Volume 8 Chapter 31 Burying the dead

Looking at the corpse again, I found that these corpses had all turned gray from the water, but there was no serious decay. Obviously, they had not been dead for long. The corpses were not white from being soaked in the mud, but were a bit green, which seemed a bit unusual.

There were so many dead people here, and they had all died not long ago. Obviously, these must be Uncle San’s men. I thought of the empty camp and shuddered. These people must have been bitten to death by the chicken-crown snake and then transported to this mud pit.

Was this the first batch of people to die, or was it Uncle San who survived? Was Uncle San among them?

I suddenly remembered the cry of the third young master I had just heard, and thought to myself, “Could it be that this is not a person calling me, but the spirit of a colleague here, trying to let me discover this place and guide me?

My head swelled up, but the blue light on my watch went out again, and the darkness returned.

I turned on the watch again and began to feel around in the pockets of the corpse in front of me. I found a wallet in his trouser pocket, which was already heavy from the water. I weighed it and threw it at the light on the side of the stone wall. The first time I missed, so I took the man’s belt and threw it over. I realized it was wrong as soon as I threw it, but it was too late. The flashlight had already flown out. I was about to slap myself, but this time it worked. The bush that was stuck in the miner’s lamp was hit, and the miner’s lamp slipped down and fell into the water and sank.

I grabbed the protruding rock with one hand and stretched my other hand as far as I could, barely reaching it. I managed to fish the miner’s lamp out of the water, but the torch was so light that the current carried it downstream for several meters, and I lost track of it.

I looked more clearly this time, and when I shone the flashlight around, I realized that this was part of a swamp, similar to a circular pool of water. The water flowed to one side, and when I shone the flashlight, I saw that the downstream part of the water flow was a stone relic carved with a beast’s head. The water flowed to the relic, flowing into the open mouth of the beast. Just as I thought, there must be a wellhead below, and it must be dangerous to go there.

I began to swim upstream, tied the miner’s lamp to my waist, and began to move along the rock wall. I shone the light along the way and saw that there were a large number of corpses lying in the swamp, most of which were completely submerged in the mud, with only stiff hands or other parts sticking out. The entire lower part of the pool was almost completely covered.

I walked while avoiding the corpses, but there were so many of them that I couldn’t get past them. The mud on many of the corpses was washed away by the water I stirred up. I found that there were two blackened teeth holes on their necks, and the whole neck was blackened, and the surrounding parts were greenish.

They were all bitten to death by snakes. There were no traces of fighting in the entire camp. It was possible that they were bitten to death in their sleep, or they may have been attacked in a large-scale attack while marching here.

I adjusted my miner’s lamp and nervously looked for their faces one by one, hoping to see if there was any third uncle.

I didn’t want to see Uncle San, but my reason told me that I couldn’t escape. This feeling was like a parent who recognized their son’s body and had to confirm it, but they really didn’t want to confirm it. However, it wasn’t easy to identify them under the mud. I looked at them one by one, but I didn’t find anyone who looked like Uncle San, and at the same time, I couldn’t be sure that they weren’t Uncle San.

Just as I was about to give up, my miner’s lamp shone on one of the faces. The face was not completely covered in mud, and I subconsciously stopped in my tracks. I suddenly realized that the face was somewhat familiar, and I immediately recognized it.

It was Ning!

Her eyes were closed, and her whole body was in a very strange position. She was only covered in a thin layer of mud. The lividity on her face was already very obvious.

I was almost suffocating. I looked around and thought to myself that the snakes had even brought her body here!

The light shone on the corpse, and from the surface of the body, it seemed that this was still an ordinary corpse, and there was no snake-like mutation. Then, the shadow we saw at the time was not her? Then, what was that shadow that emitted a noise similar to a radio?

I took a deep breath and leaned over. I couldn’t describe what I felt in my heart. I reached out and touched her body, but there was no walkie-talkie. I wanted to pick her up, but I couldn’t find any leverage. Her face was washed clean by the swamp water I stirred up, and her hair hung down, showing an unusual tranquility. At that moment, I felt as if she was still alive.

But then I sank her back into the swamp, and the muddy water immediately hid everything, and the illusion disappeared without a trace.

I felt a great deal of sadness in my heart, and the more I looked around, the more I felt cold.

What is this place, a place where they pile up food? Could there be huge pythons here that come to eat?

I felt extremely uneasy. This place is not safe. I must leave immediately.

Thinking about this, I waved my miner’s lamp and looked for a place to climb around. I soon found a place where the water was flowing in the opposite direction, and there was a tree with vines hanging into the water. I bit down on my miner’s lamp and swam towards it. After a few steps, I reached it and grabbed the vines.

The fog had already thinned out a bit, and I gritted my teeth and climbed up the vines. But then I thought of what the oil bottle said: when the mud prevents snakes, I went down and scooped up a handful of mud, smeared it on the mud-washed parts of my body, and then climbed back up. I finally let out a sigh of relief when I reached the branches of the vine.

I followed the branches to the center of the tree canopy, and just as I was about to climb down the tree, I suddenly heard a sound of water in the pond on one side, and then I heard something fall into the water.

I followed the sound and shone my flashlight in the direction of the sound, and sure enough, I saw ripples on the edge of the water, and something rolling down from the shore. I shone my flashlight in that corner, and I saw a mass of red intestines, which were a large number of chicken-crown snakes entwined together. And among them, it seemed that something was wrapped up.

I looked carefully, and for a moment I saw a hand reach out from the snake pile, and then I saw a fat human head.

I felt a chill run down my spine, and realized it was the fat man.