Chapter Twenty: The Poisonous Blood of the Black Ape

  Beisi Temple? This is obviously a place name. 'Is it near the village?' Cheng Shu asked me. I shook my head, I had never heard of this place before.

  We were intently staring at the two lines of words on the lotus flower, unaware that a shadow was slowly covering us from above.

  I felt a slight itch on my back, reached out to scratch it, and suddenly caught sight of something behind us staring at us.

  I counted the number of people: one, two, three, four. Everyone is there, so what's behind me?

  My back began to sweat layer by layer, trying to persuade myself not to look back, but I couldn't control my curiosity. I slowly turned around and saw a completely unfamiliar face staring at me from behind.

  This look almost made me vomit. That face can no longer be called a face, with bulging eyeballs, red pupils, and only a flesh ball in the place of the nose. The mouth was just a thin slit that stretched all the way to the ear root.

  That thing didn't have a single piece of good meat on its body, it was all bloody and mangled, like it had rotted away, with black-green goo dripping down from it. The goo slowly flowed down along the edge of the pedestal. I caught a whiff of a sour stench that made my stomach churn even more violently, the visual shock combined with the olfactory shock making me almost lose control of the turmoil in my belly.

  It rushed towards us with a "hiss", let out a shrill cry, the sound was ear-piercing. This thing is much smaller than human body shape, its movements are strange and sinister, looking more like a monkey.

  The blood monkey hung upside down in front of me, Jiang Liu turned his head and suddenly exerted force, kicking the monkey's face fiercely. I thought this kick would send the monkey flying. But before I could react, the monkey stretched out its hand and grabbed Jiang Liu's foot, quickly pulling it upwards. The hand was not even a hand, but a meatball with sharp claws on top, the palm seemed to be melted together, making it hard to distinguish.

  As I saw Jiang Liu being dragged away, I reacted quickly and grabbed onto his foot. Unexpectedly, this bloodthirsty monkey's strength was incredibly great, and he pulled me up along with him. I held onto Jiang Liu's foot, and the two of us were dragged away together.

  Ma Si saw the situation and quickly pressed me down, and the three of us barely managed to hold our ground against him. It was clear that the blood monkey's strength was enormous. Cheng Shu took one look at us and saw that we were about to collapse, so he drew out his knife and hacked at the monkey.

  The blade cut through, and this time it was a vicious slash on the monkey's arm. Then its arm began to ooze out something like asphalt, apparently this black sticky liquid was the monkey's blood. But what did this monkey eat to grow up, its blood is so unclean.

  That monkey might have been scratched and hurt, let out a screech, and suddenly loosened its grip on Jiang Liu's hand. It flung Jiang Liu down from mid-air, and his teeth heavily knocked against the stone pavement, I even winced in sympathy for him.

  Jiang Liu stuck his hand into his mouth, moved it around for a bit, and actually pulled out a tooth. Jiang Liu was furious, spat blood onto the ground, clenched his fist and swung at Blood Monkey, but Cheng Shu blocked his hand and hastily restrained him.

  "This is called Wugu poison monkey, its whole body is highly toxic. Are you going to fight it head-on with your fists and risk losing your life?"

  Jiang Liu clenched his fist in anger, a fire burning in his heart, and was at a loss for what to do with this monkey.

  That wolverine's arm was slashed by Cheng Shu, and the wound emitted a black-green blood. It was so painful that it gnashed its teeth and yelled on the ground. Because it had suffered a loss, it dared not approach us, hesitating for a long time before slowly getting closer to our side.

  In the distance, I carefully examined the monkey's appearance. The monkey's face was completely disfigured, as if it had been splashed with sulfuric acid, and its bloody body still had something wriggling on it. Upon closer inspection, they were actually transparent insect eggs.

  There were about a dozen or so, each roughly the size of a fingernail, attached to the body of the Ua Pou monarch.

  My scalp is numb and I couldn't help but shiver. What kind of skin disease is this?

  At this time, the monkey saw me distracted and seized the opportunity to pounce on me. My foot slipped, and I fell to the ground. As I watched the monkey open its mouth wide, wanting to dodge but somehow unable to move.

  I stared at the teeth in its mouth, dripping with mucus, and the insect eggs all over its body. Damn! If it pounced on me, I'd be dead from disgust even if it didn't bite me to death!

  Just as I was daydreaming, I heard a "thud" sound, and when I looked up again, the monkey was already lying on the ground.

  A huge hole was blown on his head, and a thick black liquid kept flowing out of the hole.

  Ma Si Zhe put away his gun and gave me a cold glance: "Grandpa, if you were to dig your own grave, you'd have to die by your own hands."

  I got up from the ground with a lingering fear, and Ma Si Zhe was still saying "You're running away, why are you sitting there watching it? Do you two know each other?"

  I'm fed up with being told "Didn't I trip you up?"

  "Fallen won't get up?"

  Ma Si Zhe said that I just remembered, it seems that there was something on the ground that had been holding me back all along. I haven't felt any obvious resistance yet, but somehow I couldn't control myself.

  I felt strange and looked around on the ground, but didn't find anything unusual. I turned back to see the lotus seat that was behind me when I fell down earlier.

  I went over and checked around.

  Huo Ying and Cheng Shu were both bewildered, looking at each other in dismay. They called out to me several times but didn't get a response, so they didn't bother me again. I was still intently studying the lotus seat.

  Can't help but say that this thing is carved very finely, every knife cut is particularly exquisite. The lotus root next to it is carved just like the real one. I even suspect that there will be lotus seeds inside the lotus root. Thinking about it, I leaned over to take a look inside the lotus root. It's pitch black, nothing can be seen.

  I really admire that I still have this mind at this time. Just as I was about to get up, a hand suddenly stretched out from the eyes of the lotus root, and the hand was dry and black. It wrapped around my neck in an instant, pressing me tightly on the lotus root. My face was tightly attached to that lotus root, and no matter how hard I struggled, I couldn't get up.

  Ma Si Zhe stared at me, bewildered. I waved my hand vigorously at him. I wanted to shout out to him, but not a single sound could be uttered. I felt the veins on my face were about to burst. If I ever commit suicide in the future, hanging myself is definitely not an option. The feeling of suffocation was too unbearable, and yet I had to experience it twice within such a short period of time.

  "What are you doing?" Ma Si Zhe asked me. I was still thinking about how to get Ma Si Zhe over, and suddenly I had an idea and gave him the middle finger. This trick really worked, and he came over cursing.

  "Sun Yi, you don't want to live anymore, is that right?"

  Just then, Ma Si Zhe saw the hand on my neck. He quickly pulled me up, which made it even more uncomfortable for me. I reckon if I went out to measure my height, I could grow two centimeters taller just by lengthening my neck.

  Cheng Shu and Huo Ying heard the sound and came over, Cheng Shu took out his knife to chop it like he did with that monkey earlier. But this thing was much quicker, it immediately withdrew its hand.

  I was coughing on the ground like I was about to die, and Marceau grabbed that thing, but it slipped away quickly and retreated. I wondered where its energy had gone when it wrapped around me earlier, apparently this thing knows who to bully.

  "What's going on?" My throat had just barely recovered, and now it was hoarse again.

  "It's unclear, but it should be growing under this lotus seat," said Uncle Cheng.

  This entire piece of jade, except for a small gap in the lotus root, has no cracks. If it wasn't grown inside, there's no other explanation, unless there's some mechanism on the jade itself.

  After struggling for so long, everyone hasn't eaten anything. If we don't replenish our energy a bit, it's estimated that it will be very hard to hold on. I suggest letting everyone take a break and eat something.

  I'm having compressed food for the first time and it feels very fresh. As I eat, I ask Uncle Cheng what is Wuxuetonghou.

  Cheng Shu said that the monkey grew up eating poisonous snakes and centipedes. When it reached adulthood, its skin would slowly peel off, at which point its entire body would be highly toxic.

  "What is this thing doing in a grave?" I recalled how it looked behind me and felt nauseous.

  "This thing is also a kind of mechanism in the tomb, and it's the most ingenious one. Generally, tombs have poison arrows or poisonous gas, but this thing needs to be slowly nurtured before it takes effect." Cheng Shu continued to explain.

  "Who's going to raise it, the zongzi?" Ma Si Zhe said that the zongzi referred to the corpse in the tomb. I imagined a scene where a thousand-year-old zongzi woke up from its sleep, crawled out of its coffin, fed its pets and watered the skulls buried underground.

  "This thing is raised in a human body," Cheng Shu continued, "the internal organs of the dead person are hollowed out, and poisonous snakes and spiders are put inside. The young U-blood monkey is then placed inside. The young monkey feeds on the five poisons, combined with the corpse's energy. After several decades, it will grow into a highly toxic U-blood poison monkey."

  "What's the use of raising this thing? Are you treating it as a pet?" asked Jiang Liu.

  Cheng Shu smiled 'to prevent people like us'

  After finishing speaking, Uncle Cheng took out a water bottle and drank a mouthful. I glanced at the water bottle and suddenly felt a bit down.

  The military canteen is not as big as the hot water bottle we usually use. Just now, Uncle Cheng said that he washed the knife with mud in the grave and rinsed his arm. How can there be more? Is it filled up again in the pool? In the uncertain situation of whether the water in the pool is toxic or not, this old slippery fish will drink it. I also wonder if it's using Ho Ying's water.

  Huo Ying sat next to me, I had to think of a way to test whether there was water in the thermos or not.

  I was chewing on a compressed biscuit, intentionally speaking to Marx Zhe, the crumbs sprayed Marx Zhe's face. Marx Zhe slapped my face hard to one side. I pretended to fall towards He Ying, colliding with the water bottle at her feet.

  Huo Ying's hands moved quickly, and in the instant that the kettle tilted, she steadied it. The water inside was almost full, and even though it only tilted a little, some water still spilled out.

  I stuffed a mouthful of biscuits into my mouth, this mouthful was not very smooth, almost choked. I finally understand why Marx had to be careful with Cheng Shu and Huo Ying. It seems that the business of rolling corpse worms they mentioned before may not be true after all. What are they hiding from us, so they can painstakingly compile such a wonderful story?

  I was just thinking, Ma Si Zhe next to me suddenly said "It would be great if we had some beer"

  "Here, I'll make two more zongzi appear magically to add to the fun."

  "Don't want to watch magic tricks, can you dance?"

  Don't be afraid that he will shake his head off, just let him jump, and even light up the program. You think this is Liu Lao Gen's big stage?

  I picked up the kettle and made a gesture to take a sip "Huh? Why is there no water?" Ma Si Zhe took my kettle "Isn't this here?" I took the kettle back "Is it? It shouldn't be" Ma Si Zhe's hand hesitated for a moment, presumably he understood what I was saying.

  "It's weird," I muttered as I drank. Ma Si Zhe smiled a little, "You finally know it's weird."