Tomb raiding: Carrying a coffin during a funeral procession, rewarded with the Dragon Elephant Prajn

Seeing the hesitation of the crowd, Li Changsheng shook his head and then slowly stepped onto the Yan Bridge.

He discovered that although the Swallow Bridge was built by swifts, it was exceptionally stable.

On the other side, seeing that Li Changsheng had already traveled more than half the distance and was about to reach the Dragon Gate Stone Platform on the other side, Aning immediately gritted her teeth and said, "We can't wait any longer, everyone catch up."

After saying that, he followed Li Changsheng and became the second person to step onto Yan Bridge.

Seeing this, the remaining Taoist priests and the others breathed a sigh of relief and immediately followed.

Even after everyone had arrived at the Dragon Gate Stone Platform on the other side, the Swallow Bridge still hadn't disappeared!

Seeing this, Xiang, the foreman, murmured, "I wonder who raised these swifts and managed to train them to build a bridge."

Hearing this, Hei Xiazi chuckled and casually said, "Didn't Advisor Li say that the 'Guanshan Zhimi Fu' was left by Feng Shigu, which means these swifts have been roosting here since at least the Ming Dynasty? And perhaps the flocks of swifts back then were even more spectacular..."

On the stone platform of Longmen, dozens of stone sculptures of the Black Sheep King are piled up.

Apart from that, there was nothing else unusual.

Ah Ning glanced at it briefly, then turned her attention to the other side of the canyon.

Just now, from the tunnel on the other side, all we could see was this stone platform and two large ancient seal characters.

But now that she's here, Aning noticed that there's a sunken platform below the canyon tunnel on the other side.

Dozens of scarecrows made of thatch and pine branches, dressed in Taoist robes, stand on the platform.

"Thatched-roof Taoist? What kind of custom is that?"

Upon seeing this, Aning instinctively asked a question.

Upon hearing this, Xiang, the foreman, shook his head, looking equally bewildered.

Among the crowd, it was Taoist Gou who knew this custom and explained it with a hint of pride.

"This is called the Locust God. In ancient times, when the people of Sichuan encountered a locust plague, they felt it was a punishment from God. So they made this kind of thatched Taoist figure to worship and prayed that God would take back the locust plague."

Ah Ning keenly grasped the key point and asked with surprise and uncertainty, "So, there are locusts in the canyon?"

"I don't know, but these hermit priests are probably related to the locust plague."

Before the Taoist priest could finish speaking, Tiger, one of Xiang's henchmen, said nonchalantly, "It's just a few locusts, nothing to be afraid of. Locusts eat crops, they can't eat people, can they?"

Upon hearing this, Li Changsheng chuckled and said, "That's not necessarily true!"

Before he could finish speaking, one of Ah Ning's mercenaries suddenly pointed at the flock of swifts in the sky and shouted.

"Look, the swifts have changed their formation."

Everyone looked up and saw that the swifts, which had originally formed a straight line and bridge shape in mid-air, suddenly gathered in the middle and formed an oval shape.

The smaller swifts hid at the innermost part, while the slightly larger ones were scattered on the outer perimeter.

Seeing this, Aning seemed thoughtful and whispered, "I've seen documentaries about Antarctic penguins from abroad. When penguin colonies face blizzards, they huddle together to protect their chicks in the middle. The adult penguins stay on the outside and withstand most of the cold."

Among the group, Li Changsheng and Hei Xiazi had the best eyesight.

Before anyone else could react, Black Bear's expression suddenly turned extremely strange. He stared down into the canyon and then gave a bitter smile.

"Advisor Li, there really are killer locusts in this canyon! We're doomed!"

Hearing this, Aning and the others were stunned and looked at Hei Xiazi with puzzled expressions.

However, before Hei Xiazi could explain, everyone heard a buzzing sound, even louder than a flock of swifts, coming from the bottom of the canyon.

A moment later, a dark, heavy cloud suddenly rose from the bottom of the canyon.

"Dark clouds? How can dark clouds rise from the ground into the sky?"

Many people had the same question in their minds.

As the dark cloud drew closer, they realized that it was not a cloud at all, but a swarm of millions of locusts!

What's even more terrifying is that ordinary locusts are at most the length of a finger, while these locusts are each as long as a chopstick, and their size is even larger than that of a swift.

More importantly, these enormous locusts have two abdominal legs covered with sharp barbs.

"Holy crap, what a huge locust!"

When Tiger saw the locusts flying up from the valley floor, his eyes widened in shock.

Before locusts become a plague and swarm in large numbers, they are edible; they can even taste quite good when deep-fried.

If it becomes a disaster, it will quickly change color and produce toxins in its body.

Therefore, some city dwellers in later generations who couldn't distinguish between the five grains always said stupid things like, "Why don't we catch locusts and eat them when there's a locust plague and famine?"

Imagine a locust plague causing crop failure. People are willing to eat even clay, so why wouldn't they dare to eat locusts just because of a taboo?

The Chinese people have tried every single edible food that won't kill them.

The root cause is that when locusts swarm, they produce highly toxic substances in their bodies, making it impossible for ordinary people to eat them.

Of course, when Tiger saw such a huge locust, he was completely stunned. He couldn't even think about eating it anymore. At this moment, he could only pray in his heart that these locusts would not eat him.

These locusts swarmed together, a huge, dark mass that almost completely blocked the canyon.

They drifted slowly to the vicinity of the swift flock, and then fearlessly charged at the flock.

Among the tomb raiding sects, there is one called the Mountain Moving Taoists. Unlike the Tomb Raiders who use feng shui to find dragons, this sect uses all sorts of secret techniques and magical artifacts to enter tombs, and they especially emphasize the art of mutual restraint.

However, the natural cycle of mutual restraint is not an absolute truth.

For example, it is an age-old truth that cats eat mice, but if a mouse becomes large enough, its genes that fear cats may mutate, and then the mouse will eat the cat.

The current locusts and swifts are a similar case.

Under normal circumstances, locusts are food for swifts.

But at this moment, the endless swarms of locusts, which blot out the sky, have driven the swift to the brink of despair.

Every now and then, swifts are attacked by swarms of locusts, eventually being torn to pieces and falling to the ground.

Seeing this bloody scene, everyone's expression turned grim.

A locust the size of a chopstick is nothing to worry about, but tens or hundreds of thousands of locusts are a completely different story.

The swifts had been besieged for most of the day, and the two sides were deadlocked.

Xiang, the foreman, swallowed hard and said in a trembling voice, "Why don't we make a quick getaway? Otherwise, we might not be able to leave later."

Ah Ning rolled her eyes upon hearing this.

"Staying on the platform offers a sliver of hope, but if you're hanging on a cliff edge and these locusts come swarming you, where can you run?"

When Xiang, the foreman, heard this, he also thought it made sense.

The Longmen Stone Platform is located halfway up the mountain, nearly 100 meters away from both the mountaintop and the valley floor.

It's such a long distance, it's impossible to get down there in a short time.

If locusts attack during the descent to the valley floor, there will be no way to escape!