The lightness of the corpse in front of me was completely unexpected. Because of the excessive force, my body involuntarily leaned forward as the corpse was flipped over. To maintain my balance, I subconsciously reached out and placed my hand on the corpse in front of me.
When I placed my palm on the corpse, it did not provide any support. The corpse beneath me was like a block of tofu, and its chest caved in as I pressed it down.
I've seen corpses made of tofu before, especially in damp, cold caves like this. Because of the feng shui and environmental factors, the corpses retain their appearance from when they were alive, but they are as fragile as tofu, crumbling at the slightest touch.
The formation of a tofu corpse often takes hundreds of years, while the corpses in front of us have only been dead for a few hours. How could they have turned into this state?
It didn't feel good to stick my hand into the corpse, so I steadied myself and pulled my hand out immediately.
When these bodies were lying face down, I didn't notice anything unusual. But after I lifted the body that was lying face down, I found that the front half of its body was covered in blood, which meant that the bleeding points on its body did not look like they were caused by a single wound.
Seeing the unusual state of these corpses, my first thought was that they were poisoned. When we were in Fengmen Village, Wang Qing told me that their Five Poisons Sect had a poison that could accelerate the decomposition of a corpse, turning a living person into a pool of blood in just a few hours, leaving no trace of bones.
However, according to our investigation, only people from Ping'an Village have traveled this road so far. Why would three people die here, and why would they destroy the evidence?
With this question in mind, I moved to the body I had uncovered and began to unbutton his clothes, trying to find out the cause of his death.
Aside from being relatively light, the body appeared fairly normal, with no injuries on the neck or cheeks.
I unbuttoned the man's shirt, intending to take off his coat, but as soon as I applied force, his clothes tore off like rotten paper.
Under the headlamp, the fabric of his clothes looked like it had been scratched by a cat; it was all frayed and riddled with small holes.
The holes weren't very noticeable when viewed through the black clothes, but the white shirt underneath was covered in tiny holes, making it look like a sesame seed cake.
Seeing the bloody holes in his clothes, I gently lifted one leg of his shirt, and my pupils constricted immediately upon seeing what was inside.
The skin beneath this person's clothes was also covered with countless tiny red dots, as if it had been rolled around on a board of nails, with blood oozing from each of the small holes.
As I lifted the corpse's clothes, a large bulge suddenly appeared under his skin, and it swelled up faster and faster.
When I saw this, I turned and ran to the edge of the steps. I didn't even have time to pull the rope; I jumped down and shouted to the people below, "Run!"
The monkey waited for me to jump down from above, then grabbed my arm and asked, "Young Master Duan, what's wrong? Did you see a ghost?"
"Bang!"
Before I could speak, a muffled thud came from the steps above. Blood rained down from the exploded corpse, and several ants the size of wasps instantly emerged from the blood and body parts, converging on us.
Looking up at the steps, a large swarm of black ants, like a shadow descending, rushed down the steps.
"This thing looks like a bullet ant! Let's run!"
Upon seeing these enormous ants, Jiang Man's voice grew tense, and she turned and ran towards the passage.
The monkey ran after us, asking, "Wait, what's all the panic about? They're just a few ants! They can't possibly eat us!"
"Bullet ants are ranked as one of the world's ten most venomous animals. Their appearance is similar to that of their wasp ancestors, and they have hardly changed over millions of years. Their venom ranks first on the Schmidt Pain Index. Being bitten by this ant can be excruciatingly painful!"
Jiang Man paused for a moment: "Bullet ants lay their eggs on larger insects and animals, making them parasites for their larvae. Their bite force is amazing; our rat armor is no match for it. Once bitten by two or three ants, the excruciating pain will render you unable to move."
Holy crap! Is it that scary?
After hearing Jiang Man's explanation, the monkey quickened its pace: "How the hell could ants appear in this godforsaken place?"
"These ants are definitely not naturally formed! I just found blood holes on the corpses, but the diameter of those holes is very small, which does not match the size of the ants we just saw. So these ants must be modified Gu worms! They can decompose human tissue like spiders and expand their size in a short time by feeding! The cause of death of those three corpses above is very likely related to these ants!"
I trudged back onto the passage through the blood and continued sprinting forward: "The people from Ping'an Village only left behind three corpses, which means they've escaped the ants' pursuit! Manjing, get the flamethrowers ready, everyone get out of this area as soon as possible!"
"Snap!"
As we ran, the eye of a statue ahead suddenly fell to the ground. Seeing this, the monkey ran over, picked up the stone, wiped it with his hand, and excitedly said to me, "Young Master Duan, this is amber! Although the people who carved these statues didn't have much aesthetic sense, this thing is quite realistic. They even used amber for the eyes! Let's pry off a few more before those ants catch up!"
"What time is it? You're still greedy for money. Get out of here!"
I saw the monkey eager to try, so I suddenly tugged at his wrist, and the amber in his hand fell to the ground and shattered into pieces.
The monkey, seeing the broken amber, looked regretful and asked, "What kind of quality is this amber? It's so flimsy!"
"This isn't amber; it's artificial, and the substance inside is medicine!"
I looked at the wreckage on the ground, which resembled a cracked wax ball, and shone my flashlight on the stone statue to one side.
As the eyeballs fell off, many large ants crawled out through the holes in the statue's eye sockets.
"Snap!"
"Snap!"
Just then, the eyeballs of the statues next to them fell to the ground, and countless ants crawled out of the statues like a spray.
Covered in ants, the surrounding bluestone statues looked as if they had been painted with a layer of black lacquer. The ants gathered on the ground and swarmed towards us like a tide.
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