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

  Lao San shook his head helplessly: "Circle Grandma, your physics was taught by a physical education teacher, no wonder you don't have a shadow when holding a flashlight."

  "If I don't count myself... then there are only four shadows!" Ah Quan said with a mix of fear and grievance.

  "My goodness, I'm going crazy! Isn't Ma Ge on Jun Yang's back?" Lao San gave me a tangled look, and found that I had already put the horse on the ground. He muttered to himself: "1, 2, 3, 4..." Then he was stunned for a moment."

  I didn't pay attention to what Ah Quan said, but when I heard Old Three counting, I felt a bit puzzled. I glanced down and indeed saw only four shadows. Xiao Lao also seemed to have noticed something strange. The few of us subtly shifted our bodies, and the shadows on the ground moved with us. Fu Ma was leaning against the wall, sleeping, and his shadow was cast on the wall. Suddenly, we all looked towards Karamay together.

  Karamay suddenly let out a sly laugh, slowly floating in mid-air, his facial features disappearing from his face, leaving only a smooth, featureless face, exactly like a cooked egg.

  A Qiang shouted loudly, and the faceless monster quickly approached the wall and disappeared in an instant.

  I was shocked and thought: Oh no, I've been led to this room by the faceless monster. How am I going to get out? There's not even a door in this house, let alone a window. It's completely sealed off.

  At this time, Fu Ma slowly opened his eyes and saw us. He said on horseback: "That Karamay is fake, he can't feel the heart voice when he wakes up."

  "We both said in unison: 'We knew it all along.'"

  Fu Ma saw Xiao Lao and hurriedly rushed over: "Xiao Lao, you're okay, I thought..." His eyes turned red.

  Xiao Lao nodded: "I also thought I would not live long, it's really strange. If I'm not mistaken, that monster just now should be 'Wú Zhēn', a kind of spirit body without past, without future, and without thoughts, only listening to the master's orders. Wú Zhēn is made from living people, but the method is extremely cruel and has long been lost. There must be even more terrifying things in this tomb."

  "And besides, we're familiar with each other, otherwise I wouldn't have pretended to be Karamay and stunned Fu Ma." I added.

  "Just now we saw a big white face Liu uncle in the door, is it transformed from this thing?" A Quan asked Xiao Lao.

  "It should be." Old Xiao nodded.

  "Damn it, this is going to trap us alive in here, there's nothing at all." Lao San cursed, suddenly hearing a noise, I immediately remembered that in the middle of the room there was still a coffin, and from inside the coffin came a "ding ding" knocking sound, as if something inside was constantly stirring.

  A'quan shone the flashlight, and we all held our breath. The coffin was made of black wood, but it was too far away to see what kind of wood it was. There were dense carvings on it that I didn't recognize. Suddenly, I remembered that they looked like the symbols on the sheepskin scroll. My hand touched my backpack, thinking of taking out the sheepskin scroll to compare, but before I could take it out, I suddenly remembered Grandpa's warning and put it back.

  "Come on, what's there to be afraid of? It's just a zongzi!" Lao San charged towards the coffin with his cleaver. The rest of us followed closely behind him. As I looked at the patterns on the coffin lid, I suddenly got a severe headache.

  Before I came to the Western Regions, I had a dream in which I saw a three-headed and six-armed goddess statue in a large hall like an Eskimo ice house. The six hands held different ritual objects, and no matter where you stood, one pair of eyes seemed to be staring at you. In my mind, I searched for the image, but I had never seen it before, so I didn't know why seeing her gave me an inexplicable feeling.

  "My goodness, is this Nezha? With three heads and six arms!" Old Three exclaimed.

  "Mr. Xiao, do you know what this is?" I narrowed my eyes and looked at Mr. Xiao.

  Xiao Lao furrowed his brow, thinking for a long time: "I've been a rural teacher for many years and have never seen such patterns carved on a coffin. I've only seen them in ordinary ancient books. This is a god that ancient humans believed in, but it's hard to verify what it is now. Could this god have something to do with the ancient state of Daiyuan?"

  "I had a dream about this before." I then told them the previous dream, and several people were stunned, looking at me with wide eyes.

  "Second brother, I think you're not a good person." Old Three looked me up and down.

  "Go to hell, I'm not a person, I'm a god!" I gave Lao San a white eye.

  Xiao Lao patted his hair, which was styled like the Mediterranean Sea, and said: "Previously, I was still puzzled. Brother Junyang had no long objects on him, how could he arrange to come with us to this adventurous place? Now it can be known that Director Mu is truly farsighted. Brother Junyang, I can affirm that you are mysteriously connected to this ancient country of Daiyue, otherwise fate would not have guided you here. Only..."

  "What's that?"

  "Whether it's joy or sorrow, it may all be in your thoughts." Xiao Lao looked at me with profound meaning.

  "Awesome!" I made a fist-bumping gesture. Old Xiao was always like this, mysterious and enigmatic, sometimes talking for half a day without getting to the point, leaving people bewildered.

  As we were talking, the voice in the coffin stopped. When we looked again, the coffin lid had somehow opened a crack. Everyone gasped in unison as five dark brown hands suddenly emerged from inside. The five withered hands flailed about outside for half a day before quickly withdrawing back into the coffin.

  Seeing this scene, we were all shocked and quickly moved away from the coffin. Old Three held a machete in front of us, and the coffin lid slowly closed, with no further movement.

  "Is there possibly three people lying in this coffin? Or is it a monster with five hands, how disgusting!" Lao San's whole body shook.

  "The people of ancient times always had some strange beliefs, three people in one coffin is not unusual, even if they grew five hands it's not strange, didn't Fuxi and Nüwa also have human heads and snake bodies?" Old Xiao said quietly to us.

  "There must be something strange here, no heartbeat at all. Are you very scared?" Fu Ma looked at A Quan with a worried gaze, and at this moment, A Quan's face was pale, her body stiffened, and her eyes stared fixedly at the coffin. Fu Ma touched her hair: "Don't be afraid, no matter what that thing is, we will definitely rescue your father and get out safely."

  A Qiang's eyes were red, and he nodded at Ma Duo.

  Suddenly, the coffin started to move again, slightly opening a gap. From that gap, something about two meters long stretched out, section by section. At first, I thought it was a big worm and felt my stomach churning. The few of us were backing away, but didn't dare lean against the wall.

  Lao San snatched the flashlight from A Quan, who was already too scared to look. Fu Ma covered A Quan's eyes with his hand. Lao San shone the light on that thing, I calmed down and took a closer look, it seemed like some animal's tail. The thing had been sweeping outside for half a day, seeing no movement, it then retreated back inside.

  I turned back to look at Old Xiao: "What is this thing? It's so... with so many hands, and a tail. Did people in ancient times all grow up like this?"

  Xiao Lao shook his head helplessly: "This old man really doesn't know, after all, there are too few records of ancient humans, and even if there were, they would be in myths."

  Lao San burst out laughing and said, "It's really not easy, I've been in the Yinhua Bureau for so long, but I just found out that there are still things you don't know about, Xiao Xianren! Who cares what it is, whether it's a mule or a horse, we have to pull it out and take a look. Whoever wants to go with me can come and lift the lid of that coffin, let's see what this ancient glutinous rice ball really looks like!"

  We all looked at each other in dismay, not saying a word. Old Three grew impatient: "I'm telling you guys, except for Second Brother, you're all seasoned veterans, and yet one little zongzi has scared you all so much? Taking the initiative to attack is better than just standing here waiting to be scared to death!"

  I thought it made sense when I heard it. We can't just keep watching from here, since we've been led to this point, let's take things as they come and see what happens next.

  "Old Three, let's go." I said with a self-motivated tone.

  Lao San gave a thumbs up: "Second Brother is Second Brother, you're at the foot of the coffin and I'm at the head. We'll count to three together and open it. You quickly retreat, whatever comes out, I'll block." I nodded in agreement.

  Lao San handed the flashlight over to Fu Ma and began counting: "1, 2, 3!"

  When we counted to three, the two of us exerted our strength and lifted the coffin lid upwards. A wisp of black smoke quickly emerged from the coffin, and Old Three and I immediately retreated a few steps. The black smoke billowed for a while before gradually dispersing. I held my breath and stared into the coffin, but there was no reaction for a long time. Old Three and I leaned in closer together.

  All that could be seen was that the coffin was filled with a reddish-brown liquid, similar to blood in color, emitting a pungent smell like garlic. Old Three inserted his knife into it and stirred for half a day without any reaction, causing the bloody water to ripple with waves.

  "What's going on, Second Brother? This big zongzi has a stealth function?" Third Brother looked at me in confusion.

  I also can't figure it out: "Just now I saw that its volume was so huge, how could it disappear in one move? Is there a secret passage under this coffin?"

  "Secret passage?" Old Three shook his head. "If there was a secret passage, the water would have flowed out with it too. What kind of water is this? It's so pungent."

  "Old Three, you'd better keep a distance from that coffin, I don't know if this blood is poisonous or not." I said.

  The flashlight in Fuma's hand suddenly shook, and the two of us quickly looked at him. His hands were shaking badly, his eyes wide open: "You... you two look back."

  Following his line of sight, I and Lao San slowly turned our heads around. A reddish-brown skinned person was crouching on the ground, staring at us with a fierce gaze. However, he had five pairs of arms, which were indistinguishable from legs. Behind him was a tail about two meters long, segmented, and he held it high above his head. His mouth made a "hissing" sound.

  "Good heavens! This is a scorpion spirit!"