Chapter 27: The Grave Door

  I heard the sound coming from deep in the tomb passage again, and pulled up Ma Si Zhe who was crouching on the ground, running quickly to the back of the stone where they had hidden before.

  Those bats flew over from the end of the tomb passage, hovering in place. Then, one after another, they fell onto the wall above the tomb passage. The scarlet eyes looked especially eerie.

  Half a day passed without seeing any movement from them, I muttered softly 'everything that needs to be done has been done, why come back' Marx signaled me to be quiet. I looked up and saw that possibly because of my voice, several of them had already turned their attention towards us.

  I quickly covered my mouth so it wouldn't discover us.

  Those bats slowly flew up from the wall and circled above our heads, then let out even more mournful cries.

  Strange, didn't they already not need to rely on making sounds to identify directions after becoming symbiotic with the parasitic snail? Why did they make this sound again now.

  They're not distinguishing directions, they're communicating.

  As soon as Ma Si Zhe finished speaking, I saw countless crimson lights flashing at the other end of the tomb passage. They were actually those bats.

  "What's with the squatting? Run!"

  Ma Si Zhe picked up the flashlight and ran to the other side, I didn't dare to delay, and quickly followed him. The sound behind was getting closer and closer, the mournful cry seemed to be echoing in my brain. I felt that everything in front of me was a bit unclear, shook my head, trying to make myself more awake.

  Ma Si Zhe, who was running ahead of me, gradually slowed down. I started having a bad premonition.

  Ma Si Zhe suddenly stopped in his tracks, turned around and faced me. The bats behind were about to catch up, I anxiously pushed him 'what are you doing, run!'

  Who knew that Marx Zhe would be motionless, staring at me straight. Marx Zhe's hand slowly reached for his backpack, I secretly thought it was bad, and quickly rushed over to press him against the wall 'What's wrong with you, calm down'

  Ma Si Zhe didn't know where he got so much strength, and with one palm, he flipped me over. He quickly pulled out the gun from his bag and aimed it at me. I regretted letting him bring the gun along this whole time, as we had suffered a lot because of it.

  "Ma Si Zhe, do you know who I am?" I asked him tentatively.

  After hearing my words, Ma Si Zhe's eyes were a bit dazed. I took advantage of his momentary confusion and grabbed his wrist, pushing it hard against the wall. With a sudden force, the gun in Ma Si Zhe's hand fell to the ground.

  Ma Si Zhe seemed to be enraged by me, and he flipped over and pressed me heavily against the wall, his eyes full of anger. As my back was stuck to the tomb passage for an instant, the tomb passage was shaken by me. I found it a bit strange, could this be a door?

  Ma Si Zhe didn't give me time to think, and suddenly slammed backwards again. I even suspected that he was taking revenge for the previous incident at the swimming pool, which is why he used so much force.

  He pinned me down with his shoulder and I struggled free a hand to slap Ma Si's face hard.

  This time it seemed like I used too much force, and Ma Si Zhe was slapped backwards, when he turned back around, I saw that the corners of his mouth were bleeding from my hit.

  Ma Si Zhe shook his head, and his eyes returned to their previous state, no longer radiating a fierce aura. I suppose this slap of mine had an effect.

  "Run quickly, what are you standing there for?" Ma Si Zhe reacted and shouted at me. I thought to myself, who isn't running? Obviously it's you who said not to let me leave no matter what.

  The path to the grave was so deep that it seemed bottomless, and besides, how could we outrun the flying creatures. The bats on top of the tomb circled around for a while, as if they had discovered Ma Si Zhe and me, looking down at us.

  I suddenly remembered the place I bumped into earlier, and it seemed like there was a door there.

  I hastily felt around to see if I could find that place. As I was feeling, I found a piece, and with just a little effort, I could press it in. I excitedly called out for Marx Zhe's help: "Come quickly, it's here! This is a door!"

  Ma Si Zhe heard me shouting him, picked up the gun on the ground and hurried over to help push. Those bats seemed to be attracted by my shout too, flying towards us. 'Use the flashlight to shine strongly at their eyes, can hold them off for a while' Ma Si Zhe said to me while pushing the tomb door with force.

  I suddenly remembered that bats' eyes can't adapt to places that are too bright, so I quickly adjusted the flashlight to strong light. Those bats were exposed to strong light and lost their direction.

  But this method won't work for long, the flashlight's light is only so big, and there are over a hundred bats.

  "Did you push it open?" I asked anxiously.

  "Damn it, are you sure this is a door?" Ma Si Zhe's face turned red with rage.

  I kept an eye on the flashlight in front of me while backing away, helping Ma Si Zhe push. Finally, I saw a crack appear on the wall.

  "My day, there's actually a door here"

  At this time, a bat aimed at my shoulder and rushed over. The half-inch-long sharp teeth were bitten into my shoulder in an instant.

  "Damn it!" I was in so much pain that I was sweating bullets. "Can't you bite somewhere else?" The previous wound hadn't healed yet, and now this one came along, I reckon it won't be healing anytime soon. With a fierce determination, I grabbed the bat's head and slammed it against the tombstone, sending it sliding down the path, no longer struggling.

  The other bats saw this and dodged to one side, not daring to get close.

  "Can't you just hurry up?" I glared at the shoulder that was slowly seeping blood, venting my frustration on Marx.

  I'm not a bulldozer either, I have a physical body too

  "If you don't hurry up, forget about our bodies, we'll both become corpses in a moment!" I pulled out my other hand and together with Ma Si Zhe, we gave it a fierce push from the inside. The tomb door was pushed open by an arm's width, and Ma Si Zhe and I squeezed in with difficulty. Then we quickly pushed the door back to its original position.

  The cry of the bat outside sounded again, and Ma Si Zhe and I hid behind the door, finally letting out a sigh of relief.

  "How's your arm?" Ma Si Zhe asked me.

  I looked down and saw that my shoulder was still bleeding outward. I forced a very awkward smile, "Most likely it's ruined."

  Ma Si Zhe also smiled, this smile pulled to his face, muttering to himself 'Why does my face hurt so much?' I definitely won't tell him it was me who slapped him.

  Ma Si Zhe took his backpack down to the ground and started rummaging through it. Before long, he pulled out iodine and gauze.

  I leaned against the tomb door and slid down slowly, looking at him. "I found that this bag of yours is a treasure trove, it has everything."

  Ma Si Zhe opened the iodine, poured it onto the gauze, I pulled down my shoulder clothes, Ma Si Zhe pressed it against the wound. I took a deep breath of cool air.

  "I'm not like you, just bringing some useless things." Ma Si Zhe helped me wipe off the wound.

  "What's useless about me? You dare say cameras are useless?"

  "It's useful, it's just gotten wet." The wound was almost cleaned up, and Marx wrapped a bandage around my shoulder.

  "It's nothing, it didn't bite deep, and we're far from being abandoned," said Ma Si Zhe as he put on his backpack and stood up.

  I gritted my teeth and pulled up my clothes, moved around a bit, still very painful. I decided to fix my arm and avoid moving it.

  "Listen for when those bats fly away, then we can go out." I patted the dirt off my butt.

  Ma Si Zhe seemed to have seen something, as if he was bewildered, and walked forward in a daze. 'I won't leave, I'll die here.'

  I was startled by his appearance and thought that Marx's energy from earlier hadn't dissipated yet. I glanced at the gun in his hand and involuntarily took a step back.

  Ma Si Zhe didn't respond to me and continued walking forward. I followed Ma Si Zhe's gaze and looked ahead, also being shocked with my mouth agape.

  Ma Si Zhe turned back to me with a particularly radiant smile 'How's that? Still walking?'

  "I won't leave" My gaze was also completely absorbed by what was in front of me and couldn't be shifted.

  In front of me and Ma Si Zhe, in this not-so-large tomb chamber, a coffin was placed. The key point is that the surroundings of the coffin were piled up with countless gold, silver, and precious jewels. In the dark tomb chamber, they shone brightly.

  I walked slowly forward with Ma Si Zhe, and as we got closer, I was more and more amazed at the exquisite workmanship of the coffin.

  This was a bright red coffin, with many precious jewels and gold and silver inlaid on the outside. Ma Si Zhe immediately stuck to the coffin, carefully looking at the jewels on the coffin. "These are all rare items!" Ma Si Zhe pointed to one of the green ones and said, "See this? It's called cat eye stone, and this..." Ma Si Zhe had already completely immersed himself in his own world.

  I stood behind Marx and took a look at the shape of this coffin, feeling a bit eerie.

  This coffin is pointed at both ends and sinks down in the middle. The four sides are also surrounded by a wooden frame, exactly like the shape of a boat.

  What is the reason why the tomb owner made the coffin in this way? Was the tomb owner a fisherman when he was alive?

  Ma Si Zhe was still crouching on the ground, staring at the jewels on the coffin. I kicked him and said, 'Wipe your nose and do something useful for once?'

  "Alright then, what's the plan?" Ma Si-zhe clenched his fists and rubbed his palms together, greatly boosting morale.

  I took a look at the jewels on both sides of the coffin and decided to leave them alone for now. It's more important to figure out what's inside the coffin first.

  "Or else, open the coffin and take a look." I ventured to ask.

  Ma Si Zhe shook his head, "No way, we don't know what's in the grave. It's too dangerous to open the coffin rashly. What if the corpse inside rises from the dead? This room is so small, there's nowhere for us to run."

  What's to be done?

  Ma Si Zhe raised an eyebrow, "Master Ma has a clever plan"

  "Oh? Tell me about it."

  "Let's take a look at the jewelry piles on both sides and see if we can identify the tomb owner. If they died of natural causes, then we'll open it up and take a look. But if there was any injustice in their lifetime, let's quickly kowtow and roll far away from here, what do you say?"

  I listened as Ma Si Zhe spoke in a casual tone for a long time, "You just want to see what's inside that pile of treasure, don't you?"

  Ma Si Zhe didn't hide it either, blinked his eyes and nodded heavily.

  Before I could speak, Ma Si Zhe had already run to the side with a whoosh, and started rummaging through that pile of jewels.

  Picked up one, and saw a better one next to it, for a moment didn't know where to start, Ma Si Zhe started the selection anxiety mode again. I was also rummaging through the other side, when I removed the top layer, I found that under the treasure, there was a box, like a miniature version of the coffin.

  Entirely crimson, with many precious stones inlaid on it. I knocked off a thin layer of dust from the top and saw that the box was carved with four large characters "Tong Tian Tong Yu"