Chapter 128: Human Bones

Thud thud thud, Su Rou staggered back three steps. It was obvious that the ferocious thing in the mural had frightened him. He was not stupid. The entire scene in the mural was so clear that he could at least tell it was something that ate people.

“This is not the worst part. The worst part is this!” I said, pointing at the relief on the ceiling. I casually lifted the oil lamp up as well, and the entire carving was suddenly illuminated clearly.

Su Rou let out a terrified Ah! and collapsed onto the ground, because on the ceiling of this room was carved a lifelike statue of that monster.

But Ling Ruyue remained very calm. Logically, she should have been scared stiff by the skulls earlier, yet now she showed no fear at all toward this relief or the monster I had pointed out.

I noticed this and asked, “Ruyue, you are not afraid?”

“Why should I be afraid? I know this thing. People who raise Gu use its venom,” Ling Ruyue said. As long as it involved Gu technique, she was not afraid at all.

“You have seen it before?” Su Rou had already climbed up from the ground. He was very curious that Ling Ruyue had seen such a creature.

“Yes, I have. It is a type of snake. Even in the Gu Miao villages, very few people possess it. It is a very powerful Gu creature. We call it ‘Hei Man,’ which means the black mandala flower. In legend, the Yellow Springs Road is filled with red mandala flowers. Once you step onto the Yellow Springs Road, it is a path of no return. Seeing this kind of snake is the same as stepping onto a path of no return,” Ling Ruyue said seriously.

Hei Man? My mind felt a little dizzy. I had never even heard of it. With my limited knowledge, I only knew of snakes like the black mamba and green mamba. When did something like a “Hei Man” appear?

I looked at Ling Ruyue with some doubt. Was this little girl talking nonsense?

But Ling Ruyue only said calmly, “It is powerful, but not the strongest. There are countless strange poisonous insects and snakes in this world. It is normal that you do not know them. Oh right, in your Han Chinese culture, there is also a name for it. It is called ‘Zhulong.’ It is very rare to see one that has grown this large.”

“It has horns and claws!” Su Rou still refused to believe it was a snake.

“Any living being can mutate after reaching a certain level of cultivation, especially a creature like a snake, which has such strong spiritual nature,” she said, then looked mysteriously at Su Rou. “Have you ever seen a fox that has mutated?”

“Damn it, stop talking about this. I am scared,” Su Rou said, unwilling to listen anymore. In a grave full of corpses, who would want to hear this?

“Mutated? You mean becoming a spirit?” I had heard plenty of such legends before, but my Master never gave any clear explanation.

“Yes, becoming a spirit. This ‘Hei Man’ is neither here nor there. It is still far from becoming a true spirit. It was probably discovered and worshipped as a sacred object, but why would a sacred object be buried in a tomb?” She bit her fingernail and seemed to be thinking.

I took a deep breath and asked seriously, “Ling Ruyue, I am asking you seriously. Why are you not afraid?”

“Because it is dead,” Ling Ruyue said calmly.

“It is dead?” I did not believe it.

“Let us go. We will see once we go down. If we reach the main burial chamber, Grandma and the others should not be far away,” Ling Ruyue said with strong confidence.

And I chose to believe her. This was beyond my knowledge, so I could only trust her. I did not even know what Zhulong was.

“San Wa Er, what did you mean earlier by saying the worst part is not this?” Su Rou hurried after us and asked.

“It is simple. The carvings of Hei Man here mean this is its territory. Combined with so many human bones on the ground, I think this is a feeding chamber. Did you forget history class? In the slave era, sacrificial victims were often buried in piles. This is where the snake feeds,” I said. In truth, I was not entirely sure. I was just guessing based on the carving.

“Yeah, snakes eat things. They digest what they can and spit out what they cannot. These bones are quite intact,” Su Rou said. Growing up in the countryside, he knew a bit about this as well.

But the more I thought about it, the more horrifying it felt. I did not want to witness how a snake eats.

This tomb chamber was not large. We quickly passed through it. According to the text under the mural, this was the only safe passage leading to the main chamber. The reason that tomb robber died with regret was because he did not expect that Hei Man could live for so long.

I was not knowledgeable about history, but I knew that since the writing in the tomb was in traditional script, the owner must have been from ancient times. In this regard, I trusted Ling Ruyue. Even if we counted the nearest Qing Dynasty, that was still over a hundred years ago.

That Hei Man could not possibly still be alive now, right?

After leaving the chamber, we entered another passage. Unlike the one above, which was paved with blue bricks, this one was just a simple earth tunnel. After only a few steps, we began to see human skeletons. It looked exactly like a place used to raise livestock.

There were several side chambers along the passage, and without exception, all of them were filled with bones. I could hardly imagine how many people that Hei Man had devoured.

The earth passage was not long. After a short walk, it ended, connecting to a blue-brick floor. This was a hall. Through the dim light of the oil lamp, we could faintly see a platform with something piled on top.

The three of us exchanged glances and quickly walked forward. Since we had come this far, we might as well see what it was. The pile was motionless, so I assumed it was not dangerous.

When I approached the platform and shone the oil lamp onto it, I was the one who collapsed onto the ground this time.

Because on the platform was a massive skeleton. It was a snake skeleton.

Ling Ruyue covered her mouth, and Su Rou kept cursing, “Damn it, damn it…”

I could not even measure how large the skeleton was. The platform itself was nearly half the size of our school playground, and the skeleton covered almost the entire surface. I saw the snake head, and the skull had a horn. A very large, terrifying horn.

It took us a long time to calm down. Fortunately, it was dead and had already turned into bones. Otherwise, facing something alive like that, not to mention its poison, just its size alone would make the three of us nothing more than ants.

“This… this head is probably as big as half of me,” Su Rou finally managed to say.

Ling Ruyue was the first to recover her composure. She carefully examined the platform, and her expression even carried a trace of regret. “Such rich material. It was actually used to build a platform.”

“What material?” I did not understand. Was this platform different?

The platform was a strange gray color. The closer I got, the colder it felt. This coldness first seeped into my heart, then spread outward through my entire body.

“I cannot say what it is. But it is very suitable for raising Gu creatures that prefer yin energy. No wonder this Hei Man could grow so large. I have never heard of one this big in the village,” Ling Ruyue said with emotion.

Yin-type material? I thought of that previous Yin Gathering Formation. The one destroyed by my Master. Could it be for this Hei Man? No, then what about the hungry ghost?

The deeper I went into this ancient tomb, the more mysteries tangled around me.

While I was thinking, my hand unconsciously brushed against the snake skeleton. A bone-chilling cold instantly spread through my entire body, as if the Hei Man had come alive and was staring at me with a cold gaze.

I let out a strange cry and immediately pulled my hand back. At that moment, I noticed something very serious, so serious that I could not even speak, only pointing at the skeleton.

“San Wa Er, San Wa Er, what is wrong with you?” Su Rou was the first to notice something was off. He was breathing heavily like an asthma patient who could not get air in.

Ling Ruyue was also startled by my reaction. I did not know what impression she had of me, but I was certain she saw me as a calm person. Otherwise, I would not have been so composed when facing the blocking ghost earlier. What did this look mean?

Su Rou panicked and slapped me hard, shouting, “San Wa Er, just speak!”