After the explosion, I was the first to react, immediately pinning Dazhuang to the ground and holding his hands down firmly: "Grab the other two!"
Upon hearing my shout, Manjing and Linque dashed off like arrows.
I held Dazhuang down, and he struggled hysterically: "Damn it! Go ahead and kill me if you dare! Otherwise, if I get back at you, we'll fight to the death!"
"Shut up!"
The monkey slapped Dazhuang on the back of the head: "We all agreed not to drink the well water, but you bastard, you actually played dirty tricks on us and tried to kill us. Today, I, the Marquis, will teach you a lesson!"
"Shut up!"
I suddenly shouted, interrupting the monkey: "Did you hear any sounds coming from inside the cave?"
As soon as I finished speaking, the passageway fell silent.
"Snap!"
"Snap!"
"Snap!"
"...!"
A series of cracking sounds, like the cracking of eggshells, came one after another, as if someone was eating rice crusts late at night.
Hearing the sound, the monkey shone its flashlight down into the passage, but because of the explosion, smoke and dust filled the air below, obscuring everything.
I had already suspected those golden eggs were a trap, and now, hearing the cracking sound below, even though I didn't know what had happened, I still yelled at the monkey and Jiang Man, "There's something wrong with those golden eggs! Get out of here, quick!"
In just a few seconds, the cracking sounds below became more and more frequent. After Monkey and Jiang Man had moved some distance away, I said to Dazhuang, "We have no blood feud, and I don't want to kill innocent people. I'll let you go, and our grudges will be wiped clean. Can you accept that?"
"Do I even have a choice?"
Dazhuang struggled for a moment: "Let me go, and I promise I won't bother you anymore!"
When I heard Dazhuang's assurance, I let go of his hand and was about to leave.
Just as I was about to get up, Dazhuang pounced on me, yelling, "Kid, I'm going to fucking kill you!"
"Bang!"
As Dazhuang got up, I elbowed him in the temple, knocking him to the ground. After falling, Dazhuang clung tightly to my leg, yelling, "You little brat, even if I die today, I'll drag you down with me... Ah!!"
Before Dazhuang could finish speaking, he let out a scream.
I shone my flashlight on him and found a large, hairless rat that had bitten his ankle.
"Squeak!"
Immediately afterwards, a piercing scream rang out, and countless hairless rats surged up the steps from below.
These monsters, resembling hairless rats, are similar to the Gu creatures that control paper figures in the Willow Grove Corpse Pit of Ping'an Village, but they are larger. When they open their mouths, their teeth are like saw blades, not only densely packed but also layered.
Dazhuang was bitten by the Gu creature and his whole body convulsed in pain.
Immediately afterwards, several more venomous creatures bit his leg. The intense pain made Da Zhuang instinctively release my hand and start hitting the creatures on his leg, but his arm was bitten again.
Within seconds, more than a dozen Gu creatures bit Dazhuang, and their pink skin visibly turned red, and their bodies swelled up.
They're not eating meat, they're sucking blood!
Dazhuang hadn't cried out in pain when I stabbed him with my throwing knife before, but now he roared with a sob in his voice, "Ah! Help me! Help me!!"
Seeing the approaching Gu creatures, I had no time to pay attention to Dazhuang. Instead, I pulled out the flare from my waist and ripped off the fuse.
"hiss!"
The flames from the flares instantly illuminated the passageway as bright as day.
"Squeak!"
These Gu creatures, which had been sleeping underground and sealed by the golden egg, suddenly saw the bright light and immediately retreated into the darkness behind them.
I saw the Gu creatures retreat, so I threw the flare in my hand into the passage, lit another one, and ran upwards.
When I rushed up, Manjing, Linque, and Monkey had already cornered Dazhuang's two men. Each of them was holding a stone and guarding the Golden Rooster behind them with fierce eyes.
"Forget about them! Let's go!"
I didn't know whether those Gu creatures were afraid of the light or hadn't adapted to it in a short time. At this critical moment of life and death, I had no time to care about the golden rooster and called everyone to run wildly towards the exit.
Seeing my panic, Jiang Man quickly caught up: "Duan Shenxing, what's going on inside?"
"Those golden eggs were containers for sealing away the Gu creatures, but Dazhuang's explosives awakened them all!"
I had originally planned to check out the narrower side road, but the unexpected turn of events made me abandon that plan.
As we were running, the monkey caught up and asked, panting, "Young Master Duan, do you think it's possible that the golden rooster wasn't a single piece, but rather separate pieces?"
I rolled my eyes at the monkey: "What kind of situation is this? You're still discussing this kind of thing with me!"
"No, look at this!"
The monkey shone his headlamp on his palm, and what he was holding was none other than the head of the golden rooster.
Seeing what he was holding, I involuntarily stopped and took it myself.
The golden rooster's head wasn't severed off; it was pulled out from inside the rooster's body.
To put it more vividly, it's like pulling the chicken neck out of the chicken skin.
The chicken neck below has a very strange shape, looking like a stick made of double helixes.
The monkey explained, "When we were retreating just now, I kicked one of the other guys over, thinking I might as well make the most of it and see if I could snatch the golden rooster. But I ended up tearing the rooster's head off!"
When I saw the chicken head pattern, I immediately realized what was going on: "I know what the legend of Sanbao Mountain is all about! The so-called three treasures are chicken, sheep, and cow. The legend that there are three treasures in the mountain is wrong. You should find the three treasures before you can enter the mountain!"
Jiang Man looked behind us: "You mean that fork in the road?"
Looking at the chicken's unusual neck shape, I said, "I don't know, but judging from the shape of the chicken's head, it should be a key!"
"ah!"
Just then, another scream came from the passage behind.
I realized that Dazhuang's two companions had also been attacked by the Gu creatures, so I threw all the flares I had with me behind me and continued running outside: "These Gu creatures are afraid of light, everyone get to the door as soon as possible and light a campfire to stop them!"
The two screams acted like a shot of adrenaline, spurring us all to speed up our run outside.
"brush!"
Just as I ran out of the cave, a bright flashlight suddenly shone on my face, so bright that I could hardly open my eyes.
"Bang!"
A gunshot rang out ahead, followed by someone shouting, "If you don't want your head blown off, put your hands up where we can see you!"
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