Chapter 199: Restart

Third Uncle had said up to this point, and everything he knew about the ins and outs had been narrated.

After he finished, both let out a sigh of relief. Third Uncle probably felt he had unburdened himself of a worry, while I felt as if I had finished watching a movie.

We both fell silent. Third Uncle went out to the restroom, and I closed my eyes, thinking over everything he had said from beginning to end. A few minutes later, I had sorted the matter out quite clearly.

Although the whole matter was not one hundred percent clear, most of the causes and effects involving Jude Kao and Third Uncle were now understood; there were only two or three things still unknown.

As for Third Uncle, the experience in the underwater tomb was the beginning of his nightmare and also the turning point that gradually matured him from a mere bandit. To find the archaeological team that vanished in the ancient tomb, it could be said he devoted his whole life. Not to mention his money and time, even for Cloud Summit Palace, in order to delay A Ning and the others, he resolutely abandoned his career. Except for a few particularly loyal followers, all his men in Changsha were dispersed. Third Uncle should be considered one of the top figures among the descendants of the Old Nine Gates, but now everything has vanished like smoke.

Now he himself had ended up in a half-dead state; at his age, he should have retired long ago. Of course, the one who suffered the most was me, enduring both mental and physical torment. But as I listened later, I realized that this whole affair seemed to have nothing to do with me at all. Thinking about it now, I felt that Third Uncle's initial deception might have really been well-intentioned. If I had known back then how deep the water was, I probably wouldn't have been willing to step in.

The most important information Third Uncle gave me was this: on their boat at that time, besides him and Xie Lianhuan, there seemed to be a third person who knew about the existence of the underwater tomb. This person was clearly connected to Huo Ling, and this person apparently wanted to kill him and Xie Lianhuan.

And this person must have been among those ten, because when they finally entered the underwater tomb, there were no boats left on the sea, and only those few went down.

So, of the ten people in total, excluding Third Uncle, Wenjin, Poker-face, Huo Ling, Xie Lianhuan (dead), and the one who sent him back, only Li Sidi and three others remained. If what Poker-face said was true, then this person should be one of these four. Among these four, there should also be a woman, so actually there were only three people to choose from.

If it weren't for the return of Xie Lianhuan's corpse, this mysterious person would necessarily be among these three. Of course, there is still one question: who exactly did Poker-face see before he fell unconscious? This question is very strange. If one forces an explanation that he saw incorrectly, although it's plausible, there still feels like something is off. I'll have to think it over carefully when I get back.

As for Jude Kao, it was about the things that happened during that year of the Xisha archaeological expedition. Jude Kao refused to talk about it, which obviously indicates this matter was crucial and involved core secrets. The reason he was willing to talk about previous matters, as it seems now, is that those things were insignificant. At that time, what he pursued was merely the meaning of the Warring States silk manuscript—an academic matter.

But obviously, his goal has now changed. Here I discovered something that Third Uncle hadn't thought about: what is Jude Kao's purpose? It's also a fog of mystery. Filming the dead, filming murals, entering Lu King's Palace and Cloud Summit Palace—this definitely cannot be academic research anymore. What exactly does he want to do? Jude Kao is already an old man in his nineties, yet he is still doing these things. Obviously it's not for money or fame or status. This is really somewhat bizarre.

Third Uncle came back from the restroom, and I told him what I had thought about. He nodded and said to me, "I actually thought about this too, but this matter is too complicated for me to articulate. Look, after Jude Kao started the Xisha plan, I completely couldn't understand it anymore. However, if you feel it carefully, you can still sense a clue. Lu King's Palace, the underwater tomb, Cloud Summit Palace—all are places Wang Zanghai visited. On the surface, it's obvious they seem to be following Wang Zanghai's footsteps. I felt that maybe they are looking for something, an item that Wang Zanghai might have left in these tombs."

"Something left in the tombs?" I thought for a moment. "Could it be the snake-browed bronze fish?"

Back then, Wang Zanghai, in order to pass down the secrets of Dongxia, used this method to hide the snake-browed bronze fish with hidden secrets in the treasure spots of great feng shui, hoping that one day they would be discovered by tomb raiders. Therefore, those several tombs all had snake-browed bronze fish hidden inside.

Third Uncle shook his head, saying he wasn't sure; it didn't seem like that. It seemed to be something else. Their repeated entries into the underwater tomb seemed to be for the purpose of obtaining clues about where Wang Zanghai had been, and then going to find it.

"Actually, your Third Uncle doesn't care what they want. Your Third Uncle just wants to know what exactly happened when they disappeared underwater in Xisha, and where Wenjin and the others went. I have been watching Jude Kao because this Xisha affair is definitely related to his purpose. Unfortunately, the more I investigated, the more complicated it got." Third Uncle sighed. "In the end, I didn't even know what I was investigating. I could only try to be faster than them, wanting to find what they were looking for first, so I could threaten that old ghost into telling the truth. Too bad, your Third Uncle is old after all, and many things are beyond my ability."

I patted him to comfort him and said, "That thread of great feng shui has ended. Cloud Summit Palace was the final stop. That time, obviously A Ning and the others' goal was the Nine-Dragon Coffin, but the situation was chaotic and they didn't succeed. I think they might go in again. Regardless, Cloud Summit Palace should be the last stop. Whether they find it or not, this matter should come to an end. Third Uncle, don't be too fixated. Some things, you have already done your best. Don't overthink them."

Third Uncle gave a bitter smile: "The end? I thought so too at first, but now it seems it's too early to say that." As he spoke, he picked up the videotape Poker-face had sent, tapped it, and said, "This matter is definitely not over yet. Let's see what's inside first."

(Third Uncle's exclusive interview reveals! The secrets of "The Lost Tomb" that no one has uncovered! Plus the protagonist's big lottery, all on Qidian's public WeChat account: qdread. Third Uncle is calling you to follow!)