Chapter 125: Choice

Yes, there were three forked paths ahead, and choosing which one to take had become the biggest problem.

One went straight forward, one turned directly to the side, and one slanted off diagonally. The diagonal path was clearly different from the other two tomb passages because it had no hungry ghost relief carvings.

“San Wa Er, don’t pick the straight one. I am already sick of straight paths. If we keep going straight like that, there might still be blocking ghosts ahead,” Su Rou said before I could even speak.

That guy was very stubborn. After suffering a loss on a straight passage earlier, he absolutely refused to walk straight again no matter what.

The oil lamp’s light was extremely limited, and I had already adjusted it to the lowest setting because I was afraid we would waste the fuel. With such weak light, it was impossible to clearly see what lay ahead and make a direct judgment.

Human psychology is strange. There is a saying, once bitten by a snake, you fear ropes for ten years. We had just experienced something like that, and although I thought Su Rou’s words would not influence me, subconsciously I had already ruled out the straight path.

I said, “I think the straight path is more likely to have traps. We are not taking that one. Besides, if Master and the others are dealing with this tomb, they probably would not just go straight in either. Ling Ruyue, what do you think?”

To be honest, I was not certain. This tomb was too strange. The scene we had just experienced left me with a feeling I did not want to face, but had no choice but to face. If we were careless here, it would be a matter of life and death.

I did not know whether Ling Ruyue felt the same, but her answer was the same as mine. “Yes, Third Brother, we are not choosing the straight path.”

Just like that, the straight path was eliminated, but the remaining two roads became a difficult decision. Even though we were young and impulsive, we understood clearly that finding our Master was our guarantee of safety.

We clearly knew how dangerous it was, yet we still refused to retreat. Perhaps only the young had this kind of adventurous spirit.

At that moment, something strange happened. From the curved passage came a sound, like a woman laughing. There was no joy in it at all, only a cold, emotionless laughter that seemed to exist purely for the sake of laughing. It sent a chill deep into our bones.

The three of us exchanged a horrified glance. Almost at the same time, we rushed without hesitation into the slanted path.

After we ran into that passage, the sound behind us gradually disappeared. The three of us stopped, still shaken. I was certain we had been running, but we had not even realized it because we were trapped in fear.

Now that we stopped, we could hear each other’s heavy breathing and the pounding of our hearts. The distance was not much, the real issue was fear.

“Damn it! What was that sound? My legs went weak just hearing it,” Su Rou cursed.

Indeed, sound has a strange power. It makes people feel fear and retreat in their hearts, as if they are facing an overwhelmingly powerful existence that cannot be resisted at all.

“You forgot? Guo Er and the others mentioned this sound before, but they did not describe it as this terrifying,” I said, feeling confused, as if I had grasped something but not fully.

“How would I know? Maybe Guo Er did not study much and could not describe it well,” Su Rou said, drinking some water and then passing it to Ling Ruyue. He really was simple minded. Asking him further was useless.

Ling Ruyue drank some water to recover, then handed it to me before saying, “It is very frightening. That kind of fear even made Hua Feifei react. It is extremely restless inside the bamboo tube.”

As she spoke, Ling Ruyue took out Hua Feifei. It was indeed extremely agitated, crawling back and forth in panic, with a clear readiness to attack at any moment.

“Put it away quickly. Don’t let it bite me,” Su Rou said, not caring about Hua Feifei’s condition and instead looking around the tomb passage.

After a while, he said to me, “San Wa Er, don’t you see? This passage is different.”

I replied angrily, “I already noticed. There are no hungry ghost relief carvings here, right?”

“Yes,” Ling Ruyue added. “It feels like we have entered two different tombs.”

But then she said, “The real question is, can we find Master and the others through this path?”

I said impatiently, “Two options. Either we go back to the fork and wait, or we return completely. But either way, we still have to pass that place again. Who knows what else is there.”

“Exactly. I am not going back!” Su Rou said anxiously. Just hearing that sound again was unbearable for him.

“Ah, if only Xiao Hei were here,” Ling Ruyue suddenly sighed.

“What is Xiao Hei?” I asked, not understanding. I assumed it was a dog’s name.

“A Gu worm,” she said softly. “It can sense its counterpart from very far away. Grandma has one. If we released Xiao Hei in this tomb, we could follow it to find her. But Grandma was afraid I would follow her here, so she took it away from me.”

Su Rou said carelessly, “Looks like your grandma really understands you.”

“Su Rou, what did you say?” Ling Ruyue snapped immediately.

I was too tired to listen to their nonsense and said, “Stop arguing. Are we not miserable enough already? Let’s go. We cannot just stay here forever. We will search properly before deciding anything.”

“San Wa Er, you mean we go in?” Su Rou asked cautiously.

“If not, what then? Do you not want to see gold and silver treasure? This path leads to treasure,” I said.

In truth, I had confidence in this direction. That was why I dared to continue searching for my Master.

My plan was simple. If Master and the others were not inside, we would exit and wait in the passage. At that time, they might have already resolved things in the other two paths and come here. At worst, that cold laughing woman would have been dealt with by them.

“Gold and silver treasure? No, San Wa Er, you need to explain this properly,” Su Rou grabbed me immediately.

“Yes, Third Brother, why can we go in to search?” Ling Ruyue also asked.

She was clearly a little scared now. This passage was relatively calm, giving a false sense of safety.

“Because my Master once said this tomb is very likely a tomb within a tomb. Now I can confirm it. Did you not notice? This passage is completely different in style from the other two. The other two are extensions of the real Hungry Ghost Tomb. This one is probably a secondary tomb attached to it. Inside it, there should be no hungry ghosts. At most, there are just corpses, dead for many years. Are you afraid? I am not,” I said honestly. I truly was not afraid of corpses.

“What if, what if… there are ghosts?” Su Rou said nervously.

Ling Ruyue, after all, was a girl. Hearing his tone, she grabbed my arm tightly in fright.

I slapped Su Rou hard on his fat shoulder. “Stop scaring people like that. Fear is contagious. If you scare yourself, your energy field weakens. Once it weakens, you are easier to confuse and more likely to get haunted. Are you asking for a beating?”

Su Rou immediately straightened his chest and slapped it loudly. “Who is afraid? I just destroyed one with my blood earlier. I still have plenty of blood. Bring them on!”

But Ling Ruyue said weakly, “Hua Feifei cannot use too much venom. It needs to rest.”

I also did not mention that my middle finger blood had limits. In a single day, it could only be used once or twice. Only those first times carried strong yang energy. After that, it would not work well.

But realistically, how many ghosts could there be in a single tomb? In my mind, a tomb held one corpse at most. Even in the worst case, there would only be one ghost. I could still think of ways to deal with it. Besides, there might not even be one.

After calming Ling Ruyue, I led Su Rou and Ling Ruyue deeper into the tomb passage.

At that time, I did not know that after destroying a ghost earlier, my fortune had fallen to its lowest point. I thought everything was still under my control.