The Human House Centipede

Although he found Xu Chunliang's words a little strange, Li Baiyi opened his mouth and placed the pearl inside. It was icy cold, as though he had taken a mouthful of ice and snow.

Buddhist chants like murmured ravings, mixed with strange emotions Li Baiyi could not comprehend, rushed into his mind. His eyes turned white in an instant.

His pupils were pure white as he gazed coldly toward the east.

He saw a road, a river, and a Buddha.

The Buddha seemed to sense his gaze. Its lowered eyes slowly rose, and its hollow eyes looked at Li Baiyi without a trace of emotion.

The icy pearl in his mouth turned scorching hot in an instant, melting into a pool of flowing fire like magma that ran over Li Baiyi's tongue and down his throat toward his belly.

Pain consumed Li Baiyi. He opened his mouth wide and roared in agony, reaching out to grasp the tail end of the magma, but the molten stream seemed to have a will of its own. It crawled down his throat, through his esophagus, and into his stomach, where it turned icy cold once more.

The chill spread from his stomach through his body, reaching his lungs, his liver, his throat, and his brain.

Li Baiyi felt wonderfully comfortable.

Ice and fire had always been able to make people feel that way.

"Mm~"

With a comfortable moan, Li Baiyi opened his eyes, his pupils black once more. He pointed east and said softly, "Brother-in-law, that's the direction." His way of addressing Xu Chunliang had quietly changed to brother-in-law.

Xu Chunliang quietly put down the tree trunk he had been gripping behind his back and asked curiously, "Are you all right?"

Li Baiyi nodded, then shook his head. "Brother-in-law, when all's said and done, I have to thank you. That pearl was one of the opportunities in the Ruin Realm. After putting it in my mouth, I not only saw the exit from this place, but also gained some of the [Buddha]'s power.

"Although the Buddhas we've seen seem very strange, we have to admit that their power is incomparably great..."

"That pearl was your opportunity, but you gave it to me. I've taken a huge advantage of you."

There was a trace of happiness at gaining power in Li Baiyi's voice, but even more of it was apology toward Xu Chunliang. He felt that he had taken a huge advantage of him.

Xu Chunliang laughed, reached out and snatched the sword from Li Baiyi's hand. He waved it and said, "How about this? I gave you a pearl, so could you lend me your sword for a bit?"

Although Li Baiyi felt that being without a suitable weapon in the Ruin Realm was extremely dangerous, he remembered how much he had just gained at Xu Chunliang's expense and naturally did not feel he was losing out. He hurriedly said, "Of course, but how could I merely lend it to you? I'll give you this Elegant Heart Sword, brother-in-law. Once we get out, I'll naturally offer you even more treasures. Of course...

"Compared to this pearl, which can increase one's strength and even grant Buddhist divine abilities, I would still be the one gaining even if I gave you my entire fortune, brother-in-law."

Xu Chunliang laughed, patted Li Baiyi on the shoulder, and said with a smile, "You've misunderstood. When I said I wanted to borrow your sword, I really did mean borrow it. I wasn't hinting at anything."

He felt he liked Xu Chunliang's character more and more. He was neither affected nor insincere. Apart from Shi Qin, he was a rare good person he had met in this strange world.

With that, he sat back down, picked up the tree trunk he had tossed aside, and began whittling it with the Elegant Heart Sword.

The Elegant Heart Sword was extremely sharp and cut through the wood efficiently. Before long, he had whittled the trunk into a wooden saber of an odd, unidentifiable shape.

Xu Chunliang held the hilt and casually swung it a couple of times. Then he shaved the back of the blade twice more with the Elegant Heart Sword before tossing the sword to Li Baiyi.

"All right, I'm done borrowing your sword. We're even."

With that, Xu Chunliang put his hands behind his back, hung the wooden saber at his waist, and led the way east.

Li Baiyi stared fixedly at Xu Chunliang's retreating figure and pressed his lips together. He said nothing more and hurried after him.

Before long, the two of them did indeed come upon an extremely wide road. Li Baiyi wanted to tell Xu Chunliang to be careful, but Xu Chunliang walked casually and lazily, as though he were strolling through his own living room.

Li Baiyi could only tighten his grip on his sword and keep silently reciting an obscure Buddhist scripture that the pearl had passed on to him as he carefully followed beside Xu Chunliang.

The little road was quiet, with a vast whiteness all around them. It felt strangely familiar. Xu Chunliang glanced down instinctively, and his pupils involuntarily contracted.

Sure enough, the road beneath their feet was black.

After several dozen more steps, the white fog around them grew thicker. Xu Chunliang faintly heard the sound of a river and surging waves.

Li Baiyi said, "We should be beside the river I saw. Let's be careful. There's no telling what might be in it.

"Strange, why does this feel so familiar? But I can't remember."

Xu Chunliang glanced at him but said nothing more, continuing forward.

Splash!

Splash!

Splash...

The sound of river water washing over stones reached them. Xu Chunliang felt a strange dampness on his face, and the ground beneath his feet also seemed somewhat wet and slippery.

He looked down. At some point, the two of them had come to stand on a black stone bridge. Beneath it was the great black river, surging forward with countless black human bodies churning and shouting within it.

Just like the hell they had seen in the pagoda forest illusion.

Naihe Bridge.

A disdainful smile on his lips, Xu Chunliang put his hands behind his back and stepped forward.

A thick chain shot out of the white fog and reached for his hands. Xu Chunliang flipped his wrist, the wooden saber appearing in his hand, and slashed with Eerie Tiger Howls at the Heavens. Three eerie tigers pounced and shattered the chain.

Screech!

Shrill screeches rang out from the river. A house centipede-like monster leaped from the water's black surface, its body undulating as it landed in front of Xu Chunliang.

Even Xu Chunliang, who had experienced nearly twenty thousand deaths, could not help drawing a sharp breath and exclaiming inwardly, What kind of monster is that?!

It was a gigantic house centipede stitched together entirely from naked human bodies. Each segment was a naked, emaciated human body. Every person's arms and thighs were about two meters long and bent backward at the joints, like a deformed insect's jointed limbs.

At the ends of the limbs were nails several times longer than fingers, curling into spirals and gleaming with a sinister black light in the darkness.

Coffin nails and black Buddhist prayer beads forcibly joined the bodies together at their connection points. Like a real giant house centipede, it wrapped its jointed limbs around the stone bridge, while pairs of eyes, swollen and pale from soaking in the river, stared fixedly at Xu Chunliang.

At the very front was a human face that had completely transformed into that of a house centipede.

Two black, fleshy feelers, each three meters long, protruded from his cheeks and trembled faintly in the air, making a buzzing sound like a hunting rattlesnake.

It looked at Xu Chunliang with pure white eyes filled with deathly intent.

Its gaping maw split open at the corners, the thick, pale flesh curling outward all the way to its earlobes. Jagged teeth jutted stubbornly in every direction from the splits, like a tangle of wildly overgrown thorns.

Beside Xu Chunliang, Li Baiyi said with a slight tremble, "Brother-in-law, I think we're surrounded..."