Chapter 27: Seven Stars: Lie

As soon as he said that, a flash of insight hit me, and I seemed to have an idea. Astonished, I said, "Could it be that at the last moment, the two of them switched places?"

Poker-face nodded, looking at the corpse: "This man schemed for so long, only to borrow Lu Shang King's power to achieve his own goal of immortality."

"How do you know all this? It's as if you experienced it yourself."

"I didn't experience it," Poker-face shook his head. "A few years ago when I was tomb raiding, I found a complete set of Warring States silk manuscripts in a Song dynasty tomb. That document was actually the autobiography of Tie Miansheng. After he taught Lu Shang King all his plans, he set fire to his own family, threw a beggar's corpse into the fire to impersonate himself, then disguised himself as a beggar and escaped death. Although Lu Shang King knew something was amiss, he had no way to deal with it. In the end, after Lu Shang King was entombed, he easily sneaked into the tomb, dragged the defenseless Lu Shang King out of the jade burial suit, and lay down in it himself. Lu Shang King had painstakingly arranged everything, only to end up making a wedding dress for them—he probably never expected that."

I asked in surprise: "If Lu Shang King's corpse was dragged out, wouldn't that create another blood corpse? Then wouldn't there be two here?"

"He didn't write about that in his book either. Maybe because Lu Shang King had been in the jade suit for too short a time to turn into a blood corpse." His eyes looked a bit uneasy. "It's just an autobiography; he only mentioned these things briefly. There's no way there would be detailed records."

I looked at Poker-face and, for some reason, suddenly felt that his words were a bit fake. I glanced at Third Uncle, and sure enough, he didn't believe it either. But since the guy didn't want to tell the truth and had already made up a lie, there was no point in exposing him. After saying this, Poker-face, as if he had finished his task, returned to his expressionless face and stood up, saying, "It's almost dawn. We should get out of here."

"No way, we haven't found the Ghost Seal yet," Fatty said. "Look at all this good stuff here. If we leave now, won't we have come for nothing?"

Poker-face gave him a cold look, seeming somewhat hostile toward Fatty. Fatty, feeling snubbed, shrugged and said, "Alright, alright, but at least we should take the jade burial suit, right? This thing might be the only one in the world. I, Fatty, am thinking of everyone here."

That was true enough. Third Uncle slapped his butt and said, "Then what are you dawdling for? Finish it quickly and get out of this damn place."

Suddenly I lost all interest in these things and didn't want to help them. I closed my eyes to rest for a moment, but then a few drops of water fell on my face. I thought it was raining and looked up. The strange face of the blood corpse had already poked out from the jade bed, its two pupil-less eyes almost pressed against my eyebrows.

I was so startled that I jumped up. I saw the blood corpse's head still rolling on the jade bed, and then it actually rolled off onto the floor, as if something was inside it. Fatty wanted to go take a look, but Poker-face grabbed him and said, "Don't move. Let's see first."

Fatty nodded. At that moment, a very small red corpse beetle bit through the blood corpse's scalp and crawled out. Da Kui saw it and cursed, "Damn! Such a tiny one dares to show its face in front of me!" He raised the crowbar in his hand to smash it. Third Uncle grabbed him and said, "Idiot, this one is the beetle king! If you kill it, we'll be in big trouble."

Da Kui was stunned and said in disbelief, "Such a small one is the beetle king? Then wouldn't those big ones be pissed off?"

Poker-face was also very surprised. He patted my shoulder and said, "We need to leave quickly. The beetle king is here. I can't control these corpse beetles—it's very tricky!"

At that moment, the small red corpse beetle suddenly let out two chirps and fluttered its wings. It seemed to spot us and suddenly flew toward us. Poker-face shouted, "It's poisonous! Touch it and you die! Get out of the way!"

Third Uncle turned and flipped over to our side. Behind him, Da Kui, who had already been a bit dazed, didn't react in time and instinctively grabbed the insect. He froze for a moment, then suddenly let out a scream. His hand instantly turned blood red, and not only that, the blood-red part spread up his arm very quickly. Fatty shouted, "He's poisoned! Cut off his hand now!" He went to grab Poker-face's knife. Poker-face, already very weak, was jostled by Fatty, and the black knife slipped from his hand. Fatty caught it in midair, but his whole body suddenly sank, and he cursed, "Damn, why is it so heavy!" He tried several times to lift the knife but failed. By then it was too late. Da Kui's whole body twisted in agony, and within seconds, almost his entire body turned blood red, as if all his skin had suddenly melted. He stared at his own hand in terror, wanting to scream but unable to make a sound. Poker-face saw me about to go help Da Kui, grabbed me, and said through gritted teeth, "Don't touch him! Touch him and you die!" Da Kui saw us backing away as if he were a monster. He was terrified and charged at me, his mouth wide open as if shouting, "Save me!" At the sight, I was so scared I couldn't move a step. Third Uncle rushed over and pulled me aside. Da Kui missed and, like a madman, lunged at Panzi. Panzi's situation was already bad, and he didn't react in time. Fatty shouted in alarm and snatched my gun. I was startled, knowing he was going to shoot, and struggled with him for it. In the chaos, the gun accidentally discharged. A gunshot rang out, and Da Kui was hit in the head. His body shook and he collapsed to the ground. My mind went blank. I dropped to my knees. It all happened too fast. A moment ago he was perfectly fine, and suddenly he had become like this. My mind was empty, and I didn't know what to do. The small red corpse beetle chirped, crawled out of Da Kui's hand, fluttered its wings. Fatty cursed. Poker-face shouted, "Don't!" but it was too late. Fatty ran over, grabbed the purple jade box, and smashed the insect to pieces. For a moment, the cave fell into a deathly silence, not a sound to be heard. Poker-face grabbed a handful of stone dust from the ground and threw it over himself, shouting, "Go now, or we won't make it!" Fatty looked around, saw nothing happening, and asked in confusion, "Why do we need to go?"

As soon as he finished speaking, the previously quiet cave suddenly became noisy. Countless chirping sounds came from all directions. Then we saw, from the large and small holes in the rock walls, one, two, three, ten, a hundred, countless green corpse beetles surged out like a tidal wave. The scale was beyond words. Wave after wave, stepping over each other, they came crawling in a sky-covering, ground-covering manner.

I was stunned at the sight. Third Uncle slapped the back of my head and shouted, "Run!"

He hoisted Panzi onto his back. Fatty still wanted to pick up the purple jade box, but Third Uncle yelled, "Are you fucking trying to die?!" Fatty saw he couldn't move it, so he grabbed the gold-inlaid silk and stuffed it into his pocket. We all climbed up the tree. The tree was full of tangled vines and protrusions, making it easy to climb. Even someone with my skills could easily climb a dozen meters in no time. By then, all the corpse beetles had surged to the base of the tree. I looked down—damn, oh my god, the entire area under the tree was covered in green. If I fell, there wouldn't be a single bone left.

The corpse beetles consciously gathered for a moment, then suddenly started jumping up. They climbed the tree much faster than we did, reaching our feet in no time. Fatty, climbing above me, asked, "Didn't you say this young master's blood is better than mosquito repellent? Why isn't it working?"

My mind was still full of the image of Da Kui falling, and I didn't want to talk to him. He felt snubbed and cursed under his breath. Suddenly I felt a sharp pain in my leg—a corpse beetle had bitten my calf. I kicked it off and looked down. Below was like a boiling pot, corpse beetles scrambling to climb up. At that moment, Third Uncle called from above, "Explosives! There are more explosives in the bag by the jade bed!"

I asked, "Which side?!"

Third Uncle cursed, "You were sitting right there and you didn't know?! In the left pocket!!" I looked down, but the explosives pack was lost in the sea of corpse beetles and completely invisible. I fired a few shots, only blasting a few bugs away. At that moment, Poker-face suddenly pulled out several fire starters from his pocket, lit them, and threw them onto the jade bed. Although the beetles were no longer afraid of his blood, they were still afraid of fire. As soon as they saw the fire coming down, they scattered with a "shua" sound, creating a large gap, instantly revealing the backpack. Fatty already had several beetles hanging from his butt and shouted, "Damn it, light the firecracker quick! I can't hold on much longer!"

Panzi shouted from above, "Shit! No, there's too much explosive in there! If it blows, we'll all die!" I saw more and more corpse beetles climbing up and knew that hesitation would mean certain death. I yelled, "I don't care

The explosion was so fast that with a single loud bang, I felt a dizzying jolt, as if my chin, buttocks, and thighs had been struck simultaneously by a pile driver. The blast wave lifted me off my feet, and I slammed heavily into something. That hit left me completely dazed, my throat turned sweet, and I spat out a mouthful of blood. Everything went black before my eyes, my brain buzzed incessantly, and my ears heard nothing.

It took me a long time to recover. Looking around, I saw that the corpse beetles below had been blown away in large numbers by the blast. I turned my head but couldn't see the others, so I quickly used my hands and feet to climb upward. Because my body was coated with the powder from the stone platform below, those ghost-hand vines parted to let me through as soon as they saw me. Just then, a cacophony of noisy shouts came from below again. I looked down and saw the corpse beetles gathering back like a tide, crawling extremely fast. I realized I couldn't stop, no matter how much pain I was in—I had to keep climbing. I closed my eyes and frantically scrambled up.

Just as I was about to reach the crack opening, I felt a sudden pain in my back. Turning around, I saw a corpse beetle had already leaped onto me and was biting my back viciously. I spun and shot it, blasting it apart. But at the same time, another, even larger one bit into my thigh. Gritting my teeth, I slammed it with my gun and knocked it off, but it immediately grabbed onto a branch and tried to jump back up. I fired back and blew it apart too. However, a third and a fourth one immediately jumped up again.

I saw that the exit was just a few steps away. I thought, bite me then — you won't kill me in a short time anyway. Once I get to the surface, you'll be in for it. Thinking this, I continued climbing. Just then, a sudden sharp pain shot through the hand gripping a tree branch. I turned my head and saw a blood-covered face suddenly emerge from behind the trunk, two bulging eyeballs staring straight at me.