Professor Shao was bathed in the glow, and his head rolled down at his feet.
This scene.
It’s as if in mythology new gods came into being by stepping on the corpses of old gods.
Like a newly born god, he was full of ambition and eagerly turned around to face his kingdom.
He saw it.
The "portal" is an irregular circular hole. Beyond it, you can see a natural cave.
Pillow of corpses in the cave.
Layers upon layers of corpses fill the field of vision and sink into the invisible depths at the corners of the cave. How many hundreds? Thousands? No one can count. What can be seen is that the flesh and blood rotted away for nutrition, and the bones became a hotbed, growing dense white
, long mycelium, creeping, woven between the bones, escaping a faint white light.
The so-called "Kingdom of God" is actually a cemetery.
"This is impossible..." Professor Shao muttered in disbelief.
But why is it so unbelievable? Although the flesh and blood of each corpse has been hollowed out, the clothes and ornaments are relatively intact. It can be seen that they are all the traditional costumes of the local people. As depicted in the murals, the villagers have entered the Kingdom of God.
.
"No, no, no! It's fake! It's all an illusion."
"right!"
His expression suddenly became excited again.
"Hallucination! This must be a test, a test from the mountain god!"
As he said that, he was about to get into the hole regardless, but as soon as he got close to the entrance of the hole, an indescribable stench hit his face, which made him lose consciousness. He staggered back, his hands became weak, and he held the walkie-talkie.
He fell into the hole and landed among the mycelium-covered corpses.
After regaining his composure, Professor Shao subconsciously wanted to go in and retrieve it, but this time, he was held tightly. He turned around and saw Li Changan's stern eyes falling into the cave.
He looked around in surprise.
The walkie-talkie is black, and the bones and mycelium are pale. Logically speaking, it should be very conspicuous.
But he glanced around a few times and couldn't find where the walkie-talkie was.
Just at this moment.
"Professor? What happened?! Say something back, Professor."
A call with a "sizzling" sound of electricity sounded in the cave.
He followed the sound.
Somewhere in the pale whiteness, I saw a cluster of hyphae standing up slowly as if disturbed by the sound, floating lightly in the air, and revealing the walkie-talkie that was previously wrapped.
Professor Shao stumbled all the way down and suffered many scratches on his body, especially his palms which were scarred, and the walkie-talkie was inevitably stained with a layer of blood.
But at this time, the intercom was so clean that it was dazzling!
Professor Shao felt that his mind was in chaos. He staggered again. This time, he finally failed to stand firm and collapsed to the ground. Gravel and dust fell all over his face. He suddenly felt regretful.
However, Pandora's box has been opened, what's the use of regrets?
Just like a pebble thrown into a deep pool, the stagnant water makes waves.
With the walkie-talkie as the center, the hyphae floating among the corpses floated one after another, as if creating ripples. The entire cave suddenly "came alive", and the hyphae covering the cave stretched their long bodies, in the cold forest.
In the white light, in the stale air, it sways gently.
At a glance.
It's like a group of snakes in a snake cave, or like nematodes swimming densely under the water...
boom!
There was a muffled sound.
Blocking the overflowing white light, it also blocked Professor Shao's fear.
He was stunned for a few seconds.
Don't be too busy to remove the dust from your face.
It turned out that Li Changan had raised the head of the statue to fill the hole. He was leaning on the head of the statue, covering his mouth and nose with his sleeves, and gasping for air.
"Xiao Li?"
"Stand back, there is corpse energy!"
After that, the Taoist priest stopped caring about him.
He just bit his finger and used the blood as a talisman on the forehead of the statue.
But I just made my first stroke.
There was a sudden flow of air in the surroundings, carrying an indescribable stench and a creepy aura that hovered in the shrine, emitting waves of murmurs.
The collapse in the shrine became more and more urgent, with large pieces of carvings depicting the statues of gods peeling off on both sides, smashing to the ground and turning into powder.
At the edge of the hole that cannot be filled, little bits of white light seep out, and countless nematode-like hyphae are entangled with each other and squirm out.
Li Changan's expression did not change, and he even leaned forward and pressed firmly against the statue.
His expression became more focused.
Even if the falling stone scratched his forehead, he didn't feel distracted at all.
Until swarms of "nematodes" almost touch the body.
"No matter who you are, please lend me your divinity today!"
The fingertips quickly placed the last stroke.
"Edict!"
All of a sudden.
The murmurs in the air and the crackling sounds on the wall suddenly subsided, the white light subsided, and the hyphae reluctantly shrank back. Everything suddenly became calm, except for the sound of the distant underground river still rumbling.
Li Changan wiped away the blood that was about to flow into his eyes, turned around and pulled Professor Shao up.
"I don't understand the secret spell, but let me guess, the meaning of '喖唔咦ke' should be..."
The flashlight scanned the surroundings.
The once exquisite and gorgeous temple has become a cave of ruins. Even the '喖唔娦ke' has been scattered into a pile of rubble, with only his head embedded in the entrance of the cave. The blood talisman is painted on his ferocious face, setting off the ruins, and there are inexplicably a few...
Share compassion.
The Taoist priest bowed his head, then turned around and strode away.
"Seal evil and suppress demons."
…………
Li Changan carried Professor Shao back to the ground.
Nothing happened along the way.
Just when I came out of the tunnel, I was staggered by the wind and rain.
He looked up in surprise.
The lead clouds are as low as the sea and the sky are hanging upside down, the wind is as strong as the gathering waves, and the heavy rain is like the roaring waves, almost sweeping people away and making them unable to stand.
After a short period of time, the rain was actually so heavy?!
Li Changan braved the wind and rain and took Professor Shao to a relatively intact house nearby. The rest of the archaeological team had been waiting for a long time.
They saw the two of them in a mess, and Professor Shao looked lost.
Half surprised and half concerned.
"What happened underground? What happened to the professor?"
The Taoist priest briefly explained the matter.
"It's probably because of the corpse gas. Just take it easy."
"Corpse Qi?"
"Just think of it as marsh gas."
The Taoist priest has no intention of going into detail, and now is not the time to talk nonsense.
He entrusted Professor Shao to a few students and told them to quickly return to the ancestral hall, grab their things and leave immediately. He then went to meet them outside the village.
Everyone was surprised.
In such a critical moment, what should he do to distract himself?
Li Changan smiled.
"We are not the only living people in the village."
…
Yesterday, when everyone made the decision to leave on foot, in addition to concerns about the risks of the journey, there was also a question that everyone knew very well but avoided talking about: whether to take the villagers with them.
From a moral point of view, it is shameful to leave the old and the weak to escape.
But from a practical perspective, who dares to bring seven centenarians who look like dead trees into a dangerous mountain road that is full of wind and rain? More importantly, their own weird behavior makes it difficult for people to associate them with the strange things in the village.
Together.
Everyone left despite the wind and rain to escape the danger in the village, not to go on the road with the danger!
But today.
Facts have proved that the "喖唔娦ke" worshiped by the villagers is not an evil spirit, but a gatekeeper who suppresses evil spirits.
As His believers, the villagers are somewhat free from suspicion.
Moreover, because of Professor Shao's ritual, the evil thing sealed underground has been released, and Li Changan's temporary remedy can only be used for a short time.
In this way, the village has changed from a powder keg that may explode to a powder keg that is about to explode. The fate of those who remain will undoubtedly be tragic!
Maybe taking seven old people on the road would only add to the burden, or maybe their old bodies simply couldn't withstand the wind and rain on the road.
But if you don’t give it a try, you’ll have a bad conscience.
…
About half an hour later.
An old man's residence.
Li Changan's intercom rang with a call.
"I'm here, what's going on?"
A bunch of garbled words sounded across the street, and everyone was rushing to speak. Everyone spoke fast and urgently, mixed with the wind and rain, and nothing could be heard clearly. I could only feel the anger, anxiety and fear in the tone.
"Calm down, Brother Wang, you tell me."
A little.
Wang Zhongmin suppressed his anger: "The car was smashed! You should be careful over there, it must be those old guys who did it!"
Li Changan was not in a hurry to reply. He put down the walkie-talkie and looked aside.
There was a skeleton lying there, complete and pale, just like the skeletons in the cave. However, the skeletons in the cave were all dressed in gorgeous costumes, but in front of them there was only one that had been washed white and old.
Old-fashioned clothes and trousers, a set of clothes and trousers worn by villagers every day.
There were no traces of wind or rain on the surface of the bones, as if they were freshly baked, and there was no blood around the bones, and there was not even a trace of blood smell.
This situation.
It was as if the flesh and blood of the skeleton had its own consciousness and left the body on its own, showing a sense of absurdity and weirdness.
This half hour.
Li Changan used the magic talisman to visit the residences of seven old people, and this was the seventh set of skeletons he saw.
He frowned and looked up again.
The lead clouds are getting heavier and the wind and rain are getting stronger.