Chapter 1232: I Want to Make You Stay (110)
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
“He doesn’t dare to go in because he’s an ordinary person, just like the rest of the archeological team. They can’t see the things that I can. They don’t possess the supernatural powers that I do either. The corpses that they had found by the lake were all intact and did not fester. The conditions of the soil here allow the corpses to be perfectly preserved, so it’s highly likely that there’s something amiss with this tomb. If the tomb wasn’t located here, I wouldn’t have entered at all. However, I’m afraid that the zombie incident would happen again. Do you know how many lives will be lost should that happen?”
“Zombies? What zombies?” Henry asked with a look of astonishment.
“You have no idea because it happened a while ago near Beiying. There were lots of casualties. The mutated corpse that started it all was found right here. The government secretly sent troops to annihilate the infected individuals. None of the media broadcasting companies had dared to report about the incident. Although rumors had begun spreading amongst the public, there were still no official news about the matter. The government didn’t want the citizens to be frightened.”
An Xiaoning stared out of the window and continued, “It’s really strange, though. This area is near the lake and humidity levels are so high. It’s the optimal condition for bacteria to grow, yet the soil here is so special. Perhaps there’s nothing wrong with that tomb and the members of the archeological team simply got lost inside and couldn’t find their way out. We can’t be certain or assume that there are supernatural beings inside since no one else has entered. I still think that I should go in to take a look.”
“Aren’t you afraid of dying? Even if it’s unknown if there are any harmful beings in there, it’s very likely that there are things that could kill you. Are you really not afraid?”
“Even then, I still want to go in.” She took a deep breath and continued, “I’ve already made up my mind.”
“You’re so thick in the head. Even if the zombie incident occurs again, so what? You weren’t the cause of it anyway.”
“If I can prevent it from happening, why not? Take the previous incident for an example. If preventive measures were taken beforehand, so many innocent lives wouldn’t have been lost. Gu Beicheng and Lin Mingxi were at Beiying back then too. They could have died if I hadn’t managed to save them. This concerns the safety of everyone, including my family, friends, and loved ones, so I’ll definitely prevent it if I can. I just think it’s a very meaningful thing to do. It’s so obvious that you’re Henry. Qingyan definitely wouldn’t have said those callous things that you did just now.”
Just as Henry was about to reply to her, she pushed the door open and alighted from the car.
Upon hearing her answer, Wang Jinsheng asked, “Ms. An, could you record a video of yourself…”
“What video?”
“A video of you declaring that should you meet with any mishap, the archeological team will have nothing to do with it, and we won’t be held accountable. We still want to live…”
“…”
Noticing that An Xiaoning was remaining silent, Wang Jinsheng said awkwardly, “Of course, we don’t want anything to happen to you. However, we still have families to feed…”
“How about you guys just dismiss yourselves and leave?” said An Xiaoning, who could not help but feel annoyed despite finding his words to have made sense.
“Leave?”
“Yes, you and your team may stay out of this from now on. It’ll no longer have anything to do with you guys. No one will hold you liable even if I die here. Leave.”
Upon hearing her words, Wang Jinsheng dared not utter another word and stood rooted to the ground.
An Xiaoning gestured for him to leave and said, “What are you waiting for? Go.”
“Ms. An, we’ll excuse ourselves now, then?”
“Yes, you may go.”
The archeological team soon got inside their car and left. An Xiaoning removed the surveillance cameras and stopped monitoring the archeological team’s progress.
Noticing that she was about to enter, Henry grabbed her arm and asked, “Are you not going to consider it again carefully?”
“No. Wait for me here. I’ll be out very soon.”
“I’ll wait for you for half an hour.”
“Yes.”
An Xiaoning put on the headlamp to guide herself in the pitch-dark cave. There was no light at all and she would not be able to see even with her night vision goggles.
She began walking inside via the square entrance.
There was an indescribable odor in the air, and An Xiaoning instinctively covered her nose with her handkerchief while making her way down the stairs.
She had once entered Nan Chuang’s tomb in V Nation and thus was a little experienced.
Although she was not cold at all, she could feel how humid it was inside.
The further she delved, the more she felt that there was something unusual that she had yet to discover.
The stairs were made of stone bricks that looked tattered and worn, perhaps because of all the wear and tear throughout the years.
An Xiaoning had been feeling tense throughout, and she could not relax at all.
When she reached the bottom, she was greeted with an astonishing sight.
It was indeed like a maze.
There were lots of doors in front of her.
Fortunately, she had come prepared with everything she needed.
She took out a large stack of amulets from her bag and pasted one on each door before walking in.
She made sure to leave marks along the path she took, so as to make it easier for her to find her way back. Yet, as soon as she entered, the amulets fell off the door and began drifting away.
Every amulet that she pasted fell off.
An Xiaoning continued to walk inside. However, she had no idea that she had already walked into a spell that made her slip into a trance.
She only discovered that something was amiss ten minutes after she entered.
After taking a few steps forward, she turned around to glance at the door, only to realize that the amulet that she had just pasted was now missing.
An Xiaoning thought that she was just hallucinating and thus continued walking back while trying to recall the route she had taken just now. To her astonishment, all of the markings that she had made were missing too.
She decided to leave.
Just like she had expected, things began to get more and more unusual.
Tried as she might, she could not seem to find her way out.
After scouring for a long while, An Xiaoning gave up on trying to go out and instead turned around to continue walking inside.
Soon, a bright light caught her attention.
An Xiaoning quickly strode toward it.
By the time she reached it, she discovered that the light source was above where she was. She looked up and moved her hand away from her nose.
There was a unique-looking coffin hanging on the wall facing the North.
The light was clearly emitted by the coffin.
The bottom of the coffin was made of stone bricks that were stacked together, measuring up to five meters.
An Xiaoning stepped forward to see that it was just like a building.
After observing it for a long while, she confirmed that there was no path that she could take to go up there.
However, she had to find a way to go up, so as to understand the situation.
An Xiaoning whipped out her rope from her waist. Fortunately, there was a thick metal rod holding the stone walls together that she could latch on to. Otherwise, there would completely be no way for her to move up.