Chapter 15: The Moon's Strange Phenomenon

  "What's the use? What can we do then? Are we going to keep running like this forever?" I said, panting as I ran.

  Everyone ran for a while, and I, the old professor, and the injured person were basically unable to run anymore. Although we knew that stopping would mean being bitten by snakes, human physical strength is uncontrollable. Covering my stomach, I shouted: "Shoot it a few times, slow down its speed!"

  The black-faced captain seemed to have already replaced the new magazine on the way, and while running, he turned his head and raised his gun to pull the trigger. After a 'bang' sound of gunfire, he actually stopped.

  I thought you were scared silly, turned around and let out a "huh", only to find that the big snake had vanished. I looked around again and it really was gone, not even the sound of the snake rubbing against the ground could be heard. This is really strange, did the big snake get tired and give up on its meal?

  Others also stopped and turned around, panting, to look. The black-faced captain stood still, one hand holding a gun, the other hand behind his back waving wildly, as if greeting us.

  This is really getting on my nerves, does he have a disease or something? Or did the snake really scare him out of his wits? I was just about to go up and ask him what he's doing when suddenly I felt a bright light in front of me, and that big snake seemed to appear out of nowhere right in front of me. At this moment, it was standing upright with its head raised, and the captain's gun was pressed against the snake's neck, while the snake's mouth was tightly attached to his head, one person and one snake staring at each other like that.

  "Damn it, this huge snake can actually change color," he said. "Maybe when Captain Hei turned around and fired his gun, it turned black, because we were relatively far away, so only he could feel it. That's why I realized he was waving at us to run quickly."

  The rest of us didn't know what to do either, Zhou Huan waved his hand and let us slowly retreat backwards. I saw that the black-faced captain was indeed a formidable opponent, staring at the snake without moving, only someone with extremely strong willpower could achieve this, if it were me, I would have been scared out of my wits by now.

  We retreated about twenty meters, and I vaguely felt that the snake's head seemed to be slowly retreating backwards. The half-opened big mouth also slowly closed, was it frightened by Hei Mian's cold eyes or preparing to start attacking?

  Just then, I saw the black-faced captain's hand behind his back move again. He slowly pulled out a dagger from his lower back, and just as he grasped it in his hand, the gun held by his other hand fired.

  The black-faced captain held the muzzle of his gun against the snake's neck and fired three shots in close range. Perhaps because the scales on the big snake's neck were relatively soft, or perhaps because the gun was too close, I saw a blood wave spurt out. He had just dodged to one side when the snake's head charged forward and slapped onto the ground.

  Just as soon as the snake's head hit the ground, it immediately lifted up again, its bloody mouth open to bite Hei Lian Dui Zhang, but he dodged to the side and jumped onto the snake's back, gun raised and firing repeatedly at a point on the snake's neck. The snake, also in great pain, began thrashing about wildly.

  The black-faced captain threw away the gun without bullets, grasped the dagger with both hands, and stabbed it down with all his might. Then he held the dagger tightly to maintain his body balance, so as not to be shaken off by the big snake.

  At this moment, I saw the big snake open its mouth and its neck suddenly bulged up, and then spat out something. I took a look and almost vomited. It turned out to be the old professor who was swallowed by it earlier, now his whole body was covered with mucus and only vaguely visible in human shape.

  "The big snake was moving slowly just now because it had eaten a person, and now that it has vomited, it will be even more ferocious. You guys quickly go help!" Zhou Huan shouted loudly to us.

  Because the black-faced captain was on the giant snake, no one else dared to shoot, so they all drew out their daggers and rushed over, jumping onto the snake's body. They stabbed fiercely at the snake's body. I saw the old professor's corpse also rush forward, snatching the dagger from the injured team member and charging towards the giant snake.

  "I was like, 'I'm going to help kill the snake,' but I didn't think it would be so hard to jump on. It was thrashing around on the ground and I just got close when it knocked me back with incredible force, sending me flying several meters away."

  I climbed up and saw Zhou Huan looking at me with a very disdainful gaze, immediately getting angry, running over again and finally riding on it, learning from their appearance to stab randomly, the snake scales were indeed hard and unyielding, I finally managed to stab one knife into the gap of the scales, but couldn't pull it out no matter what.

  The four of us were like riding a roller coaster on the giant snake, running wildly everywhere. The feeling was much more thrilling than a real roller coaster. This is something that if I told anyone about it when I got back, no one would believe me. I stabbed just once and couldn't pull out, looked up to see the black-faced captain in front still heaving his body and attacking continuously, blood spouting everywhere around him, the scene was extremely gory. Actually what I most want to do now is have someone take a photo of me.

  After struggling for a long time, the big snake finally ran out of strength and slowed down several times before slowly coming to a stop. In fact, I was riding on its body all along, because the dagger had not been pulled out since it died.

  The black-faced captain stabbed a few more knives, and when he saw that the big snake was really dead, he leaned back and let out a long sigh. I jumped down excitedly and shouted to everyone: "We're... here... We're... home..."

  A few people who were on the verge of death heard my absurd shout, and they all smiled wryly as if it was quite fitting. The black-faced captain asked if anyone was injured? After everyone said they were fine, he led his team to collect the old professor's body. Another professor was using his clothes to wipe the deceased's face, apparently their relationship was very close, and I saw him slowly tear up.

  I didn't want to look at this scene anymore, so I turned my back on them and sat down on the ground to rest. Thinking about the series of strange events that had happened recently, I felt like all the things that ordinary people wouldn't encounter in their lifetime had all caught up with me. And thinking about that stone gate that only I could open, my mind was full of confusion.

  I took a break and got up to walk over, saw them wipe the deceased clean and cover him with clothes. At this time, I saw Zhou Huan raise his head again to look up for a while, then lower his head to glance at his watch, and solemnly shouted to everyone: "Time is almost up, everyone get ready."

  Then she looked at me alone and said: "Later you follow me, no matter what happens, don't run around."

  What the hell is this? What are you trying to do now? I'm going crazy, just a moment ago I finally managed to kill that giant snake, and now Zhou Huan's expression suggests something else is about to happen. If another powerful monster comes out, I'd rather just wait for death. How can it still not be over yet?!

  I lifted my head in a gloomy mood and looked up, only to feel that something was off. The fist-sized light circle began to grow brighter and brighter, until it was almost dazzling. Could it be that the moon outside had risen to the top of the cave entrance at this moment?

  Right after that, I saw a ring of light halo starting from the top hole and moving downwards, getting faster and faster. In just a few seconds, the entire cave was lit up, even brighter than daylight. After clearly seeing the whole scene here, I was shocked with my mouth agape.

  The place we are in is actually a huge natural cave, like the Great Pyramid of Giza, with a narrow top and wide bottom. The uneven walls of the cave are covered with thousands of copper mirrors from top to bottom, which reflect the moonlight that shines in, making the inside of the cave extremely bright and dazzling.

  The area at the bottom of the cave is estimated to be about the size of a football field, and against the ground are placed a circle of stone coffins of similar size. Behind each coffin is an object resembling a sunflower, and in front of me is a person who seems to have been carved out of a long, rectangular recess. A huge black stone coffin is placed inside, giving me a sudden feeling of royalty above and subjects kowtowing below, almost making me kneel down.

  My mouth was open for a long time before it closed, and not just me, others seemed to have not expected such a grand scene. The old professor's eyes were wide with wonder, his whole body trembling as he walked towards the huge stone coffin. Suddenly, High Welcome reacted and rushed up to grab him, saying: "Can't go over, not yet."

  The old professor suddenly came to his senses and nodded continuously, but his eyes were still fixed on the stone coffin without moving away, as if there was something inside that attracted him.

  Zhou Huan pulled him back and looked at the crowd. Originally, there were eight of us together, but now one professor was dead and another was in a daze. Among the team members, one was injured, leaving only four men and one woman who were unscathed. I was clearly just an onlooker at most. So Zhou Huan had the injured team member and the old professor stay behind, then turned to me and said, "In a bit, you come with me, I need your help." Afterwards, she exchanged a glance with the black-faced captain and told the others, "Time is limited, we have no more than five minutes. Everyone hurry up, don't make any mistakes."

  I didn't understand what they were going to do, and then I saw everyone start taking off the backpacks on their bodies. After opening them, I found that there was no food inside, except for a rope in the old professor's backpack, and all the others were blocks of things like cigarette boxes.

  Hei Lian Dui Zhang and two team members each grabbed a backpack and ran in different directions, Zhou Huan also grabbed two, one still gave me one, one she carried herself, pulling me to run towards the entrance, I asked her while running: "What are we doing, what's in this bag so heavy?"

  "Load explosives, I'll teach you in a bit." Zhou Huan replied without even turning his head back.

  "My god, are these people trying to blow up the cave? If you want to commit collective suicide, don't drag me along! I still have brothers waiting for me outside."

  When I ran to the stone gate, I still had some fear in my heart. I stretched my neck and looked around, but didn't see any strange monkey shadows, so I felt relieved. At this time, I saw Zhou Huan take out a block of explosives from his bag, similar to a cigarette box, and walk to the nearest stone coffin to the stone gate, slapping it on with a "pa" sound.

  I also learned from her and took out a piece of explosive from my bag, slapping it onto the stone coffin with force. It stuck to the surface like play dough, and I thought it was quite fun. But before I could react, Zhou Huan turned around and glared at me, then reached out and peeled off the explosive I had just slapped on, saying: "One piece of explosive per coffin is enough, do you want to die?"