Chapter 24 Jiuyi City - Miasma Forest (Part 8) You really are something else...
Shi Xianxue was awakened by the pain. She felt as if her body had been pierced by countless nails, with cold needles seeping into her body through the gaps. She curled up in pain, just about to fall into a deep sleep, when a sharp pain suddenly came from her waist—someone was kicking her wounds hard with their feet.
She cried out in pain, struggling to wake up, and instinctively shouted, "Wu Xiutang, you bastard!"
However, after she uttered her curses, she realized something was wrong... She seemed unable to hear her own voice; the surroundings were eerily quiet, as if she were the only person left in the world.
Was she dead? Was she killed in the explosion? But what about Wu Xiutang and the others?
She tried to open her eyes, but all she saw was static, like turning on a black and white television with no signal. Suddenly, she heard a crackling noise, and then her body was lifted up by an inexplicable force. The darkness before her eyes began to give way to images: several boys around ten years old were punching, kicking, and spitting at her.
"He stinks! It's true what they say, big bugs breed little bugs. Look, he's oozing pus. Is he going to die?"
"So what if he's dead? He had no parents, and his master spent his days with Gu worms and didn't care about him at all."
One of them, who looked a little older and was quite tall, kept kicking Shi Xianxue in the stomach. His youthful face held a ferocity that didn't match his age: "Take the cat from his arms!"
cat?
Shi Xianxue looked down.
Sure enough, a emaciated kitten lay quietly in her arms. It looked no more than three or four months old, with protruding bones, a mouth full of blood, half-closed eyelids, and its belly rising and falling weakly. It was clearly not going to survive.
Seeing Shi Xianxue looking down at it, the kitten opened its bright blue eyes and licked the back of her hand with its pink tongue, reluctant to leave.
Like Wu Ying, he also has blue eyes. Is it a coincidence? No, wait a minute—
Why are her hands and feet so much smaller?
Looking at the dying cat in her arms, Shi Xianxue gradually developed an inconceivable idea.
Before I could even examine it closely, the kitten in my arms was snatched away by the group of children.
The kitten let out a heart-wrenching scream. She felt her body move, but the next second she was crushed under several children like a human pyramid. The weight of the children almost broke her ribs, and she almost couldn't breathe. Sharp stones came crashing down on her from all directions.
Shi Xianxue gasped in pain, but his body stubbornly crawled straight toward the kitten, emitting a hoarse, unpleasant roar like that of a beast, as if trying to drive the people away. The crowd only laughed louder and more stones fell on him.
He was knocked down and then lifted up, his forehead was broken by a stone, and Shi Xianxue finally saw her own reflection in the other person's pupils.
Even though his face was covered in dirt and mud, his eyes were exceptionally bright. He was short, but when facing bullies who were much taller and stronger than him, he revealed a fierce and dangerous look like a small animal, as if he would bite their necks without mercy if he got the chance.
This look greatly enraged the group. Just as Shi Xianxue urgently shouted to stop, the kitten, which looked to be only two or three months old, was cruelly disemboweled in front of him.
The skin on its belly is the most delicate. The sharp knife cut through the middle of its belly, and bloody organs spilled all over the ground. The kitten opened its mouth and gasped for breath, but soon it lost its breath.
Those people wouldn't let him go at all, pressing his face into their entrails and grinding it mercilessly. "Eat up! Aren't you hungry? Didn't you steal my buns? Now I'm giving you meat, why aren't you eating it!"
"Since you're not going to eat it, don't waste it, Ba Wang, come here."
A large black dog rushed over, tore Wu Ying's flesh to pieces, and then swallowed it whole.
Childhood memories flooded her mind, and the people in front of her became familiar yet repulsive. Shi Xianxue's soul began to tremble, and her eyes became bloodshot and red with anger.
Neither she, Wu Xiutang, nor Wu Ying deserved such cruel treatment.
She wanted to punch these people hard in the face, to knock down those who bullied her, and to tell them that she would no longer be bullied by anyone. She was no longer the cowardly Shi Xianxue she was as a child; she had the courage to stand up to them.
However, things didn't go as planned. She was once again on the side with no advantage in strength. This body was too thin and too hungry. She had no strength to resist, and even breathing was difficult. Starting with Lin Daiyu, Shi Xianxue was so anxious that she cursed and tried desperately to break free from this invisible shackle. But as soon as she could move her feet, the space in front of her began to deform and distort.
In the blink of an eye, the scene changed.
In the incredibly dark environment, the wind chimes on the eaves jingled in gusts of cold wind, and the air was filled with the stench of blood mixed with the fragrance of paulownia flowers. The gauze curtains were blown about by the wind, like white silk ribbons coming to claim lives.
The arrogant boy who had been so cocky during the day was now lying in a pool of blood in agony. There was a two-finger-long wound on his neck, a deep wound that had severed his carotid artery. He helplessly clutched his neck, staring in her direction in terror, as if he had seen something utterly horrifying.
Blood spurted from between his fingers, veins bulging on the boy's face, and he breathed his last in fear and despair. After he died, the blue spirit flew out from the top of his head and fled in all directions like a headless fly. Shi Xianxue saw her raise her hand, grab in the air, and the blue spirit dissipated in the clenching motion.
Then "she" walked over, took out a small square box from her bosom, opened the lid, and a group of things emitting a faint pure white light flew out from inside. She grabbed it and stuffed it into the boy's corpse.
She felt her lips twitch slightly, then knelt down, the moonlight shining on the pool of pus and blood. She buried her head and focused intently on stitching up the wounds of the mutilated corpse.
A silvery-white butterfly landed on the window frame, quietly observing everything.
Finally, after the wound on his neck was stitched up, the corpse slowly opened his eyes. His dark blue pupils gleamed in the night. Looking at the fingers so close to his face, he instinctively reached out to lick and bite them.
It was at this moment that flames erupted outside, and a commotion broke out, including the crying and cursing of strange women, which seemed to be escalating.
It was the boy's family who had come looking for him!
Shi Xianxue broke out in a cold sweat, worried about her own body.
Based on the rough estimate, Shi Xianxue guessed that this body should be Wu Xiutang when he was a child, and the little cat with blue eyes was Wu Ying. Wu Ying was disemboweled and died a gruesome death. Wu Xiutang always took revenge, so he killed the boy and found a human body for Wu Ying.
But whether she had returned to the past or entered an illusion, Shi Xianxue couldn't tell. Her thoughts were disconnected, as if a piece of her memory was missing, and she didn't even know how she got here.
The outer door creaked open from the inside, and the noise subsided. She could hear two groups of people talking.
"You two outsiders, hand over my son right now!! If anything happens to my son, you will pay with your lives!"
"Hand over Xiaoqing!! Get out of our village!"
"..."
"Everyone." The man's voice rang out in the cool night. He spoke slowly and deliberately, each syllable carrying a chilling and oppressive feeling. Shi Xianxue felt her body tense up for a moment when she heard him speak. "I think you've made a mistake. My good disciple and I have been at home all day and haven't gone out. The Xiao Qing you're talking about shouldn't be here."
The villagers, of course, did not believe him and insisted on coming in to search for him.
“If you have a clear conscience, why don’t you dare let us in to search? I think you’re protecting that little beast. I’m going to report this to the village chief and have you vermin driven out of the village!”
The man remained silent for a long time before letting out a long, helpless sigh. "Very well, since you have made up your minds, I will not stop you."
The group of people, carrying their weapons, walked into the house. The man at the door said again, "But this house is full of poisonous insects. If you get bitten, you'll bleed from all seven orifices and die."
Sensing the threat in the man's words, the villagers were enraged and shouted that they should find someone to invite the village chief to drive them out of the village.
The man sighed helplessly and said gently towards the direction inside the house, "My good disciple, did you hear that? If that young man is here, please invite him out properly."
He was met with an eerie silence. A nauseating smell of blood wafted to the man's nose. His expression remained unchanged, but he subtly gathered his strength in his hand. Just as he was about to unleash his power, someone pushed open the door and came out.
It was Xiao Qing, who had just been stitched up and hadn't yet had time to wash off the blood all over her body.
The pale moonlight illuminated the boy, who had been resurrected, making him appear like a demon. He stood upright, his eyes gleaming with a ghostly blue light.
The poor mother immediately fainted from fright.
He could move, walk, and breathe. Apart from the bloodstains on his body, he seemed no different from a normal person. However, the man narrowed his eyes almost imperceptibly and looked behind Xiao Qing.
Now, Wu Xiutang was a head shorter than Xiao Qing, hiding in the shadows that were falling from the side, like some kind of spirit beast waiting for its chance to strike, eyeing the hunter in front of it with predatory intent.
They can't be tamed.
The man's gaze fell on his trembling, bloodied hand, and he let out a short, soft laugh: "You little beast, you've made me move again."
The smile didn't reach his eyes; he smirked as he stared at Xiao Qing, whose face was contorted with malice, and said softly, "She really is someone you can't like."
Xiao Qing's abnormality was quickly discovered by his father. With the arrival of the knowledgeable village chief, the soul-changing technique that Wu Xiutang had used on Xiao Qing was also completely exposed.
The scene became chaotic, with howls, curses, and insults engulfing the frail body. Shi Xianxue tried to back away, but the body remained frozen in place. When she looked up and met the man's deep gaze, it was as if someone had grabbed her neck tightly, and the air around her mouth suddenly became thin.
Her heart tightened; she had a bad feeling about the visitor.
The surrounding sounds vanished completely in that instant. The scene shifted several times, and she was lifted into the air by magic, while the man's ordinary face was exposed to the moonlight streaming in through the window.
Is this Wu Xiutang's master?
Shi Xianxue was slightly shocked when she saw the light; it turned out that most boys with nice voices were not good-looking.
Moreover, Wu Xiutang had been tense ever since he heard his master's voice. The atmosphere between the two seemed strange, and they didn't get along well. Could it be that they weren't a loving teacher and disciple, and their relationship wasn't good?
A mocking "little beast" brought her back to her senses.
He glanced at the area under the bed, where several books with blue title pages lay scattered about, all of which had been turned over. He looked at them with disbelief: "This is too surprising. I never taught you to read or speak. These are things that ordinary people cannot understand even after thirty years, yet you learned them after just a few glances."
His words were full of admiration, and his eyes sincerely praised, "If you continue like this, you will surely surpass my achievements in time."
He really does seem like a benevolent teacher, if—
If there were no corpses scattered underfoot, piled up like a small mountain of people.
Blood and slaughter filled this once peaceful and tranquil land. Xiao Qing's body was at the man's feet. His eyes were wide open, and the stitches on his neck were crooked and twisted like maggots. He was not a pleasant sight. The man kicked the body into the deep pit at his feet with disgust.
The sound of reptiles crawling across the pit immediately echoed in Shi Xianxue's skin. She knew without a doubt that this was not a pit at all, but the Ten Thousand Gu Pool mentioned only briefly in the original text. As the name suggests, it was a breeding ground for tens of thousands of Gu worms, and the Gu worms raised there were extremely toxic and aggressive. Even if an adult bear fell in, it would only emerge as a pile of bones.
The original text once said that Wu Xiutang fell into the Ten Thousand Gu Pool in the dead of night. When he finally crawled out, he was so badly eaten by Gu worms that he was unrecognizable. After that, his master also disappeared from the world. From then on, the young Wu Xiutang lived a life of wandering the world.
The beginning of the story, which is only mentioned briefly in the original text, is actually about being thrown down by his master?
She hates to gloss over it.
The restraints on her body suddenly loosened, and Shi Xianxue screamed as she plummeted downwards. She wanted to escape, but her body remained motionless as if she had fainted, seemingly accustomed to this treatment, allowing the foul-smelling worms to crawl up her limbs and torso.
But he was clearly still awake, because Shi Xianxue clearly saw a scorpion-like Gu worm crawl across her nose and then bite her chin hard.
Excruciating pain emanated from all parts of her body. Her fear of insects was ingrained in her bones. The moment she was bitten, Shi Xianxue screamed in despair. However, to her delight, she found that she had regained control of her body. She quickly shook off the Gu worms and used Xiao Qing, whose body had been half-eaten, to block the Gu worms that were trying to pounce on her.
Half of the man's twisted shadow peeked out from the pool of ten thousand Gu, his deep eyes reflecting a chilling madness, and his lips were stretched to the extreme, he was faintly excited, as if he was enjoying some kind of pleasurable scene.
"The premise is that you have to survive."
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