The Lost Tomb Vol. 3

Chapter 19: Palace Hall Entrance (Part 3)

The others heard my shout and immediately turned around. Ye Cheng cried out in shock and took a big step back, quickly followed by everyone else. Pan Zi instinctively raised his gun and loaded another bullet into the chamber but didn't fire.

(Strangely enough, for some reason I had never heard of anyone using a pistol to shoot a zombie in a tomb. Ever. I didn't know if this was some rule set by our ancestors, or if it was because there might be some unknown consequences if you did so. When I asked Monk Hua about it later, he said that the superficial reason was that many corpses contained corpse poison. If a zombie still had liquid in its body, then the liquid would splash out in all directions when it was shot, poisoning anyone in the nearby vicinity. In addition, the sound of gunfire could easily attract more trouble. But as for the real reason, he didn't know.)

Fatty was just thinking about how to put the cigarette into his gas mask to smoke it when he was startled by our sudden movement. At first, he had no idea what was going on, but when he saw that Pan Zi's gun was pointed at the space beside his head, he realized that it wasn't aimed at him and immediately turned and looked over his shoulder.

As soon as he came face-to-face with that person, Fatty seemed to freeze in shock, and the cigarette fell from his hand.

The person lying on Fatty's back was huddled behind his shoulders in a ghostly manner. They didn't even react when Fatty turned his head, so the two of them just continued to stare at each other in what some would call an affectionate manner.

I felt like my head was about to explode. Where did this guy come from?! When we came in just now, we had all swept our flashlights around the area. Although we weren't meticulous about it, it should have been impossible for such a big person to hide here. This meant that when we came in just now, this "person" wasn't here. But how could they suddenly appear on Fatty's back like that?

Could it be someone from A Ning's group messing around? Or maybe it was the ghost of a sacrificial victim who died in this tomb?

I had seen a lot of strange things before, but as I stood there in the gloomy underground tomb, I suddenly felt uncomfortable all over—my scalp tingled, my hair stood on end, and I suddenly felt as if something was lying on my back.

Fatty's face had gone pale and he was sweating profusely, but he still kept his cool once he came back to his senses. Hardly daring to move, he slowly made a finger gun with his hand, presumably urging Pan Zi to shoot.

Pan Zi waved his hand, silently telling him to move his head a little so that he could aim properly. But at this time, Monk Hua suddenly raised his hands and whispered, "Wait. We need to see if that's a living person first."

"How can that thing be called a living person?" Pan Zi asked softly.

Monk Hua motioned for him to stop talking and then slowly moved his flashlight's beam to the place behind Fatty's shoulder. As soon as the light hit them, that person immediately turned their head towards us, revealing a face that was simply indescribable—the whole face was sunken in, with only a big hole where the nose should be and eye sockets so deep that they almost looked deformed. The person's two eyes reflected the flashlight's beam and their mouth looked like the beak of an owl.

Pan Zi hesitated, lowered the gun, and then looked at us, "Isn't that a fucking owl?"

How is that possible? I asked myself. The air quality here is such that it's basically impossible for anything to live here. No owl can survive in this kind of place. And if it really is an owl, it's too fucking big.

But looking at that face, it really was very similar to an owl. And owls didn't make any sound when they flew. Maybe it silently flew down from the ceiling and landed on Fatty? But why didn't Fatty notice it?