Tomb raiding: following the plot while tearing up the script

When Wu Sansheng looked up, he came face to face with a blood-soaked face, a pair of eyes with dilated pupils staring intently into Wu Sansheng's eyes.

The one who fell into the boat was the middle-aged boatman who had disappeared, or more accurately, half of him...

The boatman's corpse, with only his upper body remaining, lay at the bow of the boat, his head drooping over the side of the boat, staring at Wu Sansheng. A carrion beetle, many times larger than its kind, was gnawing on his intestines.

It seems that for this corpse beetle, the sashimi of large intestine tastes better than human flesh.

Stunned by the bloody scene, Wu Xie felt a surge of nausea in his stomach and wanted nothing more than to vomit uncontrollably.

How much solid meat would one have to eat to grow to that size!

Just then, the giant corpse beetle, for some unknown reason, threw away the food in its mouth and suddenly leaped up, pouncing on Pan Zi's head as he poked his head out to look at it.

Pan Zi had no foothold in the water and couldn't dodge in time. He saw that the pair of sharp claws were about to pierce his scalp and kill him face to face.

Suddenly, a flash of cold light, the sound of a sharp blade slicing through flesh, and in the blink of an eye, the giant corpse beetle that had just been baring its fangs and claws was now pinned to the ship's deck and writhing wildly.

The eerie sound seemed to become more pronounced. Zhang Qiling raised his foot and pressed it down, immobilizing the giant corpse beetle, and the sound stopped abruptly.

Although Zhang Qiling acted swiftly, Pan Zi's scalp was still pierced by the sharp claws.

Pan Zi covered his bleeding forehead, his eyes filled with the dazed feeling of surviving a disaster. He took a few heavy breaths before earnestly thanking Zhang Qiling.

The eerie sound disappeared, and the three of them scrambled up from the icy water onto the boat. Panzi kicked the half-corpse back into the water, then looked at the giant worm that Zhang Qiling was stepping on.

"Brother, is that sound coming from this thing?" Wu Xie asked incredulously, unable to imagine how such a large insect could make such a seductive sound.

Zhang Qiling nodded slightly, moved the foot that was suppressing the giant insect, and revealed the full appearance of the giant corpse beetle.

A hexagonal bronze bell, about the size of a fist, had been implanted into the insect's tail using some unknown method.

It's unclear how much time has passed, but the bronze bell is now covered in a thick layer of patina, obscuring its original appearance.

Only vaguely can be seen that the six sides of the bell are engraved with intricate patterns, which look like some kind of incantation.

It seems that this hexagonal bronze bell is the source of the sound.

The eerie sound that had just been so captivating was strange and ethereal, as if it came from the underworld. Those who heard it would be captivated without even realizing it.

There must be a very ingenious mechanism inside this hexagonal bell, which uses the echo of the space when it vibrates to achieve this effect.

The fact that it could survive for so long in such a damp and decaying environment suggests that a lot of thought must have been put into the materials used. Even though its appearance is now dilapidated, it does not affect its mission at all.

"Is this the function of the bell?" Wu Xie curiously moved closer, wanting to observe this magical ancient creation up close.

Unexpectedly, even though the giant corpse beetle carrying the copper bell had been suppressed and unable to move by Zhang Qiling, the strange copper bell suddenly began to vibrate.

Unlike the ethereal bell sound from before, this sound was very real and urgent, making the listener inexplicably irritable.

Panzi, who was bandaging himself, felt a surge of anger and wanted to stomp the big worm to pieces without a second thought.

As soon as he stood up, Zhang Qiling glanced at him lightly, and Pan Zi froze. The look in Zhang Qiling's eyes, as if she were looking at a dead man, made him feel as if he had been doused with cold water, and he dared not make any further movements.

Zhang Qiling glanced at Pan Zi briefly, then ignored him, took out a rather large glass jar from his bag, and put the corpse beetle inside.

Wu Xie stared in disbelief as Zhang Qiling pulled a large glass jar out of his backpack, momentarily dumbfounded.

How did you get that bottle out of that small-looking backpack?

Why did he bring such a big glass jar when he came to dredge sand?

Zhang Qiling casually packed the corpse beetle, put the lid on, and placed it casually on the bow of the boat.

The glass jar was only slightly larger than the carrion beetle, and once it was inside, the beetle and the bronze bell at its tail were immobilized.

This time, Wu Xie could confidently approach and examine the strange insect more closely.

"Brother, why are you putting it on the bow of the boat?" Wu Xie asked as he looked at it.

"open circuit."

Wu Sansheng clapped his hands in agreement.

"That's right, let it clear the way for us. This thing grows by eating corpses, and it has extremely heavy corpse energy and yin energy. It is the nemesis of those zombies and ghosts."

In this cave of corpses, they're probably the tyrants. With it on our ship, we'll definitely get out."

Uncle San spat again. "I want to see what kind of place this is, that it can raise such a huge bug."

Wu Xie nodded, a little scared but also excited, and followed Da Kui Panzi to pick up the entrenching tool to use as a paddle.

"Third, Third Master, look at that corpse beetle! Something is crawling out of that bell!" Da Kui's trembling voice came, drawing Wu Xie's attention to the glass jar at the bow of the boat.

Inside the jar, at the bottom of the bronze bell, a large, blue centipede, as thick as a finger, crawled out of the bell and anxiously darted between the corpse beetle and the glass jar, unable to find an escape route.

Next, while everyone struggled to row the boat with entrenching tools, Wu Sansheng explained to Wuxie the symbiotic relationship between centipedes and corpse beetles, the semi-natural and semi-artificial water-burrow, and how the boatmen and guide hid, intending to wait for them to be killed by the creatures in the cave before coming out to collect their bodies.

Until a green phosphorescence appeared in the darkness ahead.

Sitting at the bow of the boat, Zhang Qiling waved his hand, signaling for silence.

"We've arrived at the mass grave."

Wu Sansheng stared silently at the eerie green phosphorescent flames ahead.

The rowers stopped what they were doing, and the boat drifted along with the current at an extremely slow speed.

Looking at the various animal or human corpses gradually appearing on the shallows on both sides of the waterway, large and small corpse beetles were crawling on the green, decaying corpses.

The rustling sounds of chewing filled the air, frantically stimulating people's tense nerves.

The further in you go, the more rotting corpses you find; some are so decayed that it's impossible to tell whether they are human or animal.

As they moved forward a little further, the shallows became more spacious, and there were more scattered piles of rotting corpses. The carrion beetles crawling on the corpses, though not as large as the kind they had on the bow of their boat, were still two or three times larger than ordinary carrion beetles.

At the innermost part of the shallows, unlike the chaotic piles of corpses outside, there were clearly rows of neatly arranged, skeletal remains, arranged by human hands.

The outermost layer was a corpse covered by a layer of gray material, showing little sign of decay.

"Be careful, this is a dangerous place where you can't get out once you enter!" Wu Sansheng whispered.

"These corpses must have drifted in from outside and stranded here." Wu Xie looked at the scattered pile of corpses on the outermost edge, shuddered, and subconsciously moved closer to Zhang Qiling.

This eccentric guy doesn't talk much, and he ignores you when you try to chat with him. He's either looking at the sky or sleeping, like a silent bottle, but you really feel very safe around him.

Da Kui stared at the corpses on both sides, with pale green phosphorescent flames still flickering in the air. His hands, gripping the entrenching tool, trembled violently.

"Third Master, with so many corpses, won't hundreds of water ghosts come out and capsize our boat later?"