Chapter 60 Treating People as Bugs’ Food…
Chu Xuanyi pulled out a small glass bottle from his bosom, poured out a few dark brown pills, and distributed them to Xiao Yu and several elite Yulin Guards who were about to enter the cave together. "This is the 'Hundred Herbs Miasma-Repelling Pill', which can temporarily prevent common miasma and poisonous fog. Ah Jiu, take one too."
Jiu took the pill, sniffed it curiously, and frowned: "Sir, this pill is so bitter, like coptis root water without sugar."
"Good medicine tastes bitter." Chu Xuanyi glared at her unhappily.
Everyone took the pills and checked their weapons and fire starters again. Then, Chu Xuanyi and Xiao Yu took the lead, with Ajiu following closely behind Chu Xuanyi. The group of more than ten people carefully stepped into the deep and strange cave.
The entrance to the cave was narrow, barely wide enough for one person to pass through while bending over. Once inside, the light suddenly dimmed, and an even stronger stench of decay and blood overwhelmed the air, making one almost nauseous.
"Wow! It stinks so bad!" Jiu immediately covered his nose, his face wrinkled. "Sir, this place stinks ten thousand times worse than that toilet in the backyard of the Imperial Master's Mansion that hasn't been cleaned for three years!"
Chu Xuanyi: “…” He began to doubt whether the Imperial Master’s Mansion was really harboring such filth that it was abominable to both humans and gods.
"Don't talk, concentrate and be alert!" Chu Xuanyi shouted in a low voice, and at the same time took out a night pearl from his arms. The soft light instantly illuminated the area several feet around him.
The interior of the cave is more spacious than expected, but still damp and dark. The rock walls are covered with slippery moss. Water droplets drip from the top from time to time, and the "tick-tick" sound is particularly clear in the silent cave.
"Sir, to the left! There's something on the left!" Ah Jiu suddenly tugged at Chu Xuanyi's sleeve, pointing his little hand to a shadowy corner in front of him on the left, his voice a little tense, "I smell... I smell a very strange smell, like... like burnt feathers, and a little... a little like a lot of dead rats buried in the mud!"
Chu Xuanyi and Xiao Yu looked at each other and immediately became alert.
Chu Xuanyi made a gesture, and the two Yulin guards immediately raised the torches in their hands and carefully headed in the direction pointed by Ajiu.
The fire flickered, illuminating the corner.
"Ah——!" A Yulin guard suddenly let out a short cry of surprise and almost dropped the torch in his hand.
In that corner, several bodies, already severely decayed and difficult to identify, lay piled up! Judging from the tattered clothes and scattered weapons left on them, they were the previously missing Imperial Guards!
Their deaths were extremely horrific, some with twisted limbs, some with disemboweled stomachs, and some even with expressions of extreme terror on their faces. Even more horrifying was the fact that within the rotting flesh of these corpses, something seemed to be wriggling slightly!
"It's the 'Corpse Gu'!" Chu Xuanyi's face turned ashen, his voice icy as if it could freeze the air. "The demon from the Withered Vine Sect actually used the corpses of our Great Chu soldiers to raise such a vile Gu! They're simply insane!"
"They...they're using humans...using them as food for the insects..." Ah Jiu's face turned pale as paper as she watched the horrific scene. Even her voice trembled, and for the first time, true fear flashed in her eyes. She wasn't afraid of poisonous insects or fighting, but this cruel method of turning living people into food for the insects was beyond her comprehension.
Xiao Yu's face was so gloomy it looked like water could drip out of it. The chill emanating from his body almost froze the entire cave. His knuckles turned white from the force he exerted on the hilt of his sword.
"Beast!" Xiao Yu squeezed out two words from between his teeth, with murderous intent surging in his eyes.
At this moment, the things squirming among the corpses seemed to be startled by the breath of living people!
“Hiss—”
Accompanied by a teeth-grinding friction sound, several strange insects as thick as thumbs, pitch black in color, and covered with densely packed pale white eyes, suddenly crawled out from the rotten flesh and shot towards Chu Xuanyi and others like arrows!
"Be careful! It's the 'Yin-eyed Corpse Worm'! This worm likes to eat rotten flesh and is highly poisonous. If you are bitten by it, the wound will rot quickly!" Chu Xuanyi shouted a warning and swung his sword to block it.
“Ding-dang-dang!”
Several corpse worms were hit by the sword, making a sound similar to metal collision, but they were only repelled and not killed on the spot!
"The shells of these insects are hard!" exclaimed a Yulin guard. He chopped a corpse insect with the sword in his hand, but only left a shallow white mark.
Seeing that the corpse worms were increasing in number and coming like a black tide, the Yulin Guards tried their best to resist, but they also began to panic.
"Sir! Brother Xiongxiong! Burn them with fire! My master said that these insects that grow on dead bodies are most afraid of fire!" Although Ajiu was afraid, his mind was still clear at the critical moment, and he hurriedly reminded loudly.
Chu Xuanyi and Xiao Yu's eyes lit up when they heard this!
"That's right! Use fire attack!" Chu Xuanyi gave the order immediately.
The Yulin Guards threw the torches in their hands at the swarming corpse worms.
“Sizzle—”
When the corpse worm came into contact with the flames, it immediately let out a shrill scream. Its black shell was quickly burnt, emitting an unpleasant burnt smell, and then it twisted and turned into ashes.
The fire attack is indeed effective!
Everyone was cheered up and ignited the spare kerosene. Suddenly the cave was ablaze with flames, and those disgusting corpse worms were killed one after another under the scorching flames.
However, the crisis was not resolved.
Just when everyone thought they were temporarily safe, a more intense and even more terrifying "rustling" sound suddenly came from the depths of the cave! The sound came from far away and approached, as if thousands of troops were rushing towards them!
"Oh no! There's more!" Chu Xuanyi's face changed.
Ah Jiu's little nose twitched wildly, and the fear on his face intensified. "Master! Brother Xiong Xiong! This time... this time, there are more bugs than those just now... They're even bigger! And they smell even stinkier! I... I smell... I smell so much... so much... It smells like a rotten turtle!"
A rotten turtle?
Before Chu Xuanyi and Xiao Yu had time to understand Ajiu's bizarre metaphor, they saw a huge, disgusting... monster slowly crawling out from the darkness deep in the cave!
The monster was the size of a calf, its entire body covered in a thick, green, slimy shell. This shell was covered in fist-sized pustules, some of which had burst, leaking a foul-smelling yellow-green liquid. It had eight sturdy limbs, and every movement made a heavy, "crackling" sound. Most terrifying was its head, a skull resembling that of a giant spider, but with a pair of compound eyes emitting a faint green light and a pair of sickle-sharp, constantly opening and closing claws!
"This is... the 'Plague Swamp Giant Spider'!" Chu Xuanyi gasped, his eyes filled with unprecedented solemnity. "The Withered Vine Cult can actually cultivate such an ancient evil creature! This thing is not only extremely poisonous, but also extremely powerful, and it is difficult to be harmed by ordinary swords and knives!"
"roar--!"
The giant spider in the plague swamp seemed to have discovered Chu Xuanyi and the others. It let out a low roar, and suddenly exerted force with its eight limbs. Its huge body was like a battering ram, and it rushed towards everyone with a fishy gust of wind!
"Scatter quickly!" Chu Xuanyi roared and pulled Ajiu to dodge to the side.
Xiao Yu also retreated quickly, and at the same time drew his sword from its sheath. A sharp sword light slashed straight at the compound eyes of the Plague Swamp Spider!
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