King of Tomb Raiders

Chapter 253

I stepped into the golden egg, and under my feet was a metal plate about half a meter square.

"Wind, don't mess around. That golden egg is strange. I suspect it acts like a man-eating tree in the forest. If you put someone inside, they'll quickly turn into sap and be absorbed by the plants." The tiger grew increasingly agitated. In his mind, the key to unraveling all the mysteries was probably at the bottom of the cliff.

If it really were a man-eating tree, at least with my strength and this "Overreaching Blade," I could cut through any obstacle and break through the formation. But now I'm facing an immeasurable world.

"You may not have noticed, but I heard someone's 'inner voice,' summoning me to meet him through the golden egg." I tapped my chest lightly with my right index finger, so that he and Gu Qingcheng could quickly understand this.

"Mind communication? Feng, who is the other party?" Gu Qingcheng became inexplicably excited.

"It's not certain yet, but it's probably the square-eyed warrior, the one depicted in the Li family's records—" Faced with the tiger's horrified gaze, I could only offer an apologetic smile.

"So, there really is a strange creature with square eyes inside this ancient mountain? From an unknown alien planet or prehistoric Earth? Feng, this discovery will shake the world, even more exciting than the dragging-out excavation of the Great Pyramid of Giza." Gu Qingcheng's eyes lit up.

I re-examined her face, hoping to glimpse some secrets within her heart.

“What I mean is—” she tried to explain, but I gently shook my head to stop her.

"Tiger, if anything happens to me, take good care of Miss Gu and get out of the mountains immediately." The metal plate beneath my feet was trembling slightly, like a makeshift elevator about to start. For some reason, I suddenly remembered the extremely rudimentary elevator we used to take to the tunnel every day in the Egyptian desert camp. In an instant, a mix of emotions welled up inside me, and I just wanted to enter the other's mysterious world a minute sooner, to see Suren a second sooner.

"Feng, I have a feeling you'll be alright." Gu Qingcheng smiled, took out a pistol and magazine, and pretended to throw them to me.

I smiled and refused her, saying, "No need. The person hidden deep in the mountains has already surpassed the limits of what firearms can harm." This was true. The Longe witch could easily catch a rapid-fire machine gun bullet without getting hurt. I was afraid that the mysterious figure who communicated through "mental messages" was an even more unfathomable master.

Tiger clapped his hands gently, looking helpless: "Feng, find Xiaoxin and bring her back, please."

He was wise; in this environment, it was pointless to act rashly. Only by constantly enduring and pushing his patience to the limit could he possibly escape unscathed.

The inner wall of the golden egg is not smooth; it is made of unpolished metal plates. The golden luster has faded, and the egg looks more like a strangely shaped suitcase. The cracked edges are also very rough, making it hard to imagine how it was originally tightly fastened together.

"I'm ready to visit you," I silently uttered, adjusting my breathing.

"You'll see me in a second," he sighed, his tone filled with uncertainty, a mixture of joy and sorrow.

The golden egg slowly closed upwards, a scene that was indeed somewhat frightening, because I saw that Gu Qingcheng and the tiger both had their lips tightly closed and their faces were extremely pale.

"Wind, wait a minute—" Gu Qingcheng flew forward, reaching out to grab the edge of the eggshell. "You must come back. I'll always be here waiting for you. Or, you don't necessarily have to go. There are thousands of meaningful things in the world. Isn't this adventure worth it?"

She was somewhat incoherent, her eyes filled with bewilderment and confusion, much like Guan Baoling's expression when she first appeared in front of the Xunfuyuan Villa.

The golden egg was slowly but resolutely closing. Although I couldn't see where its power source was, I could feel an immense power filling my body.

I simply smiled faintly. Rescuing Su Lun was the starting point for everything in the future. Having gone through countless trials and tribulations, she was the only one I could never let go of in my heart.

“That place is too dangerous! We both know what the consequences of excessive radiation are. You can’t completely believe what the little devil relayed from ‘Catch the King,’ but you can’t completely disbelieve it either, right?” She frowned, reached out her right hand towards me, and made a gesture as if to pull me out.

"What exactly are you trying to say? What do you know?" I gazed at her with tolerant gentleness. In the past, I had also looked at Guan Baoling like this, taking the occasional clouds drifting past the window as my entire life.

Gu Qingcheng smiled bitterly: "None of that matters. Living and surviving is the true meaning of life. Remember Yang Tian, the 'King of Tomb Raiders'? His glorious life ended in obscurity. Even such a great figure will fade away with time, let alone you and me? Feng, come out. By the time the golden egg closes, it will be too late to say anything."

I straightened up: "Miss Gu, the great hero Yang Tian is still alive. In this vast world of martial arts, truly great figures never die."

After acquiring the "Blade of Transcendence," every time I sensed the chilling glint emanating from its blade, I became increasingly aware that it was brimming with life. A divine weapon possesses a spirit; if it lives, its master must live, and I will find my elder brother.

Before Gu Qingcheng could say anything more, the golden egg suddenly accelerated its closing speed, and with a sudden darkness overhead, it was completely closed, enveloping me tightly.

I felt a momentary suffocation, then realized that the golden egg contained an "artificial vacuum" system to expel air. Gu Qingcheng's face remained etched in my mind, carrying a poignant beauty.

People die for wealth, birds die for food, so what brought her here? Why was she so unmoved by Uncle Wei's death? Everyone understands the principle of "great things don't concern themselves with trifles," so she must have a very grand plan in mind, which is why she showed no regard for the people who died in the process of implementing it.

Volume Five: The Millennium Labyrinth

Part 1: Deep Underground

— Chapter 5 - The square-eyed monster in the crystal pit —

The feeling of oxygen deprivation was unpleasant. I closed my eyes, slowed my breathing, and my pulse rate suddenly decreased. In this state, I was certain I could hold out for more than three minutes.

"Where are you?" I asked the other person, still using my inner voice.

“Here.” He answered immediately, but his voice rang in my ears; it was no longer a matter of communicating with “hearts.”

"With your level of intelligence, you probably know that humans on Earth cannot survive for long in a lack of oxygen, right?" I heard the sound of wind, birdsong, and in the distance, the splashing sound of a mountain stream cascading into a deep pool.

"Of course, if there were no oxygen in the air, it would truly be a disaster for Earthlings. However, one in ten million Earthlings is an exception. They possess a peculiar mutated gene that allows them to obtain oxygen from water or solids, making them fish in water and eagles in the sky. The human body is very, very scientifically designed. When all its potential is realized, one person can accomplish what would take ten thousand teams to do."

He spoke eloquently, occasionally interjecting with sighs.

The feeling of suffocation disappeared, and I took a deep breath, preparing to open my eyes.

"Wait, are you sure you won't be horrified to see me?" he sighed again.

"Square-eyed humanoid? I guess you're not any stranger than the Sphinx in the Egyptian desert, are you? Besides, I've already seen your appearance in an ancient book, and I've even encountered you in a hallucination—" I opened my eyes and suddenly found myself surrounded by glittering specks. I immediately closed my eyes again to prevent them from being damaged by "snow blindness."

"The Sphinx? Ha, that's a self-portrait left by extraterrestrials. How can it compare to me? I have to explain to everyone I meet that I'm an Earthling, one of their kind, but very few people believe me. I hope you'll be the second." He said self-deprecatingly, his tone extremely bitter.

"The second one? Who was the first one? 'King of Tomb Raiders' Yang Tian?" I keenly realized that in the other party's mind, Big Brother Yang Tian was a remarkable figure.

"Hehe, not bad. Back then, even Qin Shi Huang and Emperor Wu of Han couldn't understand it, but he could grasp the ins and outs after hearing it only once. I can only say that he is one of the most outstanding people on Earth. In our time, such a person is called a 'celestial being,' just like ancient emperors called themselves 'Sons of Heaven.'"

I covered my eyes with my hands and peered out through my slightly parted fingers. Hunters in the snowy regions near the Arctic Circle rely on this kind of trick to carefully protect their eyes.

Opposite me was a wall made of amethyst, completely transparent, through which my gaze could pass. I could see vast expanses of seaweed, swaying and fluttering like a witch's hair. The walls on the left and right sides were also made of topaz and red amethyst respectively, so the seaweed outside appeared yellow and red accordingly.

I quickly turned around, but instead of a cracked golden egg, I saw a wall of black crystal, of exceptional quality. Compared to it, the exorbitantly priced crystals circulating in the market were merely flawed inferior products. Now, these priceless treasures were being used only to build a wall—a blatant waste.

The dazzling crystals had caught my attention. When I turned back, about twenty paces ahead, a warrior in ancient armor stood silently against the wall, watching me intently. He wore a golden mask, and his eyes were shaped like the phoenix eyes most admired in ancient times, with the corners slanted upwards, giving him a handsome and dashing appearance.

"Hello," I nodded in greeting.

"Hmm, hello." He raised his left hand in response, but the deep wariness between us made the atmosphere extremely tense.

He is a "person," at least on the surface, with a healthy and upright body, all four limbs intact, and his raised hand has five fingers, just like ours.

"I meant no harm, don't worry." He stepped away from the wall and strode towards me.

I stood calmly in a T-stance, adopting a Tai Chi stance that allowed me to both attack and defend, a faint smile playing on my lips.

When he was about five steps away from me, he stopped, tilted his head, and looked me up and down: "Because of your arrival, the energy field suddenly changed abnormally, so I sent a message to ask you to come down. But now it seems that you are no different from others, even inferior to Tang Xin who has already cultivated immortality and attained enlightenment. Why is that? Could it be that my perception is flawed?"

I could see his eyes clearly; they had dark pupils and normal whites. If it weren't for the preconceived notion of a "square-eyed warrior," anyone would have mistaken him for one of their own.

"Where is Tang Xin? Where is my friend Su Lun?" I smiled, tensing the muscles in my forearm, the hidden dagger ready to be drawn at any moment.

“They’re all fine, nothing will happen to them, and you can see them anytime—if you’re willing to answer my questions.” He stroked the gray leather belt around his waist, raised his chin, and stared intently at my face.

His leather armor was identical to the one in the round stone house, with a brass breastplate fastened to the front and copper studs the size of peanuts embedded in the arms and shoulders. Ancient military uniforms varied from generation to generation, but I could recognize that this was a type of cavalry armor unique to the Qin Dynasty, the earliest prototype of what was later admired and practiced as the "Ironclad Linked Horses."

"A Qin Dynasty cavalryman hiding under the mountains all this time? Or is someone deliberately creating this strange tale?" My gaze fell on the leather boots on his feet. They were very new, with only a few minor signs of wear, definitely not ancient artifacts that had been around for thousands of years.

"What's the problem?" I stopped the hundreds of questions churning in my mind and focused on the present.

"In Earth's history, has there ever been an era in which everyone's eyes were square, yet they could all receive visual signals equally and reasonably, regardless of social status, and everyone was filled with joy?" He raised his hand and stroked his chin. Undoubtedly, this is the most common action that adults on Earth take, a natural bodily reaction when thinking.

Without thinking, I shook my head: "No."

“You can think about this carefully—I mean, use your superhuman thinking abilities, not just simply access your brain’s knowledge base. Don’t rush to answer me. In this space, time has no meaning; there is neither past nor future. We stand here completely outside of the Earth’s rotation and revolution, so whether you consider answering a hundred years from now or answering in the next second, it makes no difference.” His words were unfathomable, like the endless crystal wall before him.

The current situation naturally reminded me of the time I was trapped in the underwater glass box with Guan Baoling. The only difference is that was underwater, while now we're inside a mountain.

"I am certain that this is not the case. The physiological structure of humans on Earth has always been like this, and even from the most ancient primitive humans, all of them have oval eyes. Another piece of evidence is that the eyes of all birds, animals, and insects on Earth are like those of humans, and are definitely not square."

I thought for a few seconds and still gave the above answer.

Beyond the purple crystal wall opposite, a serpentine water snake darted past, rushing deeper to the lower right. My gaze followed it downwards; the ground beneath my feet was also made of crystal, faintly revealing glimmers of starlight.

"Where could this be? Below a cliff? Or perhaps in some space outside of time and space?" Having experienced the eerie glass box, I wasn't horrified by the scene before me. Instead, I slowly looked up at the ceiling. This space made of crystal had no ceiling, and in the far distance, I saw blue sky and white clouds.

"Aren't you afraid?" he laughed.

"What's there to be afraid of?" I became calm and collected because the other person looked like a typical Earthling, both in terms of physique, appearance, and mannerisms.

"Afraid of me, afraid of this world, afraid of never being able to return to the Earth's surface?" He crossed his arms, looked around at the crystal walls, and raised his chin slightly, like a supreme monarch overlooking his territory.

“If I find my friends, I can go back; if I don’t find them, what’s the point of going back?” I’m not afraid, but that doesn’t mean Suren isn’t afraid either; after all, she’s a girl.

"At this moment, you were afraid because a quantitative change occurred in the energy core within your body, haha... Therefore, you and Yang Tian are exactly the same kind of people, incredibly powerful but unable to make up for their own flaws, destined to cause a thousand-mile dike to collapse due to an ant hole. Although I don't know you or the purpose of your existence, I can guess one thing: you are not Earthlings, at least not Earthlings in the absolute sense."

He straightened his back proudly, as if he had already unceremoniously exposed my false identity.

"'King of Tomb Raiders' Yang Tian, is he here too?" I remained calm, because as far as I could see, there was only me and this "person" wearing a golden mask.

His shoulders suddenly slumped, and he lowered his voice in frustration: "I don't know, sigh..."

As the luster of all the crystal walls dimmed, the world outside gradually became blurred.

"Who exactly are you?" I felt the blade trembling, in sync with my heartbeat. If it were necessary to use force to resolve something, I was already prepared, and the battle was about to begin.

"Earthling." Behind the mask, he blinked cautiously.

This was an answer that surprised me. At least in Gu Qingcheng's and my minds, we had long ago defined the "square-eyed warrior" as an alien visitor.

"People like us on Earth?" I asked back.

He shook his head: "You misunderstood. What I mean is—I am an Earthling, while you and Yang Tian are not. As for the billions of people living aimlessly outside, they are also Earthlings."

Suddenly, a clear picture appeared on the left wall, like a high-definition digital television screen. A girl draped in a white fox fur coat leaned against a towering tree, her hands clasped in her sleeves, deep in thought with her eyes closed. The proportions of the picture were the same as in the real world; at first glance, it seemed as if it were a transparent glass window, with the girl and the tree right outside.

I'm not a tiger, but two words instantly boomed in my mind: "Tang, Xin—"

The lush green grass blocked her way; it must have been a vast wilderness, with no buildings except for her and a single large tree that would take three people to encircle.

"That's my friend, an Earthling." I hope to keep this riddle going until the other party reveals their true colors.

"Yes, she is an Earthling. No matter how severe the toxin invasion is, it cannot change her physiological nature. In life, she is an Earthling; in death, she is an Earthling ghost. Her body perishes, but her soul continues, existing forever on Earth, but she will never become something else." His tone was as if he were joking, but it lacked any humor.

"Alright, I'm taking her with me." Remembering Tiger's warning, I saw Tang Xin and was about to take her back.

“Anytime is fine, but only with her consent.” He smiled mysteriously. “Look at the leaves on that tree. I think she won’t leave until all the leaves have fallen.”

Suddenly, thousands of leaves fell from the sky, like a sudden downpour. The leaves were all withered and yellow, and the veins of the few that drifted closer were completely black.

Tang Xin slowly opened her eyes, looked up at the sky for a few seconds, then changed her position and leaned against the tree trunk with her eyes closed again. I couldn't see the top of the tree, but I could only guess from the uprightness of the trunk that the tree must be hundreds of years old.

"She is using the life force of the tree to expel toxins from her body. In fact, this method of detoxification has been a secret for hundreds of years. If I take her back, I can still help her detoxify." I could tell that it was an extremely precious mature dragon tree, a rare species on Earth.

"Yes, she's trying to detoxify, but you don't understand. The power of the 'Hundred Deaths Divine Skill' varies depending on the severity of the poison. The deeper the poison, the stronger the skill. Once the poison is neutralized, the martial arts she painstakingly cultivated will disappear. If you help her detoxify, she might hate you for the rest of her life..."

He waved his hand, and the image disappeared; the wall remained a wall, monotonous and cold.

"Here, after the detoxification, her martial arts skills remain. When time is no longer the only linear unit of measurement, she can try anything and travel back and forth between the starting point and the end point without having to endure the hardships that occur during the process. It's like a bizarre dream; once she wakes up, all the pain vanishes."

From the tiger's few words, I guessed that Tang Xin's ultimate purpose in stealing the "Blue Heaven and Yellow Springs Scripture" was to come to this mountain. The thoughts of the masters of the Tang Clan in Sichuan are different from those of ordinary people, and they are impossible to fathom.

"Where's Suren? Where is that girl?" My heart skipped a beat again. If Suren could appear on the wall like before, I would be overjoyed.

"You care about her a lot?" He stared intently at my expression. "Just like Yang Tian, who also has someone on his mind, right?"

I don't like the way he mentioned his older brother Yang Tian; it sounded like a scientist talking about aliens or space monsters.