Chapter 9: Corpse Children

  From time to time, small black insects would crawl out of the dry corpse's sunken eye sockets and cracked skin, making me feel a wave of nausea, with goosebumps all over my body. I hastily rubbed my hands over myself, afraid that I had also come into contact with those disgusting creatures.

  "What's that thing?" Stone furrowed his brow, handing me the pistol, while he himself held a shotgun in his left hand and picked up an UMP with his right.

  I took the pistol and said, "It should be a kind of parasite that has been dormant in the corpse all along, and we disturbed it." After thinking for a moment, I added, "However, this is also a good thing. Corpses with parasites generally won't become zombies. Corpses that can become zombies usually contain a kind of evil energy that ordinary living things can't survive."

  The sound of "ke ke ke" echoed again, I held the pistol flat and shone my flashlight around, still unable to see any sign of a zombie rising from the dead. At this time, Shi Tou suddenly reminded me, "Lin Zi, the water level has risen."

  As soon as I lowered my head, the water had already risen above my feet. The corpse didn't matter, but I was afraid that the parasites on his body would crawl onto mine.

  "Look at that," said Shi Tou, pointing with his hand at a hanging stalactite.

  I just took a glance and said lightly, "This is a limestone cave, with inverted stalactites, nothing strange about it."

  "Take a closer look, it's different." The stone spoke again.

  I shone my flashlight over and took a closer look, the stalactite hanging upside down was much larger than usual, with a diameter of about 3 to 4 meters. Moreover, there were traces of artificial carving on top, and the stalactite was carved into a circle of steps, with clear layers, like a staircase, each step was very high, about 60 centimeters or more.

  The stone slab is about four or five meters away from our station.

  "Rock, can we go up?" I asked softly, the water already over our ankles.

  The stone untied the rope around its body, tied an axe to one end of the rope and swung it with force, but couldn't find a fulcrum. After four swings, it finally got stuck on a step, and after two strong pulls, the stone nodded at me and swung over, then climbed up the stalactite like a monkey. Standing on the step afterwards, the stone swung the rope back to me, I caught it and first tied my backpack to it, letting the stone pull it over, finally I pulled myself over with the rope.

  Standing on the inverted stalactite, my hanging heart also slightly put down, although the creaking sound still echoed, but it didn't have the initial tension. Listening carefully, I whispered to the stone "Stone, this doesn't seem like a zombie's voice, but rather the sound of iron chains rubbing against each other."

  The stone nodded and said, "I also have such doubts."

  At this time, there was a "gurgling" sound of flowing water. The dark water surface actually began to flow, and the dry corpse also floated in the direction of the water flow, towards the cave. The water level no longer rose, and the "gulping" sound also disappeared. I temporarily suppressed my tense mood and carefully observed the stalactites. I couldn't believe that the stalactites would naturally grow into a stepped shape; they must have been deliberately carved by someone.

  I shone my flashlight on this side where Shi Tou and I were standing, but there was nothing except the stairs. Due to the long passage of time, a layer of green moss had grown on the stalactites.

  "Hey, go around and take a look at this stalactite, it's a bit strange." I said softly.

  The stone nodded and said, "Be careful, this stalactite is all covered with moss, it's slippery."

  I and Shi Tuo went in two different directions, not even taking two steps out, when my head suddenly bumped into something, it hurt so much that I couldn't help but curse inwardly, what thing was sticking out of the stairs. Rubbing my head, I shone a flashlight up there, and my heart skipped a beat, a skull head less than ten centimeters away from me, earlier I had bumped into a section of the skull's leg bone, in the dark environment, suddenly seeing a skull with its mouth open, if it weren't for the recent experiences of evil things being too many, my heart would have jumped out already.

  With a flashlight, the entire stalactite was filled with skulls, layer upon layer of skulls, arranged in a certain pattern. Only one level of the platform had whole skulls, while the rest of the platforms only had skull heads.

  "Huh!" The sound of Shi Tou came over, I hastily quickened my pace by two steps, and saw Shi Tou frowning, shining his flashlight on something? I followed the beam of light from the flashlight, and suddenly felt a buzzing in my head, cold sweat instantly flowing down.

  A stone chair carved out, surrounded by skulls, from the fourth step upwards, all were arranged in a pyramid shape, with the tip of the pyramid pointing directly at the center of the stone chair. On the stone chair sat a mummy, wearing a suit of golden armor, which had been shining brightly for thousands of years under the reflection of the flashlight. The corpse was not severely rotten and its outline could still be seen. It should have been carrying some kind of night pearl to make it immortal for thousands of years. However, this was not the most important thing. What's important is that judging from his appearance, he was only five or six years old. His face seemed to be shrouded in a layer of dark fog all the time, looking gloomy and terrifying. As the saying goes, it's easy to invite the King of Hell, but difficult to deal with little ghosts. What's more, I knew that this was a living sacrifice, which is the easiest way to summon a zombie.

  "This thing is a bit strange," said Shi Tou with furrowed eyebrows.

  I nodded and said, "This is a corpse," suddenly thinking of the floating corpses in the water, and suddenly I was enlightened, saying "I understand, no wonder there are so many floating corpses in the water, no wonder there are these skulls."

  "What's going on?" Shi Tou asked, turning his head.

  "I explained, 'This is a living sacrifice. When everyone was pushed into the mountain cave, they all had to be alive. The corpses in the water were all preserved as mummies by special methods. The chains served to lock them up and prevent them from escaping, allowing them to die naturally...'"

  At this point, he was suddenly interrupted by Shi Tou "Why bother with so much effort, can't the soldiers just be stationed at the entrance of the cave?"

  I smiled and shook my head "Can't, during the Shengji ceremony, no living creatures are allowed within a certain radius, I guess they must have set fire to the mountain at that time to make sure there were no humans or animals left," I picked up a skull with my hand, took a closer look, and handed it to Shi Tou, asking "Take a look, is this a natural death?"

  The stone looked and shook its head "No, where the neck and head are connected, the bone is broken."

  I nodded with a smile "Yes, this is the most cruel kind of sacrifice in life, taking living people into the cave and killing them all, placing their heads on the steps, and then bringing another batch of people into the cave, locking them up with iron chains, letting them starve to death." As I said this, I sighed and looked at the corpse wearing a golden armor "All these are not the most terrifying, the most terrifying is it." I pointed my hand at the dead child.

  "Him?"

  "Ah," I nodded, "That's right, the corpse child must be someone with a close relationship to the tomb owner, perhaps his nephew, grandson, or even his own son. In any case, there must be a blood relation, and the age cannot exceed nine years old. If it exceeds nine, it will be unlucky. Using special methods, prolong his lifespan, then put him on the stone chair, watching the bloody human head, and using those people locked in iron chains to struggle and beg for mercy. Waiting for the struggle of death, and finally slowly dying, or perhaps not?" The sudden question made me jump, looking at the corpse child's dark face, my heart almost fell into my shoes.

  My computer crashed these past few days, so I can only upload one chapter per day. Please forgive me!!!!