Chapter Fourteen: Suspicion

  Hei Zi and I were confused by You Shui Tou, what's with this "Man-Eating Blood Vine", just hearing its name makes me think it eats people?

  You Shui Du continued to say: "Lu brothers, you are a Guangxi person, don't you know about the Mo teaching?"

  What is Moism? I carefully recalled that when I was a child, my uncle seemed to have mentioned "Moism". In the Zhuang language, "Mo" refers to sorcery, magic, and wisdom. The mysterious cult originated in Guangxi, China, and worshipped the power of nature as its faith. As for how long Moism existed and when it disappeared, it remains a mystery.

  I told him what I knew, and Oil Barrel nodded without much surprise, then said: "This Man-Eating Blood Vine is a demonic vine that's been nurtured with human blood. To put it simply, as long as something living enters its range, it'll be entwined by the vine and won't be able to struggle free. Then, the parts of the Blood Vine that have grown eyes will extend countless thin, red, pipe-like things into various parts of the trapped person's body. From then on, you become its nutrient source, and bit by bit, it'll slowly suck you dry until you're nothing but a pile of white bones, just like that person up there!" After finishing speaking, he pointed again.

  I hadn't been paying close attention earlier, but now I carefully looked in the direction of the oil lamp's wick, about 80 degrees to my front and upper right. Indeed, I saw a dozen or so vines tangled together, forming a dense ball. Through the gaps, I faintly saw a pale face with wide eyes staring at me. He looked very young, probably only 24 or 25 years old. "Hiss!" I took a deep breath, and it seemed that this person was one of Liu's gang members. Apparently, Oil Lamp Belly had already realized there were more people here, possibly with the same goal as him. After all, fellow travelers are bound to be enemies!

  Since Oil Water Belly knew there was a second batch of people here, I pretended to be nonchalant and said: "If you know what this is all about, then you should also know the method to crack it. There may still be a second batch of people here, and the only road leading to the destination of the Demon King's treasure is this one, which means they are also heading in that direction."

  Oil and water belly thought it was my leaky fart, coldly laughed: "Lu brother owes me fat brother still wants to call you brother, really don't know how unreliable you are, Lu brother do you want to explain to me?!" After finishing, Da Fu Da Gui started walking slowly towards me, his face calm but his eyes full of murderous intent. Hei Zi saw the situation was not right, blocked in front of me, we both had a posture like we were about to fight!

  Hei Zi and I joined forces again in the mountains, I can guarantee that Da Fu Da Gui is not our match, and basically has no attack power. But now is not the time for infighting, I didn't give a positive explanation of the reason, instead I pointed at the person on top of the man-eating Blood Vine and said: "Look, he's been dead for three or four days, his face is already festering with maggots".

  Oil Water Belly once again sized up the dead person, slapped his belly heavily and suddenly understood, died three or four days ago. In other words, at that time I didn't even know what the demon king's treasure was. Oil Water Belly smiled slyly at me. He waved his hand to tell Da Fu Da Gui to stop.

  I wasn't angry, but if I were in their shoes, at least I would want to know the reason. "Now we need to figure out how to get out of here because of this research." Oil Water Belly's face, full of horizontal meat, shook up and down as he smiled and said: "Actually, I'm not too clear on the method to break through either, but that group of people in front only had one death, it looks like they should have already escaped from this ghost place. We just need to carefully find the clues they left behind." We started searching all around for the clues left behind by that group of people and continued to search for several hours. Now it's already past three o'clock in the afternoon, our stomachs were growling with hunger as we found a place to sit down and rest while also filling our bellies with some food. Maybe it was the smell of living humans on our bodies that stimulated the man-eating blood vines, originally these things didn't move at all, but suddenly they burst out, arm-sized vines like snakes quickly and densely covered us in blackness, I was shocked in my heart, so many man-eating blood vines definitely couldn't be escaped from, estimating that several holes would have to be pierced on our bodies. Not just me, Oil Water Belly's face turned pale upon seeing this scene, his two legs shaking like a sieve. Who knew these things stopped advancing at over a meter away from us, as if there was an invisible glass wall isolating them in front of us.

  We all let out a sigh of relief, our stomachs couldn't take the ups and downs, and we collapsed to the ground. Da Fu and Da Gui were really hard to read, they seemed so calm in the face of life and death, as if the dead person had nothing to do with them. Why didn't those bloodthirsty vines come over? Was there something here that they were afraid of? Hei Zi took out a cigarette from his pocket and lit it up, I saw his fingers trembling uncontrollably as he asked me: "This thing is really terrifying! If we don't find any clues, we'll have to force our way through and get ourselves pierced like a sieve!"

  I slowly looked down at the ground and was shocked to discover that about a meter in front of me, there was a rectangular patch of soil about 20 centimeters wide and high, with a color that was noticeably darker than the surrounding mud. It also had a layer of freshly overturned earth, indicating that someone had recently passed by! How did I not notice it earlier? I told everyone about my discovery, then picked up a handful of dirt from the ground and sniffed it, immediately detecting a pungent smell of gasoline. Hei Zi walked over to ask me what it was, but before I could answer, he carelessly tossed his cigarette butt onto the ground, which rolled right onto the raised patch of soil. Almost simultaneously, a blue flame flashed before my eyes. Something was wrong! I shouted loudly: "Run quickly! This place is going to catch fire!"

  Hei Zi didn't understand what was going on, just as he was about to ask me, he suddenly found himself surrounded by a blue flame wall that had ignited at some unknown time. He knew he was in trouble and looked at me helplessly, so I kicked him hard and told him to run quickly. The fire was already burning his eyebrows, what was he doing standing there? You Shui Gu and the others ran faster than me, Hei Zi and I used all our strength to retreat backwards desperately. I could clearly feel a hot current behind me that was being brought along by my movement. My hair couldn't withstand the temperature and was already emitting a burning smell.

  We ran for over 50 meters before stopping, and Oil Water Belly asked me in confusion: "Hey! Brother Lu, what's going on inside? Why did the fire suddenly start burning fiercely?" I wiped away the dirt on my head and said: "There's a lot of gasoline down there. The man-eating vines are afraid of that gasoline, so they don't dare come over." The more I spoke, the lower Black Son's head drooped. Oil Water Belly seemed to know what was going on and didn't ask any further questions. Instead, Black Son took a deep breath and wanted to go rescue the fire. I stopped him and said: "What's the use of you going now? There's no water here, and gasoline fires need professional fire extinguishers to put out easily. What can you do by going there? Just pee?"

  Hei Zi gradually calmed down and asked me what to do now. I frowned and looked at the sea of flames in front of me, the Man-Eating Blood Vine was being slowly consumed by the fire, it seemed like it was struggling for its life, making ear-piercing screams. The terrain here is different, with more rocks and a deep mountain valley, the entire valley is covered with the Man-Eating Blood Vine, which seems to be intentionally cultivated. Other areas have few trees, just bare rock. If we're lucky, the fire won't spread throughout Er Long Mountain. That would be good, it would save us from having to think of a way to get past it, and burning it down would be easier. I said to Hei Zi: "There's nothing we can do now, let's just hope the fire doesn't last for several days, if we're unlucky, it might attract some unwanted attention."

  Hei Zi let out a weak "oh" and sat down on the ground, I took a look at the time, it was already past 4 pm, so I suggested that everyone head back to the original cave to rest for the night. The fire would likely continue until tomorrow. You Shui Guo let out a long sigh, but didn't object, and we all turned around and headed back to the original cave. By the time we got there, it was almost 7 pm, and our stomachs were growling in protest. I had no choice but to take out a compressed biscuit and a bottle of water from my equipment bag and eat quietly, the atmosphere was very awkward. Everyone else also took out food to eat, they too had been exhausted by the back-and-forth chaos.

  The night in the mountain was very dull, I picked up some branches outside and lit a fire. The oil barrel called me outside, after going out, it looked around quietly and said: "Lu brother, don't you think today's thing is a bit strange? It was when you went to see that dead person that the fire started burning?"

  "Do you suspect that these things were done by Hei Zi?" I said calmly.

  "Lu brothers, you and I are both business people, it's not good to say anything too clearly. I just want to remind you to be careful of the person by your side, this person seems very suspicious to me." After finishing speaking, he slowly walked back.

  I carefully recalled every move Hei Zi made at that time, everything proved that he was not intentional! Besides, there's no benefit for him to do so, he had no reason to do it!

  Heizi is my brother! My family! No! I won't doubt him because of a few words from outsiders!!!!!!