Chapter 41: Raging Sea: Meeting

I saw Fatty's expression change, and I couldn't help but perk up. Although this fatty wasn't very reliable, his performance in ancient tombs was commendable—at least his experience was far superior to mine. I had never done a solo tomb raid, and I didn't know if we needed to have a rally before going in, so I decided to play the student for now and hear what he had to say.

That fatty had eaten a lot, his belly bulging out. He patted it and said, "This sea tomb, I've never raided one before. We definitely need to make some preparations beforehand to avoid scrambling around when we go in. It's definitely not the same as a dry tomb. I also need to take a look at the gear you've prepared for me."

A Ning said, "Mr. Wang, how confident are you about this? Why don't we make a plan first, so we have a better idea of what to expect."

That fatty shook his head: "Hard to say. Based on my experience, with sea tombs, first, it's hard to locate them; second, it's hard to dig a tunnel; third, the situation inside is unknown. As for the first two, let's not worry about them for now. The main thing is the third: we don't know if there are zombies in this sea tomb. If there are, we're in trouble. If not, then this sea tomb is just a dry tomb underwater, easy to take."

Mentioning zombies, I suddenly remembered what Third Uncle told me about the monster he encountered in the tomb passage. The more I thought about it, the more I felt it might be the same sea monkey we saw today on the ghost ship. I felt a bit creeped out and said, "I don't know if there are zombies, but there might be something even more troublesome." Then I told them about what I saw on the ghost ship. The others had already heard Bald Zhang's embellished version, but the focus of his story was how he rescued me and A Ning. My version was much more ordinary. When I finished, that fatty frowned deeply and asked, "Damn, are there really things like that?"

I nodded and said, "There are legends about this thing in many places. It shouldn't be wrong."

A Ning nodded and said, "I heard about it when I was a kid. I thought adults were just scaring me to keep me away from the river."

At this point, the boat captain interrupted, "No, no, you people don't understand. Every fishing boat around here has seen this thing. Let me tell you, it's not a sea monkey, it's a Yaksha ghost! They're all relatives of the Dragon King. Now that you've offended it, it will definitely come back for revenge. I think we should go back to shore quickly, buy a pig, and hire a Taoist to perform some rites. Maybe, if it is magnanimous, it will let us off."

Bald Zhang laughed upon hearing this and said, "Hey, Captain, I shot the Dragon King's relative's shoulder off with one shot. Doesn't that make me Sun Wukong?"

The captain's face turned green with anger and he said, "You don't look anything like Sun Wukong. You're a Zhu Bajie!"

We all had a good laugh. Bald Zhang pinched the fat on his face, probably thinking he really did look a bit like him, and couldn't help feeling gloomy.

That fatty laughed for a while, then said, "Since there's this kind of thing underwater, we definitely need weapons. What if that sea tomb is their lair? Wouldn't we be running to our deaths? Miss A Ning, did you prepare any spears or anything?" A Ning said, "We did consider this situation and prepared some underwater guns, but these guns are very bulky and can only fire one shot at a time. In an emergency, they probably won't be of much use."

I knew this type of gun—it was fired by compressed gas, with an effective range of less than four meters. Luckily, it could also be used as a spear. However, the gun was really too long and might be unwieldy in narrow tomb passages.

Fatty ignored this and shouted, "Never mind if it's useful or not. When it comes to guns, the more the better. Take all we can carry. Tomorrow when we go down, I'll take the lead. Comrade Little Wu, follow behind me. You and that baldy stay in the back. If I see something wrong, I'll wave my hand, and you stop immediately. If I wave my fist, don't care about anything else, just run."

We thought the arrangement was reasonable and nodded. We discussed other things. I thought about the experiences Third Uncle had told me about and made a list for them to prepare overnight: exploration lights, daggers, fire starters, sealed bags, nylon ropes, carabiners, food, first aid supplies, gas masks, and a treasure box. They were quite well-prepared—they even had black donkey hooves.

After giving instructions, it was almost dawn. That fatty said we couldn't talk anymore, or we wouldn't be able to dive at all; we needed to rest. So each of us found a place to lie down. That coconut liquor had a strong aftereffect, and with the sea wind blowing, my head felt extremely heavy. I quickly fell asleep and didn't wake up until the afternoon.

The others had woken earlier than me and were already preparing. I washed my face with seawater. At that moment, several divers surfaced from the water. One took off his respirator and said, "Found it. This is definitely the place. We also found the tunnel."

Upon hearing this, A Ning quickly asked, "Did you go in and take a look?"

That man shook his head and said, "I did, but that tunnel was very long. I swam in for a while but couldn't see the end. I didn't dare go further, so I came out."

A Ning nodded and asked the diver a few more questions. Then she turned to us and said, "Alright, let's get ready. They'll call us when they finish clearing the entrance. There are signs of collapse inside the entrance, so they'll reinforce it with supports."

We each went to put on our diving suits. Mine and the others fit perfectly, but Fatty's belly couldn't fit in, and his navel was exposed. It wasn't very elegant, but at least he got it on. After checking our gear and bringing everything we needed, we fell backwards into the water one by one.