Chapter 4: Corpse Cave

I encountered a lot of dangerous things along the way. These guys are very powerful. I trust them very much. So, when Pan Zi said this, I knew what was going on. The big guy A Kui also winked at me, meaning that you should stay back and don't stick your head out to see anything. I couldn't help but smile bitterly. Why should I stick my head out? A Kui can knock a cow unconscious with one punch. Pan Zi is no need to say anything. He is a retired soldier with scars all over his body. Our third uncle has been a character who fights for his life since he was a child. The silent burden doesn't look like a good guy at all. As for me, scholars have been the most useless since ancient times. I feel that the military knife that my third uncle forced on me is too heavy. It feels awkward no matter how I use it.

Just as I was thinking about what I should bring for self-defense, Donkey Eggs swam back with a splash. The old man slapped his pipe on his trouser leg and said, "Let's go! The boat is coming."

Sure enough, two flat boats came out from behind the mountain one after the other. A middle-aged man stood on the boat in front, rowing the boat and shouting at us. The boat was really big, and it looked like it was more than enough to hold a few of us and our equipment. The old man patted the cow's neck and said, "Everyone, there's no need to take down the luggage. I'll pull the cow and the cart onto the second boat, and we'll sit in the first boat. Save some energy."

Pan Zi smiled and said, "Some things cannot stand water, so it's better to carry them with you. If the cow jumps into the water, won't we be finished?"

The old man smiled and nodded: "What you said makes sense, but I am not a water buffalo, so I will never jump into the water. If you want to jump in, I will help you pull them out, and you won't lose anything."

As he said this, he led the cow to the ferry first, and the rest of us followed behind, each carrying our own luggage. The middle-aged man rowed the boat very skillfully, and we reached the shore in a few strokes.

When the old man drove the cattle onto the second boat, I looked at the middle-aged man who was rowing the boat. He had dark skin and looked very ordinary, but I don't know if it was psychological or something else, but I always felt that he looked spooky. I remembered what Uncle San said about eating dead human flesh, and suddenly I felt that the more I looked at him, the scarier he became.

"When you get to the cave, please speak softly and don't disturb the river god." The man said, "especially don't say bad things about the river god."

My third uncle asked him how long it would take to pass through the hole.

"If it's fast, it will be over in 5 minutes. The water inside is very fast."

"How can there still be a slow time?"

"Yes, sometimes the water flows upstream. You see, I just came out with the current, so now we must be going in upstream. It will take a long time, probably 15 minutes, and there are some dangerous turns."

"Is it light in there?"

The man chuckled and said, "It's pitch black, how can it be bright? It's completely dark." But he pointed to his ears and said, "I've been rowing for more than ten years. I can use my ears to control the oars."

"Then can we use a flashlight?" Pan Zi raised the miner's lamp in his hand, "It shouldn't be a problem, right?"

"It's okay," the man said, "but don't look into the water, it'll scare you to death!"

"What?" My uncle smiled and said, "There is a water ghost."

"That water ghost is nothing. I dare not say what the thing in the water is. You have to be really brave to take a look for yourself later. Remember, just take a look. If you are lucky, you will see a ball of black water. If you are unlucky, what you see will scare you crazy."

As we were talking, we could already see the cave. This cave was hidden behind the cliff. We couldn't see it when we were on the shore. We always imagined it to be a big cave. But when we actually saw it, we couldn't help but shout, "Oh no!" We didn't expect the cave to be so small. It was only 10 centimeters larger than the boat. The most terrifying thing was its height. People couldn't get in even if they were sitting. They had to bend down to barely get in. With such a large space, if the people inside wanted to plot against us, we couldn't move our hands and feet at all. Pan Zi screamed, "Damn, this cave is a bit too scary, isn't it?"

"This is still considered big. There is a section inside that is even lower." said the old man at the back.

Uncle San glanced at Pan Zi, who gave a fake smile: "Ah, it's such a small cave. If someone in there wants to rob us, won't we be unable to escape even if we want to?"

As soon as he said this, I saw the middle-aged man rowing the boat made a very subtle gesture, and the old man's face changed. I thought to myself, there is indeed a problem. At this time, we heard a whistling sound, and the boat had entered the hole.

Pan Zi turned on the miner's lamp. The cave was bright at first, but soon all the light was left by the miner's lamp. "Master San, this cave is not simple," Agui said. "It's a robber's cave!"

"The cave was built by water robbers. It was round in ancient times but now it is square. Look at these traces. This cave is very old. It seems that there must be something else in it."

"Oh, this guy seems to have some background, what he said is right." The middle-aged man knelt on the bow with his back bent, holding the oar with one hand, and rowing it bit by bit, but strangely, his oar did not touch the water at all. Without even breathing, he said, "I heard that this whole mountain is an ancient tomb. There are many large and small water robber caves around here. This one is the largest and deepest. You can see it. I'm afraid the water was not so high at that time. It should have been a dry cave at that time."

"Oh, it seems that you are also an expert." Uncle San politely handed him a cigarette. He shook his head and said, "What expert? I also heard it from those who came here before. I heard it a lot, so I can say a few words. I only know these simple things. Please don't say that I am an expert."

Pan Zi and Da Kui both had their hands on their knives, chatting and laughing with those people. They looked very harmonious, but in fact, no one knew how nervous they were. I thought to myself, there are five of us, and they only have two. If we really fight, we may not lose. But since they dare to fight, they must have made some thorough preparations.

Just thinking about it. Suddenly, the oil bottle waved his hand, "Hush, listen! Someone is talking!" We immediately held our breath, and sure enough, we heard Uncle Xixi's voice coming from the depths of the cave. I tried carefully to distinguish what they were saying, but I felt that I could understand it and not understand it. After listening for a while, I turned around to ask the middle-aged boatman if there was often such a sound in this cave, but I found that he had disappeared! When I turned around again, damn, the old man was gone too.

"Pan Zi, where did they go?" Uncle San shouted anxiously

"I don't know. I didn't hear the sound of diving," Pan Zi was also panicking. "When I heard the sound just now, I was suddenly distracted."

"Oh no, we don't have any corpse qi on us, who knows what will happen!" Uncle San was annoyed, "Pan Zi, you fought in Vietnam, have you ever eaten a dead person?"

"You're kidding, Third Master. I was in the kitchen, washing dishes every day!" Pan Zi pointed at A Kui and said, "Fat Kui, didn't you say your family has been selling human meat buns for a long time? You must have eaten a lot of them when you were a child."

"Bullshit, I just made it up. Besides, these human meat buns are sold to others. Have you ever seen anyone who sells human meat buns and then eats them themselves ?"

I paused the conversation and said, "You three are over 150 years old in total. Isn't that shameful?"

As soon as I finished speaking, the boat suddenly shook. Pan Zi hurriedly picked up the miner's lamp and shone it into the water. With the help of the light, we saw a huge shadow swimming past in the water.

Fat Kui turned pale with fear, pointed at the water, and clicked his chin for a long time, but he couldn't utter a word. Uncle San was afraid that he would pass out, so he slapped him hard and scolded him, "You are useless! What are you clicking for? The two little ghosts didn't say a word. You have followed them for so many years, what the hell are you doing?"

"Oh my god - Third Master, this thing is too big! I'm afraid it's not enough for us to eat." Pang Kui looked at the water with lingering fear. He was originally sitting on the side of the boat, but now his butt had moved to the middle of the boat, as if he was afraid that something would suddenly come out of the water and take him away.

"Puh!" Uncle San glared at him fiercely. "We have all the weapons and people here. I, the third son of the Wu family, have been sifting through the sand for so long. What kind of monsters and demons have I not seen? If you have nothing to do, stop talking nonsense here."

Pan Zi was also scared, but for him, it was more shocking than fear. In such a narrow space, such a huge thing passed under the water. It was not surprising that everyone's brains were cramped for a moment. Pan Zi looked around and said, "Third Master, this cave is weird and strange. I'm scared. Let's talk about it after we get out. How about it?"

Fat Kui immediately agreed. Actually, I was also eager to go out, but I was a relative of Uncle San after all, so I had to wait for him to express his opinion before I could speak.

At this time, Third Uncle actually looked at that Oil Bottle, as if asking for his opinion. With Third Uncle's personality, he didn't care about anyone, but now he seemed to be very taboo about this kid. I couldn't help but feel strange. I turned my head to see how he expressed his attitude, but found that he was not listening to us at all, and his original wooden expression like a stone sculpture was gone. His eyes were staring into the water, as if he was concentrating on looking for something.

I wanted to ask Uncle San about this guy's background, but the situation was not right, so I had to ask Pan Zi secretly. Pan Zi also shook his head and said he didn't know, but he knew that this guy was quite skilled. He pointed at the guy's hand with his chin and said, "Look, this hand, how many years does it take to train like this?"

I had never paid attention to that person's hands. At first glance, they were really unusual. His middle finger and index finger were particularly long. I immediately thought of the ancient Fachiu Zhonglangjiang's skill of exploring caves with two fingers. I had seen related records in my grandfather's notes. The masters among the Fachiu Langjiang had a pair of fingers as steady as Mount Tai and extremely powerful. They could easily break the tiny mechanisms in the tombs. To develop such a unique skill, one must start practicing from a young age, and the process must have been extremely painful.

I was still wondering what his hand could do when I saw him raise his right hand and plunge it into the water like lightning. The movement was so fast that in a flash of white light, his hand had returned with a black insect between his two unusually long fingers. He threw the insect onto the deck and said, "That was the thing I just saw."

I looked down and suddenly realized, "Isn't this a water lice? So that big shadow just now was just a large number of water lice swimming past ?"

"Yes" the man wiped his hands with his clothes,

Although we still didn't quite believe it, we were relieved. Fat Kui suddenly stomped the bug to pieces, "Damn, I was scared to death."

But then I thought, that's not right, how could there be so many water lice moving at the same time? And these water lice are too big! Men Youping also seemed to be not very relieved, and seemed to be thinking about this problem too.

Fat Kui was still stepping on the insect's corpse, which had already become a pulp. Probably trying to save face for his previous loss of composure, Uncle San picked up a broken leg, put it under his nose and sniffed it, and said in horror: "This is not a water beetle, it's a corpse beetle." We were stunned and felt that something was wrong. The name sounded unlucky.

"My grandma, this thing eats carrion. There are especially many of them where there are dead things. They grow big if they eat well. It seems that there must be a place upstream where corpses are piled up. And it is incredibly big." Uncle San looked at the pitch-black hole.

"Will this thing bite living people?" Da Kui asked timidly.

"If it's normal size, it definitely won't bite, but looking at the size of this one, I'm not sure if it will bite." Uncle San looked at it in confusion. "These things usually stay in places where there are many dead bodies, and they don't swim around often. Why are there such a large group of them migrating together now?"

The oil bottle suddenly turned his head to the depths of the cave and said, "I think they were running for their lives just now."

"What?" The fat man was startled. "Then what's inside this cave——"

Menyouping nodded and said, "I always feel like there is something coming towards us from inside, and it's quite large."