Book Synopsis
Book Tags
Donation Rankings
Comment
0 Comments
You May Also Like
墨書 Inktalez
Fat Ma's leg was bleeding profusely. After the blade fell to the ground, we both gasped for breath. Fat Ma's face turned pale, and after catching my breath for a moment, I hurried to tend to his wound.
I sprinkled the trauma powder I carried on his leg, and as the powder touched his skin, Fat Ma let out a painful howl.
The bleeding was barely under control.
"Damn it! Ever since we came in here, it's been nothing but suffering. What kind of sin have I committed?"
"Quit whining, Fatty. I'm going to pull out the blade now. Are you ready?"
"Isn't that obvious? It's stuck in my leg; whether I'm ready or not, it has to come out!"
I didn't respond further but got straight to work. I pressed down on Fat Ma's leg while he stared at me wide-eyed. I swallowed hard, hesitated for a moment, then with a firm grip, I yanked the first blade out. Blood splattered onto my face.
To my surprise, Fat Ma gritted his teeth and didn't scream.
I moved quickly; once the blade was out, I rushed to apply the trauma powder. Suddenly, my pupils constricted sharply.
"Oh no!" I exclaimed.
I saw that the flesh around Fat Ma's wound was slowly rotting away, visibly decaying before my eyes. It hit me that the blades must have been poisoned.
Upon hearing my alarmed tone, Fat Ma panicked and asked what was happening.
I didn't have time to answer him; I swiftly helped him remove the other two blades. The blood had already turned black.
"Fatty, you need to hold on."
With that, I pulled out my lighter and then took out a dagger. After quickly sterilizing the blade with fire, I swiftly cut away the rotten flesh from Fatty's leg.
At that moment, Fatty could no longer contain his cries of agony.
But I couldn't afford to be distracted; a small lapse could ruin everything. I quickly squeezed out the foul blood from his leg, rinsed it with clean water, applied some medicinal powder, and wrapped it up with a bandage.
By now, Fatty was nearly fainting from the pain.
Yet he continued to curse under his breath.
"It should be fine now!"
"I've lost half my life because of this!"
Seeing him in such a pitiful state, I handed him some dried rations to help him regain some strength and instructed him to stay put while I went to scout the path ahead.
Fatty lay there like a pile of 'muck,' resting on the ground.
Before me stood the Stone Pillars, which made my heart race. From the previous Ambush Fire to the later sharp blades, what was even more terrifying was that those blades were coated with poison.
These Stone Pillars were nothing short of Death Dealers.
Damn it, these were indeed the lessons learned from Sun Wukong's numbers—forty-nine. It had truly put me through hell.
Forty-nine pillars—what on earth were they?
The things we fear most when we go underground are, first, zombies, and second, encountering certain traps. However, what we truly dread the most are the formations within the tomb.
These Ghost Formations are created through various esoteric arts, involving concepts like the Five Elements and Eight Trigrams, which are particularly intricate. Moreover, these formations are generally difficult to decipher.
With five thousand years of history in China, the legacies left by our ancestors certainly hold some significance.
If these forty formations were merely like Stone Pillars, surface-level traps that could be easily avoided by walking around them, it would be manageable. But I know it’s not that simple.
Fat Ma lay on the ground, occasionally grumbling about fate and misfortune.
At this moment, however, I felt unusually calm. As the saying goes, "If you want to keep something a secret, don’t do it." Of course, this phrase doesn’t quite fit here, but if we extend its meaning, it can be interpreted as: every complexity has its solution.
I was confident that the key to breaking this formation lay in those intricate patterns.
Don’t ask me how I came to this conclusion; it’s because those patterns resemble those on the Bronze Fish that unlocks this Tomb and the Ghostly Heavenly Palace.
Standing three or four steps away from Fat Ma, I gazed at the spacious Training Ground before me, with several Stone Pillars standing tall around. Suddenly, in that instant, I seemed to see a fish swimming past my eyes.
I quickly shook my head to clear my mind; I was almost entranced. I reminded myself to stay focused.
But...
Perhaps that was the pattern of the Bronze Fish; maybe it was a live fish. This thought suddenly flashed in my mind.
I felt a surge of excitement.
Because being within it does not allow one to see the whole picture, which made it impossible for me to dismiss this idea.
The Fat Ma lay on the ground, laughing at me for no reason, thinking I had lost my mind.
He shouted and yelled at me, picking up a stone from the ground to throw at me.
I winced in pain and said, " Fat Ma, why are you throwing stones at me?"
Seeing me speak, the Fat Ma was momentarily stunned, but then he burst into laughter and said, "Old Sun, I thought you were possessed!"
"Stop talking nonsense. By the way, Fat Ma, I might have a way to get through this Stone Pillar area."
The Fat Ma perked up at my words and hurriedly urged me to act quickly.
I told him not to rush and that we should bring the Mud People over first.
I helped the Fat Ma up and retraced our steps according to my memory. Along the way back, I kept an eye on the changes in the Stone Pillars. I couldn't say much else, but I still had some memory; certain patterns on the pillars had changed, and the one that had burned the Fat Ma had already been moved.
This was like a living fish, which further confirmed my suspicion.
Both the Fat Ma and I were injured, so our journey back was somewhat arduous.
Finally, after more than a moment, we passed through the Training Ground and returned to our original spot.
As soon as the Mud People saw us, they quickly took the Fat Ma away.
"Take a look; Fat Ma is hurt. I did a quick patch-up earlier; you check it out too."
The Mud People responded promptly and loosened the bandages I had wrapped around the Fat Ma to examine his injuries.
“Old Sun, are you okay?” Zhang Tong approached me with concern.
“I’m fine!”
However, it didn’t take long for Zhang Tong to burst into laughter. Seeing the surprised expressions on their faces, I quickly realized it was just a bit embarrassing.
The recent Ambush Fire had left both me and Fat Ma looking like half-bald men, so my appearance was easy to imagine.
The Mud Man had used medicinal alcohol to clean Fat Ma’s wounds, and after a while, some color returned to Fat Ma’s face. He began to ramble on about how dangerous those Stone Pillars were and how he cleverly resisted the danger without backing down.
“Are you done?”
“Done.”
Fat Ma chuckled happily.
“Now tell us what happened inside,” the Mud Man suddenly said in a serious tone, interrupting Fat Ma’s laughter.
Things had reached this point; a decision needed to be made. Moreover, we couldn’t linger here for too long, fearing that our supplies of food and water would run out.
Comment 0 Comment Count