Chapter 16: Halfway Talisman
This "pyramid" is about 14 or 15 meters high. The slope is quite steep, and it is close to the water source. Under the influence of humid air, the already smooth bluestone becomes even more slippery. We climbed up carefully and encountered several dangerous situations. It was very difficult for the zombies below who could only jump with straight legs to jump up. They jumped up the steps several times, but all of them tripped or slipped, and then gave up the idea of chasing up.
We breathed a sigh of relief, thinking that we were safe after climbing to the top of the tower. Unexpectedly, the black-browed viper on the top of the cave actually swam slowly towards us, clinging to the stone wall upside down. This surprised Lin Yuxi and me. Snakes do not have the ability to crawl upside down. Only geckos or spiders can do that . Lin Yuxi said that this might be an evolutionary ability they have developed in their living environment. However, it is not as stable as walking on flat ground. One of them fell from above before, and it is the same now. They crawled very slowly on the top of the cave, and several of them fell down while crawling.
Fortunately, it was still some distance away from us, and the fallen snake landed in the group of zombie guards, and was immediately eaten by them. Even so, I was still chilled. There were about thirty black-browed vipers on the top of the cave. Although the chance of falling was high, the chance of swimming over was also there. It didn't need to be too many, just a few crawling over would be enough to leave us no way to escape.
Lin Yuxi couldn't lie still any longer, so she turned over, got up, pushed my shoulder and said, "What should I do? Find a solution quickly!"
I was thinking about it, but there is no ready-made solution. We were in a desperate situation at the moment. We had nothing but a switchblade and an iPhone 5. We were at the end of our rope. I climbed up two steps to the top of the tower. It was not a real sharp corner, but a 50-centimeter square platform. I sat on it and straightened my back, and my head almost touched the uneven cave ceiling. I looked straight ahead at the black-browed viper coming towards me, and I felt even more terrified.
At this time, another snake fell down. An idea suddenly came to my mind. I lowered my head and said to Lin Yuxi, "Take off your pants. When they crawl closer, swing your pants forward to ensure that none of them can crawl over."
"No!" Lin Yuxi refused decisively, and covered her belt with her hands, her face full of vigilance.
I couldn't help but smile bitterly, thinking that you were almost dead, why did you still want this pair of pants? I'm afraid you wouldn't even be able to keep your body intact after you die. She was reluctant, but I couldn't force her pants off, that would be really a hooligan. So I took a flashlight to look at the top of the cave and the top platform. The top of the cave was completely natural, with no terrain or things that could be used, but there was a pattern carved on the platform.
The pattern looked familiar. It was not an animal or totem of the sun, moon, or stars. It seemed to be a ghost talisman. If it was any other symbol, I would not recognize it at all. This was the one I was most familiar with. It was definitely a talisman. But this talisman was a bit strange. It looked like several snakes curled together. Only half of it was carved. I didn't know if it was intentional or forgotten. The lower half was blank.
Although this strange spell was unfamiliar, I had an impression of it. I remembered seeing it in the Ghost Talisman Sutra. So I racked my brains to think about what kind of spell it was.
"Hey, have you thought of a solution?" After catching her breath, Lin Yuxi crawled to me and started pushing again.
She pushed me backwards and I almost fell down. I was startled but a flash of inspiration came to me, and I remembered this talisman. It was an "unnamed talisman" in the Ghost Talisman Sutra. There was no annotation or formula, only a simple sentence "In this case, just draw the second half." There are several more unnamed talismans like this in the Ghost Talisman Sutra, which are similar. Since there is no substantial content, I didn't remember them carefully.
I put my hand on the cave ceiling to steady myself, and then looked up at the black-browed vipers in front of me. There were already three or four of them very close. I could clearly see the black eyebrows on their foreheads and smell the strong stench. My heart trembled, and I immediately turned over and slid down from the top of the tower, looking at this half-way spell, wondering if the sentence in the Ghost Talisman Sutra could be used here, and what would happen if it was used here?
"What are you standing there for? The snake is coming. How about...how about I take off my pants for you?" Lin Yuxi was frightened when he saw the poisonous snake approaching, and was about to unbutton his pants.
I ignored her and frowned, wondering, even if the talisman and the words in the Ghost Talisman Sutra were related to this, how should I finish the second half of the talisman? Should I use cinnabar or blood, or use a mason's awl to dig it out?
"Snakes... snakes are coming!" Lin Yuxi screamed, swung up the pants she had just taken off, and slapped them diagonally upwards. I woke up from my reverie and looked up to see two snakes almost reaching the top of my head. Fortunately, Lin Yuxi acted in time and swept them down with his pants. They fell on the slope and curled up into a ball, rolling down.
The first two snakes were swept away, and the ones behind them all stopped moving. Their intelligence was beyond our expectation, and they immediately scattered and swam out of the range of the pants, surrounding us. Once the encirclement was formed, with their flying ability, they pounced down at the same time, and even two pairs of pants could not handle it.
Seeing this, I immediately broke out in a cold sweat. I didn't have time to think about it anymore. I bit my scabby right finger, lay on the edge of the stone platform, and drew along the lower half of the rune. While I was drawing, two snakes couldn't bear it anymore and flew down. Lin Yuxi screamed and swung his pants to hit the snakes . At the same time, the back of my head and back were not spared, and they were hit by the trouser legs, causing a burning pain.
Although this talisman was strange, I just swallowed it whole and memorized all the talismans. I finished the second half of the talisman in just a few moments. As I put down my pen, there was a "click" sound, and a gap appeared on the stone platform between the carving and the blood-drawn spell. Then, as if they were hinged, the two stone slabs opened up and stood upright, revealing a dark hole.
"What are you doing? Help me...ah..." Lin Yuxi shouted anxiously, and suddenly screamed and fell on my back.
I didn't dare to stand up straight, or I would push her down the slope. So I grabbed one of her arms with my backhand, turned over, and suddenly saw a black-browed pit viper biting her left shoulder. I almost lost my soul. I was so anxious that I didn't care about anything else. I raised my other hand and slapped the snake down, but a bright red snake tooth mark was left on her left shoulder, which then turned black, and the blood that flowed out was also black.
Lin Yuxi was so frightened that she opened her mouth to scream but no sound came out. I quickly snatched the pants from her hands and shouted, "Hurry up and crawl into this hole, quickly!" Lin Yuxi nodded stupidly and climbed up absent-mindedly.
At this time, I looked up and saw that the black-browed vipers had formed an encirclement, with three layers inside and three layers outside. The number !
