Chapter 369: Yin Mountain Ancient Tower: Mischief

I immediately understood what Poker-face meant. A flash of inspiration struck me, and even before I fully thought it through, I couldn't help but exclaim in approval.

We didn't have any scuba gear. If Jude Kao and his people made any move, we could only watch helplessly. By the time we went back to get our gear and returned, they might have already finished and opened the way. If there was anything crucial underwater, we would have no chance to gain the advantage.

Indeed, as Poker-face said, this might be our only chance.

Seize their scuba gear before they could react, then destroy it so they would have no oxygen tanks. Even if they had a compressed air machine, it would be useless. This was a classic strike-first strategy, acting before anyone else even thought of it.

However, I doubted whether we could actually pull it off under the current conditions. The scuba gear was placed on the riverbank, quite far from the lake. If we just grabbed it and ran, even if Poker-face could take on ten men at once, he couldn't cover us. Before we could dash into the lake, Fatty and I would definitely be tackled and beaten to death.

After thinking it over, I said, "You make a good point, but we can't rush this. They have so many people; we can't just charge in head-on. We'll wait until night and sneak over to steal it."

Poker-face shook his head. "We don't have until tonight. Once they've settled in, they'll go into the water immediately. Look."

He pointed in a direction. There were already several people by the lake inflating rafts, and someone had gone into the water, clearly divers surveying the environment.

"Why are they in such a hurry?" I found it strange.

Poker-face paused, then suddenly said, "Maybe, there's no time left."

I was taken aback. The words carried a lot of weight coming from him, but right now there was no time to ponder them.

I jogged over and called Fatty back. When he heard our plan, he said, "Ahh!" and shook his head. "Damn! I just got friendly with them and now we're going to rob them? Won't that ruin my reputation?"

I said, "If there are burial artifacts underwater, they'll take them all once they dive. Which do you want: the artifacts or your reputation?"

Fatty thought for a moment and said, "Strange, really strange. I find your words especially convincing, Tianzhen. All right, let's forget about reputation for now. What's your plan?"

I thought again. A direct grab was definitely out of the question. So I told Fatty to prepare a small wooden raft and load it up with stones. We couldn't carry lead weights and run into the lake, so we'd use stones for weight. After that, we had to find a way to distract those people so we could quickly get the scuba gear.

The distance from where the scuba gear was stored to the shore was about thirty seconds at a full sprint. But there were many people busy along the way. If we paused even a little, we'd be caught. Stealing something right under so many people's noses required considerable skill and mental fortitude.

I was no expert at this, and no matter how I thought about it, it seemed impossible. Plus, what Poker-face had said made me especially nervous, as if I was about to lose my chance.

At that moment, Fatty came up with a solution. He looked at the people, then at the location of the scuba gear, and suddenly said, "Can you ride a horse?"

"What do you mean?" I asked.

He pointed at the mule beside him and winked. "Ever seen Mongolian riders steal a sheep?"

I immediately understood his idea and frowned. "But mules are different from horses. Mules can't run fast!"

"Damn! We're not racing. It just needs to run a few dozen meters. With a thing that big, who would dare stop it? There's only one problem: don't fall off halfway."

"That might work!" I nodded eagerly. Fatty immediately went to prepare. First, we dragged the raft into the lake, then came back. We suppressed our excitement and found the mule keeper. We paid him and said we wanted to borrow the mule to transport something.

The man had seen us in the village before. Since we were paying, he was happy to earn some money.

Fatty asked, "When does a mule run fastest?"

The man said, "When it's in heat, you can't hold it back."

Fatty said, "That's a little tricky. Is there anything we should avoid? What is a mule most afraid of?"

After making the arrangements, we led the mule and slowly walked into their busy camp. When we got near where the scuba gear was placed, we exchanged glances. I was already sweating all over from tension. The three of us leading the mule felt really silly, like some Mexican farmers. But it wasn't too conspicuous, because there were several other mules around unloading supplies.

The scuba gear was in a large canvas bag, and several bags were tied together. Fatty nudged the mule closer, then gave me a signal to go untie the rope.

I looked around. No one was paying attention to us. Just as I was about to make a move, I heard someone behind us shout, "Hey! What are you doing?"

I reflexively spun around. I saw a woman walking this way, and the group resting under the tree also stood up. I panicked instantly, thinking, What do we do? We've been discovered!

In that instant, Fatty lunged forward, grabbed the scuba gear, and shouted, "Mount the mule!"

I also grabbed some of the gear. The three of us immediately climbed onto the mule. Fatty gave the mule's rump a hard slap and yelled, "The mule's gone mad!"

The startled mule broke into a gallop.

Don't be fooled by how slow mules usually walk—when it suddenly ran, I almost lost my seat. On top of that, the scuba gear connected Fatty and me, so we were pulling each other around like acrobats, which was very dangerous.

Everyone's attention was drawn to us. The woman behind quickly came to her senses and shouted, "Stop them!"

Fatty's estimation was spot-on. The mule ran with astonishing momentum, charging forward. It scared the two people who were setting up a sunshade; they dodged, and one even fell to the ground.

Fatty was still shouting, "Get out of the way! Watch out!"

The three of us charged madly toward the lake. The woman's shouts were completely drowned out by screams. And in this situation, who would dare step forward? Getting stepped on by a mule would mean broken bones. For a moment, all hell broke loose by the lake.

Before I could react, the mule had already reached the lakeshore. They're afraid of water, so it made a sharp turn, and all of us fell off.

My forehead hit a rock, then Fatty helped me up while the mule continued its wild dash. I turned back and saw that woman leading several people chasing after us, so we quickly turned and rushed into the lake.

At the lakeshore, we immediately gained the upper hand. The lake's water level was dropping very rapidly. As we charged into the lake, within a few steps we reached a point where our feet couldn't touch the bottom. Dragging our scuba gear, we headed into deeper water. After swimming several dozen meters, we looked back and saw that those people had also entered the water.

When we swam over to the small wooden raft, we picked up stones. Fatty shouted, "Sink!" The three of us dove headfirst into the water and rapidly sank downward.

Underwater, we saw that the people above had already swum directly over us, nearly grabbing hold. A few of them dived down to search around, but they quickly surfaced again.

We calmly put on our scuba gear and diving masks. Truly professional equipment—the surroundings immediately became clear. I used the nose purge to expel half the water from my mask, shouldered the scuba tank, and put on my fins. The others had also finished gearing up.

Jude Kao's equipment was indeed top-notch. On the belt there was also a tool pouch containing an LED Lenser diving flashlight, a diving knife, and individual oxygen canisters, each lasting three minutes. Transporting these items into the mountains would require a lot of paperwork—this man clearly had deep connections.

After checking everything, I had already sunk to the lake bottom. With scuba gear, we could dive to two or three hundred meters, so this depth was nothing to me. The key was that our opponents had no scuba gear, so there was no need to worry about anyone diving down to chase us.

Fatty made a gesture and pointed ahead. We were still some distance from where we had initially entered the water, and the depth was relatively shallow. Ahead, it was dark and deep—the ancient fortress was there. We had to leave this spot. The lake was neither too big nor too small; once we swam away and surfaced somewhere else, they could only stare helplessly. We turned on our flashlights and followed Fatty forward, finally arriving above the valley fortress. We sank the lead weights and oxygen tanks, watching them fall into the center of the fortress, then swam underwater all the way to the other side of the lake.

As we stealthily climbed ashore, we saw the opposite side of the lake in a flurry of frustration.

Later, Agui and Yuncai met us in the mountains to provide support. We chuckled inwardly and sneaked back.

(End of "Yinshan Ancient Tower" chapter)