The Lost Tomb Vol. 7

Chapter 40: Strange Thing

Turning by itself? I couldn't imagine what it looked like, and I was so impatient to see it that I cried out, "Find a way to get me over there."

"Wait, I think something's wrong." He suddenly cried out. Then, everything went quiet.

"What's the matter? Don't keep me in suspense." I scolded him.

But Xiao Hua didn't speak this time, and only my voice echoed back at me.

If it weren't for the terrible situation in front of me, I would have definitely run past recklessly. Compared with before, this kind of fake suspense made me feel even worse. I waited for a while, and then yelled at him again, but Xiao Hua still didn't answer me. All I could hear was the sudden metal tapping sound coming from inside.

I wanted to curse him out, but I thought of our legendary childhood friendship— even if we weren't too familiar now— and realized it wasn't good to get angry right now. I used a hammer to impatiently knock on the stone as I continued to call out to him.

After making several calls, the metal tapping sound inside was getting louder and louder, as if it was destroying something.

"What are you doing?" I was starting to get nervous.

Xiao Hua still didn't answer. The sharp "dangdang" sound was the only response I got, as if he was hitting the "iron plate" with something hard. The sounds echoed constantly in the cave, and whether they were loud or not, they still stung my nerves and irritated me.

It suddenly dawned on me that something was wrong. There was no reason he wouldn't answer me. He was an adult, after all, so he wouldn't play such childish tricks in this kind of situation. Maybe he suddenly couldn't speak and was knocking on the iron plate to ask for help? Did something happen to him a minute ago that I couldn't hear?

But the iron plate was being struck so hard that it was obvious by the buzzing sound alone that it was being hit with a lot of strength. It was messy, but not urgent, and it didn't sound like he was asking for help, but trying to smash it.

I finally gave a loud shout, but there was still no reply. I immediately turned around and climbed to the entrance of the cave, picking up the walkie-talkie and calling the men below. They had been asleep and were confused, but as soon as I mentioned the situation, the Sichuan guy said he'd come up immediately. As I put down the walkie-talkie, I realized that I still had a problem. It took me more than four hours to climb up, so if something had really happened, Xiao Hia would be dead more than ten times over. And it would still take me at least two hours even if I pulled the Sichuan guy up, so that wouldn't work either.

I climbed back into the hole again. The noise inside grated my nerves, but I continued to shout. In this kind of environment, my voice was also very loud, so it was impossible for him to not hear me. But he still didn't answer. I was worried and couldn't but think of Uncle Three and Xie Lianhuan.

Fuck! I had told myself I wouldn't repeat their mistakes. This was really too tragic. What the hell was going on?

I wondered how I would face the Xie family if Xiao Hua died or had an accident. Would our Wu family be nicknamed the "Xie Family Reaper"?

Shit! Shit! Shit! I looked at the weird hair in the jar in front of me. My mind was a mess and I couldn't think, but at that moment, I suddenly saw the nearby alcoves that had been dug out of the wall for the ancient books.

I looked at my gloves and hiking shoes and then at the wall, suddenly thinking of a way to get through. My instincts told me, however, that this method was definitely a bad idea and would likely get me killed.

But the harsh knocking sound disturbed my judgment, and those instincts were immediately lost in my boundless anxiety. I took a few deep breaths, tried my best to keep the heat down, and carefully stepped away from the pile of collapsed stone.

As soon as I put my foot down, the broken shells of the dead corpse-eating bugs broke under my feet. I took a deep breath. Those little balls of hair, as if sensing my presence, suddenly looked more monstrous under the flashlight's glow.

My method was actually very ugly. The cave walls were full of alcoves where the ancient books had been placed and I didn't want to touch the disgusting hair balls below, so I had to lie prone against the cave wall and step in the alcoves.

It didn't seem difficult at first, but the problem was that I had no way out and I couldn't stop halfway. In such a cramped environment, my bowed body was pressed up against the cave wall and I had to rely on the strength of my fingers to grasp the alcoves and move forward, which was a great test of physical strength. If the height of the cave was high enough to let me stand up straight, it would have been much easier.

The harsh metal tapping sound distracted me and caused me to collapse, but I thought about it some more and went up and tried again. I found it wasn't as difficult as I had initially thought, especially when I reversed my original position so I looked like a version of Jesus nailed to the wall suffering appendicitis pain. If I was careful to keep my balance, I would have a chance to have a short rest.

I took a deep breath and went up to the wall. With the first breath, I didn't give myself the chance to shrink back and actually managed to climb more than ten meters. My speed was relatively fast, but I didn't know whether the action looked gorgeous or not.

After more than ten meters, my fingers were exhausted and I had to rest before moving on. I held the flashlight in my mouth and saw the hair-covered things under me.

The distance was much closer than before, and the inside of those small balls seemed larger than the outside part. I had been trying to convince myself that the hair on top was a new kind of mushroom, but from this distance, it seemed that it was really hair. And it was very straight and shiny hair, too.

What would grow this? I felt sick and creeped out. If you saw so many hairs spread in such a patch in the wild, you may not even have the courage to look at it. Moreover, I had more nightmares about hair than anyone else.

In spite of my nausea, I had a very anxious impulse to pluck away the hair and see if it was really a head underneath. At this distance, as long as I dropped my hand down, I could lift it up.

I couldn't stand it anymore, so I inhaled and turned around to continue. Since I had taken a break, it was kind of hard for me to move faster after that, so I used my fingers to move forward bit by bit. The mysterious hair down below was now just a few feet away from me. Some of the alcoves were so small that I could only step in with a toe, and I soon started to show signs of cramping.

Fortunately, I was so nervous that I could almost completely block out the harsh metal sounds and focus all my attention on my fingers.

I didn't know how long it took, but when I looked back, I couldn't see the place where I had entered. I couldn't use the flashlight like this either, so I figured I was halfway through.

The knocking sound was still going strong.

I relaxed a little bit, thinking that Xiao Hua shouldn't have encountered something deadly. I was sweating all over and wanted to find a place to rest, but when I turned my flashlight, I suddenly felt like something was wrong.

I had looked around with my flashlight several times, and each time I saw hair and dark cave walls on both sides. But this time, something momentarily blocked my flashlight's beam.

When I turned back, I suddenly noticed something different in the darkness more than ten meters away from me.

That thing was taller than a person, but definitely wasn't human. I couldn't understand what I was seeing. If I had to describe it, I could only say that it was a huge mass of hair standing there.

At first, I thought it was a Forbidden Woman, but I immediately knew it was impossible because I didn't smell the fragrance. But there had to be something in this "hair", because the whole cluster stood there giving off a feeling like there was a living creature inside.

But the thing didn't move and just stood there. The hair had a very unusual luster under the flashlight's glow, which made me tremble all over.