The Curse of the Rat Catcher

  The archaeological team rushed to the scene as soon as they heard the news, and Team Leader Duan Lao looked at the terracotta warriors with tears streaming down his face, opening and closing his mouth to say "treasure".

  Peng Jianjun saw the green human skeletons and immediately thought of the question that Liao Dongfeng had not explained to him before, so he asked again: "This time you should tell me, right? How can there be so many green human skeletons underground? I guess the one we saw earlier wasn't your grandfather's body either?"

  Liao Dongfeng nodded after listening, and replied word by word: "Yes, at first I thought so too. But later you didn't see it, but I took a closer look. In the cave we were in at that time, there were nearly a hundred skeletons like this. You must still remember what Hai Chen said about the living mechanism technique that day?"

  Peng Jianjun nodded and asked: "You're telling me that these are actually living mechanism works?"

  Liao Dongfeng nodded.

  "What the hell do you know? Hurry up and tell me, old man! You were originally a godly person, but you pretend to be clueless. What kind of medicine are you selling in this gourd?" Peng Jianjun was getting angry. He hated that as friends, Liao Dongfeng didn't tell him anything. Along the way, they encountered one strange thing after another. Even if it were just a coincidence, it couldn't be this coincidental. This time, he had to get Liao Dongfeng to explain clearly.

  Liao Dongfeng saw Peng Jianjun's furious face and feared that this rough man would not let up, so he simply pulled him aside and whispered: "I can tell you everything, but do you dare guarantee that after knowing, you won't retreat?"

  "Don't scare me, I've seen a lot, you'd better speak up!"

  These things I've all heard from my grandfather, only haven't seen them with my own eyes yet. Grandfather has mentioned more than once that the art of living machinery must be exterminated, because the art of living machinery itself is too cruel and inhumane. Almost all living beings can be made into living machines, and the art of living machinery originated from the pre-Qin period, its founder being Lu Ban.

  After Luban's downfall, he died in depression. The eight living body mechanism holy objects originally to be presented to the King of Chu were taken away by his disciples, and from then on they disappeared without a trace. Later generations referred to the descendants of these disciples as the Eight Families of Mechanisms, each family having possessed one of the holy objects.

  It wasn't until 12 years ago that the Qi family, one of the eight major families, invited the leaders of the other families to meet, attempting to monopolize the sacred object. However, they failed and engaged in a fierce battle with heavy casualties at the Snow Lotus Cave on the Pamir Plateau. Only Grandfather and an old man named Yu escaped, and the Old Man Yu we met earlier should be the second survivor.

  But it wasn't until later that I found out, during the intense battle, one of the eight families never showed up from start to finish, and no one else knew the surname or address of this family. Grandfather suspected that the bloody battle was deliberately triggered by this family, so what happened next was to find the real culprit behind the scenes, but to find him, we had to start from scratch.

  The Luyi Mountain Grand Tomb may hold secrets of the eight major family surnames, so my grandfather mentioned this place more than once. I also came here because of this.

  After listening to Liao Dongfeng, Peng Jianjun smiled wryly and sighed: "It turns out that I've gotten myself into a big deal. If it's really like this, then the people behind the scenes may also be among us? What do they want to do?"

  "On the day of the fierce battle, the eight sacred objects did not appear, only some clues that could find the sacred objects were gathered. The connection point of these clues is the Ghost Face Lantern Rulian Lock, so Grandpa wanted to open the Rulian Lock by all means. Also, when Hai Chen said that Grandpa was the successor of the Living Mechanism Technique, his intention was to make me the target of public criticism. I didn't argue at that time, but thought about following the trail to see where it led. If my guess is correct, the Hai family should also be one of the eight families. However, Hai Chen got the Rulian Lock but didn't open it, instead coming all the way to find Duan Lao, which means he doesn't know how to open the Rulian Lock either. The people around us seem united, but each has their own ulterior motives, making it hard to distinguish between friend and foe. That's why I've been keeping this from you, because I'm afraid that if your mouth slips, the secret will be revealed."

  "Alright, alright, I don't want to hear it anymore. I didn't think this matter would be so complicated. What should we do now? You must have a plan in mind?"

  "Having no clue, can only take it one step at a time."

  At this time, Hai Chen walked over, Peng Jianjun turned around and left. Liao Dongfeng looked at Hai Chen with a smile and asked: "How is it? Any discovery?"

  Hai Chen was taken aback and replied: "I'm afraid I should be asking you this question instead?"

  Before Liao Dongfeng could respond, a commotion suddenly erupted from afar. A local elderly man arrived with a large group of young laborers, saying they were there to bury the corpses unearthed from the ground. He also mentioned some local sayings, one of which was about the curse of the mouse driver.

  It is said that a long time ago, there was a mouse charioteer who appeared here. This person not only could understand the language of mice but also the speech of other birds and beasts. He even predicted a major earthquake, saving many lives, so local people worshiped him as a god.

  The mouse driver didn't do anything bad, and his reputation in the local area was quite good. However, later on, **'s wind blew here, and the mouse driver was also persecuted to death. On the night of his death, many people heard his curse, saying that people would become zombies, their blood would dry up, and their bones would turn green. The representative of the mouse driver who came to punish them was an old mouse, a very big one.

  Upon hearing this, Liao Dongfeng was somewhat surprised, for the old man had spoken of everything that lay before his eyes. The large rat was already dead, and what could the hundreds of corpses explain? Moreover, where were the bodies of the mouse-controlling people? This god-like person wouldn't die so easily, would he? With doubts, Liao Dongfeng asked the old man: "Old sir, where is the mouse-controlling person buried?"

  The old man glanced at Liao Dongfeng, but didn't respond. Instead, he continued to instruct others on what to do. At this moment, another commotion broke out in the distance. Turning his head, he saw that it was the Revolutionary Committee who had arrived.

  As soon as the revolutionary committee members arrived, they immediately stopped the action of burying the bodies and said that these superstitions must be eradicated by extreme means. The head of the revolutionary committee said that the extreme measures were to burn all the dead bodies to prevent the spread of infectious diseases. Little Trumpet Wu Liang was also inside, watching Liao Dongfeng and others shaking their heads and asking them to leave. Peng Jianjun saw it and immediately pulled Liao Dongfeng away from the scene.

  In just 2 minutes, the sound of dense gunfire and people's miserable cries could be heard from afar. Peng Jianjun and Liao Dongfeng quickly ran back, and at a distance of 10 meters away from the deep ditch, they clearly saw thousands of rats rushing out of the ground, biting anyone in sight.

  The militiamen and the masses were all panicked, rushing to escape with their lives, resulting in over a dozen innocent deaths on the scene. Those revolutionary committee personnel who had been flaunting their power all along were also frightened out of their wits, hastily retreating to gather forces to come back and exterminate the mice.

  As the crowd dispersed, Liao Dongfeng saw two big men crawling out of the deep ditch. Peng Jianjun asked in surprise at this time: "Didn't Old Huozi die? Is it possible that there is more than one Old Huozi?"

  Two large rats that had just crawled out of the ground were staring at their surroundings with one blood-red eye each, just like the rat king that was killed earlier. What made Liao Dongfeng feel strange was that the people who came to bury the bodies and the old man were not bitten, surrounded by a group of rats in the middle, far away from the revolutionary committee's people, the old man kept shouting: "Hurry up and bury the bodies."

  Others hastened their burial upon hearing this, but soon a blood-curdling scream was heard, followed by a bloody human head being thrown out of the deep ditch.