The Lost Tomb : Tibetan Sea Flower

Chapter 52: Desperate Situation

Zhang Haike poked through the vomited silt and found that there were countless tiny leeches. These pure black leeches were as thick as noodles and kept twisting in the filth like a bowl of noodles that had come alive.

Zhang Haike picked one up and found that it wasn't a typical leech. It was covered in small lumps, and when he looked carefully under all that silt, he saw that the lumps were actually densely packed white eggs.

Zhang Haike tsked, carefully looked at his skin, and felt cold sweat drench his body.

He faintly saw that there were countless tiny protrusions under his skin, and there were many tiny bumps on top of those.

He didn't feel anything and couldn't see it without looking carefully.

The others were still pumping the kid's stomach, and joking with each other when Zhang Haike shouted: "Stop! We're going to die!"

They all silently gathered around as Zhang Haike used a dagger to make a deep cut in his skin, exposing a black leech covered in eggs. Zhang Haike used the dagger to pick it up, ignoring his blood that overflowed and dripped to the ground. They watched as the leeches that were in the vomited filth crawled towards the place where the blood had landed.

The leech kept twisting on the tip of the knife, and Zhang Haike's expression twisted as he lit a torch and burned it. Looking at the rest of his body, Zhang Haike almost became desperate. There were faint black lines everywhere he looked, and almost all of them were under his skin.

"When did they get in?"

"It was when we were in the silt. Check yourselves."

The others immediately took off their clothes and carefully looked at their bodies. With a single glance, everyone was devastated. They were all in the exact same condition as Zhang Haike. There was hardly any place on their bodies where the leeches hadn't burrowed under their skin.

"They got in through our pores. They were dormant in the silt and were probably only as thick as a strand of hair before we entered. They must have become bigger after absorbing our blood."

"What should we do? Even if we dig them out ourselves, we'll be minced meat."

"Roast them with fire and force them out." Zhang Haike answered.

"They sucked our blood and became so big, I'm afraid they can't get out."

"It's better for them to suffocate inside than eat us up."

There wasn't enough space and oxygen underground; otherwise Zhang Haike would boil the water in the tank. They could only hold the torches close to their chests to burn the leeches out, and soon, a strong smell of roasting meat filled the air.

Zhang Haike felt that even if these leeches didn't come out under the heat, they would still be roasted alive in their bodies. But after testing it out, he found he was wrong.

The leeches were immediately alarmed by the temperature, and he could clearly feel all of them burrowing further into his body. He had just felt itching before, but he soon felt terrible pain.

They had to give up, and some of the others went crazy and began to cut their bodies with knives.

Nevertheless, Zhang Haike remained calm: "Don't panic, this isn't a desperate situation just yet." He looked around and said, "These leeches must have existed when our people came here before, and they were all fine. When we looked at the corpses just now, we didn't see that their pants legs were sealed off or anything, which shows that they had a solution. Let's look."

The group began to search through the small number of things in the temple, but there was so little left that they found nothing but the water tank.

Was it the water in this water tank?

They immediately scrubbed their bodies again with the water, taking extra care and effort this time in their eagerness for the water to soak through their skin.

After they finished washing, they found it was useless. They eventually managed to calm down, and noticed that the leeches also stopped moving.

"The kid said that we would definitely die. Did he know that this kind of bug was in the mud?"

"But he jumped in, too. If he knew, how did he overcome it?"

Zhang Haike gasped and suddenly thought of the rumors he had heard before. Poker-face was a child with the strongest inheritance in the family, and although this kind of inheritance wasn't a necessary ability, it was only through it that he could go to some special and dangerous tombs.

"His blood." Zhang Haike suddenly understood, "His blood, his blood keeps these bugs away from him. Fuck, the last time he was here, the Zhang family collected his blood to avoid these bugs." He suddenly stood up, "Don't rest, before these eggs hatch in our bodies and kill us, we have to find the kid. He's the only one that can save us."

They set off at once.

They didn't know how long it took as they continued forward, but at least a day and a night had passed. They were deep in the ruins, but they never found any traces of Poker-face again. It seemed that he hadn't taken this path at all. The next night, Zhang Haike and his group reached the exploration boundary of the ancient city.

This so-called boundary was simply where the Zhang family's exploration ended, and turned out to be an ancient ship sunk into the silt. Zhang Haike saw the mummified bodies of three children piled up in the corner of the ship's hold. They were obviously orphans of the Zhang family who had died when too much blood was collected, as evidenced by the obvious wounds on their bodies.

The children were only seven or eight years old, and Zhang Haike felt angry and powerless. The black lines on his body grew bigger and bigger, and he could clearly feel the outline of the eggs under his skin.

"There's nothing we can do. It's too big here so we can't find other passageways. It's impossible to find him. Maybe we should go home immediately. Father and the others will find a way."

"You also heard that kid. If the family knows we've been to this place, we'll be killed." Zhang Haike said. "Besides, it would take time to get out and reach home, and not to mention the leeches, the eggs will have hatched by that point. We have only one chance to live."

"What is it?"

"We're going to do some damage here— some very serious damage— and make him stop us." Zhang Haike said, "The structure here isn't stable. We brought explosives so we just need to create enough tremors to make this place collapse. We'll blow it up every two hours. No matter where he is in this ancient city, he'll definitely stop us."

"What if he not only doesn't come, but runs away?"

"Then we're dead, so we don't have to think about it." Zhang Haike said, "But I believe that he won't give up so easily since he came back here after all kinds of hardships. Our odds are very good."