Chapter 51: The Skeleton

“Dongdongdong,” Su Rou took three steps back. Obviously, the hideous creature on the mural scared him. He wasn’t stupid, and everything on the mural was so obvious that he could at least tell that this guy was a cannibal.

“This is not the worst, the worst is this!” I pointed to the relief on the ceiling and casually handed the oil lamp up, and suddenly the entire relief was clearly visible.

Su Rou was so scared that he sat down with a “wow” sound, because on the ceiling of this room was a lifelike statue of that monster.

Ling Ruyue, however, was very calm. In theory, a skull should have scared her like that, but she wasn’t scared at all by the relief or the monster I had just pointed out.

I saw it and asked, “Ruoyue, aren’t you afraid?”

“Why should I be afraid? I know this thing. People who raise gui use its venom.” As long as it involves things related to the art of raising gui, Ling Ruyue is not afraid.

“Have you seen it?” Su Rou had also climbed up from the ground by this time. He was very curious, and Ling Ruyue had seen this kind of monster.

“Yes, it’s a kind of snake. Few people in the village have this kind of snake. It’s a very powerful kind of snake. We call it the ‘Black Man,’ which means black mandala flower. According to legend, the road to the underworld is full of red mandala flowers. Stepping on the road to the underworld is a one-way road. Seeing this kind of snake is also stepping on the one-way road.” Ling Ruyue said seriously.

Black man? My head is spinning. I’ve never heard of it. From my limited knowledge, I only know about poisonous snakes like black mambas and green mambas. When did a black man appear?

I looked at Ling Ruyue with some disbelief. Is this little girl pulling my leg?

But Ling Ruyue just said calmly, “It’s powerful, but it’s not top-notch. There are all kinds of strange poisonous insects and snakes in the world, and it’s normal that you don’t know about them. Oh, it’s also called the “Candle Dragon” in your Han people, and it’s rare to see one that big.”

“It has horns and claws!” Su Rou still didn’t believe it was a snake.

“Any living thing will mutate to a certain extent, not to mention something as intelligent as a snake.” She then looked at Su Rou with a hint of mystery: “Have you ever seen a mutant fox?”

“Fuck, don’t tell me this, I’m scared.” Su Rou didn’t want to hear it. Who would be interested in hearing this in a pile of dead bodies?

“Metamorphosis? Are you talking about becoming a spirit?” I’ve heard a lot of these legends, but unfortunately my master doesn’t give any advice.

“Yes, becoming a spirit. This ‘Black Man’ is neither fish nor fowl. It’s still far from becoming a spirit. It’s probably been discovered and offered up as a sacred object, but why would a sacred object be buried with the dead?” The girl bit her nails and didn’t know what she was thinking.

I took a deep breath and said, “Ling Ruyue, I’m serious. I’m asking you seriously, why aren’t you afraid?”

“Because it’s dead!” Ling Ruyue said calmly.

“It’s dead?” I didn’t believe it.

“Let’s go. We’ll see when we get there. Anyway, we won’t be far from the tomb chamber when we get there.” Ling Ruyue had a strong sense of confidence.

I decided to believe her. This was an unknown territory for me, and I could only trust her. I didn’t even know what the Candle Dragon was.

“Sanwa, what do you mean by saying that the worst thing is not this?” Su Rou saw that Ling Ruyue and I had left, and hurriedly chased after us and asked.

“It’s simple. There’s a carving of a black man here, which means this is its territory. Plus there are so many human bones on the ground, I think this is a feeding room. Have you forgotten your history class? In the era of slavery, the sacrificed living people were always buried in piles. This is where the snakes ate.” In fact, I don’t know the specific reason. I just saw this carving and had this feeling.

“Yes, snakes eat, digest what they can digest, and spit out what they can’t. These human bones are very intact.” Su Rou grew up in the countryside like me, so he has some knowledge.

But no matter how I think about it, it still makes me feel creepy. I don’t want to see the process of a snake eating.

This tomb chamber is not large, and we quickly walked out. According to the text under the mural, this is the only place where you can safely enter the main tomb chamber. The reason why the tomb raider was so enraged was because he did not expect that the Black Man could live so long.

I don’t know much about history, but I know that since the tomb raider’s writing is in ancient Chinese, it must be from ancient times. In this regard, I believe Ling Ruyue. We are more than 100 years away from the ancient times, even the Qing Dynasty.

The Black Man couldn’t possibly be alive now, could he?

After exiting the tomb chamber, there was another tomb passage. Unlike the one above, which was paved with green bricks, this one was simply a dirt path. Moreover, you could see human bones after walking a few steps, just like a place for raising livestock.

There were several tombs on either side of the tunnel, and without exception, they were all filled with human bones. I couldn’t help but imagine how many people the Black Man had eaten.

The dirt road was not long, and after walking for a short while, we reached the end. The dirt road connected to a brick floor, which was a large hall. Through the light of the oil lamp, we could faintly see a platform on which something was piled up.

The three of us looked at each other and walked quickly forward. After all, we had come this far, and there was nothing new to see. The pile of things was motionless, so I didn’t think there was any danger.

When I got closer to the platform, I shone the oil lamp on the thing on the platform, and this time it was me who fell to the ground.

Because there was a huge skeleton on the platform! It was a snake skeleton!

Ling Ruyue also covered her mouth and kept cursing, “Son of a bitch, son of a bitch…”

I couldn’t measure how big the skeleton was, but the platform was almost as big as half of our school’s playground, and the skeleton almost filled the entire platform. I saw the head of the snake, the skeleton of the snake’s head! Sure enough, there was a horn! A very ugly horn!

It was only after a long time that the three of us calmed down. Fortunately, it was dead and had turned into a pile of bones. Otherwise, if we had faced it alive, not to mention its strange poison, just its size, the three of us would have been like three ants.

“This… this head is probably half my size.” It took Su Rou a long time to say this.

Ling Ruyue was the quickest to calm down. She carefully touched the platform and had a look of regret on her face. “It’s so rich. Such good materials are used to build a platform.”

“What kind of material is it?” I don’t understand. Is this platform different?

The color of this platform is a very strange gray. When you get close to it, you feel a little cold. This coldness first enters the heart, and then radiates from the inside out to the body.

“What kind of material is it? I can’t say, but it’s good for raising the Yin-loving creatures. No wonder this Black Man can grow so big. I’ve never heard of such a big Black Man in the village.” Ling Ruyue sighed.

Yin material? I thought of the Yin Gathering Array that was destroyed by my master. Could it be… for the Black Man? No, what about the hungry ghosts?

The deeper I went into the tomb, the more mysteries surrounded me.

While I was thinking, my hand began to move around unconsciously, and I accidentally touched the bones of the black man. A chilling coldness spread through my body, as if the black man had come back to life and was staring at me coldly.

I let out a scream and immediately moved my hand away. At that moment, I realized a very serious problem, so much so that I was speechless when I pointed at the skeleton.

“Sanwa, Sanwa, what’s wrong with you?” Su Rou was the first to notice something was wrong with me. She was like an asthmatic patient, gasping for air, but unable to breathe.

Ling Ruyue was also frightened by my appearance. I don’t know what kind of evaluation Ling Ruyue has of me, but I can at least be sure that she thinks I am a calm person, otherwise she wouldn’t have faced the roadblock ghost so calmly. What does this look mean? Su Rou was anxious and slapped me in the face, yelling, “Sanwa, you better say something!” Thanks to the effect of Su Rou’s slap, I finally felt relieved. I pointed at the snake bone and said, “Take a good look and see what you can find.”