What do you mean by saying that the corpses I sew are all ominous creatures?

"The hastily performed body-infusion and corpse-refining techniques, the cruel soul-locking art, and the deadly Gu poison from the Southern Frontier..."

Zhang Xuanqing looked at the corpse on the ground, as if talking to himself, or perhaps speaking to us.

"It's a complete hodgepodge. This is not the method passed down by any orthodox or unorthodox school of thought at all."

He raised his head and looked into the depths of the thick fog.

"What exactly are that orphan of the Sang family, and the people behind him, up to in Old Bear Ridge?"

They seem to be combining various different evil arts to conduct some kind of crazy experiment.

These people were their test subjects.

I stood to the side without saying a word.

The seal my grandfather left behind was to suppress the evil spirits in the ancient tomb.

It now appears that the aura emanating from that evil creature is very likely the source of the "high concentration of Yin energy" within these strange corpses.

Could it be that the last surviving member of the Sang family is using the power leaking from the ancient tomb to mass-produce these monsters?

"We can't delay any longer."

Zhang Xuanqing decisively turned around and addressed the crowd.

"The fact that these things have appeared here means that the situation at the ancient tomb may be worse than we imagined."

"Everyone, stay alert, maintain formation, we'll just slip through."

"Understood!" the team members responded in unison.

Shan Yan walked over, patted me on the shoulder, and grinned:

"Consultant Chen, I didn't steal your thunder just now, did I?"

These little shrimps don't need your expert intervention; leave them to us roughnecks."

I looked at him, smiled gently, and said calmly, "Captain Shanyan is very skilled. It is indeed rare to see someone in the military who has cultivated such a level of killing intent."

With you all leading the way, I'll have had to save a lot of effort on this trip to western Hunan.

Shan Yan laughed and, without saying anything more, turned around and returned to his seat.

The team set off again.

This time, everyone's pace increased significantly.

Now that they've already been attacked, there's little point in being careful to hide their presence anymore.

We were like a sharp knife, and under Zhang Xuanqing's guidance, we cut directly through this primeval rainforest filled with miasma and murderous intent.

Along the way, we encountered two more sporadic attacks by strange corpses.

But with previous experience, the rocks and gunpowder worked together even better.

There was absolutely no need for Zhang Xuanqing and me to intervene; the team members took care of everything in a very short time.

About half an hour later, the surrounding trees began to thin out.

The terrain began to slope downwards noticeably, and the mud underfoot turned into hard, damp rocks.

The faint stench in the air had faded slightly, replaced by a strong smell of moisture and the chilly, damp odor characteristic of caves.

"arrive."

Zhang Xuanqing, who was walking in front, stopped and pointed ahead.

As we passed through the last thick fog, a huge black opening appeared before us.

The edges of the cave are covered with strange stalactites, and from deep inside the cave entrance, the faint roar of an underground river can be heard.

Zhang Xuanqing said that this is the only way to that mysterious ancient tomb.

Upon entering the enormous natural cave, the noise of the torrential rain outside was instantly shut out.

Instead, there was a series of dull, continuous roaring sounds of flowing water.

The roar echoed back and forth in the empty underground space, making people's eardrums tingle slightly.

Several beams of powerful tactical flashlights lit up simultaneously, illuminating parts of the cave's interior.

By the light of my flashlight, I saw countless strangely shaped stalactites hanging upside down from the ceiling of the cave, some like fangs and others like swords.

Thick water droplets still condensed on the rock face, shimmering with a cold luster under the refraction of light.

Zhang Xuanqing walked at the front, his powerful flashlight shining straight ahead.

After walking about a hundred meters forward, the terrain suddenly dropped, and a wide and rapid underground river stretched out in front of us.

The river water was a deep, dark green, with white foam and tiny eddies churning on its surface, and a chilling, biting vapor hit you in the face.

Zhang Xuanqing stopped and looked at the rushing river in front of him, his brows furrowing deeply.

"Something's not right."

Zhang Xuanqing's voice sounded somewhat muffled under the cover of the sound of water.

"When I came here last time, the water level of this underground river was not nearly this high."

Back then, there was a large expanse of exposed shallows along the riverbank, which I could walk directly across.

The water level has risen by at least two meters, completely flooding the road.

Luo Pan pushed up his glasses, looked at the compass in his hand, and said loudly:

"It's been raining heavily outside for several days, the groundwater system is bound to overflow."

"Is there no other way?"

Shan Yan walked to the riverbank and used his tactical knife to make a mark on a rock to test the speed of the water flow.

"The current is very strong, and there must be many hidden currents below."

Swimming fully armed would be extremely physically demanding.

Zhang Xuanqing shook his head: "Judging from the geomantic map I seized, this is the only main road leading to the outer perimeter of the ancient tomb."

The other branching passages are all dead ends or natural mazes; once you enter, it's very difficult to get out.

He shone the beam of his flashlight along the current of the underground river deeper into the darkness.

At the end of the flashlight beam, one could vaguely see a natural stone staircase, about a meter wide, on the rock wall to the right of the underground river.

The stone steps stretched into the depths of darkness.

"We don't need to swim to the other side. We just need to wade along the edge of the rock wall on the right for about 300 meters to reach the stone steps."

Zhang Xuanqing pointed ahead and said.

"The water flow is relatively gentle near the rock face, and the water depth is about waist to chest level."

They connected with each other using safety ropes and slowly waded across.

Upon hearing this, no one raised any objections or refutations.

Because what Zhang Xuanqing said is indeed the only feasible method at present.

Now that the action plan had been determined, the team members did not hesitate at all and immediately began to take action.

Shan Yan took out a high-strength tactical safety rope from his backpack and tied everyone's waists together.

Following the tactical formation, the hounds still led the charge, followed closely by Zhang Xuanqing, then the compass, the spirit pivot, and myself.

Finally, Shan Yan and Gunpowder were responsible for covering the rear.

"Get in the water!"

Seeing that everyone was ready, Zhang Xuanqing gave the order in a deep voice.

The hound was the first to step into the dark green river.

As soon as he entered the water, I heard him gasp.

When it was my turn to step into the water, I immediately understood why he reacted that way.

The water is too cold.

The coldness wasn't simply due to the low temperature, but rather because the water carried a peculiar, chilling aura.

If an ordinary person were to soak in this water for ten minutes, they would definitely go into shock due to hypothermia.

Fortunately, the team consists of elites, and everyone is holding on for now.

At this moment, the evil energy within my body also started to circulate automatically, forming a protective layer on my body surface, firmly blocking that cold and yin energy from the outside.