Chapter 16 Is It an Illusion?

When Wu Xiexie opened his eyes once more, utter darkness greeted him. He blinked sluggishly as his memories slowly drifted back into place.

He recalled that after their entire group was swept away by the immense force of the waterfall, they had all expected the worst. Miraculously, beneath the falls lay an enormous, ice-cold pool of water. It had instantly extinguished the searing heat while cushioning the violent impact, allowing him to survive against the odds.

However, the very instant he plunged into the water, the sheer shock had knocked him cold.

Recalling all this, Wu Xiexie snapped to his senses. Reflexively attempting to sit up, his head slammed violently into something solid with a crisp *thump*.

The blinding pain wrung a miserable yelp from his throat, and seeing stars, he flopped right back down.

What on earth?

Daring not to act rashly this time, Wu Xiexie felt around his surroundings with his hands.

"Huh?" Wu Xiexie thought to himself, why does this feel like wood?

Furthermore, it was completely enclosed above, below, left, and right.

Connecting it to the heavy bump just now, and combining it with the scent of rotting timber lingering in the air, Wu Xiexie was struck with pure terror. *What the hell! Grandpa here isn't even dead yet, who the bloody hell stuffed me into a coffin?!*

Wu Xiexie propped his upper body up slightly with one hand while pressing his other palm against the lid overhead, shoving upward with all his might.

One hand clearly wasn't enough. Bending his torso and hunching his neck, Wu Xiexie raised both arms from beside his ears. With a low grunt, he pushed upward with both palms simultaneously.

With a loud *clatter*, the coffin lid was flipped right off, tumbling heavily onto the floor beside him.

Sitting straight up, Wu Xiexie peered outside, freezing instantly in place.

This was a stone chamber constructed entirely of white jade, with torches burning brightly in all four corners, illuminating the compact space.

Carved into the vaulted ceiling of the stone chamber were two gigantic, intertwined pythons, bearing an uncanny resemblance to the ones in the side chamber of the seabed tomb.

Could this place also be connected to Wang Zanghai?

After sitting in a daze for a few moments, Wu Xiexie suddenly panicked.

*Holy crap, where is the Wooden Fish? Where are my buddies?*

*Wait, wait, wait—why the hell has my own outfit been swapped out for a diving suit?*

Scrambling hurriedly out of the wide-open coffin, Wu Xiexie nearly took a face-plant on the floor in his panic.

Managing to steady himself in a rush, without daring to pause for even half a second, he yanked out a torch and illuminated his path as he strode out of the burial chamber.

Outside lay a long, winding corridor. Wu Xiexie stared hard, and goodness gracious! Wasn't this the exact scene from his previous expedition into the seabed tomb?

Whether it was the stone corridor itself or the three jade gates at the far end, everything was an exact carbon copy of what he had encountered in the seabed tomb before.

Wu Xiexie was completely dumbfounded. Could it be that he had been trapped in the seabed tomb the entire time and had never actually escaped? Was everything that had happened recently just a dream he had dreamt while asleep?

If that were true, wouldn't Xiaoge and Fatty and the rest of them all be trapped here as well?

The more he thought about it, the more bizarre it felt, making every hair on Wu Xiexie's body stand on end.

What on earth was going on here?

Had he never left the seabed tomb in the first place, or did the ancient tombs of the Qinling Mountains share the exact same structural design as the seabed tomb?

Wu Xiexie rubbed his eyes fiercely, trying to chase away this bizarre hallucination.

Opening his eyes to look again, a wooden framework now hung above the corridor. Its structure resembled the scaffolding used on construction sites, complete with wooden planks laid across it, allowing anyone passing from above to avoid accidentally triggering the traps.

Cautiously, Wu Xiexie scrambled up, making his way across to the opposite side of the corridor.

By now, he had convinced himself that this was merely a hallucination and was racking his brain for a way to break it when he suddenly heard a noise echoing from within the jade gates.

A muffled male voice said, "What should we do? Should we open the coffin?"

Immediately following came another person's voice, sounding rather hesitant and troubled, "Sanxing said we shouldn't touch the items here for now; we'd better wait for him."

Wu Xiexie was utterly baffled. What was going on? How could Xiaoge's voice possibly be in this place?

Although the first male voice was muffled, it remained highly distinctive. From the articulation to the phrasing, it was undeniably Xiaoge himself.

The second voice was unrecognizable, but Wu Xiexie had been shocked to the point of numbness, and his thoughts surprisingly cleared up.

Wu Xiexie mused that this hallucination was truly bloody miraculous—why hadn't they included the Wooden Fish in the mix as well?

Just as he was thinking this, a third male voice joined in, sounding somewhat indignant, "Wu Sanxing is still asleep right now, so what's wrong with us opening it up to take a look?"

What followed was an ongoing argument between the two parties, occasionally punctuated by a female voice attempting to mediate.

The more Wu Xiexie listened, the more bewildered he became, until one of them casually dropped the name "Wenjin," causing Wu Xiexie to shudder in profound shock.

Bloody hell, wasn't this the exact scene from back when Third Uncle and the archaeological team descended into the seabed tomb? Xiaoge had described this very event to him, the Wooden Fish, and Fatty beneath the Sea-Suppressing Stone Monkey. Why on earth was it appearing inside his hallucination?

He even caught someone complaining inside, muttering, "Where off to play has that kid Qiyu run off to this time? He's such a worry."

Wu Xiexie clearly remembered that the name "Qiyu" had appeared among the very first few names listed in his Third Uncle's journals.

Quickly scrambling down from the scaffolding, Wu Xiexie pressed the greater part of his body against the side of the jade gate, cautiously sticking his head out to observe the people inside the burial chamber.

Simultaneously, a massive roar erupted from within the chamber—the mechanism in the left side-chamber's pool had been triggered.

Hearing the commotion, the people inside the tomb chamber started rushing out in a panic, terrifying Wu Xiexie into hastily extinguishing his torch, pulling his limbs in tightly, and concealing himself within the shadows.

Only after that group of people had rushed past did Wu Xiexie quietly exhale a sigh of relief.

Hearing the voices of those people discussing as they gradually faded into the distance, Wu Xiexie got to his feet, intending to follow and see what was happening.

Suddenly, a military saber swept in from behind, resting ice-cold against Wu Xiexie's neck as cold sweat instantly beaded along his temples.

The voice of a youthful Wu Sanxing echoed from behind him, laced with murderous intent, "So it's been you tailing me all along."

With those words, the hand exerted pressure, and the blade came perilously close to slicing right through Wu Xiexie's carotid artery.

In his desperation, Wu Xiexie clawed viciously with his fingernails at the hand holding him hostage. Hearing the person behind him hiss in pain, he naturally drove his elbow backward to jab fiercely into the man's stomach, lifting his heel at the same time to bring it down heavily in a stomp.

Ambushed in such a manner, the man behind him was caught off guard on all fronts, aching everywhere, and could no longer afford to mind Wu Xiexie.

Seizing the opportunity to break free, Wu Xiexie bolted like mad, sprinting several meters away. Ensuring that Wu Sanxing couldn't instantly teleport over to strike him down, he spoke up with a mixture of awkwardness and anxiety, "Third Uncle, I'm your nephew! Your actual flesh-and-blood nephew!"

A look of bewilderment and suspicion crossed the youthful Wu Sanxing's face. Before Wu Xiexie could offer a proper explanation, a violent tremor shook the earth as if the heavens were collapsing, and plunged into absolute darkness, he lost consciousness.

When he woke once more, what met his eyes was the rock ceiling overhead, alongside Lao Yang's bearded, bruised, and battered mug.

Most terrifying of all, that very mug had its eyes shut tightly, continuously drawing closer to his own.

"Holy shit!" Wu Xiexie shrieked in alarm, kicking the person flying with a single boot, scrambling backward hands and feet alike for half a meter, and cursing in sheer fright, "Lao Yang, you bastard, what the hell are you trying to do?!"

Wu Xiexie wore an expression of utter disgust and horror, as though he had been violated, only to be met with Lao Yang's innocent face.

"I was... saving you."