Chapter 6: The Land of Corpses

We stopped the boat. This should be the most dangerous part of the water cave. If we are not prepared, we should not rush in. Uncle San looked at his watch and said, "This corpse cave is a cave that you can walk in but can't get out. We have been digging sand for so long, but this is the first time we have entered such a place. I think there may be something strange about this cave!"

Pan Zi interjected in a low voice: "Fuck, that's even necessary."

Uncle San glared at him and continued, "But this is just the old man's one-sided statement. We have no way of knowing whether this cave is only accessible to the boatman and no one else can pass through. If this cave," he emphasized, "is really a corpse cave, then there must be danger ahead. As for what we will encounter, we have no way of knowing. We may be trapped in a wall of ghosts and have no idea where the boat is going. There may be hundreds of water ghosts who will lift our boat planks."

Da Kui took a breath and said, "Not really."

"Anyway, anything could happen. We encountered so many dangers while panning for graves this time, and we haven't even reached the cemetery. We are really unlucky. But no matter what, we are not afraid of ghosts when panning for graves. If we are afraid of ghosts, we won't pan for graves. Since we are in this business, it doesn't make much sense if we don't encounter some strange things." The third uncle asked Pan Zi to take out a double-barreled shotgun from his backpack. "We have high technology in our hands now, which is much more advantageous than our predecessors in the early years. If there really are water ghosts, it will be their bad luck!"

Da Kui was so scared that he was shaking all over. I said to Uncle San, "Why do you say this pre-war mobilization like a ghost story? It has the opposite effect."

Uncle San pulled the bolt of his gun and said, "This guy really embarrassed me this time. I didn't expect him to be so useless. He blew himself up like a powerful King Kong before he came." Then he handed the gun to the oil bottle and said to him, "You can fire two shots in total. After that, you have to change the bullets. These are all scattered bullets, so they have no power at a distance. Aim and then shoot."

I was very familiar with the double-barreled shotgun. I even won a prize for shooting skeet when I was a kid. So I picked it up. Uncle San and Da Kui held a saber in one hand and used a folding shovel to paddle the boat with the other. Pan Zi, Men You Ping and I held our guns and slowly rowed towards the corpse-piling field that was glowing green.

Under the faint divergent light of the mining lamp, I found that the hole was getting bigger and bigger, and the green light was getting closer and closer. I first heard Monk Oil Bottle next to me utter a foreign word, and then I heard Pan Zi curse his mother, and then I saw a scene that I will never forget in my life.

The cave suddenly became brighter when it reached the green light section, and it became a huge natural cave. The waterway also became a river in the cave. The shallows on both sides of the waterway were full of green rotten corpses. It was impossible to tell whether they were human or animal. The rows of skeletons closest to the inside were very neat, and they should have been piled here by humans. The ones outside were more messy, especially those by the river. There were all kinds of movements, and there were many corpses that were not completely rotten. These corpses, without exception, had a layer of gray film-like things, tightly wrapped around them like plastic wrap. From time to time, several huge corpse beetles broke out of the corpses. These corpse beetles were much smaller than the one on our boat, but 4 or 5 times larger than ordinary ones. Some small corpse beetles wanted to share the spoils. As soon as they climbed onto the corpse, the big corpse beetle bit the small one to death and ate it.

"Most of these corpses floated down from upstream and were stranded here. Everyone, be careful and look around for any strange things!"

"Look!" Da Kui pointed to the mountain wall. We turned around and saw a green crystal coffin embedded in the middle of the almost vertical cave wall. There seemed to be a female corpse in white clothes inside, but the distance was too far and we couldn't see it clearly.

"There is one over there too!" Pan Zi went to the other side, and we looked, and sure enough, there was also a crystal coffin at the same position on the other side of the mountain wall, but this one was empty!

Uncle San took a breath and asked, "Where did this body go?"

"Could it be a zongzi?" Da Kui asked, "Third Master, there shouldn't be zongzi in this place?"

"Everyone, be careful. If you see anything moving, shoot first without asking any questions," said Uncle San, looking around vigilantly.

At this time, the river turned and we passed a pile of corpses. Da Kui screamed and fell into the boat in fear. We looked closely and saw a woman in white feather clothes with her back to us. Her long black hair reached her waist. I saw the decorations on her belt and determined that she was from the Western Zhou Dynasty. I couldn't help but swallow and said, "The body is here..."

"Stop, stop..." The third uncle wiped the sweat from his forehead, "Da Kui, take the black donkey hoof in the bag! This must be a thousand-year-old rice dumpling. Take the one from 1923. I'm afraid she won't accept the new one."

After saying it twice, Da Kui didn't move. We looked back and saw that he was spitting white powder from his mouth and twitching. If the environment didn't allow it, I would have laughed out loud.

"Pan Zi, go get it. Damn it, I'll bring him out next time. You deserve to be eaten by the Zongzi." The Third Uncle took the black donkey hoof, spit on his hand twice, and said, "Look at what Master Wu San did. My nephew, you see clearly. This thousand-year-old Zongzi is hard to come by. If I fail, you can shoot me in the head and let your Third Uncle die quickly!"

I pulled him and asked, "Are you sure?" I wasn't really scared, after all, I had never encountered such a thing before. I always felt that the back of this slender woman in plain clothes was a little sad, but in horror movies, the women with long hair and white clothes don't look that bad when they turn around. The psychological effect was here, and my heart was still beating very fast.

At this time, Menyouping also pressed Uncle San's shoulder and said, "Black donkey hooves are for dealing with zombies. This guy is probably not a zombie. Let me do it." He took out a long object from his bag. I recognized it as the "Dragon Back" he bought from my Uncle San. He loosened the cloth on the object, and inside was indeed a black ancient knife. It looked like it was made of black gold.

He slashed the back of his hand with the ancient knife, then stood at the bow and dripped his blood into the water. As soon as the first drip came, all the corpse beetles crawled out of the corpses with a "splash", as if they had seen a ghost, and tried frantically to get away from our boat. All of a sudden, all the corpse beetles around our boat, in the water, and in the corpses disappeared.

Soon, the oil bottle's hand was dripping with blood. He pointed his bloody hand at the woman in white, and the woman actually knelt down. We were stunned. The oil bottle said to Uncle San, "Go quickly, and don't look back!"

Although I really wanted to see what the woman looked like, when I thought that what I might see when I looked back might be the face of a mummy, I decided not to take the risk. Uncle San and Pan Zi paddled desperately and finally saw a gradually smaller hole in front of them. It was similar to the hole we came in from. It seemed that this hole was in the center of the mountain and the waterway was formed after the two sides were dug through. This formed a capillary structure with very narrow entrances and exits on both sides. Even if the water on both sides covered the hole, the inside could still remain dry.

We gradually drove into the tunnel and had to lower our heads. Before entering the tunnel, I was careful. Didn't I say not to look back? I might as well look at my reflection in the water to see if she was following me. It would have been fine if I didn't look. I almost fainted when I looked at her. In the reflection in the water, I saw an unknown creature lying on my back. I was about to scream and couldn't control myself from looking back, but I felt a heavy blow on the back of my head and my eyes went black and I knew nothing.