The Lost Tomb Vol. 3

Chapter 36: Exit

I felt my blood run cold. We all stood there stunned for a moment, but then Pan Zi reflexively reached for his gun, and Fatty took the rhinoceros horn and slowly lifted it up.

The ceiling was very high, so the light from our lanterns and smokeless stove couldn't reach that far. If it weren't for the fact that burning the rhinoceros horn had caused the flames from the smokeless stove to suddenly brighten, we would have only seen absolute darkness when we looked up. But such lighting was still very limited, so the black silhouette of the "child" was extremely blurry in the firelight. It looked just like a black jellyfish attached to the ceiling, swaying in "seawater".

For a brief moment, I wondered whether this shadow above our heads had appeared because of the rhinoceros horn light, or if it had originally been there and we just didn't notice it. The latter was quite possible, because even though we had taken a cursory look at the ceiling when we first entered the tomb chamber, our minds were quickly distracted by the treasure, so we might not have realized what we were seeing. The "child" could have already been hanging on the ceiling at that time, but we didn't notice it.

Fatty quietly picked up his gun and then turned to us and mouthed very slowly, "Is...this...the...culprit?"

I waved at him, silently telling him not to make any rash moves. In fact, there was no basis for saying that this thing was the one messing with us. Maybe it just happened to pass by and decided to take a rest on the ceiling above our heads. But this was no time to think about such things—going from a situation where you didn't know what to do to suddenly finding a target to focus your attention on would send anyone into a frenzy.

But we still didn't know what this thing was, or if bullets would even affect it. If we acted rashly, it might run away, and we didn't have a second rhinoceros horn to burn.

We all stood up very cautiously. Fatty hung the stove on the barrel of his gun and then slowly lifted it up. The ceiling gradually became brighter and brighter, but doing this took a lot of energy—Fatty's hands began to shake from the effort and Pan Zi had to rush over to help him.

The black silhouette of the "child" became clearer and clearer until we could see its distinct shape above our heads. I took a closer look and suddenly broke out in a cold sweat.

As the shadowy silhouette gradually took shape, the "child's" head became bigger and bigger, and the whole black shadow gradually morphed into something that looked like a giant fetus.

This... wasn't this the big-headed corpse fetus we saw in the secret corpse chamber?! Why was it here? Had it been following us this whole time?(1)

I felt horrified as I suddenly realized that we had also been in a ghost-hitting-a-wall type situation in the main hall before. But wasn't this thing originally hidden in the mezzanine under the main hall? Was the strange, physics-defying dilemma we were currently facing the work of this corpse fetus?

Fatty and Pan Zi also recognized it. Fatty's face contorted into a grimace and he mouthed at Pan Zi, "Damn...it...seems...your...evil...daughter...doesn't...want...you...to...leave." He moved his lips so exaggeratedly that he looked ridiculous.

Pan Zi immediately became furious, and mouthed back at him, "It's... your...damn...son...who...grew...up...like...this!"

I waved my hand to get their attention and then pointed to the smokeless stove—the light was already starting to dim. Once the flames from the rhinoceros horn burned out, then we'd really be doomed. We had to hurry up and deal with this thing right away.

Fatty nodded, gently pulled the bolt back on his gun, and moved to aim the muzzle at the creature. But the smokeless stove was still hanging from the barrel, its weight constantly throwing his aim off. He tried several times, but the muzzle was shaking so much that it became obvious he'd have better luck firing in short bursts. On the other side, Shunzi also raised his gun and aimed at the creature in the dim light.