Volume 7 Chapter 25 Ghost Heads

I felt a little sick. Wu Laosi and the others obviously didn’t expect these clay pots to contain such things, and they all looked disgusted and surprised.

As the crowd gathered, other people gradually gathered over as well. Several Tibetan drivers had never seen anything like this before and were very curious, so they came over to take a look.

I covered my nose and watched as Wu Laosi put on gloves and picked up the human head, cleaning the dirt off of it. The object was very old, but the hair was still very tough. The flesh and skin had rotted away, and when the dirt was removed, you could see the dried skin and empty eye sockets. This was the skull of an ancient person.

The man with glasses next to him compared the diameter of the head and the mouth of the jar: the skull was large, and the mouth of the jar was small, so obviously the head could not fit into the jar.

I asked him what was going on.

“This is the strange tradition of the Xiwangmu tribe. This must be a slave of another tribe in the Western Regions. When he was two or three years old, his head was put into this clay pot, and then he grew up to adulthood. When the gap between his neck and the clay pot was too small to fit food, his head would have been stuck in there for a long time. Then his head was cut off, the clay pot was sealed, and it was offered to Xiwangmu as an offering. This is the tradition of human sacrifice.” Four Eyes said.

“Damn, this is too evil. The Xiwangmu in our Journey to the West is very kind, not as vicious as this.“ A person said in amazement.

”That Xiwangmu is a Xiwangmu who has been Chineseized. In the real ancient legends, Xiwangmu is a ghost-like thing, not a person at all.” Someone enlightened him, “In those days, people were not ruled by kindness. Rulers ruled by these occult, bizarre and cruel rituals, and they used their supernatural powers to rule.”

I asked Old Wu, “Why is this human head placed in this jar? Just chop it off, why go to all this trouble?”

Wu Laosi said, “There are many tribes in the Western Regions that believe that after a person dies, their soul flies out of their eyes or ears. Putting the head in a clay pot is to trap the soul in the clay pot, so that the sacrifice is meaningful. After the sacrifice is completed, these heads are usually piled together and fed to crows or thrown into the sea to feed the fish. This is also the case in the Central Plains. We call it a ghost pit. There is a ‘human head mound’ in Yaxia, Hebei Province, which is similar to this.”

I felt a bit uncomfortable just hearing about it. This kind of thing only happened in the dark ages, but I sometimes really wonder who came up with it in the first place. When did the ancients start believing in this kind of bloody stuff?

“But how could he live normally if his head was stuffed into this kind of clay pot from a young age?” someone asked.

“Live? Don’t say that. The life of a sacrifice is quite superior. Those chosen as sacrifices usually eat the food of the gods, the best food in the entire tribe. They don’t have to do anything at all. After they reach sexual maturity, the most beautiful maidens will mate with them immediately in order to conceive the next generation of sacrifices. In order to make his neck grow thick enough as soon as possible, they will restrict the activities of the sacrifice. Some people are so fat that they are strangled to death by the mouth of the pot before they reach the age. One man said, “Compared to the other slaves who work hard outside and may not even live to be thirty, it may be a good choice to live comfortably for ten more years and then die happily.”

The man touched his chin and said, “That sounds good. I’m not interested in food, but I am interested in the most beautiful girls. If I were a sacrifice, I wouldn’t eat, so that my neck wouldn’t get fat, and then I could…”

Before he finished, the Tibetan drivers all laughed. I slapped him on the head and scolded him, “What the hell is in your head?”

After a while, Wu Laosi began to wash the skull with a solution. This was an archaeological operation, and it was pointless for several people to watch. Someone clapped their hands on the side, telling them to go back to work and prepare for retreat. We set off as soon as we were ready.

Before we had gone far, suddenly, everyone heard a strange sneer, coming clearly from the crowd.

I was suddenly covered in cold sweat, and everyone stopped and looked at each other. I knew I hadn’t heard wrong from their expressions. My heart was in my mouth. What was going on? Who was laughing?

I couldn’t think about it for long, because the sneer sounded again. This time, we were prepared, and we all looked in the direction of the sneer, and we discovered that the sound was actually coming from the pile of human heads on one side.

Wu Laosi was so scared that he dropped the human head in his hand to the ground. My scalp went numb, and I thought to myself, how could this be? At this moment, several people suddenly jumped up and screamed. Someone yelled, “Look, the heads are moving!”

I hurriedly looked over and saw that the soil was cracking open on the head of one of the skulls in the pile, and the head was shaking, as if it were alive. I almost choked, thinking to myself, how could this be? At this moment, the soil suddenly cracked open, and two small blood-red bugs crawled out. Each was only the size of a fingernail, and they looked very familiar.

I looked at them and my brain buzzed. I couldn’t believe my eyes. I didn’t believe it either, but when I looked again, I was completely shocked. It was a few giant centipedes!

My legs were weak and I almost fell backwards. I looked and saw two, three, four, and then a ball of red bugs spurted out of it, exactly the same as the ones I saw in the palace of the King of Lu! They immediately crawled all over the place.

“Holy shit, what kind of bug is this? I’ve never seen it before.” At this time, someone was still wondering, and saw a Tibetan driver walking over to take a closer look. I yelled, ‘Don’t be an idiot! It’s poisonous, get back, don’t touch it!’

The man looked back at me, and as soon as he turned around, suddenly a centipede flew up and landed on his shoulder. I yelled, ”Don’t!” It was too late. He reflexively grabbed it, and let out a scream. It was as if he had been burned, and he immediately retracted his hand. When he looked, he saw a rash spreading across his hand like a tide.

Everyone around him screamed and retreated. He looked at his hand, which was rapidly turning red like it was melting, and was terrified. He yelled, “Team doctor! Team doctor!” and fell to the ground.

Someone went to help him, and someone ran to the team doctor’s tent. I knew that person was finished, so I cursed and rushed up to stop those who were going forward. I yelled at the others, “Don’t touch him, or you’ll die! Don’t be dazed, quickly find a way to kill these bugs. When they all fly up, we’ll be dead!”

Those people only then reacted, and began to retreat and get their tools. Several drivers took off their clothes and went to beat the bugs. However, it was useless. The bugs quickly dispersed, and only a few were killed by the beating, and more crawled out. Soon, two more people screamed in pain.

In the chaos, Wu Laosi picked up a toolbox next to him and smashed it at the head. The head had long since turned to mush, and it shattered when it was smashed. I looked at it and said, “Oh my god, the entire cranial cavity of the head was almost like a beehive, full of gray eggs and bugs, disgusting to death.

My back was covered in cold sweat, and I thought to myself that the things the glasses had said were completely unbelievable. This head was definitely not used for sacrifice, but rather as a medium for breeding insects. Could it be that this kind of centipede laid its eggs in human brains? Damn, if these insects fly into the city, the status of the traditional four pests will be at stake.

“Oh no, the other heads are moving too!” At this time, someone else yelled, and I didn’t have time to care. Everyone quickly backed away, and then I began to hear a buzzing sound, and a red light flew up. Suddenly, several of them flew past my ears, scaring me and making me shrink my neck.

At that moment, the first thought in my mind was that it was too late, and many people would die this time! Just as I finished thinking, someone screamed again. I turned around and saw Old Wu lying on the ground, writhing in pain. Looking at the clay pot, I saw a reddish color, and the entire sand was covered with red spots. Countless centipedes had already taken flight, and the sound of wings filled the air.

There was no way to deal with this. One centipede could easily kill all of us here, not to mention ten thousand. I thought to myself, “This is not a sacrifice, it’s a weapon. This thing is like an atomic bomb. If anyone doesn’t believe me, throw one into their city, and the whole city will probably die!

Now I can only abandon the camp and escape. Besides, I rushed into the tent, and the people resting there had already heard the noise and came out. When they saw me running over, they asked me what was going on. I couldn’t explain it, so I yelled, ”Don’t ask, just run for your life!

A few Tibetan drivers carried the Caucasian out of the tent. Tashi carried Dingzhu Zhuoma, who had already run off into the distance.

Seeing people running out one after another, I felt a little relieved. I ran to call Aning. Aning had already woken up and was just standing up. I rushed over to pull her up and ran. She still broke free from me and asked me what was going on.

I yelled at her to just run and asked what the hell was going on! Before I could finish, a centipede suddenly flew past my forehead, knocked down Aning’s shoulder, and then stopped.

Aning looked down in surprise and tried to slap it away. I saw it and quickly grabbed her hand, then blew it away with a strong blow and pulled her out.

Muyoubing and Black Glasses were watching the car outside, so we had to run to that place first. We ran like crazy, not caring about anything, and after running for 300 to 400 meters, we saw a stone marking. My mind froze, and I suddenly realized that I had no idea how to get out.