A First Look at the Bottom of the Lake

What does this mean?

The group felt a chill run down their spines. After calming Lin and Will, who were still traumatized, they stood there, gazing up at the swaying corpse in the tree for a long time.

Suddenly, Master Li looked at Yu Xing and said in a deep voice, "You were up there just now, did you see it?"

Yu Xing understood what he meant, and since that was the case, there was no need for him to hide it. "That's right, the corpse that fell down had my face on it."

Uncle Zhang's pupils contracted. "You really saw it clearly?"

As he spoke, he even considered lifting the hair of the corpse on the ground to confirm its presence.

Yu Xing stopped him. "Don't look. The moment I saw the corpse's face in the tree, the wind blew it away."

"It... it can still be blown away?" A man from a family of tomb raiders expressed his disbelief in a trembling voice.

In the past, even corpses that had risen from the dead and become zombies, or transformed into forbidden women, all left traces. How could they disappear with just a glance like this?

Even if it's a mechanism, it needs an activation device, right? This mechanism is activated with a glance?

Some people, however, refused to believe in such superstitions. They used throwing knives to cut the ropes binding the corpses, and instantly, the corpses fell like rain.

They found their corresponding corpses and insisted on uncovering them to see for themselves before they would believe it.

"Damn, this is what I look like after I die!?" Shi Jiu only glanced at it before the corpse's face vanished with the wind, but the swollen face of someone who had suffocated to death still left her with an extremely nauseating impression.

"This is really strange!" After everyone had seen it, Master Li chuckled, a hint of seriousness appearing on his dejected face. "What haven't I, Li Zhiming, seen? I've really encountered something new today, interesting!"

Will struggled to remain calm. He had just spoken with his own "soul," and now he was facing his own corpse, causing him to question the meaning of life.

His mind was almost overflowing with philosophical questions: Where did I come from? Am I still me? Am I really alive?

Ash could only act as a mediator, but fortunately he and Will could converse in English, so he no longer had to force himself to use his broken accent.

Yu Xing hesitated for a moment, then looked at everyone. "Actually, we don't need to worry too much. Although we've all seen our own faces and our figures match ours, don't forget, we're not dead yet. The corpses we've seen are either fake or from the future."

Which of these two possibilities do you think is more likely?

The idea of someone coming from the future is ridiculous. Normally, if someone told them they came from the future, these tomb raiders who don't believe in fate or superstition would laugh them to death.

Tomb raiders are the least likely to believe in the future or Karma. If a person has a definite future, then what's the point of making efforts now?

As for Karma and retribution, they're all people who dig up other people's graves; if you really bring it up, they all deserve to be struck by lightning.

I was momentarily confused, but now that I think about it, it does seem a bit illogical.

"You mean, the corpse is fake? A visual illusion?" Unica remained relatively calm, staring coldly at her own corpse, and kicked it with her leg.

Yu Xing remained silent for two seconds.

Of the two possibilities, he leans more towards the disorder and overlap of timelines, which is why they see themselves at different times: an unaware self, a murderer, a victim, and perhaps even more.

However, one thing doesn't make sense: killing and being killed are contradictory; the two cannot coexist. In other words, this is both a person and not a person.

It's too complicated to explain now, and Yu Xing isn't sure either, so he didn't elaborate. Instead, he followed up on Unica's words, saying, "To some extent, the body is indeed fake. Regardless of the possibility, I can't understand what the point would be for the person who left the threatening note to show us a corpse."

"There's only one possibility that makes sense... they're trying to scare us off."

A confident smile played on his lips, "Who wants us to leave the most? The demon daoist, of course."

"That's part of the tomb's defense mechanism, isn't it?" Unica sneered. "Indeed, if we left now, we wouldn't die here, and the appearance of the corpses wouldn't make sense. Thinking about it that way, the idea that the corpses are our future is simply impossible."

"That's right, that's right. Once you figure it out, you'll see that our future is still in our own hands." Shi Jiu clutched the wrinkled corner of her clothes, unwilling to admit that she had panicked just now.

This is incredibly embarrassing for a top-twenty mercenary!

Thanks to Yu Xing's reminder, the atmosphere eased, and even though they hadn't found the reason for the corpses' existence, everyone was no longer worried.

They distanced themselves from the corpses, still shaken, and continued on their way back, though they couldn't help but mutter to themselves.

Compared to the horror caused by these corpses, the bird carcass forest was nothing; it was just bird carcasses scattered all over the ground after being washed away by the rain, and the birds that were still hanging there were so rotten that you could see their bones... that's all.

The group quickly passed through, and the sun peeked out from behind the clouds, bringing bright sunshine.

"Phew... finally it's over, this is so disgusting." Shi Jiu covered her mask but still found the smell unbearable. She became increasingly irritable, and everyone around her kept their distance.

"This woman is insane." Ash stared at the sharp edge of Shi Jiu's knife and silently dodged it.

After passing through the Bird Corpse Forest, there were no other dangers besides some bone vines and large white flowers whose nature had already been discovered. At their pace, they soon reached the Live Tail Waterfall.

The waterfall cascades down, making a huge roar, cool and refreshing, and even forming a small mist at the bottom of the waterfall, which at first glance looks like a fairyland.

Different kinds of fish swim freely and happily in the clear lake water.

The low-lying trees bear tiny white fruits, their leaves long and slender, adding to the scenery.

"We've finally arrived... San, the entrance to the tomb you found is nearby?" Carlos stood on the mountain wall, looking down. It was a miracle to find such a beautiful little world in the dark place of Heavy Yin Mountain.

He found Yu Xing using paper figures at Live Tail Lake, so it's reasonable to assume that the entrance Yu Xing discovered wouldn't be too far away. Otherwise, Yu Xing wouldn't have been so careless as to bathe in the lake; instead, she would have been guarding the entrance, looking for the most suitable opportunity to enter.

"Let me correct you, it's not the entrance, it's a suspected entrance." Yu Xing interrupted him, pointing down below, "Let's go down first."

Ash was the first to jump down, leaping nimbly between the cliff faces, reaching the bottom in almost the blink of an eye.

The waterfall splashed water, wetting Ash's face. He looked around warily, then waved his hand. "Come on down!"

"What did he say?!" Unica shouted.

The waterfall was so loud that everyone standing on it could barely hear each other talking. Now, with a group of people on the cliff face and one person on the ground, they couldn't even make a sound no matter how hard they tried.

Carlos chuckled. Although he couldn't hear, he understood from the gestures. "He said, let us go down."

Shi Jiu stood at the back. "You go first, I'll cover the rear."

On the surface, Ash and Shi Jiu are the strongest in terms of direct Combat Power. It's most logical for one to scout ahead and the other to protect.

Carlos shrugged indifferently, glanced at Yu Xing, the soft soles of his sneakers making him look exceptionally light as he climbed over the rocks, stepping into the depressions, with Ash below ready to catch him at any moment.

Just as Yu Xing was about to follow, he heard Master Li unzip his backpack, take out a grappling hook with a three-pronged grappling hook at the front and a sturdy rope at the back. He smiled wryly, "Young people these days are really brave. They all go down bare-handed, without any equipment."

"I'm not brave, I'll use a grappling hook." Yu Xing had already taken a step forward when she abruptly stopped and turned around. "Without a rope, someone will die. I'm still a child."

Those who remained above. "..."

Good heavens, the legendary, eccentric, mysterious, and gloomy horror painter is actually like this in real life? Do they think they're blind? This guy was already preparing to go down!

Actually, Yu Xing also had a rope, but he was thinking about too many things and didn't notice it. Besides, it wasn't difficult to climb down the cliff with his bare hands, so he overlooked the existence of the rope. It wasn't until Master Li reminded him that he insisted on keeping a low profile and keeping up with the main group.

The group secured hooks to their belts, inserted the hooks into the hard rocks, and lowered them, with only Shi Jiu watching from above to prevent any accidents.

Unica had an abdominal injury, so she was extremely careful. As she approached the ground, several men in the team reached out to catch her.

Yu Xing once again felt the woman's popularity within the team; it was no exaggeration to say she was the center of attention. In comparison, Shi Jiu was like a brother, a brick, always there to fill in wherever needed.

The cliff face was slippery, but fortunately the journey was uneventful. When they arrived at the Live Tail Lake, just as everyone was about to ask Yu Xing where to go next, they saw that Yu Xing had already stopped and showed no intention of moving any further.

"What's going on?" Carlos asked. "You're staring at the lake surface, does that mean the entrance is at the bottom of the lake? Wait... really at the bottom?" He started to ask, then realized, "Right, why couldn't it be at the bottom of the lake?"

The strange fish in the ancestral hall is also in the underground river; who knows what it's guarding? Isn't that also in the water? Maybe the demon daoist just has a preference for water.

"That's right," Yu Xing said to the team. "There's a hidden man-made passage in the lake. The entrance section is big enough for a fully armed person to pass through, but we don't know how deep it is. For safety, only one person needs to dive down the first time."

"Fortunately, our underwater equipment is complete." Master Li smiled and patted the bespectacled man on the shoulder. "Come on, you go down and scout ahead."

Seeing Yu Xing's puzzled look, Master Li explained to him, "This kid is the best swimmer around here. He can dive more than ten meters without diving equipment, and he can hold his breath for a long time. It's dangerous underwater, so let him go."

Yu Xing was thinking that if everyone was only average swimmers, he should go down alone. If he encountered danger, such as being bitten by a strange fish, he could lie and say he wasn't bitten, making up an excuse for a wound that shouldn't be that shallow.

However, since Master Li trusted the bespectacled man so much, Yu Xing couldn't refuse him. She silently stepped aside and told the bespectacled man about the entrance she had seen last time, while watching him put on waterproof goggles and a tight-fitting wetsuit, and put on waterproof communication devices.

The remaining people split into two groups: one group would go down after confirming it was safe, and the other group would stay up to debug the machines and provide remote support. The tomb raiding family left three people down; only the man with glasses and Master Li would go down. Among the mercenaries, Ash went into the water, while Shi Jiu stayed behind.

Will was allowed to rest by the lake because he wasn't feeling well, and he could help remotely if anything happened.

Therefore, seven out of the twelve will go down.

Regardless of whether they were going to go into the water or not, after the bespectacled man jumped into the lake, everyone stared intently at the monitor.

Several large, newly assembled machines now stand on the Live Tail Lake. Each machine consists of an operating console and a display screen. A built-in camera is embedded in the goggles of the bespectacled man. Through the display screen, everyone can see what the bespectacled man is seeing on the left half of the screen, while the right half of the screen is a radar-like interface with the bespectacled man's location coordinates displayed as a red dot, with the number "1" marked above the dot.

After the incident at the ancestral hall, Carlos specifically reminded the bespectacled man to shine a powerful flashlight on the water before going down, as any strange fish or other creatures hiding in the water would be interested in the flashlight.

The bespectacled man did as instructed, indicating that Live Tail Lake is indeed safe, as nothing gave the flashlight a reaction.

Through the display screen, everyone could see the unobstructed view beneath the lake. Carlos asked Yu Xing, "Where is the entrance?"

Yu Xing pointed to an inconspicuous little mound at the bottom of the lake on the screen. "Under here."

Carlos understood, put the generator in his mouth, and said to the bespectacled man, "Stop, look to your right, see that? There's a bulge there, swim a little over there."

The bespectacled man quickly found the top of the bulge, and after circling it slightly, he discovered the hidden space behind the small bag.

It was a deep, narrow corridor that descended downwards. As Yu Xing had said, the walls of the corridor were smooth, suggesting that it could only have been built by human hands.

The bespectacled man didn't have his glasses at the moment, but once he entered the lake, he was like a fish in the sea, seemingly able to see everything.

Under Carlos's command, he officially swam into the corridor. Those who remained above were also very excited. This time, it seemed to be really going well. After searching for so long, the underground tomb might finally be found at this moment!

The corridor was long and narrow, and the bespectacled man swam in unimpeded. About thirty seconds later, the corridor turned, changing from downward to forward.

Master Li immediately calculated. "At his speed, the corridor has sunk about five meters downwards. Adding the depth of the lake itself, he's currently swimming about ten meters underground."

"This cemetery is quite deep. Assuming there haven't been any major geological changes, the only way to build structures ten meters underground would be through water," Lin said slowly, his hands already clenched.

Yu Xing also looked at the bespectacled man expectantly. He hoped that the corridor wouldn't be too long, so that they wouldn't waste time on most people's preparations for entering the water.