Serpent Sarcophagus

Chapter 11 Sarcophagus of Ascension

The call was very ethereal. Faint, yet clear.

The road from the village to the mountain was smooth. My hands were tied up and I couldn’t walk

properly, but I could walk slowly forward.

After a while, the direction where the sound was from changed and I accidentally stepped into the

bushes.

Something stabbed my leg and I took a deep breath from the pain. But I couldn’t control my legs and

was continuing to walk towards the calling.

My body got pricked by thorns from time to time and the sharp pain hit me. But I just couldn’t stop

myself from walking.

After a long while, so long that I could feel the sun slowly turning from a hot ball of heat to a gentle

beam.

I was getting close to the voice and my body was getting hotter and hotter as if the Snake’s Lust Poison

from last night was messing with me again. But this time it was worst. My whole body was burning up

and everywhere itches.

My whole body got sweaty and my legs were like jellies. I stumbled and fumbled and yet my legs

wouldn’t stop walking.

The voice in my ears started to sound like a snake hissing and flickering its tongue.

Fuzzily, I stepped into a puddle-like thing and then I tripped.

The blindfold on my face got caught by something and was ripped off.

Only then I realized that I was in an abandoned grave pit.

Waist-height grass grew all over the pit. Seemingly it had been dug a long time ago.

Thousands of snakes slithered on the edges of the grave. They stacked on each other. Some held their

head up and hissed at me.

I then noticed my blindfold on one of the snake’s tails.

My body trembled violently upon seeing so many snakes. I didn’t dare to move.

Not to mention that the mere number of snakes could fill up the pit. If they leaped towards me, they

could drown me in the pit, they didn’t even need to bite me.

I held my breath and after confirming that they were only staring and hissing at me, I slowly raised my

hands that were tied up.

Maybe Uncle Peter really just wanted to bury me in the Serpent Sarcophagus, that would explain why

the rope on my wrist wasn’t a dead knot. I used my mouth to try to untie the knot.

At the same time, I sat down on my knees. The pit was about half my height and when I knelt, I could

see what was outside.

As I moved, the snakes were looking with their heads held up high. They didn’t attack me yet.

I observed the surroundings and determined my escape route. I then bit off the rope.

I took out a glass bottle from my jeans pocket very slowly. The snakes started hissing viciously after

seeing the bottle, baring their fangs.

I quickly opened it and waved it around.

The powder inside was sprinkled all over. I quickly grabbed the coat that was tied around my neck to

wrap my hands, so that I could avoid touching the snakes as I pushed myself out of the pit.

The powder in the glass bottle was snake repellent that I got from home. My father used to take

advantage of snakes to make alcohol, so he would keep some snake repellent around. He also sold

them too.

After a whole day of dealing with snakes yesterday, I had to be careful and hence I put several bottles

in my bag. And yet I still wasn’t feeling assured and hence I put one in my pocket as well.

My father told me before that if I got really scared after seeing snakes, I should take off my clothes and

throw them at the snakes. Snakes had curvy fangs and they couldn’t pierce through clothes that easily.

My life wouldn’t be at risk as long as I wasn’t bitten and poisoned.

I didn’t have the time to care if that was true. I wrapped the clothes around my hands and leapt out of

the pit. And then I ran as fast as I could towards the outside.

At this moment, I was really glad that we had physical education lessons in school.

I ran in full force and couldn’t care less about the bushes and thorns. No matter what was in front of

me, I just ran past them.

Not long after, something suddenly caught my legs. I fell and planted my face on the ground which got

scratched by thorns. It was a burning pain, and I could feel warm blood dripping down.

I pressed my body up and saw a snake coiling next to me. It was about the size of both of my wrists.

The snake was broad and long. Its body could wrap me up completely.

At the same time, some snakes dropped down from the trees around me. Some slithered out from the

bushes and they all hissed at me.

The big snake slithered towards me and was hissing as well.

“Aurora…Aurora…” The sound from the grave pit now began to call for me again.

I turned my head around to look at the grave pit and the surroundings, and put my hands into the

pocket carrying the snake repellent. I then slowly stepped backed to the pit.

From where I stood to the path towards the grave, snakes sat idly on both sides as if they were

welcoming me.

“Aurora,” said the voice again. I couldn’t control my legs and was walking in that direction.

I got to the pit again and my legs wanted to walk me into it. The snakes hissed at me, forcing me to

jump.

My legs were weak. I tried my best to stay calm, turned around and ran in the other direction.

The large snake hissed and flung its tail towards me. I dodged it and grabbed the remaining snake

repellant and threw it at the snake. I then turned around and ran towards the mountain.

My father never taught me if snakes could go up or down the hill faster.

I ran down the mountain just now out of instinct but got halted, so I decided to run up the mountain this

time.

I didn’t run too far away from the grave pit before I heard a loud boom suddenly.

The smell of gun powder and niter filled the air,

The sudden sound made me tremble. I looked up and saw two persons from my family holding sticks in

their hands.

I recognized them. They were at my grandma’s place yesterday, carrying the dead hogs. They were

obviously here to stop me.

I couldn’t believe that I managed to use the snake repellent to run away from the snakes but got halted

by humans.

The hissing sounds were getting louder behind me as well as the slithering sounds.

I glanced up and saw Uncle Peter and the people from the family. They all had huge sacks on their

hands, and they kept throwing firecrackers in my direction.

The firecrackers were the size of two fingers. During the new year festival, the shops in the village

would sell them and some older kids liked to buy them and throw them into the pond. Fish in the pond

would get blown up.

Uncle Peter and the four family members lit the firecrackers up and threw them at the pit non-stop.

Other than the single large firecrackers, they also prepared strings of smaller firecrackers. They threw

the whole thing over after lighting them up.

Loud explosion sounds were heard, and the niter smell was very strong. Not long after, the snakes

were gone.

Uncle Peter stood in front of the grave pit and waved at me, “Come here, Aurora. I’ll show you the

Serpent Sarcophagus.”

“Don’t go.” Suddenly, I heard Stowy’s voice.

His voice was faint, he was probably woken up by the firecrackers. He said softly to me, “Run.”

But I didn’t know where Uncle Peter confined my parents. I could only look at him and say, “Since we

found the Serpent Sarcophagus, you guys could dig it out yourselves and do whatever you want with it.

Let go of my parents. We’ll leave and disappear from your sight.”

Uncle Peter laughed, he waved his hands at the two family members and looked at me, “Aurora, I

never thought that the Serpent Sarcophagus would be here, where was also the first place we dug to

move the graves.”

That was why the pit looked abandoned. It came from18 years ago.

The two family members walked up to me with sticks in their hands. They handed me a phone.

This time, they weren’t showing me videos of my parents, but of Pearl.

“Do you think that Master Chang will rescue you?” Said Uncle Peter as he stood next to the pit.

He scoffed, “You are smart. You know that nobody will believe your story even if you tell them. Even if Contentt bel0ngs to N0ve/lDrâ/ma.O(r)g!

they believe you, they may not come to rescue you. So you went to Master Chang.”

Pearl was in a cage in the video. There were other cages around her and they were filled with

poisonous snakes.

I knew immediately after seeing the video, that Master Chang couldn’t come to my rescue anymore.

I touched the Black Mamba Bracelet on my wrist and walked towards Uncle Peter slowly. I sneered,

“What do you want me to do?”

Uncle Peter looked at the grave pit and scorned, “Lie down inside.”

I looked at him all bewildered. “First, let go of my parents and Pearl.”

“Aurora, I told you before. The Serpent Sarcophagus isn’t a coffin nor a snake.” Uncle Peter took out a

cigarette from the box and lit it.

But it went out the moment he did that.

I immediately felt reassured. I looked at the pit and said, “Why here?”

Uncle Peter seemed to be sure that I couldn’t escape. He was baffled at his cigarette that went out and

tried to light it again. “You were drawn to here. That means the Serpent Sarcophagus is still here. We

didn’t bury you last time when we dug the grave, so it wasn’t successful.”

“Aren’t you poisoned with the Snake’s Lust Poison? Just lie down and the ghost snake will come to

you. Then the Serpent Sarcophagus will appear.” Uncle Peter looked excited.

His cigarette wasn’t lit up but he didn’t seem to notice it. He said to me, “Serpent Sarcophagus can

make a ghost snake already so powerful. Imagine what would happen if you lay in there instead. The

ancestor of the Dragon family originally prepared that for their own ascension. It’s the Sarcophagus of

Ascension. Why does a snake have it?”