As soon as the fire starter went out, the entire room was plunged into darkness again. Old Yan felt his heart pounding as if it were about to jump out of his chest.
In the darkness, a cold hand suddenly reached out and grasped Old Yan's right hand. Old Yan was greatly startled and struggled to free his hand. Only then did Tang Zhen whisper in his ear, "Dad, it's me. Don't make a sound. Look ahead." Just as Old Yan's heart was about to settle down, Tang Zhen's words made it rise to his throat again.
Old Yan looked ahead as he was told. Standing about three zhang away was a woman in white clothes and a white hat, standing sideways and smiling at them. However, there seemed to be a malicious intent in that smile. In the darkness, it was indescribably eerie and terrifying. Old Yan felt as if his whole body was immersed in ice water in an instant.
Old Yan whispered to Tang Zhen, "What's going on?"
Tang Zhen whispered softly, "Don't be afraid. That's just a resentful spirit."
Old Yan asked, "Wronged spirit?"
Tang Zhen said, "Not a wronged spirit, but a resentful spirit. Resentful spirits are not horrible."
Old Yan cursed inwardly, "Stinky boy, it's still not horrible." But he couldn't help secretly admiring his courage. He asked, "What is a resentful spirit?"
Tang Zhen said, "Resentful spirits have form but no substance. According to legend, the souls of those who have been wronged and killed with nowhere to vent their full hatred wander around. Wherever they land, they attach themselves. Probably because there is too much resentment here, so the scattered souls all love to drift here. These resentful spirits are not horrible. As soon as the light comes on, they will disappear."
As he was speaking, Tang Zhen lit the fire starter. Sure enough, as soon as the firelight appeared, the woman in white disappeared.
Old Yan let out a long sigh. Looking around, there were only bare walls on all sides. In the room, besides him, Tang Zhen, and the corpse mastiff, there was nothing else. On the left was still a staircase slanting down into the boundless darkness below.
Old Yan's face changed slightly and he asked, "Do you think there are still resentful spirits below?"
Tang Zhen smiled and said, "Dad, these resentful spirits won't harm people. Besides, we still have this corpse mastiff. As long as there are zombies or something, the corpse mastiff will be the first to sense it. Big zombies are most afraid of corpse mastiffs."
Tang Zhen said, "According to my speculation, there should be ghost bats guarding the fifth floor below. When this corpse-suppressing tower was built, there was a fixed pattern. The upper five floors must be guarded by spiritual creatures as required. There is a corpse mastiff on the sixth floor, so there must be ghost bats on the fifth floor. There's absolutely no mistake."
Old Yan suddenly remembered something and said, "If that's the case, then the floor we came down to should be the seventh floor. Why is there nothing guarding it?"
Tang Zhen smiled and said, "Dad, you don't know this. The guard on the seventh floor has already been thrown into our yard by you."
Old Yan narrowed his eyes and said, "You mean that stone head?"
Tang Zhen smiled and said, "Yes, that's it. That's not a simple stone head. There is a secret in it."
Old Yan asked, "What secret?"
Tang Zhen said, "It's too early to say now. After we explore this pagoda, we'll know as soon as we go up and take a look." After saying that, he shook his head. "It's just that it's really hard to figure out why this corpse-suppressing tower is built underground."
Old Yan looked at him sideways and said, "I didn't expect you to know so much. Did your Tomb Raiders build this corpse-suppressing tower?"
Tang Zhen blushed and said, "No. Dad, you don't know. Although people in our sect are all tomb raiders, they are divided into four factions: Moving Mountains, Removing Ridges, Dividing Mounds, and Touching Gold. We belong to the Touching Gold faction. But the people who built this corpse-suppressing tower with this kind of Qimen Dunjia technique are the Moving Mountain Taoists who act the most mysteriously in our sect. According to legend, the ancestor of the Moving Mountains practiced Maoshan Taoism. These methods of cultivating spiritual creatures are all transformed from Maoshan Taoism. We Touching Gold people would never do such immoral things. You can rest assured about this."
Old Yan snorted and said, "I hope so." After a while, he asked, "Then where did you get so many secrets?" Tang Zhen said, "I served as a caretaker under the ancestor of the Moving Mountains for three months. I heard about many secrets of the Moving Mountains faction."
Old Yan felt that his words were not entirely truthful and was slightly annoyed. He snorted softly through his nose and said, "Then what is this ghost bat?"
Tang Zhen said, "The ghost bat is also a spiritual creature raised by the Moving Mountain Taoists. Bats already suck blood. The Moving Mountain Taoists take the souls of living people and adopte them on bats, making the bats even more poisonous. This kind of ghost bat sucks blood from people and sucks souls from ghosts. It is a rare protective spiritual creature for the Moving Mountain Taoists."
Old Yan was horrified and spat heavily. "What protective spiritual creature? It's simply a harmful demon. What about the person whose soul has been taken away?"
Tang Zhen said, "From then on, a person without a soul is like a walking corpse. Without consciousness."
Old Yan looked at the staircase leading to the fifth floor, and his eyes couldn't help showing great fear.
Tang Zhen smiled and walked ahead first. The corpse mastiff stood up, shook its mane, and followed closely behind Tang Zhen.
Old Yan exclaimed, "Be careful of those ghost bats!"
Tang Zhen stopped and said, "Dad, you don't have to worry about this. Ghost bats are not afraid of anything. But everything has its nemesis. Mice are afraid of cats, and sheep are afraid of wolves. The thing that ghost bats are most afraid of is this corpse mastiff. In this ancient tomb, besides insects and ants, ghost bats are the best delicacy for corpse mastiffs. As soon as they see the corpse mastiff coming, ghost bats can't avoid it quickly enough. How dare they provoke? As long as we stay within two meters of the corpse mastiff, there will be no danger."
After saying that, he took the fire starter and walked down the staircase first.
Old Yan was half-believing and half-doubting. Holding the musket, he followed behind.
This corpse-suppressing tower gets larger layer by layer from top to bottom. When the two of them came to the fifth floor, this floor was still empty. Tang Zhen shone the fire starter upward. Sure enough, on the ceiling of this floor, there were densely packed black shadows. Those black shadows had pointed mouths, wide wings, and were extremely ugly. Sure enough, they were ghost bats!
When the ghost bats smelled the living people's smell on the two of them, they suddenly rushed over like a black cloud. When they flew three meters away from the two of them, they hovered in mid-air, their black wings flapping continuously. Their pointed bat beaks seemed to be about to bite people.
The corpse mastiff let out a roar. The roar was like a muffled thunder in the dark night sky. When the group of ghost bats heard the roar of the corpse mastiff, they scattered in an uproar. They came quickly and left quickly! In an instant, they all disappeared without a trace.