Volume 3 Chapter 27: In the Air

The signal flare fell and passed through this area. The faces moved, avoiding the burning light balls. It looked like a beetle with a human face.

These should be the true body of the Chi Gu that the cool counselor mentioned. The ancients kept them in special masks and they have actually reproduced. I was still skeptical just now, but I never thought I would encounter them so soon, and in such a large group.

The faces attached to the bronze tree with deep ravines, when the light shines on them, they show different expressions, such as pain, melancholy, ferocity, or a sinister smile. I have never seen such a strange sight before, and it makes my hair stand on end.

Liang Shi Master Liang said that he was generous, but when he saw the real thing, he couldn’t help but tremble and say to me, “Two… two young masters, these are all alive. Those Chi Gu are attached under the masks. What should we do? How can we get past them?”

“Don’t panic,” said Lao Yang. “You see how they react to the signal flare. These things must be afraid of light and heat. We’ll light the torches and slowly walk up. They won’t dare touch us.”

I shook I shook my head: “Don’t be so sure. The signal flare is very hot and bright, so of course they are afraid. But torches are different. Don’t forget those monkeys. They all ran away when they saw the flare, but when you scared them with a torch, they just backed away. I think if you go up with a torch, you won’t get through, and you’ll be surrounded. It’ll be hard to get away then.”

“So what do you suggest?” Lao Yang asked me. “Do you have any ideas?”

I said said, “I don’t have any ready-made ideas, just a preliminary idea, I don’t know if it will work.”

Lao Yang impatiently said, “I know you have a lot of crazy ideas, so tell me quickly.”

I pointed to the rock wall a few dozen meters away and said, “It’s too dangerous to go straight up. If it’s really like what the cool counselor said, these living masks must have some way to climb onto our faces. If we force our way will definitely result in casualties. Why don’t we go around? Do you have any way to swing us over to the opposite rock face? There are so many holes up there, it’s not hard to climb. We can also take a good rest.”

Lao Yang looked at the direction I was pointing and exclaimed, ‘That’s… so far? Swing over?’

I nodded and gestured, ‘That’s the only idea I have. Don’t we still have a rope? Take it out and see if it’s long enough. If that doesn’t work, I guess we’ll just have to go down. Next time, bring a flamethrower.’

Lao Yang He took the rope from his waist, one of the items of equipment he had taken from Uncle Tai. It had a U.aa label on it. The best climbing rope in the world, used by special forces. It seems they are willing to spend money on equipment.

I had helped Uncle San buy equipment before going to the Lu Palace, and had checked a lot of information. So I knew that this kind of rope, if the diameter is more than 10 mm, can almost withstand a three-ton impact (that is, a sudden fall). Support It can support the weight of the three of us with plenty of room to spare…

It’s strong enough, but I’m not sure if it’s long enough. Lao Yi let it down from the tree and took a look. He let out a cry of “Oh no!” The rope was only ten meters long, and there was still a long way to go to get to the other side.

“What should we do?” he asked me. “Even if we connect our belts together, it’s still not enough.”

I squeezed the rope and found that it was a 16-centimeter two-strand rope. I had an idea and said, “It’s okay. Let’s we can split the two strands of the rope and connect them into one, that should be enough.“

”Brother Wu, is that going to work? This rope is so thin, won’t it break?“ asked the cool-headed advisor. ‘Look, it’s thinner than rice flour, don’t do anything stupid.’

”That’s what the foreign mountaineering magazines say, they wouldn’t lie to us.”

I the single-weave outer layer of the rope and pulled out a very thin nylon rope. I swallowed a mouthful of saliva myself. It was really too thin. According to common sense, such a thin rope definitely could not bear our weight, but the foreign data did say that this kind of reinforced nylon fiber with an eight-millimeter diameter could already be used as a climbing rope. Of course , there is a certain degree of danger in using this kind of rope, so it is generally used together with two ropes. We only have one rope, so we have to pray to God for more blessings.

I still believe in high technology. I think I won’t be so unlucky.

I handed hand the rope to Lao Yang, who took out a water bottle from his backpack and tied it in a sailor’s knot to use as a weight. After failing several times, he finally wrapped it around a stalagmite on the opposite side. When he pulled, the rope tightened and was fixed very firmly.

“It’s done,” Lao Yang said. “Damn, it’s finally done. Lao Wu, aside from the rope, are these stones on the opposite side reliable?”

“I don’t know,” I said said, thinking about what would happen if the stones didn’t hold. I would probably swing back to the bronze tree, and if I was lucky, I would hit the trunk and be half dead.

This side of the rope was also tied to a bronze branch, and Lao Yang tied a special knot so that we could untie it on the other side when we got there. This knot was very complicated and made me dizzy. I asked him where he learned this skill, and he said it was in prison.

Everything was ready. I finally pulled the rope to make sure that both sides were secure, and then called on them to start climbing. I looked at them and saw that they were looking at me with a look that they would never be the first to climb. Obviously, it takes a lot of courage to be the first to climb such a thin rope. I called out twice, and both of them shook their heads. I had to curse under my breath and pluck up my courage to go up first.

Before Before going up, I handed my rucksack and the beat to Lao Yang and Lang Shiyi, trying to reduce my own weight. These things can be tied to the end of the rope. Later, when Lao Yang unties the rope from a distance, he will swing them down together and pull them up. Lao Yang is not too confident about the caves on the other side, so he gave me his pistol. If anything unexpected happens, it will be a good defense.

I sighed I sighed, feeling like a martyr about to die, patted the two of them on the shoulder, and turned to climb towards the rope.

The moment my feet left the rope, my nerves were almost as tight as the rope itself. I closed my eyes and gritted my teeth, ready to hear the crisp sound of the rope breaking.

I thought to myself I told myself not to look down, but my eyes couldn’t help but glance down. Oh my god! I groaned and immediately turned my head, closed my eyes and said Amitabha.

Lao Yi cried out, “Hey, Lao Wu, what are you dawdling about? Hurry up and climb, you’re more in danger up there.”

I greeted Lao Yi’s ancestors, took a deep breath, moved my hands and feet and began to climb towards the opposite side. This The rope had a certain degree of elasticity, and every step I took caused it to shake violently. I was climbing very precariously, and the rope was so thin that it was very abrasive on my hands. After a while, I felt a little overwhelmed. Later, my mind went blank, and I didn’t even know how I had stepped onto solid ground. My feet immediately went limp, and I hugged the stalagmite and collapsed in a heap, gasping for breath.

I have the torch. I lit it and stuck it in the side. I looked at Lao Yao and the others, and saw that Lao Yao was shivering as he climbed up the rope. Lao Yao held him back and told him not to climb yet. He told me to first see how the situation was here, and if it wasn’t suitable for climbing, or there were other dangers, I could save my strength.

I looked at the several caves around me, all only half-man high, and they were all artificially carved out. However, after thousands of years of rainwater seeping in, there were many newly formed stalactites on the surface, and it was very humid inside. These The caves were probably dug here during the construction of the giant tree.

Looking up, I saw that the distance between the caves was only three or four feet. There was nothing in the caves, so there was no danger. I had just seen something in the cave in the tree, but it was probably an illusion caused by the change in light and shadow. In such a dark place, it was inevitable that my nerves would be a bit sensitive.

I reassured myself, and then raised my hand to greet Lao Yang.

Lao Yang patted Liang Shiyi and told him to go first. The latter rubbed his face with his hands, climbed up the rope, and moved towards me.

Watching Liang Shiyi climb the rope was a real test of nerves. I won’t go into the details of the process, but after ten minutes, I finally managed to pull the muddy-looking Shiyi over to my side.

Finally, it was Lao Yang’s turn. He took a deep took a deep breath, tied the flashlight to his hand, and checked the knot again before carefully climbing up the rope. He climbed quickly and soon reached the middle of the rope. At this time, the stone pillar where I had tied the rope suddenly made a strange sound. The three of us froze. Lao Yang looked at me in horror. I looked back and my heart sank – a crack had appeared on the stone pillar.

We were in trouble! I turned around and yelled, “Climb! We can’t hold on here!”

I called a few times, but Lao Yi didn’t move at all, staring at me with a blank expression. Then he started to back away, gesturing as he did so, as if telling me to go back as well.

What was he doing? I thought to myself, suddenly feeling a foreboding sense of danger.

Lao Yi pointed desperately at the top of our heads, calling out in a low voice, “Run…

Liang Shiyu and I looked up in surprise, and I was stunned.

Just a moment ago had been empty, but it was now covered with those human face masks, moving together, making a sound as they came towards us like a tide. At first glance, it looked like countless people were leaning against the wall and looking down at us.

I really wanted to slap myself at this point. How could I not have thought that there would be chiggers on the rock wall as well? I might as well jump off the cliff.

Lao Yi saw us in a daze and yelled, “Don’t be in a daze! Come back! Cut the rope!”

I heard him and reacted quickly. I jumped back to the stalagmite, jumped onto the rope with a forceful leap, and the impact force pulled the rope downwards. The stalagmite made a series of creepy cracking sounds. Before I could get a good grip, Lao Shiye also jumped up. The rope was stretched by more than ten centimeters, reaching its limit. I I heard a very inauspicious sound, and then a crackling sound. The strongest rope in the world finally failed, breaking into two pieces.

The eight-millimeter-wide rope could not bear the weight of three people. With a crackling sound, the knot on the copper tree side broke, and we swung like a swing, slamming into the cliff wall on one side, almost vomiting blood.

The bottom The old itch at the bottom was hit the hardest. He couldn’t hold on to the rope for a moment and slid down. He hurriedly grabbed onto a gap in the rock on the side to stop himself. I and the cool master weren’t much better off. My head scraped against a rock ridge, leaving a gash that bled profusely. The cool master was hanging vertically and couldn’t hold on. The rope slipped in his hand and he fell all the way to the bottom. Fortunately, there was an old itch below, so he didn’t fall.

The The stalagmite continued to crackle, and it was possible that it would break at any moment. I quickly reached out and grabbed the stalactite next to me, jumped over it, and then pulled Master Liang over. Master Liang was so scared that he immediately said thank you, and then he suddenly said that a mask had suddenly jumped down from above and grabbed his face.

At that instant, I seemed to see a few crab-like claws sticking out from under the mask. The old man let out a scream and tried to cover his face with his hands, but it was too late. The mask had already covered his face. He desperately tried to tear off the mask, but it seemed to be stuck to his face, and it sucked back in after being pulled out several times. I wanted I wanted to help him, but he was flailing around like a madman. Before I could get close, he pushed me away with a single movement. I grabbed the rope again with one hand and slid to the edge of the cliff before I could stop myself.

I looked down at the bottomless abyss below me and cursed in my heart. I just wanted to go back up to help Master Liang. I lifted I looked down at the bottomless abyss below me, and cursed in my heart. I just wanted to go back up to help the cool master. I lifted my head, and a large black shadow fell from the sky, grabbing my face. I felt a blackness in front of my eyes, and I couldn’t see anything. I just felt a few furry things burrowing into my mouth.

In a panic I only had one hand holding onto the rock crevice and one hand trying to break the mask. At the same time, I gritted my teeth to keep the thing from coming in. I only had to break it a little and the mask fell off by itself. I quickly threw it out, but unfortunately it landed right on Lao Yi’s butt. Lao Yi yelled angrily and hurriedly smashed it with the handle of a gun.

I breathed I breathed a sigh of relief, and when I turned around, four or five more Chi Guos jumped onto my head, scaring me so much that I shuddered. I raised my hand and fired four shots, but it didn’t work at all. Suddenly, more than a dozen more came rushing over. I and Lao Yao retreated downward, and at this time, we heard a “woo “ and looked up. The cold counselor had already been affected. His body was covered with chi gong. He yelled and struggled, trying to knock the chi gong off his body, but as soon as he knocked one off, more would jump up.

I I shot while backing up, and I kept shooting until I ran out of bullets. The situation didn’t improve at all. The tide of Chi Gu came at us from both sides. When I turned around, I saw that the rock walls on all sides were already covered with these things, touching each other. For a moment, my ears were filled with strange and inexplicable sounds, which was almost unbearable. If I was distracted, a few would jump up and pounce on people’s faces. If you weren’t careful, you might get hit.

We We kept retreating, but we couldn’t outrun them. Soon we were surrounded, and we were about to despair when Lao Yi fired his gun. The sound of the shot was deafening, and it blew a large section of the Chi Gu flying above our heads. The nearest few masks were immediately smashed to pieces, and the fragments fell from above like snow.

But In less than a second, the empty rock wall that had been blasted open by the clapper was immediately covered by the Chi Gu behind it. Lao Yan saw that it was useless and quickly wrapped his head in his clothes, shouting at me, “Lao Wu! I’ll cover you, so you quickly cover your mouth and go get the torch!”

I looked up I looked up and saw that the torch was still stuck on a protrusion I had found. There were no Chi Gu around it, so it was clear that these things were indeed afraid of fire. However, the distance between me and the torch was so packed with Chi Gu that it was impossible to climb up. I yelled at Lao Yang, “You go, I’ll cover you!”

“I’m out of ideas! You try!” Lao Yang yelled while using the clapper to smash the Chi Gu. “What a fucking bad luck!”

I looked I looked at these things and my heart trembled. These Chi Gu were not very powerful, but there were so many of them, and they were protected by hard masks, so it was difficult to kill them all. Moreover, these were only the ones that had survived thousands of years of reproduction. It was impossible to imagine how many of these things the ancients had made in order to protect the copper tree.

Lao Yang Once again, he shook off the chi gu from his body and tried to crawl to my side, but when he looked up at me, he suddenly froze and cried out, “Lao Wu, what’s wrong with you?”

I saw him standing there, with several masks falling on his shoulders and crawling into his clothes on his face. He cried out, “What’s wrong! Be careful!”

Lao Yan only reacted after a moment, hastily patting the chi gu off his shoulders, then said to me, “Lao Wu, I said you—didn’t notice? This isn’t right!”

“What What’s wrong!“ I pulled him over and yelled impatiently, ‘What time is it? If you have something to say, spit it out!’

”Look at you, you don’t have a single mask on! How come they’re not crawling all over you! It’s impossible!”

I looked down and let out a gasp myself. I looked at the cool-headed counselor and Lao Yang again. They were covered in Chi Gu, and they couldn’t get rid of them no matter how hard they tried. But I didn’t have any on me.

My heart I felt a chill in my heart and immediately recalled that, from just now until now, apart from the one that flew into my face, none had actually climbed onto my body. I had not noticed it during the chaos earlier, and I had thought I was lucky, but now it seemed that something was wrong. I hurriedly looked around and found that although the chi gus were also crawling towards me, as soon as they got close to me, they suddenly changed direction and crawled off in another direction, as if they were avoiding me like they were avoiding a torch.

“What’s going on?” I thought to myself. I wondered, and quickly raised my hand tentatively to grab the nearest mask. Before my hand touched it, the Chi Gu in that area had already retreated in a flurry.

I looked at Lao Yi, and he looked at me. Both of us were baffled. Lao Yi cried out, “My grandpa, this trick is really cool. Did you accidentally get something on your hand? Take a look!”

I immediately looked at my hand. Apart from the blood and dirt left after my injury, there was nothing else unusual.

This is It’s strange. What are they afraid of me for? Are they selective about their parasites?

I saw the way these Chi Gu retreated, and I thought of the scene where the Mung Oil Bottle shook off the corpse, and a question mark popped up in my mind.

Wait, could it be… blood?

How could it be? How could these vicious things be afraid of the blood of an ordinary person like me?

I looked at my hand in confusion, and my mind was a mess, unable to think clearly about anything.

This I couldn’t resist the itch any longer, so I reflexively reached out to scratch it. To my utter surprise, the Chi Gu that were attached to him retreated like cockroaches seeing insecticide, exactly the same as the corpse-like creatures seeing the blood of the Muming bottle.

“No way!” I said to myself, my jaw dropping to the ground.

Lao Yan He didn’t understand what was going on, and yelled for me to climb up and get the torch. I patted him on the back and said, “Wait, look, something doesn’t seem right.”

After that, I raised my hand up and walked a few steps towards the already twitching Cool Counselor. Just a few steps, and the Chi Gu in those places retreated like a tide. The sound of the masks touching each other just a moment ago suddenly became a mess, overwhelmed by a horrified squeaking sound.

Lao Yang He stared at me in disbelief, as if he were looking at a monster. I ignored him and climbed up. I put my hand on the old man’s face and the mask suddenly arched up. I immediately grabbed it and pulled it off with a strong tug, pulling out a “tongue” full of mucus. The old man was already in a semi-conscious state, and as soon as the “tongue” was pulled out of his throat, he immediately vomited, spraying himself all over.

The Chi Gu in my hand was struggling violently, and I could barely hold it. The tongue-like thing was too disgusting, so I smashed it hard against the rock, and it splattered green juice all over my hands.

The Chi Gu around us retreated, but they didn’t go far. They formed a huge encirclement around us, and kept shrinking. Lao Yi quickly pulled the torch back, swept it around, and forced them to move a little further away. At this time the old itch coughed twice and seemed to regain consciousness. The old itch went to get the water bottle again and retracted the remaining rope. Unfortunately, our other equipment and food were still in the tree, and I didn’t know if there was a way to get them back.

I poured water into my hands and moistened the old itch’s lips. Seeing me, he actually shed two tears. I was dumbfounded when I saw it, and quickly threw him aside. The old itch He was a bit jumpy after being on edge for so long. I told him that the torches were there and they would not come near us, and asked him to relax or he would go crazy. He was relieved to see that the Chi Gu were not coming near us, and he put the torch in the middle of us. He immediately asked me, “Lao Wu, what happened? When did you become so strong? You didn’t use it earlier, and you made us look so ridiculous.”

I looked I shook my head and said, “I don’t fucking know myself. I thought I was dreaming.”

Lao Yang looked at the blood on my hand, smelled it, and didn’t believe that I was so powerful. He asked me, “When you came over just now, did you stick to anything special along the way? Think about it carefully… maybe you ran into the nemesis of these broken masks, and you don’t know it yourself.”

I thought I thought about it. Everything I touched, they had touched. If I hadn’t touched anything, it would have been my blood. But that’s impossible. If my blood was so powerful, I would have used it at the Lu Palace. I would have wasted it. So… could it be that I touched his blood at that time and it’s still working? No way. I shook my head and said to myself, “No.”

The cool teacher Master Liang heard what we just said and asked us what was going on. He covered his eyes with his mask and didn’t see anything. Lao Yi deliberately squeezed me and said to him, “You don’t know, just now, Lao Wu was so powerful, that’s what happened…”

Master Liang heard him say that and said, “Brother Wu, have you ever eaten something that is black and this big…”