Chapter 125: Ghost Soldiers? One Bell Per Soldier!
I have to say, seeing the monkey group so aggressive before, but now all huddled behind the Monkey King under the pressure of the little white zombie, it’s pretty funny. After they finished dinner, if it weren’t for the monkey group unwilling to abandon the Monkey King, they would have scattered long ago.
“Squeak squeak squeak!”
Seeing them looking like they were about to leave, the Monkey King, who had just calmed down for a moment, started jumping up and down angrily again, holding a stone in his hand and waving it around, as if saying: “Dare to run and try it! I’ll have my hundreds of monkeys and descendants smash you to death!”
Unfortunately, after the little white zombie barked at it a few times, its monkeys and descendants retreated even further.
The three turned off the fire to save battery on the flashlights, made temporary torches with a few branches, and prepared to go inside. Lin Yan found the Monkey King’s outwardly fierce but inwardly weak appearance amusing, walked over and touched the little white zombie’s head: “Xiao Bai Bai, don’t scare it anymore, let’s go?”
The little white zombie ying ying yinged at him a few times, then turned back and let out a few threatening roars at the Monkey King and monkey group, before jumping onto Lin Yan’s shoulder along his hand, smugly rejoining Wu Xie and the others.
Seeing the little white zombie leave, a fierce glint flashed in the Monkey King’s eyes, and he threw the stone in his hand at them, while turning his head to let out a sharp low growl at the monkey group that had retreated far away. The monkey group behind was in chaos, intimidated by the little white zombie’s threat and not daring to come forward.
The Monkey King got even angrier and actually let out a threatening screech at the monkey group. Seeing the big movement behind, the few looked back and saw the Monkey King striking a posture ready to attack the monkey group, so Lao Yang asked strangely: “What’s going on? This, this monkey group is even—infighting?”
The little white zombie smugly glanced at him, then let out a clear and long cry towards the monkey group behind: “Lü—” The monkey group, who had been dallying forward out of fear of the Monkey King’s authority, heard it and erupted in terrified “squeak squeak” noises, ignoring the Monkey King’s frantic screeches, and actually abandoned their king and ran away!
The Monkey King was completely dumbfounded this time, how did trying to rob something end up with him being robbed of his position? He looked at the backs of the few, not daring to threaten them anymore, bared his teeth silently at them a few times, then slunk away with his tail between his legs.
Lin Yan rubbed the little white zombie’s head: “Of course it’s this little guy’s credit! The Monkey King might not fear Xiao Bai Bai, but the monkey group behind is scared to death. When the monkey group faces a life threat and the Monkey King doesn’t care about their safety, of course they choose to abandon their king! I reckon after the Monkey King goes back, he’ll have to fight another monkey challenging him to continue being Monkey King, which is enough to keep them quiet until we get out.”
Wu Xie was a bit curious: “How do you know that? I saw that Monkey King is almost a spirit, he might not step down when he goes back.”
Lin Yan glanced at him, holding the torch and walking inside while answering: “I can tell you don’t watch Animal World. It says inside that the hierarchy structure of monkeys is very clear. The moment the monkey group abandoned it just now, it was no longer king. If the monkey group re-elects a Monkey King, any male has a chance, won’t that mean fighting another round? It’ll probably take them several days of a big brawl, no way they’d have time to bother with us.”
Wu Xie really hadn’t watched much Animal World, didn’t expect Lin Yan to know this stuff. In the middle of Jia Zi Gou, it was eerily gloomy, the cliff tops on both sides like they were about to press down from above, and in the darkness, even the sliver of light from the one-line sky couldn’t be seen, it was really creepy.
After only a few minutes of silence, Wu Xie couldn’t hold back: “Do you think the ghost soldiers that Old Man mentioned are really real?”
Lao Yang unceremoniously mocked: “You believe that Old Man? Let me tell you, that ol—older generation is all the same, either ghost soldiers or immortals, zombies, all nonsense! You—you listen to their bullshit!”
As soon as he said this, Lin Yan and Wu Xie felt a cold wind brush past, and both stopped. Why say zombies of all things? Doesn’t Lao Yang remember there’s a little zombie in their team? Lao Yang seemed to realize this too, looking at the little white zombie: “This, this is an exception, I—I don’t believe these things are everywhere!”
Now Wu Xie and Lin Yan’s expressions became even stranger. Thinking carefully, it seemed they really hadn’t told Lao Yang about the previous experiences in Lu King’s Palace and the underwater tomb. How to tell Lao Yang that these things really might exist? Not to mention ghost soldiers and immortals, zombies are really everywhere!
Lin Yan thought thoughtfully: So Lao Yang and them never encountered zombies while tomb raiding? Seems like Wang Pangzi also rarely encountered them when going down alone, so every time Wu Xie goes into a tomb, zombies are everywhere, is it because he comes with a zombie buff?
But Lao Yang remembered something about this place: “Sigh, don’t say it, there really is—something strange! This road hasn’t been used by anyone since the se—seventies. Bu—but the grass here doesn’t grow. Originally the government planned to bu—build a road here, turn this into a scenic spot, but don’t know why, this, this road just couldn’t be built well, as soon as they st—started engineering, heavy rain came. They said the land was worshipped, ri—rituals were done, all useless, that’s why they gave up.”
Wu Xie didn’t think much, still joking: “If they hadn’t given up, where could we come tomb raiding here now?” But Lin Yan felt something was off. Isn’t this the classic plot kill in horror movies? Side character mentions a rumor, protagonist definitely doesn’t believe it, and in the end the rumor always turns out true?
Considering this is a tomb raiding world with everything, swearing by his years of watching horror movies, those ghost soldiers are absolutely real! So how to remind Wu Xie? If they encounter ghost soldiers and recall the legend of ghost soldiers patrolling on the fifteenth of July, they won’t really have their souls hooked by ghost soldiers, right?
Lin Yan quietly patted Wu Xie’s shoulder, whispering in his ear: “Still be careful. Don’t forget, even things like Forbidden Woman exist, what’s strange about ghost soldiers appearing here?”
The smile on Wu Xie’s face stopped abruptly. Right, he wasn’t seeing weird things for the first time or twice, what’s strange about a few more ghost soldiers? But he looked into Lin Yan’s eyes, silently asking: Forbidden Woman and such still have bodies, just easy to cause hallucinations, but ghost soldiers might not have bodies? Or are ghost soldiers all hallucinations? Hallucinations… you can break illusion, what’s there to fear?
Right! Lin Yan slapped his thigh, remembering his own bug. If ghost soldiers are just products of hallucinations, with his break illusion bug and bronze bell in hand, what does he have to fear? You know, about the formation of ghost soldiers, there’s a theory it’s a magnetic field issue, leaving images of past armies. Isn’t that just hallucinations? The so-called soul hooking might just be people scared silly, somewhat related to the legend of souls being hooked.
Worst case, one ghost soldier comes and he shakes the bell once, shake the whole ghost soldier troop apart, problem solved? Thinking of this, Lin Yan gave Wu Xie a “well done” look, ignoring his confused “what did I say” expression, took the bell in hand, feeling like he was walking with wind.
His whole body screaming two words: Arrogant!
