Chapter 17 Cave Burials and Cliff Graves

Wu Xiexie was still furious. "When you saved me, why was your face so close to mine?"

Laoyang looked dazed, stuttering, "I pulled you out of the water and pressed your stomach. You hadn't swallowed that much water, but no matter how I called you, you wouldn't wake up. Master Liang suggested that you might have choked, telling me to give you... give you that thing... ah, called artificial respiration."

Laoyang pointed at Master Liang, who was trying to hold back his laughter by the campfire, and said gloomily, "He said using this... respiration would make you wake up faster."

Wu Xiexie glared fiercely at the gloating Master Liang, cleared his throat, and said to Laoyang, "Ahem, well, it seems I wronged you. I apologize, and I hope you won't take it to heart. Thank you for saving me."

Laoyang was stunned for a moment, then beamed with joy. "N... nothing at all! We're like brothers, aren't we? I d... didn't take such a trivial matter to heart at all. It's nothing."

He had thought Wu Xiexie really wanted to completely cut ties with him because of what happened earlier. Fortunately, that wasn't the case.

Laoyang was immensely pleased with himself. True enough, as long as that annoying Muyu wasn't around, he and Wu Xiexie were still good brothers.

Just as he was muttering inwardly, he suddenly heard Wu Xiexie ask, "Laoyang, where is Muyu? Have you seen Muyu? Didn't he come with us? That's not right, I clearly remember him grabbing my arm before I fell down the waterfall."

The expression on Laoyang's face soured instantly, and his heart turned icy cold.

As expected, his childhood friend had still been snatched away by someone else after all.

Regret churned in Laoyang's chest, but the moment he thought of the purpose of this trip, he could only lower his eyelids and whisper an apology in his heart.

Seeing him distracted, Wu Xiexie asked again.

Laoyang finally came to his senses and shook his head. "I don't know, I haven't seen him. If you don't believe me, ask Master Liang; he woke up even earlier than I did."

Wu Xiexie frowned, worry gripping his heart. "What about the others? Are there only the three of us here?"

Laoyang nodded and motioned for him to come over to the fire to warm up.

"Where on earth is this place?" Wu Xiexie walked up to the campfire, took off his soaked clothes, wrung out the water, and held them up to dry near the flames.

Laoyang fished a flare gun out of someone's backpack nearby and fired a shot toward the darkness behind Wu Xiexie.

In an instant, a beam of red light trailing a long tail pierced through the dark. Three seconds later, a dazzling crimson glow flooded the entire cavern.

The sudden glare made Wu Xiexie squint, but he still forced himself to quickly scan the surrounding environment.

Thirty seconds later, the light gradually dimmed and finally vanished completely.

Afraid that Wu Xiexie hadn't seen clearly, Laoyang prepared to fire another shot.

Wu Xiexie quickly stopped him, rubbed his sore and swollen eyes with the back of his hand, and asked in startled bewilderment, "How can there be so many coffins in a place like this?"

As it turned out, the space they were in was half of a natural cavern. On the other side was the cliff they had fallen from. Dozens of feet below the cliff, a huge natural cave was packed with coffins, dense and crowded together. In some areas, they were even stacked several layers high, numbering at least a thousand at a single glance, presenting a rather spectacular sight.

Quite creepy, too!

Master Liang chuckled. "Does it look like a coffin warehouse?"

Wu Xiexie glanced at him. "You know about this?"

"Naturally."

Master Liang stroked his beard, shaking his head with the airs of a story-teller from an old teahouse.

"Alright, stop keeping me in suspense." Wu Xiexie urged him to get on with it.

Master Liang said leisurely, "Based on my years of experience, this is a cliff-burial cave of the highland Miao people."

Wu Xiexie was surprised. "Aren't the highland Miao people from Guizhou?"

Master Liang shook his head and began recounting what he knew.

Both Wu Xiexie and Laoyang listened quite attentively.

After a long-winded explanation, seeing the looks of admiration (mostly self-imagined) in the eyes of Wu Xiexie and Laoyang from the corner of his eye, Master Liang narrowed his eyes in utter comfort.

Indeed, with that malevolent star gone, his competence as the team's mastermind was back.

The three of them ate, drank, and chatted, spending quite a leisurely time.

Meanwhile, Zhang Luxun, located in some unknown place, was having a rather miserable time.

He had no idea where the current had swept him. When he regained consciousness, he found that he couldn't open his eyes no matter what. He could only rely on his own powerful sensory abilities to perceive that he was locked inside a semi-translucent, oval-shaped, airtight space.

This space was filled with a slightly viscous liquid. Miraculously, Zhang Luxun did not feel suffocated inside it; instead, he could sense a sort of magical nutrient being absorbed by him, causing every pore in his body to relax and open up.

To make matters absolute worst, Zhang Luxun discovered that he seemed to be wearing nothing at all!

His body felt as if it had solidified and couldn't move even a fraction of an inch, and he couldn't even open his mouth. Zhang Luxun could only roar inwardly: *Which turtle's son stripped off my clothes?! Step forward if you've got the guts, I promise I won't beat you to death!*

After raging impotently for a long time without the slightest improvement in his situation, his consciousness grew heavier and heavier. Worried sick, Zhang Luxun forced himself to summon some spirit and asked the system in his mind, [What on earth is going on?]

The system stayed as dead as a doornail, not uttering a single peep.

Angry and sleepy, Zhang Luxun felt utterly aggrieved.

Finally, the very second before his consciousness was about to plunge into sleep, the system spoke up.

[Just go to sleep in peace.]

Zhang Luxun's inner voice: *Sleep your sister!*

His consciousness returned once more.

Feeling like he had just woken up from a good sleep, Zhang Luxun instinctively stretched lazily.

"Huh?" Zhang Luxun was startled. Damn it! It seemed he could actually move!

Zhang Luxun hurriedly tested moving the fingers of his left hand and found that they indeed could move. His miserable mood instantly turned bright and sunny.

The viscous liquid that had previously enveloped him had also thinned out into ordinary clear water. With a stroke of his arm, Zhang Luxun swam a long way upward until the top of his head brushed against something.

Zhang Luxun felt it with his left hand; it didn't seem particularly thick. He clenched his left hand into a fist and punched upward with all his might.

*Crack*—something shattered.

It sounded very crisp, much like... the breaking of an eggshell.

Seeing a way out, Zhang Luxun exerted even more force, completely shattering the barrier above his head, and kicked hard with both legs to push his head out first.

Abundant, mighty air rushed into his lungs. Unaccustomed to it for a moment, Zhang Luxun coughed violently, almost passing out.

Suddenly, he felt a long, damp, and cold ribbon brush across his face. Before he could react, the ribbon wrapped directly around him and yanked his entire body out.

Zhang Luxun: "!!!"

Oh, heavens!

Help!

What kind of ghost is this?

Zhang Luxun widened his eyes in shock, staring at the dark red forked snake tongue wrapped around his body and the huge head covered in dark, glossy scales right before his eyes.

His gaze locked onto the snake's head—no, it should be called a python—and met the single enormous, crimson, vertically-pupiled eyeball right at the top of the python's head.

Zhang Luxun felt a wave of dizziness wash over his brain.