Volume 1: Ghosts of the Underworld Wail... Chapter 33: The Birth of a Mite Colony (2)

  The path was paved with bluestone, covered in moss and salt efflorescence, and the surrounding walls had some cracks. The dust on the loose wall surface fell down one after another under the sound of the four people walking.

  "Ah!" As Yuan Hua exclaimed, the four people simultaneously focused their attention on the floor of the corridor. Under the light of the flashlight, a figure was crawling there motionless, wearing a dark green long-sleeved shirt, holding an AK rifle with English letters marked on it, and having several hand grenades at his waist. Apart from these, there were no backpacks or anything else beside him.

  "He's dead, don't move, he has something on him." Chen Long took the wooden stick from Yuan Hua's hand, poked at the corpse a few times, and flipped it over.

  "Ah!" Jiang Feng took a cold breath, and saw that the person's face was covered with a layer of yellow substance, which was still wriggling.

  The three people all retreated a few steps, only Chen Long still gazed coldly at the corpse.

  "He's got all sorts of things on him, they're some kind of tiny creatures, smaller than ants, but I don't know what to call them. Ah, Jiang Feng has them on his face too, just a different type, and it seems like everyone's got some on them." Chen Long furrowed his brow, looking at Jiang Feng with an odd expression.

  "Where, where?" Jiang Feng was taken aback and quickly wiped his face several times, "No, why can't I feel it?"

  "Are you talking about mites?" Yuan Tian shone his flashlight on the dead man's face again, "Mites and spiders belong to the same arachnid class, with many species, probably over 50,000 kinds. But it shouldn't be! How can such a large group of mites exist in a place like this?"

  "Maybe it's because they eat the fungi on the wall?" Jiang Feng swallowed his saliva, looking at this corpse covered with mites all over its body, and his whole body was shaking a bit, "You see, isn't this also their food?"

  "As far as I know, only a few mites like the scabies mite, chigger, flour mite, dust mite and velvet mite feed on human blood. But I've never heard of them eating flesh?" Yuan Tian spoke cautiously, yet couldn't help but feel deeply puzzled. He walked forward to take a closer look at the spot where Chen Long was poking with a wooden stick. Indeed, the corpse had no blood left, and large pieces of flesh had fallen off. The eyeballs had long since rolled out of their sockets due to the mites' infestation, leaving behind only a deep yellowish bead."

  "These things are not quite normal." Yuan Tian wiped the sweat with his sleeve and quickly put it down, afraid of getting infected with these mites. "They are much larger than ordinary mites, you see, even under the naked eye, you can see individual small insects."

  "Don't worry too much, these things move very slowly, as long as they're burned, it's fine." Chen Long comforted, seeming to see through the worries of a few people. He was about to set fire, but then thought again and put his hand down.

  "Why didn't those who came in first burn this corpse? How did this person die?"

  "It's really not possible to burn it. In this enclosed environment, if we were to burn the body, we wouldn't be able to bear the stench, and who knows what would happen. As for why he died, you'd have to ask those people." Yuan walked around the body, wanting to go to the other side, when suddenly he exclaimed "Huh?" He walked into the corner, wanting to pick up the thing he saw.

  "Wait!" Chen Long exclaimed, stepping forward and grabbing him. "There may be mites up there."

  This was a half-broken earthenware basin, looking very old. Chen Long chanted an incantation, and a flame burst forth from his hand, burning on the basin for a long time. Strangely, the color of the basin itself didn't change in the slightest, but the layer of yellow dust covering it disappeared completely with a "crackling" sound.

  "What a wonderful magic!" Yuan Tian whispered with some envy, and then put his gaze back on the broken ceramic basin.

  The decorative features of this ceramic basin are quite obvious, although it's only half a basin. Yuan Tian quickly analyzed some useful information: "The base of this thing is a whole lotus flower pattern, and the basin itself has branches, leaves, and what looks like birds or something. However, I don't know which specific dynasty it belongs to, but it must be over a thousand years old."

  "The knowledge you've acquired is quite extensive." Chen Long praised in a low voice, "However, I can confirm that this thing is from the Five Dynasties period. I've studied ceramics from that era before, and this pattern was very common back then. The most important thing now is how did it end up here? Was it left behind by those people? If this ceramic basin were intact, it could be worth tens of thousands!"

  Yuan Tian put down the fragments of the ceramic basin, remained silent for a moment before standing up. The four of them carefully skirted around the corpse and continued on their way.

  After walking for a while, a stone gate appeared in front of them, blocking the way forward. Chen Long shone his flashlight around and the gray stone gate reflected an extremely strange light under the cold glow of the flashlight, a dull yellow color, very weak, shining on people's skin with a cool feeling, as if a dead person's hand had touched your skin.

  The four people held their breath, their eyes fixed on the stone door as if trying to see through it. Suddenly, a series of extremely sharp and high-pitched sounds entered the ears of three people, "Squeak---squeak---", this sound was very urgent, and there was also a "Giggle-giggle" sound, which came at regular intervals. Behind the stone door, it seemed as if a terrifying demon was hiding, waiting for the four people to fall into its trap one by one. It opened its long, fang-filled mouth full of bloody air, slowly breathing in, absorbing the oxygen that humans relied on to survive, wanting to put each person to death.

  "I think this should be a stone gate mixed with special materials, it can swallow light. However---what's going on with those sounds? Are they coming from over there?" Yuan Tian retreated two steps, crouched down and stuck to the ground for a long time before standing up again, "Strange, strange, what are these sounds?"

  The other three people all had serious expressions, Chen Long pinched a talisman paper in his hand, his eyes staring dead at the stone gate, Jiang Feng straightforwardly aimed the gun muzzle at the stone gate, ready to fire at any moment, and Yuan Hua also took out a dagger from her backpack and held it in her hand.

  "What's this noise?" Chen Long stepped forward and grasped the door handle of the stone gate, hesitating whether to open it.

  "Wait!" Jiang Feng couldn't help but shout. CCB

  "What's wrong?" Chen Long was also inexplicably tense because of him.

  "I'm a bit scared... I said Ah Long, can't you not open it?"

  There's a saying that you're not afraid of an opponent who is as strong as a god, but rather a teammate who is as useless as a pig. Now Chen Long looked at Jiang Feng's dark face and felt like he was looking at a little black pig...

  "Cough, cough... Ah Long... I'm not the kind of person you think I am... Cough, cough... Alright, go ahead... I can take it!" Jiang Feng's hair stood on end as he was stared at by Chen Long, and with a bitter face, he steeled himself to fight. He wouldn't have hesitated for even a moment if it were just a normal fight, but the danger lurking behind this door made him feel like his very soul was trembling. The unknown always had a way of making people feel inexplicably anxious.

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