Chapter 85: Waterfall

The underground river's current surged violently, with water at extremely high temperatures. I initially thought there couldn't be any life in it, but before the words had even cooled, a white column of water suddenly burst from the river, shooting straight up to the cave ceiling, knocking everyone down onto the shallows.

In the chaos, I didn't get a clear look at what happened to Pockmarked Er, who was directly hit by the water column. I only heard Uncle Tai loudly asking Liang Shive what was in the water. The latter was scared out of his wits, unable to speak a word, let alone answer him. I turned to look as well, but only saw a huge spray of water; I couldn't even make out the shape of whatever was underneath.

That water column shot up to the cave ceiling and showed no sign of diminishing; instead, it grew fiercer, reminding me of whales in the sea. But how could there be a whale in this mountain bend? If I actually encountered something so preposterous, I wouldn't want to live anymore. Yet aside from a whale, what else could kick up such a commotion? Then a thought struck me—something that lived in freshwater. Could it be that legendary adult giant salmon, over twenty meters long with a head like a Liberation truck? I inwardly lamented my bad luck; in this day and age, with the Bodhisattva turning a blind eye, all kinds of demons and monsters were wandering about. This tomb raid probably wasn't going to happen.

Just then, Pockmarked Er suddenly thrashed a few times and emerged from the water. For some reason, his entire body was bright red. He only took a few steps before collapsing in the water, motionless. Uncle Tai, not knowing what was going on, gave me a hard kick and ordered me to go pull him back.

I silently cursed the old bastard, but with a gun at my back, I had no choice. Bracing myself, I charged into the spray. The water column raining down from the cave ceiling hit me, and I immediately realized something was wrong. The water was scaldingly hot; touching my skin left a blister. In a panic, I pulled up my clothes to shield myself while reaching out with the other hand to grab Wang Erma. But the moment I touched Pockmarked Er's body, I yanked my hand back from the burn. Damn it, that bastard was already cooked—no saving him.

Suddenly, there was another loud crash, and a burst of white steam shot out from where the water column had been. I saw this and thought, no way—this absolutely isn't a fish. Any creature moving in water this hot would have long since been boiled into soup. Lao Yang shouted at me, "What the hell are you spacing out for? Dive into the water! This is an intermittent geothermal geyser—it'll scald you to death without a second thought!"

I saw the water column growing bigger, and the boiling water began to pour down like a heavy rain. I thought, oh no, and quickly hunched over to dash into the underground river. The others, being scalded by the increasingly heavy boiling rain like pigs being slaughtered, saw me fleeing into the water and also dove in after me.

The geyser water mixed with the underground river, raising the river's temperature significantly. Diving in headfirst was like swimming into a clay pot; my whole body felt like it was on fire. I swam a few meters and surfaced, looking back. The water around the geyser's mouth was already boiling, and the heat spread rapidly, nearly the entire river surface I could see starting to steam. If I didn't find a way out of the water soon, I'd end up like Pockmarked Er.

Going back through the mine tunnel we'd come from was already impossible; the water there was hottest, almost at a boil. The only option was to grit our teeth and go with the flow down the underground channel. I looked at the current's direction and regretted not swimming upstream when we first entered the water. That way, the current would carry the hot water in the opposite direction. But now we were going downstream with the hot water, racing it in the water—what a joke.

Still, there was no other choice. Could we just wait here to die? I waved to Lao Yang, took the lead swimming in front, and the others behind me, not caring who I was, all followed.

Carried by the current, I shot ahead several hundred meters. Feeling that the water temperature had stopped rising, I breathed a sigh of relief. Turning onto my back to swim, I shined my flashlight and saw Lao Yang frantically waving at me, shouting, "Stop! Stop! Ahead—"

Before he could finish, something hit him, forcing his mouth underwater. I didn't catch the last few words. By then, I already heard the roar of water behind me. Turning my light, I saw churning spray not far ahead, and unmistakably, a huge cliff. The water plunged over the cliff, and below was a thunderous roar—it was definitely a massive waterfall.

I was instantly dumbfounded. This was bad—if we got swept over, we'd be torn apart. Lao Yang surfaced again and yelled, "To the side! To the side! There's a waterfall ahead!" That snapped me out of it. I quickly swam to the edge of the channel, grabbing onto the cave wall with all my strength. I was dragged three or four meters by the current before I managed to stop. Just as I was about to relax, that Liang Shive came crashing into me from behind, shouting for his life, and knocked me loose. We tumbled together in the water. Furious, I kicked him away.

When I surfaced again, I had already been swept to the edge of the waterfall. With no time or means left to react, I instinctively reached out and grabbed something—an iron chain. I gritted my teeth, lunged, and hugged the chain for dear life, stopping my body at the very brink of the waterfall. Looking down, my feet were dangling over the cliff; below, the water roared in pitch-black darkness, the height unknown.

Just as I was congratulating myself on my luck, someone pushed my feet from below. I shone my flashlight down and saw Liang Shive hanging from another iron chain, my feet stepping on his head. I kicked him hard twice, shoving him aside, and felt around. I found that there were huge numbers of iron chains crisscrossing underwater, like a railing that caught debris swept down from upstream, though some chains had broken, hanging over the waterfall and creating gaps.

Lao Yang drifted to my side. I grabbed his hand and pulled him close. Meanwhile, Uncle Tai and that Fat Boss had also stopped themselves by grabbing chains on the other side. Pockmarked Er's corpse floated past us, got caught on the chains, and wedged between two of them. Lao Yang reached over, pulled a pistol from the corpse's belt, then kicked it into the waterfall below.

Seeing he had the gun, I struggled to stay above water and was about to take a shot at Uncle Tai. I quickly stopped him and cursed, "What the hell are you thinking? Look ahead!" He turned and saw a vast expanse of steam approaching—the boiling water had arrived. After cooling for several hundred meters, the water showed no sign of losing heat. I could already feel the heat wave from dozens of meters away. Lao Yang stared at the water and cried, "Damn it, I never thought after all these years of eating mutton hotpot, I'd be the one getting boiled today."

I didn't want to die like this and yelled desperately, "Don't you put on airs with me! This isn't the time to cry! Think of something, quick!!"

That Liang Shive, hanging below me, suddenly shouted, "I have an idea!!"

Lao Yang, Uncle Tai, that Fat Boss, and I all asked him at once, "What idea? Spit it out!!"

"Pull me up first!" Liang Shive yelled. "Pull me up, and then I'll tell you, or we'll all die!"

Hearing this, I quickly reached down, hauled him up, and grabbed him by the collar. "Talk!"

He clung tightly to the iron chain, glanced at the surging boiling water, and swallowed. "Hot water floats on top of cold water. We dive down, and once the hot water above passes—if we can hold our breath through that period—there might be a chance!"

I thought that made sense. I immediately let him go and dove straight into the water, pulling myself down along the iron chain. The underground river was very deep; I went down about two meters and felt the temperature around me drop significantly. I held my breath and steadied myself, ready to let the hot current pass overhead.

Just then, my hand touched something. It seemed something was hanging on the chain. I shined my flashlight on it and suddenly saw a horrifically contorted face behind the chain, scaring me so badly I nearly lost my breath and sucked water into my lungs.

Shining the flashlight more closely, I saw it was a rotting corpse tangled in the underwater chains. The flesh on its body had already decayed, and its two empty eye sockets stared straight at me, looking particularly grotesque and eerie. Looking closer, I saw it was wearing a winter mountaineering jacket and had a backpack on its back.

Seemed to be a mountaineer. How did it end up swept here? I bit down on my flashlight (tactical mountaineering flashlights have special parts at the back for other body parts to hold) and searched its body. I found a pendant inside its collar—a pangolin claw.

I thought this was strange. I quickly opened the backpack hanging on the chain. Inside, there was a rusty Luoyang shovel head, a coil of rope, iron hooks, a big bag of fire sticks, a multi-compartment treasure box, candles, and other obvious grave-robbing gear. I understood—this guy was also a tomb raider. Bad luck had struck him, and he died here. Maybe he'd seen the cave and come in to check it out, or perhaps the opening on the cliff face was blasted by him.

Just then, the water around me grew hot—the boiling water had arrived. I immediately felt a stinging pain all over my body and realized that Liang Shive's method wouldn't work. The volume of boiling water was too large; diving deeper only meant the difference between being fully cooked or medium rare. Lao Yang, who had dived with me, went wild from the heat and kicked me hard, pointing toward the waterfall. He meant that diving was useless and we'd be boiled to death; better to jump off and be done with it. I looked at the corpse and thought, buddy, I'll be joining you soon. Don't complain about the place being too crowded. Then a wave of boiling water surged over, and I gritted my teeth, let go, and rolled over the cliff with the current.