Book Synopsis
Book Tags
Donation Rankings
Comment
0 Comments
You May Also Like
墨書 Inktalez
I steadied myself. It wasn't my first encounter with the Ox Demon and Snake God; I knew how to handle whatever came my way. However, I quickly reminded myself that we were underwater, and even a strong dragon cannot suppress a local snake. It was best to keep our distance.
I adjusted my goggles, drew my staff, and used the sword's tip to cut the clothing hook on my watch strap. Out of the corner of my eye, I caught sight of a skeletal hand, dark and decayed, protruding from an empty sleeve. Startled, I realized it was a corpse!
At that moment, a light suddenly flickered below, and Cold Bench surfaced, signaling for me to come up first. It seemed he had found the entrance. I pointed out the decayed body to him, indicating we should bring it along. Cold Bench's reaction was strange; he appeared to have known about it all along and showed no surprise. The three of us dragged the corpse together as we floated to the surface of the lake.
As soon as we emerged, my junior brother and A Li each grabbed me by an arm. It turned out everyone had been worried about us and had come down to the edge of Black Lake to wait. When they saw us surface, they let out a sigh of relief, but their expressions turned serious again when they noticed we were dragging a body with us.
Due to the scarcity of water resources, we could only wash our faces and quickly wipe ourselves down before changing into spare clothes. Thankfully, there wasn't much of a smell, but getting too close was still unbearable—my goodness! The stench could knock someone out cold.
I shook my hands and stopped torturing myself by sniffing at it, but oddly enough, the more I smelled it, the more addictive it became. Every few seconds, I felt an urge to endure it again—what a strange predicament!
A Chen was in worse shape; he kept vomiting and appeared dazed. It seemed he had benzene poisoning. Third Granduncle Master gave him some emergency medication; his life could be saved, but no one could take his punishment for him. Liu Zi stayed by his side to care for him.
In contrast, Cold Bench was unaffected as a Blood Poison Man. As for me, being the heir of Poison King Yue Chongyao meant I could withstand toxins; enduring this ordeal would be manageable.
After some frantic settling in, Cold Bench spoke on behalf of our advance team—his speech was brief: “We descended about fourteen or fifteen meters from here and found an entrance to a smuggling tunnel that connects to the Oil Layer. Below the Oil Layer is the main burial chamber. The biggest issue now is how to get through the Oil Layer.”
Perhaps due to Cold Bench's overly concise remarks or because those who hadn't experienced the pressure of the Oil Layer couldn't grasp its significance, or maybe everyone’s attention was still divided between A Chen’s condition and the corpse we had brought up—whatever the reason, five or six seconds passed after Cold Bench finished speaking without anyone comprehending.
I had no choice but to take on the role of translator for Cold Bench, explaining our current predicament in simpler terms: “We three are the best swimmers here; we can hold our breath for three to three and a half minutes at most—four minutes is pushing it—and even then, we barely made it near the tunnel entrance. A Chen and I didn’t even see the tunnel itself; how can we expect to hold our breath long enough to withstand the greater pressure of the Oil Layer? And that’s just one issue. The second—and most critical—is that this isn’t just diving; we need to immerse ourselves in crude oil for an extended period. Direct contact with crude oil over a large area raises serious concerns about preventing benzene poisoning.”
Everyone suddenly understood. We three looked utterly miserable; if anyone among them had gone down instead of us, they likely wouldn’t have made it back alive. The realization struck everyone with dread and an undeniable sense of unwillingness.
“What’s going on with this person?” Third Granduncle Master timely shifted the topic, attempting to find a breakthrough from another angle.
“I don’t know, found him under the lake,” I replied.
My junior brother helped Old Qiao lean the body against the stone wall, and everyone immediately gathered around. The man was of average height, his flesh and tissues completely decayed, leaving only blackened bones stained from prolonged exposure. His tattered clothes clung to his bones, almost merging into one; no knife could pry them apart. The most prominent feature was the belt around his waist, which had an empty sheath hanging on the left side, while the dagger was nowhere to be found.
A Li encountered something like this for the first time, feeling both curious and fearful. She wanted to step closer but hesitated, afraid that this Hei Pi Gui might suddenly open its eyes and grab her by the throat. She half-hid behind Old Qiao. When she saw Old Qiao leaning in to sniff, she mustered her courage and followed suit. However, as soon as she inhaled, she jumped back, pinching her nose and exclaiming, “It stinks!”
“Stink? I didn’t smell anything,” my junior brother said as he leaned in closer but immediately recoiled. “Damn, it’s awful!”
Old Qiao chuckled knowingly. “That’s not the smell of decay; it must be from being soaked in crude oil for too long, which has left it with that odor.”
Hearing Old Qiao’s insight made me feel embarrassed, and I stepped back a bit, worried they might catch a whiff of my own odor.
At that moment, Old Qiao exclaimed, “How strange…”
“What’s strange?” A Li asked, her curious eyes fixed on him.
Old Qiao enjoyed the attention and floated a bit higher in his enthusiasm. “Look at his collar; it’s a very trendy motorcycle collar popular among young people these days—just like the leather jacket on Gan. This indicates that this person must have met his unfortunate fate recently. Of course, ‘recently’ is quite vague; it could mean in the past few years or just a few months… but let’s not rush; let’s keep looking—”
The crowd shifted their gaze from me to Old Qiao's hand as he pointed to the left wrist of the Hei Pi Gui, which protruded outward as if wearing a bracelet. Using one of the dirty clothes we had just discarded, Old Qiao poked at it several times before finally revealing it to be a watch.
Old Qiao lifted the watch face to introduce it to us: “This model is a new release from Audemars Piguet this year. It features a stainless steel case with anti-reflective crystal glass for both the face and back cover. Of course, the most innovative design is this part—a diving chronograph with a waterproof depth of 100 meters. It’s limited to only 400 pieces worldwide; you can’t just buy it with money!”
Old Qiao's eyes sparkled with envy as his junior brother interjected, "Dude, how do you know all this?! Do you have a hidden agenda?"
A Li shot him a glare. "Stop interrupting and let me hear what my big brother has to say!"
A Li's call of "big brother" struck a chord with Old Qiao, who couldn't help but feel pleased as he stroked his beard. The junior brother pouted, his gaze flitting between Old Qiao and Third Granduncle Master. I worried that he might blurt out something foolish again, so I pressed my hand on his back and chimed in, "So, Qiao Master, are you suggesting that this incident happened within the last year?"
I began to feel uneasy. "Under normal circumstances, it takes at least three to five years for a corpse on the ground to decompose to the point where soft tissues completely disappear. In the soil, it takes five to ten years, and even longer in water. How could this person possibly have decayed to such an extent in just one year?"
Old Qiao nodded with a smile. "That's exactly what I was getting at."
Zizi could no longer contain himself and squeezed in from behind. "Could it be that some fish ate him?"
I immediately shook my head. "Impossible. The bottom is covered in oil; anything alive that goes down there would be instantly coated in oil, making it impossible to tell where anything is. If any pores absorbed the oil, it would lead to Benzene Poisoning, making survival impossible—how could they eat someone?"
The junior brother pondered for a moment and said, "It's not entirely impossible. What if this person died first and was then picked clean by beasts in the woods before being thrown down here?"
"That’s not right!" Old Qiao pointed at his watch. "The stopwatch's hands are forever fixed at '6.' This indicates that the last moment of this person's life was spent at a depth of six meters. If they were eaten after dying and then thrown down here, the body would be light and wouldn't sink to such a deep part of the lake. Based on what Gan and the others just reported, six meters should be the distance after passing through the theft tunnel and the Oil Layer. Something must have gone wrong while digging the tunnel, leading to an untimely death with no flesh remaining. Then the bones floated up through the tunnel... Ah, it seems this person was also an old acquaintance of mine!"
Comment 0 Comment Count