The Lost Tomb : Sea Of Sands

Chapter 190: There's Something in the Pit

I woke up. Although I felt as if a long time had passed in the hallucination, it was only an hour in reality. I heard someone calling me from above, and when I looked up, I could see a flashlight beam shaking. I knew that they were getting impatient.

"I'm fine." I yelled back. "I'm exhausted. I need to rest."

One of the guys said, "Boss, we're starving. If you don't come up, we'll eat first. If you've found any good items, just say the word and we'll come down."

I said something back, and then sighed in my heart. It appeared that my reputation for being stupid would continue to spread again for a period of time.

After a long period of inactivity, my waist had turned purple, and my body temperature was very low. I turned over and tried to see if I could fall onto those platforms, but when I applied a little bit of pressure, the boards and steel bars began to fall one after the other. They were obviously rotten, and couldn't bear any changes in stress.

I had to untie my belt, sit up on the iron bar, and rest for a moment against the side of the coal seam, just like Xiaolongnü [1] sleeping on a rope. I then pulled a leopard tendon from my belt, which was an antique used by old grave robbers. It was very resilient and flexible, and was especially suitable for being placed on your belt as a safety rope in case of emergencies.

I had bought this from one of Uncle Two's collections at a high price. He had his own experience with maintaining these kinds of things, so this leopard tendon should work. But it was probably at least four times older than me, and had at least a dozen predecessors, so I still felt a little guilty using it.

Leopard tendons also had very specific requirements when it came to one's weight. After you hung it up, it would stretch at an extremely slow speed based on your weight, thereby enabling you to slowly drop down. When you wanted to go up, you just needed to move a little, and you could immediately bounce back quickly.

I was too heavy for this leopard tendon— because grave robbers at that time were generally short and malnourished— so I went on a diet for a long time before I was barely able to use it. But it was far from being at its best.

After slowly descending past two platforms, the leopard tendon stabilized, and I reached the second jar. I took out the snake that was inside, used the same method to cut out the fangs, and squeezed the snake venom into my nose.

I got a nosebleed, but there was no time to wipe it off. The poison was somewhat corrosive, and the mucus membrane in my nose was still too fragile.

When the hallucination hit, it was the same content as the last time. I was already familiar with this kind of situation, however, because most of the images recorded were of the same thing from different aspects and times. If this hallucination went on for a long time, then there was a chance that I would experience various images over hundreds of years.

But what I wanted to see this time was the last minute. I was hoping to learn whether my grandfather was alone— or if there were others—when he appeared here. The reason why I wanted to go down to this third mining platform was because the large number of mining platforms meant a lot of people must have been working together.

It was very important for me to find out who was with grandpa at that time, because it would be a significant reference that I could use to sort out all the missing parts regarding those incidents. To me, this information meant the truth.

But what I didn't expect was that the last image this snake saw was still my grandfather.

I even tried three other snakes but the results were all the same. I didn't see any signs of other people around him in these hallucinations.

This almost seemed like my grandfather was excavating these snakes here alone.

But everything here indicted that it was the work of an army group, so I could only think that the mining took place at a different time from when Grandpa was here. It may have been deserted by the time Grandpa entered, or he might have avoided those people when he came here.

I had a splitting headache. Even though I had a certain immunity to this snake venom, such a large dose still made me extremely uncomfortable. After a long period of delay, the venom started to attack my body violently, and I could only allow myself to suffer the painful spasms while hanging from the leopard tendon. I knew the pain would eventually pass, so I let myself howl.

The most amazing thing was, I yelled for at least half an hour, but the people above didn't come down; they just kept trying to shine their flashlights down. One of the flashlights had dropped much lower than before, and I figured it was Bao Sa. I hadn't moved for such a long time that he must have come down to the first steel beam to check, but he probably didn't have the courage to drop straight down with an iron bar like I did.

I called a few times to confirm that he was above me, but all he said was, "You should come up now. Those up top don't dare to pee with you underneath."

I wiped the blood from my nose, and knew that I had reached my limit. I took two or three of the nearby small jars, tied them to my waist, and got ready to climb up. What I didn't realize, however, was that my blood had been dripping to the bottom of the coal mine where I couldn't see it.

When I climbed back to the iron bar, I found that I wouldn't be able to climb up on foot. Fortunately, I had brought wires and hooks. I made a climbing rope with the leopard tendon and wires, and was ready to start climbing. At this time, however, I heard a woman's laughter coming from the bottom of the mine beneath my feet.

It was a very ethereal, but miserable laugh, and I froze because I had heard it so clearly. When he had taught me many basic principles before, Black Glasses had told me to always trust my instincts.

The voice in your head telling you to listen was usually the voice warning you of danger. Don't doubt yourself in that initial moment, for to do so was a sign of self-distrust. It was also an excuse for inaction.

It wasn't a good thing to hear that laughter in a place like this, so I had no other choice but to focus on leaving the defenseless situation I was in.

I began to climb up the coal shaft wall as quick as I could, carefully reaching maximum speed until I could see where Bao Sa was.

When he told me to throw the hook directly to him, so he could pull me up, I cried, "There's something in this mine. Be careful."

He nodded and said, "I know."

"How do you know?" I asked.

Bao Sa said: "It's on your back."

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Note:

[1] Literally means "Little Dragon Maiden". She's the fictional female protagonist of the wuxia novel "The Return of the Condor Heroes" by Jin Yong. She apparently sleeps on a rope like it's a hammock.