Witchcraft

  My father, seeing this situation, was shocked by reality, but immediately afterwards, he punched the bluestone ground with his fist and scolded: "Damn it, I wanted to save him, but instead I ended up harming him!"

  Wang Chengbao patted my father's shoulder and said, "Fan Ge, don't be too hard on yourself. I've already told you that he was entangled with that little devil, it's definitely a bad omen. Everyone has their own fate, this might just be his."

  "Wait," Duan Yuwen suddenly said: "He seems to still be breathing."

  His father hurried to Qin Guihe's side, but didn't dare to move his body. He knelt down beside him and said in a self-reproachful and remorseful tone: "Guihe brother, Guihe brother, are you okay?"

  Qin Gui shook his head with difficulty and said in a low voice: "My...my brother, that thing is in my brother's hands, save..."

  Before he could finish speaking, his neck went limp and his head crashed heavily onto the floor, apparently having died instantly.

  However, my father was not the kind of person who liked to indulge in sentimentalism about life and death separations. He knew that the living were always more important than the dead, so he immediately turned his head to look at Qin Gui Ren.

  Only to see that Qin Gui Ren, in the previous tug-of-war, lost his balance and crashed into a bronze coffin, actually knocking over the huge bronze coffin lid. And when he was entangled with the pale blue ghost infant, due to loss of balance, his entire body was about to fall into the bronze coffin.

  His father wanted to help Qin Guiren, but Wang Chengbao dissuaded him: "Fan Ge, don't go, you can't save him. If things go wrong, you'll be implicated too."

  He didn't expect it, but my father suddenly became angry and said: "Wang Chengbao, do you still have any human feelings? Do you want me to watch him be in danger and not care? One person has already died, do you want another one to die? Is this what you call an investigation? A discovery that costs lives?"

  This series of questions made Wang Chengbao speechless for a moment, my father waved his hand and said: "If you're afraid of death, don't go, but don't stop me from saving people!"

  As he spoke, he sprang up and rushed to Qin Guiren's side in one swift motion.

  Just then, my father rushed to the bronze coffin but stopped in his tracks. Inside the opened bronze coffin was filled with a dark, unknown thick substance, just like the small stone room's urns outside. Based on past experience, my father immediately stopped and refused to move forward another step, but seeing Qin Guiren entangled with the ghost infant made him feel anxious beyond measure.

  At this moment, the bronze coffin seemed to have moved, and there was a rustling sound inside. My father, Wang Chengbao, and Duan Yiwu couldn't help but feel a tightness in their chests, secretly wiping away sweat for Qin Guiwen.

  It was not an insect that crawled out from **, but a hand with skin that had rotted to a dark black color. The wrist of the hand was long and thin, almost completely rotten, and several large holes were exposed on the slender forearm, revealing black bones. As for the fingers, they had no flesh at all, only leaving behind black finger bones.

  "My father shouted loudly at Qin Guiren: 'Brother Guiren, watch your back!'"

  But at that time, Qin Guiren's entire energy was focused on the ghost baby in his hand, and even if he noticed the danger behind him, he had no time to pay attention.

  Just as everyone was anxious, a thin and long hand pressed down on Qin Guiren's shoulder. Qin Guiren first let out an "ah" of surprise, just thinking of turning his head back, but didn't expect the hand to have such great strength, before he could even react, his upper body along with the ghost infant were pulled into the bronze coffin.

  At that moment, the black liquid splashed out of the bronze coffin, and Qin Gui Ren was seen struggling inside. What's even more surprising is that the ghost baby, who had been very arrogant earlier, seemed to have panicked after falling into the bronze coffin, letting out a piercing cry that sent chills down one's spine. However, soon the coffin returned to calmness, with only Qin Gui Ren's two legs kicking wildly outside the coffin, as if he had encountered some kind of danger inside.

  Seeing this situation, my father felt a pang of sadness in his heart.

  At the critical moment of life and death separation, what is often tested is not a person's courage, but their nature.

  My father was never a reckless man, but at that moment, I don't know where the courage came from, he rushed forward and hugged Qin Guiren's two legs, trying to pull Qin Guiren out of the bronze coffin.

  Against my father's expectations, he didn't exert much effort and pulled Qin Guiren out of the bronze coffin.

  Just as Qin Gui was pulled out of the bronze coffin, he couldn't recognize his own appearance. His face and neck were exposed to the outside, and his skin had become riddled with holes, covered in crimson scars. Even the clothes on his body were tattered and worn out.

  My father's first reaction upon seeing this situation was that the black liquid inside the bronze coffin might be corrosive, but soon he discovered that the actual situation wasn't like that.

  All that could be seen was Qin Guiren, who had already become unrecognizable, using one of his severely festering hands to pinch his own neck, while the other hand continuously stuffed something into his mouth, as if something had crawled into his mouth and he urgently wanted to dig it out.

  "It's that worm! Fang Ge, be careful!" Wang Chengbao shouted from the side.

  My father was stunned, and then he saw Qin Guiren violently clutched his stomach, although the five senses on his face had disappeared, but it could still be seen that he showed an extremely painful expression.

  Seeing this situation, my father and the other two had already anticipated what would happen next. Just as Qin Guiren let out a miserable cry, his abdomen swelled up, and with a "plop" sound, his entire abdomen exploded like a firework, sending shattered skin and entrails flying onto my father's body.

  A pungent smell suddenly made my father vomit uncontrollably, and then I saw Qin Gui Ren kneeling on the ground, with a big hole in his belly, from which emerged a huge black worm like an earthworm, making a "hissing" sound like a snake, although it had no eyes, but seemed to be searching for new prey.

  What my father did not expect was that even at this time, Qin Gui Ren still had not died. He saw him kneeling on the ground, his hands tightly grasping the insect's head, shouting loudly: "Don't worry about me, run quickly!"

  My father and others were shocked, secretly admiring the retired soldier who, even after falling to this point, still wanted to save my father and others.

  "My father was heartbroken, but for a moment he didn't know what to say. After thinking about it, he could only nod heavily and say: 'Guiren brothers, the favor of saving my life will never be forgotten!'"

  Having said that, he turned his head and shouted to Wang Chengbao: "Old Wang, let's go!"

  Wang Chengbao and Duan Yiwu saw that Qin Guiren also couldn't hold on for much longer, so they didn't dare to delay either. They rolled and crawled to my father's side, and the three of them ran straight towards the stone steps they had come from.

  Unexpectedly, just as the three of them ran to the bronze coffin, the bronze coffin shook again, and a person similar to a skull sat up from inside.

  The three of them turned their heads to look, and suddenly felt their scalps explode. All they saw was that the "person" was completely naked, with his entire body a dark red color. Apart from this, almost every inch of his skin was severely damaged. What made people's hair stand on end was that in the "person's" hand was the severed head of the ghost infant from earlier, and he was sitting there gnawing away at it nonstop.

  "My god! He's eating that ghost infant!" Wang Chengbao was shocked and turned pale, his entire body stiffening in place for a moment.

  The "person" who sat up from the bronze coffin seemed to have heard Wang Chengbao's voice, and with a flick of his big hand, he threw the ghost infant's skull to one side, and in almost the blink of an eye, he jumped in front of the three people.

  Before everyone could react, the "person" had already grabbed Wang Chengbao's neck with his hand and before Wang Chengbao could even shout, the "person" opened his mouth wide and bit down on his face.

  In an instant, Wang Chengbao's face was covered in blood, and his skin and flesh were flying everywhere.

  My father wanted to help him, and immediately reached out to grab the "person's" arm. But as soon as my father's hand touched the "person's" body, he suddenly felt a strange itch in his palm, and when he looked down, his palm was instantly covered with dense black spots.

  Wang Chengbao knew he couldn't escape death, so he suddenly lifted his leg and kicked my father to one side. Then, from his pocket, he pulled out a jade token and threw it at Duan Yiwu, shouting hoarsely: "Brother Fan, you must escape, continue this research! Run quickly!"

  My father wanted to rush forward again, but found that half of Wang Chengbao's face had been bitten bloody by the "person", and could only hear his low hum, then his body shook and completely lost its resistance.

  At this time, my father felt a sharp burning pain in his palm, and the black spots on his palm kept increasing and spreading. He knew that he was also in a precarious situation, and for a moment, he almost fell into despair.

  But just then, my father suddenly heard a commotion coming from the stone steps, he couldn't understand what the person was saying, but based on his own speculation, the person must be someone from this Miao village. As soon as he thought that someone had come to rescue them, my father's tightly strung nerves finally relaxed, and his whole body went limp, adding to the intense pain in his palms, he fainted.