Warring States Chapter Chapter Three: Sea Ghost

Suddenly, a shadow appeared before us. It was a shirtless youth, his left hand gripping a blood-dripping severed head while his right hand held a blade at an angle. His gaze was as sharp and fierce as a tiger descending from the mountain.

He walked into the burial chamber, tossed the head aside, and said, "Be careful, everyone. It is extremely dangerous here. Watch out for traps!" He then pointed at the head. "That is a ghost-faced ghoul, and this place is crawling with them."

My brother-in-law spoke up, "Brother, how do you know this so well? Have you been here before?" With that, he assumed an expression that seemed to say, "Confession brings leniency, resistance brings severity."

The young man said nothing in response; he merely shook his head.

Then, he stood up, walked to the northern wall of the chamber, and traced his fingers back and forth across the murals. After about a minute, he delivered a swift kick to the tomb wall, revealing a three-meter-long, two-meter-high undersea tunnel. The young man tossed in a high-powered glow stick, illuminating the contours of the tunnel quite clearly.

Guided by the young man, Lin Qiang and he took the lead, with Old Zhang and Kaizi bringing up the rear. Han Xin was protected by my brother-in-law, while Ocean and I walked in the middle of the group, with Sanshi right behind us.

As we walked to the middle of the tunnel, we saw dried, yellowish bones and scattered corpses everywhere, alongside numerous rusted ancient swords, discarded armor, and piles of overlapping skulls and remains.

Clearly, a fierce and bloody battle had once taken place here.

Ocean, that naive fool who had never seen the world, actually had the audacity to ask my brother-in-law why there were human bones everywhere.

My brother-in-law gave him a blank stare, and Sanshi chimed in, "What, losing your nerve?"

Ocean cast an embarrassed look at Sanshi and turned his face away.

We pressed on, coming close to the tomb door at the end of the tunnel. The young man took a fire starter from his pack and tossed it into the two fixed fire sources in front of the gate, revealing an ancient bronze tomb door at the tunnel's end.

The young man in black walked ahead of the others to the tomb door and drew the dark-gold ancient blade from his back.

Gripping the blade tightly in his right hand, he hurled it like a javelin, and it landed squarely in the central circular mechanism of the bronze tomb door.

With a creaking sound, the heavy door slowly opened, as if triggering a hidden mechanism.

The young man shouted, "Get down!"

Suddenly, a volley of hidden arrows came flying out of the burial chamber. Before there was even time to blink, the young man took a leap, arched his back, and slid backward onto the ground.

With a kick of his foot, he slid right to my position. Looking up, I saw a dense storm of arrows raining through the air. Some embedded themselves into the tunnel walls, while others whistled past our sides. Fortunately, none of us were hit.

After the rain of arrows subsided, we reassembled our gear and pressed on. The young man flipped back to the bronze tomb door, pulled out his dark-gold blade, and waved for everyone to follow as we stepped through the bronze gates.

After passing through the long, narrow tunnel, we entered a brand-new burial chamber, about one zhang long and half a zhang high. The atmosphere was lifeless, gloomy, damp, and intensely oppressive.

The young man in black took several fire starters from his pack and tossed them into the fixed fire receptacles, roughly illuminating the outlines of the chamber. Turning on his waterproof flashlight, he looked around and saw murals covering all the surrounding walls.

Judging by their attire, the figures resembled people from the Warring States period, but their faces bore no resemblance to ordinary humans. Their appearances were bizarre in the extreme. Up close, they looked like white-haired elders; viewed from afar, they resembled humanoid creatures wearing clothes. Due to the passage of time, it was impossible to make out any further details.

At that moment, Lin Qiang blurted out, "Could these things be sea ghosts? I heard my grandfather talk about them before!"

We were taken aback. I looked at Lin Qiang in puzzlement and asked, "What kind of thing? Water ghosts?"

Lin Qiang took a sip of water and continued, "Yeah, those things are a unique kind of amphibious marine creature. My grandfather saw one once, and he said they were utterly malevolent.

"Long ago, an old man in a village was out fishing and encountered the sea ghosts from the murals. As an old fisherman who had spent his life drifting on the open sea without ever seeing much of the wider world, he only thought they might be worth some money.

"So, he caught a sea ghost. But the very next day, the old fisherman's entire family was ripped apart and eaten by the sea ghosts. What followed was a wave of frenzied and bloody retaliation that escalated until it engulfed the entire village.

"For a time, the river was choked with the skeletons of the dead, and the water ran crimson. As luck would have it, a Taoist sorcerer happened to be passing by, and the villagers begged him to exorcise the demons. The sorcerer set up a sea god altar on the beach, chanted spells, and lured all those malevolent sea ghosts over. When they arrived, the sorcerer commanded them to kneel on the shore.

"The sea ghosts were overjoyed to see the offerings on the altar, and after a ravenous feast, they left. One of them even turned back and offered a gesture of gratitude in a peculiar way, and the matter was considered settled.

"After the sorcerer left, the villagers built a temple on the beach in his honor to commemorate him, and no one ever heard of marine creatures harming people again."

I turned my head and saw that the face of the young man in black had turned instantly pale. The others remained silent, their eyes locked rigidly on the tomb door.

In the fraction of a second that I stood frozen, I saw a long shadow slowly creeping forward.

The young man hurled his blade. A piercing shriek rang out, and the creature fell forward, lifeless.

The young man said, "Turn on your flashlights! Those things are afraid of light!"

As if on cue, we all pulled the waterproof flashlights from our military packs and shone them at the stirring sea ghosts.

True to form, the creatures retreated a few steps upon encountering the light. However, a few reckless sea ghosts pressed forward regardless, and Sanshi raised his gun. My brother-in-law stopped him just in time, though the creature was already devoid of life.

My brother-in-law said furiously, "Are you trying to get us killed?"

One sea ghost glared at us with blazing eyes, and seeing its suicidal ferocity, I felt a chill run down my spine.

By now, the danger was upon us. Those sea ghosts charged forward like wild horses broken loose from their reins, launching a frenzied and unrestrained counterattack. Although we had guns, their sheer numbers were overwhelming.

In an instant, we were pushed onto the defensive. Seeing the situation deteriorate, the young man shouted at us to run.

Sanshi protested reluctantly, "Master Feng, we've got guns! What are we afraid of?"

The young man ordered, "Go!"

Without hesitation, we bolted backward while the young man covered our rear.

Before we knew it, we had entered yet another unfamiliar burial chamber. I asked my brother-in-law in confusion, "Where is this? Why wasn't it recorded in Grandfather's notes?"

My brother-in-law walked over to the side of a ring-shaped sarcophagus in the center of the chamber and said, "Oh no, this is an ominous abomination! This is a mother-and-child yin-yang coffin! Quick, everyone, fall back!"

We gasped in shock and whipped our heads around, only to see a long shadow creeping closer and closer, inch by inch. Not a word was spoken among us, and the atmosphere plunged into a dead silence.

We gripped our guns tightly and waited.