Chapter 4: Entering Mount Yuanmu

  Five days later, we finally arrived in Shanxi Houma. Along the way, I also asked Liu Wei about what was going on with Zhang Ye and them, but Liu Wei just brushed me off with a single sentence, knowing it wouldn't be good for me to know. The four cars were divided into four groups, with a total of fifteen people, including two Japanese men. Liu Wei and Zhu Baozi, the leader of another group, showed great respect towards the Japanese duo, but the relationship between Liu Wei and Zhu Baozi was somewhat complicated, as if they had some past grievances but still had to work together. Stone and I didn't say much to them along the way either; everyone seemed to have their own hidden agendas.

  The off-road vehicle drove to a village in Homa, and stopped due to road conditions. Liu Wei bought two horses to carry supplies, and our group started hiking up the mountain, walking for two days straight.

  Liu Wei led a horse, and walked alongside me to a place, pointing at the mountain in front of us and said, "See that? From there, cross over, then head left, I reckon it'll still take a while."

  "Is it far?" I asked casually, gazing into the distance.

  "Hmph, I hope you can get through alive." Suddenly, Zhu Baozi added a sentence out of nowhere and, after finishing, stormed ahead to clear the path with an axe.

  Liu Wei gave him a glance and said, "Don't bother with him, just follow me when the time comes."

  "What's wrong? Is there a problem with the road?" I asked hastily, feeling somewhat uneasy after hearing Zhu Baozi's words.

  Liu Wei nodded with a hint of difficulty, his face looking somewhat unpleasant, "There are more poisonous insects, and there's also the man-eating flower. In short, we need to be careful!"

  At this time, Shi Tou secretly pulled me and I slowed down the speed with a hunch. Soon I fell behind Liu Wei by more than two meters. Shi Tou stuck to my ear and said, "The man-eating flower is a plant that grows in tropical rainforest climates. How can there be one in Shanxi?"

  "I don't know." I slowly shook my head, cautiously looked around and instructed the stone, "Stone, pay attention to the surroundings, don't forget the way back."

  "Don't worry, I've made a note of it."

  After walking for more than two hours, the sky had already darkened, and the moon was covered by thick clouds, not a single ray of light could penetrate through. The clouds were so low that they made people feel suffocated, and occasionally, the shrill calls of the cuckoo could be heard, making one's hair stand on end, sending shivers down their spine.

  "Mr. Lin, let's just sleep here tonight! We'll enter the Mu Yuan Mountain early tomorrow morning." Liu Wei stopped in his tracks and said.

  "Mount Mugen?"

  "Oh, it's the mountain marked on the ancient jade." Liu Wei explained to me again.

  I nodded.

  Liu Wei led the way to start unloading luggage and setting up tents. Before long, eight tents were set up. Liu Wei handed me two pairs of boots and said, "Mr. Lin, wear them tomorrow! To prevent being bitten by poisonous insects or scratching your feet."

  "Thanks." I took the shoes and crawled into the tent.

  The stone had already lain inside, saw me coming in and shifted to one side, making room for me. I took a sip of water and lay down straight, after walking for two days, my feet were blistered, it was really exhausting, I pushed the stone and said, "Stone, if nothing unexpected happens, we should be able to find the location of the ancient tomb tomorrow, you take care."

  "Don't worry!" Shi Tou said with a yawn. I didn't want to disturb him either, and soon fell asleep while recalling the map in the ancient jade. I slept until dawn, when Liu Wei called me up. As I emerged from the tent and took a look at the nearby Muyuan Mountain, I was stunned. A chill ran from my feet to the top of my head. The sky had been too dark last night, so I hadn't gotten a good look. Four mountain peaks surrounded Muyuan Mountain in four different directions, each one taller or shorter than the others. No matter what time it was, there was rarely any sunlight on Muyuan Mountain. Plus, it faced the seventh star of the Big Dipper, which made it an extremely ominous mountain! The ancients called it a yin mountain, no wonder there were poisonous insects and man-eating flowers here. With this kind of mountain, nothing that came out of it would be surprising.

  "What's wrong?" Liu Wei asked, pushing me and asking.

  "This is Yīn Shān!" I sighed.

  Liu Wei furrowed his brow and said in a low voice, "No wonder..."

  "What's wrong?" I turned back and asked.

  "Huh? No, nothing." Liu Wei dryly laughed and was about to leave. I felt uneasy about his secrecy and asked him as he turned away, "Where did you get that ancient jade?"

  "In front of Japan's Mount Fuji, I can only say this much, saying more won't do you any good." After finishing speaking, he left without looking back.

  He picked up the stone and tent, looked around to make sure no one was paying attention, then quickly stuck it next to me, shoved the shotgun into my clothes, and whispered, "Hide it quickly."

  I used my backpack to block the view, took the gun and inserted it into Shi Tou's clothes, saying quickly, "I've never even held a real gun before, you're more useful with it." Shi Tou also stopped pushing back, nodded and put it away.

  "Let's go, we're setting off." Zhu Baozi shouted to me, then turned around and continued leading the team. Liu Wei and others also carried the supplies on their backs.

  "Remember, don't touch anything here," Liu Wei emphasized again as he followed me up, "don't touch anything."

  I patted Liu Wei's shoulder and said seriously, "Alright, I remember."

  After walking for more than an hour, except for the sun being a bit dimmer, nothing else happened.

  "Be careful," the stone suddenly whispered in my ear, and with a flick of his hand, a military shovel appeared in his hand. I also took out a machete, whether it was useful or not, first to boost my own morale.

  "Ah!" A tall man beside Zhu Baozi suddenly shouted and covered his foot as if he was about to sit down.

  "Don't sit down," Liu Wei and Zhu Baozi shouted in unison. Zhu Baozi grabbed Gao Ge and pulled him up, scolding him, "Didn't your father tell you to watch where you're walking? How can you still be so careless?"

  I was just about to take a step to see what was wrong with Liu Ran, when I was suddenly grabbed by Shi Tou on my left arm. All I heard him say in a low voice was, "Don't move."

  Zhu Baozi took off Liu Ran's boots, and I took a look. Suddenly, my stomach churned with waves, and I almost threw up the breakfast I had just eaten. I saw that Liu Ran's feet were crawling with red thread-like worms, which were still wriggling around. They were arching their bodies, squeezing into his feet with a sucking motion. I suppressed the urge to vomit, cautiously looking around at the others, including Shi Tou, who didn't seem to have any strong reaction. However, the two Japanese people had a slight smile on their faces, as if they were laughing. At this moment, I also felt a creeping discomfort on my feet, and I got goosebumps all over my body.

  "This should be a gadfly, belonging to the corrupt insect, sticking to people will not stop drilling into the meat, and also sucking blood. The most frightening thing is that all the gadflies are in group activities, and the largest group can cover an area of over 100 square meters." Shi Tou explained.

  It's better that he didn't explain, because once he did, I felt even more uncomfortable. I twisted my body and had the feeling that something was crawling on me, and my legs were also a bit weak.

  "I say, I just can't shake off the feeling that something is crawling on me." Even I myself could hear that my voice was trembling.

  "Hey," Shi Tou said with a glance, "don't scare yourself for no reason. As long as your boots aren't torn, you'll be fine. Flies won't crawl up on their own."

  "Mr. Zhang is right, I wonder what relationship you have with Mr. Lin's master, Old Man Zhang?" Liu Wei turned his head to scrutinize Shi Tou and asked. This was probably the first time he had looked at Shi Tou straight in the eye.

  "The stone replied coldly, 'It doesn't matter.'"

  "Oh, haha." Liu Wei hit a nail and turned his head away with a dry laugh.

  "Ah, ah." Liu Ran's painful cry had barely fallen when Zhu Baozi's roar came, "What are you yelling about, aren't you a man?" I raised my head to see Zhu Baozi pressing the red-hot dagger against Liu Ran's foot, each maggot being scorched would quickly turn white and fall off. The others stood still, not moving their feet, for a full five minutes before the maggots on Liu Ran's foot were cleared, Zhu Baozi took out a roll of gauze to bandage Liu Ran's foot, fortunately, there were no maggots that had burrowed into his foot, otherwise it would have been troublesome.

  Suddenly I saw something moving under Liu Ran's feet, making a rustling sound. I bent down to take a look and was hit with a wave of nausea. It turned out that these flies were hiding under the fallen leaves. When Liu Ran's foot stepped on them, a large batch of their disgusting brothers crawled out, seemingly attracted by the smell of blood. Looking at those red bugs squirming and attacking each other in clusters, I suddenly thought of the scene from my dream - endless fields of blood, rotting corpses, and giant worms crawling everywhere. My head spun and I threw up.

  The next chapter is a picture of a group of snakes. Everyone should prepare themselves mentally! A bunch of snakes, using pictures to help everyone better understand the content, hoping for your understanding and support!