“Who?!”

Seeing the giant figure suddenly emerge from the tomb, I was immediately startled and questioned him loudly, while holding the diving knife in front of my chest.

Uncle Mei and Hong Jie were startled by me and quickly looked in the direction of the figure.

Because the three of us were frightened, the light from our headlamps couldn't focus as we swayed, and the flickering light hit the figure, making it impossible to see what it was.

Vaguely, I only saw that it was covered in blood, with half of its face being flesh and blood, and the other half being bones. Its empty, lifeless eyes stared at us, as if there was an irreconcilable hatred between us!

At the same time, I smelled a pungent bloody smell coming from the figure, even heavier than the stench from the tragically deceased Lao Wu, mixed in the air, suffocating me!

In this critical moment, I heard Hong Jie scream. She dropped her diving knife, turned around, and fled in panic, running wildly towards the fork in the road on the right.

Uncle Mei, seeing this, didn't dare to confront the strange figure head-on. He patted me and said, "Rongsheng, retreat!"

I nodded, and together with Uncle Mei, followed Hong Jie's footsteps and turned to escape into the fork in the road on the right.

After running two steps, I suddenly heard heavy footsteps coming from behind. Looking back, I was scared out of my wits.

The tall, dark figure was actually chasing after us relentlessly. It stretched out an arm and staggered after us, with a "glug-glug" sound in its throat, as if trying to convey some message.

But the more it did, the more terrified I felt!

I couldn't help but wonder, what was the origin of this dark figure? Could it really be, as Hong Jie and Lao Wu said, a tomb-guarding Yin soldier (ghost soldier) of this ancient Shu tomb?

Or perhaps, it was the tomb owner himself, who, disturbed, had turned into a millennia-old blood corpse?

I must say, being chased by this terrifying thing, I had completely lost my mind. I didn't originally believe in these ghosts and gods, but in this dark tomb, being chased by a dark figure covered in blood, my mind was a complete mess.

Along this deep tomb passage, the three of us ran and ran, tirelessly sprinting.

Suddenly, Hong Jie, who was running in front, seemed to be tripped by something, and she flew forward.

"Ouch!"

She fell to the ground face-first, crying out in pain. Then, struggling to get up, she suddenly screamed again, "Ah!"

Uncle Mei and I quickly looked down and were also shocked!

In the tomb passage in front of us, there was a corpse lying across the way. Hong Jie had been tripped by this corpse while running wildly.

The corpse was lying face down, and its features were not clear, but judging from its clothes, it was very similar to Lao Wu and Xiao Shuai. It should also be one of Boss Wang's "rats" (grave robbers).

At this critical moment, there was no time to carefully examine the corpse. I quickly stepped forward, helped Hong Jie up, who had fallen hard, and whispered, "Come on, Hong Jie, stand up, let's run!"

Hong Jie gasped for breath, terrified, and said, "This is a curse! The tomb owner's curse! We trespassed on his tomb, we will all die… Xiao Shuai is dead, Lao Wu is dead, Boss Wang and the others… they are probably all dead too!"

Before she could finish speaking, the relentless footsteps came again from the tomb passage behind us.

"Pat-pat…"

Uncle Mei quickly urged, "Stop talking nonsense, let's escape! That thing is catching up!"

I nodded, helped Hong Jie to stand up, and was just about to continue forward.

Suddenly!

I vaguely heard the dark figure behind me shout in a hoarse voice, "Wait… wait for me!"

I thought I misheard. How could this tomb-guarding Yin soldier or millennia-old blood corpse speak human language?

So I pricked up my ears and listened again. I heard the dark figure shout again, "Wait for me, don't… don't leave me behind!"

Now I could be 100% sure that I hadn't misheard. The dark figure was indeed speaking human language, and it was even standard Mandarin!

Uncle Mei, Hong Jie, and I exchanged glances. Both of them were pale with fright at the sight of the eerie dark figure.

Uncle Mei hesitated for a moment, then said firmly, "Don't be fooled by this monster! It may be trying to trick us. Lao Wu must have died at its hands. Let's run!"

Hong Jie also agreed, "This Yin soldier is too cunning, let's go!"

But at this moment, the dark figure spoke again, shouting at the top of its lungs, "Xiao Hong, I'm not a Yin soldier… It's me, I'm Professor Xu… Wait for me!"

"Professor Xu!?"

This time, the three of us were completely stunned!

So the extremely eerie dark figure was neither a tomb-guarding Yin soldier nor a millennia-old blood corpse, but Professor Xu?

While we were stunned, the dark figure had caught up. It was walking with a limp in the tomb passage, looking like a zombie from a doomsday movie.

I mustered my courage to shine my headlamp on him, carefully identifying his identity. Although he was covered in blood and half of his face was gnawed to pieces, revealing some bones and muscles, he was still wearing Professor Xu's clothes, and even carrying the same backpack as us.

It really seemed to be Professor Xu!

We were really too frightened just now, and plus, he was covered in blood, which led us to not recognize him for a while. We thought he was some kind of evil spirit from the ancient tomb!

Now the truth was finally revealed: this strange dark figure was actually Professor Xu!

Seeing that we had finally stopped, Professor Xu breathed a sigh of relief, leaned against the wall of the tomb passage to steady himself, and said, panting, "You… you don't be afraid, I don't have any malicious intentions towards you, I just… I just wanted to kill Lao Wu to get… get revenge…"

Uncle Mei immediately asked after hearing this, "Did you kill Lao Wu?"

The battered and bruised Professor Xu nodded slowly, and said with a smile that wasn't quite a smile, "Hehe, that guy deserved to die… Didn't… didn't he deserve to die?"

Only then did I notice that Professor Xu's neck had also been bitten several times by piranhas, seemingly damaging his vocal cords. This completely changed his voice when he spoke. When he opened his mouth, it was like a window with a hole in it, mixed with the sound of wind, which was very uncomfortable to hear.

Of course, all of this was thanks to Lao Wu.

No wonder Professor Xu was determined to kill Lao Wu to avenge himself.

But even now, Hong Jie still couldn't believe that this guy was Professor Xu. She asked timidly, "You… are you really Professor Xu? You were clearly surrounded by piranhas just now, how did you survive? I feel like you are… you are Professor Xu's vengeful spirit, back to claim our lives?"

Hong Jie's words made me break out in a cold sweat!

Indeed, Professor Xu was clearly slashed by Lao Wu and then surrounded by piranhas. How could he have escaped death?

At this time, Professor Xu took two steps forward, leaning against the wall, and walked to the front of our headlamps' light. Then, he pointed to his shadow on the ground and said, "If I turned into a vengeful spirit, would I still have a shadow? If I were a vengeful spirit, would I have to try so hard to chase you? I really didn't die… but I'm afraid I won't live long either, hehe…"