Tomb raiding: Today is another day I don't want to go home.

Chapter 5 Zhang Qiling's Blood

When Yan Huai returned to the bamboo raft, he was soaked from head to toe. The bloodstains on his clothes had spread and turned into brown stains. Patches of fabric clung to his skin, making him wince in discomfort.

Yan Huai took off his coat and wrung it out, wondering how to dry his shirt. He glanced up and met Zhang Qiling's eyes...

Yan Huai was stunned for a moment, and was about to ask him what was wrong, but was interrupted by Da Pan who walked up to him: "Young brother, thank you so much for what you did earlier."

As he spoke, Da Pan patted Yan Huai on the shoulder, then turned to look at Wu Xie, who was holding the bronze bell and standing motionless on the boat, and said apologetically, "Third Master, I... I'm so sorry!"

"I'm fine, Panzi, it's alright." Wu Xie forced a smile and looked at Yan Huai, "Thanks to this young man for his timely intervention."

Yan Huai didn't speak, but simply nodded in acknowledgment. When he turned his gaze back to Zhang Qiling, the other man had already sat down at the bow of the boat and closed his eyes to rest, though his face was very pale.

Wouldn't that be terrible? Bleeding like that...

Yan Huai felt that the scent of Zhang Qiling's blood was almost overpowering the stench in the cave. He thought about all sorts of things for a while, and his gaze couldn't help but fall on Zhang Qiling's left hand, where he had been bleeding.

Just then, Wu Sansheng recovered and called Da Pan to start the engine, and the boat continued to move forward.

"System, how far is this hole?" Yan Huai twisted the corner of his shirt, making it wrinkled, but it was still better than it looking completely transparent.

"It's about 200 meters away from where we exit the cave."

Yan Huai frowned as he sensed the heavy resentment emanating from the cave entrance, fearing that there was an even greater danger ahead for the group.

"Young brother, now that you've caught this corpse beetle, could you tell us what's so special about it, so we can broaden our horizons?"

Upon hearing this, Yan Huai looked at Wu Sansheng. Although Wu Sansheng still smiled like a fox, his tone was no longer as obviously guarded as before.

"The sound that made you lose your self-control was from the bronze bell on its tail. It is no longer a corpse beetle."

"Not corpse beetles? Then what are they?" Da Pan asked, puzzled.

"There must be other species inside it, living in symbiosis with it."

Upon hearing this, Wu Sansheng's pupils contracted slightly. He quickly stepped forward and took the corpse beetle from Wu Xie's hand, examining it carefully. To prevent making any noise, he deliberately, like Yan Huai and Wu Xie, only held it by the three ropes with bronze beads hanging inside the bronze bell: "Young brother, are you saying that this is a symbiotic system!"

"Ok!"

"Third Uncle, what is a symbiotic system?" Wu Xie rubbed his numb arm. Although his Third Uncle had ignored his tearful gratitude, he was now free of worries and his mind was racing like a curious child.

Wu Sansheng narrowed his eyes, giving him a look that said, "Let me explain this to you: A symbiotic system is when two different species are forced to become one due to environmental or other factors. They live together and die together."

"The creature inside this corpse beetle feeds on the rotting flesh in the corpse beetle's stomach. When food is available, all is well. When there is no food, the creature inside the corpse beetle will turn on the bronze bell on its tail due to hunger, thus creating a sound that can bewitch people's minds, in order to remind the corpse beetle to eat or hunt."

"This is absolutely disgusting!"

“What do you know! This is a divine artifact! I wonder which skilled craftsman made it, it looks quite old…” Wu Sansheng first glared at Wu Xie, then continued to look at the bronze bell from left to right.

Suddenly, a strange sense of unease welled up in his heart. Wu Sansheng glanced at Yan Huai, who was sitting on the bamboo raft in a daze, and said with a smile, "Young brother, these corpse beetles don't look injured. Why are they so docile, like domesticated animals? They don't bite at all."

Yan Huai glanced at the corpse beetle in Wu Sansheng's hand, a hint of disdain flashing in his eyes: "It wouldn't dare."

As if in response to Yan Huai's words, the bronze bell corpse beetle shook its body as his gaze swept over it, and raised its two front claws to cover its head, looking both eerie and comical.

"Holy crap! This thing is still alive!"

Da Kui, who was huddled next to Da Pan, was startled. His fingers trembled, and he took a step back. He tripped over the wooden partition at the bottom of the boat and fell backward. If Da Pan hadn't been quick to pull him up, he would have had to go through the water again.

Wu Sansheng frowned deeply and cursed, "You coward! Not only is your body useless, but your brain is useless too! If this thing could bite, it would have bitten you long ago! I must have been out of my mind to bring you along on this trip; you've only caused me trouble!"

Da Kui dared not provoke Wu Sansheng any further. He hesitated for a long time without making a sound, and could only meekly hide by the edge of the boat some distance away, keeping his head down.

Zhang Qiling, sitting at the bow of the boat, seemed to be deep in thought. He looked at the corpse beetles around him, which seemed to be hiding, and then at Yan Huai on the bamboo raft. He had already guessed that this person was somewhat unusual. Perhaps, like his own Qilin bloodline, this person also had a similar way of protecting himself. He just didn't know what it was.

"Third Uncle, don't be angry. Da Kui is just affected by the journey. He'll be fine once we get out of here."

It seems that Wu Xie's persuasion had a real effect, because Wu Sansheng stopped and even instructed Da Pan to stuff something inside the bronze bell of the corpse beetle before putting it on the bow of the boat. After all, the boatman's body had already been dragged down and torn into pieces by the corpse beetle while they were still in the water.

"Third Master, we released that boatman's body earlier, and we still got attacked, didn't we? Is it... still necessary?"

"Not enough." Before Wu Sansheng could answer, Zhang Qiling had already looked into the depths of the cave and uttered two words calmly.

"What's not enough?" Wu Xie was completely baffled.

"Not enough corpse energy." As he said this, Zhang Qiling glanced meaningfully at Yan Huai on the bamboo raft.

"Oh... not enough corpse energy." Wu Xie was still confused, but in order not to appear too inexperienced, he still solemnly agreed.

At this moment, Da Pan had already placed the bronze bell corpse beetle on the bow of the boat. Yan Huai also felt that the resentment in the cave had moved away from the group to some extent, but that did not mean they were safe.

The boat glided forward for another two minutes, and the current became slower and slower. Yan Huai heard Zhang Qiling, who was sitting at the bow of the boat, suddenly say, "We've arrived at the Corpse Pit."

Looking up, Yan Huai saw a faint phosphorescence on the shore at the corner of the cave. He saw scattered or piled-up rotting bones, and as the boat approached, the carrion beetles buried in the rotting flesh seemed to be startled and moved away.

"Third Uncle, there's a coffin up there!" Wu Xie shone his flashlight on a crystal coffin in the upper right corner, inside which was a blackened corpse.

"Th-th-th-over there too!" Da Kui swallowed hard, his hand holding the flashlight trembling as if he had Parkinson's disease. "The...the body is gone..."

"Everyone be careful, we might have run into zombies!" Wu Sansheng leaned closer to Wu Xie, crouching on the boat, his gaze sweeping fiercely around.

Suddenly, Zhang Qiling stood up, gripped the jet-black knife in his right hand, and fixed his gaze on a certain spot.

"Where!"

Following Da Kui's horrified gaze, the others also saw a woman in white suddenly appear on an open space to the left, without hands or feet, as if there was nothing beneath her white robes...

"System, what is this?" Yan Huai asked in his mind.

"A resentful spirit has been detected: Puppet. The host can amplify your own bloodline pressure to expel it."

The system's voice, combined with the eerie atmosphere of the cave, left Yan Huai speechless. But since there was a solution, then...

boom--

A gunshot rang out, the bullet piercing the center of the puppet's forehead, but it seemed to merely glide through the air, having no effect whatsoever. Instead, it enraged the puppet, which had been wary of something.

The next moment, countless corpse beetles surged out from under the puppet's white robes, crawling frantically toward the boat, except for the bamboo raft at Yan Huai's feet.