Chapter Sixteen: Bone Path's Edge

  Qin Zhong saw several footprints on the ground, and he found that these footprints seemed to be newly formed. However, in this environment, it was not impossible to keep such footprints intact. For decades, no one had entered, and the footprints were not damaged, which was normal. But why were there only a pair of clear footprints on the cement floor here?

  All sorts of doubts arose in Qin Zhong's mind, and he thought about it as he headed towards the fork in the road. However, when he walked halfway, he suddenly felt that no one was following him from behind. When he turned his head to look back at the three people, they were still standing in their original positions, not having moved forward even half a step.

  "What's taking you so long? Come quickly!" Qin Zhong said, turning his head back.

  The three people behind him turned pale, staring straight at the scene in the corridor, because this scene was too desolate and terrifying.

  Qin Zhong turned his head and swept a glance around, on both sides of the passageway, leaning against the wall roots were piled skulls with different postures, and in the center of the passageway were scattered some bone sticks. Looking up, at the entrance of the fork in the road above, there was a hemp rope wrapped around a skull frame.

  "What else are we going to do with these skeletons?" Mona asked.

  Dà yá kě suàn shì zhǎo dào jī huì fǎn jī, zuò yī cì mèng nuó yǎn lǐ de nán rén de yàng zi: "Hēng, rú guǒ nǐ bù yuàn yì qù, wǒ qù." Tā suí jí gēn zhe Qín zhōng qián qù.

  Qin Zhong sneered: "If you don't want to go, just wait here. We'll go, Da Ya, let's go take a look and collect as much evidence as possible. Whoever wants to come can come."

  "I'll go wherever you go, I was just a bit scared earlier, I've never seen such an array before, and suddenly so many skulls popped out, I'm still a bit frightened." Mona explained.

  Qin Zhong ignored him and turned his head to glance at Mark: "Aren't you coming?"

  Mark hesitated for a moment, looked at Mona and sighed: "Forget it, I'll go with you guys, just be careful anyway."

  "Hmm!" Under the corridor light, Qin Zhong had already pulled out the two kitchen knives stuffed in his waist. He held one knife in each hand, lightly wiped the sole of his shoe on the ground, and then brought it to his nose for a sniff, without making a sound.

  While on his head that skull frame, the lower half of the body was cut off, but under this skull did not find other skeletons that should belong to him.

  "What kind of place is this? How can there be so many skeletons?" asked Dàyá Wūlǔlǔ.

  Qin Zhong replied in a low voice, "Speak less, we still don't know the situation here. Maybe one word could revive the energy here and get us into trouble."

  "Ah!" Dàyá covered his mouth, as if this could keep it shut.

  Mark crossed his arms over his chest: "Cut it out, what's with that? You sound like a pro."

  Qin Zhong fiercely turned his head and glared at Mark, who also shut his mouth.

  He leaned in close to the skull hanging in mid-air and found that the bones of the skull looked quite healthy, not like they had been poisoned to death by some experiment, but rather like they had been murdered, after all, there was a hemp rope around the neck of the skull.

  "Ah yo!" Da Ya lost his footing and sat down on the ground with a thud, causing the skeleton hanging from the roof to shake violently and fall down with a rattling sound.

  This made Qin Zhong pull Meng Na to the wall immediately, while Mark flashed to the other side. The big tooth held that half skeleton in his arms, but when he was about to move, he suddenly felt something crawling on his body.

  That skull happened to fall into the hands of Da Ya, who saw a centipede crawling out of the dry eye sockets of the skull. This kind of centipede is specialized in living inside human or animal skeletons, feeding on rotting flesh and using bones as nourishment.

  "My god!" Da Ya's hands threw the skull away, and dozens of centipedes fell out from it. Da Ya got up from the ground with tension, only to find some corpse worms that had been parasitic in the skull crawling back and forth on his clothes.

  Qin Zhong took one look and immediately swung his knife down at the centipedes on the ground, chopping them up like he was mincing vegetables on a cutting board. The sound of chopping filled the air as dozens of centipedes were chopped into mush by Qin Zhong, while Mark ran back and forth, brushing off the dead insects from his body.

  "Come back, don't run around!" Strangely, the big tooth didn't listen to Qin Zhong's words at all, and he stuck his body to the wall and rolled around wildly.

  Mark stood by and was stunned: "What is this thing?"

  "Still watching, hurry up and help." Meng Na said as she followed Qin Zhong running towards Da Ya.

  But in Qin Zhong's eyes, suddenly he found that beside Da Ya's side seemed to have appeared several more figures. These figures were not very clear in the light, but rather flickered and disappeared: "This is bad, this guy really is annoying, bringing so many ghosts."

  "Qin Zhong, watch your back," Mark said, quickly pulling out the cross from behind his back and charging towards Qin Zhong.

  Qin Zhong split the two kitchen knives apart, suddenly turned his head and saw a ghost with a messy hair, tattered clothes, and long hair covering its face limping towards him. He immediately swung both knives at the ghost, but after two strikes, he found that his knives had fallen empty, and the ghost didn't react at all.

  Qin Zhong's eyes widened in surprise: "What's going on here?"

  "Ah, his energy isn't that strong, this guy just has to have this to deal with!" Mark's cross stabbed into the ghost's back, the front end of the cross coming out from the ghost's chest, but on the ghost's face, a numb and rigid expression revealed even more reluctance and sorrow.

  As the ghost disappeared, Mark shook his head and said, "This is bad, I have a bad feeling about this."

  Qin Zhong looked at Mark: "A vague feeling? I've had it for a long time. It's just that the ghost from earlier seemed to not have died, and he appeared to want to tell us something. Unfortunately, you acted too quickly!"

  "Did I act too soon?"

  "Hmm, when my kitchen knife couldn't chop him down, I felt that he wasn't an ordinary ghost, but a ghost with only one soul and one spirit, just coming back to deliver a message. That's why I couldn't chop him down." Qin Zhong's knowledge all came from his grandfather's notes.

  "Good heavens, what are all these things? Director, when can we get out of here? What kind of place is this? It's simply too bizarre."

  "137 caves, it's simple, it's where the devils used our compatriots as test subjects before. I reckon these skeletons are all our compatriots'. Let's think about it and wait until we find a way out, then we'll take these skeletons out and bury them." Qin Zhong said as he turned his head back, the entire corridor seemed to have returned to calmness, with empty hands holding two knives, heading towards the end of the passageway.

  Not far from walking, he suddenly felt the ancient radio wave sound coming from the end of the passage. He was stunned again and felt that all the skeletons around him seemed to have moved.

  "Ah, I told you we shouldn't come back. I had a feeling that those skeletons over there had some kind of energy on them, and now look what's happened." Mark grumbled.

  Qin Zhong snorted: "Hmph, you can come or not, if you don't want to go together, it's the same old thing. You can choose your own path, I don't have time to bother with these things, let's go." He pulled Da Ya and took a close look at his whole body, seemingly finding nothing out of place, then continued on towards the deeper part of the corridor. Before they had walked more than ten meters, he discovered that each iron door they passed was tightly locked.

  It's strange that every time they pass through an iron gate, the iron gate will automatically open, and the lights in the house after opening the door are particularly bright.

  "Director, something is really off here. How can there be such a place under our museum?" Da Ya didn't dare to leave Qin Zhong's side this time, and Meng Na followed closely behind him. Mark, however, walked at the back with an air of vigilance, his eyes scanning around cautiously.

  Suddenly, a pungent black gas filled the corridor. Every time Qin Zhong passed by a room and opened the door again, it seemed like there were more scenes inside. Moreover, in addition to the sound of the electric wave, the entire corridor seemed to have some mournful cries and tense exchange of voices.

  More likely it was just the sound of footsteps moving back and forth in a disorderly manner, while the old footprints on the ground began to change slowly.