Chapter 40: Bloody Face; Ghostly Face

  This roll can be said to be a heavenly thunderbolt, one head down, first of all, the buzzing sound disappeared, secondly, it was a dizziness, my ears were full of rumbling sounds, completely unable to control the direction, and I didn't know where I would roll to. If there's a cliff below? Then wouldn't I be asking for death? At this moment, I don't even have time to regret, my heart is as anxious as parachuting.

  I don't know how long it took, but I finally came to a stop. The surroundings were quiet and all around me was snow, probably because I had been rolled into a snowman. With a push of my arms, the layer of snow covering me disappeared. I lifted my head to look around, and everything was dark and pressing in on me. Just as I was about to reach for the flashlight in my bag, my whole body swayed again. Before I could even process what was happening, I started rolling down again. This time I wasn't prepared, and my entire body was upside down, with my head pointing down and my butt pointing up, just like a dung beetle rolling its dung ball. It went on for over a hundred meters before I finally came to another stop.

  This time I didn't move, first using my hands to feel around me, the ground was very flat. Only after confirming that I had finally reached the bottom did I dare to touch the flashlight. Those blue bugs hadn't caught up, and now the wind and snow were even stronger, howling like a chorus of ghosts wailing.

  This kind of weather is common in the Kunlun Mountains, I didn't sleep well on the first day, now I'm basically numb, those howling winds are automatically blocked by my ears, but the snow can't be blocked, not only does it drill into your neck, but also into your ears, and it's both icy and itchy, turning into water droplets that slide into your ear canal, the feeling is unbearable.

  I shook my head, turned on a small flashlight, and everything around me was shrouded in a hazy snowstorm. I cast the light down the slope where I had rolled down and found that about 100 meters up the hill, there stood something dark and indistinct. Due to the heavy wind and snow, the light was blocked, and I couldn't see clearly, but thinking back, I should have been blocked by that thing at first, and as a result, I slid down when I moved.

  What is that thing, although it can't be seen clearly what it is, its dark and shiny characteristics stand out in the snowy ground, what is that thing?

  I tidied up the equipment bag beside me, placed it neatly at the foot of the slope, and started crawling towards that black thing. It wasn't until I crawled inside that I realized it was a cylindrical stone.

  Perhaps it shouldn't be called a cylinder, this thing protrudes from the ground for over a meter, with a dark and rough stone texture, having four right angles. Perhaps it was once a square pillar, but who knows how long it has been standing, now its corners have all been worn smooth, and if you don't look closely, you can't see its original appearance.

  I am filled with wonder, this thing is clearly man-made, and judging by its appearance, it must be very old. Who put it up here? What is it used for?

  I walked around the stone pillar and saw that its surface may have had carvings at one time, but most of them had been worn away. Now I can only see incomplete and blurry marks, which are really hard to identify.

  Although it can't be identified, in my opinion, this thing has something to do with that Heavenly Coffin.

  First, although the age of this thing is unclear, judging from its shape and degree of wear, it must be at least from before the Qin and Han dynasties. Second, at that time, our ancestors had neither advanced cold-proof technology nor weapons, so who would have left behind a building in this vast wilderness?

  So, could this be a trace left when the Heavenly Tomb was built? I thought to myself and suddenly became excited, thinking that maybe what's below is the Heavenly Tomb. Just as I was thinking about whether or not to dig it out, I felt a sudden gust of cool air on the back of my neck. It wasn't the chill of wind and snow blowing in, but rather a kind of eerie, ominous feeling, and suddenly I remembered Fatso talking about ghostly lanterns.

  But I didn't even light a lamp, besides, although I was thinking that there might be an ancient tomb below, it's not like something would come to blow on my neck, right? I shuddered, my heart rate suddenly multiplying several times, and I quickly turned around, with countless thoughts flashing through my mind - a green-faced ghost? A thousand-year-old rice ball that had come out for a stroll? But when I turned around, behind me was empty and desolate, with nothing there.

  I was stunned on the spot, what just happened was absolutely not my illusion, something really blew a breath of cool air behind my neck, but that thing is gone now.

  I swallowed hard, just about to shine the light a bit further away to see if there was anything around, when my flashlight suddenly made a crackling sound, and then the filament inside flashed rapidly several times before going out.

  If it had been extinguished at any other time, I might not have been so frightened, but in this eerie situation, I was almost startled to jump up, with a blackness in front of me, and the cold wind kept blowing over, I always felt that there seemed to be an eye staring at me coldly in the darkness.

  I didn't even dare to breathe, my hands were shaking a bit, and I hurriedly ran towards the place where the equipment pack was placed in the image. As a result, after running for just a few steps, my foot tripped over something hard, stumbled, and rolled down.

  On this snowy path, apart from that stone pillar, there isn't even a small rock, what just tripped me?

  Is it a ghost tripping me up?

  I stopped and quickly felt for my equipment pack. After that chaotic roll, I had lost direction, but I hadn't rolled far, so the pack should be within two or three meters of me.

  I frantically felt around me.

  Nothing.

  What's going on? Did I miscalculate?

  I reached out further and touched something cold. I thought it was a equipment bag, but I immediately reacted, this is not it. The thing was hard and cold, my heart skipped a beat, my heart instantly soared to high altitude, couldn't fall down no matter what, I trembled with fear as I felt the shape of that thing.

  It's a human foot.

  A foot wearing shoes.

  Just now there was clearly nothing here, so what is this thing I'm touching now?

  I almost immediately withdrew my hand in fright, at this time, I suddenly heard a familiar sound next to my ear. At first, I didn't react, what was this sound and why did I have a familiar feeling? But the next second, I remembered, it was a gun.

  Just as I was about to hide, a faint light halo rose in front of my eyes. It was the flashlight that had just been extinguished. Unexpectedly, it wasn't broken, but the light was weak and pitiful. The hand holding the flashlight was like rotting flesh, covered with exposed muscle fibers.

  I was shocked, looked up and saw a face that was almost as bloody as the corpse, only to see a pair of green eyes, while the rest of the place was all rotten flesh.

  At the same time, a black hole-like muzzle was aimed at my forehead, I stiffened my body and couldn't react in any way. The cold object on my temple brought out an uncontrollable fear.

  Just now, I abandoned him, this German who has become unrecognizable. How will he treat me?

  I feel like I can't even swallow my own saliva, the scene is frozen in place, my eyeballs are stiff, my muscles are stiff, even my thoughts are stiff. At this moment, I'm actually unable to react at all.

  I'm afraid anyone with a gun pointed at their forehead can't react either way.

  I stood there staring at the German, who didn't immediately shoot me, and I still couldn't think of a way to get out of this situation.

  Want me to roll on the ground? I'm afraid I won't be able to roll faster than his gunfire.

  Quickly open the muzzle? I'm afraid as soon as I raise my hand, the other side will kill me.

  At this moment, I'm not facing a rice dumpling or some strange creature, but a living person. The most terrifying thing in this world isn't ghosts or gods, but the human heart. And now, I have no idea what he'll do next. Maybe before I can even think about it, a bullet will already be lodged in my brain. I can almost imagine the picture of brains and blood intertwined.

  Then I fell into the snow and was dug up many years later, becoming a specimen of zongzi.

  Just as I was about to break out in a cold sweat, the German in front of me swayed a few times, seemingly unable to stand steady, and his gun also shook. I took advantage of this opportunity, quickly raised my hand and knocked his gun muzzle aside, taking advantage of the momentum, I immediately rushed up and counterattacked.

  The German might have been injured and was extremely weak, but he didn't react at all. In an instant, I pinned him to the ground. My heart leapt with joy as I prepared to give him a good thrashing, intending to knock him out first. But just then, I felt a sudden pain in the back of my head - this guy had actually hit me with his rifle butt! My heart skipped a beat as I hastily retreated from his body. Luckily he used his rifle butt; if he'd fired a shot at point-blank range, wouldn't my brains have already been splattered everywhere?

  I immediately went over and snatched the gun from the German's hand, his hands were completely powerless, and after a brief tug-of-war he let go. With the gun in my hand, my heart finally returned to its normal place. Only then did I take a closer look at the German, his green eyes were dull and lifeless, his mouth slightly open, taking more air in than out. That bug didn't know what it was, but it had such strong attacking power, biting a living person half to death. Moreover, these bugs weren't afraid of the number two treasure blood on my body, even the centipede retreated in fear, but these guys came after me without any hesitation.

  I don't know if they're too powerful or if my blood has lost its effect.

  I sat there panting for a while, looking at the German still lying on the ground. I couldn't help but think of reaching out to slap his face, not knowing if he was dead or not. But when I saw his pale face covered in blood, I immediately moved my hand to his chest and said, "Hey, are you dead?"

  The German's eyeballs turned a few times with difficulty, and then stopped on me. I felt something was wrong, this guy, afraid he couldn't hold on anymore, having lived in a daze for over 60 years, it wasn't easy at all.

  At this time, the wind and snow grew stronger. I sighed, still unable to let him go, so I tied him up with a rope and carried him on my back, dragging the black bag through the snowy ground. Every step was extremely difficult. My other free hand had to hold the flashlight, as the previous one had run out of battery. Now I could only use this large wolf eye light, which has a range of over 200 meters, illuminating the road ahead brightly. Even with my goggles on, I felt a bit dizzy from the glare.

  I walked forward for a while, surrounded by endless white snowfields, unable to find any place to take shelter. I felt like I couldn't hold on anymore, carrying one person and pulling a large bag full of heavy equipment. Every step I took seemed like the last one, and I didn't know how much longer I could keep going.

  What should I do?

  Just then, a very weak voice sounded in my ear: "Put me down." It was the German. I didn't bother to respond to him and said without turning my head: "Don't make trouble, we need to find a place to spend the night."

  The German was very stubborn, kept coming back and forth saying those four words, I was annoyed by his words, turned my head and shouted: "Shut up!" As soon as the words were spoken, I was stunned, because I saw that the flesh on the German's face was falling off.

  On that face, which was like a bloodless corpse, the granular flesh was slowly peeling off, some of it falling onto my neck, where the skin had already been numbed by the cold, and I didn't feel anything.

  The scene in front of me made my scalp explode, and I only felt a numbness, at this moment, I found that the fallen meat actually moved.

  What is this thing? I didn't dare to be careless, and subconsciously thought of throwing the German away. Then, this guy was tied up with a rope by me, and with one push, he didn't move at all. However, after those flesh lumps fell on my neck, they seemed to crawl like they were alive, drilling straight into my collar. Due to the position, I couldn't see clearly what those things were, and could only frantically untie the rope. As soon as the rope was untied, the German on my back immediately slid down, thudding onto the snowy ground.

  I hadn't had time to go see him, when suddenly my whole body started itching, the bits of flesh that had fallen into my collar seemed to be crawling like insects, and my numb skin, which had been frozen stiff, began to feel a prickling sensation. At the same time, the wounds on my face and hands, where the blue bugs were about to emerge, also itched painfully.

  I knew something was wrong, but I didn't know whether to scratch or not. All I could do was take off my clothes and turn my head to look at the itchy place. As soon as I looked, I almost threw up - that crawling feeling, it wasn't just similar, it was real. At this moment, all I saw were some maggots-like insects crawling on my skin.

  These insects are slightly larger than maggots, with transparent bodies and visible internal organs. They have a layer of pale blue skin on the outside, but it's hard to see their heads or tails. I felt a wave of nausea wash over me as I quickly grabbed my clothes to brush them away. In my haste, I accidentally squashed many of them, turning them into a greenish-yellow paste. The internal organs and bodies were crushed, and where the liquid splattered, it started to burn painfully. I don't know if these insects are poisonous or not.

  I saw this and didn't dare use clothes anymore. I had to endure the disgust and use my hands to pick them off one by one. At that time, I discovered a lump on my fingertips.

  That spot originally had a chilblain, which was later bitten by that blue flying insect and oozed out a patch of red flesh. At this moment, those irregular patches of flesh actually moved, I just felt my fingers itching badly, and then those patches fell off one by one and dropped to the ground. At this time, a blue worm crawled out of the fallen flesh, like a small snake breaking its shell, slowly crawling out of that layer of flesh and moving in the snowy ground.

  I suddenly realized that this meat-like thing was not a wound at all, but rather those blue insects that lay their eggs in the wound while biting people, forming a meat-like substance.

  As I thought about it, my whole body broke out in goosebumps, especially the part of my face that was bitten, and I felt an unbearable itching pain. From time to time, red flesh would fall off, but there were not many wounds on my body, and this feeling soon disappeared. The real wound appeared, which was a normal insect bite wound, except that the blood color around the wound was less, making it look a bit pale.

  I rushed to see the German, and as soon as I looked at him, I was shocked. His entire face was distorted, with red flesh squirming on his face, constantly changing, making his facial features like computer special effects, bulging out one moment and sinking in the next.

  And the fallen flesh turned into squirming blue insects, which crawled out and climbed onto the flesh. Before long, the flesh disappeared completely, as if it had never existed at all. It seemed that these things had eaten it up.

  I watched the German writhing on the ground, and I figured that these insect eggs were not just parasitic on wounds, they might also suck blood through wounds to grow. The place where I was bitten wasn't much, so I didn't feel too bad, but the German had dense wounds all over his body, even if one sucked a mouthful, it would be a big loss.

  Thinking of this, I gritted my teeth and took out a dagger from my leg, approaching the German and saying: "Bear with it, I'll try to get these things off quickly." The German's entire body was already in pain, convulsing like he had been electrocuted, his limbs contorted into all sorts of strange and eerie poses, I don't know if he understood what I said.

  I see this, and I know that time is running out. If we don't take action soon, the German will be a dead man sooner or later. Although I have no good feelings towards him, even to the point of loathing, but in my capacity, watching someone die a painful death right before my eyes still makes me feel uncomfortable. Seeing his current state, it's as if I've thought of my own ending. We people, either die in battle or on the way to battle. If one day I become like this too, and there's someone who can lend me a hand at that moment, what a fortunate thing that would be.

  I don't know if in the future, when that step is reached, someone will come to save me. If it were Fatso and Mute Oil Bottle, I firmly believe they would, but unfortunately, those people are no longer around. The Mute Oil Bottle who went missing on Changbai Mountain, the lost Fatso, the deceased Lian Huan, and my Third Uncle who entered the Heavenly Coffin a year ago - all these people who would have risked their lives to save me in times of trouble are now gone. So I can only change my approach, and go rescue them instead.

  This is a battle that I cannot afford to lose. Xiaohua's personality has changed greatly, and Xiuxiu suddenly cooperated with him. Two people who originally had disagreements came together. In this year, what did Xiaohua encounter? What did Xiuxiu encounter? I don't know, but I only know that now they are a bit too much for me to trust.

  So, at this moment, I see the German struggling in pain, and my heart involuntarily rises with a feeling of sorrow, but immediately, I shook my head, threw away these sentimental thoughts, picked up the dagger and placed it on his forehead, just like scraping bones, along his face downwards, seemingly having some effect, more and more flesh scraps fell from the blade of my dagger, and the place where the dagger scraped, gradually revealed the German's pale face.

  He seemed to have endured some, staring blankly at the sky, allowing my dagger to move on his face, not afraid of me stabbing him with a knife. The fallen flesh turned into blue worms, more and more insects began to gather around us, I cursed my blood in my heart for failing at critical moments, thinking that if I had the authentic first-class treasure of driving out evil and avoiding insects, I wouldn't be so miserable.

  But that's all I can think of, and now I realize how useless I am. As soon as I left Mian You and Pangzi, I couldn't do anything right. In this short moment, those insects have already started crawling on me, and the German's minced meat has only been cleaned up halfway. I don't know what these insects are capable of or what kind of harm they can cause to humans, so I'm hesitant for a moment. Suddenly, I urge: "Can you still walk? Let's launch a guerrilla attack and change our location."

  The German nodded laboriously, propped himself up on his elbows and tried to get up, but only managed to lift the upper half of his body. His two arms shook violently, and he fell back down, his face landing straight in the blood.

  I'm so angry I could curse my mother, but just then something strange happened. A faint blue light appeared in my line of sight. The blue light was very weak and almost disappeared under the strong beam of the wolf's eyes. My heart skipped a beat as I rushed over to take a look, and suddenly my back felt cold. There was a large blue worm that had grown quite big, its blue skin squirming a few times before softening. At the same time, another blue insect crawled out from under its skin, which was exactly the same kind of blue flying insect I saw in the ice crack.

  After the insect crawled out, it spun around in place for a few laps, and then its body shook, unfolding its shell-like wings, and surprisingly took to the air. At the same time, its entire body began to emit blue light, and without thinking about how it bites people, it was actually quite beautiful.

  That blue worm flew up, and more worms began to molt. I let out a mournful cry and hurriedly went to grab my equipment pack. If I get bitten by those worms again and become like the Germans, then I'd rather not live anymore.

  I was putting on my backpack while turning around to look at the German on the ground, silently thinking: "Brother, I'm sorry." At that moment, I had no choice either, and I couldn't die. If I died, what would happen to Fatso? What would happen to Third Uncle? Just as I finished thinking this in my heart, that German suddenly sat up from the ground like a zombie, his eyes staring straight at me, the scene was so eerie that it almost scared me stiff.

  By the time I got over the shock, the German had suddenly stood up and said a word to me: "Run." Then, under my astonished gaze, he started running. My mind was like a stuck machine, thinking that this scene didn't make sense at all. What's going on? Is it an afterimage or a mini Big Bang?

  But at this time, I didn't have the energy to think too much, so I shouldered my burden and followed along. This one night was exhausting, just now when I stopped to rest for a moment, the muscles in my legs had just relaxed, but now with one exertion, they're aching to death, as if on rapidly melting ice, at any moment I could collapse.

  The Germans also seemed to have been possessed by some kind of magic, running extremely fast. I chased after him with wolf-like eyes, and in no time, his figure disappeared from my line of sight, which means he was at least 200 meters ahead of me.

  Suddenly I remembered a joke, two people went to the jungle adventure, were chased by cannibals, ran for a long time, both of them exhausted, A said: "We're done, we can't outrun the cannibals, they'll catch up soon." B said: "Don't worry, as long as I can outrun you, that's all that matters." It was originally a very old joke, but now, no matter how I think about it, I feel like it's quite relevant.

  Just as I was silently cursing Germans for being heartless, my wolf eyes flickered and a human face appeared in my line of sight.

  That face flashed by in an instant, but I saw it clearly. It was a huge face with scars all over it. In the dark, its black eyes stared straight at me.

  My heart skipped a beat, as if I had been thrown into the air, and I was so scared that my ears were filled with drumming sounds. What's going on? What's in front of me? The wolf's eye in my hand almost slipped out of my grasp, but just for an instant, I came to my senses - where could there be such a huge face? Was I seeing things?

  My subconscious wobbled under the wolf-eyed lamp light, and at this time, that huge human face appeared clearly in front of me again.