The Spirit Gu King Tomb

The two of them ran at full speed. The light ahead grew brighter and brighter, but the strange thing was that they were clearly running downward, as if they were heading down a slope.

Glancing at the corridor faintly visible ahead, Captain Wang began to mutter, "Something's off about this path. Why does it feel like we're going deeper the farther we run?"

"This is the only way. If we stop, we're dead."

Xu Tong was running at the very front and showed no intention of stopping. He casually tossed the egg into the Prop Catalog to see what the thing actually was.

But when he checked, he was sorely disappointed.

[???]; Unknown item. Please identify it yourself.

That left him a little frustrated. He hadn't expected the thing he'd picked up to require identification. Still, having it was better than not. Those bugs had valued the egg so highly that it had to be something good.

Hearing Xu Tong's words, Captain Wang, who was following behind him, had been about to say something. But the hurried footsteps behind them were drawing closer and closer.

He glanced back in a hurry and instantly shuddered. The women weren't running at all; they were crawling, scuttling along the ground like insects. They were moving even faster than the two of them.

One of the female corpses might not have been preserved well, or perhaps it had just been an accident, but its neck suddenly snapped, leaving its head attached by nothing but a layer of skin. Just as it looked ready to fall off, the corpse lifted it with one hand and let out a series of shrill cries: "Squeak, squeak, squeak..."

"Good Lord!"

The savage sight completely upended Captain Wang's worldview. He let out a scream and suddenly picked up speed, leaping past Xu Tong.

Captain Wang ran with his head down, his thoughts in complete disarray. He was a firm atheist. All those so-called gods and ghosts were products of feudal superstition, meant to fool the common people.

If the hallucinations he'd seen earlier, when they encountered the jar-seated corpse up above, could be explained by poisoning, then how was he supposed to explain these female corpses in front of him?

This was unscientific!

While his thoughts were running wild, Captain Wang suddenly felt nothing beneath his feet. His vision spun, but in the nick of time, a hand reached from behind, grabbed his collar, and yanked him back.

"Watch where you're going!"

Xu Tong pointed ahead. Captain Wang focused his eyes and immediately felt dizzy. Right in front of them lay an unfathomably deep abyss.

If he hadn't been pulled back, he would have fallen to his death.

"What do we do? There's no way forward. Maybe we should just fight those things!"

Seeing that there was no path ahead, Captain Wang steadied himself and turned around, his face hardening.

"No! There's still a way!"

Xu Tong narrowed his eyes and studied the area ahead. He opened his palm, and a Paper Doll lifted off his hand, drifting across to the other side of the precipice.

He felt as if he were connected to the Paper Doll, able to sense clearly through it that there was an inconspicuous cave on the far side of the precipice, about five meters below them.

"Look over there!"

He pointed to where the Paper Doll was below and told Captain Wang to look carefully. Captain Wang focused his gaze and, sure enough, saw a cave.

"There's a way!"

He was overjoyed, but then a hint of worry crept in. "It's so far. How are we supposed to get across?"

As he spoke, he bent down to take a closer look. After a quick calculation, he figured the gap was nearly ten meters. Even if they got a running start, jumping across wouldn't be easy.

And one misstep would send them plunging into the abyss, never to return.

But reality gave them no time to think.

The strange cries behind them grew closer and closer. When they looked back, they saw the female corpses had caught up.

The corpse leading the pack was especially terrifying. This time, its head really had come loose, hanging on by a thin strip of flesh.

"Damn it!"

Captain Wang's face twitched as he watched the corpse lead the charge. "All right. I'll count to three, and we jump together. Even if we fall, that's better than dying at those corpses' hands!"

But before he could finish speaking, Xu Tong had already sprinted toward the female corpses.

"Hey!"

Watching Xu Tong charge at them, Captain Wang froze. In a daze, he seemed to see his comrades heading to the front lines. His eyes reddened, and he slapped his thigh. "Damn it, kid! You've got guts. I'm seeing this through with you!"

He hadn't thought much of that brat named Chen, but even at a moment like this, the kid still had that kind of courage. Captain Wang's face burned with shame. How could he let the kid outdo him?

But just as he was preparing to charge the female corpses and fight them to the death—

Xu Tong had already reached them. But to Captain Wang's utter astonishment, when he was less than half a meter from the corpses, he suddenly stopped, pivoted on the ball of his foot, and executed a perfect, lightning-fast turn.

At the same time, a leopard's shadow appeared over him. It was the skill attached to the [Leopard Soul Cloak]: Leopard Strike.

Consumes 2 Script Points. Upon activation, temporarily increases the user's straight-line movement speed by 80%.

With the passive effect's 20% movement speed increase added, his speed temporarily doubled.

He raised his head abruptly. Fiery light burned in his eyes, and a sudden sense of foreboding came over Captain Wang, whose face was frozen in shock.

Within just a few steps, the wind roared in Xu Tong's ears. With the added acceleration of the downhill slope, his speed briefly exceeded the limits of an ordinary person.

"Grab on!"

Seeing Captain Wang's stunned expression, he took a deep breath, his expression turning even more fervent. He thrust out an arm, seized Captain Wang by the collar, and leaped forward.

"Wait! I'm not ready!" Captain Wang cried out.

In an instant, his vision blurred. His body was already airborne, and he instinctively held his breath.

It felt as if time itself had stopped. As far as he could see, the female corpses had reached the edge of the precipice, helplessly waving their hands at the two of them.

"Thud!"

At last, a wave of sharp pain struck. Captain Wang's vision went black, and his body tumbled across the ground. He didn't know how many times he rolled before finally coming to a stop.

His head hurt badly, as if a lump had risen on his forehead. But when his hands touched the ground, he finally let out a long breath of relief.

Then he seemed to remember something. His eyes flew open, and he grabbed Xu Tong off the ground, roaring, "Are you crazy?"

That had been an abyss deep enough to swallow them whole. A fall would have left no trace of them. The kid had just jumped without a second thought—had he never considered what would happen if they missed?

Facing Captain Wang's furious gaze, Xu Tong only grinned sheepishly. He tilted his head toward the female corpses across the precipice, his smile growing more reckless. "Weren't you the one who said that even falling to our deaths was better than dying at their hands?"

Captain Wang froze. Then he pointed at Xu Tong, unable to keep a smile off his face. He patted him on the shoulder, then punched him there, laughing as he scolded him.

"Good kid. I thought you were going to charge those corpses and fight them. But next time, give me a heads-up before you do something like that. I wasn't prepared at all. I nearly pissed myself."

Remembering the moment they had been suspended in midair and then plummeted, Captain Wang still couldn't help feeling a lingering wave of fear.

Hearing that, Xu Tong couldn't help teasing him. "You're Captain Wang! You're not afraid of facing criminals, so how could you be afraid of this?"

Captain Wang only smiled and looked up at the female corpses on the other side of the precipice. "I was afraid. Everyone's afraid of dying. The first time I arrested drug dealers, I was so scared my hands were shaking while I held my gun. But once you put on this uniform, even if you have to go through fire and water, you can't hesitate when it's time to step up."

He pointed at the five-pointed star on his shoulder insignia. "That's the weight of responsibility!"

Xu Tong stared at the star on Captain Wang's shoulder, momentarily lost in thought.

"We shouldn't stay here. Let's move." Captain Wang patted him, bringing Xu Tong back to his senses. The two of them glanced at the cave behind them and stepped inside to explore.

The cave wasn't very deep, and it opened into a vast karst cavern. There were stone steps around it and a channel for drawing water, as if people had once lived there.

Time had worn the steps smooth. Each step was so rounded that their feet could only get a partial grip, forcing them to be extra careful as they walked.

The cavern itself wasn't very large. When the two of them climbed the steps, they found a huge crystal bed.

"Did someone live here before?"

Captain Wang carefully examined the jars and bottles nearby. It was hard to believe anyone had ever lived in a place like this.

There were so many female corpses and bugs outside. Who would choose to hide in a place like this?

Xu Tong said nothing. He walked over to the corner and picked up a shovel. It looked unusual: the blade wasn't flat but curved inward.

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

Looking at the items, Xu Tong couldn't help frowning. "Maybe... the person who lived here wasn't actually the owner of this place."

"What do you mean?"

Captain Wang turned to look at him. Xu Tong pointed to the tools on the ground. They looked old, but they couldn't have been more than fifty years old.

Yet the structures here had been around for a very long time.

Considering the tools' distinctive features, he couldn't help suspecting that whoever had lived here might have been a tomb raider.

As he spoke, he walked over to the crystal bed and gently ran his hands over it. A thin layer of silvery cotton-like fibers still covered the bed. He picked them up, then looked down and saw a small notebook underneath.

There was no need to speculate further. The notebook confirmed what he'd said. Curious, he picked it up and saw a tightly packed diary written in neat, orderly handwriting. The first line on the first page bore a title in four bold characters:

[The Spirit Gu King Tomb]