“Where did the tail come from? I didn’t see it just now!” I thought he was joking with me and said, “Don’t mess with me.”

“Isn’t this it?” The fat guy pointed it out seriously. “Your eyesight is really ‘magical.’ You can’t see such an obvious thing?”

I followed his finger and saw that there was indeed a protrusion on the tailbone of the seated golden body. It was about three inches long and as thick as two fingers, dark and dry-looking, resembling a hardened cow’s tail, curving upward.

I found it strange; when we moved it earlier, I didn’t notice this thing. Did it just grow out?

I tried to recall but had no clue. I was so tense earlier that I couldn’t remember if I had seen it or not. A chill suddenly rose in my heart, and I had an ominously uneasy feeling.

Then I reminded myself that this wasn’t the time for superstition, and even if it was just a dry thing, I couldn’t be sure it was a tail. So I said to the fat guy, “Don’t jump to conclusions too early. How could a person grow a tail? Don’t tell me it’s a human’s… you take a closer look.”

“Go to hell!” the fat guy laughed heartily. “Can a dick grow on the butt? Besides, who dies and still looks like—like this—”

I knew what he was trying to say and quickly interrupted him, “Alright, alright, it doesn’t matter what it is. After we blow it up, there won’t be anything left anyway. You can study it, but in a few years, others will be studying us.”

The fat guy was reminded by my words and stopped paying attention to that strange thing, quickly getting back to work.

I helped him turn the corpse over and took down the rope that was originally used to assist in climbing the pillar. We struggled to secure the dry corpse to the pillar. We couldn’t estimate how violent the explosion would be, but I remembered hearing in “The Three Heroes and Five Gallants” that the nine-linked cannon could shatter a ten-story diamond rock, so this thing shouldn’t be too far off.

After tying it up, I pulled on it forcefully. It was a bit hasty and not very secure, but it should hold for a while.

I didn’t want to stay up there any longer. After checking everything and seeing that it was all in order, I prepared to go down.

Thinking about how the detonation time was approaching made me increasingly nervous. Whether it would work or not depended on this move. I just prayed for God’s blessing; I wouldn’t ask for everything to go smoothly—at least let me keep my life.

While I was lost in thought, the fat guy grabbed my arm and said, “Wait a minute, I still need to fix something.”

I had just checked everything, so I was puzzled and asked, “What are you missing? Isn’t everything here?”

The fat guy told me not to go down yet, then turned to the dry corpse and said, “Oh, esteemed tail ancestor, no matter whether you were a human or a monkey, you have already passed on. This stinky skin is of no use to you anymore. Although it’s a bit excessive to use you as a bomb, we are forced by circumstances. Please don’t hold it against us. Just think of it as taking a sauna, free from worldly concerns and taboos.” After saying that, he gave the golden body a symbolic bow.

I was furious, yanked on his underwear, and pulled him down, cursing, “Damn it, what time is it? You still have the mood to play this game!”

He slid over to my side and said, “You don’t understand. This thing looks sinister; it’s hard to say it won’t bring us bad luck. Besides, it’s sitting here just fine, and if we take it and use it as a bomb, that’s inherently wrong. We still need to say something to make it look good.”

As I climbed, I cursed, “Don’t start with that. Where were you when we were moving the twelve corpses? I didn’t see you bowing to anyone then. Now it’s just a long tail; what’s the big deal?”

The conflict between the northern and southern factions arose this way, stemming from ideological differences. The胖子 (Pangzi) found it unpleasant, grunted in frustration, and turned away from me.

We reached the ground, and 闷油瓶 (Men Youping) picked up 阿宁 (A Ning), signaling us to move to a corner of the tomb chamber. We placed several bronze mirrors in front of ourselves, using them as shields in case the bomb’s power was too great and we got hit by flying debris. Everything was ready; we just had to wait for the right moment. With Men Youping’s precise skills, he would swing a mirror leg to trigger the mechanism in the golden statue’s belly. He had almost pinned the胖子 down with a flying knife in the Lu Wang Palace, so this should be no problem. At this point, considering other methods was pointless. I prayed while focusing on the watch.

The tidal pattern of the sea is that it rises twice a day, separated by 12 hours. The high tide generally lasts over an hour before it starts to recede, with the lowest tide occurring in between the two high tides. At that time, the sea level is at its lowest, sometimes even exposing the seabed.

However, the seabed here shouldn’t be that shallow; otherwise, there would be many more stranded ships than there are now. I estimated that if the water could drop below two meters, that would be ideal.

I didn’t know how long the low tide would last; in my memory, it should be quite short. We needed to wait for the water to widen the gap above, which would take some time, so we couldn’t afford to waste even a minute at the beginning.

This was still a relatively optimistic estimate; there might be unexpected situations, and at that point, we could only adapt. The more I thought about it, the more uncertain I felt. What if the situation didn’t develop as I imagined, but instead, the whole top collapsed? I would really owe them an apology. I felt increasingly tense. The胖子 noticed my expression and probably guessed I was a bit anxious. He asked uneasily, “Hey, can you two be honest with me? Do you have any confidence?”

I didn’t know how to respond, so I deflected, “In this situation, it’s hard to say. Anyway, the arrow is on the string; just watch and see.”

The胖子 sighed, “Really, the more you say, the more anxious I feel. What if this thing doesn’t explode? Do you have any backup plans? Just tell me so I can feel a bit better.”

I said, “There are indeed some options. What you just mentioned is one: go back the way we came and see if the tomb chamber we entered has reappeared. Otherwise, there’s another not-so-great option, which is to stay here and wait for the third group to come in and rescue us.”

The胖子 replied, “How can we wait for that? If they don’t come in, what do we do? Wait a lifetime? That would turn this place into a living tomb at the bottom of the Xisha Sea, and the tomb raiders would disappear from the world.”

I comforted the fat guy, saying, “What I mean is that although this place is extremely perilous and we can’t leave for the moment, we won’t die immediately. As long as we have time, we can think of a way out. Look at this spacious area; the air is good enough for several days. I think a week shouldn’t be a problem. We can sleep more and exercise less, and try to conserve our resources.”

The fat guy wasn’t buying it and replied, “Sure, there’s enough air, but you still need food! This isn’t some deep mountain forest where there’s nothing; there isn’t even a Northwest wind to drink. I’d rather suffocate than starve to death.”

I laughed and said, “Solutions come from human ingenuity. Look at all this fat; you wouldn’t die from hunger even if you starved for a whole week. If you really can’t handle the hunger, there’s a sea monkey around. If eating that doesn’t fill you up, then we can catch that banshee down there and skin her.”

Hearing this, the fat guy also perked up. As long as someone was arguing with him, he would get excited. He patted my shoulder and said, “Alright, that’s quite in line with my style! To make a revolution, you need to have the spirit of not fearing heaven or earth. It seems like I’ve indeed learned quite a bit this time.”

I was surprised by my own words; how had I started to talk like this? It seemed I was influenced by the fat guy. No, I absolutely couldn’t turn into someone like him. So I stopped the banter and continued to pay attention to my watch. There were still five minutes left. At this point, if we were going to detonate, it probably wouldn’t make much difference. I told the mute oil bottle to get ready and not to mess it up; the golden body was already loosely tied, and if it fell from the column and exploded below, it wouldn’t end well.

The mute oil bottle weighed the object in his hand and nodded in agreement. Suddenly, the fat guy shouted, “What about that dry corpse?” We all realized something was wrong and looked up, only to find that the corpse on the pillar had vanished. My first reaction was that it hadn’t been tied securely and had fallen off. Looking down, I saw nothing on the ground, and I couldn’t help but curse; this was truly eerie.

I had not expected something like this to happen at such a critical moment. I had been preparing to adapt to changes, comforting myself, but I didn’t anticipate that it would come true so quickly.

“See, I told you! Anything with a tail is definitely creepy,” the fat guy exclaimed. “Quick, let’s find out where it went!”

We rushed out and immediately spotted what we were looking for, clinging to the treasure dome behind the pillar. It was digging its claws into the relief above, and its black, hard skin was cracking and peeling off in pieces, revealing bloody flesh underneath, though I couldn’t tell what it was.

I saw that the rope was still tied around its waist, made from several strands of diving suit material, which was quite secure for binding a person. So it hadn’t broken free yet, but judging by the situation, it wouldn’t hold for long.

The fat guy shouted, “Quick, while it hasn’t escaped yet, let’s detonate it first!”

The mute oil bottle didn’t need his reminder. As soon as the fat guy started talking, I heard a whoosh, and a blue light shot past, plunging straight into the belly of the dry corpse.