The Lost Tomb Vol. 1

Chapter 45: Meeting

I saw how Fatty's facial expression changed and couldn't help but feel excited. Although he wasn't very reliable, his performance in the ancient tomb was still remarkable. Well, I didn't really know how much better he was in terms of experience but he was at least better than me. I had never robbed a tomb myself so I didn't know if maybe it was necessary to have some kind of rousing speech before going down or something, but whatever the case, I figured I should learn from him and listen to what he had to say.

After eating a lot, Fatty patted his bulging stomach and said, "I've never robbed an undersea tomb before so I want to be prepared in advance. That way, we won't have to be in such a rush when we enter. It's obviously not like a tomb on dry land so I'd like to see what equipment you guys have prepared first."

"Mr. Wang," A Ning said, "how sure are you that things will go according to plan this time? We might as well hear what the plan is first so we know what to expect."

Fatty shook his head. "It's hard to say. Based on my experience, this tomb is not only difficult to locate but also difficult to enter by digging your way through. Plus, we don't know what's inside. Out of these three points, we can ignore the first two for the time being. My main concern is the third one—what's inside this undersea tomb. There's no way to tell whether there's a zombie inside or not. If there is, then we have a problem. If there isn't, then this tomb is just like any tomb on land—only underwater—and can easily be entered."

Speaking of zombies, I suddenly remembered what Uncle Three had told me about the monster he had met in the tomb passage back then. The more I thought about it, the more I felt that it might have been the sea monkey I met on the ghost ship today. I involuntarily shuddered before saying, "I don't know if there are any zombies, but there may be something more dangerous." Then I told them what I saw on the ghost ship. The others had already heard Bald Zhang's embellished story, but he had focused on how he had saved me and A Ning. My story, on the other hand, was more realistic and had more details. When I finished, Fatty frowned and asked, "Shit, does such a fucking thing really exist?"

I nodded and said, "There are legends about this thing in many places so there should be no mistake."

A Ning also nodded before adding, "I heard about it when I was a child but I thought the adults were just scaring me so that I wouldn't play by the river."

At this time, the captain interrupted us, "No, no, you guys just don't understand! All the fishing boats around here have seen these things. I'm telling you, they're not sea monkeys but Yaksha ghosts!(1) They're all relatives of the Dragon King. You guys offended one of them now so it's sure to come back for revenge. I think we'd better hurry back to shore, buy a pig, and ask a Taoist priest to perform a ceremony. Maybe the Dragon King will be generous and spare us."

Bald Zhang laughed when he heard this, "I can tell you right now, Captain, that I blasted his relative's shoulder to smithereens with just one shot. Does that not make me Sun Wukong?"(2)

The captain's face turned green with anger and he said, "You don't look like Sun Wukong, you're more like Zhu Bajie!"(3)

We all started laughing when we heard this. Bald Zhang pinched the fat on his face, looking a little depressed. He probably felt that he really did look a bit like Zhu Bajie.

Fatty continued laughing for a while before saying, "Since such creatures are on the bottom of the sea, we must have weapons. If that tomb is their home, then won't we just be running to our deaths? I say, Miss A Ning, did you bring anything like a harpoon or something?"

"We've taken into account this kind of situation and have prepared some spearguns," A Ning said. "But these guns are very big and can only fire one shot at a time. If there's an emergency, I'm afraid it won't be of much help."

I was familiar with this kind of gun—it was fired by using compressed air and was effective at distances of less than four meters. Fortunately, it could also be used as a spear but the gun's length was really too long so it probably wouldn't work in the narrow tomb passages.

Fatty ignored all this and shouted, "It doesn't matter if it's useful or not! You can never have too many guns! Take whatever you can. Tomorrow, I'll take the lead and Young Comrade Wu will be right behind me. You and the bald guy will stay in the back. If I notice something's wrong, I'll wave my hand and you guys will stop immediately. If I make a fist, you guys will drop everything and run away."

We thought the arrangement was reasonable and nodded our heads before continuing to discuss some other things. I remembered what Uncle Three had told me about his previous experiences and came up with a detailed list of equipment, which I asked the others to prepare overnight. Flashlights, knives, fire sticks, sealed bags, nylon ropes, carabiners, food, first aid supplies, gas masks, and a box for transporting any looted treasure—they really prepared almost everything, even a black donkey hoof.

It was almost dawn when we wrapped up our discussion. Fatty said that we wouldn't be able to go underwater if we continued planning like this, so we should stop talking and get some rest. Everyone immediately scattered to find a place to lie down. I started to feel the effects of that strong coconut wine as the sea breeze blew—my head felt heavy and I immediately passed out, not waking up until the afternoon.

Some of the others had woken up earlier than me and were already preparing. I was washing my face with seawater when several divers floated up to the surface. One of them took off their respirator and said, "We found it. This definitely has to be the place. We even found the grave robbers' tunnel they made."

When A Ning heard this, she quickly asked, "Did you go in and take a look?"

The man shook his head and said, "Only a little. The tunnel is very long. I swam for a while without seeing any sign of the end. I didn't dare go any further so I came out."

A Ning nodded and asked the divers a few more questions before turning to us and saying, "Ok, let's get ready. They'll call us after they fix up the hole. There are signs of collapse so they'll set up supports first."

We each went to put on our diving suits. Everyone's fit very well except for Fatty, whose navel was sticking out because his stomach couldn't fit. Although it wasn't a very elegant sight, he was at least able to put it on. After we checked all the equipment, we took everything we needed to take and fell into the water one by one.
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TN Notes:

(1) Yaksha (夜叉) are malevolent spirits. According to Baidu, they originated from a kind of demigod and half-ghost in ancient Indian mythology. Legend has it that they patrol the sea for the Dragon King during the day and patrol the shadows for King Yama at night, so they're worshipped as half-gods and half-ghosts in many places.

(2) Sun Wukong, the Monkey King, is a legendary character in the novel "Journey to the West" who has supernatural powers. More info here. He busts into the Dragon King's palace and basically harasses him until the Dragon King gives him a cool weapon and clothes lol.

(3) Zhu Bajie is another character from "Journey to the West". He has pig-like characteristics (half-man, half-pig, usually depicted as a plump man with a pig's head) and is armed with a muckrake.