Chapter 98: The Same Tunnel

When I woke up in the tunnel again, I had no idea how much time had passed. I had collapsed inside without any warning, head in and feet out, still frozen in the crawling position I’d last been in.

I lay there for a while. At first, I thought I’d arrived in the underworld, but when I realized I wasn’t dead, I sat up too fast and nearly scraped my head on the ceiling of the tunnel.

My back felt cold. I shifted my shoulders slightly and noticed I couldn’t really feel the pain from the scratches anymore. I wasn’t sure if it had stopped hurting or if the pain had just gone numb. The blood I’d coughed up earlier had completely dried and clung uncomfortably to my neck. I wiped it off with the back of my hand, smearing it on the tunnel wall since I had no water, no tissues, no gauze.

I sat for a while to clear my head. Soon, I realized it wasn’t the pain that had woken me—it was hunger. My stomach had been protesting violently from the moment I regained consciousness, and I’d only just noticed it.

Wearing a watch had always been He Yu’s habit, not mine. My phone had long since vanished somewhere in the fall. That’s when I realized the downside of not wearing one: I had no idea how long I’d been unconscious. But judging by the gnawing emptiness in my stomach, it had been a while.

I’d gone half-mad in the tunnel earlier, but now my mind was completely clear. The instinct to survive always trumps fear.

Without hesitation, I grabbed the flashlight hanging around my neck and switched it on. The tunnel lit up instantly. Since it was my only source of light, I dimmed the beam and narrowed the focus to conserve power.

As soon as the light came on, I swept it around the tunnel—and what I saw shocked me. Bloodstains surrounded me in every direction, all originating from where I lay. Some were splattered, some smeared, scattered chaotically like a crime scene.

By any normal standard, I should be more concerned about my physical condition. The amount of blood was alarming. I took a deep breath and checked myself. Aside from some itching, none of the wounds seemed to be bleeding anymore.

All I felt was hunger. A crushing, unbearable hunger.

It was strange, but I didn’t dwell on it. I’d been separated from the group for who knows how long. The most important thing now was to get back on the right path. This place was too deep. With no gear and no food, if I lingered any longer, I’d starve to death here.

I felt around my left leg. The bone didn’t seem broken, but it was too weak to support any weight. Probably sprained during the fall. I pulled out my claw knife and cut a few strips from my wetsuit, tying them around the injury to make a makeshift brace. It wasn’t much, but it would help prevent further damage while I crawled.

I sat there, running through my options.

Going back the way I came was out of the question. This tunnel was in a tricky spot, and the dead water pool it connected to didn’t seem small. Chen Canghai wasn’t the type to sit around and wait. He came in here to find someone. He might even try to come down looking for me. And with so much time already passed, going back wouldn’t accomplish much. Worse, I might run into that infant corpse again.

Looks like the only option is to keep moving forward.

Time was running out. I braced one foot against the tunnel wall, adjusted my posture, and began crawling forward again.

As I moved, I studied the structure of the tunnel. It was narrow, but the walls were smooth and evenly carved, with no clear incline or decline. In especially tight spots, I had to claw at the stone walls with both hands to drag myself forward.

Then, as I was feeling my way along, something clicked in my mind. I froze.

Why did this tunnel feel so familiar? Where had I touched something like this before?

The answer hit me like a thunderbolt—and it was terrifying.

The tunnel He Yu and I had crawled through back in Gansu, the one dug by tomb raiders, had the exact same chisel marks and excavation style as this one. The only difference was a slight variation in texture.

The realization was surreal. I paused for only a few seconds before continuing forward, but my heart was pounding. I couldn’t stop thinking about what He Yu had told me back in the cliffside hanging coffin cave.

According to He Yu, the inscriptions we found in the fake Nine-Bend Corridor Ruins in Gansu were written by Liu Sanshui. We hadn’t found a body there, which led He Yu to believe Liu Sanshui was still alive.

Then I suddenly remembered the three corpses we’d seen in the tomb.

The first was the one near the tomb-raiding tunnel in the Terracotta Figures pit. But that body was from the Republican era—too old to be relevant—so I set it aside.

The second was the one whose marrow had been sucked out by the centipede-like creature. That one wore a standard set of expedition gear. The third was hanging in the Side Chamber under the Hanging Corpse Banner. I’d only caught a quick glimpse, but his gear matched the second body’s. They were likely from the same team.

Not just He Yu—my grandfather had also mentioned many times that Liu Sanshui was a man deeply steeped in the ways of the jianghu. He’d gone from businessman to advisor to tomb raider, switching identities with ease. That alone proved he was a man who acted on impulse, not someone who’d form a professional team to venture into the mountains.

So I guessed that those two bodies in expedition gear weren’t part of Liu Sanshui’s crew. At the very least, they weren’t his own team. But whether he brought them in or not, I couldn’t say for sure. Still, I doubted anyone else could have led them in.

He Yu had once told me that the rumor behind Liu Sanshui’s disappearance was that he’d somehow learned the exact location of a legendary emperor’s “Immortal Palace.” He built a boat and set out to sea, never to return. Maybe a storm overturned the boat and he died at sea.

I can’t be certain whether the “Immortal Palace” Liu Sanshui is searching for is the same place as the Nine-Bend Corridor Ruins, but at the very least, I can now confirm that his current target is definitely the Nine-Bend Corridor Ruins.

If my assumption is correct, then why would Liu Sanshui, who has been missing for years, lead such a group into a fake Nine-Bend Corridor Ruins? Even someone like me, a complete outsider, has picked up on a few clues after making a few trips. There’s no way he, after all these years of pursuit, is only just now getting on the right track.

And how did he even know the exact location of the Warring States tomb in Gansu? Ever since the Nine-Ring Jade Casket appeared, it’s either been in my hands or Fourth Brother’s. So how did he manage to find that place?

Could those tomb-raiding tunnels in Gansu have been dug by him and his group?

Not just the ones in Gansu—what about the one I’m crawling through right now?

But why would they dig so many tunnels? What, were they planning to build some giant whack-a-mole amusement park?

As I felt along the stone walls, a thought struck me. I stopped immediately, and just as quickly dismissed the ridiculous idea I’d had before.

No, something’s off. This tunnel is different from the ones in Gansu.

Whoever dug this tunnel was carving as they crawled forward, and they were moving at a pace just like mine now—fast, panicked, and under extreme duress.

So even though the technique and chisel marks are the same, the tunnel itself is clearly much narrower. It barely fits a single person crawling through, with no room even to turn sideways.

Suddenly, it all clicked. I finally understood what had been bothering me all along.

My god! He was running for his life. This isn’t a tomb-raiding tunnel at all—this is an emergency escape route!