Chapter 326: Panic in Sand City (Part 3)

In the azure sky, two dark spots could be seen circling faintly—what else could they be if not eagles?

Inside the vehicle, cheers erupted.

However, Xiaofang was extremely nervous, her eyes darting anxiously.

“I want to go home!”

Xiaofang suddenly shouted, scaring Zha Zhengfa into slamming on the brakes.

Everyone turned to look at Xiaofang, who kept exclaiming in terror, “I want to go home! I want to go home!”

“Xiaofang, what’s wrong? We’re about to find the Sand City, about to find the treasure!” Gu Wu took the opportunity to place his hand on Xiaofang’s shoulder.

Xiaofang immediately slapped Gu Wu’s hand away and shouted, “You don’t understand at all! There are zombies and ghosts all around the Sand City. If we go there, we’ll never come back! I want to get out! I want to go home!”

Xiaofang flung the car door open and jumped out.

Rongjie quickly chased after her and grabbed her hand: “Xiaofang, what you saw might have been clouds or a mirage. You can’t believe everything you see. Besides, how could there really be zombies or ghosts? And I’m here with you, right?”

“But Rongjie, I’m really scared. You shouldn’t go either, okay?”

Xiaofang grew more frightened as she thought about it.

She knew those figures couldn’t be normal people—normal people couldn’t emerge from underground. The most terrifying thing was the black mist rising from the Sand City; that was the worst part, darkening the sky and covering the sun.

“You silly goose, you’ve been reading too many horror novels,” Rongjie said as she pulled Xiaofang back into the car, motioned for Gu Wu to take the front passenger seat, and whispered in Xiaofang’s ear, “Follow me and I’ll protect you. If things really are as you saw, then don’t get out of the car. In any case, I’ll take care of you.”

Rongjie waved at Zha Zhengfa to continue driving.

Though her words were reassuring, Xiaofang remained deeply frightened.

She made a sudden decision: she wouldn’t get out of the car unless absolutely necessary.

Zha Zhengfa honked the horn and made contact with Yin Kai. Following the sound, Zha Zhengfa spotted Yin Kai’s van parked beside a rocky hillside. There was a large pit below the rocks, and it seemed to contain water.

Yin Kai was sitting on a rock beside the van, smoking.

After getting out of the car, Zha Zhengfa asked, “How is it? Did you find water?”

Yin Kai shook his head. “Bei Fu went down to look for water.”

Zha Zhengfa looked down at the rock face. About six or seven meters away was a dark cave, and the sound of dripping water could be faintly heard.

Zha Zhengfa then called Gu Wu, and the two of them carried four buckets to fetch water.

Seeing this, Rongjie quickly got out of the car and ran down to the cave entrance. The deeper they went, the steeper and colder it became, sending chills down their spines. After walking for about four or five minutes, they finally reached a quiet cave. Inside was a pool filled with crystal-clear spring water.

“Oh my! What a shame we didn’t come here to bathe earlier!”

Rongjie looked around, but couldn’t find Bei Fu.

At that moment, Gu Wu and Zha Zhengfa caught up, and the three of them entered the cave together.

“Wow, this water is so clear. It must taste great…”

Excitedly, Gu Wu ran to the edge of the pool, crouched down, scooped up some water, and tasted it. After a few sips, he frowned. “Hmm? This water tastes a bit strange.”

“What does it taste like?” Zha Zhengfa approached Gu Wu, dipped his fingers in the water and tasted it. He also frowned. “It does taste odd. Spring water should be sweet, but this is unusually salty.”

“Look! That’s Bei Fu’s clothes.”

Rongjie, holding a small flashlight, scanned the cave. It was very dark inside, with poor lighting. Suddenly, she spotted Bei Fu’s clothes.

“Hey! So this is the kid’s bathwater. No wonder it’s so salty. That brat, come out right now!” Gu Wu turned and picked up a stone. “If you don’t come out, I’ll start throwing stones!”

“I’ll go get the miner’s lamp.”

Zha Zhengfa hurried back to get the powerful miner’s lamp from the van.

Inside the cave, there was no response. Bei Fu seemed to be absent.

“Bei Fu?”

Rongjie suddenly had an idea. “Oh, I get it. You’re embarrassed to come out because you’re naked, right?” She shone her flashlight around the cave walls and noticed they were damp with moisture and covered in moss. In some places, there were deep, dark holes, their depths unknown.

“I said, don’t come out!”

“Bang!”

Gu Wu threw the stone into the pool, splashing a large wave of water.

Rongjie quickly shone her flashlight on where the stone landed and saw that the water had turned red, as if Bei Fu had been hit on the head and was bleeding…

“Ahh! Bei Fu! Bei Fu! I’m coming to save you!”

Gu Wu was startled and immediately jumped into the water.

As soon as he entered, he felt like he had plunged into an icy cave. The water was extremely cold, but determined to save Bei Fu, he swam toward where the stone had landed. In the bloodied water, he felt around and grabbed someone. Without looking, he started pulling the person toward the edge of the pool…

But before Gu Wu had swum far, Rongjie screamed. He turned around and realized he was holding a bloated, distorted corpse, its eyes dangling from its face. Judging by the length of the hair, it was a woman’s body—and it was naked.

“Oh my God!”

Gu Wu screamed in terror, immediately dropped the corpse, and swam frantically toward the edge of the pool. The water was churned up, turning red.

Hearing the commotion, Yin Kai and Zha Zhengfa hurried down.

Under the miner’s lamp, they saw a naked female corpse floating in the pool. Then, several male corpses floated up as well!

“How could this happen?”

“Could Bei Fu have already…”

Yin Kai threw away his cigarette butt, his face filled with shock and fear.

Zha Zhengfa quickly looked around and called out Bei Fu’s name several times, but no one answered.

Shivering with cold and fear, Gu Wu quickly ran out.

Frowning, Rongjie said to Yin Kai and Zha Zhengfa, “Even if Bei Fu is dead, we must find his body and give him a proper burial. We can’t just leave him soaking in the water.”

“But there are corpses everywhere in the water. Who would dare to go down and retrieve them?” Yin Kai shook his head, feeling a chill run through him. “This place is too strange. We should leave while we still can.”

“Rongjie, I think we should go outside and talk about this first,” Zha Zhengfa also felt the cold and fear.

Looking at the blood-red water and the floating corpses, Rongjie shivered. She thought to herself, why should I be the one to take charge when these men won’t even step up?

So, the three of them retreated.

“Bei Fu is dead, and there are just corpses and blood down there… all blood…”

Inside the van, Gu Wu nervously muttered while searching for clean clothes. He quickly got out and began changing out of his wet clothes.

Xiaofang curled up in the van, also terrified, repeating, “I told you something was wrong! I said I wanted to go home! No, this place is too scary. I must leave. I’m going!”

Xiaofang flung the car door open, grabbed her bag, and without another word, ran off toward the direction of the sun.

Shivering from the cold, Gu Wu could do nothing to stop Xiaofang.

After changing, Gu Wu saw Rongjie, Zha Zhengfa, and Yin Kai climbing out of the cave entrance.

“What do we do now? You’re the men; you decide,” Rongjie said as she stepped out of the cave and saw Gu Wu, now dry, hopping around in the sunlight trying to warm himself.

“In my opinion, we should call the police. This is a matter of life and death.”

Zha Zhengfa was a conscientious man. After such an incident, he no longer dared to think about treasure hunting.

Hearing this, Yin Kai immediately panicked. “No way! Absolutely not! If we call the police, with all those corpses, they might suspect we committed murder. Besides, we haven’t found the treasure yet. We can’t involve the police. In my opinion, we should put this aside for now. Once we find the treasure, we can come back to deal with Bei Fu’s body.”

“Treasure? Treasure? Bei Fu is dead, and you’re still thinking about treasure?”

Zha Zhengfa found it hard to understand. He felt Yin Kai was too heartless—his companion had died, yet he was still obsessed with treasure.

Yin Kai was stubborn. “Don’t forget, this was just an accident, not something we caused. He just needed to fill the buckets with water. We didn’t tell him to jump into the pool to take a bath. His death is his own fault.”

“What were you doing back then?” Zha Zhengfa pointed to where Yin Kai had been sitting and shouted, “You were smoking! If you had gone down with him, would this have happened?”

“…”

Yin Kai and Zha Zhengfa began arguing loudly.

“It’s all my fault. If I hadn’t used a bucket of water, they wouldn’t have had to go looking for more,” Rongjie blamed herself silently. Saying nothing, she walked toward the van and, noticing Xiaofang was missing, immediately began searching frantically. Seeing Rongjie looking around, Gu Wu suddenly remembered Xiaofang and pointed south, saying, “Rongjie, Xiaofang said she wanted to go home. I saw her running that way.”

“What the hell! Why didn’t you stop her when she left?” Rongjie was furious, kicked Gu Wu hard, and shouted at him, “It’s all your fault, you bastard! You threw that big stone into the pool. You killed Bei Fu!”

“What…?”

Yin Kai was stunned and rushed toward Gu Wu.

Zha Zhengfa quickly held Yin Kai back.

The scene became chaotic.

Worried about Xiaofang, Rongjie grabbed Zha Zhengfa. “Forget them! Let’s quickly drive and find Xiaofang. This is a hilly area, and we just found so many female corpses. If something happens to Xiaofang, it will be a big problem.”

“You’re right! Finding Xiaofang is the priority. I’ll go with you to look for her…”

Zha Zhengfa hurriedly ran to the van, sat in the driver’s seat, and just started the engine when he looked up and saw Bei Fu standing under a large rock at the cave entrance, waving toward them!

“Ah! Rongjie, look quick! Bei Fu isn’t dead! Bei Fu isn’t dead!”

Overjoyed and surprised, Zha Zhengfa pointed at Bei Fu and shouted repeatedly.

“That little rascal really scared me!” Seeing Bei Fu, Rongjie exhaled in relief but quickly noticed something odd. “Hmm? Why isn’t he coming over? Why is he just standing there waving at us?”

“Maybe he’s injured!”

Zha Zhengfa immediately got out of the car and ran toward Bei Fu.

Gu Wu and Yin Kai also ran toward Bei Fu.

Rongjie stared intently at Bei Fu and muttered to herself, “Why does that kid seem so eerie? Could he be possessed by something?”