Chapter 162: Footprints

I really hadn’t come in here on my own. Bai Shenxian said at the time that we had been washed in by the current. As I held my flashlight, I thought about it for a moment and felt like something didn’t quite add up.

The current had pushed us in very quickly, and I had somehow been separated from Liang Si. This proved that there must be many passages connected to the Tomb-guarding Beast. That was the only way we could have been scattered and washed into different Side Chambers. But as someone visiting for the first time, how did Bai Shenxian have the courage to dive back out alone to find help?

Unless, this wasn’t his first time here.

But if he really was plotting against me, orchestrating my arrival here and leading me to find these stairs leading into this building, what was his ultimate goal?

Too much information flooded my mind, making my head spin. I shook it clear, deciding to focus on the immediate problems first.

I planned to keep walking forward to see if I could find an archive room or something similar. Since this was a research facility, there had to be many files related to their work. I might find some valuable clues inside.

I continued forward with my flashlight. Every step I took left a mark on the floor. The ground and walls were covered in dust, and papers lay scattered across the floor, buried under the grime. It wasn’t quite what I expected; the wooden doors to many of the offices were left ajar, and the interiors were a mess. It looked like everyone had left in a great hurry.

I recalled what Hou Jinshan had told me before about the secret archaeological base in the mountains. I wondered if those people were the same group as the ones here. If they were, they were certainly involved in a massive, secret undertaking.

My foot stepped on a piece of paper. I crouched down and picked it up. The handwriting was mostly illegible, but the printed text was very clear: “Project 434 Progress Overview.”

Project 434?

My heart skipped a beat. The doorplate on the Xinchang Bank vault had originally been labeled 434. Could the Xinchang Bank vault have been the headquarters for this secret Project 434 archaeological mission back in the fifties?

I stayed crouched on the ground, holding the paper as I thought. This archaeological team traveled all over the country, recruiting old tomb raiders in the mountains of Zhao’an, building research labs under the sea, and even using old Republic-era buildings as disguises. The tombs they excavated all corresponded to the Nine-Ring Jade Casket. What exactly were they excavating? Or rather, what were they looking for?

The beam of my flashlight swept past my eyes. As my gaze followed the light further ahead, my eyes suddenly widened.

A row of dark footprints had appeared in front of me at some point. The prints stretched into the darkness ahead. There really was someone else here. Could it be that little thief who had been peering through the carved woodwork earlier?

I stood up quickly and swept the flashlight around to make sure my immediate surroundings were safe. Then, I pressed myself against the wall and followed the footprints. They continued for about ten meters before I stopped.

It wasn’t that I didn’t want to go further, but the footprints simply vanished. At the time, it seemed incredibly eerie. The prints hadn’t been intentionally wiped away; they just stopped at a certain point. The dust on the floor ahead showed no signs of being stepped on at all.

My breathing inevitably grew heavy. The oppressive atmosphere here felt even worse than in the Side Chamber. It was almost suffocating. Stairs connecting to an undersea tomb, a deserted research facility, a voyeuristic freak, and now a set of human footprints that vanished into thin air.

The ceiling was low and cramped. Looking at the words painted in red on the walls, I felt like I was being driven toward a mental breakdown.

Footprints vanishing like that could only mean a few things here.

1. The owner of the footprints realized I was following them, so they used a special method to hide their tracks and entered one of the nearby rooms.

2. The owner might not be human and could move in different ways, like Spider-Man.

3. These were ghost footprints.

I wiped the cold sweat from my forehead with my sleeve and examined the area where the prints disappeared. The row of footprints ended right in front of an office door. Steeling my nerves, I slowly pushed the door open a crack and shone my light inside.

The room contained a metal bed frame, an open wardrobe, and a square wooden table. I must have reached the living quarters; this was likely a dormitory for one of the researchers.

I moved through the room like a soldier on a raid, first flipping over the moldy blankets on the bed, then checking the table, and finally feeling around the front and back panels of the wardrobe. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. The space was too small for anyone to hide.

I closed the door, sat on the bed, and looked around the room. I wondered why the footprints had stopped exactly here. Was it a coincidence? Based on my past experiences, I had already mentally ruled out the possibility of a person hiding.

My hand brushed against the pillow, and I suddenly felt something hard inside. It felt like something had been stuffed into the pillowcase. As soon as the thought occurred, I started tearing the pillowcase open, and dust immediately billowed into my face.

I coughed violently as I separated the pillow from the case. With a rustling sound, a notebook fell out from among the clumps of black cotton.

I dropped the pillowcase and leaned over to pick it up. The cover of the notebook was nearly falling off. Then, I caught sight of the name written on it, and I froze in shock.

This notebook… it was signed with my grandfather’s name!

I hurriedly turned on my flashlight to get a closer look, but then I heard the sound of footsteps approaching from outside. I froze. My hand stopped mid-turn. I snapped the notebook shut, shoved it into an inner pocket of my backpack, and zipped it tight. Then, I silently crept over to the wardrobe, switched off my flashlight, climbed inside, and pulled the door shut.

In an instant, I was plunged into darkness, and the world returned to a deathly silence. Only the sound of my own breathing filled the wardrobe. Now that I was still, I could clearly hear the movement outside. The footsteps were getting closer. I judged that they belonged to a living person because the gait was stumbling and frantic.

Just as I was considering whether to peek out, I heard another sound. It was extremely faint—not the sound of footsteps, but more like the slithering of loaches or snails on the ground. It was a wet, viscous sound, like some water-slicked creature.

That sound hadn’t been there when I walked in. I was certain that this non-human creature was now following closely behind the person with the footsteps.

The sound the creature made was ominous. The person outside didn’t seem to realize they were being followed. If I wanted to save them, I had to signal them to come to me.

I opened the wardrobe door a crack, turned my flashlight to its lowest setting, and shone the beam onto the floor. There was a large gap under the room’s door. In a pitch-black building like this, light was a much more reliable signal than sound. The footsteps outside paused; the person had clearly noticed the light.

I immediately turned off the flashlight. A moment later, I heard the room door creak open. The footsteps drew closer and closer until they were right in front of the wardrobe.

Without hesitation, I threw the door open and yanked the person inside. At the same time, I felt a cold sensation against my neck. The person had pressed a blade to my throat. I clicked on my flashlight, and the moment I saw who it was, my brain stalled.

A curse flew out of my mouth: “Fuck! Why is it you?!”