Chapter 153: Entering the Game

I mentally sifted through his words again. This meant that after He Yu had surfaced, Fourth Brother and Lu Ayao had entered the head of that massive Tomb-guarding Beast alone to investigate. During that process, something must have happened, something that likely led directly to Lu Ayao developing a fever once he was back on the ship.

Fourth Brother hadn’t told me about any of this. He Yu had surfaced before they were even halfway through, so he didn’t know about this later development either. Fourth Brother and the others weren’t just doing a simple cleanup on the seabed, but I didn’t quite understand why Bai Shenxian was so certain of it.

“What’s your basis for saying that?” I asked.

Bai Shenxian glanced toward Lu Ayao lying on the bed in the distance. “Go feel his shoulder,” he said. “There’s a wound the size of a pinprick. It’s not deep. I checked everyone before we went into the water, and no one had any injuries. The problem can only stem from a newly inflicted wound.”

Hearing this, I said, “You already have a theory?”

Bai Shenxian nodded. “A few, but I can’t be entirely sure yet. He might be poisoned, but whether the wound was infected by something or if he was bitten, I can’t give you a definitive answer. There are many creatures in the sea, not to mention that no one has entered that place for thousands of years. It’s hard to say if he caught it while inside.”

As he finished, I suddenly remembered that Fourth Brother had an abrasion on his waist earlier. I hurriedly pushed past him and ran up to the deck, taking the steps two at a time. As soon as I got up there, I saw Fourth Brother standing by the ship’s railing. The crew members were scattered about, dozens of eyes fixed on the net being lowered on the opposite ship.

I observed Fourth Brother’s condition. He seemed to have lost all the lively energy he’d shown while joking with me earlier, merely holding onto the railing and standing to the side to watch the opposite ship. I stepped forward to support him, and to my surprise, half his weight collapsed directly onto me.

Panic flared in my chest. This is bad, I thought. I touched his hands; both were ice-cold.

Before I could call for help, Fourth Brother gripped my arm fiercely with one hand. I could feel his body straining to hold itself up, so from the perspective of the others, we just looked like we were standing together normally with an arm over each other’s shoulders.

“Don’t shout,” he warned in a low voice. “I might be poisoned. Help me to the innermost cabin now. We can’t let them know something’s wrong with me.”

Alarm bells rang in my head. Fourth Brother’s state was wrong, yet he refused to relax or reveal his condition to the people on the ship. That fact in itself pointed to a massive problem.

I didn’t have time to overthink it. I could only slowly help Fourth Brother into the cabin. We walked at a fairly normal pace, and since the research vessel opposite us was unloading the Ship-Burial Coffin, not many people noticed us.

He Yu came out to find me just as I was helping Fourth Brother into the innermost cabin. As I passed him, I pointedly gave him a look. We shared a silent understanding; he wordlessly sat back down beside Lu Ayao, his eyes fixed on the partition door, waiting for my return.

I helped Fourth Brother toward the deepest part of the ship. It was a compartment specifically built into the research vessel, separated from the outer cabin by a cracked door panel, but it was far better than the communal bunk area outside with its dozens of iron-framed beds.

I locked the door and helped Fourth Brother lie down on the bed. By the time he was down, his face had already begun to turn pale. His symptoms were almost identical to Lu Ayao’s—his body was burning hot, yet his hands and feet were icy cold—but he forced himself to stay conscious.

To hear him speak, I knelt right beside the bed. “What do we do, Fourth Brother?” I asked. “What exactly did you encounter inside that Tomb-guarding Beast? Lu Ayao has the exact same symptoms as you, and Bai Shenxian says he can’t tell how you were afflicted.”

Fourth Brother blinked slowly, likely struggling to process my words. After a moment, he said, “The Tomb-guarding Beast connects to the undersea burial site. Now that the one named Lu has the same condition as me… I’ll be fine, don’t worry about me. For now, just look after yourself.”

As he finished speaking, he pulled a pitch-black “hoof iron” from his clothes. He grabbed my hand and pressed the object into my palm. My heart jumped when I saw it. Damn it, this was my family’s heirloom, the Black Hoof Iron!

My family’s ancestors had passed down the title of Eight-Foot Dragon for generations. The reason was that many years ago, a Gan Clan ancestor was observing the sands in the Gobi Desert and accidentally rescued a lost merchant caravan. To show his gratitude, the caravan leader gave him a piece of priceless Shengxi Material^[1]. It was said that this piece of Shengxi Material was originally very large, but later ancestors ground it down into a pendant shaped like a hoof iron. Over the many years as the family’s Pankou business grew larger, this object gradually became a symbol of authority within the Pankou.

This piece of Shengxi Material also had a famous name: the Black Hoof Iron. Its significance was exceptionally high among the Five Masters. For generations, whoever held this item in hand was considered the legitimate head of the Gan Clan.

My hands trembled as I held the Black Hoof Iron. I had never touched it once as a child, only catching a few glimpses of it through a transparent box. Its significance was extraordinary, and Fourth Brother giving it to me now gave me an ominous feeling that he was setting his final affairs in order.

“There’s something I originally wanted to do myself, but now my strength fails me. You must be careful at all times,” Fourth Brother said, pulling me closer. “Before we boarded the ship, the person who sent me to the Xinchang Bank vault sent me a message. He said the identities of the people on our ship aren’t pure. But I can no longer tell how many people on this ship are compromised.”

“In my current state, I can’t protect you for now. In the days to come, I’ll be surrounded by all sorts of people, and countless individuals will be able to get close to me. I’m not at ease, so I’m giving the Black Hoof Iron to you. Hold onto it. Remember, the Black Hoof Iron must never fall into their hands. Do you understand?”

I was practically forced to nod by his intensity. Having finished his instructions, Fourth Brother began to grow dazed, his eyes glazing over. No matter what I said to him, he didn’t react. Terrified, I rushed out to find Bai Shenxian to come check on him. The sound of running through the cabin alerted Liu Wan and several crew members.

As Fourth Brother had predicted while still lucid, news of his collapse spread throughout the entire research vessel in less than half an hour. A circle of people soon crowded around his bed. I was squeezed out of the compartment and sat back down on the stool next to He Yu. In reality, my brain was racing; looking at those panicked crew members, my heart was filled with nothing but calculation.

“Xiao Yao, you don’t look well. I saw your Fourth Brother pull you into the room to give you instructions. Whatever it is, don’t rush. Think it through slowly.” He Yu leaned over and patted my back worriedly.

I pulled down the long sleeves of my shirt, which were long enough to completely hide the Black Hoof Iron clutched in my palm. Lu Ayao had been given medicine, but his high fever still wouldn’t break; he lay on the bed without a shred of consciousness. He Yu’s words helped me steady my mind, and I tucked the Black Hoof Iron close to my body.

Only then did my thoughts slowly begin to clear, and numerous doubts started to surface.

One thing was certain now: there was a large undersea burial complex in this area, and the Tomb-guarding Beast that only Fourth Brother and Lu Ayao had entered likely served as a connection to this site. But since that had already been confirmed, why hadn’t Lu Ayao and Fourth Brother planned to use the Tomb-guarding Beast as their breakthrough point? Why instead did they plan to bring up those dilapidated Ship-Burial Coffins for research?

And then there was that mysterious Inner Mongolia number. If the rumor that our people weren’t “pure” was true, why would that person be so kind as to specifically call and warn Fourth Brother? And why hadn’t Fourth Brother dealt with the matter immediately, instead growing even more urgent about going to sea to find the undersea tomb?

He couldn’t have been unaware of how dangerous this was. I arrived at the simplest explanation: between the “undersea tomb” and “dealing with traitors,” the tomb held higher priority in his mind. He believed going out to sea was the most important and urgent task, while everything else was secondary.

Now, if Fourth Brother didn’t wake up, I was the only person on this ship who could represent the Gan Clan. Thus, the responsibilities of guarding against traitors, finding a remedy, and locating the tomb fell squarely on my shoulders.

I felt an unspeakable wave of dizziness wash over me.

But my approach was very different from Fourth Brother’s. I felt that while the undersea tomb was right beneath our feet, human life was what mattered most, so finding a cure had to be my absolute priority.

I stood up and walked to the bedside. Lifting a corner of Lu Ayao’s blanket, I pulled back his collar to inspect his shoulder, finding that the wound Bai Shenxian had mentioned had already begun to turn purple and harden.

I frowned. He Yu leaned over to take a look as well, letting out a sharp hiss through his teeth. “It definitely looks like he’s been poisoned. But that makes no sense. Logically, Old Lu and your Fourth Brother aren’t careless like me. How on earth did they get hit?”

I covered Lu Ayao back up with the blanket and shook my head. “Seeing as everyone else on the ship is perfectly fine and only the two of them were affected, it must be something that Tomb-guarding Beast in the sea did. This poison is bizarre, and even Bai Shenxian isn’t sure about it. We might have to go back down into the water to investigate.”

Bai Shenxian immediately sprang into action, boiling water to brew his secret ancestral antidote tonic. After tending to Lu Ayao, he had to hurry back over to continue caring for Fourth Brother. However, the tonic’s effect was minimal; at most, it managed to bring down Lu Ayao’s fever, but he remained in a semi-conscious daze.

With the two most experienced people on the ship unconscious, everyone began to lose their composure. Fortunately, Liu Wan had run things in the Liu Family for many years. She immediately gathered all the hands on board, and a large group huddled on the deck to figure out a plan. Learning the news, several veterans from Fourth Brother’s Pankou within the Gan Clan also came over from the other research vessel.

I hadn’t realized how formidable these old-timers were before, but with Fourth Brother down, today was certainly an eye-opening experience for me.