Chapter 195: The Rescue

I watched him prying at the coffin, but my reaction wasn’t particularly strong. I tugged at Lu Ayao, who was beside me, and said, “Ignore him. If there’s something in that decoy coffin, let him dig for it. It’s not the owner’s actual casket anyway, so there might not even be any burial goods. Let’s focus on getting up first.”

Just then, another commotion erupted below. I looked down to see that Qiao Sangui had already pried open the second layer of the coffin lid. From my vantage point, it was difficult to see what was inside. He Yu suddenly crouched down next to me, leaning over the crossbeam to peer inside. Whatever he saw made him gasp sharply, and he immediately grabbed onto me to pull himself back up, his face deathly pale.

“It’s over, it’s over, it’s over! Old Lu, stop looking! Get up, move, move!” He Yu pushed me forward urgently, his expression suggesting he wanted nothing more than to crawl straight through the vaulted ceiling right this second.

As he shoved me along, I asked, “What’s wrong? What did you see?”

“Black serpents! Dammit, they’re all coiled together, thick as a carpet. I couldn’t tell if it was one massive one or dozens of them. That old fossil hasn’t realized it yet. Thank god we’re under the sea; the low temperature must have them in hibernation. We need to be quiet.”

His description sent a wave of nausea and a shiver down my spine. I moved forward another half-meter and saw that old bastard Qiao Sangui was tiptoeing toward the pillar beneath us. I hadn’t noticed when he’d started moving, but by the time I looked down again, he was clinging to the pillar like a maggot, about two meters off the ground.

His strength was clearly failing him; after climbing just two meters, he didn’t dare let go. He was stranded in midair, caught between up and down. There was still a wide gap to the lotus pendents above, and his arms were too short to reach, yet he didn’t dare drop the two meters back down either. Seeing me look at him, he quickly offered a fawning smile.

“Th-That… Young Master Gan, I was in the wrong before. Could you… could you…”

Before he could finish, Tian Xiaoqi stepped up and held me back. “Don’t bother with him! He’s this old and still values money over his life; he deserves to hang there forever. Look at him playing the victim now, after how vicious he was to us just a moment ago. Now that he needs saving, he remembers we exist? How shameless!”

“Y-You… you wretched girl! When you fell out with the rest of the Tian Family back then, I didn’t treat you poorly! I never offended you! I really couldn’t interfere in your family’s business, but you can’t want me dead just because of that! This is a human life at stake! Why are you meddling? How happy would it really make you if I died!”

Seeing another argument brewing, I quickly held Tian Xiaoqi back. Looking down at the pathetic sight of Qiao Sangui clinging to the pillar, I thought for a moment before saying to Lu Ayao, “Could you please pull him up?”

He Yu stepped up and whispered in my ear, “Are you serious, Gan Ji? This old geezer is rotten to the core. Did you forget he sent men to clash with Han Jian? He nearly put a bullet in you back then. This is karma. I say to hell with saving him, just leave him down there.”

I turned and whispered back, “How could I forget? But don’t you think letting him die like this is too easy on him? The Liu Family followed us this time. They’ve been tracking him for so long, but they couldn’t make a move because of the power he wielded in Yunnan. If we bring him up and hand him over to Liu Wan, how do you think she’ll treat us afterward?”

“You mean…” He Yu’s expression shifted to one of sudden realization. “Impressive. Thinking that far ahead. If we look at it that way, we’re basically removing a major thorn from the Liu Family’s side. No matter what happens later, Yujingzi will owe us a favor. Xiao Yao, your cunning is starting to rival your grandfather’s.”

“Get lost, stop talking nonsense.” I shoved him aside and prepared to help Lu Ayao.

Lu Ayao had already jumped down while I was mid-sentence. He reached out and hauled Qiao Sangui onto the first crossbeam. Even as he was being dangled by his collar, Qiao Sangui didn’t forget to bow to me with clasped hands. “Thank you, Young Master, for letting bygones be bygones. Such magnanimity… you truly are a worthy Eight-Foot Dragon^[1] of our era!”

“Keep your damn voice down! If you wake up that coffin full of serpents, we’re all in for it!” He Yu hissed at him.

Just as he spoke, a massive crash rattled the stone doors of the tomb. Guangtou and his subordinate, A Dong, came charging in aggressively, clutching rocks in their hands. The moment they burst through the door, they roared, “Gan Ji!! You Gan bastard! Release our Third Master right now!!”

Seeing the embarrassing sight of them holding nothing but rocks, Qiao Sangui covered his face with a hand, looking ready to die of embarrassment.

I glanced at He Yu. “How exactly did you tie them up? How did these two idiots get loose?”

He Yu shrugged helplessly. “You can’t blame me for that. The ropes were theirs. You can only blame Third Master Qiao for being too stingy to buy decent equipment for a tomb raid.”

The words had barely left his mouth when we watched in horror as the two fools sprinted toward the half-opened coffin.

“Boss, the coffin’s already half-open! Let’s grab some of the good stuff for ourselves!” A Dong said cheerfully, reaching out to push the lid open.

Our hearts leaped into our throats. We shouted at him in unison, “Don’t touch that coffin!”

Startled by our shouts, A Dong jerked back and slammed into the lid behind him. The massive lid hit the floor with a heavy thud, the golden-thread Phoebe zhennan wood splitting in two. Inside, something as thick as a man’s thigh twitched. Then a head slowly rose from the coffin, its snake eyes glowing with an eerie green light.

“That’s no serpent, that’s a python!” Terrified by the creature’s size, I screamed at Guangtou and A Dong, “What are you two standing there for? Run!!”

I leaped down from the second crossbeam, landing beside Lu Ayao. He was supporting Qiao Sangui with his left hand and steadied me with his right so I didn’t lose my balance.

Guangtou was relatively quick-witted; the moment I shouted, he scrambled toward us on all fours. On the other side, A Dong was so terrified by the black python emerging from the coffin that he crashed headlong onto the stone steps, bleeding heavily from his head. He lay paralyzed on the ground, unable to crawl up, having undoubtedly soiled his pants.

The black python slithered up behind him and opened its bloody, cavernous maw, clamping down on his head and flinging him into the air.

It was the first time I had ever seen a snake eat a person. Blood splattered across the ground like a waterfall. Paralyzed by the sound of those piercing, agonizing screams, I froze. Lu Ayao suddenly gripped my shoulder, snapping me back to reality. I immediately looked down at Guangtou, who was desperately scrambling up a pillar, weeping and covered in snot and tears.

The black python clearly wasn’t satisfied after its meal. It turned its head toward us, and I found myself staring straight into its eyes. Just then, another sound echoed from inside the coffin.

Soon, a white python more than twice the size of the black one reared its head from within. Following the white python were countless snakes as thick as bowls, swarming toward us at high speed.

Lu Ayao glanced back at the scene. Without a moment’s hesitation, he gave Qiao Sangui, whom he had been supporting, a violent shove. Qiao Sangui was sent flying onto another beam a meter away. Lu Ayao then stowed his whip at the small of his back, drew two mountain-cleaving machetes, and leaped down from the beam.

Qiao Sangui let out a pained cry as he landed, half his body dangling off the beam. Judging by the sound, the impact must have hurt.

“He Yu! Stop watching! Get down here and help!” I shouted behind me, then sat down and reached out for Guangtou below. “Xiaoqi, keep climbing!”

I wasn’t sure if Tian Xiaoqi heard me, but I heard the sound of her drawing her scimitar. Hearing my call, He Yu hurriedly jumped down and grabbed my clothes. With him anchoring me, I was able to reach down a bit further.

“Wait, why are we risking our lives to save them? We can barely save ourselves! Shouldn’t we be waiting for someone to save us?” He Yu cursed.

The hard beam was pressing into my chest so tightly I felt like throwing up. I gritted my teeth and barked at him, “Then damn it, should we just stop right now and walk away, watching him get swallowed by a snake too? Can you really stomach that?”

“Fine, forget it! I can’t. We’ll do it your way! Just pull him up, quick!”

I strained forward as far as I could. Suddenly, a snake lunged from the ground, jaws open to bite me. Below, Lu Ayao sliced it in half with a single stroke, and it fell to the floor. Guangtou gave a desperate lunge upward, and I managed to grab his hand. He Yu pulled from behind, dragging me inch by inch back onto the beam. I scrambled backward with all my might, and we successfully hauled Guangtou up.

“Fuck!” He Yu coughed. “Xiao Yao, you need to lose some weight when we get back. You’re killing me.”

I didn’t have time to deal with him. I quickly helped Guangtou up and pointed at He Yu. “Get him up there, now!”

He Yu grabbed Guangtou and began leaping from beam to beam ahead. I looked back. The massive white snake had reared its head, its scales reflecting the firelight in an eerie, iridescent glow. I could clearly see my own reflection in its pupils as it stared me down from less than three meters away.