Chapter 165: Exit

My blood instantly froze, and everyone stood petrified. Panzi reflexively reached for his gun, while Fatty slowly raised the rhinoceros-horn torch in his hand.

The ceiling of the tomb chamber was extremely high. Normally, the light from our wind lanterns or smokeless stoves couldn't reach that high. If it weren't for the burning rhinoceros horn making the smokeless stove's flame suddenly brighter, we would only have seen pitch black when we looked up at the roof. But even this illumination was very limited. The black child was extremely blurry in the firelight, like a black jellyfish clinging to the tomb ceiling, undulating with the "sea water."

For a moment, I wasn't sure whether the shadow above our heads was cast by this "rhinoceros light" or had been there all along, and we just hadn't noticed it ourselves. When we first entered the tomb chamber, although we had looked up at the ceiling very roughly, my mind was completely captivated by the treasures and jewels here, and I didn't even know what I had seen. Perhaps that "child" had already been hanging from the tomb ceiling, but we simply hadn't paid attention.

Fatty quietly raised his gun and turned to ask us in exaggerated lip language: "Is... this... the... thing?"

I waved my hand for him to not act rashly. Actually, saying this thing was the culprit was baseless; perhaps the black child just happened to pass by and rest above our heads. But at a time like that, how could we still think about such things? The scene that had been without a target suddenly had one, and everyone was already frantic.

But now we still didn't know what that thing was, nor whether bullets would work on it. If we acted rashly and let it escape, we didn't have a second rhinoceros horn to burn.

All of us stood up cautiously. Fatty attached the stove to the gun barrel and slowly raised it, making the tomb ceiling gradually brighter. This was very physically demanding. As Fatty lifted it a bit, his hands began to tremble, so Panzi hurried over to help him.

The black "child" became increasingly clear, and gradually a distinct shape appeared above our heads. As I watched, I suddenly began to break out in a cold sweat.

The shape of the shadow gradually took form. The "child's" head grew larger and larger, and slowly the entire black shadow turned into the shape of a giant-headed fetus.

This... isn't this the big-headed fetal corpse we saw in the Corpse Storage Pavilion? How did it follow us here? Could it have been following us all along?

I suddenly remembered that we had also encountered a "ghost wall" in the main hall, and my heart was suddenly terrified. Wasn't this thing originally hidden in the interlayer under the main hall? Could this kind of physically impossible predicament really have been created by the fetal corpse?

Fatty and Panzi also recognized it. Fatty grinned and said to Panzi slowly in lip language: "Well... well... looks... like... your... black... daughter... can't... bear... to... let... you... go." His mouth movements were extremely exaggerated and ridiculous! Panzi got angry and cursed back in lip language: "Fuck... your... son... looks... like... that!"

I waved at them and pointed to the smokeless stove. The flame was already gradually dimming. Once the rhinoceros horn burned out, we would really be doomed. We had to finish this thing off in one go.

Fatty nodded, gently pulled the bolt, and aimed little by little. But with a smokeless stove hanging from the gun barrel, it was indeed a bit shaky; every time he aimed, the barrel shook. So Fatty simply switched to automatic fire. Shunzi beside him also raised his gun and aimed in the dim light.

The light was getting dimmer and dimmer. I was so anxious I was sweating, but they just wouldn't fire. I knew what was going on; it also showed that Fatty and Shunzi were indeed very professional with guns. The light from the smokeless stove was too unstable. Actually, the position of the thing above our heads appeared offset to our naked eyes, so they didn't dare fire rashly. Only when the flame was about to die out and the light grew dim, and the shadow stopped flickering for that very brief moment, could they aim accurately.

I didn't dare speak either. I just watched Fatty's hand shaking more and more violently, with Panzi helping him support it from below. The shadow above gradually disappeared back into the darkness.

I don't know how I got through those dozens of seconds. The speed at which the light dimmed was so fast it almost left you no time to adjust your mindset. Just at the moment the fetal corpse suddenly disappeared, Fatty and Shunzi fired simultaneously.

A string of gunshots rang out—ten bullets fired from the guns. I don't know how many hit, but immediately black juice splattered from that thing, and it fell to the ground with a thud. Fatty could no longer hold the stove, and it crashed straight to the floor, scattering burning charcoal fragments everywhere.

We immediately stepped back several paces. The fetal corpse let out a baby-like scream, violently knocked away the still-rolling smokeless stove, and sped like lightning toward the darkness behind the tomb chamber door.

"Holy shit, it can still run?" Fatty shouted.

"Can't let it get away, or we'll get caught again!" Panzi yelled. "Chase it!"

The four of us got up and gave chase wildly. Passing through the tomb door, in almost an instant, we suddenly saw that the mural on the tomb passage outside had returned to its original pattern—the ghost wall had failed! "We're out!" Fatty rejoiced. "No more being trapped! It really was that mantis shrimp causing trouble!"

"Where's that ghostly thing?" I switched on my flashlight and immediately saw the fetal corpse stopping deep in the tomb passage. As soon as it saw our flashlight, it charged again at an astonishing speed into the darkness of the passage, running toward the other end.

We immediately chased after it again, knowing we absolutely could not let it escape. Once we stopped, we would likely be thrown back into that predicament. I really didn't want to experience that again even in death.

In the blink of an eye, after running for about seven or eight minutes, we had covered the thousand-meter tomb passage. I was gasping for breath. The end of the passage appeared before us—a staircase leading straight down. The fetal corpse's black blood was splattered all over the floor, clearly it had already charged down like lightning.

I reflexively felt a bit frustrated here, because before, we would always see that stone door marking our return to the starting point. Now seeing a staircase, it suddenly felt unfamiliar. But the next second, I really breathed a sigh of relief. Fatty gave me a push from behind, and we all charged down in a file, ignoring any traps or mechanisms—die if we had to. Even if only one of us remained, we had to kill that thing to vent our hatred! Nearly leaping ten steps at a time, we bounded down like kangaroos, but running downstairs always slows you down a little compared to running flat, yet the fetal corpse didn't slow at all, disappearing into the darkness below the stairs in an instant. I knew we had no hope of catching it, but I couldn't stop. I wanted to halt, but my left foot tripped over my right, and I tumbled down several rolls to the bottom of the stone steps, bleeding profusely, and my flashlight flew away.

Cursing inwardly, I was about to stand up when Fatty also tripped from above and rolled right over me. Fortunately it wasn't the first time. I grunted and hurriedly scrambled up to avoid any more, but when I was halfway up, something caught my pants, and I fell again, followed by a sharp pain in my butt.

I struggled to get up and fell several times before realizing something had snagged me. Fatty, on the other hand, had already got up. He shone his flashlight at me and suddenly grunted. By his flashlight, I saw what had hooked my pants. Behind me was a row of concrete frames with wire mesh, running across the entire tomb chamber.

But then I heard gunfire coming from one side, and it was very intense—not the sound that just Fatty and Shunzi's two guns could make.

I got up and saw light coming from one direction, but it wasn't strong. Just as I was about to walk out, Panzi and Fatty, who had been running behind me, caught up.

I was puzzled why they ran so slowly. Fatty said that when Shunzi passed the crossroad, he went back the way they came. He had found his father and also picked up so much gold that he absolutely didn't want to continue taking risks with us. He said he would wait for us on the snowy mountain outside for a week; if we hadn't come out after a week, he would go back on his own.

I cursed the ungrateful bastard under my breath, but he had had enough, following us and suffering so much. Just then Fatty also heard the gunfire and instantly became alert.

We shone our flashlights around and found that at the end of the staircase on the other side of the tomb passage was a platform, beyond which were several long corridors. That is, this was the entrance to a huge two-story tomb chamber, but between the two levels there was no ceiling—only a few suspended corridors. From the corridors, you could directly see the scene on the lower level.

This was called the Continuous Sky Corridor. It looked intricately carved with dragons and patterns, but it was actually functional—a device for lowering coffins into the huge tomb chamber. It seemed that below the corridor outside was likely a coffin chamber. Now the intense gunfire was coming from below, and everywhere outside were flickering flashlight beams.

We wondered what was happening. Could it be caused by that fetal corpse jumping down? With so many guns firing, even an elephant would be brought down, yet they couldn't hit a single fetal corpse? The three of us went out onto the platform in a line. The Continuous Sky Corridor outside was very narrow. We carefully climbed up and looked down. Below was a huge circular tomb chamber, at least five or six hundred square meters. Surprising, A Ning's team was right under our corridor. A dozen cold flares had been thrown around, illuminating the whole chamber brightly. They were forming a circle, continuously firing at something around them, but I couldn't see clearly what. Looking closely, I realized they were centipedes as thick as arms, covering the entire chamber, densely packed like an ocean, surrounding A Ning and the others in the middle.

In the center of the chamber was an inverted pyramid-shaped coffin pit. At the bottom of the pit were eight huge black coffins surrounding a semi-transparent giant jade sarcophagus in the middle. The jade sarcophagus had already been opened

My heart skipped a beat, and I thought to myself: Could this be the nine-dragon corpse-raising coffin recorded on the snake-browed copper fish? The casket containing the remains of King Wannu? It seems these amateurs triggered some mechanism, or maybe they just stepped on a centipede.

At this moment, there was no time to worry about so many things. The dozen or so people below were already struggling to cope, but the centipedes surged up like a tide; it was completely useless. Killing one only made the others more frenzied.

"Should we help?" Fatty asked me.

Panzi shook his head: "Wait until a few more of them die."

Fatty laughed: "You might as well just shoot them directly now; they'll die faster."

I was also conflicted inside. This wasn't simply a question of saving them or not; the problem was how they would treat us after being saved. A Ning had tried to kill us in the underwater tomb, and we were lucky to have narrowly escaped. I had saved her before, but she didn't seem to appreciate that favor. However, if I didn't save them and watched so many people die right before our eyes, I would probably feel guilty for the rest of my life.

Another issue was whether we could even save them. Firing from above wouldn't help. To save them, we would have to pull them up with ropes. But they were barely holding their own with all their shooting; if we lowered a rope and stopped, there would definitely be casualties below.

While I was hesitating, I suddenly saw in A Ning's team a foreigner carrying someone on his back who looked very familiar. I immediately patted Panzi and pointed it out to him. As I pointed, he exclaimed in shock: "That's Third Uncle!"

"Are you sure?" I also thought it looked like him, but I didn't dare to be certain. Once Panzi said it, I felt even more that it was him. I quickly moved a few steps closer to get a better look.

Unexpectedly, after just one step, I felt something wrong with my foot. I looked down and saw that the fetal corpse that had escaped earlier was actually hanging under the stone corridor. As luck would have it, I had walked right above it. Suddenly, its withered hand grabbed my foot and pulled downward with force.

I was furious inside, thinking that this thing must have held a grudge and kept causing us trouble. But I was on the stone corridor, and my balance was poor. With its pull, I couldn't stand steady and immediately fell flat on the corridor.

Panzi and Fatty raised their guns at the same time. This guy really had no memory; at such close range, its head was blown to pieces instantly, leaving only half of the big head. Then its claws gripping the lower part of the corridor let go, and the entire fetal corpse fell down under the corridor, still pulling my foot.

Pulled by such a heavy thing, I screamed and also fell down. The stone fetus first landed among A Ning's group. The others had been completely focused on the centipedes around them and had no attention for above. They were scared shitless, scattering and falling. Then I also fell from the air.

Later, Fatty said that my landing looked as if I had jumped down on purpose, but I really had fallen involuntarily. Then I stepped hard on the already shattered head of that fetal corpse, and black blood splattered everywhere.

Fortunately, the stone corridor wasn't too high; otherwise, falling straight down like that would have definitely sprained my ankle. But after landing, I just stumbled slightly and steadied myself. Looking around, I saw that the centipedes were scattering in all directions as if they had seen a ghost. In an instant, the tide of centipedes receded like a tide, and soon only the bodies of centipedes remained on the ground.

I was scared out of my wits and took a long time to come to my senses, not understanding what had happened. I looked up and saw everyone staring at me with horrified expressions, as if they had seen some kind of monster.