Shi Tou stepped onto the stone bridge and surveyed his surroundings for a moment, then placed the Wudi coins he held on the ground.
Although it was some distance away, it could be vaguely seen that he seemed to be arranging some sort of formation with the Wudi coins.
My father had mentioned many things about the sects of tomb raiders before, and he had said that each tomb raiding sect had its own rules.
Judging from the current situation, what Shi Tou was doing now must be some special rules of the Xiou Jin Sect.
Wang Yang, seeing my curiosity, leaned in and whispered, "This is the Xiou Jin Sect's signature skill, 'throwing money to find the way.'"
I turned to look at him and asked, "Why do you know so much about their sect?"
Wang Yang said, "Many years ago, I knew someone from the Xiou Jin Sect..."
He stopped there, and I didn't pry further.
After Shi Tou fiddled with the Wudi coins on the stone bridge, he threaded a copper coin with a red string and then threw it with a sudden motion.
The copper coin tied to the string instantly disappeared into the darkness. After a few minutes, Shi Tou began to pull the string back.
At this moment, movement appeared on the stone wall not far away. I shone my flashlight over.
I saw something emerging from the wall pits that held the dried corpses. Before I could get a clear look, Shi Tou retreated from the stone bridge with a backflip.
As soon as he landed, a "ge ge ge..." sound echoed around.
The sound was not loud but very dense.
"Xiang Ye! Look what that is!" Fatty exclaimed, pointing at the stone bridge.
I shifted my gaze, and saw that many insects had suddenly appeared on the stone bridge. Each of these insects was about the size of a basketball.
This was my first time seeing such creatures, and I had no idea what they were.
Fu Hong Lang said, "They are Corpse Beetles!"
"Corpse Beetles?" I asked, "How can there be such big Corpse Beetles?"
Fu Hong Lang did not reply, his expression becoming solemn. "It seems we'll have to deal with these guys to get across..."
The densely packed Corpse Beetles soon occupied the entire stone bridge.
It was strange, they perched on the stone bridge and didn't come down, all of them staring at us menacingly.
"Shi Tou, Molotov cocktails," Fu Hong Lang shouted.
Shi Tou immediately pulled out several Molotov cocktails from his backpack and handed them over. Without a word, Fu Hong Lang lit one and threw it directly onto the stone bridge.
The burning Molotov cocktail instantly hit the swarm of Corpse Beetles.
With a "bang," flames erupted, and many Corpse Beetles were instantly set ablaze, writhing in the fire and emitting piercing "ts ts" sounds.
Fu Hong Lang tossed five or so Molotov cocktails onto the stone bridge in quick succession, and the entire bridge seemed to be set ablaze.
The flames leaped high, illuminating the surroundings brightly.
It was at this moment that I noticed that, with the stone bridge as a boundary, the stone walls on the opposite side were covered with Corpse Beetles, countless numbers of them!
Seeing their kin engulfed in flames, the Corpse Beetles on the walls seemed agitated, pacing restlessly on the stone walls.
Soon, an unpleasant stench filled the air, like the smell of burning garbage, very pungent and with a foul odor.
"So many? Can we still get across?" Fatty asked.
Fu Hong Lang said, "Corpse Beetles are most afraid of fire. If we burn them a bit longer, it should be fine."
As he had said, after many Corpse Beetles were scorched, the others began to retreat, and even those on the stone walls disappeared somewhere.
As the flames on the stone bridge gradually extinguished, only thick black smoke remained.
"Now!" Fu Hong Lang roared, "Don't stop, rush across in one go!"
With that, he and Shi Tou shot forward almost simultaneously.
I didn't have time to think and quickly followed their pace.
Our group moved swiftly, and even Fatty ran faster than before.
Stepping on the scorched Corpse Beetles, we crossed the stone bridge.
Upon landing, we dived into a passage and arrived in a stone chamber.
"Will... will those Corpse Beetles chase us?" Fatty asked breathlessly.
Fu Hong Lang said, "They probably won't. Their range of activity should be limited to the stone bridge area... those dried corpses should be their nests."
"So, it was those Corpse Beetles that caused those dried corpses to fall into the water?" Fatty said.
"Someone must have disturbed the Corpse Beetles, just like us, so they crawled out of the dried corpses... the insides of the dried corpses were already eaten out, without hosts, they naturally fall apart at a touch," Wang Yang said.
"So, you're saying those Corpse Beetles were deliberately kept here as guards?" Fatty asked.
"Probably," Wang Yang said.
"Whose tomb is this anyway?" Fatty asked, "To raise such things?"
"This doesn't look like a tomb," I said.
"If it's not a tomb, then what is this place for?"
I said, "It should be an altar..."
Ever since entering this underground palace, I had noticed that the further in we went, the stranger the structure became, except for the first tomb chamber.
Generally, tombs have a main and secondary structure, and may have side chambers.
But here, apart from the first tomb chamber, there were no secondary chambers, let alone side chambers.
"An altar?" Fatty asked, "Such a large altar, what was it used for in sacrifices?"
"Who knows," I shrugged.
Fatty asked again, "Are there any burial goods in the altar?"
I knew what he was thinking and asked, "You want burial goods?"
Fatty grinned sheepishly, "I'm just asking... we came all this way, shouldn't we take some souvenirs back? To keep as a memento..."
"Isn't that simple? Didn't that tomb chamber we entered first have a stone coffin? There must be a lot of good stuff inside..." I said to Fatty with a raised eyebrow.
"Xiang Ye... stop teasing me. I don't dare to open that coffin..."
"Then be good and don't think about such nonsense," I said.
Fatty pouted, looking quite wronged.
"Boss, come here for a moment!" Shi Tou called out, and we all gathered around.
To our surprise, it was a corpse. Judging by its clothing, it was clearly from our era.
Fu Hong Lang pressed on the neck of the male corpse. The livor mortis had already set.
"This person probably died two days ago," Fu Hong Lang said.
"Master Fu, how can you be so sure?" Fatty asked.
Wang Yang said, "The livor mortis is fixed and does not fade when pressed, which proves that the body has reached the stage of imbibition, which only happens after death for more than twenty-four hours."
"Oh, you know quite a lot..." Fatty said with a playful smile.
Wang Yang gave him a sideways glance and said to me, "Where did you meet this Fatty?"
I spread my hands and said, "Panjiayuan."
"No wonder."
Wang Yang uttered this remark and then went to rest on his own.