Movie variety show soul travels between two worlds to become a rich man

Chapter 698 The Strange Tales of Lu Palace: The Mystery of Possession
Night fell as dark as ink, shrouding the mountains above the Lu King's Palace. At the entrance to the ancient tomb, a dozen military tents formed a circle. Inside the largest tent in the center, Gao Dongxu stared at the partial structural diagram of the ancient tomb on the table, which had been obtained at the cost of the lives of his men. He couldn't help but sigh inwardly.

The extraordinary world is far too dangerous for ordinary people who are unfamiliar with it and unprepared for it.

All the achievements of our explorations came at the cost of human lives.

"The group inside has set up three lines of defense around the tomb chamber, each equipped with heavy weapons." The person in charge of eliminating the Wang family in the tent, his face grave, pointed to the ancient tomb structure diagram on the table and reported to Gao Dongxu, "Moreover, they seem to have mastered a method to control those mutated insects; our first three raids all failed."

“Control?” Gao Dongxu sneered disdainfully, “That kind of insect is called a corpse beetle, which is a scavenging social animal. It feeds mainly on corpses and has the special ability to survive for hundreds of years in environments without water or food. It has a natural fear of fire. This corpse beetle can be regarded as a tomb guardian beast specially bred by ancient kings and nobles to guard their tombs.”

Gao Dongxu explained the corpse beetles in a way that everyone could understand: "The real controller of the corpse beetles is a very small, flying, red-bodied, and highly poisonous corpse beetle king. The group in the tomb must have used some kind of special drug to drive the corpse beetles to attack you... Has the flamethrower been delivered yet?"

"We've arrived. There are twenty in total—"

“Very good, go and give the orders as I previously arranged—” Gao Dongxu said, looking at the four people in charge in the tent.

"Yes!"

"it is good--"

After the four left the tent, Gao Dongxu gave Ru Xin and Ru Qing a wink.
The two sisters, Ruxin and Ruqing, immediately nodded and walked out of the tent. One stood at the door, while the other stood not far away, their sharp eyes scanning the entire area where the tent was located, preventing anyone from approaching.

Inside the tent, Ah Ning, dressed in a black leather jacket and jeans, looked youthful, beautiful, and cool. She looked at the small coffin that suddenly appeared on the ground. The moment the coffin lid was opened, the temperature inside the tent plummeted.

Watching closely as the evil child, roughly the size of a two- or three-year-old, opened his eyes and crawled out of the coffin with an endearing clumsiness after Gao Dongxu pointed his sword at his brow, I watched as the child, who was about two or three years old, opened his eyes.

Under the light, his skin appeared an unnatural bluish-gray, and his mouth, stretched to his ears, was filled with serrated, sharp teeth. Most chilling of all were his eyes—no pupils, only a blood-red expanse.

"Hehehe," the evil child let out a chilling laugh.

Gao Dongxu took out the string of bronze bells from his spatial storage. A Ning looked at the string of bells, which were covered with twisted runes and glowed with an eerie blue light under the lamp, with a very solemn expression. She then spoke to Gao Dongxu.

"The underwater tomb in the Xisha Islands, Wang Zanghai hung these bronze bells all over the red coral tree, probably not to prevent tomb robbers... I can't imagine what would happen to anyone who heard all the bells on the coral tree ringing at once. In my opinion, they would either go crazy or become mentally impaired."

"You're right. That coral tree wasn't there to protect against tomb robbers, but rather to trigger neuronal activity in the human brain, interfering with memory storage or retrieval. This mechanism may be related to the sacrificial rituals of the ancient Ku Kingdom, capable of causing mild hallucinations, guiding consciousness, and erasing memories."

"You know, if Wang Zanghai mastered a method to implant his own memories into another person, and before he died, he laid out plans, left clues about ancient tombs, and then used the hexagonal bells on the coral tree to erase the memories of the tomb raiders who were attracted to the tomb, and then chose a suitable vessel to implant his own memories, wouldn't that be another form of immortality?" Gao Dongxu asked A Ning with a smile.

Ah Ning's expression changed, and she frowned and nodded solemnly, saying, "Yes, this must be the body-snatching technique from cultivation novels."

"That's right, but possession has its risks, namely the resistance of the possessed person's will and thoughts. But what if the brain has been washed with the hexagonal bell? Then it becomes a blank shell without any consciousness or will, which can be easily taken over."

Gao Dongxu recalled the scene in the original plot where the sea monkey was killed and then easily transferred its soul into the Ming Dynasty mummy, continuing to fly and climb walls. This meant that Wang Zanghai's body-snatching experiment should have been successful.

If we continue along this line of thought, it becomes terrifying to consider whether Wang Zanghai is truly dead or not.

"Alright, let's not talk about this anymore. Let's clean up the mess in the Lu Palace first, and then slowly explore it. I always feel that there is still a lot of potential to be explored in this Lu Palace—" Gao Dongxu didn't want to think about it anymore.

"Hmm." Ah Ning, who had also thought of some possibilities, nodded with a somewhat unpleasant expression. Sometimes, choosing to escape is a smart choice.

Gao Dongxu extended his sword-like finger and touched the curse mark between the evil child's eyebrows. "After entering the ancient tomb, start ringing the bell. Once the people inside are in disarray, go to the main tomb passage to awaken the blood corpse. Remember, absolutely do not mix up the order—"

After the order was given, Xie Tong suddenly grabbed Gao Dongxu's right leg, tilted his head back, and looked at Gao Dongxu with blood-red eyes full of longing.

Ah Ning's expression changed, and she instinctively drew the gun from her waist, aiming it at the evil child's head. Gao Dongxu remained calm, pulling a small glass bottle filled with spiritual liquid from his pocket. The evil child's face lit up with joy, greedily opening its bloody mouth like a puppy wanting to eat meat.

“Complete the mission, and you'll get even more.” Gao Dongxu's voice was as cold as ice. “Now, set off.”

The evil child's figure began to turn transparent, eventually disappearing completely into the air. Only the bronze bell emitted a soft tinkling sound, indicating that it was moving. A-Ning solemnly put away her gun: "This thing is more... sentient than the last time I saw it."

"Without sentience, they're just puppets, not worth nurturing—" Gao Dongxu chuckled, then put on specially made earplugs: "Notify everyone to plug their ears. Stay away from the ancient tomb. No matter what sound you hear, do not approach. Await orders..."

Inside the ancient tomb, the third squad of the Wang family was taking turns resting. They had converted the tomb passage into a temporary camp, the generator humming and illuminating the faded murals on the walls. Squad leader Wang Lei munched on compressed biscuits, his eyes glued to the monitor screen.

"Is there any movement in the east passage?" he asked the young team member who was adjusting the equipment.

“No, the thermal imaging shows—” the young man suddenly frowned, “Wait, why did the temperature suddenly drop?”

Before he could finish speaking, a child's laughter suddenly echoed through the tomb passage. "Hehehehehehe."

Everyone tensed instantly. Wang Lei grabbed his submachine gun: "Alert!"

The twelve team members immediately formed a defensive formation, but the tomb passage was empty. Eerie laughter echoed from the left and right, accompanied by the faint sound of bells.

"Playing tricks!" Wang Lei fired a burst of bullets at the source of the sound, sparks flying from the stone wall. The laughter stopped abruptly, but the next second, the sound of bells suddenly rang out in the center of the group.

“Ding-ling-ling——”

The sound waves created an eerie resonance in the narrow tomb passage. The team member closest to the sound source suddenly widened his eyes as he saw his companion's face begin to melt, revealing blood-red muscles and stark white bones.

"Blood zombies! Blood zombies are coming!" he screamed and pulled the trigger, a burst of blood erupting from the chest of his nearest comrade.

"Xiao Feng, are you crazy?!" The vice-captain lunged forward to seize the gun, but the moment he touched the other man, he saw a rotting, grotesque face. Instinctively, he drew his dagger and plunged it into the man's throat.

Chaos spread like a plague. Bullets flew through the tomb passage, and someone threw a grenade, the blast knocking over three team members who were fighting. A female team member knelt on the ground, frantically scratching her face, seeing countless corpse beetles crawling out from under her skin.

"Don't come any closer! Get away!" She bit off her own wrist artery, and blood splattered onto the face of King Zhou Mu in the mural.

Wang Lei leaned against the wall, his temples throbbing. He saw his teammates tearing at each other like wild beasts; some were smashing their teammates' skulls with rifle butts, others were ripping their throats with their teeth. The bells rang louder and louder, like countless steel needles piercing his brain.

“Hallucination. It’s all an illusion.” Wang Lei bit his tongue hard, using the pain to stay awake. He fumbled for his signal gun and fired it at the top of the tomb passage. In the blinding red light, he vaguely saw the outline of a child jumping back and forth, the bronze bell hanging from his waist swinging wildly.

"There!" Wang Lei raised his gun and fired, but the bullet pierced through the shadow. The evil child turned to him, grinning with a blood-red mouth, and the sound of bells suddenly intensified.

Wang Lei's world spun. He saw his dead father rise from the pool of blood, rotting fingers gripping his neck... He saw his younger sister, who had drowned as a child, floating in the air, her swollen face pressed against his cheek... He saw all the people he had killed reach out from the walls.
"Ah—!" Wang Lei's scream was drowned out by the sound of the bell. He turned the gun around, put it in his mouth, and pulled the trigger.

At the same time, the bronze coffin at the entrance of the ancient tomb shook violently. Black smoke billowed from the cracks in the coffin, and a hand covered with dried blood scabs slammed open the coffin lid. The blood-soaked corpse of King Mu of Zhou stood upright, his rotting vocal cords emitting a deafening roar.

The evil child's laughter abruptly stopped. It looked greedily and warily in the direction of the roar, then immediately resumed its frantic leaping and running, shaking its hexagonal bell.

Finally, the sound of bells led the blood-soaked corpses toward the tomb passage where the Wang family was located, which had become a scene of carnage.

The few surviving members of the Wang family had just awakened from their hallucinations and were staring in horror at the scattered limbs and torsos on the ground. The sudden appearance of the blood-soaked corpse made them instinctively open fire; bullets struck King Zhou Mu, splattering black blood, but they could not stop its advance.

"Retreat! Retreat to the west passage!" Wang Ming, a respected survivor, roared as he pressed the detonator in his hand. The pre-planted explosives blew down the top of the tomb passage, and the rubble temporarily blocked the blood corpse.

But they hadn't run far when they heard a "crackling" sound behind them—countless corpse beetles surged out from the cracks, like a black tide washing over the corpses of their companions, rushing towards them.

In despair, Wang Ming raised the grenade in his hand. As the first corpse beetle leaped onto his calf, he pulled the pin. The last thing he heard was the satisfied laughter of the evil child in the distance.

(End of this chapter)