Chapter 37 Hornet’s Nest Picture

At that time, Qi Yu had been seriously injured.⁽¹⁾ I wouldn’t be afraid of it if I fought it directly head-on, but this thing was too ruthless. It could even be described as a vicious little lunatic, which was actually much more difficult to deal with than normal people.

If Three Inch Nail⁽²⁾ wanted to kill someone, it could use the force of its bite to rip through the opponent’s throat. Not only was it much more efficient than even Brother Xiao Man, but it was nearly impossible to defend against.

After thinking about it, I came to a decision: I put on my jacket hood, found a few broken stones, stuffed them around my neck, and then tightened the hood’s string in order to protect the artery in my neck from being attacked by the other side.

Then I shined my flashlight on the corpse and slowly began moving forward.

I had already decided that if that thing tried to fight me, I’d hit it with my flashlight. And if it rushed in, got close to me, and stabbed me with a dagger, I’d use my mouth to bite it to death.

I approached slowly, opening all my muscle and sensory cells, and suddenly heard the sound of teeth clicking together again. This time, however, it sounded like it was a little farther away.

That thing seemed to be retreating, as if it was moving deeper into the crack.

As I approached the corpse, the sound of teeth clicking together continued to retreat—and quickly at that—but I couldn’t see anything because the body was blocking my view.

“Fight me one-on-one if you dare,” I said to the crack. “We’re somewhat connected. If you kill me and go out in my skin, it might be fun.”

I tried to provoke it, but then I heard another clicking sound come from even farther away than before.

Was it running away?

I froze for a second before moving in front of the corpse and leaning in. The crack was so narrow that my head couldn’t fit, only my hands could. I put the flashlight in the mummy’s mouth and found that there was indeed a hole in the back of its mouth, and the flashlight could shine right through it.

But my flashlight accidentally touched the corpse at that moment, causing it to fall apart in an instant. The whole body shattered into pieces, as brittle as the ashes of a burnt paper napkin.

I was so startled that I immediately stepped back, unable to do anything but watch as the body completely disintegrated and fell to the bottom of the crack.

The entire crack behind the corpse was now exposed, enabling the flashlight to shine inside unimpeded. I caught a glimpse of a mass of hair at the edges of the darkness, but then it quickly disappeared.

I couldn’t go after it—there was no way for me to fit into that crack—so all I could do was watch as that small crack became a deeper, endless crack.

But almost at the same time, I saw that someone had carved a picture on the wall behind the corpse.

It must have been freshly carved with a stone just now. I pointed my flashlight at it and found that it was a strange picture—it seemed to be a hornet’s nest full of holes, and there was a person inside the nest who was sticking their head out.

It was a simple picture, but it was still very vivid.

And under the hornet’s nest (the nest seemed to be suspended above some cave) were several people who were looking up at the person who was sticking their head out.

Noticing that this person was wearing ancient clothes, I touched my chin and started to think.

I felt like this picture was very familiar. First of all, I realized that the ancient clothes should be the fancy costume and crown that were worn by those who were sacrificed to the ancient god.

Then I found that all the holes in the hornet’s nest connected to long tunnels, which seemed to be connected to a very far-reaching place.

My attention was completely focused on this picture. I wanted to leave and ignore it, but my brain was screaming wildly, as if it already knew the meaning of this picture.

But my consciousness didn’t know.

I couldn’t move my feet, and my mouth was making a lot of noises, just like a mentally disabled person. It seemed like I was only one step away from a certain truth, but at that moment, my brain seemed like it was blocked.

<Chapter 36><Table of Contents><Chapter 38>

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TN Notes:

(1) Should be when Wu Xie and Fatty shot him back in chapter 32 of “Ten Thousand Mountains” after he killed Jin Wantang. Remember, he’s some weird creature so Wu Xie tends to refer to him as “it” a lot.

(2) Per Tiffany: Three Inch Nail is Old Dog Wu’s favorite dog. It was a very small Tibetan spaniel. This kind of dog wouldn’t grow too big, and only weighed a few hundred grams. He kept it in his sleeve wherever he went. It was also mentioned in chapter 7 of “Wu Xie’s Private Notes”.