Chapter 81 Corpse-eating Worms "Did she hit you?"
The cellar was dark and airtight, and every time Qin San passed by it, he would smell an unusually foul stench.
Without Chen Ying's and the Iron-Faced Man's permission, she was absolutely not allowed to move around freely. For some reason, the deepest cellar was exceptionally cold and damp, like an ice cellar, yet a chill and stench would occasionally seep out from the cracks in the door.
Chen Ying often carried her pile of bottles and jars in and out of this room, sometimes staying there for half a day. She didn't seem to mind the smell, and I really don't know what she was doing in there.
Unable to contain his intense curiosity, Qin San decided to sneak in and investigate while they weren't looking.
She had intended to be quiet, but she completely overestimated her ability to handle it. What was inside was far beyond her imagination, and Qin San screamed uncontrollably, naturally alerting Chen Ying and Lu Bing.
Lu Bing was unable to move freely, but Chen Ying arrived at the scene immediately. When she saw Qin San lying on the ground vomiting in terror, Chen Ying stopped in her tracks with a look of disgust and did not go over immediately.
What are you doing here?
In the center of the cellar was a large, square pit, which was covered with a wide reed mat.
At that moment, Qin San lifted a corner of the reed mat, and a hissing sound came from inside, as if something was spitting out its own cocoon.
Qin San was so terrified that his face turned deathly pale. He pressed himself against the wall, his dark eyes almost bulging out of their sockets, staring intently at the corner of the reed mat that had been lifted, his whole body trembling uncontrollably.
Chen Ying walked over after seeing that Qin San had vomited all out, grabbed her hair, and shoved her head into the pit.
At the same time, a bright green snake head with its forked tongue emerged from the pit and bumped right into Qin San's nose.
Qin San struggled and screamed frantically, but Chen Ying held her head down firmly.
Qin San screamed at the top of his lungs, "Help! Help!"
Upon hearing the sound, Lu Bing suddenly fell to the ground, struggling to move even an inch. What happened? What happened to Qin San? Did Chen Ying want to kill her?
"Qin San! Qin San!" Lu Bing shouted loudly, but to no avail. He could only hear Qin San's even more terrified screams. He was sweating profusely with anxiety. "Chen Ying! Chen Ying! What are you doing! Don't touch her!"
Hearing Lu Binggan's anxious voice, Chen Ying patted Qin San's head and laughed: "Why are you shouting so loudly? Some people might think I did something to you. Look how anxious he is."
Qin San cried and screamed incessantly, his face already covered in tears from fear, and he kept his eyes tightly shut, unwilling to look at the terrifying scene in the pit.
Chen Ying listened silently as Lu Bing called out to her from afar: "Chen Ying, Chen Ying, let her go, Chen Ying, stop."
As if she were being forced to do something, Chen Ying sneered, "I've made you serve Officer Lu every day, haven't you two developed feelings for each other?" As she spoke, Chen Ying pondered for a moment, "Sharing the same fate, going through hardships together, and spending every day together, it seems easy for feelings to develop in this situation."
Qin San wept bitterly, shaking his head and struggling incessantly.
Chen Ying wouldn't let her go, and pressed her head down hard again, threatening and warning, "He's my darling, how could a lowly girl like you, who's still wet behind the ears, dare to covet him?"
Qin San was forced to open his eyes and immediately burst into loud wails and screams: "Ahhh, help, help..."
This time, Qin San's head was pressed to the bottom of the pit, like a kowtow, hitting the face of the rotting corpse at the bottom. Half of the face was already rotten away, revealing the stark white bones. Qin San's pupils dilated in shock as he saw several milky-white maggots crawling in and out of the corpse's eye sockets and nostrils. Whenever Qin San shifted his gaze even slightly, he could see that the rotting flesh was covered with maggots.
A slender, emerald-green snake was wrapped around the corpse's neck. With a flick of its head, the snake snatched the maggots from the rotting eye sockets and swallowed them.
Chen Ying said in a tone of careful instruction, "If you disobey me and dare to have any improper thoughts, you will lie here with them, becoming a corpse that only breeds worms, feeding my Gu snakes. You don't know, these hatched Gu snakes need to eat corpse-eating worms to survive, and they are short of food."
After scaring her enough, Chen Ying finally let her go.
Qin San suddenly collapsed to the ground, as if Chen Ying had pulled out his tendons and skin, and was already panting heavily.
"Look how scared you were," Chen Ying asked with a smile. "Will you dare to run around like that again?"
I won't do it again. I'll never do it again.
Qin San stood there dumbfounded, almost scared out of his wits.
On the other end, Lu Bing was still urgently calling out "Qin San".
Chen Ying glanced indifferently at Qin San on the ground, ignored her, and turned to walk towards the cellar where Lu Bing was.
Upon seeing this vicious woman, Lu Bing felt an urge to leap up and strangle her, but unfortunately, he was too weak to do so with his crippled body. All he could do was anxiously and angrily shout, his face flushed red, "Where's Qin San? What have you done to her?!"
Chen Ying walked up to him unhurriedly, staring at his disheveled and pathetic appearance: "What's the rush?!"
"Chen Ying, what exactly did you do to her?!"
Chen Ying teased her, "So what? If they don't obey, we'll just kill them."
She said killing someone is as easy as blinking an eye.
Lu Bing's expression went blank for a moment.
Chen Ying squatted down: "What's wrong? Feeling sorry for him?"
Lu Bing lowered his eyelids, unsure of what he was feeling. Perhaps it was heartache. He had experienced the excruciating pain of witnessing his grandmother and father die tragically before his eyes. Now that he and Qin San had fallen into Chen Ying's hands, what good could come of it? He had known all along that this would be their fate.
Qin San was so weak that Chen Ying could crush her as easily as crushing an ant.
"Wait, what's with that expression?" He was just yelling so excitedly, giving everyone a headache, but now that she's said she killed that brat, he's unusually calm. Chen Ying is a little confused. "It's just a worthless life, is it worth you being so sad?"
In Chen Ying's eyes, everyone else's life was worthless, so Lu Bing asked, "When do you plan to take my worthless life?"
"You?" Chen Ying thought for a moment, then simply sat down on the ground next to him. "Young Master Lu, why don't you think about why I'm keeping your life?"
Why hadn't she thought of that? But Lu Bing racked his brains and still couldn't figure it out. It couldn't be that she was just bored and wanted to raise a good-for-nothing who ate for free and then find amusement in the suffering of that good-for-nothing: "Why?"
Chen Ying readily agreed: "Because I like you."
Lu Bing felt as if he had been struck by lightning, his lungs churning with nausea. Even though he knew Chen Ying was teasing him, he still found the joke utterly disgusting, enough to make him vomit up everything he had eaten in the past twenty years.
Chen Ying was pleased with his thunderstruck expression and laughed heartily. After she finished laughing, she said, "You stinking men, heartless and philandering, how many lives do you have to love me?"
"Indeed, you are a vicious woman who kills entire families at the drop of a hat. Shen Yuanwen must have been incredibly unlucky to marry you, a jinx. You have caused the deaths of seven or eight members of his family and also harmed innocent people in Beiqu."
Chen Ying must have accidentally ingested some kind of rat poison today, because she wasn't angry at all. Instead, she wisely sighed, "Oh dear, what can I do? I'm afraid I can't change my indiscriminate killing habit."
Every time Lu Bing heard her speak, his guts would twist in agony. Why didn't this scourge just die? Then, true to his heart, he would blurt out, "Why don't you just kill yourself?"
Chen Ying actually laughed: "Hey, how could you encourage me to commit suicide?"
Lu Bing had a toothache and not only wanted to instigate her, but also wanted to personally send her on her way.
Has the King of Hell gone for a nap? Why hasn't he dragged this "human vengeful ghost" to the eighteenth level of hell to be torn to pieces? Or perhaps Heaven will open its eyes and send down a bolt of lightning to strike this heinous scourge to death.
Why keep her in this world to cause trouble?
Lu Bing thought that he would drag Chen Ying down to hell with him sooner or later, and even in hell, he would drag Chen Ying down with him so that she would never be reborn.
Chen Ying, perhaps feeling stifled by spending every day with the mute A Cong, actually sat idly and started chatting with Lu Bing: "Young Master Lu, don't you think I'm quite amazing?"
Lu Bingtai's eyes were throbbing, and he thought to himself: You think I'd praise you?!
Is it praising your indiscriminate killing or your sheer madness? Doesn't this crazy woman have any self-awareness?!
The woman, who was deemed eccentric and had no knowledge of the number of ailments, was quite excited: "You don't know, a Gu master like me is a rare find in the world."
Hearing her boast about herself with such pride, Lu Bing had always been very curious about what exactly a Gu Master was and what she was after indiscriminately killing innocent people: "You're right. Someone as utterly devoid of conscience and humanity as you is indeed rare in this world. What else can a Gu Master do besides harm people?"
It's practically a malignant tumor. No wonder the Gu technique is little known. It goes against the natural order and its very existence is a calamity. Of course, such a large malignant tumor cannot be tolerated by the world, and everyone would want to eradicate it completely.
"Young Master Lu, you're just ignorant, aren't you?"
Lu Bingshun tricked him into saying, "Then let me see for myself."
Chen Ying, however, kept him in suspense, staring at him with a deep smile, and said meaningfully, "You'll see soon enough. Don't refuse me then."
Oh, my foot.
Lu Bing felt a chill run down his spine. He had a feeling that Chen Ying was smiling and revealing a mouthful of poisonous fangs, and that she would pounce on him at any moment to bite his throat and suck his blood.
Sure enough, her bad premonition came true immediately. Chen Ying opened her palm to him and asked as if presenting a treasure, "Look what this is?"
Two milky-white eggs? Fine red threads, like spider webs, were faintly visible on the eggshells. Although Lu Bing didn't know what these things were, he was certain they were not good.
Then Chen Ying opened and closed her two red lips, which had been rouged with lip rouge, and said in a serious tone: "This is the Gu Snake Essence, a rare and precious item in the world. I spent a lot of effort to retrieve it from the tomb in Beiqu River. Officer Lu, I plan to implant this precious treasure into your body."
Lu Bing's mind went blank, and he felt like his skull was about to explode.
What did she say she was going to do?
In an instant, Lu Bing saw the ghostly appearance of Shen Yuanwen before his death, covered with pustules the size of walnuts. Sticky pus and blood oozed from the swollen and festering sores. Each festering sore had a small hole at the top where an insect had drilled through it, and his body was riddled with holes.
Lu Bing and Master Fang, who were watching from the sidelines, vomited again and again while leaning against the door frame.
Chen Ying actually thought... she actually thought...
"Young Master Lu, why don't you think about why I'm keeping your life?"
So that's why—that's what Chen Ying was planning.
Lu Bing's mind was buzzing; he was going to become the next Shen Yuanwen.
He remembered Zhou Yaren mentioning when examining Shen Yuanwen's body: Gu magic uses a living person as a vessel to plant Gu inoculants, which are a kind of insect eggs, and then tortures the person to death in the most cruel way, causing the victim to have great resentment. Then, using the spirit of the dead as a medium, the resentment of the dead is attached to the living.
It's an absolutely heinous and immoral thing.
no.
He must never become the next Shen Yuanwen.
Lu Bing felt his brain and blood boiling inside his head. He suddenly looked up and was about to speak when the Iron-Faced Man, Ah Cong, suddenly appeared. No one knew where the Iron-Faced Man had gone that night. He returned with a message, looking travel-worn, and gestured rapidly to Chen Ying, indicating that the situation was urgent.
Chen Ying got up on the spot and, as she walked out, instructed A Cong: "Just as I expected, I knew there would be a sacrificial fire here. We set up camp here before, and it was right under our noses, yet we never noticed. It was hidden really well. Did you see them go in? I didn't expect that breaking off one or two talismans would yield such an unexpected gain. It's a blessing in disguise. This trip wasn't a complete waste of effort. The blind master used talismans to purify his eyes, and those eyes can see the spirit world. Keep an eye on him and we'll find him..."
Lu Bing didn't hear clearly what they could find, and Chen Ying and A Cong had already walked away in a hurry.
Lu Bing's heart dangled precariously from the tree branch on the edge of the cliff, threatening to shatter into pieces at the slightest misstep.
Thanks to Chen Ying, even though he was in this half-dead state, he still managed to have such a dramatic and thrilling experience while holed up in the cellar.
Suddenly a shadow loomed over him. Lu Bing thought it was the scourge that had returned, but when he turned around, he saw Qin San, who had already been "killed."
Lu Bing suddenly froze.
Qin San was greatly shocked; his nose and eyes turned completely red.
So Chen Ying was just messing with him. That damned woman is full of nonsense and never plays by the rules.
Lu Bing quickly composed himself and breathed a sigh of relief: "What just happened?"
Qin San's steps were unsteady as she slowly squatted down beside Lu Bing, her small body trembling slightly. She was so scared that she needed to find somewhere to lean on, so she carefully buried her face in Lu Bing's shoulder.
Qin San's action stung Lu Bing like needles, causing a subtle, persistent pain. His voice softened as he asked, "Did she hit you?"
Qin San shook his head on his shoulder.
"How did she torment you?" Lu Bing asked. "Were you injured?"
Qin San sniffed and shook his head.
Lu Bing's shoulder quickly became wet, but not a single sob was heard.
Qin San forced back her sobs, leaning against Lu Bing and silently shedding tears for a while before gradually calming down from the warmth of his body. Her icy body slowly warmed up, and she finally came back to life. Qin San wiped away her weak tears and whispered what had happened in the cellar: "She used that dead man to raise snakes. Those snakes were very thin, a vibrant green, burrowing into the rotting corpse to eat those disgusting maggots..."
This description sent chills down Lu Bing's spine, raising goosebumps layer upon layer, because Chen Ying had just threatened to plant a Gu serpent inside his body. In Qin San's account, Lu Bing had become that corpse lying at the bottom of the pit, slowly rotting and infested with worms, becoming food for the Gu serpent, which would burrow in and out to feast on him.
That damned Chen Ying, is this how she's going to ruin him? She's a vermin, she's utterly depraved.
Those damned Gu masters should be dragged out and humanely destroyed, no, they should be condemned by heaven and earth.
Lu Bing immediately recalled the second half of Chen Ying's words before she left: "The blind master uses talismans to purify his eyes, and those eyes can see the dark. If you stare at him, you can find him..." He didn't know what he would find, but he guessed it was that damned Yin Sui. Lu Bing didn't need to think too hard about who the blind master was referring to. This wicked woman had been sending her mute lackey to secretly bite Zhou Yaren—how can you say that a dog that bites doesn't bark? It was a perfect description.
So what is Chen Ying going out to do now? As a human being, even the worst person should have a limit. Can't she just stop committing more evil deeds?
Unfortunately, Chen Ying was rotten to the core; she was the embodiment of evil.
There are countless villains in the world, but Chen Ying is definitely the best among them, completely refreshing Lu Bing's understanding of evil over the past twenty years.
Having just finished worrying about himself, Lu Bing clenched his jaw, his blood surging, and his vision blurring.
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