Chapter 26: Parasitic Sea Snail

  Perhaps things were like this. Grandfather was searching for the gate of reincarnation that the monk had spoken of in his grave, but he couldn't find it no matter how hard he looked. Just as he was returning to the village with a heart full of disappointment, he discovered that every single person in the village was standing perfectly fine in front of him.

  Time seemed to have been reset, and Grandpa began to suspect that all of this was just a dream. Now that the dream had ended, nothing had happened. Just as Grandpa let out a sigh of relief, thinking that he had finally put an end to it, he realized that his nightmare hadn't actually ended after all.

  Grandpa accidentally discovered that every midnight, the villagers would turn into some terrifying things. Grandpa gradually came to understand that they were not human to begin with.

  Grandfather began to suspect that the knot was still in that reincarnation gate. But before he could go down again, his body no longer allowed it. The powerless grandfather thought of me, the most suitable and only candidate.

  "Didn't your grandfather ever tell you that this isn't actually an Eastern Zhou tomb?" Ma Si asked.

  "How could my grandfather have known what the Eastern Zhou tomb should look like? He didn't even know the origin of those sacrificial rituals, nor could he read those texts."

  Ma Si Zhe nodded, also yes.

  "But I don't know if Grandfather knew about the East Zhou tomb, but why didn't he mention anything about it in his notes?"

  "It's very likely that your grandfather took a different route from us. Otherwise, with all the things we've encountered on this road, your grandfather at his age would have been dead long ago if he were traveling alone, and you'd be holding a funeral for him instead of waiting for him to come out."

  I glanced at Ma Si Zhe and he immediately changed his words to 'died a martyr here'.

  "Ke Cheng Shu said he found Chairman Mao's badge in the muddy water, and who else's badge could it be except my grandfather's?"

  "Did you get your head wet when you fell into the water just now?" Ma Si Zhe looked at me with a face full of disdain. "Have you seen that emblem? And you still believe him?"

  I just realized that Uncle Cheng never showed us the contract, and I didn't even suspect it, thinking that I would ask him for it later, but then I forgot.

  "But there's no need for Uncle Cheng to make up stories about Hui Zhuang, why did he say that?"

  Ma Si Zhe thought for a moment and said 'Let you believe that your grandfather has indeed walked this road, then without any doubt, willingly follow'

  It's a fact, after hearing about finding the badge, I'm even more certain that we're on the right path.

  Ma Si Zhe narrowed his eyes and looked into the depths of the tomb passage. 'They must have had some reason for not taking this path.'

  "What reason"

  Ma Si Zhe crooked his mouth, with a sly face 'Old man Cheng must have found some treasure and wants to secretly swallow it alone'

  "In this tomb, apart from poisonous ones, there are also biting ones. It's not easy to come across one that looks like a woman, yet she's been swollen by water. What kind of treasure could it be?"

  Not all swollen

  "Huh?"

  There is also a dried up one

  "How far you roll is how far I'll give you"

  "Ah, just listen to me, the more dangerous the tomb is, the more treasures there are. Master Ma is a professional in this matter." Ma Si Zhe patted himself and said with certainty.

  "We've come here on official business, not to rob tombs."

  Ma Si Zhe turned around to face me and said, "The treasure is right in front of you, but you're not taking it. This is extremely disrespectful to the tomb owner." I ignored him and continued walking forward. Ma Si Zhe followed behind me, persuading me as he chased after me, "This is where you're being stubborn. If we don't take it, eventually someone else will get lucky. Besides, we're not forcing anything, just taking advantage of the situation. Ah? Taking advantage?"

  "Don't say that's useless, haven't you seen it yet?" I said and turned around to continue walking forward. Just as I took a step out, I heard a crunching sound, like something had been crushed under my foot.

  I crouched down, holding the flashlight and looked down at the ground. Under my feet were a number of trampled, crushed things that weren't anything else but snails!

  "What the...?!" Ma Si Zhe jumped to one side, looking down at his feet with disgust. But in the instant he dodged, another cracking sound came from underfoot, and when the flashlight shone over, it was a dense mess once again.

  "What's going on here? They weren't here just now!" I dodged and weaved, but found there was nowhere to step. I tried kicking them away, but they wouldn't budge. Those snails were stuck firmly to the ground.

  "Let's roast some conchs and eat them later." Ma Si Zhe used his flashlight to sweep away the things on the ground.

  I've seen this thing before!

  "I found out you've seen everything" Ma Si Zhe didn't take it seriously and continued picking up the snails on the ground.

  "Earlier in Tongtian Temple, there was this thing on the belly of that bat."

  Earlier at Tongtian Temple, a bat flew in front of me and spread its wings. I clearly saw that on its belly grew something like a snail shell. I remember it accurately, exactly the same as this thing under our feet.

  I picked one up from the ground with great effort. This astonished me at its suction power.

  The shell of the snail is dark green, as if it hasn't grown up yet, slightly transparent. I can still vaguely see the structure inside the shell.

  "It seems that this thing didn't grow up, the shell is not hard, so it was trampled by us." I looked around and suddenly felt a pain in my fingers, and instantly threw away the snail.

  My fingers had actually seeped out blood beads, I squeezed out the blood and found a band-aid to wrap around my hand.

  Ma Si Zhe picked up the conch I had thrown away and took a closer look. On the flesh of the conch, there was actually a row of fine thorns.

  "What kind of species is this, how can it still grow teeth?" Ma Si Zhe felt very unbelievable. "Are you okay, will this thing be poisonous or not?" Ma Si Zhe examined the conch in his hand carefully.

  I rubbed my fingertips, "It shouldn't be, it doesn't hurt much."

  "If you feel something is wrong, tell me earlier, don't end up like Jiang Liu, losing control and going crazy in the end."

  I glared at him, "You're the first to go crazy!" I looked at the conch in Marx's hand and said, "How did these things grow up? The temperature in the tomb is so low, and it's all soil or bricks around."

  "Or is it wild?" Ma Si Zhe said with a serious face.

  My eyebrows jumped involuntarily. 'Big brother, have you ever seen a sea snail raised at home? Even if it's wild, as a sea snail, at the very least it should have water, right? Where is the water?'

  "Did you say there's a possibility of parasitism?"

  "What you're saying is that these snails are parasitic on those bats," said Marceau, nodding.

  That means these snails are attached to the variant bats we saw earlier from a young age, forming a symbiotic system. Growing with the growth of the bat, dying with the death of the bat.

  I can understand the behavior of snails, but why bats. If this is a stable symbiotic system, there must be a relationship that benefits both parties.

  "There is no such thing as a free lunch."

  "But why are all these snails here independent individuals?"

  Ma Si Zhe rubbed his chin 'I also don't understand, where did those bats go?'

  Suddenly, from the direction we came from, a high-pitched cry rang out. Ma Si Zhe looked at me and both of us said "it's coming" in unison.

  The two of us hastily hid in a corner of the tomb passage, behind a protruding stone, crouching carefully. The snails under our feet had been trampled into mush, exuding dark green water. We carefully shifted positions, only to find that no matter where we moved, the result was the same, so we gave up struggling and simply squatted there.

  As expected, those bats swarmed in just a few seconds. The sheer number of them left us speechless, with over a hundred or so, the tomb passage was suddenly crowded. A series of ear-piercing cries shook our two heads numb.

  Ma Si Zhe pulled on my ear and said 'plug your ears, don't forget that the bat's cry can confuse people's minds'

  I quickly pulled out my hand and covered my ears. The sound was slightly reduced.

  The bat opened its mouth and let out a cry. I saw the sharp teeth in its mouth, which were about as long as my index finger.

  I put my hand to my mouth, and the astonished coachman pointed with his whip. There in the darkness was a figure huddled on the ground, and as I looked it rose slowly upon its hands and knees.

  Those bats fell to the ground one after another, and after a while, a hard lump appeared on its neck. It was slowly moving up. I was still wondering what it was doing, when it opened its mouth and spat out a white ball about the size of my fist from inside.

  "My god, I just knew for the first time that bats lay eggs from their mouths!" said Ma Si Zhe with a curious expression.

  I was told by a Marxist-Leninist that bats are mammals, give birth to live young and don't lay eggs.

  "Go away, I'm not going with you."

  I...

  After the bat spat out the white ball from its mouth, the snails on the ground rushed over like koi fish in a pond seeing feed, like a tide.

  Before long, the white balls on the ground had disappeared. Then the snails slowly left the ground and climbed onto the bats' bodies. In an instant, every bat's body was covered with parasitic snails. I looked at my itchy skin and couldn't help but scratch.

  The process was like a competition, with some climbing up and others falling down. Before long, each bat had one left on its body. As if they had completed some sort of ritual, the bats flapped their wings and took off from the ground.

  It was strange that those bats no longer made the shrill noise, and flew back calmly. One of them passed by me, I saw a crimson light flashing in its eyes. With just one glance, I hastily lowered my head.

  All of this was done in an instant, so fast that people couldn't react. I finally knew why the bat needed the snail on the ground to coexist with it.

  Bats have poor eyesight and rely on ultrasonic waves to distinguish directions. Normally, the ultrasonic waves emitted by bats are inaudible to humans, but the bats in this cave seem to be using another method to navigate - a mesmerizing call that can bewilder human minds.

  After mating with sea slugs, the screams disappeared, which means they no longer need sound to identify directions, all thanks to those parasitic slugs.

  Ma Si Zhe straightened his waist and walked out from behind the stone, heading directly towards those snails. I followed him out. Those snails that had not been able to parasitize on bats were scattered all over the ground, and in a short while they shed their shells and turned into a puddle of green water.

  The two of us wanted to take a look at what those white balls that the bats spat out earlier were, but we didn't even see any shadows.

  "These guys eat cleanly, didn't even leave me any leftovers." Ma Si Zhe muttered while searching around.

  This was when I heard a rustling sound coming from the tomb passage again, and then I saw a pair of crimson eyes in the darkness.

  "I shouted 'Run quickly! Those bats are back again!'"