Chapter 23: Shamanic Altar (3)

  Qin Zhong found that the stalactite seemed to have many small beehives, and each beehive seemed to have something in it. He immediately stopped in his tracks, shone his flashlight on the ground in a circle, and suddenly discovered that the entire ground was covered with goose eggs, large and small.

  He grew a mind, picked up a larger stone from the ground, and threw it out violently. The stone shook the ground, and several cobblestones on the ground that were hit by Qin Zhong's stones seemed to have moved positions. Qin Zhong suddenly saw that the top of the cave had a large pile of stalactites, and each stalactite had dense beehive-like holes.

  "No, these stalactites are absolutely not right, let's not go yet, everyone pick up stones and throw them." Old mushroom also joined in, picked up the stone and threw it out.

  When Guo Daifu threw a few stones and then went to pick up the stone, he suddenly found that the stone he had chosen seemed to be locked on the ground. With a strong pull of his hand, the stone was only tilted to one side, but it was just this tilt.

  Qin Zhong saw this scene, he suddenly felt very wrong, and quickly pulled a few people back, when they were about to exit the cave entrance, they found that those stalactites began to seep out drop by drop from the honeycomb eyes, these stalactites seemed like shower heads.

  "Right, there's something wrong with the water!" Qin Zhong exclaimed, looking at the water flowing out of the stalactite which had suddenly turned into mist, and this mist felt somewhat cool.

  The water flowing out of the cave is warm, and of course the hot air will float upwards, while these gases emerging from the stalactites will slowly sink due to temperature.

  These damp vapors sink down, if inhaled into the nostrils, can only be said to be somewhat humid, how can they kill people? In this cave, apart from this suspicious thing, there is nothing else that can be suspected.

  A gust of clear wind swept by, and the scattered white mist that blew out from the cave seemed to have landed on Qin Zhong's arm. He stretched out his hand to wipe it off, but it was sticky, so he sniffed it with his nose, and it smelled wonderful. Qin Zhong seemed to be entranced, and he walked into the cave as if he had lost his soul.

  Guo Dafu reached out and grabbed Qin Zhong, staring blankly as he asked, "Old Big Brother, what's wrong with you?"

  Guo Dafu asked, and Qin Zhong suddenly came back to his senses from the confusion: "No, it's still not right. The problem lies in these mists. Don't inhale deeply, let's get out of here first. These mists seem like glue. If we breathe them into our lungs, won't they block our lungs? Wouldn't that cause suffocation?"

  "Oh, I see. Can we still get through then?"

  Qin Zhong looked up and took a glance. In this cave, the mountain seemed to be very high. If one were to walk from the top of the mountain, it wasn't impossible, but if there was a cliff on the other side of the cave entrance, could they still do so? It's estimated that it wouldn't work.

  Qin Zhong examined the length of the cave again, scratched his head: "In this way, Lao Mo was fine in the past. We'll take off our coats, cover our mouths and noses, and rush through at the fastest speed."

  "Can it be done?"

  "It's okay, follow me, I'll go first," Qin Zhong said, taking off his clothes and wrapping his mouth and nose tightly with two sleeves. He quickly ran into the cave, and as he did, he accidentally touched another stone, causing more stalactites to form on the ceiling of the cave.

  Dafu ran at the back, Yingzi ran in the middle, and these people all tightly covered their mouths and noses with masks, rushing towards the other end of the cave.

  At this moment, the bats in the cave flew out of the cave all at once, and Qin Zhong rushed out of the cave. When he came out of the cave and looked back, the cave was filled with fog, and the thick fog had almost become a dense smoke.

  Guo Dafu finally rushed out, and after throwing away his clothes, he actually stuck the quilt to the ground with all his might. Now Guo Dafu was left with only a thermal underwear, it was really cold enough for him to bear.

  Qin Zhong also threw his clothes to one side, he took a look at Yingzi, and indeed she was a mountain village girl, taking off one layer of clothing, the small cotton-padded jacket inside could still keep him warm.

  The old mushroom floated in mid-air, looking at Qin Zhong with a gloomy face and asked: "Where is my dead man's head?"

  Qin Zhong suddenly remembered that he had probably forgotten it just now and thrown it into the hole, so he pointed to the inside of the hole with his hand: "Would you mind running another trip?"

  The old mushroom reluctantly entered the dense fog area again, took out its head, and looked at the eyeballs of the head rolling back and forth.

  Qin Zhong and Lao Mo exchanged a look, almost in unison: "Looks like we've arrived."

  Qin Zhong suddenly looked around, because the entrance of the cave was a few turns, and they could hardly see the outside situation. They sped forward, and after leaving the turn, what appeared before them was an extremely grand scene.

  In the middle of a large square, under an ancient pine tree that is at least a thousand years old, several green stone offering tables are surrounded. On the offering tables, what appears to be fresh offerings are placed, such as pig hearts and cow lungs, tiger heads, and most impressively, a whole giant star goat is placed in the center.

  Under the altar, nearly a dozen loyal clansmen knelt, these clansmen seemed to have been sealed in dust, they maintained their kowtowing movements, as if they had no intention of getting up.

  On both sides of the altar, two long beds were placed, and on the beds lay four or five corpses wearing Japanese military uniforms. These corpses seemed to have been torn apart, apparently by large animals such as bears or tigers.

  In front of the altar, there were several coffins, the coffins were not covered, it seemed that the funeral at that time had not been completed. There were three to five Anti-Japanese League soldiers lying in the coffins. In front of the coffins was the most important figure in the entire sacrificial scene.

  The old mushroom seemed to have cried his eyes out, his mouth trembling as he barely managed to speak: "I... finally found you all, I..." He suddenly slammed the dead man's head onto the altar from mid-air, and with a thud, he knelt down on the ground.

  However, the actions of these people did not attract anyone's attention. The others who were also kneeling on the ground seemed to have no reaction. Yingzi also knelt down on the ground respectfully, muttering to herself.

  Qin Zhong and Guo Da Fu glanced at each other in the back rows, everyone looked spirited, when they touched each person's skin with their hands, that skin was quite elastic, these people had no breathing rhythm, but otherwise had no difference from a living person.

  Qin Zhong's mind buzzed, wasn't this the legendary Sleeping Beauty physique? Were these people all successful in perfectly coordinating their psychology and thinking with their physical bodies?

  When Qin Zhong was about to look away, the old mushroom knelt on the ground and said clearly: "Ancestor, I have borne the curse you placed upon me. Now that these people have broken my curse, shouldn't I be reincarnated? I have guarded the last hall of the Ice Palace for nearly four hundred years, but your true bodies are still standing here, while my body has suffered the pain of the ice coffin, and my head was cut off by myself. I have fulfilled our original agreement, please lift the curse that has been on me for hundreds of years."

  Qin Zhong saw this scene, he really couldn't interrupt, he just walked up to the corpses that were placed there, looking at these corpses, the Anti-Japanese League soldiers back then, in that environment, actually still wore leather boots, it's really not simple.

  Guo Dafu unscrupulously approached, touched the boots with his hand, and then touched the leather jacket on the soldier's body. He grinned: "Hey, this time I have clothes to wear, brothers, for the sake of coming to see you, my clothes are almost all donated, can I borrow your clothes to wear? It's really too cold."

  Dafu unceremoniously stripped the corpse of its clothes, shook them out and put them on himself, muttering to himself about how warm they were.

  Qin Zhong gazed at Guo Dafu with a helpless look, and indeed had nothing to say. But this time he prepared to carefully examine the ancestral tablet on the altar under the thousand-year-old pine tree in front of the sacrificial table, and suddenly felt a strong sense of reverence in his heart.