This is already a cave space recessed into the stone wall. If the main hall is compared to a grand palace, the cave appears to be much more primitive and simple. Planes have been carved out of the stone walls everywhere, creating thick and crazy lines.
The stone wall in the center is carved with a huge gluttonous head, which protrudes half a meter from the stone wall. The beast's mouth is angrily opened, and its teeth are terrifying. The fangs on both sides just form lamp posts. It can be seen that two lamps are held on top of the fangs. Bypassing the lamp, Taotie's mouth formed a semi-arched doorway. Judging from the door knockers on the left and right, it could probably be pushed open from the outside.
Yue Guanchao took Song Siyuan to the porch. There were many bloody marks from fingernail scratches on the door, as well as several layers of dried blood. A very strange smell began to pour into his nostrils.
"It tastes like flesh and blood."
Yue Guanchao sniffed his nose carefully, his eyes alert. This was the vigilance of hunters in the mountains. As long as he smelled blood, it proved that a living creature nearby was injured or dead.
At this moment, everyone picked up the daggers, machetes, and even shotguns they had handy, and looked straight at the grotto behind the palace in front of them.
Song Siyuan opened her backpack, took out a chain with a lock and put it on one of the door knockers. Yue Guanchao asked confusedly: "What does this mean? You don't want to lock us all in, do you?"
"How is it possible? Didn't you see the blood stains and fingernail scratch marks on the door panel? This shows that what is behind the door is very scary. Since there is no body outside, something must have been caught in it. I will prepare the chain first. Come out, if there is an accident, we will come out immediately and lock the door."
Being wary of others, Yue Guanchao nodded, pushed open the door and walked in with a flashlight.
When the flashlight light shines on the stone wall, many dark patterns appear on the surface of the stone wall. In each dark pattern gully, there are many rattans embedded in it. The mucus secreted on the surface makes the wall look sticky.
Through the light of the flashlight, it can also be seen that this is a narrow corridor, probably just people walking side by side with arms spread out, extending forward into the mountain.
After walking for about five minutes, the smell in their noses became stronger and stronger. At the same time, they could also feel warm and moist air rushing towards their faces, as if someone was breathing hot air into their faces.
At the same time, the black stone wall also changed!
Many human-shaped mycelial florets began to appear on the stone wall, as if a person was clinging tightly to the wall, and then the body exploded. All the tendons, meridians, bones, and flesh all spread out flat and turned into colorful mycelial florets. , shaped like splashed paint spread on the wall.
Some mycelial florets even retain complete human faces. Among the colorful mycelium, one can see a face that is constantly breathing and exhaling. Under the light, there is an extremely strange beauty, as if these creatures are completely Not of this world, it makes the hairs stand on your back.
The heat and bloody smell they felt now have an answer. It is probably because these mycelium flower trees themselves can swallow flesh and blood that they emit the bloody smell. At the same time, due to the spitting of human faces, there is a lot of them here. heat.
"What the hell is this?"
Yue Guanchao took a closer look and saw that there were only human faces and traces of humans in the flowers, but they only resembled humans.
The pale skin and bloodless lips basically confirmed that the person was dead. However, the muscles and lines on the person's face were still shaking irregularly, as if there were some insects under the skin, and the eyelids were trembling and blinking. , sometimes closed, sometimes opened, revealing lifeless pupils.
"Is this dead or alive?"
Yue Guanchao knew nothing about this. If they were dead, how could they move around casually? But if they were alive, it would be even more terrifying. After all, a person only has one face left. If he could still be alive, then Must be some kind of monster.
Song Siyuan turned on the flashlight and shined a light on these faces. The mycelium flowers kept opening and closing in the light, and even the faces began to tremble frequently.
"This face belongs to a ghost."
After saying that, she motioned to Old Mrs. Wei to step forward. After the old lady saw the face, she nodded to everyone: "Guifang people have a special mark between their eyebrows. They were planted since they were young. It's true that Guifang people are, right?" , all the disappeared ghosts are like this here?"
Song Siyuan's face became serious: "If they were really killed, they would probably have become food by now. The fact that they can appear on the wall just means that they are still alive. However, they will never be human again, but become mycelium." puppet."
"Still alive?"
Mr. Wei was surprised. If these Guifang people were still alive, they would have suffered so much in the past few decades, which would be equivalent to fifty years of torture.
Song Siyuan nodded: "When I say alive, I mean that mycelium is alive like lower plants. They have no consciousness and do not know that they are human beings. The only feeling they retain is the desire for flesh and blood." "
After saying that, she motioned for everyone to look at the teeth on the human face. These teeth showed that the blood had solidified, which at least proved that these human faces could swallow flesh and blood.
"How could it be like this? But these people have no digestive organs. Why do they eat flesh and blood?" Old Mrs. Wei was puzzled and full of questions.
Song Siyuan shined the flashlight nearby, and one of the human-shaped mycelium flowers had obviously shrunk, like flowers and plants that had dried in the sun, and the human face inside was even dry and shapeless, as if it had shrunk due to lack of water. The apple is wrinkled and covered with dark wrinkles. You can only tell it is a human face by looking at the position of the eyes, mouth and nose.
Compared with the living faces I saw just now, they seemed to have withered and died!
Song Siyuan observed the relationship between the fungus groups and explained: "I think these fungus groups are connected to each other. If my guess is correct, these fungus groups are not bloodthirsty to support themselves, but are similar to predatory organs, grabbing prey and devouring flesh and blood." , to support something at the end of the corridor."
"The remaining human remains will be assimilated into new mycelium florets. At present, two situations can be inferred from the differences between the two faces."
In the first case, these human dough balls are already dead. After they lack prey, they will die because they cannot eat, and eventually become the shriveled state they see now, which confirms that these things can indeed devour flesh and blood.
In the second case, these human-faced legions did not die, they just went dormant after lack of prey. Just like plants in the dry season, they will shrink as much as possible to preserve themselves. As long as the rainy season comes, they will stretch their bodies again and start Foraging.
Song Siyuan looked at the withered mycelium: "The first situation is okay. No one has been to these places for fifty or sixty years. This shows that these human dough fungi are constantly losing nutrients and gradually withering and dying. This is what we see." state, the second truly terrifying situation!”
Her face became solemn: "No living creatures have come here for fifty or sixty years, so most of the human dough fungi have entered a dormant state due to lack of prey, and even deliberately withered themselves to retain nutrients, leaving only some human dough fungi to remain normal. , to protect the ethnic group.”
"This is just like plants in the dry season. This does not mean that they are dead. Their withering is just a self-preservation strategy of the group. As long as they wait for the rainy season to arrive, they can return to normal from the withering state. In this case, the plants are waiting During the rainy season, these human-mushroom masses are probably waiting for the prey that comes to this corridor."
"This means we are in trouble!"
Having said that, Song Siyuan used her flashlight to scan the corridor they had not finished walking. Within the visible range of the beam, there were many withered human dough fungi, which seemed to be waking up tremblingly after smelling the smell of prey.
"Walk!"
Yue Guanchao gave an order and everyone ran towards the exit.
I don’t know if this violent running disturbed the dormant mycelium. These hyphae florets woke up quickly, and kept extending mycelium from their mouths, becoming involved with each other, and their entire heads came out of the wall and toward everyone. Attack.
Looking back, it looked like countless ghostly faces were floating in the air, being held up by the mycelium network and flying towards them.
…
