Chapter 21: Set The Mountain Ablaze, Rot In Jail Forever!
Following behind Wu Xie and Fatty, Lin Yan saw them crawling and suddenly stop. Wu Xie tugged at Fatty behind him, Fatty turned on his flashlight, and let out a cry of surprise: “Holy shit, it’s really not human!”
Lin Yan first shrank back a bit, then seeing they didn’t run, he came closer again, peering over Wu Xie and Fatty’s shoulders: “What thing? What thing? What’s not human?”
It really wasn’t human, but it couldn’t be described as a thing either.
That was a dead person. Not just a dead person, but a foreign dead person; through the rotting skull that was almost completely decayed, one could barely make out golden hair and already cloudy blue pupils.
Wu Xie and the other two exchanged glances and hesitated for a moment, finally sending Wu Xie up to search the corpse, while Fatty and Lin Yan called it “providing cover.”
Watching Fatty holding the flashlight at the ready and Lin Yan’s figure poised to run at any moment, Wu Xie helplessly rolled his eyes. Sigh, who told him to suggest coming himself? So he endured the disgust and went forward to search; the corpse wrapped in vines was almost completely rotted away, and anything in its mouth would have definitely fallen out long ago. But after searching the surrounding ground and finding nothing, he could only go back to search the pockets on the corpse’s clothes, finally discovering a pendant in the already completely stiffened hand bones.
Looking back, Fatty curiously glanced at his hand, but Lin Yan’s gaze kept roaming over the surrounding vines. So Wu Xie ignored the curious Fatty looking at the pendant and first asked Lin Yan: “What’s wrong? Did you discover something?”
Lin Yan nodded: “I discovered that the thing waving at you definitely wasn’t this corpse.”
“Isn’t that obvious!”
His remark drew eye rolls from both of them; everyone knew dead people couldn’t wave, and from the state of this corpse, it probably hadn’t been moved since dying here.
Lin Yan shook his head and continued: “What I mean is, since the corpse can’t wave by itself, then who led you over here to find this corpse? In other words, what on the corpse was worth all that effort to lead you to find it?”
He preliminarily had an idea in his mind: the person who led Wu Xie here, if not a ghost, was probably the elusive Zhang Qiling. From this perspective, the pendant in Wu Xie’s hand might be some key clue!
Although Lin Yan himself hadn’t realized it yet, his thinking had unconsciously placed himself in the identity of “Wu Xie’s companion.” It could only be said that after this tomb trip surviving life and death with the protagonist’s group, he was no longer the ordinary office drone youth from before.
The Corpse Beetles below started crawling up again; hearing their distinctive squeaking sounds, the three didn’t have time to think about this issue, exchanged glances, and crawled toward the crack. They were already only three or five steps from the exit, scrambling out quickly in no time, and bumping into a black shadow carrying something.
Wu Xie got a fright and reflexively wanted to draw his weapon, but the black shadow spoke first: “Wu Xie, it’s you guys!”
Wu Sansheng had a barrel on his shoulder and was overjoyed to see them: “You guys got out? Quick, quick, come help move all the gasoline from back there, burn them to death!”
Wu Xie looked closely; this place was only about ten meters from the tomb-robbing hole they’d come down, and their equipment was all there. Hearing this, Fatty found strength from who knows where and dashed over like flying: “Leave it to Fatty Ye! Those damn Corpse Beetles bit Fatty Ye like this, watch me burn them!”
Wu Xie and Lin Yan exchanged smiles and went to help too.
Soon, gasoline was poured at the exit; Wu Sansheng tossed down his fire starter, and the exit became a sea of fire, with the black tide of Corpse Beetles dropping down in batches amid sparks.
They were finally out.
Everyone breathed a sigh of relief; at that moment, Wu Xie remembered something and asked Wu Sansheng: “Third Uncle, what about those two?”
Wu Sansheng shook his head: “Da Kui’s gone, blown straight down in the explosion; by the time I saw, he was already overwhelmed by Corpse Beetles. Didn’t see that Xiaoge, but with his skills, this place probably can’t trap him; maybe he came up ahead of us.”
Wu Xie stood stunned in place for a few seconds. Earlier Da Kui had lost one hand and escaped the Corpse Beetle King; he thought Da Kui could survive, but unexpectedly still…
Soon, he composed himself and regained his calm. This trip down had too many experiences: Blood Corpses, Corpse Beetles, Seven Star Suspicious Coffin, Nine-headed Serpent Cypress, Lu Shang Wang, even A Ning who came to rob things—almost destroying his worldview from the past twenty-plus years. Just like how he previously thought his grandfather’s notebook was just a novel with fantasy elements, but now it had become reality.
They returned to that abandoned campsite; Panzi limped over to start a fire and heat up the canned food and such to eat. Everyone was almost silently eating with heads down, only Lin Yan and Wu Xie were a bit better, since they’d eaten something to pad their stomachs while resting below. Though still starving, they were much better off than the others, mainly from exhaustion.
After eating, everyone was almost unable to keep their eyes open, but the squeaking of the burning Corpse Beetles was still in their ears; no one suggested resting. Finally Fatty said: “Staying here isn’t a solution; what if the fire burns out and the Corpse Beetles come out again? It’s almost dawn now; let’s get out of the forest first?”
Wu Sansheng nodded, packed up his backpack, helped Panzi up, and prepared to go.
Lin Yan, on the side stroking his full stomach in a daze, always felt like they’d forgotten something but couldn’t remember; just as Wu Xie grabbed him to drag him along, it suddenly hit him that the instance ending seemed to have a big fire. So he suggested: “Wait! This is a forest; what if the fire spreads out? Setting fire to the mountain means prison time!”
Everyone was stunned; how hadn’t they thought of that—it made sense! Though not a primitive forest, it was probably close. Their whereabouts weren’t secret; the villagers knew they’d entered the mountains a few days ago—what if it was linked to them? Though not really prison for life, shedding a layer of skin was probably inevitable!
Fatty scratched his head: “Then what? We can’t put it out now, right? The Corpse Beetles aren’t all burned yet, and besides, we don’t have any firefighting tools on hand.”
Wu Sansheng was out of ideas now; if it were underground in the tomb, his experience and knowledge would be useful, but this kind of thing… He looked at Wu Xie, the highest educated (seemingly) among them all, and gave him a look: Nephew, got any ideas?
No water, no extinguishers here—what could be done? Wu Xie was also stumped. What was needed to put out a fire? Cut off oxygen? Not feasible here. Isolate the fire source? Right, isolate the fire source! Dig a firebreak!
He looked at Wu Sansheng: “Third Uncle, let’s dig a circle around it; make sure that even if the wind blows, the fire inside won’t reach the outer vegetation!”
The mess they made themselves, they had to clean up; looked like no sleep now! The few assembled Luoyang shovels from their backpacks; Fatty and Wu Sansheng each took one. Lin Yan, Wu Xie, and Panzi had nothing in hand, so they rummaged through the campsite equipment and surprisingly found some!
If a drone were looking down from the sky now, it would see four people, grimy and dirt-covered, digging a firebreak at least three meters wide in a dozen-meter radius area, with a limper on the side who could barely stand, holding a shovel and helping at the edge.
By the time they finished digging, it was fully bright. Fatty set down the shovel and wiped the sweat from his forehead: “It really is; starting a fire feels great for a moment, putting it out is hell. This is no different from a crematorium!” Turning his head, the fire had really reached the edge of the firebreak; luckily there was no big wind in the mountains, or the firebreak would need to be widened!
Wu Xie sat leaning against his shovel, panting: “I feel now that if we weren’t still not in a safe place, give me two seconds and I could fall asleep!” He then gave Wu Sansheng a slightly resentful look—it was his idea to set the fire! Looking again at Lin Yan, he was already exhausted and asleep on the side; no matter how much they pushed, he wouldn’t wake!
After a short rest, the few shouldered their sleepiness and got up; Wu Xie gritted his teeth and carried Lin Yan on his back, Wu Sansheng supported Panzi, Fatty carried Wu Xie’s equipment, and they started heading down the mountain.
On the way in, they could still chat and laugh; on the way out, it was hurried and frantic, and one person fewer.
When Lin Yan woke up, he found himself fully clothed asleep on a bed in the clinic; the next bed was Wu Xie, then Panzi; Fatty and Wu Sansheng were across. Clearly, everyone was so tired they didn’t even have the energy to undress. But their wounds had been treated; he saw the spot on his leg previously scratched by a Corpse Beetle had been disinfected and wrapped in gauze.
Damn, owing Wu Sansheng another sum of money.
At that moment, he suddenly noticed the light in front of him blocked by a shadow; looking up, it was actually Zhang Qiling. He still had his previous appearance, clothes tattered, face grimy, holding the Black Gold Ancient Saber in hand.
“How did you—” Before he finished speaking, Zhang Qiling suddenly chopped a hand knife at his neck. Lin Yan’s pupils contracted slightly; though he wanted to block it, Zhang Qiling’s movement was too fast. He only felt darkness before his eyes, and his consciousness sank back into darkness.
Wu Xie in the next bed seemed to sense something, let out a “mmph,” turned over, but still didn’t wake up.
