“Captain, you’ve been poisoned,” Xu Qing said.

The Captain’s eyebrows shot up. “Poisoned? I’m not poisoned. You think someone as skilled as me would get poisoned?”

“You’ve definitely been poisoned,” Xu Qing said with conviction, noting that the Captain’s face was about as dark as the black waters of the sea. 

A somber expression overtook the Captain’s face. “Deputy Captain Xu, please don’t make irresponsible remarks. And always back your words with hard evidence. A moment ago I saw an interesting-looking sea fruit, ate it, and got sick. I suppose I shouldn’t randomly eat any fruit I see around here.” [1]

Suddenly realizing that his face was starting to feel numb, the Captain produced another handful of antidote pills and popped them in his mouth like candies. Inside, he was feeling very down. After falling into the water earlier, he’d hidden himself so that Xu Qing would be forced to explore the passage first. He’d then planned to just follow when the way was clear. Never could he have guessed that Xu Qing would actually lace the entire tunnel with poison.

Seeing that Xu Qing was about to continue the conversation about poison, the Captain suddenly looked over to Zhang San in his corpse disguise. “Hey, who’s that? Isn’t that Zhang San?”

Not waiting for Xu Qing to respond, he rushed over to...