Chapter 141: Corpse-Hiding Chamber

The entire Corpse Storage Chamber was pitch black, with the light beams from several flashlights crossing messily. Fatty was in a corner far from all of us. When the flashlights shone over there, the surrounding corpses blocked the view, shadows layering upon layers. Even with clear illumination, we couldn't see him very clearly.

But the bluish-purple color on Fatty's face was unmistakable. That eerie, woodenly sinister expression looked far too similar to the corpses around him, sending chills down our spines.

Panzi initially thought Fatty was messing around again and called out to him, but Fatty still had no reaction, motionless as a statue. Panzi also sensed something wrong and said to us, "Looks like something's happened?"

I frowned, not knowing what to say. Fatty's expression and movements were so similar to the corpses here that if he wasn't pulling a prank, something must have gone wrong. But everyone else was fine, so why him again? Seeing him like this, had he been possessed by a ghost here, or was he cursed by a shaman? We gradually slid down the steep slope, approaching the spot where Fatty was squatting. We didn't see anything different around him—just all those bluish-purple, fanged corpses. When we were about four or five meters away, Panzi waved his hand for us to stop and made a gesture to Monk Hua.

In Chenpi A'si's team, Lang Feng was the vanguard type like Fatty, Monk Hua was the advisor, and Ye Cheng did odd jobs. Each had their own special abilities, but now Lang Feng was dead. Still, Monk Hua's skills were not weak, so Panzi gestured to him.

I felt the gap. In our team, there were plenty of people to be vanguard, but I was too weak to barely qualify as an advisor. Thinking about it without Poker-face, if the other side didn't have Monk Hua, I would have to step up, and my abilities were far inferior to his.

Monk Hua saw Panzi's gesture and nodded. The two of them each took out hunting knives, held them in reverse, and crept toward Fatty.

They quickly reached Fatty's side, but Fatty didn't turn to look at them, standing as still as a statue like a street performer pretending to be a sculpture.

My palms were sweaty. For some reason, I felt something was off. Then the two ahead stopped. Panzi was already very close to Fatty, almost within arm's reach, but they both waved back for us not to come closer and started retreating themselves.

My heart began to race. I didn't know what they had seen. Panzi retreated to my side and turned to say, "Trouble. The corpse behind him has a problem."

"What kind of trouble?" I asked. "A big zongzi?"

Panzi told us not to ask and gestured for us to follow him.

We followed him through several corpses, down a few layers of terraced steps, and came to Fatty's side. He pointed, and I looked in that direction. Behind Fatty sat several bluish-black corpses, but one of them was different! This corpse had an enormous head, about three times the size of a normal person's. Its facial features were unclear, like a large-headed, immature fetus. A strange tongue extended from the corpse's mouth and was coiled around Fatty's neck.

My scalp instantly tightened, my heart pounded wildly, my neck almost stiffened. I covered my mouth to keep from screaming and whispered, "What is that?"

"This might be a corpse fetus. The position where that corpse is sitting must be the corpse-nurturing acupoint of this entire spirit palace. This corpse happened to be right at that point, and over time, it transformed into this. In another few hundred years, it might become a spirit." Chenpi A'si said softly from another side. After speaking, his expression suddenly turned strange, as if he had thought of something. "No! But isn't this dragon vein fake? How could a corpse-nurturing acupoint appear? This..."

Monk Hua saw Chenpi A'si's strange expression and seemed to suddenly understand. His expression changed (I felt that Monk Hua had actually thought of it earlier but, to save Chenpi A'si's face, often waited until Chenpi A'si had figured it out before reacting). He asked Chenpi A'si, "Old master, could this be a 'linked deception'?"

"Linked deception" is a type of trick, a tactic from the "Sparrow" character scheme in the Eight Outer Trades. It involves making something real appear fake, then making it real again, leaving a flaw for others to see. When they see the flaw, they think it's fake, but in fact it's real. It's a kind of empty city strategy.

Chenpi A'si sneered: "Yes, fake. How could a corpse-nurturing acupoint appear on a fake dragon vein? That old fellow Wang Zanghai played the 'linked deception' flawlessly, but a secret can't be kept forever, and finally a flaw has emerged."

I still didn't understand and asked Monk Hua what was going on.

Monk Hua explained, "It was really close. We were almost fooled. Fortunately, we fell here. Do you remember? Earlier, we found that the orientation had been faked, and we kept thinking this dragon vein was fake. But now a corpse fetus has appeared. A fake dragon vein can't have a precious acupoint; without that, a corpse fetus cannot appear. So this is a flaw. It seems that the magnetic turtle was also part of Wang Zanghai's trap, meant to make us think we had been tricked and that the entire dragon vein was fake. But in truth, the dragon vein is real; it's just that the pattern wasn't Three-Headed Dragon. The magnetic turtle merely altered the pattern of an ordinary dragon vein into the ultimate configuration of 'Group of Dragons Throne.' That's actually quite easy." I went "Oh," and started to get a clue. Feng shui orientation is crucial in determining the quality of a dragon vein. For example, a one-eyed dragon running from west to east is a Soaring Dragon, but from east to west it's a Crouching Dragon. If you bury a magnetic turtle to change the local feng shui orientation, a Crouching Dragon can be disguised as a Soaring Dragon.

(Later I looked up Group of Dragons Throne. It turns out that all three dragon heads must face east to be called Group of Dragons Throne. The three sacred mountain ranges of Changbai all face north. Only the central Three Sacred Mountains are the dragon heads; the other two on the sides are called Twin Serpents Guarding, which is also a good feng shui acupoint, but not suitable for burials—rather for building temples. Once the magnetic turtle was placed, north turned into east, causing Chenpi A'si to make a wrong judgment.) I couldn't help but marvel at such a complex setup. The level of intellectual contest was incredible. Just think, we had been completely fooled. If we hadn't discovered the corpse fetus here, we would have definitely gone back dejected.

A thousand years separated us from Wang Zanghai, but suddenly I felt his thoughts flowing before my eyes. The schemes he laid out a thousand years ago could still toy with us. Who was this man? Panzi said softly, "You guys still have time to talk about this? What about Fatty now? How do we deal with this thing? Will a black donkey's hoof work or not?"

Chenpi A'si shook his head, indicating he didn't know. Monk Hua also frowned, clearly unsure how to handle it.

This was the most annoying time. We didn't know if it was dangerous for Fatty to have that tongue wrapped around him, but rashly rescuing him might make things worse. Neither side had a solution. Panzi and I were sweating with anxiety, not knowing what to do.

Unexpectedly, before we could act, Fatty responded first. We saw Fatty suddenly fall to the ground and then get dragged. The big-headed corpse fetus crawled, using its tongue to pull Fatty, quickly dragging him down the steep slope. Fatty was stiff as stone, offering no resistance.

If it dragged him down there, Fatty was dead. The situation escalated instantly. Panzi

As soon as that big-headed corpse fetus saw us charge down, it sped up immediately, and Fatty started tumbling down the slope, knocking corpses every which way. We couldn't run on the incline either, so we just slid down like we were on a slide.

We chased down more than ten meters in no time, when suddenly we saw Fatty vanish on the slope—gone in an instant. Shocked, we rushed to that spot and immediately saw there was a hole in the slope. Fatty had been dragged into the hole, with only his two feet left outside.

Panzi leaped up, pouncing like a fierce tiger, grabbed Fatty's feet, and pulled with all his strength. I slid past, then scrambled back with my feet flailing to help. Then Ye Cheng, Shunzi, and Monk Hua also charged down. Monk Hua tore off a climbing rope and tied it around Fatty's leg, so unless the rope snapped Fatty in half, the corpse fetus couldn't out-pull us.

With so many of us, we quickly yanked Fatty back up. The tongue was tightly wrapped around his throat, almost digging into the flesh. Fatty's veins bulged, his eyes rolled back, and he was nearly done for. Panzi whipped out his military knife and slashed once. A woman's scream came from the hole, the tongue broke, Fatty went slack, and we pulled him out.

We quickly tore off the severed tongue, tossed it into the hole, and pressed on Fatty's chest. He could move again right away, clutching his neck and gasping and coughing heavily. Afraid that thing might pop out again, Panzi ripped out his entrenching tool and went to the hole, shining a flashlight inside. But after a moment, he lowered his weapon—it seemed the corpse fetus had already burrowed down.

We all breathed a sigh of relief and hurriedly pounded Fatty's back. After a good while, he finally recovered. Looking at the hole with lingering fear, he said, "Thanks, thanks a lot, brothers." I asked Fatty what had happened—how he ended up motionless like a Maitreya Buddha.

Fatty himself didn't know. He said he felt his neck go cold as he was searching, and then he couldn't move. He could see and hear, but his body was completely frozen, as if encased in ice. He strained with all his might, but couldn't even turn his eyes. It had him frantic.

Panzi laughed loudly: "From that scream just now, it was a female corpse fetus. I reckon she was too lonely down here, saw you two were similar in build, and wanted to drag you down to keep her company. Consider it a pick-up line from hell."

Fatty smiled bitterly and shoved him. "The hell you say—you're the one who looks like her."

Panzi laughed and dodged his push, leaning backward. What no one expected was that at that moment, the huge fetal head suddenly emerged from the hole again, its mouth full of blood, and instantly bit Panzi's foot. Before Panzi could react, he was violently dragged into that hole.