Chapter 71: The Final Battle

  The situation we are in now is called a trapped dragon. The underground water veins completely flooded the tomb passage, thus protecting the safety of the tomb chamber. A dragon swimming in the water does not want to ascend to heaven, meaning taking pleasure and forgetting about Sichuan. But for us humans, this is a fatal deadlock.

  The water level is rising rapidly, even faster than the stock market rebound. The monster seems to be retreating backwards in fear, I don't know if it's afraid of us or the water. The coffin threw something at me, and when I caught it, it turned out to be the Diamond Sutra. This sutra seems to be written on paper that has been soaked in oil, so it's not afraid of being submerged in water, and after going through all these waterways, it remains intact.

  "I didn't have time to remind you just now, and after I arrived here, I forgot to give it to you. Now is the perfect opportunity for you to use it."

  Yes, I actually forgot this treasure that once saved my life. It seems like my heart is still not calm enough. Holding the scripture to my chest, I casually recite a passage that comes to mind:

  "Subhuti! I recall the past countless asamkhyeyas of kalpas, when in the presence of Dipankara Buddha, I met and made offerings to eight hundred four thousand million billion Buddhas, all of whom I served without exception. If someone in the final period of time is able to receive, read, recite, and hold this sutra, the merit they will gain will be a hundred times greater than the merit gained by me when I served those Buddhas. Subhuti!"

  The water level on the ground has reached waist-deep, and the situation is under our control. Upon hearing this, the monster no longer attacks and has lost its initial ferocity. Pengpeng and Coffin quickly swam to its back, wanting to find the bird pattern we had imagined on its body. Just as it seemed to have reached its limit of collapse, the monster suddenly sat down in the water, splashing a large wave of water, and coincidentally, it hit my throat.

  "Cough, cough, cough." I coughed repeatedly and the Buddhist scriptures also came to a halt.

  That monster suddenly gained strength, as if it had been relieved, and jumped out of the water with a burst of energy. Using the rebound from the sky to accelerate, in an instant, I was trampled underwater. Before I could react, the scripture in my hand didn't know where it floated away. My stomach was stepped on by its foot, which was even bigger than Yao Ming's, and I couldn't move. If the water hadn't slowed down its impact, I'm afraid I would have been torn apart by now. It only had one leg left, with all its weight pressing down on me, and my hands were desperately trying to lift its foot, but couldn't muster any strength. I picked up the scattered stones from the ground and hit them against its leg, but even that was ineffective in the water.

  "Hold on, we're coming to rescue you." It was the voice from the coffin again, a profound skill in ancient China known as "transmitting sound into secrecy", using internal energy to transmit one's words directly into each person's ear.

  There's not much oxygen in my throat, but I'm still holding on. I don't know why, after so many hypoxic crises, I can actually increase the time I hold my breath. The key is that I believe those two people will definitely find a way to save me.

  The monster trampled me, and it couldn't move by itself. Tongtong and Coffin teased it around. Tongtong swam to the side of the monster without arms, raised his dagger and stabbed, but was slapped open by the monster due to lack of speed. At this time, the rope in Coffin's backpack suddenly wrapped around its neck, which was also the only successful attempt after countless failures. Coffin's agile body pulled the other end of the rope and stepped on it, clamping its neck with both feet, and suddenly leaned back, forming a head-down posture. It turned out that he wanted to find the source of life at the monster's waist. The monster seemed to know his purpose, and shook its body frantically, trying to shake Coffin off, but because it was stepping on me, the range of motion was not large.

  "Friend, knife." The coffin maker shouted loudly, apparently he had found the location.

  But Pong was blocked by the monster's uncontrolled twisting and couldn't move forward. In a moment of desperation, he flung his knife with great speed and accuracy. It would be easy to find another knife like this in the world, but finding the person who threw it would be difficult. His knife had a nickname: Little Li Flying Knife, never missing its mark. Of course, this was just my imagination, as the dagger hadn't even reached before being knocked into the water by the monster again. Seeing the coffin's legs trembling and its brain swelling with blood, I opened my mouth wide underwater, starting to drink in water to sustain my meager life. Pong prepared to use his hard skull for a final strike.

  Suddenly the monster let out a loud roar and fell backwards, landing in the water. As I looked at it, I saw that its legs had disappeared, leaving only a round stump. I stumbled out of the water, holding the dagger that had fallen into the water, with a large foot floating beside me.

  The coffin also crawled out of the water, snatched the weapon from my hand, and dived again. I couldn't help but feel a little sorry for this monster, a good product of nature, was actually carved into a 'human stick' by us.