Chapter 288: 284 Diving

In the transport vehicle, An Fang's deputy turned his head to look at Fang Mu, who was sitting in his seat with his eyes closed and head bowed, silent behind the gaps in the railing, then turned back to ask An Fang, who was sitting in the passenger seat: "Captain An, do you believe what he said?"

An Fang shook her head and said: "Not entirely, but I am inclined to believe he is telling the truth; it is just that he himself cannot even clearly recognize some things, and what he told us is merely the 'facts' as he perceives them."

The deputy rummaged through a leather bag behind him and pulled out a stack of documents. He had already read through a portion of them several times, but every time he read them, he still felt it was hard to believe, and he remarked with emotion: "It is truly unimaginable that this person could be the son of Afang Peng Warrior. Judging from the glorious deeds left behind by the Fang Peng Warrior, he and his son are really not alike at all, except for the face."

"Don't you think the father and son look too much alike?" An Fang said out of the blue.

Hearing this, the deputy looked at the old photo tucked in the middle of the documents; it was a picture of "Fang Peng" wearing a military uniform. He frowned slightly and said as a matter of course: "Isn't that natural? After all, they are father and son."

"Look closer." An Fang's eyes shifted, and she glanced sideways at the deputy sitting in the back row.

The deputy felt that An Fang must have noticed some detail he had missed, so he hurriedly pulled out all the photos in the documents that featured "Fang Peng," and while looking at them, he kept turning his head to compare them with Fang Mu's appearance.

As he compared them, a chilling coldness spread from the bottom of the deputy's heart, and his body could not help but tremble. He looked at An Fang in shock: "He... they... could they possibly be..."

"Yes." An Fang nodded with a meaningful look in her eyes, "Since even you could discover it, it means I did not see it wrong."

"I admit that there are people in this world who are complete strangers but look very similar, but I do not believe there could be two people whose details in physique, habits, and appearance are exactly the same."

"Yet, the behavioral habits they unconsciously reveal when speaking, their posture when lost in silent thought, the black mole on the left cheek... are shockingly consistent."

"You must know that even clones created by cloning technology cannot look exactly the same as the original."

"So I suspect that this Fang Peng, and the current Fang Sen, are actually the same person."

"But! But... how is this possible, living and getting younger?" The deputy's voice rose involuntarily, but he quickly noticed his volume was wrong and immediately lowered it, saying in disbelief.

"I don't know, but what is certain is that this is related to the Abnormal factors on them. Didn't he say he was cursed by an Alien God? Let's just assume that for now." An Fang looked at the scenery outside the car window; the riverbank shoal they were about to reach was their destination.

The deputy put away the documents with a cautious expression and said in a low voice: "Captain An, things are likely more complicated than we imagined. We must be careful."

An Fang nodded slightly, opened the door and got out after the car stopped, her gaze glancing sideways at Fang Mu as he stepped down from the transport compartment.

"This is the place you were talking about, right?" An Fang said when Fang Mu walked up beside her. She actually had one special discovery she hadn't explained to her deputy, which was the way Fang Mu looked at her.

Perhaps it was a talent honed through experience, but she was extremely sensitive to gazes. When Fang Mu first met her, the complex emotions of a lifetime revealed in his eyes—the continuously changing gaze flashing with surprise, guilt, helplessness, and regret—all indicated that the other party seemed to know her, which made her feel extremely surprised.

Fang Mu looked at this small river, remembered the scene of himself crawling out of the river, nodded, and looked at An Fang: "It's here, but I cannot be sure now if the pair of Nail Hammers I mentioned are still down there."

"Go into the water." After hearing what Fang Mu said, An Fang immediately ordered her team members.

The members of An Fang's team immediately obeyed the order without any hesitation; they took off their clothes, stepped into the icy river water, and dived headfirst as soon as they reached the deep part.

"Are you not sending me?" Fang Mu was a little surprised.

An Fang glanced at him, "Do you think we would feel at ease letting you act alone?"

Fang Mu smiled: "I won't run."

The diving members of the Xuanmi Group surfaced again after a few minutes. While gasping for air and wiping the water from their heads, they reported that they had found nothing.

Everyone looked at An Fang, waiting for her to give orders, but they soon noticed that An Fang's expression had turned gloomy and ugly.

"One person is missing!" An Fang gritted her teeth, "Xiao Liuzi is gone!"

Hearing this, everyone present felt their hearts jump. They looked around to search, only to discover that a teammate was indeed missing.

"This... how is this possible? I saw him diving beside me just before!" a Xuanmi Group member who had been near the missing teammate said with some terror.

"Perhaps he was taken away." Fang Mu was not sure. He looked at An Fang again, "Let me go down and look; perhaps I can find him."

He remembered his previous life, the moment he was submerged by the flood, in the blink of an eye he was taken by the Toad God to the mysterious ancient palace where she lived. He felt that the missing teammate had likely encountered the same thing as him, and it was feared that their chances of survival were slim.

An Fang stared at Fang Mu for a moment. She did not immediately agree to Fang Mu's request, but instead said to the team members standing on the water surface: "Dive down one more time, find Xiao Liuzi, and the Nail Hammers!"

"Yes!" The Xuanmi Group members had solemn expressions. This time they gathered their full attention and dived into the water again.

A few minutes later, when the diving Xuanmi Group members surfaced again, they counted the heads, and indeed, people were missing again—and this time, three more people were gone!

Everyone realized the severity of the situation. An Fang's deputy was even more furious; he immediately grabbed Fang Mu by the collar, lifted him up, and roared: "What the hell did you do!?"

Fang Mu barely managed to stand on his tiptoes like a ballet dancer, breathing with difficulty as he said: "Weren't you watching me the whole time? And I warned you at the very beginning that diving is dangerous; it would be better to let me go."

"Tell me, what is under the water!?" The deputy ignored what Fang Mu was saying and pressed him sternly.

Fang Mu: "I can't be sure, but I think they should have entered another space, the dwelling place of the Toad Frog God."

A Strange God Domain?!

The deputy gritted his teeth in hatred and wanted to punch Fang Mu a few times, but was stopped by An Fang. An Fang said: "Chen Ping, Zhao Qiao, you two stay behind. Everyone else, withdraw from the river. Fang Sen, you go into the water."

Fang Mu immediately said "Okay" and agreed.

The deputy turned back and said: "Captain An, I will go down too. I am not at ease."

An Fang looked at the deputy for a few seconds. Seeing his firm expression, she finally nodded, expressing her concern for her subordinate as much as she could: "Be careful."

The deputy looked at Fang Mu vigilantly, removed the Shackles from Fang Mu, then changed into diving gear on the spot with Fang Mu, and together they walked into the icy river water, meeting up with the other two people standing on the river before diving into the water together.

Fang Mu adapted to the discomfort of seeing underwater. Perhaps stimulated by the river water, his eye ability activated unconsciously again. He saw the pale-skinned missing team members swimming in the river, heading toward a certain place. Suppressing his uneasy heartbeat, he followed the "afterimages" that only he could see.

The deputy had been paying attention to Fang Mu's movements, and seeing Fang Mu swim away with a purpose, he immediately caught up.