Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Jiang Haoyan and I wandered around the gallery. There were mummies of sheep, cats, crocodiles, and even a few baboons.

The two of us were leaning in to look at the baboon mummies when, from the northeast corner, there suddenly came an “Ow-!”

The museum was very quiet. The security guards were patrolling outside, and there was no one in the gallery except us. That cry rang out especially clearly in the stillness of the night.

Jiang Haoyan and I exchanged a look, then headed toward the sound together.

I walked in front, while Jiang Haoyan followed behind me, his face taut with nerves.

The northeast corner was where the human-shaped mummies were displayed. The stands had been built like bunk beds on a train, with a mummy lying on each level.

I glanced at the mummy that had made the sound. There was a placard beside it with its name written on it.

“Mes-” Forget it. What it was called wasn’t important.

This mummy lay on the bottom bunk. It was about my height, covered by a transparent glass case.

Curious, I leaned in for a closer look. The moment I got near, my heart gave a violent jolt.

I had leaned in too close, yet I hadn’t felt the glass case blocking me at all.

The glass had vanished-just like the previous times!

Startled, my body instinctively tried to retreat. But at that exact moment, the mummy shot out a hand as fast as lightning and clamped onto my wrist.

A strange scent of embalming spices rushed into my nose. Following the force of my retreat, the mummy actually sat up.

I twisted my wrist and found that it was as strong as an ox. I couldn’t break free at all. All I could do was grab it back, then shove my free right hand into my pants pocket and pull out a Heavenly Water Talisman.

The Heavenly Water Talisman could ward off all manner of ghosts and expel the evil spirit inside this mummy. Sure enough, the instant the talisman paper stuck to its forehead, the mummy froze.

I had just breathed a sigh of relief when, in the next second, the mummy moved again.

It slowly raised its right hand, peeled the talisman off its forehead, crushed it into a ball in its palm, then tossed it onto the ground right in front of me. There was even a hint of provocation in its eyes.

I was a little shocked. What the hell was this thing? Even a Heavenly Water Talisman didn’t work on it.

My left hand was still firmly in its grip, and the talisman was useless, so I clenched my right hand into a fist and slammed it hard toward its face. The mummy dodged to the side with terrifying speed and jumped down from the display platform.

We traded punches and kicks for several rounds. The mummy was agile, and it actually had the faint upper hand.

It kicked me flying. My body slammed backward into the display stand, and the whole thing shook violently. The mummy on the second level rolled off and crashed to the floor.

Seeing that things were going badly, Jiang Haoyan was just about to come help me when the mummy that had just fallen also started moving.

It lay on the floor, crawled forward a few steps, then reached out and latched tightly onto Jiang Haoyan’s ankle.

“Holy shit!”

Jiang Haoyan yelped, crouching down to pry the mummy’s hand loose. That mummy wasn’t very strong, and with one hard yank, Jiang Haoyan managed to pull it off.

Taking advantage of the motion, Jiang Haoyan stomped viciously down at its back. The mummy rolled across the floor, dodging his foot. The two of them were soon tangled up in a fight too. I had no time to worry about them, because the first mummy was lunging at me again.

During the earlier scuffle, my backpack had been flung off to the side. I had no chance to get it, so I could only fight it hand-to-hand. As the saying went, overwhelming strength could defeat ten techniques. This mummy was too strong; in close combat, I couldn’t gain any advantage at all. I had to outsmart it.

I flipped over and pinned it beneath me, gathered a mouthful of saliva, then spat hard into its face.

In Daoism, saliva is also known as jade fluid, the essence of a person’s vital energy.

In In Search of the Supernatural, there was a story called “Song Dingbo Sells a Ghost.” Song Dingbo spat on a ghost, turned it into a sheep, and even took it to the market to sell. That story definitely didn’t come out of nowhere-spit worked on all evil spirits and ghosts.

After that huge mouthful of spit landed, the mummy beneath me really did go stiff, not moving at all.

Suddenly, I felt that something was very wrong.

This mummy was wrapped in strips of cloth from head to toe, with only its eyes exposed.

The skin around its eyes was dry, sunken, and black. But after I spat on it, that black color seemed to have faded a little.

I stretched out a finger, rubbed it over the mummy’s eyelid, then brought it up in front of my eyes. There was a smear of black on my fingertip.

The mummy and I stared at each other.

In the next second, the mummy burst into loud laughter.

That familiar, insanely irritating laugh instantly made my temper flare.

Seeing a bit of cloth sticking out from the back of its head, I grabbed the end, spun it around a few times as fast as I could, and yanked all the bandages off its face.

Wrapped beneath layer after layer of bandages was a familiar face-Lu Lingzhu.