Chapter 34 People From the Bottom of the Sea

I still had internal injuries from my fall before, so when I saw this photo, I was so shocked that I spat out a mouthful of blood. Everyone was startled by my strange reaction—even though they had heard me mention it before, they had never actually seen the photo for themselves, so it was only natural that they didn’t recognize it. Fatty hurriedly wiped the blood from my mouth and asked me what was going on.

Trembling, I lifted up the photo and pointed to where Poker-Face and Uncle Three were standing in the photo. After taking a closer look, the others’ expressions suddenly became even uglier than mine, and no one said a word.

Unable to believe that it was true, I quickly turned to look at the corpses on the side, my heart a chaotic mess.

There was no way this photo would be in the hands of people who had nothing to do with this matter. So, did that mean that the mysterious team that entered Changbai Mountain ten years ago and died here was actually the same team that entered the undersea tomb? Were Chen Wen-Jin and Li Sidi among these corpses?

With trembling hands, I flipped the photo over and saw some faint writing on the back: Xisha Archaeological Team. Memento for Li Sidi.

It seemed to be true. There was no way an unrelated person would carry this commemorative photo around with them, which meant that the person who brought it here must have been directly involved in the matter… No wonder Uncle Three couldn’t find them no matter how hard he searched—they had died here long ago!

Their clothing style did seem to match that time period, and there was also the presence of this photo, but why did these people come here? Did they find something in the undersea tomb that lured them to Changbai Mountain?

Wait a minute…I suddenly thought of Uncle Three and Poker-Face. My God, almost everyone who went to the undersea tomb was now in the Heavenly Palace on the Clouds. These people came here ten years ago, and now Uncle Three and Poker-Face had also arrived. Why on earth did they all come here?

The mysteries that had been forgotten in my heart suddenly came back to life, and my mind was flooded with countless questions.

Pan Zi and the others, not knowing about Uncle Three’s past, were more shocked seeing the photo than I was, so I had to patiently explain the whole thing to them. After listening in stunned silence, Fatty eventually said, “No way. Hold on a second. If you think about it, it seems that everyone who went to the undersea tomb, including A Ning and us, have also come here. Is there a curse in that place that compels people to climb Changbai Mountain…? No, that doesn’t make sense.”

Fatty was obviously spouting nonsense, but I couldn’t help but feel a chill run down my spine as something became clear in my heart—it seemed that the undersea tomb wasn’t the key to this whole mystery. The key was here, and the undersea tomb was just a springboard to get to it…

I rummaged through everything I could find on the bodies, but there weren’t any additional clues. Being unable to figure out who these people were left me feeling so distraught that I started to walk towards the tomb passage without even taking a flashlight with me.

Fatty quickly grabbed me and told me to calm down, saying that it was useless to be so anxious. Weren’t these people trapped here? When I died, I could ask their souls what happened to them, but it would be too late for me by then.

Under the weight of his grip, I sat down, breathing heavily. As I gradually calmed down, there was only one thought left in my mind, I must get out. I must find Uncle Three and make him explain everything to me. Otherwise, I’ll never be at peace even if I die.

“But we haven’t found any clues to prove that any of them successfully escaped,” Fatty suddenly said. “We can’t ignore the possibility that this is an enclosed space and there’s no way out of here.”

No one had anything to say to that. We had originally wanted to find some clues on the corpses that would help us get out of here, but then we suddenly stumbled across such a huge mystery. It was true what they said: Trouble never comes alone.

The atmosphere was extremely bad as everyone got lost in their own thoughts. Even I was feeling a little dazed at this time, not daring to look at the photo again for fear that there was some kind of monster lurking in it that would suck me in as soon as I looked at it. My throat suddenly felt itchy like it did when I had a cold, and I began to cough up blood.

Seeing me like this, Pan Zi said to us, “Let’s rest for today. It’s not like we can get out of here right now anyways. And we’ll be more clearheaded if we get a good night’s sleep. Little Master Three, don’t think too much. I know you have a lot of doubts in your heart, but they won’t be resolved any time soon.”

I waved him off. How could I sleep right now? I might as well continue thinking until I wore myself out. Otherwise, I’d just lay there awake and end up even more tired.

Fatty pulled out yet another cigarette, took a puff of it, and muttered, “Actually, now that I think about it, we should have known not to follow that mark. It would have been better if you had listened to me and we split up into two groups. That way, only one group would have ended up trapped, and the other group could have still found a way out… But now that I think about it, that mark may have been left by these corpses. Maybe they also split up like I suggested, and those two people walked down the other end of the tomb passage.”

I shook my head, voicing my disagreement. If one group became trapped, then the other group would have come back to look for them and also ended up trapped here. That kind of situation would be even more depressing. Plus, there was also the chance that the unmarked part of the tomb passage was even more dangerous. There was no telling what might be waiting for us there.

But the more deeply I thought about it, the more I realized that such a thing was impossible. Since that group was already trapped, then when the other group came back to look for them, the tomb passage should have already changed, and they wouldn’t be able to find this tomb chamber. In that case, were those marks left by the survivors of the other team as a warning that the first team had gone missing here?

I thought and thought until I suddenly trembled all over…an idea flashed through my mind as quick as lightning…marks…

I quickly sat up and said to them, “I suddenly thought of a very strange flaw—this tomb passage is a paradox!”

“How?”

I frowned as I tried to think of a good way to explain it. “I’m afraid it will be difficult to understand. Regardless of whatever is causing us to be like this, if we walk out of here in the dark, there must be some process by which we turn around and end up back here, even though we don’t know anything about it ourselves, right?”

They all nodded, so I continued, “Then let’s say I used a pen to draw on the wall as I walked forward. In that case, there would definitely be a long mark on the wall, trailing behind me. At the moment I inadvertently turn around, can you all guess what I’ll find?”

Fatty nearly leaped up in excitement, “You’ll see that there’s already a line on the tomb passage wall in front of you!”

“Not only that!” I said, “What’s the most important thing? That is, after I turn around, left and right will switch, which means that my hand holding the pen will start to draw on the other side of the wall.”

“That’s right!” Pan Zi also frowned.

“This is a logical inference,” I said. “In other words, if we explain everything using logic, then there must be a turning point in the middle of the tomb passage! When we reach the turning point, it’s just like walking into a mirror—going straight leads you in the opposite direction of yourself. Do you guys agree?”

Everyone nodded. As long as this situation could be explained using logic, then it was exactly as I said.

“Ok,” I continued, “Then let’s think about it again: if we walk like this and really encounter the ‘reflective surface’ I just mentioned, how thick is it?”

“How thick?” The others were still digesting what I said before, and were at a complete loss when they heard my question.

“Yes, it must have a certain thickness to it. If it doesn’t, then when the front half of your body passes through it, the back half will…”

Pan Zi immediately understood what I meant and suddenly broke out in a cold sweat, instinctively finishing my sentence for me, “They’ll overlap each other!”

“Exactly! Because in that position, the front half of your body has been reflected back, but the back half hasn’t passed through the ‘mirror’ yet. So, if what I said is correct, then we’d definitely die while passing through the mirror’s reflection! We’d turn into some kind of monster! Our faces could end up on the backs of our heads!”

“But we walked through the passage so many times and haven’t died,” Fatty said in confusion.

“That’s what I was trying say—this mirror must be much thicker than a human. There must be a kind of transitional section where you walk in one end, go for a short distance, and then come out on the other end. It fits with the space folding theory.”

Everyone nodded in agreement at this flawless deduction.

“The problem is that we don’t know how far this distance is, but we can probably assume that it’s only two or three steps. Let me give you an example: say we walked into the ‘mirror space’, but Fatty stayed outside. If the length of the mirror space is only two or three steps and you can see everything that’s on both sides, can you guess what will happen?”

Pan Zi understood faster than the others, and said in a choked voice, “I will… see the same Fatty in front and behind me.”

“Very good. This is where the paradox lies. If the Fatty behind you is facing forward, then will he see the Fatty in front of you? Or what if you hold one of the Fatty’s hands? What do you think will happen?”

Pan Zi quickly motioned for me to stop, “Ok…that’s enough!”

“What does this mean?” Fatty suddenly asked, also looking very pale.

“We don’t need to continue the experiment; it’s obvious that this so-called ‘mirror space’ doesn’t exist! Moreover, there’s no logical basis for why we can’t get out of this tomb passage no matter how hard we try. The mere existence of this tomb passage is illogical.” I lowered my voice, “Wang Zanghai was not a god; he couldn’t create new laws of physics. The mechanism here has nothing to do with him, and these people didn’t become trapped here because of him. The situation we’re facing right now is a special case, a completely new situation! We’ve been misled by these corpses. The most likely cause of our situation is…”

I carefully pointed my finger to the fourth theory Fatty had written down, and mouthed at the others, “There are ghosts around us!”

<Chapter 33><Table of Contents><Chapter 35>

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Idk about you but my head hurts lol. Looks like we have about 2 more chapters til they’re finally out of this stupid situation (I don’t remember it dragging on for so many chapters in the licensed version but it seems they cut quite a bit out so I guess that explains it).

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