Spirit Gu King Tomb

The two ran wildly, the light ahead growing brighter, yet the eerie part was that they were clearly running downward, as if descending a slope.

Glancing at the corridor faintly visible ahead, Captain Wang began to mutter, "This path isn't right. Why do I feel like we're running deeper and deeper?"

"It's the only way. If we don't run, we wait to die."

Xu Tong was in the lead and had no intention of stopping; he even managed to toss the egg into his Prop Catalog to see what on earth it was.

He was deeply disappointed by the result.

[???]; Unknown item, please identify it yourself.

This left him feeling rather sullen. He hadn't expected the item to require identification, but having something was better than nothing. Since those bugs valued the egg so highly, it was bound to be something good.

Hearing Xu Tong's words, Captain Wang, who was trailing behind, wanted to say something, but the sound of rapid footsteps behind them was drawing closer.

He cast a hurried look back and shuddered instantly. The women weren't running; they were crawling, scuttling across the ground like insects, moving even faster than the two of them.

One female corpse, perhaps poorly preserved or simply careless, suddenly had her neck snap, leaving only a thin layer of skin holding it on. Just as it was about to fall off, she caught it with one hand, all while emitting a shrill, "Squeak, squeak, squeak..."

"Good heavens!"

Such a savage sight completely shattered Captain Wang's worldview. He let out a shriek and suddenly accelerated, actually leaping past Xu Tong.

Captain Wang ran with his head down, his mind in total chaos. He was a staunch atheist; all those so-called gods and ghosts were just feudal superstitions meant to fool the masses.

If the hallucinations he saw earlier with the Jar Seating corpses could be explained by poisoning, how was he supposed to explain these female corpses?

This wasn't scientific!

While his mind raced, Captain Wang suddenly felt the ground vanish beneath his feet. The world spun, but before he could fall, a hand grabbed his collar from behind and yanked him back with a violent jerk.

"Not watching where you're going?"

Xu Tong pointed ahead. Captain Wang focused his eyes and felt a wave of dizziness; before them lay a bottomless, yawning abyss.

Had he not been pulled back, he would have been smashed to pieces at the bottom.

"What do we do? There's no path ahead. How about we just fight these things to the death!"

Seeing that there was no way forward, Captain Wang steadied himself and spoke with a cold, grim face.

"No! There is a path!"

Xu Tong squinted at the space ahead and opened his palm. A Paper Doll flew from his hand, drifting until it reached the other side of the cliff.

He shared a mental connection with the Paper Doll and could clearly sense, through its perspective, an inconspicuous cave about five meters below them on the opposite side.

"Look there!"

He pointed to the location of the Paper Doll, urging Captain Wang to look closely. Captain Wang squinted and, sure enough, saw the cave.

"There's a path!"

His heart leaped with joy, but it was quickly followed by hesitation: "It's so far away, how are we supposed to get across?"

He leaned over to inspect the gap, calculating that it was at least ten meters wide. Even with a running start, jumping it wouldn't be easy.

One slip, and the abyss would be their final resting place.

However, reality gave them no time to ponder.

The strange, shrill cries grew closer. Looking back, they saw the female corpses had already caught up.

The leader, in particular, had finally lost her head completely, with only a thin strip of skin still connecting it.

"Damn it!"

Seeing the lead corpse charging, Captain Wang's face twitched. "Listen, I'll count to three and we jump together. Even if we fall, it's better than dying at the hands of those things!"

But before he could finish, Xu Tong took a sudden stride and charged straight toward the female corpses.

"Hey!"

Watching Xu Tong charge into the fray, Captain Wang froze. In a daze, he seemed to see his own comrades rushing to the front lines. His eyes reddened, and he slapped his thigh. "Damn it, you brat! You've got guts. Laozi will stick with you to the end!"

He hadn't thought much of this kid surnamed Chen, but seeing such grit, Captain Wang felt his face flush with shame. Could he really let this kid outdo him?

Yet, just as he prepared to charge the corpses and fight for his life, he saw that Xu Tong had already reached them. To Wang's utter shock, just half a meter from the corpses, the kid suddenly stopped, pivoted on his toes, and executed a perfect, high-speed turn.

At the same time, a leopard-like shadow surged over him—the skill attached to the [Leopard Soul Cloak]: Leopard Strike.

Consumes 2 Script Points. Upon activation, movement speed in a straight line is temporarily increased by 80%.

Combined with the 20% passive movement boost, his speed had temporarily doubled.

He snapped his head up, his eyes burning with a fierce, fiery light that gave the stunned Captain Wang a sudden, ominous premonition.

In just a few short steps, his ears were filled with the roar of the wind. Aided by the momentum of the downhill slope, his speed exceeded the limits of any normal human.

"Grab on!!!"

Seeing the bewildered Captain Wang, he took a deep breath, his expression turning fanatical as he reached out, grabbed the Captain's collar, and leaped into the void.

"No! I'm not ready yet!!!" came the Captain's scream.

In an instant, Captain Wang's vision blurred as his body was hoisted into the air, his breath hitching involuntarily.

Time seemed to stand still in that moment. Within his field of vision, he saw those female corpses reach the edge of the cliff, waving their hands feebly toward their retreating figures.

"BANG!"

Finally, accompanied by a wave of intense pain, Captain Wang's vision went black. His body tumbled uncontrollably across the ground, rolling who knows how many times before finally coming to a stop.

Although his head throbbed as if a lump had been knocked onto his forehead, Captain Wang let out a long sigh of relief the moment his hands touched the solid ground.

Seemingly remembering something, he snapped his eyes open, lunged forward to haul Xu Tong up from the ground, and roared, "Are you insane?!"

This was a bottomless abyss; falling meant not even a bone would be left behind. This kid had jumped without a second thought—had he never considered what would happen if he failed?

Facing Captain Wang's furious glare, Xu Tong merely grinned foolishly. He tilted his head to look at the female corpses on the opposite cliff, his smile growing even more brazen: "Didn't you say it yourself? Even if we die from the fall, it's better than dying at the hands of those corpses."

Captain Wang froze, then pointed at Xu Tong, unable to suppress a smile any longer. He patted his shoulder and landed a punch on it, laughing and cursing:

"Good kid, I thought you were going to go up there and fight those corpses to the death. But next time you plan to do something, give me a heads-up. You caught me completely unprepared—I nearly pissed myself."

Recalling the sensation of weightlessness and the fall from just a moment ago, Captain Wang couldn't help but feel a lingering sense of dread.

Hearing this, Xu Tong couldn't help but tease: "You're Captain Wang, after all. You aren't even afraid of those thugs, so why would you be afraid of this?"

Captain Wang chuckled at this and looked up at the female corpses on the cliff: "I'm afraid. Everyone is afraid of death. The first time I arrested a drug dealer, my hands were shaking so hard I could barely hold my gun. But once you put on this uniform, even if it means going through mountains of blades and seas of fire, when it's time to act, you can never falter."

He pointed to the five-pointed star on his epaulet: "This is the weight of responsibility!"

Xu Tong was stunned. He stared at the star on Captain Wang's shoulder, lost in thought for a moment.

"This is no place to linger. Let's move." Captain Wang patted him, bringing Xu Tong back to his senses. The two looked at the cave behind them and stepped inside to explore.

The cave was actually not very deep, and it opened into a massive karst cavern. Around the cavern were stone steps and water channels, as if someone had once lived here.

However, with the passage of time, these stone steps had become incredibly smooth; one could only place half a foot on them, forcing both men to be doubly careful as they walked.

The cavern wasn't large. After climbing the steps, they discovered a massive crystal bed.

"Someone actually lived here?"

Captain Wang stepped forward to carefully inspect the bottles and jars scattered about. It was hard to believe anyone would ever reside in such a place.

After all, with so many female corpses and insects outside, who would be bored enough to hide out in a place like this?

Xu Tong didn't speak. He walked to a corner and picked up a shovel. The tool looked quite peculiar—it wasn't flat, but concave.

After rummaging around, he even found a rope and a grappling hook.

Looking at these items, Xu Tong couldn't help but frown: "Perhaps... the person who lived here wasn't the owner of this place at all."

"What do you mean?"

Captain Wang turned back to look at him. Xu Tong pointed to the tools on the ground; although they looked aged, they were definitely less than fifty years old.

Yet, the architecture here had existed for a very long time.

Combined with the specific design of these tools, he couldn't help but suspect that the person who lived here might have been a grave robber.

As he spoke, he walked over to the crystal bed and gently stroked it, discovering a thin layer of silver cotton silk spread across the surface. He reached out to lift the silk, and upon looking down, he saw a small notebook tucked underneath.

There was no need for further speculation; this confirmed his theory. Filled with curiosity, he picked up the notebook and saw pages densely packed with neat, orderly fountain pen handwriting. On the first line of the first page, a title was written in four bold characters:

[Spirit Gu King Tomb]