Chapter 139: Centipede Dragon God

After Chenpi A'si's iron pellet flew past, the flickering flame instantly dimmed again, and the human shadow over there became blurred, suddenly nothing could be seen clearly. The iron pellet finally hit something unknown, made a crisp sound, rolled to the ground, and the sound echoed in the empty spirit palace, giving people goosebumps.

At the moment the firelight flashed, everyone was startled by this shadow, Shunzi was even more panicked, and cried out softly, "What is this thing!"

Monk Hua immediately covered his mouth to stop him from continuing to speak, and several people subconsciously placed their hands on their knives.

Chenpi A'si waved his hand at us to tell us not to be so nervous, then gave Monk Hua a wink, and the latter immediately jumped onto a lamp slave to one side and slapped out the flame with one hand.

I had to admire Chenpi A'si's calmness; in such a strange environment, no one would think of putting out the light source beside themselves, everyone would hope that the area around them was as bright as possible, but actually, being in darkness was the safest in this situation.

As soon as the lamp slave was extinguished, the surroundings suddenly became dark again, and darkness like thick fog enveloped us, while the lamp slave on the other side appeared even brighter.

We snapped off our flashlights as well, held our breath together, and stared at the shadow over there. The darkness around me suddenly stimulated my nerves, and I felt my heart beating very fiercely.

This shadow was clearly human, but most of its body was still hidden in the darkness. What made it feel very strange was its unusually long neck and some indescribable things on its body that seemed like spines or tentacles. It looked not like a human, but rather a... a kind of bird.

I instinctively felt a chill. Except for Poker-face, everyone else was around. This shadow definitely wasn't Poker-face; could there be someone else here? Then who was he? How could he appear in a spirit palace on a snowy mountaintop? Could the avalanche just now have attracted the attention of border guards, and this person was a scout from the People's Liberation Army?

No, that wouldn't be the case. Not to mention the avalanche happened in the valley, even if they had really discovered it, it would take at least a day to get here, they wouldn't arrive so quickly.

I suddenly thought again that this spirit palace was a trap set by Wang Zanghai. Since it was a trap, it must be extremely treacherous. People who fall into the trap would never imagine what awaits them. Could this shadow be the monster Wang Zanghai placed here when he set the trap? We didn't dare to breathe, staring dead at that shadow, hoping to infer something from its movements and shape. At the very least, let us know whether this thing was human or something else. But strangely, that shadow also stood straight there like a clay statue, not even swaying. It didn't seem to be a living thing at all. After waiting for a while, neither side moved. Fatty couldn't contain himself anymore and whispered, "This is wrong. If it's alive, it has to move. This thing doesn't move at all—are we seeing things? Is that the shadow of those lamp slaves cast on the pillars?" Ye Cheng said, "Nonsense, aren't the lamp slaves all standing at the sides? How could they walk over here on their own?" Fatty whispered, "They say that if heaven and earth are full of spiritual energy, even a pipa can become a spirit. Maybe the stone lamp slaves here have become spirits and can walk on their own." His words made me feel very uncomfortable, and I suddenly didn't have the wits to judge what Fatty said. A few months ago, I didn't even believe in corpses. Now, I've seen enough corpses to fill two mahjong tables. As to whether there are monsters, I really dare not judge. But I felt that Fatty's talk of stone lamp slaves becoming spirits was more of a joke—Fatty's words become less reliable the more dangerous the situation, which is very much in character.

But Fatty wasn't wrong about one thing: any living thing must move. Even if it's a zombie, it couldn't stand there like a stone. This shadow not moving at all was too strange. No matter what it was, we couldn't just stay stuck here forever. Although I couldn't see, I knew that the surroundings were crawling with wall centipedes. If someone got bitten again, even if it wasn't fatal, on a snowy mountain with scarce clothing and medicine, it could still be deadly. We whispered and discussed; everyone's thoughts were basically the same as mine. Fatty said in a very low voice, "Then let's not stay here admiring its figure. Let's sneak over and take a look. If it's really a person, dammit, we'll tackle and beat him!" Several people replied. I felt a gust of wind beside me—the impatient ones had already crept over. In total darkness, there was no way to form a formation. I steeled myself and headed toward the only firelight. The lamp slave wasn't far from us. After a few steps, the shadow became clearer and clearer, and I found it increasingly strange. Without realizing it, a sense of foreboding grew stronger. As I almost stepped into the area illuminated by the light, I subconsciously slowed down, hid in the darkness, and slowly, gently approached. The black shadow was almost ten steps away from me. I squinted at it, little by little, my heartbeat quickened, cold sweat kept pouring out. I prayed to heaven not to let me see what I didn't want to see. But as my view drew closer, I gradually realized that heaven might not protect tomb-raiding people like us. The thing before me became clearer and clearer. Suddenly I couldn't even move my feet. I felt my whole body go weak, and in the end I was completely frozen there, unable to move. I couldn't describe what I saw. It could only be called a giant "house centipede" shaped thing, but whether it really was one, I didn't know, because it was too big. I knew the largest house centipedes could grow over a meter, but this one was clearly bigger. The centipede raised half its body like a snake, coiled around a lamp slave. What we had seen as a neck was actually just a shadow formed by its two large poisonous jaws and long antennae. Countless long legs hung down. The entire giant insect was completely still, as if it were sucking the gases evaporating from the lamp oil. Among the centipede family, the Galapagos centipede of the Caribbean can grow to 40–60 cm, but one over a meter has never been found. With such a huge size, this insect's lifespan must be thousands of years. Groans came from around me. I even heard Fatty say very softly, "Damn your grandpa!" Obviously the others who had crept over also saw it and couldn't believe their eyes. I thought of the black giant tomb passage seal stone we saw halfway, carved with a centipede dragon. Suddenly I understood why the dragons of the Eastern Xia people had a thousand centipede feet! It seemed that after they retreated into the deep mountains, they saw such a giant centipede and deified it as a dragon incarnation. In a chaotic mind, I heard someone whistle a few times, meaning "Fall back!" At that moment I didn't know who said it, but I unconsciously retreated. I kept retreating and retreating, not knowing where I had ended up. Looking around, it was pitch black. It turned out that after Monk Hua had extinguished the lamp slave on our side, we had lost our retreat target, and in the retreat, we all got separated. I turned my flashlight on again, thinking to light a lamp slave to attract their attention, but then I saw the shadow of the giant centipede not far away move. The lamp slave beside it went out instantly, and the giant centipede disappeared into the darkness. I suddenly remembered what Shunzi said about centipedes being attracted to heat, and immediately felt something bad was coming. At the same time, far away, Monk Hua lit a cold flare and yelled, "Don't anyone light the lamp slaves! Everyone, follow my cold flare and gather here." In the dark I heard the sound of many feet crawling on the floor, the frequency extremely fast. I couldn't tell where it was crawling, but the sound was getting louder, so I immediately ran. In the chaos, I heard Fatty shouting from another direction, "Why not light it? Lighting this thing can slow down the giant bug for a while. If we don't light it, it will come straight for us! It has so many legs, we can't outrun it!" Monk Hua said, "No! I smelled that lamp oil. There's insect incense jade in it too. Once the scent spreads, more of these... these things will crawl out. That would be even more troublesome." He paused, obviously not knowing what to call such a giant centipede. Hearing that there might be more than one, I felt a chill in my heart. While running toward Monk Hua's cold flare, I also shouted, "Then what do we do about this one?" Monk Hua said, "When we get there, I'll have a way. Watch your back—this kind of insect crawls very fast!" Soon I reached Monk Hua's side, following the flare. Suddenly many light spots appeared around as several people rushed out of the darkness. We were out of breath and couldn't even speak. Fatty, holding his chest, looked around at the darkness and asked Monk Hua, "Alright, we're here. What's the plan? Hurry up and tell us! That thing is coming soon." Then he listened for the spine-tingling crawling sound, but when he did, the sound had vanished, as if the big bug hadn't followed and had stopped. Monk Hua was also panting heavily. He coughed and patted his backpack, saying, "It's not a special method. We still have explosives. Blow it to death." Fatty couldn't help laughing and said, "Well then, the glorious task is yours. Go ahead. I'll take care of the old master for you." Monk Hua said, "I don't need to go. I've already arranged it. Someone else will go." I suddenly felt a chill in his expression and also realized something. Turning my head, I changed color and said, "Where is Lang Feng?" Monk Hua didn't speak, only looked toward the darkness on one side, "Get ready. It's coming." Before he finished speaking, there was a loud "BOOM." A dazzling fireball burst in the darkness. We all reflexively hit the ground. Instantly a rain of wooden debris fell on our heads. The whole floor shook violently; a plank bounced up and almost hit my nose. The shockwave wasn't strong, but the noise was loud. My eardrums rang, and for a moment I couldn't hear anything. I raised my head and looked toward the explosion. The floor had been blown into a big crater, the edges burning. The giant "thousand-legged centipede dragon" had its entire head blown to pieces, still writhing incessantly. And the place of explosion was exactly where we had placed Lang Feng earlier. I immediately understood what Monk Hua had done. No wonder the "thousand-legged centipede dragon" hadn't chased us here—it had been attracted to the unconscious Lang Feng, and Monk Hua had placed the explosive on him. I could hardly believe my eyes. I turned to look at Monk Hua and Chenpi A'si; neither of them had any expression, as if this had nothing to do with them. Chenpi A'si saw my expression, patted me, and said softly, "Three steps ahead, four steps behind—didn't your grandfather teach you that? If it were me, they would do the same to me. In this line of work, you need to have that kind of awareness." "Three steps ahead, four steps behind" is a saying among earth masters, meaning that when doing something, you should consider three steps before and four steps after. Earth masters underground, every move they make is a matter of life and death. So before you do anything, you must consider what will happen in the next three steps and how to deal with it. If you find that you can't solve it, you must not do it. And such consideration must become a habit. I also understood the purpose of Chenpi A'si's words. In fact, for someone like Lang Feng, his chance of getting out alive with us was already very slim. His meaning was that he was going to die sooner or later, so it was better to let him die quickly. My grandfather also mentioned in his notes that underground, sometimes by the time you realize the danger, it's already too late. So you have to consider it before danger arises. Tomb raiding is a meticulous job, and requires courage. Since ancient times, countless amateurs who went into ancient tombs impulsively ended up as sacrificial offerings. But even so, Lang Feng's death like this was truly unjust. It made me feel that even standing next to Chenpi A'si was frightening. Unfortunately, I couldn't express my feelings at that moment, so I just took a deep breath and tried my best to pretend nothing had happened.

The fire in front gradually died out. The wooden planks here had been frozen for years, and the gaps were filled with ice particles condensed from moisture in the air. The more they burned, the more ice appeared, and the more ice, the harder it was to burn. We walked toward the crater blown in the floor. My steps were very heavy, afraid I would suddenly see some part of Lang Feng's body. But Fatty and Panzi didn't react much, as if they were used to this kind of thing, or perhaps they thought showing depression was useless. Fatty saw that I was still unable to let go, so he patted me and said softly, "Forget it. Anyway, he's one of them. Maybe he had blood debts on his hands. What goes around comes around."

Shunzi still didn't understand what had happened, almost scared silly, following us dazedly. When we reached the blasted hole in the floor, I shone my flashlight down. The bricks under the wooden floor had been blown into a large crater. The underground corridor reinforced with black stone strips had also cracked, revealing a gap with emptiness below. I knew what that place was, because this part of the spirit palace was built on a steep slope, but the floor was flat, so there must be a triangular space supported by beams and pillars. All buildings constructed on steep slopes or cliffs, such as the Potala Palace, have such a structure. A cold wind blew out from the crack, obviously connecting to the outside. I recalled that the triangular space below was also enclosed by white plaster walls, but I didn't know what it was like. However, wind was blowing out, so it seemed we could get out from there. Something was clearly wrong in the surrounding area; the ground was covered with centipedes. If we insisted on leaving through the main door, it might get more dangerous the further we went. Now that a hole had been blasted, it could just let us escape.

Fatty jumped into the pit created by the explosion. The hole below was still too small for a person to pass through; it needed to be widened. Monk Hua also jumped in to help. Fatty asked me, "Is it okay to keep digging like this?" I told them not to mess around. The stone corridor was already brittle from the winter cold, and the explosion just now had definitely completely destroyed the load-bearing structure below. We don't know how deep it is down there. If it suddenly collapses, it won't just be one or two people falling; it's likely that the entire ground nearby will sink in, and then the Spirit Palace will become our burial mound.

So we tied ropes around the waists of Fatty and Monk Hua, with the other end tied to a huge pillar on the side. All of us clipped our carabiners onto the rope, so that in case of a collapse, we could look out for each other.

Once ready, Fatty started hitting the stone slab below with a hammer. Unexpectedly, after just one strike, a cracking sound came from under his feet. One of the beams below, as thick as a bowl, had been broken by his step, and suddenly his foot sank down, going all the way up to his thigh.

I was startled, thinking it was about to collapse, but luckily only his foot had sunk in. Fatty cursed a very foul swear word while trying to pull his foot out.

After pulling for a while, his foot came up to the knee but couldn't be pulled out any further. Fatty himself was a bit puzzled. Suddenly his expression changed and he shouted, "Oh no, something is pulling my foot!" As he said this, he began to slide downward.

Monk Hua quickly went down and grabbed his hands, pulling upward with force. The others crowded over to help, and they managed to pull his foot out, but they couldn't lift him up onto the brick pit. It seemed that something below really had a hold on him.

Ye Cheng shone a flashlight down, and everyone immediately gasped. From the hole in the stone corridor that Fatty had collapsed, a dry, turquoise-purple hand was reaching out, tightly gripping Fatty's ankle.