Chapter 20: The Burial Pit

I stared at Ma Xu in astonishment. Was this guy’s nose broken? How could he call this stench fragrant? Did he have some fundamental misunderstanding about what “fragrant” meant?

“It’s obviously a terrible smell, isn’t it?” I looked at Ma Xu with utter disdain, but he paid my glare no mind. Like a walking corpse, his body stiff, his eyes vacant, he sidestepped me and kept moving forward.

It was only then I realized something was wrong with Ma Xu.

“Ma Xu!” I shouted his name at the top of my lungs, but he didn’t react at all.

“Damn it, what’s going on?” I wasted no time, racing after him and grabbing him by the arm. Yet his expression was blank, as if he’d developed a taste for dung, which made my temper flare.

“Ma Xu! Ma Xu! Snap out of it!” I yelled, shaking him with all my strength, calling his name over and over, but no matter what I did, he remained lost in his trance, his expression vacant, his gaze unfocused.

Ma Xu was clearly under some kind of spell, trapped in a hallucination he couldn’t escape.

I glanced around, searching for the source of his delusion, but aside from the scattered skeletons, there was nothing here. Had we run into something supernatural again?

I cursed under my breath, thinking it best to get out of here as soon as possible. Gritting my teeth, I pulled Ma Xu along, saying, “There’s no other way—I’ll have to carry you out. Get on my back!” I grabbed his arm, trying to hoist him onto my shoulders.

But right at that moment, Ma Xu began to struggle violently. He shoved me away, catching me off balance, and I landed with both hands on the ground, accidentally crushing a skull beneath my palm.

“Sorry, sorry, I didn’t mean to,” I muttered, humility coming naturally in such a place, apologizing hastily to the shattered skeleton before turning back to check on Ma Xu.

He was kneeling on both knees, cradling a skull in his hands, gazing up at it as though in worship, mumbling, “So many treasures, so many treasures…”

“Ma Xu, have you lost your mind?” I cursed angrily, but as expected, he didn’t hear me. Helpless, I strode over and snatched the skull from his hands.

“Ma Xu, this is a skeleton, not some treasure!” I tried to jolt him back to his senses, but he suddenly stood upright, body rigid, glaring at me with pure malice in his eyes.

Before long, his eyes were tinged with a blood-red hue, filled with murderous intent that made him look as if he wanted to devour me alive. He spat out each word with venom: “Give me back my treasure!”

“This isn’t a treasure, it’s a skeleton, you idiot! Wake up already!” With a crack, I crushed the skull in my hands. The instant he saw this, Ma Xu lunged at me like a rabid dog.

I hadn’t expected Ma Xu to act like this, and before I could dodge, he caught me. Without hesitation, he sank his teeth into my arm. Luckily, I was wearing long sleeves, so the injury wasn’t severe, but even so, the pain shot up my arm—he was biting with all his strength, as if he meant to break my arm.

“You’re insane!” I shouted, kicking him hard in the stomach and sending him flying.

He crashed into the burial pit, splintering the skeletons within, but as if pain meant nothing to him, he sprang up again, crouching on all fours, eyes locked on me.

At that moment, Ma Xu seemed less a man and more a wild beast.

“Ma Xu, snap out of it! It's me, Wang Xudong!” I still tried desperately to wake him, but he was so deeply entranced he just kept circling me, attacking again and again.

As I was racking my brain for a solution, Ma Xu suddenly snatched up a skull from the ground and hurled it at me. I barely had time to react—kicking the skull to pieces—when he seized the moment to pounce.

“Give me back my treasure!” His eyes were bloodshot, his hands clawing at my clothes like eagle talons.

I clenched my fists, ready to punch him, but he dodged with surprising agility. My blow missed, and before I could swing again, he’d clamped his teeth down on my other arm—swift and cunning as a fox.

“Damn it, you’re never this agile normally!” I cursed, forced to hammer his stomach with my knee repeatedly. I was using all my strength—enough to make any normal man cough blood—but Ma Xu showed no reaction, still refusing to let go.

“Damn it, you’re like a zombie!” I shouted, finally resorting to my trump card—a wrestling move. I flipped him over and pinned him down, pressing my knee hard against his throat, holding him fast.

Even so, Ma Xu’s face was twisted and savage, so distorted it barely resembled him. A chill ran down my spine at the sight.

He kept struggling, grunting, while I was growing tired. It was as if he had endless strength—far more than I’d ever seen in him before. Under this spell, he was stronger than ever.

I plopped down on top of him. He might have been strong, but I had the advantage of weight. Seeing he couldn’t get free, I wiped the sweat from my forehead and finally let out a breath.

“Ha, you think I can’t handle you?” I grinned at him. At first, I’d thought some evil spirit had possessed him, or perhaps a vengeful ghost had ensnared him, but strangely, I couldn’t sense any dark energy around him at all, which puzzled me.

Just as I was about to rest, a faint pleasant aroma wafted through the air. At first, I felt delighted—what could smell so wonderful? Maybe there was some hidden treasure, like a rare fragrant jade. But when I recalled the scene of Ma Xu falling under the spell, my smile froze on my face.

Hadn’t Ma Xu said something smelled nice before he was bewitched?

“Shit!” I realized with a jolt that I was about to fall under the same spell. I cursed and quickly yanked my collar up, covering my nose and mouth.

So it wasn’t Ma Xu’s sense of smell that was off—the fragrance was real. But where was it coming from? Could that foul odor from before have transformed into this scent?

No, I remembered the smell had been disgusting before, but now it was truly alluring!

It was the skeletons! It hit me at once—Ma Xu had started talking about the fragrance after stepping on a skull, and I’d just crushed one myself… actually, two.

“Agh, my head is spinning.” Waves of dizziness washed over me, the world distorting, the scent in the air growing more intoxicating. To my horror, I found myself grinning foolishly, actually enjoying it.

Realizing my consciousness was fading, I shook my head fiercely, fighting to stay alert—but I could feel myself slipping.

“Wang Xudong, stay awake!” I pinched myself hard, leaving a bruise, but it helped clear my mind. I pressed down on Ma Xu with all my weight and kept my mouth and nose tightly covered.

It was clear now—the fragrance was seeping from inside the skeletons. Someone had tampered with them!

My first instinct was to get out. Without hesitation, I pulled a rope from my bag and quickly tied Ma Xu up. Finally, he stopped struggling. I stood up, mustering all my strength, and dragged him toward the bottom of the stone coffin, where there was a rope I could pull—Black Jacket would haul me up.

My mind was still relatively clear. I forced myself to move steadily, step by step toward the coffin.

With each step, it felt like sandbags weighing down my legs, impossibly heavy—and I still had to drag the dead weight of Ma Xu behind me, heavy as a pig.