The Lost Tomb : Sea Of Sands

Chapter 191: Draw the Snake Out of the Hole

At that time, I made the same old mistake, and thought he was joking. First, I didn't feel anything on my back. Second, if I was carrying something on my back, then Bao Sa wouldn't be so calm. But I immediately looked back, and saw a mass of hair.

I couldn't see past the mass of hair, but it looked like the rest of it went under my shoulders. I couldn't see it clearly, and hadn't even noticed its weight.

My neck instantly stiffened, and I turned my head back and looked at Bao Sa, while thinking, you stupid bastard. There's really something on my back, and you want to stand there all calm like? Am I carrying your stupid wife or something?

"Don't panic." Bao Sa took a sip of wine. "Climb up first. When I can reach you, there's a way to get rid of that thing."

"Aren't you afraid?" I stupidly asked him.

He just replied with: "Give me two more bottles to drink, and I'll even dare fuck it."

Bao Sa had been drinking the entire time, and although he didn't appear to be completely drunk, he wasn't sober either. I could smell the alcohol on his breath from here. It seemed that although he was an alcoholic, there was a reason for it.

I was so nervous that the corners of my mouth started to go numb, and even though I couldn't feel anything on the nape of my neck, I had an illusion that the hair was rubbing against me. The tingling sensation even spread to my cheeks. I had a strong impulse to turn my head to look at it, but I tried my best to resist it.

I was fortunate that even though layer after layer of goosebumps kept popping up, my legs hadn't gone soft and my mind wasn't blank.

I took a deep breath and tossed the leopard tendon up. Bao Sa grabbed the iron hook at the end, put down his bottle, and began to pull me up with both hands.

I slowly released my grip on the coal seam and swung in mid-air. Bao Sa pulled me up bit by bit until I got close enough for him to lean down and grab my hand.

He stopped. I grabbed the leopard tendon and stretched my hand out to him, but he didn't respond, and just stared straight at my back.

"What's wrong?" I was covered in cold sweat, and asked myself, did something else strange happen on my back?

Bao Sa said: "It's looking at me."

All I could think was, at a time like this, you still have the fucking heart to stare at each other affectionately? Bao Sa wound the leopard tendon around his hand and said to me: "Sometimes, I feel that these things are really pitiful."

I gave him an inexplicable look, and said to myself, don't tell me he can't see who the real pitiful one is here? All that fucking drinking has short-circuited his brain, and warped his emotions.

He continued: "It's lying on your back, but it wants to get out of here, so it hasn't hurt you. Maybe if you take it out, it won't do anything. Unfortunately, we can't take such risks in this business."

"If you have to communicate your feelings, wait until you can communicate with it directly." I said, "If you don't pull me up, I'll climb myself."

Bao Sa continued to stare at my back, and then he took a deep breath and said, "Be clever." He took a sip of wine, pulled hard on the leopard tendon, got up from his squat, and then pulled me up with one hand. He then flicked a lighter open with his other hand, pointed it at my back, and spit out the wine.

The flame shot behind me, igniting whatever was on my back, along with my hair. I was pulled down the steel beam, but caught myself with one hand, and immediately used my other hand to pat out the flames in my hair. I turned my head, and saw something similar to a flaming bat fling itself towards Bao Sa's face.

Undaunted by the flames, Bao Sa smacked the thing to the ground, lifted his wine bottle, and smashed it. The burning bat flew under the other end of the steel beam, hung upside down, raced over to Bao Sa's feet, turned over, and pulled his leg down.

Bao Sa's foothold was originally very stable, and he reacted extremely fast to the imbalance despite being drunk. As soon as his leg was pulled, he swung under the steel beam, grabbed it with one hand, and kicked the creature with the leg that hadn't been caught. The thing only loosed its grip after he had kicked it three times.

Bao Sa then turned over and threw the wine bottle against the steel beam. Wine spilled all over the beam, and quickly caught fire as soon as that thing managed to climb up. It was moving fast at that moment, but Bao Sa tore the jars from my waist at almost the same time, and threw them at the soles of our feet.

As soon as the ointment inside caught fire, and started burning in large quantities, Bao Sa grabbed my waist and threw me up, shouting, "Catch!"

It was only then that I noticed Che Zhong was above me, hanging upside down at the end of the rope like a trapeze artist. He grabbed me by the collar and pulled me up.

My waist was still attached to the leopard tendon, and I felt Bao Sa pull on it while he stomped down on the steel beam for a few minutes. The coal seam on both sides of the beam's fixed position started to crack. He kept kicking the flaming creature back and stomping on the beam until it was loosened. The coal seam fractured, and the beam fell four or five meters.

As Bao Sa was hanging in mid-air, he kept patting his legs, and trying to kick out the fire on his calves while yelling at those up above: "Pull us up!"

Longtao was at the top, and shouted back, "Fuck you, all you guys together nearly weigh a ton." Che Zhong let Bao Sa climb up first, and then I went. After that, the three of us took turns climbing up the rope.

As Bao Sa hung there and rested for a moment, he looked at the coal seam that had started to burn below us, and said, "We have to get out as fast as we can, or we'll be roasted alive."

Che Zhong said: "It's not the burning that'll be fatal. Carbon monoxide poisoning is more likely."

After that statement, Bao Sa began pulling on the leopard tendon and climbed up. When I reached for him, however, I suddenly noticed that something was wrong.

There was a black thing on his back.

Its hair appeared to have been burned off, and it was still smoking, but it was lying quietly on Bao Sa's back.

Bao Sa knew what had happened as soon as he looked at me, and all he asked was, "Still there?"

When I nodded, I saw that thing raise its head and stare at me coldly. It also had green eyes, and a long and narrow fox face.

Was it the green-eyed fox corpse? It was impossible to judge since it had been burned like this, but if it was, I had already taken the Ruler of Yinxi's medicine pellet [1], so it would be difficult for it to affect me.

"What should I do?" I asked Bao Sa.

"Let the old master go up first while you and I think of something. It'll be bad if this rope breaks." He replied.

Just as he finished saying that, the area below the coal seam suddenly issued a series of "pa pa pa pa pa pa" sounds.

I looked down at the fire below, and saw a snake head emerge from one side of the coal shaft wall. It appeared that a snake in one of the stones had awakened. I couldn't tell whether the snake was big or small, but it was about as thick as my calf. The rising temperature enabled it to recover quickly, and it spread its black hair and quickly slithered away from the fire. At the same time, the fox faced thing on Bao Sa's back made a series of high pitched cackles. 

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Note:

[1] Back in Chapter 21 "Cavern of Blood Zombies" when that copper tasting thing fell in his mouth while he and Fatty were trippin'.