Chapter 18 Xiangweng Temple ④ - The Snake Flower Guarding the Stone Coffin with its Viper-like Jade Pendant. ...
Lan Shuyin's fingers finally touched a stone slab with slightly loose edges.
"Found it."
She pushed hard to the side, and the stone wall in the corner slid open silently, revealing a narrow gap that only allowed one person to pass through sideways.
A cold, damp air surged out from the darkness.
"Amazing!" Zhang Hao exclaimed, instinctively reaching out to pat her shoulder, but Qi Weiwei stopped him.
"Be careful." Qi Wei glared at him. "Young lady, your skin is delicate, don't be rough with her."
Zhang Hao awkwardly withdrew his hand. "I'll go first and clear the way for you." As he spoke, he put on his headlamp, turned sideways, and nimbly disappeared into the darkness. Qi Weiwei followed closely behind.
Seeing this, another taciturn man with a buzz cut reached out and helped Chen Yi, who was sitting on the ground, up.
Only then did Lan Shuyin notice that Chen Yi's left thigh was tightly wrapped with several layers of gauze, which were stained with blood.
“Your legs…” Lan Shuyin couldn’t help but exclaim.
"It's nothing." Chen Yi pushed up his glasses and forced a reassuring smile. "I twisted my ankle when I fell, just a minor cut. You guys go first, we'll cover you."
Lan Shuyin thought for a moment, then looked at Xuan Bingbing and said, "Bingbing, you follow first, I'll bring up the rear."
The situation was urgent, and no one objected. However, just as the crew-cut man was helping Chen Yi carefully into the passage, Lan Shuyin's pupils suddenly contracted.
She seemed to glimpse that, in the instant Chen Yi's body disappeared into the darkness, his feet... seemed to melt into the shadows and vanish abruptly!
However, just as her heart skipped a beat and she tried to focus her gaze, Chen Yi had already completely entered the passage.
Is it an optical illusion caused by the light... or...?
She suppressed her fear and turned her gaze to the man with the buzz cut.
Zhong Jinguo seemed not to notice anything unusual. He steadied his headlamp, then nimbly ducked into the passage and disappeared in the blink of an eye.
Lan Shuyin followed closely behind, slowly crawling through the narrow, damp passage.
When she straightened up again, she found that the people who had arrived earlier were all frozen in place, as if they had been frozen in place, completely forgetting their companions behind them.
Following their shocked gazes, the scene before her instantly took her breath away.
They were in an extremely magnificent underground tomb.
The dome soared high, hidden in the darkness. Even though several powerful flashlight beams almost illuminated the entire tomb chamber, it was still difficult to see its full appearance.
Several weathered and indistinct stone animal statues stood solemnly around a central stone coffin.
What is most astonishing is that a strange and alluring green-purple plant grows on the ground around the stone coffin.
It should be a flower. But its shape is bizarre. The dark purple stems meander and twist, with clusters of eerie green spikes blooming at the top, like countless hibernating venomous snakes, exuding an evil vitality.
"What...what kind of flower is this?" Xuan Bingbing couldn't help but exclaim in a low voice, her voice filled with awe and curiosity.
“A snake-like ear of grain.” Chen Yi replied, adjusting his glasses and displaying his scholarly knowledge. “The ‘Records of Strange Things’ describes it as having stems that coil like snakes, ears that emit a dark glint, a sweet and fishy smell, and a presence that seems to be a living creature, often growing alongside corpses.” This must be what we are looking at.
“Hui is a poisonous snake. A flower kissed by a poisonous snake is quite a fitting name,” Zhong Jinguo nodded in agreement.
"It is said that the 'snake-like ear' is highly poisonous. I heard from seniors in the industry that some very ancient families and tribes in western Sichuan used them to guard important tombs to prevent them from being disturbed by thieves. I never thought the legend was true!"
Qi Weiwei spoke excitedly, already taking out a professional camera and carefully approaching to take pictures. "The shapes and habits of these flowers are too special and have great research value. We must find a way to collect some samples."
"Let me take a look." Upon hearing this, Zhang Hao immediately put on the protective gloves he carried with him and cautiously approached to observe. "Their roots are very deeply intertwined, almost tangled together. If handled carefully, we might be able to remove them along with the original soil, thus preserving their survival as much as possible. Weiwei, hand me the sampling box."
"good."
Qi Wei responded slightly, took off her backpack and placed it at her feet, then looked down to find a suitable container.
"Oh my god, I feel like we're illiterate people who have stumbled into an academic master's lecture." Xuan Bingbing took the opportunity to tilt her head towards Lan Shuyin and muttered to herself.
Lan Shuyin was about to laugh when she heard this, but her gaze suddenly sharpened—
Not far from Qi Weiwei, the stem of a snake-like plant suddenly twisted in mid-air.
That was definitely not the slightest rustling of the wind; it was more like the creeping movements of some living creature!
"Watch out!" Lan Shuyin exclaimed in alarm.
However, everything happened too fast.
The dark purple serpent tassel beside Qi Weiwei seemed to come alive, its flower spike splitting open to reveal two sharp, venomous fangs that gleamed with a ghastly white light.
Then, like a lurking viper, it pounced on Qi Weiwei's face with lightning speed!
At the critical moment, Zhang Hao reacted quickly and shoved her away forcefully!
Pfft!
A slight muffled thud.
The deadly fangs failed to bite Qi Weiwei, but instead pierced deeply into Zhang Hao's calf before he could retract them!
"Ugh—!"
A tearing pain instantly exploded in his calf. Zhang Hao roared in pain and staggered backward. His survival instinct made him desperately shake his bitten left leg.
The snake, or rather the terrifying snake flower formed from a mutated plant, fell to the ground with a "thud" after being shaken off.
But after twisting and rolling violently a few times, it quickly retreated back into the soil, and in an instant, it turned back into that seemingly harmless and beautiful "snake-kissing ear".
The horrifying and mind-blowing scene before them froze everyone in the tomb, a chill running from their feet to their heads.
"How are you?" Lan Shuyin was the first to react, rushing to Zhang Hao's side and squatting down.
Qi Weiwei seemed to be startled awake, and staggered over with a pale face.
On Zhang Hao's calf, two tiny dents were shockingly visible, and the surrounding skin was rapidly turning an ominous blackish-purple, swelling and shining at a visible speed, as if it were being rapidly corroded.
Beads of cold sweat appeared on his forehead, yet he still managed a bitter smile. "Huiwen Sui, I think 'Huiwen Ren' would be a more fitting name. No wonder no one has ever seen it. Those who have probably ended up like me, getting kissed and unable to tell anyone."
"What kind of time is this to be joking around!" Qi Weiwei's voice trembled as she frantically pulled off her backpack. "I brought broad-spectrum antivenom! Hang in there!"
She frantically searched through the hidden compartments and pockets, scattering miscellaneous items all over the floor. But after searching for a long time, her face grew paler and more desperate. "How could it not be here? I clearly put it here! Where's the serum?!"
Boom—!
Just then, the entire tomb chamber suddenly shook violently!
Yellow sand and loose soil fell from the top.
"What's going on?!"
The next second, to everyone's horrified gaze, a large section of rock wall that had previously been impossible to see the top of suddenly broke apart, carrying immense force as it crashed straight down onto the stone coffin below!
"boom--!"
A deafening roar erupted, sending debris flying and dust billowing out like a thick fog, almost obscuring everything in sight.
Amidst the chaos and deafening crash of falling rocks, there was a chilling hissing sound, like countless venomous snakes flicking their tongues, rising and falling from all directions!
Lan Shuyin reacted extremely quickly, grabbing Xuan Bingbing the instant the incident occurred and swiftly hiding behind a huge stone beast statue.
As the dust settled slightly, she cautiously peered out, her heart suddenly skipping a beat—
Beside the stone coffin, there was another figure!
The man, dressed in a black trench coat, appeared to have fallen from a higher crevice along with the falling rocks, crashing heavily onto the coffin lid before tumbling awkwardly to the ground.
Perhaps because he rolled down so fast, the restless "snake-kissing tassels" around him were unable to launch an attack for the time being. Instead, they all stretched out their dark purple roots, like a group of snakes poised to strike, revealing their pale and sharp fangs to him.
"Watch out for those things! They're poisonous! Don't get bitten!" Lan Shuyin warned instinctively, her voice sounding particularly urgent in the empty tomb.
"ah……!!!"
However, no sooner had she finished speaking than Qi Wei let out a scream.
Zhang Hao suddenly opened his mouth and bit her arm hard!
At this moment, Zhang Hao's face was contorted with rage, his entire face was a terrifying bluish-black, the blood vessels under his skin bulged out like a spider web and turned black, his eyes were bloodshot, he had completely lost his mind, and was like a maddened beast trapped in a cage.
Qi Weiwei cried out in pain as she broke free, her arm already covered in blood.
Startled, Lan Shuyin lunged forward without hesitation, grabbing Zhang Hao's neck tightly from behind and trying to pin him to the ground.
"Help me quickly!"
Zhong Jinguo suddenly realized what was happening and rushed forward to use his full weight to pin down Zhang Hao's wildly kicking legs.
The poison of the serpent's snout tassel takes effect extremely quickly, and Zhang Hao has clearly undergone a complete transformation, losing all reason.
In such extreme circumstances, what they had learned was that completely eliminating their teammates was the most rational choice.
The instant that thought flashed through his mind, Zhong Jinguo had already drawn his dagger.
However, when he actually looked at Zhang Hao's face, which was distorted but still retained a familiar outline, his arm trembled slightly—this was his teammate who had been adventuring alongside him for many years and sharing life and death!
In the instant he hesitated, Zhang Hao unleashed astonishing brute force, breaking free from some of the restraints, and bit down hard on Zhong Jinguo's throat with his bloodshot teeth!
It happened in the blink of an eye!
A black figure swiftly slashed in, the movements fluid and seamless. Several high-strength nylon cable ties precisely looped around Zhang Hao's wrists and ankles, tightening them with a sudden burst of force, instantly binding his limbs tightly together!
Completely incapacitated, Zhang Hao could only writhe wildly on the ground, letting out chilling roars, but he was no longer able to hurt anyone.
Only then did Lan Shuyin realize that it was Kui Li who had made the move.
Perhaps her suspicion of "why do you carry this with you?" was too obvious, so Wei Li patted the dust off her clothes and explained, "For self-defense, in case I encounter bad people."
He paused, then added with exceptional sincerity in his eyes, "It's not for playing any weird games."
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