Immortality begins in Goose City

Chapter 90 Severed Hand

She stretched out one hand and gestured to Murong Xue behind her, indicating that she should push her.

Murong Xueyou stepped forward, placed her hands on Lu Yu's buttocks, and pushed hard, but the opening was too narrow, and Lu Yu was bloated by her diving suit, so she couldn't move her no matter how she pushed.

Huang Shujian pulled Murong Xue away and swam behind Lu Yu.

He raised his foot, aimed at Lu Yu's buttocks, and kicked him hard.

Lu Yu darted in like an eel and disappeared into the cave entrance.

Murong Xue glanced back at Huang Shujian, but her expression was obscured by the diving suit and glass window.

But she reached out, patted her own bottom, and then waved at Huang Shujian.

Huang Shujian understood what she meant... Don't kick her.

He nodded and took a step back.

But Murong Xue shook her head, saying that wasn't what she meant.

She pointed to Huang Shujian's feet, waved her hand, and then pointed to Huang Shujian's hands.

Huang Shujian then fully understood that he could push with his hands, but not with his feet.

Murong Xue turned around and started to crawl into the hole. Sure enough, she got stuck, with her buttocks sticking out.

Huang Shujian swam forward, stretched out his hands, pressed against her buttocks, and pushed hard.

Murong Xue also crawled inside.

Huang Shujian followed him inside. The entrance was indeed narrow, making the diving suit creak. But once inside, it became more spacious, and he could even turn around.

He turned around and waited for a while.

Lin Zhihua squeezed in; she also got stuck for a moment, but not as badly as the previous two. Huang Shujian reached out, grabbed her arm, and pulled her over forcefully.

As for Qin Mo...

Huang Shujian didn't wait, turned around and continued swimming forward.

But a question flashed through his mind: how did that tall, burly headless zombie get in when both Lu Yu and Murong Xue were stuck in such a narrow opening?

After swimming for a while, the water in the channel started to get murky.

They stirred up mud and sand at the bottom of the water while drilling, and now their vision is blurred, but fortunately they have ropes to guide them so they won't get lost.

Huang Shujian swam forward along the rope, heading diagonally upwards.

Suddenly, I felt a lightness on my head.

He broke through the water.

Several hands reached out and pulled him up.

Huang Shujian took off his helmet, caught his breath, and his headlamp illuminated the surroundings.

This is a cavity inside the mountain, not large, about five or six square meters.

The ground was slippery with wet rocks, and the ceiling was rough with rock walls. In some places, water was seeping out and dripping down.

Ma Yongzhen, Lu Yu, and Murong Xue have already come up and are resting against the rock wall, panting heavily.

Wearing bulky diving gear and navigating narrow passages is very physically demanding.

After a while, Lin Zhihua also came up. Although she did not practice martial arts, she had good physical strength, but she was panting heavily.

Qin Mo was the last to come up. He took off his helmet, his face not flushed and his breath not out, as if he had just taken a walk.

He looked around and said calmly, "The mountain cavity... the air... should still have some gaps connecting it to the outside, so there's no need to worry about suffocating. You can rest here."

Huang Shujian looked at the others: "Is everyone alright?"

Everyone nodded, and Ma Yongzhen checked the diving equipment to confirm that it was not damaged.

"It's been very quiet the whole way down," Ma Yongzhen said. "But now the water is murky, and I can't see what's below. I have to wait for the silt to settle before I can continue."

Lu Yu added, "This shouldn't be the main entrance to Prince Rong's tomb. It's probably a back entrance that the workers who built the tomb left for themselves, connecting to the underground river, but..."

She paused, then lowered her voice: "It's so deep, those workers don't have diving equipment, how could they escape?"

Ma Yongzhen shook his head: "No matter how good a swimmer is, diving up from this depth will either kill you or cripple you."

Everyone fell silent. They all knew that the worker who left the back door was probably in grave danger.

Just then, Lin Zhihua, who was sitting against the rock wall, suddenly muttered something to Huang Shujian beside her:

"Shujian, what are you doing?"

Huang Shujian was taken aback and looked at her.

Lin Zhihua glared at him, her face slightly flushed: "I'm your older sister! You better behave!"

Huang Shujian was even more puzzled: "What?"

"Take your hand away!" Lin Zhihua's voice was filled with anger.

Huang Shujian raised his right hand: "My hand is here."

Lin Zhihua turned her head and paused.

But she could clearly feel a hand under her buttocks. Although she couldn't feel the temperature through the thick wetsuit, the shape and the touch were clearly those of a hand!

She suddenly reached down and grabbed under her buttocks...

I grabbed a wrist.

She grabbed the groping hand and glared angrily at Huang Shujian: "Do I have to catch you red-handed?"

After saying that, she pulled hard and pulled the hand out.

At the same time, Huang Shujian innocently raised his left hand.

Suddenly, five hands appeared in front of Lin Zhi's screen: her own two, Huang Shujian's two, and one more...

The extra hand that she was holding.

The headlamp beam focused on the past.

It was a severed hand.

To be precise, it was a piece of dry bone, from the wrist to the forearm. The bone had turned black and the surface was pitted and uneven, as if it had been soaked in water for a long time. The fingers were curled up, maintaining a gripping posture.

There is no flesh or skin, only bones.

Lin Zhihua was stunned.

Then she screamed and flung the skeleton away.

The skeleton fell to the ground with a thud, rolled twice on the rocks, and came to rest in the center of the cavity.

All the beams of everyone's headlamps were focused on it.

Beams of light crisscrossed, casting erratic shadows.

Ma Yongzhen immediately became alert, looking around. Lu Yu and Murong Xue were also standing together, back to back, warily watching their surroundings.

Qin Mo squatted down and carefully examined the piece of withered bone.

The cavity was deathly silent, save for the sound of dripping water and heavy breathing.

Huang Shujian looked around and said, "Don't panic, it's just this one hand."

The headlamp beam stabilized and focused on the skeleton. Indeed, apart from the severed hand, there were no other bones in the cavity.

Qin Mo picked up the withered bones and examined them carefully: "The joints are large, and there are calluses on the finger bones; it must be a worker's hand. But..."

He paused. "Why is there only one hand?"

Lin Zhihua had calmed down and pointed to the spot where she had just been sitting: "I sat there, using it as a cushion."

Everyone looked at the rock wall, which was perfectly sealed without any gaps.

Qin Mo then held the skeleton up to the light to examine the broken ends: "The breaks are uneven, as if it was torn apart by a tremendous force."

Lu Yu frowned: "Could it be that headless zombie's doing? The corpse... is underwater?"

Everyone looked at the dark water.

They just came up from this water. Now that I think about it, there might have been a body floating in the water, maybe even a missing hand...

For a moment, everyone felt a chill run down their spines.

But after waiting for a long time, the water was still and there was no movement.

Huang Shujian spoke up: "We can't be scared off by a piece of dry bone. Let's continue."

Ma Yongzhen was the first to respond. He put his helmet back on, checked his equipment, and then jumped into the water.

Others followed suit and went into the water.

This time the dive was shallower, and after swimming not far, a passage appeared on the side rock wall, which was wider than the previous one.

They crawled in one by one.

After another period of groping in the murky water, they finally surfaced.

When it broke through the water again, the sight before them stunned everyone.

Ma Yongzhen had already taken off his diving suit and was standing on the shore, reaching out to pull Huang Shujian up.

Lu Yu and Murong Xue also came up, looking around with their headlamps and occasionally exclaiming in surprise.

Huang Shujian climbed ashore, took off his helmet, and looked around.

This is no longer a natural cavity, but a tomb passage.

The walls on all four sides are made of bluestone, flat and solid.

The walls are carved with patterns of tomb guardian beasts, such as Taotie, Bian, and Yazi, each with a ferocious face, casting distorted shadows under the beam of headlamps.

They emerged from a small pond, about ten feet square, where lotus flowers bloomed in abundance.

It's not a real flower.

It is a lotus flower made of pure gold.

The petals, as thin as cicada wings, layer upon layer, reflected a dazzling golden light under the headlamp beam. The lotus leaves, also made of gold, floated on the water, lifelike.

"Golden lotuses sprang from the ground." Lin Zhihua climbed ashore, her eyes shining as she looked at the golden lotuses.

"This is a type of tomb decoration that the previous dynasty's royal family really liked."

"A pond is dug on the ground, underground water is introduced, and pure golden lotus flowers are planted, symbolizing 'golden lotuses springing from the ground, bringing endless wealth'."

"It seems we've really entered Prince Rong's tomb."

Everyone looked toward the depths of the passage.

The headlamp beam could only illuminate a distance of about ten feet. Beyond that, there was only a bottomless darkness, like the open mouth of a giant beast, waiting to devour any intruder.

Huang Shujian took off his diving suit and pulled a small glass bottle from his pocket.

There was a small fish in the bottle, completely black, only the size of a fingernail.

It swam restlessly inside the bottle, its head always pointing in one direction... towards everyone's heads.

These are mandarin duck fish. He found them among the belongings of the variety troupe. There were two of them, one male and one female.

The Book of Blood and Flesh Medicine records that, no matter how far apart two fish are, they will swim towards each other until they die.

Huang Shujian put the bottle cap back on and threw the bottle into a crevice in the rocks by the pool.

"Take a 15-minute break. Then put on your gas mask and go into the tomb."