Volume 2: The Ancient Country of Lando Chapter 46: Corpse Transformation

  "You said Zhou Xing is not under your control?" This was beyond my expectation. However, thinking carefully about it, this matter seems to have nothing to do with Zhou Xing, even if he is the son of Tangzhuang Old Man, he is not within the constraints of "Black Button".

  "Actually, Zhou Xing was sent to live with a hermit by his father when he was young. He grew up in an environment isolated from the world, and we didn't even know that old man had a son until Zhou Xing met us for the first time, which was at the Wu Wang tomb. That's when we found out about Zhou Xing's existence." You Zi furrowed his brow and said: "His appearance was completely beyond our expectations. I'm sure you can tell, I was quite prejudiced against him at first."

  "Indeed!" I slowly recalled how I first met Zhou Xing and nodded.

  "So afterwards, we began to gather all our strength to investigate him. Soon, the investigation yielded results. These results were extremely unexpected and made our family feel threatened for the first time."

  "Hehe, he always surprises people." Youzi smiled wryly and continued: "What surprised us is that Zhou Xing is the son of Tangzhuang Old Man, and his appearance was arranged by 'Hei Niukou'. This is a hidden move, indicating that 'Hei Niukou' doesn't completely trust us. However, what really makes us feel threatened is not this reason, but rather that while we were investigating Zhou Xing, we discovered he was also investigating us."

  "Zhou Xing is investigating you guys?" I felt very surprised.

  Oil child nodded and said: "Yes, we found that Zhou Xing's understanding of the Ya Shen tribe seems to be more than 'Hei Niou', and he seems to know about the existence of our family. The family is extremely panicked about this matter, so we quickly thought of a person, that is, the hermit who adopted Zhou Xing."

  "Who is this recluse?" I asked.

  "It's the Wei Chi family. After investigation, we found that your father should have died in Lan Palace, but he survived that time and stayed in a forest at the foot of Snow Mountain for many days. Following this clue, we learned about the existence of the Wei Chi family."

  "Are you referring to Wei Chi's family?" I furrowed my brow, it seemed that things were not as simple as I had imagined.

  He nodded and said, "Yes, if you think carefully, you will find that what Wei Chuijiu said to you is actually half true and half false, with many loopholes. In short, after our in-depth investigation, we found that the Wei Chui family is not as simple as legend has it, they don't have any curse of the tomb guards on them, but rather a mission."

  "Mission?"

  "Not bad, mission. The mission they bear is exactly the opposite of ours, their mission is to prevent the revival of the Demigod tribe. In this sense, they are indeed genuine tombkeepers, and they hide here just to complete this mission."

  "Who are they..." I had little anger left in me, just wanting to get things clear as soon as possible.

  Youzi didn't answer my question directly, but instead said: "In ancient times, imperial power and divine power were both indispensable for rulers, but not every ruler who grasped imperial power could grasp divine power. The reason is simple: divine power transcends imperial power."

  "The Demon Tribe is like that, in fact, the Witch King of the Demon Tribe is not controlled by the will of the Demon Queen. The Witch King accepts the entrustment of the Demon Queen to divine the fate of the Demon Tribe on one hand, but on the other hand, he does not quite agree with the Demon Queen's ambition for rebirth. That's why the birth of the Yu Chi family came into being."

  I heard that it finally made sense, "You mean, the Wei Chi family is also a descendant of the Demigod tribe, but belongs to the Witch King?"

  I had already vaguely guessed the general idea, no wonder the Witch King's tomb was set up alone in the volcanic area, not with the Elven Queen's Orchid Palace built together. It seems that the Witch King did not think resurrection was a good thing. Now it seems that the Witch King was right, reviving corpses through the Lantana flower is not truly resurrecting them, but rather creating a bunch of terrifying undead creatures.

  "Youzi said to me, 'The witch king thinks that the dead should rest quietly underground, and resurrection is against the will of heaven. This would make the mountain god angry. So before the great flood came, the witch king saved a family, letting them escape disaster. As for how he did it, that's unknowable. In short, this family's mission is to guard the Orchid Palace, and not let the predicted events become reality.'"

  I shook my head and sighed. This shaman king made a prophecy himself, and then tried every means to break the prophecy. It's really contradictory.

  "Zhou Xing is the senior fellow apprentice of Wei Jiu, his appearance indicates that the descendants of the Wu Wang have begun to take action, so in the end, this whole thing is a struggle between our family and the Wei Jiu family, looking further, it's a struggle between imperial power and divine power. A struggle that has lasted for several thousand years."

  "It's clear you've lost." I said, looking at Youzi.

  "Yes..." Youzi said up to here, as if he had put down a very heavy burden, let out a long sigh, and leaned against the ice wall.

  "In the moment I saw the truth about Lantana, I knew we were doomed. But to be honest, it's not a bad thing for me. At least I can find an excuse to refuse completing my family's mission and also find a reason to help you break the curse, helping you all climb out of this abyss. Maybe then, my guilt will lessen greatly." Youzi suddenly let out a bitter smile: "Because...I really want...to be your true friend..."

  He finished speaking and slowly lowered his head. For a moment, the ice room was quiet, with no one saying a word.

  It wasn't until a shout came from upstairs that we snapped out of it. I knew something was wrong, so I quickly told everyone: "You all wait here, I'll go take a look."

  After finishing speaking, I quickly climbed up along the passage through which I had fallen.

  The noise above grew louder, and it seemed that someone had fired a shot. Soon, I heard a mournful cry. The voice was so sorrowful that I felt scared, knowing that something big had happened, and I quickly accelerated my speed to climb up.

  As I crawled and crawled, I suddenly smelled a bloody smell, and quickly raised my head to look up.

  Suddenly, a bloody human head appeared above the entrance of the cave.

  A human head with half of the spine still attached, almost all the blood had been drained, the facial features were extremely distorted, a pair of bloodshot eyes stared up at me. I felt my scalp go numb and my whole body trembled, nearly falling down again.

  I felt a sense of foreboding, struggling to suppress the fear in my heart, and continued to climb upwards.

  This skull has golden hair on it, and should be that of a big Han under the command of an old man in Tang costume. It is really unknown what kind of misfortune this little guy encountered, and was actually pulled out of his head by someone with great force.

  As I approached the entrance, the gunfire was already continuous, and there were shouts outside. I didn't dare to slow down, and quickly climbed up to the entrance in two or three movements. At this time, I couldn't care about being afraid, and with one movement, I pushed aside the skulls at the edge of the cave and looked out.

  All I saw was a tall and majestic figure standing in front of me, with his back to me, standing right in front of the three-eyed god statue. At this moment, his whole body was radiating golden light, his left hand holding the Dragon Ball, his right hand holding the Golden Horn, standing there laughing loudly at the sky.

  It was strange that bullets kept flying from under the altar, but all of them stopped in front of him, as if there was an invisible wall blocking them.

  I never thought that such a thing would happen, I lay in the hole for a long time, until someone below me called out to me softly, and I came back to my senses, rolling and crawling back into the ice room.

  Su Qin saw that my hands were covered in blood (from when I opened the skull), and immediately became tense, pulling me over to ask: "Are you okay?"

  I shook my head and said: "This blood isn't mine. Something's gone wrong upstairs."

  I told everyone what I just saw, and they were also stunned. Liu Dapao hesitated for a moment, turned his head to ask Oilzi: "Is the person above from your family?"

  "Probably."

  "Then you go and stop him!" Liu Dapao said as he went to pull up Youzi.

  Youzi shook his head and said: "What I say is useless, now the whole family only listens to my uncle. And... even if my uncle were here, it would be useless."

  "Why?" I asked.

  Youzi patted his pocket and pulled out a pack of cigarettes, "Hehe, this 'Black Button' still has some virtue..."

  "The lighter has been confiscated." I reminded him: "They didn't take your cigarettes because they were afraid there was poison in the smoke."

  Youzi seems to be very confused, only realizing that there is no smoke without fire after I finished speaking. He frowned and threw the cigarette to the corner of the wall, "Damn it, the man outside is not carrying out our family's plan, he wants to monopolize the Dragon Ball alone. This kid has betrayed everyone."

  It was then that we realized the severity of the situation.

  Su Qin said to us: "We'd better find an opportunity to get out, staying here is not a solution. If that person kills everyone outside, he will definitely come in to silence us. We might as well go out and join forces with the people outside, and then deal with him together."

  I nodded and said: "Okay, there's no other way. Everyone follow me, let's find a chance to climb out."

  "You suddenly asked me: 'Is that person standing in front of the cave entrance?'"

  "Yes, what's up?"

  "Alas, we can't go out yet. The power of the Dragon Ball is too great. If we get too close to that person, we'll definitely die. Unless he leaves a distance from the cave entrance, we can only come out then."

  "Alright, I'll trust you this time. If he leaves, I'll come back and settle the score with you." Liu Dapao said as he crawled into the hole, "I'll go take a look, if that person walks away, I'll let all of you know."

  This morning, Liu Da Pao shouted "be careful" and sat down to conserve energy. The altitude here is too high and there's a severe lack of oxygen. Fortunately, I'm still wearing the fireproof clothing from Snow Snake, so I don't have to worry about freezing to death.

  Su Qin looked at me and then turned her head back, "What are you thinking about?"

  "I'm not thinking of anything." I shook my head.

  She smiled lightly and fell silent for a moment before suddenly asking: "Do you know what I admire most about you?"

  I was taken aback and thought to myself, "Is this woman going to confess her true feelings?" I hastily turned my ear and asked, "Where?"

  "It's real." She said: "Appreciate your authenticity."

  "Hmm..." I nodded absent-mindedly and continued listening with an ear tilted to one side.

  Who would have thought that after waiting for half a day, she didn't speak again? I thought to myself, could it be that there's no follow-up? So I turned my head to look at her, only to discover that she was staring blankly at the large stone coffin in front of us. My gaze couldn't help but be drawn over as well, and at this moment, all I saw was that on the bottom of the coffin, there was a spot that was reflecting light extremely intensely.

  "What's going on with this coffin?" Oil son also found the abnormality and hurriedly walked forward.

  I and Su Qin also followed, walking closer before discovering that the reflective thing was a puddle of water. This puddle of water was slowly expanding, flowing out from the coffin.

  "This is terrible!" Oil Zi's eyebrows furrowed, and he hastily inserted his hand into the coffin to feel the corpse of the Ya Shen Queen.

  He quickly pulled out his hand and I went forward to take a look, only to find that Oil's hands were all wet. Suddenly, I was shocked and felt something was wrong.

  "Damn it, this pseudo-goddess queen is thawing out! Maybe she was affected by the Dragon Ball."

  Su Qin was also startled and said to us: "This situation is too strange, let's retreat quickly." After finishing, she pulled me back.

  At this moment, the semi-divine queen lying in the stone coffin suddenly twitched.

  The next moment, her face began to change slowly. I watched intently and saw that a large patch of white down was growing on her face at a visible speed, her nose and mouth were slowly bulging up, and becoming sharper and sharper.

  Su Qin was the first to scream, followed by You Zi. I also wanted to shout, but with Su Qin present, I didn't dare, so I forced myself to hold back and pulled the two of them back to the entrance of the cave, shouting up at Liu Dapao: "Uncle Liu, can we get out now? The pseudo-goddess queen has come back to life!"

  Liu Dapao was also startled, and turned around to rush down. I hastily stopped him, saying: "Don't come down, just watch from up there. We'll handle things here. If we can get out, we'll hurry and call you."

  "You're right, just go upstairs..."

  He had barely finished speaking when Liu Dapao suddenly shouted at us: "Great! Come on up! That man has left!"