Tomb of the Sea Episode 31 Recap
> Tomb of the Sea Recap
On the second day at the inn, Li Cu and his companions were urged by their guide, Chegaliba, to set out on camels, with Lan Ting's film crew joining them. The vast desert stretched before them, familiar to Li Cu from his previous journey, but a daunting challenge for the others who struggled with riding camels.
Li Cu shared the survival tips Wu Xie had once given him, advising them to write posthumous papers because in the deep desert, even the smallest incident could be fatal. He stressed the importance of including a body collector's contact information prominently, ensuring their families could afford the retrieval fee, or they would be buried on the spot. His friends, initially skeptical and thinking he was exaggerating, grudgingly complied.
Soon, they arrived at a dry sea, a place Chegaliba claimed was where he found the broken stones he displayed at his inn. Li Cu felt a strange familiarity with the area, though Liang Wan thought all desert seas looked alike. Su Wan discovered another stone tablet, similar to the one they had seen the night before, also bearing indecipherable patterns. Lan Ting, unexpectedly appearing nearby, identified the inscriptions as ancient Altaic script, a language from which Mongolian originated.
She explained that these tablets were part of a larger set, revealing a more sinister twist to the story she had told last night. The central army, having previously celebrated a victory in GuTongJing, had asked a local herdsman to lead them back to the sea, unaware he had become a ferocious ghost intending to lead them to their doom.
The soldiers, upon reaching the sea, celebrated, removing their armor and weapons by a bonfire, but failed to realize it was all a trap. By moonlight, every soldier vanished overnight, leaving only their empty armor and weapons behind. This chilling tale deeply affected Li Cu, who found himself recalling his own harrowing experiences in the desert with Wu Xie, involving figures like Surige, Galu, Marera, and Master Ma.
He began to see his own group as mirroring the doomed soldiers, caught in a grand conspiracy. His friends, however, dismissed it as merely a ghost story. As they prepared to leave, Lan Ting asked Li Cu to take a group photo.
Upon seeing the developed image, Li Cu was startled; he recognized the faces from photos he had found in buried cameras during his first desert trip—the missing tour group Wu Xie had spoken of, who had met with an accident. Shocked, he dropped the camera. Lan Ting picked it up and gave him an unsettling smile, confirming Li Cu’s growing suspicions about her and her crew.
Li Cu immediately urged his friends to leave, convinced that Lan Ting's group was dangerous and they couldn't stay with them. Chegaliba, initially unwilling to abandon them, was quickly swayed when Lan Ting's group announced they would not proceed to GuTongJing and would remain in their current location. Observing their strange behavior, Chegaliba agreed they were problematic and spurred Li Cu's group to depart. Chegaliba then expressed his reluctance to continue to GuTongJing, viewing the encounter as a bad omen.
Li Cu, however, gave him an ultimatum: either refund half their money and leave them the remaining camels, or continue as their guide. Unwilling to incur such a loss, Chegaliba agreed to take them but insisted on a quick in-and-out visit to GuTongJing. He also pointed out that their earlier delay meant they couldn't reach their destination before nightfall and suggested resting.
Li Cu, determined to press on, offered an additional payment equivalent to two more lambs to ensure they traveled through the night, which Chegaliba reluctantly accepted. During this exchange, Yang Hao and Su Wan noted Li Cu's growing intensity and how he had changed since entering the desert. As they walked through the dark desert, Li Cu noticed their route deviated from the map. He angrily confronted Chegaliba, accusing him of not following the agreed path.
Chegaliba claimed he was taking a shortcut, insisting that the map showed a detour. Their argument escalated, nearly turning physical, before Liang Wan, Su Wan, and Yang Hao intervened. Liang Wan urged Li Cu to trust their guide, but Li Cu, frustrated, retorted that he never wanted a guide in the first place and was now wasting precious time. He adamantly insisted on following his map.
After continuing for a while on Li Cu's chosen path, Liang Wan expressed concern that the landscape seemed unchanged, making her doubt their direction. Li Cu, brandishing the map, assured her that both the map and their direction were correct. Yang Hao, however, voiced skepticism about Wu Xie's map and reliability, sparking another heated argument with Li Cu. Liang Wan once again stepped in to calm the situation.
Su Wan consulted his watch and, after checking the map, estimated their destination was only about ten kilometers away. He conceded that Chegaliba's shortcut might have saved them effort, but Li Cu remained resolute in his decision to follow the map. Liang Wan, though weary, expressed a hopeful sentiment that Li Cu was making the right choice.
Meanwhile, Zhang Rishan and Luo Que remained trapped in the underground palace, their food and water supplies critically low, barely enough for one more meal. Zhang Rishan knew that three days had already passed, and the underground river was about to appear, a crucial deadline for his agreed rendezvous with Wu Xie, making escape imperative.
He pondered the connection between the stone statue and the items Chen Jinshui had taken, realizing that the area's abundance of silicified woods meant that some, buried for extended periods in low oxygen and cold, had mutated into blood silicified trees. These trees contained black stones that could resonate with the iron in blood, drawing it out. Luo Que, concerned for Zhang Rishan's safety, offered to sacrifice himself, believing Zhang Rishan's life to be more valuable.
Zhang Rishan rebuked him, asserting that unlike some members of the Clan Chen, he valued every life equally. A withered tree root then fell from the statue's head, which Zhang Rishan identified as belonging to the sacred tree of the Clan Chen, noting that such dead foliage should not simply fall. Luo Que discovered that the black stones not only affected human blood but also absorbed plant cells.
This realization gave Zhang Rishan an idea: he would use the stones to corrode the tree branches blocking their exit above. Zhang Rishan directed Luo Que to cast a fishing hook and rope upwards towards the roots, aiming blindly due to the darkness. Despite the hook being worn and difficult to maneuver, Luo Que persevered through several attempts until it finally caught. Zhang Rishan took the lead in climbing.
They successfully ascended the rope and then navigated through the hole created by the roots, emerging from the burned Chen family house. Zhang Rishan remarked that he had worried he might not make it out this time, but Luo Que replied that he had always felt Zhang Rishan was not one to die easily. Luo Que affirmed his loyalty to Zhang Rishan, stating that he was Zhang Rishan's man now, regardless of his past affiliation with Yin Nanfeng.
Luo Que further commented that despite Zhang Rishan's public stance of allowing the younger generation to stumble and not intervening, he could sense that Zhang Rishan secretly wished for Wu Xie and Xie Yuchen to succeed in overturning the corrupt Nine Clans, a sentiment that brought a subtle smile to Zhang Rishan's face.
Now free, Zhang Rishan instructed Luo Que to go and greet Xie Yuchen, who should have arrived by now, assuring Luo Que that he would be fine alone. Back in the underground palace, where the scriptures were hidden, red, eerie sprouts began to grow silently, nourished by Zhang Rishan’s blood. As Li Cu journeyed further, he grew increasingly confident in his own desert experience, almost to the point of arrogance. He dismissed his companions' opinions, adhering strictly to Wu Xie's map and advice. While his trust in Wu Xie deepened, his own demeanor became noticeably more irritable and short-tempered.
