IWOL Chapter 98: A Wary Cooperation

The giant bird couldn’t land a single blow and quickly moved back, wanting to attack again.

Dong Linhai carried Wang Que on his back, Allen held Lin Hangzhi, and Dong Zheng carried an exhausted Victor in his arms. The Wonton Insurgency ran toward the nearest boulder, planning to hide behind it.

It was so windy that Dong Zheng put his hand on Cui Zuojing’s head and protected him in his arms. The youth completely regarded this as stemming from a deep brotherhood between teammates and didn’t even consider how ambiguous the posture was.

Since Wang Que had no outward injuries, the stitched-heart bear could not treat her. With difficulties, Victor stretched out his paw and placed it on the back of her hand, using purification to relieve the pain of her fall.

Wang Que evaded him.

“I’m fine,” she whispered. “Uncle, take a good rest.”

Realizing that these nasty invaders could not be driven away, the giant bird screamed unhappily. After circling for a while, it finally turned toward the descending sun and flew toward the mountain top.

Cui Zuojing stepped out from behind the large boulder. The bottom of the canyon had only a few low shrubs and herbaceous plants and was covered with gravels of varying sizes. He pulled out the Tang Sword and let out an unhappy hissed when he saw that the blade had small chips in it.

The fact that it could survive in his hands for so long up until now attested to its quality.

Cui Zuojing silently determined that, in the next district, he will need to find a good weaponsmith to fix it.

The bottom of the sun had already touched sea level. Within fifteen minutes, it would be dark. They needed to quicken their pace as they walked through the canyon valley.

A bird with a long neck flew by overhead. Compared to the Anzu and the horrifying giant bird, it seemed so friendly that it made people want to cry.

Cui Zuojing said, “Shall we follow it?”

Dong Zheng nodded, and everyone hurried after it. The bird seemed to be in a hurry and didn’t notice that there were so many stalkers behind it.

As they moved further along, the canyon valley gradually narrowed. The cliffs on both sides leaned toward each other at the top until there was only a slit left, making it difficult for the darkening sky to shine through.

It became harder to move so everyone had to slow down.

At this moment, Dong Zheng felt an unusual data fluctuation. He reached out and stopped Cui Zuojing, saying in a low voice, “Something’s not right.”

Cui Zuojing didn’t notice anything unusual at all. After struggling to survive for so many years, Cui Zuojing’s instinct for danger was keen.

But he still chose to believe Dong Zheng and held the sword vigilantly in front of him, preparing for possible danger.

A minute passed, but nothing happened.

Even Dong Zheng himself was beginning to wonder if he was hallucinating due to excessive tension. Just as he was about to speak, a loud noise came from the canyon wall not too far from him. Suddenly, it exploded, revealing a huge hole!

Dust flew everywhere, and everyone raised their arms to cover their heads and faces from flying debris. A bull with all four hooves airborne couldn’t stop itself in time and slammed into the opposite wall, causing the ground under their feet to shake.

The bull shook its head frantically in anger. Its two horns were so sharp that it could pierced a person into a sieve. It was only then that Cui Zuojing realized that there was a person lying on the bull’s back!

The man with blonde hair and gray eyes had one hand on the bull’s right side while the other held gripped the hair on the side of the bull’s neck. He crouched on the bull’s back, just like a brave matador.

Seeing that it couldn’t get rid of this person, the bull rolled to the ground on one side, intending to directly crush Domingo!

But right before the bull could roll to the ground, the man released it with a frighteningly quick reaction speed. He drew a silver arrow from the quiver around his waist, plunged it into the bull’s neck, and rolled away on the ground.

The arrow only entered the bull’s neck shallowly, and the minor pain didn’t draw the bull’s notice at all. It rolled wildly, causing the arrow to hit the ground and directly and completely puncture through the bull’s neck!

Blood rushed out along the thin arrow shaft.

Despite suffering such a fatal injury, the bull clambered up, let out a loud roar, and rushed toward Domingo with horns lowered.

Domingo knelt on the ground, his hair and clothes covered in grass and dust. He pulled off the crossbow around his waist and quickly and efficiently loaded it. Without even looking at his target, he raised his hand and pulled the trigger.

The crossbow arrow accurately pierced the bull’s left eye, right in the center of its pupil.

The arrow penetrated through the bull’s eye, into its brain and brainstem, and instantly took the bull’s life. Its four legs stiffened, but its huge body couldn’t stop its forward momentum. It fell forward, creating an agitated cloud of dust.

It fell right at Domingo’s feet.

Not far away, the people who watched the entire process: =口=

On the boat, they had a little bit of contact with Domingo due to filming needs. In their impression, although this person was very tall, he behaved in a calm manner and wasn’t violent for the sake of it.

Dong Zheng and Cui Zuojing were also surprised. In their view, the incident in the engine room only indicated that Domingo’s arrow skill was very good. At that time, he didn’t directly confront the gluttonous beast and only killed it in a surprised attack.

Facts proved that one can’t judge others based on appearance alone.

Domingo pulled the two arrows out of the bull’s still twitching body. He took a piece of cloth out from his pocket and wiped off the brain and blood matter on the arrows before returning them back into his quiver.

He raised his eyes and finally looked at the people standing to the side. His gaze stayed on Dong Zeng’s face for a moment and then fixed on Cui Zuojing.

So far, Cui Zuojing’s impression of this person was quite good. Therefore, he took the lead and said, “What a coincidence. We meet again.”

Domingo patted the soil off his body and nodded. “A coincidence.”

Cui Zuojing walked to the bull’s corpse and saw that it looked very majestic. Its hooves looked different, and even its two horns had peculiar patterns on it. He raised his eyebrows and said, “This bull–”

Domingo said, “The Bull of Heaven, the legendary symbol of famine.”

Allen turned to a certain page on the codex and said, “Ah yes, it’s called a Gudanna. We need one of its hooves…By the way, do you know about the codex? We have to collect these materials according to the instructions in the codex. If you don’t mind, can you give us one of the bull’s feet?”

Allen thought he could only speak Spanish and English, but Domingo said in Chinese, “Please go ahead.”

Allen exclaimed, “Your spoken Chinese is better than mine. Why do I feel like the whole world can speak Chinese?”

Domingo smiled lightly and watched as Allen ran over, beaming widely. His gray eyes were filled with heavy, complicated emotions. It seemed to be…a kind of reminiscence?

Cui Zuojing’s eyes slowly narrowed.

Allen ran to the bull’s body and waved to Cui Zuojing. “Cui’er, come and cut its hoof.”

Cui Zuojing cut off the bull’s left front hoof with his sword, and Allen took it away before making a mark on the codex.

Allen said, “Right now, we still need six to seven things…Hmmm, it seems like the rest won’t be so easy to acquire, ah.”

Suddenly, Dong Zheng said, “¿De qué ciudad eres?” (What city are you from?) (1)

Domingo glanced at him and immediately replied, “Madrid.”

“No se oye nada de lo que dices en chino.” (You spoke Chinese without an accent.)

Domingo nodded slightly and said, “Thank you.”

The others were confused by their exchange.

Dong Zheng suspected that Domingo wasn’t actually Spanish at all, so he casually said a few Spanish words to test him. However, Domingo replied very smoothly and seemed to really speak Spanish.

Dong Zheng actually didn’t know much Spanish. He’d studied Spanish at university out of interest, but he hadn’t used it in years and had forgotten a lot of it. Therefore, he could only put aside his doubts for the time being.

“How did you get here?” Cui Zuojing asked. They’d landed from the southeast and had crossed the entire island to the canyon to collect materials. But, what about Domingo?

“I followed it.” Domingo pointed to the long-necked bird flying through the sky. His expression was restored to its usual calmness. “There is something wrong with it.”

Everyone looked up at the same time. Cui Zuojing folded his arms across his chest, raised his eyebrows, and said, “So you followed the bird all the way here? You’re fast.”

Cui Zuojing still doubted him, but Domingo didn’t seem to mind at all. He continued, “These birds will return to their nests in the evening. There are so many strange creatures in this place. I thought that maybe I might find some clues.”

Dong Zheng said, “Then let’s go and take a look.”

They followed the bird as it flew forward. Although it wasn’t moving too fast, they still had difficulties catching up.

The sun was setting and the last light shrouded everything in shadows. They chased after the bird and traveled for several thousand meters before coming across a black graveyard.

Countless graves were scattered on the floor, fairly spread apart. Crosses were inserted into the graves at a slanted angle, and many of them were already crumbling.

The long-necked bird landed on one of the crosses, tucked its wings, and turned to look around.

It was at this moment that everyone realized it had the face of a human.

Dong Linhai couldn’t help but whispered, “What the hell is this? Grave Robbers Chronicles (2)? Have we arrived at the Temple of Heaven?”

The human-faced bird raised its head and let out two mournful howls toward the sky. Then, it slowly disappeared.

More and more birds were coming from a distance. They travelled much faster, as if anxious to get home before dark.

Everyone hid behind a protrusion on the mountain wall. Cui Zuojing looked at these creatures, then he turned to Domingo and said, “You know what this thing is.”

Domingo said, “They’re called Ba. They first appeared in ancient Egypt mythology and represent the spiritual force. That is, the soul in everyone’s body. After people died and were mummified, Ba will follow the sun, leave the cemetery early in the morning, forage in the forest, and return to the flesh at sunset.”

More birds were returning to the cemetery, and each one landed at a certain cross. They let out mournful cries to the setting sun before returning to the sleeping bodies underground.

Allen held a flashlight in one hand and flipped through the codex. He said, “This is not part of the collection.”

“There’s something over there.” Domingo pointed toward a group of graves. He leaned out with half his body. Because of his height, he ended up pressing against Cui Zuojing’s body and his warm breath brushed across the side of the youth’s neck as he spoke. But, Cuo Zuojing didn’t notice it at all and only asked, “Where?”

Dong Zheng: “……….”

Dong Zheng took a deep breath, unable to restrain the sourness in his heart.

He hadn’t even been willing to start yet. How did he suddenly get overtaken by a bypasser who came out of nowhere?

Dong Zheng pulled Cui Zuojing back and said, “Look, there’s something shining.”

He was about to pull the youth directly into his arms, but Cuo Zuojing stumbled. Dong Zheng’s breath on his ear made his ear a little itchy. Wondering what was wrong, Cui Zuojing gave him a questioning look.

Dong Zheng just looked at him, not speaking.

“???” Cui Zuojing felt that the atmosphere was very strange. He rubbed his itchy ear and looked in the direction Dong Zheng was pointing at.

Dong Zheng glanced at Domingo. The blond-haired and gray-eyed man was also looking at him. Amusement flashed across his eyes, as if he’d seen through Dong Zheng’s shameful thoughts.

Dong Zheng frowned. He’d always been a relatively calm person, but at this moment, he wanted to explode.

This was a feeling he’d never experienced before.

The sky had completely darkened, and the green light became more conspicuous as it glowed in the middle of the graveyard.

Cui Zuojing stepped out from behind the protrusion and quietly walked toward the graveyard.

He’d planned it well. If his action alarmed any creatures, he would immediately return to the prisoner’s space to hide. As long as Dong Zheng was safe, he would also be safe.

He approached the tomb step by step. All the human-faced birds had already returned to their dead bodies. In the darkness, the emerald-green light glowed.

Cui Zuojing got closer and realized that it was an emerald that was cut flat. There was a faint light gleaming like liquid inside.

The gemstone was inlaid in the center of the tallest cross in the graveyard. Unlike the wooden crosses that surrounded it, this particular cross was carved from hard, milky white rock and was engraved with complicated patterns and incomprehensible text. It was easy to see that this was the most important tomb in the entire graveyard.

Who was buried here?

The British expedition that arrived here hundreds of years ago? The codex didn’t specify how many people were in their expedition. However, if their country had invested in the exploration, then the number of people in their group would be numerous.

If most of these people had died on the island and were buried here by their remaining companions, then the person in that grave should be a leader of some kind.

Cui Zuojing thought this gemstone might be a very important object. When everyone else saw that there was no danger, they followed him one after another.

Lin Hangzhi said, “It looks like a key item. Do you want to take it out?”

Dong Linhai said, “I think that if we take it down directly, the brother underground might think that we’re taking his thing away and crawl out to take it back.”

Dong Zheng raised his hand and lightly touched the gemstone. It had a slightly cool touch, with unusual data fluctuations. The fluctuation was fairly peaceful and friendly, and Dong Zheng allowed it to enter his program kernel unimpeded.

“This thing shouldn’t be dangerous.”

Cui Zuojing nodded. He circled around the cross again but found no other clues.

“Then…should I just break it off?”

“Wait a minute.” Allen took Wang Que and ran some distance away. In case anything happened, he could immediately take Wang Que, who had yet to recover, away. “Okay, you can take it out now.”

Cui Zuojing said, “You all should also move a little farther away.”

After everyone had completely left the graveyard, Cui Zuojing took out a piece of paper from his pocket and gently inserted it into the gap between the gem and the cross. With a strong tug, the emerald fell into his palm.

He turned the gemstone over and saw that there were some words written in Greek letters at the back. Unfortunately, he couldn’t understand it.

While he was observing the emerald, the stone cross slowly began to crack and soon collapsed into countless broken rubble.

The earth trembled, and a groaning sound came from underground. A face appeared on the grave next to where Cui Zuojing was standing and angrily screamed at him. A pair of wings loomed behind it, as if wanting to drag itself out.

But the sun had already disappeared.

Without light, these birds probably wouldn’t be able to get out.

Cui Zuojing thought so. He put the gemstone in his pocket and casually walked toward the group. Suddenly, a hand grabbed his ankle.

It was dry and hard to the touch and seemed intent on crushing Cui Zuojing’s ankle.

He lowered his head and saw the shriveled hand of a corpse struggling desperately to free itself from the ground. He said, “Hi.”

Then, he lifted his other foot and kicked it hard.

With a crack, the shriveled hand broke into two pieces. The corpse underground was dead, after all, and had become brittle with time. How could it withstand Cui Zuojing’s blow?

Even the body and soul could not stop these despicable foreigners. The bodies awakened one after another and struggled to escape the confines of their grave. In the next moment, the entire canyon shook violently, and countless shriveled hands shot out through the graves, reaching for the sky, as if trying hard to grab something.

By itself, a single, shriveled corpse was very weak. Cui Zuojing could destroy it casually, but a large number of corpses were harder to contend with. If there were enough ants, it could kill an elephant.

Seeing that the situation wasn’t good, he could only run away. The rest of the group also ran. The shaking continued and became even more severe. Rubbles fell from the cliffs above, and they had to raise their hands to protect their heads and rushed to find a suitable shelter.

It seemed that this gemstone was indeed an important prop. At this time, Cui Zuojing still had time to analyze the situation: the corpses only came out after the gemstone was removed. Did they want to take the gemstone back, or was the gemstone originally used to suppress them?

Corpses continued to crawl out of the graves one after another. They were covered with mud, and their eyeballs had already rotted away, leaving behind only two black holes. They were dressed in the clothes of European medieval sailors, just as Cui Zuojing had guessed. It was the crew of the British expedition team.

With a loud sound, a huge rock fell from halfway up the canyon wall, blocking the path in front of them.

“Over here!” Domingo immediately turned around and ran to the right. Everyone could only believe him and follow after him.

The beam from Dong Zheng’s flashlight swayed continuously as he ran, illuminating the canyon wall in front of him. Allen couldn’t help but howled, “It’s a dead end, brother. Are you sure you want to go there?”

“Trust me.” Domingo ran to the canyon wall, stopped, took a deep breath, and slammed his shoulder hard against the stone wall.

The stone wall had a smooth seam.

When Dong Linhai saw this, he also slammed his shoulder against it. He hit it hard and heard a muffled, hallowed sound. He happily said, “There’s a passage inside!”

“Move away!” Allen retreated more than 50 meters, bypassing Cui Zuojing, who gave him a doubtful look.

Allen bent slightly. His feet kicked hard against the ground as he activated his ability. His whole body instantly rushed toward the stone wall like an arrow. He turned his shoulder and slammed into the wall.

Crash!

The stone wall crumbled, opening up a hole about two-centimeters thick. Domingo rushed in first. Allen got up from the rubble in a daze, and Lin Hangzhi pulled him along. Everyone ran deeper into the dark cave.

The cave’s structure was very complicated. There were two to three forks between each intersection, which meandered down into unknown depths. They ran wildly behind Domingo, and the noises from the corpses soon disappeared.

Assuming that they were temporarily safe, they all gradually slowed down to look around.

This cave looked like it was formed naturally. There were many crystals embedded in the cave wall, their blue fluorescent barely illuminant. Water dripped steadily from the stalactites on the ceiling, falling in pitter patters on to the stalagmites directly down below.

The cave was cold and damp. Lin Hangzhi was covered all over with sweat, but now that he’d stopped running, he felt a little cold.

Now that they finally had time to breathe, Dong Zheng looked at Domingo, who was observing the cave wall. He frowned and said, “You seemed familiar with this place.”

After he said this, the others also noticed the oddness. “Yeah, how did you know this cave was behind that stone wall?”

Domingo turned around and calmly said to Dong Zheng, “It’s inconvenient for me to say. No one stipulates that I must tell you everything.”

The atmosphere suddenly became tense.

Dong Linhai stood up vigilantly, ready to take action if Domingo made the slightest move.

“Didn’t you say it’s your own business? Similarly, we’re just asking. You don’t need to make everyone unhappy by being like this.” Like this, Cui Zuojing managed to ease the situation a little. In truth, he was too lazy to care about this kind of thing. He was never a peacemaker. But Domingo, for some reason, always gave him a very dangerous, if familiar, feeling.

This man couldn’t be messed with.

Domingo still gave Cui Zuojing a lot of face. Hearing this, he merely continued to look at the wall, as if wanting to stare it down. Dong Linhai curled his lips and whispered, “Brother, do you really want to continue traveling with him? I always feel like he will cheat us.”

“Let’s wait and see what happens. There are so many of us, but it wouldn’t hurt to be careful.”

At present, Domingo had provided them with a lot more help than he was dangerous. This island was strange, with too many creatures. Even Cui Zuojing and Victor, who were more knowledgeable in comparison to them, weren’t able to recognize some of these creatures. But, this Domingo could do so every time.

Moreover, he didn’t look like he’d prepared by vigorously studying the contents of the box in advance. That was to say, these knowledge were typically something found in various books, the contents of which he seemed to easily remember.

This person was dangerous.

—————————-

Translation Notes:
(1) “¿De qué ciudad eres?” (What city are you from?) – I’m only translating the Chinese text so I don’t know if the author’s translations of the Spanish words in this chapter are correct or not.

(2) Grave Robbers Chronicles –  An online web novel by Xu Lie (pen name Nanpai Sanshu), published on the Qidian platform in 2006, that became one of the most popular novel series in China in 2007. It’s basically about grave robbing/tomb raiding adventures, similar to it’s popular counterpart Ghost Blows Out the Light by Zheng Muye.

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