Chapter 28: Summoning the Soldiers of the Underworld

The black dog’s sudden, fierce barking startled us. Its hefty body trembled as it charged forward again without warning. In an instant, the iron chain that was already bent and unhooked snapped under its force.

Freed from its restraints, the black dog ran straight toward the mound of cat bones in the graveyard, baring its teeth and barking incessantly at a dark, shadowy cat skull.

Zhao Hong saw his dog’s abnormal reaction and hurried after it, wanting to see for himself, but the black dog pressed its hindquarters firmly against him, preventing him from approaching at all.

Watching the black dog block his way, I suddenly began to understand—this creature seemed to be protecting its master. It had placed its body firmly between Zhao Hong and the cat grave, perhaps to shield him from some unknown threat.

Regardless of the reason, Zhao Hong tried several times to squeeze past, but he could not get beyond the frenzied dog.

Seeing Zhao Hong’s helplessness, I spoke up to resolve the situation. “I’ll go take a look. If the dog won’t let you through, there must be a reason. If things seem wrong, we’ll run for it.”

With that, I strode over and gently stroked the black dog’s back. Then, together, we both widened our eyes, staring at the skull embedded atop the mound.

It didn’t take long for me to see what was strange.

The skull of the gray-black cat had decayed until only a thin layer of fur remained, emitting a faint, musty odor that added to the sense of decay. The most astonishing thing, however, was that deep within the sunken eye sockets of the old cat’s skull, a luminous green light was glowing—and growing brighter by the moment.

That eerie light was wholly unnatural, nothing like the phosphorescence of bone.

I was at a loss before this strange phenomenon. Part of me wanted to pick up the skull to examine it, but I was wary—what if it was some deadly trap, ready to end my life?

Yet, while I hesitated, the black dog beside me showed much more courage. As I stood frozen, the dog—Dudu—lunged forward, seizing the cat’s skull in its jaws and pinning it to the ground, worrying it fiercely.

Under the dog’s shaking, the brittle skull quickly crumbled, exposing the source of the light.

At first glance, it appeared to be a glowing spot nestled inside the cat’s cranium.

I hurriedly grabbed the dog’s neck and crouched down to see what was emitting that glow.

In the moonlight, I soon saw that it was nothing more than a firefly the size of my thumb.

This glowing insect was large, its head a dark red. Thanks to the fluorescence of its abdomen, I could clearly see its slender legs and antennae. Its black-violet mandibles were particularly pronounced—a sign that it was a carnivorous species. The dog’s attack had injured it; though it still thrashed its jaws and legs as if to threaten us, it was already too weak to move, and the light of its body was beginning to fade.

“Damn!” I let out a long breath, feeling my tension suddenly ease. All the previous fright had made me a little jumpy. In the dark, I should have guessed that the glow came from something like this, not followed a dog around in confusion.

And—how ridiculous, to take things so seriously with a dog! The thought embarrassed me.

So, I turned away, ignoring the dog’s wild barking, and said to Zhao Hong, “Your Dudu is a bit too high-strung. It’s just a firefly.”

Strangely, Zhao Hong showed no relief at my words. Instead, his expression grew more solemn, his eyes fixed intently on something behind me. The cigarette in his mouth quivered.

Noticing his pale face, I asked, “What’s wrong?”

Zhao Hong’s mouth slowly fell open. Still staring behind me, he didn’t answer.

Clearly, something had deeply shocked him.

Disturbed by his horror, I turned instinctively, mechanically, to look at what was happening behind me on the mound of cat bones.

The scene was beyond mere shock.

I saw, to my astonishment, that every cat skull atop the mound had simultaneously begun to glow with a ghostly green light.

Bathed in the unearthly radiance, each cat’s corpse appeared to come alive, as if hundreds or thousands of spectral cats had returned to life, their glowing heads embedded in every corner of the grave. It was as though our arrival had awakened them—all those luminous skulls stared at us with round, hostile eyes.

The sight was chilling—among these white bones, a ghostly presence reigned. Here, at this spectral mound, the boundary between hell and the mortal world was all but erased!

The phantasmal firefly-lit cat skulls truly looked like a legion of revenant “ghost soldiers.”

At that moment, I began to understand what the phrase “tomb of ghost soldiers” meant. I couldn’t help but wonder—could there really be ghost soldiers entombed here?

In the bizarre, haunted glow, fear gripped us all. The black dog kept barking, but its bravado was fading. It, too, seemed to sense the infernal atmosphere, inching back toward its master.

I watched the dog uneasily, unable to understand why these insects had all begun to glow at the same moment. Was it a coincidence—or was some unseen force orchestrating everything?

Little A-Si, timid and anxious, tugged at my pant leg and whispered, “What do we do now?”

I frowned at the dazzling, phosphorescent mound, but could think of no solution.

Still, I knew this scene was too unnatural—so unnatural that anyone would sense something was wrong. At times like this, retreat was the only wise choice.

So I said to Zhao Hong and A-Si, “Let’s go. Something’s not right here.”

The six of us exchanged glances and nodded. Zhao Hong and A-Si grabbed the dog and began edging back the way we had come. I ran to the base of the grave’s monument to retrieve Wang Hou’s cell phone.

But just as I reached for the phone, before I could grasp it, it suddenly vibrated—a text message had arrived.

The unexpected vibration startled me, the pulse of it making my whole body tense.

I snatched up the phone on reflex and saw that the message was from Xian Hongye.

Earlier, I had tried calling Hongye, but the call didn’t go through. So when I received this message, I naturally thought it might be a plea for help. The timing, however, was odd—why now, just as we were leaving the ghost soldiers’ mound?

But a message had come, and I had to check it. I didn’t dwell on it; after all, we’d been going in circles with no clues for long enough. This message, abrupt as it was, might be our only lead—maybe even our lifeline.

I stopped, quickly unlocked the phone, and read the message.

In a heartbeat, the brief message flashed before my eyes—so short I finished reading it in less than half a second.

“What—?” I was stunned.

The message’s contents were enough to make my hands shake, my heart pounding as if struck by a hammer.

It contained only four blood-red words:

“All of you die!”

“Run!” I shouted reflexively, spinning around and racing toward A-Si and Zhao Hong.

But we were too late.

Just as I turned, a crimson light flared in the woods around the cat mound, followed by an unearthly howl from some unknown creature.

Then, as if commanded, the fireflies that had lain dormant in the cat skulls swarmed out by the hundreds and thousands, pouring from the jaws of the skulls. They gathered into a mass, spiraling upward to form a thick pillar of light as wide as a bowl.

In the darkness, the light was so intense it seemed to blot out the moon, illuminating everything like a celestial river, casting the entire mound in a harsh, unearthly glow.

The ancient tomb of ghost soldiers was now revealed in its entirety by these tiny “luminous insects.”

The sudden upheaval terrified us all—who would have thought these small insects could create such a soul-shattering spectacle?

But worse yet, after hovering in the sky for a moment, the firefly column wheeled around and hurtled straight toward us!

These days, anything in large enough numbers can become a disaster.

Faced with this massive swarm, anyone with sense would know to run—even if the insects meant no harm, no one would dare risk touching them.

We tried to flee, but quickly realized the fireflies were too fast. In the tangled woods, we couldn’t outrun them.

The swarm caught up to us in no time.

To our surprise, the fireflies did not attack us at first. Instead, they targeted Zhao Hong’s black dog.

Dudu, the black dog, showed remarkable bravery in the crisis—but that courage would prove his undoing.

As the swarm descended, we saw the big black dog once again place himself between Zhao Hong and the onrushing insects, trying to defend his master with tooth and claw against the writhing pillar of fireflies.

But these were not creatures that could be fought with fang and claw.

Like a hurricane, the thumb-sized fireflies showed their savagery, quickly shifting from a dragon-like column into a whirling vortex, enveloping the poor dog in layer upon layer. Each insect gnawed ferociously at the dog’s flesh; before long, we could see his spine and ribs.

It was pure, living dismemberment.

The echoing howls and desperate barks of the dying dog pierced our ears and seared our nerves.

The scent of blood filled the air. More horrifying still, as the black dog was killed and torn apart, the once-emerald fireflies began to turn a vivid, blood-red.

The cruel scene seemed to declare to us that these insects were the “ghost soldiers” of the mound.

But I had no time for further thought.

The carnage unfolding—dog and insects locked in a deadly struggle—filled me with despair and terror as never before.

These were no romantic fireflies, but death-dealing fiends.

The black dog’s suffering was immense, but he used his life to fulfill his duty and protect his master, giving us a chance to escape.

The three of us, shrieking and desperate, plunged into the woods.

Without the black dog to lead us, panic quickly made us lose our sense of direction. We ran blindly, driven by instinct, but no matter how hard we tried, we could not outrun creatures that could fly.

Worse still, hemmed in by the dense forest, we could neither speed up nor fend off the encircling dragon of insects with our sleeves.

Then, in a cruel stroke of fate, as the swarm closed in, we found ourselves back—by some twisted chance—at the very clearing in the woods where the stone figure stood.