Chapter 79: Secrets (4)

After a moment of hesitation, Gao Ning and I set foot on the steps. I was a little resistant to Gao Ning’s approach. Why didn’t he just tell me everything at once? Instead, he was like squeezing toothpaste, asking me to answer, or telling me to see for myself.

In retrospect, perhaps things were too strange. Even if I were a Taoist priest, I might not be able to accept these things. Gao Ning was afraid that I would not take the risk with him, so he simply kept things a mystery and gradually led me to cooperate with him.

After all, didn’t I refuse him in the past?

The steps were not too long, and it took Gao Ning and me only five minutes to reach the end. At the end was a corner, and I didn’t know what was behind it. When I stepped into the corner, I don’t know why my heart suddenly began to beat faster, as if there was a strange aura pressing down on me.

Gao Ning was also very nervous, which was rare for him. He took a deep breath, almost as if he were pulling me, and pulled me past the corner, then covered my mouth.

I didn’t understand what Gao Ning was doing, and I instinctively wanted to struggle, but I didn’t want to see what was behind the corner, so I widened my eyes.

At this moment, I should thank Gao Ning for covering my mouth in time, otherwise I would have screamed out loud. The scene I saw now was ten times more terrifying than what I saw in the deserted village!

What did I see? To tell the truth, behind the corner was just another small room, with the same simple furnishings. There was a raised stone platform, and on the platform was some dried grass. The terrifying presence was on that dried grass.

Worms! Purple worms! I don’t want to lie, but if I tell this one day, I would rather people think it’s a lie, because if it’s a lie, at least the world is still the same as it is in people’s eyes, and it won’t make people feel that the world is too mysterious and insecure.

When I actually looked at the bug, this was the only thought in my mind.

What kind of bug is this? It is far beyond my understanding. First of all, it is a strange purple color, and the entire body is almost more than 2 meters long. On that fluorescent purple color, there are also some strange gray stripes. The stripes are arranged so strangely that when viewed separately, they look like a series of strange faces with different expressions. What is its true identity? Because it is so big, I can’t see it either.

This is not important. What is important is that I don’t know what this bug is. It clearly has a pair of wings similar to a moth, but its body is like an arthropod, like a centipede. The whole bug head is hideous and terrifying. The most uncomfortable thing is the bug’s eyes, which are strangely eyelid-like. At this time, they are closed. I am afraid that it will open and I will see a pair of eyes similar to human eyes.

The other thing is the legs of this bug. I don’t know if I can call them legs. Supposedly, its body is like a centipede, and its legs would also have many like a centipede, but it only has two very strange legs. In some places behind its head, no matter how I look at it, I think it’s two arms sticking out.

It is more specifically hidden under its wings, and I can’t see it clearly.

But if it were just a bug, it wouldn’t have scared me so much. What scared me was something else: the people in this small room.

There were many people in this small hall, many of them were as thin as a skeleton, no less than 20, and more than a dozen of them were in something similar to a silkworm cocoon, with only their heads exposed, their eyes closed, and I didn’t know if they were sleeping or in a coma.

The others were under the wings of the insect, some with one foot exposed, some with one head exposed. I couldn’t see what was going on under the wings, but the exposed heads all had frightened expressions. And those in the silkworm cocoons, you could only feel that they were skinny and bony, but those under the wings, you could clearly feel that they were shriveled, even more shriveled than the old man Boqie.

Why does this situation make you feel so horrible? It’s because of a kind of sadness that makes you feel sorry for the dead. After all, what I saw in front of me was my own kind, and I felt like I was being fed to the worms. Looking at the scene in front of me, my fists were clenched tighter and tighter, and I had an indescribable urge to destroy everything here.

In this village, I was blood-sucked, and the woman I liked was oppressed. I chose to endure it all. I knew that with just Ling Ruxue and me, we could never fight against an evil village. It would just be a death sentence. We had to wait for an opportunity, or wait for the master to come to our rescue, or escape on our own, and then resolve everything in this village.

This may be the price of maturity, choosing to retreat appropriately.

But at this moment, I had already put aside any thoughts of retreat or forbearance. I had an urge to reveal the cards, to do whatever it took. Do Taoists really eat only vegetables? If I left like this, I would feel the despair of those sleeping in the silkworm cocoons tearing at me. I would be unable to sleep or eat for the rest of my life.

“Don’t be impulsive. They are now worm people, hopeless, not human anymore.” It was at this moment that Gao Ning suddenly whispered in my ear.

I pulled Gao Ning’s hand away from my mouth, glared at him angrily, almost grinding my teeth, and said, “What do you know? If you don’t tell me everything, I’d rather die than cooperate with you! And why do you have to insist on working with me?”

This has been my long-standing question, and I can’t hold it in any longer.

Gao Ning looked down at me and whispered, “I’ll try to tell you when I get back, but this is definitely not the place to talk. Look,” he said, pointing to the underside of the worm’s belly. I looked up and felt a chill run down my spine.

It turned out that there was a pit under the belly of the worm, and there was even a person sleeping in the pit. The whole body was soaked in a strange liquid, as if there was something connecting it to the worm.

I couldn’t see what kind of person it was, but just looking at it from a distance, I felt very powerless. Gao Ning whispered in my ear, “This is the oldest monster in this village. If he wakes up, what do you think will happen?”

What consequences? I didn’t even have to think about it, I was already scared. I didn’t know why I was scared, scared of the man sleeping under the belly of the worm.

“What about the chances of escape? Are you lying to me?” Everything about this village was so strange and terrifying, and my life was at stake. On some issues, I was very practical. If I was going to die, what was the point of saving those poor people?

After hearing my question, Gao Ning led me carefully to a corner of the small hall. From this corner, I could see the back of the terrifying worm. It was only then that I noticed that there was a small hole on the back of the worm.

“You can climb out through that hole,” Gao Ning whispered to me.

“How do you know?” Climb out from behind the bug? I felt a chill down my spine at the thought of such a scenario.

Besides, I didn’t believe that Gao Ning had such an experience!

Gao Ning whispered to me in a mysterious and strange voice, “That’s how my grandmother escaped. You can trust me.”Taoist priest

At around 8 a.m., Gao Ning and I finally managed to crawl out of the hole and put the lid back on with great difficulty. But instead of rushing out, we squatted in the grave. Gao Ning said that at 9 a.m., there would be a 10-minute gap, and we could use that time to get out.

All I could do now was wait, and I had one request: Gao Ning had to tell me everything I wanted to know, or else I would refuse to cooperate.

Gao Ning told me some things directly, but of course not everything. He said he had to keep his secrets, but let me believe that his secrets were not something evil, and that he was only doing it for himself.

I can understand human selfishness, although I don’t quite understand why people who aren’t selfish are called idiots, and then everyone has to pretend to be selfish in order to show that they aren’t idiots.

Is it really true, as the master said, that there are ups and downs in life, and that humans cannot see the light without going through a period of extreme darkness?

Of course, all this is nonsense. I don’t want to think about it too much. Gao Ning and I each lit a cigarette. He said, I listened.

The biggest secret of this village is in this graveyard. In fact, this is not a deserted place. In this village, this is where they are “reborn.” Those who have passed the test will be granted longevity, while those who have not will rot in this graveyard.

Therefore, there are countless branches in the four channels of this tomb, which branch into various tombs. When the people in the tombs are resurrected, they will follow the channels and climb in here, and then reach the so-called holy place in the mountainside.

“Not everyone in this village is qualified to be buried here. Only important people can be buried in this sacred place. That is their highest honor. No, it’s not honor, it’s the greatest reward.” Gao Ning squinted his eyes and said to me with a strange expression.

I felt a chill in my heart. I was imagining the scene. I should have been buried in peace, but then I woke up in the loess, ecstatic, and then climbed into a large tomb along the side passage, and then passed through a passage full of vicious blood-thread moths to meet another insect…

If this is the way I will be resurrected, what am I going to do? I would rather die in peace!

But how many people in this world can resist the fear of death? How many people can refuse the temptation of living? This has always been the most taboo and most evasive illness of mankind. How many people think like me?

I took a deep drag of my cigarette and said bitterly, “There must be a price for resurrection, right? No one can get life for free. They’re defying the heavens!”

Gao Ning spat out a mouthful of smoke and said, “Who says it’s not against the will of heaven? See those villages outside? See those dirty, lazy, and hopeless villagers? Maybe ten of them can be exchanged for the resurrection of one person.”

I crushed the cigarette in my hand.