Volume 1Chapter 1: The Bloody Corpse

50 years ago, at the Daziling in Changsha.

Four grave robbers are crouching on a mound of earth. They are all silent, staring at the Luoyang shovel on the ground.

The shovel head is covered with old soil that has just been brought up from the ground. Strangely, this bad soil is constantly oozing bright red liquid, as if it has just been dipped in blood.

“This is going to be a big problem.” The old man tapped his pipe on the ground and said, “There’s a corpse down there. If we’re not careful, we’ll all end up down there.”

“Are you sure? We can’t just go down there. We don’t know what’s down there,” said the one-eyed man. “You’re old and can’t walk, so you don’t have to go down there. My brother and I will go down there and deal with whatever it is.”

The old man laughed instead of getting angry. He said to the bearded man next to him, “Your two kids are so arrogant that they might flip the lid at any time. You have to educate them more. This business is not just about having a box cannon.”

The bearded man glared at the young man and said, “You brat, how can you talk to the old man like that? When the old man was a kid, you were still in your mother’s womb eating shit.”

“What did I say… I said it wrong. The ancestors said it. The blood corpse is a good thing. There must be a lot of treasures underneath. If you don’t go down, you’ll be in trouble.“

”How dare you talk back!“ The bearded man raised his hand to hit him, but the old cigarette holder blocked it with his pipe.

”You can’t hit him. You were the same when you were a kid. This is called a crooked beam that makes the lower beam crooked!”

The one-eyed boy looked down and smiled at his father being scolded. The old man coughed and hit the one-eyed boy on the head again: “What are you laughing at? When you encounter a blood corpse, it can be big or small. Last time, your uncle dug up this thing in Luoyang, and now he is still crazy, not knowing what he has gotten into. Wait a minute, I’ll go down first, you follow me, Er’er, you bring the earthworm to guard the rear, San’er, you don’t go down, all four of you go down, it’s too late to retreat, you pull the earthworm’s tail, we yell inside and you pull it out.

The youngest boy was not convinced: “I don’t agree, you’re biased, I’ll tell my mother!”

The old man laughed: “Look, the youngest one is scared. Stop it. I’ll give you a golden knife later.”

“I don’t want you to touch it. I can do it myself.”

The one-eyed second son was furious and grabbed the third son’s ear: “You bastard, you’re looking for trouble with me, and you’re telling me to lose my temper?!”

The youngest boy looked as if he had been beaten up a lot, and when he saw that his brother was really angry, he was so scared that he didn’t dare to say a word. He looked at his father for help, but his father had already gone to get the tools. His brother was now very pleased: “Why don’t you bring your love? This time the old man won’t help you. If you yell again, I’ll twist your hairy dick!”

The old man patted his brother on the shoulder and shouted, “Boys, get your tools!” Then he started whirling his shovel.

After half an hour, the hole was so deep that it was impossible to see the bottom. Except for the occasional breath of his brother, it was impossible to hear anything in the hole. The third brother was impatient and yelled into the hole, “Grandpa, have you dug through yet?”

After a few seconds, a muffled voice came from inside: “No… I don’t know. You… stay on top and pull the… good rope!”

It was his brother’s voice, and then he heard his old smoker cough: “Quiet… listen! There’s movement!”

Then there was dead silence.

The third brother knew that something must have happened below, and he was so scared that he dared not speak. Suddenly, he heard a creepy gurgling sound, like a toad calling, coming from the hole.

Then his second brother yelled down, “San’er, pull!”

He didn’t dare to be negligent, so he grabbed the mole’s tail and pulled it out. After a few pulls, suddenly something seemed to bite it, and there was a counterforce that pulled the rope into the hole. Lao San had never thought that there would be such a situation, and he almost got pulled into the hole. He quickly thought of a solution and tied the tail around his waist, then fell backwards, almost at a 30-degree angle to the ground. This was a trick he used when he played tug-of-war with other boys in the village. In this way, his weight was all on the rope, and even a mule could hold its own.

Sure enough, this way he and the thing in the hole were locked in a standoff. Both sides were straining, but neither could budge an inch. After a dozen seconds of deadlock, a box cannon sounded from the hole, and then his father yelled, “San’er, run! ! ! ! ! !” He felt the rope loosen, and the earthworm shot out of the hole with a whoosh, as if something was hanging on it! At that time, the third son didn’t care about that anymore. He knew that something must have happened down there, so he caught the mole and ran away!

He ran for more than two miles before he dared to stop. When he took the mole out of his pocket, he screamed in fright. He recognized the hand, and couldn’t help crying. It was clearly his second brother’s hand. It seemed that his second brother would be disabled if not killed. Thinking about this, he couldn’t help but grit his teeth, wanting to go back to save his second brother and his father. As soon as he turned around, he saw a blood-red thing squatting behind him, staring at him.

This third son was not a second-rate character. He had followed his father through thick and thin, and had seen many strange things. He knew that anything could happen underground, and that the most important thing was not to panic, but to adapt to the situation. He knew that even the most dangerous ghosts were no match for a living person. This kind of black and white evil had to obey the laws of physics. A volley of bullets would blow it to pieces, and there would be nothing to fear.

Thinking of this, he took a deep breath, backed away, and took the box cannon he had strapped to his waist and fired it. As soon as the blood-red thing moved, he gave it a shower of bullets. Who knew that at this time the blood-red thing actually stood up. Lao San took a closer look and suddenly felt his scalp tingle and his stomach churn. It was clearly a person who had been skinned! It was covered in blood, as if it had been squeezed out of its own skin. But it was a miracle that such a person could still walk. Could this be the true face of the blood corpse?

Thinking about it, the bloody corpse suddenly bent over and pounced on him. Lao San’s eyes met with his, and the bloody face suddenly pressed against his nose. A burst of sour gas came at him, and Lao San fell backwards. At the same time, the box cannon fired a full round of bullets at the thing’s chest at close range. The distance was too close, and all the bullets passed through, splattering the thing with blood and knocking it back several steps. Lao San was secretly pleased, and then he aimed at the thing’s head and pulled the trigger.

This old box cannon was dug out of a warlord’s tomb by his second grandfather. It must have been dug up not long ago, but unfortunately, he had been running around with his father for the past few years, and he had no time to maintain it. He rarely had the opportunity to shoot, and who knew that it would jam at this critical moment. Lao San was really something. As soon as he saw that the gun was not working, he swung his arm around and smashed the gun with all his might, regardless of whether he had hit it or not. He turned and ran. This time he didn’t even dare to look back. He saw a big tree in front of him and ran towards it, thinking that it wouldn’t be able to climb a tree. Suddenly he tripped and fell, his whole face hitting a tree stump.

Lao San slapped the ground hard, feeling so angry.

At this moment, he heard the sound of the wind behind him, knowing that the King of Hell was calling his name. He decided to die, so he just lay on the ground and didn’t get up. Unexpectedly, the bloody corpse seemed to have not seen him, and it actually stepped on him. The bloody footprints immediately left an imprint on his back. The bloody corpse was surprisingly heavy. When Lao San felt a sweet taste in his throat after a kick, he felt that his bile was was stepped on and vomited out, and the place on his back that was stepped on immediately became itchy, and his vision immediately became blurred. He immediately realized that he might have been poisoned, and the poison was very strong. In a trance, he saw that not far away, his second brother seemed to be holding something in his hand.

He blinked hard and looked carefully. It turned out to be an ancient silk piece. He thought to himself, the thing that my brother risked his life to bring out must not be ordinary. Now I don’t know what happened to them. I have to keep the thing safe. If I really die, they can find it on my body when they find my body. Then my brother’s hand won’t be broken in vain, and I won’t die in vain. As he thought this, he crawled over to his brother with difficulty, and with great effort, he broke his brother’s grip and took the silk from his palm, stuffing it into his sleeve.

At this point, his ears began to buzz, his eyes were like a veil, and his hands and feet began to grow cold. According to his past experience, he must have a lot of urine and feces in his crotch. People who die of the poison die in a very ugly way. What he hopes most now is that the second girl in the next village will not see him like this.

He was just thinking about it, and his mind was no longer listening to him. At this time, he began to hear the strange sound he heard in the cave.

Lao San vaguely sensed that something was wrong. He had just fought with the blood corpse for some time, but he had never heard it cry out. Now why was it crying again? Could it be that the one he had just seen was not a blood corpse? What was it that he had just seen? Unfortunately, at this time, he was basically unable to think. He reflexively looked up and saw a huge strange face looking down at him, with two eyes without pupils that were empty and lifeless.