Chapter 48: Lighting the Lamp with Human Oil

  Just as I was at a loss, a black shadow flashed by in the corner, and I reacted with a start, my eyes scanning around, startled to retreat several steps, my feet feeling chilly, my scalp numb, coldness struck, and cold sweat broke out on my back.

  I cautiously made my way to the dark corner, careful not to disturb the Tai Sui of this area. After searching, I found a small nook in the back hall, with a window cabinet about human height, square and not very deep, but also pitch black inside.

  With a whoosh, a black thing flew out from inside. Damn it, it was a giant bat, its whole body was dark and its eyes were red, flapping its wings to fly towards me, I was shocked, if I got bitten by this guy, I would definitely be dead soon. My reaction was also very fast, I dodged to the side and jumped, just barely avoiding the giant bat, at close range I saw that the giant bat actually had huge claws too, after flying past it stuck onto the stone ceiling of the tomb chamber, preparing for its next attack.

  I quickly calmed down and thought to myself that this bat must have been starving in the tomb, seeing a living person was like seeing fresh blood, and it was extremely clever, hiding in the window to ambush me. I didn't bring anything with me, and the Taoist skills I learned were completely useless.

  The giant bat didn't wait for me to think, and pounced on me again. I couldn't let it make a meal of me. I picked up the oil lamp by the stone wall and smashed it onto its body. It was a direct hit, striking the giant bat's wing, but it had no effect. The oil lamp didn't ignite the giant bat's wing, instead falling to the ground, where it broke into pieces. A lump of white solid rolled out from the shattered lamp. The giant bat's movements were delayed by me, and I didn't have time to think about that. I continued to throw all the surrounding oil lamps at it. The giant bat was smashed to the ground by me, letting out a few cries before flapping its wings and flying to rest on a nearby stone wall.

  As I smashed open the giant bat, I stared at the chaotic oil lamp on the ground in a daze. Clearly solid, why did it become ** when exposed to air? What kind of oil is this? I picked up a small piece of solid oil and sniffed it, discovering an nauseating smell, similar to the stench from human fatty tissues during dissection. Is it...human oil? My heart skipped a beat - human oil for lighting? A hundred ways to extract human oil flashed through my mind: peeling off skin to scrape out fat, layer by layer revealing muscle tissue; using a hook-shaped pipe inserted through the navel to suck out layers of fat; and the most brutal method - slicing flesh into thin strips, then deep-frying in an oil pot. I dared not think further, this human oil lamp was something I'd never seen or heard of before.

  I swallowed hard, hastily threw away the human oil lamp in my hand, and wiped off the remaining human oil on the stone wall. The solidified human oil on the ground was a ghastly sight, making one's scalp feel numb.

  The giant bat might have seen me drop the lamp and started sizing me up, looking for an opportunity to strike. With no other choice, I picked up the oil lamp again, but my hands were too slippery, and with a slight carelessness, it fell to the ground, which was covered in solidified oil from the lamps that had been thrown away earlier. The moment it hit the ground, the oil ignited with a hiss, rapidly burning into a raging inferno that illuminated the entire tomb chamber. Shit, there were so many more oil lamps nearby, and it wouldn't take long for the flames to engulf the entire chamber. I frantically searched for an exit, but all around me were stone walls, except for the stone gate we had entered through - there were no other doors. The intense smoke choked me, forcing me to crouch as I moved. At this moment, the giant bat flew towards me with abandon, and I hastily took off my shirt, swinging it into the flames, sending the bat flying into the inferno. The bat tried to flap its wings to escape, but was consumed by the fire in a matter of seconds. I crawled to the stone bed, staring at the sea of flames before me, feeling utterly hopeless.

  "What should I do? What should I do now?" My mind was a complete blank and I couldn't think of any solution.

  I climbed onto the stone bed, wanting to see if there was an exit on the other side. As soon as I knelt on the stone bed, I felt that it wasn't so hard, and with a light tap of my hand, a small area emitted a hollow sound, just where I had knelt. I tapped again, and it seemed to be loosening up, a crack opened up from the stone bed, and the surrounding ash layer was blown up. It was as if there was a passageway. And this stone bed had an exit switch.

  "Hurry up!" I shouted in my heart. I slapped the stone slab with my palm.

  The fire was only one meter away from me, which can be said to be the decisive one meter of my life. At the last moment, seeing that the big fire was about to swallow me up, I summoned all my strength and opened the switch on the stone bed with a slap. I followed the momentum and fell under the stone bed, while the fire just filled the entire tomb chamber.

  I fell into the underground layer of the tomb, and was so painful that I felt my butt was about to split in two. And on top of that, sparks kept falling from above, forcing me to run away from this area as soon as possible.

  "This is hidden so deeply, if not for the stone bed below having another underground layer. I sacrificed myself today, thinking about it still makes my heart palpitate. My heart also feels strange, with the strange person's oil lamp and the strange stone bed, as well as the strange patterns on the stone table and stool. That tomb chamber just now must have been hiding some secret, unfortunately, it has all been burned down now, don't know if it can still be restored to its original appearance. After all, this fire was lit by me, I'm still quite worried about being accused of destroying cultural relics."

  This layer is not as bright as the previous one, but there are still sparks from the upper chamber falling down, which can be seen somewhat clearly, only very blurry.

  "How come there are so many tree roots?" I exclaimed in surprise.

  The tomb chamber is filled with tree roots, the stone walls are covered in roots and tendrils, the ground is entwined with roots that twist and turn together, giving it a somewhat arboreal feel. However, water is seeping from the corners of the ceiling, and I can hear the faint sound of dripping water. As I follow the sound to its source, I pass through the center of the tomb chamber, where there is a recessed area filled with a considerable amount of water. The firelight is too dim for me to see what this water is, so I dip my hand in and taste it with my tongue.

  "It's blood!" I exclaimed, this smell of blood could only be fresh blood.

  I remembered that mulberry tree, cut open the bark, and it was all blood inside. Now the roots of this tree are also bleeding. I quickly found a long stone, pulled down some relatively dry roots from the stone wall, wrapped them around the long stone, and wrapped the stone like a ball of yarn. I put it in the place where the sparks fell, and within a minute, the dry roots were ignited, shining brightly.

  Don't look at the roots, but they're good for burning, and one torch is more than enough. I searched for the place where the blood flowed and found another tomb chamber. The situation in this tomb chamber was roughly the same as the previous one, the only difference being that the stone wall of this one was very clean, with no extra roots coming out. It can be seen that it is a whole stone, at least several hundred square feet. Such a huge stone is not easy to see, and it's been moved here to serve as the tomb chamber's stone wall, showing how noble the owner of the tomb must have been.

  The thought only flashed through my mind, and I continued to search inside. It was another tomb chamber, connected to three chambers. The blood that overflowed from the tree roots grew deeper and deeper, until it was level with the tree roots. I had no choice but to roll up my pant legs and trudge through the blood. The key point was that the stench of the blood was unbearable, making me want to vomit countless times. It felt even more torturous than riding a roller coaster.

  "Three seals on the nose, no scent detected." I recited the incantation and directly sealed off my sense of smell.

  It's much more comfortable now, walking in the blood as if on flat ground. The third chamber of the tomb is a bit strange, the walls are covered with black things. I touched them with my hand, they feel like cicada shells, hard and dense, covering the entire chamber, people with claustrophobia would definitely go crazy. When I brought the torch closer to these things, I saw white things wriggling inside through the shell.

  "It's alive!" I immediately felt uncomfortable all over my body.

  Goosebumps emerged one after another. Subconsciously, I glanced at the blood flowing over my palm, and on top of the blood were dead butterflies. My heart relaxed a little; perhaps these were all butterfly cocoons? If so, that would be easier to deal with - at least they wouldn't kill or eat people. I patted my chest in relief. But it seemed I was rejoicing too early. I felt something unusual on my neck and slapped it away, only to find a dead butterfly in the palm of my hand. However, there was also a patch of blood left on my palm, and my neck transmitted a painful sensation. When I touched the sore spot, I found a small torn opening.

  I froze, immediately turning around to illuminate the front with a torch. A group of butterflies surrounded me, staring at me with tiger-like eyes, my hands shaking to death, it seems I've encountered vampire butterflies. This is the kind of bloody land that can give birth to such species! First giant bats and now vampire butterflies, are they all mutated?

  I tried to drive them away with firelight, and at first it was very effective. They seemed not to have seen the light of fire before, and some were afraid. But as time went on, their fear of the firelight disappeared, and a group of vampire butterflies flew towards me flapping their wings.

  I quickly ran up and rushed towards the fourth tomb chamber.

  I was running too fast and didn't see a tree root on the ground, so I tripped and fell, scraping my face and spitting out blood. If someone saw me, they would have thought I was going to cough up blood and die! As I lay there in the blood, I frantically grabbed at something with my hand, and it turned out to be a human bone - a bloody femur. I tried to throw it away, but as soon as my fingers touched the bone, I felt a stinging sensation. What was on this thing?! I immediately pulled back my hand that was about to throw it.

  I picked up the bone stick and climbed up, right in front of me were the vampire butterflies that had already chased after me, rushing forward in a surge. It seemed like I couldn't stop them, and I estimated that I would be torn into a bloody mess in an instant. However, that didn't happen. My instincts made me place the bone stick on my head to resist, unexpectedly having a miraculous effect. A golden light burst out from the bone stick, sweeping away all the vampire butterflies with one stroke.

  The blood butterfly fell onto the flowing blood, I couldn't believe it and slowly lifted my head, the golden light was slowly disappearing. It reminded me of the golden light from the Golden Lotus before, this time it's similar too. Could this bone stick also be a treasure from the Buddha's family?

  I tried to chant: "Om mani padme hum."

  This stick actually had a reaction.