Chapter 84
Several people followed closely behind the fast-moving skull, ran into the bushes, and chased the skull all the way.
Tang Zeyu noticed that the skull seemed to be running towards a certain direction with a purpose, so he told Yan Hong not to stop it directly, but to see where it was going first.
The group followed the skull along a winding path and finally found debris all over the ground under a tree.
When the Skull was about to run into the pit to hide, Yan Hong intercepted it in time and stepped on it to the ground, making it unable to move.
The rest of the people arrived a little later and were also shocked when they saw the broken bones on the ground.
Because these bones were scattered all over the ground like puzzle pieces thrown randomly on the ground, the number of dead people could only be determined by the number of skulls. Including the one under Yan Hong's feet, it was roughly estimated that there were three people in total.
These bones, like the skull, have completely turned into skeletons.
Tang Zeyu walked in front and recognized at a glance that the clothes scattered around were the uniforms of the exploration team. Combined with the equipment discarded casually on the side, it was almost certain that these corpses were members of the exploration team when they were alive.
But Chen Yunliang soon discovered something was wrong. The clothes next to the corpse were too new and too clean. They were not in the condition that they would be after being abandoned in the wild and exposed to the sun and rain. They were not even as dirty as the clothes he had been wearing for two or three days. It seemed as if they had just been thrown there in the past two days.
But this doesn't make sense. If the owners of these clothes are really these corpses, then it doesn't make sense that the corpses have turned into bones but the clothes are still completely fine. It's too unreasonable.
Could it be that these clothes don’t belong to these corpses?
So how did they get abandoned here?
Shaoxing Yang searched around for something but found nothing.
"Strange, why not?"
Lu Shiyu asked curiously, "What are you looking for?"
"Looking for a knife," Shao Xingyang pointed to the long sword hanging at his waist and said, "The exploration team is equipped with knives. Because it is very dangerous to use firearms outside the base, especially in areas that have not been fully explored, everyone carries a knife. But I have been searching for a long time and can't find where these three people's knives are."
Lu Shiyu's eyes swept over the few people. Indeed, except for her, an external staff member who was not a member of the exploration team, everyone in the Flying Eagle Team brought knives. Even Chen Yunliang, who usually fought with a bow and crossbow, was no exception. Although there were some differences in the number and appearance of the knives, they all had them.
Shaoxing Yang gave Lu Shiyu a brief introduction to the exploration team's swords. The handle, blade and scabbard were all made of the best materials. Both the material and the feel were incomparable to ordinary knives. At the same time, due to the high cost, the application for sword making was particularly difficult to approve. Yan Hong had to spend a long time to get three swords.
Each knife is secretly engraved with a number, and the owner of the knife can be traced based on the number. This also means that this kind of special knife is extremely difficult to circulate even on the black market. Naturally, no one is stupid enough to buy and sell something that will definitely be investigated.
But the problem now is that the swords of these three people are missing. Obviously, all the things they should have are here, except for the most important sword.
Chen Yunliang frowned slightly: "The knife is missing? That's troublesome."
"If everything is here, it means these three people died in an accident. But the knife is missing, which can only mean it was intentional. Someone secretly ambushed the exploration team and took their weapons."
"Fuck, who is so brave?"
Chen Yunliang shook his head. "I'm not sure. We can't even confirm whether these three people are actually members of the exploration team, let alone when they died."
The time of death indicated by the bones and the clothes was very different. There must be something that was interfering with their judgment.
Unlike Lu Shiyu who was timid, Yan Hong was used to licking blood on the tip of a knife. A mere human bone could not cause her much emotional fluctuation.
Yan Hong grabbed the skull at her feet and tossed it in her hand like a ball. The thing inside was instinctively frightened and completely retracted into the skull.
When Yan Hong walked towards Shaoxing Yang, she accidentally stepped on a long bone. Yan Hong moved her foot away and found that the bone was broken.
Yan Hong bent down to pick up the half bone, lowered her head to search for a while, and soon found the other half. The two broken bones could just fit together.
"Chen Yunliang, take a look at this," Yan Hong handed the two pieces of bones to Chen Yunliang and said, "There seems to be something wrong with these bones."
Chen Yunliang took the bone and saw the clue at a glance.
"This is the ulna, the bone in the arm."
The more Chen Yunliang looked, the tighter his brows furrowed.
The cross-section of the bone is very smooth, as smooth as tofu cut by a sharp knife. This is the most obvious abnormality. The second is that from the cross-section, you can clearly see that the bone marrow inside the bone is still very fresh, which is completely different from what you would find after natural skeletalization.
Chen Yunliang pushed up his glasses and began to calmly explain the results:
"These three people were murdered, and they haven't been dead for long. I guess they are members of the explorers who came to arrest us a few days ago. The last and most important point."
"I can probably guess who the murderer is."
"What?" Shao Xingyang was confused. "How do you know who the murderer is? There's not even a hair of the murderer left here, right? And how can you be sure they weren't killed by some distorted creature?"
Chen Yunliang gave Shao Xingyang a cold look and said, "I told you to study, but you went to raise pigs. When you grew up, you were still like a fool."
After ignoring Shao Xingyang's brainless little question, Chen Yunliang began to explain to everyone:
"First of all, the cross section of this bone is very smooth, which rules out the possibility that it was done by a deformed creature. The perpetrator not only had a knife, but it was also very sharp. Someone like Yan Ning, who had no professional training, would definitely not be able to cut it."
Shao Xingyang showed the cross section of the bone to everyone and continued, "Secondly, the bone marrow inside the broken bone is exposed. It should have dried out and formed a cavity in a short time, but the bone marrow inside is still moist. The moisture inside has not dried out completely. From this, we can tell that the time of death is definitely no more than a week."
Yan Hong was puzzled: "If the death time is less than a week, why is the body completely reduced to bones?"
"Actually, a week is considered rigorous. I estimate no more than three days," Chen Yunliang said as he collected the broken bones and looked at the scattered bones behind him. "These bones didn't decompose naturally to become white bones. Instead, they were transformed into this state through some special method."
"Special means?" Shao Xingyang thought for a long time but couldn't think of any means that could turn a person's corpse into bones in such a short time, and the bones were so clean.
"You still remember the man with the machete in the mercenary team, right?"
Lu Shiyu was confused. She only knew the information of those people from their oral accounts, but she had never seen the other three people in person, so she didn't quite understand what Chen Yunliang said.
But Yan Hong and Shao Xingyang, who had fought with Bayard, were deeply impressed and could not forget it at all.
Yan Hong put the two things together and instantly thought of a possibility.
"You mean..."
"Yes," Chen Yunliang pointed to the skull in Yan Hong's hand and said, "The murderer who killed these three members of the exploration team was a mercenary."
Although it was not clear whether the other party's supernatural powers could do it, it did not prevent several people from speculating based on clues that Bayard was very likely to use his supernatural powers and the strange scimitar to suck the flesh and blood of the three people, leaving only bones that could not be absorbed. This led to the result that they turned into skeletons even though they had not been dead for long.
Bayard himself may have recovered after absorbing the flesh and blood of these three people and is hiding somewhere. He may be secretly watching them in a corner now.
Thinking of this, a chill ran from the tailbone along the spine to the brain.
"No way, it's so scary," Lu Shiyu said, rubbing his arms covered with goose bumps. "It sounds just like the legendary vampires from the Western Middle Ages. And if he really recovered through this, wouldn't it be very troublesome to meet him again?"
Tang Zeyu patted Lu Shiyu's shoulder, and his big palm seemed to soothe the fear caused by uncertainty.
"Don't worry. That guy's ability is advantageous in single combat, but as long as no one is left alone, he can't do anything to us."
However, what Tang Zeyu didn't say was that although Bayard had no advantage against their group, if he had met up with the other two mercenaries and traveled together, that would be real trouble.
Seeing Lu Shiyu's worried look, Tang Zeyu chose to swallow his words. There was no point in worrying anyway. If they met, they would have to fight. Saying it out loud now would only add to his troubles.
Perhaps because no one had paid attention to it for a long time, the unknown thing hidden in the skull actually tried to sneak away, but was caught by Lu Shiyu.
A pair of eyes like snail tentacles protruded from the skull and met Lu Shiyu's eyes. The long eyes shook slightly. Lu Shiyu showed an ugly expression of fear and shock, as if he had seen the Guangdong specialty of twin ponytails.
"Uh, uh, uh..."
The words were like a stone stuck in his throat. Lu Shiyu pointed at the creepy pair of eyes, and was so nervous that his throat was compressed and he couldn't make a sound.
Yan Hong turned her head and saw this scene. With malicious intentions, she wanted to suddenly put the skull in front of Lu Shiyu, but Tang Zeyu grabbed her wrist in time to stop her.
"Let's see what's inside first."
For some reason, Yan Hong felt that Tang Zeyu seemed a little angry.
"oh."
The topic returned to the moving skull. Several people gathered together with the skull in the middle, which was motionless and pretending to be dead.
"It won't come out no matter what," Shao Xingyang suggested, "Why don't we try drowning it in water or roasting it over fire? We happen to have the conditions for that."
"Roast with fire? Do you want to cremate them?" Yan Hong said.
Chen Yunliang said calmly, "I still hope to preserve the integrity of the contents. What if it changes color when cooked like shrimp? How can I observe it then?"
"What should we do? How about splitting the skull open?"
"The skull is one of the hardest bones in the human body. It's a bit difficult to split it without damaging the contents, but you can try."
The three of them were excitedly discussing how to get the things hidden inside out, but the creatures inside didn't know how dangerous their current situation was because they couldn't understand human language.
Lu Shiyu listened to the discussion of several people, and his thoughts seemed to stagnate. After a long time, he hesitated and said:
"Well, why don't you respect the deceased and leave his head alone... or at least don't chop it in half."
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