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

  Karamay glared back at me fiercely, a scene I've witnessed more than once. I remember it clearly, the last time I was at Karamay's house, I saw that ghost eating small camels, but when I came out again, it had vanished. When I entered the house, Fuma wanted to say something, but Karamay changed the subject. Fuma can hear people's inner voices, did he find out something?

  I was still pondering when I saw Old Three fondling the mummy of the King of Da Yan several times, "Old Three, what are you doing? Kissing a thousand-year-old beauty isn't enough for you, now you're coming on to the king, what kind of perversion is this?" I laughed.

  The three of them didn't even lift their heads, still continuing to grope around: "You'd better give up quickly, I sacrificed myself for the sake of saving you guys, can't find some compensation? This king is really poor, besides a golden coffin, there's nothing else."

  Lao San's gaze was fixed on the dagger at the king's chest: "This dagger is not bad, what material is it made of, and it's still black."

  "It's Wu Jin's," said Old Xiao.

  Lao San's eyes lit up as soon as he heard, a big smile spread across his face: "The ancient black gold dagger, it must be worth a lot of money. This thing is mine now, I didn't come here for nothing."

  Lao San stretched out his hand just about to pull out the knife, Xiao Lao immediately stopped him: "A Long, wait a minute, look at the pattern on the hilt of this knife."

  Lao San took the flashlight and examined it carefully for half a day. On the dagger, there were several huge-eyed monsters carved, and under the monsters, a bunch of text was densely carved. Lao San was suddenly shocked: "Is this...?"

  Xiao Lao nodded and said, "That's right. This is a spell to calm the corpse and summon the spirit that was popular among the religions of the Western Regions for a time. I'm afraid that if you pull it out, the king will immediately turn into a zombie."

  "He's already dried up like this, what else can he become?" Lao San was a bit unwilling, and without caring about anything, directly pulled out the knife from the king's chest.

  In an instant, a thick and heavy yin energy descended upon the king, enveloping him in a layer of white mist. His bones began to rattle with a terrifying sound. The skin that was previously dry and wrinkled now began to stretch, his face transformed from its original reddish-brown color to a dark blue hue, fangs grew out from his mouth, and his fingernails rapidly lengthened. With a sudden movement, he slowly opened his eyes like a robot, and moved his neck stiffly. This entire transformation took less than a minute.

  Xiao Lao Li's whole body was covered in cold sweat: "Quickly put the knife back, quickly!"

  Lao San was frightened out of his wits at this moment, with his mouth agape staring at the king in the coffin, and he stood there stiffly, frozen to the spot.

  Fu Ma said, at that time it was too late, and quickly snatched the dagger from Lao San's hand. With one swift motion, he plunged the knife into the king's heart. The king let out a strange cry, his voice muffled as if he was screaming with his throat constricted. The knife struck again, but this time the king did not turn into a dry corpse; instead, he twitched and convulsed in the coffin, yet failed to transform further.

  Xiao let out a sigh of relief and scolded: "A Long, how can you be so reckless."

  Lao San looked relieved and wiped the cold sweat from his forehead: "Luckily nothing happened, he's been sealed again, scared me to death."

  "If it's just a bit slower, don't even mention the Corpse-Sealing Spirit Curse, even if the Great Luo Immortal came, he wouldn't be able to seal him." Xiao Lao still had lingering fear.

  Lao San felt a bit embarrassed earlier, so he deliberately boasted: "When the soldiers come, we'll defend; when the flood comes, we'll dam it. Won't that make us as good as zongzi? We've seen this before, haven't we?"

  Xiao Lao said with a scornful tone: "In the past, we've only encountered those of low level, at most just a black zombie. As long as we stall for a bit, this kid will immediately become a dry corpse. I reckon even Wu Ziheng wouldn't be his match."

  As soon as Wu Zihan was mentioned, Karamay suddenly furrowed his brow: "Right, I have something that I haven't told you guys yet. When I entered the ice coffin chamber where the female corpse with the green eyes was, before I fainted, I seemed to see a shadowy figure, who looked very much like Wu Zihan. At the time, it wasn't clear either, and I didn't dare confirm it. Could he be here? How come this kid is so mysterious?"

  Fu Ma smiled and said, "It's not like it's the first time we're working together, he's always been like this, you know that."

  Xiao Lao suddenly felt suspicious: "Karamay seems to have never cooperated with Zi Han before, how come I remember this is the first time Director Mu sent him to Xinjiang."

  Fu Ma's face turned red and he stopped talking, Karamay quickly changed the subject: "This zombie king is settled down, can't run out by himself in a while, right?"

  Xiao Lao rubbed his head and said: "It can be sealed for the time being, but after another one or two thousand years, it's hard to say." As he spoke, he closed the coffin lid.

  Lao San said dejectedly, "Alas, we came in vain and got nothing. Let's eat something here, I don't know how many days have passed, I'm so hungry that I'm dizzy."

  After Old Three said that, I really felt a bit hungry. For several days in a row, I had been in a state of high mental tension. Ah Quan was still unconscious, of course, I knew he was pretending to be dizzy. Previously at the mural site, Fu Ma's fingers were chopped off by Old Three, and he was indeed a gecko, just a few days ago, they really grew back. If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I would have found it hard to believe that there was such an extraordinary person in this world.

  We sat around in a circle and ate some dry rations, Karamay kept talking about what happened when he left us.

  "It's not suitable to stay here for long, let's hurry up and leave." Everyone nodded in agreement and got up one after another, heading towards the door.

  Through that door, we came into another ear chamber. The ear chambers in this tomb seem to be of uniform specifications, all of which are long and narrow, but the main hall has not been seen yet.

  This room is not sealed, now we can see the door on the ear chamber and take a big breath. Inside it's dark, but there are some green lights reflected, at first I thought they were fireflies, but later I thought it was unlikely.

  Xiao Lao and Lao San shone their flashlights in the direction of the green light, and we were suddenly shocked to find that the entire room was filled with corpses and white bones, forming a massive pile of skeletons. The bodies had almost completely rotted away, some had even turned into mummies, and the white bones were piled up like mountains, making it impossible to distinguish between human and animal remains.

  Karamay shivered and said: "I guess these are all people who didn't leave this tomb."

  "What are those green lights?" I squinted and stared for half a day, my eyes were even dizzy.

  "It seems to be some kind of insect, always moving." Lao San couldn't see clearly either, and prepared to get closer for a look. He leaned his body to the side, carefully approaching the pile of corpses, afraid of stepping on something.

  Lao San suddenly let out a loud "ah" and scared us all back several steps. He stumbled back, shouting: "Oh my god, the corpse is covered in scorpions! The scorpions haven't become spirits yet, they're not as scary as the scorpion spirit in the previous room. They're all crawling on the corpse! Their tails can emit a green glow, and there are even glowing scorpions at night!"

  Karamay blinked, as if thinking of something: "I remember that in the past, someone in our village accidentally caught this kind of scorpion and was stung. Although he didn't die, he became very strange, only eating corpses. He dug up all the corpses from the tombs in the village and ate them, even the white bones were not spared. Everyone said he was possessed by a ghost and no one dared to get close to him. Later, when there were no more tombs to eat, he went into the desert and never came back."

  Xiao Lao furrowed his brow and turned to Lao San, asking: "A Long, are there human faces on the backs of those scorpions?"

  Lao San felt a chill run down his spine after hearing what Karamay had just said. He was relieved that he hadn't let the scorpion sting him, or else he would have become one of those monsters that eat corpses too. "I didn't notice earlier, I'm not going to go take a look, let Second Brother go instead, he has the Rasetsu curse to protect himself."

  "I'm going, how could you not think of me?" I said helplessly. "I'll go, what are we afraid of?" I snatched the flashlight from Lao San's hand and quietly walked towards a scorpion, taking a closer look. Suddenly, my heart skipped a beat - just as Xiao Lao had said, there was indeed a human face on its back. The expression on that face was strange, a mix of joy and anger, making it impossible to tell whether it was crying or laughing. "Is it a human face or a face that's crying and laughing at the same time?" I exclaimed to Xiao Lao.

  Xiao Lao seemed a bit surprised: "This scorpion is called the human-faced scorpion. I've only seen it in ancient books and thought it was just a mythical creature, but it seems to be real. This scorpion has a human face on its back, can emit light from its tail, mainly feeds on rotting flesh, contains highly toxic venom. If you're bitten by it, if you run fast afterwards, you'll become a zombie; if you run slow, you'll be devoured by the swarm of scorpions."

  "Xiao Lao, you look surprised. Is there another use for them?" I quickly ran back and stood with everyone else, afraid of being stung by this thing.

  "These scorpions were said to be used in some sort of ancient ritual, where they could convey the wishes of believers to the gods," said Old Xiao.

  "This thing doesn't eat people alive, does it?" Lao San's voice was trembling slightly.

  Xiao Lao shook his head: "Not eating is not eating, but this thing is bloodthirsty, everyone mustn't get hurt, let's leave this place quickly."

  We were just about to leave when Ah Quan, who was behind Fu on the horseback, suddenly opened his eyes, looked around with a gloomy face and gave us a cold smile.

  I was shocked and horrified, just about to shout "Pay attention, Fuma!", when Ah Quan revealed vampire-like fangs, just like his father's, and savagely bit into Fuma's neck. The movement was incredibly fast, and Fuma had no time to react. Fresh blood flowed down from Fuma's neck.

  Lao San rushed to Fu Ma's side, kicked A Quan to the ground with one foot. She lay on the ground, smiled at us with her mouth open, and there was still Fu Ma's blood on her teeth and the corner of her mouth. Then she quickly ran out towards the back room.

  I hastily pulled out a piece of gauze from my bag and handed it to Ma Fu: "Are you okay? Hurry up and bandage yourself."

  Fu Ma shook his head, reluctant to look at the direction Ah Quan ran towards: "I've long known she's no longer Ah Quan, can't hear her heartbeat, just holding onto illusions, hoping going out could cure her."

  Lao San scolded loudly as soon as he heard the news: "You still have the nerve to care about that dead woman? Be careful or you'll become a zombie yourself."

  He waved his hand and smiled slightly: "Ah Long, can this little injury hurt me?"

  Seeing that Fuma was fine, I felt a slight relief in my heart. Karamay shouted loudly beside me: "It's bad! You guys look quickly——" Only to see thousands of human-faced beetles crawling towards us.