Ancient tomb excavation traces

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Seeing Bao Cai's sudden panic, my heart pounded wildly. I hurriedly asked him what had happened, but he didn't care what I said at all. He was moving wildly on the cloth strip, screaming, as if he had gone mad.

Seeing that things were not going well, Chuba steadied the rope and looked down through the gap. He immediately shouted to Baocai, "Get in the water!"

Upon hearing this, Bao Cai hurriedly untied the cloth strip hanging from his waist and jumped into the water in a panic. He only saw a shadow the size of a finger instantly emerge from his body. Before he could even see what it was, the shadow was opened by the frightened and out-of-control Bao Cai.

After he calmed down a bit, I reached out and pulled him ashore. Bao Cai was trembling all over when he came up, clearly still emotionally unstable. I asked him what had happened. He came to his senses and said miserably, "It's over, young master, in less than a day... in less than a day, I, Liu Bao Cai, will be going to see the King of Hell..."

Hearing this, I was taken aback and quickly asked, "What do you mean? Were you bitten by something, or what?"

Bao Cai looked at me with a miserable expression and said, "Do you know what a thorny bush is?"

"Scorching?" I was puzzled.

Bao Cai pulled open his clothes and pointed to his chest. When I went closer, I saw that there were several large red envelopes on it, and one of the envelopes had a thorn on it. The blood on the tip of the thorn had turned black.

Bao Cai said these were insect stings, and the owner of the insect stings looked like a bizarre worm from the Cambrian period, with about ten upright, poisonous thorns (spikes) on its back. These thorns were extremely tough, and when it attacked, it would inject venom into the human body through the thorns, then leave the thorns on the wound, like a symbol of victory. The venom of the thorns was very potent; contact with the skin would cause a fleshy, reddish-brown venomous bump to form, which would burst within a day, leaving a burn-like wound.

I felt a chill run down my spine. There are countless insects in the world, but I had never heard of anything like this before.

Bao Cai explained that this is a rare poisonous insect from an ancient kingdom in the Western Regions, raised by a mysterious local tribe. It is not a cave creature, but some powerful people introduced various strange and venomous insects from the Western Regions to prevent their tombs from being robbed when building them. This thorn is one of the demonic poisonous insects.

Venomous insects are highly adaptable. Like other cave creatures, they have adapted and evolved during their long lives in ancient tombs. It is said that similar venomous insects exist in the Egyptian pyramids, surviving for thousands of years and adding to the mystery of the pyramids. There are also stories of early scientists who were bitten by venomous insects and died tragically during their pyramid excavations. These various incidents involving venomous insects in ancient tombs are bizarre and mysterious.

Bao Cai said that the poison would continue to spread over time until his entire body was covered with dense, fleshy red bumps. These fleshy red bumps would eventually burst open and slowly burn, eventually turning him into a charred corpse.

I was horrified, thinking to myself: the torture techniques of this poisonous insect are comparable to the Ten Cruelest Methods of the Qing Dynasty. I silently prayed that my ancestors would protect me and prevent Bao Cai from turning into a toad, otherwise it would be too unbearable.

After I finished praying, I asked Bao Cai if there was any way to detoxify him.

Bao Cai said, "The person who wrote about this rare poisonous insect probably never saw it in person. He only knew how to describe it based on hearsay. He wouldn't know how to counteract it. Besides, the tribes in the Western Regions raise it because they want to use it as a weapon. If they know how to cure it, then we can't play with it anymore."

At this point, Bao Cai looked up at the tubular crevice and said dejectedly, "Young Master, the thorns are poisonous insects from dry places. No matter how much they evolve or mutate, they will never like water. If you want to go up, you'll have to wade through the underground river first. I'm beyond saving, so it doesn't matter whether I go up or not..."

Seeing Bao Cai, who is usually so sarcastic, looking so dejected, I quickly said, "Don't say that yet. The poison hasn't spread yet, there's still hope. Chu Ba is from this era and has been into many ancient tombs. Let's go up and ask if there's any way to detoxify him." I comforted Bao Cai in a relaxed tone, but my heart was heavy, thinking to myself: Will we all eventually die in an ancient tomb?

Bao Cai nodded weakly, then seemed to remember something, grabbed me, looked pitiful, and said, "Young master, please promise me one thing."

Seeing the slight bitterness on his face, I knew it couldn't be anything good, so I said, "I won't agree to anything!"

Bao Cai looked puzzled and said, "Hey, I didn't even say anything, and you already said you wouldn't agree."

I replied, "What you said is the same as what the little Taoist priest and the others said, 'Let us go first.' Let me tell you, this time I will never do such a bad thing again. After you get out, if the poison takes effect, I will bury you and burn a lot of paper money for you."

Upon hearing this, Bao Cai paused for a moment, then said excitedly with a sob in his voice, "Young Master, I've discovered that you understand me better than that scoundrel Chen Yu. You know I need paper money. It's just a pity that we've only known each other for a short time before I have to die!" As he spoke, he lowered his head and looked at the calm water.

I glanced back at him, feigning impatience, and said, "Alright, stop talking about life and death. Only women are so dramatic. And if you're going to die, don't die in a godforsaken place like this." As I spoke, I walked over to him, squatted down, and splashed some water on myself. Then, as if remembering something, I asked Bao Cai, "Are there a lot of thorns up there?"

Bao Cai casually replied, "The situation was critical at the time, so I didn't care about the quantity; I just wanted to get it down first." As if he had thought of something, he frowned and said, "But now that I think about it, some parts of the crevices along the route I climbed had water and were quite damp, but one place was completely dry... This is a seepage zone cave, so logically there shouldn't be such a dry spot. There must be something wrong with that area..."

After hearing what Bao Cai said, I became suspicious and thought I would climb up later to see what was going on.

By now, Chu Ba was already getting impatient up there. Because he couldn't see what was happening inside the cave from his position, he could only anxiously call out to us, asking how Bao Cai was doing. I composed myself and told him that the thorns had spread to seven or eight spots. He was anxious and told us to go up first and see if there was anything we could do.

I responded, and Bao Cai sighed upon hearing this. Judging from Chu Ba's words, he knew the origin of this insect, but did not know how to cure it. At this moment, if the Miao girl who had been practicing poison since childhood were here, she might have some way.

Thinking of this, I sighed. Just then, a series of dense, rustling scratching sounds suddenly filled the space. The sound made my heart itch. Bao Cai was now like someone who had been bitten by a snake once and was afraid of a rope for ten years. He got up in alarm, looked at the crevice above, and said, "Damn, it seems...it seems like there are a lot..."

The sound came from the route he had just climbed. Because the seepage zone was relatively small, the scratching sound was amplified, making people's hair stand on end.

Imagine all these insects shooting their poisonous venom all over us; I'd be a living hedgehog by then. Just thinking about it made me shudder. I crouched down and frantically splashed water all over myself.

The insects crawled along the crevice wall, forming a black shadow as thick as a water python. They were circling around the dry spot that Bao Cai had mentioned, looking strange and eerie.

On the eighth day, after observing closely from above, he said to us, "These insects seem to be guarding something..."

The mention of the eighth day piqued Bao Cai's and my curiosity. However, we were too far away from the insects to see clearly. But I noticed that a small squad had emerged from the shadows and was heading towards the top of the crevice where the eighth day was, as if they were going to attack it.

Seeing this, Bao Cai said anxiously, "The thorns can sense heat sources. The groundwater is cold, so they might not have noticed when we poured it on them, but this time, Eighth Master is in big trouble."

Hearing this, I quickly got up and ran to the edge of the tubular crevice, shouting to Chu Ba, "Uncle Ba, some insects are coming up! You go first, we'll follow." In truth, I wasn't sure if I really should tie the cloth strips and climb up. You see, in that thorny, densely packed crevice, no matter how far we hid, the space was limited, and those insects weren't blind or deaf; they would sense us. Besides, according to Chu Ba, they were guarding something, and if we approached that area, we'd definitely be in trouble. But if we didn't climb up now, we'd just be waiting to die here. Crossing the underground river, I didn't know where we'd end up. Thinking this, I gritted my teeth, jumped into the water, and soaked myself completely.

After we came out, I told Bao Cai to replenish his energy first before going back up. He agreed and told me to be careful when I went up. I nodded, ran to the bottom of the tubular wall, and tied the cloth strips around my neck. I had done rock climbing a few years ago. Although the funnel-shaped wall was not easy to climb, I was fortunate that there were many jagged footholds on it. I used all my climbing skills—clamping, climbing, hanging—and now I was glad that I had caught up on sleep last night. Otherwise, the physical exhaustion over the past few days would definitely have caused ordinary people like Bao Cai and me to collapse.

On the eighth day of the lunar month, he didn't listen to my advice and ran away. Instead, he waited for us. When he saw me coming up, he quickly got up from the ground, cut his hand, and shouted, "You little rascal, come to grandpa..."

In an instant, I understood his intention: he wanted to use his passion to lure Ci Liao away. This action worked; after Ci Liao's first small team took action, another group of insects broke away from the main force and headed towards Chu Ba.

Not wanting to disappoint Chuba, I quickly climbed along the crevice wall, until I reached the edge of the circular pattern of thorns that were spinning in circles. My heart skipped a beat. The thorns on the backs of those insects stretched out to both sides, like protective stakes set up by an ancient army, with very sharp ends. Their bodies were also strange; small heads, large bodies, and long legs like matchsticks. They moved near my ear, whirring, which was quite eerie. If I didn't place my hand correctly, I would definitely get stuck in it.

In a state of high tension, my whole body suddenly started to heat up, and sweat kept seeping from my forehead. At this moment, the thorn seemed to sense my temperature and began to stir.

I sensed something was wrong and was about to climb up when I suddenly felt a burning pain on the back of my hand. Seeing this, I quickly stretched out my right hand, but saw that the thing had hard thorns on it, so it was impossible to grab it with my bare hands. Fortunately, I had a small shovel with me, so I used the shovel to pry it off. I saw two fleshy red bumps on the back of my hand, with a black spot on each bump.

Looking at the bag, I thought: Oh no, I'm going to look like a red-skinned toad! Just then, Bao Cai shouted from below, "Young Master, don't stop, keep climbing!"

The pain in my hands, coupled with an itch, made them tremble uncontrollably. My head even felt like it was about to jump out of my chest. After listening to Bao Cai's words, I calmed myself down. At that moment, I was only thinking about getting out, so I didn't consider the question of life and death that followed. So I continued to crawl with difficulty.

On the eighth day of the lunar month, seeing that I hadn't gone up yet, he tried to attract Ci Liao's attention while urging me to hurry up.

I dared not make a sound, afraid of attracting the insects' attention, but I was exhausted, and my breathing unconsciously became heavier. With each exhale of hot air, more insects became aware of my presence. I quickly moved towards the seeping crevice; these creatures were very sensitive to water and dared not touch anything wet. However, the crevice wasn't wide, and the area guarded by the thorn was quite large, so my movement slowed considerably as I avoided it. As I slowly ascended, I noticed that the dry wall guarded by the thorn was peculiar; it resembled the colorful Danxia landforms of Zhangye. In those tiny cracks, I could vaguely see something emitting light, the light flickering rhythmically. From my current position, I could feel a warm aura emanating from it, a warmth that drew me closer to the center where the thorn was…