Uncle San thought about this and, although he couldn’t believe it, he broke out in a cold sweat. He put down the puzzle and quickly looked around the surroundings. After scanning the area, he saw nothing; the quiet tomb was empty, and the dim light from the flashlight cast a yellowish glow on the walls of the tomb, sending an inexplicable chill deep into Uncle San’s bones.

Uncle San was different from us. Having played underground since childhood, he found dead people not frightening at all, as they were merely objects. Although they could be dangerous, they wouldn’t plot against others. However, living people were a different story. The moment Uncle San thought that there might be a third person in this tomb, he became frightened.

The blow to the back of the head from the puzzle could be serious or minor. Nowadays, in any TV drama or movie, to make someone faint, you just need to hit them on the back of the head with something. In reality, Uncle San knew that the force needed to knock someone out is the same as that needed to kill them. Whether the person lives or dies depends entirely on luck. If you hit a little lighter, you might just make them dazed for a few seconds. The real way to knock someone out without killing them is to strike the back of their neck. A skilled person wouldn’t even need to hit; just a pinch would suffice to make someone faint.

So, regarding the blow Uncle San took, he wasn’t quite sure about the circumstances. He only knew that if it was done by a person, that person had clearly intended to kill. Falling down wouldn’t result in such a severe injury; even if someone died from a fall, it would be due to internal bleeding, and the scalp wouldn’t break like that.

But how could there possibly be a third person here?

If this were an ancient tomb on land, encountering a familiar face, though rare, would be understandable. But this was the seabed. Could it be possible that someone else knew about this place and had dived in?

That seemed highly unlikely. Uncle San’s mind raced, and he suddenly thought of a possibility. Could it be that someone on the boat saw him and Jie Lianhuan when they went underwater? Did someone follow them down?

Thinking back, that was indeed a distinct possibility. There probably weren’t any other boats nearby, and when he grabbed Jie Lianhuan, they did make quite a ruckus. Was it possible that someone was awakened by the noise? Instead of calling out, did they follow them all the way?

The sea was pitch black, a chaotic darkness where nothing was visible. If someone were tracking them, it would be impossible to detect. Moreover, the two of them were focused solely on their journey and hadn’t thought about such matters at all.

To be honest, Uncle San hadn’t taken that archaeological team seriously at the time. He thought that if they discovered something, Wen Jin could cover it up for him. Even if that group had their suspicions, there wasn’t much they could do. So when he and Jie Lianhuan went underwater, he didn’t pay much attention to whether someone might know about it. But he never expected that someone would secretly follow them.

Who could it be? He recognized most of the people in the archaeological team. Although there were a few unfamiliar faces, he had a good eye for people and, apart from Jie Lianhuan, no one else seemed suspicious. What about the boatman? That was also a possibility. Could it be that the boatman saw him go underwater and, out of curiosity, followed them?

However, coming here inevitably requires diving equipment. Those few boatmen are good swimmers, but they probably wouldn’t know how to operate diving gear, right? That being said, it must still be someone from the archaeological team. Who could it be?

Uncle San couldn’t figure it out and thought to himself: Regardless, if he happened to follow us here, he should have spoken up to negotiate by now. Since he hasn’t made a sound and has dealt such a heavy blow to Jiexianhuan, and I didn’t hear any loud cries just now, it must have been a sneak attack. There’s definitely something wrong. I’ll subdue him first and see who he really is.

These thoughts flashed through Uncle San’s mind like lightning. As soon as he realized this, he turned off his flashlight, plunging the surroundings into darkness. The only light left was from Jiexianhuan’s unsteady flashlight. He then crouched down and rolled to the side.

This was to prevent the other party from knowing his position; being in the dark while the enemy is in the light gives him the best chance. Crouching down was a unique movement of Uncle San’s, as he was afraid the opponent would hear him and throw something at him. For someone like Chen Pi A Si, if you stand up, he could hit you just by listening to your heartbeat.

After rolling for more than ten steps, he felt he had distanced himself from the iron coffin, so he focused and listened intently to the sounds around him.

The tomb chamber was already extremely quiet; you could say you could hear a pin drop. Once Uncle San fell silent, it became even quieter. He could hear his own heartbeat, like thunder.

Beyond the sound of his heartbeat, he indeed heard some inexplicable noises, very faint, hard to discern the direction, but definitely around him. It sounded like breathing or extremely slight rubbing sounds, which made him break out in a cold sweat.

Someone was indeed there.

Uncle San cursed under his breath, closed his eyes, and tried to listen carefully to discern the direction of the sounds.

However, after just a moment, the sound disappeared, as if the other party knew he had discovered them and held their breath.

Uncle San’s heart raced as he slowly began to crawl up. If that person was nearby, he didn’t want to accidentally step on them, as being prone would put him at a disadvantage.

Just as he had crawled halfway up, he suddenly heard a joint cracking sound very close behind him. Uncle San panicked a bit, turned his body around, and tried to retreat a little to distance himself from the sound.

In that instant, he suddenly felt a gust of wind brush past his face. He thought to himself, this is bad, and hurriedly tried to lower his head, but it was too late. Suddenly, a strong gust of wind rushed in, and a person pounced on him, knocking Uncle San to the ground. Immediately, he felt someone yank the flashlight from his waist, and then that person relaxed their grip. Uncle San quickly bent down, trying to break free, but suddenly his jaw went numb as someone struck him hard with the flashlight, causing him to spit out blood.

Damn it, the other party can see me! In that instant, this thought flashed through Uncle San’s mind.

In the pitch darkness, they could accurately pounce on him and even snatch his flashlight in one swift motion, which clearly indicated they could see very well.

What was going on? Did the other party have a pair of cat eyes?

Amidst his shock, he forcefully turned his head to the other side, but the other party struck again, this time accurately hitting him on the nose. The blow was so heavy that he couldn’t lift his head, and a salty taste surged up in his mouth.

This time, Uncle San was really furious. He had been the king of children since he was young; aside from getting beaten by his grandfather, when had he ever suffered such a loss? He immediately felt a murderous intent rise within him, and as he raised his head, the dagger slashed through the air.

However, nothing was hit. Instead, he received a hard blow to his chin. Those were assassins; Uncle San couldn’t even feel the pain in his chin. Then, his hand holding the dagger was firmly seized by someone.

Lying down like this made it impossible to exert any strength; his hand was pressed down to the ground. Uncle San cursed loudly, thinking to himself, “What the hell, do you want to rape me or what?” He suddenly raised his head and spat a mouthful of blood mixed with saliva.

Based on his instincts, he knew his opponent had hesitated for a moment. In that split second, Uncle San twisted his body and broke free. The opponent didn’t expect him to escape and quickly leaned down to apply pressure with his knee, falling right into Uncle San’s trap.

In a typical fight, if one person is pinned down by another, the first instinct when the opponent loosens their grip is to break free. However, if someone is on top of you, it’s very easy for them to re-establish control. So Uncle San pretended to struggle, and when the opponent pressed down again, Uncle San’s other hand had already grabbed the water bag containing the human skull and swung it out.

He didn’t even know where it hit, but he heard the opponent let out a muffled grunt and tumble away. Uncle San laughed heartily, rolled over, and got up, seizing the water bag and smashing it towards the spot where the opponent had grunted.

Unfortunately, the bones inside must have been crushed beyond recognition, and throwing the water bag didn’t have much power. Uncle San didn’t care whether he hit or missed; he staggered towards the place where he could unlock the flashlight, grabbed it, and shone it behind him.

The earlier plan of confronting in the dark was no longer useful. Since the opponent could see him, his earlier actions of turning off the flashlight and rolling on the ground seemed utterly ridiculous. Now, to subdue the opponent, he had to force them out.

However, after sweeping the flashlight in a wide arc, he saw no one. The person who had attacked him had vanished.

At that moment, he was already in a state of rage and couldn’t remain calm. Seeing that the person had hidden, he cursed loudly and went looking with the dagger. After circling the coffin, he heard a splash from the water entry point.

“Damn it, they ran away?” Uncle San jumped up and hurried after them. Rushing to the water entry, he saw that the person had already entered the water, and ripples were still spreading on the surface. Furious, Uncle San wanted to jump in, but when he saw that the water looked black under the flashlight, he hesitated. What if the opponent was lying in ambush there? He would be unable to escape, so he had to grit his teeth and hold back, cursing at the water.

Not knowing who it was, he ended up cursing everyone on the boat except for Wen Jin.

However, as he was cursing, he felt something was off. There seemed to be a strange hissing sound nearby that made his ears itch.

Uncle San pointed the flashlight at the source of the sound and instantly felt a chill run through his body, almost fainting.

It turned out that his oxygen tank had been unscrewed at some point without him realizing it, and oxygen was hissing out.