1888: Memoirs of an Unconfirmed Creature Hunter

Chapter 318: Arriving in Singapore

November 1889.

The Straits Settlements, Singapore.

A wave of heat rolled through the air.

The humid monsoon wind, carrying the unique moisture of the equator, slapped against their faces.

For Lin Jie, who had just spent two months drifting at sea, this smell wasn't pleasant, but it was familiar enough.

It was the scent of land, a scent interwoven with both civilization and savagery.

Lin Jie stood on the deck. He had already removed his heavy English-style overcoat, changing into a lightweight, breathable linen shirt.

He leaned against the railing, looking down at this city known as the "Crossroads of the Far East."

It was busier and more chaotic than he had imagined.

The Tanjong Pagar Dock was like a giant anthill, with thousands of dark-skinned coolies shuttling back and forth on the piers.They were bare-chested, carrying heavy sacks filled with rubber, tin ingots, or spices on their shoulders.

British colonial officials in white sun hats stood on higher ground, directing with their canes.

Chinese compradors in long gowns and mandarin jackets were loudly haggling over goods.

Indian Sikh guards with bright turbans wrapped around their heads patrolled the area vigilantly, long sticks in hand.

And there were those Malay vendors rowing sampans between the cargo ships, hawking fruits and fried snacks.

English, Hokkien, Malay, Tamil.

All sorts of languages collided here, creating a cacophony like the ruins after the fall of the Tower of Babel.

"It's astonishing."

Evelyn stood beside Lin Jie.

She held a folding fan in her hand, fanning herself continuously.

Her face was slightly flushed from the tropical sun, and sweat had dampened the bangs on her forehead.

"There aren't as many steam engines here as in New York," she said, pointing at the primitive manual lifting equipment on the dock. "But the vitality here, the density of life, is even more terrifying than New York's."

"This is Southeast Asia," Lin Jie said flatly.

"Chaotic, crowded, but full of opportunity." He picked up the suitcase at his feet. "Let's go. Someone is waiting for us."

The two descended the gangway onto the dock.

The moment their feet touched solid ground, the swaying sensation from the long voyage still lingered in their vestibular nerves.

Lin Jie narrowed his eyes, scanning the bustling crowd.

It didn't take long for him to spot that figure.

Under a giant rain tree at the dock exit stood a man.

He wore a somewhat ill-fitting, slightly wrinkled white linen suit and a somewhat shabby Panama hat on his head.

In his hand was a copy of that day's *The Straits Times*.

He looked like a down-and-out colonial scholar or some unknown schoolteacher.

But his eyes, hidden behind round-framed glasses, were as sharp as a dagger concealed within a book scroll.

Julian Belloc.

The once gentle and refined Curator from the depths of the Louvre in Paris, the scholar who only knew how to theorize in the Irish castle.

He had changed now; he had lost a lot of weight.

His originally somewhat plump cheeks were sunken, his cheekbones prominent.

His skin was no longer that pale, sun-deprived complexion but had been tanned by the South Seas sun into a healthy wheat color.

His sleeves were rolled up, revealing several shallow scars on his arms.

Those were the medals he had earned in the jungles of Saigon, Vietnam, filled with poisonous insects and Jiangshi sorcery.

Lin Jie walked over. Julian saw them too.

He put down the newspaper, strode forward quickly, then stopped about a step away from Lin Jie.

"You're late."

Julian's voice was a bit hoarse.

"Encountered a storm at sea," Lin Jie replied.

"Or a big fish," Julian smiled.

He opened his arms and gave Lin Jie a firm hug.

The hug was brief but solid.

Lin Jie could sense that the familiar scholarly air about Julian now carried a hint of gunpowder and medicinal herbs.

"Welcome to next door to hell."

Julian let go and looked at Evelyn.

"Miss Marconi, very pleased to meet you."

He bowed slightly, like a gentleman.

"I heard you blew up Edison's old lair in New York. I saw the 'gas explosion' news in the papers. Well done."

Evelyn smiled somewhat sheepishly.

"That was everyone's effort."

"This isn't the place to talk."

Julian put his sunglasses back on, cautiously scanning the surroundings.

"There are eyes everywhere here."

"The Germans' military intelligence, the Black Lotus Sect's hidden sentries, and those gangsters who'll sell anything for money."

He waved his hand. A black carriage parked by the roadside drove over.

"Get in."

Julian lowered his voice.

"We're going to the safe house."

The carriage passed through the busy commercial district. It avoided the broad avenues lined with palm trees, diving into a labyrinthine old neighborhood on the edge of Chinatown.

The streets here were narrow and damp, flanked by typical South Seas shophouse architecture.

Colorful shutters, peeling plaster walls, and clotheslines hung like strings of international flags.

The carriage stopped in front of a rather inconspicuous shop.

The shop's sign was a wooden plaque with gold characters on a black background, bearing three Chinese characters.

"Gu Ji Zhai" – an old bookstore.

The entrance was piled high with yellowed old newspapers and thread-bound books. An elderly Chinese man wearing reading glasses was dozing in a recliner by the door.

Seeing Julian get out of the carriage, the old man didn't get up, merely lifting his eyelids slightly.

"Mr. Zhu, back?"

"Faan lai," Julian replied in somewhat halting Cantonese, which surprised Lin Jie.

"Brought two friends to look at books."

"Go on in. The tea's just been brewed."

The old man turned over and continued his nap. Julian led Lin Jie and Evelyn into the shop.

The interior was dimly lit. Tall bookshelves reached the ceiling, crammed with books in various languages.

There were Chinese classics of history, philosophy, and literature, English novels, and Malay poetry.

There were even some parchment scrolls that appeared to be written in Sanskrit or Pali. This place was a miniature library.

Julian walked straight to the very back of the shop. He stopped in front of a row of bookshelves about South Seas botany, reached out, and pulled out a heavy, illustrated reference book from among them.

*Click.* A soft sound of gears turning.

The bookshelf slowly slid open to both sides, revealing a heavy iron door. Julian took out a brass key and inserted it into the lock.

"Come in."

He pushed the door open.

"This is my temporary war room in Southeast Asia."

The space behind the door was much more spacious than expected. This was originally probably a warehouse, now converted into a fully functional safe house.

A large map of Southeast Asia hung on the wall.

Several tables were piled high with documents, photographs, and various strange specimens.

In a corner was a state-of-the-art telegraph machine, while right in the center of the room stood a huge blackboard.

It was densely covered with names, place names, and various arrows and connecting lines – the fruits of Julian's labor over the past few months.

"Make yourselves comfortable."

Julian walked to the table and poured three glasses of iced tea.

"It's safe here. This building is a property of the Hongmen. That old doorman... he used to be a Red Pole of the Hong Kong Tiandihui."

He handed the teacups to the two.

"Drink some of this. It dispels dampness. If you're not careful with the climate here, it's easy to get tropical fever."

Lin Jie took a sip. It was bitter with a hint of lingering sweetness, a taste that reminded him of the medicinal tea he drank as a child.

"How is William?" he put down the cup, asking the question he cared about most.

"Not good," Julian's expression darkened.

He walked to the blackboard and picked up a piece of chalk.

"I've already contacted Cairo."

"The High Priest used some secret technique to forcibly seal the foreign spiritual nature within William's body, but it's only a stopgap measure."

"If we can't find a permanent solution within three months, his internal organs will completely fail."

Three months.

Lin Jie's fingers lightly tapped the tabletop. Time was even tighter than he had anticipated.

"What about the Black Lotus Sect?" Evelyn asked. "They suffered heavy losses in Saigon. They should be lying low, right?"

"On the contrary."

Julian wrote the three characters "Yan Xilou" on the blackboard. Then he drew a large circle around them.

"The failure in Saigon was indeed a blow to him."

"But he's a madman, and a genius."

"Through Old Abacus's intelligence network, and deciphering the files left behind by our colleague who sacrificed himself in Saigon..."

"I've discovered an astonishing fact."

Julian turned around, his gaze burning as he looked at Lin Jie.

"The Tai Sui auction in Saigon and that riot that nearly destroyed half the city..."

"Actually... were just a smokescreen."

"A smokescreen?" Lin Jie frowned slightly.

"Yes, a diversion." Julian tapped the blackboard emphatically.

"That thousand-year-old Tai Sui is indeed precious, a crucial ingredient for creating the Living Holy Embryos."

"But it's not the only one, nor the most core component."

"The reason Yan Xilou made such a huge commotion in Saigon, even at the cost of exposing part of his forces, was to attract everyone's attention."

"To attract I.A.R.C., to attract the Knights Templar, to attract the colonial governments of various countries."

"But in reality, his true core plan was being carried out in another place."

Lin Jie's gaze sharpened.

"Where?" Julian didn't answer directly. He walked to the Southeast Asia map and picked up a pointer.

He traced a line south from Saigon, across the Gulf of Thailand, across the Malay Peninsula.

Finally, it stopped on a massive island, the world's third-largest island straddling the equator.

Borneo, later known as Kalimantan Island.

"Here."

Julian's pointer landed on a deep green area in the center of the island.

"This rainforest is called the 'Heart of the World' by the locals."

"It's one of the oldest, densest, and most dangerous tropical rainforests on Earth. Most of this area is still blank on maps, truly a wilderness."

"Only the Dutch have established some outposts along the coast, but their control doesn't extend inland at all."

Julian picked up a yellowed old photograph from the table.

The photo showed a hidden, abandoned estate with European-style architecture deep in the dense jungle.

"This is a spice plantation established by the Dutch East India Company a century ago. It was later abandoned due to a plague and attacks by local headhunter tribes."

"But three months ago, some strange cargo was smuggled by ship to a river mouth on this island."

"Precision instruments, large quantities of chemical reagents, and... live specimens."

Julian's voice grew low. "We intercepted an internal communication from the Black Lotus Sect."

"It mentioned a codename – 'Garden of Eden'."

"Yan Xilou is likely there."

Lin Jie looked at the photo. It was blurry, only vaguely showing the outlines of buildings covered in vines.

But he could feel it, even through the photo – that chilling aura that seemed to seep through the paper.

"Why Borneo?" Evelyn asked, puzzled.

"Because what he needs is there," Julian explained.

"To create a god, you need divine flesh and blood, you need vast life energy."

"The Tai Sui in Saigon isn't enough. He needs more primitive, wilder, more uncontrollable power."

"In the rainforests of Borneo, live countless unrecorded UMAs. It's a crucible of biological evolution, a breeding ground for spiritual mutation."

"There's also a legendary plant there." Julian drew a flower on the blackboard, a huge and ugly flower.

"Rafflesia?" Lin Jie recognized the shape.

"No, a variant of it, or its ancestor," Julian shook his head.

"The local natives call it 'Corpse-Scent Arum' or 'Ghost Mother Flower'."

"It's said the nectar of this flower has the ability to reshape flesh and fuse souls. That might be the glue Yan Xilou uses to bind the Living Holy Embryos."

"And," Julian paused, looking at Lin Jie.

"The life frequency intensity of that flower's sap is ten times that of ordinary Tai Sui."

"If there's anything in this world that can cure William's injuries, it's that."

All leads pointed to that green hell.

"We have to go there," Lin Jie stated decisively.

"Yes, we must," Julian nodded. "But it won't be easy."

"What we'll face isn't just the elite guards of the Black Lotus Sect, but the rainforest itself."

"Venomous snakes. Beasts of prey. Plague. Quagmires."

"And those Dayak warriors who still retain headhunting customs to this day. That place is forbidden to the civilized world."

A flicker of worry passed through Julian's eyes.

"Even the most experienced explorers dare not venture deep into that core region."

"We need guides, we need a boat, we need supplies."

"And..."

He looked at Lin Jie and Evelyn, "We need a new team."

With William absent, they had lost their strongest frontal combatant. The current team composition was:

A Scalpel proficient in tactics and assassination.

A scholar of vast knowledge but mediocre combat ability.

A technical expert with black-tech equipment but lacking practical combat experience.

It was a classic "high attack, low defense" combination, even a "high intelligence, low martial prowess" combination.

"I know what you're worried about," Lin Jie spoke up.

He took out the black envelope from his chest pocket – Morgan's parting gift to him.

"We're not completely unprepared." He placed the envelope on the table. "Do you know Paper Tailor?"

Julian stared at the scissors wax seal for a moment, then his eyes lit up.

"Mr. Morgan actually roped him in too?"

"You know him?"

"Of course," Julian nodded.

"He's a legend in the South Seas inner world."

"Some say he's the best mortician in all of Southeast Asia; others say he's the most terrifying assassin."

"He has skilled hands. He can craft anything out of paper. Even... living things."

Julian took a deep breath.

"If we can secure his help, our chances of survival in Borneo increase by at least thirty percent."

"Where is he?" Lin Jie asked.

"Right here in Singapore." Julian walked to the window, pushed it open a crack, and pointed towards the brightly lit red-light district in the distance.

"In the funeral parlor... deep in the heart of Chinatown."

"However, that man's temper is very strange. Even with Morgan's letter, convincing him to help probably won't be easy."

Lin Jie stood up and straightened his collar.

"It's fine. We have plenty of time to persuade him." He glanced at the map on the wall.

"Rest for the night."

Lin Jie gave the order.

"First thing tomorrow morning, we'll pay a visit to this Paper Tailor. Then we set out."