Poisson coulé

Chapitre 9

Ants had already climbed onto the vehicle. The three mercenaries frantically tried to plug every gap, but it was all in vain. They could already hear the ants gnawing at the metal, like the howls of hungry ghosts coming from hell.

Min Eun-jun clenched his fists even tighter. He was unwilling to die like this. He hadn't even reached the sacred Buddhist cemetery yet! He hadn't fulfilled his dream!

Just then, a clear female voice came from outside the door.

"Strange, how come there are carnivorous ants here? Aren't there carnivorous ants in this desert?"

10. Desert man-eating ants

The four were startled. How could there be a girl here? Could she also be a ghost dwelling in this ghost city?

They heard footsteps, seemingly from two people, one slightly heavier, likely a tall man. As the footsteps drew closer, the ants around them began to stir, and their pace of gnawing on the metal sheet slowed.

"What kind of ant is this?" the girl's voice came again. "How come I've never seen this kind of man-eating ant before?"

"Is there any way to kill them?" a man's voice asked. The four exchanged glances and looked out the window. They saw a girl of about twenty years old standing in front of the courtyard gate, with another tall man in camouflage standing behind her. There wasn't a single man-eating ant within two meters of them.

"That's strange. If they were ordinary man-eating ants, they would retreat back to their nest as soon as they smelled me." The girl took a step forward, and the ants immediately retreated a distance, always staying two meters away from her.

Looking at the girl, Min Eun-joon's pupils suddenly dilated, and his gaze became even deeper, as deep as an immeasurable sea.

“It seems someone is trapped here,” the tall man said. “Xiao Li, if we don’t rescue them soon, all we’ll see are skeletons.”

"What does it matter, Xiang?" Yin Li gave a mischievous smile. "It's none of my business anyway."

Situ Xiang looked at her with his eyes half-closed. She rolled her eyes and said, "Okay, it's my fault, but I didn't bring that much insecticide."

Situ Xiang still stared at her with his eyes half-closed. She rolled her eyes again, said nothing more, and took out a small, dark red bottle from her bag, pouring some of the contents onto the ground. The carnivorous ants quickly stirred, as if summoned, surging towards the anthill. Their speed was so fast that they almost overlapped layer upon layer, and in less than a minute, they had all disappeared. In the large courtyard, only a few carnivorous ants, shot dead by Ma Xie's M16, remained.

"What kind of medicine is this? It's so effective!" Situ Xiang asked curiously.

"It's just a very ordinary medicine." Yin Li put a drop on the back of his hand and said, "Smell it."

Situ Xiang sniffed it but couldn't smell anything. Yin Li said, "Of course you can't smell it, but insects have a much more sensitive sense of smell than humans. This medicine is made from a herb called 'Lomby' from Africa. In this world, everything has its natural predator; wherever a species lives, there will always be its natural enemies, otherwise the ecosystem cannot be balanced. Lomby grows in areas where African man-eating ants are found and is often used to treat wounds from ant bites. I've never seen these man-eating ants before, and I thought it wouldn't be very effective."

"You said this medicine can treat man-eating ant poison?" Miller opened the car door and let Hughes help Matthew out. When Situ Xiang saw them, his face immediately changed. Yin Li noticed his gaze and saw the guns in their hands. A chill ran down her spine.

It seems they've run into trouble again.

“Man-eating ants are not poisonous.” Yin Li composed herself and forced a smile. “They don’t need to use poison to kill people.”

Miller looked at her expressionlessly and said, "Then, please take a look at his wound; it's clearly poisoned."

Although he spoke politely, the gun in his hand was anything but. Yin Li looked back at Situ Xiang, who nodded to her. Even if they could subdue them by taking action now, they probably wouldn't be able to get them safely back to the city.

Moreover, they came here to rescue Qin Wen, who had been kidnapped.

Helpless, Yin Li walked to Ma Xie's side, rolled up his trouser leg, and couldn't help but gasp. The ant bite wound had expanded to the size of a palm, with bluish-black edges and the center beginning to rot, revealing bloody muscle and a small piece of white bone, emitting a disgusting stench that made one want to vomit at just one glance.

Yin Li frowned: "How can man-eating ants be so venomous? How long have you been bitten?"

Marcie was deathly pale, his lips were black, and he was making gurgling noises in his throat, but he couldn't utter a complete sentence. Hughes said, "Less than ten minutes."

It rotted like this in just ten minutes? Yin Li's expression was solemn. Even the most venomous snake in the deep mountains of Yunnan, the Ghost Tail, didn't have such potent venom!

"How is it?" Miller asked. "Can it be cured?"

"I'll give it a try," Yin Li said. "Do you have a first-aid kit?"

Hughes opened the first-aid kit, and Yin Li glanced at it. It was just ordinary medicine. She sighed and said, "Never mind what I said, just leave it there. Give me a rope."

A hand emerged from the car, holding a rope. Yin Li thanked them and tied the rope around the wound to prevent blood from flowing into her heart. Then she removed her earring, looking with some reluctance at the liquid inside—a secret medicine she had carried with her since childhood. The Yin family was a family of traditional Chinese medicine practitioners; her maternal grandfather was practically a madman for the art, having developed many secret medicines unknown to outsiders. This liquid, capable of curing all poisons, was called "Queen Mother's Tears." Originally, there were two; the other was used in the princess's tomb. This was the only one left. She was reluctant to part with it, but the way of medicine is to save lives; how could she let someone die just because she couldn't bear to part with the medicine?

She gritted her teeth, bit the earring in her mouth until it broke, and then spat it onto the wound. A cool sensation immediately rose from the wound and spread throughout his body, greatly reducing the pain.

Marcel cleared his throat and found he could speak. He gave a bitter laugh and said, "When I get back, I must find a woman as soon as possible. I haven't been with a woman for half a year. I can't die such a pathetic death."

Yin Li rolled her eyes, then put on an innocent expression: "I regret to inform you that after being poisoned, you will probably never be able to find a woman again."

Upon hearing this, Marcie's face immediately turned ashen. Even when he saw the swarming man-eating ants that resembled an ocean, he had never shown such a desperate expression.

"Damn it! What's the point of me living? I might as well go see God!" Saying this, he was about to raise his gun to commit suicide when Situ Xiang got a headache and said, "Xiao Li, stop playing around."

"I'm very serious!" Yin Li glared at him. "Look at this wound."

With the medicinal properties of "Queen Mother's Tears", the swelling of the wound has subsided, and the originally dark surrounding area has returned to its flesh color. However, a long red line extends from the wound all the way down to below the knee.

"What is this?" Miller frowned. Yin Li's gaze slowly swept over the three of them. After a moment of silence, she said, "The Queen Mother's Tears can cure poison, but there is one thing that cannot be cured."

"What is that?"

"Resentment."

Miller and Hughes looked at each other, wondering if resentment could be poisonous.

“You mean—” Min Eun-joon, sitting in the shadows of the car, suddenly spoke, “the venom of these man-eating ants contains human resentment. Your medicine cured the poison, and that red thread is human resentment?”

“That’s right.” Yin Li nodded. “Resentment is a negative emotion that can hurt not only oneself but also others. That’s why the snakes, insects, and rodents that grow on the graves of the unjustly killed are several times more venomous than ordinary ones, because they have absorbed the resentment of the dead.”

“That’s superstition,” Situ Xiang interjected.

Yin Li laughed: "Superstition? What is superstition? The word superstition itself is a creation of humankind. There are many things in this world that humans do not understand, but that doesn't mean they don't exist. Humans should be more humble and not categorize everything they cannot understand as superstition."

Situ Xiang was speechless. The series of bizarre events that occurred three years ago, triggered by the sacred cemetery of the pagoda, could not be explained by science.

“I don’t know what happened in this city, but I’m sure many people have died. The resentment of these people that has lasted for thousands of years is terrifying. I’m sorry, I can’t help it.” Yin Li shrugged helplessly and sighed to Ma Xie. “This red line will start from the wound and spread upwards until it reaches the heart. No one knows what will happen then.”

Despair was evident on Miller's and Hughes' faces. Marshall smiled bitterly, threw away the gun; he no longer needed it.

“It seems you know a lot about traditional Chinese medicine.” Min Eun-joon finally got out of the car, and when Eun-rye saw him, she was stunned.

It wasn't because of his stunningly beautiful appearance, nor because of his nonchalant smile, but because of fear—a deep-seated, unforgettable fear.

Situ Xiang walked over, put his arm around her shoulder, and said, "Xiao Li, what's wrong? Are you cold?"

Yin Li trembled uncontrollably as she stared at Min Enjun, and it took her a long time to finally speak: "No... I'm just a little scared."

"What are you afraid of?" Situ Xiang glanced at the beautiful man. Although his eyes told him that he was very shrewd, it was not enough to make people so afraid.

"have no idea……"

"Don't be afraid, I'm here." Situ Xiang pulled her behind him and said to Min Enjun, "Hello, my name is Situ Xiang. May I ask your name, sir?"

A chilling gaze swept across his face. Situ Xiang frowned, his hand slowly moving to his waist, where a Swiss Army knife was concealed. The hostility in this man's eyes was so obvious that he even suspected he might draw a gun and shoot himself at any moment.

But Min Eun-joon didn't do that. He extended his hand in a very friendly manner, shook hands with him, and said, "I am Min Eun-joon. Is this your girlfriend?"

Situ Xiang grasped Yin Li's hand and said, "Yes."

Do you know where this is?

“I know, Devil City.” Situ Xiang told Yin Li to bandage Ma Xie’s wound. “At least it was yesterday.”

"Since you know where this place is, you still dare to come." Min Eun-joon revealed a charming smile. "It seems you are more than just tourists."

Situ Xiang paused for a moment and then said, "We're here to find someone."

Looking for someone?

Miller tightened his grip on the gun, waiting for him to continue.

“A girl.” Situ Xiang glanced sideways at Miller beside him. “Her name is Qin Wen.”

All four of them showed surprise, exchanged glances, and remained silent. Min Eun-joon asked with a smile, "How are you so sure she's here?"

“There’s a campervan converted from a van parked outside the castle,” Situ Xiang said. “We inquired before we entered the desert and found out that she was taken away by a man named Antonio Caesar, who drives one of these kinds of vehicles.”

“A smart man.” Min Eun-joon’s lips curled into a captivating smile. “The girl you’re looking for is in this city.”

Yin Li was startled and quickly sat up straight. Forgetting her fear, she anxiously asked, "Where is Xiao Wen?"

“I’ll take you to her,” Min Enjun said. Yin Li nodded quickly. Hughes asked, “What about Marcie? Is he really just waiting to die?”

“It’s not entirely impossible,” Yin Li hesitated for a moment before saying, “but it’s very difficult.”

Miller remained expressionless: "Go ahead and say it."

"Once the resentment is eliminated, this line will naturally disappear."

How to eliminate it?

"Find the root cause of this city's death."

Miller and Hughes clearly did not believe it. Having made war their way of survival, they simply did not believe that there was a soul after death. Otherwise, wouldn't they have been killed by vengeful ghosts long ago?

Yin Li shrugged helplessly: "This is indeed unbelievable, and I don't know if it will work."

The two looked back at Masha's well-bandaged wound, the red stitches extending to his knee.

"Okay, let's go."

Hughes helped Matthew, and the six of them returned to the tower. The murals on the walls were still vibrant, but Yin Li had no interest in admiring them. Along the way, Min Enjun recounted everything that had happened in the city, sending chills down the spines of the two. This city was even more dangerous than Princess Zhaoling's tomb. When the topic of the curse came up, Yin Li's face turned pale with anger. She had heard of this curse before; it was called "Twins." The cursed person had a scorpion living inside their heart, and if they were to stray too far from the scorpion's owner, the scorpion would devour their heart and crawl out of their chest.

How despicable!

“Look, that’s where they disappeared.” Min Eun-joon pointed to the wall in front of him, which was painted with a scene of the apocalypse. Yin Li walked over and carefully touched it. She found no mechanism or clues. Could this city really be a city of demons, where even a perfectly good road can disappear?

“The city of Saka was destroyed by the Romodo man-eating ants. We have found the cause of the city's death, so why hasn't the resentment disappeared?” Marcie asked, his trousers rolled up, the red thread extending above his knees.

“There could never be any man-eating ants here.” Yin Li interrupted him. “This desert simply does not have the conditions for man-eating ants to survive. It must have been more than 2,400 years ago that someone placed Romodo here, which caused this tragedy.”

"You mean we need to find the bastard who released the ants?"

"Maybe so." Yin Li sighed. In the end, she was still not skilled enough. If her grandfather were here, it would be very easy to cure Ma Xie's poison.

Situ Xiang grabbed her arm and pulled her to his side. Yin Li looked at him strangely: "What's wrong?"

“Shadows…” Situ Xiang’s face was very ugly. Yin Li gasped. Miller and the other two’s expressions changed drastically. They looked around and saw that many dark figures had appeared on the walls at some point, holding gleaming daggers in their hands.

"We are surrounded."

XI. Human Skin Shadow Puppetry

Qin Wen felt a tightness in her chest, as if something had tugged at her. Caesar turned around and said, "What's wrong? Is your heart still hurting?"

"It's none of your business!" Qin Wen retorted forcefully. This feeling was strange. Since childhood, she seemed to have a special ability: whenever someone important to her was in danger, she would feel a tightness in her chest.

Could it be... Xiao Li?

She looked up and saw a stone door carved with a black bird. At the junction of the two stone doors was carved the Tai Chi symbol, which was slightly different from the Tai Chi diagram popular today. It should be the ancient Tai Chi diagram created by Fuxi. "Heaven commanded the black bird to descend and give birth to Shang." In the legend of the Shang Dynasty, Jian Di swallowed the black bird's egg and gave birth to Qi, who was the ancestor of the Yin Shang Dynasty.

The scene before her suddenly changed, and she saw the resolute young man again, dressed in a magnificent robe with a cross-collar and right-fastening, smiling proudly at her: "Kui Ji, come with me to the Chengtian Terrace. It is an altar built by the generations of kings of my Saka City to worship our ancestors and the heavens. One day, I will make you my queen here."

The two soldiers behind him each inlaid a black and a white jade disc into the yin and yang of the Tai Chi symbol. The door slowly opened, and a ray of dawn slowly shone in through the crack, dazzling her eyes.

My heart aches. Ziyin, are you really Ziyin? I'm sorry, I was just using you. I want revenge, revenge for Zhenyan. You'll never live to see that day. The day you send your troops will be the end of Saka City.

The scene shifts again, and she is jolted back to reality, where only Caesar and Manra stand before her.