The Lost Tomb Vol. 1

Chapter 73: Flaking

"Tail? Where did you see a tail? Why didn't I notice it just now?" Thinking he was messing with me, I said to him, "Don't make fun of me."

"Isn't that what this is?" Fatty pointed to it with a solemn expression on his face. "What, are your eyes so godlike that you can't see something as small as this protrusion?"

I looked to where Fatty was pointing and saw that there really was a protrusion on the corpse's tail bone. It was a dark color and appeared to be about three inches long and as thick as two fingers. It looked as dry as the body itself, almost like a hardened cow's tail that had curved upward.

I was a little puzzled. I didn't recall seeing this thing when we were moving the corpse just now so did that mean it had grown within the past few minutes?

But after thinking about it for a while, I still didn't have a clue. I was so nervous just now that I couldn't remember clearly whether I had seen it or not, but I suddenly felt a chill run up my spine—I had a vague premonition that something bad was about to happen.

I immediately reminded myself that now wasn't the time to freak out. Plus, the corpse itself was so dry and withered that I couldn't even be sure it was a tail. "Don't jump to conclusions too early," I said to Fatty. "How can a human grow a tail? It's probably just his dick. Why don't you go ahead and take a closer look?"

"Fuck you," Fatty gave a hearty laugh. "Can a dick grow out of your ass? Besides, if he's dead, why is it so...so..."

Knowing what he wanted to say, I immediately interrupted him, "Ok, ok. That's enough. Stop worrying about what it is. In any case, it's not like there will be anything left after we blow him up. If you continue studying it, someone else will come here to study us in a few years."

My words reminded Fatty of our current predicament and he immediately stopped examining the strange protrusion and got to work.

I helped him turn the corpse upside down and then tied it to the pillar with the rope I had originally used to climb up here. There was no way to calculate how violent the explosion would be, but I remembered that when I was listening to "The Three Heroes and Five Gallants"(1), it was mentioned that there were explosives in the form of mahjong tiles that were able to blow through ten layers of diamond rock. Logically speaking, the mechanism in this corpse shouldn't be all that different.

After frantically tying the body to the pillar, I tugged hard on our makeshift rope and found that while the knots weren't very tight, they should hold long enough for our purposes.

I didn't want to stay up there any longer so I checked everything one more time to ensure that things were in order and then got ready to go down.

I couldn't help feeling nervous at the thought that the time to set off the explosion was fast approaching—whether this plan worked or not would all depend on one throw. Right now, there was nothing left to do but pray for God's blessing. Everything else could wait until we got out of this tomb. I didn't dare ask for the impossible, just save my life at the very least.

As I was lost in thought, Fatty suddenly grabbed me and said, "Wait a minute. I feel like something's missing."

Having already double-checked everything just now, I immediately became confused when he said this. "What's missing? Isn't everything there?"

Fatty told me not to go down yet and then turned his head and said to the dried corpse, "Tailed ancestor, whether you're a monkey or a human, you've already died and your mortal flesh is no longer of any use to you. Although it's a bit much for us to use it as an explosives package, we're being forced to because of the current situation. You're a wise and generous person so please don't take offense to our actions. In a few moments, you'll evaporate like steam in a sauna and be far from worldly affairs and free from all prohibitions." After saying all that, he gave a symbolic bow to the golden body.