Chapter 150: Why Is He Here?
Weren’t they supposed to ban demons after the founding of the country? Watching the Rat King that had dug a hole and jumped out again, crouching with its two paws and staring blankly at them, even though Lin Yan had some mental preparation, he was still dumbfounded.
“Good grief, has this, this turned into a demon?” Lao Yang couldn’t help but click his tongue, watching the Rat King leading a few little followers prancing in front of them like a mini husky, involuntarily wanting to get closer for a look. But as soon as he leaned in, the Rat King assumed a defensive posture, baring its previously retracted teeth, lowering its body and retreating half a step.
“No, it was so fierce before, what, what’s it afraid of now?” Lao Yang saw this and feared getting too close and receiving a swipe or a bite, though he really wanted a close-up look, he still retreated under the Rat King’s movements. Wu Xie glanced at the little white zombie, then at the Rat King who retracted its teeth and paws again because Lao Yang backed off, inwardly calculating that if these few could all survive and get out, maybe there’d be a few more ground holes at home?
At Lin Yan’s efficiency of collecting little brothers, their home wouldn’t turn into a zoo by then, right? The things they raised were all strange and bizarre, but it actually fit their Wu Family’s family tradition pretty well — just like his grandfather’s notebook, all pretty eerie.
Thinking this way, he actually felt a bit expectant about what Lin Yan would bring back next time. What the hell! Forced to run, jump into water, drill tunnels every day, and there’d be a next time? Absolutely no next time! Once back, he’d obediently do his antique business, at most providing some logistical support to Fatty and the others.
What? Lin Yan’s stuff? Let him follow Zhang Qiling and mess around by themselves! Wu Xie thought, he’d rather die than go underground again, too damn exhausting! His first twenty years couldn’t be called pampered, but they were smooth sailing, yet ever since going underground once with his Third Uncle, he’d been forced underground repeatedly.
Before going, his Third Uncle had said it all so nicely, zombies are something you encounter maybe once every few years, ancient mechanisms he’s seen plenty and they’re easy to crack, just go underground to gain experience and grab stuff. Talked a good game, but now?
He himself had disappeared, no news even now, who knows what mess he’s tangled in without even reporting he’s safe, still a missing person! As for him falling from the waterfall, it seemed like he had a dream, though he didn’t know if it was real, but he still felt like he should tell Lin Yan about it and his Second Uncle.
He only believed Lao Yang’s nonsense and got tricked into coming; if he wasn’t really broke right now, heheh, he wouldn’t be eating dust underground here.
But the important thing now isn’t this.
Wu Xie watched Lin Yan sit on the ground and pull out canned food, involuntarily swallowing saliva, belatedly feeling starving.
This wasn’t strange; these past few hours he and Lao Yang were either climbing cliffs or running, or in the terror of being ganked by the rat pack and lost in the dark labyrinth. If not for idling now, he wouldn’t have time to feel hungry. The culprit Rat King arousing appetite and its little brothers were leaning against the passage’s rock wall, sitting obediently, eyes on nose and nose on heart, seemingly unaffected by the death of their kind.
Wu Xie originally thought they were really cold-blooded, but then he thought, even if they’ve turned into demons and gotten smarter, they’re still animals following jungle laws; demanding human moral standards from them is absurd. If not for the little white zombie sitting here, these big rats would’ve probably attacked them long ago, right? He might even get a few swipes.
Master Liang eyed the food in Lin Yan’s hand eagerly, secretly showing a drooling expression that made Lao Yang beside him full of disdain. So timid, poor stamina, always thinking about eating. Really didn’t know what use this guy had. Ah? What did you say? He knows the map?
Oh, then that’s fine.
Luckily, they mostly brought canned food and dry rations this time, which after being scalded by that hot water nearly spoiled. Last night during rest, Lin Yan had already started feeling lucky that at the Jia Zi Gou entrance, besides those few sausages, they’d eaten Old Man Wang’s stuff, or else it probably wouldn’t have lasted till now.
Sausages were pretty miraculous though; he sniffed and they didn’t seem spoiled, so they could keep carrying them as high-calorie food. If nothing left to eat later, gnawing half a stick could count as a meal, enough to hold out a few more days.
Just later on… Lin Yan glanced at the taciturn Uncle Tai and the focused-on-eating Master Liang, unsure if those two could survive. And that evasive look from Uncle Tai when mentioning the other two earlier… But even if those two were alive then, they probably got burned to death up top by now without coming down, so no real worry now.
Shaking his head to clear those thoughts, Lin Yan looked at Master Liang struggling to swallow his last bite, heartbroken at his reserve food depleting faster than expected: “Master Liang, do you know how to go next?”
Wu Xie, still gnawing canned food, originally wanted to rest after eating and tell Lin Yan something, but now could only hold it in for later. Truth be told, he was still hung up on that half-real half-fake dream, always feeling like he needed to discuss it with Lin Yan. He’d felt before that his Third Uncle hadn’t told him some things, and after that dream, he felt it even more.
Though he couldn’t guarantee the dream was reality, it couldn’t have just stuffed in things he hadn’t experienced, right? Only possibility was some magnetic field or something in this tomb activating stuff in his brain… Like the bronze bell that last time plunged him into hallucination.
The bell was now in Lin Yan’s hand.
Don’t know why, but since that dream, he vaguely felt this bell was related to the bronze tree Lao Yang mentioned. Otherwise why so coincidental: the bell made him hallucinate, the bronze tree branch made Lin Yan hallucinate? Lin Yan’s was even weirder; according to Fatty and them, he just spun following the bell, but Lin Yan straight-up bit it, and there’s still Lin Yan’s tooth marks on the branch now!
Speaking of, Lin Yan got like that just getting close to the branch; when they see the bronze tree later, he won’t hug it and gnaw, right? Don’t chip all his teeth then…
Master Liang heard Lin Yan’s question, his gaze flickering evasively, hesitating as he pointed inside the passage: “Go further in first.”
Lin Yan eyed him suspiciously, feeling he was hiding something, just about to probe his thoughts when Master Liang suddenly pointed behind: “There are two coffins here!”
Lao Yang had a seen-it-all expression: “Coffins here strange? But don’t, don’t expect any stuff, last time I, we groped them already!”
Wu Xie looked at Lao Yang’s odd expression: Groped them and you came out with just an earring left on you? Fooling who?
Lin Yan saw something like stuff at the passage end, shone his flashlight over and discovered it was actually a solid wall! He turned to Master Liang with an unfriendly face: “This is the road you mentioned? Where’s the road?”
Master Liang’s finger wavered, pointing at the largest coffin: “The road is here!”
Lao Yang was startled inwardly, thinking this Master Liang really knew; last time he came out exactly from here!
Lin Yan looked twice, saw no signs of Master Liang lying, suspicious but still went to check that already opened large coffin.
“Damn, what smell!”
One peek, a moldy rotten stench assaulted his nose, nearly making Lin Yan vomit his just-eaten lunch. He immediately held his breath. Who knows what the last coffin-opener was thinking; the passage was inside yet they dragged the corpse out! He thought there’d be a coffin board below, trigger a mechanism and drop right down, who knew one glance revealed a corpse oxidized black by air! But that armor on it looked pretty good…
Lao Yang came up from behind, peeked, and grinned as he took a rope segment: “You, you didn’t think the passage was under here, did you?”
Lin Yan looked at Lao Yang then Master Liang, feeling something off with both, talking all vague.
While he was baffled, Wu Xie also came up with a weird expression: “Wanna know how Lao Yang discovered this place?”
Lin Yan watched Lao Yang loop the rope around the corpse’s neck and pull it up, feeling more and more off; was this hanging the corpse again? What kind of sadistic mechanism activation was this?
“Don’t know, how’d he discover it?” He watched Lao Yang operate fiercely like a tiger, asking Wu Xie without looking back.
Wu Xie’s voice ghostly from behind: “This is the Xiangxi hanging rope bead extraction technique; just from the name you know what it’s for—” Lin Yan raised one hand behind, struggling to suppress dry heaves: “Stop, get to the point, can we skip this disgusting crap?”
Wu Xie nodded; though Lin Yan couldn’t see, he muttered inwardly: But if not saying the disgusting parts, what’d be left to say?
“Hm?” Over there, Lao Yang had already reached in and pried, a strip stone behind the coffin sank, revealing a narrow secret passage. He’d just started thinking better of Lao Yang, figuring at least road-finding was reliable, when he noticed Wu Xie hadn’t spoken for a while, so he turned back: “Why stop? How’d Lao Yang discover it?”
Lao Yang, back greeting them, saw him and Wu Xie chatting animatedly; Wu Xie gave him a weird look, knowing exactly what they were on about, gave an awkward laugh, turned, and darted into the tunnel first, lest Lin Yan get grossed out and come after him; he couldn’t handle that little dumpling zombie.
Wu Xie watched Lao Yang enter the tunnel, gestured for Master Liang and Uncle Tai to follow, but saw them studying those small coffins instead, so he wasn’t urgent, pulled Lin Yan away from the big coffin: “Think carefully?”
“Uh, touched a mechanism while looting the coffin?”
“Close.”
“No way he spotted where the mechanism was? Lao Yang has that skill?”
Wu Xie saw him veering further off, so out of poor monk must drag fellow Daoist down too, revealed the answer: “He originally wanted to use hanging rope bead extraction to loot beads, but when half his body was in the coffin, he lost footing—”
Lin Yan stuck his hand between him and Wu Xie, mind flashing to Wu Xie’s pose falling from the nine-headed serpent cypress onto the female corpse, then substituting Lao Yang with this armored corpse—
“Shut up!”
This image too beautiful, even just imagining wouldn’t leave his mind… Done for, how could he face Lao Yang straight now? Now seeing Lao Yang, only one impression in his head: the man whose first kiss (not sure if first, but a kiss for sure) went to this armored corpse!
Too damn disgusting! His just-eaten lunch! Seeing Wu Xie’s schadenfreude grin, he was furious; once out, he absolutely wouldn’t urge Wu Xie to exercise, and feed him goodies daily, breakfast lunch dinner plus supper, stuff him five meals a day into a fatty!
Wu Xie shivered: Who’s scheming against me?
Over there, Master Liang and Uncle Tai were drawn by the commotion, only half-opened the coffin in hand. Seeing their questioning looks, Lin Yan waved it off: “Nothing, you guys keep groping yours!”
Lao Yang came back up after scouting below: “Why aren’t you coming down? I checked, no, nothing dangerous below, same as when I—I came in last time!” He glanced at Master Liang and them, lowered his voice: “Same as my last time coming in!”
Wu Xie glanced at him, saw Master Liang and them not paying attention, pulled him and Lin Yan to whisper: “Give us the real story, last time how far did you get? You didn’t just do that segment below, right?”
Lao Yang deflated, neck stiff as he whisper-yelled: “How, how possible! We last time went—to the bronze tree before coming back!”
Got it, Lao Yang goes full stutter when lying, Wu Xie knew he wasn’t fully truthful, or rather, not entirely. Probably did reach the bronze tree, just this to bronze tree is close, they grabbed the bronze tree branch and left, just that segment.
Lao Yang didn’t know Wu Xie had guessed eight or nine outta ten; though he really only reached there and came back, at least he got to the bronze tree, right? Can still lead, but after bronze tree how to go where, probably still rely on that Master Liang.
Over there Uncle Tai and them had pried open a small coffin, just set the coffin lid aside when Master Liang let out a half-scream lingering: “Ah—”
Half because Uncle Tai directly clapped hand over the rest. In that less-than-second, everyone felt their ears nearly ringing. Narrow terrain here, echo heaven; this scream nearly sent them all off.
Lao Yang stormed up furious: “Scream scream scream, what’re you screaming for! So, so timid why come down? You—”
Words cut off, seeing the modern outfit in the coffin, he shut up: “How, how, you guys know this person?”
Uncle Tai released his hand from Master Liang’s mouth, felt a hand of cold sweat. Looking at Master Liang, head of cold sweat, actually scared speechless.
He glanced at puzzled Lao Yang, hoarsely said: “Know him, he’s our… companion.”
“Your guy? How’d he die here, put in this coffin?” Wu Xie pondered left and right, felt unscientific; second entrance here letting them in? But Uncle Tai’s team only four, plus one dead before makes five… This the dead one?
No, Uncle Tai never said the missing one was dead; maybe disappeared, hit some mechanism to end up here, possible too.
But Uncle Tai’s next words negated his guess.
“But he… should’ve died up top. We… watched him get eaten, head eaten by fish.”
