Chapter 196: Explosion

The white python hissed at me repeatedly, the scales behind its head flaring slightly. I didn’t dare move a muscle. The tomb chamber fell silent in an instant. He Yu, carrying Guangtou, was treading across another crossbeam, having already moved a dozen steps toward the center of the chamber. The black python coiled around a pillar, blocking the path between them and me.

I could almost hear my own heartbeat. Within a single minute, eight or nine escape plans flashed through my mind, but the snake’s head was simply too close. I feared that before I could even make a move, it would swallow me whole just as it had done to A Dong.

Just then, out of the corner of my eye, I saw Lu Ayao brace himself against a distant stone pillar and leap onto a beam. He whipped three sticks of dynamite tied together from his backpack. The fuses hissed and sparked as he hurled them toward He Yu, who was brandishing a shovel, and let out a shout.

I wasn’t entirely sure what happened next. I only saw the white python turn its head, distracted by the dynamite. Then, acting on instinct, I ducked. Something seemed to brush past my head at that exact moment. I lunged backward, hooking myself onto a beam above.

With a deafening boom, the explosion occurred less than ten meters away the moment the dynamite made contact with the white python. The crossbeam below collapsed with a roar. The force of the blast slammed my chest against the beam I held; a sweet metallic taste rose in my throat, and I coughed up a mouthful of blood.

The white python went into a frenzy, thrashing wildly. Its impact shook the beams so violently I nearly lost my grip and slipped off.

Spitting out blood, I scrambled to pull myself back onto the beam, cursing, “Damn it, He Yu! Are you trying to blow up the snake or me?”

“With aim like that, you’ll be thanking me once we’re out!”

The air was thick with smoke, choking me until I could barely breathe. I couldn’t pinpoint He Yu’s exact location, but his voice sounded like it was coming from far away. Just as my head began to swim, a figure burst through the white smoke.

It was Lu Ayao!

“I’ve moved the others to safety for now. Climb up, quick!” He ran to me and pulled me upward, forcing me to leap to a higher beam.

I swayed upon landing and leaned on him for support. “Did that blast kill the snake?”

“The scales are too thick; a blast like that won’t kill it immediately. I intended for He Yu to hit its heat pits, but he misunderstood and only took out one eye. A snake’s vision is poor anyway; it won’t affect its hunting much. Now that we’ve enraged it, it won’t stop until it’s wiped us all out.”

I followed Lu Ayao for another dozen steps before we finally broke through the white smoke. Only then could I see clearly. The beams and pillars beneath us were swarming with snakes. He Yu and the others were no longer where they had been; they were moving faster than us, already climbing toward the vaulted ceiling of the tomb.

Lu Ayao and I worked together, leaping upward with everything we had. The white python’s eye was a bloody mess, but it had recovered its senses. It shook its head, opened its massive maw once more, and began scaling the pillars to close in on us.

“Keep climbing!” Lu Ayao flipped his knife in his hand, gripping it in a reverse hold. He began striking the beam with the back of the blade as he ran in the opposite direction. Seeing such a fast-moving target, both pythons were instantly lured away by him.

I spotted a beam and leaped onto it. He Yu was waiting for me three beams up. I didn’t have time to look back; the pythons were too fast, and the time Lu Ayao could buy us was limited.

Soon, He Yu’s voice drifted down from above. “Gan Ji! The ceiling!”

I couldn’t quite hear what he was saying. Then came a loud crash as another beam below collapsed under the weight of a snake’s body. The collapse triggered a chain reaction, causing the beam I was about to jump to above me to snap clean in half.

The beam plummeted from the heights, smashing directly onto the sarcophagus in the center of the chamber. Dust billowed eight zhang high. With no more reachable beams above me, I had to lean against the Ship-Burial Coffins to catch my breath. I shouted up to He Yu, “What? What did you just say? Say it again!”

“I said!” He Yu screamed from above. “I said there’s no robber’s hole in the ceiling! We’re trapped!”

My heart sank. Something was wrong. The archaeological team most likely hadn’t turned back, yet they had made it out. If they hadn’t dug a hole through the ceiling, how else could they have left?

I shouted back again, “Are you sure you checked thoroughly?”

“I checked three damn times! There’s nothing!”

I thought to myself that we were finished. We had likely gambled on the wrong path.

Snakes kept leaping up from below. Several times, fangs snagged on my shoes, and I couldn’t shake them off. I had to fend off the snakes while scrambling up the prows of the Ship-Burial Coffins. Finally, I managed to reach a spot relatively free of snakes and crouched down.

“What do we do now?” He Yu shouted again.

The words had barely left his mouth when I saw the white python’s head get blasted into the air in the distance. The black python was sent plummeting by an explosion. A rain of blood suddenly poured down, drenching me. From my vantage point, the center of the blast had been right on Lu Ayao.

My mind went blank. Ignoring the nest of snakes below, I kicked them away and leaped from the prow of a coffin. I ran toward the massive pool of blood, tearing through the shredded meat on the beam with my bare hands.

“Xiao Yao! Are you still alive?” He Yu bellowed. “If you’re alive, say something!”

“Stop screaming! I’m not dead!” I yelled back, fighting the urge to gag.

The smell of the blasted flesh was indescribable. I dry-heaved several times as I pulled apart the mangled remains with my hands, finally digging Lu Ayao out from the wreckage. I checked his pulse and let out a small sigh of relief. The impact of the blast had been immense; he had likely just been knocked unconscious.

The beams above were all broken, meaning Lu Ayao and I probably couldn’t climb any higher. I was about to tell He Yu and the others to check the ceiling one more time when I suddenly felt the Ship-Burial Coffins on both sides shaking violently. The tremors were identical to what I had felt back at the research institute.

Qiao Sangui, being more experienced than the rest of us, let out a roar. “Damn it, find cover! They’re blasting from above! Get to the sides, now!”

I quickly grabbed Lu Ayao by the shoulders and dragged him toward the side. We ducked under one of the Ship-Burial Coffins. The prow of the boat protruded from the wall, providing just enough cover to shield us from the falling debris.

“Xiao Yao, make sure you stay hidden!”

He Yu and the others were on the other side.

Two seconds later, the vibrations intensified. The entire vaulted ceiling above us was blasted loose and came crashing down. A rain of falling rocks followed the ceiling, slamming into the boat coffin above our heads with loud, rhythmic thuds. I gave the inner space to Lu Ayao, using my clothes and arms to shield my own head.

“Boss, we found them!” someone shouted from above.

Once the rockfall subsided, I heard the sound of ropes being lowered. A beam of sunlight spilled down through the breached hole. In that moment, my senses felt magnified tenfold. The voices of people and the mechanical hum of machinery outside rushed into my ears with startling clarity.

Fourth Brother had sent men to pull us up one by one. I hadn’t seen sunlight in what felt like forever. The moment I was pulled out, my entire body felt numb. I looked around and saw we were on an unnamed island. It was tiny, and we were a vast distance away from where our ship had originally been stationed.

Knowing that someone would eventually come to carry me to a cot, I took a few limp steps and then flopped down on the ground next to He Yu. We lay there in a row, staring up at the seagulls soaring across the blue sky. When I saw Lu Ayao being the first carried into a makeshift tent, I lifted my head to watch.

“Stop looking. He’s more precious than us. Your Fourth Brother won’t let him die,” He Yu said, swatting at me. He kept his eyes closed, looking like he was about to drift off into the afterlife.

I gave a vague grunt of agreement and lay back down to feel the sea breeze. Suddenly, a thought flashed through my mind. I bolted upright and started shaking He Yu’s arm frantically.

“Can’t you just be still for a second?” He managed to crack an eye open.

“No! Where’s the Black Hoof Iron?”

“Oh, that piece of junk burned to ash ages ago. There were only some scraps left, so I threw them away.”

“Crap! Who told you to throw it away? How am I supposed to explain that in a bit?”

“Explain it however you want. It’s just an object in the end. If it’s burned, it’s burned. Besides, things were desperate back there. Your Fourth Brother isn’t going to kill you over a piece of hardware, is he?”

I gradually let myself be convinced. I figured he was right; Fourth Brother had always spoiled me. At worst, I’d get a bit of a scolding. Just as I was about to lie back down, I saw Fourth Brother walking toward us. I brushed the dirt off my backside and stood up to greet him, rushing forward to give him a massive bear hug.

“Fourth Brother! How’s the poison in your system?” I asked.

Fourth Brother didn’t seem to mind that I was covered in filth. He patted my back reassuringly and pulled some tissues from his pocket, handing them to me to wipe the blood from my forehead. “I’m fine now. It’s all thanks to Xiao Wan. She estimated the length and width of the tomb complex, which allowed us to plan the demolition from this spot. You aren’t hurt, are you?”

“I’m fine, doing great.”

As I spoke, I noticed his demeanor seemed different than usual. That hesitant, “wanting to say something but holding back” look made me feel very strange. “What is it, Fourth Brother?” I asked.

He let out a sigh. “Hurry up and get yourself cleaned up. There are fresh clothes in the tent. Go pick an outfit and change.”

“Why the rush? I wanted to rest a bit longer.”

Chen Si gave me a long, deep look and pointed toward the largest tent. “Your mother came looking for you. She’s in the tent right now. She told you to go see her.”