Super Zoo

Suming had visited the Terracotta Army before, and if one were to compare the scale, the Terracotta Army was definitely much larger than this underground town surrounding them, and more awe-inspiring, too. After all, the Terracotta Army was the burial accompaniment for Qin Shi Huang and could be considered one of Huaxia's most luxurious and high-class tombs.

However, visiting the Terracotta Army and personally walking in this yet-to-be-discovered underground complex were two completely different experiences. The surroundings were pitch-black, quiet enough to make one feel like suffocating, with eerie ancient houses from the Ming and Qing dynasties on both sides.

In such an environment, there wasn't a trace of humanistic art; instead, it made one's skin crawl, as if behind every door, every wall, lurked some horrifying entity, staring at them coldly from the entrance.

"Can you not scare yourself? You're starting to freak me out a bit," Zhao Yun said, shining the flashlight on Suming's face with a flick, speaking irritably.

He was standing in front of a house, engrossed in studying a mottled copper wind chime hanging under the eaves with his flashlight, while Suming kept talking about ghosts and goblins from behind him, turning quite agitated.

Given Zhao Yun's experience, he was well aware that such places were unlikely to have any ghosts, at most they might find a few mummies. But frightening each other could scare someone to death, especially in such a dark underground setting, and Zhao Yun could not stand Suming's incessant babbling.

"It really is scary. Look around; you wouldn't even need makeup to shoot a ghost movie here," Suming said, waving the flashlight around as he spoke.

As the flashlight's beam crossed a house opposite them, Suming thought he saw something inside. He instinctively moved the flashlight back and aimed it at the house's main door.

It was nothing important until he looked, and then his scalp buzzed as if it would explode!

The door had collapsed, and the flashlight's light shone inside, revealing a silhouette standing behind a screen facing the door! Your next read is at empire

The figure had its arms stretched out rigidly on both sides, standing unmoving behind the screen, but it had no head.

If it weren't for the fact that he had just relieved himself by the water, Suming would have nearly wet himself in fear. His legs went weak, and he clung to Zhao Yun, hanging on him like a koala, and with a crestfallen face, said, "Is there a ghost behind the screen?!"

Zhao Yun picked up Suming effortlessly and, without a word, crossed the street littered with broken stones and chunks of mud to the opposite house's doorway. Standing at the threshold, he paused briefly to ensure the room was relatively stable before entering directly, then disappeared behind the screen.

Seeing Zhao Yun disappear into the darkness without saying a word from beginning to end made Suming's heart thump wildly, "Damn, could this old guy be a ghost?"

Thinking this, he sent a burst of spiritual power to Huiya, instructing it to follow and take a look behind the screen. Even if there were ghosts, they wouldn't eat a wolf, should they?

Huiya was not scared at all and was about to enter the house when another silhouette flickered out from behind the screen—it was Zhao Yun.

Zhao Yun had the flashlight in his mouth and was holding a robe in his hands. He came out and unfurled it in front of Suming, asking somewhat incoherently, "Is this what you saw?"

The robe was old and ragged, but it did resemble the shadow he had seen on the screen. Suming was speechless and shone the flashlight back at the screen. Sure enough, the 'figure' was gone.

What Suming had seen as a 'silhouette' was merely this robe hanging on the screen.

"I've told you before, don't be superstitious. Where has your Party member's consciousness gone?" saying this lightly, Zhao Yun carefully spread out the robe on the ground, afraid that any rash movement would damage the already decaying ancient garment.

"This is mid-Qing Dynasty clothing. It looks like this small village has been around for several hundred years," Zhao Yun said while taking out several small flags with fluorescent stripes from his backpack and placing them around the garment on the ground as a simple protective measure, to prevent someone from accidentally stepping on the garment in the darkness.

"The person living in this room must have been a woman!" said Suming in a huff, pointing at the house opposite them.

"Hmm? How do you figure that?" asked Zhao Yun, curious.

"Only a woman would hang her clothes up so neatly!" said Suming.

After giving it some thought, Zhao Yun nodded, "There is reason in your words."

After doing all that, Zhao Yun returned to the front of the mansion where he had been standing before, put on gloves, and carefully pushed open the front door. With a creaking sound, the door slowly swung open, and a foul smell wafted out from behind it.

"Let's go, take a look inside this house. It seems to be the largest one here; maybe it belonged to the clan leader or the village head. There might be some valuable things inside. Keep your steps light and don't touch anything carelessly."

Zhao Yun cautioned them a few times, then stealthily entered through the gate. Suming also crouched down and followed him in. Even though there was not a single ghostly shadow in the mansion, the two of them moved as if they were thieves, causing Su Meng, following behind them, to imitate their actions and tiptoe inside.

Behind the door was another screen, but this one was made of stone. After bypassing the screen, a courtyard the size of the waterside pavilion appeared. Shining the flashlight around, there was a large urn in the center of the yard. Ancient wealthy families used to place these wealth-gathering urns in the front courtyard, raising fish inside to attract wealth and ensure safety.

Suming leaned in for a closer look and saw the urn's water had long dried up, but it was filled with something dark and murky, the nature of which was unclear.

Zhao Yun pulled out what looked like a long-handled spoon from his backpack and stirred it around in the urn, instantly unleashing a pungent stench that also carried a sharp, offensive odor.

Suming covered his nose and frowned as he said, "This couldn't be a urinal, could it?"

Zhao Yun, standing closest and feeling dizzy from the sudden onslaught of the foul smell, instinctively took a big step back and retched twice before saying, "How could that be? Does your family put the piss pot out in the yard for all the guests to smell as they come and go?"

"Maybe the homeowner wanted to grow vegetables in the yard and used this big urn to collect human manure. If that's the case, Mr. Zhao, you might have just stirred a hundred-year collection of shit and piss with that stick!" Suming said disdainfully, pointing at the 'long-handled spoon' in Zhao Yun's hand.

Zhao Yun, disgusted by his words, hurriedly rubbed the spoon on the ground a couple of times and wondered aloud, "What on earth is this stuff? It smells terrible. It does resemble the smell of feces, but who would come here to fill up an entire water urn?"

Even if the former owner of the house had an odd penchant for defecating in the courtyard urn, after decades or even centuries had passed, any excrement should have dried out. It couldn't possibly emit such a foul stink, nor could it still be wet.

But now, in front of them lay an urn full of fresh, steaming dung!

"Mr. Zhao, don't scare me like that!" With his vivid imagination, Suming was instantly frightened and recoiled, instinctively turning his head to look around.

It seemed as if, at any moment, someone could rush out from one of the dark rooms inside, pants down, and jump over the urn to relieve themselves.

This was far too eerie!

"It might not necessarily be excrement; it could be decomposed leaves and branches or something. It's normal for the underground environment to be damp and have moisture," the materialist Zhao Yun offered another seemingly reasonable explanation.

But Suming was still uneasy. If it wasn't feces, then it was somewhat tolerable, but if it was, the problem was grave. They were currently underground, in an ancient town buried centuries ago. If the urn indeed contained fresh excrement, then there was only one conclusion: someone was living here!

Who would live in such a place? Even a wild man like Su Meng wouldn't. Moreover, as they had approached the ruins of the ancient town, they had not seen any signs of human habitation.

Zhao Yun also realized the seriousness of the situation. Meeting zombies or wild men wouldn't necessarily scare him; but the thought of encountering tomb raiders was different: in such a place, it would lead to a life-or-death struggle.

With heightened alertness, both men had their guns ready. Zhao Yun pointed towards the hall within the courtyard and said, "Let's check out the house in the back first."

After he finished speaking, he suddenly added, "If we do encounter trouble, don't hesitate and don't babble. Just shoot! It's better they die than us."

"Wow, Mr. Zhao, you've really taken a page out of the internet novel protagonists' playbook," Suming said with genuine admiration.

Zhao Yun: "..."

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This chapter is a bit shorter, just 2500 words. Please forgive me; I really couldn't do more.