Chapter 41 Chapter 5: Will-o'-the-wisps

The tunnel was pitch black, and it could be said that you couldn't see your fingers. Through the light from the flashlight, everyone could clearly see that there were many particles of dust in the air. First Young Master Liu looked at this secret passage while walking. The secret passage was well repaired, and the whole secret passage was a regular cuboid, like a straight column of smoke lying horizontally, and everyone walked around in this smoke column.There is also bluestone pavement under the feet, one piece of big bluestone connected to another, stretching forward, hidden in the darkness ahead.It is hard to imagine that ancient people could polish this hard bluestone slab so neatly and smoothly.

After walking forward for more than ten meters, some relief sculptures faintly appeared on the stone walls on both sides of the dark passage. Those relief sculptures were all drawn with simple lines, but the sculptors were obviously outstanding artists. It is clear to people at a glance, as soon as you see this relief, you will know what it is talking about. Everyone walked forward, and the content of those reliefs was mostly related to sacrifices. Some offered sacrifices to the Emperor of Heaven, some offered sacrifices to Yama, and some offered sacrifices to bull heads. the contents of that cave.In a cave, many people were prostrate on the ground. A Taoist priest was kneeling humbly on the altar. His front half was almost lying on the ground. Because the Taoist priest had his back to everyone, only him could be seen. back.On the top of this cave, there is a big snake with its scales clearly visible.

First Young Master Liu was attracted by the reliefs on the stone walls on both sides of the secret passage, and walked forward with a dull head. Suddenly, Tian Guoqiang, who was walking behind, grabbed him violently, raised his arms, and kept pointing forward. First Young Master Liu raised the flashlight and followed the direction of Tian Guoqiang's finger to shine a light. He saw two clusters of faint blue ghost fires floating faintly on both sides of the dark passage. The blue light poured out, chilling people's hearts. Bai Erlaizi is a standard feudal victim, with a superstitious mind. He trembles when he sees will-o'-the-wisps, thinking that they are caused by ghosts. In fact, everyone knows that will-o'-the-wisps are also phosphorus fires, which are a very common natural phenomenon.Because the bones of the human body contain a lot of calcium phosphide, after death, the body is buried in the ground and rots, and various chemical reactions take place, and the phosphorus in the bones changes from phosphate to phosphine.Phosphine is a gaseous substance with a very low ignition point, and it will burn when it comes into contact with air at room temperature.After the phosphine is produced, it emerges along the cracks or holes in the ground and burns into the air to emit blue light. This is phosphorous fire, also known as will-o'-the-wisp.But such a large cluster of will-o'-the-wisps was the first time I saw them.

Everyone stopped and stared quietly at the two clusters of will-o'-the-wisps.No one knew where the two clusters of will-o'-the-wisps came from, as if they appeared out of thin air in an instant. Tian Guoqiang raised the double-barreled shotgun in Yang's hand, and signaled Young Master Liu to back off. Just as Young Master Liu wanted to stop him, the boy had already fired.There was a muffled bang, the flames suddenly appeared, and the smoke filled the air. The muffled gunshots lingered in the dark passage for a long time, and everyone had to cover their ears with their hands.At the same time, there was only a bang, and the cluster of ghost fires on the right was torn apart by the gunshot, and slowly fell down, shining with a faint blue light, which did not go out.

Tian Guoqiang raised his thumb proudly, flaunting his accurate marksmanship. First Young Master Liu glared at him, pointed to his head, and pointed to the shotgun, meaning: "This place is full of dangers, don't be so reckless, lest you attract some unclean things!" Tian Guoqiang nodded repeatedly. As soon as this kid raised his head, First Young Master Liu saw that his eyes were wrong. The direction his eyes were looking at was above his head.Without further ado, the kid raised his shotgun and shot again with a 'bang', boo!The cluster of will-o'-the-wisps exploded above Young Master Liu's head, and the dim light splashed everywhere. Everyone stepped back quickly to prevent the will-o'-the-wisps from getting on their skin.

Young Master Liu thought: "This will-o'-the-wisp came too fast, it floated above my head in the blink of an eye." Just as he turned his head, he saw Tian Guoqiang poking the light scattered on the ground with the barrel of his gun.First Young Master Liu was a little curious, what would this kid do with the will-o'-the-wisp? With the faint blue light, First Young Master Liu took a closer look. When he looked at it, his scalp felt numb, and his body seemed to be bitten by thousands of ants, and goosebumps fell all over the ground. I saw insects the size of ants crawling over a skin sac the size of a palm. Those insects were crystal clear and shaped like shuttles, a bit like northeast rice.Those bugs were densely packed, sticking together one after another, and they were still wriggling, looking extremely disgusting.And that faint blue light emanates from the bodies of these bugs.In other words, what they encountered was not a ghost fire at all, but this strange bug.

While Young Master Liu was concentrating on these disgusting bugs, many will-o'-the-wisps suddenly appeared in the dark passage. The shapes of those will-o'-the-wisps were exactly the same as lanterns, and the number of them was increasing, and there were dozens of them in a blink of an eye. A cluster of will-o'-the-wisps came out, and all of these will-o'-the-wisps floated faintly towards the place where everyone was standing. Everyone had never encountered such a weird thing before, and they were all stunned.It was Zhang Enpu who was the first to react. He dragged a few people and ran forward.Everyone came to their senses, knowing that these will-o'-the-wisps were not easy to deal with, so they followed Zhang Enpu like rabbits.

First Young Master Liu was running at the end, running, looking back, a cluster of will-o'-the-wisps followed closely behind him, the faint blue light kept flickering, and the strange insects inside could be faintly seen moving around. Wriggling and rolling, Young Master Liu froze in fright, and never dared to look back. The wind with a rancid smell whizzed past everyone's ears, and everyone ran all the way, about one or two hundred meters, when suddenly their eyes opened, and they finally ran out of the dark and strange tunnel, standing in a platform above.The strange thing is that those horrible will-o'-the-wisps stopped chasing after reaching the end of the dark passage. They lingered at the end for a while, and then slowly disappeared into the darkness.The previous chaotic darkness returned to the dark passage, as if nothing had happened just now.

Everyone took a long breath. Young Master Liu stroked his chest and said, "Master, you run really fast!" Zhang Enpu panted, and said palely: "You...do you know what the ghost fire was?" Everyone saw Zhang Enpu's expression was different, and they knew that the thing just now must not be a good person. Zhang Enpu let out a long breath and said: "There are records in the letters of the celestial masters of the past. If I remember correctly, the thing just now should be the legendary ghost lantern." Nether lantern? !When everyone hears this name, it's so fucking unreliable.

Zhang Enpu said: "When the twenty-sixth generation of patriarchs entered a certain ancient tomb, they encountered this kind of ghost lantern. According to the manuscript, this kind of ghost lantern is made of fresh animal skins. They Put this animal skin dripping with warm blood into a jar containing these strange insects. When the strange insects smelled the smell of blood, they kept drilling into the animal skin, and finally stuck to each other. At that time, I will take out the animal skin that is full of strange insects and sew it into the shape of a lantern. Of course, I don’t know how it can float. This kind of ghost lantern is very rare because of its mysterious workmanship.”

Speaking of this, Zhang Enpu twirled his beard and continued: "Since there are ghost lanterns here, it seems that we have entered an ancient tomb." ah? !Everyone looked at each other in blank dismay, and their hearts sank to the bottom of the valley in an instant.I originally expected this to be the road leading to the outside, but unexpectedly broke into the ancient tomb. Liu Dashao asked Zhang Enpu: "Why does this ghost lantern chase us?" Zhang Enpu said: "Maybe it's because we attacked them. These ghost lanterns themselves should not actively attack people. I think they may just represent the lanterns of the underworld. They are used for lighting just like the lanterns in the yang world The secret passage we took just now should be the passage in the tomb."