The Lost Tomb : Sea Of Sands

Chapter 108: False Alarm

Where did this hatred come from?

Wu Xie heaved a big sigh. If he had known in advance that what the snakes saw would be passed down to him, along with this hatred, then he might not have been so eager to get the information. By the time he realized this, however, it was too late.

It wasn't even his own hatred, but the hatred of others that had invaded his body without reason. He couldn't find the root cause, but it was so strong that it had turned his eyes red.

Sometimes he didn't even know if the target of this hatred was right.

Did he really hate those people hidden in the fog so much, or was all the suffering experienced by these generations merely concentrated on him alone?

He took a deep breath and suppressed his restless and demonic imagination as he remembered the conversation he had with Black Glasses before the liquid was injected.

"Under those red and black scales on its head is the organ where the pheromones are stored. The subspecies have it on a part of the crest. If you cut off these parts, purify them, and inject them into the middle part of your nose, the information transfer will be clearer." Black Glasses continued: "It hurts a lot, and you won't be able to make sense of so much pheromone information. After you lose consciousness, you may even feel like a snake for several years."

"Will I drool when I see a frog?" Wu Xie asked him.

Black Glasses was wearing a white coat and disinfected Wu Xie's nose. "No, but in order to make you experience it more clearly, I'll perform a small operation on your nose. You'll lose your sense of smell, and I don't know if you can recover it."

"What are the consequences?"

"I don't have any similar experiences, but you'll have an easier time fighting in public toilets compared to most." Black Glasses answered. "I'll ask you one last time. Do you really want to do this?"

"What makes you think I can accept this information? Was my ancestor a snake?"

"In the Yanhuang legend, everyone's ancestors are snakes [1]." Black Glasses said. "Isn't Nüwa [2] a snake? According to the original myth, we're all born from snakes, and Pangu [3] and everyone else were born from eggs. So it's really possible that your ancestors were snakes, and human beings evolved from reptiles to mammals. In other words, if all civilizations are connected, then there must have been a reptilian civilization in the world before us. Their history is likely to be connected to our myths and legends, and much of it must have been mixed in with our mythological history."

"A very frightening theory." Wu Xie said. "So in other words, do you have any idea why I can receive this kind of information?"

"I think you'll know after receiving the pheromone information, and then you can tell me."

"Then I guess I have no other choice." Wu Xie closed his eyes as Black Glasses took out a scalpel.

This was a temporary underground clinic that was usually used for double eyelid surgery. This was probably the largest operation that would be carried out here.

"I'll lift your upper lip, cut from the root of your gums, then work my way up your face, and expose your nasal cavity. Then put the pheromone..."

"Please, I don't want to know." Wu Xie said.

"Boss!" Wang Meng's cry broke Wu Xie's contemplation.

He sat up straight and saw Wang Meng nervously staring at the rearview mirror.

Wu Xie lit a cigarette, rolled down the window, and saw four or five Grand Cherokees following behind them. He then looked in front and found that they were trapped in the middle of a Grand Cherokee motorcade.

"How the hell were you driving?" He frowned as he scolded Wang Meng.

"They came up all of a sudden and outflanked us."

"It's very difficult to outflank a car on a mountain road like this. But you only called me now, which means you weren't paying attention before." Wu Xie finished his cigarette with a few puffs and looked at the GPS. "When's the next sharp turn?"

"A little over a kilometer."

"In a hundred and eighty yards, put on your backpack and open the sunroof."

"Is this really necessary?" Wang Meng asked.

"We have to let others see what kind of attitude we have when we PK them [4]." Wu Xie answered.

He was especially disgusted with himself when he gave up his belief that he absolutely wasn't involved in anything, and started putting other's lives on the line.

He could finally understand Pan Zi's self-destructive tendencies. He wanted to punish himself, that person who had hoped everyone would be okay before. But now he could feel the weight of others' lives on his hands.

He became the kind of person he disliked the most, and what he disliked even more was that he had to be that person for a long time.

Cutting up corpses and sending them to an innocent high school student.

Injecting pheromones into Su Wan's bottle of wine so that the slow emission of pheromones would excite the snake into passing on a false memory.

If Li Cu hadn't died, he must be under those people's control by now. Li Cu thought he knew everything— including Wu Xie's purpose— so once the other party started asking questions, a steady stream of misinformation would spread to all those ears in the fog.

As the only person who could read pheromones now, it was up to Li Cu to read the snake's key information from the snake marsh—they only let Wu Xie find traces of it in order to snatch the information from him—and tell them what they were eager to know.

No one knew that all the details of his next plan were slowly conveyed to Li Cu through the snake's scent.

When Li Cu opened his eyes again, all the plans for the first step would return to zero immediately.

And the value of all those sacrifices would be reflected after this with a "0".

The motorcade slowly passed them one by one, leaving them far behind; looks like it was a false alarm.

Even if Wu Xie had already thought of all the possible scenarios, he knew he couldn't avoid a confrontation with them. But after the cars slowly drove away, he had to admit that he was relieved.

I predicted it, but I don't want to experience it.

Wang Meng began to drive very fast, and Wu Xie lit another cigarette and told him to slow down.

Wang Meng gradually did, but his face was covered in sweat: "Can I resign?"

"Take me to that place." Wu Xie blew out a cloud of cigarette smoke, took off his backpack, closed the sunroof, and then checked his cell-phone.

No text messages. He closed the phone and tried to suppress his anxiety.

It suddenly occurred to him that if all went well on his side, then that would prove that the bitter struggle on the other side had reached an unspeakable level.

Beijing, Beijing. The most meaningless, but necessary sacrifice depended on the few people he least wanted to see.

Are you still alive?

The scar on his hand began to ache again, and even though it was completely healed, he could still feel the pain from where he had cut it at that time.

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Notes:

[1] This legend couldn't be found so not sure if it's made up, but Yanhuang was the name of an ethnic group of ancient China who claimed their descent from the two tribes led by the Flame Emperor (Yandi) and Yellow Emperor (Huangdi). They're the founders of the Chinese people and the initiators of Chinese culture.

[2] Creator of humans in Chinese mythology.

[3] Creator of the universe in Chinese mythology.

[4] For non-gamers out there. PK= Player Kill. It's a gaming term used to describe destroying or killing an online opponent.