Hearing the sound, I quickened my pace, waded through the water, and came to my master.
I saw a small boat appear in front of my master Zhang Chu. The boat was made of wood, a little tattered, and covered with dust. The oars were also a little rotten, and it gave off a rotten smell.
"This... why is there a small boat here?" I asked in confusion.
My master Zhang Chu shook his head and said, "I don't know why there is a small boat here, but it should be related to the corpse inside."
As he spoke, my master Zhang Chu slowly climbed onto the boat.
He took a look from above and said in surprise: "Tianyi, this boat can still be used. Come on, get on board and go inside. The water is getting deeper and deeper. It seems we have to take this boat to go in and take a look."
I said yes and got on the boat.
The oars of the boat were somewhat rotten, with signs of being eaten by termites. There was iron wire wrapped around the oars on the boat bar, but the wire was already rusty, and I pulled hard, and the buckle of the wire was pulled open.
Grabbing the oar, I started paddling in the water in the cave.
Knowing the oars were not strong, I didn't dare paddle too hard.
The boat floated in the dark water, moving towards the inside.
My master Zhang Chu looked alert and carefully observed the situation around him. I paddled the boat, carefully avoiding the rocks and stalagmites in the water.
We arrived at the middle of the cave smoothly. I just tried it with the oars, and the water depth was deeper than the height of the oars. And the deeper we went, the stronger the stench of corpses emanated from the cave.
It stinks! Even stinkier than dog shit.
On the contrary, my master Zhang Chu looked indifferent, as if the stench of corpses had not penetrated his nose. I also understand that my master Zhang Chu is a corpse breeder who has been dealing with corpses all the time, so he doesn't care about the smell of corpses.
Seeing me looking at him, my master Zhang Chu said unhappily, "Tianyi, pay attention to rowing, don't look around, and concentrate."
I said "Oh!"
But at this moment, there was a sudden "bang!" sound from under our boat, and then the boat began to shake constantly in the water.
"Oh no, there's something under the water!"
My master Zhang Chu said nervously, his two black eyebrows knitted tightly.
Just as my master finished speaking, the crashing sound was heard again.
"Bang, bang, bang!" muffled sounds rang out in the cave, and the boat shook more and more violently. The whole boat made a "creaking" sound, as if it was about to fall apart.
"No, Master. If we get hit like this, our boat will definitely break. Both of us are landlubbers and can't swim. If the boat leaks, we will be buried in it."
I said uneasily.
My master Zhang Chu was lying in front of the boat, waving the flashlight in his hand.
In the beam of the flashlight, I noticed a dark shadow swimming quickly from one side of the boat to the other.
"It's a black fish! A big one!"
My master said in surprise, and reminded me: "Tianyi, put the oars on the boat first and take out the flashlight. That kind of black fish is afraid of light. With light, it should not attack us."
I followed my master's instructions and quickly took out the flashlight from the cloth bag.
The light shone to the right side of the boat, and sure enough, I noticed a dark shadow swimming past, heading to the other side.
The black shadow also encountered the strong light on my master's side and swam away without staying for too long.
Only when I saw the black fish leave did I breathe a sigh of relief.
But the next moment, my relaxed nerves immediately tensed up again.
Because I saw more black fish in the beam of the flashlight. Those black fish were larger than the ones we encountered in the stream outside the cave.
It seems to me that they are more than ten times larger than those ordinary snakehead fish.
"Master, there are too many black fish here!" I said hurriedly.
My master looked at me and then lowered his voice and said, "Tianyi, keep your voice down. Wait until these black fish pass by, and then we will move forward."
After that, my master and I shut up and stopped communicating.
The black fish didn't dare to approach too close when they saw the two beams of light on the boat's yoke. They didn't attack our boat either. But their dark bodies made me dumbfounded.
My third eye has also been opened under the stimulation of my good karma.
I found that there was a small hole on the top of the heads of those big black fish. Something kept sticking out of the hole and then retracting, especially when there was strong light, the thing would quickly retract into the head of the black fish.
What happened? Why did the big black fish have another hole on its head besides two gills
I was amazed.
My master also noticed this and whispered to me, "Tianyi, did you see that little hole?"
I nodded.
My master continued, "If I'm not mistaken, those small holes are filled with corpse worms. They no longer simply regard the snakehead fish as their host, but as their mobile castle."
I don’t quite understand what my master Zhang Chu means.
Seeing my puzzled look, my master Zhang Chu curled his lips and explained, "What I mean is that they have completely occupied the bodies of the black fish. The reason why those black fish are so big is probably because they are supported by the corpse qi. Look carefully at the bodies of those black fish and see if the scales have fallen off. This is the phenomenon of the body being eroded by the corpse qi."
This time I understood what my master Zhang Chu meant.
Slowly, the cave returned to silence, and the huge black fish swam away.
"They've left! Tianyi, start rowing, let's go deeper and take a look. We should be not far from those corpses."
I picked up the oar and started rowing again.
But what my master and I didn't expect was that just after my boat had been sailing into the cave for about ten minutes, a sound suddenly came from the distance.
It's a woman's voice! She must be singing.
The song was gentle and melodious, but it carried a feeling of loneliness and depression.
I didn't have the energy to think about what the song was. I was wondering why a woman's voice appeared in the cave, and she was singing.
My neck and arms were covered with goose bumps. If goose bumps could be used to cook, I'd probably be able to scrape off a plate of them.
That sound made me feel extremely weird and creepy.
“Master, yes, yes… singing!”
I said this with a trembling voice, and the expression on my face probably wasn't much better.
My master Zhang Chu also had an ugly expression.
He looked at me, shook his head and said, "Let's go and take a look. Let's see whether it is a human or a ghost!"
Nodding, I rowed the boat hurriedly towards the center of the cave.
and
The closer we got to the center of the cave, the more real the singing became. It sounded like the singing from the countryside in western Hunan, with lyrics like "brother" and "sister".
After walking forward for more than half an hour, we finally reached the end of the cave.
However, what surprised me and my master was that at the end of the cave, there was a high stone wall.
Yes, a stone wall! A stone wall built inside a cave where water flows.
The stone wall is very high, reaching all the way to the highest point of the cave.
And the singing came from behind the stone wall.
"Master, what should we do? Our way is blocked by a stone wall!"
I asked, a little at a loss.
My master looked at the stone wall, reached out and touched it, and said with certainty: "This stone wall is not an ancient craft. It should have been built by modern people. But who built the wall in the stone cave? What is the purpose?"
My master Zhang Chu frowned even deeper. It seemed that he would not be able to find the answer unless he could reach the other side of the stone wall.
Afterwards, my master and I circled the stone wall back and forth.
Finally we determined that the stone wall had three sides. There was no passage on the front or the left, but there was a hole more than one person tall on the right side.
It's just that the hole doesn't seem to be made by humans. It should be a hole left by the outflow and collapse.
Stopping in front of the wall on the right, looking at the hole, my master Zhang Chu and I looked at each other in surprise.
"Master, I think this place is very abnormal. There are probably many corpses behind this wall, and now there is a woman's voice. I am afraid it will be dangerous. I think we should leave here first. When the time comes, we can go outside and seal the entrance of the cave, so that this place will never see the sun again and will be isolated from the world."
"At that time, even if those black fish wanted to come out, it would be impossible."
But my master Zhang Chu shook his head and said, "No! Even if we seal the hole, the corpse worms parasitic in the black fish's head will still have a chance to leave here. Only by finding those corpses and disposing of them can we prevent the occurrence of such evil incidents."
"Otherwise, if the corpse worms come out again and enter the human stomach, it will be difficult to deal with. The medical conditions in today's society are very advanced, but there are probably not many people who really know how to expel corpse worms."
Seeing that my master was determined, I didn't say anything more.
Since he wants to go in, I'll accompany him. My master is a corpse raiser, and I'm a ghost catcher. I really don't believe that there is anything behind the stone wall that can stop us.
I thought to myself, damn it, let’s give it a try!
My master Zhang Chu waved his hand at me and said, "Come on, Tianyi, row the boat through this hole and let's go in and take a look."
I nodded and said okay.
However, just as we were about to enter the hole, a white thing floated out from the water surface of the hole. It didn't look like a big black fish. If it was a black fish, it would move, but it just blocked the entrance of the hole without moving.
It lay there, rising and falling with the flow of water from the hole.
I quickly shone the flashlight in my hand over there.
But when I saw that thing, my tense heart suddenly started beating wildly, like a drum. I felt like my heart was going to jump out of my chest. That thing scared me.
My master noticed my abnormality and his eyes followed the beam of the flashlight to stare at the thing.
(to be continued)
(End of this chapter) (End of this chapter)