Ancient Country Returns to Ruins: Strange Tales from the Western Regions

  Karamay's voice was trembling, and we quickly gathered around Wu Zihan. Fu Ma put his hand on the left side of his chest, and he shook his head at us, then pressed his ear against his heart: "There really is no heartbeat."

  I quickly put my hand in front of his nose, but I couldn't feel any breath. My eyes were a little moist, and everyone else was bowing their heads in silence. Suddenly, Xiao Lao raised his head as if he had thought of something: "A person who can release the afterlife's extreme light must have an extraordinary divine power. I once heard that people who exhaust their spiritual energy will enter a state of false death, and when their spiritual energy recovers a bit, they will wake up. You see, Brother Zihuan still has some residual warmth in his body, and it hasn't stiffened yet. Perhaps he is in this kind of state."

  "Well." Lao San sighed, "He did it all to save us, otherwise with his abilities, he could have escaped easily." Lao San's voice grew softer.

  It started to drizzle outside, and Lao San told me to hurry up and go to sleep. The few of them took turns keeping watch over Wu Zihan. My eyes were heavy with sleep, so I went to bed.

  When I woke up, I found that there was no one in the tent. They were all gathered at Wu Zihan's tent. I quickly got up and walked over: "How is he? Why are you all here?" Everyone looked at me silently, Fu Ma and Lao San's eyes were red, Xiao Lao said softly: "He... has passed away."

  My heart skipped a beat, and I suddenly felt like I was falling into an endless abyss. I didn't even have time to thank him. Karamay sighed and said, "Let's bury Zihan here and let him rest in peace." He stood up and asked everyone to help with the burial, but I remained squatting on the ground, saying softly, "I disagree!"

  Karamay looked at me with a puzzled expression, and I met his gaze firmly and said: "I disagree! He is our companion, he sacrificed himself to save us, and I really can't bear to bury him in the wilderness."

  "What should we do then?"

  "Carry him back to the village!"

  "It's easy for you to say that, we've come so far and now you want to go back? What's the point of that?" Karamay sneered.

  "If it's like that, then I won't go, I'll send Su Han's body back to the village first."

  Karamay's angry shout: "I'm afraid you won't be able to!"

  He patted me on the shoulder and glanced at Karamay, saying "I'll accompany you back."

  Karamay glared at Fu Ma, who hid behind me like he was out of breath. I straightened my back and questioned him: "I came here to find out what happened to my family members. I don't want any of my companions to get hurt because of me. Sending him back to the village is the only thing I can do for Zi Huan's brother. Karamay, you're so eager to find the Daiyueguo country, it's probably not just about finding my grandfather."

  Karamay's face turned red: "Alright, alright, it's really a dog biting Lu Dongbin. I'll go back now."

  Xiao Lao quickly mediated the situation: "Both of you brothers, stop quarreling. Calm down first, and let's discuss this matter thoroughly." After that, he took out a piece of cloth from his luggage bag and covered Wu Zihan with it.

  Karamay picked up his backpack and said, "You guys discuss it, I'll follow the majority. I'm going out for a walk to get some fresh air." He stormed out of the tent. Old Three was about to chase after him when Xiao Lao stopped him: "Let him calm down."

  Lao San's arm still needs a few more days to recover, we unanimously decided to set off early tomorrow morning back to the village. After discussing, we started preparing dinner, busy for a while, I took a look at my watch, it was already past 6 o'clock in the evening, but Karamay had not returned yet, I was worried: "Why hasn't he come back, won't he encounter any danger?"

  "Karamay has grown up in this desert since he was a child, and is more familiar with it than you or I. Don't worry," said Old Xiao.

  After dinner, around nine o'clock in the evening, Fu Ma let us rest and he kept watch. Karamay still hadn't returned. In a daze, I heard some faint rustling sounds. I fumbled for my flashlight and suddenly discovered that the tent where Wu Zihan's body was being stored had a weak flash of light. Before I could find the flashlight, I rushed out. These past few days, it had been raining in the Taklamakan Desert, with dark clouds covering the moon. I softly called out: "Fu Ma!" But no one answered me.

  Suddenly a hand patted my shoulder, I shook all over, "Second brother, where's Fu Ma?" It turned out to be Lao San, who scared me half to death. Lao San opened his flashlight and shone it around in a circle, but didn't find any trace of Fu Ma. The faint rustling sound grew clearer and clearer.

  "Old Three, go take a look." I whispered, pointing to the tent where Wu Zihan's body was stored. The two of us walked over quietly, and with the weak light from our flashlights, I saw something moving under the cloth covering the body. Old Three and I exchanged a glance, and he mouthed "Corpse changed!" to me. My whole body trembled involuntarily as I imagined Wu Zihan's handsome face when he was alive, though he was quiet and rarely spoke, he had saved us time and again. If he really became a zombie or... what would we do? Old Three's right hand hadn't recovered yet, so he used his left to feel for the machete in his hand, indicating that I should lift up the cloth. Old Three counted down: "1, 2, 3!"

  When I counted to three, I immediately lifted the shroud, and Lao San swung his knife to stab, but unexpectedly a three-meter-long snake with its bloody mouth wide open pounced on Lao San. Wu Ziheng's body had vanished into thin air. Although Lao San was injured, his movements were incredibly fast, and he quickly used his knife to block the snake's attack. The snake seemed unwilling to give up, and although it didn't attack again, it continued to probe with its tongue. Lao San retreated two steps back to my side and said, "Second brother, where's the gun? Give it to me quickly!" I hastily pulled out a handgun from my waist and handed it to him. Lao San fired at the snake's body, and in an instant, the snake became enraged and pounced again. Lao San seemed to have anticipated this move and swiftly slashed his knife, cutting the snake into two halves. Perhaps due to using too much force earlier, Lao San's wound began bleeding again. I quickly returned to the tent to bandage Lao San's wound, while Xiao Lao continued sleeping soundly inside.

  Suddenly hearing a rapid footsteps, I quickly came out of the tent and took a look, it turned out that Fu Ma had come back.

  "Where did you go?" I asked him.

  "I just fell asleep and vaguely saw a black shadow passing by, so I chased it out." Fu Ma said panting.

  "Wu Zihan's body is gone, did you know?"

  "What?" Fu Ma's eyes widened, "How is that possible? Within a few miles of this place, I can hear the thoughts of anyone who passes by. But just now, because of that black shadow, I didn't sense anything at all, which is why I chased after it."

  "If no one passes by, then it can only be...the corpse itself..." Old Three said half of the sentence and shivered with a chill.

  "And his inner voice is also something I can't hear." Fu Ma echoed.

  "What did you find out after chasing him away?" I asked.

  "I vaguely saw someone's shadow flashing by, and I didn't even feel a heartbeat, so I chased after him to take a look. He seemed to have also felt that someone was following him, walking very quickly, and it was especially dark outside, so I lost him."

  Lao San touched his injured arm and said: "If Zi Han brother woke up, he would definitely greet us, absolutely wouldn't leave without saying goodbye, that can only mean..."

  Just as Lao San hadn't finished speaking, a woman's ear-piercing scream suddenly came from afar, shouting for help, which finally woke up Xiao Lao. Xiao Lao rubbed his eyes and complained: "In the middle of the night, can't sleep well, who is practicing dolphin sounds there?"

  "Let's go and take a look together."

  We walked in the direction of the sound, and a woman was lying on the ground screaming. Her face was pale white, her whole body trembling. In the sky, several Loshen ghosts were flying around, their excited shrill laughter seemed to be enjoying the woman's fearful expression. For some reason, as soon as I saw them, I felt an uncontrollable anger, and I rushed over, standing in front of the woman, raising my left hand with the Ghost King chain and shouting: "You bunch of beasts, coming out again to harm people, get lost!" The Loshen ghosts immediately lost their spirit, showing a ferocious face, baring their teeth at me, making various ghostly faces, then flew away in a flash.

  I crouched down and asked her: "Are you okay? The Rakshasa ghost chased me away, it's fine now."

  The girl was crying, pointing to the left with her hand. I followed the direction of her finger and saw a skeleton lying there, surrounded by blood. It must have died recently, it was definitely done by that group of Rakshas just now. The skeleton was gnawed clean. My heart skipped a beat, and I asked softly, "Is he your relative?" The woman nodded, "He's my brother." After answering, she fainted to the ground.

  I carried that woman back to our camp, Xiao Lao kept sizing her up and down, I half-jokingly said: "How about it, Xiao Lao, have you taken a liking to her?"

  Xiao Lao Ma said with a serious face: "Jun Yang, don't play this kind of joke on me. I just smelled a yin earthy smell on this woman's body. This woman should be a Tu Fu Zi."

  "Earthy smell?"

  "Ah, what is referred to as 'yin earth' is the soil used for burying the dead. Grave robbers often come into contact with this soil, and over time, their bodies naturally absorb this smell. In my old age, I've also worked as a grave digger, so I'm very familiar with this smell."

  "Are you saying that such a beautiful girl is a grave robber?" Lao San looked at us with suspicion, "Fu Ma, this woman isn't some kind of monster, is she? She's not a female Raksha ghost in disguise, is she?"

  "It shouldn't be, I just felt her sorrow of losing a loved one earlier," Fu Ma replied.

  "If they're really grave robbers, their purpose for coming here can't be simple. They might have the same goal as us, and it's impossible that there are only two of them." Xiao Lao analyzed and said.

  "Anyway, when this woman wakes up we'll ask her and know everything." I touched her forehead with my hand, it was icy cold. Karamay never came back, Wu Zihan also mysteriously disappeared, everything became more and more confusing.