Chapter 54: The Bizarre Mummy

  Zhou Huan finished speaking and took a deep breath, then reached out to add some firewood to the bonfire.

  I was stunned and it took me a long time to come back to my senses.

  Things have come to this point, and I can't help but believe it. If that Lingyu really can reverse aging, I'm sure there won't be too few people who want to get it. This storm seems to be not small either.

  I looked into the dark tunnel and didn't know how many dangers were waiting for us. After calming down, I said to Zhou Huan: "In other words, last time we entered was that Fox Mei's tomb, and successfully obtained the jade pillow. If my guess is correct, this should be 'Wan Chong Shou' now?"

  "That's right, I believe you also saw it, we met the most on the way are insects."

  "But if there was indeed a massive project here, and the mysteriously disappeared troops also came to rob the tomb, none of them succeeded. Are we just going in to send ourselves to death?"

  Zhou Huan lowered his head, staring at the flames for a while before speaking: "This is my duty. Even if it means certain death, I must go in. If this were before, I would have thought you could choose to leave, but now that you basically understand what's going on, whether or not to follow me in is up to you to decide!"

  Actually, I didn't have the idea of running away because I'm more eager to seek the truth than anyone else. It's just that my heart is not at ease and if Hei Lian hadn't lost his memory it would be better, but now relying on us few people is really a bit risky.

  Zhou Huan finished speaking and glanced at his watch, I also raised my hand to look, only to find that it was already late at night, if we didn't rest now, tomorrow would definitely be unbearable, so I got up to push Liangzi.

  Liang Zi didn't oversleep today, he woke up after a few pushes, got up and rubbed his eyes, then took out a pack of cigarettes. I had run out of cigarettes long ago, so I quickly lit one too, trying to calm my mood.

  Just after taking two puffs, I saw Hei Lian wake up too. He didn't say a word either and directly sat down beside the bonfire to continue being dazed. Liang Zi chatted with me for a couple of sentences before going over to keep Hei Lian company.

  "Go to sleep early, there are still many things tomorrow." Zhou Huan tightened her clothes and lay down.

  I finished that cigarette and lay down with my back against her, but actually I couldn't sleep at all. Suddenly there were so many things in my mind, it was really hard to absorb them all at once. But not sleeping wasn't an option either, so I could only count sheep...

  The next day, I woke up to find it was already past seven o'clock. Zhou Huan was packing things up, and Hei Mian was still sitting beside the extinguished bonfire, as if he hadn't moved all night. Looking around again, but Liang Zi was nowhere to be found.

  "Zhou Huan, where did Liangzi go?" I asked.

  She didn't answer me and raised her hand pointing outside.

  I thought Liangzi might have gone to the restroom, so I stretched my waist and walked out of the tunnel.

  Outside, there was still a thick fog, although it was daytime, but I couldn't see far. I walked along the highway for a while and didn't see Liangzi, so I started to relieve myself on the mountain slope below.

  "What the...?!" A loud shout suddenly came from under my feet.

  I was originally comfortable there, completely unprepared mentally, and was scared to take two steps back with a loud cry, the remaining urine poured onto my shoe surface.

  Just as the atmosphere was coming, a black shadow climbed up from the slope to the highway, and then a voice shouted: "Qiu Ye, are you the one who urinates and defecates everywhere? Come here, I want to confiscate your tools."

  "As soon as I heard it was Liangzi, I straightened my pants and scolded loudly: 'Early Qing Dynasty, you're making a scene! If something happens to me because of you, can you afford to pay for it?'"

  "Anyway, I'm still thinking for everyone's sake." As he spoke, Liangzi walked in front of me, and I found that he was holding several bottles filled with water.

  "How's that? Isn't it worthy of a Best Diligence Award?" Liang Zixian looked very pleased with himself.

  "Where did you get this?" I took the bottle from his hand, took a sip, and felt a slightly bitter taste, but with some plant's refreshing fragrance.

  "Just looking at you, I can tell you don't quite understand life, and your wilderness survival skills are even more hopeless. With such thick fog, the leaves on the trees in the morning all have very large water droplets on them, it's just a bit of a hassle to collect them."

  I listened to him finish speaking and felt that this kid had finally done something reliable, so I loudly praised him for a while, and the two of us walked back together.

  Liang Zi came back with a bottle in hand, beaming with joy, and went to give it to Hei Lian. I took out some biscuits from my bag and squatted down beside Zhou Huan, saying: "How did you wake up so early? Have something to eat!"

  Zhou Huan had just finished tidying up and took the cookies, then looked down at my feet and raised her head with a face full of disdain, saying to me: "Are you not developing properly or something? When we get back, remember to go see a doctor."

  I looked down and saw that the entire surface of my shoe was wet, I felt both embarrassed and angry but hadn't yet spoken to explain...

  After everyone finished breakfast and tidied up their equipment, they continued to venture deeper. The straight-line distance in front was still relatively bright, but after the tunnel turned, it got darker and darker. We had no choice but to turn on our flashlights for illumination.

  Nothing has changed in this tunnel and after walking for a while, I feel that we should now be entering the center of the mountain.

  "Hey, it seems like there's something in front." Liangzi shouted with his flashlight.

  Everyone looked ahead and I vaguely felt that it seemed like a long rectangular object, which didn't look small but couldn't be seen clearly either.

  When I finally got close, I was surprised to find that it was a large truck. The body of the vehicle didn't have any obvious damage, but the tires had been flat for a long time. The entire body was covered in rust spots, showing that it had been parked here for a long time.

  It's normal to encounter cars on the highway, although I had thought about this possibility before, but actually encountering it in the middle of the mountain is still a bit hard to accept.

  Everyone surrounded the truck and turned a few circles, but didn't find anything. Liangzi stretched out his hand to pull the car door several times, only to find it was locked. So he stood on the footboard, stuck to the glass and looked inside. At first, it seemed like he couldn't see clearly, but after a while, he let out an "ah" and jumped down, retreating several steps.

  "What's wrong? What's going on?" I asked hastily, seeing the look of terror on his face.

  "A dead person! There's a dead person!" Liangzi seemed to be really scared and quickly patted his chest with his hand.

  I thought: Come on, what haven't you seen before on this road? Can one dead person scare you like that? Then I also stepped inside to take a look.

  The windshield had accumulated a thick layer of dust, which couldn't be wiped away. I stared with my eyes wide open and took a closer look. At first, I vaguely felt that there should be a dead body inside. After seeing it clearly, although I was mentally prepared, I still gasped in shock.

  "How about it? I didn't lie to you, did I? It's quite scary, isn't it?" Liang Zi said from behind me.

  Zhou Huan saw me stunned and asked: "What's going on, are you two playing a prank?"

  "Move, move aside." Before I could even respond, Liangzi stretched out his hand and pushed me to the side, raised the gun butt, and smashed it against the car window twice. The glass shattered instantly, and a dark black gas emerged.

  "It's a corpse! Everyone scatter!" Zhou Huan shouted loudly, pulling Hei Lian towards the back. I and Liang Zi didn't dare to slow down either, covering our noses as we followed suit and ran away.

  After running out for dozens of meters, we finally stopped and turned back to look, only to see that the black air coming out of the car had stopped. I asked Zhou Huan: "What is corpse energy?"

  Zhou Huan saw that we were all fine, glared at Liang Zi and said: "It seems that the sealing effect of this car is very good. After this person died inside, it was never opened again, so after a long time, corpse gas would form. If it's inhaled into the human body, even if you don't die, you won't be much better."

  I was a bit frightened by what he said, took a few deep breaths and asked: "What should we do then, are we still going to go take a look?"

  Zhou Huan was after all a tomb raider, and seemed to be used to this kind of thing. He said, "This place is so spacious, and it's connected to the outside, just wait for the corpse energy to dissipate and everything will be fine."

  Everyone waited for a few more minutes, then returned to the front of the car. After the windshield was smashed, the corpse inside could be seen even more clearly. This was my second time seeing it, but I still felt my scalp numb.

  This is a desiccated corpse, his clothes are very tattered, and the body has obviously lost its moisture. What's strange is that this desiccated corpse has its hands clasped behind its head, leaning against the backrest, with its mouth open extremely wide, and coupled with the shriveled and deformed face, it looks extremely terrifying.

  Zhou Huan looked carefully and said in surprise: "Strange, what's going on?"

  "What's wrong with him? Was he scared to death?" I asked hastily.

  "I reckon when this guy died, he must have gotten a fright, but how did his fingernails end up digging into his scalp?"

  "What?" I was confused by what she said, and plucked up the courage to go over and take a look again. It turned out that this person appeared to be holding their head in their hands, but actually most of their fingernails had pierced into their scalp.

  I also find it incomprehensible, so I came back to ask Zhou Huan if she understood. But she seemed to have never encountered such a situation either and couldn't analyze it at the moment.

  Liang Zi also walked over and took a look, saying: "This kid is probably a troublemaker!"

  "Have you ever heard of anyone who can catch lice to this extent?"

  "It's not necessarily so, maybe his lice are just bigger."

  I saw Liangzi starting to talk nonsense again, and I was too lazy to reason with him. At this time, I heard Zhou Huan say: "What he said is also possible, let's not discuss whether it's a louse or not. There's only one possibility that can make someone scratch their fingernails into their scalp, either his head hurts or itches terribly."

  Liang Zi heard Zhou Huan say that and said with some complacency: "See, I told you, you always think too much of simple things."

  Then I saw Zhou Huan's eyes light up, and he immediately said: "I think I understand. We ignored the environment around us. There are most insects in this mountain. Could it be that an insect entered his brain?"

  I felt particularly uncomfortable after hearing Zhou Huan's words, and I immediately felt my scalp itching too. This is really scary, what would it be like to have insects drilling into your brain?

  Zhou Huan continued, "I reckon this truck and the mummy are leftovers from that mysterious army. Let's not bother with it for now and continue on our way. However, everyone be careful, there must be bugs in these mountains too."

  I also can't wait to get away from this place as soon as possible, who knows if there are still any bugs in the car.

  So everyone ignored it and continued moving forward, after a while, the second truck appeared.

  This time we didn't stop, no one went to check again and left after about five or six minutes. I found that the tunnel was gone, and in front of me was a wide and flat open space. The flashlight couldn't even shine on the wall.