Rey de los saqueadores de tumbas

Capítulo 16

"Why?" I couldn't help but ask. "What are you exchanging?"

"For something that the underwater people can't have but desperately want," Shui Sheng suddenly said. He glanced at Su Ying and seemed to blush. "It's what you humans describe as incredibly wondrous—love."

"We've been reading books written by humans since ancient times, and many of them mention that the most wonderful thing in the world is love. But we sea people don't have a concept of gender; we reproduce asexually. We yearn for love, and it's with this idea that we wanted to become human."

"That's because we have a very long lifespan and a completely different concept of time than you. So we are more indifferent to any emotions, unlike humans who are so intense. We may feel anger or sorrow, but for us, in the span of thousands of years, these are too insignificant to be worth mentioning. However, humans often say that they can even sacrifice their already extremely short lives for love, which is something we cannot understand. We guess that it must be something beautiful and great that we cannot imagine."

I couldn't help but smile. So that was the reason. I thought of the pornographic films in Shui Sheng's room, which made it even funnier.

I glanced at Su Ying and found her listening intently with a serious expression. But then I thought, if people could live that long, many things that seem important would indeed become insignificant, and perhaps all ethics would cease to exist. Thinking of this, I couldn't help but feel solemn as well.

“For Ruan Zhenshan,” the middle-aged man continued, “we, the kind of people who are simple-minded and don’t like your so-called power and influence, are actually helping him. If he used some ferocious beasts like lions or tigers as models, he wouldn’t be able to control the mutated humans he created. He’s a very clever guy. Of course, we are invincible on the battlefield. To humans, we all seem incredibly strong, but before the battle even starts, the humans on the other side are already terrified by the way our limbs are spread out. For a long time, everyone called us monsters. But on the battlefield, we are indeed unstoppable.”

I recall that accounts of the Ming Cult uprising at the time often used the term "vegetarian demonic cult" to describe it, which is probably closely related to them. That explains it.

"For some reason, we could only use male humans as a model for evolution back then..."

I suddenly wondered, why must it be male? From a reproductive perspective, males generally play an active role in reproduction. In other words, this so-called mutation machine is meant to guide organisms to evolve in the direction they desire. So, who created this machine? Perhaps it's an experimental machine left behind by ancient extraterrestrials to guide biological evolution. In that case, perhaps Earth is a giant experimental base for extraterrestrials. These are my later analyses, and when I casually mentioned them to Liang Yingwu, he also indicated that this possibility existed.

"But contrary to our wishes, even after we became human, we still couldn't understand what love was. At first, we couldn't distinguish between male and female humans at all." The sea creature sighed. "We didn't feel anything unusual when facing female humans. We didn't have any of the physiological reactions that Ruan Zhenshan mentioned at that time."

I could guess what the so-called physiological reaction was all about, but with two beauties like Su Ying and Lu Yun around, discussing this topic was rather awkward. Simply put, it was a bunch of underwater people experiencing erectile dysfunction, I concluded in my mind.

The sea creature was quite sensible and didn't dwell on the topic. He continued, "We cannot experience any so-called human love, let alone reproduce. Soon the war ended, and Ruan Zhenshan agreed to help us turn back into sea creatures and return to life underwater."

"Initially, Ruan Zhenshan built a human altar and enshrined the instrument inside. The altar was exquisitely and luxuriously constructed. Ruan Zhenshan spent almost all of his funds and mobilized as much manpower and resources as possible to build it. It took three months to build. The steps leading to the top of the altar were paved with bluestone slabs supported by wooden stakes, and pillars and beams were erected around the altar. He hoped to show respect for the underwater people in this way, and also to appear solemn. As for the blueprint for becoming human, the instrument would automatically capture it without any clues."

At this point, I realized that the Zhuolai Zhidan Garden site was the location of the "human altar" they were referring to.

"Later, he even built another sluice gate on the same spot to cover our tracks. After the war, with his help, we returned to the sea." The underwater man smiled bitterly. "All the underwater people who had tried living like humans were severely punished by the chieftain. We always believed that the underwater people had a much longer history than humans and were superior to them, but this time we were all treated as their subordinates, which was undoubtedly a great disgrace. From then on, we established a rule that no underwater person was allowed to approach the Human Altar, and no one was allowed to mention anything about the Human Altar. In the end, the Human Altar only became a secret legend circulating among the underwater people."

"So now the altar of humanity is right here," I said with a smile.

"I was very lucky. The war was still going on, and I felt there was no point in staying any longer. The cruelty of humans made me very unhappy, so I found Ruan Zhenshan and asked him to use the altar to turn me back into a sea creature and return to the sea. Later, he died in the war, but he kept the secret of the instrument in the altar very well. He never told outsiders about the origin of this terrible army, and even his own people knew nothing about it. As a result, the exact location of the altar and the whereabouts of the instrument were unknown. Many of the sea creatures he led at the time either died on the battlefield or were captured by the enemy and executed as monsters, and ultimately could not return to the sea. Ruan Zhenshan had many descendants, some of whom fought alongside us at the time. Later, they also desperately searched for the altar and the lost instrument, but they could not find them. So the story of the altar became a legend in their family."

I suddenly realized that Ruan Xiuwen must be a descendant of Ruan Zhenshan. This legend must have been recorded in his family history, which is why he was determined to complete this chapter.

"After telling this earliest legend, we should now turn to what happened fifteen years ago..." Shui Sheng began.

Su Ying immediately tensed up, her body trembling slightly. I asked on her behalf, "What happened fifteen years ago?"

“Fifteen years ago, by sheer chance, I happened to witness a shipwreck at sea, and I rescued…” Shui Sheng said, looking up at Su Ying, “…Su Ying, do you remember?”

Su Ying's eyes were already brimming with tears. She nodded and said, "It really is you... I should have known... It's you who's back."

“I said I would keep my promise. Since I said I would protect you, I’m determined to come ashore, to live in human society, and to protect you.”

The underwater people were indeed quite blunt in their speech.

"So you've found that device? Did you become human through that device?"

“No,” Shui Sheng said with a wry smile. “You saw it just now too. Like him, I am fundamentally a sea creature. I forced myself to become this human.”

“Shuisheng is the most capable of all the underwater people,” another underwater person interjected. “Only he can maintain a human form and live indefinitely. You don’t know what that means to us.”

I noticed that the face of this underwater man was indeed different from when he came in. If you looked closely, you would find that his facial features seemed to be constantly shifting, which was quite frightening.

“That’s true. It’s like shaping a clay figure; you have to mold yourself into a human shape and use only a small part of your body to support your entire weight so you can walk upright every day. It’s incredibly difficult. You can’t even be careless when you sleep, for fear that if you fall apart, you’ll forget what your original face looked like.” Shui Sheng said with a pained expression. “I originally planned to stay quietly by Su Ying’s side and protect her, because the lifespan of underwater people is much longer than that of humans. I would return to the sea after she passed away. I never expected that a few months ago, through your connection, I would get to know Su Ying directly. That’s so kind of me.”

“The pain of taking each step in this human form is unimaginable to you. Moreover, it would shorten our already long lifespan, and maintaining a fixed mask shape would consume a huge amount of our energy,” another sea creature added.

That's when I understood why Shui Sheng always seemed frail and sickly; he was enduring immense pain at all times.

“But after I officially got to know Su Ying,” Shui Sheng raised her voice, but didn’t dare look at Su Ying, “I felt resentful. I…”

Shui Sheng clenched her fist: "I want to become human. I promised Su Ying, so I must become human. I think about this every day, and then, coincidentally, the ruins were discovered right here in Zhidan Garden where I live."

"So you mean..."

“I knew this was the Human Altar at the time, but I couldn’t find the instrument. I don’t know if Ruan Zhenshan took the instrument or hid it somewhere. After I came to human society in human form, I have been searching for the Human Altar and the legendary instrument. One day, I felt a faint fluctuation here, and I knew that the instrument was nearby. So I went to find my companions who had used the instrument before to help me.”

"So you said you went back to your hometown to visit relatives."

“I did go back to my hometown—to Dahai. Because Gou knows how to operate this instrument,” Shui Sheng explained.

"So what happened with the hypnotic incident I encountered today? I was perfectly fine today, but suddenly I felt like I was hypnotized and taken to a well..."

“That’s it!” another underwater creature exclaimed upon hearing my words. “I remember this device has a very magical function of trapping prototypes. Back then, Ruan Zhenshan also used this function to make it automatically find some people to be used as mutation prototypes, and they themselves would not even remember them. That’s how Ruan Zhenshan discovered this device.”

“That’s how it is,” Shui Sheng sighed, then turned to look at Su Ying, “Su Ying, I’m sorry, I kept it from you…”

Before Shui Sheng could finish speaking, Su Ying hugged him tightly, tears streaming down her face. "I've been looking for you too... I've been looking for you... I know you keep your word... I know..." Su Ying murmured between sobs, holding Shui Sheng close. Shui Sheng also seemed very emotional, nodding vigorously. Perhaps people from the deep sea don't easily reveal their emotions.

So none of us dared to disturb them, and we watched quietly, happy for them. After a while, Su Ying calmed down and slowly released Shui Sheng.

Then I remembered something and turned to ask another underwater person: "It seems like this instrument has been malfunctioning lately. What's going on?" Then I told him about the mutations of the cat, cockroach, and fish I had encountered, as well as my deduction about earthworms.

“There must have been an earthworm that crawled onto the instrument and was used as a model by it,” he said after thinking for a moment. “But the fact that so many organisms are producing unusual mutations also indicates that the instrument is quite unstable.”

“In that case, we shouldn’t delay. We need to find that instrument as soon as possible.” I stood up and concluded, “For you, and for the creatures and humans around here—who knows what other problems might arise.”

After saying that, we set off for the ancient well. Lu Yun walked in front, and she seemed very satisfied that I hadn't let her miss this rare experience. The sea creature followed closely behind.

Originally, Shui Sheng was supposed to walk with Su Ying, but he quickly caught up and walked with me.

"I never expected this. Senior Na Duo, you're no ordinary person either."

"No, I'm just an ordinary person. I'm just very curious and I know a few unusual friends." I shrugged. "By our standards, you're already quite old, so please don't call me 'senior'."