Run

The four women in white were devouring a dead deer in the pavilion, relishing every bite. Now and then, strange laughter came from their mouths.

Listen closely, and it was easy to tell that those weren't laughs at all. They were the sounds of the insects inside their mouths.

Xu Tong stood behind them, wearing a woman's clothes, watching with curious eyes.

He couldn't help wondering: were these women human, insects, or should they be called corpses?

But whether they were human, insects, or even corpses, how long had they existed in a place like this? And how had they survived?

And what exactly was this place?

The Ascension Bureau? Of course not. He was certain this might be a temple, or perhaps an emperor's tomb, but it had absolutely nothing to do with the so-called Ascension Bureau.

These questions swirled in his mind, making him itch to find out the truth.

"Hiss... hiss-hiss-hiss..."

Just as he was watching intently, a strange sound came from beside him. He turned and saw Captain Wang pursing his lips and staring at him with wide eyes, desperately trying to signal him.

It seemed he wanted Xu Tong to help him escape. They could run away together.

But Xu Tong had no interest in helping. Seeing how restless Captain Wang was, he could only sigh helplessly and quietly move to his side. Without changing expression, he reached out.

Then, under Captain Wang's horrified gaze, he took the wrist Captain Wang had finally managed to wriggle free and shoved it back into the noose, carefully tying a pretty bow on it.

"What are you doing?"

Captain Wang was stunned. Hadn't Xu Tong come to rescue him? Why was he tying him up again?

Furious, he wanted to curse him out, but when the words reached his lips, all he dared do was whisper a string of curses like a mosquito.

"Are you crazy? Hurry up and help me! You want to watch these monsters eat me?"

Though he was practically boiling with rage at Xu Tong, Captain Wang did his best to keep his emotions in check as he spoke.

Xu Tong simply stood nearby, his face as stiff as the women's. He said nothing and didn't move a muscle. That was the last straw for Captain Wang.

"Hey, you little punk! Are you doing this on purpose? Let me go, now!"

He shouted furiously, hoping to make Xu Tong release him so they could figure out how to get out of there.

But even after all that shouting, Xu Tong still didn't react. Instead, the four women eating the deer in the pavilion finally turned their attention to Captain Wang.

The women slowly set down the venison in their hands and stiffly twisted their limbs, making "kak-kak-kak..." sounds.

The four women carrying Captain Wang immediately walked into the pavilion. They set him down on the table and left him lying there in a spread-eagle pose.

Captain Wang's already pale face turned utterly bloodless.

The four women twisted their necks and crawled over him. The air was cold enough to make one shiver, but when they came close, Captain Wang could clearly smell the intense stench of decay rolling off them. He instantly felt like throwing up.

The four women actually tore open their own clothes, then stroked his chest with their icy fingers. It felt... like someone was scrubbing him with a dried loofah.

Captain Wang had never dreamed he would be molested by four female corpses.

"I never died on the battlefield. I never died at the hands of criminals. But in the end, you're the one who got me killed, you little punk. You've got some nerve."

Lying on the wooden board, Captain Wang helplessly watched tears drip onto the ground. Still, he didn't forget to taunt Xu Tong. "The law may be slow, but it will catch up with you. If you don't want people to know, don't do it..."

By the end, Captain Wang's throat was nearly hoarse.

Yet after waiting for a long time, he still hadn't been torn limb from limb by the female corpses.

After pawing at Captain Wang for a while, they slowly turned around and jumped, one after another, into the icy pool.

Xu Tong watched silently from behind. The first woman to jump into the pool kept walking deeper and deeper. A layer of frost, visible to the naked eye, began to cover her body.

She kept walking, but the water in the frigid pool seemed far colder than anyone could imagine.

She hadn't gone far when her body suddenly sank by a large amount. Looking closer, Xu Tong saw that her legs had turned to ice and shattered on the surface of the water.

Xu Tong furrowed his brow, unable to guess what these insect women were trying to do.

Just then, the woman groped around underwater and lifted out a jar.

As soon as the jar emerged, a visible layer of frost covered it, freezing the woman's hands firmly to its surface. After she took a few more steps back, her body could no longer move at all.

The second woman to jump into the water stepped up like a runner taking a baton. She took the jar from the first woman and carried it back.

But she didn't get far either before her body was completely encased in ice.

Then came the third woman. Since the first two had already carried the jar out of the coldest area, she managed to keep going for more than ten seconds. She made it, step by step, to within a few meters of the pavilion before finally stopping.

Seeing this, the fourth woman finally stepped into the water. Trembling, she took the jar and carefully carried it back.

No one knew what was inside, but from the delicate care with which she handled it, whatever it contained seemed extremely important.

Yet as she carried the jar to the pavilion, a pair of broad hands gently took it from her. The jar was so cold that it was slick with ice.

The woman froze for a moment. Her gray-white eyes stared at the unfamiliar face before her in confusion, as if she were trying to understand something.

Her mouth slowly opened, revealing a shriveled insect. Its feelers thrashed desperately in the air, making a "zizizi..." sound.

At last, Xu Tong got a clear look at the insects. Part of each insect's body was actually fused completely with the female corpse.

He even saw that the corpses no longer had any flesh in their mouths. He could see the decayed bones through the women's mouths.

It seemed the only reason these women still looked human was that countless hair-thin strands of flesh had sprouted from the insects, holding up the women's skin.

Seeing this, he remembered a young man in the hospital who was always saying that he was the only real human, and that most of humanity had already been infected by parasites.

He claimed humans grew old and died because these terrifying parasites were constantly devouring their life force, making them age.

If the parasites were killed, people could live as long as Zhang Sanfeng and Peng Zu.

Of course, what he said couldn't be trusted.

But now, it seemed that these insects had rebuilt a new circulatory system inside the corpses, allowing the women to remain preserved to this day. At first glance, they even looked alive.

"No wonder!"

He nodded thoughtfully, suddenly understanding. No wonder these insects were so sensitive to temperature. It seemed they weren't just sensitive to it; only in a place this cold would the corpses they inhabited avoid rotting too quickly.

"Zizizizizi~~~"

While his thoughts were wandering, the insect in the corpse's mouth seemed to finally realize something was wrong. It let out a piercing screech.

Xu Tong snatched the jar from the woman's hands and kicked her head straight into the frigid pool.

"Splash!" Her body kept thrashing, but the pool was clearly colder than they could withstand. Before long, she stopped moving altogether.

"Hurry! Hurry up and untie me!"

Seeing this, Captain Wang hurriedly called for Xu Tong to free him. Xu Tong lightly hooked a finger under the bow, and the knot that Captain Wang had been unable to wriggle free of came undone with ease.

"You little punk, you used me as bait and didn't even give me a warning! What if they'd torn me apart?"

As soon as he was free, Captain Wang scrambled to his feet, furious and ready to make Xu Tong pay.

Xu Tong didn't seem to care. His eyes stayed fixed on the frozen jar, and he asked Captain Wang curiously, "Guess what's inside?"

Captain Wang was still fuming, but the jar in Xu Tong's hands naturally filled him with curiosity.

The jar seemed to be frozen solid, so it didn't look easy to open.

"That's easy!"

Xu Tong lifted the jar and smashed it hard against the ground.

"Bang!"

With a tremendous crash, the jar shattered. Inside was an egg about the size of an adult's fist.

Even more unexpectedly, the instant the jar broke, a chorus of piercing, monstrous shrieks rang out from all around them.

Soon, footsteps came pounding toward them, as if something were racing their way.

"I think we might've screwed up..." Hearing those approaching footsteps, Captain Wang felt his scalp go numb. He turned to look at Xu Tong and saw that he had picked up the egg.

Then Xu Tong grinned at him.

┏(;￣▽￣)┛: "Run!"

┏(゜ロ゜;)┛: "Holy crap! Wait for me!"