Chapter Eleven: Beneath the City Walls

  That stench was the smell of a decaying corpse. Although we were all mentally prepared, we were still almost nauseated by that smell. The only thing that comforted me was that although it smelled bad, nothing came bursting out from inside.

  I took a glance inside, and saw that the temple was filled with dust everywhere, it was obvious that no one had been there for a long time. However, on top of the dust, there were many disorganized footprints visible, and the ground was splattered with dried-up black bloodstains. The stench came from these bloodstains.

  The footprints and bloodstains should not have been left for a long time, it seems that they were left after the fight. However, apart from the blood and footprints, there is nothing else left in the room.

  The entire room was empty, with only a statue of Cheng Huang in the center. This Cheng Huang had been placed here for an unknown amount of time, possibly due to being indoors, and wasn't particularly worn out. The paint on it could still be seen, but the craftsmen who originally created this Cheng Huang must have had some kind of mentality, turning what should have been a good statue into something with a green face and fangs, looking like a yaksha from hell.

  The statue is nearly two meters tall, and its entire body exudes an inexplicable eerie atmosphere. Especially those bulging eyeballs that stare tightly at us, making me feel extremely uncomfortable all over my body.

  As soon as we saw the bloodstains all over the ground, we didn't dare to be careless and quickly made a careful examination of the city wall. We found that many places had left marks of fighting, and the more I looked, the more shocked I felt in my heart. The battle that took place here must have been extremely brutal, but I don't know who it was that left them.

  After circling around, apart from the bloodstains and signs of fighting, we didn't find anything else. At this time, Leng Shi Tou was standing in front of the statue of Cheng Huang Ye, frowning as if thinking about something.

  As soon as I entered the house, I felt that the statue of Cheng Huang Ye had a problem. Apart from its appearance being scary, I also saw a strong aura of yin energy on it.

  I walked up to the stone guy and wanted to ask him what he had found, but who knew that he suddenly raised his head and stared tightly at the face of the city god!

  I was startled by his movement and quickly raised my head to follow his gaze upwards. As soon as I looked up, I was shocked and jumped up, shouting "Holy shit!"

  He took several steps back towards the rear.

  My courage is not small, but I was still scared by what I saw, because the city's pair of eyes were staring at us tightly at this time, and I actually saw that the eyeballs moved!

  The City God is made of clay, how can his eyeballs possibly move!

  After I retreated, I came back to my senses and immediately looked at the eyes of that City God again. To my surprise, those eyeballs blinked once more, and suddenly disappeared in an instant, leaving behind a pair of dark empty sockets!

  "What's going on!" Captain Liu discovered the anomaly and rushed over to us.

  I hadn't even had time to respond when I heard the stone standing in front of Cheng Huang Ye shout loudly, his body bouncing up high like a spring, his right leg stretched out and kicked towards Cheng Huang Ye.

  All of a sudden, there was a loud crash, and the City God was actually kicked by him with one foot, sliding backwards.

  The stone had not yet hit the ground when I saw a hole suddenly appear under the city god, and a human head popped out of it, staring at me intently for a moment before disappearing in an instant.

  Although it was just a flash, I still saw the appearance of that person's head. The top of his head was covered with sticky blood, as if someone had peeled off all the skin on his scalp, looking extremely terrifying and frightening.

  Especially the pair of protruding eyes on that human head, with clear black and white pupils. Being stared at like this, I felt as if I had been drenched from head to toe with cold water, my whole body chilled to the bone.

  "I'm going to f**k your grandfather!"

  Captain Liu obviously also saw the human head, and was so frightened that his hair almost stood up. He raised his pistol and fired bang bang bang, but the human head just slightly peeked out and immediately retreated, and all his bullets were wasted.

  At this time, Wu Yingxiong also landed, gestured to Captain Liu with his hand, and Captain Liu finally stopped shooting. The two of us walked up to him and looked at the dark hole on the ground, asking: "What was that thing just now?"

  He didn't answer us, but lowered his head and thought for a moment, then suddenly said: "I'll go take a look."

  As soon as his voice fell, he saw his body move, and suddenly jumped into the hole.

  I didn't expect this guy to leave suddenly, and I couldn't ask him anything else. Liu Captain and I looked at each other and then gazed at the cave entrance. I said to him: "How about we go down and take a look too?"

  The blood-covered head that suddenly appeared scared the hell out of me, and I guess Captain Liu wasn't doing much better, but he's a cop, so even though he was afraid, these things still needed to be figured out.

  Captain Liu swallowed hard and gritted his teeth, saying: "Let's go down, who knows what other strange things are inside, that little brother alone can't handle it."

  Since Captain Liu said he was going down, I had no choice but to grit my teeth and follow him. Before we went down, however, I handed him a few talismans and grabbed some glutinous rice from my pocket for him. When it comes to dealing with unclean things, these items are much more useful than his handgun.

  Originally, Captain Liu wanted to be in the front, but I blocked him. It's not that I'm showing off, it's just that my Yin eyes are now open and I can see some things that Captain Liu can't see, so walking in the front is relatively safer.

  The cave sloped downward, with a diameter of only about one meter. Both Captain Liu and I were crawling on the ground, inching forward. The top of the cave had quite a bit of sticky stuff on it. I casually reached out to touch some of it, brought my hand down to my nose for a sniff, and was hit with a wave of stench that shot straight up into my nostrils. It reminded me of the skinless head from earlier, and I figured these things were definitely left behind by it. This made me feel so nauseous.

  Although I felt sick, since I had come down, it was no good turning back, so I could only struggle on forward.

  The cave was quite deep and we crawled for about a minute or so before it started to open up in front of us. When I finally managed to climb onto the ground, all I saw in front of me was a vast expanse of space.

  This place is about the size of two rooms, and it's too dark to see clearly. Inside, it's empty and there's nothing else. A little further forward, there's a small path that goes straight ahead, with these excavated small rooms on both sides.

  At this time, Captain Liu also crawled out and was shocked by the scene in front of him. He took out a police flashlight and shone it inside, only to see that the passageway was dark and didn't know where it led to. There were hundreds of rooms dug out on both sides.

  Captain Liu shone his flashlight on the ancient coin and then said to me, "This thing was dug up some years ago, I reckon it was done along with that City God Temple."

  In ancient times, when war was rampant, many big shots would dig a hole in the ground to hide. I've seen quite a few reports of this kind before, but this place is really too big, not just for hiding, even if you were to squeeze an entire troop in, it would still be spacious enough. Could it be that this is a hidden underground military facility? I thought to myself quietly.

  This place is in the belly of a mountain, and with the protection of that City God Temple, it's really not easy to be discovered. If I hadn't personally gone inside, I would have never guessed that there was such a large space down here, even if you killed me.

  "Ahh!"

  Just as I was sizing up Captain Liu, a mournful cry suddenly came from the front passage. The cry was like a wolf's howl, extremely piercing and startled both me and Captain Liu.

  As the sound fell, a human roar immediately followed, and then a string of footsteps sounded, running towards the distance, and finally disappeared silently.

  I exchanged a glance with Captain Liu, and we both recognized the human roar from just now as Wu Yingxiong's voice. Judging from the situation, he must have encountered something.

  I rushed forward with Captain Liu, and all along the way, there were rooms dug out on both sides. Those rooms didn't have doors, and it was dark inside, so we didn't know what was in them. Captain Liu and I were worried that something unexpected would happen to Shi Tou, so we didn't have time to stop and take a closer look.

  This pass is not too wide and can only allow one person to pass through. If two people walk side by side, they will squeeze each other, so I am in the front, and Captain Liu follows behind me.

  I didn't run far before I suddenly felt something was off, because there were only the two of us in this place, so every footstep could be heard very clearly. At first, I could only hear the footsteps of the two of us clearly, but now there was an extra sound mixed with our footsteps, and that sound was right behind Captain Liu!

  The sound was clearly footsteps, only slightly different from ours, like someone walking barefoot on the ground, making a dull thudding noise that was easily recognizable in this quiet space.

  As soon as I heard that footstep, I felt the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. There was a rock in front of us, and only Captain Liu and I were the two living people here. What was following behind us?!

  Captain Liu had been a detective for over a decade and was also a cautious person. Since I can now hear the abnormality, he must have heard it too.

  Just as I stopped and turned around, Captain Liu behind me let out a loud shout, holding his pistol and turning back abruptly, firing bullets at what was behind him.

  When I turned around, I vaguely saw a black shadow standing behind Captain Liu, the black shadow was only one meter away from him, as if it was tightly attached to his body.

  Liu Captain had just turned around when the black shadow flashed to the side and disappeared, all his bullets were fired in vain.

  Captain Liu fired his gun while backing away from me, and I saw that he had broken out in a cold sweat on his forehead, clearly having been quite frightened just now.

  "Damn it, what the hell was that just now!"

  The movement of that black shadow just now was too fast, I didn't see clearly what it was, but vaguely it looked like a person's shadow, but how could a person have such a fast movement?

  "Cough! Cough!"

  That figure slipped into a room beside the corridor, and before Liu and I could catch our breath, we heard two strange noises coming from that dark and quiet room. The sounds were like the cold laughter of someone grinding their teeth, making our hearts beat wildly!