Wang Yang helped me up, and I was still a bit dazed.
“What’s wrong?” Fu Honglang also ran over and asked.
“There’s… there’s…”
I wanted to say “there’s a ghost,” but somehow the word “ghost” got stuck in my throat, and I couldn’t say it.
Fu Honglang shone his flashlight around. There was nothing on the path they had come from.
“What did you see, brother?” Fu Honglang asked.
I took a deep breath and finally came to my senses, slowly recalling the scene: “I saw a face…”
I tried to explain the specifics, and after listening, Fu Honglang frowned. He pulled off a protective amulet from his neck and handed it to me: “This is for you.”
Normally, I wouldn’t have accepted it, but at that moment, whether the amulet was useful or not, it was better to have it.
Wang Yang helped me up from the ground, and I let out a sigh. For some reason, a surge of anger suddenly rose within me.
I thought, “Whatever you are, ghost or ancient zombie, if you dare to scare me again, I’ll take you down with me.”
With that thought, I felt less afraid.
“You walk in the middle,” Wang Yang said, pushing me in front of him. It seemed he would take up the rear.
Fu Honglang took the lead, with Fatty close behind me. I followed Fatty, and Wang Yang was behind me.
The corridor wasn’t very wide, but it wasn’t narrow either. Two people could walk side-by-side without any problem.
After about ten minutes of walking, a stone door appeared ahead. This stone door was about three meters high.
The stone door was tightly shut, and there was no other path around it.
Could the stone have been locked inside?
I thought to myself.
Fu Honglang took out a folding shovel from his backpack and tried to pry open the gap in the stone door. The stone door didn’t budge at all.
Then, he sniffed the air and began to feel around on it.
After a moment, he raised the shovel and struck a spot, instantly creating a pit.
He reached in to feel, his expression very troubled. After a while, he pulled his hand out and said, “It’s stuck.”
Most mechanisms for stone doors used stone and mercury, as only these two substances could remain incorruptible for millennia.
If Fu Honglang said the mechanism was stuck, it was highly likely that something was jammed in the groove of the stone mechanism.
The jammed object had to be removed for the mechanism to work.
Forget being jammed in a stone mechanism; even if something was jammed between two ordinary stones, it wouldn’t be easy to get it out.
Wang Yang walked up to the stone door and said, “Let me try.”
He reached his hand in and fumbled around for a moment. Then, with a strong pull, he instantly yanked something out.
Before I could get a good look, the stone door made a “kaka” sound, and the huge stone door quickly opened automatically.
As the door opened, I saw Shi Tou.
He was covered in blood, lying on the ground, unconscious, and it was unclear how he had gotten into such a state.
Without a word, Fu Honglang rushed over to check on Shi Tou.
“Shi Tou!”
Shi Tou looked up at Fu Honglang, seeming to want to say something. Just as Fu Honglang leaned in, Shi Tou’s stomach suddenly bulged, and a black and red corpse beetle emerged, with some internal organs still attached!
This sudden scene startled everyone, and my heart sank.
The stone door made a grinding sound, and it was about to close. Fatty shoved against it with all his might, trying to keep it open.
But it was no use. In the blink of an eye, Fatty and Xiao Liu were locked outside, while Wang Yang, Fu Honglang, and I remained inside.
The corpse beetle that had emerged from Shi Tou’s stomach twitched and made a “zhi zhi” sound. Two pincer-like appendages extended from its mouth, about to bite Fu Honglang.
Suddenly, with a muffled “bang,” the corpse beetle was shot away.
Fu Honglang pulled out his handgun, his face full of anger as he cursed, “Damn it, I’m going to avenge Shi Tou!”
As the gunshots faded, I finally noticed our surroundings.
We were in a room of about a hundred square meters, with no other passages. The ceiling was a dome, oval-shaped.
The floor was covered with many bottles and jars, most of them broken, and many strips of cloth.
It looked like a storeroom. Not far away, several corpse beetles were crawling towards us with menacing intent.
These corpse beetles were extremely agile. When they jumped, they had wings like cockroaches on their backs.
This thing was a giant cockroach, just with a round, bulging belly.
Corpse beetles were highly poisonous. Once bitten, there was practically no chance of survival.
Not only were these creatures inherently poisonous, but they also carried corpse poison from constantly feeding on dead bodies.
When these two toxins mixed, a single bite would be fatal even for a divine immortal.
“Brother! Don’t just stand there! Quickly see if you can open the stone door!” Fu Honglang yelled.
I just snapped back to attention and found Wang Yang pulling out a “three-foot sword” from somewhere. The blade of the sword was glinting with cold light.
This was the first time I had seen this three-foot sword. In all the time I had known Wang Yang, I had never seen him use any weapons.
It seemed this three-foot sword was something he always carried.
Fu Honglang fired two shots at the approaching corpse beetles. His aim was pathetic; he missed both shots.
When one corpse beetle flew towards him, he knocked it away with his folding shovel.
He seemed to realize that his gun was less effective than his shovel, so he simply handed the handgun to me.
I was even less adept at using this thing. Holding it, I felt like I was holding a hot potato.
“Let me!” Wang Yang said in a low voice, actually charging towards the corpse beetles.
I was about to call out to him, but it was too late.
With just him and his sword, he managed to fend off several corpse beetles.
The three-foot sword in his hand was extremely sharp. With a single sweep, the corpse beetle was cut in half.
As the bisected corpse beetles hit the ground, many black beads emerged from their bellies, which was disgusting to look at.
And the smell was also extremely foul, like a mixture of paint and dead rats.
Although I knew Wang Yang was skilled in martial arts to some extent, I had never seen him in action like this before.
Could it be that this guy had been hiding his abilities all along?
With his skill, Song Bing wouldn't even be a match for him.
Damn it, this kid was quite secretive.
Wang Yang’s sword speed was incredibly fast, making him look like a figure from the saying, “With a three-foot sword of wind and dust, he brings order to the nation.”
Fu Honglang looked at me in astonishment and said, “Your friend is that skilled?”
I gave a wry smile and said, “This is the first time I’ve seen him fight today.”
Fu Honglang’s eyes lit up with a bit more joy. He quickly said, “Brother, come quickly and help me pry open the stone door!”