Chapter 149: This Works Too?
Lin Yan stared blankly: “This isn’t scientific. How did this fire start? Can just this little spark ignite this pile of rotten wood?”
Master Liang’s intelligence returned at this moment. He reached out and probed the ground: “This underground is fire oil!”
As soon as these words came out, everyone felt a chill down their spines. Everyone knew how fast fire oil burned. Watching the originally faint yellowish flame expand its range by double in just a few seconds, no one could stay here any longer. Wu Xie shook Lao Yang, who was dazedly staring at the flames: “Didn’t you say earlier you saw a place? Where is it? Hurry and lead us there!”
“Oh oh!” Lao Yang snapped back to attention with a jolt and quickly led them running toward the direction of that cavity.
It had to be said that this fire was somewhat useful. As the flames rose, everything around was illuminated. The flames from behind them lit up the shortest path ahead. The Ghost Wall was unexpectedly broken by their actions through a twist of fate.
While running, Wu Xie wondered why the tomb owner had put fire oil underground. What if someone came after they were all burned here? Wouldn’t this coffin formation be useless then?
In less than half a cigarette’s time, they arrived at the place where they had gotten separated earlier. That cavity leading underground was still quietly staying there, as if nothing had changed.
“Ying ying ying?”
Xiao Bai Jiang suddenly jumped from Lin Yan’s arms onto his head. Lin Yan, afraid it would fall, quickly reached up to steady it: “What’s wrong?”
Xiao Bai Jiang made a puzzled sound: “Ying ying ying?”
Wu Xie turned his head to look behind: “Does this mean there’s something?”
Lao Yang rolled his eyes at them and jumped down first: “You, you stop worrying about whether there’s something or not. Hurry and come down first—otherwise you’ll turn into roast pig!”
Wu Xie rolled his eyes at him, signaling Master Liang and Uncle Tai to go down first. He always felt that Xiao Bai Jiang’s reaction meant something was about to come out. But it shouldn’t be dangerous. Last time they encountered the monkey group, Xiao Bai Jiang’s cry was different. Though last time he had almost worried that Xiao Bai Jiang’s throat would go hoarse from crying, he later remembered that Xiao Bai Jiang probably didn’t have a throat.
So what was coming this time?
Soon he saw it—a black mass rushed out from the rapidly spreading bonfire. It was shockingly the Big Rat they had encountered before!
Seeing the rat swarm that had previously forced them to drill into coffins to hide now panicking and scurrying in the flames, he felt elated in his heart along with a trace of sorrow like a rabbit dying and a fox grieving. Who could guarantee tomb raiding was always safe? This rat swarm had been domineering in this coffin formation for hundreds of years, right? Seeing there was nothing else here showed how tough this thing was. And now wasn’t it meeting this end?
“Lin Yan, shall we go?”
Seeing only the two of them left and the fire almost burning over, Wu Xie patted Lin Yan’s shoulder and turned his head to ask him. Lin Yan frowned; he always felt Xiao Bai Bai was waiting for something: “Wait a bit longer. Xiao Bai Bai wouldn’t stare at something for no reason. I feel like it’s waiting for something?”
What was worth it waiting for? Could it be this group of Big Rats?
Sure enough, a few seconds later, a few panicked rats fled to them. Only one looked particularly large with intact fur; the others were somewhat horrific, and one even had a lame foot, limping as it ran.
These few rats reached near them but seemed very afraid of Xiao Bai Jiang, not daring to come closer than two or three meters in front of them.
Wu Xie quietly stepped back. The rat swarm had given him some psychological shadow before. Now looking at these rats up close in the firelight, they still seemed somewhat ferocious. This was true—the rats in this tomb really couldn’t be called good-looking. Their mouths were half again as big as ordinary rats, and even with mouths closed, sharp teeth gleamed white through the gaps, chillingly. Their bodies were as big as regular house cats, and the leading one could almost be called a little leopard.
These rats had extremely developed hind limbs. When on guard, from the side, they even looked a bit like kangaroos.
Those few rats seemed to discuss for a bit. The leading one advanced a little and quickly used a submissive posture to communicate with Xiao Bai Jiang in rat language: “Squeak squeak squeak squeak squeak squeak squeak!”
Xiao Bai Jiang: “Ying ying? Ying ying ying!”
Wu Xie and Lin Yan were completely baffled. Both simultaneously thought of Zhang Qiling. If that man were here, he might understand what they were saying.
After more than ten seconds, it seemed they had reached an agreement. The leading Big Rat stood upright and called twice to the few rats following behind. Two of them hesitated but directly rushed toward a place not yet fully covered by flames.
Seeing this, Wu Xie and Lin Yan’s fragile hearts were shocked. So… this was negotiating conditions? What did they negotiate? And bringing back something from the nest—they guessed those two went back to the nest? So Xiao Bai Jiang had acted as the black boss once, collecting protection money?
As if the deal was done, Xiao Bai Jiang jumped from Lin Yan’s head to his shoulder. The leading Big Rat very timidly led the remaining two to huddle in a corner less than two meters from them.
“You, why haven’t you come down yet?” Lao Yang strained to poke his head out from below, puzzledly asking the two people with their backs to them.
Wu Xie figured the fire probably had dozens of seconds before reaching them. Better to wait and see what the rats brought back. Could this place not just be a formation, but have some treasure he hadn’t noticed?
So he turned back to Lao Yang: “It’s fine. We’ll come down in a bit. You check first if there’s danger below. Any issues, we’ll talk after we come down.”
“Holy shit, this, this damn isn’t it?” Lao Yang still noticed those few rats not far from him. But now the Big Rats showed no respect to him like they did to Xiao Bai Jiang, unceremoniously baring teeth at him.
Lao Yang hurriedly pulled out the gun from his waist, his hand shaking as he flicked off the safety. Lin Yan saw his action and quickly stopped him: “Lao Yang, don’t rush, don’t shoot! These are probably our own… uh, our own rats!”
“What the hell?” Lao Yang thought he was hallucinating, his gaze darting between Lin Yan and the leading Big Rat nonstop. Seeing him still aiming the gun at it, the Rat King even rudely threatened him: “Squeak!”
No, this thing had made them so miserable before—how was it now their own rat? If Master Liang saw this, wouldn’t his mentality collapse…
“Wu Xie, you, tell me honestly, is this real—really?” Wu Xie saw Lao Yang’s incredulous look and, on his fragile young heart on the verge of collapse, sprinkled the final handful of salt, solemnly nodding.
!!!!!
The gun in Lao Yang’s hand unknowingly drooped. He staggered and disappeared at the cave entrance, presumably going down to sulk. And the two rats that went out would come back too. But… only one returned.
Lin Yan saw the remaining rat dart out from the flame-surrounded area and knew what happened. It seemed this rat nest had been completely wiped out. Now here, besides the Rat King and the remaining three rats, they were the last members of this rat swarm.
They watched this rat, with most of its fur burned off, give the thing in its mouth to the Rat King, then turn and rush back into the flames, disappearing. They couldn’t help feeling a trace of sympathy. But unfortunately, one rat’s fate had nothing to do with them.
After getting the thing, the Rat King came forward alone and placed it about a meter from Lin Yan. Wu Xie noticed that the closer to Lin Yan, the more the Rat King trembled. It seemed Xiao Bai Jiang had some physiological suppression over the Rat King? He looked at Xiao Bai Jiang with increasingly profound eyes. Could it be… besides being a zombie, Xiao Bai Jiang was a cat in life? Were there cats that grew into this ball shape?
It had to be said that, in some sense, he had bizarrely guessed the truth. This was probably a kind of talent.
Watching the Rat King obediently shrink back to the side, Lin Yan bent down to pick up the thing: “This is…”
He couldn’t tell what it was and handed it to Wu Xie. Wu Xie examined it by firelight and found it ice-cold to the touch. Lightly tapping it produced a clear, crisp sound. He frowned: “I’m somewhat good with gold artifacts, but this thing…”
He tapped it lightly again, unsure: “Why does this thing feel like jade but not jade? It has a bit of bronze texture, but tapping it sounds like jade ware. This is too strange, right?”
Between bronze ware and jade ware, was there such a thing?
Seeing the fire about to reach them, Lin Yan hurriedly called to Wu Xie: “Let’s go down first. We can study this thing slowly. No rush anyway.”
Wu Xie nodded, casually putting the thing in his pocket, and stepped down first. After jumping down, he remembered something. Making space for the jumping Lin Yan, he asked: “What about those few rats?”
Before Lin Yan could answer, those few rats, led by the Rat King, jumped down one after another, then obediently huddled a meter behind Lin Yan—or rather, behind Xiao Bai Jiang.
Seeing Master Liang, who had come down somewhat listless and was still chasing Lao Yang asking what he saw and why he was sitting in the corner hugging his hair in a daze, now spotting those familiar figures, he couldn’t help screaming loudly, startling everyone.
Wu Xie panicked and went up to tug him, making him shut up: “Stop yelling! What if you attract something from inside the tomb?”
Lao Yang was also awakened by his soul-calling screech: “Stop, stop making noise, like a woman!” Uncle Tai also frowned, but as one of Master Liang’s people, he ultimately didn’t act. If Master Liang were his man instead of a partner, just for that screech, he could send him off first thing in this tomb!
“Hm? What smell—smell?”
After snapping back, Lao Yang ignored Master Liang, who had shrunk behind Uncle Tai in fear after his scream was interrupted, staring terrified at the few Big Rats, and sniffed.
They had been running all along. Just found a place and had to run from the fire circle. Finally got in, only to be scared by a few rats. Lao Yang was mentally exhausted. Only after Master Liang’s screech did he barely recover his normal action and judgment. He discovered that underground, besides the moldy corpse stench from corpses and coffins, there seemed to be another smell?
“Seems like burnt smell? And a bit fragrant. Who got singed by the fire?”
With Lao Yang saying this, Wu Xie smelled it too. He looked at the others, but everyone was just a bit disheveled from rubbing against coffins, clothes still intact, not looking injured.
Hearing Wu Xie, Lin Yan only felt the burnt smell growing thicker, mixed with a meaty fragrance that made his stomach hungry… He checked his watch—it was almost twelve! So… they had been circling this ghost place for nearly two or three hours? This wasn’t scientific!
Looking around, Wu Xie’s gaze skipped Lin Yan and fixed on those few Big Rats. Seeing the burnt patches on them, his expression was odd. Looked like… he knew where this meat smell came from. Just this smell made him a bit hungry?
Speaking of hungry… he turned back to Lin Yan: “Shall we have lunch?”
Lin Yan rolled his eyes at him. Fine, this kid had been led astray by him. At first it was him wanting to eat and them mooching a bit; now he was proactively wanting to eat… He wouldn’t turn Wu Xie into a glutton, right?
Looking at Wu Xie’s waist, which had probably thickened by at least two inches, Lin Yan frowned disdainfully: He wouldn’t end up nurturing Wu Xie into Fatty, right? Imagining two hundred plus jin Wu Xie, that picture was too beautiful to behold…
But since Wu Xie said it, he swallowed and thought it best to eat something. When taking things from his bag, he glanced at the few rats, thinking these were at least brought back by Xiao Bai Jiang. Why not… feed them too? But why did Xiao Bai Jiang call these rats over? Just to crave that jade-like stone in Wu Xie’s hand?
Xiao Bai Jiang seemed to know what Lin Yan was thinking and called to the Rat King: “Ying ying ying!”
When Xiao Bai Jiang called, the most timid Master Liang shuddered all over, nearly shrinking behind Uncle Tai again. The Rat King, hearing Xiao Bai Jiang, found an empty spot and actually started digging downward! Soon, in less than half a minute, a cave entrance big enough for an adult was dug out, with a shallow ring of dirt piled beside it. This cavity was at least half a meter deep!
Holy crap! Lin Yan slapped his thigh in realization. This was finding them a few earthmovers! When they hit a spot needing a tomb-robbing hole, they wouldn’t need to dig themselves—just close the door and let out the rats!
Collected protection money and earned three free laborers—this business was worth it!
Except for Wu Xie and Lao Yang, who had some mental preparation, Master Liang and Uncle Tai watched with eyes nearly popping out. Master Liang pinched Uncle Tai’s thigh hard: “I I I, am I dreaming?”
Uncle Tai rolled his eyes: “I thought I was dreaming! This damn… hey!”
