In the ancient underwater tomb, a strand of hair was discovered, and it was even moving. Most people would immediately think of ghosts, but fortunately, there was a stone slab in between, so even if there were ghosts, they couldn’t get through.

The chubby guy seemed unwilling to let go of that strand of hair. He took his lamp and shone it into the gap, trying to see what was behind it. I wasn’t as brave as he was; there are plenty of horror stories about hair in scary movies. So I kept my distance from the stone slab, watching to see how the chubby guy would react.

He leaned in for a closer look, and it seemed like he really did see something. He looked puzzled for a moment, then leaned in again for another look. This time, he reacted strongly, suddenly backing away as if fleeing for his life, swimming several meters away in a panic. He turned around and furiously shook his fist at us. At first, I thought he was going to hit me, but then it hit me—wasn’t he signaling us to escape?

But nothing seemed to have happened just moments ago. I reflexively turned my head back and saw that the stone slab blocking our way had suddenly risen up. A mass of black, ink-like substance was oozing out from the widening gap below. I hurriedly took a few steps back, thinking it was toxic water, but when I took a closer look, I was so scared that my jaw went slack—those black things were all human hair!

Seeing that we were slow to react, the chubby guy swam back to pull us, and only then did we realize the danger and hurriedly tried to escape. Being underwater, the more anxious we got, the more our energy was consumed, and the slower we swam. I realized I couldn’t keep my rhythm in the chaos, so I decided to mimic the chubby guy and push off the walls with my feet. It wasn’t graceful, but it was fast, especially the solid feeling of my feet on the ground.

We kicked off about twenty steps and reached a corner. The chubby guy grabbed us and pulled us to hide behind the turn, signaling for us to assess the situation first.

We gasped for air and quickly looked back. To our horror, the passage behind us was filled with hair—big, dark clumps of it. Just looking at it made my throat tighten. How many years would it take for hair to grow that long? The chubby guy cursed, picked up a spear gun, aimed at the center of the black mass, and fired. He probably thought the gun could penetrate it in one shot, but when he saw the spear fly six or seven meters before suddenly slowing down and getting entangled in the hair, his face went pale.

However, the spear did have some effect. The hair seemed to have some consciousness, retracting slightly before it began to roll. It looked as if something inside the hair was trying to come out, and we couldn’t help but feel alarmed. The chubby guy loaded another spear and prepared to get closer for another shot. At that moment, the hair suddenly contracted and then expanded violently, and I immediately saw a corpse being expelled from the deepest part of the hair.

The person was wearing a diving suit similar to ours; it could be one of the three missing. I only glanced at him and saw his nose and mouth were filled with hair, and even his eye sockets had hair protruding from them. It was clear he had suffocated to death, and his body had already swollen from being submerged in water, making him look extremely grotesque.

As I looked at the corpse, my scalp began to tingle. That hair was incredibly eerie; we needed to leave quickly. I wanted to grab the chubby guy, but when I looked up, he had vanished! I was startled and quickly turned around, only to see him far away, waving his fist at us.

I cursed inwardly, realizing that this guy had run to a safe place before warning us. I quickly signaled for Zhang Tu and An Ning to catch up. I saw that the fat guy was still complaining about our slow reactions, so I immediately kicked him in the backside. The fat guy yelped in pain and, still not satisfied, tried to rush at me. An Ning hurriedly blocked us and pointed behind. I glanced back, realizing that escaping was the priority; we could settle the score with him later.

At that moment, the oxygen meter in my hand started vibrating. I looked down and was alarmed to see that nearly half an hour had passed since we started, and with our rapid breathing, our oxygen consumption was several times higher than usual. I calculated the remaining time and realized the situation was dire. If we didn’t make progress soon, we would have to retrace our steps, or we wouldn’t have enough oxygen left. But I was reluctant to leave without finding the ear chamber that Uncle San had mentioned.

Suddenly, Zhang Tu, who had been lagging behind, scrambled to the front like a crab, grabbing the straps on our backs. He caught hold of the fat guy and told him to stop. I noticed his eyes bulging; it seemed he understood the structure of the ancient tomb better than I did. Had he actually found a clue?

Sure enough, he gestured for us to follow him. The fat guy was jumping up and down in anxiety, but since he had performed poorly earlier, we ignored him. Frustrated, he could only sulk behind us.

Zhang Tu clumsily swam back a few meters and pointed at a section of the tomb wall that was slightly recessed. It turned out that the fat guy had kicked this section of the wall in while walking earlier.

I felt a surge of excitement as I compared the surroundings. This was indeed the end of a long corridor, and the mechanism Uncle San mentioned was probably here. However, once the mechanism was activated, water would surge in violently. Uncle San had worn a helmet back then, so he was fine, but we only had diving masks now. If we got caught in the current, it could easily result in serious injury.

I glanced back to see that the creature hadn’t caught up yet, and I wanted to warn them. At that moment, Zhang Tu, oblivious to the danger, suddenly pressed the mechanism. Before I could react, a massive amount of bubbles erupted.

I realized we were in trouble. I hadn’t expected Zhang Tu’s ability to cause chaos to rival that of the fat guy. I cursed silently, but before I could get the words out, a powerful force surged from behind, shoving me hard into the hole in the wall. The water was swirling, and I immediately understood what Uncle San meant; it felt like my insides were being tossed aside, and I was crammed into a washing machine. The spinning disoriented me, and soon I couldn’t see anything clearly.

I don’t know how long it took, but when I finally came to, feeling completely disoriented and achy all over—especially my neck, which hurt terribly—I was relieved it hadn’t broken. Thankfully, my breathing mouthpiece was still in my mouth. As I focused my eyes, I realized it was pitch black all around. The fat guy and the others were below me, looking just as dazed, especially the fat guy, who was still spinning around as if he were dancing ballet.

I looked at the well wall; it was made of top-quality sweat white jade. Since such good materials were used here, I should have already reached the inner chamber of this tomb. It seemed that I might have arrived at the spring in the ear room that my third uncle mentioned. I kicked off the bottom and floated upwards, and suddenly my head felt warm as it broke the surface of the water.

Everything around me was pitch black. The light from the probe was too concentrated, illuminating only a small point. I turned off the probe light and switched to a flashlight, carefully examining the tomb chamber. The chamber was rectangular with sharp edges. Aside from the fifty-star chart depicted on the treasure dome, there weren’t many eaves or decorative carvings, giving it a simple and unadorned appearance.

There was no coffin bed or coffin here, so this should be one of the ear rooms. I looked around and seemed to find no other exits, only a stone door on the left connected to a corridor. The walls of the tomb chamber were sealed with very cheap white plaster, and there were originally some colorful murals, but unfortunately, they had been completely corroded by moisture. I could no longer tell if the paintings depicted the image of the forbidden woman.

On the floor of the tomb chamber were several accompanying porcelain pieces, only about a hundred, among which were several valuable blue-and-white dragon-patterned large jars. I also discovered some footprints on the floor, all left by wet feet on the dusty ground. They looked very fresh, likely the work of my third uncle.

I assessed the air quality and let them gradually come out of the water. After A-Ning crawled over, he first became concerned about the footprints and asked, “Did the tomb robbers leave these?”

I frowned, unsure, because I noticed among these footprints there was a very striking barefoot print. The most bizarre thing was that this footprint was very small, seemingly belonging to a child, definitely not older than three years.

I had never heard of tomb raiders bringing children along, so I called over Fatty to take a look; his experience was more extensive, and he might know what was going on.

Fatty looked a bit bewildered and said, “Don’t worry about whether it’s big or small; the footprint itself is abnormal. Take a closer look.”

I examined it again and found that there was a yellow, waxy substance on the footprint. When I scraped it off with a knife and smelled it, I couldn’t help but exclaim, “This is corpse wax…!”