Chapter 28: Volcanic Mausoleum (1)

  The sudden movement of the thousand-year-old pine tree surprised Yingzi and the old mushroom's so-called shaman, they couldn't understand what the tree brother was going to do, was it a divine instruction? They didn't know, but Yingzi still ended her spell with her most respectful gesture.

  Qin Zhong touched his already wet pants legs, turned back and whispered: "There are so many corpse worms here, which proves that there should be a considerable number of corpses here, or the corpses that can attract these corpse worms are here."

  "Corpse? Another corpse?" Guo Dafu, with a disheveled beard, struggled to get up from the water and hastily approached Qin Zhong: "Boss, how did we end up in this kind of place again? If we can't get out this time, will we ever be able to go home?"

  "Shut up, what did we come out for?"

  "Follow the boss, wherever the boss says to go!" Guo Dafu seemed to be reciting a mantra, but even so, he couldn't hide the sense of hopelessness and terror in his heart.

  The old mushroom was also very surprised. He used to be able to float, but he didn't know how he ended up being thrown to the bottom of the water. This was what he found most difficult to explain.

  Qin Zhong sneered: "I've seen it, now we can only move forward, there's no way back."

  The old mushroom looked around and saw that the tree well below seemed to be shining again, not a completely sealed passage, which means there should be a place where light can pass through, so it seems they have hope to get out.

  "What's wrong with you? There's nothing scary here, can't you see that it's quite bright?"

  Qin Zhong nodded and said professionally, "I remember my grandfather also entered some overturned tombs before. There were skylights for ventilation in each of them. This is necessary. However, since there's light here, it's possible that this might be a tomb too."

  Guo Dafu's face sank, and he asked stupidly: "Are we going to dig up someone else's ancestral grave?"

  "Dig what dig, it's just entering the family grave and walking around in a circle. Let's go with me." Qin Zhong was about to leave when he squatted down to take a look at the water flow. He hesitated for a long time before saying: "The water flow is not small, if we follow the warm water downwards, it's very likely that we'll end up back at the hot spring pool from earlier, or possibly reach a dead end and have to go through a section of waterway."

  Guo Dafu was shocked upon hearing this, and repeatedly exclaimed: "Boss, I'm not afraid of anything else, but I've been afraid of water since I was young. I'm a land animal, I don't know how to swim."

  The old mushroom chuckled and said, "I don't care, I'll just drift away."

  Yingzi also showed her determination: "Since it's already come to this, I have no choice but to follow Qin Gege. Whatever you say, I'll do."

  "Alright, since we don't want to take the water route, our only option is to head upstream on foot. I'm guessing that this hot spring must have been formed after passing through some volcanic fissure and being filtered by lava, which is why I'm still very curious about what's upstream. Let's go." With that, Qin Zhong took the lead and walked ahead of everyone else.

  It fulfilled Guo Dafu's thoughts, and he also went up with a hundredfold spirit. Every time they walked a distance, they could see batches of dead worm bodies, among which several half-dead worms were still struggling.

  Qin Zhong saw this scene and asked a question: "Old mushroom, according to your experience, what's the matter with so many corpses of these corpse worms?"

  The old mushroom thought for half a day before responding: "Corpse worms are parasitic on corpses, they die in large numbers, one is because of food, that is, the available corpses for them to eat have disappeared, and the other is due to their mutual slaughter among themselves. When they encounter a super-good food source, that is, a high-quality corpse, they will mutually kill each other, and finally, the lucky surviving corpse worms, also known as worm tigers, can enjoy their delicious meal."

  "Xiang? Isn't that another name for a dog?" Qin Zhong questioned.

  The old mushroom nodded and said: "This worm beast is also a descriptive term for them, this kind of worm beast has quite strong aggression, including attacks on us humans."

  Qin Zhong took a cold breath: "So, it's very likely that we'll encounter such a corpse worm. We must get rid of this corpse worm, or else we'll become its food." He immediately let out a cold hum: "Hmph, I didn't think that there would still be so many exciting things along the way."

  As he spoke, Qin Zhong picked up two steel knives and walked upstream along the hot spring water flow. This super long passage really didn't know where it was going to lead to. Walking on the shore of the hot spring waterway with corpses everywhere for three whole days, he finally found that the hot spring water seemed to be clearer than downstream, and the land part here was also relatively wider.

  Qin Zhong looked around, but didn't go far before suddenly discovering that on the dry riverbed there were several disordered white skeletons, some bone insects lingering on the bones and circling reluctantly. After hearing Qin Zhong's footsteps, they seemed to be in a hurry and hid into a skull.

  Looking further away, on a flat wall surface, several flags were inserted, which looked like Shaman flags. In the middle of the flags, a torch was lit, and it was unknown how long this torch had been burning here. It was possible that due to the remaining power of the Shaman flag, the torch could burn all year round without going out?

  "Look, boss!" Guo Dafu pointed at the corpses of those insects on the ground and became flustered.

  The old mushroom twitched his mouth and said, "Cut it out, what's the big deal? We've seen plenty of things like this along the way."

  Yingzi's eyes were sharp, and at a glance, she saw the way out: "No, the dead insects here are obviously much larger than the ones we started with. Look at their size, they're about one-third the size of an average person."

  Old Mushroom scratched his head: "Uh, so that means the insect beasts here should be even bigger."

  "Yes, it's even bigger than that. This should be a volcanic structure. Look at the walls around you, they're clearly made of volcanic rock. The temperature here is most suitable for the growth of those corpse worms, and with such excellent temperature conditions, they must have grown to be even larger and stronger." Qin Zhong's analysis was correct.

  If a person finds a suitable environment, he will grow well and strong. What about the corpse worm? In places with good temperature, corpses rot quickly, they can digest easily without effort, just like people eating porridge, easy to digest, body grows well.

  As he thought of this, Qin Zhong stepped forward hastily. He used the knife in his hand to stir up the skull, and a fist-sized bone worm crawled out from inside. The two black eyes of the bone worm stared tightly at Qin Zhong, as if it was because Qin Zhong had disturbed their food or the home they relied on for survival that they were counter-attacking.

  Qin Zhong made a face at the bone worm and with a swift knife, cut it in half: "I think this bone worm must be food for those corpse worms too. I feel that to grow even bigger, we need to eat some calcium, and these bone worms have plenty of it."

  "Cut it out! I didn't think you'd come up with such a dirty trick. I, Old Mushroom, admit defeat." Old Mushroom said with a hint of sourness.

  Qin Zhong led Guo Dafu and others to retreat backwards, hiding behind a wall tens of meters away, their eyes fixed tightly on the location of the bone insect's corpse.

  Before long, several people could hear the sound of footsteps clearly. The footsteps were coming from the surface of the water. The sounds were chaotic, but it was completely possible to make out the approximate size of these things.

  Qin Zhong suddenly looked in the direction of the sound, and his eyes widened in surprise. Where did such a big, black bug come from? It was at least one-third the size of a normal person. As Qin Zhong got a clearer look, he saw that it was not just one bug, but five of them.

  The old mushroom was surprised: "Strange, the size of these five is exactly that of insect wolves. Why don't they kill each other?"

  "Who knows, you who study animals don't know either, and what we say can only be speculation. But I think Qin Zhong's speculations are generally accurate." Qin Zhong's confident demeanor was enough to make Old Mushroom surrender.

  Just as a few people were studying the rushing corpse worms, a huge black shadow was refracted by the light on the water surface, and with the illumination of the torches on the wall, a shadow of about two men's size fell on the wall opposite Qin Zhong and others.