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

Chapter 706 The Might Makes Right: Blazing Insects

"So that's why Young Master Gao insisted we make this trip to Mirror Palace—now we know the reason!"

Fatty Wang, smoking a cigarette, sighed with a mixture of helplessness and admiration.

"Is this a flawless plan, precognition, or something that was known all along..." Black Bear muttered, frowning.

“…” Zhang Qiling remained silent, but deep down he was filled with curiosity and apprehension about Gao Dongxu’s omniscience, especially after Gao Dongxu regained many of his memories.

"It's not as complicated as you think. Young Master Gao is probably just guessing—" Wu Xie said, his eyes gleaming as he looked away from the map of the underground palace's secret passage.

"What do you mean?" Fatty Wang's eyes lit up as he asked eagerly.

Wu Xie rummaged through his backpack, took out a national map, unfolded it, took out a marker, and under the curious gazes of the other three, circled the location of Mirror Palace with the marker.

"This is something I've only figured out in the last few days. Based on the locations of the three ancient tombs where the Wangzanghai snake-browed bronze fish was discovered, the first one is the Jing'er Palace we just visited, then the underwater tomb in the Xisha Islands below... and then the Qixing Luwang Palace. If you connect these three places all the way to the Cloud Top Heavenly Palace in Changbai Mountain, what does it look like?"

“Dragon Vein!” Black Bear replied immediately.

“That’s right, it’s the dragon vein. Wang Zanghai set up a scheme, placing the three snake-browed bronze fish into three ancient tombs respectively, so that the people who found these three snake-browed bronze fish would unite and search for the Heavenly Palace on the Clouds!” Wu Xie drew circles on the location of Changbai Mountain with a marker.

"I think Gao Shao must have figured this out long ago. He went to the Lu Palace and the underwater tomb with us and obtained relevant clues about the Cloud Palace. In other words, besides the Snake-Eyebrow Bronze Fish, Wang Zanghai should also have left relevant clues about the Cloud Palace."

That's why Young Master Gao sent us on this trip. And just as he suspected, Wang Zanghai had indeed left behind a map of the Heavenly Palace on the Clouds.

"I see..." Fatty Wang laughed in realization, "I thought Young Master Gao was really a god who could predict the future and know five hundred years into the past and five hundred years into the future, an omniscient being."

“He does know many secrets he shouldn’t know,” Zhang Qiling, who had been silent all along, suddenly said, his eyes gleaming with a strange light.

“That’s right. The fact that he knows my background is a problem in itself. I really can’t understand how he knew it,” Black Bear said, frowning.

"In short, of all the people I've met, the blind man is the most mysterious, unfathomable, and powerful monster. He's someone I can't afford to mess with..."

"Back in the Lu Palace, his martial arts skills were probably about the same as mine, but what's terrifying is that his strength seems to improve by leaps and bounds every now and then. Back in Xisha, I was no match for him, let alone his other abilities. When I saw him in Tianjin, I even felt that I couldn't withstand a single move from him..." Zhang Qiling said a long passage with an indifferent expression.

Wu Xie and Fatty Wang looked at each other in dismay. They were just ordinary people and naturally couldn't compare to experts like Zhang Qiling and Hei Xiazi. They could sense Gao Dongxu's strength.

They only knew that Gao Dongxu was very powerful, but they didn't expect him to be this powerful. Zhang Qiling, who they considered to be at the pinnacle of human combat strength, actually said that he couldn't even withstand a single move.

Fatty Wang suddenly chuckled and said, "It's good that Young Master Gao is powerful. The more powerful the better. As the saying goes, it's good to take shelter under a big tree. With a towering tree like Young Master Gao to shelter us from the wind and rain, shouldn't we be laughing in our dreams?"

Just like the two of you, without Young Master Gao, you would both be undocumented and illegal immigrants now. The blind man is even worse off, with a wanted poster on his back. Now, with a wave of Young Master Gao's hand, you've both been given a new lease on life.

So, it's very important to follow the right person. Anyway, I'm definitely following Young Master Gao. I have a job, insurance, a salary, and I can earn extra money. Most importantly, now that we're going to the tombs, it's legal, and we can get help from the local authorities.

"Tsk tsk, I wouldn't have dared to dream of this before."

"Ahem, that's true. Being called 'expert' and 'leader' by those people from the local cultural relics protection bureau does feel pretty good," Wu Xie said with a light cough and a forced smile.

Zhang Qiling and Hei Xiazi remained silent, but in truth, they also felt quite comfortable.

Before this, no matter how skilled they were in combat, to put it bluntly, they were just grave robbers who stole graves and dug up tombs. No matter how you look at it, a thief is a thief, and they were just skilled thieves.

"Hehe, whether I like it or not, I've already been tied to the car by him. I can't beat him, so I can only accept my fate," Hei Xiazi said with a wry smile, making fun of himself.

"That's because you have real skills. If you didn't, do you think Young Master Gao would even give you a second glance?"

Over the course of their time together and through the numerous times Hei Xiazi had saved Fatty's life, they had developed a life-or-death bond, transforming from the Iron Triangle Hei Xiazi had acknowledged into the Four Heavenly Kings.

“I’d rather not have been chosen by him—” Black Bear said with a wry smile.

"Haha..." Wang Pangzi, Wu Xie, and Zhang Qiling couldn't help but burst into laughter when they saw Hei Xiazi's expression.

After laughing, Wu Xie said with a serious expression, "We have to go to this underground palace no matter what."

“Okay—” the three fat men nodded.

At the Lu Palace, Gao Dongxu and the three women, including A Ning, stayed in a tent and played mahjong all day.

As for lunch and dinner, they ate steaming hot delicacies stored in Gao Dongxu's space: roast duck, tomahawk steak, and red wine. Despite being in the middle of nowhere, their quality of life remained unaffected; the spacious, soft bed and the sun-scented blankets made them feel right at home.

And so, the next day, in a daze, Gao Dongxu finally yawned and walked out of the tent with a lazy look on his face, where he met Wang Jianjun, who had come to report the situation to him.

After two days of preparation, all the preliminary preparations for pest control were completed, and Gao Dongxu arrived at the tunnel where they had escaped by stepping on the nine-headed cypress.

By this time, the tomb had a huge opening of five or six meters. Gao Dongxu peeked into the tomb and smelled a very strong odor of gasoline.

Wang Jianjun handed Gao Dongxu a pair of binoculars. Although Gao Dongxu had superhuman eyesight and didn't need binoculars at all, he didn't refuse and took the binoculars to carefully examine the situation in the tomb.

At this moment, in the huge tomb chamber, many emergency lights were hung on the walls, illuminating the entire chamber. Most of the huge holes in the walls around the tomb chamber were sealed off, and the trenches were filled with gasoline, covering almost the entire tomb chamber.

Now that everything was ready, Gao Dongxu didn't hesitate. He quickly returned to the tent, turned the specimen bottle upside down, placed the mouth of the bottle on the table, tilted it slightly to reveal a small gap, and held a pair of tweezers in his hand. He kept tapping the bottle to drive the corpse beetle king inside out of the gap.

As the Corpse Beetle King slowly crawled out from the slanted gap at the bottle opening, Gao Dongxu immediately used tweezers to grab it.

With A Ning's help, Gao Dongxu used a fishing line to tie to the head and neck of the Corpse Beetle King, and then used a scalpel to cut off half of the Corpse Beetle King's body, leaving only the upper half.

Then they quickly returned to the huge opening, where a group of people were carrying the bodies of cattle and sheep and throwing them toward the center of the tomb chamber, near the attraction point.

After throwing away the cattle and sheep, Gao Dongxu put the remaining half of the corpse beetle king into a glass jar, slowly lowered the rope, and put the corpse beetle king, which was constantly scratching the smooth bottle with its claws, into the tomb chamber, where it was suspended about three meters above the ground.

The scratching and wailing of the Corpse Beetle King were rapidly spreading throughout the entire ancient tomb.

The people standing above each had binoculars and were carefully observing the situation inside the tomb.

Suddenly, the entire ancient tomb emitted a sickening buzzing sound, as if something was awakening in the depths of darkness.

The next second—

The cracks and man-made holes in the tomb walls... all began to writhe violently, and then, pitch-black carrion beetles gushed out like a flood bursting its banks!

They didn't crawl out one by one, but rather in large swaths, squeezing, rolling, and pouring out, like thick, black pus gushing wildly from the wounds of an ancient tomb.

The swarm of insects surged to an extreme, almost forming flowing black waterfalls that crashed down on the ground from all directions, instantly converging into a rolling black ocean.

The carrion beetles rubbed their shells together, producing a chilling rustling sound, like thousands of tiny teeth gnawing at bone. They surged and rolled in layers, their presence staining the ground, walls, and even the air with a writhing black.

Even more terrifying was that the swarm of insects was not chaotic—as if they were conscious, they quickly split into several streams, surging towards the location of the Corpse Beetle King from different directions like giant black waves.

Standing at the cave entrance above, Gao Dongxu coldly watched the surging black tide below. The others were not so calm; seeing such a terrifying swarm of insects for the first time, they all had grim expressions and felt a chill in their hearts.

If they fell... The thought of being caught in the swarm of insects sent chills down everyone's spines.

The swarm of corpse beetles, like ravenous demons, quickly engulfed the entire tomb chamber, frantically rushing towards the mountain of cattle and sheep carcasses in the center, devouring them layer upon layer. In the struggle for food, many corpse beetles began to attack each other, the rustling sound of their shells rubbing together becoming a suffocating buzzing sound, and the entire tomb chamber seemed to have transformed into a churning black hellish sea.

The time has come.

Gao Dongxu said to everyone, "Let's light the fire—"

"Yes--"

Immediately, four people lit four torches at the same time, and the blazing red flames illuminated their cold and stern faces.

The next second, the torches plummeted in four directions like meteors—"BOOM—!!!"

The raging flames soared into the sky like an angry dragon, and the tongues of fire flowed wildly along the gasoline grooves, instantly engulfing the entire swarm of insects.

Wherever the flames passed, the carrion beetles emitted ear-piercing crackling sounds, their shells exploding in the intense heat, and foul-smelling black smoke billowed up like giant pythons. The fire grew increasingly fierce, and the entire tomb chamber was transformed into a blazing inferno.

The burning corpse writhed wildly in the flames, the black tide crackling and popping like thousands of tiny firecrackers exploding simultaneously. Waves of fire rolled, heat distorted the air, and thick, acrid smoke nearly obscured the dome.

Those swarms of insects that were just moments ago as terrifying as death itself have now become fuel in the raging fire, turning into writhing embers in the flames and eventually into charred remains.

At this moment, only the roar of raging flames and the mournful cries of the dying corpse beetles remained in the entire ancient tomb.

(End of this chapter)