[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-the-grave-robbers-chronicles":3,"chapter-the-grave-robbers-chronicles-the-grave-robbers-chronicles-chapter-28":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"chinese","The Grave Robbers' Chronicles",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":20,"prevChapterSlug":21,"totalChapters":22,"novelImage":23},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":16,"volume":17,"translator":18,"content_hash":19},15885,44,"Chapter 28: Seven Stars: Fire","the-grave-robbers-chronicles-chapter-28",28,"\u003Cp>This face was a bloody mess—I couldn’t tell if the skin had melted away to reveal the muscle underneath or if blood had seeped from inside and covered his face. In that instant, I felt this face was very familiar. Looking closer, it turned out to be Da Kui. I was horrified: such a good man, reduced to this state.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A bullet had shaved off a piece of skin on the left side of his head, exposing the bone, but it hadn't injured the brain inside. Although his wound was severe, I thought he might not die, and I was overjoyed. I quickly said, \"Get up there! There might still be hope!\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But he didn't move at all. When I saw his eyes, they were incredibly venomous, as if he resented us for leaving him behind. I was shocked, but my hand was already grasped by his. The terrifying blood-red color on his body quickly spread to my hand. I felt a burning, strange itch on my hand, and I screamed in my heart: \"It's over!\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Da Kui made indistinct sounds from his mouth and suddenly pulled me downward. I thought of the horrific state of his melting skin all over his body, and I went crazy, desperately shaking off his hand. But then he grabbed my foot again, his mouth wide open as if he insisted I accompany him in death.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I yelled, \"Da Kui, just let me go. This is fate. If you still want to live, come up with me—maybe you can still be cured. Otherwise, dragging me down with you is useless!\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After hearing this, something set him off, and he pounced like a madman, his eyes full of murderous light, as if he had completely lost his mind. Suddenly, he grabbed my throat, trying to choke me to death.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I thought it was either him or me. I suddenly became murderous, kicked him hard, and when his hand loosened, I pressed the trigger against his chest. The bullets were all flattened pistol rounds with great force; he flew back with blood splattering everywhere. His hands flailed in the air but caught nothing, and he fell heavily into a pile of corpse beetles.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At this moment, the hand he had grabbed was completely numb and senseless. I couldn't even feel if my hand was still holding the branch, and I felt my body falling straight down. I quickly reached out with my other hand to grab the ghost-hand vine beside me, but there was Tianxin rock powder on my hand, so the vine shriveled back instantly. I cursed under my breath and slid down, crashing into a large branch.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The branch was covered with corpse beetles. After I hit it, many fell off. I barely had the strength to clamp my legs around it and stopped sliding down, but large groups of corpse beetles surrounded me again. I couldn't help but smile bitterly—now I had so many ways to die: either fall to my death, be bitten to death by insects, or die from poison. Heaven really is generous to me.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As I was feeling frustrated, suddenly Fatty climbed up from below, kicking away a few corpse beetles. It turned out this guy was climbing even slower than me. When he saw me, he cursed, \"What the hell are you doing lying there? Look at my ass—it's full of bite holes!\" He was about to help me, but I yelled, \"Don't touch me! I'm poisoned! Just go on ahead, I'm done for!\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Without another word, Fatty hoisted me onto his back. \"Take a look in the mirror—your complexion is even better than mine! You're glowing, ruddy and shiny. How could you be poisoned?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Surprised, I looked down and saw my hands covered in red rashes, as if bitten by thousands of mosquitoes. But the redness stopped at my shoulders and was now slowly fading. I was puzzled—why was the poison ineffective on me?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Fatty gritted his teeth and climbed upward with me on his back. I was behind him, acting as his meat shield. All the corpse beetles jumped onto my ass and bit me, making me scream in pain: \"You damn Fatty! I thought you were being kind, but you're actually using me as a shield!\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Fatty cursed back, \"What are you complaining about? If you don't like it, you carry me! Can't you see I've got no good meat left on my ass?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I didn't want to argue with him. The area around the trunk of this nine-headed snake cypress was hung with dense clusters of corpses. Fatty kept bumping into piles of bones. Fortunately, the corpse beetles had the same trouble—there were too many things for them to distinguish, and many jumped onto the swaying dry corpses we knocked into, biting them.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Fatty saw this and thought it was a good trick. He told me to knock into the corpses, to nudge all the ones I could to make them move. Although I was extremely reluctant, I had no choice—saving our lives was paramount.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Along the way, I kicked every corpse I saw, and soon the area we passed was filled with spinning corpses. The beetles' intelligence couldn't compare to humans; they were in a mess, not knowing whether to chase us or bite the spinning corpses. They actually stopped and started spinning in place. Fatty took the chance to speed up, quickly putting distance between us, and we finally caught our breath.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After the recent movement, my hands and feet had mostly regained feeling. I thought secretly: the feeling when I was poisoned was the same as in Grandpa's notes when he was poisoned. In the end, Grandpa didn't die either. Could it be that because of that, I had developed immunity?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I couldn't figure it out. Seeing that my limbs could move, I asked Fatty to put me down. Fatty was drenched in sweat, panting heavily. I thought to myself: on the stone platform I carried you until I spat blood, now we're even. At that moment, I suddenly saw a person sitting on a branch behind Fatty, nodding at me.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I shuddered and quickly rubbed my eyes. That person was already gone. I thought he had hidden behind the tree, so I leaned over to look. Fatty yelled, \"Stop dawdling, let's go!\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Wait a minute!\" I grabbed him. \"Left, left! I just saw someone waving at me.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He sighed and followed me as I crawled over. Looking, there was no one, only a tree hollow barely big enough for one person, pitch black inside. Fatty shone his flashlight in and was startled. Inside the hollow was a pile of coiled vines, entangling a highly decomposed corpse. Its two blue eyes were murky with no visible pupils, its mouth wide open as if trying to tell me something. Fatty looked at me: \"It's a dead person. Don't tell me you saw a ghost!\" Considering all the strange things we'd encountered on this trip, I couldn't dismiss ghosts even if I wanted to. I thought, since he beckoned us over, he must have some purpose. With that in mind, I habitually looked at his mouth. But his jaw had rotted away, and if there was anything, it had fallen out. I continued searching and found something clasped in his hand. I pried it open and saw it was a pendant.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The corpse beetles below started squeaking and climbing up again. I didn't have the heart to search his belongings further. Seeing that he was wearing camouflage, I saluted him and then continued climbing. Fatty climbed quickly, and since we weren't far from the crack at the top, we scrambled up in no time.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As soon as we climbed out of the crack, we looked down. The corpse beetles showed no sign of stopping—almost all of them surged to the edge of the crack. Fatty yelled, \"It's not time to rest yet! Run!\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Having been underground for so long, I had lost all sense of direction. Suddenly a person ran out of the grass ahead, carrying something. I recognized him as Third Uncle and was overjoyed. When Third Uncle saw me, he yelled, \"Go to the back and bring all those gasoline cans over!\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I ran over and saw that this crack was only separated from where we had descended into the tomb by a low cliff, less than ten meters away. Our gear was still there. I saw the cans of gasoline and felt a surge of anger, thinking, \"Good. Now you're in for it.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Fatty and I each carried a can back. Third Uncle had already poured the first can all the way down. By then the corpse beetles had almost reached the ground. Third Uncle threw a lighter down, and with a burst of flame came a pungent stench of burning. The tide of insects instantly retreated. The gasoline formed a wall of fire at the crack. Watching the insects burn and squeal inside was very satisfying. We added more fuel by pouring the second and third cans down. Suddenly the flames shooting out of the crack were almost taller than two men. The heat wave hit me and singed my eyebrows.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I stepped back a few paces and looked at the pendant in my hand. It was a nameplate—the dead man's name should be James. I wiped it and put it in my jacket pocket, thinking I'd return it to his family if I had the chance. Rest\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Third Uncle pointed behind him: \"Panzi's not looking good, seems to have a fever. That young guy, I haven't seen him. I thought he was with you all.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I looked at Fatty, and Fatty sighed: \"After the explosion, I didn't see him at all. I'm afraid it's more bad than good.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Third Uncle shook his head and said: \"No way, that guy is elusive. Besides, he was always above us just now. Even if he was scattered by the blast wave, he probably got pushed upward.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I could tell from Third Uncle's expression that he wasn't confident either. As formidable as that Poker-face is, in front of explosives he's still the same as us. If the blast wave threw him out of the trees, he really wouldn't have a chance.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>We searched the area for a while, found nothing, and saw no signs of anyone leaving. Third Uncle sighed and gave me a wry smile.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>We went back to the campsite to gather our things, lit a campfire, and heated up some canned food from the packs. I was so hungry I could eat anything. As Third Uncle ate, he pointed at the low cliff behind us: \"You see, this campsite is right on the edge of this crevice. It seems the tree demon that old man saw was this snake cypress. They must have been making too much noise celebrating at night, and it lured the snake cypress out of the crevice. Lucky we didn't stay overnight and went straight down into the tomb, or we'd probably have been dragged off by this snake cypress by now.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Fatty said: \"I don't know how long that fire will burn. If it goes out and those bugs come out again, we'll be in trouble. It's almost dawn now. Let's get out of this forest first, and then we'll figure things out!\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I hurriedly ate a few mouthfuls, nodded, and Fatty and Third Uncle took turns carrying Panzi on their backs. Then we headed into the forest.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The whole way was very calm. When we came, we were chatting and singing; on the way back, we traveled in silence, almost like we were fleeing for our lives.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I hadn't rested for a whole night, and my mind was under extreme tension. By now, my physical strength had completely reached its limit. Toward the end, I was relying almost purely on mental strength to keep going. If a bed had suddenly appeared ahead, I wouldn't have needed two seconds to fall asleep after lying down. We walked for nearly half a day plus a whole morning, made it out of that forest, then climbed over the small rocky slope formed by the mudslide, and finally saw the familiar little village.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>We didn't dare let our guard down. First, we sent Panzi to the village clinic. The barefoot doctor came over, frowned deeply, and quickly called for a nurse. I lay down on a bench and fell asleep after hearing only two sentences from them.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>That was truly sleep from exhaustion to the extreme—no dreams at all, and I had no idea how long I slept. When I woke up, I heard chaos outside, and I didn't know what had happened.\u003C\u002Fp>",2116,"2026-05-28T17:13:44.893Z","2026-06-01T04:28:20.357Z",1,"deepseek-v4-flash","7ad40c656c6f736858076007b809d23550ed5026672953b87a9388c270d8a345","the-grave-robbers-chronicles-chapter-29","the-grave-robbers-chronicles-chapter-27",513,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fthe-grave-robbers-chronicles-cover.jpg"]