Chapter 188: Deep Sea

This statement could be true or false; when Third Uncle said it, first, it was indeed a bad day, and second, he also wanted to scare Xie Lianhuan a little—it was a playful mindset. If there are elder brothers in the family, they might understand Third Uncle's thinking at the time: the older one always wants to frighten the younger one to assert his status.

But Xie Lianhuan wasn't a fool either; he wasn't moved at all. He just gave a cold laugh and stopped responding, leaving Third Uncle feeling rebuffed.

The reef wasn't large, and a few rocks jutting out of the water were very conspicuous. Although the cave entrance wasn't known, it probably wouldn't be too hard to find. Xie Lianhuan rowed the boat while Third Uncle lit a storm lantern, and they began to shine it on each rock formation as they entered the reef cluster. Soon, under a molar-shaped rock on the west side of the reef, they found the cave entrance.

The entrance was about two people wide, with no visible bottom, as if it were growing out of the rock. Traces of artificial polishing could faintly be seen along the rock edges, clearly indicating that this cave had been manually chiseled. The entrance was hidden beneath the water, recessed into the base of the rock; if you didn't know about it beforehand, you simply couldn't see it from the surface.

Third Uncle geared up and was about to enter when Xie Lianhuan stopped him, saying that the underwater route was complicated and he knew the way, so it would be better if he went first.

That made sense, and Third Uncle couldn't insist. So Xie Lianhuan entered the cave first, with Third Uncle following behind.

Thirty meters in, it became clear that this was a naturally formed cavity inside the reef. Jagged reef bones grew everywhere, and the staggered coral reef rocks resembled giant human rib bones embedded in the cave walls. However, the ends of these "rib bones" were fused with the surrounding rock, making them look more like countless strange sea stars clinging to the rock face.

Diving in an underwater cave is extremely dangerous, but the two had no experience and had no idea what they were doing. Without taking any precautions, they just kept swimming inward.

After crawling and swimming through the reef cave for about ten minutes, Third Uncle saw a fork. Inside the reef, the cave tunnels spread out like octopus tentacles, with openings everywhere. Some were very shallow—you could see the end with a flashlight—while others were terrifyingly large, like the mouth of a dump truck, with bottoms so deep they were invisible. Because sunlight didn't reach here, there were few sea anemones and corals, but many colorful little fish, sea stars, and sea cucumbers kept the cave from feeling lonely.

Led by Xie Lianhuan, Third Uncle threaded through this extremely complex system of huge reef caves like a mouse in a rat hole. To keep a backup plan, he used his diving knife to carve marks at every intersection, in case things went wrong inside.

Half an hour later, they swam out of the reef cave. Third Uncle turned on his underwater searchlight and looked around, only to find that he hadn't entered any ancient tomb. Instead, what appeared before him was some inexplicable place.

It seemed to be a huge pit formed within the reef. Pitch black all around, he looked up and saw the coral hanging overhead. But when he shone the light downward, he couldn't see anything—beneath his feet was a bottomless abyss.

Many years later, no matter how terrifying the situation at the time, Third Uncle couldn't remember all the details clearly. So he rambled on for a long time, and I still couldn't understand what kind of place they had ended up in. Finally, I found a piece of paper and made him reluctantly sketch it out roughly.

Third Uncle's drawing was terrible, worse than a doodle. But the meaning was simple and clear. With my imagination and his explanation, I guessed and pieced together, and gradually I did get a bit of an understanding.

Based on my understanding, it should have been a large hidden cave inside the reef. Exactly where it was located was impossible to verify. The exit of the reef cave they had taken was at the very top of this cave. From his feet all the way down was pitch black, as if entering a black void, indicating that this cave was enormous.

When Third Uncle and the others reached this spot, there was no passage ahead. In front and to the sides was nothing but void. Under the searchlight, the seawater was filled with white sea debris, and below was an abyss. With the flashlight, apart from the reef behind them, there was no reference point at all. In Third Uncle's own words, it was like floating in outer space.

This feeling was actually quite terrible. Wherever you are, as long as your flashlight can still illuminate something, you at least have a sense of existence. But there, when you shone your flashlight out, there was no reflection—only black beyond black. You had no idea what was waiting ahead.

At this point, their oxygen consumption was also huge. Cave diving is different from ordinary exploration; the time for activity must be strictly controlled because you have to save enough oxygen to return outside. This required the diver to check the oxygen gauge frequently, which put considerable psychological pressure on Third Uncle.

Yet Xie Lianhuan seemed confident. After turning around a few times in the water, he actually signaled Third Uncle to turn off the underwater searchlight.

Without the searchlight, it was absolute darkness. Third Uncle wondered, what is this guy trying to do? They were already lost, and he wanted to turn off the lights.

But seeing how insistent he was, it was clear that this was also something the foreigner had indicated. Third Uncle knew he had no other choice, so he followed Xie Lianhuan's lead and twisted off the searchlight. After both lights were extinguished, darkness invaded like ink. At the same time, the circle of luminous paint on the handles of their waterproof flashlights (designed to prevent losing the flashlight if it fell to the bottom during a night dive) slowly glowed, showing their respective positions.

Beside him, Xie Lianhuan seemed to have taken off his flashlight and was using it as a pointer. Third Uncle saw the glowing ring swing and point in a direction.

He looked in that direction and vaguely saw, far down in the darkness below, a large cluster of very faint green specks of light, like the eyes of some creature, slowly moving.

Third Uncle's heart skipped a beat, and he immediately tensed up. He had heard many fishermen say that anything could be in the sea. Could those green eyes belong to some creature lurking in the dark depths?

His hand instinctively went to his knife, but then Xie Lianhuan waved his flashlight a few times, and the glowing pointer ring began to move—actually heading toward that group of green specks.

Third Uncle cursed under his breath. Despite his usual carefree manner, he was actually very cautious when underground. Xie Lianhuan charging in like that was really unwise. But Xie Lianhuan's actions clearly showed that he knew what those specks were and was signaling Third Uncle to follow.

Same old story: Third Uncle had to follow, no matter how annoyed he was. There was no way around it.

Diving without lights, only following a cold glow ring, was like being blind. That feeling of melting into the cold dark—Third Uncle had suffered from it before when underground. Now encountering it again, and underwater at that, made him feel even more uneasy.

The green specks approached little by little, but because the light was too weak, they couldn't make out what they were. As they got closer, Third Uncle was horrified to see that the specks were indeed moving, and at no slow speed. His suspicion that they were a group of sea monsters grew stronger.

But Xie Lianhuan didn't seem to realize it at all and chased after them at great speed. Soon, the two swam to about thirty meters above the glowing specks. Third Uncle's fear reached its limit; he rushed over and grabbed Xie Lianhuan to stop him from getting closer.

Xie Lianhuan didn't know what was wrong and was also startled, so he stopped.

Third Uncle made gestures with his flashlight, and Xie Lianhuan flashed replies, but neither could understand what the other was trying to express.

Third Uncle was extremely frustrated. He really wanted to turn on the searchlight and explain things clearly, but he was afraid that with such a short distance, if it turned out there were sharks below, they wouldn't even have a chance to escape.

While he was anxiously trying to figure out how to make Xie Lianhuan understand, a white light suddenly blazed. Xie Lianhuan had turned on the searchlight. Apparently, he was also annoyed enough and couldn't help asking Third Uncle why he had stopped him.

Third Uncle was startled. He moved to cover the light while looking down.

At the edge of the white light, in the darkness below, a human-like object wrapped in tattered gauze appeared faintly. As Third Uncle's eyes adjusted to the searchlight, he saw it more and more clearly, and the pores all over his body tightened.

It was actually a floating ancient corpse suspended in the water, posing in a strange posture, its features blurred. Its huge white gauze garment spread out in the water like the skirt of a giant jellyfish, like a massive flower from the underworld.