As he was sleeping, Liu Dashao suddenly woke up to find the entire tomb chamber brightly lit. The people beside him—Fan Debiao, Da Guozhou, Cai Qingchong, and Su Yougui—were all gone. Liu Dashao thought to himself, “Could Da Guozhou have left me behind? That’s impossible! Even if Da Guozhou abandoned me, Fan Debiao would have woken me up.”
“Could something have happened while I was sleeping?”
Just as he was pondering this mystery, a monstrous creature with a dragon’s head and a human body suddenly burst from another exit in the tomb. It wielded a feather-like weapon clearly made of bronze. The creature stood over two meters tall, and its bronze feather weapon looked extremely sharp.
Suddenly, the creature’s dragon eyes emitted a red glow as it charged toward Liu Dashao, weapon in hand. Its speed was incredible, kicking up dust as it ran, and its weapon scraped sparks off the ground.
Seeing the monster charging toward him, Liu Dashao was so terrified he tried to run, but no matter how hard he tried, his feet wouldn’t budge.
In this situation, he was completely overwhelmed with fear and muttered to himself, “Damn it, is today really the day I die here?”
As the creature drew closer, Liu Dashao could only scream in terror. At that moment, he felt something tugging at him repeatedly.
Opening his eyes, Liu Dashao saw flashlights lighting up the surroundings. The monster was gone—it had all been a dream! His screaming had woken everyone else up.
Seeing Liu Dashao awake, Fan Debiao let go of his hand and said, “Master Liu, what the hell are you screaming about? It’s creepy enough in this tomb without your yelling!”
Still shaken from the nightmare, Liu Dashao didn’t respond to Fan Debiao. He just shook his head, thinking to himself, “Out of nowhere, I encountered such a monster in my dream. Could it be some kind of aftereffect from earlier?”
Seeing that Liu Dashao didn’t respond, Da Guozhou patted him on the shoulder and asked, “Are you okay?”
Liu Dashao shook his head and said, “I’m fine. I just had a nightmare.”
After Liu Dashao’s outburst, everyone was wide awake. Fan Debiao checked his watch—it was seven o’clock. They pulled out some compressed biscuits from their bags and started eating.
After finishing his biscuits, Fan Debiao suddenly claimed he had a stomachache and needed to find a place to relieve himself. Then he walked off.
Liu Dashao muttered to himself, “Like hell you’ve got a stomachache! I bet you’re off looking for treasure.”
Since Da Guozhou was there, Liu Dashao didn’t say this out loud. If Da Guozhou found out Fan Debiao was faking, it could lead to internal conflict.
After finishing the biscuits, they began discussing the ancient tomb.
Da Guozhou said, “Since entering this tomb, we haven’t seen any artifacts from the Three Kingdoms period, not even any burial objects. I find that quite strange.”
Cai Qingchong chimed in, “Yeah, when we came in, I checked the terrain here. This mound is outside the mountains, with no rivers nearby. Forget about bringing blessings to descendants—burying someone here would surely cut off their family line.”
Hearing Cai Qingchong’s words, Liu Dashao also felt puzzled. “Historical records describe Zhang Jiao as someone who understood both heaven and earth, with extraordinary expertise in feng shui. How could such a person choose to build a tomb in such a place? Did he just lose his mind?”
Suddenly, they heard Fan Debiao scream “Ah!” Hearing his cry, everyone moved toward the direction of the sound.
As he walked, Liu Dashao called out to Fan Debiao, “Fan Debiao, what happened?”
Fan Debiao replied, “A corpse! There’s a damn corpse here!”
Hearing Fan Debiao’s voice, Liu Dashao, assured he was safe, paused and said, “Damn it, I’ve seen all kinds of monsters. Who’s afraid of a corpse now?”
Fan Debiao responded, “Even though the merfolk are fierce, they’re still handsome. This corpse is just too damn ugly. When I first saw it, I was so shocked I froze!”
Hearing Fan Debiao’s words, Liu Dashao also felt puzzled. A corpse more terrifying than a merfolk—this trip into the mountains was certainly broadening his horizons.
Soon, the group reached Fan Debiao’s location. Shining their flashlights, they saw a corpse lying against the wall of the tomb chamber. Upon closer inspection, everyone except Fan Debiao was shocked. They stared intently at the corpse by the wall.
The entire tomb was eerily quiet, a silence that sent chills down their spines. Liu Dashao, Da Guozhou, Fan Debiao, and the others stared at the corpse by the wall, none of them speaking for a long while.
The corpse looked as if its skin had just been ripped off alive. Its entire body was blood-red, its flesh ruined as if pecked by something unknown. Yet the corpse’s expression showed no sign of pain, leaving Liu Dashao completely puzzled.
Seeing everyone staring at the corpse, Fan Debiao broke the silence and said to Liu Dashao, “Shocked, aren’t you? Just now you boasted you’d seen everything, saying you weren’t afraid of a corpse. Now you’re all the same!”
Liu Dashao ignored Fan Debiao and, staring at the corpse, said, “This looks like a living person who was just skinned alive. Could there be tomb robbers who arrived here recently, encountering a skinning monster? This person might have been killed by that creature.”
“Impossible! There are no other tomb entrances besides ours,” Da Guozhou firmly replied after hearing Liu Dashao’s suggestion.
Fan Debiao walked into the group and said, “Could this person have died here over two thousand years ago? But that’s impossible! This corpse looks like it was just skinned!”
In this ancient tomb, where no one else had entered except themselves, the presence of a freshly skinned corpse left everyone puzzled. At this moment, Liu Dashao suddenly thought: Could this corpse be one of their own? He carefully counted the people around him. No, there were five of them. Liu Dashao wasn’t sure, so he counted again and again, but the result was always five.
At this moment, all five were speechless, the atmosphere in the tomb extremely eerie as they stared wide-eyed at the corpse on the ground.
Just then, a cold breeze suddenly blew against Liu Dashao’s neck. He immediately turned around, shining his flashlight, but saw only a cold wall. Since he had been facing away from the passageway, he assumed the wind had come from there, so he ignored it and turned back to look at the corpse.
Just as Liu Dashao turned his head, Fan Debiao suddenly screamed, “Ghost!”
Hearing Fan Debiao shout about a ghost, Liu Dashao thought the corpse had revived. He quickly pulled out a talisman from his bag and slapped it onto the corpse’s face. After carefully checking, the corpse remained unchanged, exactly as it had been before. Liu Dashao became angry and stood up, shouting at Fan Debiao, “You bastard, scaring people like that! Where’s the ghost?”
Fan Debiao pointed upward with his finger and said, “Just now, a cold breeze blew down from above, making my neck feel icy and my whole body break out in goosebumps. I’m sure there’s something up there!”
Hearing Fan Debiao’s words, everyone shone their flashlights upward, searching thoroughly, but found nothing.
This only made Liu Dashao even angrier. “You bastard, you’re just messing with me! You keep talking about ghosts and making my heart pound like crazy. Don’t you have any sympathy?”
As soon as he finished speaking, the other four shone their flashlights behind Liu Dashao, staring intently at something behind him. Fan Debiao’s mouth dropped open in shock, nearly falling to the ground.
Seeing their expressions, Liu Dashao realized something was wrong. There must be something terrifying behind him—please, not another merfolk monster again!
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