I shouted that it was bad; this dull oil bottle was moving too quickly. We were still rushing outside, and if there was an explosion, we would definitely suffer. But by the time I thought of this, it was already too late. Suddenly, a flash of white light appeared in front of me, and the fat guy had already tackled me to the ground. Then there was a huge bang; the entire tomb shook violently, and a wave of scorching air lifted us up. I spun in the air six or seven times before being blown three yards away, crashing into a wall.

That hit was truly substantial. Thankfully, the fat guy had tackled me down; otherwise, my neck would have definitely snapped. The moment I hit the wall, I lost consciousness and saw nothing, only hearing a buzzing in my ears, thinking I was dead. After a while, light suddenly appeared before my eyes. I tried to open them and immediately saw the world spinning, filled with yellow dust, making me dizzy and wanting to vomit.

I struggled to get up and heard a lot of chaotic noises, but I couldn’t distinguish any of them, only feeling a terrible headache. In the midst of the confusion, the dull oil bottle coughed and ran out of the smoke, asking, “Is everything okay?”

I bit my tongue while trying to speak and waved my hand to indicate that I was fine. The two of us covered our mouths and went to look for the fat guy. After running a couple of steps, I saw the fat guy sitting there, with a piece of skin scraped off his shoulder by a chunk of brick. Seeing the dull oil bottle, he cursed loudly, “Damn it! You moved way too fast! At least wait for us to step back a few paces; if I had just moved two centimeters to the side, one of my hands would be useless!”

The dull oil bottle shrugged and showed us the mirror leg in his hand, saying, “You got it wrong; it wasn’t me just now!”

“Huh! It wasn’t you!” We both exclaimed in surprise.

That power and accuracy just now were definitely from someone extremely skilled. If it wasn’t him, who could it be? The fat guy had been right next to me, and judging by his expression, he definitely didn’t have such good aim. I was even less likely to be the one. If we considered others, there was only one possibility—I suddenly had a flash of insight and hurriedly turned to look for A-Ning.

The fat guy was thinking the same thing. We both ran to the corner and looked around, but there was no sign of her. The fat guy cursed, “It’s that woman! Damn it, she was indeed faking it!”

The dull oil bottle looked incredulous, as if he had been confident in his judgment just now and didn’t expect to be wrong. I had to reevaluate this woman and said, “This woman is truly remarkable; she seems like an old trickster from the martial world. I’ve never seen anyone pretend to be foolish so convincingly.”

The fat guy said, “I think she’s not just an old trickster; she’s practically the freaking Oscar-winning actress! Next time we catch her, I won’t believe whatever she pretends to be.” After saying this, he picked up a weapon and was about to go look for her, but the dull oil bottle quickly stopped him, saying, “There’s no time; let it go.”

I also advised him, “Don’t complicate things. What’s most important now is to see if the treasure dome has been blown open! If you can’t swallow this anger, you can wait until we get out to talk about it.” Before I finished speaking, a long, mournful sound suddenly came from above, as if something was slowly breaking. The sound wasn’t loud, but it made my heart jump into my throat, thinking, “No way, after such an explosion, you’re going to collapse? You’re giving me too much face.”

The fat man was still unwilling to accept the situation. Upon hearing that sound, his face turned pale, and he asked me, “What the hell is that sound? Xiao Wu, looking at this situation, it seems much more serious than the hole you mentioned, right?”

I looked up at the hole that had been blown open and was taken aback. The bomb inside the corpse had a tremendous power, far beyond my imagination. The iron beams above had all been blown apart, creating a hole less than half a meter in diameter. The waterproof layer above the brick ceiling had been ruptured, and seawater was pouring in, forming a small waterfall. The strange sound I had heard earlier was the sound of the waterfall growing louder. I estimated that soon, the opening would be completely washed away.

Meanwhile, the golden silk nanmu pillar beside us had been blown apart, with a huge crack running from top to bottom and showing signs of toppling. This valuable pillar was now completely ruined.

It seemed that the reason for the collapse of the pillar had affected a horizontal beam above it, which might really come crashing down. From the sound, it was evident that the beam had already developed cracks. Even if it didn’t collapse right now, it would surely meet its doom after a while.

I comforted the fat man, saying, “It’s okay, don’t worry. This tomb is much sturdier than an ordinary tomb. As long as there’s no earthquake right now, it definitely won’t collapse.”

Before I could finish my sentence, the ground beneath us suddenly began to shake. I had long anticipated that the airtight structure of this underwater ancient tomb had been compromised and that seawater was surely surging up continuously. I just didn’t expect the commotion to be this great, and I couldn’t help but feel a bit dizzy with anxiety.

The shaking grew more intense, truly terrifying, and the fear was palpable. If this continued at such a speed, it was likely that before the treasure dome collapsed, the floor we were standing on would give way. The fat man was scared out of his wits, shouting, “Oh my God, why is it shaking like this? Could it really be an earthquake? I mean, Xiao Wu, what part did you blow up just now?”

I explained it to him and said, “It’s fine, it’s a normal phenomenon. Let’s get ready; maybe soon water will burst out from all the cracks here. Be careful not to get sprayed by the water; the pressure is incredible, like a fist that could knock you over.”

As soon as I finished speaking, there was a strange sound. The blue rock slab covering the entrance to the tunnel was suddenly blown away by a surge of water, and the seawater shot up like a fountain, reaching seven or eight meters high. Before I could react, I saw something else shoot out from the tunnel, crashing into the treasure dome and then falling onto the stone slab in the center. It was moving too fast for me to see what it was, but since there was nothing else in the tunnel, it was probably that cursed woman.

This thing being washed out was a considerable nuisance, and it might even become a big problem. We couldn’t start a fire in the water, and if it got entangled with us, the consequences would be unimaginable.

Unfortunately, I didn’t have time to think about it now. The entire ground around the entrance to the tunnel began to bulge up, like a volcanic eruption, surging violently, and the water level was rising extremely quickly. Almost in an instant, we had floated up to a height of five or six meters above the ground.

I searched everywhere for An Ning. By this time, the smoke from the explosion had mostly dissipated, but I still couldn’t see her. She was probably hiding behind a pillar. The fat guy wasn’t a good swimmer and was struggling in the water, too exhausted to worry about her. However, there was only one exit here, and sooner or later, we would run into each other. The fat guy winked at me, probably wanting to take advantage of the situation and find a way to blame her. I couldn’t bring myself to be harsh with a woman, so I ignored him.

We drifted for a few more minutes, and my head was already bumping against the ceiling. Suddenly, the fat guy swam off to the side. I didn’t know what he was up to and shouted, “We’re only a minute away from being done for! What are you doing? Do you want to die?”

He swam straight to a glowing pearl, knocked one down with his tool, stuffed it into his underwear, and then swam back, saying, “I’m taking something back to compensate for my mental distress. Just a little good luck charm.”

I nearly wanted to strangle him, but at that moment, I couldn’t find the words to curse him, nor did I have the time. The water was already up to my eyes. I lifted my nose above the surface, greedily inhaling the last few breaths of air. A few seconds later, my ears felt cold, and I was completely submerged.

I gestured to the fat guy. He was the worst swimmer, so I wanted him to go up first. He shook his head, indicating that he was too fat, and if he got stuck in the hole, we would all die together. I nodded and swam into the hole first. The hole was wide at the bottom and narrow at the top. As I poked my head up, I saw about seventeen or eighteen palms’ worth of sand above me, with the loose stuff constantly collapsing down, creating a cloud of white mist. I could barely open my eyes, so I kicked hard a few times and shot up.

The timing was perfect; the water was very shallow at that moment. However, I had reached my limit for holding my breath and was almost flailing as I swam up. As soon as I broke the surface, I nearly fainted and immediately took a deep breath, gasping for air.

After a few seconds, the fat guy and the silent oil bottle emerged from the water almost simultaneously. As soon as the fat guy surfaced, he choked on some water, coughing and laughing, “Damn! I never thought we’d actually make it! I, Wang Fatty, am finally out! Haha!”

I steadied myself and looked around. It was sunset; the fiery clouds on the horizon reflected in the water, creating a stunning sight. The sun was deep red, casting a warm glow that wrapped everything in a soft embrace, forming a beautiful and serene scene.

I had seen several sunsets on my journey, but I had never found one as beautiful as this. I couldn’t help but feel overwhelmed. However, I soon felt a cramp in my foot and quickly turned to look for our boat. I spotted it not far off on a reef, and my heart relaxed. With a boat nearby, I could soon escape this ordeal and get a good night’s sleep.

After coming to his senses, the fat guy suddenly remembered something and dove back into the water. I followed him down and saw An Ning stuck in that hole, struggling desperately but unable to get out.

It was strange; this woman was countless times slimmer than the fat guy, and he had made it out so easily. There was no reason for her to be stuck. An Ning was at her limit, and suddenly I saw her throat tighten; she spat out a big stream of bubbles and started rolling her eyes. The fat guy and I dove down, each grabbing one of her hands and pulling her out.

At that moment, I realized there was still a force pulling her down. However, since there were two of us, our strength prevailed. In just one round, we pulled An Ning out of that hole. I saw a large clump of hair tangled around her and immediately understood what had just happened.

The hole was now filled with black hair, and it seemed likely that the ghostly woman would crawl out soon. It was best not to stay in the water. We surfaced, and the fat guy checked her breathing. He found her body limp, as if she had lost all her strength, but she was still breathing. The three of us swam back to the side of the boat and pulled the woman up. She kept coughing up water, her eyes rolling back, and it seemed her condition was quite serious.

I didn’t know much about drowning, so I shouted, “Captain! Someone is choking on water! Come quickly to save her!” After calling out a couple of times with no response, I became puzzled. I asked the fat guy to keep an eye on her and went into the cabin to look around. To my surprise, there wasn’t a single person there. A strange feeling suddenly arose in my mind. It was impossible; we were in the open sea, how could the entire crew be gone? If they had gone swimming, at least a few should have stayed to watch the boat.

I shouted a few more times, but still got no response. It was the fat guy who answered me. He ran in and asked what was going on. I pointed for him to see and said, “There’s a situation; there’s no one on the boat!”

The fat guy was taken aback, also looked around, scratched his head, and said, “There really is no one. But the fish in the hold are still alive, which means they were still fishing half an hour ago. Where could the people have gone in such a short time?”