Chapter 478: Chapter 341: Burden
I was alert because I noticed the bite marks on the bones were still fresh, which made me think that whatever gnawed the bug corpses might not have gone far, or perhaps hadn’t left at all and was still nearby digesting.
But the Ancient City had already collapsed and sunk underground, so where could ’people’ come from in the desert?
Suddenly, the sand around us bulged into small mounds, which then grew larger, moving toward us from four directions simultaneously.
There was something beneath the sand, there was no doubt about that. I waited until they were almost upon us before grabbing Miss Tang and leaping into the air. The things in the sand jumped up too; they were four mummies, but unlike typical ones. I noticed their clothes looked somewhat familiar, like what I’d seen back when we pulled corpses out from the Ancient City’s drainage ditches.
Oh, it’s the Non-human Team members!
Miss Tang was more familiar with them than I was; she gasped and shouted, ’It’s them.’
She had discussed the matter of the high person with Chen Qinghan during the past few days of travel. After entering the Death Zone, she also sensed something strange about the Non-human Team, but she still agreed to the high person’s suggestion of keeping their activities hidden from ’outsiders’.
She did this to protect Gu. She had talked about these matters with him after they got out. In those circumstances at the time, if she hadn’t shown any reliance on the high person, none of them, including Gu, would likely have survived.
Excluding Gu and the others kept them safer.
As for herself, having reached this point, even if she saw that there was a problem with the Non-human Team, she had no choice but to see it through to the end because she was more eager to find her father.
Chen Qinghan asked her if she knew about the core, and she honestly said she did, and also knew how powerful it was, wanting to find and destroy it.
Gu asked her if the high person intended the same, and she said no, that person wanted to obtain that energy. She couldn’t oppose openly and could only appear very interested.
When asked why the high person didn’t discard her after entering the city, it was because they hoped to find Mr. Tang and use her as leverage to force her father to hand over the research data.
But it wasn’t that they were determined to keep her alive. According to Miss Tang’s recollection, at that time the high person intended to use her as a bargaining chip, but for some unknown reason, he left suddenly.
Wang Le mentioned that the energy field near the core was strange, and Evil Spirits were secretly taking action. Perhaps during a time when Miss Tang wasn’t aware, the high person received a black handprint, left suddenly, and was controlled by an Evil Spirit which called him away.
However, we never saw the corpse of this high person. Of course, we couldn’t be sure we had searched every nook and cranny of the underground drainage system. After the ’magic’ disappeared, it’s possible he died in a hidden corner.
Yet, with the Non-human Team members appearing in front of us again, I’m forced to suspect that the high person might not be dead.
The power controlling the dead in the Ancient City had already disappeared. The Crystal Stone had been in our possession for several days with no effect on anyone, so Chen Qinghan and I both believed it could only function within the light sphere.
I didn’t believe that the Non-human Team members appeared because of a summoning by the Crystal Stone. Why would the Crystal Stone make them gnaw on bug corpses? It’s unnecessary.
My mind was processing, while my hands didn’t hesitate. I dealt each jumping mummy a blow with the Hook Stick.
Directly piercing through the skulls, with a thrust and a pull of the Hook Stick, the mummies’ heads ended up with large holes.
Miss Tang was obviously frightened, burying her face on my shoulder, not daring to watch this violent and disgusting scene.
Indeed, seeing a corpse with its face torn into a big hole can be quite unbearable for those with an average psychological tolerance.
Since the mummies’ heads were still intact but faces gone, with brains like walnuts spilling out, it’s likely that Miss Tang wouldn’t want to eat walnuts anytime soon, and might even gag at the sight of certain beverage advertisements.
"Don’t throw up on me, just swallow it back, out of sight, out of mind." I had to remind her, just in case.
"Stop talking!" came Miss Tang’s feeble voice, and then she bit down on my shoulder, taking a large mouthful.
I opened my mouth, but swallowed back the words I was going to say. This shirt hadn’t been washed for days, having been rolled through sand and caves day and night, covered in dust and possibly the blood and brain matter splattered from battling large bugs.
It didn’t bother me at all that she took that bite, I was just afraid she might hurt herself.
But if I pointed it out, and she lost control of her emotions, it would just cause trouble for me. Better to... let her go peacefully without knowing.
"Ugh..."
Why couldn’t she just go peacefully?
