Salle de classe 407

Chapitre 9

"Mountain Tiger! You've gone mad!" the fourth brother roared. "What the hell is going on? You're still playing the hero! You're just a tomb raider! Not Lei Feng!"

Situ Xiang frowned even more deeply. He knew that the fourth brother and Shan Hu were usually the closest, like brothers. At this moment, he must feel even worse than if he had been bitten by a snake. However, even a celestial being might not be able to save Shan Hu now.

"Damn it!" Yin Li stomped her foot angrily, and without thinking, jumped into the cave. Everyone was stunned at first, and when they came to their senses, she had already landed on the hard stone slab at the bottom of the cave, the fall making her gasp in pain.

"Xiao Li! Are you crazy? Why did you jump down? Isn't it chaotic enough already?" Qin Wen was so anxious that she wanted to cry. Her hands, which were handcuffed behind her back, struggled desperately, trying to break free from the cold shackles, until bright red blood seeped from her delicate wrists.

"Of course I came down to save people!" Yin Li didn't have time to explain to her, and struggled to get up from the ground. She glanced at the snake stuck in the ground with the dagger, walked over, grabbed the handle of the knife, and pulled with all her might. She pulled until her cheeks were red and her hands were weak, but she couldn't move it an inch.

"Damn it! It's so tightly tied!" She gritted her teeth and continued to pull, but still couldn't get it out. Qin Wen turned around and said, "Move aside." Then she grabbed the knife handle with her handcuffed behind her back, pulled hard, and with a low thud, the dagger was pulled out.

Yin Li had no time to praise her divine power. She pulled the venomous snake from the dagger, cut open its body with the knife, removed its gall bladder, placed it on Shan Hu's wound, and squeezed it hard.

Shan Hu let out a miserable cry, beads of sweat the size of soybeans appearing on his forehead. The dark green fluid from the snake gall seeped into his wound, hissing softly and even emitting a puff of black smoke. Instantly, a nauseatingly sweet and pungent stench filled the air. Bai Yun Ning and Zhang Yuan Yuan, outside the cave, were clearly disgusted by the smell, covering their mouths and noses and retreating to the wall.

"How is he? Is he alright?" Qin Wen asked Yin Li anxiously.

"Not enough!" Yin Li frowned, took a shoelace from her handbag, and tied it tightly around Shan Hu's arm to stop the poisonous blood from flowing to his heart. She removed her left earring, which had a small, pale pink pearl pendant. But upon closer inspection, one would discover that the pink color was actually a liquid, completely filled with it. With a gentle shake, a tiny bubble would rise to the surface.

Qin Wen had been wearing this earring ever since she met Yin Li. She never even took it off while showering, and she had never suspected anything about it. Only today, upon seeing it, did she suddenly realize that there was a hidden secret behind the earring.

Yin Li raised her head and looked at Shan Hu. His face was deathly pale, as if he were enduring immense pain. She gazed at him for a long time before finally saying, "You should be glad you made that choice."

After saying this, he put the pendant in his mouth and bit it open. He bent down and spat the liquid from his mouth onto the wound. Shanhu immediately felt a cool sensation spreading from his arm; the previous pain seemed to disappear in an instant, leaving only a pleasant coolness coursing through his veins. Before long, his whole body was enveloped in this comfortable coolness. He felt as if he were lying in a summer lake, surrounded by lotus flowers, with huge lotus leaves almost completely covering the surface of the lake, on which beautiful, diamond-like water droplets rolled.

Suddenly, all the comfort vanished in an instant. He jolted awake and saw Yin Li bandaging his arm with clean white gauze. The previously swollen wound had subsided, and the spiderweb-like veins had returned to normal.

He was so shocked he couldn't speak. When he gave Qin Wen the snake-repelling pills, he had already prepared himself for certain death. But now, escaping from the clutches of death so easily, he felt like he was dreaming.

"All done." After the bandage was finished, Yin Li finally breathed a sigh of relief. As she stood up, the snakes huddled in the corner immediately stirred, scrambling to push back as if they wanted to crawl into the wall, seemingly extremely wary of her.

At this moment, Qin Wen suddenly remembered that in the four years she had known Yin Li, no matter how hot the summer was or how rampant the flies and mosquitoes were in the dormitory, she had never seen any bumps or marks from mosquito bites on Yin Li's body. It was as if there was a thin membrane around her body, carefully protecting her from mosquitoes!

Yin Li looked up and saw Situ Xiang's icy green eyes. She suddenly wondered why, no matter where she was, the first thing she saw was always his eyes.

"Drop the key to the handcuffs!" Yin Li said. "Otherwise, we won't be able to get out!"

Situ Xiang was silent for a moment, then took out his keys from his jacket pocket. Just as he was about to throw them down, Jack grabbed him, saying, "Brother Xiang, you'd better think this through. This little girl is not easy to deal with."

“No,” he glanced at Yin Li meaningfully, “it should be these two little girls who are not easy to deal with. I never expected that such a small, unknown archaeological team would have two such people. I’ve really opened my eyes today.”

Professor Li frowned, clearly disgusted by the phrase "unknown." However, being well-mannered and under duress, he swallowed back the sarcastic remark that was on the tip of his tongue. Yin Li, her face grim, said, "Weren't you going to the tomb to find burial goods? What are you waiting for! Hurry up and throw down the keys, don't waste time!"

Her attitude was firm, practically screaming "I'm busy." Jack was about to say something when Situ Xiang raised his hand to stop him. He threw the key into the hole, where it landed squarely among the snakes, and said coldly, "If you want the key, go get it."

A flash of anger shot through Yin Li's eyes as she glared fiercely at Situ Xiang, but she didn't lash out. Jack crossed his arms, a mysterious smile on his face, watching the spectacle with an air of indifference. Seeing Yin Li's face so sour it could suffocate flies, Qin Wen quickly said, "I'll go pick them up."

"No need!" Yin Li snorted coldly and walked towards the key. The venomous snakes that had been coiled around the key retreated to both sides like a tide, and the iron key lay quietly on the ground, very docile.

She calmly picked up the key and unlocked Qin Wen's handcuffs. A ring of bloodstains already marked Qin Wen's wrists; the blood had congealed and clung to her fair skin, a heartbreaking sight.

"Lower the rope!" Yin Li shouted, her voice filled with hostility. "If we can't get out, your brothers won't get out either!"

Situ Xiang's face was cold, his green eyes even deeper: "I can pull you up, but you must tell me who you really are."

21. Skeleton Formation

Yin Li's expression remained unchanged as she calmly said, "Who am I? Ridiculous! I am, of course, myself! An ordinary college graduate. What? Do you want me to introduce myself?"

"How could an ordinary college student know about the extinct venomous snake Salang? And possess these strange medicines?" Situ Xiang sneered. "Are you trying to fool a three-year-old?"

A flicker of surprise crossed Yin Li's eyes as she calmly said, "My maternal grandfather was a traditional Chinese medicine doctor his whole life. He raised me. How could I face him if I couldn't even tell the types of venomous snakes? As for those medicines, they were given to me by my grandfather. You should thank me. Snake-repelling pills are just ordinary medicine; I've been taking them since I was a child, so it's nothing special. But the 'Queen Mother's Tears' for your brother is the best of the best. It's a miraculous elixir that my grandfather researched for many years and was able to cure all poisons. Even I myself have always been reluctant to take it. If it weren't for the 'Queen Mother's Tears,' your brother would have died long ago."

Situ Xiang hesitated for a moment, then finally said, "Fourth brother, bring the rope over."

"Okay." The fourth brother took off the hemp rope that was wrapped diagonally around his body. Situ Xiang tied one end around his waist and threw the other end into the hole, saying, "Come out."

Yin Li gestured to Qin Wen with her chin, indicating that she should go first. Qin Wen didn't like to act like those idiotic heroines in tragic dramas, sweetly declining. Without thinking, she walked over, grabbed the rope, and used her feet to push off the wall, jumping out of the hole with surprisingly little effort.

"It's your turn," Yin Li said to Shan Hu. "Hurry up, I don't want to waste time."

Shanhu was extremely displeased with her tone and said irritably, "I won't walk ahead of a woman!"

A hint of goodwill welled up in Yin Li's heart, but she still said in a firm tone, "I will not walk in front of the injured! What are you doing, a grown man, being so fussy!" With that, she put the rope around his waist and had Situ Xiang and the others pull him out together.

Finally, it was Yin Li's turn. As she tied the rope around her waist, she looked at the snakes. A flood of questions arose in her mind: when exactly were these snakes released in? If it was two thousand years ago, there probably wouldn't even be any snake bones left by now. But there seemed to be no way out of this cave; how did the snakes get in and out? Moreover, they had been extinct for over four hundred years.

She suddenly developed a strong interest in the tomb; curiosity is a good thing.

Situ Xiang began to pull her outwards with force, and she tried her best to imitate Qin Wen's movements by kicking against the stone wall. It was at this moment that she realized that people who had practiced martial arts were indeed different from those who hadn't.

Halfway up, she suddenly heard a rumbling sound beneath her feet. When she turned around, her face turned deathly pale.

Gone! The stone floor of the cave was gone. Below lay a deeper, more complete blackness!

What... what's going on? Where's the floor? Where did the floor go? Could there be another underground cave beneath this one?

Everyone's expression changed. Situ Xiang clearly sped up, gripping the rope tightly. People rushed to help, but the tomb passage shook violently. One person lost their footing and fell hard. Zhang Yuanyuan landed right at Situ Xiang's feet, her forehead hitting his knee. He was startled, cried out, and almost flew through the air.

Yin Li suddenly felt a lightness all over her body as she watched Situ Xiang fall. She screamed in disbelief; the two of them were now in the same boat, falling together into the deeper darkness!

"Xiao Li!" Qin Wen cried out in alarm, rushing to the cave entrance. Her voice carried on, but only a hoarse echo could be heard. The pitch-black cave seemed like a dead end.

"Xiao Li! Answer me quickly!" Qin Wen felt like she was going crazy. She got up and tried to jump down, but Professor An Li and Guo Tong hugged her from behind: "Xiao Qin, don't do anything rash. Going down now won't help!"

"Let me go! I need to go down and save Xiao Li!" Qin Wen swept her leg, and the two of them immediately fell backward. Fortunately, she didn't hit them too hard, otherwise they would have been crippled.

A hand reached out from the side with lightning speed. Qin Wen instinctively reached out to block it, but her wrist was grabbed, touching her wound, and twisted forcefully. She gasped and turned her head, just in time to see Jack's face, more beautiful than a woman's. He looked at her, a strange smile in his eyes: "The tragedy ends here. I have no interest in watching your sisterly affection. There's a long road ahead, so save your energy."

For a moment, Yin Li thought she was dead. She lay on a soft blanket, surrounded by a deep darkness like the primordial universe.

A pair of hands gently embraced her; she could feel the warm, broad chest, and the distinctive scent and breath of a man.

Where am I? Is this hell or heaven?

"Hey, wake up, wake up!" A familiar male voice came, and Yin Li felt as if her eyelids were bearing a huge burden. Her lips were chapped, and her throat felt like it was on fire.

"Water." She reached out with difficulty and, in her daze, grasped another hand. That hand held a water jug and brought it to her lips. She greedily drank the water from the jug, feeling a cool sensation flow down her throat and into her stomach, as delicious as nectar.

After drinking her fill of water, her eyelids, which seemed to be stuck together, finally opened slowly. The scenery before her gradually became clearer, and she saw those icy green eyes quietly gazing at her, like two deep wells.

"You, you," Yin Li exclaimed in fright, leaping out of his arms and jumping back five meters to a safe distance. Then she looked down at her clothes. Thankfully, although they were somewhat torn, they showed no signs of having been taken off.

Situ Xiang chuckled dismissively and said, "No need to look. I'm not interested in underdeveloped little girls."

Incomplete development?

Yin Li's face flushed crimson, and she almost jumped up and started yelling, completely disregarding her image. Just before she went berserk, Situ Xiang stood up and said casually, "Look behind you."

Yin Li's face immediately turned from red to black. She slowly turned her head and was shocked to see a ghost face!

"Ah—" she screamed in terror, her legs giving way, and she collapsed to the ground. Right behind her stood a thick wooden stake. The top of the stake was sharp, piercing through the lower body of a skeleton and exiting through its left shoulder. The mummified corpse's head drooped, its mouth wide open, as if it had suffered greatly before its death.

"What, what is this?" Yin Li screamed. "How could something like this be here?"

“There should be corpses in the grave.” Situ Xiang pulled out a huge flashlight. With a soft snap, the diffused beam of light burst forth, shining as brightly as a fluorescent light, illuminating the entire space as if it were daytime.

Yin Li's face turned ashen as she stared in disbelief at the rows of wooden stakes before her, and the grotesque skeletons atop them. She forgot even her fear, feeling only that she had entered a terrifying hell.

"Am I...am we already dead?" Yin Li murmured. "Otherwise, how could we have ended up in the Hell of Intestine Piercing?"

“This is just a burial pit,” Situ Xiang said calmly, holding up his flashlight. “The Western Regions countries had a system of burial with slaves until the Tang Dynasty. They buried slaves with them, and the method was extremely cruel. I once saw a burial pit where all the bodies were newborn babies. They believed that the souls of babies had very powerful abilities and could protect the tomb of the deceased.”

"To guard the tomb of the one who killed you?" Yin Li roared. "What kind of nonsense is this!"

Situ Xiang remained noncommittal, examining each of the mummified corpses one by one with his flashlight. Yin Li seemed to suddenly realize something and asked in surprise, "How come we didn't die after falling from such a height?"

"You only just thought of that now, Miss Yin? You're so slow-witted," Situ Xiang mocked. "Look at the spot where you were just lying."

Yin Li looked as instructed and saw that the ground was covered with a thick layer of moss, about five centimeters thick. She looked around and saw that the cave was covered with moss, in clumps, like patches of lichen.

"Moss?" Yin Li squatted down in surprise, grabbed a handful, and found it to be a variety she had never seen before. Clumps of it resembled tiny green velvet flowers.

"This is a desert, how come there's moss? Could there be an underground river underneath?"

“Very likely.” Situ Xiang was carefully examining one of the skeletons when he suddenly felt a chill run down his spine. He turned his head sharply, but there was nothing there; all the skeletons hung silently on the wooden stakes.

Was it a hallucination? He frowned; he had clearly felt something touch the back of his clothes just now!

"How strange." Yin Li stood in the corner of the cave, looking around the space, which was about one hundred square meters in size. The walls were smooth and square, and a strange pattern was painted on the ceiling: seven black three-legged birds arranged in a circle. In the center of the ceiling was a golden sun, with a ball of black flame burning inside.

"What's strange?" Situ Xiang asked calmly.

“First, there’s no exit in this tomb. So how did the people who built the tomb get out?” Yin Li said. “Second, the arrangement of these sacrificial victims seems to follow a certain pattern. Didn’t you just say that the ancients believed that the souls of those who were cruelly killed could become vengeful spirits and guard the tomb for the deceased? I think these corpses are definitely not that simple.”

Situ Xiang listened coldly for a long time before saying, "Women who are too smart are a menace."

Yin Li was furious and sneered, "I can take that as you being jealous."

“Jealousy is a woman’s specialty,” Situ Xiang said. “I warned you back in the Chessboard Cave to run as far away as possible and never appear in front of me again, but you seem to have ignored my words.”

"Jealousy is the same as being jealous of talent, and jealousy is the same as being envious of beauty. Jealousy, from the day it was coined, has never been a word exclusive to women," Yin Li retorted, secretly amused. *I'm a top student who graduated from the Chinese Literature Department. Trying to argue with me about wordplay is just asking for trouble.*

“I heard your warning, but it’s not a royal decree, so I don’t have to obey it.”

Situ Xiang's lips curled into a sinister smile as he slowly walked towards her: "Since you don't listen to me, you'll have to pay the price."

Yin Li was startled and quickly backed away against the wall, a look of fear flashing across her face: "What, what do you want to do?"

22. The Princess in Red

"A man and a woman alone in a room, what do you think I'm going to do?" Situ Xiang grabbed her wrist and pulled her in front of him. Yin Li turned pale with fright, struggling as she said, "Didn't you just say you weren't interested in me?"

“That was just now. Now I’m interested.” Situ Xiang hugged her waist and pulled her into his arms, sneering, “Aren’t you interested in me too? That day at the West Night Hotel, when we first met, you were already staring at me. Do you think I didn’t notice? Since that’s the case, then don’t refuse.”

"You..." Yin Li's face flushed red, a surge of intense anger rising in her chest, and she roared, "Who's interested in you? You perverted egomaniac!"

After cursing, he swung his sword forcefully, and with a loud slap, a heavy blow landed on Situ Xiang's face.

Situ Xiang's face twisted slightly from her slap, and the force in his hand loosened. She quickly pushed him away and fled to another corner of the tomb chamber, watching him warily.

Situ Xiang wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth with his finger and smiled coldly: "Good, you've got guts. I'm becoming more and more interested in you."

"Thank you, but I can't accept such good fortune." Yin Li immediately refused firmly, "The farther away you are from me, the better!" Before she could finish speaking, her expression froze, and her eyes widened suddenly. She stared straight behind him, gasped, and looked on in disbelief.

Situ Xiang was startled, feeling a cold wind sweeping from behind, and instinctively leaped to the side.

With a muffled thud, a sharp wooden stake landed where he had just stood. He looked down at the stake and saw a pair of white hands, a chilling whiteness.

It's skeletons! The skeletons of those who were buried alive with the dead!

Situ Xiang's pupils widened suddenly as he stared in disbelief at the numerous skeletons that had come to life. They slid down the pillars, pulled them up, and walked toward him all at once.

"Damn it!" Several sharp pillars came hurtling towards him. He quickly dodged to the side. The pillars struck the stone floor, cracking it slightly, demonstrating the immense force of the blow.

Before he could even regain his footing, another wooden stake came hurtling towards him. Situ Xiang swiftly pulled a stun gun from his backpack and swung it at the skull holding the stake. The skull fell to the ground with a thud, but the body didn't collapse. The stake grazed his body and landed on the ground beside him, leaving several more cracks.

"Damn it!" Situ Xiang cursed under his breath, twirling the stun baton in his hand and striking another skeleton in the waist. The blow hit the spine squarely, and the skeleton instantly snapped in two, falling to the ground, writhing in agony, unable to rise again.