"Oh, my little grandpa, don't scare me. I'm big and I'm most afraid of these unknown things. You said they were just a bunch of horse thieves, but I, Da Kui, don't take them seriously. I don't know what these things are. Look, my legs are weak."
I thought it was no use staying here any longer, and I had an uncomfortable premonition that kept coming and going in my heart. I didn't know if it was the psychological effect of this depressing cave or something else, so I said, "Never mind what it is, the most important thing now is to get out quickly. We are going upstream now, and it will definitely be faster to go back than when we came here. I think we have only been in this cave for less than 10 minutes, so getting out will definitely not be a problem."
"Yes, yes, what the Third Master said is right," Da Kui agreed hurriedly, "Third Master, just say something. At worst, we can just cross the mountain after we get out, and I'll carry all the things. I'm strong, so it won't matter if we lose a day or two. If we dig the hole faster, won't we make up for it?"
The Third Master glanced at the oil bottle again and asked, "Young man, what do you think?"
Men You Ping said calmly: "If we want to get out now, it's probably too late. Since those two people let us in, they must be very sure that we can't get out."
"If you don't go out, are you going to wait here until you die of old age?" Pan Zi looked at him, and the oil bottle looked at him, then turned his head away and closed his eyes to rest. Pan Zi was turned away, so he had to say to his uncle: "I think this is it, we can't let you go forward, you see Ah Kui, you must be scared to death, let's retreat, the way in is not complicated, maybe we can get out, if we really encounter some strange door and dunjia, we will think of a way!"
"This is the only way," Third Uncle nodded and said to Pan Zi, "Light a miner's lamp in front and behind. You pack up those shotguns. A Kui and I will use them to hold the pole. Pan Zi and the eldest nephew will keep an eye on the back. Brother, you help me find the way." We each agreed. Pan Zi took out another miner's lamp and shone it behind us. The cow on the second boat cried out when it was illuminated by the light. Pan Zi cursed, "Third Uncle, we have to drive the cow into the water, otherwise we won't be able to hold the pole."
Because the miner's lamp was pointed forward, we didn't pay attention at all and had forgotten that there was a boat behind us. Now we were shocked to see that the two old thieves had really considered it carefully. The height of the hole was such that the ox couldn't stand up at all, let alone drive the ox into the water. The equipment on the truck and the ox would have already been deep in the water. If we went up, not only would the pole not be able to support us, but we might also sink. In this way, the boat behind us blocked us like a plug.
At this time, I vaguely heard a strange sound coming from the depths of the cave again, and it was obviously much deeper than the last time. The sound was like the whispering of countless little ghosts, which made people extremely uncomfortable. Everyone was quiet, and the atmosphere was weird for a while. Suddenly, all my attention was attracted by this sound. I tried to regain my concentration several times, but I was immediately attracted again. I thought it was not good. This sound was strange! Although I knew it, I couldn't regain my concentration. For a while, my mind was full of this sound. At this time, I don't know who kicked me hard, and I fell into the water.
Immediately, the sounds in my head disappeared, and almost at the same time I saw Pan Zi also fall down. Then came Third Uncle and Da Kui, and finally the oil bottle jumped down with a mining lamp. The sound was much more blurred in the water, and we were not affected at all, but it was very blurry to see things in the water with the naked eye. I squinted my eyes and could only see roughly. The oil bottle pointed to the bottom of the water and then shone the lamp. The water was not very deep, and a layer of white sand could be seen at the bottom of the water. He scanned around, and there were no plants, fish, shrimps, etc. I couldn't hold my breath anymore, so I leaned out of the water to take a sip. Just as I shook off the water from my eyes, I suddenly found a bloody face hanging upside down, with two eyes staring at me.
I just stared at him, and he stared at me. I recognized this man as the middle-aged man who rowed the boat for us. When I looked up, I found that only the upper half of his body was left. A big black bug was gnawing at his intestines on the top of the cave. It was shaking from time to time. I was immediately shocked. Isn't this a huge corpse beetle? My God, how many dead people must it eat to grow so big! Pan Zi's head also popped up on the side, but unfortunately he was not as lucky as me. He didn't understand what was going on. The bug squeaked, threw the body away, and pounced on his head, raising a pair of big Ao Ka to sink into Pan Zi's scalp.
Pan Zi was also a character. In this situation, I saw him flip his left hand, and I don't know when the saber was already in his hand. He directly raised the knife to the underside of the insect and dug out one of its ears. If it were me, I would probably have to report to the King of Hell. The insect let out a scream from somewhere, and it couldn't handle the strength of just one ear, so it was pushed out by Pan Zi's punch. This series of things happened in a flash, and Pan Zi didn't care about me and just pressed the insect on my face.
I cursed in my heart, this Panzi is so mean, he always said he would protect me, but now when something happened, he threw this deadly thing at my face. You said you have a military knife, but I only have two hands, I am going to die now. The bug was really rude, it directly cut off a piece of skin on my face with its sharp claws. I tried to shake it off with my teeth, but I didn't expect that there were barbs on several of its claws, which firmly hooked my clothes, and some of them hooked directly into my flesh, the pain made me cry.
At this time, the oil bottle also floated his head. Seeing that I could not hold on any longer, he rushed over and inserted two fingers into the insect's back. With force, he pulled, and a white macaroni-like thing was pulled out. Poor insect, which had the upper hand just now, was defeated in less than a second. I threw the insect's corpse onto the boat. It felt like a dream.
Da Kui gave Men You Ping a thumbs up and said, "Brother, I, Da Kui, admire you. You pulled out the intestines of such a big bug. I can't help but admire you!"
"Go," Pan Zi had two bloody holes on his head, but luckily the wounds were not big. He gritted his teeth and said, "Look at your culture. This is called the central nervous system. This guy directly paralyzed the bug!"
"You mean the bug is not dead yet?" Da Kui had half of his foot on the boat, but when he heard this, he put his foot back into the water.
Men Youping jumped onto the boat and kicked the bug aside. "We can't kill it yet. We need it to get out of this corpse cave."
"Do you think that sound just now was made by this insect?" Uncle San asked him. He had just heard the insect chirping a few times, but it didn't seem like it.
Menyouping turned the insect over, and we saw a fist-sized hexagonal copper sealed wind chime on its tail. It was planted there at some point, and it was already covered in copper patina. The six sides of the wind chime were all engraved with dense spells. Pan Zi tied the bandage on it and kicked it with his foot, and the hexagonal bell suddenly moved on its own!
The sound was the same as the one I heard just now, but the one I heard just now was very ethereal, as if it floated from the underworld. Now this one sounded very real. It seemed that this bell was the source of that sound, but it had to be combined with the empty echo to have the effect of bewitching people. This hexagonal bell must have a very delicate mechanism, and it can survive for thousands of years without decaying. It must be something like gold or silver. But how could it ring by itself?
I was wondering, the bell rang more and more wantonly, as if there was a wronged soul inside that wanted to escape from the artifact that sealed him. Unfortunately, this thing was too small, which made me feel a little ridiculous. Pan Zi bandaged the wound by himself, and he was so skilled that it seemed like he got hurt every day. The bell rang loudly, and he was annoyed by it, so he wanted to step on it. Unexpectedly, the bronze shell was actually aged and unrecognizable. The bell cracked with a snap. A very unpleasant green water gushed out from it.
Uncle San was so angry that he wanted to hit Pan Zi on the head with a punch, but then he thought that there were two holes in his head just now, and if he punched him again, he might be broken into pieces like the bell, so he gave up and changed his beating to scolding: "Can't you keep your feet still? This thing is at least a magical tool, and you ruined it with just one kick!"
"Uncle San, how would I know this thing is so fragile?" Pan Zi still felt aggrieved. Uncle San shook his head angrily. He used a saber to push aside the bronze fragments. Inside were small bells of different sizes and shapes like honeycombs. These small bells were all attached to a very delicate hollow ball. The ball was full of holes. Now the ball had been cracked. Inside was a large green centipede with its head crushed. The green water was squeezed out from the body of this centipede as thick as a finger.
Uncle San turned the hollow ball over with the tip of a knife and found a tube on the ball that went straight to the part connected to the giant corpse beetle. He said, "I'm afraid that when the centipede is hungry, it will use this tube to get into the corpse beetle's stomach to eat. How did they come up with such a symbiotic system?"
The half-body of the boatman floated on the water, sinking and sinking. Uncle San sighed, "This is what you deserve. They must have wanted to leave us alone in this corpse cave and wait for us to die before retrieving our things. I don't know what happened today, but I actually died at the hands of this big corpse beetle. I really deserve it!"
"As the saying goes, there's no coincidence in the world. It seems we are quite lucky," I said.
Pan Zi shook his head and said, "That creature's claws probably don't have the strength to tear a person in half in such a short time. If it had that strength, it would have dug out my brains. I think there must be more than one creature. This one must have taken the body away after dismembering it and wanted to eat it all by itself."
Da Kui was already very relaxed, but after hearing what he said, he couldn't help but swallow his saliva.
"Don't panic. Didn't the guy just say that we have to rely on this thing to get out of this cave? Let's put this big corpse beetle on the bow and let it clear the way for us. This thing eats corpses all its life and has a very strong yin energy. It is the guest star of those zombies. In the corpse cave, it is estimated that they are the overlords here. With him on our boat, we will definitely get out." Uncle San said, "Come on, we won't retreat. I want to see what is ahead that can give birth to such a big bug."
After listening to what my third uncle said, I also thought it made sense. We had already stayed in this cave for quite some time, and it was too depressing to be unable to even lift our heads. A few of us took out folding shovels from the luggage at the back, used them as oars, and sailed forward by supporting ourselves with the stone wall.
As I was rowing and studying the cave wall, I suddenly had a question, so I asked Uncle San: "Look, these are all whole stones. How did the ancient tomb raiders dig them out? Even now, it would take hundreds of people to dig such a deep cave."
Uncle San said, "Look at this hole, it's so round, it must be very old. I guess the people who dug this hole must have been officials, that is, soldiers who specialize in tomb robbing. It seems that it may not be as easy as we thought to find the tomb marked on the map."
"Third Master, how can you be so sure that the tomb is still there? Look, an army came and dug such a long hole. It's hard to guarantee that all the things have been moved away!" Da Kui said, "I think there might not even be a coffin lid when we go in."
My uncle snorted and said, "If this bucket has been robbed thousands of years ago, then we have nothing to say, but you have to know that this cave does exist on the map, which means that this robbery hole was already there when the tomb owner was buried. The age of this robbery hole should be before the ancient tomb we are looking for. And there must be more than one tomb in this area. Who knows which tomb this robbery hole was dug when robbing it."
"That means," I could sense the chilling meaning in my uncle's words, "everything we encounter now, including the giant corpse beetle and the hexagonal bronze wind chimes, may have been built by an owner even earlier than the Warring States Period?"
Uncle San shook his head. "What I'm more concerned about is why our tomb owner chose to set up his own tomb near another tomb that had been robbed. Isn't this a taboo in Feng Shui?"
Menyouping suddenly waved his hand, asking us not to speak, and pointed ahead. We saw a ball of green phosphorescence deep in the cave that was out of reach of the miner's light. Uncle San sighed, "We've reached the corpse pile!"