Chapter 52: Climbing Up

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From Fatty's point of view, I was definitely crazy. I still didn't understand why I could see what they couldn't see, but I was willing to believe that what I was seeing might not be real. Poker-Face had asked me if I had hallucinated, after all.

Fatty looked in the direction I was speaking several times as the three of us continued moving forward. "You're too forceful," he said after a while. "We're in someone else's territory. Don't offend them." He then arched his hand in the air, "Well, this Mr. Naïve has never been in love. I'll be very straightforward if you don't mind. There are plenty of fish in the sea. I'm sure you can definitely find a better one, right? Anyway, you've been single for more than a thousand years, so you shouldn't sell yourself short. Let me tell you, he has athlete's foot. You won't be able to stand it."

After walking a few more steps, I found that I could finally stand upright. The leather figurine woman's appearance lingered in my mind, but I didn't want to look back.

We went more than a dozen meters before I dared look back again. I found that it hadn't followed me, which made me wonder if it was an illusion or some kind of special mechanism. I couldn't see the ground since it was underwater, but maybe there were some tracks and dark wheels under the water's surface.

At this time, we finally saw an exit. We got closer to it and found that it was another deep well, which probably led to another tomb chamber.

I looked in front of us, but found that the waterway didn't extend any further and actually came to an end.

As I glanced at the countless stone beams above us, I suddenly remembered something. I went to check my cell phone and found that the battery was dying. Liu Sang's Bluetooth device wasn't showing up, but I didn't know if that mean it wasn't nearby or if the structure here was too complicated and the signal was blocked. As I calculated how much longer the battery would last, I realized that I didn't know where we were in the ancient tomb anymore. The South Sea King's tomb looked small at first glance, but it turned out that there was such a huge drainage system below. It appeared the fucking budget had been spent on this.

Those leather paper dolls were still appearing regularly, but I didn't see any other female ones facing in different directions.

"This King Zhi of the South Sea seems to be a poor man," Fatty said. "Except for those buried statues in the horse and chariot pit, all the other treasures in this place are paper, which isn't worth much money. Your Uncle Three took the main coffin away, so it looks like we've come here for nothing."

I emphasized yet again that we weren't here to rob the tomb. Even if we deceived ourselves, we were here to find clues. Anything else in the tomb wasn't important.

"Liu Sang said before that there were people everywhere down there," Fatty continued. "Maybe he saw those paper dolls you've been seeing. If that's the case, then the female figurines are probably on another level. I bet they're very special."

As the three of us began climbing the stone beams, Fatty said in between gasping for breath, "The main tomb chamber may also be filled with these leather figurines. You said that one of them not only looked like a woman, but was also very delicate. I bet it's a high-quality good from the main tomb chamber, but it somehow fell into the waterway. Moreover, when I think about those people we saw earlier, they seemed to be constructed of leather paper. If the main tomb chamber is above, then I bet it's full of those kinds of things."

The leather figurine woman's hands had been broken, so I couldn't see her fingernails. But if what Fatty said was true, then the skin of these figurines must have been flayed off the servants together with their fingernails.

If the nails of the dead could continue growing, did that mean the nails attached to these leather figurines could also keep growing? But how?

Climbing up the beams was hard work, so the three of us stopped talking and focused on climbing all the way to the top of the well. A huge hole appeared above us and there were signs of blasting damage around it. I looked at it and thought to myself, based on this size, Uncle Three must've taken the coffin out from here. 

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