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We felt a sudden, inexplicable fear and instinctively gripped our guns tighter.

Then, a line of termites crawled out from the seven orifices of the skull, like tears from the skull, which was disgusting.

Emerging from the bushes, we walked for about ten minutes and soon reached the shore of the lake on the island. The surroundings were tranquil; the lake shimmered, and the gentle breeze and still water created a peaceful atmosphere, with no apparent potential danger.

We rested for a while, put on our wetsuits, and prepared to go into the water.

Shirley Yang repeatedly warned us to be very careful and to learn from the experience of Black Jack's gang's complete annihilation, so as not to repeat the same mistake.

We jumped into the water one by one and swam towards the pagoda tomb in the lake. Once we found the tomb in the middle of the lake, I went first, followed by Shirley Yang and Fatty, and we all dived underwater.

Bypassing the algae, I plunged to the underwater base of the tower and was horrified to find several divers lying motionless on the side of the base, as if they were plotting some harmful scheme.

I waved to Shirley Yang and Fatty, then quietly circled behind them and slammed the butt of my rifle into one of the divers. The man fell to the ground, still in the position of slumped over the base. He was dead, his body already badly decomposed. I counted five more divers lying on the side of the base, all with swollen faces—Black Jack's gang. These men looked horrified; their chests had been ripped open, their hearts missing, their deaths extremely gruesome. In their final moments, their hands were still tightly gripping the handles of the base.

I gestured to Shirley Yang and Fatty, and the three of them, suppressing their nausea, pushed the others away into the algae-covered nest of the giant poisonous toad in the distance. After clearing away the corpses, a dark, fine bronze hidden door suddenly appeared on the base of the tomb tower.

The hidden bronze door was elongated and flat, roughly the length and size of an adult coffin. Five or six bronze handles were mounted side-by-side on the door, as if they were made specifically for intruders. It seems these deceased met their demise while opening the tomb door.

I glanced at Shirley Yang and Fatty. This tomb door was so peculiar, clearly designed to lure in thieves; it wasn't as simple as it seemed. I was certain the tomb builders had ill intentions, and the hidden bronze door must contain some powerful mechanism.

Shirley Yang, Fatty, and I discussed it and decided to enter from this point. I gestured for everyone to step back. I took out a climbing rope, tied it tightly to the handle of the hidden copper door, and then retreated to Shirley Yang's side. The three of us strained, pulling the rope backward as fast as we could. The hidden copper door didn't budge an inch, no matter how hard we tried.

We breathed a sigh of relief and gave up in frustration. "Could this hidden door be pushed inwards?" I wondered. I slowly pulled myself forward with the rope, ready to try another method.

After taking a few steps, I unexpectedly stepped into a muddy ditch and fell face-first. As I fell, my body tensed, and my hand unconsciously tugged at the rope. Suddenly, the hidden copper door silently flipped open, and more than ten circular, guillotine-like blades, their thin, brittle edges gleaming coldly in the water, shot out side by side like lightning.

All at once, the circular blades protruded out of the door, their handles over three feet long. With a sudden slash and twist, they snapped shut and retracted behind the door. The hidden copper door instantly flipped and closed without a sound.

At the same time, the entire base stone wall collapsed backward, water surged, and dust billowed violently. The stone wall rotated 360 degrees at full speed, absorbing everything near the base of the tower. The stone wall closed in time, perfectly sealed, and a minute later, when the dust settled, there was absolutely no trace of anything suspicious.

The rapid spinning of the mechanism in those short two minutes left me, Shirley Yang, and Fatty speechless, unable to recover for a long time.

Five minutes later, the stone wall at the base flipped over again at high speed, spewing out a large amount of lake water and debris, including a large clump of black, tangled material, which turned out to be human hair.

That's terrifying. This mere tomb entrance has so many ingenious mechanisms and ruthless methods; it's clearly a gate to hell, designed to kill anyone who dares to enter, yet it's also cleverly designed to lure people into their deaths.

My mind was a jumbled mess; I felt like I'd grasped something, but I couldn't quite put my finger on it. I lay there silently in the muddy puddle at the bottom of the water, staring blankly at the hidden door, my hands clasped behind my head in deep thought. Shirley Yang came over, pulled me up, and gestured with concern, asking what was wrong.

I waved my hand to indicate that everything was fine. I pointed upwards at Shirley Yang and the fat guy who arrived later, meaning we should get to the surface first.

Turning my head casually, I saw the corpses of foreign devils lying among the green algae, floating half-up, half-down, their empty eyes revealing a hint of mockery, their faces a half-smile, but more so a chilling terror. My heart tightened, I threw away the climbing rope, kicked hard against the water's surface, and was the first to rise to the surface.

I swam towards the shore without stopping. Shirley Yang and Fatty called out twice, but when I didn't respond, they had no choice but to follow me to the shore.

I swam ashore in one breath, collapsed onto a tree root, and stared blankly at the water, speechless for a long time. Shirley Yang and Fatty could only sit quietly as well.

After waiting for a moment, I suddenly remembered a passage about burial facilities in the "Sixteen-Character Yin-Yang Feng Shui Secret Techniques". A flash of inspiration struck me, and the problem that was troubling me seemed to be solved.

I coughed up phlegm, cleared my throat, and boldly made a hypothesis. I waved to Shirley Yang and Fatty, who had come looking over after hearing the commotion, and said, "Based on the shape and structure of the tomb tower and the mechanism of the hidden door, I suspect that this three-story underwater tower is not a tomb at all."

"Not a tomb?!" the fat man exclaimed, his mouth agape. "It's not a tomb, it's a pagoda! What's the point of wasting so much effort building a tall pagoda underwater, and designing such a vicious and intricate mechanism?"

Shirley Yang also looked at me with a questioning expression.

I tapped on a tree root and said, "It's possible that the tower was built first, and then water was diverted to create a lake. Judging from its current appearance, this underwater tower is almost certainly the main hall and archway of a mausoleum, and it's separate from the actual mausoleum."

In the above-ground architectural complexes of ancient Chinese imperial mausoleums, numerous facilities are included, such as stele pavilions (commonly known as the square city), spirit paths, stele halls, square cities, Minglou (a type of tower), treasure mounds, sacrificial halls, and archways. Among these, the sacrificial hall was used by later generations for offering sacrifices and incense. However, the archway serves as the entrance to the entire above-ground architectural complex, and it is generally built to be extremely tall and majestic. Especially after the Han and Tang dynasties, the specifications for archways were relatively strict. Archways are usually built in a style similar to the mountain gate of a Buddhist holy temple or a chastity archway, with huge golden characters on the horizontal plaque, showcasing the style and prestige of the owner. They are often located several miles away from the main buildings, inspiring awe from afar.

This underwater tower is clearly an integrated structure of the main hall and the archway. It served as a place for human and animal sacrifices captured by intricate mechanisms, and its archway design, which forms the main above-ground structure of the tomb, subtly showcases the style and faith of the tomb's occupant.

Speaking of archways, there's a joke about it. According to unofficial history, during the reign of Emperor Taizong of Tang, Li Shimin, he summoned Yuchi Jingde, the Duke of Huguo, to lead a group of craftsmen and commoners to build his mausoleum, which took three years to complete. However, this black-haired general, Yuchi Jingde, only focused on building the main underground structure of the mausoleum and then secretly went home to visit his family. The supervising officer, Cheng Yaojin, nicknamed "Cheng the Three-Axe," inspected the site and exclaimed, "Oh no! This roughneck Yuchi Jingde has completely omitted the most prominent feature of the mausoleum: the archway!" In feudal times, this was a capital offense punishable by the execution of the entire family. Cheng Yaojin, realizing he couldn't escape responsibility, immediately rode to Yuchi Jingde's hometown in a county in Shaanxi. Upon arriving, he found Yuchi Jingde enjoying himself with his two beautiful wives, one black and one white, embracing each other. Cheng Yaojin was furious. He thought, "Damn it, you still have the leisure to indulge in pleasure? You've even got your grandfather's head on your hips, and you still don't know what's good for you!" Old Cheng kicked the table over with a bang and started cursing at the dark-skinned Yuchi Gong. Yuchi Gong, still drunk, kept asking what was wrong. After hearing Old Cheng's explanation, he was so frightened he wet his pants, and his drunkenness sobered up considerably. Yuchi Jingde and his two wives knelt before Old Cheng, begging for a way to save their lives. Unfortunately, Emperor Li was conducting an inspection immediately, with only a few days to spare, and there wasn't enough time to return and gather the laborers. Ultimately, it was the astute Xu Maogong who, with his keen insight, sent a letter offering a solution.

Three days later, Emperor Taizong of Tang arrived at his own tomb during his inspection tour. Upon seeing it, he was furious and immediately decreed: Execute the entire family of Yuchi Gong, including nine generations of his relatives; demote the military supervisor Cheng Yaojin to commoner status and exile his entire family to a desolate land, with no possibility of pardon for generations to come. Xu Maogong, who was standing nearby, quickly intervened, smilingly reporting: "Your Majesty, please calm your anger. Please visit Yuchi Gong's hometown county; I guarantee you will be satisfied."

Emperor Taizong of Tang, filled with doubt, led a group of civil and military officials to the hometown of Yuchi. Before they even reached the border of a certain county, lo and behold, they saw a beam of light faintly shining through the clouds atop a mountain peak. Upon climbing the mountain, they discovered it was none other than the archway of their own mausoleum! Above the archway, piercing the clouds, were eight large, golden characters in clerical script: "A Thousand Autumns and Ten Thousand Years, Unifying the Jianghu." (This story illustrates that the sycophants under Dongfang Bubai's command in Jin Yong's novel *The Smiling, Proud Wanderer* actually borrowed flattery from unofficial Tang and Song dynasty histories. Laughs—)

Beneath the archway, Cheng Yaojin and Yuchi Jingde, two meritorious officials, led a group of local officials to kneel on the spot, shouting in unison, "May you reign for a thousand years, unifying the martial world!" No, it should be "Long live the Emperor!" Damn it, just for fun.

On this side, Emperor Taizong was overjoyed, so happy he was practically snotting with delight. He immediately wrote down two imperial edicts granting immunity from death to the two generals, a bounty of 100,000 taels of gold, 3,000 beautiful women, countless bolts of silk and satin, and 10,000 jars of fine wine—enough to drown your two brothers-in-law.

From then on, Emperor Taizong of Tang set a precedent for tomb construction, advocating that the archways of imperial tombs be built as far and high as possible, ideally a hundred thousand miles away from the actual treasure. After all, all land belongs to the emperor! They certainly displayed imperial grandeur, but it was a nightmare for us tomb raiders from the four major schools. We'd always find the archway, but still a hundred thousand miles from the tomb's treasure. Damn it, what kind of trend is this? It's such a waste of resources and manpower!

I continued, saying that the numerous traps in this underwater tower could only mean that the builder had another purpose: to lure enemies into a trap, kill them, and exact revenge. In short, this tower was a "living altar," specifically designed to lure "human sacrifices" to their deaths. There is no other reasonable explanation for its origin.

Furthermore, the use of the pagoda structure as an archway, coupled with its antiquity, suggests a resemblance to the stupas erected for the deceased Buddhist monks, indicating a possible connection to some form of esoteric Buddhist belief. Such a large-scale construction is unheard of in modern times.

Shirley Yang and Fatty Wang were utterly astonished. In other words, centuries later, Black Jack and his gang of bandits once again became human sacrifices for this tomb.

Volume One: The Ancient Tomb at the Cape, Chapter Thirty-Four: The Phantom of the Tomb Tower and the Fleshy Winged Serpent

After a long pause, Shirley Yang asked me hesitantly if it was possible that the tower was a gate leading into the tomb.

I shook my head and said, "Logically speaking, a ground archway and a tomb entrance are two different things. However, this might be a Western tomb, but due to the differences between Eastern and Western cultures, it's hard to say."

The fat man said that there probably wasn't anything valuable left to take from the tower.

After discussing it for a while, the three of us decided to go inside the tower to take a look. After all, it was a rare combination of a mausoleum archway and a sacrificial hall, and we might be able to uncover even greater secrets.

But how can we break through the hidden weapon mechanisms of the tower gate?

After thinking for a moment, Shirley Yang pointed to several thick, dry tree trunks not far away. My eyes lit up. That's it! We can ignore the ring-bladed sword and the hidden iron door; we can focus on dealing with the wall's flipping mechanism. Our goal is to enter the tower anyway, so it doesn't matter where we go. Beautiful Shirley Yang is so clever!

We pushed and pulled with all our might, finally managing to push those tree trunks into the water. The trunks were half-submerged and half-floating, drifting towards the center of the water.

I rushed into the water and swam, pushing the tree trunk, to the hidden iron door at the bottom of the tower.

We pulled the rope again, following the procedure. The ring-shaped cutter retracted, the hidden door closed, and the stone wall flipped. We quickly swam to the wall, clinging to the tree trunk, ready for action. Five minutes later, the wall flipped inward again. The three of us shouted and simultaneously pushed the tree trunk, as thick as a person, halfway down the wall with the current. Dust billowed, the wall shook violently, and we heard the meshing of gears. The wall slowed for a few moments before finally coming to a stop. A gap large enough for a person to squeeze through was revealed at the bottom of the wall.

We breathed a sigh of relief, tugged at the tree trunk, and our faces lit up with joy; it seemed we had gotten it sorted out.

Shirley Yang took two cold sparklers out of her backpack, broke them in half, and tossed them into the gap. After a while, the eerie cold light remained still in the gap. Seeing no further movement, I waved, put on my gas mask, grabbed my submachine gun, and was the first to swim into the gap created by the three tree trunks.

Behind the wall was a deep moat. I surfaced and peered ahead, using the eerie light from the cold firework burning underwater. It was pitch black all around; I couldn't see anything, only faintly hearing the sound of water dripping.

Then, Shirley Yang and Fatty also swam in, swimming to my side. Shirley Yang took out a cold sparkler, illuminating the space above her head, and we saw a stone staircase in the water about five feet ahead, leading to a land platform. The three of us swam over in single file, stepped onto the staircase, and walked onto the platform.

By the light, the interior of the tower appeared quite spacious. In the center of the platform stood a stone altar, arranged in three tiers, resembling a tower structure. The lowest tier of the altar contained a ring of bronze plates, daggers, and short swords, the plates adorned with skull-like pirate symbols. Could this be the tomb tower of a pirate captain? I couldn't fathom it.

The second tier was filled with coral-branch-shaped candlesticks, each brimming with white ointment. The top tier held only a gold-threaded banner, its perfectly intact surface adorned with an "S" symbol of crossed spears.

The fat man casually pulled out a lighter and lit the two candlesticks. The oil inside the candlesticks hissed and burned, quickly illuminating the surrounding walls.

I looked around and saw that the towers and ceilings around the platform were painted with huge pictures of ancient soldiers in battle. One of them was a general with a heroic figure, wearing a red-tasseled helmet and short armor, holding a three-pointed blade and a tiger and leopard shield, riding a white horse and bravely fighting his way through the enemy army. He looked very brave and good at fighting.

Among the remaining ten or so paintings, there is a large pirate canoe, as well as a scene of conversation and handshake between the white-horse general and the bearded pirate leader.

I glanced around haphazardly and suddenly noticed that the candlelight appeared greenish, casting a greenish hue on Shirley Yang and Fatty's faces as well. A greenish gas filled the air. Realizing something was wrong, I immediately extinguished the candle and shouted to them, "Quickly put on your gas masks! This is corpse miasma!"

Corpse miasma is a toxic gas produced when a large number of corpses are piled up and decompose for a long time in a poorly ventilated environment. This gas has a greenish color, and if humans or animals are infected with corpse miasma, their faces will immediately turn green, and they will die within a short period of time. It is said that living people can even turn into green-haired zombies because of it, but I have never seen it and don't know if it is true or not.

As soon as I finished speaking, a series of rustling sounds came from around us, along with a faint buzzing in the air. In the dim light of the cold fireworks, I realized we were surrounded by a large cluster of green dots. Two green dots buzzed towards us; I fired a single shot, and they fell to the ground. Before I could even look down, the green dots bounced up and buzzed away again.

What is this? We were utterly shocked.

I raised my gun again and fired rapidly between the two points. The green dot fell to the ground again, bounced twice, and then stopped moving.

Shirley Yang fired a powerful signal flare, which collided with various objects inside the tower, shining as brightly as day and extremely dazzling.

In the light, we discovered a large swarm of winged green snakes gathered around us; the green dots were their eyes. These winged green snakes were similar to those we had seen in the pirate bone array, except their branding red triangular heads had turned green, and their bodies, except for their fleshy wings, were entirely green. Their eyes were the brightest and greenest, but they remained motionless. More and more winged green snakes swarmed out from behind the large curtain behind the altar, numbering over a thousand. Fortunately, those that could fly were relatively rare; most were small, extremely light snakes.

Damn, the legend is true. These are zombie-like monstrous snakes that have turned into zombies after absorbing the miasma of corpses. If you get bitten by them, you'll most likely turn into a green-eyed zombie yourself.

I spotted a stone staircase to the left of the altar leading to the second level of the tower, and immediately yelled at Shirley Yang and Fatty to run up to the second floor. I frantically fired at the flying snakes in the air as I followed them up the stairs.

Upon hearing the gunshot, the winged zombie snakes, which had formed a huddle, surged toward us in large numbers. Their bright green eyes, when viewed from afar, resembled a night sky filled with thousands of heads.

The three of us ran while turning back to fire. There were more than thirty stone steps leading to the second level of the tower, but they were very steep. Several times, I almost fell. The flying snakes would just fly up to me, only to be shot down by our guns, then fly up again, and be shot down again.

After they had finally climbed to the second level of the tower, and I was about to step onto the ground, I suddenly heard a muffled panting sound, like a sigh, coming from the darkness of the lower level. Something broke free of its chains with a clatter, landing heavily on the platform, taking one step, then another with a thud. The sound seemed to be coming from behind the curtain behind the altar.

My heart was pounding so hard I was practically going crazy, and I stepped onto the second level of the tower.

Shirley Yang and Fatty fired wildly at the steps below, then quickly covered the hole with discarded items like wooden crates and stone slabs. I couldn't shake the fear in my heart—could that damn green-haired zombie have come back to life? I quickly called Fatty to help me lift a heavy iron crate nearby and push it sideways to cover the hole.

The second level of the tower was slightly smaller than the lower level, containing the same altar surrounded by dozens of large iron chests. We lifted the lid of one chest and were horrified to find it filled with mostly solidified molten iron. A human figure was cast within the molten iron, only its hands and feet visible, holding a head between them. The head was even wearing a rather elaborate double-brimmed felt hat with a skull and crossbones. Because of its age, the fat man exhaled, and the felt hat instantly turned to ashes, revealing a bald head underneath. The deceased had closed eyes, a large, bulbous nose, and prominent cheekbones—a typical ancient Westerner.

We opened over a dozen chests in succession, each one revealing the most brutal methods used to punish pirates. The deaths were varied and grotesque; some even had iron chains bound to their wrists, clearly cast from living people. The sight made Fatty and me gag, and Shirley Yang kept her distance. Fatty stopped opening any more chests; there was no need to look—each of these dozens of iron chests contained a living pirate cast inside.

Shirley Yang asked me why these fleshy-winged zombie snakes only appeared after the candlestick was lit.

I said that this stuff is addictive, just like opium. Needless to say, the candlestick contains aged human fat and oil, which, when lit, will generate a miasma that attracts these already addicted, zombie-like monsters.

A series of thumping sounds came from the entrance of the cave, and the iron box covering it gradually trembled and moved outward, as if a pair of strong hands were moving it from below.

Fatty and I hurriedly jumped over, braced ourselves against it, and pushed the box back to its original position. We then pushed two more iron boxes over from the side and stacked them together to cover the opening. Faintly, we could hear thumping sounds coming from below the opening, mixed with strange hissing.

I said to Shirley Yang and Fatty, "Quick, let's go up to the third level and see if there's any way out. There's definitely a giant zombie at the bottom of this hole."

The group climbed the stone steps to the third level of the tower. The spire was just a dozen meters above their heads, and in the center of the floor was another altar, identical to the others, utterly unoriginal, at best indicating the tomb owner's deep resentment towards pirates. I examined it closely; the only difference was that the flagpole of the gold-threaded "S" banner at the top of the altar had been replaced with a black meteorite material that resembled neither iron nor metal. It seemed that the strong magnetic field generated by this small meteorite flagpole allowed Robert's satellite imagery to capture information about the tower's structure.

We looked around and found there was truly no way to go up or down. There were no stone steps inside the third level of the tower, and knocking on the walls revealed no hidden passages, doors, or mechanisms. So, the only way out was the underwater secret door. But the area below was already teeming with zombie snakes. If a few more green-haired giant zombies came along, it would be quite a mess. Going down there would just mean we'd be eating them all and ending up with them in a death trap.

The fat man couldn't help but curse, "Damn it, are we just going to wait here to die?"

With no other choice, we turned back and ran down to the second level. Just as we were about to listen for any noise, a powerful force suddenly came from below the cave. Three iron boxes crashed to the ground and a round hole was punched through the stone slab at the cave entrance. A large green-haired hand reached out and groped around.

Holy crap, it really is a green-haired zombie. I hurriedly took a shriveled black donkey hoof from my backpack and shoved it into that big hand.

The moment the creature touched the black donkey's hoof, it shrieked, its green hands steaming, and it retreated back into the hole. In the blink of an eye, several fleshy-winged flying snakes flew out of the small hole.

Fatty and I fired a burst of bullets, and the cave entrance was immediately filled with dead snake carcasses. The triangular-headed monster, its head smashed like a rotten eggplant, was still writhing on the ground.

But the entrance to the cave kept getting bigger, and more and more fleshy-winged snakes were pouring out. We couldn't stop them from entering the cave at all. Shirley Yang quickly put down the black donkey hoof to help, and the three of us were busy killing snakes, not caring about anything else.

A powerful force came, and the cave entrance split open, revealing half of the green-haired man's shoulder. It looked like he couldn't hold on any longer.

I greeted Shirley Yang and Fatty, then quickly retreated back into the third level of the tower.

Book 1, Ancient Tomb at the Cape, Chapter 35: The Phantom of the Tomb Tower - The Green-Haired Zombie

Unfortunately, there was nothing to block the opening inside the third level of the tower. Our three submachine guns plunged into the opening, raining down the flesh-winged zombies that covered the ground.

In the chaos, I accidentally got bitten on my gas mask by a small flying snake that came flying right at me. I couldn't shake it off, so I had to use my Swiss Army knife to chop it in half, then peel the snake's head off the mask and shoot it. The lower half of its body was still writhing on the ground, but not a drop of blood came out, and it didn't die for a long time.

Suddenly, a powerful surge of energy rose from the second cave entrance. The green-haired shoulder pushed the three boxes several feet away, causing the stone slab to collapse. Among the fleshy, winged, and stiff snakes scattered on the ground, a large, green-haired head was revealed.

The large head climbed up step by step, casually stuffing the stiff snake it had caught into the large hole in its green, hairy mouth, and began to chew it. The snake's head thrashed about, green juice splattered everywhere, and the snakes thrashed and struggled wildly around its mouth.

Two fleshy-winged zombies, in pain, snapped their jaws shut on the hairy face and refused to let go. The creature, unperturbed, tore off a large chunk of rotting flesh and green fur from its face, then stuffed it, along with its head, into its mouth and crunched and swallowed it. The sight made all three of us vomit.

Once the creature had fully crawled out of the cave, it stood up unsteadily, its height exceeding ten feet, and its physique remarkably humanoid. It was bloated, covered in long, green, fuzzy fur, with only two large, bulbous eyes peeking out as it looked around erratically.

Seeing us above the hole, it let out a heavy roar as if panting, and clumsily took long strides up the stone steps. Its mouth was full of drool, which dripped onto the ground with each step, looking like a greenish caterpillar's belly full of vegetable droppings, which was extremely disgusting, and we couldn't help but gag again.

I took a look; the stone steps were built layer by layer along the floor, not suspended in mid-air, so they couldn't be blown up. It seemed that the only option left was to risk everything.

Countless fleshy-winged zombie snakes crawled up from the green-haired zombie's body, hands, and stone steps. We frantically swept through this group of green monsters.