Chapter 156: Leave None Alive

Whether it was my words or my posture, Liang Si finally began to re-examine me. I wasn’t afraid of his scrutiny. As he could see, I was a fresh face in this business. Fourth Brother had never brought me to any of the Pankou to show me off. Liang Si and his lot were the type who knew someone like me existed but had never seen me in person. Their current hesitation stemmed precisely from the fact that they couldn’t gauge my depth.

Liang Si’s eyes darted around before he suddenly flashed me a grin. Seeing that I ignored him, he quickly switched to a thick Henan accent to try and close the distance between us. “Now, now, lad, what I just said doesn’t count. Your uncle here is getting old and muddled. Don’t go getting cross with us. We’ll do exactly as you said. When do you reckon we should head into the water?”

Seeing that he had finally relented, I didn’t plan on keeping him dangling forever. After all, even a starving dog will bite if pushed too far. I rubbed the beads on my left wrist, changed my expression, and turned back to smile at him. “Five o’clock this afternoon. We’ll each take half our men down to scout it out. How does that sound?”

“Five o’clock is a bit late, isn’t it? We won’t be able to see a thing down there,” Liang Si hesitated.

I had expected him to lose his nerve, so I mocked him. “What’s the matter, old-timer? Getting cold feet already?”

Liang Si was a man who cared deeply about his reputation. He quickly coughed twice in front of his men and barked an order. “Yaoji! Pidan! You lot get the gear ready! We’re following Young Master Gan’s lead. We hit the water at five sharp. Don’t waste time!”

At that moment, He Yu squeezed through the crowd toward me, winking and gesturing frantically. He reprimanded me in a low voice, “What’s wrong with you, cooperating with that old geezer? Xiao Wu told me you’re planning to take a few men down yourself. Why didn’t you discuss this with us beforehand? You’ve never done a night raid on a tomb, and this is a submerged one at that. Have you gone mad?”

I patted him on the shoulder and turned my back to the others, leaning against the ship’s railing. I grabbed a handful of melon seeds and cracked them while staring at the water, my mind racing. “I wouldn’t play such a risky hand unless I had no choice. This time is different from before. Did you see the way those men looked at me at noon? Without Fourth Brother, they see me as nothing more than a piece of trash. This isn’t just about taking down that man Liang; it’s about earning their respect.”

“So, you really intend to go down there yourself tonight?” He Yu looked at me with an expression that was hard to describe.

I sighed. His words had suddenly drained some of the wind from my sails. I leaned over the railing, clutching my head and rubbing my temples. “If I want them to follow me, I have to go down myself. That old fox will probably try to trip me up down there, but I don’t have any other choice.”

He Yu fell silent after hearing my words. He tried to offer a suggestion. “I’m not comfortable with this. How about we just have a fight with them? Whoever wins is the boss. What do you think?”

I waved him off immediately and straightened up, heading toward the cabin. “If it were really that simple, I wouldn’t be standing here trying to come up with a strategy,” I said as I walked. “If you really want to help, bring me that hand-drawn map of the terrain again.”

According to Liu Wan, Fourth Brother was still unconscious. Lu Ayao would wake up once or twice, but his consciousness remained muddled. I sat on the bed using a pencil and a pair of compasses from the nightstand to mark the hand-drawn map He Yu had given me. Lu Ayao had only given me a general location; the exact coordinates depended on my own calculations.

The light would fail after five o’clock, and it would be even worse in the deep sea. This meant I had to know the terrain around the Tomb-guarding Beast like the back of my hand so I wouldn’t lose my bearings underwater.

The clock sat on my table. Listening to the ticking of the hands felt like a death knell, and the psychological pressure mounted. For a moment, it felt as if I were back in Yunnan, with Qiao Sangui forcing me to memorize maps. But this time, the pressure came from a natural fear of the seawater and the darkness.

Just as my hands began to tremble while drawing, Bai Shenxian walked past and called my name. I looked up to see him weighing an oxygen tank in his hand.

“Relax. I told Liang Si I’m going down with you lot.” Bai Shenxian smoothed back his hair. His height gave him a bit of an advantage among us, and he looked quite composed. He even had the energy to worry about his appearance at a time like this.

I frowned and asked, “If you come down with me, who’s going to look after the two patients?”

Bai Shenxian smiled and stepped closer. “Chen Si has Boss Yu. Besides, you’re not letting He Yu go into the water, so I told him to keep an eye on the fellow named Lu. He’s got nothing better to do anyway. The two patients are in about the same state – half-dead. They’ll likely stay that way for a while. Even if I stayed here for twenty-four hours, they wouldn’t suddenly recover.”

He placed a hand on my shoulder and gave me a toothy grin. “I took a look around and decided you probably need me more. So, I’m here to help!”

Just as he finished speaking, one of Liang Si’s men, the one called Pidan, pulled back the curtain and poked his head in to call for me. I quickly folded the map and stuffed it into the cabinet. Bai Shenxian hooked his arm around my neck, answered Pidan for me, and led me out toward the deck.

“If Lu Ayao told you to accompany me, I suggest you stay on the boat. I’d hate for something to happen to the only doctor we have,” I whispered to him.

I heard Bai Shenxian give a faint snort. He nonchalantly pulled out a wetsuit and shook it out, preparing to put it on for the dive. He gave me a mysterious smile. “Then you really don’t know me well enough. I’m much more than just a doctor.”

The crew lowered the small boat. We all took our professional diving wetsuits and climbed in. The type of wetsuits we had could only be put on properly once we were in the water. The seawater at five o’clock was a bit cold, so everyone sat by the edge of the boat first, splashing water on themselves to acclimate to the temperature.

The small boat drifted on the sea, rocking violently as the waves hit it. Liang Si and his men were the first to gear up and get into the water. The group of them looked like freezing dogs, their teeth chattering so hard they couldn’t even finish a sentence. They clung to the side of the boat in the water for a long time before they finally adjusted.

Bai Shenxian sacrificed his own time to gear up so he could hand me my equipment from the boat. I gritted my teeth and stayed submerged in the water to dress quickly. He handed down a piece, and I put it on. Once I was dressed, I used my arms to haul myself back onto the boat, and Bai Shenxian quickly turned to help me strap on the oxygen tank.

Neither of us spoke. The men Xiao Wu had picked for me were all very sharp. Everyone focused solely on the task at hand, so we worked with a silent understanding. We got dressed and geared up relatively quickly, without the commotion Liang Si and his men were making.

When it was my turn to hand Bai Shenxian his gear, he asked, “Did you give Xiao Wu his instructions?”

My gaze froze, and I looked at him. We locked eyes. Out of the corner of my eye, I glanced at Liang Si’s group on the other side. Instinctively, neither of us said a word. But from the way Bai Shenxian continued to ask for his gear, I knew he already understood what I intended to do during this dive.

“Don’t worry, I’ll help you.” Bai Shenxian finished putting on his suit and hauled himself onto the boat, giving me a small pat on the shoulder. He looked at me with a smile. “How far do you want to take this?”

I glanced at him, then lowered my head to stretch the strap of my diving goggles and pull them over my head. I bit down on my glove to tighten the strap with my teeth, checked my respirator one last time to ensure there were no issues, and then pulled the goggles down over my eyes.

“I don’t want a single one of them coming back up.”