Chapter 61: Snake Transformation

  Lu Huancheng cleared his throat and began to tell the origin of the name "Gui Gu Ze".

  At the beginning of liberation, tomb raiding was rampant, especially in Hunan Province, where almost 90% of tombs were empty. The area around Gui Gu Valley had long been rumored to have large ancient tombs, attracting wave after wave of tomb raiders.

  According to the memory of older people in the village, around 1950, a large truck with outsiders speaking in a foreign accent arrived at the village. This group of people did not communicate with the villagers and did not stay overnight in the village. On the first day they came to the village, they went straight up the mountain.

  Some people had curiously gone to the mountain to take a look, and that group of people were stationed on the mountain, coming and going every day to inspect and measure. Don't know what they're looking for. After several days, a loud rumbling sound came from the mountain, like some kind of explosion.

  Some people started to feel that something was wrong, what were these people doing here? The village chief led the men to sneak up the mountain, but there was no one on the mountain! Those people in the truck seemed to have vanished into thin air, leaving no trace behind.

  No one has ever seen when they came down from the mountain, and these people just disappeared on the mountain like that.

  In the following years, there were also tomb raiders and adventurers who came to the Ghost Valley Marsh one after another, but none of them could come out. Until we excavated the tomb this time.

  "So, it's said that there's a grave under the Kitagawa marsh, and it's been around for a long time," I said.

  The old man nodded, "And there's more than one group of grave robbers who got here before us. Nobody knows how they knew about it or how they disappeared. We didn't find any bodies when we were cleaning up the tomb chamber and passageway, which means they weren't trapped inside. It's very likely that they vanished in the woods."

  "This small tomb is worth so many people risking their lives to rush here, which means our previous guesses were not wrong. There must be more than what we see under this mountain. The problem now is how to find a new entry point."

  "I happened to overhear an old man say that he had recently seen a group of strangers and even gave them directions," said Lao Da.

  "Which road? The one going up the mountain?"

  "Not, it's a great immortal who calculates people's fate and eight characters"

  "What's with these people looking for a great immortal?"

  I don't know, I got the address but it was getting dark so I didn't go, I'll go take a look again tomorrow morning.

  I suddenly remembered what Yang Ge said today, so I mentioned to Lao Da: 'Right, let's pack up our things and go live at the village chief's house tomorrow.'

  "What's wrong?" The boss took off his shoes and put them aside.

  I was hesitant to mention that kid's thing, but after thinking about it, I felt it wasn't necessary so I didn't say anything. It's just that the village chief's place might be a bit bigger, and with so many of us here, it wouldn't be convenient or good for Zhaodi either.

  The boss thought for a moment 'It's also, we've been bothering them for two days, it's time to change places and bother others'

  "Right, you can't just fleece one sheep."

  "What? The boss didn't understand."

  "Northeastern dialect, didn't understand anyway."

  Everyone had been rushing around all day and was exhausted to the extreme. They went to bed early and soon fell into a deep sleep.

  I hadn't lain down for long when another wave of urination came. I tossed and turned for several rounds, struggling mentally for a while, gritted my teeth, got up, put on my shoes and went to the toilet.

  Having had the experience last time, I was hesitant about going to the toilet at night. It was pitch black outside with no light at all. I put on my shoes and quickly went to solve it, planning to come back quickly.

  As I walked back to the door of the house, I suddenly heard a low growl coming from the thatched hut next door.

  Forget it, don't be curious about everything, hurry back to sleep.

  Just as I was about to step into the house, another sound came from the thatched hut, more mournful than the previous one, but not loud. The voice didn't seem like any domesticated animal, but rather some kind of wild beast. Could it be that in this small village someone is raising such a strange thing? Thinking of Zhaodi's series of strange actions, I couldn't control my curiosity, and holding my phone, I tiptoed towards the thatched hut.

  With a creak, the grass shed covering the door was pushed open by me, and a lot of dust fell from above. I took out my phone to take a look inside, and this one glance almost scared me into throwing my phone away.

  There was actually someone lying in the dark grass shed!

  Face upwards, limbs on the ground writhing non-stop, mouth making strange noises. This movement, is surprisingly like a snake's. After calming down, I suddenly remembered that the one lying on the ground wasn't the little kid I saw on the train that day? The way he clung to my bed head that night was exactly the same as the way he was writhing on the ground now.

  He didn't die after all, but it's so cold outside, why did his mother lock him in here?

  At this time, the little boy on the ground seemed to be startled by the light of my mobile phone and looked over in my direction. His eyes were actually shining with a crimson glow. Hot air sprayed out of his nose, making an angry sound.

  I wanted to walk up and take a look at the child to see if he was injured, but as soon as I took a step forward, the person on the ground quickly crawled towards me. Before I could even react, he had already appeared in front of me.

  Just as it was about to pounce on me, a sound of iron chains being dragged rang out. I took a step back and the phone shone over, and it turned out that the child's feet were locked by two thick iron chains as thick as an arm, unable to move forward.

  But the child did not stop struggling and kept rushing towards me. The thatched hut was pulled to shake, looking like it was about to collapse at any moment.

  The noise outside startled the people inside, Zhaodi heard the sound and rushed out immediately, pushing me away, hugging the child in the thatched hut, and comforting him softly. The eldest ones seemed to have also heard the noise outside, and they all asked "what's going on?" as they put on their clothes. I shook my head and ran out wearing shoes.

  The old man looked at the child going crazy in the grass shed and me standing beside him, pulling my

  Zhuāi comforted the child's emotions and then closed the door of the thatched hut. She walked to my side, "I was impatient just now, sorry." Before I could speak, Zhuāi had already entered the house. Left with Lù Huáng and Lǎo Dà, we looked at each other in dismay. I stood there for a moment, then followed Zhuāi into the house.

  Just as Zhaodi was about to close the door, I stuck my arm in and she looked at me, saying softly 'It's late, go rest'

  I know this question I'm asking is a bit abrupt, but what happened to that child?

  Zhaodi lowered her eyebrows 'got sick'

  Zhao Di's child is nine years old, and it has been almost two years since he started getting sick. Zhao Di's family lives at the foot of the mountain, and every day she warns him not to go up the mountain. But what eight-year-old kid would listen to you? One evening, when Zhao Di saw that her child had not returned home, she searched all over the village. She happened to run into a neighbor who was coming down from the mountain after picking herbs, so Zhao Di asked if he had seen her child. The neighbor pointed with his hand and said he had seen him on the mountain.

  Zhaodi quickly turned around and walked up the mountain, shouting as she went.

  The children playing on the mountain heard their mother's shout and hurriedly ran down the mountain. For some reason, the more they ran, the tighter their legs felt, as if something was wrapped around them, making it impossible to take a step.

  Two people, one going up the mountain and the other coming down, bumped into each other. Zhaodi saw the child and without saying a word, slapped his buttocks several times. She carried him back home. After arriving home, the child hesitantly said that he felt something tight on his leg. Zhaodi, still fuming, pulled down the child's pants to take a look and was almost frightened out of her wits. She quickly covered the child's eyes with her hand.

  A black snake with yellow flowers was wrapped between the child's legs, and the snake slowly tightened its movements in front of Zhaodi. In a hurry, Zhaodi picked up the sickle beside her and chopped down on the snake's seven inches. The originally tight snake suddenly relaxed, and as it contracted and expanded, the snake skin seemed to be embedded in the child's leg, leaving an ugly scar.

  Fortunately, the child was not bitten, which is a blessing in disguise. Zhaodi didn't scold either and hugged the child to sleep early.

  But from then on, strange things happened one after another.

  At first, the child increasingly liked to eat cold food. Whatever dishes were just made, they wouldn't touch them with a single bite, and only after being left out for three or two days would they be willing to eat. They also refused to stay in the house, always wanting to crawl to humid, chilly places. Later on, the child became more and more abnormal. It was as if their human abilities had degenerated - the child couldn't walk anymore. All day long, they slithered around on the ground like a snake.