Volume 2 Chapter 19: The Changing Face of the Three-eyed Temple

  The atmosphere was getting more and more eerie, the surroundings were quiet, with only the three of us making creaking sounds with our footsteps. Although we had three flashlights, they could only illuminate a few meters around us, while further away it was pitch black and an unsettling silence.

  I raised my eyes to gaze at the faint light that appeared in front of me, and I just felt that this light was really too strange, sometimes far and sometimes near, and it was impossible to see how far away it was from us, which didn't make sense.

  Zhou Xing quietly walked ahead, his expression unseen, and it was unclear if he felt anything amiss. On the other hand, Su Qin gradually became flustered, and as she walked, she involuntarily leaned in closer to me. I turned my head to look at her and found that her face had also turned pale, with rapid breathing, clearly indicating an accelerating heartbeat.

  I knew that in this seemingly bottomless underground space, psychological suggestion was often the most terrifying killer. If things went on like this, I'm afraid we wouldn't even make it out of the ancient tomb before our spirits collapsed. So I decided to say a few words to ease the tension.

  I raised my flashlight and looked at the top, saying to Su Qing: "Miss Su, you said that this kind of tomb, although it has taken advantage of natural conditions, is still a ready-made ancient tomb. However, in order to arrange it properly, some engineering work such as opening mountains and cutting rivers is still needed. The Ya Shen tribe was indeed a powerful tribe at that time, but after all, it was a civilization 4,000 years ago, and the tools at that time can be said to be quite backward. Just this Wu Wang tomb, I'm afraid it would take at least 300,000 people and several years of time to build. What kind of motivation did they have to build such a large underground imperial mausoleum?"

  Su Qin said: "I've thought about this problem, I think that relying on the productivity at that time, it's impossible for the thick burial custom to appear. Even if one is a master with tens of thousands of slaves under his command, he would not use so many human and material resources to build a tomb like the Witch King's Mausoleum. Maybe it's really as the legend says, the Ya Shen tribe did this to guard some unknown secrets."

  Listening to Su Qin say this, I couldn't help but think of the events depicted in those murals again. This ancient tribe of gods is mysterious and few people know about them. Why can this shaman king assert that after thousands of years, someone will put the dragon pearl on the top of Lan Palace and blow the golden horn to revive them?

  I suddenly thought of it again, the Dragon Ball and the Golden Horn are the key to lifting the curse on my body. Since I was rescued by Oil Sub in the Three-Eyed God's Tomb, the secrets of the Ya Shen tribe have gradually surfaced. The Golden Horn has also been unearthed due to the excavation of the archaeological team. Now, all parties have been drawn into this conflict, and it seems that the historical secrets of the Ya Shen tribe will eventually be revealed in this turmoil. Could it be true as predicted that in the end, a demon will use the Dragon Ball and the Golden Horn to summon the entire ancient Ya Shen tribe from underground?

  Just as I was lost in thought, Su Qin suddenly leaned over to me and whispered, "Long Qiu, that Zhou Xing doesn't seem quite right."

  As soon as I heard this, I hastily turned my head to look forward, and suddenly felt a stir in my heart. Even if Zhou Xing was silent and taciturn at ordinary times, his words and deeds would always take into account the people around him. This time, for some reason, he seemed to have forgotten that we were behind him, and walked straight ahead without even turning his head back.

  At the moment, three people are deep in the ancient tomb. According to the route, they should be close to the main chamber of the underground palace. However, at this moment, the surroundings are eerily quiet, and the terrain here is not only desolate but also gloomy, making everyone's hair stand on end. Suddenly, they notice Zhou Xing's abnormal behavior and can't help but become vigilant, quietly observing him from behind.

  I held the flashlight and intentionally or unintentionally shone it on him, and in the flickering light, I saw Zhou Xing raise his hand to touch his face, as if wiping sweat. I stared at him intently, and before long, I saw him repeat the action again, and in the next few minutes, he actually did this movement more than a dozen times.

  Zhou Xing's biggest characteristic is that he is extremely calm, even when faced with life-or-death situations, he would only slightly furrow his brow, and his facial expression remains as still as stagnant water, without any hint of joy, anger, sorrow, or happiness. At this moment, it's unclear what happened to him, but he suddenly appeared to be sweating profusely, constantly wiping his face with his hand.

  However, in this dim environment, I couldn't tell for a moment whether he was sweating or not. Anyway, his abnormal behavior had already made me feel a little uneasy.

  Zhou Xing seemed to have noticed that we were watching him, and strangely, he actually quickened his pace without even turning his head. I had a sudden thought, feeling that this Zhou Xing was somehow afraid of us seeing his face?

  When I saw him like this, my heart sank halfway. I rushed to his back and grabbed his shoulder, asking: "Old Zhou, what's wrong?"

  Zhou Xing finally stopped, but still didn't turn around. He just slightly shook his shoulder and loosened my hand. I knew he must have a problem. Just as I was about to walk around to see his face, he half-turned around, looking at me sideways with a cold expression, saying: "I'm fine."

  I stared at his profile, and found that this face didn't change much, but at this moment, his complexion was pale to the point of being eerie, with no blood color on his tightly pursed lips, which were dry and cracked. I saw him wiping his face just now, and thought he would be covered in cold sweat, but now it seems that his face is dry and shows no signs of sweating.

  I found it even stranger, and wondered if he was ill. But after thinking about it, I didn't think so - just now when he walked, his steps were light and quick, and when he shook off my hand from his shoulder, the force was quite strong, not like someone who is sick. At this moment, I suddenly thought of something else - earlier, he kept wiping with his hand was the other side of his face, but now he's showing me this side of his face, could it be that he wants to hide the changes on the other side?

  Su Qin reacted extremely quickly, and she realized at the same time as I did that Zhou Xing was trying to cover something up. She took advantage of Zhou Xing's momentary distraction when he turned his head to glance at me sideways, and suddenly made a swift dash forward, circling around to the other side of Zhou Xing's face. She raised her flashlight and shone it in that direction! At this point, Zhou Xing also became aware of Su Qin's movement, and he immediately took two steps forward before retreating back into the darkness.

  But in an instant, Su Qin saw his profile, and I was staring at her with wide eyes. Suddenly, she widened her eyes, covered her mouth, and took a deep breath, as if she had seen something terrifying. Before I could react, Su Qin suddenly shrank back, pointing at Zhou Xing standing in the shadows, her voice trembling: "You... your half face... why does it look like a woman?"

  I was shocked, and my scalp felt like it was going to explode. How could Zhou Xing's half-face be a woman? Who on earth is this person? It wasn't until then that I suddenly realized that when Zhou Xing said "I'm fine" earlier, those three words were forced out of his mouth, and his lips didn't seem to have moved at all. Moreover, he was still okay in the tomb earlier. I remember that at the time, the three flashlights illuminated the tomb, and it wasn't until the three people walked out of the tomb that the light shining on him began to decrease, as if it was only after the surroundings became relatively dark that he started to feel unwell, like he had become a different person.

  However, during this period of time, he did not leave our sight. If we say that this person is not Zhou Xing, then where is the real Zhou Xing? How was he replaced under our noses? Even if it were a different person, how could they have only swapped half of his face?

  All this happened in the blink of an eye, and before I could even react, Su Qin had already retreated behind me, still pulling me to run back. I knew she was frightened, so I quickly stopped her and asked: "Tell me clearly, what's going on with Old Zhou's face?"

  Su Qin's face was as pale as deathly ash, her fingernails digging into my flesh, when she suddenly said something that left me bewildered: "He's dead! He's a dead man!"

  I saw Su Qin's face full of shock, and my heart was also shocked. To what extent did Zhou Xing's half-face become so strange that it made Su Qin, an archaeology expert, say such irrational words? Had the real Zhou Xing really died? Then what was the thing that appeared on his face, that half-face?

  At this moment, I also feel a chill in my skin. I knew that the bad premonition had come true. No wonder we didn't discover any danger around us after walking for so long. It turned out that the real danger was already hidden among us. Zhou Xing didn't know what had changed either. We should figure it out as soon as possible, otherwise, who knows what bad things might happen next.

  Just as I was about to call out to Su Qin to catch Zhou Xing, I turned my head and found that he had already disappeared. It turned out that he took advantage of the gap between Su Qin's and my conversation, quietly slipped into the depths of this cave, and vanished into the darkness in front of us.

  I said to Su Qin: "Let's chase him back quickly, no matter if this person is Zhou Xing or not, we can't let him disappear from our sight!"

  At this time, Su Qin's face suddenly changed, and she pulled me to run to the side while whispering to me: "There is someone coming from behind, let's hide first."

  I pricked up my ears and listened carefully, and sure enough, I heard voices coming from behind me. Hurriedly, Su Qin and I turned off our flashlights and hid behind a protruding rock.

  Before long, we indeed saw the light of flashlights shining from behind. Soon, a woman and two men appeared in our line of sight, they hastily walked past us, seemingly the three "black button" members, this trip was probably aimed at the main tomb chamber of the underground palace.

  Su Qin saw the three men, and her anger flared up again. She stood up and was about to rush out, but I quickly grabbed hold of her and said in a low voice: "Miss Su, I understand your feelings, but don't be impulsive for now. These three men look like they're not to be trifled with, and when we rescued Officer Li earlier, his gun was taken away from him. That means they have at least one handgun on them. Let's think this through carefully and follow them from a distance for now."

  So Su Qin and I hid behind a giant stone, waiting for the three men to walk far away before following them quietly.

  I stared at the lights ahead, and suddenly remembered Zhou Xing's half-face turning into a woman. I couldn't help but get goosebumps all over my body. I turned to Su Qian and asked: "Miss Su, you just said that Zhou Xing is dead, what exactly happened?"

  Su Qin said to me: "His half face is very scary, it's completely deformed, and it's not his original face at all. It looks like a woman instead. Moreover, I think that half of the face is not what a living person should have. The skin is as white as wax paper, and the upper and lower lips seem to be stuck together. I've seen dead people in the morgue, and his half face is almost the same as those dead people."

  I listened to Su Qin and only felt a chill run from the top of my head down to my toes, thinking that Zhou Xing was really something. Was he no longer human? What about the thing that had been following us all the way from Qixing Array to here? At this moment, I suddenly thought of the Painted Skin in Liaozhai, and couldn't help but feel even more suspicious. It's said that human skin is ultimately a dead object, and although demons can use it to deceive people, if they wear it for too long, they will inevitably reveal their true form. Was this Zhou Xing who had been following us actually a demon?

  Su Qin was not a timid person to begin with, but just now she suddenly saw Zhou Xing's half-woman face and was frightened for a moment, losing her composure. Now that she had calmed down, her courage returned, and seeing the suspicious look on my face, she knew I was thinking in a bad direction, so she said to me: "Let's not think wildly either, maybe Zhou Xing has some kind of malignant skin disease, or maybe he was infected with some kind of bacteria from the tomb. He hid from us just now, perhaps he was afraid of infecting us. What you said earlier is right, we can't abandon him, at least we have to figure out what's going on."

  I know that she said this sentence for us to hear, the situation just now was indeed strange, how can we easily determine that Zhou Xing won't be a monster? This person has always been mysterious and rarely speaks or smiles, maybe it's because he's afraid that his human skin will change shape, so he keeps a straight face all the time. Now that his true form is revealed, it's hard to say whether he's friend or foe.

  I thought for a moment, then turned to Su Qin and said: "Miss Su, I really don't dare to believe him now. There are only the two of us here, whether it's Zhou Xing or those three 'Black Button' members, we can't be sure if we can handle them. Why don't we retreat first and join up with our companions in the back, then we'll have a better chance? Wouldn't that be more stable?"

  Su Qin shook her head and said: "Officer Li has four people on his side, it's definitely safer than us. They've already tracked down 'Black Button', if we turn back now, who knows if we'll be able to catch up with those three bad guys again? Moreover, I always feel that Zhou Xing has a hidden motive, if he really had ill intentions, when we exposed his true face just now, he would have attacked us already, why would he still run forward?"

  I listened to Su Qin's words and felt that they made a lot of sense. I thought to myself, "Old Zhou, what's wrong with you? Why have you become so strange?" Never mind, this trip has been very difficult, but we're almost at the entrance to the underground palace now. We can't give up, or else those three "Black Button" members will escape from the ancient tomb and flee abroad. If that happens, I'll be so frustrated that I won't know what to do.

  Thinking of this, I couldn't help but reignite my fighting spirit. Hehe, with a smile, I pulled Su Qin and said: "Well, even if the road ahead is treacherous and full of danger, I'm not afraid now. Who let me have a beauty by my side?"

  Su Qin was greatly annoyed, her face red with anger, she slapped away my hand and scolded: "Take your hand back, what's wrong with you?"