Chapter 17-18

“There’s here too!”

“Even here as well!”

Seven-eight flashlights swept back and forth over the mountain walls. The light came in rows of holes above the mountain walls, exposing the black shadows of the coffins’ head; some of the coffins had rotted and could see the white bones inside. The wind blew more vigorously, and they were like hundreds of ghosts crying.

Zhang Qiu had goose bumps on his arms, and here he thought he had big enough courage passed through the tombs of Gu Mu Country and Pixian Hui Wang, he would not have a layer of cold sweat behind him.

“Every–everybody, I’ll– I’ll give you back the money. I really can’t get in there. The Witch God will be angry.” Na Wu pleaded with Jin LaoDa, knelt on his knees, kowtowed to the mountain wall, and continued, “Witch God, please forgive me, I didn’t mean to blaspheme you...”

Lao Fei saw Na Wu’s chattering about God, looked around again, there were two people on their faces unconsciously hesitating. Then suddenly spit ‘pei’ on Na Wu’s, pulled a gun out of his waist, pointed it at the stone coffin holes, and shot ‘bang bang bang’ several shots with great speed.

“LaoZi doesn’t believe in ghosts and gods, it’s all a bunch of bones, a wool of scare. If you are afraid, don’t make a fortune.”

Na Wu saw LaoFei shot and his face whiten, his trembling lips murmured ‘it’s over’ repeatedly.

But because of Lao Fei’s words, especially his subsequent make a fortune, a few who had just been slightly emotionally shaken immediately became firm, and one of them picked up Na Wu. “At any cost, if you don’t lead, I’ll solve you.”

Na Wu, with a look of dead numb, was pushed forward by the black-clad man.

“It’s green-haired zongzi.” Behind, Zhang YuShui said.

Zhang Qiu was about to ask what green-haired zongzi was when the dead body suddenly trembled out of the puddle.

Na Wu screamed in front of him, and a few black-clad men shuffled back. Jin LaoDa steadily said, “Shoot, shoot!” With a couple of ‘bangs’ of shot under his hands, the Zongzi was swept into a honeycomb-like Zongzi, and ‘pa-ji’ fell back into the puddle.

Zhang Qiu saw Lao Fei wiping a sweat secretly, internally said ‘you had a scared day, just now you were shouting out hoping for fives and sixes(1), fearlessly!

The next second, Lao Fei rushed up and stepped on the Zongzi’s feet in the puddle, venting in foul-mouthed, and finally lifted the gun and said, “Keep on ahead.”

This man was really asking for money not needing life(2). Zhang Qiu looked back at Li Shu and Zhang YuShui, and whispered, “What to do?” He actually backed away a little.

Li Shu touched his head and said, “Don’t be afraid.”

Zhang Yu Shui was firm, apparently remembering Pixian Hui Wang and the emperor who looked like him.

“Forget it, just regard it as gaining knowledge and experience.” Zhang Qiu gritted his teeth and said that if he were to leave alone, he would still have to worry about Li Shu and Zhang YuShui, so he might as well go together.

Out of the green-haired zongzi, the black-clad man in front of him had a slightly better attitude toward Jin LaoDa, he no longer looked down upon and thought Jin LaoDa had come from the pit. As he walked on, Zhang Qiu was focused, flashing a flashlight in front of him. He dared not look at the stone walls on either side. The natural light in front of him was getting bigger as he walked on. He was about to go out and the water level was getting lower.

Suddenly, the two leading men in black trembled, trembled in a particularly exaggerated way, but soon they were free to move on.

Zhang Qiu felt hairy(3) in his heart. Maybe this environment made him feel weird about everything. He was thinking that his brain hole was too big. The two men in front of him trembled again. This time was much longer than the previous one, and they trembled like a sieve. Even the Lao Fei who was following him found something wrong and asked, “What happened to you two?”

In silence, the two of them did not hear the question, but their body trembled slowly.

Then Jin LaoDa noticed something was wrong, pulled his sleeve secretly, and the three men stepped back two steps in unison. Almost at the same moment, the two of them turned sharply back to the man behind them. The latter man was not prepared to be thrown into the water, grabbed by the upper mouth and gnawed, in an instant the scream and gnawing became a piece, and Na Wu took advantage of the confusion, ran back.

“You see, his face is green.” Zhang Qiu’s face was numb, and the two men’s faces glowed faintly green in the darkness. Their pupils had shrunk to a small white, and they did not look like living people at all.

“Ahhhh!”

“Shoot, shoot! Kill them! ”

“There’s something in the water!”

The gun shot ‘bang bang bang’.

Zhang Qiu was in confusion did not response, already held by Li Shu, and ran forward. Zhang YuShui followed him, and Jin LaoDa left the men in black to run alone.

The foul-smelling pools were black and red, blood gurgling and bubbling out of mud, mud that people had struggled to get mixed up. Under the muddy water, there were countless little green-glowing insects, and the insects came in their direction very quickly.

Zhang YuShui pulled out a sheet of talisman paper from his bosom, didn’t know what he was saying, he threw it at the green insect with his fingertips. The water was burning. Lao Fei and the few ran in a fluster. No one could care about the three people behind him.

After getting out of the mountain pass, the equipment and baggage were thrown in a mess, and only four of the seven men in black were left. Zhang YuShui looked inside with a flashlight. The three men were still struggling in the puddle. Finally, slowly, there was no movement. He looked at them with his face fixed.

“It’s a fucking bad luck.” The black-claded man swore, his face was chewed bloody.

Lao Fei was gasping for breath, presently he was quiet.

Jin LaoDa said alongside him, “Go and find a safe place to deal with the wound. Who knows if the green things will come back?”

A few people were obviously afraid of green insects. They picked up their bags and walked forward.

Na Wu had already run away, and now could only rely on Zhang YuShui to lead the way. Zhang Qiu patted Li Shu’s arm, “put me down first.” He did not bother the princess-carry, but Jin LaoDa had no time to pay attention to this.

Inside the mountain, the trees were sparse, as if something had sucked out the essence. The soil was a little red. As he walked up the mountain, Zhang Qiu’s heart beat a little.

Li Shu found that Zhang Qiu was feeling listless, he held Zhang Qiu’s hand in one hand, and Zhang Qiu turned to look at Li Shu: “What’s wrong?”

“I am pulling you.”

Zhang Qiu: ...

How strange it is to pull a hand on such occasions!

But seeing Li Shu’s serious eyes, Zhang Qiu said generously: “Let you pull!”

Didn’t know if it was because Li Shu took him with him, there wasn’t that feeling of palpitation when he climbed the mountain. Looking back at Lao Fei, the guys were panting and sweating, and nothing seemed to happen to him, Li Shu, Zhang YuShui and Jin LaoDa looked like nothing happened.

This mountain was not high, and the slope was not steep. It was reasonable to say that these thugs should not climb a mountain and breathe like this.

Physical strength was also too bad. Zhang Qiu thought that the boss behind this must have been pitted by Lao Fei, his physical strength was not good.

“It’s there.” Zhang YuShui stopped and pointed to a piece of land not far away.

Zhang Qiu glanced at the whole mountain and the trees were sparse, but the place where Zhang YuShui pointed out was particularly lush and spiritual, not half-dead like any other place.

Jin LaoDa’s eyes flashed eagerly, “You guys take a break, simply bandage the wounds. I’ll take the brothers to explore the place. We are a good hand in digging this hole.”

“Daoba! Go with me. ” Lao Fei bummed into the man in black next to him, then winked and said to Jin LaoDa, “We’ll help you out.”

Jin LaoDa’s men were angry, knowing that Lao Fei couldn’t believe them and was about to be dragged back by Jin LaoDa. Jin LaoDa laughed and said, “That’s a good idea. Many people help, we can get things done as soon as possible.”

After that, he took the guys to the place, Lao Fei made a look at the bloody man who had been chewed on his face before leaving, meaning to watch a few of them. Zhang Qiu turned a blind eye in the heart, this kind of person just differently writes on his face.

Zhang YuShui watched as Zhang Qiu’s hungry belly ‘gugugu’ screamed, tired and thirsty, the chewed face was disinfecting himself, the bottle of alcohol was poured on the injury and he gritted in pain, Zhang Qiu was not yelling, thanks to Li Shu.

“Thank you just now.” Zhang Qiu poured water onto a towel to moisten it, then gave to Li Shu.

Li Shu took the towel and looked at Zhang Qiu. Zhang Qiu was seen leaning back and was held by Li Shu with his chin clasped in one hand, “Don’t move.” He stood stiff in place, and saw Li Shu wiping his face carefully with a towel, “All right.” And handed him the towel.

Zhang Qiu:...

Li Shu, are you mistaken about something? I give you the towel to wipe yourself. It’s not for you to wipe it for me!!!

There’s a cat disease! (4)

Zhang Qiu thought so, but his face was feverish and his heart was beating fast. He stuffed the towel into his bag and began to put up the stove to heat up water and cooked food. Zhang YuShui and Li Shu set up a simple tent. After the chewed face finished his treatment, set up a tent for them. They turned on the camp lights around until more than 9 p.m. when Jin LaoDa and them arrived.

“That’s enough.” Jin LaoDa took two sips of hot water and was covered in mud. He didn’t care, “Li Shu fellow, when do you think it would be better to go down the pit?”

Lao Fei was dissatisfied with Jin LaoDa’s question to Li Shu, and grumbled, “Since it’s been dug, go back as soon as possible.”

Zhang Qiu watched Li Shu all the time and found out that after Lao Fei said it, Li Shu showed a sneer, especially light, “Do it.”

Jin LaoDa listened to Li Shu said so. They had a warm meal on the ground, rested for a while, put out the fire, confiscated the tent, and carried their light baggage directly to the robber’s hole.

Far away, Zhang Qiu saw a dark shadow at the entrance of the robber’s hole and shouted something. Several people were frightened during the day, at once held a gun and flipped through it with a flashlight. There was nothing. Lao Fei was somewhat dissatisfied and stared at Zhang Qiu fiercely.

He did see something, like a human figure, could not help thinking of the zongzi climbing from the robber’s hole in the tomb of Pixian HuiWang.

Zhang Qiu dragged Li Shu down, seemingly seeking certainty, Li Shu just nodded, did not say anything, Zhang Qiu immediately knew that Li Shu had just seen, but why not say?

(1) The shouting when throwing a dice refers to the buzz of gambling. Describe the look of arrogance.

(2) stupid, gives the impression that love money is better than everything, including one’s own life

(3) meaning that the inner feelings of a certain phenomenon are similar to fear (but more than fear)

(4) homophonic term. You have a problem

Chapter 18

“Li Shu fellow, you see –” Jin LaoDa obviously wanted to let Li Shu take the lead.

Beside, LaoFei impatiently said, “dawdling is not a man. Let me go first.” When he said “not a man”, he also looked at Li Shu.

Suddenly Zhang Qiu’s petty temper came up. He was pinched by Li Shu, with a smile in his eyes, but when he looked at Lao Fei, it was with a cold to the marrow.

Lao Fei took the black-claded men down first, in between was Jin LaoDa and his men, then Zhang Yu Shui and Zhang Qiu, and finally Li Shu. This time, Zhang Qiu probably had some experience creeping the robber’s hole before. He didn’t open his mind for the first time to frighten himself. He didn’t feel frightened, especially behind him was Li Shu, he creeping quickly with his butt stuck up.

The first few people held flashlights, because of the long and narrow robber’s hole, to the back of the light was very dim, the last Li Shu did not hit the flashlight, a pair of faint red mist, closely staring at the front; Zhang Qiu’s buttocks, twisting and twisting, Li Shu’s eyes turned more dark.

Zhang Qiu always felt the chill behind his butt, not felt at ease, and whispered, “Li Shu?”

“Hn?”

Just such a hn sound, the voice was low and pleasant, it’s a foul to hear, his arm almost fell on the ground! In the darkness, Zhang Qiu’s ears were red and he felt like a mosquito-repellent incense. Fortunately, the road was dark and Li Shu couldn’t see it, or he would have exploded.

“No– nothing.” Zhang Qiu stammered, internally wishing that there’s no one in the robber’s hole.

This time the robber’s hole journey went smoothly and did not go wrong as it did last time. Especially the location of the hole was excellent. The first Lao Fei came straight into the lane and laughed when he saw Li Shu behind him, joking as if to tell Jin LaoDa, “You’re too careful, isn’t there nothing? Don’t be suspicious, I asked what talented people call people to cheat?”

Lao Fei meant something, and everybody could hear it. Jin LaoDa laughed a couple of times and diverged, “Come on!”

Zhang Qiu grunted with discontent in his eyes, mainly for Li Shu. He had seen Li Shu’s skills, if not for Li Shu, he could not have come out of the tomb alive.

The tomb had only one corridor, and there was no fork in it. They walked along the corridor. About a quarter of an hour later, there was a black pillar in the middle of the corridor, which was carved on top of it, and Zhang Qiu saw and made a ‘yi’ sound, this was like the pillars around the stone coffin bed in the main tomb chamber of Gu Mu Country.

Zhang YuShui went up and looked at the circle with a flashlight, but the pattern was simple and did not have a regular pattern that could be detected, he couldn’t tell, “It could be a talisman.”

Lao Fei three people obviously don’t have any interest in them, and urged them to hurry up.

These people were in a hurry, as if they were rushing to the main tomb chamber. Zhang Qiu pouted his lips and kept up. Then, almost a quarter of an hour later, there was another black pillar in the middle of the corridor. It was not until the fifth that he saw the main corridor leading to the tomb. It was narrow, about a meter wide, about four or five meters long, with black paint on all sides and black on the top floor and walls.

Lao Fei flashed his flashlight across the way. Several people in the back were shocked and stepped back. “What the fuck is that?”

A pair of fierce eyes stared at them at the door of the opposite chamber, as if they would torn them apart at once before daring to step forward. Daoba’s face looked frightened, and immediately pulled out a few shots, listening only to the muffled bang, the huge, fierce eyes still staring at their uninvited visitors.

“It’s a stone statue.” Zhang YuShui spoke.

“How is that possible? It’s clearly alive –“said Jin LaoDa, whose forehead was cold and sweaty. Before he could finish, he looked at it carefully with his flashlight and breathed a sigh of relief. “It’s true, his grandmother almost scared me to death. This is something so evil.”

A huge stone statue was squatting in the middle of a stone door. The human-face tiger had a long mouth, and its tail was very long. It was directly built in the middle of the stone door gap to the top of the corridor. The statue was lifelike, suddenly it looked like an illusion.

“Taowu(1)” Li Shu’s voice was always cold, ” Something was painted on the eyes.”

Zhang Qiu suddenly thought of the clay figurines in Pixian Hui Wang’s tomb, which could really make people hallucinate, but because the stone statue was a little farther away, only the eyes were painted, it did not greatly affect their thinking.

“Damn, what’s wrong? LaoZi doesn’t believe this. Go!” Lao Fei pointed to Daoba next to him, and instead of listening to him, Daoba looked at Li Shu. Lao Fei got angry and his eyes were red, “Useless thing, I’m on it myself.”

Zhang Qiu had a hunch that Lao Fei would kill himself, but he didn’t stop. Lao Fei had just stepped down on a black floor, the board turned over, and the whole man fell weightlessly. The half-chewed cheek was at the side, he stepped forward and pulled him up. All the sharp stone blades were penetrating through the crack. If he fell off, he would be killed on the spot.

“Go.” Ignoring the struggles of Lao Fei’s two men, Li Shu naturally took Zhang Qiu’s hand. He took the lead in stepping on one and said to Zhang Qiu, “Follow me.”

Zhang YuShui followed closely, his eyes gloomy, staring at the closed door ahead, and a voice in his heart pulled him forward.

Jin LaoDa quickly waved to his men to follow him, without a word of sympathy as he passed Lao Fei and half-chewed face, he hurriedly followed after Zhang YuShui.

Zhang Qiu was nervous, holding Li Shu’s hand tightly. He couldn’t concentrate on anything else. He was afraid that he might have stepped on the wrong foot and dragged Li Shu in a cold sweat. His stomach was stuffy and painful, he uttered ‘uh’, Li Shu looked back, “What’s wrong?”

“The stomach is bit stuffy painful.” As soon as Zhang Qiu finished speaking, Li Shu put his hand on his stomach. The ice cold touched made Zhang Qiu shivered, but the stuffy pain feeling disappeared. It was amazing.

“All right?”

“I feel no pain at all when you touched it.” Zhang Qiu rubbed and watched Li Shu, who seemed to have no objection to his words. Does this mean that Li Shu is not disgusted with men?

Zhang Qiu thought of it with joy and happiness.

“How do we get in?” Zhang YuShui asked, coming up behind him, urgency in his tone.

Li Shu looked around the lower statues, “there are mechanisms, but behind–”

“No matter what’s behind this, Li Shu fellow, we are all bound to win. Don’t you want a box?” Jin LaoDa interrupted Li Shu.

Li Shu, who was interrupted, stared at Jin LaoDa. Zhang Qiu thought the look was strange, but it was really handsome.

Jin LaoDa, who was stared felt hairy, as he was about to say something, Li Shu stepped on the stone beast’s foot, leaped lightly, slapped the stone beast’s eyes, and suddenly the resting statuary beast’s tail moved, its tail long, pulled away from the tight stone door like a whip, and hit it with its head.

Li Shu held Zhang Qiu in his arms and stood in the dead corner. Zhang YuShui jumped lightly. His hands did not know what to do, but he clipped the top stone wall. Only Jin LaoDa three people could not escape the strong whip.

Ai-yah, ai-yah, crying of pain.

Zhang Qiu heard the voice and smiled unkindly. He approached Li Shu intentionally and whispered, “You mean it?”

Li Shu bent the corners of his mouth, Zhang Qiu looked at the face almost slobbering, his face control might not be saved.

The stone door slowly opened, Lao Fei three people intruded first. Jin LaoDa, unwilling to cover his arm, followed in. Zhang Qiu was anxious, “The box!”

“They can’t bring it out.” Li Shu said confidently.

Zhang YuShui had jumped down; the three of them looked into the eyes and entered. Zhang Qiu stepped in and was silenced by the images inside. It was a tomb of a thousand people, with a circular curve underneath. The whole chamber was round and covered with black paint. The coffins faced the platform in the center, but the platform was cut off from the wall of the coffin by a trench. It was very deep and underneath was sharp stone blades.

Unless someone could fly, they would not be able to reach the central platform.

At the moment there was a flame-like bead on the top of the gold shelf, shining brightly, and layers of coffins were shining in the dark main tomb, and the dark coffins seemed to absorb the red light, slowly penetrating in.

Zhang Qiu looked and felt blood curling, Lao Fei and the few were not much better, but he found that Jin LaoDa’s eyes were not at all afraid, staring intensely and crazily at the red bead on the shelf.

Jin LaoDa quickly pulled the bag under his hand and dumped something out of it. Zhang Qiu saw that it was a small crossbow with a rope behind it. Jin LaoDa pointed the crossbow at the platform and listened only to the sound of “shu -“, the rope was straight and tensed, the arrow at the other end was already stuck on the platform column.

Two men pulled the other end of the rope in a straight line, and Jin LaoDa put on his gloves and climbed the rope in the middle.

It was only a few minutes before Zhang Qiu stared at him and felt a sense of wonder, but it wasn’t exactly what it was.

“What should I do? Jin LaoDa wants to get something. ” Zhang Qiu was anxious for Li Shu. He didn’t forget Li Shu wanted the box, but Li Shu was very calm. He didn’t know what to say at once, but his mood slowed down. He only saw that Jin LaoDa had arrived on the platform and one hand could not wait to take the red bead.

“Xiu –”

There was a gust of wind in his ear, Zhang Qiu blinked his eyes and heard the screaming of Jin LaoDa.

“Big Brother!”

“The bead! The Box! ” The voice of Jin LaoDa.

“Ah Yan!” It’s the voice of Zhang YuShui.

Zhang Qiu looked up, but in a split second, there was only one person left on the platform, wearing a Chinese buttoned jacket suit, short hair, white as snow, bright red lips, a port-wine mark under the eye, aloof and remote, fine snow-white fingertips held the red bead, he took the bead into the palm and looked over here.

To be exact, he looked at Zhang YuShui.

The tenderness was unable to say in the eyes, in a split second he turned cold and vicious.

It’s Pixian HuiWang, Liu Yan.

(1) one of the “four fierceness” in the legend of Chinese ancient times, the head is tiger and has long wild boar fangs.