Chapter 1: An Umbrella in the rain

 Chapter 1: An Umbrella in the rain

    The truth of this world is often invisible, buried deeply underground by the wind and sand of countless passing years.

Jiang Zhu didn’t believe in these things before, as there are so many unknown things in the world, but now he is forced to believe them.

Jiang Zhu took out his mobile phone and dialed 110.

“I’m going to call the police.”

“This is the cliff of the Hanging Coffin scenic area in Huang He, and a sarcophagus fell from the cliff.”

“A corpse, an undead, crawled out of it, and it’s biting people and tearing their bodies apart.”

Jiang Zhu hung up the phone after he finished speaking because… even he knows that he sounded like a lunatic.

Screams and cries of pain came together, the desire to survive, the fear in their desperate situation, it’s impossible not to react.

They resisted and struggled, but it had no effect. The undead seemed like it has an infinite amount of power, and it can’t die no matter how hard they fight.

In the end, several young men decided to lead the undead away from the old people, children and women, hoping… that they will survive and tell everyone about the incredible experience they have seen, take it as a warning and fear the unknown.

But now its all over, they’re forced into a closed canyon with nowhere to escape.

“What now?” They felt braved for a while, making a heroic decision in the heat of the moment but now only fear and helplessness are left.

“We will die, and I don’t know if anyone will remember us.” Remorse can be seen on some people’s faces, but this is just human nature.

“Heh heh!” A roar like broken bellows could be heard, like a hiss of a monsters, and it came from the undead not too far away.

The reason why they have been able to escape until now is because every time the undead kills a person, it will tear them into pieces first, until the rotten flesh loses its last vitality before continuing to chase the next person.

The scene was like a purgatory, horrible and disgusting. There were originally dozens of them when they lead away the undead, but now there are only five people left and they saw with their own eyes the whole process of death of those who was not able to follow.

Every scene shook their souls, until they do not even have the will to resist, and some even prefer to commit suicide than being torn apart by the undead.

The psychological defense line is so close to breaking and the only reason it hasn’t completely collapse is because the current desperate situation makes everyone tense their nerve, and Jiang Zhu is sure that when he relaxes, it will be the beginning of a metal torture.

Jiang Zhu was still calm, he grew up in an orphanage, experience coldness and warmth that ordinary people could not imagine and was also best at observing the situation. He investigated the depth of the canyon and said, “There seems to be a cave there, let’s go in and hide.”

In this closed valley, it is their only retreat.

The cave is somewhat dark and narrow.

The man behind was preparing to squeeze into the cave, “This hole is small, we can block it with stones and maybe we can delay some time and wait for rescue.”

Jiang Zhu couldn’t help but look back at the person who spoke. His name was Ji Yan, and he doesn’t look very old, he had only retired from the army recently, and it was his proposal to lead away the undead to give more people a chance to live.

There are a few stones around them, which should have fallen from a landslide, just like the sarcophagus that was shaken off the cliff of Huang He, and the entrance of this cave may also have been revealed because of that.

The five men hurriedly lifted the pile of stones.

When the stone pile sealed the entrance to the cave, the light inside became dimmer.

“Hey, there seems to be a painting on the wall.”

Jiang Zhu took out his mobile phone to turn on the flashlight.

The painting on the wall seems very old and the content is barely visible, depicting the process of stitching a human head and the body of the beast together for form a new monster, as if performing some evil ritual.

“Legend has it that in ancient times, there were gods, and the gods mostly appear in front of people in the form of a beast with a human head, so in order to express their longing for the gods, the ancient ancestors would cut off the head of the tribesmen after their death and stitch them in the bodies of beast, which is a custom during the tribal period.”

“These murals should be a record of this custom.”

The person who spoke was a shy looking young man wearing glasses, with an elegant and well-mannered bearing.

“My name is Zhou Tongwen, I’m a student studying history and my research is usually around these ancient customs.”

The five survivors, including Jiang Zhu continued to walk towards the depth of the cave with the help of the light from their mobile phone. The undead was like a dried-up mummy with only skins and bones and its eyes are empty like two recessed black hole. It should not rely on its eyes so the farther they are away from the undead corpse, the lower the possibility that it will catch up.

The size of the cave can only accommodate one person, but it went much deeper than expected.

The murals on the walls continued.

“Such a large and magnificent murals are also very rare among murals that have been discovered.”

"It’s a historical wonder, with immense archeological value.”

Zhong Tongwen muttered.

Jiang Zhu sighed. What a hardcore nerd, thinking about the historical and archeological value of these murals, when their survival chance is unknown.

Jiang Zhu also glanced at the murals and his footsteps suddenly stopped.

“What’s wrong?” Ji Yan, who was walking at the end of the line behind several people, asked.

Jiang Zhu pointed to the murals, “Look, the murals has changed.”

The mural on the walls became a picture of a battle, the monster flying in the sky has a human head with a bird’s body, which should be the same type of monster that has stitched a human head and the body of the beast that was depicted in the earlier murals.

On the ground were sarcophagus with countless undead corpse crawling out of it one after another and fighting the monsters in the sky.

All the five of them were silent. If they haven’t encountered the undead corpse before, they might have just thought that these murals were full of whimsical fantasy and admires the imagination of the ancient humans.

“Did the history recorded in these murals really happened?”

“We have seen the undead corpse crawling out of the sarcophagus. Does that mean that such monster with a human head and beast body also exist? What are they? Is that monster really has been stitched up?”

How is this possible? Modern medicine debunked the concept of head replacement, not to mention the incredible cross-species combination of a human head and animal body.

The contents of the murals are truly shocking and unbelievable.

Not only Jiang Zhu, but also several other people at this time also felt that perhaps there was really an unknown history that really existed, but for some reason, it was sealed up forever, and it was only at this time that a real corner of it has been revealed to the world.

No one knows whether the unknown history is good or bad for the people today, but the thought of it makes them breathless.

At this time, there was a sudden “banging” sound, which was particularly clear in the narrow cave. It was the sound of the stone pile being pushed and rolled to the ground.

All five of them trembled a little, before they reacted.

“Go!”

Running forward, they no longer cared about any murals.

After running for about five minutes, the scene in front of them suddenly opened up and a huge space embedded in the mountain was presented to them.

“It doesn’t look like it was naturally formed.”

If it is artificially dug and chiseled, how can such a large project be done with the backward tools and productivity in ancient times?

The space in front of them is very large, and the light is very dim, you can vaguely see platform on the ground, extending to the dark distance, and the platform is surrounded by a bottomless abyss. Of course, the reason may also be because the light is too weak to see the bottom.

“It’s weird.”

“Who built this? What was the purpose of construction?”

“Even in modern times, such a project can be called an engineering miracle.”

Jiang Zhu looked around and continued along the platform.

Ji Yan said, “Be careful.”

Jiang Zhu did not answer.

The others were silent for a moment and followed. They have no way of retreat.

The psychological shadow caused by the undead corpse far surpassed their fear of the unknown.

It took abut two minutes to walk to the end of the platform.

“Dead end?”

“What’s the point of this platform protruding from a cliff?”

Jiang Zhu walked in front, his line of sight is the farthest, and in front of him, there is an elevated wide stone platform. Because of the weak light, it’s not obvious in the dark.

Jiang Zhu’s heart thumped, an altar?

On the stone platform, there seemed to be a flashing weak ghostly light, which looked a little strange.

A mirror? A light reflected in a mirror? Or a kind of ore that reflects low light?

Jiang Zhu couldn’t help to reach out and probe, only to touched the ghostly light and then the excruciating pain as if his hand was dip in rolling oil appeared in his whole palm.

The stinging pain felt like it came from his soul.

Because of his special growth experience, Jiang Zhu’s personality belong t the kind of person who can be particularly tolerant, but at this time, the feeling of pain that reach deep in his bone marrow can’t help but make him exhale in agony.

Several people gathered around him, “What’s wrong?”

“Hands!”

Someone took out his phone and directed the flashlight to it.

Jiang Zhu’s muscles were spasming in pain, but when he opened his eyes to look at the palm of his hand, he was stunned. There was no burn, his palm looked good, but there was an extra tattoo of a gate with the sun, moon and stars merged into his palm and the color was particularly dark and conspicuous.

“It’s the first time I’ve seen someone with a tattoo in the palm of their hand.”

Jiang Zhu: “…”

What’s going on?

He was sure that he didn’t have a permanent tattoo in his palm before entering the cave.

That is to say, it appeared after he touched the stone platform, the altar, just now. What is this? The tattoo technique of the ancient ancestors??

While in a daze, the sound of “heh heh” suddenly came to the ear.

Everything happened to fast and before they could react, a fierce black shadow pounced to them and their nose was full of the smell of a fishy rotten flesh and a strong smell of blood.

Their pupils constricted violently. It was the undead corpse!

With phone in hand, the light trembled.

Jiang Zhu was originally in front but now several people came forward to see what happened, but it exposed him to the undead corpse.

The power of flesh and blood being torn apart and the strange strength of the undead corpse that can even cut stone was now so close to his body.

He’s really going to die! This time, he felt the horror in the hearts of those who has just died.

The roar of the undead corpse, this monster, was so frightening that people didn’t even have the strength to move.

At this moment, a figure suddenly crashed into the undead pulling it away with all his strength.

It’s Ji Yan!

But how come a human’s meager power be compared with that monster. Almost instantaneously, Ji Yan’s arm was scratched by the claws of the undead corpse and several deep bloody holes with the bones almost visible appeared. The wound was a mess, like a chopped tofu.

Jiang Zhu was stunned and he didn’t know where the strength came from, but he tried to get up and used his whole body and hugged the undead corpse, pushed it away from Ji Yan and together, they fell towards the abyss.

Because he has experienced a lot since he was a child, he was more grateful to anyone who help held up an umbrella for him when it rained.

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