System: Infinite Evolution into Qilin Bloodline

"Rotten flesh, I don't know what kind of corpse it is, it's sticky and smelly."

As he spoke, the fat man wiped his fingers on his clothes twice.

"Pfft!"

Wang Xing laughed at the fat man's mocking words: "Don't be ridiculous. There are only dried corpses in the desert, how could there be rotting flesh?"

"The one Fatty just caught is fake, see for yourself if you don't believe me."

They didn't get along to begin with, and the fat man was also in a bad mood.

"Let's see who's afraid of whom."

Wang Xing sat up from the ground and went to the corner to find the piece of meat that the fat man had just thrown over. She found that it was indeed rotten meat, with some melted flesh stuck to a piece of bone about the thickness of a little finger.

"How could this be? This kind of thing shouldn't exist in the desert!"

The desert is extremely dry; a living person would become a dried-up corpse in a very short time, and decomposition would be absolutely impossible.

"Quick, quick, let's see what's going on!"

Something was amiss, and everyone became alert.

The fat man realized what was happening and quickly got up, took out his entrenching tool, and started digging down where he had just been sitting.

A human corpse was unearthed shortly afterward.

The corpse was horrific; its flesh and blood had melted away like chocolate under high heat, leaving it sticky and covered in yellow sand.

"It looks like it's been corroded by some kind of poison."

"He probably came here to escape the sandstorm, just like us, and then he got bitten by something."

"What on earth could be so poisonous?"

……

Just as everyone was discussing this, the fat man picked up his entrenching tool and started digging again.

Suddenly, a loud "bang" of metal clashing came from underground. The violent tremor almost made the fat man drop his entrenching tool.

Upon hearing the sound, the fat man's heart leaped with joy: "Could there be some treasure down there?"

He dug away the sand beside him, and a dark head emerged from it.

"It turned out to be just a statue of a god."

The fat man was somewhat disappointed when he saw what had been dug up.

"Don't touch him! None of you should touch him! He is our guardian deity!"

Upon seeing the statue, the elderly guide, Dilber, immediately rushed over. He knelt before it, raised his hands above his head, and prostrated himself, repeatedly bowing in reverence. "Thank you, Lake University, for providing us with such a refuge. I hope you will not hold these outsiders against us and will not punish us!"

Since he wasn't affecting anyone else, the others didn't bother with him.

At this moment, Professor Chen suddenly said to Teacher Liu, "Jianguo, this statue looks familiar. Have we seen it somewhere before?"

Teacher Liu stared at the statue for a long while, then suddenly slapped his forehead: "Professor Chen, we have indeed seen it before! Look at the statue's eyebrows, don't they look like two small snakes!" "You mean black-haired snakes?"

"That's right, it's the black-haired snake unique to Gutongjing."

"Uncle, didn't the black-haired snake appear in the shipwreck tomb? Why do they say it's unique to Gutongjing?"

Wu Tianzhen found this strange and asked Zhang Hao about it.

Zhang Hao shook his head and gave Wu Tianzhen a wink, signaling him not to bring it up again.

However, Professor Chen and others overheard what they had said earlier.

"This black-haired snake was dug out of a snake mine. It can only be found in Gutongjing. Black-haired snakes from other places are all transported out of Gutongjing. This kind of snake has a very high status in Gutongjing and is worshipped by the locals. When it is first dug out and is still a small snake, they will let the black-haired snake live in their eyebrows. It is said that this will give them special abilities."

"Professor Chen, didn't you all fail to find the ancient city of Gutongjing? How did you come to know this?"

“My team has been studying the ancient city of Tongjing for decades, and it was only with great difficulty that we found these things in ancient books.”

Zhang Hao nodded; he hadn't expected Professor Chen to tell them so much.

Such confidential information should not be easily revealed. Since he has revealed everything now, he must have made ample preparations.

"Everyone be careful in a bit."

Zhang Hao quietly reminded Wu Tianzhen and the others.

The archaeological team will make their move against them sooner or later. Zhang Hao is not sure when. If they really need to use their feng shui techniques to find Gutongjing, they will make their move after they find Gutongjing. If they don't need to use their feng shui techniques, they will probably make their move immediately.

Zhang Hao guessed that the second possibility was more likely, since this group of people knew so much about Gutongjing, it didn't seem like they had never been there before.

That's why he reminded others to be careful.

"Ok?"

At this moment, Zhang Hao noticed that Zhang Qilin was squatting behind the statue, sticking his two slender fingers into the sand.

After a few seconds, he pulled his finger out: "There's something down there, it's gathering, and it could come out at any moment."

As soon as Zhang Qilin finished speaking, a bubble-like bulge suddenly appeared where he had just inserted his finger.

"boom!"

Suddenly the bulge burst open, and a small black snake, about the thickness of a little finger and a foot long, crawled out.

"Holy crap, a black-haired snake!"

As the fat man exclaimed in surprise, he swung his entrenching tool and smashed the black snake's head to pieces.

This little black snake is so easy to spot; it's completely black with scales that look like hair. You'll never forget it once you've seen it.

"rustle……"

Suddenly, everyone heard the sound of sand churning.

Inside the house, on the ground, every few centimeters there would be a fist-sized bulge, from which black hairy snakes could be seen crawling out.

In an instant, the room was filled with countless black-haired snakes, piled up in layers, their bodies intertwined, and every now and then a head would peek out, open its bloody mouth, and spit out a scarlet tongue.

Zhang Hao and his group, along with the rest of the archaeological team, were surrounded by black-haired snakes and were at a loss for what to do.

Staying indoors means constant threat of being attacked by black-haired snakes, while going outside means the risk of being blown away by the wind or buried under the yellow sand.

"What should we do now?"

"Going out means death, staying inside means death too, Fatty's going to fight these snakes to the death!"

The fat man shouted and then raised his entrenching tool and started slapping it wildly in front of him.

Wu Tianzhen, Huo Xiuxiu, Xie Xiaohua and the others also pretended to be very scared.

Zhang Hao smiled slightly, not expecting these guys to be such actors. They knew that with him around, the black-haired snake posed no threat at all. The reason they did this was simply to find out the background of the archaeological team.

As the black-haired snake drew closer, everyone in the house was forced into a corner.

At this moment, Xiao Weiguang stepped forward from the group.

They took a cloth bag out of their backpack, reached inside and pulled out a handful of black powder, which they then scattered.

"rustle……"

As soon as the powder was sprinkled out, the black-haired snakes immediately retreated, then turned around and burrowed back into the sand. In a short while, not a single snake was left in the house.

"That was snakebite medicine. Those snakes won't appear again. Everyone can stay inside and avoid the wind."

Xiao Weiguang gave an explanation and then returned to the fire to sit down and rest.

Seeing this, Zhang Hao and the others returned to the campfire and sat down to rest. After leaving someone to keep watch at midnight, the others all fell asleep.

In the middle of the night, Zhang Hao heard footsteps beside him.

He slightly opened his eyes and saw Xiao Weiguang gently walk up to the statue, hold the statue's head with both hands, and twist it clockwise.

"Rumble..."

Then a mechanical turning sound rang out, and Zhang Hao suddenly felt the ground beneath him go empty, and he slid down with the sand.

He looked around and saw that the sand in the whole room was flowing down rapidly. The people inside were like being trapped in quicksand, and could only watch helplessly as they sank down.

"Holy crap, what happened?!"

The sudden noise startled the fat man awake, and he suddenly yelled.