Liu Dashao glared fiercely at the merman and said, “Guns are useless against this creature. I’ve fought him twice and discovered his weakness is his head. We have to rip his head off!”
Fan Debiao immediately frowned and said, “That won’t work, brother! You have superior martial arts skills and the Celestial Sword, so you can fight him hand-to-hand, but we don’t have martial arts or powerful weapons. If we engage in close combat, we’ll be finished with one slash from him!”
Hearing Fan Debiao’s words, Liu Dashao became so angry he nearly lost his breath, “You always talk like that! I’ll handle the close combat while you shoot from behind. If you’re too slow, you’ll end up dying by your own bullets. What I meant earlier was for you not to get in the way, understand?”
Fan Debiao angrily replied, “So you’re looking down on us, huh? Fine, Da Guoguo, let’s step aside and watch the show.” With that, he stormed off toward the side of the tomb passage.
Seeing Fan Debiao’s frustration, Da Guoguo immediately gave him a stern look and said, “Come back here! Do you realize what kind of situation we’re in? We can’t afford to be stubborn now!” Reluctantly, Fan Debiao returned.
After a while of discussion among the group, Fan Debiao noticed the merman hadn’t moved yet. He asked Liu Dashao, “Hey Boss, we’ve been discussing for so long, but that merman still hasn’t attacked. Is he waiting for us to make the first move?”
Liu Dashao shook his head, “How should I know? The head’s on his body. Maybe after we rip it off, we can take a look inside?”
After hearing Liu Dashao’s words, Fan Debiao made a disgusted expression and turned to look at the merman.
After a while, the merman began making “He… He…” sounds. They watched in horror as new scales began growing from the places where old ones had fallen off.
Da Guoguo shouted, “Oh no! This bastard is regenerating his energy!”
Before the words had even finished, Liu Dashao, with lightning speed, charged toward the merman, sword in hand.
Fan Debiao said, “This bastard really is cunning, pretending to do nothing. He was actually regenerating his energy. If I’d known earlier, I should’ve shot him a couple of times.”
Cai Qingchong ignored Fan Debiao, his eyes fixed on the battle between Liu Dashao and the merman. He watched as the merman slashed at Liu Dashao with his hands, only to have each attack deflected by Liu’s Celestial Sword.
Fan Debiao, watching in awe, thought to himself how miraculous the Celestial Sword was—how it could not only withstand the merman’s powerful strikes but also neutralize his attacks.
Realizing one hand wasn’t enough to defeat Liu Dashao, the merman now used both hands. This made Liu Dashao somewhat overwhelmed, as he could only block and dodge.
Even so, Liu still managed to launch attacks toward the merman’s head, but each time they were deflected.
Seeing Liu Dashao struggling alone, Da Guoguo took out his dagger and rushed to join the fight alongside Liu.
Seeing Da Guoguo charge in, Cai Qingchong ran to Su Yougui and Fan Debiao, saying, “You two move aside. If we can’t handle it, run!” With that, he also charged forward with his dagger.
Liu Dashao, Cai Qingchong, and Da Guoguo were all martial artists with unique skills. Together, they overwhelmed the merman. The three of them formed a triangle formation—Cai and Da attacking from both sides while Liu targeted the front. At the moment the merman was distracted by Cai and Da’s attacks, Liu Dashao instantly plunged his Celestial Sword into the merman’s throat.
As Liu tried to slice the merman’s head off sideways, the merman suddenly slashed at Liu with his left hand. Since Liu’s sword was still embedded in the merman’s throat, there was no way to pull it out in time to block. Liu Dashao was about to be killed when suddenly three gunshots rang out—”Ta-ta-ta”—and the merman’s hand was knocked back by the bullets. Seizing the opportunity, Liu Dashao swung his sword sideways, and the merman’s head fell to the ground.
As the merman’s head hit the ground, its body also collapsed.
Liu Dashao turned around and saw Fan Debiao proudly holding a Thompson submachine gun, saying, “See? In the end, defeating this merman still relied on me!”
No one paid attention to Fan Debiao. Da Guoguo lit a match and threw it onto the merman’s body. The raging flames quickly reduced the merman to ashes. Cai Qingchong also disposed of the head.
With the merman finally destroyed, everyone was exhausted. Fan Debiao suggested he couldn’t take another fight and needed to rest. Liu Dashao nodded in agreement.
Slowly, they walked out of the tomb passage and into a large chamber about the size of half a basketball court to rest.
From the cave entrance until now, they had faced the Yin Sha, man-eating flowers, and the black-scaled merman. Everyone was extremely tired. Upon entering the chamber, they didn’t even bother to examine the surroundings before collapsing to rest.
As Liu Dashao looked around, he noticed a red dot nearby that flickered on and off. He thought to himself, “We just defeated one monster—could another one appear now?”
Seeing the red dot, Liu Dashao didn’t dare to speak out loud and quietly crept toward it.
As he approached the red dot, suddenly a beam of light shone into his face. A voice came from the source, “What are you doing wandering around instead of resting?”
Hearing this voice, Liu Dashao realized it was Da Guoguo. The red dot was just Da Guoguo smoking a cigarette, explaining its flickering light.
Liu Dashao couldn’t help but laugh as he walked up to Da Guoguo and asked him to lower his flashlight, saying, “You scared me! I thought it was another monster.”
Taking a puff of his cigarette, Da Guoguo said, “Someone has to stay awake while the others rest. If something suddenly appeared, we’d all be finished. I’m keeping watch for you all!”
Hearing this, Liu Dashao said, “Oh,” then asked Da Guoguo, “Why do you always smoke, whether there’s something happening or not? Smoking too much isn’t good for your health!”
Da Guoguo replied, “This is an old habit of mine. I remember once when we were robbing a tomb in Yingtan, Jiangxi, we encountered a powerful corpse even fiercer than what we’ve faced here. I was caught by it and thought I was done for, so I prepared to smoke my last cigarette. Unexpectedly, as soon as I lit the cigarette, the corpse seemed to be possessed by fear and started running around wildly. While it was in a frenzy, we all attacked together and defeated it. Since then, I’ve always smoked while tomb raiding, and it became a habit.”
As Da Guoguo continued telling his story with great interest, Liu Dashao’s eyelids began drooping, his head nodding involuntarily. Seeing Liu’s drowsiness, Da Guoguo stopped talking and patted his shoulder.
“Brother Liu, you go get some rest. I’ll keep watch. Don’t worry!”
Liu Dashao nodded, gave an embarrassed smile, and found a spot to fall asleep.
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