Lin Chu was still confronting An Ru.
She was small, with a cute baby face, but the undisguised coldness in her eyes at this moment made her look not as soft as she appeared.
An Ru repeated several times: "I am An Xingyu's father, An Xingyu is my son."
His once sharp eyes were now stained with fatigue due to the long days and nights of running around. He was nearly fifty years old and his hair was already gray. He stared at Lin Chu with those cloudy eyes: "You should know why I'm looking for you."
Lin Chu knew it in her heart, but... the mission was absolutely not to be revealed.
She shook her head. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
"Hehe..." Anru laughed hoarsely and mockingly, "No, no, no, I know you. You are very smart. Don't know what I am talking about." He slowly took out a gun from his pocket, his expression crazy yet calm, "I advise you not to play tricks."
Lin Chu showed a look of shock and anger: "You dare?"
The gun was slightly exposed, then put back, but Anru's hand was still in his pocket, with a little bit of it exposed.
"Please come with me, Miss Lin."
Lin Chu had no choice but to stand up and say, "Let me return the book first?"
"Sure, but don't do anything unnecessary, like calling the police or something."
Since his wife left him, An Ru had been busy all day and night, using cigarettes and alcohol to numb himself. His voice became as rough as frosted wood, but he didn't care at all: "Ms. Lin, a father who lost his child can do anything."
Lin Chu's body stiffened slightly, and he had to take his left hand out of his pocket.
She picked up the books piled on the table and walked towards the bookshelf step by step.
To put the books back in place, it was inevitable to observe the bookshelf. Lin Chu scanned it with his extraordinary memory and keenly discovered some abnormalities.
Why... are some books out of order
"Please hurry up."
Lin Chu said: "Okay."
The bookshelf was divided into sections by function and sorted alphabetically. After Lin Chu put the last book in her hand in, she tensed up.
After the last book was put in... She happened to be looking at the books on the bookshelf at eye level, and the homophony of the first words put together was - You all go to hell.
Is it a coincidence
This book should be on the other side of the back of the bookshelf. Who put it here
Lin Chu reached out her hand and slowly took down the book. She wanted to put it back on the other side. But... after she pulled the book out, she saw a red eye through the gap! That eye was staring at her!
Lin Chu stepped back suddenly, his back hitting the bookshelf behind him, making a heavy sound. An Ru said in a low voice: "Do you want to lure other people over? Don't try to be clever with me!"
Lin Chu's chest rose and fell violently several times. She said, "I'm fine. I just saw you..."
Wait, what do I see
Lin Chu shook her head, not knowing why she was so excited just now. She vaguely remembered that she had seen something terrible just now. She raised her head and looked at the bookshelf again, but she saw nothing.
"What did you see?" Anru knew that his son's disappearance was related to some unnatural phenomena, and he was unwilling to let go of any anomaly.
“What?” Lin Chu shook his head and put the book back. “Go ahead.”
She also noted this abnormal phenomenon. Logically, she should not have palpitations for no reason.
So why did her heart beat faster all of a sudden? She must have seen something and then forgotten it.
What did she see
The place that Anru and Yu Huaiyao agreed to meet was a private room in a hotel. Yu Huaiyao arrived very early. When Anru took Lin Chu into the room abducted, he was holding a cup of hot water, waiting quietly.
"Hello, you are Mr. An Ru, right? I am Yu Huaiyao." Yu Huaiyao extended his hand to An Ru, who shook hands with him. Then Yu Huaiyao turned his gaze to Lin Chu, "What is this lady's name?"
"Her name is Lin Chu." An Ru's expression calmed down, and he no longer had the madness of holding others hostage. "My son An Xingyu and your cousin Yu Huan were both killed in the same case."
"This Ms. Lin Chu is the sixth person who disappeared in this case."
As soon as he finished speaking, Yu Huaiyao looked at Lin Chu with shock and inquiry in his eyes.
Lin Chu was quite calm.
An Xingyu's disappearance could barely be considered her responsibility, but what did Yu Huan's death have to do with her? An Ru wanted to deliberately lead Yu Huaiyao to think that it had nothing to do with him, but that was wishful thinking.
However, if I want to get away today, it will be a bit troublesome...
She knew that she could not escape suspicion, and the mission must not be revealed to others.
The team in the cemetery did not notice anything strange behind them, but they continued to move forward, following the "mural" to understand the stories of their past lives.
I don't know how many years ago, anyway, after the "king" passed away, people buried him and arranged the underground palace strictly according to his requirements. Sixty years later, the mountain reversed, and the old people who still remembered the "king" saw the "king" coming down from the back of the reverse mountain, followed by many villagers who had been buried with him. He brought out many treasures, bringing new vitality to the village that had been in poverty.
Coming back from the dead is a miracle!
From then on, this place became their forbidden land. No one feared death, because they all knew that death was not a problem, and every sixty years, the dead would be resurrected.
And what the "king" liked most was a jade pendant.
The mural clearly depicts a jade pendant, which looks like two fish connected head to tail, with a hollow center.
It looks exactly the same as the jade pendant that Lu Yanli hid.
"No one knows where he took the jade pendant from. According to the memories of the old man at the beginning, there was no such thing among the burial objects."
Looking at the jade pendant, Lu Yanli finally remembered something.
His mind was swollen and painful, and his memories were surging. He wanted to remember those things, but the images were blurry. He couldn't see, hear, or remember...
He subconsciously raised his hands to cover his head, enduring the pain like being pricked by needles. His five fingers pressed so hard that his fingertips almost pinched into his scalp, but he still endured it and cried out in pain.
What did I forget
Jade pendant… Tomb… Museum…
Outsiders, strange world...
Behind him, Yi Yun supported the almost exhausted Lu Yanli, "What's wrong with you?"
The latter's chest rose and fell violently. After taking a few deep breaths, he stood up straight and grasped her wrist tightly. His expression also changed, and there was an indescribable bewitching meaning in his eyes: "Wake up, Yi Yun."
"I..." Yi Yun looked into those eyes and suddenly began to be distracted.
"Close your eyes." His voice became gentler. "You are on a long road... When you hear the snap of fingers, open your eyes and you will wake up..."
"three."
"two."
"."
There was a crisp "pop" sound, and Yi Yun, Wang Pengfei and Jing Tao came back to their senses suddenly and looked around in confusion.
"We just..." Yi Yun still remembered her previous dazed state. Jing Tao tugged at her sleeve, motioning her to look at other people.
The leader was still explaining, but in the dim underground passage, his back was as flickering as a candlelight and could not be seen clearly. The faces of the others were also a little blurry.
And the murals on the wall… Where are the murals? Just the dark, cold walls, piled up one by one with bricks and stones, who knows how many years it has been since they were first seen by humans.
"Yes, the jade pendant!" Yi Yun still remembered what he had just heard. "The jade pendant was painted on the mural just now, and he also mentioned the jade pendant. Do you remember it?"
"I heard it too. Should we go back and take a look?" Wang Pengfei asked.
Yi Yun looked at the darkness behind him and shook his head: "It should be necessary. It is written on the murals, and he also said that it was the tomb owner's personal belongings. Perhaps this jade pendant is in the main tomb chamber. We can use it when we go back."
Jing Tao thought what she said made sense and nodded: "Besides, the photography tools are in their hands now. If we leave rashly, it might be dangerous."
Even though this group of archaeologists looked a little abnormal now, they were able to dispel the fear in their hearts by gathering together.
So they continued to move forward.
"But later on, everything changed."
"Our king is tired of you..." The leading expert's voice became vague, and his title also changed. "He doesn't want to live forever. He hates his days in the mountains. He wants to go outside the mountains, but he can't leave."
"The people in the mountains are the same. They have always lived in the mountains, self-sufficient, and have never seen the outside world. The number of people in the village is increasing. Many people are beginning to get tired of this kind of life. Finally, some people ignored the old man's warning and forced their way down the mountain."
"Unexpectedly, they were fine with anything as long as they came back before the New Year. So, the others were also worried. However, the first group of people to go down the mountain were the youngest in the village, and they had experienced death once. After those who had experienced reincarnation once went down the mountain, terrible things happened..."
"There is an evil spirit in the back mountain!"
"The villagers were terrified and immediately fled to the forbidden area. Many people died on the way. Our king protected them as he did many years ago. But they didn't know that the king also wanted to leave. But he couldn't leave."
"Once he leaves, the other him in the back mountain will be released immediately. Then, his people will also have a way to survive."
"This is the price of immortality..." At this point, the narrator's voice was choked with sobs.
"Later, the king simply fell into a deep sleep."
"Many villagers have learned to be smart. They go to other places to marry outsiders, come back once every New Year and other festivals, and calculate the time for their wives to give birth to their children outside the place. In this way, their children can at least live outside the place."
"But, a villager leaked the secret, which attracted many thieves who coveted the treasure..."
"Those people were armed with guns and all kinds of weapons that we had never seen before. We went to the forbidden area to seek refuge as before, but they didn't know that the king was already asleep. There was no point in them fleeing to the forbidden area..."
"The group left behind a few old, weak, women and children to lead the way when they went to the tomb. They dug a hole in the middle of the forbidden area to disturb the king's sleep. Then, they all died..."
As they were talking, they passed by a pile of bones.
It looked like the skeleton had been there for a long time, the clothes had decayed, many had turned to wax, and one could vaguely see expressions of fear on their faces, with their eyes open. Some had simply turned into bare bones, and it was clear that they were struggling.
It is hard to imagine how horrible things they saw when they were alive. Even many years after their death, they could still let outsiders see their fear.
Is it to scare them? To make them leave quickly
"Should we wake up the others?" Yi Yun felt a little scared as he looked at the staff around him who were like zombies.
Jing Tao also felt that this was necessary. If this continued, he didn't know what would become of this group of staff.
In the past, there were many cases where people were bewitched by ghosts while on missions and gradually turned into ghosts themselves.
Lu Yanli didn't care. After discussing with the three of them, they dispersed and tried to wake up the archaeologists.
"Wake up, wake up quickly..."
When she got closer, she found that the bodies of the archaeologists were emitting a cold breath, as if they were chilled by the cold wind. Yi Yun approached the archaeologist who was far away from the leader quietly, pinched her hand hard, and called her to wake up in her ear.
Soon, the staff member's eyes gradually regained clarity. He shook his head, puzzled: "What happened to me just now?"
Yi Yun explained to her in a low voice, and she reacted immediately, with fear in her eyes.
Gradually, more and more people woke up.
They found that their route was getting weirder and weirder, not like a straight line, sometimes turning into passages with extremely tricky angles, and sometimes going down stairs at an angle of almost 70 degrees. In the end, everyone came to their senses, followed the leader tacitly, and listened quietly to his story.
Yes, no one woke him up, and even his teammates acquiesced to this practice.
In order to understand this tomb and to explore history, even if they knew something was strange, no one chose to wake him up.
Everyone followed that man, passing through tomb chamber after tomb chamber.
After they passed, the doors of the tombs opened gently, and from inside, corpses that had been dead for many years emerged one after another.
They are buried here, never to see the light of day.
But now, they have been awakened.
If these people want to turn back and go out, they will find that all the roads they came from are blocked and they will never be able to escape.
They were trapped in this huge underground palace, just like the villagers who were trapped in the mountains many years ago.
"What sound did you hear?" one of them asked softly.
From behind them, there was a very slight sound.
I shone the flashlight over there, but it seemed as if half of the beam was swallowed up by the darkness, and I couldn't see clearly in the distance.
"I heard it too. I felt like... something was catching up with me."
It was not an illusion. The sound behind me was getting louder and louder, gradually getting closer to me.
That's the sound of footsteps.
It is the sound of many, many footsteps.
The last archaeologist looked back in panic, but could see nothing and it was still dark.
What is... in the darkness
The range of the light was limited and even gradually narrowed. In the end, everyone huddled together and moved forward. No one wanted to fall into the dark area.
The leader was still talking. He was standing in the front. No one had the courage to run in front of him to find out what was going on. They could only follow his back and move forward.
“… This group of tomb robbers killed many, many villagers and stole my treasures. They are also cursed by me. Hahahahahahaha, retribution… They must also bear the curse of the villagers, and they will never be able to leave me…”
"But this group of cunning people tried every possible way to escape. They paid money to bribe people outside the village and prayed to gods and Buddhas everywhere. Finally, they finally invited a group of guardian gods. They kept the last bit of blood of the original villagers and let them intermarry. They will choose a girl and let that girl bear the responsibility..."
"They took on the curse of the original villagers and stole their immortality. They married the remaining women and asked their children to bury the bodies of their dead accomplices in the forbidden area. The next generation has the same blood, so they can enter. However, the guardian deities they invited cannot set foot in the forbidden area. They can only wait... wait until the king disappears completely, then they can take his treasure..."
Yi Yun and the others seemed to be listening to a story, and were even fascinated by it. Only Lu Yanli was tense, because he knew that all this was true.
Who is the ghost that possessed the leader? Why did it tell everything
Lu Yanli had no way of knowing.
Lu Yanli put his hands into his pocket and clenched the two jade pendants wrapped together. He knew that his doubts were still a little bit unresolved.
What he said just now was that there was a jade pendant, and it was always kept close to the "king". So where did the second one come from
Also, since he had been keeping it close to his body, he must have been buried close to his body after his death. In the previous mission, why did the villagers of Shangxian Village get it? Did they enter the main tomb chamber
Who took the jade pendant
The sound in front gradually became quieter, and the person standing in the front gradually slowed down.
His story is coming to an end.
The light of the searchlights used by the crowd gradually dimmed, and the remaining power tried to maintain the faint light so that they would not fall into complete darkness.
At this moment, the ignored voices behind me finally became denser.
There were waves of footsteps, not just from humans, but also from various animals.
They could even hear the sound of carriage wheels rolling over the stone road, making the crisp sound of bronze objects striking each other.
What the hell is chasing them!
"Teacher Cen, let's go..." Seeing that Captain Cen had finally finished telling the story, the person behind him immediately stepped forward and patted the other person's shoulder to wake him up. Only then did he realize that the touch was wrong. His hand did not feel the touch of a human shoulder, but rather... soft, as if he was patting a pile of bulging flesh through a piece of cloth.
Captain Cen, who was at the front, fell to the ground, turning into a pool of rotten flesh, with his clothes scattered. On the pile of flesh were hundreds of eyes, large and small, densely arranged like frog eggs, all staring at everyone.
"ah-"
Even though the archaeologists were well-informed, they had never seen such a scene before. Hundreds of dark eyes huddled together, blinking.
“Run!”
At the same time, the thing behind was catching up.
The searchlight suddenly became extremely bright, allowing them to see the things behind him very clearly.
Those are... various kinds of alienated corpses.
Simple wax is already a minority. Many corpses were separated, with four hands holding the head and slowly following. Some were obviously human skeletons, but there was still a long tailbone extending from the spine; some had the lower body leg bones combined into a very long spine, like the legendary half-snake man...
"Is this the curse they have been given? How could this happen?"
"Where did all these bones come from? We just didn't open any tombs."
It was no use thinking about these questions now. They had to flee quickly and the group of people ran forward in panic.
The road ahead was even more rugged. The light of the searchlight only lit up for a moment and then dimmed again, as if it was just to let them see clearly what was chasing them and to put them into a state of fear.
Yi Yun and others were also among the fleeing group, and they asked loudly, "Where are we going now? To the main tomb chamber?"
"I don't know! Let's run first and talk when it's safe." An unknown voice answered her in the crowd.
Lu Yanli also ran after him. Just a moment ago, he clearly heard a cold hissing sound like a snake spitting out its tongue. Then, the figure behind him seemed to be entangled by something around his waist and was dragged backwards. The man didn't even scream before he completely disappeared.
The person running at the end caught a glimpse of the scene out of the corner of his eye and was immediately frightened out of his wits, and continued to run forward desperately.
Not far behind him, eyes densely distributed on a beach of soft flesh like frog eggs were blinking and moving forward like flowing water.
They must never become like this!
"Should we try to get to the main tomb chamber now? Captain Cen has already encountered a curse, and maybe we will also encounter a curse. We are all going to die anyway, so why not try to get to the main tomb chamber!"
The person running in the front now responded loudly: "Do you think I don't want to? I don't know which direction the main tomb is. There is only one road here, so I just run first."
As soon as they finished speaking, they hurriedly ran out of a long and narrow passage, and the view in front of them suddenly opened up. There were two tall tombs side by side. On the left and right, there was a square in front of them, embedded about half a meter deep from the ground. The square was also cut in half on the left and right, with a narrow passage in the middle.
They all stopped and gathered in front of the ground platform. A staircase, only suitable for four people, extended down to the passage.
"Why don't you go down?" the person behind him asked anxiously.
"It's weird down here."
As they spoke, the searchlight moved forward, and they could see the shape of the square on the ground clearly.
Unlike the smooth and solid stone brick road outside, the surface of the square was raised, revealing one terrifying relief after another.
Those reliefs looked like they were carvings of the eighteen levels of hell, with rivers surrounding the mountains and people dying miserably one after another. Even in the dim light, one could make out that the reliefs were lifelike, and one could almost hear their wails.
"Don't worry about the strange things in the square, let's escape quickly."
"That's right! At least there's something chasing us from the front, right?"
There was a loud urge from behind. Then, a scream broke out.
At the end, a female archaeologist was touched by the pile of flesh covered with eyes. Then, her whole body melted and went limp bit by bit. The people around her wanted to save her, but they had no way. One of them wanted to pull her out, but she screamed again. He also suffered from the unknown curse, and his bones seemed to be pulled out, and he went limp bit by bit.
In the end, they turned into the same soft flesh. The new soft flesh merged with the original one, and bulging bubble-like things bulged out on the pink skin.
The bubbles swelled more and more, and exploded with a "pop" sound, turning into eyes one after another, blinking and looking at the humans in front.
Therefore, the archaeologists at the front had to go down the stairs.
The stairs were very narrow, only about half a meter wide. After the first person walked down the stairs, he carefully stepped onto the narrow path in the center of the square.
Unexpectedly, nothing happened.
The team member was overjoyed, and immediately waved to the others to hurry up and moved quickly forward a distance to make room for others.
The stairs were too narrow and the square was only half a meter above the ground, so one of the men simply grabbed the edge of the ground and jumped down. But as soon as he landed, dozens of pairs of arms stretched out from the ground in the square. He didn't even have time to scream before he was pulled into the ground.
No, he was not pulled in completely. He was pulled in halfway, his body was completely petrified, and an expression of fear could be vaguely seen on his face.
He also becomes part of the relief.
"Be careful! Just walk on the middle road." The team member following behind him felt heartbroken, but still reminded him.
No matter how anxious they were, they still controlled their tempers and lined up to move forward. Several older team members volunteered to stand at the end, and one of them said, "I'm so old, I've lived enough, I can't run fast, I might as well give you young people some chances."
"Teacher Zhou, you can't say that!"
"Go quickly." Teacher Zhou just smiled and pushed her student forward. Her student pulled her forward and just as she reached the stairs, she found that her hand was suddenly empty.
When he turned around, he saw that the latter had been dragged into the passage that led back to darkness.
The two sides of the channel are tightened towards the middle.
She wiped her tears and quickly went down the stairs. Just as she caught up with the main group, the passage the team members came from was completely blocked, and the countless strange creatures that were chasing them were also trapped in it, and it was unknown when they would escape again.
They turned back on their way.
There are only about a dozen archaeological team members left now, plus four outsiders who suddenly broke in, there are only about twenty people in total.
"Everyone knows the current situation. This ancient tomb is far more dangerous than we imagined. Perhaps we can escape, or perhaps we all have to stay here." One of the team members wiped away tears and said softly, "No matter what, for the sake of our research, we must try our best to get out. But we must also be prepared for the worst."
"We also have some tools with us, including a few large sheets of paper. After we get up from the square, we'll draw a map first, and fill in every dot. No matter who is lucky enough to get out, they must take the map with them."
The solemnity in her words infected the others, and the team members all agreed with tears in their eyes.
"For our research!"
"Yes, for my research!"
Even though the task force members were used to seeing life and death, they couldn't help but be infected by their spirit. Wang Pengfei said: "Although we are not archaeologists, as long as we go out, we will definitely bring the map with us."
They all concealed the fact that they could leave as long as they completed the task.
It would be nice to give these archaeologists some hope.
"Okay, thank you." said one of them.
Lu Yanli spoke no more.
He had seen too many outsiders who risked their lives for their relatives and friends, and were willing to sacrifice for the greater good in their hearts. He had witnessed the best and ugliest sides of human beings. But after death, they all turned into strange appearances.
Yi Yun also agreed. She carefully tested the situation: "Just now, Captain Cen said that the jade pendant that Wang carried with him was also on the mural. Could that thing be the key?"
"Maybe. Since he carried it close to his body, he might have been buried with him. If we go into the main tomb chamber, perhaps we can solve the mystery."
The three taskers couldn't help but get excited.
But just when they were happy, the team member in front of Yi Yun missed his step and stepped on empty ground.
Half of his foot was outside the road!
The relief sculptures surged, and the one standing closest to him was holding a crossbow in his hand, his fingertips already on the mechanism, and he loosened his hand, and a sharp arrow shot out, piercing his throat, and the whole person flew out and landed in the center of the square.
One pale hand after another grabbed him. Soon, another person appeared on the relief on the ground. He stretched out his hand to grab the arrow that pierced his throat, his expression full of pain.
"Everyone be careful! Don't step on it!"
The first person had reached the end of the passage. He carefully supported his body, jumped up, and landed on the ground.
Only when you stand close to the tomb can you realize how huge it is.
The moment he stood there, floodgates opened on both sides of the square and blood poured out.
"Hurry! The guy in front, hurry up!"
A large amount of smelly and sticky blood soon flowed onto the small path in the middle of the team, and the people in front immediately sped up and rushed forward. Lu Yanli, Yi Yun and others were in the middle of the team. When the blood flowed, it was Lu Yanli's turn. He immediately jumped up, landed on the ground, and then reached out to pull the person below up.
"ah-"
The girl at the back saw blood at her feet and she immediately screamed in pain.
"I don't like it! Hurry up!"
Not knowing what was in the blood, she froze in place, her face twisted in pain. But she still remembered her mission, took off her backpack, threw it hard to the shore, and shouted: "There are empty scrolls and tools inside!"
As soon as she finished speaking, she fell down.
The others could only watch helplessly as those who had managed to get out of the water were drowned in the blood and disappeared.