Chapter 164: The One Who Set the Trap

As I walked further, I soon saw a sign that instantly calmed my simmering rage. It stood in the middle of the path, bearing several large characters: “DANGER AREA, NO ENTRY.”

I adjusted my flashlight to its maximum brightness, shining it on the doors and windows behind the sign. In this so-called “danger area,” the doors and windows remained wide open. Test tubes and glass shards were scattered across the adjacent corridor. It was unclear what this place had once been used for.

This sign had stood here for many years. I imagined it used to serve as a warning. But why would the researchers of the past use a wooden sign to cordially partition off a corridor that looked identical to the one before it?

At that moment, I saw Tian Xiaoqi, who had been following me, catch up. Without hesitation, she bypassed the wooden sign and turned into the first room on the left. My heart skipped a beat. This woman was clearly much more complex than I had imagined. Subconsciously, I followed her.

Coming closer, I realized this room was different from the ones we had seen before. It had a doorplate. The plate bore a string of numbers: “4341.” None of the previous doors had any such identification. Could I interpret this to mean that this was the actual living quarters for the internal personnel of Project 434?

I was still hesitating at the doorway when I heard Tian Xiaoqi speak from inside. “Since we’ve already reached this point, I want to apologize for what happened before. My judgment was flawed. I always thought Lu Ayao was on Tian Yuqing’s side, but I later discovered they don’t seem to be working toward the same goal.”

I stood in the corridor, a fair distance from her. Inside the room, a row of wooden tables lined the wall, covered in various jars and bottles. I couldn’t tell what was inside them. From my angle, I could see little more than the beam of her flashlight.

I gave a dry chuckle and asked, “How did you find that out?”

Tian Xiaoqi’s tone turned grave. “Because the situation outside has changed. Tian Yuqing has disappeared.”

I stood frozen for a long time, trying to process those words. Tian Yuqing was missing? How could he be missing? Before we arrived, Fourth Brother had told me that as the leader of the Nine Rings Project, Tian Yuqing was currently leading an expedition in Inner Mongolia. How could he suddenly vanish?

My first instinct was that this was another one of Tian Xiaoqi’s usual deceptive tactics. I gave a cold snort. “Tian Yuqing is missing? If I recall correctly, the two of you are currently enemies. This should be exactly what you wanted to see.”

Tian Xiaoqi froze, likely not expecting me to be so blunt. She looked like she wanted to argue, but she held back and continued. “Yes, it should have been. But after I arrived, I realized the Lu Clan knew nothing about this.”

She leaned against a table. “And as soon as my brother went missing, all the monsters and ghosts of the Tian Family came crawling out. Qiao Sangui didn’t want to help me clean up the mess, and my second brother’s fate is unknown. I’m the only one left in the entire Tian Family. I had no choice but to go home first. In a bedroom cabinet, I found an address with a set of numbers written in Tian Yuqing’s handwriting. I checked them and found they were coordinates. That’s how I followed the trail all the way here.”

I rested my hand on the doorframe. Deep down, I didn’t really want to make things difficult for a girl who had just reached adulthood, but I still said, “You’ve said a lot, but none of this has anything to do with me.”

Tian Xiaoqi became uncharacteristically anxious. “You’re right. I’m the one who wronged you first. I took the wrong path and trusted the wrong people. I know you don’t trust me now, but before I came here, I used the Tian Family’s connections to dig up some clues. Only after investigating did I realize the information here isn’t as simple as we first thought. The water is too deep. We are both descendants of the Five Masters. We’re grasshoppers tied to the same string.”

I could tell she was desperate for me to show even a tenth of a percent of trust in her. As I listened, I sensed her profound lack of security. This was a side of her I had never seen. Besides, if she really still wanted Lu Ayao’s life or intended to threaten me, she wouldn’t have followed me down here. She could have just stayed on the boat and hijacked the patients.

Such a direct approach didn’t fit her style.

The only possible explanation was that the situation on the boat was chaotic, with people of complex identities coming and going. The information she had found involved too much for her to handle alone. Fourth Brother and Lu Ayao were unconscious from the poison, and Liu Wan was unapproachable. I was the only conscious descendant of the Five Masters she could talk to, so she had no choice but to follow my team down.

However, I was still haunted by our previous encounters. Seeing my lingering doubt, Tian Xiaoqi pleaded, “Please, trust me one last time. I promise I won’t lie to you again.”

I finally made up my mind and stepped into the room. As I swept my flashlight around, I was shocked. The tables against the walls were covered in various turtle carcasses preserved in formalin. They had been soaking for so many years that I couldn’t even distinguish which parts were which, but they were definitely pieces of turtles or tortoises.

“Whatever you want to know, you can ask me now. If I know the answer, I’ll tell you,” Tian Xiaoqi said, looking at me.

I turned and asked immediately, “When does this research station date back to?”

Tian Xiaoqi replied, “Project 434 was a South China Sea archaeological project. The project was completely classified. My grandfather was a participant. Tian Yuqing mentioned it to me when the old man went on a long trip.”

“Is there a connection between Project 434 and the Nine Rings Project?”

Tian Xiaoqi hesitated. The moment I asked this, her eyes began to wander. I raised my flashlight, shining it up and down her form. “Hey, hey, hey. You just said you were going to be honest. I’ve only asked two questions and you’re already stuck?”

Tian Xiaoqi took a deep breath, as if making a monumental decision. “I don’t know if there’s a connection. In fact, none of us know what the Nine Rings Project is actually doing. To put it another way, since the beginning of last year, we’ve been following teams all over the country, entering one tomb after another. People ended up dead or injured, but we gained nothing.”

So the project had been underway since the beginning of last year. That was more than six months before I opened the Nine-Ring Jade Casket in the cabinet. But that was strange.

Logically, the sequence should have been: I open the casket, the casket reveals the water system maps, and the Nine Rings Project begins. But the actual sequence was: the Nine Rings Project begins first, and only then do I open the Nine-Ring Jade Casket. How could that be?

“You find it strange too, don’t you?” Tian Xiaoqi said with a bitter smile. “I found it strange as well. That’s why I didn’t want to completely break away from the Tian Family or go against Tian Yuqing before I met you. But after meeting you, I realized I was trapped in a massive mystery. Everything in front of me is a fog, and I just want to break through it.”

I rubbed my chin, offering my theory to Tian Xiaoqi. “If that’s the case, does it indirectly prove that the Nine Rings Project wasn’t launched because of the Nine-Ring Jade Casket?”

Tian Xiaoqi nodded, agreeing with my point.

Tian Xiaoqi had given me a crucial breakthrough. It proved that my entire starting point for thinking about this was wrong. The Nine Rings Project existed independently; it wasn’t dictated by any object. It had a specific trigger point. Once that point in time was reached, the Nine Rings Project would automatically activate. My opening of the Nine-Ring Jade Casket was perhaps just a superficial, formal step in the process.

Someone wanted to throw the circle back into chaos.

I realized immediately that this was indeed a setup. By opening that box, I had guaranteed that even as someone who had mostly distanced himself from the Five Masters, I would be dragged into the scheme. However, there was a terrifying flaw in their plan. My grandfather had warned me repeatedly, and as a result, I had never told a soul that I knew the Art of Mechanisms. How did the person who set this trap know about my skills? And how could they be so certain that I would be curious enough to open that drawer at that exact moment?

Furthermore, I had overlooked one crucial detail.

“How did Tian Yuqing know I’d studied the Art of Mechanisms?” My thoughts raced, and the question slipped out before I could stop it.

Tian Xiaoqi shook her head. “I don’t know where he heard it,” she said. “But I’m certain he’s known for a long time. It was summer, and I was playing in the courtyard while the Old Master was chatting with my eldest brother inside. I overheard them. I can’t be sure if they were talking about you specifically, but I heard one thing the Old Master said.”

“‘Don’t worry. When it comes to mechanisms, he’ll learn them sooner or later.'”