Chapter 63: Story

Chapter 63: The Story

Was this the dowry dog that came with the princess?

But how could a dog live for thousands of years?!

With no time to dwell, Sang Xu drew his pistol from his waist, pressed it against the monster dog’s forehead, and fired. To his shock, the dog’s skin was incredibly tough—the bullet failed to penetrate and instead caused the gun to misfire, nearly blowing Sang Xu’s hand off.

The dog lunged, a wave of putrid stench hitting Sang Xu’s face. He clearly saw its serrated fangs.

With teeth that sharp, a single bite would be devastating. Now, barely a fist’s distance apart, the situation was extremely dangerous. He reacted instantly, activating both the Intermediate State and Fire Breathing techniques simultaneously. Dodging low, he breathed out scorching flames, engulfing the dog above him.

Without the Intermediate State, Sang Xu—who spent his days working overtime coding—could never have executed such a difficult move. His grandfather’s foresight in digging up the Corpse Dog had truly allowed him to safely cultivate this divine power.

Yet the monster dog emerged unscathed, leaping through the flames. Sang Xu flipped backward to create distance and invoked the Nuo Invocation.

This was Sang Xu’s last resort.

If this move failed against this damned dog, Sang Xu would be done for here today.

The Guardian Deity materialized, swinging its blade through the air toward the monster dog. The curved blade struck the dog’s forehead but left not even a scratch.

Even a blade was useless!

*Is this dog made of diamond?* Sang Xu’s heart sank.

The dog charged at Sang Xu, its two firefly-like eyes fixed on him with malice. Sang Xu initially intended to dodge, but a sudden flash of insight made him give up resisting. Instead, he dropped to one knee, remaining perfectly still.

Three steps away, two steps, one step.

The monster dog opened its foul-smelling maw, about to clamp down on Sang Xu’s face.

Now!

Sang Xu pulled the grenade pin and accurately tossed it into the dog’s gaping mouth before rolling away and diving into the hole beneath the coffin. He landed with a thud, half his body going numb from the impact. Above, a loud explosion echoed through the tomb, briefly illuminating the chamber as chunks of foul flesh and blood rained down from the hole.

A dog’s head rolled to a stop, landing beside Sang Xu, its long snout still opening and closing. Sang Xu kicked it away, out of sight, out of mind.

That was close. He’d gambled correctly—though the monster dog had skin of bronze and bones of iron, its insides were soft.

Pulling out his flashlight, he illuminated the surroundings. Something wrapped in animal skin lay against the wall, struggling as if trying to break free. Sang Xu drew his folding knife and asked quietly, "Brother Han? If it’s you, give me a sign."

A series of barks came from within.

Not Han Rao. A dog.

Sang Xu cautiously stepped back.

The thing continued to struggle, whining and yelping. Sang Xu scanned the area but saw no sign of Han Rao—not even a body. Han Rao couldn’t have vanished into thin air, nor would he abandon Sang Xu and run off alone. So where could he have gone? Sang Xu’s gaze returned to the fur-wrapped object.

Was Han Rao inside? Was he making dog sounds?

But why would he make dog sounds?—Unless he could no longer speak human language?

It wasn’t entirely impossible.

Sang Xu made a quick decision, wading through the water to approach and slice open a seam in the fur. The skin was tough and resilient, making it difficult to cut, but he finally managed to create an opening. Han Rao’s buzz-cut head emerged from within.

"Brother Han!" Sang Xu called out.

Han Rao was extremely agitated. "Arf arf arf!"

He really couldn’t speak?

Sang Xu helped tear open the fur, and Han Rao crawled out. He took a Heaven-Mending Pill from his waist pouch and swallowed it, finally calming down. He’d bought this pill for five hundred thousand from that foolish sales director of the Zhao family—never expecting it to come in handy now.

"Woof, that damned dog, woof—" Han Rao slapped himself and finally managed coherent speech. "That damned dog stuffed me into this dog skin, woof woof woof!"

Sang Xu frowned, observing his condition. Han Rao squatted on the ground, trying but failing to stand. It took him a long while to finally rise on both feet.

The way he had crouched just now was eerily similar to a dog.

Had that monster dog stuffed him into the dog skin to turn him from human to dog?

Recalling the story from the golden vase painting, Sang Xu felt a chill run down his spine.

Han Rao could put on dog skin and transform from human to dog, while the monster dog could wear human skin and change from dog to human. The story mentioned that in his later years, the old emperor was gravely ill, bedridden and unable to speak clearly. Moreover, the tomb did not hold the old emperor but rather the monster dog clad in human skin.

From this, could it be inferred that during the old emperor’s illness, he had already been replaced by the monster dog? That the "old emperor" lying in bed was actually the monster dog wearing the emperor’s skin?

So this was the dog’s purpose.

Then where did the real old emperor go?

"It’s a divine power of the animal realm—‘Create Beast’ and ‘Create Human.’ Humans turn into beasts, beasts turn into humans," Han Rao cursed. "Woof, damn it all, I almost fell for it."

Han Rao showed Sang Xu what he had retrieved from the emperor’s coffin. "Look, woof, this jade box. Woof, they were buried with the dog emperor, woof. Must be important, right?" As he spoke, he slapped himself again. "No more woofing!"

Sang Xu opened the jade box. Inside lay four Heaven-Mending Pills, each the size of a thumb, significantly larger than those distributed by the Zhous.

Han Rao was overjoyed. "This trip wasn’t for nothing. Woof!"

"Let’s have their components tested back home to see if they’re the same as the company’s. Make sure they’re safe before taking them," Sang Xu cautioned.

"Understood!"

Han Rao split the four Heaven-Mending Pills equally with Sang Xu. Then Han Rao knelt on one knee, allowing Sang Xu to step on his back to give him a boost and climb up through the hole. Once up, Sang Xu used a rope to pull Han Rao out. Han Rao checked Zhou Xia’s location on his phone—he was still in the same spot as before. The two made their way back, only to find ruins. The passage had completely collapsed, with debris blocking the path.

But Zhou Xia’s location showed he was right here. Could he be trapped beneath the rubble?

As Sang Xu moved to clear the broken stones, Han Rao tilted his head and listened. "There’s sound down there, woof."

After nearly turning into a dog, Han Rao not only struggled with human speech but also gained heightened hearing. How long would this state last? Would he forever mix barks with his words? Sang Xu pressed his ear to the ground and heard rhythmic tapping from beneath the tomb passage. After a moment, he recognized it as Morse code.

It said: "Trash trash trash trash."

It had to be Zhou Xia. It seemed he had blown up the passage and fallen to the level below.

Who would have thought he’d learned Morse code in such a short time? Sang Xu wondered when he had secretly studied it.

Sang Xu called down through the ground, "It’s Sang Xu. Are you okay?"

"What took you so long?" Zhou Xia’s voice was furious.

"Sorry, Brother Han ran into some trouble. Are you hurt?"

"How could I possibly be hurt?"

"Were you waiting for me?"

"Like hell I'll wait, only a ghost would wait for you," Zhou Xia said. "I can't get up there."

Sang Xu considered blasting an opening to go down, but seeing how Zhou Xia had blown the tomb passage to bits, the structure might've been compromised. If they blasted recklessly again, the entire tomb could collapse. That was probably why Zhou Xia had given up on further explosions.

Then they heard Zhou Xia say, "Wait for me up there. I just heard that Shen kid crying for help. I'll go find her first, then come back for you."

Sang Xu shot back, "There are animals here that wear human skin that can imitate human voices. Whoever's calling for help might not be Shen Zhitang."

He checked on Han Rao's phone and noticed that Shen Zhitang's location hadn't moved for a while.

She was probably in trouble.

"Oh, if I run into it, it's dead meat," Zhou Xia responded.

Sang Xu fell silent.

Well, he had a point.

As they were talking, Sang Xu suddenly heard a hissing sound from somewhere nearby.

Both Han Rao and Sang Xu recalled bad memories, like the four-headed mummies at the Ghost Gate, but looking around, nothing four-headed was crawling out. Plus, the tomb owner here was a worshipper of the Chang God, so it was unlikely that followers of the Mother of the Dipper would appear.

Suddenly, Zhou Xia's voice came from below, "Get back!"

"What's going on?"

Han Rao suddenly noticed a haze of white smoke around them.

Zhou Xia said, "You idiots, the tomb's pumping out poison!"

Sang Xu spotted a glint of light in his peripheral vision and looked closely—holes in the floor tiles were hissing, emitting white vapor.

After just one breath of the white vapor, his nose burned with pain. Sang Xu quickly clamped a hand over his mouth and nose and said, "Let's go to the next level to take cover. Find Shen Zhitang and meet us on the next level."

Han Rao shouted, "We need a code word! Woof!"

Since the monsters here could disguise themselves as humans, a code word was needed to identify teammates.

Before Sang Xu could come up with one, Han Rao directly yelled, "The code phrase is 'Long live Pikachu'!"

Zhou Xia was confused. "What the hell?"

As the white smoke reached their ankles, Sang Xu and Han Rao beat a quick retreat. Soon, the passage was filled with white smoke. The tomb walls must have been embedded with brittle poison-smoke capsules. The blast from Zhou Xia's explosion had sent shockwaves that broke the poison smoke balls, releasing the toxic smoke through pre-existing holes in the floor tiles.

Zhou Xia wasn't worried—he was dead already, so the poison couldn't touch him. But Sang Xu and Han Rao were in trouble. Sang Xu had just used his Intermediate State and couldn't switch to a death form now. Both held their breath and ran back. The once short tomb passage now felt like a marathon, with no end in sight.

After running for a few minutes, Han Rao pulled him to a stop and cursed, "Woof woof woof!"

"Speak human!"

"Stop running, the path has changed. We can't go back. Woof."

Indeed, it was impossible to run for five minutes without reaching the main burial chamber. While they were talking to Zhou Xia, the tomb passage had secretly changed. There were mechanisms here, and their series of explosions had awakened the tomb's defense systems.

In the blink of an eye, white vapor almost filled the entire tomb passage.

Han Rao estimated the distance to the rubble from Zhou Xia's explosion and quickly planted explosives on the ground.

"Never mind, let's blast an opening and go down!"

There was no other choice now. They could only hope they were far enough away that the explosion wouldn't affect the already precarious structure near Zhou Xia. Han Rao set up the explosives and pulled Sang Xu into a corner. In the thick white smoke, Sang Xu seemed to see a slender figure appear at the end of the tomb passage.

Sang Xu wondered if he was hallucinating from holding his breath and lack of oxygen.

But the figure looked incredibly real, wearing an elaborate dress and a heavy headpiece of gold and silver.

It looked very much like the princess from the golden vase painting.

Just as he was about to take a closer look, Han Rao pressed his head down with one hand and detonated the explosives with the other.

A deafening explosion rang out, and Sang Xu felt a shockwave hit him from behind. It felt like being crushed by a steel plate, leaving him unable to move. The tomb shook violently, and for a moment, Sang Xu felt as if someone was standing in front of him. Then something clattered to the ground right before him. He reached out and touched it, grabbing a piece of skirt. His heart sank, and he quickly let go. His hand then brushed against a cold, round bead.

The size and texture were familiar—it was Zhou Xia's corpse worm bead!

When he looked up again, there was nothing—no silk skirt, no figure. Sang Xu looked left and right but saw no trace of the slender figure.

Beneath them came the sound of cracking and splitting. Han Rao shouted, "It's collapsing!"

Sang Xu quickly pocketed the Worm Bead. The next moment, the ground beneath them suddenly gave way, and both fell downward. After finally reaching the next level, huge stones fell from above, and the tomb passage cracked again, causing them to fall further. In the chaos, Han Rao shot a grappling hook upward, hooking onto something—who knows what—barely stopping their fall. As Sang Xu fell, he swiftly grabbed Han Rao's ankle, and the two swung in mid-air like pendulums.

Rubble fell around them incessantly. Sang Xu looked down but saw only darkness.

"Brother Han, did you just see a woman walk up to us?" Sang Xu asked quietly.

"No, handsome, are you delirious? Woof—" Han Rao slapped himself again. "Are you thinking about women? Don't worry, I won't tell Mr. Zhou. Can you see the ground? How far are we from it?"

Han Rao's senses were definitely sharper than his now. If someone had really walked up to them, Han Rao would have noticed.

Was there really no one? Sang Xu touched the translucent Worm Bead in his pocket, frowning deeply. If there was no one, where did this corpse worm bead come from?

Sang Xu had lost his flashlight in the explosion. Han Rao pulled a glow stick from his backpack and handed it to Sang Xu. Sang Xu bent the glow stick, and it emitted a cold, faint light. He dropped it downward, and it fell only about a person's height before landing on the ground.

In the center of the glow, lying in the murky water, was a stark white human skeleton. The skeleton wore a tattered jacket and a gun belt—clearly not an ancient corpse from the tomb but a modern person.

The two looked ahead and saw that the drainage layer was densely packed with skeletons.

Author's Note:

The most studious person in this story: Zhou Xia.