Chapter 467: Diseased Corpses
These strange birds had no feathers; instead, they looked more like rats.
Their wings were a pair of membranes.
A pair of tiny fangs protruded from their mouths.
No, strictly speaking, they were not birds at all.
"Bats!"
Luo Xingfa's hand holding the oil lamp was shaking uncontrollably.
"So they were bats, no wonder so many animals in the mountains were drained of their blood!" Lu Fei narrowed his eyes, "And those hanging human skins must have been the work of these bats, pretending to be ghosts!"
The sight of the human skin opening its mouth to reveal even more small mouths left a rather deep impression on him.
It turned out that inside were the mouths of bats.
"To be able to command bats, what kind of sorcery has Luo Youliang learned?" Lu Fei became increasingly curious.
The black umbrella wreaked havoc in all directions.
Piles of bat limbs fell.
In a short while, the large swarm of bats was reduced to just a few scattered ones by the black umbrella.
The remaining bats frantically fled deeper into the passage.
"After them!"
Lu Fei threw the black umbrella into the air.
He grabbed the still dazed Luo Xingfa and quickly gave chase.
After being cautious all the way, Xiao Hei got excited, his short legs moving so fast that he darted ahead of Lu Fei.
The black umbrella proceeded to eliminate the remaining few bats one by one.
The group chased out through the passageway.
The black umbrella suddenly came to a halt in front.
Lu Fei, in front of Luo Xingfa, managed to stop in time.
They arrived at a space resembling a cave, with a thick layer of bat droppings on the ground and a dense mass of red dots above their heads.
The bats' lair!
Luo Xingfa felt a shiver run down his spine.
But Lu Fei became cheerful: "Luo Youliang must be hiding in here!"
With the black umbrella, the bats posed no threat; it would just mean spending a bit more time cutting through them.
"Mr. Luo, quickly find someone!"
"Okay!"
Upon hearing this, Luo Xingfa immediately found new strength and mustered the courage to follow Lu Fei as they moved around in the cave.
The black umbrella hovered majestically above them.
It would kill any bat that came near, without hesitation!
A dense cluster of red dots, glowing with a menacing light, beat their wings but were intimidated by the powerful killing aura of the black umbrella before they could even take flight, and could only cling to the cave walls, emitting shrill squeaks.
Luo Xingfa was drenched in cold sweat.
However, Lu Fei felt reassured and swept the flashlight around the area.
There were many corners in the cave.
"Woof woof!" Xiao Hei barked at Lu Fei and then ran off to the side.
"Mr. Luo, hurry up!"
Lu Fei led Luo Xingfa to catch up with Xiahei, and soon they saw a black coffin ahead.
They didn't know what was inside the coffin, but there was a person standing gloomily beside it.
"Luo Youliang!"
It was the old man they had been searching for all night!
"Luo Youliang, give my Hao Hao's life back!" Luo Xingfa's eyes blazed with anger as he shouted, his voice trembling.
Luo Youliang ignored him and instead looked coldly at Lu Fei, his expression sinister.
"Boy, you managed to chase me here; who are you exactly?" His voice was particularly hoarse, as if it had been rubbed with coarse sand, and his neck had many lumps of varying sizes.
Just hearing his voice made people feel uncomfortable.
"Want to know? Give the child's life back, and I'll tell you!"
Lu Fei gave a cold smile.
The small black dog at his feet arched its back, eyes gleaming with ferocity.
The black umbrella hung behind him, and his hair danced in the wind.
"For a child who's none of your business, is it really worth it? How much has he paid you? I'll double your price, triple it even, just name your price!" Luo Youliang looked at Lu Fei with fear.
Luo Xingfa instantly became tense: "Manager Lu, I will give you all my savings..."
"Mr. Luo, I am here to help Master Xiang. Whatever price he has offered, that is the price."
Lu Fei waved his hand dismissively.
Luo Xingfa was taken aback, and his eyes instantly filled with tears: "Manager Lu, thank you so much!"
Seeing this, Luo Youliang's bushy, graying eyebrows furrowed, and he turned his gaze to Luo Xingfa.
"Xingfa, your child is only five or six years old. Just have another one! Why go to such lengths to be ruthless? When you were a child, I used to hold you, and I even helped bury your parents..."
"Shut up!" Luo Xingfa roared in anger.
"Just because the child is young, he's not a person? I brought him into this world, and I have to take responsibility for him! I'm telling you, if you don't return Hao Hao's life, I will find you no matter where you run, even to the ends of the earth!"
"What's the point in wasting words on this old fool? If he won't return it, we'll beat it out of him!"
Lu Fei took out his ghost-whipping whip and charged ferociously at Luo Youliang, with Xiao Hei and the black umbrella in tow.
"You're being ungrateful! Since that's the case, all of you should stay here and be buried with me!"
Luo Youliang's eyes were so dark they seemed to drip with water. The old man pushed the coffin with great force.
The coffin burst open with a bang.
A skeleton suddenly sat up, wearing tattered clothes, with layers of green mold growing on its white bones.
The skeleton climbed out of the coffin, and as it moved, a layer of green fog rose from the mold on its body.
"What is that?"
Lu Fei was greatly alarmed, and he and Xiao Hei abruptly stopped in their tracks.
Inside the ancient tomb, the aura that made one's internal organs feel uncomfortable emanated from this skeleton.
Judging by the skeleton's attire, it should have been a deceased person in this ancient tomb.
The mold spots on its body...
Lu Fei noticed that inside the skeleton, there were still decaying and blackened internal organs hanging, covered with green mold!
"It's a diseased corpse!"
Lu Fei quickly retreated a few steps with Xiao Hei.
"Mr. Luo, be careful! Don't let any of that mold powder touch you!"
A so-called diseased corpse is formed by those who died unwillingly from a serious illness!
The more severe the disease and the stronger the resentment, the more ominous aura they emit, which is called the disease aura.
Whether it's humans or animals, once they are exposed to this kind of malaise, the least harmful outcome is being sick for a few days, while the worst case can result in serious illness and death.
"Now, you will taste the torment of being plagued by a serious illness!"
Luo Youliang hid in a corner behind the coffin, wearing a sinister smile.
His strange illness might be due to his tomb-raiding activities, where he encountered such malaise.
The diseased corpse, now reduced to bones, staggered toward Lu Fei, its moldy patches emitting puffs of green mist.
"Little Umbrella, don't let that old man off! Mr. Luo, stay back!"
Lu Fei and Xiao Hei retreated.
But the black umbrella, being not a living being, was utterly fearless of the malaise.
Upon receiving Lu Fei's command, it flew excitedly towards Luo Youliang.
Luo Youliang furrowed his brows and jumped directly into the coffin, grabbing the lid and shutting himself inside.
The black umbrella hung above the coffin, with fine strands of hair slipping into the gaps.
"Manager Lu, be careful!"
Luo Xingfa held an oil lamp in one hand and tightly gripped the Pixiu seal given to him by Master Xiang with the other.
The diseased corpse was constantly approaching, and the bats around were restless.
"It's not hard to deal with a diseased corpse; just burn it. The only problem is you mustn't let the miasma touch you." Lu Fei pulled out a Ghost Ward talisman, lit it, and threw it forcefully at the diseased corpse.
The diseased corpse had no intelligence, only the instinct to infect the living.
As the burning Ghost Ward talisman landed on it, green flames instantly flared up, and green mist surged around.
"Xiao Hei, run farther away!"
Lu Fei stepped back, and when he looked down, he found that the little guy had already run off and was now by Luo Xingfa's side.