Ancient tomb excavation traces

As I crawled forward, my palm touched a sharp shard of pottery. At first, I just wanted to escape, so I didn't feel anything. But after I stopped, I felt a burning pain in my palm. There were already many cuts on it. If I continued, I guess my hand would be ruined.

I'm standing here watching the strange child, my head throbbing with tension. I have no idea how to get past the thing blocking my way. I've begged and pleaded with everyone I know more than ten times, but it's all to no avail.

I broke out in a cold sweat, and my body still felt weak. The energy I had replenished at the Five-Colored Exquisite Heart seemed to have been taken back, and I was once again in a state of extreme fatigue. I could even feel my head constantly tilting to the left, and my tongue had become extremely dry. It felt as if some invisible force was persecuting me.

I lay prone in the center of the acupoint, a headache throbbing in my head. I thought to myself: How could this be? The shadow in front of me didn't move at all, but why did my body feel so heavy, like a stone was pressing on my back? Could it be that I've run into the Silver Horn King from "Journey to the West," who can move mountains?

Just as I was trapped, I heard Bao Cai outside muttering, "Immortal, something's wrong... Has something happened to the young master inside? Why is there no sound at all?"

I thought to myself: Damn it, even though I'm about to die, at least I'm still alive. This treasure is just bringing me bad luck!

Unfortunately, I was too far away to hear the young Taoist's reply, but after he finished speaking, everyone fell silent. I wondered, what's going on? Did he have some idea?

Soon, the entire passage fell silent, but this silence was interspersed with a dense scratching sound of pottery jars, like something scratching the walls of an attic in the dead of night. The sound was hollow, unsettling, and agonizing.

I was drenched in cold sweat, my body felt weak, and even my eyelids were heavy. In my dazed state, I suddenly heard something crawling up behind me. It was incredibly fast, reaching my feet in the blink of an eye. Sensing danger, I cried out in despair, wondering if all the children in the earthenware jar had crawled out. Damn it, was I going to be devoured alive? I instinctively turned around to look, but my hands were too weak and trembling so badly that I couldn't hold the lighter, and it slipped from my grasp.

The space plunged into darkness again, and there were intermittent panting sounds behind me, but they were very light and well controlled. My first thought was: Can ghosts breathe too?

Just when I was so powerless that I felt no fear, that thing darted to my side without hesitation, and a pair of icy hands reached out and pressed my head down. I was about to resist when I heard it whisper in my ear, "Lie down, don't move!" As soon as it finished speaking, there was a whoosh, and a gust of wind brushed past my head. I broke out in a cold sweat, but thankfully, the person was a young Taoist priest. He was on my right, and the two of us were squeezed together, making it very difficult to move.

"Damn it, what kind of bullshit passage is this? Damn it, it's Grandpa Bao's legs and hands..." Bao Cai cursed behind me.

Lan Quexi asked me if I was alright. I was taken aback for a moment, then my nose felt a little sore, and I replied, "It's just external injuries, nothing serious."

It turned out that besides the young Taoist priest, Chen Yi and the others had also come in. I don't know why they would run in under such dangerous circumstances, but now that everyone was here, the chill on my back lessened a lot.

Chen asked me to light the lighter again, and I did. Only then did I realize that the little ghost that had been standing in front of me had disappeared. I thought to myself, could what I just saw really be a ghost? If a mere mortal like me can see ghosts, could I be possessed?

Before I could even find my lost soul, the young Taoist priest suddenly looked up and said to me in an extremely serious tone, "Endure the pain and keep climbing. Try to control your breathing and treat this place like a waterway."

Upon hearing this, I felt a chill run down my spine and quickly asked, "Holding your breath? Why?"

"That little devil is sucking people's yang energy!"

What? I shuddered. The little Taoist priest's words were brief, but I instantly understood why I had felt weak and listless. It turned out that the little ghost standing in front of me was sucking my yang energy, and because I was scared, I didn't know to dodge. I just stood there dumbfounded and almost sacrificed my soul.

I was startled. Instead of leaving, I followed the young Taoist's gaze and looked up. There, the child was right above us, clinging upside down to the urn like a strange spider. The urns were piled up like skulls, and many of the pottery urns were cracked. Through them, we could see the child inside, his fingers gripping the urns, staring at us with a strange, ambiguous smile.

The child who emerged from the broken pottery urn was completely deformed; his arm and torso were stuck together, and only his forearm could move. There were deep scars on his wrists, and the flesh around the scars was rotten, suggesting that he had been bound before his death. Looking at his hands, my heart ached.

He yelled at us menacingly, like a deranged mental patient, with a layer of dark red blood on his teeth.

Seeing the situation was dire, the young Taoist priest immediately pulled out the jade pendant hanging around his neck. Due to the dim light and the angle, I couldn't see clearly whether the spirit inside the jade was still there, but I could see that the jade was glowing red—an ancient and mysterious light. I watched as he raised the jade pendant, rapidly chanting something. Upon seeing the jade, the child convulsed, his body emitting a continuous stream of black energy, as deep as black velvet. He glared venomously at the young Taoist priest, hissing, before frantically scurrying into the earthenware urn.

I stared in disbelief. The young Taoist priest put down the jade, its crimson light still shining. He said to me, "I can't seal all those vengeful spirits at once. I'll clear the way, and you follow behind!"

I nodded blankly, then snapped out of my daze. Although I had managed to control the little devil, his venomous gaze filled me with unease, as if he were about to retaliate. Meanwhile, the other little devils who had been inside the earthenware jars, whether sensing the presence of living people or feeling defeated by the sight of their companions being subdued, suddenly began to roar.

If it were just one mosquito sucking my blood, that would be one thing, but a swarm of them? I'd probably be a dried-up corpse by the time I died! Thinking this, I straightened myself up. Just then, Chen Yi shouted from behind, "Damn it, another coffin has cracked open! Damn it, let's get out of here, we can't all get wiped out!"

After Chen finished speaking, we all shut our mouths. I could hold my breath for a while, but Bao Cai behind me climbed a few steps and started panting heavily. At the same time, a sharp cry pierced our hearts, and I could feel something falling rapidly behind us. In such a thrilling moment, it was really difficult not to pant; my heart was pounding.

Seeing the danger behind me, Bao Cai immediately and cleverly held his breath. I had been worried about him, but seeing his reaction, my heart relaxed, and I was about to continue forward when I heard Bao Cai exhale. My heart tightened, and I was about to tell him to stop, but it was too late. A sneeze, mixed with a loud fart, filled my entire body, and instantly all the breath we had been holding and the tension we felt were released.