Chapter 17

Chapter 17: Phoenix’s Blood [6]

Translator: Xah

“There’s here too!”

“Even here as well!”

Seven to eight flashlights swept back and forth over the mountain walls. The light shone rows of holes on the mountain walls, exposing the black shadows of the coffins’ head; some of the coffins had rotted and could see the white bones inside. The wind blew more vigorously, and it was like hundreds of ghosts crying.

Zhang Qiu had goose bumps on his arms, and here he thought he had big enough courage passed through the tombs of Gu Mu Country and Pixian Hui Wang, he would not have a layer of cold sweat behind him.

“Every–everybody, I’ll– I’ll give you back the money. I really can’t get in there. The Witch God will be angry.” Na Wu pleaded with Jin LaoDa, knelt on his knees, kowtowed to the mountain wall, and continued, “Witch God, please forgive me, I didn’t mean to blaspheme you…”

Lao Fei saw Na Wu’s chattering about God, looked around again, there were two people on their faces unconsciously hesitating. Then suddenly spit ‘pei’ on Na Wu’s, pulled a gun out of his waist, pointed it at the stone coffin holes, and shot ‘bang bang bang’ several shots with great speed.

“LaoZi doesn’t believe in ghosts and gods, it’s all a bunch of bones, a wool of scare. If you are afraid, don’t make a fortune.”

Na Wu saw LaoFei shot and his face whitened, his trembling lips murmured ‘it’s over’ repeatedly.

But because of Lao Fei’s words, especially his subsequent ‘make a fortune’, a few who had just been slightly emotionally shaken immediately became firm, and one of them picked up Na Wu. “At any cost, if you don’t lead, I’ll solve you.”

Na Wu, with a look of dead numb, was pushed forward by the black-claded man.

“It’s green-haired zongzi.” Behind, Zhang YuShui said.

Zhang Qiu was about to ask what green-haired zongzi was when the dead body suddenly trembled out of the puddle.

Na Wu screamed in front of him, and a few black-claded men shuffled back. Jin LaoDa steadily said, “Shoot, shoot!” With a couple of ‘bangs’ of shot under his hands, the Zongzi was swept into a honeycomb-like Zongzi, and ‘whoosh‘ fell back into the puddle.

Zhang Qiu saw Lao Fei wiping his sweats secretly; internally said ‘you had a scared day too, just now you were shouting out hoping for fives and sixes[1], fearlessly!’

The next second, Lao Fei rushed up and stepped on the Zongzi’s feet in the puddle, venting in foul-mouthed, and finally lifted the gun and said, “Keep on ahead.”

This man was really asking for money and not needing life[2]. Zhang Qiu looked back at Li Shu and Zhang YuShui; he whispered, “What to do?” He actually backed away a little.

Li Shu touched his head and said, “Don’t be afraid.”

Zhang YuShui was firm, apparently remembering Pixian Hui Wang and the emperor who looked like him.

“Forget it, just regard it as gaining knowledge and experience.” Zhang Qiu gritted his teeth and said that if he were to leave alone, he would still have to worry about Li Shu and Zhang YuShui, so he might as well go together.

Out of the green-haired zongzi’s place, the black-claded man in front of him had a slightly better attitude toward Jin LaoDa, he no longer looked down upon and thought Jin LaoDa had come from the pit. As he walked on, Zhang Qiu was focused, flashing a flashlight in front of him. He dared not look at the stone walls on either side. The natural light in front of him was getting bigger as he walked on. He was about to go out and the water level was getting lower.

Suddenly, the two leading men in black trembled; trembled in a particularly exaggerated way, but soon they were free to move.

Zhang Qiu felt hairy[3] in his heart. Maybe this environment made him feel weird about everything. He was thinking that his brain hole was too big. The two men in front of him trembled again. This time was much longer than the previous one, and they trembled like a sieve. Even the Lao Fei who was following him found something wrong and asked, “What happened to you two?”

In silence, the two of them did not hear the question, but their body trembled slowly.

Then Jin LaoDa noticed something was wrong, pulled his sleeve secretly, and the three men stepped back two steps in unison. Almost at the same moment, the two of them turned sharply back to the man behind them. The latter man was not prepared to be thrown into the water, grabbed by the upper mouth and gnawed. In an instant, the scream and gnawing became the theme, and Na Wu took advantage of the confusion, ran back.

“You see, his face is green.” Zhang Qiu’s face was numb; the two men’s faces glowed faintly green in the darkness. Their pupils had shrunk to a small white, and they did not look like living people at all.

“Ahhhh!”

“Shoot, shoot! Kill them! ”

“There’s something in the water!”

The gun shot ‘bang bang bang’.

Zhang Qiu was in confusion did not response, already held by Li Shu, and ran forward. Zhang YuShui followed him, and Jin LaoDa left the men in black to run alone.

The foul-smelling pools were black and red, blood gurgling and bubbling out of mud, mud that people had struggled to get mixed up. Under the muddy water, there were countless little green-glowing insects, and the insects came in their direction very quickly.

Zhang YuShui pulled out a sheet of talisman paper from his bosom, didn’t know what he was saying, he threw it at the green insect with his fingertips. The water was burning. Lao Fei and the few ran in a fluster. No one could care about the three people behind him.

After getting out of the mountain pass, the equipment and baggage were thrown in a mess, and only four of the seven men in black were left. Zhang YuShui looked inside with a flashlight. The three men were still struggling in the puddle. Finally, slowly, there was no movement. He looked at them with his face fixed.

“It’s a fucking bad luck.” The black-claded man swore, his face was chewed bloody.

Lao Fei was gasping for breath, presently he was quiet.

Jin LaoDa said alongside him, “Go and find a safe place to deal with the wound. Who knows if the green things will come back?”

A few people were obviously afraid of green insects. They picked up their bags and walked forward.

Na Wu had already run away, and now could only rely on Zhang YuShui to lead the way. Zhang Qiu patted Li Shu’s arm, “put me down first.” He himself was awkward with the princess-carry, but Jin LaoDa and the rest had no time to pay attention to this.

Inside the mountain, the trees were sparse, as if something had sucked out the essence. The soil was a little red. As Zhang Qiu walked up the mountain, his heart beat a little harder.

Li Shu found that Zhang Qiu was feeling listless, he held Zhang Qiu’s hand in one hand, and Zhang Qiu turned to look at Li Shu: “What’s wrong?”

“I am holding your hand.”

Zhang Qiu: …

How strange it is to hold hands on such occasions!

But upon seeing Li Shu’s serious eyes, Zhang Qiu said generously: “Let you hold!”

Zhang Qiu didn’t know if it was because Li Shu took him with him, but there wasn’t that feeling of palpitation and breathlessness when he climbed the mountain. Looking back at Lao Fei and the guys, they were panting and sweating. In the entire team, only him, Li Shu, Zhang YuShui and Jin LaoDa looked like nothing happened.

This mountain was not high, and the slope was not steep. It was reasonable to say that these thugs should not climb a mountain and breathe like this.

Physical strength was also too bad. Zhang Qiu thought that the boss behind this must have been pitted by Lao Fei; his physical strength was not good.

“It’s there.” Zhang YuShui stopped and pointed to a piece of land not far away.

Zhang Qiu glanced at the whole mountain and the trees were sparse, but the place where Zhang YuShui pointed out was particularly lush and spiritual, not half-dead like any other place.

Jin LaoDa’s eyes flashed eagerly, “You guys take a break, simply bandage the wounds. I’ll take the brothers to explore the place. We have good skills in digging this hole.”

“Daoba! Go with me.” Lao Fei bummed into the man in black next to him, then winked and said to Jin LaoDa, “We’ll help you out.”

Jin LaoDa’s men were angry, knowing that Lao Fei couldn’t believe them and was about to opened their mouths but was dragged back by Jin LaoDa. Jin LaoDa laughed and said, “That’s a good idea. Many people help, we can get things done as soon as possible.”

After that, he took the guys to the place. Lao Fei made a look at the bloody man who had been chewed on his face before leaving; meaning to watch the few of them. Zhang Qiu rolled his eyes internally; this person is the kind that have ‘messenger’ written on his face.

Zhang YuShui looked over there in a trance. Zhang Qiu’s hungry stomach growled ‘gugugu‘; he was tired and thirsty. The chewed face was disinfecting himself; the bottle of alcohol was poured on the injury and he gritted in pain. Zhang Qiu was not the one to gritted in pain all thanked to Li Shu.

“Thank you, just now.” Zhang Qiu poured water onto a towel to moisten it, then gave to Li Shu.

Li Shu took the towel and looked at Zhang Qiu; who admired that look which Li Shu was giving him. Li Shu pinched his chin in one hand and said, “Don’t move.” Zhang Qiu stood stiff in place, and saw Li Shu wiping his face carefully with the towel, “All right.” And handed him the towel back.

Zhang Qiu:…

Li Shu, are you mistaken about something? I give you the towel to wipe yourself. It’s not for you to wipe it for me!!!

There’s a cat disease! [4]

Zhang Qiu thought so, but his face was feverish and his heart was beating fast. He stuffed the towel into his bag and began to put up the stove to heat up water and cooked food. Zhang YuShui and Li Shu set up a simple tent. After the chewed face finished his treatment, he set up a tent for the others. They turned on the camp lights around. It was not until 9 p.m. when Jin LaoDa and them arrived.

“That’s enough.” Jin LaoDa took two sips of hot water; he was covered in mud but he didn’t care, “Fellow Li Shu, when do you think it would be better to go down the pit?”

Lao Fei was dissatisfied with Jin LaoDa’s question to Li Shu, and grumbled, “Since it’s been dug, go back as soon as possible.”

Zhang Qiu watched Li Shu all the time and found out that after Lao Fei said it, Li Shu showed a sneer, especially lightly said, “Do it.”

Jin LaoDa listened to Li Shu said so and was happy with the decision. They had a warm meal on the ground. After they rested for a while, they put out the fire, confiscated the tent, and carried their light baggage directly to the robber’s hole.

Far away, Zhang Qiu saw a dark shadow at the entrance of the robber’s hole and shouted there was something. The people were frightened during the day, so at once guns were raised and flashlights flipped around. There was nothing. Lao Fei was somewhat dissatisfied and stared at Zhang Qiu fiercely.

He did see something like a human figure. He could not help thinking of the zongzi climbing from the robber’s hole in the tomb of Pixian Hui Wang.

Zhang Qiu dragged Li Shu down, seemingly seeking certainty. Li Shu just nodded, and did not say anything. Zhang Qiu immediately knew that Li Shu had just seen, but why not say?

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Footnote:

[1] The shouting when throwing a dice refers to the buzz of gambling. Describe the look of arrogance.

[2] stupid, gives the impression that love money is better than everything, including one’s own life

[3] meaning that the inner feelings of a certain phenomenon are similar to fear (but more than fear)

[4] homo-phonic term: You have a problem

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