Chapter 52 Desperate Situation

Zhang Haike poked through the vomited silt and found that there were countless tiny leeches. These pure black leeches were as thick as noodles and kept twisting in the filth like a bowl of noodles that had come alive.

Zhang Haike picked one up and found that it wasn’t a typical leech. It was covered in small lumps, and when he looked carefully under all that silt, he saw that the lumps were actually densely packed white eggs.

Zhang Haike clicked his tongue, carefully looked at his skin, and felt himself break out in a cold sweat.

He saw that there were countless tiny, faint protrusions under his skin, and there were many tiny bumps on top of those.

He didn’t feel anything and couldn’t see it without looking carefully.

The others were still pumping the kid’s stomach and joking with each other when Zhang Haike shouted, “Stop! We’re going to die!”

They all silently gathered around as Zhang Haike used a dagger to make a deep cut in his skin, exposing a black leech covered in eggs. Zhang Haike used the dagger to pick it up, ignoring his blood that overflowed and dripped to the ground. They watched as the leeches that were in the vomited filth started crawling towards the place where the blood had landed.

The leech kept twisting on the tip of the knife, and Zhang Haike’s expression twisted as he lit a fire stick and burned it. Looking at the rest of his body, Zhang Haike almost became desperate. There were faint black lines everywhere he looked, and almost all of them were under his skin.

“When did they get in?”

“It was when we were in the silt. Check yourselves.”

The others immediately took off their clothes and carefully looked at their bodies. With a single glance, everyone was devastated. They were all in the exact same condition as Zhang Haike. There was hardly any place on their bodies where the leeches hadn’t burrowed under their skin.

“They got in through our pores. They were dormant in the silt and were probably only as thick as a strand of hair before entering our bodies. They must have become bigger after absorbing our blood.”

“What should we do? Even if we dig them out ourselves, we’ll be minced meat.”

“Roast them with fire and force them out,” Zhang Haike answered.

“They’ve sucked our blood and become so big. I’m afraid they can’t get out.”

“It’s better for them to suffocate inside than eat us up.”

There wasn’t enough space and oxygen underground; otherwise, Zhang Haike would boil the water in the jar. They could only hold the torch close to their chests to burn the leeches out, and soon, a strong smell of roasting meat filled the air.

Zhang Haike felt that even if these leeches didn’t come out under the heat, they would still be roasted alive in their bodies. But after testing it out, he found that something was wrong.

The leeches were immediately alarmed by the temperature, and he could clearly feel all of them burrowing further into his body. He had only felt itching before, but he soon felt terrible pain.

They had no choice but to give up. Some of the others even went crazy and began to cut their bodies with knives.

Nevertheless, Zhang Haike remained calm. “Don’t panic, this isn’t a desperate situation just yet.” He looked around and continued, “These leeches must have existed when our people came here before, and they were all fine. When we looked at the corpses just now, we didn’t see that their pants legs were sealed off or anything, which shows that they had a solution. Let’s look.”

The group began to search through the small number of things in the temple, but there was so little left that they found nothing but the water jar.

Was it the water in this water jar?

They immediately scrubbed their bodies again with the water, taking extra care and effort this time in their eagerness for the water to soak through their skin.

But after they finished washing, they found that it was useless. They eventually managed to calm down and noticed that the leeches had also stopped moving.

“The kid said that we would definitely die. Did he know that this kind of thing was in the mud?”

“But he jumped in, too. If he knew, how did he overcome it?”

Zhang Haike gasped as he suddenly thought of the rumors he had heard before. Poker-face was a child with the strongest inheritance in the family. Although this kind of inheritance wasn’t a necessary ability, he could go to some special and dangerous tombs if he had it.

“His blood.” Zhang Haike suddenly understood. “It’s his blood. It keeps these bugs away from him. Fuck, the last time he was here, the Zhang family collected his blood to avoid these bugs.” He suddenly stood up, “Don’t rest. We have to find the kid before these eggs hatch in our bodies and kill us. He’s the only one who can save us.”

They immediately set off.

They didn’t know how long it took as they continued moving forward, but at least a day and a night had passed. They were deep in the ruins, but they never found any traces of Poker-face again. It seemed that he hadn’t taken this path at all. The next night, Zhang Haike and his group reached the exploration boundary of the ancient city.

This so-called boundary was simply where the Zhang family’s exploration had ended, which turned out to be an ancient ship sunk into the silt. Zhang Haike saw the mummified bodies of three children piled up in the corner of the ship’s hold. They were obviously orphans of the Zhang family who had died when too much blood was collected, as evidenced by the obvious wounds on their bodies.

The children were only seven or eight years old, which had Zhang Haike feeling angry and powerless. The black lines on his body grew bigger and bigger and he could clearly feel the outline of the eggs under his skin.

“There’s nothing we can do. It’s too big here so we can’t find the other passageways. It’s impossible to find him. Maybe we should leave here right away and go home. Father and the others will find a way.”

“You also heard that kid. If the family knows we’ve been to this place, we’ll be killed,” Zhang Haike said. “Besides, it would take time to get out and reach home. Not to mention the leeches, even the eggs will have hatched by that point. We have only one chance of surviving.”

“What is it?”

“We’re going to do some damage here—some very serious damage—and make him stop us,” Zhang Haike said. “The structure here isn’t stable. We brought explosives so we just need to create enough tremors to make this place collapse. We’ll blow it up every two hours. No matter where he is in this ancient city, he’ll definitely stop us.”

“What if he not only doesn’t come but runs away?”

“Then we’re dead, so we don’t have to think about it,” Zhang Haike said. “But I believe he won’t give up so easily since he came back here after all kinds of hardships. Our odds are very good.”

<Chapter 51><Table of Contents><Chapter 53>

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MWAHAHAHAHA I did it! A second chapter! It took me an embarrassingly long time to do this chapter because I CANNOT stand leeches. Ughhhhhhh, they’re so gross and should be wiped off the face of the earth. And then I had to google to double check the white egg lump things (to make sure I was translating it right) and let’s just say I almost spewed. SO. GROSS. And they’re all burrowed in the Zhang kid’s bodies, geh. I’d be chopping appendages off lol. Also, I already wasn’t liking the Zhang family and then they go and basically exsanguinate children and toss them in the corner like trash. Ah hell nah, these fuckers deserve what they got (excluding sweet, beautiful Poker-face).

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Updated 12/27/2021