Chapter 34: Poisoned

  Su Qin was just picked up and hastily shouted at me: "Are you crazy? You dare to jump from such a distance!"

  I only felt a loud rumbling in my ears, the stone beams and pillars below had been completely destroyed. I didn't have time to talk to Su Qin, tightly grasping the rope for fear of falling off. Xue Mang carried Fei Hu's claw, pulling me and Su Qin into the crack on the dome. Only then did I realize that this crevice was also unsafe, and it would probably collapse completely soon. Hurriedly, I beckoned to Su Qin and Xue Mang to climb up quickly.

  The crack extended upwards at an angle, and the people who had come up first were already climbing up. At this moment, they were shining their flashlights downwards, shouting loudly for us to hurry up. I saw the light on top and found that it was also shaking above, knowing that the collapse under our feet had triggered a chain reaction, fearing that it might not be safe above either. At this time, I didn't dare to slow down, using my hands and feet together to speed up.

  As soon as we emerged from the hole, we found ourselves in an ice cave. The sound of cracking and shattering echoed all around us, with ice walls breaking apart everywhere. Although I was exhausted, my mind was clear that this place wasn't safe to linger, so I called out to everyone to keep running forward.

  This run didn't know how far it had gone, only to see the terrain in front getting narrower and narrower, while the ice layer condensed on the stone wall was getting thicker and thicker.

  I couldn't help but feel a little worried, fearing that if I ran up another section, I would find that there was no road ahead.

  At this time, he suddenly heard Zhou Xing say: "Be careful, there's something following behind!"

  I turned my head around and found a black shadow quietly following us from behind, but it was not the corpse-like thing! Previously surrounded by zombie ants, later almost crushed to death by falling rocks, I almost forgot its existence, nor did I expect this dead man-like thing to be so persistent, still chasing here.

  Su Qin raised her hand to shoot, and I hastily stopped her, saying: "Don't be rash, aren't you afraid we'll be buried alive?"

  "The ice here is no longer still, and gunfire won't trigger resonance." She said, then fired a shot at the black shadow behind her.

  In the midst of the swaying, I didn't know if Su Qing had hit her target. All I felt was that after the gunshot rang out, the surroundings suddenly shook violently, and then my feet were empty. The ground cracked open with a large fissure, and the entire landmass tilted and sank down. Everyone was caught off guard and also slid down along with it.

  My heart sank, thinking how I hadn't noticed before that Su Qin was also a fugitive. She must have gone through many life-and-death struggles on her journey, and the string in her brain had already snapped too tightly. Suddenly discovering the "corpse" following behind her, she couldn't calm down either.

  But she dared to open fire in this situation, and now a landslide has occurred on the ground, what should we do?

  Underneath was a smooth ice surface, even with our well-equipped bodies, we couldn't find anything to hold onto for a while. Fortunately, there were no protruding objects like icicles below, so we didn't have to worry about getting hurt during the slide. It was just pitch black below, and we had no idea how deep it was or where we would end up eventually.

  So we slid down for a long time, I reckon it's already over 1,000 meters. My head is dizzy and my heart is uneasy, thinking that in this snow peak located in the "land of the gods", could there still be a bottomless pit?

  At this moment, I suddenly felt a slight relaxation of my body, and then I heavily fell into a pile of snow, sliding down the snowy slope for tens of meters before stopping.

  For a moment, I only felt dizzy and numb all over, with blood foam in my mouth and nose. In such a short time, sliding down such a deep altitude, the sudden change in air pressure had already caused severe gas-blood disorder in my body, plus diving head-first into a snow pile, the negative acceleration was too fast, even an iron man couldn't take it.

  I soon fainted, and I don't know how long it took to pass out. I was woken up by Xue Python, and I slowly sat up with my tired body. I found that the place where I was located was very strange. Under my feet were smooth ice surfaces, and the top was also ice, but it gradually converged and finally gathered into a point. The entire space was like an ultra-large cone.

  The giant python coiled its thick, long body around me, encircling everyone in the middle. I carefully examined them and found that no one was in danger of losing their life, they were just in a state of deep sleep. So I quickly checked my watch, it was noon, according to our biological clock, this is the time for replenishing energy, everyone's body is exhausted now, can't keep sleeping like this, otherwise, who knows if we'll be able to wake up again.

  So I quickly shook everyone awake one by one.

  Everyone soon came to, ate something and sat on the spot to recover their strength. However, Su Qin's condition was not good, she had a high fever, at first she couldn't eat anything, as soon as she was fed, she vomited, later they forcibly gave her two tablets of medicine, which made her feel a bit better.

  Everyone stayed in place for a whole day and night, resting. Except for Su Qin, basically everyone had already recovered their ability to move.

  We found that Su Qin's condition was a bit off, with a high fever that wouldn't subside, and her complexion getting worse by the day. It didn't seem like an ordinary fever, so we checked to see if she had any injuries. Before long, Oilzi discovered swelling on Su Qin's arm, and upon closer inspection, we found a bite mark on it.

  Liu Dapao shouted loudly, "This must be an accidental bite by a corpse ant! Why didn't this little girl tell us earlier? Corpse ants feed on corpses all year round and have a lot of corpse poison on their mouthparts. She's been poisoned!"

  I felt a chill run down my spine as I heard the words. Su Qin had always been cautious, so how could she have fired her gun carelessly on the ice, causing the ground to collapse? Now it seemed that she must have already been poisoned and was confused, which is why she would take such an action. I quickly took out some glutinous rice from my backpack, which was specifically used to treat corpse poison, and applied it to Su Qin's wound with water. Then, I started a fire and boiled some glutinous rice water, giving her some to drink.

  However, Liu Dapao said that this is still not enough. According to the introduction of "Xiang Chong" in "Ba Bao Xiang Ming Shu", this kind of dead ant is one of the poisonous substances on Snow Mountain. Not only does it carry corpse poison, but also has its own toxic substances. If someone is poisoned by this dead ant, unless they have a special medicine on them, it is impossible to remove this highly toxic substance.

  "I hastily asked: 'What is the antidote for Corpse Poison? Tell me quickly, everyone hurry to find it.'"

  Liu Dapao shook his head and said, "It's impossible to configure an antidote for this corpse poison, the medicinal materials are not available in this area, we can only think of another way."

  At this time, Su Qin woke up, and I quickly helped her sit up, gave her some water, and she pulled my hand and said: "Long Qiu, don't worry about me, investigating the cultural relics is urgent. The whereabouts of 'Hei Niou Kou' are still unclear, we can't delay any longer. You guys hurry up and go, promise me that once the curse is lifted, you'll quickly return the cultural relics to the country. Be careful... be careful not to have any wild thoughts, otherwise... otherwise I won't let you off even if I become a ghost."

  I thought to myself, what's wrong with this woman, still fixated on the cultural relic? I pretended to ask her: "How did you know I was thinking of making a move on that cultural relic?"

  Su Qin was alarmed as soon as she heard it, pinching my hand and saying: "You..."

  "I see you're getting excited, so I'll say it again: Miss Su, who made us tomb raiders? When we get our hands on these artifacts, isn't it like a cat sleeping next to a fish? Every time I think about that golden horned helmet, my heart starts itching uncontrollably. Although I know it's a national treasure and shouldn't be kept for ourselves, I just can't control myself. Originally, I thought with you by our side supervising us, we wouldn't make any mistakes. But now that you're leaving, I'm worried about the future of the golden horned helmet. So please, don't give up - you have to come with us, or else who knows what will happen to it?"

  Su Qin only then realized that I was intentionally provoking her, and couldn't help but feel a little moved. Her eyes flickered as she turned her face away, "Long Qiu, I know you're good to me, but I really can't take it anymore. Don't bother about me, just leave quickly."

  I saw that she seemed to have lost all hope, suddenly becoming extremely anxious, but I still said to her: "You see, you've been with me for so long, how can you still look down on tomb robbers? Although the things we do are all life-risking and black, when it comes to seeing death without rescue or abandoning companions, even if we're despicable, we still can't bring ourselves to do that."

  Su Qin let out a deep sigh, remained silent for a long time, and suddenly said to me: "I don't know how much longer I can hold on, now that things have come to this, is there anything you want to say to me?"

  I was taken aback by his words, and my mind was racing with thoughts. I opened my mouth to speak, but didn't know what to say. Suddenly, the people around me seemed superfluous.

  "I have a lot to say to you, it's not just ten or eight years' worth, I don't think I can finish saying everything. But as for you, you've become like this, so let's talk less and rest well first, I'll think of ways to deal with your poison."

  Before Su Qin could say anything, I had already laid her down and soon she fell asleep again.

  I let the Snow Python encircle Su Qin, pulling the others to one side to discuss a plan. We all have antidotes in our backpacks, but this corpse ant venom is too special, so we don't dare give it to Su Qin casually.

  "Let's try the trick of opening the tenth mouth to bleed," said Youzi. "I don't know if it will still work."

  Liu Dapao shook his head and said, "It's definitely ineffective. We discovered it too late. The venom of the corpse ant has already invaded her heart meridian. Now, bloodletting not only won't work, but will also harm her."

  I suddenly thought of a way and hastily told the crowd: "It's said that within five steps of a highly venomous snake, there must be an antidote herb. If we find the nest of the poisonous ants, won't we also find the antidote?"

  Youzi nodded and said, "Right, right, how could I have forgotten this? It's said that all poisonous substances and the things that counteract them are always found together. That nest of corpse ants might just have an antidote too."

  Liu Da shook his head and said, "Although I don't understand Feng Shui, I am familiar with the 'Xiang Wu Zhi Dao'. This place is called 'Qiu Tian Zhi Di' in Feng Shui terms, but in the 'Ba Bao Xiang Ming Shu', it has another name, called 'Duan Jing'. According to ancient books, this kind of place does not distinguish between yin and yang, the five elements are not adjusted, it is a chaotic land, and will not form a complete food chain. So whether there is an antidote in the ant's nest or not, it's really hard to say."

  I said to Liu Dapao, "Now there's no other way, let's just go and try our luck. The whole mountain space is really too big, and the ant's nest is nowhere to be found. It's probably going to take a lot of effort to find it. Time is not on our side, I think we should set off now."

  Just as I was about to get up, a hand pressed me down, and then I heard Zhou Xing's voice in my ear: "Don't make a sound, something's going on."

  It wasn't until then that we became vigilant, and all we could hear was something in the darkness approaching us. I was worried about danger, so I called out to everyone to quietly gather around Su Qin's side and get ready with their guns.

  Before long, a faint light appeared in the distance. I saw the light and couldn't help but tense up, suspecting it was those "Black Button" people. I hastily signaled for everyone to prepare for battle. As soon as they entered our range, we would have to open fire; otherwise, if we let them get close, it would be hard to take care of Su Qing.

  Zhou Xing pulled me and said: "This light is not from a flashlight, don't move for now."

  So we all stood still, concentrated and on guard. Before long, something in the distance approached, gradually revealing a huge outline in a large cluster of crimson light.

  I took a closer look and suddenly gasped - it was a huge, frightening lizard, about five or six meters long, covered in scales and armor, like a giant crocodile. When I looked again, I saw that the surface of this giant lizard's body was constantly emitting a red glow.

  "Ah, my goodness! How can there be such a monster in this place? Could it be a dinosaur? I say, Long Qiu, can your python defeat it? If not, let's hurry and retreat!"

  I shook my head and said: "Snow python is fierce, but this guy is probably not a fuel-efficient lamp either. Let's not act rashly, it seems to have not discovered us."

  Soon, the glowing lizard approached our temporary camp. In that fiery light, its appearance was extremely fierce, with three black stripes on its forehead and two short horns protruding from the back of its head, looking like a vicious dragon.

  As it walked, its tail swished back and forth, sweeping aside stones half the height of a man. We watched with wide eyes, thinking that if we were to engage in combat with this giant, even with Snow Python's support, we would be utterly defeated.

  The giant lizard didn't notice us, it moved extremely fast, and with a whooshing sound, it had already scurried past us. Its shadow quickly disappeared into the darkness ahead. I finally let out a sigh of relief, wondering what kind of place this "Jade Heaven" was that could be home to such a massive beast.

  Youzi was also over-tensed, and it took him a while to come back to his senses. Suddenly, he discovered that the safety on his gun had been forgotten, and he was overcome with another wave of fear. He cursed in a low voice, "Damn it, what kind of monster is this? Even if I'm bitten to death by ants, I won't let this thing take a bite out of me."

  I listened to him talking, and saw Liu Dapao still staring with wide eyes, suddenly feeling very strange. I thought my uncle had been through thick and thin, and wouldn't be scared silly like this? So I pushed Liu Dapao and said: "Uncle Liu, are you okay?"