Chapter 165: The White Corpse Turtle Immortal

Hearing those words, I felt the hair on my arms stand on end. No matter how I interpreted that sentence, it felt incredibly bizarre. It was clearly a statement of foresight. There was no way the news of me learning the Art of Mechanisms could have reached the Tian Family—at least, that was what I believed at the time.

But how did Tian Xiao know? How could he be so certain that I would eventually learn the Art of Mechanisms? Had my grandfather accidentally let it slip while he was drunk? But during those two years, we hadn’t had much contact with the Tian Family, and my grandfather had never gone drinking with Tian Xiao.

I was utterly perplexed. Then, I thought of the notebook in my backpack signed by my grandfather. I was willing to bet there was crucial information inside, but I couldn’t open it in front of Tian Xiaoqi. After some thought, I decided to wait for a better opportunity to look through it.

I shook my head, forcing myself to stop overthinking these matters. I took my flashlight and began inspecting the room alone. Tian Xiaoqi stopped talking and came over to help, holding the light and opening cabinets for me. Aside from the items on the desk, the cabinets were filled with similar jars, though these were several sizes larger than the small ones—resembling the large glass crocks used for snake wine back in my hometown.

Inside were peculiar turtles, the likes of which I had never seen. Their bodies were long, their skin was white, and their shells were a dull grey. I couldn’t tell if they looked this way because they had been soaking for too long or if that was their natural appearance. I found one that was relatively intact and used some strength to haul the glass jar out of the cabinet and onto the desk.

When the flashlight beam hit it, Tian Xiaoqi suddenly gasped. “Oh my! This… this is a White Corpse Turtle Immortal!”

I had no idea what species a “White Corpse Turtle Immortal” was supposed to be, so I asked her, “What do you mean? You recognize this corpse? What exactly is a White Corpse Turtle Immortal?”

Tian Xiaoqi explained, “The White Corpse Turtle Immortal was originally a species recorded in legends. It’s said that when a White Corpse Immortal ascends to immortality, they attach themselves to a turtle’s body. Carving away its flesh can grant a hundred years of life, and eating its meat can lead to Ascension to Immortality. The older generations passed these stories down, but no one has ever seen the creature’s true form. However, during the Republican era, a foreigner conducting an expedition in the mountains of China recorded this strange creature living in the crevices of the mountains in his journals.”

She glanced at me, then stared back at the jar on the desk. “I never expected this thing to actually exist.”

The White Corpse Turtle Immortal inside the jar was tied up like a Zongzi, but its body was fairly well-preserved. A thought suddenly struck me. These creatures clearly weren’t local; they must have been transported here in bulk from somewhere else. The formation of this place might be heavily connected to these turtles.

In my gut, I felt that the Nine Rings Project and Project 434 were linked. At that moment, I really wanted to take the White Corpse Turtle Immortal out of the jar to study it. Since the Project 434 personnel had captured so many of them and placed them here, was it safe to assume they were conducting research related to the so-called “Ascension to Immortality”?

If that was the case, was the nearby undersea tomb also related to “Ascension to Immortality”?

Just as I reached out to pull the plug from the top of the jar, Tian Xiaoqi grabbed my hand. She shook her head frantically. “Don’t touch it! Legend says every scale and feather on a White Corpse Turtle Immortal is incredibly toxic. One touch means certain death. Even if it’s just a legend, you’d better not touch it with your bare hands.”

As she spoke, I scanned the surrounding desks out of the corner of my eye. There were no gloves or similar items kept here.

I brought my gaze back and said absentmindedly, “What else do the legends say? Do they say these turtles can come back to life?”

“How did you know?” Tian Xiaoqi looked at me, blinking in confusion.

I was amused by her gullibility. I was about to turn around and tease her further when I noticed her expression suddenly turn strange. I realized she wasn’t looking at me, but at the jar containing the White Corpse Turtle Immortal behind me.

Without time to think, I quickly moved my right hand to the short dagger on my multi-purpose belt. I didn’t turn around immediately, but whispered to Tian Xiaoqi, “What is it?”

Tian Xiaoqi swallowed hard. “The jar… it just moved.”

I spun around to look at the glass jar. As the flashlight beam swung over, I found myself staring directly into the eyes of the White Corpse Turtle Immortal, which had its head raised and was glaring deathly at me.

Under the flashlight’s glow, its eyes were a vivid, eerie green. This thing had been soaking for how many years, and it was still alive?! As I looked closer, I froze. Those didn’t look like turtle eyes at all. No matter how I looked at them, they were damn snake eyes!

Wait, had I misidentified it? Was it not a turtle in a shell, but a serpent inside a shell? That didn’t make sense. What kind of serpent was narrow in the front and wide in the back? Was this some kind of hybrid animal?

Before I could figure it out, the White Corpse Turtle Immortal suddenly slammed against the side of the jar. It was still bound by those ancient, tattered ropes, yet its strength was enough to make the jar lurch forward. It opened its bloody maw at me. I rushed forward to steady the jar, pushing it back onto the desk, terrified it would topple over from the impact.

But when I touched it, the creature inside began to struggle even more violently. Both Tian Xiaoqi and I scrambled back several paces. This particular White Corpse Turtle Immortal was quite large, and even after years of being pickled, it was still incredibly intimidating. If it really was as toxic as Tian Xiaoqi said, it would be no joke if it got out.

As we watched, a massive boom suddenly echoed from the upper part of the structure. It caught me completely off guard. I lost my footing and fell straight to the floor. Tian Xiaoqi had been holding my arm; her stance was actually quite stable, but when I went down, I dragged her down with me.

We tumbled together. Before we could even process what was happening, we heard the crisp sound of glass shattering. I looked up and—great! The worst-case scenario had arrived. The White Corpse Turtle Immortal was out of the jar!

Dammit! Who the hell was causing trouble underwater at a time like this? This was going to be the death of us!

I decisively drew the dagger from my waist, pushed Tian Xiaoqi off me, and shouted, “Get up! That turtle immortal thing is out!”

Tian Xiaoqi scrambled up. I could faintly feel the ground vibrating incessantly. At the same time, the glass jars on the desks were shaking, clinking against each other with sharp, ringing sounds. We had no idea what was happening in the water. Was this an earthquake?

Then, I saw the White Corpse Turtle Immortal crawling on the floor. It raised its head and bared rows of needle-like teeth at me. I was less than three meters away. I cursed inwardly—who the hell categorized this thing as a turtle?! Look at it! Does this thing have anything to do with a turtle?

At that moment, the White Corpse Turtle Immortal lunged at me. I rolled to the side, my head slamming into a desk leg. I winced in pain. Tian Xiaoqi, who had regained her footing, had somehow pulled a jacket from her bag. She wrapped it several times around her arm and lunged at the creature as it attacked me.

She pinned the White Corpse Turtle Immortal to the ground. Despite her skills, she was still a girl, and her physical strength was limited. Once she grabbed its shell, the creature began to thrash wildly. The tremors around us grew more violent, the entire building beginning to rock and sway. To make matters worse, the turtle’s shell was incredibly slimy, and it looked like it was about to bite through her jacket at any second.

Ignoring the throbbing pain in my head and throwing caution to the wind, I lunged forward. I knocked Tian Xiaoqi aside, forcing her to let go, and grabbed the tortoise shell in her stead. “Go! Get out of here!” I roared. “This place is about to collapse! Hiss!”

I sucked in a sharp breath as a searing pain shot through the webbing of my thumb. Looking down, I saw that one of the White Corpse Turtle Immortal’s fangs had pierced deep into my hand. A jagged hole had been torn open, and the cold air rushing into the wound made it sting even worse. Despite the agony, I kept my grip tight on the creature.

Deep cracks began to spiderweb across the room, starting from the base of the walls and spreading with terrifying speed. The sound of stone splitting was deafening as the fissures raced toward the ceiling.

Tian Xiaoqi didn’t realize my hand had been mangled. She rushed to the door, checked the corridor, and turned back to scream, “Drop that thing! The place is coming down! Water is already leaking in! We have to get back to the main tomb complex!”

I kept both hands clamped onto the White Corpse Turtle Immortal, knowing full well I couldn’t just toss it aside yet. The thing was incredibly fast and possessed a terrifying leaping ability. I had to get to the door first to ensure it wouldn’t spring onto our shoulders and sink its teeth into our necks while we were running for our lives.

“Go first! I’m right behind you!” I yelled at the top of my lungs, edging toward the doorway.

Tian Xiaoqi hesitated for a split second before ducking out and sprinting down the corridor, where water was already beginning to seep through the walls. Once I saw she was clear, I wound my arm back and hurled the White Corpse Turtle Immortal with all my might toward the far ceiling. Using that brief window of time, I ducked out the door and slammed it shut behind me.

I bolted down the return corridor as fast as my legs would carry me. Tian Xiaoqi was ahead, stomping her feet in frantic impatience. She ran back to grab me, and together we rounded a corner and scrambled up a stone staircase we hadn’t used before. Tian Xiaoqi reached out, found a specific stone, and gave it a hard twist. The sound of shifting rock echoed ahead of us. We scrambled up the stairs one after the other and managed to squeeze through a dark hole at the end that led back into the main tomb complex.

I collapsed inside the hole, drenched in sweat and covered in grime. My vision swam with stars from the exertion, and the moment I stopped, I couldn’t stop coughing. I rolled over, hacking, and my flashlight beam happened to sweep over my left hand. The biting force of that White Corpse Turtle Immortal had been truly monstrous; the flesh between my thumb and forefinger was torn and ragged. It had gone numb from the pain while I was running, but now it looked like a bloody, mangled mess.

As I was wondering how to treat it, Tian Xiaoqi suddenly leaned over from behind. She let out a sharp gasp when she saw my hand. She grabbed my wrist, pulling me into a sitting position, and began frantically rummaging through her backpack. Her hands shook so violently as she pulled the zipper that she started dropping things.

I tried to comfort her. “It’s okay,” I said. “Someone should be coming to rescue me soon. Though our current position looks a bit tricky… I’m not in the Side Chamber anymore, so meeting up might be difficult. I still have three days’ worth of rations. If we’re careful, we won’t starve.”

Tian Xiaoqi looked at me with a mix of anger and sorrow, her eyes rimmed with red. “This is a robber’s hole I found earlier, dug right next to the Side Chamber. I only found the stone stairs down there because I accidentally tripped a mechanism. Stop trying to comfort me! Your hand is badly mangled. If you don’t regroup with your rescue team soon, you’re going to die here!”

My entire hand was numb now; I couldn’t feel a shred of pain. However, I could feel the occasional spasm of a blood vessel. Tian Xiaoqi had likely been right—the White Corpse Turtle Immortal was indeed highly venomous.

I couldn’t see my own face, but I imagined I looked terrible. Tian Xiaoqi’s voice broke, bordering on tears. “If it wasn’t for me, you wouldn’t have lunged at it.”

I didn’t care about that. My only thought at the time was that at least one of us had to make it out alive. Now, I seemed to have a new understanding of this burial complex.

“I’m not dead yet. There are so many mechanisms here, I suspect…”

The moment I started to speak, my head began to spin. My chest felt heavy, and it became increasingly difficult to draw a breath. This was bad. Even after being soaked in formalin for so long, the venom was still this potent.

I couldn’t keep myself upright any longer and began to slump toward the ground. Tian Xiaoqi caught me. “Gan Ji!”

A loud ringing filled my ears, and my body was no longer under my control. Yet, simultaneously, my thoughts became strangely lucid. I managed to force out a few words, though I didn’t know if Tian Xiaoqi heard them before I lost consciousness entirely.

Still asking for comments and starfish. I want to reach ten thousand starfish. If you’re enjoying the story, please toss a few my way!