I subconsciously thought that the headlamp was off, and then reached out to touch the headlamp, and then I noticed that there was silence in my ears, and there was no sound at all.

"Qiu Yan!"

I yelled, but nothing happened.

With the last experience, I immediately realized what was going on, so I quickly took out the tortoiseshell pendant.

This time, however, no matter how I swayed in the air, the darkness in front of me didn't change in the slightest.

"It's over!" I realized right away.

Sure enough, after a few moments of fumbling in the dark, there was a reaction in my throat, and after a while, I began to lose my breath.

Even though I knew the pendant wasn't working anymore, I was shaking desperately in the air, and I couldn't think of anything else to save myself.

But it didn't work, gradually, my consciousness began to blur, and I didn't seem to feel the physical pain anymore, I knew that I was going to die!

At this time, I suddenly noticed that the darkness in front of me was gone, and I could still vaguely see something shaking in front of me, and I tried my best to keep my eyes open.

Who knew that it scared me when I saw it: I saw a fierce face pinching my neck, a face I was familiar with, it was my grandfather!

However, it was this scare that made me suddenly understand, but it was useless to understand, my eyes darkened again, and then I didn't know anything.

I don't know how long it took, but I suddenly felt a tingling pain in my lungs, followed by a strong rush of air into my lungs, and I immediately coughed.

In the midst of a violent cough, I felt someone patting me on the back and someone calling my name.

I finally managed to catch my breath, and I saw Xiang Wei squatting next to me, while Qiu Yan was lying in another corner, with an oxygen mask on her mouth, and her chest was rising and falling violently.

"Alright, put on the mask, let's go out!" Xiang Wei said and helped me put on an oxygen mask, and then helped me up.

After that, with the help of Xiang Wei, Qiu Yan and I finally escaped from the ancient tomb.

After coming out, we breathed for a long time wearing oxygen masks, and Xiang Weicai motioned for us to take off our masks.

"We were all wrong!" As soon as he took off the mask, Xiang Wei said this.

In fact, at this time, I already understood that we were indeed wrong, we were "choked" twice before and after, and it was not a ghost at all, but poisoned!

I don't know exactly what it is, but it's a hallucinogenic poison that inhibits our breathing.

"Look." Xiang Wei stretched out a dark brown sarcoma-like thing in his hand to our eyes and said, "It's a corpse rotting fungus, I found it under the big bluestone!" ”

"Corpse rotting fungus?" Qiu Yan came over.

Xiang Wei smiled and explained:

"This is a very precious medicinal material, but there are very few records of it, and I also saw it when I checked the information of those Tujia people with you."

"Medicinal herbs? Why did the herb have such a name? I asked.

"The name aptly describes the conditions required for this fungus to grow - carrion!"

"There are rotting corpses everywhere, why are there so few records?"

Xiang Wei threw away the fungus, and then took out some food, and we listened to him explain while eating:

It turns out that this kind of corpse rotting fungus needs three conditions for growth - rotting corpses, spores, and a dark and damp environment.

Xiang Wei said that this kind of spores only appear in the tomb of Tujia Tusi, as if these spores are parasitic in the body of these Tusi, and when Tusi dies, these spores will come out and become corpse rotting fungi.

It is said that this kind of corpse rot fungus is a very effective painkiller when supplemented with other herbs, and in addition, it can also treat tuberculosis and coughing up blood, but because this fungus is extremely difficult to find, it is rarely recorded in official documents.

In addition, there is a small hole in the head of this corpse rot fungus, which is used to erupt spores, once a person inhales a sufficient concentration of corpse rot spores, it will produce hallucinations, and in severe cases, it will also inhibit breathing: if measures are not taken in time, people will quickly suffocate to death.

Xiang Wei said that the spores of this corpse rotting fungus will only erupt when stimulated in a dark environment, so to some extent, it can be said that this is a method adopted by the toasts to prevent tomb robbership.

"But that's not right, you said that you found the corpse rotting fungus under the big bluestone, so how did this fungus get outside?" I asked.

"I guess we haven't only opened this Tusi tomb, there should be other people who have broken the tomb, so some spores have escaped." Xiang Wei replied.

I immediately understood that the old tomb next to the big bluestone should not have stood here by accident, and the gang of robbers should have discovered the Tusi tomb, and then broke open the tomb, so that the spores of the corpse rot fungus escaped, which also explains why my grandfather was also "choked" back then.

"If," at this time, Qiu Yan suddenly said thoughtfully, "If we fall into an illusion, then what He Zimu and I see below is not the real thing?" “

Xiang Wei and I glanced at each other and nodded at the same time.

Hallucinogenic by corpse rot fungus, we are all the first time to encounter it, so no one knows how capable this corpse rot fungus is, and to what extent it can hallucinate, it is likely that Qiu Yan and I just entered the ancient tomb and fell into the Tao, so what we see afterwards is also likely to be hallucinations.

Qiu Yan got our affirmation and immediately became excited, and she struggled to get up, wanting to enter the ancient tomb again.

I hurriedly stepped forward to stop her and persuaded:

"We just escaped death, at least let's go in one night, so let's blow some of those spores away!"

Xiang Wei also persuaded:

"Yes, Qiu Yan, let's rest for the night, let's plan in detail, and we can deal with emergencies more calmly, right?"

Qiu Yan saw that Xiang Wei and I insisted repeatedly, so she retreated.

"Okay, then let's go back first, and come back tomorrow."

When I heard this, I immediately breathed a sigh of relief.

Actually, I'm not worried about the spores in the tomb, the oxygen cylinder is enough for us to stay down there for a few hours, as long as we don't inhale the spores, and we don't have any ghosts, we can move around there as much as we want.

What I'm worried about is what Qiu Yan will do if she goes down again and returns in vain?

After returning to Qiu Yan's rented house, the three of us sat quietly for a long time.

Suddenly, Qiu Yan said to me:

"I hope you don't take those words you said in the tomb before, I am already very grateful that you can accompany me down."

After speaking, Qiu Yan took out three stacks of money from the bag next to her and put them on the table.

"It's 30,000 yuan, and your task has been accomplished."

To be honest, I really want this money, but Qiu Yan's words made me entangled.

I pushed the money back and said:

"No, what I promised was to help you find something, but now the thing hasn't been found, my task hasn't been completed, and I can't ask for this money."

Qiu Yan smiled and pushed the money back to me:

"Your task is to accompany me down, and now that we have come out, according to the agreement, your task has been completed.

In addition, I asked you to use your tortoiseshell pendant before, but now it seems that we don't need it anymore, so you don't need to continue to follow us. ”

I looked at Xiang Wei, and he nodded at me, I was a little anxious.

"Okay, I'll take the money first, but tomorrow I have to go down with you, didn't you say before, I'm also a Tujia, I should know about the past of our people!

Moreover, Xiang Wei has claustrophobia, in case you encounter difficulties again, who else will help you except me? ”

After Qiu Yan listened, there was no squeak, and Xiang Wei also twisted his head to the side, I thought to myself that this should be considered a default!

Actually, I was telling the truth, and I probably wouldn't have had this idea until I went to the grave, but after hearing Qiu Yan say so much, I began to wonder about the relationship between my grandfather and his codex and all this.

After resting for a while, the atmosphere in the room was much more relaxed, and I saw that Qiu Yan's mood was better, so I took the opportunity to ask:

"Qiu Yan, how can you say that we have also escaped death together, and twice, can't you tell me what you are looking for?"

Faced with my question, Qiu Yan seemed to be very embarrassed, and then Xiang Wei said on the side:

"Actually, Qiu Yan doesn't want to hide anything, but you may not be able to believe her when she says it, so it's better not to say anything than to make people laugh."

I disagreed, saying:

"That's someone else, I'll definitely believe it, we've been through so much together, right!"

Qiu Yan looked at me, then at Xiang Wei, and finally stretched out her right hand and opened the sleeve of her shirt.

I saw a black-red mark on Qiu Yan's arm, the mark was about two inches long, and the nearest end was only a few centimeters away from Qiu Yan's arm, I didn't understand, so I looked at Qiu Yan.

Qiu Yan explains:

"It's a genetic disease in my family, and it can also be said to be a curse······"

As Qiu Yan said gently, I finally understood why she spent so much energy in the mountains.

It turned out that Qiu Yan was born in a family of tomb robbers, and their family's history of tomb robbery can be traced back to the Yuan and Ming dynasties, from the Yuan Dynasty to the Republic of China era, the ancestors of the Qiu family struggled in the cracks of inversion and war, often just had a family business but encountered war.

In the fourteenth year of Chongzhen, the Qiu family had already washed their hands in a golden basin, who knew that the family business that had been accumulated with great difficulty was copied by the government again, and the Qiu family had no choice but to go out of the mountain again.

At that time, the Qiu family produced a ruthless man named Qiu Shanyue, he gathered a group of green forest experts, and with the family inheritance of Qingwu technique, he found an ancient tomb on the border of Yunnan and Guizhou.

But this time when he went to the tomb, Qiu Shanyue not only did not return with a big gain, but also almost died in the ancient tomb.

Qiu Yan said that she didn't know what happened in the ancient tomb back then, what she knew was that someone sent the dying Qiu Yishan back, and since then, Qiu Shanyue has an extra dark red mark on his arm.

Qiu Shanyue recovered after a few days of recuperation at home, and has been engaged in tomb robbing since then.

Who knew that as the days went by, he found that the marks on his arms were getting longer and longer, gradually spreading from his arms to his heart, and when the marks reached his heart, Qiu Yishan quickly aged, and then turned into a dry corpse in less than a year.