What kind of stone was this well wall built from? I tried a few more times, but none of them worked. Sun Fatty kept urging me from above, and in a moment of desperation, I drew the short sword. I pointed the tip at the same spot I had just scraped and prepared to make a light mark. The moment the sword tip touched the well wall, a powerful suction suddenly burst out of it. I wasn't ready—my grip slipped, and the sword sank into the wall as easily as if it were tofu.
Though I reacted instantly and grabbed the hilt again, a third of the blade was already buried in the stone. As I gripped it, I could clearly feel a force pulling it inward. Just as I instinctively tried to pull the sword out, I heard Yang Jun shouting from above, "Don't pull it out!" Unfortunately, his warning came half a beat too late. The moment my brain registered it, my hand had already yanked the sword free.
As the blade came out, a puff of black gas burst from the slit and surged straight toward my face. Death Miasma. My mind buzzed. I knew the Death Miasma clashed with air and that the best way to deal with it was to run to an open area. But here in this environment, I had nowhere to go. All I could do was watch as the black gas rushed toward me.
Just when I thought I was done for, a man suddenly appeared in front of me out of thin air. Before I could even see who he was, he shoved me aside and stood in the very spot I'd been occupying. In an instant, the Death Miasma engulfed him entirely.
He was completely shrouded in it, but I could still faintly see his white hair. It was Yang Jun. And then he did something I could hardly believe—he puffed up his chest, took a deep breath, and sucked in all the Death Miasma around him through his mouth. Not only that, but he kept inhaling as he leaned closer to the crack in the wall, until his whole body was nearly pressed up against it. Nearly all the Death Miasma emerging from the fissure was sucked in by him. I stared in stunned silence.
Above, Sun Fatty shouted, "Lazi! Grab the cable—I'll pull you up!" I seized the electric cable and quickly wrapped it around Yang Jun's shoulders and back. Then I grabbed hold, pressed my legs together, and started climbing. When I reached the top of the well, Sun Fatty and Hugo each took one of my hands and pulled me up. Together, the three of us hauled Yang Jun up as well.
After we were all out, Yang Jun looked a bit feeble. We dragged him more than a hundred meters from the well. As expected, the Death Miasma clashed with the air and dissipated into wisps before vanishing entirely.
Yang Jun had changed. Like Wu Rendi, he had previously been white from head to toe. But now his face had turned ashen, and his fingernails looked like they were painted black. His white hair remained, but it looked dry and brittle, more like a cheap wig.
He looked quite weakened. After catching his breath for a while, Yang Jun glanced at me, and his gaze startled me. The whites of his eyes had turned a dull gray. These must have been the aftereffects of inhaling the Death Miasma. If it had been anyone else, they'd have died a dozen times over.
If I hadn't caused the trouble, he wouldn't have ended up like this. I felt guilty and said, "Yang Jun, are you okay? I owe you one. If you ever need anything, just ask." Yang Jun looked at me, took a few heavy breaths, and said, "You don't owe me. That was a debt I owed Wu Mian. Any favors, tally them up with him."
Sun Fatty chuckled at the two of us and said, "Not to be that guy, but how long are you two going to keep passing this debt around?" Then he turned to Yang Jun and added, "Seriously though, you just inhaled a huge amount of Death Miasma. You sure you're okay? That amount would've sent a normal person straight to reincarnation."
Yang Jun stared at the thinning miasma from the well and replied coldly, "If I could die that easily, I'd be long gone. You think death comes so easily to me?" Sun Fatty laughed awkwardly and looked at his snowy white hair. "Okay, okay, show off all you want."
Just then, Director Hugo let out a strange cough behind us. He was looking past us with a peculiar expression. Sun Fatty signaled me with his eyes. I had just started to turn when a voice came from behind, "I was wondering where you all had gone. Thought maybe you'd slipped onto a boat and headed back to the mainland. But looks like you found something good."
As the voice spoke, Hao Zhengyi and Crow walked up to us.
Sun Fatty didn't seem the least bit surprised. Smiling, he said, "Director Hao—Brother Hao—what took you so long? We were just discussing whether to go look for you. Lazi was worried you wouldn't find us. But I said, no way—who's Director Hao? How could you miss a spot this obvious?" He glanced at Crow, who stood behind Hao Zhengyi with a sullen expression, and made an exaggerated 'aha' face. "Wait a sec… don't tell me you got lost on this tiny island?"
"It's not too late to arrive," Hao Zhengyi replied, both he and Crow eyeing the well that still leaked thin wisps of miasma. Crow said slowly, "We should be thanking you. If it weren't for all the ruckus over here, we'd still be wandering the shoreline."
After speaking, Hao looked around at us. His gaze paused on Yang Jun for a moment, then shifted back to me. Technically, Hugo was the senior among us now, but Hao Zhengyi's eyes ultimately settled on Sun Fatty. With a faint smile, he pointed toward the dry well and asked, "So… are you going to tell me what exactly happened over there?"
To my surprise, Sun Fatty recounted everything he had just seen on the well platform without adding a single exaggeration—he told it exactly as it was. Hao Zhengyi listened with narrowed eyes. When Sun Fatty finished, Hao kept his head lowered, pondering Sun Fatty's words. He couldn't find any flaws in the account, but he still didn't fully trust Sun Fatty. Hao glanced up at me with a slight frown, then turned his gaze back to Sun Fatty and said with some doubt, "You say this Death Miasma appeared after Shen La stabbed the well wall with a dagger? What kind of dagger was it?"
Sun Fatty showed some impatience and said, "I knew you wouldn't believe me even if I told the truth. Want me to say it again? How about this—I let you take a hit first, and once you get hurt, I'll tell you the real story. No joke, if you don't believe me, just jump into the well and see if there's a stab mark on the well wall."
Hao Zhengyi looked at me again. Especially when he caught sight of the short sword's hilt sticking out from my waist, his eyes flashed with a moment of surprise but quickly returned to normal. Hao gave a self-deprecating chuckle, looked at the short sword, and said to me, "Looks like I really misjudged. That's a good piece of equipment you've got there. Keep it safe—if you lose it, you'll regret it in your next life." After that, he ignored the rest of us, turned around, and made a gesture toward Crow. The two of them wordlessly walked together toward the dry well.
Even now, Death Miasma still continuously seeped from the well mouth. Although the flow had slowed, a single breath of it would be lethal to a normal person. Neither Hao Zhengyi nor Crow dared to be careless; they stopped more than twenty meters away from the dry well. Hao half-kneeled to the ground, pressing his head to the earth, listening for a while. Then he circled the well about thirty meters to the right and repeated the same position—ear pressed to the ground—listening for more than ten seconds. He changed positions like this five or six times before finally locating the ideal spot. Hao nodded at Crow and said something, but they were too far away for me to hear clearly.
Crow pulled out a folding entrenching shovel from his backpack and began carefully digging a small hole about half a meter square at the spot Hao had chosen. He was extremely cautious, almost every few shovelfuls Hao signaled him to stop. Hao would press his ear to the ground, and only when he confirmed there were no abnormal sounds underground did he allow Crow to continue.
We watched behind them, increasingly baffled about what they were doing as Crow dug. Sun Fatty asked me a question. When I gave no answer, Sun Fatty turned to Director Hugo and said, "Director Hugo, I'm just saying, what exactly are these two guys trying to do here?"
Hugo spread his hands helplessly and replied, "Sun, if I knew, I'd gladly share. But first, your Senior Director Gao has things to discuss with me. Under these circumstances, asking me is less effective than just asking him." At this, Nicholas Hugo's expression became somewhat strange. He sighed, then said directly to Sun Fatty, "Sun, both you and Director Gao are smart men. But you should have your own character; you don't need to mimic everything he does." Sun Fatty looked somewhat embarrassed at Hugo's words, but quickly found a way to change the subject.
By then, Crow had finished digging the hole and pulled out something from his backpack. I recognized it immediately—something familiar from my time in the special forces: roughly two kilograms of plastic explosives. They were planning to blow something up here! I finally understood Hao Zhengyi's plan. He found the rate at which the Death Miasma was leaking too slow and wanted to detonate a point at the place around the dry well where the Death Miasma was densest, hoping to vent the poisonous gas below more quickly. Quite impressive—just by listening on the ground, he could locate the densest spot of Death Miasma.
When I realized this, Sun Fatty did too. He stopped beating around the bush and called out loudly to Hao Zhengyi, "What are you trying to do? Hao Zhengyi! Are you trying to kill everyone on this island?"
Hao ignored Sun Fatty. He was busy installing the control power source onto the plastic explosives. After setting the power line, Hao and Crow walked back. Hao looked at Sun Fatty and said, "A word of advice—within a radius of five hundred meters from this well, the area will be covered by Death Miasma. For your safety, you should leave and find a place upwind."
Sun Fatty snorted, "No need to be polite, we'll stand guard for you. I don't believe you'd really sacrifice yourself."
Hao smiled at Sun Fatty and said, "If you want to stay, I won't stop you." As he spoke, he took out a small porcelain bottle and poured two black pills the size of broad beans. Carefully, he placed one pill in each ear. Then from his backpack he pulled out a strange mask woven from metal wire. Judging by its color and sheen, it appeared to be silver wire. The mask had a layered lining. Hao poured the remaining pills from the porcelain bottle into the lining, sealed it, and put the mask on. The edges were specially treated to fit tightly against his skin, completely covering his mouth and nose. Finally, Hao took out a pair of goggles resembling diving glasses. After putting them on, his eyes, ears, mouth, and nose were sealed off from the outside world. Crow, standing next to him, wore the same goggles and mask, dressed identically.
I understood their purpose. The Death Miasma's nature was quite harsh; it could not penetrate pores and could only attack through the seven orifices. By sealing eyes, ears, mouth, and nose, they blocked all seven orifices from invasion. Strictly speaking, this set of goggles and mask was not particularly rare. I had heard from Xiong Wanyi's second department that when dealing with tombs saturated with Death Miasma, they also prepared similar equipment. From the current situation, Hao Zhengyi had long prepared for this; carrying such gear showed he had never given up on the Yin Convergence Point.
After putting on the goggles and masks, Hao looked at Sun Fatty and said in a muffled voice, "Are you sure you want to stay here? Because I'm about to start the detonation." Sun Fatty was trying to stall, hoping to buy time to get Xiao Heshang back. For Hao Zhengyi, Xiao Heshang seemed like his natural enemy. Sun Fatty looked at Hao and said, "Director Hao, I'm just saying, you really don't give us any face. Wait a little longer—maybe Consultant Xiao and Director Hao can arrive together, right, Lazi… Lazi!"
While Sun Fatty spoke, I was squatting, staring blankly at the place where Crow had just buried the explosives. When Crow dug the hole, something felt off, but I couldn't quite pinpoint it.
"Lazi, what are you staring at?" Sun Fatty followed my gaze and looked at the wires extending from the hole. "Lazi, what did you see? What did he just throw in? I'm telling you, it felt wrong. Such a nice hole, and he dug it slanting…"
Slanting? Something stirred inside me. It was like something was on the tip of my tongue, but I just couldn't say it. At this moment, Hao Zhengyi grew impatient with Sun Fatty's stalling. "My time is limited. I can't wait for your Bureau's troops to arrive. If you insist on staying, then you're on your own. After all, not everyone here is immune to Death Miasma." When he said this last sentence, Hao glanced at Yang Jun, who didn't seem to notice and kept his head lowered, still looking weak and dispirited.