Folk Strange Stories Part 1: The Witch Ancestor of Miao Township Chapter 7 Section 3: The Head Tower

I suddenly had a thought. The face from earlier didn't seem like a ghostly entity. With my experience, when we confronted each other just now, "it" didn't show any expression, unlike the ones I had encountered before that were more expressive. This face seemed like a sign, a landmark.

A landmark! I realized. This time, I didn't dare to alarm Lao Wang. I tried it out on my own. Recalling my earlier actions, I placed my hand on the wall and brought my face a bit closer. As expected, a green-glowing face appeared again in front of me. "Captain Wang."

Lao Wang turned to look at me with impatience. "What's it now?"

"Nothing." He still couldn't see it. I forced a smile. "Just wondering if you found the hidden door."

"Of course! Can't you look for yourself? If we found it, would we still be wandering around here?"

"Thanks for your hard work."

"Are you crazy?"

The face was still visible only to me. Most likely, "it" was the mechanism to open the door. But how should I open this door? Hmm? "Its" eyes and other parts of the face were a bit different. The face was green, but the eyes were hollow, despite the two bloodstains below the eye sockets. It didn't quite match.

I hesitated for a moment, gritted my teeth, and extended two fingers toward the eyes of the face. My fingers encountered no resistance; they slipped directly into the eye sockets of the face. The glass-like wall rippled at the position of my fingers, as if dropping two pebbles into a calm lake, creating ripples.

Damn, could this still be called a wall? I quickly pulled my fingers out. In the instant my fingers left the wall, the entire wall began to sink slowly. I wasn't slow to react; I immediately found cover and aimed my gun at the opposite side of the wall. Lao Wang bent over and darted to my side. "What did you do?"

"Do you think I did this?" I looked innocently at him. "I was wondering the same thing. Suddenly, the entire wall started sinking. I thought it was you guys."

"Really?" Lao Wang looked doubtful. I changed the subject. "Enough talking. Be cautious on that side of the wall."

The wall finally descended completely, revealing inside not the crates of drugs I had imagined, nor Mott, Fatty, and others in the middle of a transaction. Looking at the scene before us, the seven of us were stunned. Liu Jingsheng exclaimed, "Damn, what kind of place is this?" I murmured, "Hell."

Inside the wall was a grand hall. Right in the center was a pool of dark brown liquid emitting a foul smell, flowing slowly. In the middle of the hall was a tower built with human heads. The walls depicted almost all forms of extreme torture imaginable, including skinning, dismemberment, and quartering... At the end of the hall, two mummies sat side by side. Unlike the previous one I saw, these two were whole, with all parts intact. They were dressed in white robes, both with their hands raised to the sky, as if praying to the heavens. Dozens of lanterns were placed around the hall, their green flames flickering up and down, creating a heart-pounding sight.

The scene at that moment was eerily quiet. I could even hear my own heart pounding. After about half a minute, Lao Wang spoke first, "This is probably an ancient tomb; it has nothing to do with us. Let it be left for archaeological research in the future. Don't just stand there foolishly; let's get to work and see where our target figures came from." After saying that, he walked into the grand hall, and we followed, checking for any trace left behind by Mott and the others.

From the moment I stepped into the grand hall, I felt that a pair of eyes were fixed on me from the shadows. The closer I got to those two mummies, the stronger this sensation became. Damn it, most likely "it" had fixed its gaze on me. After I almost got possessed by a water ghost last time, Uncle Three took me home to meet the bald old Taoist, who gave me some emergency methods. If I encountered a similar situation again, I was supposed to act as if everything was normal, not panic, and definitely not give any signals that I could see "it." Then I should find a place where men were gathered (to use their yang energy to counteract the yin spirits). As a last resort, I was to curse loudly—anything nasty I could think of—bringing in all sorts of ancestors and curses. Spirits were afraid of bad people; sometimes, this technique worked the best.