Obtained Talent: Withered Abyss

Xie An and Uncle Shui burst out of the kitchen at the same time, rushing toward the bedroom.

Li Dao and Chen Mo, who had been waiting beneath the living room eaves, heard the cries from the bedroom and rushed over as well.

The four gathered in the living room and saw the scene inside through the half-open door:

Liu Fu was slumped on the floor, one hand propping herself up and the other clutching her swollen belly. Sweat rolled down her face, veins bulged across her forehead, and she cried out hoarsely in unbearable pain.

Beneath the clothes over her abdomen, something could clearly be seen writhing violently.

"Darling... it hurts so much... it's biting me inside my belly. It's struggling to crawl out... it's going to tear through my stomach... Ah!!"

Liu Fu clutched Zhao Hu's hand desperately, nearly breaking down as she howled, "Darling, it's coming out, it's crawling out... It hurts, it hurts so much!!"

Rip!

Zhao Hu tore open the clothes over Liu Fu's abdomen and saw bulges rising one after another from her swollen belly, as if a pair of hands inside were desperately trying to rip open her stomach.

Yet Zhao Hu did not abandon Liu Fu. He stretched out his stiff hands and pressed down hard on her belly, calling softly, "Be good, child. You're your mother's precious flesh and blood. Don't torment your mother. Listen to your father, all right? Calm down."

Not only did the thing inside fail to calm down, it became even more frenzied, madly battering against her belly.

Thump! Thump!

As Liu Fu let out a shrill scream, tiny fist prints appeared one after another on her stomach.

Soon, distinct chewing sounds came from inside her belly.

"Ah! It's eating my flesh! Darling... save me!! Darling, save me!!" Blood began flowing from the corners of Liu Fu's mouth as she clutched Zhao Hu's hand with all her strength.

Zhao Hu collapsed onto the floor in terror, tightly embracing Liu Fu's writhing abdomen as tears burst from his eyes.

He knew... Xie An had been right.

The child inside... was a Monster Strain.

"Fu, don't be afraid. I'll stay with you. I'll stay with you forever!" Zhao Hu held Liu Fu's head tightly.

"Ah!!!"

With her final shriek, Liu Fu's head tilted to one side, and she stopped breathing.

Her mouth hung wide open, her round, staring eyes like those of a dead fish. Even then, both hands remained tightly clasped around Zhao Hu's hand.

Zhao Hu still held Fu's head tightly. Only after a long while did he let out a hoarse, grief-stricken sob:

"Fu... your husband has failed you..."

The four outside the door were all terrified by the sight.

Li Dao instinctively drew his broadsword.

Chen Mo also unsheathed the silver longsword on her back, bright as autumn water. Even with the sword in hand, her face had gone pale.

She had thought they were merely accompanying Xie An to visit a guard today. Who could have expected to encounter something this evil?

Xie An felt deeply unsettled by the sight before him. Before he could even sigh over it, he saw Liu Fu's belly swelling higher and higher. The sounds of the thing inside chewing grew clearer and clearer.

Xie An turned to Uncle Shui. "Uncle Shui!"

"Step back!" Uncle Shui's eyes darkened. He took a step forward and called into the room, "Zhao Hu!"

Zhao Hu sat there blankly, tightly cradling Liu Fu in his arms. "Young Master, Uncle Shui... leave. Let the three of us go on our way with dignity as a family..."

Before Zhao Hu could finish—

Boom!

Liu Fu's belly suddenly exploded!

Flesh and blood flew everywhere, scattered in all directions.

A naked infant slowly crawled out from Liu Fu's abdomen.

Even Zhao Hu, its father, was so frightened that he shuffled back two steps, staring wide-eyed at the infant in disbelief.

The infant was snow-white all over. Its mouth split all the way to its ears, its lips smeared with blood, and it gave a laugh like an infant's cry.

Standing atop its mother's corpse, it spread its arms like a victor welcoming this brand-new world alone.

Zhao Hu felt an indescribable chill. Everything he believed in had been shattered to pieces.

This... was his child?

At that moment, the white infant slowly turned around. Its eyes, cold and devoid of all human emotion, swept over Zhao Hu, over Uncle Shui at the door, over Chen Mo and Li Dao... before finally settling on Xie An.

At that instant, time itself seemed to freeze.

Everyone present was trembling with fear, every hair on their bodies standing on end.

Even Chen Mo, a Manifest Force martial artist, could not help but feel her limbs turn cold and her back drenched in sweat.

As for Xie An, who was being stared at so intently by that white infant, he felt an indescribable shudder of dread.

Then the white infant let out an incomparably eerie, venomous laugh:

"Hee hee hee~"

The next moment, the white infant lowered its head, opened a bloody maw spanning its entire head, and bit down on Liu Fu's corpse.

Gulp, gulp!

In just a few bites, it swallowed Liu Fu's corpse clean.

The white infant, originally less than two feet tall, immediately grew into a white youth four feet tall.

Whoosh!

The white infant suddenly turned its head toward Zhao Hu.

Zhao Hu staggered back two steps in fright, even his lips trembling. "Y-you... are you still my child...?"

"Hee hee~"

The white youth split its lips in a grin and pounced upon Zhao Hu, taking a huge bite.

"Young Master, run... Zhao Hu will serve you again in the next life!"

As his final roar rang out, Zhao Hu had already become an offering to the white youth's five viscera temple.

The four-foot white youth grew to five feet tall, and its appearance was exactly the same as that grain-tax collector Xie An had once seen at the entrance to Li Family Village.

The five-foot white youth turned back toward them again, its gaze fixing directly on Xie An. It split its mouth in a sinister, eerie smile.

"Collecting grain tax, collecting taxes... grass markers as proof, vermilion brush to tally the accounts. Those with money weigh out silver; those without... use their lifespan to fill the granary. No credit is entered in the Underworld Ledger, hee hee..."

The white youth paused, then opened its mouth even wider, its eyes round as bronze bells. "Hee hee... have you paid your Grave Tax?"

In an instant, Xie An felt as though he had fallen into an ice cellar. His limbs went cold, his spine tingled and ached, and a layer of terrified goosebumps rose all over his body.

"Fuck your mother!" Li Dao spat fiercely, raised his blade, and stood in front of Xie An.

After a brief hesitation, Chen Mo stepped forward with her sword as well, shielding Xie An behind her.

Uncle Shui raised a hand to stop them. "You are no match for it. Do not provoke it."

"Hee hee~"

The white youth suddenly leaped onto the roof beam and hung upside down like a spider, looking down at Xie An. It seemed to want to carve Xie An's appearance firmly into its memory. Then, with a light swing, it shot out through the window.

Climbing the wall like a spider, it scaled over the wall in just a few moments beneath the torrential rain and vanished into the vast curtain of rain.

Phew!

Only then did everyone let out a long breath, feeling as though they had narrowly escaped death.

Li Dao could not help looking toward Uncle Shui. "Uncle Shui, we're just letting it get away?"

Uncle Shui's expression was grave. "It is not a wandering ghost or evil spirit possessing another's body. It was reborn through the womb. A Monster Strain like this has already surpassed ordinary flesh and blood. My Dark Force cannot deal it a fatal wound and may even provoke it. Besides, Mingxi is here. Nothing must happen to him!"

Gulp.

Chen Mo swallowed. "Uncle Shui, where did this Monster Strain come from?"

Uncle Shui said solemnly, "Back when Zhao Hu went to Li Family Village with Mingxi, he must have been tainted by something evil... Enough. Steady yourselves and come with me to Xie Residence."

While everyone was taking a moment to compose themselves, Xie An slowly walked over to where Liu Fu had been.

Liu Fu was already gone. All that remained was a pile of tattered clothes and a patch of blood, giving off a nauseating stench.

Thinking that he and Zhao Hu had been master and servant after all, Xie An wanted to set up an empty grave for the couple. He lowered his head and gathered their clothes together.

The instant Xie An's hand touched the clothes, the panel in his mind suddenly stirred.

[Obtained Talent: Withered Abyss (Pending Activation)]