything to ashes.

“Feng, I’ll wait for you to come back. Of course, this may be an invitation that will never come true, haha…” Xiao Yan’s strange laughter came through the microphone clearly, making Hong Xiaogui change color once again.

“Feng, did he say how to achieve ‘30-finger linkage’? I need to know, I need to…” Hong Xiaogui repeated incoherently, but Xiaoyan had already hung up, and only the busy tone of “beep beep, beep beep” remained in the receiver.

I handed the phone back to him, not wanting to say anything.

"Wind—" Red Imp grabbed my wrist with his backhand, exerting force instantly, his five fingers like steel hooks. "Tell me! What's down there? Where is that crystal pit? Where is the square-eyed monster?" His martial arts skills had improved by leaps and bounds, and his speed had increased more than tenfold. I was caught off guard and couldn't dodge.

These three questions are all equations with no solution. I couldn't answer them, so I could only twist my wrist and break free from his control.

The more turbulent the environment, the more I must remain calm and composed, and not lose my judgment of the big picture because of someone's strange behavior.

The golden egg made no further move, and Tiger, Uncle Wei, and Gu Qingcheng were lost in confusion and disappointment.

"Wind, don't go, come with me into the stone house, I have something to show you!" The little red devil calmed down a bit, pointed into the door, and in his eyes were two clusters of leaping flames.

The golden light completely disappeared, and on the several display screens facing the entrance, colorful arrows and spheres were constantly changing. On the control panel, various indicator lights were also lit up in an orderly manner, and the stone house, now powered on, had been completely transformed into a modern control room.

I stepped inside, and he followed. He casually pressed a red button by the door, and the door began to slide silently.

"Don't close the door." I held out my hand, stopping the door from closing.

Red Little Devil shrugged: "Feng, I meant no harm, I just didn't want those three idiots outside to interrupt our discussion. Just as Xiao Yan said, you are the only genius who can communicate with super hackers. Really, we are the same kind, and our thinking speed has long surpassed that of ordinary Earthlings—" His nostrils flared violently, like a wild horse that had just gone through a gallop, extremely excited.

I stared at a red pimple on his forehead and smiled silently.

"Feng, look at everything here. This isn't the work of Earthlings. Where we're standing, some higher level of intelligent life must have once existed. They created this winding, complex space inside the mountain." He suddenly pointed to the flickering screens. "Look here, it records their movements when they entered Earth—"

Without his explanation, anyone with a basic understanding of astronomy could see that a thick green arrow weaving through the nine planets of the solar system represented the trajectory of some kind of spacecraft. The images on the screen kept changing, progressively zooming in on pictures of Saturn, Jupiter, Venus, Mars, and Pluto.

The red imp's heavy breathing filled the entire stone house. As he turned to face the dense array of buttons on the control panel, I slowly reached out and pressed on the Dazhui acupoint at the back of his neck, applying a gentle force from my palm to help him regain his composure so that we could talk in detail.

A dozen seconds later, a fine layer of sweat appeared on the forehead of the little red devil. He suddenly looked up and let out a long sigh: "Who exactly are they?"

I withdrew my hand, picked up the ancient armor on the swivel chair, and gently shook it.

"Feng, can you explain what kind of creature built these devices, this stone house, and that golden egg outside?" After the initial excitement cooled, the little red devil, unable to explain himself, finally faced reality again.

"Too many doubts, inexplicable." That was my only reply. Now is not the time for irresponsible reasoning; we have no time to stop and rest or look back, we can only move forward.

The door was half open. The little red devil turned around and glanced at the tiger standing in the center of the golden egg, then gave a wry smile for no apparent reason: "That's a magical egg that can teleport people to somewhere. Sigh, if only Xiao Yan were here. I've always only had a vague understanding of this 'Prometheus algorithm' and can't comprehend it."

He has mentioned the term "Prometheus algorithm" several times. During my in-depth conversation with Xiaoyan in Cairo, I heard her explain it more than once. It is an extremely advanced method of programming and cracking, and it is currently only used in aerospace applications.

"Masters in this world appreciate each other. The reason I admire Xiao Yan so much is that he has pushed human wisdom to its limits. Feng, do you know? When a person's mind surpasses that of all other humans on Earth, he is no longer 'human,' but a higher being above humanity, someone who can only be called a 'god'..."

Hong Xiaogui was immersed in self-pity, mixed with the frustration of not being able to stand shoulder to shoulder with Xiaoyan.

"Where can we go through that egg?" I grasped the crux of the problem.

“Go to one—” He looked down at a screen spread out on the control panel, his lips moving as if the large and small sine wave curves displayed on the screen were some kind of readable text.

A few seconds later, he hesitated and looked up, his bitter smile deepening: "A massive and heavy energy field, a... Qi array that absorbs the essence of heaven and earth and is constantly refined and sublimated. I know this is hard to accept, but that's how it's written in the description."

I stared into his eyes and reached out to press my hands on his shoulders.

“Feng, I’m not just talking nonsense,” he groaned, his cheeks slowly flushing red.

"What else do you know? What else did the King of Catchers reveal?" I've always felt that Su Lun's disappearance wasn't accidental, but rather guided by an inevitability. Everyone who reaches this mysterious mountain has their own secrets, including Tang Xin, Tiger, Gu Qingcheng, Uncle Wei, and Little Red Ghost, as well as everyone who died or was injured before.

“That’s all I’ve told you, Wind. Help me to that world. That energy can help anyone open their heart and become a god—” He broke free from my grasp and pointed to a row of black buttons on the control panel. “These are the ones. Press them all at once, and any creature inside the golden egg will instantly pass through and enter the energy core!” The red on his cheeks grew darker and darker, gradually turning into a purplish-brown.

I understand. The place he wanted to go was the "Crystal Pit" that the King of Catchers had described—an environment with unimaginable levels of radiation. Human beings are inherently incapable of surviving excessive radiation; the King of Catchers' death is the best example of this.

"I don't want you to die, I don't want anyone to die innocently." I shook my head, looking at the tiger standing in the golden egg.

"The physical body dies, but the spirit is eternal, just like... the 'Three Heroes of Flying Flowers'... Wind, you will never understand the joy of being free from the shackles of the body, thoughts and brainwaves can soar to the heavens and dive to the depths of the earth—" Red Devil's narration became increasingly chaotic.

I suddenly raised my middle finger and simultaneously stabbed him on his left temple with lightning speed, bringing him back to his senses from his extreme excitement, because I heard the words "The Three Heroes of Flying Flowers".

The little red devil let out a strange cry, his arms wrapping around my wrists like a mad tiger. This was a head-on clash, and I couldn't let him continue his rampage. With a flick of my arm, I unleashed all my inner strength.

As expected, all six joints in Red Devil's arms dislocated simultaneously, rendering him unable to move. However, as soon as I released my internal energy, his arms reacted immediately. He rapidly shrank back, flipped backward in mid-air, spread his fingers, and lunged at the row of black buttons.

"Tiger, come out quickly—" I shouted, the echo reverberating so loudly that my ears were ringing.

"Haha...hahaha..." Red Devil's strange laughter mingled with my echo.

A flash of light, and the little red devil screamed as several streams of blood sprayed down from mid-air. His hand didn't reach the button because a sudden slash came from my sleeve.

"Feng, what did you say? I have to go down and find Xiaoxin." The tiger, as if waking from a dream, roared to the sky, and the three of them turned their gazes toward the stone house.

The knife was in my hand, but I delivered that strike almost without any awareness or warning.

"Good knife." Red Devil fell to the side, his ten fingers covered in blood, but only the skin and flesh at the fingertips were injured. Ten translucent fingernails were left on the control panel, scattered haphazardly with bloodstains.

"I didn't mean to hurt you, but I don't want anything else to happen." I stared at the cold blade, recalling the divine strike just now. Although it couldn't be called a "sword that transcends distance" where "eyes and hands move in perfect unison," it was still close to the limit of swordsmanship.

"I just want to go to that world. Whether the people outside live or die is irrelevant. Next time, I'll stand inside the golden egg, and you can control the buttons, how about that?" The little red devil sucked the blood from his fingernails, his eyes flickering.

I slowly sheathed my sword and asked, word by word, "Little Red Devil, you said that some people 'die in body but live forever in spirit.' Which of the 'Three Heroes of Flying Flowers' were you referring to?"

Su Lun, Xiao Keleng, and Yan Xun are collectively known as the "Three Heroes of Flying Flowers," and I do not wish for any of them to die.

Red Devil sneered and retorted, "What? Did I say that? Sorry, I don't remember."

“I don’t want to ask a second time.” I frowned slightly. It was a crucial question, and I needed to find the answer to anything related to Suren.

“Nothing can threaten me, wind. Here, life, death, time, and breath are meaningless. Have you ever thought that after we passed through the five-pointed star array inside the mountain, we already had one foot in that world?” Red Ghost’s voice began to waver and flicker again.

Gu Qingcheng raised her left wrist, walked closer to the stone house, and calmly and clearly interjected: "He is right, the watch has stopped. I think what has stopped at this moment is not just the hands of the watch, but time in a physical sense. We have entered an environment without the concept of time."

"So what? Be careful! Be careful!" the tiger roared impatiently.

With blood dripping from the corner of his lips, the little red devil replied in a sarcastic tone, "She's in that world. Do you want me to send you there too?" He stepped past me and headed for the door.

I know that everyone is hiding certain things from their past experiences, so every piece of information they convey to me is incomplete, impossible to connect and analyze, and cannot be fully understood. Our seemingly united and coordinated team is actually just a hastily assembled mess.

As the little devil slowly walked towards the golden egg, I noticed a mysterious smile on Gu Qingcheng's face.

"Miss Gu, where is the peerless ancient zither you requested? Could it be located below the cliff, or somewhere accessible via the golden egg?" I remembered what she had said, and at this moment, I felt a mixture of sadness and relief deep within my heart.

"I don't know, perhaps it's 'only in this mountain, where the clouds are deep and the way is unknown'?" She raised the corners of her lips slightly and smiled sweetly.

"Then you'll be disappointed, having spent so much effort and manpower?" I couldn't see through her ruse, but I could sense an invisible chasm widening between us. From the moment I was grateful for her leading the support team until I realized we weren't on the same page, for several days, a strange unease rose and fell within me.

“There will be plenty of opportunities. Even if I don’t get to play the famous zither, I’ve already gained a lot from this trip. Feng, don’t you understand the famous line, ‘You are not a fish, how can you know the joy of a fish?’”

She was subtly hinting at something, but my mind remained as still as a deep pool. The next step was to enter the golden egg—after all these years, would the square-eyed monster still be inside?

I subconsciously avoided questions like "Is my older brother here?" The greater the hope, the greater the disappointment. Just like the feeling I had when I entered the tunnel beneath the Well of Spirits, all that followed was a heavy blow from a giant hammer, plunging me from the peak of longing into an abyss.

"Our understanding of Earth is far too shallow. Who could have guessed that such a control room was hidden deep in the mountains? The Heavenly Ladder, the Heavenly Ladder, is that golden egg the stairway to heaven?"

Gu Qingcheng muttered to herself, but stood cautiously by the door, refusing to cross the line.

Red Imp walked up to the golden egg, looked up at the tiger, and sneered arrogantly: "Come out, I'll go find your sweetheart for you, but I can't guarantee she's still alive."

“Feng, look at his back, hasn’t he become a different person?” Gu Qingcheng whispered to me.

Indeed, Red Devil's mind and body had changed. When he gave orders to the tiger, it was like a king instructing his subjects.

"Get out of here! Get out of here!" the tiger waved his hand and roared impatiently, but the one who was supposed to "get out of here" was himself. Before his waving arm could fall, he was grabbed by the little red devil and thrown out with a backhand, falling into the deep valley at the edge of the cliff.

Uncle Wei was closest to the golden egg, yet he stood by indifferently, showing no intention of helping, which further proved that everyone's cooperation was superficial and estranged.

I rushed out quickly, and in one leap I caught the tiger in my arms, stopping at the very edge of the cliff.

"Wind, thank you." The tiger finally calmed down from its initial frenzy, looked down at the ever-changing clouds and mist below the cliff, and suddenly sighed, "I'm sorry, I hid something from you."

I let go of him without showing any disappointment.

Tiger had a glorious past. Before meeting Tang Xin, he was so open-minded, cheerful, bold, and carefree, living a life of extravagance and revelry. Since their reunion at the Scalpel Villa, seeing how carefully he served Tang Xin, anyone would understand that the Tiger of the past had completely disappeared.

Life is full of ups and downs, and the world is like the ebb and flow of tides. No one can see through the past or predict the future. The tiger is someone caught in the game; unless the game is broken, he will never be able to escape the shackles of emotion.

"No matter what, I have to find Xiaoxin." This had become an obsessive spell in his mind.

"Where did Tang Xin disappear from? Then, where is the woman with six arms?" I realized that what he was hiding was not just a little, but a great deal.

Suddenly, a sharp pigeon whistle rang out in the air. I immediately turned my head toward the source of the sound and saw a person in a black robe standing in mid-air with his arms outstretched and his fists pointing toward the golden egg.

“The Dragon Witch—” I can recall one of her identities.

"It's her, Tang Qing! The strange woman with six arms!" the tiger roared.