Insect Woman

"Captain Wang!"

Xu Tong raised an eyebrow, asking tentatively.

The shadow in the darkness offered no reply, merely nodding.

"Hiss..."

He took a deep breath, tightened his grip on that hand, then glanced at Xiong Tao walking ahead and shook his hand off with a flick. "You go first, I need to tie my shoelace."

Xiong Tao, oblivious and not thinking much of it, just told him to hurry up and continued walking forward.

Fluorescence shimmered in the darkness as Xu Tong pulled the icy little hand behind him, feeling his way toward another path with cautious, measured steps.

As he walked, he spoke: "Captain Wang, actually, there's something I need to confess to you. No! Declare to you—that's not right either. It should be... a surrender!"

He pulled that hand forward as he spoke, simultaneously summoning two paper dolls into the darkness without a sound.

"Ahem, actually, I'm the one who took your 'big treasure.' I've loved playing with guns since I was a kid; I couldn't help myself when I saw your big treasure, so I took it and fired a few rounds. Boys will be boys, right? Who doesn't love shooting?"

As he spoke, he gave a tug, pulling the shadow in the darkness closer. As it drew near, the blurred outline became slightly clearer, though the facial features remained obscured; he could only see long hair cascading over her shoulders.

"Captain Wang, look at that!"

He pointed ahead. The shadow froze for a moment, but before it could see what he was pointing at, it felt Xu Tong give a light push, as if something beneath its feet had suddenly hoisted it up.

With a splash, the shadow vanished into the deep pool before his eyes.

Watching the ripples on the water, Xu Tong clapped his hands and called out toward the depths: "Captain Wang, I'll consider that my surrender!"

No sooner had he spoken than the water began to shimmer, and that blurred shadow slowly drifted up from beneath the surface, waving its hands at him and emitting a shrill "cack-cack" scream.

Xu Tong waved his hand dismissively and walked away without looking back.

However, he hadn't taken two steps before his pace suddenly stiffened, his gaze locked onto two shadows in the darkness ahead.

The shadows moved with small, shuffling steps, drifting forward in silence. By the faint light, he saw one of them slowly raise a hand.

It was a pale, slender palm with prominent knuckles—exquisite and shapely—a woman's hand.

In any other place, he might have admired it and wondered if the owner of the hand was as beautiful as the hand itself.

But here, in the pitch black, he couldn't muster the slightest interest.

Suddenly, the woman on the left lunged at him. Her slender, fair palm was now hard as iron; she grabbed his shoulder and pulled with all her might, trying to drag him into her embrace.

But the moment she pulled Xu Tong toward her, a hand shot out and clamped onto her throat: "Demon Power!"

The moment Demon Power activated, pale blue flames erupted from his palm. By the light of the fire, he finally saw the woman's face clearly.

High bridge of the nose, cherry-red lips, and cheeks flushed with rouge—she was heavily made up like a bride, but her eyes lacked pupils, showing only a dull gray light.

The demon flames caught her hair, instantly setting the woman's head ablaze.

"Squeak, squeak, squeak..."

The woman let out a bizarre, shrill scream. Under the scorching demon flames, her mouth was forced wide open by something. Xu Tong looked closely and saw a fat, gray worm writhing inside, struggling as if trying to crawl out.

"Squeak, squeak, squeak..."

The fire damage from Demon Power wasn't actually very strong; even with the woman's head on fire, it didn't burn the skin to a crisp like an open flame would.

But since these worms were parasitic in such a frigid place, they were clearly extremely sensitive to temperature changes; even the slightest heat was unbearable to them.

The worm wiggled its chubby rear end frantically, trying to crawl out of the woman's mouth, but the moment its backside emerged, a finger poked it right back in.

The worm let out a desperate, puppy-like yelp, twisted its body, and turned its chubby head around. It had a cherry-pink little head with large, black, jewel-like eyes and a round little mouth, letting out a mournful shriek at Xu Tong.

Xu Tong merely grinned and slammed a fist into the female corpse's chin.

"Bang!"

With the enhancement of Demon Power, his punch caved the corpse's chin right in. A loud pop echoed, and milky-white liquid sprayed out from the corners of her mouth and nasal cavity.

Having dealt with that corpse, Xu Tong kicked it into the other one. Taking advantage of the second corpse being knocked over, he turned around and did the only logical thing: run!

Are you kidding? Why stay and wait for death?

The effect of Demon Power only lasted 30 seconds, after which it would enter a cooldown period. He still had other prop cards, but it wasn't worth it.

Take Demon King Descent, for example. He could easily wipe out the corpses after activating it, but the backlash would be too much to handle in this ice cave.

Aside from the Red Mandarin Lantern, which he couldn't use, he didn't have many usable cards left: the Paper Craftsman Manual, the Ghost-Charming Bell, and Demon Power.

There was also the prop card Yang Zixuan had given him when they formed their partnership, called The Angry One.

It came with a skill: the angrier the user, the greater the temporary boost in strength.

But he was a psychopath, not someone with intermittent explosive disorder—where was he supposed to find infinite rage?

As for practical items, the Leopard Soul Cloak was the best; its passive 20% movement speed boost cost no script points and added no burden—it was essential for fleeing.

It seemed Yang Zixuan was right: while prop cards were powerful, their effectiveness was limited if one couldn't assemble a proper set.

He ran through the darkness, losing track of time, until he suddenly realized a problem: he seemed to have gone the wrong way.

But seeing the shimmering water ahead and a faint path visible in the distance, he didn't hesitate, stepping forward and sprinting toward the trail.

He hadn't run far before the light ahead began to brighten, so he carefully followed the glow forward.

After a while, he actually heard the sound of women laughing.

At first, he thought he had misheard, but after pricking up his ears to listen closely, he confirmed it was indeed the sound of women laughing.

Could there actually be ghosts in a place like this?

If it were anyone else in such a place, hearing this bone-chilling laughter would likely have scared them out of their wits.

But it was Xu Tong; instead of fear, the sound stirred a fierce curiosity in his heart, and he wanted to see what kind of celestial beauty the owner of that laughter might be.

Thinking of this, he slowed his pace, tiptoeing toward the source of the sound. When he reached a corner, Xu Tong carefully poked his head out to take a look.

"Huh!"

His eyes lit up, as if he had discovered something amusing.

Before him lay a massive pool of water shrouded in white mist, with a pavilion standing upon the surface, appearing ethereal and indistinct within the fog.

Even more bizarre were the faint silhouettes of women in the pavilion, draped in white silk; he tried to see them clearly, but they remained blurred.

Though he couldn't make out the women, he discovered something very interesting.

He actually saw Captain Wang, who was currently tied to a large wooden board and being carried by four naked women standing outside the pavilion.

The scene was just like in a television drama, where a concubine, washed and wrapped in a quilt, waited outside the palace to be taken to the emperor's bed.

"How did he get here?"

Xu Tong felt a surge of curiosity. Just then, his gaze flickered to some women's clothing hanging on a nearby tree branch. His eyebrows arched, and he quietly and unobtrusively crept toward them.

The laughter in the pavilion grew increasingly shrill.

Captain Wang, who didn't know how long he had been unconscious, finally opened his eyes. Seeing himself tied to the wooden board, he was stunned for a moment: "Is this another hallucination?"

But after struggling twice, he realized something was not quite right.

He began to struggle desperately, but as he moved, the four women carrying him didn't move their bodies; instead, their heads turned in perfect unison to look at him.

Their greyish-white pupils fixed on him, instantly chilling Captain Wang to the bone, a cold shiver shooting straight to his skull.

What terrified him even more was yet to come: the four women slowly opened their mouths. Their jaws seemed to have been unhinged, stretching wider and wider like a snake's, and amidst a series of "click-clack" sounds, a massive insect poked its head out from their throats.

Seeing this, no matter how iron-willed Captain Wang was or how firmly he believed in Marxism, he was momentarily paralyzed with fear.

Fortunately, at that moment, the laughter in the pavilion grew even more piercing.

The four women finally turned their heads away, allowing Captain Wang to breathe a sigh of relief.

But before he could even exhale, he felt a chill by his ear, as if a hand were stroking his earlobe. He shuddered violently, every hair on his body standing on end.

Mustering his courage, he looked up and saw a figure standing above his head, hidden beneath a mass of white sleeves.

It's over! Are they going to eat me?

Captain Wang's heart sank, and he closed his eyes as if resigning himself to his fate, praying only that his death would not be too painful.

However, the hand continued to grope his body, and every time the fingers touched him, the muscles on Captain Wang's face trembled violently.

Just as the hand moved toward his wrist, Captain Wang suddenly felt something. He reached out and grabbed, and a cold, silver object fell into his hand.

He opened his eyes to look and discovered it was a gleaming silver knife.

"A knife?"

He was stunned. He turned his head and glanced sideways to see Xu Tong squinting at him. Seeing Captain Wang's gaze, Xu Tong slowly placed a finger to his lips: "Shh!"

Afterward, he gestured with a delicate hand toward the pavilion ahead. Captain Wang followed the direction of his finger and strained his neck to look.

"Hiss..."

He sucked in a sharp breath, his expression turning ghastly.