Chapter 96: Hanging Ghost, Water Pig Bee, Tooth-blade Viperfish Appears Again
After Wang Cheng and Wang Lu were released, they returned to the inn and immediately left quietly. Before leaving, they even remembered to leave the money in the room.
After going through this incident, Su Mo and the others also perked up. At night, Hu Ba Yi and Wang Pang Zi took turns keeping watch to prevent anyone else from coming.
The next morning, the five of them got up, packed their things, paid the boss’s wife and Kong Que for the stay, left the old jeep at the inn, and told the boss’s wife they would drive it away when they returned.
The boss’s wife and Kong Que also prepared a lot of dry rations for Su Mo and the others, along with insect-repelling herbs, and had Kong Que lead the way for them.
Kong Que led them all the way to the riverbank near Zhelong Mountain, and Su Mo told Kong Que to hurry back.
Before leaving, Kong Que seemed a bit reluctant:
“Big brothers, be careful! There are lots of insects and fierce beasts inside!”
Su Mo smiled faintly:
“Big brother naturally has ways to deal with them. You don’t need to worry; we’ll be back soon!”
Only then did Kong Que leave reluctantly, looking back every three steps. Watching her back, Xue Li Yang couldn’t help but laugh:
“Master Su, why don’t you just stay at Zhelong Mountain? It looks like this little girl’s heart is all on you!”
Xue Li Yang had a bold personality and didn’t mind that Kong Que seemed to have feelings for Su Mo; instead, she teased Su Mo about it.
Su Mo nodded:
“That would be good too. The mountains and rivers here are beautiful, and the folk customs are simple. Staying here would indeed be very comfortable!”
Hearing Su Mo’s words, even Xue Li Yang, who hadn’t cared much, couldn’t help but have her smile gradually freeze as she turned to look at Su Mo:
“You really want to stay here?”
Su Mo looked at her, a smile involuntarily appearing on his face:
“Yeah, but if I stay, I might not be at Caiyun Inn. I could open my own inn instead—might as well call it Mo Xue Inn!”
Upon hearing this, Xue Li Yang felt her heart stir, her eyes looking at Su Mo brimming with laughter.
Mo Xue Inn was naturally Su Mo’s Mo and Xue Li Yang’s Xue!
Hearing this, Wang Pang Zi nearby chuckled:
“Master, if you ask me, why not open a New Moon Hotel here too? Then…”
He knew that Yin Nanfeng from New Moon Hotel also seemed to have feelings for Su Mo, but at that moment, he blurted it out without thinking.
Hu Ba Yi quietly kicked him from behind and whispered:
“Fatty, if you can’t speak properly, say less!”
Fortunately, Xue Li Yang didn’t quite understand and still smiled faintly:
“New Moon Hotel? I’ve heard of it, but I think Mo Xue Inn sounds better!”
The group chatted and laughed, soon venturing deep into Zhelong Mountain. The trees around them were now very dense, with vines entwining everywhere, blocking out the sunlight and making the visible range smaller and smaller.
Wang Pang Zi held a machete in front, clearing the path, muttering as he walked:
“Damn, this primitive tropical rainforest really isn’t for ordinary people. No wonder so many Americans died in South Vietnam back then!”
At the mention of South Vietnam, Hu Ba Yi’s expression immediately darkened, as if recalling many past events.
At that moment, Su Mo smiled faintly:
“She Pa River is just ahead!”
Everyone listened intently and indeed heard faint water sounds from afar.
Soon, they reached the riverbank. Xue Li Yang tested the river’s depth and speed, then she and Hu Ba Yi and the others lashed together a large bamboo raft with bamboo poles. The five boarded and drifted downstream.
After drifting along the river for a distance, they entered a limestone cave. The cave was very spacious, but the height varied; the lowest parts were just over a meter, so everyone had to crouch low on the bamboo raft to pass.
The cave ceiling was covered with stalactites jutting out like wolf fangs, sparkling with crystalline light under the beam, looking both gorgeous and eerie!
After passing a particularly low section, the waterway ahead suddenly opened up. Inside the cave were rows of natural lava terraces, with layers of stalactites stacked like surging ocean waves, shimmering with magnificent light under the spotlight.
A massive blood-red stone pillar hung upside down from the cave ceiling, like a fresh red fang in a giant beast’s mouth, and the five on the bamboo raft seemed to be heading straight into it!
Beyond the beast’s mouth, many shadowy figures hung faintly, like hanged ghosts appearing and disappearing in the cave.
“My goodness, this isn’t the gate to the underworld, is it!”
Wang Pang Zi looked at the cave like a beast’s mouth and the shadows deep inside, his face turning pale as he exclaimed in shock.
Hu Ba Yi said:
“Commander Wang, you’re a tall man after all—don’t tell me you’re about to scare yourself into peeing!”
Wang Pang Zi shook his head:
“Peeing myself? Not quite, but the scene inside is just too frightening!”
Su Mo stood on the bamboo raft, peering ahead intently. He found the magnetic field and power in the cave were not chaotic, just with a sinister atmosphere, and those faintly visible shadowy figures were exactly the stone gu burial figures they had seen on the road yesterday!
These stone gu burial figures were all suspended from the ceiling by iron chains, many of which were rusted and corroded, some completely broken, with the stone figurines gone and only half chains dangling.
The dark cave, upside-down human shapes, rusted iron chains, eerie atmosphere…
If this place resembled the underworld, it wouldn’t be an exaggeration at all!
No wonder Wang Pang Zi and Hu Ba Yi were tense seeing these things—even Little Brother, seeing the stone figurines hanging ahead like countless hanged ghosts, couldn’t help but reach back to grip the hilt of the Black Gold Ancient Blade.
The bamboo raft soon reached the depths of the waterway, drifting past one stone figurine after another.
Suddenly, there was a plop not far away—an iron chain on a stone figurine fully rusted through, and the stone figurine fell from the ceiling into the water, like a hanged ghost suddenly jumping in, startling Hu Ba Yi and the others.
The stone figurine hit the water, and soon its stone shell swelled in the water, cracks appearing on the surface. Then black insects crawled out from the cracks, soon covering the water surface in a dense, terrifying, and disgusting layer!
Hu Ba Yi and the others looked at these insects, their faces turning unpleasant, their hearts even more tense.
Su Mo said gravely:
“These are water pig bees. They bite fiercely, but they can’t fly out of the water!”
Hearing this, Hu Ba Yi and the others felt slightly relieved.
But at that moment, a splash rose from the distant water surface, followed by a wave surging in the waterway ahead. A school of silver-bodied fish, each over a foot long, suddenly swam over in a cluster.
They were exactly the tooth-blade viperfish that Su Mo and the others had seen at the stone tablet shop before!
These tooth-blade viperfish quickly swam near the bamboo raft and began devouring the water pig bees voraciously. In an instant, the area around the raft churned with waves from the fish and insects, the entire water surface boiling like a cauldron!
