Hu Zihao was going to die.
The Evil Sin was in no hurry to kill him. Liu Zunfu's "ghost" slowly dissolved behind Hu Zihao, turning into a crawling swarm of centipedes amid a nauseating sound.
The centipedes crawled into Hu Zihao's body and through the gaps in his clothes. Yet his body could not move.
A dense swarm of centipedes crawled and writhed all over Hu Zihao. Short and long centipedes bit into one another's bodies, tangling chaotically into a strong, clammy rope that reeked of flesh, binding him tight.
The centipedes' fangs pierced Hu Zihao's skin. Pain churned and stabbed into his flesh as though it would never stop, prolonged and torturous. Hu Zihao clenched his teeth, afraid those disgusting bugs would crawl into his body through his mouth. He struggled and writhed on the floor, trying to shake them off. He kept telling himself:
"It's all fake. My perception has been affected. As long as I don't believe in it, it can't hurt me... as long as I believe in it, it won't..."
As Hu Zihao thought this, he felt a rumbling inside his ear. Something was crashing around in there!
It crawled into my ear...
Hu Zihao's brain reached that conclusion instinctively. Immediately afterward, he could feel the creature moving inside his ear more clearly.
A long, slender bug with many legs wriggled through his ear canal, its body covered in cold, smooth armor. It might even have venom and teeth...
In an instant, Hu Zihao felt a burning pain in his ear canal. The creature inside seemed to grow larger. He shook his head frantically, only to hear liquid dripping.
Once again, Hu Zihao could not control his thoughts. He instinctively assumed it was his blood.
He looked down at the floor in agony. The fine spatters of blood were fresh and wet. At once, excruciating pain filled his ear and body. A shrill, piercing ringing filled his ears, followed by silence.
He was deaf.
But that did nothing to affect his suffering. The centipedes on his body tore madly at his skin, ripping away one tiny piece of flesh after another. As though nourished by Hu Zihao's flesh, their slender legs gradually grew stout, their barbs incredibly hard. Every movement sliced countless tiny wounds into him. The centipedes raised their heads and antennae and slowly burrowed beneath his skin through his wounds. Several had already worked their way inside, plowing raised furrows beneath his skin.
The sound of skin, flesh, and blood vessels splitting as the centipedes forced them apart sounded like someone slowly drawing a knife through skin, making a ripping, tearing noise. Fortunately, Hu Zihao could barely hear anymore, though that did nothing to lessen his suffering. Pain crawled through his flesh into his marrow.
The agony threatened to crush Hu Zihao's will.
It hurts!! It hurts!!
Fuck, why me! Why am I the one suffering like this! Fuck you!!
Hu Zihao was going mad. At that moment, he wished he could blow that Evil Sin apart with a single punch.
"Aaaaaah!!!!"
Hu Zihao finally could not bear it anymore. He opened his mouth and screamed. An intense hatred flared in his heart, actually driving away his fear.
Like a madman, Hu Zihao stared at the centipedes covering his body and face. The nearest one had reared up, poised to attack his only remaining eye. He could clearly see every serration on its venomous fangs.
Enraged, Hu Zihao jerked his head. The centipede lost its footing and slipped down, then tried to crawl back into his eye.
Crunch!!
Hu Zihao bit into the centipede, viciously crushing it along with several others that had already burrowed halfway into his nose!
Foul-smelling slime splattered everywhere. The broken centipede bodies retained an unimaginable vitality. Their dense masses of long legs and antennae struggled and writhed inside Hu Zihao's mouth, slicing the flesh open and turning it outward.
Hu Zihao tore into every centipede that came near his mouth like a madman, no longer caring about anything on his body or anywhere else! A disgusting taste spread through his mouth, but he no longer cared. He even swallowed the crushed centipedes, letting those long-legged insects he believed were dying crawl through his throat. Bitterness and hard shells scraped through his esophagus.
"Die! Die! Die!"
Hu Zihao's eye went red. Spotting a thick centipede sliding over his shoulder, he opened his mouth and bit down hard!
Crack!!!
Agony shot through Hu Zihao's teeth, as though he had bitten something incredibly hard. At the same time, the weight on his body suddenly lifted.
Hu Zihao looked down. Every centipede on his body had vanished without a trace. Before him was the edge of the sink, which he had just bitten.
The taste of blood spread from his gums. Looking into the mirror above the sink, Hu Zihao saw that he had only one eye left. Wounds and blood covered every inch of his body, and he had scattered bits of minced flesh everywhere. He looked as though he had been thrown into a meat grinder.
"..."
Hu Zihao froze for a moment, then prepared to flee without hesitation.
Crack.
Suddenly, his legs gave way, and he dropped to his knees with a thud.
He looked down at the floor and saw a pale, fleshy foot reaching out of it, slashing across his left ankle. Blood and torn, outward-curling flesh filled his vision.
Another burst of agony struck. Hu Zihao struggled to stand, but that was no longer possible. The tendons in both his legs had been severed. Now he could only crawl.
"Fuck... your grandma..."
Tormented by the pain, Hu Zihao could barely speak, but he still did not give up. He struggled toward the door, ignoring the fleshy foot that had already crawled onto his right leg.
The fleshy foot slowly wound around Hu Zihao's leg and body, then abruptly tightened.
"Aaaaaaaaaah!!!!"
Hu Zihao screamed in extreme agony, but soon he could no longer make a sound. Every bone in his body was crushed. Under the pressure, his organs and lungs could no longer function properly. Not a breath of air remained inside him. Blood and minced flesh were squeezed out of his mouth.
Like a tightly rolled tube of toothpaste.
Hu Zihao could not accept it.
I really fucking can't accept this.
Hu Zihao thought about the past two days. His friends had died, his teacher had died. He had struggled so much, gone to death's door and back, only to die anyway.
The thought left him unable to accept it.
I'm still fucking going to die?!!! I won't accept it!!!
But a mortal's will could not, in the end, withstand supernatural power.
Amid the sound of shattering bones, Hu Zihao's vision grew darker and darker.
Darkness swallowed the last of Hu Zihao's sight. Suddenly, time seemed to stretch endlessly, and he felt as though he had entered another world.
Somewhat stunned, Hu Zihao looked at his hands. His palms were broad and bore not a single wound. Both eyes were doing their job, neither missing from its socket.
Hu Zihao raised his head and looked around.
Darkness stretched like mountains holding the night. Countless sounds slowly joined in harmony, swaying together with a certain tremor, like wheat fields swept by the wind.
Everything was so mysterious, so still.
Just as Hu Zihao stood at a loss, he actually saw his family's old house.
Amid that boundless color, Hu Zihao saw pink tiles and windows decorated with New Year pictures and paper cutouts. Light spilled hazily through gaps in the house. The old house rocked back and forth in the darkness, like a gentle boat.
That house had long since been demolished. A road had been built in its place.
Yet Hu Zihao seemed to have forgotten everything. It was as though a voice was telling him something.
"Go."
Step by step, Hu Zihao drew closer, approaching that childhood which had weathered decades of wind and rain without collapsing.
Hu Zihao suddenly noticed that the door seemed to have changed. Several resilient lines appeared to be carved into it, and an invisible force struck them ceaselessly.
At some point, steps had appeared where the little dirt path before the door had been. Hu Zihao narrowed his eyes and counted. There seemed to be eight.
Hu Zihao desperately wanted to get closer. At last, he was about to reach that door.
He reached the steps and discovered countless patterns of disaster and suffering carved into them.
But Hu Zihao no longer cared about any of that. He slowly stepped up.
In that instant, Hu Zihao experienced the wondrous sensation Shi Yu had once described.
Power began pumping through Hu Zihao's heart like water from a spring, then through his limbs. He felt that pain with particular clarity, but in contrast, his strength grew ever greater.
Hu Zihao moved his fingers. The first, then the second, then his entire hand.
He opened his eye and looked at the Evil Sin behind him.
The Evil Sin showed no alarm. Instead, it grew even more excited. It slowly crawled toward Hu Zihao, no longer hiding its bloated body, certain of victory. Its wrinkled sac dragged across the floor as it moved, making a sound like rubber scraping against a blackboard.
Hu Zihao struggled to rise, but he was too exhausted now. His body was broken beyond repair, and he could not fight back at all.
Even so, Hu Zihao did not want to give up. He still wanted to try.
The Evil Sin paid that no mind and continued crawling slowly.
Just as it was about to reach Hu Zihao, it suddenly froze, then began to tremble. It whipped around toward the sports field behind it and let out a piercing howl.
Hu Zihao was wondering what act this beast was about to put on now. He looked up at the Evil Sin, only to freeze as well.
Because he saw light.
Blazing, unleashed power and heat.
They passed unchecked through windows and walls, steaming everything around them until it boiled.
The Evil Sin completely lost its leisurely composure. It shrieked resentfully and instantly raised its fleshy foot, trying to pierce Hu Zihao's head!
The instant it raised its fleshy foot, the window frames and glass exploded! A gale howled inside!
Glass shards and window frames shot through the Evil Sin's body like arrows, punching hole after hole through it. A spinning shard of glass also severed the fleshy foot thrusting toward Hu Zihao. Slime spurted out. The foot lost most of its accuracy and only stabbed into his chest.
Immediately afterward, sunlike flames surged inside, blasting the entire washroom to pieces like a fearless chariot!
Just as Hu Zihao thought he would be burned away as well, a soft cloak and several strands of gentle flame appeared before him, shielding him. A figure appeared in an instant and scooped him up around the waist.
Hu Zihao barely managed to open his remaining eye to look at the face before him. Amid the blurred, wavering heat, he had only just made out a pair of pupils blazing with fire when fierce pain erupted in his chest, as though fire were burning there.
Hu Zihao finally could not hold on any longer. With a muffled groan, he passed out.
*Note:
The stairway of "Resilience," first step: "Unyielding."
"You may cause me pain, or you may cause my death. But you can never make me submit."
"I grit my teeth and swallow rage and blood. I seethe, I seethe, but I cannot grieve. No yielding heart is permitted here."
Before you continue