Ancient tomb excavation traces

After the venomous snakes disappeared, the road ahead was finally cleared of obstacles. However, I wondered why the witch who had been chasing us and preventing us from entering the underground had suddenly turned against us. I wanted to ask, but seeing her cold and indifferent demeanor, I swallowed my question, afraid that if she got upset, she might summon some poisonous creatures to deal with us.

But being saved wasn't all. After the mongoose retreated into the forest, the priestess offered to go underground with us. This surprised me greatly. I wondered what this girl was up to. She had just said that going in would disturb the peace of the ancestors and bring a curse, but now her attitude had completely changed. I thought this idea must have been deeply ingrained in her mind, but now she had broken it herself. Why?

This whole affair was a mystery stirred up by a woman with unpredictable moods, but Chen Yu and Bao Cai kept teasing me, saying that the Miao girl was incredibly devoted, and that after I saved her time and time again, the flames of love in her heart were raging, so she was determined to follow her beloved through thick and thin. Listening to their analysis, I glanced at the aloof witch. At that moment, her eyes were also looking at me. I smiled at her, and she quickly turned her head away, reverting to her icy demeanor from when we first met.

Seeing how quickly her expression changed, I gave a wry smile. I thought to myself, Feng Liu prefers gentle and lovely girls, not a woman as venomous as this. With that thought, I completely forgot about Chen Yu and Bao Cai's jokes.

After a short rest, the eight of us returned to the deep pool. Although the terrifying venomous snakes had disappeared, I felt uneasy in the water, whether it was psychological or something else. It was as if the Crimson Flame Alchemy hadn't gone far, but was still lurking at the bottom, waiting for us.

I slid along awkwardly until I got close to the waterfall. When our ancestors led us into the first tier of the water curtain, I finally felt like I had my feet firmly on the ground.

The cave entrance was large, but climbing up wasn't easy, as its walls were covered in a bluish-gray, foul-smelling slime. After getting my hands covered in it, I disgustedly rinsed some off with the waterfall. Bao Cai, like me, carefully examined the slime on his hands, then exclaimed in surprise, "Damn it, there's a parasite in this liquid that looks like a sparganum!"

Upon hearing the name "spearworm larva," I suddenly felt nauseous. Looking at the long, wriggling, milky-white, slightly transparent worm in my palm, I quickened my washing pace. Back in junior high, a classmate of mine ate an undercooked frog, and the parasite burrowed into his brain via his bloodstream. Afterward, he suffered from a persistent high fever and vomiting, nearly losing his life.

Our ancestors were unaware of the dangers of sparganum, but after our simple explanation, they realized the seriousness of the matter.

Now that the cleanup was finished, the little snakes in the rotting carcass, mimicking their parents, hissed at us as a warning. This innate, cold-blooded savagery sent chills down our spines.

The witch looked sadly at the two corpses and refused to leave. I noticed her eyes were red and offered a few words of comfort. The ancestor saw her distress and, to repay her for saving his life, removed the poisonous snakes from the corpses. Afterward, he carefully transported the two bodies outside the waterfall.

Miao people have rather complicated funeral rites, and they mostly practice burial. In this situation, we had to keep things simple. We dug pits for her two brothers and buried them properly. Although the graves look simple, it's better than them becoming a breeding ground for venomous snakes in a snake pit.

The witch performed a ritual to guide the spirit of her brother, and after it was over, we re-entered the "Water Curtain Cave".

There was no sunlight in the cave, so the lighting was poor. Liang Jiu and Chu Ba prepared torches, but the ancestor did not allow them to use them immediately, saying that there was still a glimmer of light, and they could use the fire when they went deeper inside.

Carefully walk past the spot where the snake had been; it's damp inside, with a chilly feeling. This cave is a limestone cave, its existence caused by the flow of groundwater, which, over a long period, eroded it into its deep and dangerous form.

The further we went, the stronger the stench became. In ancient times, without proper gas masks, the tools used for tomb raiding were very rudimentary. The face coverings we used were cut-off pieces of our own clothing, soaked in water. Looking at the entire group, almost no one was wearing complete clothes, I joked to myself: "This tomb raiding is truly pathetic."

The light began to slowly dim... Everyone's breathing became heavy and distinct in the darkness. Now I could only vaguely see the curves of my ancestors' bodies, but I couldn't make out the wrinkles and creases around them. Only a creeping feeling, along with a sense of emptiness, clung to my skin and seeped into my bones.

We were already inside. Although it was hard to believe, I was indeed in the same tomb as our ancestors. For someone like me who was exploring a tomb for the first time, this was both exciting and terrifying. In the bizarre tomb raiding stories reported in our time, many people had experienced unprecedented threats to their lives underground: poisonous gas, ghostly soldiers, zombies... a whole host of evil creatures were waiting for us inside. I swallowed hard, my anxiety palpable, as if I could reach out and touch a shriveled, bloodless corpse.

As we groped our way forward, we heard intermittent sounds like bones breaking in the air. The sounds were crisp and strange. Judging from the dispersion of the sounds, we were probably in an open area of ​​a cave.

"Wha...what's going on? Why does that sound so eerie?" Bao Cai was beside me. His face was dark, and his eyes had a cold glint in them, making him look a little scary.

I listened intently, and besides our irregular breathing, I could hear the sound of dripping water...

Our ancestors told us to stop, saying there was something strange about this place, and then instructed Chu Ba and Liang Jiu to prepare to light the fire.

While waiting for the light to come on, Chen Yi said, "What's that smell here? It's awful!" He complained as he sneezed loudly. In fact, he had been allergic to many smells since childhood, such as women's perfume. But the smell in this place was something he had never smelled before.

At this moment, the young Taoist priest, who had been silent all along, spoke up. He calmly said to Chen Yi, "It smells like death!"

Upon hearing this answer, Bao Cai gasped, then laughed in alarm, "Little Celestial Master, don't scare me! We're all living people here, how could there be the smell of the dead?"

"It's not on us..." the young Taoist said in a deep voice, his eyes scanning the surroundings warily.

A chilling coldness suddenly swept through the air; the answer was terrifying. We stared around, wishing we could see everything clearly in the darkness. Just as we were searching for the source of the sound, I glimpsed something cold and white, like a human hand. It flashed past me, somewhat unreal.

Just as I was wondering if I was seeing things, Bao Cai suddenly shouted, "Who, who tapped me on the shoulder!" His shout gave me goosebumps.

At that very moment, the crackling sounds around us grew louder and louder, coming from somewhere in the cave in front of us. I was terrified; the fire still hadn't been lit, and Chen Yu urged me on. My hands trembled as I pulled out my lighter, but in my nervousness, it wouldn't light no matter how many times I tried.

"Something's here! What's here!" the old ancestor exclaimed urgently, pulling out a curved knife. As the lighter's flame flickered, I saw a cold white figure suddenly pounce towards us, moving too fast to catch.

"Damn it!" Chen Yu cursed angrily as the thing pounced on him and knocked him to the ground. I heard him hiss, and saw the strange creature clinging to him, its entire body white, with a few clumps of damp, sticky hair visible on its forehead. It wore tattered clothes, had long fingers, and no skin or flesh.

He scratched Chen Yi several times, causing him excruciating pain, and kept yelling, "Go to hell!" In a flash, he grabbed a rock and smashed it against the thing's head repeatedly. With a series of loud thuds, the thing's head finally shattered.

"Pah!" Chen Yu spat out a mouthful of blood and asked, "What is this thing?"

Bao Cai stammered, "Who...who knows...it looks like a human, but it doesn't..."

"It's a very ferocious dead man!" the young Taoist priest said calmly.

A very ferocious dead body? I gasped. In this world, only a zongzi (sticky rice dumpling) could be called a very ferocious dead body, but that thing just now didn't seem to be a zombie or any other monster. I swallowed hard, about to ask the young Taoist priest, when I heard another scream. It was Bao Cai; something in the darkness had grabbed his foot and was now dragging him deeper into the darkness.

Seeing this, the young Taoist priest immediately rushed over. In the dim light, I saw one hunched white figure after another. Then came a commotion. Holding the lighter, my heart pounded wildly. To my left… to my left, there was a shrill scream—it was the witch's! She had been ambushed! In an instant, my mind went blank with the sudden turn of events, and even my breathing became erratic.

Soon, there was also movement from the ancestral side. I heard Liang Jiu's voice, cursing in ancient Chinese, as if he had been driven to a dead end.

What is this?! I almost lost my balance and frantically pulled out my gun from my waist, but in this situation, I knew I wouldn't be able to hit it. I retreated in utter despair, accidentally tripping over a raised patch of ground. As I fell, my lighter fell to the ground, and as I reached for it, a dead man's face suddenly appeared before my eyes, more sinister and terrifying than any ordinary skull.

I recoiled in fright, and there it stared at me menacingly, as if grinning. I was stunned for a moment, and when I realized what I was facing, I screamed. A bullet pierced its skull, followed by two more shots. The thing's head was smoking and mechanically tilted to the left, but it quickly returned to its original position.

What's most chilling is that its empty eyes stared at me cunningly, like a sinister clown. I thought to myself, "This thing is just a skeleton, without a brain or any flaws. Unless I have a sledgehammer right now and can smash it to pieces!"

However, reality is always cruel. In the instant I was terrified, that thing extended its long, thin fingers and dug into my chest like it was tilling a field. I screamed in pain and kicked it repeatedly. Because I kicked so frantically, a lot of blood gushed out of my chest as it twisted. I caught my breath and calmed down. When I looked again, I saw that the thing was unrecognizable from my own kicks. But before I could even stand up, two more skeletons rushed towards me.

Damn it, this is never going to end! I clutched my chest and hurriedly got up. Just as that thing reached out its hand in front of me, a black figure grabbed the skull's head, turned it to the left, and with a thud, the skull's frame collapsed to the ground, losing its previous ferocity.

"How is it?" the old ancestor asked me, panting heavily.

I nodded with difficulty, forcing a smile, and said, "A little worse... a little worse and my heart would have been ripped out!"

"You'll have to come with me. These things are very evil, and I'm afraid you're not skilled enough to deal with them right now!"

In the dim firelight, the ancestor's shadow was elongated. I noticed he was also injured, but I hadn't expected him to still have the energy to care for me even in this condition. I felt a surge of emotion, and an unprecedented sense of security spread through my body. I responded with a faint smile, and the kinship that had been separated by more than a thousand years burned brightly in the cold cave.

At this moment, the clattering sounds around us increased, as if a large wave of corpses were slowly coming back to life after we broke in. And judging from the sounds, there were so many of these things that it was unimaginable.

Before they could launch a full-scale attack, we slowly gathered together. However, the sudden battle had left us all injured to varying degrees; even the priestess had several bloody scratches. The only saving grace was that Chuba had finally lit the fire. But when the light appeared, the sight before us left us speechless with astonishment!