Chapter Twenty-Four: The Ghost Infant in the Womb

  The vat was about half a meter high, and because it had been opened, its seal was broken, and for a time the entire space was filled with that strange milky fragrance, but everyone didn't indulge in it, instead they felt a wave of nausea. It was hard to imagine that such a strange fragrance could be emitted by something so ugly.

  The worm in the vat seemed to be very long, estimated to be two or three meters, with a thickness of about two fingers, no eyes, no feet, and its whole body was dark red. It seemed to be a giant earthworm. At this moment, it seemed to have been disturbed and was swirling back and forth in the dark **, stirring up a small whirlpool.

  My father furrowed his brow and asked in puzzlement, "What kind of insect is this?"

  "It looks like an earthworm, but somehow it doesn't seem quite right," said Duan Yiwu.

  Wang Chengbao was sharp-eyed and immediately discovered the abnormality, a jump away from the altar, shouting: "It's not an earthworm, stay away from that thing!"

  The crowd was shocked and turned to look at Wang Chengbao. Just as they were stunned, a loud noise came from the jar, and the big worm suddenly jumped out of it. The Qin brothers had been soldiers before, and as soon as they heard the commotion, they reacted quickly, hastily dodging to one side, with their left hand holding a flashlight to shine on the worm, and their right hand swiftly drawing out a machete from their waist.

  Under the flashlight, the abnormality of the insect was immediately revealed. It looked like a worm, but at one end of its body, it had an oversized mouth that was disproportionate to its body, and at this moment, two fangs were exposed from its mouth and pounced on Duan Yuwen.

  That insect's speed was extremely fast, as if it had been accumulating power in those ** before, and now suddenly burst out, in the blink of an eye it had already rushed to Duan Yuwen's face. The speed was so fast that it made one gasp in shock. Duan Yuwen didn't have much time to react at all, he just stretched out his arm to block his face, and then immediately heard a miserable cry, Duan Yuwen's entire body slammed onto the ground.

  It was strange that the big worm only bit Du Yuwen's arm fiercely, and then immediately let go of its mouth, and actually tried to drill into Du Yuwen's mouth.

  Duan Yuwen was shocked and frightened, and quickly pulled the insect's body outwards. But the insect's body was slippery, and it had been soaking in that dark ** for a long time. Duan Yuwen couldn't grasp the insect at all for a moment, and within just a few seconds, the insect's head had already drilled into Duan Yuwen's mouth.

  Duanyuwen first felt a tightness in his throat, and then tears flowed uncontrollably, almost vomiting.

  My father and the Qin brothers rushed over to help as soon as they saw the situation. My father took out a handkerchief, wrapped it around the insect's body, and then the three of them used brute force to pull it out. The insect seemed to have its own consciousness, and when it saw that its good fortune had been ruined by others, it turned back and charged at my father. But everyone was prepared this time. My father dodged quickly, and the insect missed him. Qin Gui-ren immediately stomped on the insect's head with his military boots several times, finally subduing it.

  However, although the insect's head had been crushed, its long body was still writhing non-stop. The crowd was left with a lingering fear and used knives to chop the insect's body into several segments. During this time, Duan Yuwen was squatting by the wall vomiting non-stop. He had never experienced such a disgusting thing in his life. Fortunately, my father and the Qin brothers helped earlier, otherwise, if the insect really crawled into his stomach, the consequences would be very serious.

  My father was still in shock, but he found that Wang Chengbao had run to the front of the vat again, using his flashlight to shine into the dark **, as if searching for something.

  His father was somewhat angry, because just now Duan Yuwen had almost encountered danger, his father and Qin Shi brothers all went to help, only this Wang Chengbao was unmoved, standing stupidly on the side. Now that the danger has been resolved, he quietly walked alone to the front of the altar, sneaking around in the altar looking for something, although his father felt displeased with this, but also didn't dare say it directly, only saying: "Old Wang, what are you doing? Be careful of danger."

  Unexpectedly, Wang Chengbao turned his head and said, "It won't be, there should only be that one worm in here, the rest are other things."

  Everyone was stunned after hearing this, "Other things?" Was there something else inside?

  His father walked to the side of Wang Chengbao, also shining a flashlight, but inside was pitch black like ink, and the light from the flashlight couldn't shine in at all, let alone discover if there were other things in the jar.

  The father shook his head and said: "Can't see if there's anything else inside, if it wasn't for that bug floating on the surface just now, we probably wouldn't have seen it either."

  Wang Chengbao didn't care what his father said, but instead looked for something in the corner of the small stone room. After a while, he saw a small piece of stone with edges and corners, saying: "I will prove it to you."

  His father saw his momentum and hurried forward to stop him: "Wait, what are you going to do?"

  "Of course, we should break open this jar. Since there's a black ** inside and we can't see what's in it, the best solution is to make a hole at the bottom of the jar and let the ** out."

  Father initially wanted to stop him, but Wang Chengbao was a notorious hot-head. With a swift swing of his arm, there was a loud "thud" and a hole the size of a bowl appeared at the bottom of the vat. The black liquid flowed out rapidly. Qin brothers and Duan Yiwu saw the dark water rushing towards them and didn't know if it was clean or not, so they dodged to the side of the vat.

  Inside the urn, **it's getting less and less**, in the blink of an eye, half has already flowed out. At this time, in the center of the urn, a somewhat greenish or pale blue object appears in the black water, like a solitary island standing out there.

  His father looked at Wang Chengbao, wanting to ask a question, but was stopped by him. Wang Chengbao pointed to the altar and said, "Just look down and you'll know."

  After a while, the light blue protrusion gradually emerged from its appearance under the black water. As the thing appeared before everyone's eyes, a strange atmosphere instantly enveloped everyone, and Father and others suddenly felt their backs chill, only Wang Chengbao showed an exceptionally excited look.

  It turned out that the blue protrusion in the black water was actually a baby's forehead. The baby's head was unusually large, with only a few sparse hairs on top, and it seemed to be a newborn. When they looked at the child's eyes again, everyone's heart tightened once more - under the eyebrows where the eyes should have been were two empty black holes, making him look like an eerie little alien at first glance.

  After the black water was drained, the shape of the baby finally floated completely in front of everyone. It was seen that the baby squatted in the urn, with its arms around its knees and its face upturned. Although it had no eyeballs, it gave people a feeling as if the baby was staring at everyone in the urn, as if it was resenting some injustice in the world.

  Qin Gui's body shook with rage as he cursed: "Damn it, what the hell is this thing?"

  Wang Chengbao remained unmoved and continued staring at the infant in the basin, saying: "This is obvious, isn't it? There's just a small baby inside."

  Father said: "It's a baby, anyone can see that. The key is, why would the baby appear in this jar?"

  Wang Chengbao said: "Fan Ge, you're still mainly studying the history of Qin and Han. Can't you see this? I'm asking you, why did Emperor Wu of the Western Han demote Empress Chen, or what was his excuse?"

  "Wu Gu!" My father almost subconsciously replied, in China's historical events, there are too many records about Wu Gu, some of which even affected the political situation at that time. This point is very clear to my father as a historian.

  Wang Chengbao turned his head and looked at Duan Yiwu, saying: "That thing of Duans, you said you specialize in the history and customs of ethnic minorities, do you know what this urn with a baby represents?"

  "This time, Duan Yuwen was still able to answer based on his past knowledge and some miscellaneous notes. He replied: "This should be a kind of Gu, in the oral traditions of some mystics, I have heard about methods for making Gu. First, as the precursor to many religions, their most basic idea is 'all things have spirits', which also applies to making Gu, all things can become Gu, and any Gu can harm people." Duan Yuwen turned his head back, not wanting to look at the infant's empty eye sockets, after taking a few deep breaths, he continued: "However, I once heard that the most powerful Gu is not made with poisonous insects or other toxic substances, but by having poisonous insects come into contact with vengeful spirits... no, it seems like I'm saying it wrong, it should be..."

  Wang Chengbao waved his hand and said, "Alright, alright, it's really tiring to listen to your explanations. But I have to say, I underestimated you earlier. It seems that you do have some skills after all." Wang Chengbao turned his gaze towards my father, seemingly intentionally saying to him, "I once heard a Taoist priest tell me that the most powerful way to use Gu is to use curses to bind poisonous insects and vengeful spirits together, making them fight each other. The insect takes the poison, and the spirit takes the resentment. The resulting Gu is extremely toxic, and those who are affected by it will not only be poisoned but also haunted by the vengeful spirit."

  Wang Chengbao said this, and Duan Yiwu's face turned white beside him, trembling as he spoke: "Could it be that you're saying these few jars are the vessels for making Gu?"

  Wang Chengbao nodded, and Duan Yiwu almost fainted. If things were really as Wang Chengbao said, then they had just mistakenly opened the container for raising Gu, and that insect had almost crawled into Duan Yiwu's mouth. In that case, he was most likely to be infested with Gu.

  His father obviously saw Duan Yuwen's worry, and hurriedly patted his shoulder to comfort him: "Don't worry, don't be afraid. Although there is indeed a history of Gu worms, some of which are highly toxic, in most cases, literary works have exaggerated the power of Gu worms. Moreover, we've already killed that worm, so stop thinking nonsense."

  I don't know if that passage of Yu Wen had made its way into my father's words, he just nodded mechanically.

  His father turned his head and said to Wang Chengbao: "Old Wang, I think this cellar is too strange. Let's leave first."

  "Leave?" Wang Chengbao's eyes widened, seemingly not daring to believe that this sentence was spoken by his father. He exclaimed in surprise: "Fan Ge, this doesn't sound like something you'd say. You're always advocating for on-site investigation, so what's going on? Are you scared just because it's dark and we ran into a corpse?"

  Father shook his head, "This is not a matter of being afraid or not, I am a firm atheist and will not believe in any vengeful spirits."

  "That's good! Don't forget the original purpose of our coming here, we still haven't found the bronze coffin we're looking for! If you two just go back like this without a clear explanation, you won't be satisfied either." As he spoke, Wang Chengbao looked at the Qin brothers, seemingly hoping to get their support.

  Qin Guiren thought for a moment, nodded heavily and said: "Mr. Wang, you're right. If we don't find that bronze coffin today and see what's wrong with it, I think my brother and I will not be able to sleep peacefully for the rest of our lives."

  Qin Guihe also stood on the side of his elder brother, thinking that they should continue to head deeper into the cave. Father did not want to be seen as a coward, so he finally agreed to follow. Duan Yiwu was somewhat reluctant, but also followed everyone towards another narrow entrance on the left side of the stone chamber.

  The entrance was lower and smaller than when we came in, and the five of us almost had to stoop to get through.

  As we walked, Wang Chengbao suddenly asked my father, "Fan Ge, to be honest, what does this cellar remind you of?"

  In fact, without Wang Chengbao's question, his father had already associated it and simply replied: "Ancient tomb! Underground palace of the ancient tomb in the Warring States, Qin and Han dynasties!"

  Wang Chengbao's face was filled with excitement as he said, "Brother Fan, just you wait and see, this time we're going to make a huge discovery that will shock the entire nation, no, even the whole world!"

  The father smiled bitterly and didn't respond. At this time, Qin Gui, who was walking at the back, suddenly interjected in a very small voice, "Hey, have you guys heard any noise?"