Chapter Nineteen: Mutant Bats

  That thing spread its wings towards me, and I saw that on its belly there was something like a sea snail. It was firmly attached to it, as if it had grown out of the bat's belly itself.

  Before I could take a closer look, a large group of bats rushed towards us. I raised my hand to block them and shielded Ho Ying behind me. Ho Ying drew her knife and turned around to tell me to protect myself. Then with one swift chop, she cut a bat in two. Strangely, not a single drop of blood flowed from the wound. The snail on the bat's belly shriveled up like a leech that had been scorched by a cigarette butt and fell off.

  Ma Si Zhe pushed me to the back, "Get away from this thing", then joined the melee with Huo Ying. At this time, Jiang Liu was facing off against Cheng Shu, his emotions much calmer than before, staring straight at the bell in Cheng Shu's hand.

  This bell must be strange, otherwise Jiang Liu wouldn't have gone crazy. But why did we hear it and nothing happened, but only had an effect on Jiang Liu?

  Suddenly, I felt a sharp pain piercing through my heart. Turning around, I saw that the bat had bitten deeply into my shoulder blade. Marx Zhe ran over but was at a loss for what to do. Taking a deep breath, I told Marx Zhe to just pull it off directly.

  Ma Si Zhe reached out and grabbed the bat's wing, pulling it down with force. But this bat was like it wanted to bite my bones into pieces, using all its strength, no matter how hard Ma Si Zhe pulled, it wouldn't let go. My shoulder started bleeding.

  Jiang Liu saw the blood on my shoulder and suddenly became excited, rushing towards me quickly.

  "What are you going to do?" Ma Si Zhe blocked my way, but Jiang Liu didn't care and punched Ma Si Zhe to the ground. He then grabbed my neck with both hands and slowly applied force.

  I was suffocating from Jiang Liu's grip, Ma Si Zhe tried to get up but found it impossible, the dark bats surrounded them. One of them landed on Jiang Liu's neck, right in front of me, I watched as the bat pierced its long teeth into Jiang Liu's skin. But Jiang Liu seemed to feel no pain, his gaze was venomous as he stared at me, his grip tightening bit by bit.

  My veins are bulging, I feel like I'm about to roll my eyes. Ma Si Zhe shouted at me under the attack of a group of bats, "Fire your gun, don't you have one in your bag?"

  I started feeling around my backpack, and after a while, I finally found the gun that Ma Si Zhe had prepared for me earlier. I held it in my hand, weighing it for a few moments, but hesitated to use it.

  "What's on your mind? Think again and you'll go down to keep your grandfather company!" Ma Si Zhe slammed the bat in his hand against the wall and shouted at me amidst the chaos.

  "Has he been bitten by a vampire mosquito before?" Uncle Cheng asked me, shooing away the bat beside him.

  I managed to squeeze out three words from my throat: "No, know, way"

  My mind was a complete mess, my brain was suffocating, and I couldn't think straight. In the end, I didn't pull the trigger, but instead used the gun in my hand to smash it against Jiang Liu's head. My posture was already bad for exerting force, and with the prolonged lack of oxygen, my counterattack had no effect whatsoever, and Jiang Liu didn't even flinch.

  I thought to myself, it's all over, I'm probably going to end up here today. Grandfather, I've done my best, don't blame me for being incompetent after I'm gone. The most suffocating thing is that in the end, I actually died at the hands of my own people. After I'm gone, I'll haunt Marx's uncle every day and see what kind of people he found for me - either plotting against me or trying to strangle me to death.

  Cheng Shu's bell fell to the ground and made a sound during his struggle with the bat. Jiang Liu stopped what he was doing as soon as he heard the sound, and the light in his eyes suddenly dimmed.

  I felt like I had been saved, and quickly broke free, lying on the ground panting heavily. The feeling of breathing in air was great, my greedy gasps were only accompanied by a throat that hurt as if it had been torn open.

  Jiang Liu suddenly reached out his hand, and I was so frightened that I quickly dodged back.

  "Where did these bats come from?" Jiang Liu hurriedly shooed away the swarm of bats surrounding him.

  I lay on the ground, not daring to move. Seeing Jiang Liu staring at me with a puzzled face, I subconsciously shook my head. That meant I didn't know where the bat came from, nor did I know what was wrong with you, nor did I know what happened to you just now, nor did I know what you wanted to do now.

  Jiang Liu slapped down a bat flying towards him, covering his neck and yelling in pain. How could it not hurt, it was bitten like that.

  I thought for a moment, Jiang Liu lost control because of the sound of the bell, now it's highly likely that he regained his sanity just because the bell fell to the ground earlier. It seems that Jiang Liu was controlled by the bell.

  "Keep the bell under control and don't let it make a sound." Ma Si Zhe heard me say this, hastily picked up the bell and pinched it in his palm.

  Before I could catch my breath, the bats swarmed in again. They drove us back step by step. Cheng Shu and Ma Si Zhe's physical strength had been almost exhausted, let alone He Ying, who looked like she couldn't hold on for much longer.

  We took a step back, I accidentally kicked something, and fell backwards, slamming into the Buddhist altar, sitting heavily on the incense burner. The pain was so intense that tears almost came out of my eyes.

  Who knew that as I sat here, the incense burner suddenly changed. The characters on the furnace that I couldn't understand began to rotate, spinning at different speeds, and when they finally stopped, they formed four words: 'Tong Tian Tong Yu'.

  The four little demons under the incense burner converged together, and in an instant they gathered together. A hole appeared on the wall behind the female corpse, and we all rushed into that hole.

  It was fine when we first stepped in, but after a couple of steps, I realized something was off. The slope was getting steeper and steeper, so steep that it was hard to stand up straight. Then, Ma Si Zhe yelled from behind, "Hurry up and move forward, my butt is about to be bitten off!" After that, I felt like someone gave me a push from behind, and our group slid down the slope together.

  The speed got faster and faster, I felt that the soles of my shoes were almost worn out. Later on, it was so fast that I could hardly stand still, I tried hard to keep balance, after hitting my head heavily once, I rolled down half-fainted.

  The falling process lasted for several seconds. These few seconds felt longer to me than the mechanical female voice on the phone when I checked my college entrance exam scores back then. After a few seconds, with a thud, along with the dust that was smashed up, I fell heavily to the ground.

  The scapula was bitten by a bat, and it emitted an excruciating pain. Before I could get up from the ground, I was ruthlessly slammed to the ground again. Jiang Liu saw me gnashing my teeth and hurriedly stood up.

  I was about to flare up and scold a few words, but when I turned around, it was Jiang Liu. Remembering the fierce look on his face when he pinched my neck earlier, I hastily swallowed back the rest of my words. I respectfully patted the dirt off my body and walked away with my tail between my legs.

  Next, Cheng Shu, Huo Ying and Ma Si Zhe also fell out of the cave one after another. I quickly helped Huo Ying and Cheng Shu up. Huo Ying smoothed her disheveled hair back behind her ears and said thank you. I politely replied no need to thank me.

  Ma Si Zhe also stretched out his hand to me, indicating that I should help him up. Before I could say anything, he said "thank you" himself. I replied with a "no need" and turned around to leave. If this guy hadn't squeezed so hard just now, I wouldn't have fallen so badly.

  Ignoring Marx's muttering behind me, I walked straight up to Jiang Liu.

  "Do you still remember what happened just now?" I asked. Jiang Liu said he only remembered Uncle Cheng shouting for us to go downstairs, and then everyone went to move the incense burner but no one succeeded in moving it, after that Uncle Cheng asked me to move the corpse, and then the whole room was filled with bats.

  He seemed to have snapped, and he didn't remember what had happened in between. I didn't want to tell him about his crazed attempt to kill me either, so I just said "You were possessed by an evil spirit just now." Jiang Liu looked at me incredulously.

  Cheng Shu said on one side, "Jiang Liu, have you been bitten by that blood-sucking mosquito?" Jiang Liu thought for a moment and nodded.

  "It seems so, it bit on this side of the ear." Jiang Liu touched his ear.

  That's right, the blood-sucking mosquito has been living on corpses for a long time and carries corpse poison itself. It may have transmitted the corpse poison to you when it bit you.

  Cheng Shu continued, 'The bell in Ma Si's hand is a soul-guiding bell used by the Miao people to drive corpses. When the corpse hears the bell sound, it will follow the person driving the corpse. It's possible that this bell was cursed before, which would make anyone carrying corpse poison hear it and go crazy.'

  I looked at Ma Si Zhe and said, "Master Ma, take good care of Qianqian."

  Ma Si Zhe patted his pocket "It's on me"

  "This bell not only drives Jiang Liu mad, but also shares a fate of life and death with him. Those who have been poisoned by the corpse poison will not be able to survive once the Soul-Biting Bell is destroyed. So from now on, as long as the bell exists, the person exists; when the bell is destroyed, the person dies."

  Ma Si Zhe thought for a moment and handed the bell to me. 'You'd better take it, it's safer that way. Who knows when I might accidentally ring it.'

  Jiang Liu took a deep breath and said, 'Sun Yi, you'd better take it.'

  When I took over the bell, I felt more pain in my shoulders. Because a life was pressing on my shoulders.

  "What's that?" We heard the sound and looked towards Huo Ying. He was squatting on a lotus-shaped stool, shining his flashlight inside.

  We all walked towards the lotus seat. The lotus seat was spotlessly white, so white that there wasn't a single blemish on it. White has a kind of sacred feeling, and I didn't dare to profane it. I touched it lightly, and felt a chill run down my spine. It was icy cold, and I quickly withdrew my hand.

  "My goodness, what is this carved from? The color is so pure?" Jiang Liu asked in shock.

  "It's a pearl. Pearls are a type of shellfish that live in the deep sea, and because of their pure color, they're often made into jewelry to wear. They're the first of Buddhism's Seven Treasures, and although it's said that pearls are generally very large, I've never seen one as big as this lotus pedestal before."

  I am one meter eight tall, and the lotus seat is so big that I can lie flat on it. Only when I walked closer did I see clearly that there were several lotus roots next to me. It seems that the carved lotus root and the lotus are from the same block. I compared the size and was shocked.

  This whole piece of jade is as big as a double bed. This is really a wonder.

  We all climbed onto the lotus seat. "What's this?" Huo Ying shone her flashlight on the center of the lotus seat. Only to see that in the shallow center of the lotus, two lines were faintly engraved: "North Temple wind is clear, city and town are made of wood."