Ruins beneath Fuxian Lake.
Chen Renfeng was piloting a civilian submarine around the bottom of the lake.
The daily scheduled news broadcast was playing through his headset. The host was discussing something with an expert: "A ten-thousand-year-old female corpse was excavated from a glacier in the Kunlun Mountains. It's fresh and perfectly preserved."
"They suspect it's the Queen Mother of the West!"
The expert said, "As long as we perform an autopsy on the Queen Mother of the West and extract her memories, we'll be able to uncover the history of the Primordial World."
The host let out a choking laugh. Chen Renfeng switched off the broadcast.
"Utter nonsense." He cursed under his breath and refocused his attention on the view outside.
Suddenly!
More than a thousand ancient corpses appeared directly in front of the submarine, suspended in the water with their bodies half-crouched.
Chen Renfeng was stunned! He had forgotten to take a detour while listening to the broadcast, and a chill crawled up his spine.
It was too late. A sudden change occurred!
A dozen or so ancient corpses grew alert and abruptly turned their heads! Then, as if some kind of chain reaction had been triggered, several thousand ancient corpses within sight turned their heads at the same time.
"Hiss!"
Where the ancient corpses' facial features should have been, only black, gaping holes remained.
Then, from those holes, dark green fish nimbly wriggled out. Their cold fish eyes reflected the searchlights, gathering into a horrifying field of glinting points.
"Hiss!"
The dark green fish dragged the ancient corpses forward, charging densely toward the light!
Chen Renfeng sucked in a breath through his teeth. Terrified, he stomped on the power pedal. The submarine accelerated and charged into the suffocating mass of corpses.
Bang, bang, bang! It sent countless corpses flying!
Almost at the same time, the terrified voice of archaeologist Chen Qing came through his headset:
"P-Professor! The bronze coffin... There aren't dry bones inside the bronze coffin! It's, it's..."
"What is it? Speak clearly!" Chen Renfeng asked as he sharply turned the submarine through the mass of corpses!
Another woman's voice cut in. It was Bai Xue, and she was trembling as well: "They're wet corpses. Two perfectly preserved wet corpses! It's as if... as if they were just buried!"
Wet corpses? In a bronze coffin inside an ancient city that had been submerged for more than two thousand years at the bottom of Fuxian Lake in southern Xinjiang?
Chen Renfeng grew excited. "Preserve the site! I'll be there immediately!" he roared, pressing the acceleration pedal again.
Thousands of ancient corpses turned around and gave chase behind them while the submarine sped ahead.
Twenty minutes later, the submarine entered a cave and began rising rapidly.
Five minutes later, the submarine broke through the surface and came to a stop inside a natural cavern of approximately three hundred square meters.
After the hatch opened, Chen Renfeng rode a mechanical goat out and hurried through the gloomy underwater structures.
Ten minutes later, he stopped in front of a three-meter-tall double-leaf bronze door.
The secret room beyond the door was brightly lit by portable lightbulbs.
Chen Qing and Bai Xue were sitting listlessly on the ground. When they saw the light, both of them stood up.
Bai Xue had the air of a cold, mature beauty. At that moment, her face was pale, unease hidden in her eyes, and she could barely stand.
"Professor, hurry in and take a look!" Chen Qing had thick eyebrows and large eyes, but his voice was unsteady as well.
Chen Renfeng thought to himself, Could there be something even more terrifying? Then he strode into the secret room.
A massive bronze coffin rested quietly in the center of the room.
The coffin lid had already been removed and leaned against one side.
He walked to the edge of the coffin and looked inside.
Inside lay a young man and woman dressed in gorgeous scarlet wedding robes. Their faces were ruddy and their skin full and supple, as if they had merely fallen asleep and would wake up the next moment.
However, the instant Chen Renfeng saw their faces clearly, his pupils contracted.
They were identical!
He recoiled in fright. His heel struck a raised stone on the ground, and he nearly fell. He hurriedly grabbed the edge of the coffin to steady himself, his terrified gaze sweeping back and forth between the "newlyweds" inside and the faces of the two team members beside him.
They were identical!
The male corpse's face was actually a copy of Chen Qing's! And the female corpse... was unmistakably Bai Xue, as if she had crossed a thousand years of time and lain inside wearing bridal robes!
Cold sweat soaked through Chen Renfeng's undershirt. He could clearly hear his own heartbeat.
He forced himself to look once more at the lifelike faces of the "newlyweds" inside the coffin.
He remembered the news about performing an autopsy on the Queen Mother of the West, and a mad thought exploded in his mind.
"We need to start the experiment immediately!" Chen Renfeng's voice was low and resolute.
"Uncle Chen!" Bai Xue's eyes widened in shock. "You haven't reported this to your superiors..."
Chen Qing also said urgently, "Professor, this doesn't follow procedure. The consequences..."
Seeing that things were about to fall apart, Chen Renfeng immediately persuaded them. "Do you know who's lying inside this coffin?"
The two of them shook their heads and looked at Professor Chen expectantly.
Chen Renfeng walked to the bronze coffin and pointed at the ancient corpses. "They're the Great Princess of Great Righteousness and Peaceful Nation and the Great General from eleven hundred years ago. As long as we restore images of their lives, we can unravel the secret of their preservation."
Bai Xue challenged him, "Uncle Chen, since we discovered thousand-year-old wet corpses, we should report it. We shouldn't be conducting experiments here on our own."
Chen Renfeng replied helplessly, "The two wet corpses will be destroyed within minutes of being removed from this environment. Since we've found them, we have to quickly produce results and preserve them."
"And the ancient corpses look exactly like the two of you..."
The secret room fell into deathly silence. Only the adventurers' pounding hearts could be heard.
Ten minutes later, Chen Renfeng had surrounded the bronze coffin with a circle of black curtains and set up a makeshift operating table. He tied the ancient corpses down with ropes and cloth bags, hoisted them up with pulleys, and placed them on the table. More than a dozen surgical lamps were positioned directly overhead, illuminating the area as brightly as daylight.
Bai Xue took surgical knives, laser-cutting tools, and containers for holding tissue from the boxes.
She made the first incision, and blood flowed out. Bai Xue jumped in fright and hurriedly examined the corpse. After confirming that it had no heartbeat or breathing, she steeled herself and continued the operation.
An hour later, Bai Xue carried two transparent glass containers filled with the ancient corpses' brain tissue out of the enclosure. Chen Renfeng followed her, but he now held a pair of Twin Fish Jade Pendants, tied together with a red cord, which he had just removed from the corpse's neck.
Chen Qing had also finished setting up the experimental platform for extracting the ancient corpses' memories.
The ancient corpses' brain tissue and the Twin Fish Jade Pendants were placed on it, and the power was switched on.
Suddenly, a bright light flashed from the jade pendants.
The electromagnetic field in the secret room became abnormal. The bulbs began alternating between light and darkness, flickering on and off. Within a few seconds, there was a loud bang.
The experimental equipment exploded. A highly luminous sphere appeared on the spot, then instantly collapsed into a space-time vortex.
The enormous pulling force sucked the three archaeologists toward the vortex.
The three of them were terrified.
Chen Renfeng was the first to recover. He grabbed the Twin Fish Jade Pendants, then seized Chen Qing by the wrist. Chen Qing grabbed Bai Xue.
The three of them spun through the vortex's beams of light, dizzy and unable to see or hear.
A tremendous force came at them in waves. One moment they were being pulled violently; the next they were being compressed. It felt as if they were about to be torn to pieces.
The protective suit on Chen Renfeng's body began to rip and shred. The back of his hand was cut open, and blood flowed between his fingers into his palm.
Suddenly, the jade pendants in his palm emitted layers of faint light that enveloped them. The tremendous tearing force vanished instantly.
A moment later, the three of them had disappeared from the secret room!
Where had the three archaeologists been transported?
Before you continue