The Informal Tomb Raiding Diary: She is the occupant of the tomb!-Chapter 60: Raising Live Fish in Stagnant Water
Crack
"This stone has sunken!"
"This one too."
"And over here."
The three of them found stones that could be pushed inward on three walls, but after pushing them in, there was no change in the tomb chamber.
"There must be an order." Lord Qi squinted as he thought.
"Let me try." A bespectacled man from Sakura walked over to the fourth wall, appearing quite scholarly, and his Chinese was better than the other’s.
I watched him expectantly, waiting for him to show his skills, and he did not disappoint, quickly finding the stone that could be pushed in.
"We’ll push them in together." He directed the other three. The three of them glanced at Lord Qi, and with his nod of approval, agreed.
1, 2, 3—crack
All four stones were pushed in at the same time, this time they did not bounce back and disappeared completely inside.
"Haha, it worked. Mr. Zhe Shou, you’re amazing!" Baseball’s words had just landed when a small crunching sound filled the air.
It was similar to the noise made when cracking sunflower seeds. Lord Qi’s expression changed drastically, and without caring about me or Qinghan, he called for his men to quickly leave the tomb chamber.
They could run if they wanted, but I was not leaving, and neither would I let Qinghan run. Once Lord Qi left, I promptly closed the lid to the crate again.
The cover fit perfectly, and there was air inside. It was bulletproof, so there was no safer place to be than inside.
Among Lord Qi’s men, those near the door managed to escape first, but some who were farther away got entangled by the black tide emerging from the stone hollows.
I looked closer and saw the black, tide-like masses were swarms of small black bugs, each about the size of a fingernail, soft-bodied, but incredibly fast.
The black swarm, pouring out like a fountain, instantly engulfed three people. They only chased after those alive, ignoring me entirely, and with the crate’s isolation, they couldn’t detect Qinghan’s presence and surged past the box, heading after Lord Qi outside.
At this moment, as the swarm flowed past my feet, a particularly powerful song dominated my mind—Invincible is so, so lonely...
Bang~
While I was lost in thought, a dull noise came from inside the silver coffin, oh, there really was something alive!
The soft black bugs fell out in a stream, and as they hit the ground, they rushed after Lord Qi. I told Qinghan not to open the crate, then avoided the bugs and moved closer to the silver coffin.
Bang~
The coffin resounded again. I held the coffin lid down, braced myself mentally, and then opened the lid.
The large, once lustrous pearl had turned somewhat translucent; maybe we had been too subjective all along, and it wasn’t a pearl at all.
I recalled Qinghan mentioning a big egg that was also placed in a coffin, maybe this was an egg too.
And there was liquid inside. I leaned in closely, peering inside, and saw a fish tail fanning back and forth.
"Hmm? Is this a fish tank?" I pressed my face against the ’fish tank’, scrutinized it for a long while, but could only see a fish tail. The white tail resembled a large fan, with ’ribbons’ on both sides, exuding a unique ethereal beauty. Above were pale gold scales, small and closely packed, so at a glance, they looked like white, glowing skin.
I clung to the ’fish tank’ like a pervert, staring at the half fish tail until I noticed its movements slowing. The earlier thudding must have been from the tail striking the ’fish tank’.
"Qinghan, the fish is dying, what should we do? It’s an ancient artifact fish!" I hurried back to the crate, tapping on its lid to seek help from Qinghan.
"What fish?" Qinghan asked.
"There’s a big fish in the pearl, really big, and it can move, but now it stopped. Is it dying?"
"Are you sure it’s a fish and alive?"
"I’m sure, but it’s about to die now."
"Is there anything outside? If not, I’ll go take a look."
"There is, don’t come out. Have you ever raised fish? Oh, right, your watch can buzz the fish, try stimulating it to see if it responds!"
"I’ll try."
After receiving a reply from Qinghan, I ran back to the silver coffin to watch the fish’s response.
The still fish tail suddenly flicked. I was just about to cheer when it flipped over, now completely pale.
By then, the black swarm had vanished. I shut the main tomb chamber’s door and called Qinghan out quickly.
All that was left on the ground were a few white skeletons. After being starved for thousands of years, the black bugs didn’t bother to chew; their eating speed was faster than sound.
Qinghan climbed out of the crate and, before he could come over, the ’fish tank’ inside the coffin shattered into pieces.
"It’s like the fish dies and the tank perishes, what kind of high-tech is this?" Startled by the sudden development, I turned to see a small fish lying among the shattered glass.
Qinghan came over to look, staring at the small fish in the coffin, "Is it this one?"
I bent over, nearly diving into the coffin to confirm whether the palm-sized fish was the ’big fish’ I saw earlier.
"It’s it, the ribbon fan tail... Wait, just now it was so big, about the length of a person; how did it shrink!"
Qinghan used his sleeve to pick up a piece of the shattered glass, held it up to his eyes and said with a smile, "This is an oversized magnifying glass, take a look."
However, before the glass shard reached my hand, it crumbled into dust, and the fragments in the coffin did the same, as did the small fish, all turning to fine particles.
"But, I heard it hitting the fish tank, those sounds couldn’t have come from a small fish."
"Perhaps the coffin amplified the sounds. Well, even if it was a big fish, now it’s all gone. Let’s not dwell on it."
"It’s rare to find a living thing, it might have been a pet of my clan."
"If you’re thinking—"
"No, I’m not interested. It was just a momentary curiosity. Alright, let’s find a way out. Lord Qi’s group is probably already interned."
I knew what Qinghan was trying to say; he thought I cared about my ancestry and wanted to find other clan members.
But in truth, I had no obsession, whether it was about memories or the whereabouts of other clansmen.
Embracing a life of going with the flow is simpler and happier. Of course, if I could remember how to use the nine-grid compass, that would be best, so I could help Qinghan find his sister, returning the favor I owe him.
Qinghan said nothing more, his thoughts aligned with mine. He said to find an exit, and continued examining the base of the silver coffin.
Qinghan and I crouched down to the side of the silver coffin, feeling the base. Just then, the tomb chamber’s door was opened again. Four people entered in single file, led by Lord Qi, with his subordinate bringing up the rear, squeezing two Sakura people in the middle.
The four of them appeared quite disheveled, Mr. Zhe Shou seemed heavily injured, carried in by Baseball, collapsing to the ground as soon as they entered the chamber.
They were only four left now, and I was secretly delighted, motioning Qinghan to stay hidden behind the silver coffin.
