After Wang Yang and Song Bing left, I stood by the underground river, shining my flashlight inside. The water didn't seem very murky, but I couldn't tell how deep it was.
"Director Wu, the tomb you're looking for isn't in this mountain, is it?" I asked.
Wu Tingxiu didn't answer me, instead glancing at Bai Hanyan beside her.
"Logically, there shouldn't be a tomb here," Bai Hanyan pulled a pendant from her neck. I leaned closer and saw it was a miniature compass.
The small compass was about the size of a normal compass, and I couldn't see the small characters on it when it was in my palm.
She held the compass in her left hand, while her right hand was constantly calculating something. "Based on our location and my observations during the day, this area is a solitary mountain ridge with a solitary dragon... and there's an underground river below, its water flowing towards the yin body..."
"Can you say something I can understand?" I asked.
She rolled her eyes at me and said impatiently, "It's terrifying not to be cultured."
I was left speechless by her retort.
Bai Hanyan sighed, "To put it simply, this place is unsuitable for burying the dead. If a tomb were to be buried here, not only would it affect future generations, but the tomb owner himself would not fare well."
"Is it that exaggerated?" I asked. "What era is this? Still talking about feudal superstition."
Bai Hanyan replied, "Believe it or not..."
As soon as she finished speaking, there was a "plop," as if something had fallen into the water.
Startled, I shone my flashlight over, but saw nothing.
"Did you guys see anything?" I asked.
Both of them shook their heads. Whether it was a psychological effect or something else, I suddenly felt a chill in the air around us.
"Don't you not believe in this stuff?" Bai Hanyan asked with a half-smile. "Then what are you panicking about?"
I said, "I'm just worried there might be something else here..."
Wu Tingxiu spoke up, "Whatever it is, we have to find an exit, or we'll be trapped here waiting to die."
She was right. The cave entrance was now sealed. If those villagers wanted to rob and kill us, they only needed to wait ten to fifteen days. By then, we'd be out of supplies, and when they dug open the entrance, they wouldn't even have to lift a finger for us to be finished.
It seemed that from the very beginning, those two guides had intentionally led us here...
While I was pondering, Bai Hanyan suddenly screamed, startling me!
"There... there's..."
Her face was pale, and she couldn't even speak, pointing to a spot not far away.
I leaned closer and followed her gaze. I saw a lot of white bones there!
I took a deep breath. Although I appeared calm on the surface, I was panicking inside.
Wu Tingxiu walked over with her flashlight, crouched down, and even dug around a bit with her hands. She then said, "These aren't human bones."
Hearing her say that, I finally relaxed and leaned closer to look. I saw that the bones indeed didn't look like human bones, but rather like the bones of some large animal.
"What animal's bones are these?" I asked.
Wu Tingxiu clapped her hands and said, "Probably a feline."
"A tiger?"
"A bit like it."
"How would a tiger get in here?"
Wu Tingxiu chuckled, "What's so strange about that? Animals, just like people, need to find a place to live."
"But why would it die here?"
"It's hard to say. It might have died of illness, or perhaps some animal dragged its corpse into the cave. Of course, it's also possible someone killed it and dumped it here," Wu Tingxiu speculated.
Bai Hanyan's expression had somewhat recovered. I found it a bit amusing that this woman, who had been so fearless moments ago, had been scared stiff by a pile of bones.
As if sensing my thoughts, Bai Hanyan glared at me.
I shook my head helplessly and looked away.
About twenty minutes passed, and Wang Yang and the others hadn't returned. Just as I was about to suggest we go check on them, I heard hurried footsteps.
Before I could even react, Wang Yang rushed over, a backpack in each hand, shouting loudly, "Run!"
I froze and shone my flashlight behind him. I saw Song Bing also sprinting behind him.
They seemed to be pursued by something.
Wang Yang reached me, threw me a backpack, and then grabbed me, pulling me directly into the river!
I felt a surge of icy coldness shoot up from my feet, making me shiver.
The river wasn't deep, only reaching my thighs.
Wang Yang held my hand tightly, almost dragging me to the other side.
Upon reaching the bank, I couldn't help but ask, "What happened?"
He didn't answer me, but instead frowned and glanced behind him.
Then Wu Tingxiu and Bai Hanyan also climbed ashore, with Song Bing at the very end.
With their commotion, I became very nervous. I looked across and saw countless green dots instantly appear on the opposite bank.
I didn't know what those green dots were and shone my flashlight at them.
It was better not to have looked. The moment I did, my scalp tingled!
Tens of thousands of centipedes, writhing madly!
The sound of "shasha" was endless!
Each centipede was at least as thick as a thumb and twenty centimeters long.
I had never seen such large centipedes before, especially with the green glow emanating from their heads.
"Where did so many centipedes come from?" Wu Tingxiu asked.
Song Bing said, "I don't know. When we went back to pack our things, everything was fine. When we returned, there were many small holes appearing on the wall, and these centipedes crawled out of them..."
Bai Hanyan was quite terrified. I noticed she was gripping my clothes tightly.
"We need to get out of here quickly," Wu Tingxiu said.
Song Bing nodded and led the way into a cave beside them.
I noticed the centipedes on the opposite bank of the river were jumping into the river madly. Although they were immediately washed away by the water, they came one after another, as if trying to fill the river.
Looking up, quite a few centipedes tried to crawl down from the cave ceiling, but due to the moss on the ceiling, they had no chance.
Centipedes that crawled to the top would fall like raindrops as soon as they touched the moss.
The sound of "huālālā" was like the sound of rain.
After watching for a moment, Wang Yang tugged at me, signaling me to hurry.
Although I wanted to see if the centipedes would crawl over, the thought of more centipedes appearing made me decide to leave this place quickly.
Walking deeper into the narrow mountain cave, Bai Hanyan kept holding onto my clothes. I felt quite awkward, so I simply took her hand.
It was better when I didn't pull her. The moment I did, she almost slapped me.