"vomit--"
On the edge of the cliff, I took off my gas mask and vomited uncontrollably.
Qu Ruilin, who was next to me, was doing the same thing as me. While vomiting, he pushed me and said, "That's enough. Put your gas mask on! There's too much toxic gas here. You'll die if you inhale too much!"
After vomiting everything out of my stomach, I took the opportunity to remove the water bottle to rinse my mouth, drank a couple of mouthfuls of water, and then put the gas mask back on my head.
The stench emanating from the burial pit was so strong that even a gas mask couldn't completely filter it.
I took off my gas mask for less than a minute before I experienced laryngeal edema, difficulty breathing, and my back molars' gums swelled up, causing unbearable pain.
The thought that I was inhaling air fermented from those corpses made me want to vomit, but vomiting inside the gas mask would be even more disgusting, so I could only try my best to endure it and stop thinking about these things.
Qu Ruilin and I were affected in the same way, and he kept coughing and clearing his throat: "The road ahead has been blocked by iron chains and hanging stones. If you want to go forward, you can only go through this pit of corpses. What are your thoughts?"
"You've already said you're at your wit's end, what other ideas could I possibly have?"
I sat down against the wall: "Some tomb raiders, when traversing this kind of terrain, will choose to use stilts or zip lines to avoid contact with the corpses. But you and I have no tools at all. The only way to get through this pit of corpses is to jump down and then pass through the horde of corpses below."
Qu Ruilin glanced in the direction of the mass grave, somewhat resistant to this method: "Isn't there any other way?"
Not only Qu Ruilin, but I also found the mass grave ahead disgusting: "The oxygen here reduces people's work efficiency, and the limited tools leave us with few other options."
"If your deduction is correct, these corpses are all traps in the tomb. The designer's intention was to place these corpses as obstacles on the only way. If tomb raiders want to pass through this path, they must pass through the horde of corpses. Even if they can overcome the psychological pressure, the poison and gas inside the corpses will kill them."
Qu Ruilin thought for a moment: "Do you think there might be other traps down there besides the corpses, like flip-flops or pitfalls?"
"It's unlikely. There are corpses densely packed down there, making it impossible to set up a trapdoor. Moreover, these corpses are used as containers. If the designer had placed a pit underneath, it would have served as a drainage channel, which contradicts the design concept."
I took a deep breath: "If we want to get through here, in addition to overcoming our fear, we also need to ensure that the rat suit is waterproof enough so that the venom won't get on our bodies."
Qu Ruilin sighed and began to check the rat's clothes for any damage with his flashlight: "I've dug out so many entrails, but I've never seen such a strange place!"
I heard Qu Ruilin muttering something and asked him, "Have you robbed tombs before?"
"None of your business!"
Whether Qu Ruilin realized his slip of the tongue or simply didn't want to talk about it, he coldly continued, "Can we set off now?"
"Let's go."
I wasn't in the mood to try and get information out of him. After confirming that my rat-cloak was okay, I walked to the edge of the pit of corpses and said, "Wait a moment, I'll hold onto the cliff with both hands. You grab my body and go down to the bottom, then lift me down and try to be as gentle as possible."
At this point, we only had one path to choose from. The two of us trusted each other, and Qu Ruilin saw me lying on the edge of the cliff. He grabbed my body and slowly lowered me down, then helped me down as well.
The moment my feet touched the ground, I felt like I was stepping on mud, but I knew it wasn't mud, but flesh and blood that had been detached from a corpse.
For some reason, all of these corpses had their eyes open, as if they were staring intently at us.
Walking among the horde of zombies felt like queuing at a tourist attraction during a holiday; people were packed tightly together, and there was no end in sight.
The only difference is that we are usually crammed among living people, but now we are surrounded by hundreds of corpses with their eyes wide open and their flesh and bones separated.
Driven by the will to survive, Qu Ruilin and I, tools in hand, began to push aside the corpses in front of us and move forward.
"despair!"
As I was walking, I suddenly heard a crisp sound ahead and immediately stopped.
Although we knocked over other corpses while we were moving them, it only made the sound of tofu hitting the ground, not this kind of noise.
Qu Ruilin stopped almost at the same time as me. He turned to look at me and asked, "Did you hear that sound ahead? Did we trigger a trap?"
I shone my flashlight on my feet and saw a human head rolling down and staring right at me. I immediately looked away and said, "I don't feel anything special under my feet. What about you?"
"Neither did I." Qu Ruilin confirmed that I hadn't triggered any mechanisms either, and reassured himself, "Perhaps a bone or a steel nail hit the stone slab!"
"despair!"
Before Qu Ruilin could finish speaking, another crisp sound came from ahead.
In the empty and silent space, the sound reached my ears very clearly.
"Tap tap!"
"Tap tap tap!"
"Tap tap tap tap!"
"...!"
Then, the sound became more and more intense, like drumbeats echoing above the grave.
Qu Ruilin's breathing quickened: "Have we stumbled upon some kind of trap?"
"The sound is coming from ahead! Please, it can't be some kind of bug!"
Hearing that sound sent chills down my spine. When entering an ancient tomb, besides traps and mechanisms, the thing I fear most is encountering insects.
The existence of insects in ancient tombs is not a fabrication. In the 1970s, a tomb of a Qing Dynasty cholera patient was accidentally unearthed in a county in Gansu Province, which led to dozens of people contracting cholera and dying tragically. Fortunately, the local epidemic prevention department handled the situation properly, otherwise the consequences would have been unimaginable.
Besides the cholera virus, which can remain for hundreds of years, calcified lesions left by tuberculosis in corpses, as well as eggs of schistosomes, pinworms, whipworms, etc. in the abdomen, can also be preserved for thousands of years.
In July 1983, the Chengdu archaeological team found some seeds in a Han Dynasty tomb dating back more than 2,000 years and miraculously succeeded in planting them.
This shows that tombs are not lifeless places. Many ancient tomb designers would deliberately raise insects and their eggs in the tombs, similar to raising poisonous insects, as a means to deal with intruders.
"Tap tap tap...!"
The chaotic noises were unsettling, so I pushed over the corpse in front of me and shone my flashlight in the direction of the sounds.
As the light illuminated the area ahead, I instantly held my breath, dropped the tools in my hand, and gripped Qu Ruilin's arm tightly: "Hey! Look at the cliff opposite the mortuary, isn't there a row of monks sitting there chanting wooden fish?!"
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