A sudden, thick smell of sulfuric acid hit the Fatty, making him yell for everyone to stop. “Looks like this is the blood-zombie manufacturing plant.”
Ma Xiong sniffed the air as well. “Indeed, the sulfuric acid here is incredibly potent. I wonder how those few managed to get through.”
Lu Zong walked over and shone his light around. “Why is it ending so soon? Cao Cao’s tomb isn't that big.”
The Fatty scoffed. “What do you know? What’s outside is barely a tenth of the real tomb. This is all just a diversion; the true burial chamber is inside.”
Lu Zong became more perplexed. “Inside what? Can we actually go further in?”
The Fatty didn't answer, instead walking up to the wall and knocking on it. It sounded hollow, a dull thud-thud. But there seemed to be no door nearby to open it. The Fatty muttered to himself, “Strange.”
Just as he finished speaking, he suddenly shouted, “Damn it, an ambush!”
Before the words had even fully left his mouth, loud bursts of laughter echoed from all around. Before the group could react, they felt the cold press of a gun barrel against their backs.
A hoarse, aged voice boomed out, “Drop your weapons, or I won't be polite.”
Ma Xiong quickly called out, “Okay, okay, calm down, everyone just put your guns down, put them down.”
With that, he was the first to lower his weapon. Following his lead, Lu Zong and the Fatty, along with the others, also disarmed. Resisting now would simply be digging their own graves.
Ma Xiong continued, “I know you’re here to break the curse on yourselves. Truth is, I’m the same as you; we could have gone in together from the start. I guarantee everyone here is more capable than your shrimp soldiers and crab generals.”
Hahahaha, a clear burst of laughter carried from behind a main support pillar. They looked towards the sound and saw, indeed, the Company Commander they had encountered a few days prior in Xinjiang.
Lu Zong drawled sarcastically, “Well, Company Commander, long time no see.”
The Commander roared with laughter. “Yes, long time indeed.” He coughed once, then fixed Lu Zong with an unblinking stare.
Lu Zong felt profoundly uneasy under the scrutiny and asked, “May I ask why you’ve detained us, Commander? We could actually cooperate; our chances of success would be much higher.”
The Commander said dismissively, “Don’t speak yet. I’m not here to kill anyone. Silence for now.”
The group was thoroughly confused by the Commander’s actions, unsure what his objective was. However, his subordinates looked intensely focused, their eyes fixed forward without a single sidelong glance, as if they knew something the others didn’t.
After a long moment, the Commander visibly shuddered, then slowly steadied himself, coughed, and murmured an apology.
Lu Zong sensed something deeply wrong and quickly pressed, “Commander, what was that just now? Did the curse turn you into this state?”
The Commander looked as if he had just survived a massive calamity, crouching on the ground, gasping for breath, and muttering to himself, “Do you know? You killed me.”
Lu Zong asked in confusion, “How do you figure that? How did we kill you?”
The Commander gave a bitter smile. “Do you remember your Queen’s underground palace? I saw you come out, so I went inside to take a look myself. But when I got out, I looked like this.”
Lu Zong tried to soothe him. “It’s nothing. It’s a bit ugly, but we can manage.”
The Commander offered another wry smile. “I’m not talking about my face. Are you all fine after entering? Did nothing happen to you?”
Lu Zong replied, “You should tell your men to put their guns away first, lest they accidentally discharge. In reality, we are all tied to the same rope; losing even one of us will drag the whole team down. Besides, we aren't even sure we can locate the Demon Pagoda ourselves.”
The Commander sighed, then gestured for his men to holster their weapons. “So, you already knew. Speaking of that Demon Pagoda, where I come from, it was merely a legend; not even the location or time was passed down. I can only find scant clues from this Demon Pagoda map.”
Ma Xiong looked at the Commander’s utterly exhausted state and asked, “Commander, tell us, what exactly is this curse?”
The Commander forced another bitter smile, looked up at the group, and stated, “I can see through you!”
“What? You can see through us? What’s going on? Does the curse let you see through clothes, see inside bodies? That sounds like a good thing!” The lecherous Fatty roared with laughter. However, his two female students immediately flushed crimson, hastily covering their chests with their hands.
The Commander smiled ruefully again. “You don’t understand. When I say I see through bodies, it means I see people as mere shadows, unable to perceive the person at all, looking straight through them to whatever is behind them. Of course, this special ability only manifests when the curse flares up.”
The Fatty looked curiously at Lu Zong, Ma Xiong, and the others. “That’s weird. Why aren’t any of us showing strange symptoms? Could the Queen’s spell sometimes fail?”
Ma Xiong countered, “That’s not necessarily true. Everyone, just feel around. If anyone feels anything abnormal, that’s their curse manifesting.”
The Fatty examined his own body. “I just feel like my personal charm has increased a lot since leaving the tomb. Look, even these two young ladies seem to like me now.”
Lu Zong snapped, “You think you’re a prize catch, you dung beetle! Those two were tricked by you. But I feel like ours is just a latent curse that hasn’t flared up yet. Plus, there are already clear markings on our arms, meaning the Queen has already marked us. The immediate priority is finding the Demon Pagoda.”
The Commander agreed, “Yes, the immediate priority is finding the Demon Pagoda. Oh, there’s one more thing I need to clarify. You’ve probably heard about the Demon Pagoda, right? Although it can lift the curses on us, there is one condition everyone needs to heed: one person among us must remain enslaved by the demons inside. That’s what I mean; one of us has to stay there. You all understand, right?”
Ma Xiong cut in, seeing the Commander was hitting a sore spot, “That’s a problem for later; we need to focus on the present. I assume this curse has a time limit. Let’s hurry and find the Pagoda.”
The Commander conceded, “Fine, we’ll discuss that when the time comes. I have nothing to fear anyway. Look, this is the Demon Pagoda map; see where we need to go.”
Saying this, he pulled the Demon Pagoda map from his pocket and pointed to it. “If we follow the map’s guidance, we should walk straight ahead. But the path is blocked by the tomb wall; we’ve clearly reached a dead end. I tried to see if I could dig through the wall earlier, but it was filled with sulfuric acid inside, which burned three of my brothers into blood zombies. I couldn't bring myself to kill them, so I had to leave that task to you.”
The Fatty chanted an Amitabha, then looked back at the wall. “There shouldn’t be a problem now. The concentrated sulfuric acid inside has already flowed out. We just need to take down this wall. Let me see the map.”
The Commander handed the map to the Fatty, who studied it closely for a moment. “You’re right. If we break through this inner wall, we can successfully find the Demon Pagoda.”
With that, he picked up his gun from the ground and fired a volley at the wall. Indeed, only a few drips of sulfuric acid sputtered out, and nothing else. Soon, the already fragile tomb wall, battered by the Fatty’s relentless gunfire, completely loosened and collapsed with a loud crash. Inside, the tomb bricks were corroded beyond recognition, tinted red. If the wall hadn't been over two meters thick, the acid would have likely flowed out and destroyed Cao Cao’s entire tomb.
The area behind the wall was indeed vast; the outer tomb was like a speck compared to what lay within. It was believed that if the group hadn't breached this tomb wall, Cao Cao might have successfully remained hidden for thousands more years.
The Fatty was the first to squeeze into the opening. The interior was far more spacious than the outer area, resembling a massive natural gorge. The Commander, Lu Zong, and the others followed, marveling at the immense burial chamber.
The Fatty said, “Commander, let me see the map, see which direction we should head now.”
The Commander handed the map over, and the Fatty flipped through a few pages. “The layout in here doesn’t match the diagram. What’s going on?”
Hearing this, Ma Xiong quickly took the map, studied it, and said, “It really is different. How do you explain this?”
The Fatty sighed. “There’s only one explanation: this tomb has already been looted. Damn it, someone dared to steal something Fatty had his eye on—utterly lawless!”
Lu Zong looked from the diagram to the tomb chamber. “It doesn’t matter if the chamber was looted; the problem is it scrambled our direction. Now we don’t know where to go.”
The Fatty swallowed hard. “It looks like we have to rely on Cao Cao’s enemy to find the right path.”
Lu Zong inquired, “How so?”
The Fatty explained, “We’ll have to use the Ghost’s Guidance. I believe many vengeful spirits died unjustly in this tomb. If we are sincere enough, I trust they will help us.”
Saying this, he ordered everyone to kneel. Seeing the Fatty’s grave demeanor, the others reluctantly complied. The two young women huddled closely beside the Fatty, clearly viewing him as their savior now.
The Fatty plucked a few strands of hair from Ge Mei’s head, gathered them together, and then took out her hairpin, dangling it from the tied hair. He instructed everyone, “Everyone, close your eyes quickly. Do not open them for any reason, no matter what happens.”
Everyone obediently shut their eyes, unconcerned with what the Fatty was doing, since he had taken on the task, and the rest was up to him.
After a while, they heard crackling sounds echoing inside the chamber, like splitting coffins. They all held their breath, afraid to move.
It was then that the Fatty began to chant: “Heaven and Earth without limits, all things remember; Four directions open, vengeful souls guide the way.”
Then they heard the Fatty shout once, “Open!” Everyone quickly opened their eyes.
They saw that the hairpin, which had been pointing toward the Fatty, was now pointing in the opposite direction, toward Ma Xiong.
Ma Xiong asked curiously, “Who the hell turned the hairpin around?”
The Fatty laughed. “Never mind, never mind! It was the ghosts here doing it. Let’s hurry and head in the direction behind Ma Xiong; we can’t be wrong.” With that, he stood up and was the first to move toward Ma Xiong’s position.
The others slowly rose and followed.
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