Chapter 10: The Stone Array Encounter

  Just when I was feeling exhausted and wanted to take a rest, Liangzi, who was walking in front of me, suddenly stopped and bent over. I wasn't paying attention and bumped into his butt. I quickly asked, "What's wrong? Why did you stop?"

  Then Liang Zi threw away his sickle and covered his stomach with both hands, saying: "Not good, it seems that I ate too much this morning, now I have to go 'unload'." Then he turned around and asked with a sly smile: "Comrades, does anyone want to follow me?"

  I was so angry that I kicked him and said, "You're going to die from fright! If you want to pull, hurry up and roll away. It's just right for us to take a break, this mountain road is too difficult to walk."

  Liangzi covered his stomach and walked towards a big tree not far from us, leaving the three of us sitting on the ground to light up cigarettes. Just as we lit one up and took two puffs, we heard a miserable scream coming from Liangzi's direction, followed by a string of curses pouring out of his mouth.

  The three of us were startled and quickly ran behind the big tree to check, after arriving, all three people were terrified with their mouths open and couldn't speak.

  Just then, Liangzi's pants and underwear had fallen to his ankles, he was standing behind a large tree, jumping and shouting, his hands were messing around on his fat white buttocks, his mouth was making some unpleasant noises, it seemed like he was extremely itchy.

  I saw that he wasn't joking around, so I asked him what was going on. Liang Zi gritted his teeth and said to us: "Damn it, some idiot pricked my butt with a poisonous needle."

  Before, I and Liu Bao were together on the old road. Looking around, there was no one else, so we let Liangzi turn his back to us and lean against a big tree. I lowered my head to take a look, and when I saw his butt, I felt a numbness in my scalp. His butt looked like it had been stung by countless bees, with large red welts all over, making one's whole body feel itchy just from looking at it.

  I immediately thought that we might have arrived at Zhēng má lǐng, and upon lowering my head to take a look, I discovered that the ground was covered with plants about 20 centimeters high, similar to 'wormwood', which must be the notorious Stinging Nettle. Previously, we had been tucking our pant legs in while walking, fearing that some insects might crawl inside, but with the barrier of clothing, everything seemed fine. I didn't expect the toxicity of this stinging nettle to be so severe.

  I quickly stopped Liangzi's hands from scratching, I heard the village chief say that after being stung by a wasp, it will be unbearably itchy, and the more you scratch, the worse it gets. If you scratch too much and get infected, it'll be troublesome.

  Liángzi seemed to be in great pain, gritting his teeth as he tried to put on his pants. When he saw us stifling our laughter, he immediately got angry, pointing at us and saying we weren't human. He snatched the sickle from my hand and began wildly slashing at the weeds on the ground. We quickly retreated to a safe distance, letting him go crazy.

  After messing around for a while, the grass nearby was all cut down before he calmed down a bit. The strange itching feeling also eased up a lot. He then told us to hurry up and leave, saying that he hadn't even started pulling yet but got ambushed, and now still had to continue 'unloading'.

  The three of us stifled our laughter and returned to the original place to continue smoking. After finishing two cigarettes, Liangzi limped back with a face full of black lines. I saw that everyone had rested enough, so I shouted to continue on the road. This is probably not even half way up Zhenma Ridge yet.

  The road ahead became increasingly difficult to walk, the slope of the mountain began to rise sharply, and except for that nettle grass, almost no other plants could be seen on the ground. We had to proceed with caution, relying solely on our senses, and stopped halfway to drink some water and eat some buns borrowed from the village chief before continuing on our way, hoping to reach the summit before nightfall.

  Everyone's physical strength was almost exhausted, and no one was speaking. Even Liangzi, who had been making a ruckus, shut his mouth. It wasn't until around 5 pm that day that I felt the grass on the ground had noticeably thinned out, the temperature began to drop, and the trees started to become sparse. However, it seemed like this place was shrouded in a layer of fog. Looking up ahead, it seemed like there was a stretch of flat land, and vaguely, I could sense some massive boulders standing upright within it.

  I think we may have reached the top of the mountain, so let's make an effort to prepare for a rest in front. Walking closer and taking a look, this is indeed a stone forest, with only a few trees left on the mountain, and strange rocks of various sizes are arranged together everywhere. Looking up at the sky, the dark clouds are dense, and it seems like it might rain at any time.

  The fog is too thick and the visibility is very low. I'm afraid it's easy to get lost if we go in like this, so I think we should rest for a while first and see if there's a place to take shelter from the rain overnight. It's definitely not possible today, and we'll have to wait until tomorrow to find that legendary cave.

  Several people leaned against a large stone to rest, and I thought this was indeed strange. In such a dense forest, there was actually a stone forest, which really matched that eerie legend. Before discovering the entrance, it had already begun to instill fear, and in such an environment, anything could happen without surprise.

  Everyone has rested enough, and I'll discuss with them what to do next. This time entering the mountain was actually an impulsive move from the start. We don't have much wilderness survival experience to speak of, it's all based on a get-rich-quick mentality that brought us here. Looking at this gloomy stone forest in front of me, the more I look, the more regretful I feel about coming here. But since we've already reached the mountain top, we can't just go back now, right?

  "Let's not say anything else, if we go back now, the village chief will laugh at us to death. Let's take it one step at a time and find a place to spend the night first."

  I think what he said is also right, these days strange things have been happening one after another, and the truth is about to be revealed, so we can't back down. So everyone got up to prepare to find a place to spend the night, I saw the last one to get up, old Lao's body had just stood upright when he suddenly let out a loud cry and started kicking his legs wildly, thinking that there were no wasps here either, what the hell happened again?

  Liangzi's eyes were sharp, and after walking for a while on the old road, he found something was wrong. He squatted down beside the old road and took a look, his face immediately changed. He then reached out and pulled out a small black snake over a meter long from the old road's pant leg, and dragged it by its tail to smash it against a nearby rock.

  Liang Zi threw the dead snake to the ground after a few continuous throws, panting and saying: "Look at how hard all of you comrades are working, tonight I'll add meat for everyone!"

  I asked Old Lu what was wrong, and he told me that his pants leg had come loose while walking, and since there were no stings or bites, he hadn't paid attention to it. He didn't know how the snake got inside either. Old Lu was clearly frightened, still shaking all over as he spoke.

  Liangzi hugged Lao Lu's shoulder and said, "Old buddy, how are you going to repay my great kindness? If a snake gets into your pants, no amount of money can make you enjoy it."

  Lao Lu nodded repeatedly and said, "That's it, that's it." I let Liangzi stop talking nonsense, then lowered my head to look at the snake, which was more than a meter long. Its whole body was pitch black, and I didn't know what species it was. Obviously, it had been dead for a long time.

  I'm actually not too afraid of snakes, when I was a kid in the orphanage near the mountain, I would often encounter them, but it seems like I've heard that killing snakes in the mountains is bad luck, so my heart can't help but feel a bit uneasy.

  I told Liangzi to forget about the dead snake and hurry up to find a place to spend the night, as it was getting dark and looked like it was going to rain. But Liangzi seemed not only unafraid of snakes but also quite fond of them; he emptied out the bag that had held steamed buns, put the buns directly into his backpack, and then put the dead snake into the bag, saying it was for emergency use.

  I'm too lazy to care about him, so I called out to everyone and we entered the Stone Forest. After entering, I found that this place is like a man-made maze, with stones of various sizes arranged in a very strange way. Although I don't understand Feng Shui or formations, I still feel that there are many inappropriate places. I thought to myself, could it be that we've entered the legendary Qimen Dunjia?

  After walking for a while, they found another small snake crawling on the ground, just like the one before. Liangzi didn't say a word and picked up the sickle handle to kill the snake and put it in his bag. What's strange is that after taking only a few steps forward, two snakes suddenly appeared at the same time. I quickly stopped Liangzi from going to hit them, but he seemed to be addicted and pushed me away, hitting the two snakes to death with a few strokes. He smiled and said, "Tonight we'll roast snake meat for dinner," and happily put it in his bag.

  After Liangzi finished packing the two dead snakes, another row of snakes appeared next to us. I thought something was wrong, there must be something strange here. I pulled Liangzi and Liu Bao together to quickly run around the snake group. Liangzi still wanted to continue fighting.

  We walked around for a while and came to a small open space, where the giant stones were significantly fewer. As soon as everyone stood still, I heard a rustling sound coming from all directions at the same time. We immediately panicked, with our backs against each other, holding our sickles and looking in all four directions. However, the fog was too thick and visibility was too low, and we couldn't see anything except for the faint outlines of the giant stones in front of us.

  When we were able to see the snakes' shadows on the ground, we found that they were only five or six meters away from us and had formed a dense circle around us, with no way out. The scene was simply too terrifying, I wouldn't have thought of it even in my dreams.

  At this time, Liangzi was like a lost soul, shouting and wanting to go fight. I and Liu Bao desperately pulled him back, not letting him go. There were so many snakes, it was really eerie. When I was young, I heard that there is a kind of snake with spiritual power. If you kill the snake with spiritual power, other snakes will come to take revenge on you. Unexpectedly, we encountered such a situation.

  It must have been Liangzi who killed those snakes before, and now they're seeking revenge. But what's going on with Liangzi? He seems to have changed into a completely different person. I thought to myself, we're done for, we're going to die here. Facing so many snakes with just our sickles as weapons, there's no way we can win. This isn't about roasting snake meat for dinner, it's more like the snakes are gathering for a feast.

  Everyone was at a loss for what to do when the snakes suddenly stopped advancing. We all looked at each other in surprise, and I thought that they were either preparing to attack or waiting for some other reason. Suddenly, my whole body shook - could it be that these snakes were waiting for orders or something else to arrive?

  Just then, a sudden gust of cold wind blew over, and when I looked up, I saw a snake as thick as a small leg leading a group of snakes rushing towards us. Its speed was extremely fast, and in an instant, it arrived right before us. The snake's body stood up more than a meter high, and with a shrug of its neck and a wide open mouth, it lunged at Liangzi. At this time, Liangzi seemed to have been scared silly, staring blankly with his eyes wide open, standing still on the spot. I was also stunned by the sudden attack of the big snake. At this moment, I saw Liu Bao's quick reaction, and with a swift swing of his sickle knife, he chopped off the snake's head. Immediately afterwards, he was splattered with snake blood all over his body.